Archive for December, 2006

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2006: Looking Back

Sunday, December 31st, 2006

2006 Goodbye!!

So it’s time for the obligatory blog retrospective of the year just gone past. Musically, for me, it has been an exciting year with some tremendous concert opportunities. It has been the year of the Scots in a way, seeing Belle And Sebastian in the USA, Deacon Blue in Edinburgh and Lloyd Cole back here in Cape Town. In addition, there was Brian’s farewell Pet Sounds London show, plus Magic Numbers and Paul Weller in England. Finally, I also saw Robbie Williams – I’m not a major fan of his, although I like some of his songs, and he did do a good show. The highlight there for me of that show was the support acts; my favorite local act Freshlyground and the Cornish band Wire Daisies.

Emotionally, the highlight was Brian Wilson – what else could it be? In terms of pure enjoyment, my live highlight was Belle And Sebastian, which was a fun show with excellent musicianship. As I said, it was my Scottish year!

Musically, it was a quiet year from Brian and the Beach Boys- the only “new” thing really being the studio songs on the Hallmark album and Mike’s Christmas song. Brian’s UK Hall of Fame induction must have been his personal highlight. There were hints of a reconciliation with the Capitol rooftop party reuniting the living Beach Boys, and some sort of real reunion with Al playing on some Brian dates. Overall, it rounds off three excellent years for Brian – productive both in terms of studio music and tour dates, and in conquering the dragon called SMiLE.

In terms of my personal musical discoveries, I guess it was the year of MySpace and Emusic. Bands that I found there and enjoyed include Lucky Soul, Pernice Brothers, Autumn Defense and the Now People. It was also the year I pursued Sunshine Pop with some vigour, getting albums by the Association, Spanky And Our Gang, Orpheus, Fifth Dimension, Love Generation, Eternity’s Children and Roger Nichols.

But my biggest discovery was another group of family harmony that I have reviewed on these pages..the Free Design, who make beautiful and insightful music that should really be a tonic for these times.

So, on that note, I am thankful for the musical opportunities 2006 offered. Tomorrow, it will be time to look forward to 2007…..

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Denny Remembered

Friday, December 29th, 2006

Yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of Dennis Wilson’s passing- the Beach Boys who lived too fast and died too young. He fitted a lot into his 39 years- much good, some very bad- but all accounts seem to point to a person with an extremely good heart, but some terrible weaknesses. I do remember hearing the news of Denny’s passing even although I was still a teenager and not a major fan of the group. We were driving back from our family farms in the heartland of South Africa to Cape Town and, in the middle of some beautiful countryside, I heard the news on the radio that one of the Beach Boys had drowned. Then it seemed like a karmic joke, now it is a tragedy and one can only reflect on the alternative histories of the band had Denny survived.

His legacy is his music -both his contribution to the band and his own music, including the cult album, Pacific Ocean Blue, which is inexplicably unavailable due to some copyright issues (I think). My wish is for 2007 is that those responsible for holding up this release will respect the memory of Dennis and allow this album on general release so that the world can hear it.

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What I Really Got For Christmas

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

For me, Christmas and birthday presents are a little interchangeable as my birthday is a mere two days before Christmas (I was actually due on Christmas day…). Anyway, my big pressie season is over, and Santa and the birthday bunny (is that right?) have been good to me. Aside from some interesting CDs, some of which may be reviewed here in weeks to come, I have got the book that I have been waiting many months to read, Peter Carlin’s Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the “Beach Boys’” Brian Wilson. Yes, it’s taken a while to get to South Africa, but expect a few blog posts inspired after reading this book.

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The Godfather And “God Only Knows”

Monday, December 25th, 2006

Two unrelated things to blog about briefly this Christmas Day. First of all, to note with sadness the passing of James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul” this morning- ironically he was a co-inductee into the UK Rock Hall of Fame with Brian just this last month, and also performed at that events. The passing of time….

Then I had an interesting “Beach Boys” moment yesterday evening. I left the TV on after watching a Christmas movie and suddenly I heard God Only Knows. Was some website suddenly playing this song? No, it was indeed the TV and it was the title theme for a series called Big Love, which is apparently about polygamy. Not sure what the connection is, as God Only Knows does seem addressed to one person, if you know what I mean, but I didn’t stay to watch the show. However, given recent uses of the song in Love Actually and Saved, it is nice to see that there seems to be a degree of “hipness” attached to using the song.

 

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Giving Hope And Peace

Sunday, December 24th, 2006

And so this is Christmas, as a slightly famous Liverpudlian musician once observed. Time for families together, sometimes the only time they do in the year; some people are all alone, and of course the retailers make a big push to meet their year end sales targets. “Christmas” seems to start earlier in the shops, and it is certainly easy to be cynical about the session. The ultra-politically correct seem to want Christmas cancelled altogether, and one certainly needs to be sensitive to those who don’t celebrate Christmas in our increasinly multi-cultural societies. Even some fundamentalist Christians don’t like the idea, saying that basically it is just a pagan festival dressed up with a bit of a Christian pretext.

