This BWRG review in "Jazz Times" was going so well....

[JimC1702]

right up to the point where the writer threw in "Kokomo".  Argggghhh!

http://jazztimes.com/articles/26443-brian-wilson-gershwin-at-the-beach

Jim

[Roger Ryan]

And then there's this quote:

"The legendarily reclusive Wilson’s recorded output has been sparse, to say the least, in recent decades."

I guess a dozen albums over the past twenty odd years isn't enough to qualify as an active recording artist, not to mention that the "reclusive" Mr. Wilson has been traveling the world and appearing in virtually every media platform in the last decade.

I know, it's hard to kill the legend...

[Ron]

I never get how these guys got through grammar school.  I'm not one to be picky about how people write, and I certainly make enough mistakes, but count the commas in this next sentence.

"He would, as the driving force behind the Beach Boys, creators and perennial custodians of rock’s breezy, surf-washed California sound, emerge as the poster boy for clean-cut, WASP-y, all-American, middle-class privilege and easy self-confidence."

A comma makes you go off into a tangent, he goes off into 7.  He throws in 6 hypens while he's at it.  I guess they just do that sh*t because they can.  I think it hurts the review, makes it more of a pain to read. 

[brother john]

I never get how these guys got through grammar school.  I'm not one to be picky about how people write, and I certainly make enough mistakes, but count the commas in this next sentence.

"He would, as the driving force behind the Beach Boys, creators and perennial custodians of rock’s breezy, surf-washed California sound, emerge as the poster boy for clean-cut, WASP-y, all-American, middle-class privilege and easy self-confidence."

A comma makes you go off into a tangent, he goes off into 7.  He throws in 6 hypens while he's at it.  I guess they just do that merda because they can.  I think it hurts the review, makes it more of a pain to read. 

“Nothing But Love” is not only more formidable but also overflows with Beach Boys redolence."

Moron. How can one be so utterly naive or indifferent to the basic rules of the English language?


"Wilson is no jazz vocalist, not does he pretend to be; and he occasionally exhibits the tendency, so common among rockers who make late-career forays into classic pop and show tunes, to sing a little too loud."

Apart from the inherent stupidity and superfluity of punctuation, what's all this sh/t about 'late-career forays into classic pop'...? What on earth does this half-wit writer think Brian Wilson was doing for most of the 1960s.

[Wirestone]

By "classic pop" he means standards -- Gershwin, Cole Porter, the great American songbook.

[summerinparadise.flac]

Mr. Wilson, a famed recluse, once spent his entire life in bed and was so fat. ITs crazy. Now he's back and he has gray hair but he's sing the song. And it sounds great

[Awesoman]

Geez, give the guy a break.  You don't have to know every waking detail about Brian Wilson to form an opinion about his album.  The name of the website is jazztimes; not BrianWilsontimes. 

[Ganz Allein]

I never get how these guys got through grammar school.  I'm not one to be picky about how people write, and I certainly make enough mistakes, but count the commas in this next sentence.

"He would, as the driving force behind the Beach Boys, creators and perennial custodians of rock’s breezy, surf-washed California sound, emerge as the poster boy for clean-cut, WASP-y, all-American, middle-class privilege and easy self-confidence."

A comma makes you go off into a tangent, he goes off into 7.  He throws in 6 hypens while he's at it.  I guess they just do that merda because they can.  I think it hurts the review, makes it more of a pain to read. 

The problem with this sentence isn't the punctuation but rather its overblown language and overuse of adjectives. All of the commas and hyphens are used correctly. The commas are needed to set off the appositive phrase (creators and perennial custodians...) and to separate the adjectives. As for the hyphens, when two adjectives are combined to describe a noun or noun phrase (e.g., surf-washed describing California sound), it's called a unit modifier and requires a dash between them. (I don't really see the need for the hyphen in WASP-y, though.)  Don't make me come out there and diagram the sentence!   

I'd like to see Brian's reaction if this guy interviewed him and asked, "How does it feel to be a creator and perennial custodian of rock's breezy, surf-washed California sound?" 

[Ron]

I wasn't saying that he incorrectly used the punctuation or the hypens or the commas or whatever.  Like I said, I'm no one to lecture on grammar. 

The whole problem with the sentence is that he structured it that way.  It's just crazy to write things so overblown... no sentence needs 7 commas and 6 hypens.  If you get to the point, you're way off mark and it's no longer interesting to read that crap.  Ultimately I agree with you, that's the same point I was getting at. 


AGAIN, though, as i often say, it's probably not necessarily his fault, but his editors. 

[Custom Machine]

I never get how these guys got through grammar school.  I'm not one to be picky about how people write, and I certainly make enough mistakes, but count the commas in this next sentence.

"He would, as the driving force behind the Beach Boys, creators and perennial custodians of rock’s breezy, surf-washed California sound, emerge as the poster boy for clean-cut, WASP-y, all-American, middle-class privilege and easy self-confidence."

