Gershwin Album

[urbanite]

Any rumors about how good or bad this might be?  Seems like the bar will be fairly high for this one among music critics.

[Jason]

As long as it isn't the vocal equivalent of Gettin' In Over My Head, we'll be in good shape.

[Andrew G. Doe]

As long as it isn't the vocal equivalent of Gettin' In Over My Head, we'll be in good shape.

Think I'm on safe ground here in saying, no way will it be that bad - all the signs are that Brian is really engaged by this project. I'm cautiously expecting good, possibly great, things.

[Jason]

I think we'll be in for a surprise with this album. It will have some fun stuff.

But couldn't we at least get the Orange Crate Art outtake of Rhapsody In Blue as a bonus?

[SG7]

Two hours of Ding Dang tops. 

[The Heartical Don]

Two hours of Ding Dang tops. 

That. And the orchestral version of Shortnin' Bread.

[Autotune]

I think we'll be in for a surprise with this album. It will have some fun stuff.

But couldn't we at least get the Orange Crate Art outtake of Rhapsody In Blue as a bonus?

1) I haven't heard it, but I'm sure the OCA outtake is not the whole Rhapsody, but just the slow part, the one that Brian plays sometimes on the piano.

2) Reportedly, we'll get an a cappella Rhapsody here--- likely that very same section.

3) If the latter-day custom of having Brian release "concept" albums, we may end up having the a cappella Rhapsody interspersed throught the album.

[Fall Breaks]

A cappella Rhapsody interspersed sounds good. But let's hope he doesn't go for the "Silent Night" approach.

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[The Heartical Don]

A cappella Rhapsody interspersed sounds good. But let's hope he doesn't go for the "Silent Night" approach.

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Complete with: 'Hi This Is Phil Spector Wishing All Of You A Wonderful Christmas On Behalf Of All The Great Artists...'

You mean this? An adventurous spoken word thing?

[Fall Breaks]

A cappella Rhapsody interspersed sounds good. But let's hope he doesn't go for the "Silent Night" approach.

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Complete with: 'Hi This Is Phil Spector Wishing All Of You A Wonderful Christmas On Behalf Of All The Great Artists...'

You mean this? An adventurous spoken word thing?

Now that you mention it another spoken over track would be worse. No I meant the in my ears dreadful version of "Silent Night" from WIRWFC. I mean, a cappella and Gershwin and Brian Wilson all sounds good, but I thought "Silent Night", a cappella and Brian Wilson also sounded like a good thing until I heard it.

[bgas]

whatever he releases, I hope we don't get another shot of the bonus tracks ripoffs.
Buy it at Best Buy, get two extra cuts! 
Go to I-Tunes now and get Brian singing YOUR name as background to Rhapsody!!!!

[Andrew G. Doe]

I think we'll be in for a surprise with this album. It will have some fun stuff.

But couldn't we at least get the Orange Crate Art outtake of Rhapsody In Blue as a bonus?

1) I haven't heard it, but I'm sure the OCA outtake is not the whole Rhapsody, but just the slow part, the one that Brian plays sometimes on the piano.

2) Reportedly, we'll get an a cappella Rhapsody here--- likely that very same section.

3) If the latter-day custom of having Brian release "concept" albums, we may end up having the a cappella Rhapsody interspersed throught the album.

1 - I know it was some 25 years ago now, but what I heard Brian play in 1985 was the whole thing...

2 - I heard that too...

3 - very much doubt that - the 'concept' this time is "Brian Wilson plays Gershwin tunes", not "Brian Wilson constructs a Gershwin suite".

[Jason]

No I meant the in my ears dreadful version of "Silent Night" from WIRWFC. I mean, a cappella and Gershwin and Brian Wilson all sounds good, but I thought "Silent Night", a cappella and Brian Wilson also sounded like a good thing until I heard it.

For what it's worth, Silent Night wasn't recorded for What I Really Want For Christmas - it was originally done as a simple a cappella "treat" (management's words) for the fans who frequented Brian's site back in 2001. And the reaction from the "fans" on that cesspool of a forum was rather negative, even hostile - at one point I believe Melinda came on the forum to shut the fans up. And when Brian put On Christmas Day on the site back in 2000, a similar reaction ensued, as in 2002, when Brian put up an informal version of White Christmas that he recorded with Styx, with whom he had been working in the studio, providing backing vocals for their then-new LP.

