"The Lion's Mouth" must surely have been the first UK top 30 hit to feature a Chapman Stick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU_ik6msJDM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TPG80boMjY

[Elio]

Heard this suite of music by Rob Simonsen for the 2025 Disney film Elio on Dutch radio this morning and found it enchanting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0TTL2WD-oA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elio_(film)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kH6E2jbnJQ

Lest we forget:



http://www.memorialmapping.com/memorials/donadea-9-11-memorial/

This is “Big Apple", with a brief explanation of the new Limahl-less Kajagoogoo by bassist (now also lead singer) Nick Beggs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6bGSTbXhFk  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Apple_(song)

"Hang On Now”, another that had to grow on me, was the lads’ third and last single as a five-piece until their reunion a quarter of a century later: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqqIL4T0-KQ

[Pet Sounds]

Cool version there. sir, although I think I have a marginal preference for "Til I Die".

Really looking forward to Fear 2 Stop's take on the title track from Pet Sounds. It gets a lot of flak and I've never really understood why. One of the best instrumentals ever. 

[ESQ]

3) The silents, like Paul Jay Robbins, Bob Gordon and Dick Maier. As far as I know, they've never said a word. Please PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong. (Not in the posse, but we never heard from Jasper Dailey to my knowledge either.)

There's an "intimate interview" with Richard "Dickie" Maier in issue #141 of ESQ, where he "tells the story of a friendship born out of kindness that flourished during some of Brian’s greater challenges in the mid to late 1960s". i don't subscribe so I haven't read it myself.

https://esquarterly.com/esq-store/spring-2023-issue-141-revisiting-brians-wilson-relationship-music/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I3SbdHSteE

The critics weren’t particularly kind to the follow-up! I will admit it took a while for it to grow on me, but grow on me it did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8P82bO1uBk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooh_to_Be_Ah

The bit you want starts seven minutes in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTUNQAa-tzE

This may be common knowledge but it seems the entire Koestler book can be downloaded here:

https://ia601307.us.archive.org/33/items/pdfy-rDIHDXbS3uvtgXcr/The%20Act%20of%20Creation%2C%20Arthur%20Koestler.pdf

My favourite Mark Volman track is in fact the surf instrumental "Fiberglass Jungle", when The Turtles were The Crossfires and Mark and Howard played saxes.

Thank you for the music -- and the humour. Rest in peace, sir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQ5pJpUlPo

https://www.45cat.com/biography/the-crossfires

A milestone in Beach Boys scholarship, whose future is clearly in very good hands!

And then there's that iconic bass llne to consider:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuXax5-pWzI

Well let's start with the big one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXndkQqosPY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Shy

This is for my rapmeister Ovi on his birthday. Still digging Mos Def’s Doom Tribute -- many thanks for that!

I know he's a big fan of ’Trane's "My Favourite Things". Felicitări, prietene!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWG2dsXV5HI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYb2Jpe7p-4

It was my brother who turned me on to this smouldering opus by Duran Duran, with John Taylor on bass duties:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMhEszxdx3M

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_Trade_(song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q9IRpFGgPY

[Catch a Wave]

Also genuine question but what books are there that are considered trustworthy?

Hi Julia. Well, seeing that no one else has answered yet, the books I myself trust implicitly are Peter Ames Carlin's Catch a Wave, Jim Murphy's Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961–1963, Ian Rusten and Jon Stebbins' The Beach Boys in Concert and AGD’s Complete Guide. Add two websites -- AGD's Bellagio 10452 and Ian's BeachBoysGigs, both unmissable -- and Jon's books on David and Dennis and you're definitely among writers you can trust.

The forthcoming definitive sessionography project will fall into this category too. Like those named above, none of its authors is given to speculation or flights of fancy.

This isn't touted as a duet but a duet it most certainly is. Margie Hendrix of the Raelettes gives Ray a hard time in the song, although the roles seemed to have been reversed in real life: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7teYqGQ7nrA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margie_Hendrix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R87ttgSSnDI

This gorgeous all-instrumental vaporwave track from my go-to escapist video of downtown Tokyo in mid 1990 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaQS379Idss) has been haunting me for years.

On YouTube it's cryptically entitled "35. Cosmic Cycler & 「サンセット Ｎｅｔｗｏｒｋ❾❶」– LATE NIGHT SHOW [18.05.2016]". The track ingeniously samples Silver Pozzoli's "From You To Me" and slows it all the way down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KP3--dbx2U