David Bowie's "The Next day".  Clapton's "Old Sock".  Tom Petty's best albums. Zombie fad.  Some rule breakers find success later on. Mummies found to have clogged arteries. Companies with the best reputations. Beautiful people. Pet frogs and salmonella.

DAVID BOWIE

David Bowie breaks his nearly decade long hiatus today (March 12th) with the release of The Next Day. The new album was produced by longtime collaborator Tony Visconti, who produced such classic Bowie sets as 1970's The Man Who Sold The World, 1974's Diamond Dogs, 1975's Young Americans, 1977's Low and "Heroes," 1978's Stage, 1979's Lodger, and 1980's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). Bowie's last studio set, 2003's Reality, was also produced by Visconti and was released on September 16th, 2003.

• Among Bowie's many admirers over the years was nine-other than John Lennon, who collaborated with Bowie on his first U.S. chart-topper, 1975's "Fame": "I must say, I admire him for his vast repertoire of talent the guy has, y'know? I was never around when the Ziggy Stardust thing came, 'cause I'd already left England when that was going on, so I didn't really know what he was -- and meeting him doesn't give you much more of a clue, y'know. I think he's great!"
• There's been no definitive word as to whether Bowie will tour behind the new album. Longtime guitarist Earl Slick went on record as saying that chances are looking "50/50" that Bowie will hit the road.

ERIC CLAPTON

Out today (March 12th) is Eric Clapton's new album, Old Sock -- his 21st studio album and his first since 2010. The disc features two new original songs, "Every Little Thing" and "Gotta Get Over," in addition to covers of some of the legendary guitarist's favorite songs from throughout his life. The disc includes tracks from Leadbelly, J.J. Cale, Peter Tosh, George Gershwin, Gary Moore, and others, while featuring guest appearances from Chaka Khan, Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney and more.

• Clapton admits that he records these days mainly to satisfy his own musical tastes: "I make records, as much as anything, for me to, to be able to listen to. I mean, it's almost like I can't buy what I want to hear, so I make what I want to hear. And I think about, I dream up what I would like to hear, and then I try to go about making that for myself. So it's a very selfish occupation, really.

TOM PETTY

A new Rolling Stone Reader's Poll voted Tom Petty's 1994 solo collection, Wildflowers, the best album of his career. Coming in Number Two in the Top 10 list was Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' 1979's Damn The Torpedoes, and rounding out the Top Three was Petty's solo debut, 1989's Full Moon Fever. It's interesting to note that latter-day Heartbreakers collections, such as 1999's Echo, and 2010's Mojo made the list, but 1978's You're Gonna Get It!, which featured such early classics as "I Need To Know" and "Listen To Her Heart" was shut out of the final 10.

2005 saw the release of then book, Conversations With Tom Petty, a Q&A compiled by music journalist Paul Zollo. Petty told us that working with Zollo on the project made him to go back finally listen to his own albums: ["I rarely, very rarely, listen to my own work. I listen to it on the radio, but I don't really ever get 'em out and play 'em. I had to sit and listen to the work and get it out so I could talk intelligently about it. It really made me kind of happy hearing all the stuff. I felt like we've done a pretty consistent job over the years."] SOUNDCUE (:20 OC: . . . over the years)

The Top Ten Best Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers albums, according to the Rolling Stone Reader's Poll:

• 1. Wildflowers (1994) -- Key Tracks: "Wildflowers," "You Don't Know How It Feels," "You Wreck Me," and "It's Good to Be King"
  
  
• 2. Damn The Torpedoes (1979) -- Key Tracks: "Refugee," "Here Comes My Girl," "Even The Losers," and "Don't Do Me Like That"
  
  
• 3. Full Moon Fever (1989) -- Key Tracks: "I Won't Back Down," "Runnin' Down A Dream," and "Free Fallin'"
  
  
• 4. Southern Accents (1985) -- Key Tracks: "Don't Come Around Here No More," "Make It Better (Forget About Me)," and "Rebels"
  
  
• 5. Hard Promises (1981) -- Key Tracks: "The Waiting," "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)" "Insider" (with Stevie Nicks)

• 6. Echo (1999) -- Key Tracks: "Free Girl Now," "Swingin'," and "Room At The Top"
  
  
• 7. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers (1976) -- Key Tracks: "American Girl," "Breakdown," and "Anything That's Rock N' Roll"
  
