BWRG 2nd week - #53.

[Mike's Beard]

My other suggestion was "Through the Jazzhole". I've got others but I feel I've lowered the tone of the board enough for one day.

[Smilin Ed H]

Go to your music room, Brian.  Take cake if necessary and 'excercise' every morning, but sit at your keyboard and noodle away and record it all then call in Darian or Andy Paley or Scott Bennett and see if you can work up something with ambition, like the best bits of BW88 or TLOS.  Don't worry about touring it, getting it on a major label, what the wife thinks or how many times the Lovester wants to put lyrics to it.  In fact, don't even bother about the lyrics, just work it up into a suite of music and harmony bvs.  Of course, you've done enough already, but if you're going to do more, do this. 

[Wirestone]

BWRG has ambition to spare. Just sayin.' Might not be ambition that everyone here likes, but it's arguably a greater risk than anything Brian has done since the '66 Smile sessions.

[the captain]

I disagree with you, Wirestone, about it being such a risk. I don't hear any risks on the album at all. And even if there were risks, what's the worst-case scenario? If it were bad artistically--poorly done--then it would be another GIOMH. It would have gotten some of the typical "Brian is back" reviews that every album of his gets regardless of quality, plus some more critical ones. But Brian's legacy would remain in tact. If it were bad sales-wise, well, it would be more or less like every other album he has done. And he would continue to do whatever projects he and his team decide to do, because he'll always have some label who is willing to take him for an album.

[Wirestone]

By that logic, it's basically impossible for Brian to take a risk.

But yes, I think if you assume a somewhat different starting point, the album is quite a risk. It's an album of pre-rock covers, requiring vocal finesse and tidiness of execution that few (certainly not me) expected from Brian. It features "I Loves You Porgy" -- a choice that Brian actually argued about with Disney. And won. Theremin features on almost half the album. And several of the songs are genuinely transformed -- Brian didn't hand off the project to an outside orchestrator. He sat down and made the tunes his own.

He took on a big challenge and went beyond what anyone could have reasonably expected. In a genre where pop stars are routinely ridiculed (Rod Stewart has destroyed his credibility doing it). And for a man who has so often followed paths cleared by others, clearing this one on his own seems like taking a risk to me.

[the captain]

I don't see us agreeing on this one. Using a theremin, which he used 40 years ago, as a risk? And the orchestration: he may not have handed off to an outside orchestrator, but he did the more obvious and totally un-risky thing of choosing Mertens, with whom he has worked for over a decade and whose abilities have been proved on BWPS and TLOS. I think Wilson did a very good job with the album and (judging by the results) apparently worked harder than he typically has done. But I don't think there was a lot of risk involved in the project. Even if BW himself weren't up to the task, I think the team would have ensured a solid product. Luckily, BW was up to the task and it's better than solid.

[Wirestone]

Different strokes, man.

[the captain]

Yep. That reminds me, one of these years I ought to put down some organized thoughts on the album in the reviews section. (And R.I.P. Gary Coleman and Dana Plato. Todd Bridges forever.)

[Andrew G. Doe]

I don't see us agreeing on this one. Using a theremin, which he used 40 years ago, as a risk? And the orchestration: he may not have handed off to an outside orchestrator, but he did the more obvious and totally un-risky thing of choosing Mertens, with whom he has worked for over a decade and whose abilities have been proved on BWPS and TLOS. I think Wilson did a very good job with the album and (judging by the results) apparently worked harder than he typically has done. But I don't think there was a lot of risk involved in the project. Even if BW himself weren't up to the task, I think the team would have ensured a solid product. Luckily, BW was up to the task and it's better than solid.

You're missing the biggest risks of all - taking the project on in the first place, and the possibility that The Gershwin Estate might not approve. For someone like Brian that's not so much out of his comfort zone as somewhere slightly beyond the next galaxy.

[Myk Luhv]

I still love that he argued about singing "I Loves You Porgy" from the female perspective and, yes, won. Whatever his motives for doing this -- and I imagine they're simply "not fucking with the original" -- I like that he does that. It almost makes up for "Hey Little Tomboy"!

[the captain]

I don't see us agreeing on this one. Using a theremin, which he used 40 years ago, as a risk? And the orchestration: he may not have handed off to an outside orchestrator, but he did the more obvious and totally un-risky thing of choosing Mertens, with whom he has worked for over a decade and whose abilities have been proved on BWPS and TLOS. I think Wilson did a very good job with the album and (judging by the results) apparently worked harder than he typically has done. But I don't think there was a lot of risk involved in the project. Even if BW himself weren't up to the task, I think the team would have ensured a solid product. Luckily, BW was up to the task and it's better than solid.

