Murry Wilson - For You and Me, 1953

[Junkstar]

I found a demo acetate Murry cut in the 50s (two acetates, actually) of a military-themed song he copywrote in 1953 called For You and Me. I found these while researching for my forthcoming LP of 11 Murry songs reinterpreted. This will be the albums opening track. More info on the YouTube page.

https://youtu.be/GFbdNp-G4N0

[“Big Daddy”]

What a discovery! Kudos to you for all your years of tracking down these compositions. Looking forward to the full LP.

[guitarfool2002]

My first thought was imagine if Murry had successfully pitched that song to SSgt. Barry Sadler 13 years later and it ended up on his Ballad Of The Green Beret album...that album sold like crazy! But then I thought the song itself is a little too quirky for that album, not lyrically (some of the lines are actually pretty clever turns of a phrase around the theme), but musically even though the first few lines fit well within that genre of music. It starts off straight like a pseudo march with a slight jazz or Dixieland flavor (I'm thinking American Patrol by Glenn Miller for reference), but that bridge is a little too out there, especially melodically and with a bizarre modulation that sounds jarring. His son *owned* that kind of random modulation or bizarre shift to a new section skill in his songwriting, but this one feels weird and not as smooth as some of his son's similar harmonic/melodic twists.

Like you kind of know when a song misses the mark by *that much*, and that bridge kind of brings this one down. I also thought the horn solo run at the very end was a little jarring, maybe he was again going for that American Patrol vibe by putting a jazzy horn onto a march, but it kind of came out of nowhere...was that on the acetate?

Interesting. I also got this bizarre image of Murry having his sons march around the room in military formation as he played this at the house...I don't think that's too far off from reality. "Step it up, Carl! Dennis, stay in formation! Brian, hold that flag higher!" etc.

And the story of how these acetates ended up in a thrift store...yet another case of some bizarre set of events that leads someone to be able to walk into a random thrift shop and buy something like this.

[guitarfool2002]

Tip: I'd put these on the main board here in the future, it's definitely on topic and I think fans would find it easier on the main area. I'll move it over if you want.

[Junkstar]

GF2002, "when a song misses the mark by *that much*" is an accurate description of his entire body of work, IMO. He comes so close, but something is always missing.  I avoid posting my Murry releases to the main boards now because, in the past, I got a lot of sh*t for this project. Mostly directed at Murry. Doing it off-main cuts down on the attacks.

Big Daddy, thanks. I appreciate it.