Brian Reimagines Gershwin

[the captain]

I don't know what you do for a living "Grillo" (is that your real name???),

I don't see the problem with using an alter ego on this board. I seem to remember this was one of the charges laid against Sheriff John Stone, by you, in that unpleasant thread where he was seemingly hounded off this board - great shame, if you ask me.

I use an alter ego - wanna know why? Because I don't want the entire world knowing what an almighty Beach Boys nerd I am. I get enough flack from my partner about it. That's reason enough for me.

Like it or not, 99.9% of message board users (OK, I did not do the actual math) don't use their real names. Why not? Because it's the internet, it's for fun, and it doesn't matter. They aren't looking at a message board as a place to publish serious material and be taken that seriously; they are looking for somewhere to bitch about autotune or fake harpsichords.  If you want to use your real name, great. Do it. (It's possibly noteworthy that the people using their real names tend to be people looking to boost professional profiles. No harm in that. But it's not unnoticed.) Me, I use my real name, or half of it anyway. But if someone wants to call himself Doctor Whofuckincares, more power to him. Either way, public bickering is awfully unseemly, especially about something as unbelievably unimportant as what someone chooses for an online persona.

[buddhahat]

Either way, public bickering is awfully unseemly, especially about something as unbelievably unimportant as what someone chooses for an online persona.

You're right, and it isn't really my business to be stepping into this argument anyway. Peace & Love, Peace & Love (he says through gritted teeth, Ringo Starr style)

Edit: Just realised it looks like I'm mocking your peace & love quote Mtaber - I'm not it just put me in mind of that Ringo Starr 'apology' to his fans. Aargh am drinking scrumpy right now after 12 hour day so posts getting increasingly more addled ...

[Wirestone]

Everyone notice the "Goin' On" quote?

[the captain]

Aargh am drinking scrumpy right now after 12 hour day so posts getting increasingly more addled ...

I have no idea what scrumpy is, but I know what drinking is. What a great idea. Time for some of that instead of more of this.   

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Brian's about to release a masterpiece, and yet all anyone can do is flame each other.

Calm the f*** down people.

[buddhahat]

Everyone notice the "Goin' On" quote?

Is that right after Nothing But Love? It made me think of the ascending vocal part in Heroes, but I guess they are very similar.

[buddhahat]

Aargh am drinking scrumpy right now after 12 hour day so posts getting increasingly more addled ...

I have no idea what scrumpy is, but I know what drinking is. What a great idea. Time for some of that instead of more of this.   

It's evil, strong cider from the west country (of england) and absolutely the last thing I should be drinking right now knowing full well the kids will be waking at 6 am. But yes - back to this indeed. Are you a fan of this new album Luther? I know you liked TLOS quite a bit.

[the captain]

Are you a fan of this new album Luther? I know you liked TLOS quite a bit.

I did like TLOS quite a bit. Still do, in fact--listened to it today at work (and the demos again yesterday at work), which was a first few run-throughs of that album in a while. Still holds up for me, too, not as one of the many in a long line mythical returns to form of the buried genius or as the creation of puppet-masters, but just as a record.

And that, mind you, is how I'm trying to approach this one, too. Fact is, I am (and most of us are) too invested in this guy and the goings on of his former band to really listen with any kind of perspective, distance, or objectivity. Maybe I'm lucky in that I have a lot of friends who have mostly great taste in music but just don't give a f*** about Brian Wilson and aren't shy in pointing out their observations, not because I need to follow them any more than I need to follow any of you, but because more perspectives from people in different places are good things. (I love Wirestone's comment about his husband not being a fan, but commenting on Brian's vocal. I know I eat that kind of thing up. "What!? REALLY? And I go about my day smiling like a dope, as if I had anything to do with it...)

So...uh, what was the question? Oh yeah, this album. I don't feel ready to do any sort of thoughtful reviews or anything yet, but I like it. I probably like somewhere in the range of half a dozen to 10 Beach Boys or Brian Wilson albums as much or more, but that's OK. I think it was aimed squarely at the record-buying adult contemporary market, and it's certainly going to be the most ambitious, best thing that market is going to get this year. I don't think it's got any of the inventiveness or ambition that a younger Brian Wilson would have shown, which makes sense in that the Brian Wilson we have isn't a younger Brian Wilson. (Can we adapt the Fmr. Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld quote about "going to war with the army you've got" to apply here?)

