Free Lenny Kravitz CD Giveaway

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Get your unique Lenny Kravitz album free inside next week's New Look Mail on Sunday!

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Cool for Kravitz: What Lenny did next

By LINA DAS - More by this author » (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/dmsearch/overture.html?in_page_id=711&in_overture_ua=cat&in_start_number=0&in_restriction=byline&in_query=lina das&in_name=on&in_order_by=relevance+date) Last updated at 16:55pm on 26th January 2008
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/i/commentIconSm.gif Comments (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html?in_article_id=510454&in_page_id=1889#StartComments)
This is a preview of four of the great tracks of next week's sensational CD exclusive – six tracks from Lenny Kravitz's new album, and six original studio recordings of his greatest hits, available free on CD in the Mail on Sunday. Read Live Magazine's exclusive interview with Lenny Kravitz below.


Are You Going To Go My Way
(mms://a465.v112974.c11297.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/465/11297/v0001/anm1.download.akamai.com/11297/audio/2008/jan/gomyway.wma)
Bring it On (mms://a931.v112972.c11297.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/931/11297/v0001/anm1.download.akamai.com/11297/audio/2008/jan/bringiton.wma)

Love Revolution (mms://a1516.v112979.c11297.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1516/11297/v0001/anm1.download.akamai.com/11297/audio/2008/jan/revolution.wma)

Fly Away (mms://a323.v11297e.c11297.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/323/11297/v0001/anm1.download.akamai.com/11297/audio/2008/jan/flyaway.wma)

He's a rock god, he's dated Nicole Kidman, Kylie and Madonna, and he's built Miami's ultimate party pad. Now for his latest trick - he's giving away six new songs and six classic hits with next week's Mail on Sunday. Live's verdict?


The collection of über-stylish vintage cars; the Austin Powers' love shack; the leather trousers, dreadlocks and iconic good looks and, of course, the array of beautiful actresses, models and pop stars – if ever there was a personification of a rock god then Lenny Kravitz was it.
His pad in the glamorous Miami district of Biscayne Bay had the reputation among those lucky enough to have frequented it as a party palace.
Complete with a laminated purple front door, white fur-lined hallway, pinball machines, pool tables, "doors that opened like the ones on Star Trek", and, of course, the obligatory mirrored ceiling, visitors took much coaxing to leave.
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http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/01_04/lennykravitz_468x647.jpg Lenny Kravitz, who admits he has had difficulty in the past with his fidelity

Read more...

It's a man's world: James Cracknell (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html?in_article_id=510353&in_page_id=1889)
Dylan Jones: Why we should burn all hoodies (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html?in_article_id=510350&in_page_id=1889)
Man on a mission: Nicolas Cage (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html?in_article_id=509071&in_page_id=1889)

