The Warmth of the Sun - IJWMFTT

[Lonely Summer]

The last couple weeks, I've had "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Orange Crate Art" playing in my car - 20th anniversary of both, and I'm a sucker for anniversaries, especially when it is personal. 20 years ago, I was with the most wonderful girl in the world, after thinking I would never find anyone. It was a long distance relationship, which presented some serious hurdles, but for me anyway, it felt like it was worth putting up with the separations because things were so good when we were together. We spent Christmas and New Years of 95/96 together, and I came home on a tremendous high. Then she started talking about breaking up, believing there was no way either one of us could ever move - or maybe there was other things going on, too. I never got much of an explanation, before I knew it, it was over, Valentines Day, 1996. Today, I was listening to the IJWMFTT version of "Warmth of the Sun" and the lyrics just hit me - like it was about us. "The love of my life she left me one day, I cried when she said, I don't feel the same way". That's exactly how it happened. I couldn't understand how she could just suddenly not love me anymore. The only explanation I got was "people change". Now here I am, 20 years later, still broken up over this girl. Still wishing we'd stayed together. "I'll dream of her arms, although they're not real; just like she's still there, the way that I feel...my love's like the warmth of the sun, it won't ever die". That's it, exactly! I know Mike Love's lyrics are not always rated highly here, and it may be true that in later years he tended towards greeting card sentiments, but on this song, Mike's words were perfect for Brian's music. And I'm really drawn to the IJWMFTT version, with Brian's older voice - there is just so much sadness in the sound of this performance, and yet, like with all of Brian's best music, there is healing in it, too. I can't imagine my life without this music to help express my feelings. I can't hear IJWMFTT and OCA without reliving that time of my life in my mind again. The memories are tinged with pain now, but mostly they are good memories. I don't know if other listeners get as emotional about the music as I do, some seem to be able to just sit back and coldly analyze it, but for me, either it moves me or it doesn't.

[STE]

Look her up, man. It's never too late.

[Lonely Summer]

I just think that is such a wonderful gift, to be able to express yourself musically the way Brian (and Mike) did with this song. Also love the version of "Caroline No" on this album. Surprising Brian didn't do more work with Don Was. Seemed to end suddenly after the attempted sessions with the Beach Boys. I like how the songs on this album are more stripped down than a lot of Brian's solo work.

[Wirestone]

Don plays on NPP.

[JK]

I haven't played IJWMFTT in years, as I'd decided that the versions on it were inferior to the originals. (In fact it ended up in a stack of CDs I was planning to, but never did, take down to the second-hand record store!) I now realize it's chalk and cheese----they're two entirely different animals.

It must be my recent (last couple of years) interest in Brian's solo stuff that has made me reconsider. And hearing OCA, which I love.

Time to revisit IJWMFTT, methinks... 

[Rentatris]

That's a beautiful post right there.

 It's amazing how love can move and change us humans, I agree with second poster though. See what she's up to? She might be feeling the same way now....

 As ijwmftt, I bloody love it! It would be one of the records I rescued from a fire (my 180g vinyl). I put it on with alarming regularity.

[The Heartical Don]

Agree on the IJWMFTT version. Always loved it dearly, and played it to many people.

[KDS]

I didn't used to care for the IJWMFTT of WOTS. 

But, it pops up on the Brian Wilson Pandora station quite a bit, and it's really grown on me. 

[Lonely Summer]

I loved this version of "Warmth" first time I heard it, in the documentary. Also loved the way that one guy broke it down in terms of chord structure. I was so fascinated by that, I had to go to the piano and play it.

[Steve Latshaw]

I moved to Los Angeles in November of 1995.  The first thing I did was drive out to Leo Carrillo Beach, pop that CD in the car stereo and played Warmth of the Sun.

Brian's time-worn voice was perfect at that moment; even in 1995 there wasn't much left of the California Dream that gave birth to that song in 1963.  Listening, I had a sense that there wasn't much left but the ghosts, like attending a family reunion and not recognizing anyone .  It's a beautiful, but ghostly track, for me.

[Summertime Blooz]

Warmth is maybe their most beautiful record. Is the story really true that this song was written the evening following JFK's assassination?

