BRIAN, NO

The other night I was out in the alley having a smoke and reading a few pages of a book and noticed a young woman having a smoke across from me,. We got to chatting and after a few minutes I introduced myself. (Relax, I do that with anybody that I have a decent conversation with, particularly if the possibility exists that I'll see them again at some point. I'm the friendly asshole of the neighborhood. The chit chat dude.) Her name was Caroline.

As I do when I meet someone, to remember their name I try to associate it with a song. The obvious one for Caroline was "Caroline, No" by the Beach Boys. The closing track on Pet Sounds. So, after formal introductions I asked Caroline if she'd ever heard "Caoline, No" and she hadn't. She only vaguely recognized the name the Beach Boys (I did say young woman). I told her that it was a song I'd use to remember her name and that it was a beautiful song, "forget all about that 'Surfing USA' stuff," yadda yada, yadda, look it up on YouTube. When I got back inside I went to look for it online, because I couldn't find my CD. In doing so, I ran across "Smart Girls". Have you heard this stinker? A rap record by Brian Wilson. It's awful. Rejected by his record company for good reason. It's the worst thing he's ever done. The worst rap-related piece of corn I've ever heard. It was done at the insistence of his then over-controlling shrink, Eugene Landy. True. It also involved Matt Dyke, DJ and a principal of Delicious Vinyl. He had some sort of affiliation with the Beastie Boys around the time of Paul's Boutque, but whatever cred he had from that, as far as I'm concerned, is negated by this piece of shit. He really ought to be ashamed. He should have known better than to enable this nonsense.

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Listen:
The Beach Boys - Caroline, No (alt. take) mp3 at Big O Zine
Brian Wilson - Smart Girls mp3 at Beware of the Blog

THE HONEY-DO LIST STRIKES AGAIN

This sucker is so breezy I could just about vomit. Spring was a duo, Brian Wilson's wife Marilyn with her sister Diane Rovell. The song was produced by Brian Wilson, with assorted Beach Boys on backing vocals which is what keeps it on its breezy keel. The melody is partially borrowed from the Beach Boys' "Darlin'", so, yeah, there is more than enough indication that this never would have been committed to tape if it wasn't for their involvement. Spring's own vocals aren't the smoothest, which is oddly the one thing I like most about it. All the smooth stuff is done by the husband's band, the production, everything. Substandard (by Beach Boys standards) lead vocals keep it real. As real as it can be with one of the greatest producers of all time, and some of the best harmony vocals of all time, involved.

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Listen:
Spring - Thinkin' Bout You Baby mp3 at Don't Stay Up Too Late

BRIAN WILSON'S EPIC FART

Unrelated photo of Wilson, because it's cool.

Last night when I was hunting for clips from The Endless Summer, I ran into a song of the same name by some hip hop dude named G-Eazy. What the hell, I wasn't doing anything, so I gave it a listen. It didn't really grab me, but it was relatively imaginative with the unlikely sampling of the Beach Boy's "Good Vibrations", and not just a snippet. The song was pretty much built around it. You knew it was going to happen, all the cross genre sampling that's gone on for what, like thirty years? At least since Afrika Bambaataa started dropping Kraftwerk. But, as much as it is only so-so as a hip hop song, I came away with two things. One was a line in it :"I chopped up the Beach Boys and made it 'to a jam, cuz everything I'm not made me everything I am", That last part is killer. "Everything I'm not made me everything I am." Hell yeah, I can dig that.

The other thing I thought about is how far hip-hop has come, in general. Though I'm sure it's been done more than once before G-Eazy's lightweight jam, the only other rap song I've heard that sampled the Beach Boys was Brian Wilson's unreleased 1991 turd "Smart Girls". It's a Beach Boys fail, a Brian Wilson fail, and a rap fail all in one. Quite possibly the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard. Though, to be fair, it's likely Eugene Landy's fault. He was Wilson's doctor at the time, completely domineering. He took over Wilson's life, feeding him pills and bad ideas. He is a permanent resident of the shit list.