A comma makes you go off into a tangent, he goes off into 7.  He throws in 6 hypens while he's at it.  I guess they just do that merda because they can.  I think it hurts the review, makes it more of a pain to read. 

The entire sentence works very well for me, and is properly constructed from a grammatical standpoint.  I think it's important to remember that very few reviewers are members of the Smiley Smile Message Board (and its equivalents) and should not be expect to be.  As irritating as it can be to encounter reviewer inaccuracies, I don't think any of us would want to read album reviews which were written exclusively by ultra-fans (sorry about the hyphen, but it makes sense in this context  )  who, as a condition of writing a review, (sorry again about the commas, but, once again, they make sense here  ) were required to be totally conversant in the many historical details and finer nuances of the artist(s) in question.

[The Heartical Don]

I never get how these guys got through grammar school.  I'm not one to be picky about how people write, and I certainly make enough mistakes, but count the commas in this next sentence.

"He would, as the driving force behind the Beach Boys, creators and perennial custodians of rock’s breezy, surf-washed California sound, emerge as the poster boy for clean-cut, WASP-y, all-American, middle-class privilege and easy self-confidence."

A comma makes you go off into a tangent, he goes off into 7.  He throws in 6 hypens while he's at it.  I guess they just do that merda because they can.  I think it hurts the review, makes it more of a pain to read. 

The problem with this sentence isn't the punctuation but rather its overblown language and overuse of adjectives. All of the commas and hyphens are used correctly. The commas are needed to set off the appositive phrase (creators and perennial custodians...) and to separate the adjectives. As for the hyphens, when two adjectives are combined to describe a noun or noun phrase (e.g., surf-washed describing California sound), it's called a unit modifier and requires a dash between them. (I don't really see the need for the hyphen in WASP-y, though.)  Don't make me come out there and diagram the sentence!   

I'd like to see Brian's reaction if this guy interviewed him and asked, "How does it feel to be a creator and perennial custodian of rock's breezy, surf-washed California sound?" 

'Scary. Have anything with you? Uppers? Downers?'

[brother john]

Geez, give the guy a break.  You don't have to know every waking detail about Brian Wilson to form an opinion about his album.  The name of the website is jazztimes; not BrianWilsontimes. 

From his profile: 'After long stints at TV Guide and Inside Entertainment, Loudon served as the founding editor-in-chief of the Canadian edition of Hello! magazine. He is currently executive publisher and editor-in-chief of Marketing magazine, the Canadian equivalent of Advertising Age..'

In other words, he should know better. Try reading his other articles on the site - they sound as if they were written by idiot too.

Its not just that he doesn't know very much a bout Brian Wilson, its that his writing is so crass and moronic.

'So, with so many oars simultaneously pulling in the right direction, why didn’t Sommers star rise higher?'

It's so bad it almost attains a kind of greatness. Gah...

[cutterschoice]

man, you fanboys are harsh. The review was fine.

[The Shift]

I never get how these guys got through grammar school.  I'm not one to be picky about how people write, and I certainly make enough mistakes, but count the commas in this next sentence.

"He would, as the driving force behind the Beach Boys, creators and perennial custodians of rock’s breezy, surf-washed California sound, emerge as the poster boy for clean-cut, WASP-y, all-American, middle-class privilege and easy self-confidence."

A comma makes you go off into a tangent, he goes off into 7.  He throws in 6 hypens while he's at it.  I guess they just do that merda because they can.  I think it hurts the review, makes it more of a pain to read. 

The entire sentence works very well for me, and is properly constructed from a grammatical standpoint.  I think it's important to remember that very few reviewers are members of the Smiley Smile Message Board (and its equivalents) and should not be expect to be.  As irritating as it can be to encounter reviewer inaccuracies, I don't think any of us would want to read album reviews which were written exclusively by ultra-fans (sorry about the hyphen, but it makes sense in this context  )  who, as a condition of writing a review, (sorry again about the commas, but, once again, they make sense here  ) were required to be totally conversant in the many historical details and finer nuances of the artist(s) in question.

You don't need a comma before the word "but". The word "but", as a conjunction, does the same job within the structure of a sentence as a comma. A very common error. Normally you would also have been better to have had your comma after the closing bracket of the bracketed phrase rather than before though, given the nature of the phrase within those brackets, it could be allowed.

Why the administrators allow such disregard for punctuation and don't delete posts which are clearly so disrespectful of the English language, I doesn't know.

[absinthe_boy]

that that is is that that is not is not that that is not is not that that is that that is is not that that is not.

Punctuate the above sentence

[hypehat]

I'm doing a degree in english and I can barely READ that sentence!

[The Heartical Don]

that that is is that that is not is not that that is not is not that that is that that is is not that that is not.