[Andrew G. Doe]

Depends on who you listen to, and when.

[Lonely Summer]

I moved to Los Angeles in November of 1995.  The first thing I did was drive out to Leo Carrillo Beach, pop that CD in the car stereo and played Warmth of the Sun.

Brian's time-worn voice was perfect at that moment; even in 1995 there wasn't much left of the California Dream that gave birth to that song in 1963.  Listening, I had a sense that there wasn't much left but the ghosts, like attending a family reunion and not recognizing anyone .  It's a beautiful, but ghostly track, for me.

One of the images that stays with me from the IJWMFTT film is Brian and Melinda driving by the site of the house where he grew up. "My house is gone"....yeah, it already felt like ancient history in 1995. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that it is 2016. 2016? How did I get here? Never expected to be around this long.

[Eric Aniversario]

I moved to Los Angeles in November of 1995.  The first thing I did was drive out to Leo Carrillo Beach, pop that CD in the car stereo and played Warmth of the Sun.

Brian's time-worn voice was perfect at that moment; even in 1995 there wasn't much left of the California Dream that gave birth to that song in 1963.  Listening, I had a sense that there wasn't much left but the ghosts, like attending a family reunion and not recognizing anyone .  It's a beautiful, but ghostly track, for me.

One of the images that stays with me from the IJWMFTT film is Brian and Melinda driving by the site of the house where he grew up. "My house is gone"....yeah, it already felt like ancient history in 1995. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that it is 2016. 2016? How did I get here? Never expected to be around this long.

Yeah being in 2016 is surreal....thinking that 1996 was 20 years ago...that was when Stars & Stripes came out. We are closer to 2020 now than 2010. We are closer to 2030 than 2000. Crazy stuff.

[Matt Bielewicz]

I often wonder... was it always like this, for every generation?

I mean, I'm the same. I was born in 1971 and was at university through the early 90s, and got a job that I stayed in for twelve years, from 1994 to 2006. That mostly seemed to go at a 'sensible' sort of speed — a year felt like quite a lengthy interval of time, as it seems to me that it should. And then I got married in 2000, and since then... it feels as though the last decade and a half happened in ONE 'old' year or something. BWPS flashed past in 2004, Brian was saying there would never be a release of the original SMiLE tapes... and then, in what feels to me like about a second later (but was actually pretty much seven years), they were out, it was done! And now even THAT release is nearly half a decade ago!!!!

So, you know... were there people around when Pet Sounds was recorded, going: "I don't get it... it feels like the war just ended, but it's 1966 already!!!" Or is this a phenomenon unique to recent generations? It doesn't seem likely that it can be, but if so, it doesn't seem as though older generations talked about how fast their lives seemed to be passing very much. I mean: I was born in 1971, and started seriously listening to pop music in 1978. The idea that one day I'd spend so much time talking about music from TWELVE WHOLE YEARS before that time would have completely blown my mind. 1966 would have seemed to me like the era when dinosaurs roamed the earth (and only in black and white, too). So imagine what it must seem like. If you were talking to a ten year old now about SMiLE, music from 40 years ago... that would have been like someone talking to me in 1978 about, I don't know... the music of Benjiamin Britten. Or Noel Coward. And I would have been about as interested as any ten-year-old I might try to engage in chat about SMiLE now. That is - not a whole lot!

Returning to topic: as I've said before, the IJWMFTT film was what got me *properly* into Brian Wilson, so I'll always love it deeply on some level. Yeah, his voice throughout is... well, care-worn is a lovely, and very positive — perhaps too positive — way of putting it. And I can sort of see how you might regard the take on The Warmth Of The Sun from the 1995 record with a kind of horror, if you'd only ever been used to the 1964 recording. But I *don't* see it that way. I love them both, in different ways.

And, whisper it: I think I still love the 1995 version of 'Til I Die more than the original. It just seems more dynamic to me, the beauty of the chords, the instrumentation and the voicings more finely rendered, and in greater detail. But I know there are plenty here that won't be able to go along with that.

