H E L P! is in the way

I was listening through Eli and the Thirteen Confession for the second time all the way through when I posted about it above so I have heard it before. I've listened to a handful of Nyro's other albums but that one, her second, is her best. Stunning singing, lyrics and music. She mixes soul, Brill Building pop, jazz and folk to brilliant effect. Uniquely beautiful.

There are albums that come along every now and then that make you wonder, "where has this been all my life?". This album is certainly one of those:



Most underrated artist ever?

My vote is for 'Help!' again.


'If I Fell' is the best early era Beatles song in my opinion and I'll be severely disappointed to see it go. So stop voting for it

I could totally hear that, B.E. Al and Carl doing the lead vocals. Replace one of the lesser tracks on KTSA. Yeah.

Of all popular music, my two favorite visionaries are Brian Wilson and John Lennon. Plus The Beach Boys and The Beatles are (in that order) my two very favorite bands.

While there are those who abstain and love each member equally, most of us have a favorite member of The Beatles. John is mine. He is one of the artists that is on my personal Mount Olympus of songwriters. Most of my top 10 favorite Beatles songs were his.

It's popular today to either place John high on a pedestal or say that he was a complete asshole. Though I understand the reasoning for both views, the reality is somewhere in the middle, which is where I'd like to be. Does he deserve all his massive praise? I don't know about all of it, it is seriously massive, but he deserves heaps of it. Does he deserve tons of criticism for the way he went through life? Some criticism, sure. He did do some pretty bad things, though later in life he spoke about how he greatly regretted his actions and tried to be better. His life was a journey of constant pain and triumph and everything in between. I judge much of John, not all of him, by his music and I think there we can largely agree that he wrote some astonishing, timeless, unforgettably beautiful songs.

My three favorite Beatles songs are his: 'Strawberry Fields Forever', 'If I Fell' and 'In My Life'. My three favorite solo John songs are: 'Jealous Guy', 'Real Love' and 'Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)', all of these songs so beautiful, only Brian's best, most emotional music like Pet Sounds can surpass it in my heart.

John is always with me. When my mother died almost 7 years ago, I listened to 'Julia' and 'My Mummy's Dead' expecting to cry but instead my heart was lifted (I think if I listened to the heart wrenching 'Mother' I would've drowned in my tears). He influences what I write (poetry and songs without music since I don't play an instrument yet.....lyrics really). I was listening to a lot of John's more searching songs like 'Imagine' when I, about 18 years ago, proclaimed myself an atheist after a long time of just being an apathetic agnostic. While I couldn't say whether he was an atheist or what, he was definitely leery of religion (which you could just chock up to his dislike of authority) and it was good to hear somebody whose music I respected seemed to feel the same as me. I was pretty alone with my atheism.

John Lennon is a complex figure and that seeped into his songwriting. Aside from Brian, there's nobody out there like him when it comes to truly great music.

Sorry for rattling on so long.

Help...

JK - thanks for the new link. And i forgot how good 'Peace Like a River' was.

As for my own stuff, as I said I don't yet play music so they're just words...lyrics really. But the stuff I write that I like the most tend to have an implied melody in my head when I read them back. I really got to learn guitar. I can't believe I never did, but life has often gotten in the way. Still, I love writing, even if I'm not actually any good.

There are a lot of superhero movies that I really like or love, but these are, in no particular order, my favorites:

Superman the Movie (1978)
Logan (2017)
Superman Returns (2006)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Wonder Woman (2017)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Thor Ragnarok (2017)
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Spider-Man Homecoming (2017)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Avengers (2012)
Black Panther (2018)

My favorite is the great granddaddy of superhero films, Superman the Movie from 1978.

When it comes to the comics, even though I love love Marvel, I prefer DC. I love the characters. Therefore I want to watch them done well on the big screen. As such, I think if I could only watch three superhero movies for the rest of my life, those three would be Superman the Movie, Wonder Woman and The Dark Knight. Gotta love the trinity.

