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I'm STILL tryin' to figure Brian Wilson out!!!

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 Cat
(@cat)
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Joined: 16 years ago
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Topic starter  

Am I the only one on GN that sees this guy as nothing shy of a genius???

Cat

"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"


   
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 lars
(@lars)
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He's had his share of ups and downs - but genius? of course!

...only thing I know how to do is to keep on keepin' on...

LARS kolberg http://www.facebook.com/sangerersomfolk


   
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 Cat
(@cat)
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Topic starter  

Have you heard the last two issues? He's writing about stuff pertinent to his current age (mine, too) and it's really dead on.

"Eyes...red, white and blue."

Cat

"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"


   
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(@twistedlefty)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 4113
 

Have you heard the last two issues? He's writing about stuff pertinent to his current age (mine, too) and it's really dead on.

"Eyes...red, white and blue."

Cat

links?

#4491....


   
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 lars
(@lars)
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I read a marvelous review of his latest just the other day - but maybe I'm too young to listen to it :roll: :lol:
" His two latest" ??

...only thing I know how to do is to keep on keepin' on...

LARS kolberg http://www.facebook.com/sangerersomfolk


   
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 Cat
(@cat)
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Topic starter  

"Lucky Old Sun" is recent...but so is the album, "Smile"...which he put together before The Beatles' "Revolver"...

But in this post I was actually referring to his recent "Gettin' In Over My Head" album. There's an unbelievable crew that jumped on the opportunity to work with this nut! (I use the term fondly, folks.)

The "Gettin' In Over My Head" album was the album I had to critique for some Community College classes (digital recording software) I took a couple of years ago. We were told to bring in something that we each could pick apart as far as what studio techniques we could suss out...and how studio recording dynamics helped (or hindered) bringing out the middles. For me...as a pro writer...I confessed that I had learned "everything I know" from Brian. Actually, I hated it as it hit my ears for the first time...until his title song (Wow!) Then I went over his studio techniques. Picking apart this collection took me a month to do...all with utter fascination.

He's slowed down...he's NOT commercially constrained...and yet the best singers/musicians in the world would kill to play with him. "Rainbow Eyes" is poignant. (Hey...from memory I got the colors wrong...) but the lyrics were about growing old(er) with his wife. Yep. Them thar LSD chemicals are still in there, somewhere!

Still...going over all his stuff..."Good Vibrations" still causes me to shake my head in some non compos-mentis lack of understanding as to "how" that ended up on tape.

Cat

"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"


   
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(@vic-lewis-vl)
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I read an interview with Brian a couple of years or so back when he was touring on the strength of the re-worked "Smile" album - he reckoned the band he was working with could put the songs across far better than the Beach Boys ever could.

As for Good Vibrations, I think that was pieced together from about 37 different tapes - and in those days, it really was a case of "cut and paste!"

Yeah, he's a musical genius - I still love listening to those old Beach Boys songs. For those of us who are around a certain age, they were - and still are! - the epitome of summer. Songs about hot rods, girls, the beach, girls, surfing, girls....and oh those harmonies! Nothing better than lounging around the garden on a hot summer's day with a cold drink and some old Beach Boys music.

:D :D :D

Vic

"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)


   
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(@rgalvez)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 717
 

In another subject I added this excellent youtube video which shows you the great skills of Brian Wilson as a composer /arranger.
Want to see a perfectionist in action? check out this documentary on Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. Brian Wilson was a genius indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofByti7A4uM


   
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(@wes-inman)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
 

They made a movie about Brian Wilson about 20 years ago or so and it was very interesting. His father was a minor Pop star and really pushed the band, but especially Brian. Brian became an extreme perfectionist and developed some real mental problems. I read once that he spent over 6 months working on one song with the band and then just threw the tapes away to the great shock of the band.

Brian's problems became so bad that he couldn't play with the band for many years.

I haven't heard his new stuff, but I'm sure it's brilliant. He has an ear for melody and harmony that compares with the great classical composers.

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@ricochet)
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I saw him on TV many years ago and thought his brain was fried.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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 Cat
(@cat)
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Topic starter  

Y'ever tried fried brains? Not all that bad! :lol:

Seriously (sort of)...maybe there's not much brain volume left to accomodate "other stuff" seeing as it's all used up with his creativity. :?

When the Beach Boys were current...I really wasn't into them all that much. I was from a working class family and even my musical tastes lived in punch clock factoryland. It wasn't until I broadened my experience (IE: grew up a bit!) that I began to appreciate the work and songcraft that went into their constructs.

Bear in mind, everybody, that the overall quality of their music is clean and crisp as if they were recorded in today's high tech studios...but they weren't. Not even close. To come up with what they did is still a marvel...like Eagle getting onto the moon with a computer that my pocket calculator outclasses by umpteen times in today's world.

I learned more from picking apart Brian's craft...with critical analysis...than I have from ANYONE else! Actually, it's proven to be a quite enjoyable pastime...

Cat

"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"


   
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(@ricochet)
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Joined: 21 years ago
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Hey, Brian even says he fried his brain:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/26/music.brian.wilson.ap/index.html
When asked during a Q&A session his biggest regret, he doesn't mince words.

"The drugs I took which kind of messed up my mind. The LSD, the marijuana, the cocaine," he says, to audience laughter.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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 Cat
(@cat)
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Topic starter  

Seems like his father was a real head case. Always smackin' him around and belittling him. Nah! Not good!

At the moment, I'm kind of in the same position as Brian's father as I set up the whole infrastructure for my own teen boys' first CD. Somethimes I'm their friend, sometimes their teacher...but I gotta keep in mind I'm also a role model. I can tell everyone in GN land that THESE get-together sessions are the most "polite & sober" I've attempted in my life! :|

Cat

"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"


   
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