Finally, to Lonely Summer — I don't know what it is about music and emotions. We humans seem to be prone to very very closely associating one with the other. Probably, at some level, my intense love of Brian's music is tied up with the fact that I was discovering it at a time when I was falling deeply in love myself, with the person I still love. That's not the whole story, as she doesn't love the SMiLE music, say, or even Pet Sounds, to the same pitch of intensity that it seems to grab me... but I do wonder if that was what really 'sealed the deal' for me about Brian's music from about 1962 to 1974. Beginning to appreciate the depth in the music I was discovering, at a time when the emotions I was experiencing generally were at such a high pitch...?

Having said all that, I find that I can dispassionately analyse it too, if I want to, which is fun in lots of other ways. So it's win-win, really!

[Lonely Summer]

I moved to Los Angeles in November of 1995.  The first thing I did was drive out to Leo Carrillo Beach, pop that CD in the car stereo and played Warmth of the Sun.

Brian's time-worn voice was perfect at that moment; even in 1995 there wasn't much left of the California Dream that gave birth to that song in 1963.  Listening, I had a sense that there wasn't much left but the ghosts, like attending a family reunion and not recognizing anyone .  It's a beautiful, but ghostly track, for me.

One of the images that stays with me from the IJWMFTT film is Brian and Melinda driving by the site of the house where he grew up. "My house is gone"....yeah, it already felt like ancient history in 1995. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that it is 2016. 2016? How did I get here? Never expected to be around this long.

Yeah being in 2016 is surreal....thinking that 1996 was 20 years ago...that was when Stars & Stripes came out. We are closer to 2020 now than 2010. We are closer to 2030 than 2000. Crazy stuff.

I've always felt that I was born at the wrong time. Should have been a teenager when all those great BB's hits were coming out. In other words...I guess I just wasn't made for these times.

[Debbie KL]

I moved to Los Angeles in November of 1995.  The first thing I did was drive out to Leo Carrillo Beach, pop that CD in the car stereo and played Warmth of the Sun.

Brian's time-worn voice was perfect at that moment; even in 1995 there wasn't much left of the California Dream that gave birth to that song in 1963.  Listening, I had a sense that there wasn't much left but the ghosts, like attending a family reunion and not recognizing anyone .  It's a beautiful, but ghostly track, for me.

One of the images that stays with me from the IJWMFTT film is Brian and Melinda driving by the site of the house where he grew up. "My house is gone"....yeah, it already felt like ancient history in 1995. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that it is 2016. 2016? How did I get here? Never expected to be around this long.

Yeah being in 2016 is surreal....thinking that 1996 was 20 years ago...that was when Stars & Stripes came out. We are closer to 2020 now than 2010. We are closer to 2030 than 2000. Crazy stuff.

I've always felt that I was born at the wrong time. Should have been a teenager when all those great BB's hits were coming out. In other words...I guess I just wasn't made for these times.

As someone who grew up during those "hit" times loving that music, I would say that I'm so glad that you are here to carry on the legacy and continue the love of this music.  I agree that WOTS is excellent - Mr. Love's best lyrical effort, and the song is somewhere beyond magical. 

Here's where you can feel good, not having been born yet when we were enjoying those days:  I have all these weird pains and stuff, as do most people my age.  We Baby Boomers weren't/aren't good at giving ourselves a break, so hurting ourselves is a regular occurrence - and when that happens, we remind ourselves that we got to live and enjoy these 5 decades (so far) that Brian Wilson has been making music.  It puts it all in perspective.  And you have youth, health and lots of years to enjoy it, since it's all recorded - and the guy's still touring with that band!  In the end, it's all good stuff.

[Lonely Summer]

This song, or others like it, is what I believe Brian meant when he talked about making music that helps and heals; and that music is God's voice.
Another song that really gets me is "Movies is Magic" from OCA. That line, 'movies is magic, real life is tragic, fundamental though it seems, when you're living in your dreams, then you wake up, it's over". The year 1995 was a dream for me. So many amazing things happened to me that year, I kept thinking "how could this be happening to ME, of all people? I must be dreaming". And it turns out, I was. I woke up one day and it was all over. As Roy Orbison said "if only we could only live in dreams".

[Rentatris]

Listening to my vinyl of this again right now.

