'Yakety Yak' Singer Carl Gardner Dead at 83

Guests barred in landmark that once housed legends like Dylan and Hendrix

(NEWSER) - It looks as though rock and roll could lose one of its most storied landmarks. The Chelsea Hotel in New York City will be closed to guests for an indefinite period of time, reports the New York Times . A developer is set to spend $80 million on the dingy throwback to rock's glory days, and renovations are expected to take up to a year. More»

Walker Brothers guitarist was hitmaker in Britain

(NEWSER) - John Walker, a founding member of 1960s pop trio the Walker Brothers, died Saturday in Los Angeles after battling liver cancer, the Guardian reports. He was 67. The American singer, songwriter, and guitarist helped the UK-based band score big hits, including “Make It Easy on Yourself” and “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (No More)." “He was a compassionate songwriter and a gentleman with lots of style,” said bandmate Gary Walker—who was born Gary Leeds, and, like John Maus and Scott Engel, took on the Walker Brothers name after the band's formation in 1964. More»

Captured Hendrix, Dylan, Joplin, many more

(NEWSER) - Jim Marshall, whose iconic photography captured many of the stars of rock and roll’s 1960s heyday, died in his sleep last night at 74, Rolling Stone reports; cause of death is still unknown. Marshall shot everyone from Bob Dylan to Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis to the Beatles, Janis Joplin to the Rolling Stones; images from his collection can be seen here . More»

(NEWSER) - Les Paul's death today at age 94 has the accolades pouring in:

• Lou Carlozo, True/Slant: "The solid-body Les Paul guitar that Lester developed with Gibson in the early 1950s is rock and roll. Like the Fender Stratocaster, its shape is so synonymous with the genre that any musician can recognize it by its single-cutaway silhouette alone."
• John Cook, Gawker: Without Paul's multitrack recording, "there would have been no White Album, no Radiohead, no nothing." Cook also is in awe of how Paul retaught himself to play in his 80s, when he couldn't bend his arthritic fingers.

(NEWSER) - In honor of Woodstock—which happened 40 years ago this weekend—and the “seminal documentary” that captured it, John Farr shares his list of the 10 best rock concert/performance films—all of which are “meant to be played loud,” he writes on the Huffington Post. “So crank it!”

• A Hard Day's Night (1964): “The disarming charisma and spontaneous energy of the Beatles made no traditional plot necessary. It was sufficient to portray a day in the life of the world's most talked about rock band.”