"One time, I wasn't really out partying a lot," says Kravitz, "and Prince was in Miami so he popped round.
"He took one look at the place and said: “I can see why you don't get out very much.”
"I normally asked people to take their shoes off before they came in, but Prince was the only one who walked in wearing them, and because I have so much respect for him, I let him get away with it.
"But you should ask Cameron Diaz about the white fur tunnel," he chuckles, though will elucidate no further despite feverish imploring. "It was the most amazing chill pad, though. The ultimate. Friends like [hip-hop duo] Outkast would stop by for a quick drink, which would turn into a full-blown party with 60 people that finished at dawn."
But today, the pad has gone, along, it seems, with many other accoutrements of 43-year-old Kravitz's past. "I pared down my life a lot," he explains, "because there comes a time when you have to start downsizing. I even sold all my cars – my old American muscle cars and my Cadillacs."
The tattoos are still there, though, as are the various piercings (including one in a rather intimate region), but the man who would scarcely leave the house without a feather boa draped around his shoulders is no more.
We meet in the bar of Miami's lush Raleigh Hotel and, although soberly enshrouded in black shirt, black tie, black drainpipes, black shoes and the obligatory black sunglasses (though the black dreads have long since gone), his renowned sex appeal remains.
Several acquaintances (all of them women)come up and say hello, and he greets them all with affection.
Yet he has always been full of intriguing contradictions: a man who has dated some of the world's most renowned beauties yet can still talk openly about his feelings of loneliness and of a desire to be settled.
"What can I tell you," he says in a voice hewn from charcoal.
"I'm a classic Gemini."
With more than 20 million sales for hits such as Are You Gonna Go My Way, Let Love Rule and Fly Away (which became a No 1 hit in the UK after being used in a car ad), and four consecutive Grammy awards for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance between 1999 and 2002, his credentials speak for themselves.
His eighth and latest studio album, It Is Time For A Love Revolution (the kind of rock-hippyish title one has come to expect from Kravitz) contains a mix of the political (Back In Vietnam), sentimental (I'll Be Waiting – Kravitz's current single) and personal (Will You Marry Me).
And yet his most poignant song is Long And Sad Goodbye, an ode to his late TV producer father, Sy Kravitz.
Their fractious relationship was in part due to Kravitz Snr's treatment of his wife, the late Roxie Roker (star of Seventies US TV sitcom The Jeffersons).
Though father and son remained at odds for much of their lives, they made their peace shortly before Sy Kravitz's death from leukaemia two-and-a-half years ago. "Life with my father was tough," Kravitz admits.
"He didn't know how to communicate very well and he had the same kind of relationship with his own dad.
"My father hurt my mother, not physically but emotionally through his affairs, which was hard to witness as a kid.
"I didn't see the women myself, but friends would tell me they'd seen my dad with someone.
"It's funny how men get when they're insecure," he says, shaking his head gently.
"They tend to drop a level when having affairs with other women because as far as I could tell, none of the other women my father was with were ever as beautiful or as smart as my mother.
"It hurt me deeply to see my mother in such pain because she and I were so tight, and I'm not ashamed to admit I was a mummy's boy. I moved out of home when I was 15 because of my father."
Despite the warming between father and son in later years, some scars still remain.
Sy Kravitz once told his teenage son: "You'll do the same thing as me one day."
Kravitz says, "I didn't know what kind of weight those words would have in my life – a lot of my demons stemmed from them.
"Words can be a blessing or a curse. If you tell a child they are nothing, then that child grows up being afraid and has no confidence.
"I was told by my grandfather that I could do anything, so that's what I ended up believing. But when your father tells you at 18 that you'll end up being unfaithful just like he was, it can be something that follows you for a long time.
"I had lots of issues when it came to being faithful to women and I've had to fight it a lot in my life."
In 1987, Kravitz married Lisa Bonet, the beautiful star of TV sitcom The Cosby Show, with whom he has a daughter, Zoë, now 19.
The marriage ended after six years amid rumours of infidelity, although Kravitz says, "Actually, my marriage ending was a whole other issue entirely. But infidelity has been partly responsible for finishing some of my relationships.
"At times I didn't know how to deal with opening myself up to someone and obviously that comes down to a fear of intimacy.
"But I'm waiting to find my wife and I'd really love more children."
Kravitz's combination of openness, vulnerability and rock-god looks have brought him a series of glamorous partners including Kylie Minogue, Madonna (with whom he co-wrote the hit Justify My Love), Vanessa Paradis (pre-Johnny Depp), Natalie Imbruglia, and, most famously, Nicole Kidman.
They split after several months (the fact that Kravitz was photographed cosying up to Brazilian artist Isis Arruda at a Miami nightclub didn't help) and now, Kravitz shrugs: "I'm still friends with Nicole, just as I'm friends with all my exes, but I'm not really seeing anyone at the moment."