Im currently obsessing over this previously unreleased song from Paul Simon's One Trick Pony album. He took most of the ideas he was working on on this track and put them into the original OTP track 'How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns', but I definitely prefer this earlier tune. I write poetry and song-type things (I'm not very musical so they're really lyrics without music) and much of what I've been writing lately has been influenced or inspired by a number of Paul's solo songs, and this is one of those. I love the lyrics. It's called 'Spiral Highway':

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UQs5Wzy7Ous

Seems people either prefer Dano's '60s Brian or Cusack's '80s Brian. I can totally understand picking either one over the other. I like them both equally. Love & Mercy wouldn't be the great movie it is without either of them.

Wrightfan, since the 90s is so dry and since there are so many great beloved unreleased/previously unreleased songs, plush solo material that stuff definitely counts.

And I wouldn't sue you over including 'Kokomo'; I've made my peace with it, and I kinda have come to enjoy much of it. I'm far more likely to sue you ove 'Getcha Back'. Just kidding.

I love the song but my choice is still Help!

@Lee Marshall wow, another 'Livin' With A Heartache' fan! I love that song, I'm glad I'm not alone in that. Great lists overall. Had I made it top 10 for each decade instead of top 5, 'Time To Get Alone' would definitely be on my '60s list. What a gorgeous tune.

'One Kind of Love'. You can find it on Brian's 2015 album No Pier Pressure.

I'd say the best music biopic is either Love & Mercy or Ray.
I absolutely love love this movie. As a hardcore Brian Wilson/Beach Boys fan I have a hard time turning off my historical inaccuracy detector, but there are only a small few and they don't matter in the grand scheme of things.
It's funny you brought it up, I just watched L&M last night again and this morning I posted in the Albums, Books and Videos request thread for L&M to be included in the videos section so we could review it.
It is still so stunning to me how much they got not only right but right on the money about Brian's experiences. Plus seeing a few things from Melinda's perspective was a great idea. That scene where Landy is screaming at Melinda from the other side of her office door, calling her terrible things is a highlight. Wow, that really happened?
Dano and Cusack crush it as Brian. It occurred to me last night while I was watching one of the '80s scenes how Cusack really felt like a middle aged Dano in many ways to me. Just the way they both approach inhabiting the part. If that makes sense.

I love this movie and my sincere hope is that its popularity with casual fans and people who never really listened to Brian's deeper recordings like Pet Sounds and SMiLE will check them out after hearing pieces of it in the movie. If you want to really know Brian, the best way to do that is to listen to his music, with an open heart. Listen, listen, listen.

I'm so happy this movie came along to tell Brian's story to the masses.

All right RangeRover.

My all time top 5 favorite songs:

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
2. Against the Wind - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
3. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
4. Where The Streets Have No Name - U2
5. Rhapsody in Blue - George Gershwin (my favorite version is by Leonard Bernstein with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra from 1959)

Couple of honorable mentions, both in contention for the number 5 slot till I remembered Rhapsody:
Your Precious Love - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Knocks Me Off My Feet - Stevie Wonder

For the video section how about Love & Mercy?

I'd post my all time top 5 favorite songs but I'd stray way off topic since there are no jazz songs in it. My favorite jazz recordings are:

'Flamenco Sketches' by Miles Davis (Kind of Blue again, with most valuable player Bill Evans floating serenely over the piano keys. Like a cloud. So beautiful.)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F3W_alUuFkA

'Solitude' by Billie Holiday (If you asked me, gun to my head, who is the greatest ever female singer, despite my deep love for Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, and many more, I'd say Lady Day)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6d4KCZwUxRU

'Rose Room' by Benny Goodman Sextet (I love big band swing, but I love Benny's small band swing here even more)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nM0JCNmUlX0

The other two would be Coltrane's 'Every Time We Say Goodbye' and Louis' 'West End Blues', both of which I linked in my above posts.

