AND WAIT, THERE’S MORE: The bad news...

AND WAIT, THERE’S MORE: The bad news is that longtime critics’ fave John Hiatt has been dropped by Geffen Records. The good news is that Hiatt has just finished a new album here with sidemen Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner and Nick Lowe (who flew from London on one day’s notice). Produced by McCabe’s concert producer, John Chelew, the album was recorded in four days, with only a few minor overdubs. The album, which includes such new tunes as “Memphis in the Meantime,” “Lipstick Sunset” and “Tip of My Tongue,” is scheduled for English release in April by Demon Records (there are no firm plans yet for a U.S. release). . . . Jim Morrison biographer Danny Sugerman recently completed his latest book, a “semi-fictionalized rock ‘n’ roll coming-of-age biography” titled “Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess.” The book has been optioned by producer Gene Kirkwood (who made “Rocky” and “Gorky Park”). Sugerman, who’s working on a first draft of a script, said that Oliver Stone has agreed to direct the film, tentatively scheduled to go before the cameras in 1988. . . . You can almost expect the unexpected from Joe Jackson, whose last album, “Big World,” was a direct-to-digital live three-sided record. This time out, the pop eccentric has concocted an all-instrumental album titled “Will Power,” which is due out next month from A&M; Records. The disc was recorded with a 50-piece orchestra, conducted by George Manahan, who has done everything from opera (“Madame Butterfly”) to the world premiere of Steve Reich’s “Tehillim.” Featured will be such songs as “Nocturne,” “Symphony in One Movement,” “No Pasaran” and the title cut.