Gershwin isn't exactly a favorite of mine, so the material isn't quite in my strike zone. I could use more background vocals because I'm a sucker for the harmonies. Depending on my mood and the particular second of the album, I go from admiring the great arrangements to thinking they're a little too cute to thinking they're just more of the same.

I like the sound of Brian's voice here, more or less. (Except the intro Rhapsody in Blue, which I will almost certainly skip every time I listen to this album.)

So, yeah. While I don't rhapsodize til I'm blue (oooooh) in the face about it, I enjoy it.

[Ron]

I haven't heard the album yet, I refuse to download it.  There's something cool about buying a new album the day it comes out, check out the new stuff, listen to it in the car on the way home.  I did listen to the single, and some of the snippets on amazon, though.  Once.  

Can't wait!!!!  except I can.  

[Mikie]

This is the best Beach Boys/Brian Wilson message board on planet Earth. Bar none. Just this thread is worth the price of admission alone. Forget watching TV or being with the little woman tonight. I'm just gonna kick back and listen to Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin and re-read the contributions from Peter, Peter, Howie, and Jon. What a great way to end a long day.  

You authors here are top shelf. You and Tim White and Paul Williams are the best in my book. Good thing Steven Gaines isn't here - would he catch hell or what, eh?

[the captain]

Good thing Steven Gaines isn't here - would he catch hell or what, eh?

Actually he is a member and has posted here now and again, though if I'm not mistaken he sort of semi-quit for a while after his first day...

[buddhahat]

Are you a fan of this new album Luther? I know you liked TLOS quite a bit.

I did like TLOS quite a bit. Still do, in fact--listened to it today at work (and the demos again yesterday at work), which was a first few run-throughs of that album in a while. Still holds up for me, too, not as one of the many in a long line mythical returns to form of the buried genius or as the creation of puppet-masters, but just as a record.

And that, mind you, is how I'm trying to approach this one, too. Fact is, I am (and most of us are) too invested in this guy and the goings on of his former band to really listen with any kind of perspective, distance, or objectivity. Maybe I'm lucky in that I have a lot of friends who have mostly great taste in music but just don't give a foder about Brian Wilson and aren't shy in pointing out their observations, not because I need to follow them any more than I need to follow any of you, but because more perspectives from people in different places are good things. (I love Wirestone's comment about his husband not being a fan, but commenting on Brian's vocal. I know I eat that kind of thing up. "What!? REALLY? And I go about my day smiling like a dope, as if I had anything to do with it...)

So...uh, what was the question? Oh yeah, this album. I don't feel ready to do any sort of thoughtful reviews or anything yet, but I like it. I probably like somewhere in the range of half a dozen to 10 Beach Boys or Brian Wilson albums as much or more, but that's OK. I think it was aimed squarely at the record-buying adult contemporary market, and it's certainly going to be the most ambitious, best thing that market is going to get this year. I don't think it's got any of the inventiveness or ambition that a younger Brian Wilson would have shown, which makes sense in that the Brian Wilson we have isn't a younger Brian Wilson. (Can we adapt the Fmr. Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld quote about "going to war with the army you've got" to apply here?)

Gershwin isn't exactly a favorite of mine, so the material isn't quite in my strike zone. I could use more background vocals because I'm a sucker for the harmonies. Depending on my mood and the particular second of the album, I go from admiring the great arrangements to thinking they're a little too cute to thinking they're just more of the same.

I like the sound of Brian's voice here, more or less. (Except the intro Rhapsody in Blue, which I will almost certainly skip every time I listen to this album.)

So, yeah. While I don't rhapsodize til I'm blue (oooooh) in the face about it, I enjoy it.

In honesty my expectations were fairly low, but all the talk from AGD and Peter Ames Carlin piqued my interest, which I'm grateful for as it meant I gave it a good chance, where I kight have written it off in one listen. I think the devil is in the detail with this - it's the short middle 8s and choruses that really shine for me. Standout moments are: The bom, bom, bom bg vocals on It Aint Necessarily So, the whole of I Got Plenty of Nuttin, "You Can't Blame Me for feeling Amorous" from 's wonderful, "The bumpy road" bit from They Can't Take that away from me (this chorus is hallmark BW brilliance imo), the descending piano part of I've Got A Crush On You (this definitely reminds me of another BW piano demo but can't place it), "To Her Heart I'll Carry The Key" from Someone to Watch - sublime swooning harmonies on this, and the whole of Nothing But Love which is vintage solo Wilson. So whilst I'm not so into the straight covers bits (like most of Porgy, although I quite like the dramatic James Bond vibe chorus) I do hold out for these little jewels, peppered throughout the album.