[Mr. Cohen]

It'll be interesting to hear that unfinished Gershwin song (or songs?) that Brian was supposed to finish or present, at least, in a nicely polished form. He talked about coming up with parts for one unfinished song that left him unable to understand "where it was coming from", which I took as a promising sign. Here Brian is, a senior citizen, and I'm still hoping for one more musical miracle out of him.

[Shady]

Brian and Scott make magic together, I'm setting the bar high for this album.

I want a release date!!

[Andrew G. Doe]

I want a release date!!

This year.

[TdHabib]

People might disagree but I don't see why "On Christmas Day" was given a negative reception...I think it's groovy.

[bgas]

People might disagree but I don't see why "On Christmas Day" was given a negative reception...I think it's groovy.

That's probably only since you blew your mind...

[Jason]

I don't see why any of Brian's holiday "gifts" on his website were given negative receptions - it's almost like the fans wanted music and vocals of a Pet Sounds-like quality.

Wait a minute...

That's what we argue about endlessly on these forums!

Seriously though, Brian spent a combined total of about 5 hours recording all of his seasonal "gifts". The problem is that so many Brianistas are unfamiliar with the term "taking it at face value".

[Aegir]

Your signature hurts my eyes.

[TdHabib]

People might disagree but I don't see why "On Christmas Day" was given a negative reception...I think it's groovy.

That's probably only since you blew your mind...

Far out...

[Fall Breaks]

Well, I found out afterwards that "Silent Night" was what it is - a simple a cappella "treat", but my thought on reading the track list for WIRWFC and seeing "SN" on there as a bonus track gave me high expectations - I hoped for a full blown, band featured version. I'm thankful for whatever material BW puts up on his site and have no expectations on it.

[Aegir]

I stopped expecting things from Brian in 1967. And I wasn't born until 1987.

[Bean Bag]

The way to "expect things from Brian" is really Love You.  That was the key, for me.  After Imagination, I had expected a solid, mature Brian Wilson -- that one that gave us Pet Sounds, Let Him Run Wild, etc.  I thought he was "regulated" so to speak...and now and forever writing and recording music from that perspective.  So naturally GIOMH confused me -- since I found it odd and sloppy.  And then BWP SMiLE -- clearly Brian was all over the place creatively, reaching, returning...now a Gershwin album?

But it took me remembering "Love You-Brian" for me to get it.  That odd, no-one-can-predict-Brian that emerged at that time.  Solar System, Johnny Carson, Adult Child, etc. -- far from a "Top 40 Brian."  This was who he is now -- or at least a major piece of him.  And with that....GIOMH makes beautiful sense.  Silent Night -- is great!  And when something more "disciplined" emerges, like BWPS, TLOS and now Gershwin-album...I say excellent -- this'll be interesting.

I can't imagine what people honestly expect from him anymore.  He's an odd, original.  "Expectations" are futile and miss the point.  I don't dislike any of the stuff he does...I just wonder why he did it that way and what's next, and think "hmm, that's a different take."  To not like GIOMH or Silent Night is perhaps a bi-product of having expectations and demands.  I can understand if you just don't like them...but not if you are a person inclined to like Love You and an album called SMiLE that has tracks about Vegatables and Barnyards.  Frankly, I'd welcome a new album like GIOMH.  Perhaps more than another TLOS and more than a Gershwin-album.  I want the original!

[Fall Breaks]

But does not having expectations on Brian equal liking everything that he has done musically? I must be able to have no expectations whatsoever on a record and still be able to dislike it when I hear it, right? Being disappointed, however, would be another thing. Without expectations you can't be disappointed, but can still dislike something.

And I can't follow the logic in not being able to like Smile or Love You and at the same time dislike GIOMH or "Silent Night". The former two touches me - in very different ways! - but the other two don't. Simple as that. Because of expectations? Not to me. Sure, there are parallels between Love You and GIOMH but where Love You, to me, has the sound of an enthustiastic, quirky, childlike, relatively young man, GIOMH sounds like it was made by an old man who's only partially interested in the whole deal and whose quirkiness never shines through. I also want the original, but I think TLOS is more original than GIOMH.