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Author Topic: TLOS "nods" to other songs  (Read 11100 times)
GoofyJeff
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« on: September 03, 2008, 01:38:45 PM »

I thought it might be fun to pick out all the "nods", riffs, etc that have made appearances in other songs.

To get started...

"Morning Beat"
- Maumamayama Hallejulah is from a mid-70s song (Clangin?) referenced in a Rolling Stone article during the whole Brian's Back campaign if I recall correctly
- the line "Hear those guitars gently strumming" is musically similar to a line in "Rio Grande"
- the line "It's hard to feel down, living in this town" is musically similar to a line in "Let's Go to Heaven in My Car"  "Huggin the curves and I'm outta control"

"Forever My Surfer Girl"
- piano part at the beginning is similar to "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey
- the whole song is of course about Judy Bowles, the original Surfer Girl inspiration
- the line "First love is the moment you can't repeat but you'll always own it" could be in reference to the song "Surfer Girl", the first song Brian wrote

"Venice Beach"
-the musical backdrop is virtually note-for-note identical to the instrumental break in "Another Way" from Wondermints "Mind if We Make Love to You"

"Live Let Live"
-new lyrics to a song by VDP for the "Arctic Tale" soundtrack
-chorus is musically similar to "Sail On Sailor"

"Mexican Girl"
-the intro rhythm makes me wanna sing "Saturday Morning in the City"    LOL   More noticeable on the demos
-the whispered "Tequila" at the end of the second verse is of course a shout-out to the old Champs song

"California Role"
-started life as the unheard "Wonderin What You're Up to Now"
-the bassline is similar to "Shake Rattle & Roll"
-"Every girl the next Marilyn"   (yes he's meaning Monroe, but I can't help but think it might also be Rovell)
-"You don't have to climb the Capitol Tower or play the Hollywood Bowl", but of course Brian's doing just that   Smiley

"Oxygen to the Brain"
-musically reminicent of songs like "Too Much Sugar", "Just Say No", etc from the Landy era
-lyrically referencing his dark days and finding the benefit of exercise
-the bridge musically reminds me of a part of "I'd Love Just Once to See You"

"Can't Wait Too Long"
-self explanitory... cover of the unfinished Beach Boys song
-Darian apparently put it in the suite/song cycle/album/whatever just to satisfy his own whim

"Midnight's Another Day"
-apparently began life as an uptempo rocker before Scott got ahold of it!!!
-lyrically references Brian's dark days in a manner similar to "Til I Die"

"Goin Home"
-lyrically references his dark days and new-found life  "At 25 I turned out the lights..."
-the Shortnin Bread riff returns, as well as a riff from his version of Proud Mary
-the background "rock, roll, roll around heaven" during the bridge is musically similar to the background vocals of Rock n Roll Music
-the harmonica solo is played by none other than Tommy Morgan!!!

"Southern California"
-"Nodded off in the band room, woke up in history"  sums up Brian's career quite well (not a trained musician), not to mention genius wordplay

Any others?!?!?
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Wirestone
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« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2008, 01:51:36 PM »

Morning Beat also has some similarities with the unreleased "Walkin'," from the 1960s.

Brian actually says Forever My Surfer Girl is about Melinda. Scott wrote it with the understanding that it was referencing the song "Surfer Girl." A piano riff in the song also sounds like the vocal hook to Van Dyke's "San Francisco."

They are not whispering "tequila." They are saying "tiquero," I believe.

Southern California uses a chord pattern similar to "Love and Mercy," "Imagination," and "Christmasy."
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shelter
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« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2008, 01:53:32 PM »

- the whole song is of course about Judy Bowles, the original Surfer Girl inspiration

My interpretation is that the whole song is not about Judy Bowles, the surfer girl, but about the song "Surfer Girl"...

If it actually would be about Judy, I don't think Melinda would've been too happy with it.
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Sheriff John Stone
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« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2008, 02:00:32 PM »

During "Morning Beat", right at the 1:13 mark, when Brian sings "hear those guitars gently strumming, hear those voices softly humming", I hear a piece of "Rio Grande".
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« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2008, 02:16:56 PM »

- the line "First love is the moment you can't repeat but you'll always own it" could be in reference to the song "Surfer Girl", the first song Brian wrote

... except that it wasn't the first song he wrote.  Grin
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« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2008, 05:31:28 PM »

- the line "First love is the moment you can't repeat but you'll always own it" could be in reference to the song "Surfer Girl", the first song Brian wrote

... except that it wasn't the first song he wrote.  Grin

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« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2008, 05:43:56 PM »

The (very poorly pronounced) Spanish words whispered on "Mexican Girl" are: "Te quiero" ["I love you'] thereby quoting the spoken piece on "Please Let Me Wonder".