  
• 8. Into The Great Wide Open (1991) -- Key Tracks: "Into The Great Wide Open," "Learning To Fly," and "Kings Highway"
  
  
• 9. Mojo (2010) -- Key Tracks: "Good Enough," "First Flash Of Freedom," and "Jefferson Jericho Blues"

• 10. Long After Dark (1982) -- Key Tracks: "You Got Lucky," "One Story Town," and "Change Of Heart"

EXPERT SAYS ZOMBIE FADS PEAK WHEN PEOPLE FEEL DISEMPOWERED

Zombies seem to be taking center stage in U.S. culture lately, and one expert says it's common for such a thing to happen during hard economic times. Professor Sarah Lauro with Clemson University studied zombies while working on her doctoral degree. Lauro says her studies have focused primarily on the concept of a "zombie walk" which is when a group of people gather and dress and act like zombies. Lauro explains that the zombie walks got popular in the U.S. in 2005 around the time the country went to war in Iraq. She says the people felt like they weren't listened to by the Bush administration and were expressing themselves through zombie walks. Lauro says that as of 2012, zombie walks had been documented in 20-countries, and she adds, "We are more interested in the zombie at times when as a culture we feel disempowered." Lauro says when we are experiencing economic crises the vast population is feeling disempowered. (Daily Mail)

SOME RULE-BREAKERS FIND SUCCESS LATER ON

New research finds that American entrepreneurs are twice as likely as salaried workers to report having taken something by force as teenagers, and 40-percent more likely to have been stopped by the police. Researchers Ross Levine and Yona Rubinstein conducted the study and say that misbehaving and taking risks are associated with later striking out on your own, and possibly making a lot of money doing it. The study found that entrepreneurs were disproportionately white and male, and that they come from higher-income and better-educated families than salaried workers. The study also found that entrepreneurs also make significantly more money than salaried workers. (BuzzFeed)

MUMMIES FOUND TO HAVE CLOGGED ARTERIES

Heart disease is nothing new. Mummies from thousands of years ago from around the world have been found to have clogged arteries. The results of the study of the mummies has researchers saying that the form of heart disease called atherosclerosis, which is when calcium deposits narrow the arteries, may have been a universal disease in all human socities, and now entirely the result of the modern diet. Study co-author Caleb Finch, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California says, "In three different continents and a total of five different sites prehistoric people had atherosclerosis, the generality of our observations suggests it really is a basical part of human aging under all circumstances." (Huffington Post)

COMPANIES WITH THE BEST REPUTATIONS

Through its annual Reputation Quotient survey, Harris Ineractive has determined the top ten most reputable American companies. They based their rankings on six key characteristics including product quality, trust, social responsibility and how employees are treated. The survey examined 60-companies to determine the rankings, and found that companies with the worst reputation quotients include many financial services institutions. Those with the best reuputation quotients include big retailers and tech companies. The top six most reputable companies according to the survey were: Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Google, Disney, Apple, and Amazon. (Huffington Post)

STUDY FINDS BEATIFUL PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS PERCEIVED AS BEAUTIFUL

A study out of the U.K. finds that beautiful people are always perceived as beautiful by others even if they make ugly facial expressions. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth conducted the study, and researcher Dr. Ed Morrison says, "The hard tissues of the face are unchangeable and it seems people, both men and women, can tell if the underlying structure of the face is attractive or not no matter what expression a person has on their face." Morrison said their study found that happy expressions were no more attractive than neutral expressions, and that men and women were found to perceive attractiveness in the same way. (Daily Mail)

PET FROGS LINKED TO SALMONELLA OUTBREAK

A report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that small water frogs sold as pets are being linked to an oubreak of Salmonella infections between 2008 and 2011. The report says the infection sickened 376 people across 44 states and sent 29-percent of those infected to the hospital-- mostly children. The study's lead author, Shauna Mettee Zarecki, from the CDC, says "This was the first Salmonella outbreak associated with acquatic frogs, and in this case the frogs are often marketed as good pets for kids." Zarecki says human can become infected after handling the animals, cleaning their containers, or coing in contact with contaminated water. (Daily Mail)

Thanks for listening to The Eagle while you work. Keep it fabulous, Houston!

xoxo,

Jennifer Tyler

Fabulous Mid-Day Diva & Rock N Roll Cowgirl