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Listen:
G-Eazy - Endless Summer (streaming) at YouTube
Brian Wilson - Smart Girls (streaming) at YouTube

SCHOOL'S OUT. TIME FOR SHOW TUNES.

So, Boogaloo Time just posted Ronnie Hawkin's version of George Gershwin's "Summertime", one of only, I don't know, one show tune that I like. I can't think of another. I didn't even realize it was from a musical until a few years ago. I was curious after hearing Ricky Nelson's cover, which is one of my favorites. It sounds kind of like him fronting the Yardbirds, though obviously it's not. It predates the Yardbirds by a few years, so they couldn't have even been an influence. There's a few other versions down there. Two great jazz versions, one by Charlie Parker and another by Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins. The Brian Wilson one is down there because I went and listened to it, and I'll be damned if I'm going to waste a link. So it is actually time for show tunes, one song, but multiple versions. And they are all tunes.

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Listen:
Ricky Nelson - Summertime mp3 at Internet Archive
Ronnie Hawkins - Summertime mp3 at Boogaloo Time Go there to get it.
Charlie Parker - Summertime mp3 at Digital Circus (?)
Sonny Rollins and Colman Hawkins - Summertime mp3 at Muzz Irkutsk (?)
Brian Wilson - Summertime (streaming) at YouTube

THE RECORD IS BETTER

You may remember the BBC commercial from a few years back, a version of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" with Reed and about two dozen other artists. They've just made another commercial utilizing the same formula. This one is "God Only Knows", the Beach Boys song from Pet Sounds, written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher. (In case you've been living under a rock, Pet Sounds is a 1966 album that Brian Wilson created while the rest of the Beach Boys were on tour. Their vocals were added after all of the grunt work by Wilson and the Wrecking Crew was done,)  Wilson is in the video, along with Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Lorde, Chris Martin, Florence Welch, Stevie Wonder, Brian May, Chrissie Hynde, Baaba Maal, Dave Grohl and a bunch of others that, presumably, are better known in the UK then they are here. (The full cast is listed at the BBC.). As well done as the video is, and as well written as the song is, can it really be a fully realized interpretation if it doesn't employ Wilson's production? I mean, come on, that's part and parcel of its epicness. It may be part of some future "Great American Songbook" but what it really is, is a great American record. As in the original version, the context in which it was created. Sure, trying to add current relevance is well intended, but is it timeless? The record is.

What amazes me the most is that the song was written forty eight years ago, and Wilson is still around. Without gushing too much (dude's one of few that can get me gushing), it reminds me how lucky we are that he has survived, against all odds, and still performs. There was a time when Wilson all but checked out due to psychiatric and health problems. Even when he started to recover, it was under the watch of Eugene Landy, a controlling shrink fond of keeping him heavily medicated. That Wilson was able to break free of Landy's control is a story in itself. Which reminds me, there's a biopic of Wilson that covers that, as well as the boy genius years. It's Love and Mercy and it just debuted at the Toronto Film Festival. It's got John Cusak cast as the older Wilson, and Paul Dano, (the son in Little Miss Sunshine) as the younger Wilson. A review from the Los Angeles Times seems to be positive enough that it may be worth seeing.

Rather than continuing to stray all over the place, I'll just duck out now. Here's the original version of "God Only Knows" (remastered in stereo), along with a rehearsal take. There's also a couple annotated videos about the recording of the original, with audio from the sessions featuring the Wrecking Crew. You fiends ought to dig that.