[Peter Ames Carlin]

Jon - I don't think it's appropriate for us to hash this out in public, if only because it's so fucking boring.  But I'm also really uncomfortable being called (or implied as being) a liar and a thief. Call me crazy, or obsessive. You wouldn't be wrong about either of those things, but your memory of what I wrote to you is so disconnected from mine, I feel like I need to say, for absolutely the last time in public, that:

1. If you have a copy of that email I sent you in '06, do send it along so I can either explain what you're misinterpreting, or try to figure out how I could have written it so badly. The point being: I would never have meant to say that I couldn't find that Fateful Quote on the internet w/o attribution, since that's precisely how I saw it, somewhere, at some time.
2. So many things seem mysterious to me. The reasons why this still bothers you after four years; why you're so sure Dennis never ever could have uttered that same, wonderfully-phrased thought to anyone else in the course of his life; why you feel like you have some concrete ownership over something someone else said.
3. And if you really did tell Howie that I stole it from you (which seems obvious, since his accusation, down to the phrasing, echoes your thoughts exactly) that seems really screwed up and wrong to me.
4. And I don't even know how to respond to Howie's random assertion that I own "thousands" of archival BW/BB pictures. Wha? My photo collection is limited to family snaps and erotic shots of Margaret Thatcher. (don't tell anyone about the last part, though. It's a secret).

Sweet dreams,

pac


 

[Jon Stebbins]

Jon - I don't think it's appropriate for us to hash this out in public, if only because it's so friggin' boring.  But I'm also really uncomfortable being called (or implied as being) a liar and a thief. Call me crazy, or obsessive. You wouldn't be wrong about either of those things, but your memory of what I wrote to you is so disconnected from mine, I feel like I need to say, for absolutely the last time in public, that:

1. If you have a copy of that email I sent you in '06, do send it along so I can either explain what you're misinterpreting, or try to figure out how I could have written it so badly. The point being: I would never have meant to say that I couldn't find that Fateful Quote on the internet w/o attribution, since that's precisely how I saw it, somewhere, at some time.
2. So many things seem mysterious to me. The reasons why this still bothers you after four years; why you're so sure Dennis never ever could have uttered that same, wonderfully-phrased thought to anyone else in the course of his life; why you feel like you have some concrete ownership over something someone else said.
3. And if you really did tell Howie that I stole it from you (which seems obvious, since his accusation, down to the phrasing, echoes your thoughts exactly) that seems really screwed up and wrong to me.
4. And I don't even know how to respond to Howie's random assertion that I own "thousands" of archival BW/BB pictures. Wha? My photo collection is limited to family snaps and erotic shots of Margaret Thatcher. (don't tell anyone about the last part, though. It's a secret).

Sweet dreams,

pac


 

1) So you do have the attribution? I have no doubt you found it on the net. My question was where? Your answer was..."I don't know, its everywhere." It wasn't. see above...on and on we go dum be doo dah...
2) What bothers me today is how you remembered this in your response to Howie. Before today this was the farthest thing from my mind. I have two young children, a wife, book deadlines, a real busy life. You are not a priority.
3) Howie is his own man. I don't tell him what to think or say...he lives in NY, I'm in California. Take up #3 with him.
4) I think Howie meant another Peter...don't be so sensitive.

[Jonas]

this post has it all!

[Shady]

Hate to get back on topic but... 