But for those who do celebrate Christmas, maybe we just need to think about what the day is really meant to celebrate. It is about giving to others and thinking about the things that would light up another person’s life. It is about the hope of a better tomorrow. And it about peace on earth, and the stillness of reflection. If everyday was like that sort of Christmas, the world would certainly be a better place.

So happy Christmas to all those who do celebrate it, and hope and peace to all of you.

 

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One More For Christmas, With Soul

Friday, December 22nd, 2006

Lucky Soul have been one of my musical finds this year, and they have a new Christmas song, which in the best Santa tradition, is freely downloadable from their MySpace page. Their cover of Mud’s Lonely This Christmas has a nice Spector/ Wilson/ sleighbell sound in the more melancholy Christmas genre, so don’t be lonely and make this song your Christmas friend this year.

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Brian’s Hidden Beauties X: Christmasey

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

Regular readers of this blog may be aware that Jimmy Webb is one of the favorite musical artists ever, so I certainly approached the Brian Wilson/Jimmy Webb “collaboration” from Brian’s Christmas album last year with some anticipation. And “collaboration” is intentionally in inverted commas as it was very much a “two rooms” song- Webb added lyrics to Brian’s melody without the two ever meeting.

Even so, it certainly works for me. Webb is one of my favorite lyricists, even if you may ask questions about Macarthur Park, and the lyrics are simple and appropriate. However, the real strength is Brian’s tune, especially on the verses, which certainly indicates to me that Brian can still create magic with his new music. It may never be a Christmas classic, but it can be your secret little Christmas pleasure.

 

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Brian Teaches At The School Of Rawk!

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

From NME via The Nearest Faraway Place mailing list

Rock icons Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead and Paul Stanley of Kiss will train aspiring rock stars at Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp in Hollywood next year.

For five days (February 15-19), these and other celebrity musicians will instruct participants for 12 hours each day, share meals with them and offer tips and jamming techniques.

The camp will culminate in a Battle of the Bands competition that will be open to the public and held at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

Scott Ian of Anthrax and Poison’s Bret Michaels will also lend their talents to the proceedings, instructing participants from all walks of life how to wield a whammy bar and hit high notes 

Nice opportunity. But please stick to the music, and not the lifestyle, guys!

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The Beach Christmas

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006

As I mentioned last week, the Beach Boys have done a fair bit of Christmas music, but they will be best remembered for their 1964 album, which remains one of the classic Christmas albums. Given the amount of work Brian was doing at that stage, he still managed five original Christmas songs on this album (albeit one was the 1963 single Little Saint Nick), and two of these are pretty much Christmas standards these days; Saint Nick and The Man With All The Toys.

The covers feature orchestral arrangements by Dick Reynolds but the main feature of interest is the great vocals, especially by Brian. There is a down-tempo, melancholy feel to much of the second half of the album- White Christmas, Blue Christmas. I’ll Be Home For Christmas and the sombre carol We Three Kings. This is probably just song choice, but romantics may see hints of Brian’s imminent breakdown and the emotional turmoil of Today and Pet Sounds in the slightly less than joyful parts of the album.

Regardless of all of this, you can do a lot worse and groove out your Christmas with the Beach Boys…bop along to Little Saint Nick and appreciate Brian’s beautiful vocal on Blue Christmas.

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If Santa Can Go Anywhere, He Can Surely Go To Kokomo Pt II

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

 

Ok, so now that you’ve all seen Mike Love’s new song and video, Santa’s Goin’ To Kokomo, what do you think? For me, it’s hard to be objective about Mike Love’s solo stuff, especially with the title of this work, just as it’s hard to objective about a Brian show. You expect certain things from the song, and of course, everything you expect is there, so how can you comment objectively…?

I’ll try. The song is not one of the worst musical crimes against humanity, there is way, way worse! It is however Bland, with the capital B. The middle section holds out some promise, but doesn’t quite deliver. 5 out of 10.

Of course, the song tries to re-create the monster hit Kokomo, and reprises the opening section of the song. Kokomo was in my view, a two-edged sword- it gave the Beach Boy a late 80s hit and brought them back in limelight which can never be a bad thing, BUT it seemed to embolden Mike Love to believe that a Wilson-less Beach Boys was a viable proposition and that the Beach Boys could be marketed on the back of tropical memories and Mike Love’s personality.

Kokomo was a good pop song, and the best part was the Wilson element…Carl’s vocal breaks. However, it ended up being a one-off and attempts to repeat the magic on Still Cruisin’ and Summer In Paradise were commercial and artistic failures. And we all know the name Beach Boys lives on in Mike’s touring act, with Mike Love the only Wilson connection remaining in that band.

As I’ve discussed before, having three acts touring the songs of Brian Wilson is not necessarily the worst thing in the world. But I do wish that Mike Love would one day realise that the magic of the Beach Boys is not just cheap tropical nostalgia, but the real deep emotions that lie in songs like Warmth Of The Sun and Please Let Me Wonder, songs that Mike had a role in creating. And I guess it is for that reason that Mike’s new Santa song doesn’t touch anything below the surface.

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