Punctuate the above sentence

I'd rather puncture my own brain. Hurts less, that's why.

[shelter]

Geez, give the guy a break.  You don't have to know every waking detail about Brian Wilson to form an opinion about his album.  The name of the website is jazztimes; not BrianWilsontimes.  

"The legendarily reclusive Wilson’s recorded output has been sparse, to say the least, in recent decades."

You don't have to be a Beach Boys fan to be able to know that this simply isn't true. Just type in "Brian Wilson" on Wikipedia and within seconds you'll know that he's been touring all over the world and that he released nine studio albums in the past 22 years. That's not a sparse recorded output! In fact, you won't find many major pop acts who have released nine studio albums since 1988. Madonna, Paul McCartney, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Rolling Stones, Sting, you name 'em: none of them released as many studio albums since 1988 as Brian did.

[Ron]

I never get how these guys got through grammar school.  I'm not one to be picky about how people write, and I certainly make enough mistakes, but count the commas in this next sentence.

"He would, as the driving force behind the Beach Boys, creators and perennial custodians of rock’s breezy, surf-washed California sound, emerge as the poster boy for clean-cut, WASP-y, all-American, middle-class privilege and easy self-confidence."

A comma makes you go off into a tangent, he goes off into 7.  He throws in 6 hypens while he's at it.  I guess they just do that merda because they can.  I think it hurts the review, makes it more of a pain to read. 

The entire sentence works very well for me, and is properly constructed from a grammatical standpoint.  I think it's important to remember that very few reviewers are members of the Smiley Smile Message Board (and its equivalents) and should not be expect to be.  As irritating as it can be to encounter reviewer inaccuracies, I don't think any of us would want to read album reviews which were written exclusively by ultra-fans (sorry about the hyphen, but it makes sense in this context  )  who, as a condition of writing a review, (sorry again about the commas, but, once again, they make sense here  ) were required to be totally conversant in the many historical details and finer nuances of the artist(s) in question.

I don't think he needs to be a superfan.  I'm just saying he should write in a more user friendly way.  Just because you CAN write a certain way doesn't mean you should. 

"Brian Wilson, once thought insane, largely because of drug use, which in the 60's was often deemed harmless, largely because of their widespread availability and the unknown long-term side effects (after all it had only been mainstream for a few years), has returned, after a long hiatus, although at his age why can't he take some time off, to bring us a new album, although new isn't really new when the artist he's covering, as many artists make cover albums late in their career, died early in life, and hasn't been writing since the thirties"

I mean that's an exxageration but why break up the flow so much?  That's just all I'm saying. 

[The Heartical Don]

I am with Ron. Style is a beast entirely different from correctness.

[Aegir]

Mr. Wilson, a famed recluse, once spent his entire life in bed and was so fat. ITs crazy. Now he's back and he has gray hair but he's sing the song. And it sounds great

what?

[Amy B.]

One of you guys should leave a comment on the Jazz Times site (about the distorted info, rather than about the writing style).

[The Heartical Don]

Mr. Wilson, a famed recluse, once spent his entire life in bed and was so fat. ITs crazy. Now he's back and he has gray hair but he's sing the song. And it sounds great

what?

Darn, I overlooked the 'once spent his entire life in bed and was so fat' bit first time about. Hahahahaaaaaaaaaaa.... I can testify I saw him in London 2 times.  What the heck is going on?

[donald]

The review sounds like a fractured translation.   Possibly translatified by George W.

[The Heartical Don]

The review sounds like a fractured translation.   Possibly translatified by George W.

Perhaps. Read this text first, and then guess how it came into being:

Brian Wilson has more than some things together with George Gershwin. Both led wildly successful musical partnerships with their brothers. Both combined bang song copy with the harmonious world intelligence, which is appropriate of the European classical tradition. Both flamed early then out flamed: Gershwin died at a brain tumor at age 38; Drugs and mental disorder would send Wilson in Seclusion end of the sixties-years. And, oh yeah both announce-requiring genius, two of the largest masters of the melody, is which knew popular music. In the last years shift levers of a certain age struck commercial wage dirt, by serving embarrassingly above rigid large volume versions of the popular standards. (We' RH, it, Rod Stewart regarding.) Wilson' S-project is far more successful more Kavalier - and. It turns " Summertime" into a DooWopballade cheats out " It Can' t take away of Me" with brass and sumptuous harmonies and teleports " Over Me" to watch out someone; of Broadway sun-squirted California. The result is Goldbrassen-und Bess meet domestic animal of tones: attractive, strange, subtly psychedelic symphonische lounge music. Until the album with a wonderful, cord-loaded rendition of the main topic " of; terminated; Rhapsody in the blue, " It can' T-assistance however ask: Is Brian Wilson the baby-full-grown male Känguru George Gershwin? Or was Gershwin the first beach boy?