50 Years Ago Today - JFK and Warmth Of The Sun

[Mikie]

It was November 21, 1963 and my cousin Brian had recently moved into a house he'd rented in Hawthorne California -- not far from the Wilson family home on 119th Street. I was living in an apartment in Manhattan Beach a few miles away. Brian and I decided that we would get together at his place later that night to do some songwriting.

We had done pretty well with "Surfin', Surfin' Safari" and "Surfin' USA," all extolling the sport that was increasingly popular up and down the coast of California. But this night was not about surfing, cars, girls, or school... it was about something different. For our band, the song we were writing offered a window into some of the lyrics and sounds that would come later in the decade. In just a few hours, this song would take on an entirely different meaning.

As Brian began playing a haunting melody on an electric keyboard, I began to add some lyrics to accompany that melody. I was drawn to the melancholy sounds emanating from that keyboard. And Brian continued to play -- and as we worked out the intro, the verse and the chorus -- an incredible feeling of sadness washed over us. Lyrically, I was inspired by this idea of lost love -- where your feelings are suddenly not reciprocated. Maybe it was your first love and she broke your heart. Maybe it was a deep love that faded before you were ready to let go. Maybe it was the love you never felt but always longed for. Regardless, it's the kind of love that lingers... long after she's gone.

Being the eternal optimist, as hard as that kind of loss is, the one good that comes from it is having had the experience of being in love in the first place. That experience became "The Warmth of the Sun".

After completing the song, it must have been 2 a.m. in the morning when we finally called it a night. It had been a night of incredible, almost mystical and melancholy feelings which resulted in one of the most beautiful, emotional musical offerings The Beach Boys ever recorded.

A few hours later on the morning of November 22nd, Brian and I were awakened to the news that President Kennedy had been taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. For a bunch of carefree guys in our early twenties, who, until this point, had been mostly living a life of fun, fun, fun -- our innocence was lost. Our nation was in mourning. The whole world was in shock. How could this have happened? What a profound tragedy and deep loss -- the reverberations of which are still being felt to this day.

In the weeks that followed, that song written in the wee hours of November 22nd was recorded in a studio charged with emotion. I'll never be able to hear or perform that song without recalling the loss of President Kennedy fifty years ago. "The Warmth of the Sun" was filled with a depth and a range of feeling rarely experienced in the life of any performer or band. Every time we sing it, the memory of that day is present. It is transcendent.

May "The Warmth of the Sun" soothe the hearts of all us as we remember the loss of a husband, a father, a leader, and an American icon whose light burns on, and whose legacy continues to inspire new generations. In this world of ours, change and loss are inevitable, but thankfully, through it all, there is, and always will be, love... like the warmth of the sun.

- Mike Love

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-love/jfk-warmth-of-the-sun_b_4318208.html

[bgas]

http://forgottenhits.com/the_story_behind_the_warmth_of_the_sun

[Mikie]

Over the years, we've had threads debating where and what day the Warmth Of The Sun was actually written. Brian and Mike both have their accounts. Mike has stuck to his guns and said the 21st. Brian just goes along with it but he wavers on it and pretty much just emanates what others have said. Fred Vail, who says he witnessed the writing of the song, has a different account. He says it was written on the night of November 22nd in the room the Beach Boys were staying at the El Dorado Hotel in Sacramento after a concert in Marysville. Yet another account has Brian writing the song in his "office" in Hollywood on the 22nd or 23rd.

Maybe Mike's account is correct; they started the song in L.A. on the 21st, into the early morning hours of the 22nd, and then finished it that evening(?)  Sounds logical to me.

Anyway, I thought Mike's rememberances above about one of the saddest days in our history were very classy.  I heard his letter read on the air by a DJ this morning on XM Satelite Radio "60's on 6".

[Rocky Raccoon]

In the movie I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, Brian says it was written in response to JFK's murder.  That film is nearly 20 years old though, not sure if he's stuck to that story.

[Emdeeh]

What's interesting about Fred's account is that he says work on TWOTS was started before the assassination, but finished afterward, which mostly reconciles Brian and Mike's accounts as to when it was written.

[rn57]

Even if it was begun the night of the 21st, still remarkable to think of Brian working out those sad, sad chords as the President and Jackie slumbered in Fort Worth....as Nixon drifted off to sleep (being a night owl) in a Dallas hotel (he was in town to speak at a soda bottlers convention)....and maybe (or maybe not, as 60% of Americans seem to think) as Oswald put his rifle in the bag and came up with the "curtain rods" line to use if anyone asked.  It could be this is a prime case of what Audree was talking about when she told Brian about vibes.

And of course the what-if's come to mind.  I remember being in a pol-sci class  in the '70s when our prof - a very bright Jewish guy from the East End of London, who'd personally known Churchill in the '30s - told the class he was sure that the Beatles would never have hit it that big in Jan. '64 if Kennedy had lived. "Your country needed release from the sorrow and they provided it," he said.  I wonder what would have happened with our guys had that been the case.

[Smilin Ed H]

Great and timely post.  Thanks, Mikie.

[Pretty Funky]

Is Mike the lone writer of the Huffington Post story or did he have the assistance of some as yet unknown writer?



