Al and his mystical friend at Big Sur's Henry Miller Library July 6

[rn57]

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6838450991

Well, should any of you be in the neighborhood of Big Sur on Saturday, July 6, and have three hours to kill, you may care to stop by the Henry Miller Library there and sit down to hear Al talk about the BBs, the Maharishi, spirituality, and a Danish friend he has (who will be appearing with him), Lars Muhl, who is a mystic, the announcement says, and has written a book called "The O Manuscript."

 The "suggested donation" is $20 to $30 and it takes place from 2 to 5 pm. The Library's auditorium has a capacity of 300...and Big Sur's entire population is less than 500, and it's about sixty long and extremely winding miles from anyplace else.  So you'll be seeing Al up close and probably pretty personal, should you feel like grabbing the Postcard album and a marker and heading up (or down).

Also, if this is three whole hours, might be worthwhile check to see if there's an intermission and if there's a sandwich shop or something within walking distance.

Where music is concerned....the event's description says: "[Mr. Muhl] and his wife Ghita Ben-David, soulhealer, will perform songs of healing from their CD, Healing the Space Between Us[....]Mr. Jardine will also join Muhl and Ben-David in song."

[Mikie]

I'll probably be there. It's not far from Al's house. More than likely Al will have an acoustic in hand to play a number or two. The nearest sandwich shop is a couple of miles away in the town of Big Sur. Smart thing to do is eat (and drink) before you go into the library, otherwise you'll have to backtrack into town and you don't want to miss anything. And parking is very difficult, so plan on parking on Highway 1 if there's a crowd there. And when you walk back to your car, the road will be pitch black, as it's dense forest.

I saw Al at this very venue on October 8, 2010. And again later at his CD/single signing in Berzerkely. Maybe he'll spill the beans about MIC!

[SurfRiderHawaii]

Deleted

[rn57]

The daily paper and alternative weekly in Monterey, which is up the road from Big Sur, published interviews with Al about this event (would link to these but am on cellphone). In both of these he says he's performing All This Is That for it, and in one he says he'll probably sing Help Me Rhonda too. It turns out his mystical Danish friend's fave BBs records are PS, SS and Friends....so I figure that bodes well for the guest's contribution. plus, Al will have two string players on hand.  Could get pretty interesting.

[SurfRiderHawaii]

Here ya go:

http://m.montereyherald.com/mont/db_32499/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=L6h1W5kR#

He says he is going to avoid playing Rhonda.

[bgas]

I'm confused: 
>>"I'll be doing a couple of the more laid-back Beach Boys songs, like 'All This is That.' We actually delved into the spiritual domain ourselves back in the '70s when we started TM," said Jardine about the song, which many fans consider one of Carl Wilson's greatest vocals. "It's kinda neat. We did it on our 50th anniversary tour. They loved it. It's gorgeous. I wrote it here in Big Sur, as a matter of fact. It finally saw the light of day last year."  <<

[The Shift]

I'm confused: 
>>"I'll be doing a couple of the more laid-back Beach Boys songs, like 'All This is That.' We actually delved into the spiritual domain ourselves back in the '70s when we started TM," said Jardine about the song, which many fans consider one of Carl Wilson's greatest vocals. "It's kinda neat. We did it on our 50th anniversary tour. They loved it. It's gorgeous. I wrote it here in Big Sur, as a matter of fact. It finally saw the light of day last year."  <<

I thought the same… maybe Al's never heard CATPST!  And maybe he was taking a loo break all those times the rest of the band played it in concert down the years…

[rn57]

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/archives/2013/0704/article_e6af3aaa-e41b-11e2-9a12-0019bb30f31a.html

This is the alt-weekly article where Lars Muhl, who's appearing with Al, refers to his admiration of PS, SS, Friends.  

I was wrong about Al's quote in the Monterey Herald's article - missed that "avoid" where HMR is concerned.

  Still....since it's just after the Fourth....and since Al said in the article linked above there will be a couple of strings players....I wonder if a little Lady Liberty might be on the horizon.  

Should add that the first 100 people to show up and provide the $30 donation will get a copy of Muhl's book.  So there will definitely be a fair amount of signin' goin' on.

[hypehat]

Man, what IS it with Al and these weirdo new-age mystics?

[SMiLE Brian]

And they say Brian is the crazy one....

[Don Malcolm]

A plausible theory (?): as Al spends more time with Brian, his memory issues become more pronounced and more mysterious.

Wish I could be there, but have to be down in the other direction on Saturday. Looking forward to furher reports!

[Ed Roach]

I'll probably be there. It's not far from Al's house. More than likely Al will have an acoustic in hand to play a number or two. The nearest sandwich shop is a couple of miles away in the town of Big Sur. Smart thing to do is eat (and drink) before you go into the library, otherwise you'll have to backtrack into town and you don't want to miss anything. And parking is very difficult, so plan on parking on Highway 1 if there's a crowd there. And when you walk back to your car, the road will be pitch black, as it's dense forest.

I saw Al at this very venue on October 8, 2010. And again later at his CD/single signing in Berzerkely. Maybe he'll spill the beans about MIC!

Absolutely love the library, and the grounds around it.  Was so disappointed to find it closed one time; many good, kind of rare books on my shelves purchased there on different visits.

Al's "mystical friend" actually seems very interesting; here he is, discussing his book:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1TxarDF170

Hope you can make it, Mikie.  Look forward to your post about it

[ivy]

Hello everyone. Hope all is well.

I went to this today. It was my first time at the Henry Miller Memorial Library and I regret not blocking out more time to look around. It was beautiful and the gift shop (book shop? library?) had a great mix of Henry Miller, Big Sur, and other assorted histories. I had totally forgotten Henry Miller lived in Big Sur post-Tropics. I'd like to go back and see where he lived.

