Our Shut Down 2 board has been pretty active lately, and there are some interesting discussions taking place. One very interesting discussion concerns the Beach Boys concerts of 1972, and some personal memories of Toni Tennille, better known from the Captain And Tennille, who actually played with the band in that era.
Archive for March, 2007
The Boys And Tennille
Saturday, March 31st, 2007Brian’s Hidden Beauties XXI: Your Summer Dream
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
The Surfer Girl album established the Beach Boys as a group capable capturing people’s hearts on the slow dances, as well as rocking the masses with the surf and car songs. In My Room and the title track have become romantic standards from the album, while Surfer Moon, already covered in this blog, saw the first use of strings in Beach Boys music. But possibly most romantic and least known of all is Your Summer Dream, an evocative track featuring little more than Brian’s voice, an electric guitar and soft drums. It conjures up images of simple teenage romance on the beach, but showcases Brian both as a vocalist oozing aching romance, as well as a brilliant tunesmith.
The romantic songs on Surfer Girl may seem naive and unrealistic, but these were still the flush of teenage years, and In My Room already showed a sense of the consequences of isolation from the real world. But we do aspire to, and many of us enjoy, those special moments, and we will always have songs like these to remind us of how special love can be.
Another Chat Reminder
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007Just another reminder about the special chat on this site on April’s Fools Day. Go here for details on the chat and how to register, and please join us.
Brian Loves New Jersey
Monday, March 26th, 2007Just a quick note/reminder that Brian has added a second New Jersey show this May – it is at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank on 12 May (he plays at Bergen the night before).
The Luck Just Continues
Saturday, March 24th, 2007
Readers of this blog will know that I am punting Lucky Soul as one of the saviours of modern day music- and no, they aren’t paying me a cent. Their long-awaited debut album, The Great Unwanted, is coming out on April 9, but since my last review of their first two singles, they have released a further two singles, while the title track of the album is circulating the ‘net as a downloadable mp3.
The two singles are Ain’t Never Been Cool and Add Your Light To Mine, Baby, and the headline tracks both continue the tradition of hook-filled, traditional pop music that get your feet pumping and your heart racing. Ain’t Never Been Cool is effectively a double A side with Struck Dumb (which will also be on the debut album) , and Struck Dumb is simply the most dumb, effective and ultimately brilliant of all these single tracks. There are also the real B-sides for each single, I Gots The Magic and Ever Yours I Remain, which in the great B-side tradition are solid songs that enhance the reputation of the band, even if they aren’t in the absolute top notch.
If all of this sounds like pop music as an academic exercise to see how many hooks to throw into a song, the group’s message and purpose moves on to darker and more meaningful territory on the gut wrenching and absolutely brilliant title track of the new album. The Great Unwanted invokes the very spirit of Brian’s I Just Wanted Made For These Times as a gifted avatar knows that they are making the music that will shake and move the world, but facing a world and a music scene of mediocrity. However, unlike Brian’s song, there is a hope or vision that things will change and the great unwanted now will become the hipsers of the future. Have a look at these sample lyrics.
If I could be alone with you, instead of standing on my own,
I would sound the call and when they all come running then you’ll see,
I’m not alone at all.
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Oh we live in silence, in shelter, in shadows;
The ones that you trod on, the ones you were brutal to, but,
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Look for us, we were the casualties forever paying the price for a life less boring.
Look for us, we were the whipping children, but no more.
Look for us ‘cause when the tables turn,
You’ll be saying a prayer to the great unwanted.
Singing a hymn to the great unwanted.
We will not be ignored.
We won’t take that no more.
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You can dodge the pressure, avoid the questions and whisper lies beneath your breath,
To you, Â love got smothered under hearts and flowers and it died a sweet and sickly death.
The music builds up to a crescendo solo and final release, and overall, this is simply one of the great tracks of 2007, and indeed of any decade. If you think you might agree with me, you can get it here. You can get the singles on eMusic. And please buy the album, and keep this group going, so that they can keep making this great music.
Brian’s Hidden Beauties XX: Melt Away
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
The 1988 Brian Wilson album established Brian as a solo artist and still capable of making great music, even if it didn’t light up the charts. Love And Mercy was the headline song which has always been a staple of Brian’s solo shows of recent times. There were a number of other gems on the album, and in particular, the beautiful and poignant Melt Away.
The song returns to themes that Brian fans should be familiar with -feelings of isolation “the world don’t care what I can be”, insecurity “you know I close up to you girl” but ultimately again the healing power of love allowing him to “melt away.” The melody is fresh and soaring, and this was certainly an instant classic for me when I first heard it.
The Brian Wilson album’s one weakness was the synth heavy 80s production. Melt Away is still very listenable on that record, but a more organic and “classic” production sound (by Don Was) can be heard on the version of this song on the I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times soundtrack. However, in whatever form, this is a fantastic song and a hidden beauty.
Don’t Be A Fool; Rather Chat Here
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007Our scheduled chat in the Cabin chat room on March 11 was a great success, so we hope to have even more of you for next scheduled chat on April Fool’s Day, details are as follows
Date: Sunday 1 April 2007
Time: 3PM EDT, 12PM PDT, 9PM Western Europe, 8PM
UK, 7PM GMT, 10 PM Finland Venue: http://www.surfermoon.com/chat/Â
RSVP: ….just be there JÂ
Spector And SMiLE
Monday, March 19th, 2007
Of course, Phil Spector’s trial starts today and will be a media circus. For some of my thoughts on Phil and Brian Wilson, have a look at an older post on this blog.
On something almost completely different, I was at an airport about to travel home yesterday and was wearing my SMiLE concert T-shirt. The people at the X-ray machine noticed the shirt and started saying “Smile!” and “Brian Wilson!”; they were probably encouraging me to smile since I probably wasn’t looking tremendously excited at the prospect of airport security. It was probably a good life lesson for me, but maybe also a way to get Brian and SMiLE out to the public.
Brian’s Hidden Beauties XIX: What Love Can Do
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
It took 44 years from the release of our first Hidden Beauty, Lonely Sea, to its inclusion in this blog section. However, the new Brian Wilson/Bacharach song , What Love Can Do, makes it only two weeks after release-Â a record that may well not be broken!
Since I regard Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach as basically the two greatest living American songwriters, I had high hopes for their first collaboration and I’m glad to say that I’m not disappointed. It isn’t an immediate knockout tune in a God Only Knows or Walk On By way, but it is a song that builds up nicely and has a tune that takes you in and then entrances you, especially with the harmonies in the later parts of the song.
Indeed, the song goes very well with the re-make of God Only Knows on the New Music From An Old Friend compilation, as What Love Can Do explores very similar ground around the transforming power of love. It also shares the invocation of a Higher Power “God help me get it right” and that all pervading hint of insecurity “I know I could be wrong although I know I’m not.” This is definitely a fertile revisiting of the ground where Brian’s music has touched me mostly deeply, and he hits the mark again.Â
A reminder that you can listen to the song here and buy the compilation at Target.
Two Restoring Faith
Monday, March 12th, 2007
I heard two songs for the first time this last weekend that have restored all my faith in the power of great music. First of all, there is the long awaited Brian Wilson/Bacharach colloboration What Love Can Do, available on the Target album, New Music From An Old Friend- you can hear the entire album here. Then there is the title track from Lucky Soul’s upcoming debut long-player, The Great Unwanted which you can download here. Expect much more on both of these songs in the next days and weeks!