This is something that Kravitz says in all his interviews and which, frankly, sounds disingenuous for a man of his pulling power. "It's true,' he laughs.
"I get groupies throwing themselves at me, but I just can't do it.
"When I was a kid, I wasn't super-popular with the girls, and it wasn't until I picked up a guitar that I gained some appeal.
"The girls never liked the nice guys – they liked the guys who treated them like s*** – and I could never understand it. When I was a teenager, some friends set me up with a girl who was going to sleep with me and I just couldn't go through with it because it was meaningless.
"If we're not talking and connecting and getting into each other's minds, then I'm not interested."
Kravitz's desire to "meet the perfect woman" and his disillusionment at failing to do so coincided with the start of a lengthy world tour in 2002 to promote his album Lenny.
He sank into a debilitating two-year depression. "The whole tour was terrible," he says.
"I'm usually a very positive person but I would go straight to my hotel room and hide there until I had to be on stage. I was feeling lonely and overworked and very, very tired and I was just spending an excessive amount of time on the road.
"I'd grown up in a household that was always open, so I just carried on being as open as I was before, but of course, people try to take advantage of you and so I got burned a couple of times.
"But I closed down a lot, got a sense of who to trust and pared down my life."
Though he has divested himself of many of his belongings, one thing that lives on in his new home is the original Abbey Road Studio's mixing desk which Kravitz bought in 1990.
"All the Beatles' albums were recorded on it and I got it when my first album Let Love Rule came out, as I came into a bit of money.
"I'd seen a documentary in England about it made by one of the sound engineers and I knew I had to have it.
"People aren't really into vintage equipment but it's just an incredible piece of gear. At the time I blew all my money on it, but if you offered me £5 million for it today, I wouldn't take it.
"When you see pictures of John Lennon sitting at it..." he shivers, "it's just priceless.
"I'd love to bring Paul McCartney back to my place and make a record with him. How cool would that be?" The multi-talented Kravitz writes, sings and produces all his own material, playing all the instruments – guitar, bass, keyboards and drums.
Given his upbringing it is not surprising that Kravitz should have become a musician.
Born in New York City in 1964, Kravitz was brought up by his Bahamian mother and Russian-Jewish father in Manhattan's well-to-do Upper East Side.
His parents loved jazz and would often take him to concerts.
When Kravitz was 11, the family moved west to Los Angeles where he joined the California Boys Choir, and it was his musical talent that enabled him to enrol at the Beverly Hills High School, immortalised in the teen soap Beverly Hills 90210.
"I'd always been a really independent kid in New York," he says, "just taking the subway and doing my own thing, and then I got to LA where no one walked anywhere and I couldn't go anywhere unless someone drove me and I hated it.
But at my school I used to bump into Slash [the former Guns N' Roses guitarist] in the hallways, David Schwimmer was in the year after me and Nicolas Cage and I did a play together.
"When I first heard rock music this whole new world opened up to me.
"I got into Jimi Hendrix, Cream, the Who and all those great English bands like Led Zeppelin while smoking pot with my friends.
"Later, when I was on tour, Robert Plant actually opened for me. I was being a complete perfectionist pain in the a***, whereas he was so humble and sweet. I was taking things too seriously and being far too intense and in the end he just said to me, “What the f*** is wrong with you? Just loosen up,” and so I did."
After leaving home, Kravitz lived in a £3-a-day rented Ford Pinto near the beach ("I'd wake up every morning to the sound of a cop banging on the window") and started writing songs, renaming himself Romeo Blue.
Record labels were interested in signing him but he was told his music "wasn't black enough".
Eventually, Kravitz, under his own name again, signed to Virgin Records and his debut album, Let Love Rule, was released in 1989 when Kravitz was 25.
He followed it up with Mama Said and, in 1993, Are You Gonna Go My Way, the title single becoming a phenomenal worldwide hit which sent his career into overdrive.
As befits a Gemini, Kravitz now has his fingers in several pies.
As well as his considerable music career, he has his own company, Kravitz Design, which styled the Florida Room of the Miami Delano Hotel, a Fifties Cuban-style lounge.
He also has plans to direct his first movie and, inevitably, he has been asked to do his own clothing line.
Later, at the photo shoot, surrounded by PRs, managers, photographers and assistants, he seems ill at ease.
"I used to be good at this when I was younger," Kravitz half apologises to the photographer.
It's only when a mobile phone goes off –its ringtone the Tarzan call – that the ice melts. "That's cool," he says, relaxing visibly, so much so that even the sunglasses – Kravitz's protection from unwanted attention – come off.
"Life is pretty simple these days because it seems to be the right thing for me now. And I tell you what," he adds, "it feels pretty good." Lenny Kravitz's album "It Is Time For A Love Revolution" is released on February 5. The single 'I'll Be Waiting' is out now.