Nice words from Mike and the real account of the writing of the song IMO. (sorry Brian)

[Mikie]

Well, the Huffington Post leans heavily to the Right, doesn't it?  So since Mike's a Conservative, the biased content printed there is evident, isn't it? 

[tpesky]

It's obviously Mike.....no one else can work Fun Fun Fun in like that to a piece of writing time and time again.

That said, well done Mike!

[Rocky Raccoon]

Well, the Huffington Post leans heavily to the Right, doesn't it?  So since Mike's a Conservative, the biased content printed there is evident, isn't it?  

Ariana Huffington is a liberal but her website doesn't really lean in any direction.  The op-eds can vary from well-written and thought provoking to complete trash.  Since it was bought out by AOL, it doesn't really have much structure anymore.

[schiaffino]

To be honest I don't see any connection between the song's lyrics, melody or mood with JFK's assassination. I mean, aside from having a melancholic melody, I've always found the story behind the song a bit far-out in terms of 'political' implications.

There's just something about the BBs and politics that doesn't seem to mix well...don't think they ever were sincerely politically committed to anything.

But saying that the song was a tribute to the lost of innocence following that tragic event, well, sure. Whatever. It makes for a good story, but I don't think its really, really true.

All this to say, I love this song. I wish Brian would sing it today.

[Pretty Funky]

Is Mike the lone writer of the Huffington Post story or did he have the assistance of some as yet unknown writer?

Well, the Huffington Post leans heavily to the Right, doesn't it?  So since Mike's a Conservative, the biased content printed there is evident, isn't it? 

I don't know Mikie. A quick poll tells me that 75% of posters feel that Mike wasn't the lone writer. A witness thought he saw some guy with a ipad  on a grassy knoll near where the story was written!

[Mikie]

Well, the Huffington Post leans heavily to the Right, doesn't it?  So since Mike's a Conservative, the biased content printed there is evident, isn't it? 

Ariana Huffington is a liberal but her website gives doesn't really lean in any direction.  The op-eds can vary from well-written and thought provoking to complete trash.  Since it was bought out by AOL, it doesn't really have much structure anymore.

She doesn't know what she is politically. At one time she was a liberal democrat, then became a conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, after which she adopted liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s. Her ex is Republican congressman Michael Huffington. In '03, she ran for Governor of California as an Indie.

[Mikie]

Is Mike the lone writer of the Huffington Post story or did he have the assistance of some as yet unknown writer?

Well, the Huffington Post leans heavily to the Right, doesn't it?  So since Mike's a Conservative, the biased content printed there is evident, isn't it? 

I don't know Mikie. A quick poll tells me that 75% of posters feel that Mike wasn't the lone writer. A witness thought he saw some guy with a ipad  on a grassy knoll near where the story was written!

Up until the Sea Of Tunes lawsuit in the 90's, Mike went along with the single writer theory. After that, he felt compelled to convince others that the song involved two writers almost simultaneously.

[Shady]

Here's the rolling stone article on TWOTS

16 Inspiring Songs That Honor JFK

After learning of Kennedy's death earlier that day, the Beach Boys debated whether to cancel their planned show in Marysville, CA. Ultimately, they decided to perform and to a record-breaking crowd at the Marysville Civic Auditorium. Sometime around that show, this calming song was written – though the precise timing is unclear.

In the 1995 documentary "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," Brian Wilson recalled bandmate Mike Love asking him after the show, "Do you want to write a song in tribute to JFK tonight?"

"It was a spiritual night," Wilson said in the film. "We got going and a mood took over us."

However, Love told the Miami Herald they had written the song the day before the assassination. Meanwhile, in "The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band on Stage and in the Studio," concert promoter Fred Vail was quoted saying they started it hours before the assassination and finished it just after.

[Mr. Wilson]

Any CIA or Fidel Castro involvement  In the construction or production of WOTS ?  Conspiracy theories abound !

[Mr. Wilson]

If you go to facebook right now there is a pic of handwritten music + lyrics for TWOTS..

[Pretty Funky]

...or you could just click on the link with the initial post above of course.

But thanks Mr Wilson for being what we will call.... 'The Second Poster'. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBz3PqA2Fmc

[Mr. Wilson]

 

[SMiLE-addict]

http://forgottenhits.com/the_story_behind_the_warmth_of_the_sun

Thanks for that link. Sounds about right - started before the assassination, finished afterwards. Would seem to square with all the accounts.

[Mikie]

Thanks for that link. Sounds about right - started before the assassination, finished afterwards. Would seem to square with all the accounts.

Except for Mike's account. Where has he ever said that the song was finished after the assasination?

[SMiLE-addict]

Given that some people say it was written before the assassination (such as Mike) and some say it was written after (such as Brian), when something like that happens, the truth is usually somewhere in-between. Maybe Mike only remembers them starting the song the night before, and maybe Brian only remembers them working on the song afterwards. Chances are, they're both right, albeit incomplete.

[Kurosawa]

Thanks for that link. Sounds about right - started before the assassination, finished afterwards. Would seem to square with all the accounts.

Except for Mike's account. Where has he ever said that the song was finished after the assasination?

Either way, Mike and everyone else agree that although the song has nothing lyrically to do with the assassination, the feeling of sadness and loss and the glimmer of hope that the song expresses, and the time of it's writing being so close to that sad day will always link it to that sad event.