 I know it's an unpopular opinion but damn, this whole album is so good. What a great 'in' for newbies, a great record to have on whilst playing cards or shooting the breeze on the day.

 TWOTS is an absolutely beautiful arrangement, same with Caroline, No. It's the version of Love and Mercy though that I feel is pretty much the ultimate version. Stripped down and without the sounds that date it. Plus, any album that has 'Still I Dream of it' on is a winner.

 Such a fan of this album.

[Lonely Summer]

Listening to my vinyl of this again right now.

 I know it's an unpopular opinion but damn, this whole album is so good. What a great 'in' for newbies, a great record to have on whilst playing cards or shooting the breeze on the day.

 TWOTS is an absolutely beautiful arrangement, same with Caroline, No. It's the version of Love and Mercy though that I feel is pretty much the ultimate version. Stripped down and without the sounds that date it. Plus, any album that has 'Still I Dream of it' on is a winner.

 Such a fan of this album.

Nice to know some fans appreciate this album. I think, in their own ways, BW88 and IJWMFTT reflect their times - BW88 reflecting the synth-heavy production common on pop albums in the late 80's; IJWMFTT reflecting the trend of some artists for a more stripped down sound.

[KDS]

Listening to my vinyl of this again right now.

 I know it's an unpopular opinion but damn, this whole album is so good. What a great 'in' for newbies, a great record to have on whilst playing cards or shooting the breeze on the day.

 TWOTS is an absolutely beautiful arrangement, same with Caroline, No. It's the version of Love and Mercy though that I feel is pretty much the ultimate version. Stripped down and without the sounds that date it. Plus, any album that has 'Still I Dream of it' on is a winner.

 Such a fan of this album.

Nice to know some fans appreciate this album. I think, in their own ways, BW88 and IJWMFTT reflect their times - BW88 reflecting the synth-heavy production common on pop albums in the late 80's; IJWMFTT reflecting the trend of some artists for a more stripped down sound.

Never really thought about that.   

Had he been a live solo act at the time, I wonder if Brian would've gotten his own Unplugged show on the MTV.

It's easy to forget, but in 1995, MTV was still a relevant music channel.  The Eagles, KISS, Page & Plant, and Fleetwood Mac are reunited for MTV specials in the mid 1990s. 

[Lowbacca]

The last couple weeks, I've had "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Orange Crate Art" playing in my car - 20th anniversary of both, and I'm a sucker for anniversaries, especially when it is personal. 20 years ago, I was with the most wonderful girl in the world, after thinking I would never find anyone. It was a long distance relationship, which presented some serious hurdles, but for me anyway, it felt like it was worth putting up with the separations because things were so good when we were together. We spent Christmas and New Years of 95/96 together, and I came home on a tremendous high. Then she started talking about breaking up, believing there was no way either one of us could ever move - or maybe there was other things going on, too. I never got much of an explanation, before I knew it, it was over, Valentines Day, 1996. Today, I was listening to the IJWMFTT version of "Warmth of the Sun" and the lyrics just hit me - like it was about us. "The love of my life she left me one day, I cried when she said, I don't feel the same way". That's exactly how it happened. I couldn't understand how she could just suddenly not love me anymore. The only explanation I got was "people change". Now here I am, 20 years later, still broken up over this girl. Still wishing we'd stayed together. "I'll dream of her arms, although they're not real; just like she's still there, the way that I feel...my love's like the warmth of the sun, it won't ever die". That's it, exactly! I know Mike Love's lyrics are not always rated highly here, and it may be true that in later years he tended towards greeting card sentiments, but on this song, Mike's words were perfect for Brian's music. And I'm really drawn to the IJWMFTT version, with Brian's older voice - there is just so much sadness in the sound of this performance, and yet, like with all of Brian's best music, there is healing in it, too. I can't imagine my life without this music to help express my feelings. I can't hear IJWMFTT and OCA without reliving that time of my life in my mind again. The memories are tinged with pain now, but mostly they are good memories. I don't know if other listeners get as emotional about the music as I do, some seem to be able to just sit back and coldly analyze it, but for me, either it moves me or it doesn't.

