AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: You can...

AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: You can always expect the unexpected from Bob Dylan--who else could put out a new album featuring collaborations with both Sam Shepard and Carole Bayer Sager? The new record, due out next week, is titled “Knocked Out Loaded.” It includes “Brownsville Girl,” an 11-minute Dylan-Shepard epic; “Under Your Spell,” co-written by Sager and Dylan; “Got to Get My Mind Made Up,” a joint effort by Dylan and Tom Petty; “They Killed Him,” a Kris Kristofferson ballad; “Ramble,” a Dylan rewrite of an old Junior Parker song and “Maybe Someday,” a Dylan original. . . . The members of Duran Duran, who’ve been working on that long-delayed new DD album, don’t seem to agree about much of anything these days. But at least they’ve tentatively picked a new title for their album--”Notorious.” . . . Spandau Ballet, who recently departed from Chrysalis, have signed with CBS Records. And the band’s new contract has a clause which prohibits any new records from being sold in South Africa. . . . The new John Cougar Mellencamp single, “Rumbleseat,” has a B-side which features a live version of James Brown’s classic, “Cold Sweat.” . . . And our favorite column item of the week goes out to Daily Variety’s Army Archerd, who reported that the guest list at a wedding reception for Sammy Davis Jr. daughter, Tracey Davis, included “Muddy Waters.” That would be news: The legendary bluesman died in 1983.