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Listen:
The Beach Boys - God Only Knows mp3 at Illustr
The Beach Boys - God Only Knows (rehearsal) mp3 at Electric Adolescence
More Brian Wilson stuff in past posts (scroll down)
Video:
Behind The Sounds: God Only Knows Part 1 at YouTube About the original, audio from the sessions.
Behind The Sounds: God Only Knows Part 2 at YouTube
The Making of the BBC's "God Only Know" video at BBC
Visit:
God Only Knows - Wikipedia entry
Love and Mercy - Review at L.A. Times

AMBITION: BLOW MINDS

Earlier today I read something about some old hardened 78 collector being transformed when one of his favorite old slabs was playing. "Experiencing ecstasy" is what it actually said. A bunch of songs can do that to me, or get close. While not necessarily ecstasy, they can turn me into an old softie. One that came to mind was "Surf's Up", from the Beach Boys album of the same name. It was written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks in 1966, originally for the Smile LP, but that album was never completed. (Not back then anyways.) The song was finished for the later album, Surf's Up, in 1971. That's the first version below. The second version below is a demo. There are a few other versions, notably one on a Brian Wilson solo album in 2004, and another patched together with tapes from the original Smile sessions. Check this video, a live version by Brian Wilson. It's just plain awesome, thickly layered and every bit as complex as the recorded versions. His reaction to the ovation at the end is heartwarming.

There's also a great documentary, Beautiful Dreamer (also linked below), about the Smile sessions. Lots of musicians and media types interviewed, lots of Brian Wilson, and a shitload of details. It should get you caught up, if you're so inclined. It's over an hour and a half long, so, yeah, go pee and get a beer now.

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Listen:
The Beack Boys - Surfs Up mp3 at DK Presents
The Beach Boys - Surf's Up (demo) mp3 at Thighs Wide Shut
Video:
Beautiful Dreamer - Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile atYouTube
Visit:
Surf's Up (song entry) at Wikipedia
Smile (LP entry) at Wikipedia

WILSON WOBBLE

It's a bubble bursters delight tonight. As you well know, there are countless Brian Wilson freaks who would like to believe his track record is beyond reproach. If you're one of them, this is gonna sting. Brian Wilson's shit stinks, like yours and mine. He may be a musical genius, but boy, when he sucks, does he ever suck. Right about now your scanning the entire Beach Boys catalog in your head. You running down the list of every solo LP he put out, and every record he's produced for other artists. Still can't think of it? One reason is that it was only released in an edition of 250 promo copies and given to industry types and radio stations. So, if it was a Brian Wilson thing, and it was given to radio stations, why haven't you heard it? It's that bad, that's why. Here's the part you are not going to believe: Mike Love had nothing to do with it. Seriously, what kind of world are we living in? The whole story behind this wretched geek bait can be found at Beware of the Blog.

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Listen:
Brian Wilson - Smart Girls mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Your chaser:
The Pop Dose Guide to the Beach Boys, Pt 1 25+ songs from 1962 to 1967, linked within the text.
The Pop Dose Guide to the Beach Boys, Pt 2 30+ songs from 1967 to 1996, linked within the text.
More Beach Boys and Brian Wilson related stuff Scroll down

NO? YOU DO BETTER.

A couple years ago, the stepdad of my girlfriend asked me to meet him for dinner.  I suspected a sort of "man to man" sort of discussion, being that he was moving several hundred miles north and this would be our last one-on-one conversation before he left town.  It was the sort of thing that a younger me would have dreaded, but in this case, we'd always got along, and although our worlds were quite different, we had common ground in music.  Before we had ever met, I heard a three CD compilation he'd made for one of his high school reunions, mostly fifties stuff, and it was apparent that he knew his shit.  So, if conversation ever slowed (which it rarely did with him) I could always drag out a question of the "back in the day" variety.  After we chowed down (The Barbeque House in Ocean Beach, CA, thank you very much), he asked me to walk him to his car, so I obliged.  Once there he opened it up, and there were a couple boxes of records.  It was his record collection from over years, going back to original LPs by Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly.  He was giving them to me.  It was such a.generous gesture, I was nearly speechless.  After flipping through them, just before parting, I thought to ask him a question that any music lover would find hard to answer.  I asked him what his favorite album of all time was.  Without hesitation, and not knowing enough of my taste to know whether I held it in high regard, he answered "Pet Sounds."  I was flabbergasted.    

Brian Wilson performing Smile, live.  The whole thing. This is amazing.  Skip to 22:30 and watch "Surf's Up".  It's four and a half minutes of brilliance.