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

It Is Time For A Love Revolution - Lenny Kravitz</SPAN>



http://freedomtrainonline.com/rainydayjams/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/love-revolution.jpg
Lenny's eighth studio album was released in Australia on the 2nd of February 2008. Despite the fact that I could've very well rushed out and scored myself a birthday present on that particular that day, I decided to hold out for a little while, as all of the main music retailer's websites were saying that there was going to be an alternate version hitting the stores, in exactly one week from the original release date. It was also confirmed that this other edition would be carrying a bonus DVD. Why they didn't just release them both on the same day is beyond me. http://freedomtrainonline.com/rainydayjams/wp-includes/js/tinymce/themes/advanced/images/spacer.gifBut anyway, we'll let Virgin Records do whatever they please....why not? They're a big named record label after all. Anyhow, on the day before the 'deluxe version' as it was billed, was due for an official release, I decided to see if any stores were breaking the rules & putting out the album a day earlier. Lo and behold HMV were the culprit. Was it worth the wait? Well, yeah I guess it was in a way.....but those record labels really ought to get it together! As far as the album itself is concerned, it mostly deals with love, and generally looking on the bright side of life.....okay knock it off now, get that Monty Python song outta your head & check my review out.
Love Revolution: It sounds a bit to me like Lenny was riffing off of that guitar breakdown from his hit single "Are You Gonna Go My Way," while he was writing this song. Those of you who can't quite remember that far, I'll explain it to you like this: "Love Revolution" is a typical Lenny Kravitz sounding song. Lyrically its message is all about unity, and musically It's very sixties rock inspired. I'd even go as far to say that it definitely wouldn't be too out of place in an iTunes commercial with all of those sillouettes dancing around to its infectuous rock sound. What more can I say? It's a great opener.
Bring It On: The best way that I would describe this next track, is that it has an underlying Funk sound, but rock is the main style that's being played here. The reason why I'm saying that is because the bassline is somewhat pimpish & incredibly funky to me, yet on top of all that, we're getting a blistering rock guitar. Lyrically he's talking about how he's going to "face my demons" and that he's generally ready for anything that life hands him. He's basically ready to kick the devil up the ass......or rather, he wants to basically eliminate anything that is evil in general, which may happens to creep into his life. Overall it sounds very cool.
Good Morning: Straight up.....this is the only song on the entire record that I immediately perceived as being unbelievably wack. Why? Because it sounds like a little kid wrote the lyrics. That's why. "Good morning, how are ya....can I walk you to the station....would you like to get a bagle on the way?," I mean I can understand where he was trying to go with this song , ie: everyday is a new beginning and that we really need to start looking up, even though there are going to be bad things in our lives that are eventually going to bring us down.....in the case of this song, it's a tub of cream that's gone sour. But honestly, if he had've come up with better words to express himself, I probably would've actually liked this tune a hell of a lot more. Hence, I choose to press the skip button & move onto the next track....which is a shame because musically the song is drenched in that whole Beatles/psychedelic sound that he's known for......especially the harmonies which are straight up Lennon/McCartney influenced.
Love Love Love: Thank God for the Funk. Lenny most definitely brings us that kind of sound on this track right here, and of course, he puts a bit of a rock twist on it at the same time. The song features him denouncing everything from drugs, to air conditioners, to sex, to a job, to guns. His attitude is that he only needs God and love in his life. You wouldn't normally expect a rock star to have that kind of attitude now would ya? I think it's very cool that he's beginning to feel like this myself. This song was the one that really caught my attention, not only for its message but also because of its extremely cool video.
http://freedomtrainonline.com/rainydayjams/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/41x8y-ivqtl_ss400_.jpg
If You Want It: So, we've gone from funkin and rockin, to....now we're just rockin out with a few acoustic guitars. That's cool by me, but what's even cooler, is the fact that, for the very first time in my life, I've suddenly felt like, "Wow. Lenny Kravitz really spoke to me with one of his songs!" The message in this track, is as simple and straight forward as it can possibly be, but it's not corny at all. What he's telling us, is that, if we really feel like our lives are boring us out of our skulls, and we want to get out of that repetitive cycle, or, if we do nothing but think negative thoughts about ourselves and others, therefore creating evil within ourselves, that we have a chance to basically walk away from all of that and start over again. He's telling us not to let our lives pass us by either, which I believe is an excellent point for anybody to be making. Artist or otherwise. I'm sure if you were just looking at its title, you would think that Lenny was running out of ideas and that "If You Want It" was going to be a sequel to his hit song "Believe" from 1993, but fortunately it's not the case.
I'll Be Waiting: This song was the one that they decided to choose as the album's first single. It was the world's first taste of the new Lenny record, if you will. It's exactly what you would expect from a Lenny ballad, really. Aside from that, he's telling some fictitious woman who's been hurt by her former boyfriend that, he's always wanted to be with her, and now that she's broken up with him, he's finally going to get his chance to do so & eventually settle down with her. "As long as I'm breathing, I'll be waiting." Really, Len? Wow. All righty then. Next track.
Will You Marry Me: Imagine my reaction when I discovered that this song was actually not a boring love ballad, but a boomin' funk track with a rock slant. Surprised would most definitely be the operative word. The other reason why I reacted as such, was because it was in fact a very strong James Brown influenced slice of funk from Lenny Kravitz, which is obviously something that I don't recall him doing on any of his other albums. I quite like it myself.
I Love The Rain: Here's another rock ballad from Mr Kravitz. This time around though, he's written a somewhat metaphoric type of tune. He's comparing a thunder storm to a woman whom he was "friends" with at some point in his life. At first things begin to get all dark & cloudy, then the wind comes in and eventually the lightning crashes and the rain begins to fall, but Lenny doesn't seem to mind any of that. Instead he decides to 'walk' in the rain & not run from it. Then when the rain's over & done, he says he's going to stick around & wait for the next storm to come, cause he knows it's going to be that same person who's coming in the guise of the storm. Most of us would probably think that it would be a bit of a wank of a song with a title like that. Perhaps you'd be saying the same if you were reading my description, but, on the contrary he's done quite a solid job with the song.
A Long And Sad Goodbye: This is your typical, average, everyday, garden variety Lenny Kravitz ballad. It's full of soaring emotional guitar licks, tragic pianos, liting strings, great double layered harmonies. Lyrically it's more or less along the same lines as "Thinking Of You" off his "5" album from 1998, because he's singing to his deceased father. While "Thinking Of You" was a very sincere, beautiful and uplifting tune dedicated to his mother, "A Long And Sad Goodbye" is incredibly heartbreaking, just as its title suggests. Throughout the song, Lenny is asking his father why he abandonded him and left his mother for another woman. The saddest part about the whole situation is the fact that these two men never really spoke to one another until about two months before he passed away. Lenny speaks about that particular incident on the bonus DVD that comes with the album. Of course some fanatical Prince fan out there said that this song sounded like "Purple Rain." God bless him...or her, for that matter....and her musically uneducated ass. On another note: for future reference, the word is actually papa' - there should be an accent at the end of that last "A" and you should really emphasise the "Ah!" sound, like your clappin' your hands together real quick. Otherwise it's papa, which is Pope. No, this is not a joke.