The opening passage of "Good Kind of Love" sure sounds like "Brian is Back" to me.
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Mark H.
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« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2008, 07:21:15 PM »

- the line "First love is the moment you can't repeat but you'll always own it" could be in reference to the song "Surfer Girl", the first song Brian wrote

... except that it wasn't the first song he wrote.  Grin

Maybe it's the first "good" song he wrote.  Just casually listening to the CD I took it as reference to the song.
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Jay
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« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2008, 10:31:50 PM »

Is it me, or do all of the uptempo songs sound like a mix between Shortnin' Bread, Proud Mary, and/or Rolling Up To Heaven?  Grin
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Chris Brown
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« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2008, 11:50:47 PM »

The opening passage of "Good Kind of Love" sure sounds like "Brian is Back" to me.

There's an even stronger link at the ends of the verses..."she keeps them in a jar..." and "we traveled the world..." both have the same chord sequence behind them. 
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« Reply #10 on: September 04, 2008, 12:24:43 AM »

"It's hard to feel down living in this down when you're so far away" in Morning Beat sounds a lot like "Our friends splash in the surf, the whole beach is our turf" in Living Doll.
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« Reply #11 on: September 04, 2008, 01:01:25 AM »

Morning Beat -

The sun burns a hole through the 6am haze

White Lightnin' - Big Bopper, etc -

Well in North Carolina, way back in the hills


Southern California -

I had this dream Singing with my brothers

Mount Vernon and Fairway -

Dum Dum Dum Dum Dummm Ooooooooooohhhhhh (dum dum dum)

 Smiley
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« Reply #12 on: September 04, 2008, 07:49:21 AM »

This thread, I think, points up why I'm not as ecstatic at the release of Lucky Old Sun as I'd hoped I would be. There's this nagging voice in my head that says Scott Bennett is the "new best friend" for Brian, a role that has been played by many in the past: Van Dyke, Jack Rieley, Andy Paley, Landy, Gary Usher, Joe Thomas, Don Was, etc. The fact that you can point out a couple dozens quotes from past BW works merely heightens the possibility that this new album largely resulted from tossing a bunch of BW signature riffs into a blender and serving them up as indications of Brian's continuing creativity. With the exception of Midnight's Another Day--and Can't Wait Too Long, which is awesome but ancient--, I don't hear much here that is gonna make it onto the "BW is a genius" compilation. And if I never hear 'Mexican Girl' again, I won't mourn. Oh, and I have never understood the appeal for Brian of the Shortenin' Bread riff. How many more times is he gonna draw from THAT well?
There are pleasant moments here...but I don't see evidence that Brian is super-involved or especially creative these days. Not that he needs to be! If he never writes another note, his place in the pantheon is secure. But LOS is not ground-breaking or amazing, and that's what BW music used to/should be.
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« Reply #13 on: September 04, 2008, 07:56:34 AM »

I'm curious as I don't have the album yet, is it "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" or "Forever My Surfer Girl"? I mean websites say different things and of course it originally appeared as the former yet now it seems its the latter.
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« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2008, 08:16:15 AM »

Shadow -- I don't think there's much to worry about, really. Brian wrote some 20 songs in the summer of 06. Scott helped him with lyrics and the shaping of some tunes, but Brian was the prime motivating force.

As someone who's familiar with most unreleased BW material (at least the often-circulated stuff), this is simply not like GOIMH. That album had two new songs (HCWSBD and A Friend Like You). The rest were reworkings of Paley sessions and Sweet Insanity material. It's not even like Imagination, which included three remakes of 60s tunes. TLOS is based on songs written by Brian in a very specific period of time.

And the songs are good. The extra bonus tracks prove that. Message Man, Oh Mi Amor, Just Like Me and You -- and the production on I'm Into Something Good -- Brian is writing and producing quirky, cool new songs. Are some of them reminiscent of the past? Sure. Do some riffs come up again? Absolutely. Did he revive a Landy-era tune? Yes. But none of that negates the fact that this was a creative explosion for the modern-day BW -- everyone connected to him attests to that, and more importantly, the music attests to that.