Anyway, about 1.5 hours went to Lars Muhl and Githa Ben-David. Lars told the story that lead to him becoming involved in mysticism. A lot of it I found hard to believe, but I'll keep those comments to myself. Then Githa came up and then did some auditory healing. She sang into a lady's belly and stuff. Idk.  I'm not at all into this kind of thing, but they had great voices! They performed a bunch of spiritual songs... one was just a chant.... one was in Hebrew.... and then Githa picked up the sax. Lars explained that the next song  brought them together to play music. I was expecting something God-y and love-y and couldn't help but laugh out loud when it ended up being "Baker Street." I looked around to see if anyone else found it funny but came up empty.

Al joined them for three of their original songs at the end.

After an intermission, Al got up on the stage to talk about TM. He told about getting recruited by The Beatles on behalf of Maharashi as candidates to spread the message in the US. He said the first time he met Maharashi was on a cold winter night in a hotel. All of the windows were open and Maharashi was just wearing a silk robe. Everyone else was freezing in winter jackets but Maharashi seemed impervious to the chill.

Al called the mystics and a cellist and violinist (sorry, forget their names) on the stage. They performed All This is That, God Only Knows, and Sloop John B. All This is That sounded great with the strings. Al wanted to stop after God Only Knows but got talked into Sloop John B. It seemed like their rehearsals of the song did not go to his liking (I can see why).

Here's the videos of the BB songs. Apologies for the quality, it's an iphone camera and I paid little attention to whether I was holding it steady or what the sun was doing to the shot.

All This is That - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYmyiSQMHhY
God Only Knows - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVPUtmTyeqQ
Sloop John B -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uj0uAC4GRk

The guy in front of my (shoulder featured heavily above) filmed a lot more than me. I think he filmed Al's speech. Maybe he's on this board.

It was a nice event. The best part for me was just watching Al be totally in his element.  Just a regular dude in an oversized blazer. He couldn't seem to get his music sheets clipped onto that plastic podium thingy and they kept blowing away in the wind. He had to chase them down and pick them up. I wanted to scream DON'T MAKE THAT MAN RUN AFTER HIS OWN PAPERS HE'S A LEGEND WOULD PAUL MCCARTNEY RUN AFTER HIS OWN sh*t!?!?! Then it happened in the middle of a song and his cup of water got knocked over onto the sheets too. SMH.

[Wirestone]

That All This is That performance sounds terrific! Man ... you have to love Al. It's like if your dad was in the Beach Boys (and still had a voice!).

[Micha]

I'm confused: 
>>"I'll be doing a couple of the more laid-back Beach Boys songs, like 'All This is That.' We actually delved into the spiritual domain ourselves back in the '70s when we started TM," said Jardine about the song, which many fans consider one of Carl Wilson's greatest vocals. "It's kinda neat. We did it on our 50th anniversary tour. They loved it. It's gorgeous. I wrote it here in Big Sur, as a matter of fact. It finally saw the light of day last year."  <<

Don't forget this isn't necessarily what Al said, but what a journalist - who may never have heard of All This Is That - writes that Al supposedly said. It could be the journalist who got something wrong that Al said.

[leggo of my ego]

And they say Brian is the crazy one....

ha ha 

[RangeRoverA1]

2 ivy: terrific post! Quoting Paul from "Magical Mystery Tour", it's a lovely show! I like the minimalistic arrangement of songs, violin sounds especially beautiful. The overall atmosphere of place seems magical, as if you've got to another planet. Big Sur surely is one of the most wonderful areas in America or the whole world. Extremely jealous for those who live there or near and for those who attended the show, at least.

Now, about the set. As Wirestone said, All This Is That is mesmerizing, beginning to end; as usual, Al did great performance, I even don't mind those imperfect background vocals sung by Mr. Muhl & Githa. God Only Knows is no less amazing, plus it's kind of unusual to hear Al singing one of Carl's staples. I think he did good job. And lastly, fantastic rendition of Sloop John B! I don't get what you meant by saying "... their rehearsals of the song did not go to his liking (I can see why)". I didn't notice anything wrong with it - more so, SJB turned out to be the best number of all 3, good to see that people had fun singalonging to it.

Anyway, thanks for your detailed review of the concert! It was a fascinating read. Special thanks for the videos too & don't worry about the quality of picture - the songs themselves are clearly audible & that is the main thing for me.

Oh and btw, welcome back to the board!

[hypehat]

That's some great video - thank you!

Really dig All This Is That with the strings - something the band should consider.

[Don Malcolm]

Great stuff, Ivy, thanks so much. This is one of the great glories of the Internet age...the ability to bring events happening in remote locations to the fingertips of just about anyone in the world.

Al would be an acclaimed lead singer of world-class repute if he had been in any other band. That fact is precisely why the BBs are so special and so unique.

[Cabinessenceking]

That's some great video - thank you!

Really dig All This Is That with the strings - something the band should consider.

This band should always have strings and organs. Both feature as integral components of their post-1965 output.

[sunnycalifornia]

I'm confused: 
>>"I'll be doing a couple of the more laid-back Beach Boys songs, like 'All This is That.' We actually delved into the spiritual domain ourselves back in the '70s when we started TM," said Jardine about the song, which many fans consider one of Carl Wilson's greatest vocals. "It's kinda neat. We did it on our 50th anniversary tour. They loved it. It's gorgeous. I wrote it here in Big Sur, as a matter of fact. It finally saw the light of day last year."  <<

Maybe Al believes that most people haven't heard CATP since it's not a popular record to the average fan base.

[KittyKat]

Wow, ivy, you got a personal thank you from Al Jardine, or Al Jardine's minions, on your YouTube videos. Nice. It looks like a beautiful place and Al sounds good.