Dancin' Till Dawn: I always heard this song as a somewhat gothic '70s disco type of jam. It has a very deep bassline and there's quite a stirring sax solo throughout the song. I guess the lyrics also contributed to my way of thinking as well. Although some may say that they're a little on the simple side of things: "Like a bullet from a gun/The DJ makes her run/When she feels the beat/My baby/I can't get her off the floor...." For some reason, those lyrics are okay with me. As long as he's not offering me a bagle, telling me about his day or trying to have a singable conversation with me, it's all good. If there ever is a video for this song, I would like for it to be set in a nightclub with a very dark & brooding type of atmosphere....that would look pretty cool.
This Moment Is All There Is: In this song Lenny's pretty much telling us to just live for today, and not to be too intimidated by certain things in our lives, which may eventually bring us down. That's pretty much the main message here, just to genuinely live in the moment, to do whatever we feel like doing and just to take advantage of it all, because for all we know, tomorrow might not even roll around. Obviously his attitude now is that life is very precious and so short. I think we should all take heed to this message myself.
A New Door: I don't know exactly who Lenny was singing to in this song - for all I know it could be a fictitious story. He could also very well be singing to his former self, what with all of the references to getting high and drinking too much alcohol. Basically he's telling that person to just put all of the bad things behind them and walk through a new door. You know what Len? That's great, but all in all...it's not that simple. Musically it's mostly piano based.....which, I suppose could put a few folks off, but, again, it's okay with me.
http://freedomtrainonline.com/rainydayjams/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/41m6hmk1f1l_ss400_.jpg
Back In Vietnam: Originally I thought that this song was going to be all melancholic and what not. Instead it turned out to be a fairly cool rock tune, which, to me sounds quite a bit like another song of his called "Dig In," off his "Lenny" album from 2001. Lyrically I get the impression that it's a very angry/cynical type of song, in which he compares the war that America is in now to that of the one back in 1969 in Vietnam. He sings of how the US come at the rest of the world all pirate like, riding on their high horses.....and with a hell of a lot of ego too. It's a pretty decent tune.
I Want To Go Home: One final rock ballad for the road. Again it's another song about leaving the past behind & moving on with his life....at least that's what my own ears are telling me. Lenny also takes a dig at the killers of the world who claim that they take other innocent lives in the name of God, which is part of the reason why he wants to get the hell away from it all....frankly, who wouldn't agree with that sentiment? It's a very nice way to cap off the album.
Verdict: On his last album he was whining all about how he didn't wanna be a rock star and all of this other crap, which I wasn't exactly the biggest fan of. This time he's pretty much just looking towards the future and constantly reaching for that positive high, as opposed to getting high off a fat joint or a few snorts of Coke or what have you. It also appears that the death of his father hit him pretty hard, because, as you can see he's now telling us how precious his life is, among other things. Hopefully he continues with this type of vibe for his future releases....even if the lyrics may be a little silly at times. By the way, speaking of which, they're hard to follow as well, cause he's printed them in white & chosen a white background, but anyway - lyrics aside, overall, this is a very good album.