Despite the similarities that I (and others) note here, most of them are just not cases of Brian rewriting old songs.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2008, 08:29:38 AM by claymcc » Logged
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« Reply #15 on: September 04, 2008, 09:14:19 AM »

Stop me if this has been noticed already, but....  anyone else spot the melodic similarity between the opening lines of "Midnight's Another Day',  and the bit towards the end of 'There's So Many', i.e. " To get you in my arms....to feel my love...that is so strong...." ?
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« Reply #16 on: September 04, 2008, 10:13:33 AM »

In "Oxygen To The Brain" Brian is playing around with the same discordant shifts as in "Happy Days" ("So far from life.." becomes "Life was so dead"), but to better effect. He also alludes to brother Carl's "The Trader" with the line "reason to live".

"Mexican Girl" features some similar vocal phrasing to "The Waltz". I like how Bennett uses a "SMiLE"/Parksian pun with "cast a net"; in fact, the "family tree" line suggests that the song is a possible extention of Parks' "Americana" theme from SMiLE with the subject matter being about race and society in the guise of a love song.

"Southern California" recalls "Passing By" in the chorus melody.
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« Reply #17 on: September 04, 2008, 10:39:24 AM »

Goin' Home is a re-write of a mid 90's Paley song titled.........Goin' Home which was written like a cowboy song. That version even had the phrase "magic lanterns" in it that is a refernce to another Paly/Wilson track. I like ALOT of this LP. And seeing Brian on Leno last night doing Goin' Home.......Loved It!
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« Reply #18 on: September 04, 2008, 10:49:26 AM »

I'm curious as I don't have the album yet, is it "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" or "Forever My Surfer Girl"? I mean websites say different things and of course it originally appeared as the former yet now it seems its the latter.

It's "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl".  Smiley
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« Reply #19 on: September 04, 2008, 10:52:26 AM »

Going Home is not really a rewrite of the Paley sessions song. The two sound nothing alike. They share the title line -- "I'm Goin Home" -- but little else.
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« Reply #20 on: September 04, 2008, 05:14:03 PM »

Not quite TLOS but in the bonus tracks, check out the "How Could We Still Be Dancing" steal in "Just Like Me and You" during the "Come along, come along" part at 54 seconds.  Used far better in this new tune, I might add!
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« Reply #21 on: September 05, 2008, 02:51:16 AM »

As someone who's familiar with most unreleased BW material (at least the often-circulated stuff), this is simply not like GOIMH. That album had two new songs (HCWSBD and A Friend Like You). The rest were reworkings of Paley sessions and Sweet Insanity material. It's not even like Imagination, which included three remakes of 60s tunes. TLOS is based on songs written by Brian in a very specific period of time.

From what I understood, even HCWSBD had it's roots in an earlier version. Don't know where I read it, and if it was 80-ies, or 90-ies. Anyone familiar with this?
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« Reply #22 on: September 05, 2008, 03:11:38 AM »

As someone who's familiar with most unreleased BW material (at least the often-circulated stuff), this is simply not like GOIMH. That album had two new songs (HCWSBD and A Friend Like You). The rest were reworkings of Paley sessions and Sweet Insanity material. It's not even like Imagination, which included three remakes of 60s tunes. TLOS is based on songs written by Brian in a very specific period of time.

From what I understood, even HCWSBD had it's roots in an earlier version. Don't know where I read it, and if it was 80-ies, or 90-ies. Anyone familiar with this?

I think it was an Imagination-era recording, at least the backing track was?
Also, GIOMH definitely sounds like an Imagination-era backing track.
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« Reply #23 on: September 05, 2008, 03:12:33 AM »

As someone who's familiar with most unreleased BW material (at least the often-circulated stuff), this is simply not like GOIMH. That album had two new songs (HCWSBD and A Friend Like You). The rest were reworkings of Paley sessions and Sweet Insanity material. It's not even like Imagination, which included three remakes of 60s tunes. TLOS is based on songs written by Brian in a very specific period of time.

From what I understood, even HCWSBD had it's roots in an earlier version. Don't know where I read it, and if it was 80-ies, or 90-ies. Anyone familiar with this?

I could be wrong as I'm no expert on this era, but wasn't it Dancin' The Night Away?
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« Reply #24 on: September 05, 2008, 06:17:40 AM »

Yeah, folks have suggested that. Dancin the Night away is from 95, I think. HCWSBD was from post-imagination Thomas work -- 99 or so. I've listened to them side by side, and they're less alike than you might think. This may be because the earlier song doesn't have lead vocals (bridge excepted). But I don't make the leap that just because BW wrote two up tempo songs about dancing within a few years of each other, that the latter is a rewrite.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2008, 01:06:46 PM by claymcc » Logged
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