Listen to Bun E. Carlos’ Cover of the Who’s ‘Armenia City in the Sky': Exclusive Premiere
Bun E. Carlos and the members of Cheap Trick were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month. That same day, the band's veteran drummer announced plans to release Greetings From Bunezuela!, his debut solo album, on June 24.
“Back in the ‘70s, me and [guitarist] Rick [Nielsen] were talking about doing a record with [people] like [AC/DC's] Bon Scott jamming, and we never got around to that,” Carlos tells Ultimate Classic Rock. “Over the years, I was always talking about making a great covers record. I cut a couple tracks last fall and was kind of pondering it, and then when the Hall of Fame got announced, it was kind of an incentive to get a record out. So in January, I started going in the studio and cutting tracks.”
Carlos describes the new collection as a “drummer’s mix tape” of sorts. We have the exclusive premiere of his version of the Who's “Armenia City in the Sky," which features vocals by Wilco’s John Stiratt. You can listen to the song below.
Listen to Bun E. Carlos' Cover of 'Armenia City in the Sky'
“I was always a big Who fan when I was a kid, and, in fact, I helped get Keith Moon’s drums out of the cases in 1968 when they played Chicago when I was in high school,” Carlos recalls. “I drove to the gig, snuck in with a roadie. So I’ve always been a rock fan from way back. We were doing the song in [my] band Candy Golde. We were going to play backup on another track [for the album] and I said, 'Hey, do you guys want to do a couple of the cover tunes that we do?' They were game, so we tracked it in the studio. It’s a Speedy Keen song. It’s probably the only song that [the Who] did for a few albums that they didn’t write. It was always kind of an oddball Who song. I said, 'Let’s just track this.'”
There are plans to do at least one show, a July 9 date at SPACE in Evanston, Ill., to celebrate the release of the new album, and if Carlos has his way, he’d love to do more. “If the album sells and a track takes off and then we get requests for gigs, any way that I can get these guys into another town, I’d be glad to do it," he says. "Playing these songs for me is just a gas. So yeah, gigs would be a lot of fun.”
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