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Lenny Kravitz - I'll Be Waiting Video


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Lenny Kravitz
I'll Be Waiting
Video
Watch the video (http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/lennykravitzx16x01x08#) for Lenny Kravitz's (http://www.contactmusic.com/new/artist.nsf/artistnames/lenny%20kravitz) single 'I'll Be Waiting'. The single will be released in March on download only through Virgin Records. Lenny Kravitz (http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/lennykravitzx16x01x08#) also releases his first new album (http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/lennykravitzx16x01x08#) release in over three years titled 'It Is Time For A Love Revolution' released on February 4th 2008.

the record keeps to Lenny Kravitz (http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/lennykravitzx16x01x08#) trademark blend of soul, funk, and jazz grooves and the undeniable anthemic lyricism. Lenny Kravitz has achieved tremendous critical acclaim and commercial success with a succession of groundbreaking album releases, multiple # 1 singles on the Billboard Top Singles charts and an unparalleled collection of awards from throughout his career, including Grammys, American Music (http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/lennykravitzx16x01x08#) Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. It Is Time For A Love Revolution holds up as one of the Kravitz's best albums with its raucous rock 'n roll jams, heavy drums, tight hip-shaking grooves, frenetic guitars and Kravitz's unmistakable croon.

Kravitz plans to tour behind It Is Time For A Love Revolution for two years after its release.

Click Here for all you need to know about: Lenny Kravitz (http://www.contactmusic.com/new/artist.nsf/artistnames/lenny%20kravitz)

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