Brian Wilson's Magical Jukebox

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AHA! I found this:

in a 1988 interview with Pete Fornatele, the five records he'd keep for his own jukebox:

Be my baby
Da doo ron ron
Good Vibrations
Macarthur Park
and...
Spooky by the Classics Four... "I thought that was a great record!"

and this

The Queen reference is in Richard Cromelin's piece for Sounds, Aug 7 1976:  Brian says "Like for instance there's a group called Queen.  They made a record, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which to me was a fulfillment and an answer to a teenage prayer, of artistic music...I studied the record.  I became very familiar with it, and I'm very very fond of it and I'm scared of it at the same time.  Oh, it's the most competitive thing that's come along in ages! It's just totally amazing what people do when they lose their noggins, when they lose their heads and they go in there and freak...That's what Queen did.  They had enough of what was happening, and by God they went in and did their thing and stomped! And I appreciate that and I'm very fond of it."   Clearly in 1975 Brian was doing very little and probably listened to Rodney , Jim Pewter and other DJ's every day.  By the way-I had the privilege of interviewing Chip Rachlin for my book and he told me that he took Dennis to see Queen in 1975 or 76 and that Dennis insisted on going backstage afterwards and meeting them.

Using Google seems to be a more reliable way of searching the SS archives than using the search function on the forum, to be honest.

[bgas]

I remember hearing about an interview where Brian shows some guy his record collection in the 70s and talks about Bohemian Rhapsody, anyone have a link to that?

Maybe he was mixed up, but it would be really cool if Brian liked Bohemian Rhapsody.

Don't have the link handy, but it was definitely Bohemian Rhapsody

Searching Google books, I found this:

"Brian Wilson, the compositional mastermind of The Beach Boys, told Creem magazine's Richard Cromelin in the October 1976 issue that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was, "to me, a fulfillment of artistic music. I studied the record, I became very ..."

http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=6506

That is really cool. Do you have the rest of the quote? The link requires a subscription.

and in the meantime, I posted the whole article in the magazine section at Media.

[GuyOnTheBeach]

I don't recall whether it was about singles or albums, but I seem to recall Brian being enthusiastic about ELO at one point, if that kept up I'd bet the farm he'd have something by them in there.

[Amy B.]

I remember hearing about an interview where Brian shows some guy his record collection in the 70s and talks about Bohemian Rhapsody, anyone have a link to that?

Maybe he was mixed up, but it would be really cool if Brian liked Bohemian Rhapsody.

Don't have the link handy, but it was definitely Bohemian Rhapsody

Searching Google books, I found this:

"Brian Wilson, the compositional mastermind of The Beach Boys, told Creem magazine's Richard Cromelin in the October 1976 issue that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was, "to me, a fulfillment of artistic music. I studied the record, I became very ..."

http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=6506

That is really cool. Do you have the rest of the quote? The link requires a subscription.

and in the meantime, I posted the whole article in the magazine section at Media.

Great, thanks!

[Amy B.]

AHA! I found this:

in a 1988 interview with Pete Fornatele, the five records he'd keep for his own jukebox:

Be my baby
Da doo ron ron
Good Vibrations
Macarthur Park
and...
Spooky by the Classics Four... "I thought that was a great record!"

and this

The Queen reference is in Richard Cromelin's piece for Sounds, Aug 7 1976:  Brian says "Like for instance there's a group called Queen.  They made a record, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which to me was a fulfillment and an answer to a teenage prayer, of artistic music...I studied the record.  I became very familiar with it, and I'm very very fond of it and I'm scared of it at the same time.  Oh, it's the most competitive thing that's come along in ages! It's just totally amazing what people do when they lose their noggins, when they lose their heads and they go in there and freak...That's what Queen did.  They had enough of what was happening, and by God they went in and did their thing and stomped! And I appreciate that and I'm very fond of it."   Clearly in 1975 Brian was doing very little and probably listened to Rodney , Jim Pewter and other DJ's every day.  By the way-I had the privilege of interviewing Chip Rachlin for my book and he told me that he took Dennis to see Queen in 1975 or 76 and that Dennis insisted on going backstage afterwards and meeting them.

Using Google seems to be a more reliable way of searching the SS archives than using the search function on the forum, to be honest.

Wow, he sounds like '60s Brian there.

[Kurosawa]

Well, more reason to love Queen if there was not enough already.

Surf City is am amazing record, btw.

[Dunderhead]

Wow, now this is what I was hoping for, thanks bgas, and everyone else, great work.

[Mike's Beard]

Both Brian and Freddie have said that Beach Boys were a big influence on their double tracked harmony style so it's cool to hear that Dennis and Brian were fans of Queen.

[hypehat]

The Queen reference is in Richard Cromelin's piece for Sounds, Aug 7 1976:  Brian says "Like for instance there's a group called Queen.  They made a record, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which to me was a fulfillment and an answer to a teenage prayer, of artistic music...I studied the record.  I became very familiar with it, and I'm very very fond of it and I'm scared of it at the same time.  Oh, it's the most competitive thing that's come along in ages! It's just totally amazing what people do when they lose their noggins, when they lose their heads and they go in there and freak...That's what Queen did.  They had enough of what was happening, and by God they went in and did their thing and stomped! And I appreciate that and I'm very fond of it."   Clearly in 1975 Brian was doing very little and probably listened to Rodney , Jim Pewter and other DJ's every day.  By the way-I had the privilege of interviewing Chip Rachlin for my book and he told me that he took Dennis to see Queen in 1975 or 76 and that Dennis insisted on going backstage afterwards and meeting them.

Oh my god, that quote is the best. It's like he's talking about Good Vibrations, which is not a million miles from Bohemian Rhapsody in multipart harmony drenched pop ambition.