All of this came flooding back today when I was listing to Pet Sounds Revisited, a track-by-track compilation of covers of the entire Pet Sounds LP by different artists.  It came with the latest Mojo magazine, with several articles, including the cover story, about the Beach Boys.  So, here's some Beach Boys stuff, most from their what I consider their prime, 1966-1971.  A few things to note: "Good Vibrations" is from the original Smile sessions, a slightly different version then was released back in the day.  Oh, check out the "Unknown Harmony" thing, even if you have to go to the hosting blog to do so (they sometimes disable direct linking).  It's mindblowing how other-worldly their voices sound without music or lyrics.

It's remarkable that they were where they were creatively, especially when you consider that three of the members, the most talented, were subjected to abusive behavior from their father, and were further handicapped by being related, as cousins, to the biggest asshole ever to walk upright.  (Okay, Hitler was worse.)  On that note, here is some beautiful music.

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Listen:
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations mp3 at No Genre
The Beach Boys - God Only Knows (rehearsal) mp3 at Electric Adolescence 
The Beach Boys - I Just Wasn't Made For These Times mp3 at Music For Ants 
The Beach Boys - Surf's Up mp3 at Music For Ants 
The Beach Boys - Feel Flows mp3 at Immerse 
The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice mp3 at Review Stalker 
The Beach Boys - Unknown Harmony (1968) mp3 at Aquarium Drunkard May disable direct linking.  If so, go there to get it. 
Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney - God Only Knows (live) (streaming) at YouTube From a 2002 benefit for Adopt-A-Minefield 
Covers: 
Sonic Youth - I Know There's An Answer mp3 at Cover Me 
Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her - You Still Believe In Me mp3 at Cover Me 
Thurston Moore - Here Today mp3 at Cover Me 
Pet Sounds covers - The whole shooting match at Cover Me Not the Mojo comp, a whole other set. 
Oddball: 
Wilco/Beach Boys - That's Not War (mash-up) mp3 at Indie Shuffle 
Video: 
The Beach Boys - The Long Promised Road (1971) at YouTube Surf's Up LP promo.  Carl's got something going on too.  Symbolic foot washing, strange dancing, chest beating = weirdness. 
Brian Wilson talks about "Good Vibrations" at YouTube 
Brian Wilson talks drugs with Mike Douglas (1976) at YouTube 
Visit: 
Pet Sounds Liner Notes at Beach Boys Fan Club 
Pet Sounds Track Notes at Beach Boys Fan Club

I'LL GIVE IT A REST. AFTER THIS.

Holy shit, there's a lot of Beach Boys stuff floating around out there right now; probably because of the recent release of the previously unreleased (and now reconstructed) '66/'67 LP Smile. So here's a few I ran into.

First off, if you think my bagging on Mike Love is a little harsh, check out the post from Man vs Clown, appropriately titled, "Why I Hate Mike Love." It is awesome. Dead on. What surprises me is that, where I have a strong distaste for Mike Love, it was in general, but it had building for years. After reading the piece, it occurred to me that I'd heard just about every incident that's cited, but over a long period of time. So, it grew from general annoyance, to exaggerated hatred. I say "exaggerated" because, it's not evil hate. Truth be known, I just hate his actions. Every last one of them.

Now that that's out of the way, the music. If all you know about the Beach Boys are the early hits ("Surfin' USA," "Surfin' Safari," et al), I highly recommend checking out the Pop Dose Guide to the Beach Boys, a career spanning sampler, with about fifty songs, with some pretty good descriptions of what you're hearing, and the significance of the songs posted. Beware, there are a few stinkers, particularly post-Holland. I posted a few highlights below, along with their first hit, "Surfin' Safari.". It's really remarkable when you listen to that one, followed by "The Warmth of the Sun, " and consider that that huge leap in sound happened in two years.