I'd include Duke Ellington's unbelievably beautiful 'Single Petal of a Rose' but it's not really jazz but here it is for your considerable listening pleasure:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4_R_ey0sUjI

Hey captain, I seriously don't like most if it. Lord knows I've tried, since I really enjoy those five tracks I talked about above so much, but 'California Calling' is embarrassingly bad, 'Crack at Your Love' is underwhelming at best, 'She Believes in Love Again' puts me to sleep, 'Male Ego' is ridiculous, 'I Do Love You' and 'Passing Friend' are well intentioned but meh, and 'Getcha Back' is an unfinished undernourished clunker that is way overrated in my opinion. But I know there are many who love a lot if not all of the album and I never tire talking about how cool those five songs are.

Carl's '85 tunes are definitely the highlights. 'Where I Belong' is my favorite Beach Boys song of the '80s (Brian's 'Melt Away' is my favorite BBs-related and I think I like it more than WIB).

'It's Gettin' Late is a close second though. God I love that song. Carl's vocal is unreal. It surprises even me how often I listen (with glee) to it. 'Maybe I Don't Know' is really strong too.

Should we just go ahead and rename this thread "The Beach Boys '85 Appreciation Thread'?

Indeed, Louis Armstrong is to jazz as Elvis or The Beatles are to rock and roll. He may well be the most influential musician of the last 100 years, no hyperbole. Every jazz musician or singer that followed in his massive wake was influenced by him... EVERYBODY. He was the guy that was turned jazz into a soloist's art. There have been only a few all out geniuses in music since Mozart, Beethoven, etc. Brian Wilson is one. Louis Armstrong is another.
His 1920s Hot Five and Hot Seven records are the Magna Carta of American music. Or maybe the Dead Sea scrolls. Something like that. He and Duke Ellington are the first important, nay, essential figures in jazz.

Louis' 1928 record 'West End Blues' has always astounded me ever since I first heard it in Ken Burns Jazz documentary. Perhaps the greatest pre-swing era jazz recording.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4WPCBieSESI

The other Brian song that a lot of fans seem to dislike on '85 is 'It's Just a Matter of Time'. I actually like that one more than 'I'm So Lonely'. It's got a nice doo wop feel and Mike's vocals don't get on my nerves like his vocals during this era often do. In fact, it's pretty nice. I first heard a bit of the song in the 1985 An American Band documentary where Brian sings it onstage. Until I got the KTSA/BB85 twofer I didn't know what that song was. Neat little tune.

Now, 'Male Ego', I've tried to get into that one but to no avail. It's good for a laugh but not very many listens.

I've been a big big jazz fan for about 18 years now. As with so many, I started with Mike's Davis' Kind of Blue.

The tenor saxophone is my favorite jazz instrument and John Coltrane and Lester Young are my favorite players. Coltrane's My Favorite Things is one of my top 5 favorite jazz albums. It's beautiful.

From My Favorite Things, here's my favorite track, with Trane playing soprano sax:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B8cjojmC8sE

I think my favorite Pres (Billie Holiday's nickname for Lester) album is Pres & Teddy, with the Teddy Wilson Quartet.
Teddy is one of the best jazz pianists, but my favorite is Bill Evans, who, like Coltrane, I first heard on Kind of Blue. He has this lyrical, gorgeous and sensitive touch on the keys. Nobody like him. His trio albums Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Portrait in Jazz, Explotations, Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Waltz For Debby, Moon Beams, among others, are all outstanding.

Here's some Bill:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xiRRfKoNl50

I got an NES classic for my birthday. It has 625 games loaded in. I can't figure out how to hook it up though.

Jay, it hooks up through HDMI cable. I don't have an NES classic, so I don't know if it came with a cable. Did it?

You're right, Captain, I should've been more clear. Studio albums only. Otherwise, I'd have definitely picked the GV box or the Pet Sounds Sessions box for the '90s and probably the Smile Sessions box for the '00s/'10s (the Smile recordings definitely still count though, whether for the '60s or BWPS for the '00s/'10s.