Thanks for sharing. I feel similarly about that particular take on "Warmth of the Sun"..
Regarding IJWMFTT and OCA in their entirety - it's high time I dug those out again, especially OCA. It's been so long.. That's the aspect of the BBs/BW catalogue as a whole that never ceases to amaze me: On a very personal level it's reintegrating itself perpetually in terms of aesthetics and effect. You can always come back to it. It never gets old.

[Lonely Summer]

Listening to my vinyl of this again right now.

 I know it's an unpopular opinion but damn, this whole album is so good. What a great 'in' for newbies, a great record to have on whilst playing cards or shooting the breeze on the day.

 TWOTS is an absolutely beautiful arrangement, same with Caroline, No. It's the version of Love and Mercy though that I feel is pretty much the ultimate version. Stripped down and without the sounds that date it. Plus, any album that has 'Still I Dream of it' on is a winner.

 Such a fan of this album.

Nice to know some fans appreciate this album. I think, in their own ways, BW88 and IJWMFTT reflect their times - BW88 reflecting the synth-heavy production common on pop albums in the late 80's; IJWMFTT reflecting the trend of some artists for a more stripped down sound.

Never really thought about that.   

Had he been a live solo act at the time, I wonder if Brian would've gotten his own Unplugged show on the MTV.

It's easy to forget, but in 1995, MTV was still a relevant music channel.  The Eagles, KISS, Page & Plant, and Fleetwood Mac are reunited for MTV specials in the mid 1990s. 

I can easily imagine an Unplugged special or Storytellers show for Brian or the BB's. Unplugged was a big deal there for awhile - several acts got best selling albums out of that, including Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Nirvana, and Bob Dylan.

[Lonely Summer]

The last couple weeks, I've had "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Orange Crate Art" playing in my car - 20th anniversary of both, and I'm a sucker for anniversaries, especially when it is personal. 20 years ago, I was with the most wonderful girl in the world, after thinking I would never find anyone. It was a long distance relationship, which presented some serious hurdles, but for me anyway, it felt like it was worth putting up with the separations because things were so good when we were together. We spent Christmas and New Years of 95/96 together, and I came home on a tremendous high. Then she started talking about breaking up, believing there was no way either one of us could ever move - or maybe there was other things going on, too. I never got much of an explanation, before I knew it, it was over, Valentines Day, 1996. Today, I was listening to the IJWMFTT version of "Warmth of the Sun" and the lyrics just hit me - like it was about us. "The love of my life she left me one day, I cried when she said, I don't feel the same way". That's exactly how it happened. I couldn't understand how she could just suddenly not love me anymore. The only explanation I got was "people change". Now here I am, 20 years later, still broken up over this girl. Still wishing we'd stayed together. "I'll dream of her arms, although they're not real; just like she's still there, the way that I feel...my love's like the warmth of the sun, it won't ever die". That's it, exactly! I know Mike Love's lyrics are not always rated highly here, and it may be true that in later years he tended towards greeting card sentiments, but on this song, Mike's words were perfect for Brian's music. And I'm really drawn to the IJWMFTT version, with Brian's older voice - there is just so much sadness in the sound of this performance, and yet, like with all of Brian's best music, there is healing in it, too. I can't imagine my life without this music to help express my feelings. I can't hear IJWMFTT and OCA without reliving that time of my life in my mind again. The memories are tinged with pain now, but mostly they are good memories. I don't know if other listeners get as emotional about the music as I do, some seem to be able to just sit back and coldly analyze it, but for me, either it moves me or it doesn't.

Thanks for sharing. I feel similarly about that particular take on "Warmth of the Sun"..
Regarding IJWMFTT and OCA in their entirety - it's high time I dug those out again, especially OCA. It's been so long.. That's the aspect of the BBs/BW catalogue as a whole that never ceases to amaze me: On a very personal level it's reintegrating itself perpetually in terms of aesthetics and effect. You can always come back to it. It never gets old.

Yes. I need to go back through the early albums, which I don't play as much as others, but I appreciate them every time I put them on.

[Vernon Surfer]

Is the falsetto Brian's ? I read somewhere that it was Andrew Gold. I can't for the life of me remember where I read it. Perhaps here