There's a single song, found on No Genre; because it's the only post I've found with (what is presumably) a cut from the reconstructed Smile, the 2011 version of "Good Vibrations." (The version posted on Popdose is presumably the older single version, because it was posted a couple weeks before the new one was released.) And then there's Aquarium Drunkard, who posted some rehearsal tapes of songs in their working versions leading up to the final recording for Smile. Haven't heard it yet, but if you're interested, there it is.

Then there's the Beach Bastards. Beach Boys sound alikes, rip offs and other related things. It's a 23 song mix at Obscure Sound (with eight single song downloads). I just posted a couple below. One from Spring, which included Brian Wilson's wife Marilyn on vocals. The other is by the Modern Folk Quartet, posted because it's produced by Jack Nitzsche, who takes his experience from working with Phil Spector and does an able job of ripping off Wilson's Pet Sounds era sound.

We will return to the more square repellent stuff soon, promise. Just had to post these now, because the links may be short lived.

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Listen:
The Beach Boys - Surfin' Safari mp3 at Pop Dose
The Beach Boys - The Warmth of the Sun mp3 at Pop Dose
The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice mp3 at Pop Dose
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations mp3 at Pop Dose
The Beach Boys - Feel Flows mp3 at Pop Dose
MORE: The Pop Dose Guide to the Beach Boys 50 or so songs
Presumably from Smile (2011):
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations (from Smile) mp3 at No Genre
Multiple song download:
The Beach Boys - 1967 Rehearsal sessions at Aquarium Drunkard Eight songs
The Beach Bastards:
Spring - Down Home mp3 at Obscure Sound
The Modern Folk Quartet - This Could Be the Night mp3 at Obscure Sound
MORE: It's Not Me: The Best of the Beach Bastards, 23 songs at Obscure Sound
Visit:
Why I Hate Mike Love at Man vs Clown

HOW WAS WORK TODAY?

A week or so ago, I went back and forth with a guy I know in the comments section of a recent post. He turned me on to a site about the Wrecking Crew, the elite crew of LA studio aces used in a whole lot of 60's hits, and a huge part of Spector's Wall of Sound. If it sounds like a boring subject, consider drummer Hal Blaine's quote, from the trailer of a recent documentary: "We came into the studio, with Levis and T-shirts, smoking cigarettes, and the older guys said 'They're going to wreck the music business'." They were upstarts, young studio hot shots, right at the time the music industry moved west. Just a partial list of Wrecking Crew members included Glen Campbell, Barney Kessel, Tommy Tedesco, Al Casey, Billy Strange, James Burton, Jerry Cole, Carol Kaye, Leon Russell, Mac Rebennack (Dr. John), Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, and Jim Gordon.

Clockwise, from top left: Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, Glen Campbell and Hal Blaine

They were on tons of records that you know well, very well. Everything from Sonny & Cher, all of Phil Spector's stuff, the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Herb Albert (they were the TJ Brass), the Monkees, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Sam Cooke, Davie Allan (!), the Mamas and Papas, the Association, and a bunch of faceless instrumental bands (among them, the Marketts, and the T-Bones), and that's just a few. Their discography is mindblowingly immense (for a sample, see bassist Carol Kaye's discography here). If you're at all into unsung musicians, the story of the Wrecking Crew is quite a different tack than the "born in a log cabin, died penniless" thing. Though rarely listed on album credits, they did more than alright. Carol Kaye said that one year she did so much session work, she pulled in more than the President of the United States. But you never heard of her, right? Now you have.



There's a few links below that go into detail about their entire history, and the one thing that's remarkable is that, to many of them, the hit making was just a job. Denny Tedesco, son of Wrecking Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco, said that his dad would get a call from a producer and be off to the studio, without any fanfare. He had no idea the number of hits that his dad played on. And a clip at YouTube relates how guitarist Billy Strange got the call for the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B" session, but had to pick up his kid. So, he picked up his kid, stopped by a music store to buy a twelve string that was needed, and showed up, kid in tow. After the session, Brian Wilson paid him $500 and paid for the guitar. A neat divergence is the "Behind the Sounds" channel at YouTube, where someone has posted annotated videos, describing the recording process of several of the cuts from the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds LP, with the Wrecking Crew. All sorts of oddball factoid text rolls while you listen to outtakes, including who played what, and who muffed what take. Pet Sounds was recorded at Western Recorders with Brian Wilson arranging and producing, while the rest of the Beach Boys were dilly-dallying on tour in Europe.