You're missing the biggest risks of all - taking the project on in the first place, and the possibility that The Gershwin Estate might not approve. For someone like Brian that's not so much out of his comfort zone as somewhere slightly beyond the next galaxy.

That's fair.

[Custom Machine]

Is anyone aware of airplay for any of the BWRG tracks?

[HighOnLife]

Rod Stewart has destroyed his credibility doing it

Rod Stewart didn't have any credibility before. He had nothing to lose.

[absinthe_boy]

I'm not convinced the album is great....but it is very good...and it does smell of Brian Wilson actually taking control of the project.

I do feel (AGD step in if I am wrong) that post-SMiLE....Brian has got some confidence in his own abilities back. As has been pointed out, he took on a project which could easily have gained criticism from the Gershwin estate or Disney when Brian handed over the finished product for an audition....he took risks here that he simply wouldn't have done 5 years ago....and he pulls off I Loves You Porgy which is quite something.

[Mike's Beard]

Rod Stewart has destroyed his credibility doing it

Rod Stewart didn't have any credibility before. He had nothing to lose.

Excellent point.

[The Heartical Don]

Rod Stewart has destroyed his credibility doing it

Rod Stewart didn't have any credibility before. He had nothing to lose.

Excellent point.

Eh? So 'Every Picture Tells A Story' didn't reach U.S. stores then?

[Mike's Beard]

I'm English Don. 

[LostArt]

Disney knows what they are doing. They have already bribed the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Once the "Album of the Year" award is presented "...Reimagines Gershwin" will soar back into the top ten over night.

I think that this is exactly what Disney is hoping for.  Get the album in the stores with some good press just before the cutoff date for Grammy consideration.  Lobby for 'Album Of The Year" or some such Grammy award.  Then, if it wins a high profile award, the big push. 

[Andrew G. Doe]

Disney knows what they are doing. They have already bribed the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Once the "Album of the Year" award is presented "...Reimagines Gershwin" will soar back into the top ten over night.

I think that this is exactly what Disney is hoping for.  Get the album in the stores with some good press just before the cutoff date for Grammy consideration.  Lobby for 'Album Of The Year" or some such Grammy award.  Then, if it wins a high profile award, the big push. 

It would be nice to think it was all a pre-ordained strategy... but frankly it all looks like a complete f***-up to me.

[Wirestone]

It sold out on Amazon.co.uk on its first day of availability.

Complete f*** up.

[shelter]

People are talking about this album like it's a flop, but despite everything, BWRG will go down in history as a #26 album and that really isn't bad, is it? It's Brian's 3rd highest charting solo album ever, and overall his 5th highest charting studio album since 'Pet Sounds'...

[filledeplage]

Disney knows what they are doing. They have already bribed the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Once the "Album of the Year" award is presented "...Reimagines Gershwin" will soar back into the top ten over night.

I think that this is exactly what Disney is hoping for.  Get the album in the stores with some good press just before the cutoff date for Grammy consideration.  Lobby for 'Album Of The Year" or some such Grammy award.  Then, if it wins a high profile award, the big push. 

It would be nice to think it was all a pre-ordained strategy... but frankly it all looks like a complete f***-up to me.

It would be interesting for buyers in stores to inquire about how many CD's the store had in inventory.  Why?  I got the last one where I bought mine...Incredulously, I asked the clerk how many they had in inventory, just a couple of days post-release.  He told me "4" (four,) IV, quatre...and could not believe it!  Then I got the song and dance, "We can order it for you!"  Thanks, but no thanks.  This was a major book-music chain, which even sells foreign magazines and books.

Knowing the clerk was not "of the generation" so, dumbfounded, but happy I secured the last copy.  It might be well for people to inquire as to how many copies stores ordered, or within the store computerized inventory, as to whether there was a "created shortage" like the Cabbage Patch Dolls of the 1980's. Or even whether there was a limited number in the production line.  Customers might be able to infer what is going on by what the true inventory in the stores really is.  This may be something we are not looking at.  There were more copies of Sounds of Summer and Pet Sounds than the Gershwin CD.  

As you say above...and I agree completely!

 

 

[Mike's Beard]

Maybe retailer's are just hedging their bets a little? What would be worse in their eyes; ordering stacks of copies and having no one interested, or ordering not enough to meet demands?

[Andrew G. Doe]

People are talking about this album like it's a flop, but despite everything, BWRG will go down in history as a #26 album and that really isn't bad, is it? It's Brian's 3rd highest charting solo album ever, and overall his 5th highest charting studio album since 'Pet Sounds'...

No argument there: I just wish I didn't know that the first week sales were about 13,000, second week some 8,000. Were there actually enough discs in the stores/at amazon on 8/17, we might be looking at a Top 20 debut

[Steve Mayo]

and number 80 the third week......number 2 on jazz charts