Napster hit the nail on the head



We've heard about this for a while now, and next Tuesday (Aug. 17), Brian Wilson's album of George and Ira Gershwin songs, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, will finally be released. It's a remarkable album for several reasons, but most of all because it's so completely listenable. Wilson chose a set of choice Gershwin classics that most everybody knows and arranged them in his unique style, and at some point upon listening to them you realize that, as writer and arranger of hits like "I Get Around," "California Girls," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," and "Good Vibrations," Wilson is on equal footing with the Gershwins, generation for generation. Now, apart from being aware that Wilson has said  that listening to "Rhapsody in Blue" as a child helped inspire his love and pursuit of music over his amazing lifetime, you might not think that the Beach Boys  mastermind and Gershwin music would be a particularly great fit—one is from the rock era, the other from early 20th-century musical theater, etc.—but the truth is, the two seem to have more in common than not. Wilson's breezy rock takes on "They Can't Take That Away from Me," "I Got Rhythm," and the wacky instrumental "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" will thrill die-hard Beach Boys fans, while his more complex visions on "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "Someone to Watch Over Me" will likely impress Gerswhinites. And that's not even mentioning the two "collaboarations" Wilson was given permission to pursue by the Gershwin estate: "The Like in I Love You" and "Nothing but Love" are songs that Wilson wrote using unfinished Gershwin material, and the result, especially on repeat listens, is magical. Both sound like they could be new Beach Boys hits, and it's kind of hard to tell where the Gershwin ends ant the Wilson begins in the music. It boils down to this: If you like Gershwin and you like the Beach Boys (or vice versa), you're likely to love this. And as they say, "Our love is here to stay..."

[Peter Reum]

Yes, I had lots of pictures of The Beach Boys...virtually every book between David Leaf's and Don Was's BW film was illustrated with those pictures. They were small part of the stuff I worked on through the years I collected. I'll say it again for your benefit, and anyone else who doubts Brian's will. Look at the years he DID NOT want to record (1968 to roughly 1988) and check his output over the last 22 years. Go to BMI.com and count the number of songs copyrighted. Brian records because it's like breathing to him. When he doesn't, he dies inside. He's working on the next album's track selection for God's sake...does that sound like a man who doesn't like what he's doing?

[Jason]

I think it's about time for...

CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH: BEACH BOYS BRAINIACS EDITION with Jon Stebbins vs. Peter Ames Carlin vs. Peter Reum vs. Howie Edelson. Andrew G. Doe, special guest referee. David Leaf, cheerleader.

Let's break out the chainsaws and have a real war.

[Curtis Leon]

I think it's about time for...

CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH: BEACH BOYS BRAINIACS EDITION with Jon Stebbins vs. Peter Ames Carlin vs. Peter Reum vs. Howie Edelson. Andrew G. Doe, special guest referee. David Leaf, cheerleader.

Let's break out the chainsaws and have a real war.

Nah, if you REALLY wanna turn this into a worthy battle, you gotta go old school. Battle axes and Viking helmets. Don't forget the heavy metal! 

[Jason]

Battleaxes, Viking helmets...will our competitors be running off into battle with erections, like the Vikings did?

[Curtis Leon]

Battleaxes, Viking helmets...will our competitors be running off into battle with erections, like the Vikings did?

Oh, of course. Though, that might lead to a few bloody accidents... 

[Jason]

The sheer imagery alone is torture enough. We're not just talking four random guys running off into battle with boners, we're talking four BEACH BOYS BRAINIACS running off into battle with boners.

This is an idea for an episode of Deadliest Warrior.

[Curtis Leon]

The sheer imagery alone is torture enough. We're not just talking four random guys running off into battle with boners, we're talking four BEACH BOYS BRAINIACS running off into battle with boners.

This is an idea for an episode of Deadliest Warrior.

Oh man... Picture the screams, the cries of terror! This should be turned into a TV series all on it's own! TO THE THUNDERDOME!

[Jason]

Funny how our resident brainiacs have remained silent.

[LeeDempsey]

I am decidedly not a fan of autotune - I am a singer who has never used it on my own voice, but I can hear it in a second when it is used, even tastefully as on BWPS. I don't hear autotune on this album, except for on "The Like in I Love You" but I could be mistaken anyhow.

No autotune on this album, I'm told - if there is it was added during the 2nd mix.

I agree.  The more I listen to "The Like I Love in You," the more I believe it's Nick's lead guitar doubling Brian's lead note-for-note on the verses, instead of Autotune.  Listen to the guitar solo in the instrumental break -- doesn't that sound like what we're hearing behind Brian's voice on the verses?.

In the "Imagination" DVD, Jimmy Buffet refers to discovering one of Brian's "secrets" in the vocal session for "South American."  It was assumed de facto that he was referring to Brian double-tracking or triple-tracking his lead vocal, but I always thought that was too obvious -- I think the secret was doubling the lead vocal with an instrument mixed very low.

Lee