While most of the songs below are probably bordering on the overly familiar, you ought to listen to a few back to back, and dig how the faceless hit machine worked. Sure, Phil Spector, Jack Nitzsche, Brian Wilson and Lee Hazelwood (and other legendary producers and arrangers of the time) all heard sounds in their heads. But, would the string of hits have happened without the top notch talents of the Wrecking Crew? They were the consummate studio musicians. Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In the Night" was rehearsed 15 times before Sinatra showed up at the studio. Once Sinatra stepped up, there were only three takes recorded. And the first take was the one that became the hit. Yeah, just another day at the office.

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The Ronettes - Be My Baby mp3 at Love My Oldies

The Crystals - And Then He Kissed Me mp3 at The Cadillac of Winter

Sonny & Cher - The Beat Goes On mp3 at The Brother Love

The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice mp3 at St Kilians1966

The Monkees - I'm A Believer mp3 at Songs You Need To Know

Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walking mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Sam Cooke - Another Saturday Night mp3 at Sound Salvation Army

Elvis Presley - I Can't Help Falling In Love With You mp3 at North and Nadine

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass- Casino Royale mp3 at Time Travel Is Possible

The Fifth Dimension - Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In mp3 at KLG.CPS.com

The Mamas and Papas - California Dreamin' mp3 at Ock Stomping Meteorock

Frank Sinatra - Strangers In The Night mp3 at Blue Moon Bar

More info:

The Wrecking Crew - Documentary site

Excellent, lengthy feature at American Heritage

The Wrecking Crew at Wikipedia

The Forgotten 60's - Various Wrecking Crew anecdotes

Behind the Sounds channel at YouTube

Carol Kaye's discography as bassist

Other posts about studios & producers:

The Sound Of Studio One

Produced By Jack Nitzsche

Give The Producer Some

Don't Know Jim Dickinson?

Special thanks to Tim LaMadrid, for the nudge.

BUG OUT DAD!

If you know the history of the Beach Boys, you may know that the Murry Wilson, (father of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl) was an abusive, over controlling father. Frustrated over his own lack of success in music, he took it out on his sons. He may have had veiled good intentions, but when he got pissed, he really let go, doing all sorts of incredibly cruel shit. Things like taking out his false eye and making Brian look at the empty eye socket. Once he got so pissed off at Brian, that he hit him upside the head (with a piece of lumber, if memory serves), so hard that he became deaf in one ear. So it was a strained relationship, to say the least. As with many abusive parents, the dynamic changes as the child ages. Some children handle it well, and take it stride. When the Beach Boys were riding high, they became less submissive, and actually started to stand up for themselves. And, thanks to the trend of releasing every outtake and fart ever recorded in a studio, you can hear the Wilson family dynamic as the boys started to realize that they may in fact have the upper hand. So, with no further ado, here are two mp3s of the night a drunk Murry Wilson tried to commandeer the recording session for "Help Me Rhonda." The first version is 40 minutes long, admittedly a little much, even for a Beach Boys freak. The other is a twelve minute edit with the highlights.

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Murry Wilson butts in (40 min version) mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Murry Wilson butts in (12 min version) mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Howdy, from the Keith Richards retirement party!

Four words that don't belong together: Brian Wilson doing rap. Yes, it is every bit as bad as it sounds. It's fucking unlistenable. Do not subject yourself to it, lest you wrench. To quote the host, Dust on the Needle, it is a "thorough desecration of his own titanic talent". This is not Brian Wilson "warts n' all". It's all warts.

There are two types of people who never dismissed Brian Wilson, those who "get it" and those who just wonder what all the fuss is about. This will tip the scale. It'is almost Mike Love bad.

Above: MC Wilson with fellow shark jumper Steve Jones.