My god, that's gorgeous. And unlike classical guy Göran Söllscher, whose cover of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" I posted yesterday, the kid's doing it all on a conventional six-string guitar.
Damn, but I hate talented people. That said, you can find out more about the kid at his website over here.
And okay -- I promise we return to music NOT written by people from Hawthorne, California on the morrow, and for at least the next week and a half after that. 😎
[h/t Jai Guru Dave]
The guy playing that utterly amazing version of "Eleanor Rigby" on the 11-string(!) acoustic guitar is a Swedish virtuoso named Göran Söllscher; I had never heard of him (or heard him either) until last Saturday, when the above got played on the morning show on New York's classical station WQXR, and it blew my tiny mind. He's apparently something of a Bach specialist, and a very big deal in classical circles; he records for Deutsche Grammaphon and Wiki informs me that he's sold over a million records to date. Which kinda rocks.
In any event, the above is just spectacularly beautiful, and wait till you hear the Youtube version of him doing the Beatles' "In My Life." (Go find it yourself -- what, I have to do everything for you guys?) 😎
In all seriousness, though, I gotta say -- never in my most drug addled '60s moments under the headphones listening to the likes of Revolver on my dorm room stereo did I forsee that the pop music I loved would someday go totally highbrow.
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*Today's title is a reference to the debut single by Paul Revere and the Raiders, who, of course, were often noted for their classical influences and refined demeanor. 😎😎
That being the case, and given that you're probably burnt out as well, I thought I would post the most non-threatening question I could come up with.
Which leads us, inexorably, to today's business. To wit:
...and the post-Elvis solo pop star or band member (in any genre) you would most like to meet or have met one-on-one is...???
No arbitrary rules whatsoever, thank me very much. Just somebody, past or present, you think you would have enjoyed hanging out with for a little while.
My nominee? I think you'll be surprised to learn it's Dusty. Or Miss Springfield if I'm nasty.
Why? For two reasons. 1) I would have loved to hear that sexy/velvety singing voice just talking to me. And 2) By all accounts, she was what we used to call "a great broad." 😎
Alrighty then -- who would YOUR choices be?
And have a great weekend, everybody!!!
[h/t ChrisE]
On why Brian Wilson was not just the usual pop music bozo poseur, i.e., of the kind that dominates today's Hit Parade of Hell.😎
Seriously -- you don't normally expect (or get) that level of intelligent music criticism from a local TV news guy. Kudos and bravo, my friend.
Hey -- at least he gets the guitar and bass parts right, which is more than I've ever been able to do. The guitar solo sucks, however. 😎
With five of the actual Beach Boys -- including Brian and Carl -- contributing harmonies behind them.
And may I add that a) it's wonderful to see the Boys -- and in particular Brian(!) -- having such an obvious good time.
And b) if watching that clip doesn't make you smile from auditory canal to auditory canal, there's no hope for you. 😎
And, more to the point, my utter confusion over whether it was a moderately amusing parody or -- and I found this a terrifying prospect -- actually meant straight.
In any case, while researching some Beach Boys stuff last week (for obvious reasons) I stumbled across another clip by the guy that has left me similarly and absolutely flummoxed.
To wit: a performance of "God Only Knows," and I can only say "God Forgive Me" for posting it. 😎
Or maybe I should say "Brian Forgive Me." I haven't got it sorted out.
But seriously -- is there some kind of celebrated Finnish sense of irony I'm not familiar with? Are the Finns noted for being a largely joyful people up there in the darkening shadow of the Arctic Circle? Or what?
Help me out here, friends -- or else I'll post the clips of Ilkka covering "Itchykoo Park," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and "It's All Over Now."
And you really don't want me to do that. 😎😎
In the meantime, have a great weekend, everybody, and stay well. -- S.S.]
NYMary:
I must confess I find it a little odd to be writing this -- the Beach Boys music is pretty much my lingua franca, and the idea that they need defending feels weird to me given how much I love them (although I understand your skepticism, at least in the abstract. After all, Mike Love sucks).
In any event, here's why I think they deserve respect from mere mortals like you and me.
TEN REASONS THE BEACH BOYS ARE SELF-EVIDENTLY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AMERICAN BANDS OF THE SIXTIES.
IF NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT.
1. They invented an instantly recognizable sound of their own, one that practically defines a genre. Very few rock artists can make that claim. (Chuck Berry with "Johnny B Goode", The Byrds with "Tambourine Man," the Ramones, and maybe U2). That alone should guarantee the Beach Boys immortality.
2. What Raymond Chandler did for California in prose the Beach Boys did in music. They reflected a place and a time and made a kind of poetry out of it. They were not fake.
3. Five part harmonies, astoundingly gorgeous. And Brian's conception -- mating progressive jazz voicings a la the Four Freshman with classic doo-wop -- was totally unique. Here's a 1965 live clip that proves the point -- and if this a capella version of the Freshman's "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" doesn't put a lump in your throat, you need to check your meds.
4. From their inception in the early 60s, they were pretty much the only self-contained rock band in America. Wrote all their own songs, produced their own records. Who else was doing that?
5. Kick-ass live act. If you doubt it, listen to Beach Boys Concert, get a video of their closed-circuit show from '64, or find The T.A.M.I Show video, in which -- performing on the same bill with the Stones, James Brown and most of the Motown acts, they tear the audience to shreds. Carl Wilson was a killer surf guitarist, and the rhythm section was as good as anybody in rock at the time.
Here they are in 1965 (from the the aforementioned T.A.M.I Show -- with a to-die-for version of "I Get Around."
6. Contrary to myth, they were not white bread at all. Carl and Dennis Wilson were as soulful singers in the r&b sense as anybody else working in the mid-Sixties. And that includes Stevie Winwood or Felix Cavliere.
7. The car and surf songs are actually quite brilliant. Who else ever conceived of writing love songs to a carburetor? And has any rock song ever conveyed as much sheer teenage elan as "Fun Fun Fun" or "I Get Around"?
8. Brian's best songs from the early period anticipate the confessional singer/songwriter LA genre. "Don't Worry Baby" may be as nakedly emotional and self-revealing as anything Joni Mitchell ever wrote. Ditto "Warmth of the Sun" or "In My Room" or "When I Grow Up."
9. The albums that preceed the sainted Pet Sounds and Smile are masterpeices. The Beach Boys Today, Brian's first real studio concept album, is masterly; "When I Grow Up" isn't even the best song on it (try "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" or the astounding Sinatra goes r&b of "The Back of My Mind" sung by Dennis). It's every bit as good as Rubber Soul in terms of consistency and melodic invention. The follow-up --Summer Days and Summer Nights, of which "California Girls" is simply the icing on the cake, is even better -- it's every bit Brian's Revolver. He never used the studio more impressively than "Let Him Run Wild" or emulated the Beatles with the riffy brilliance of "Girl Don't Tell Me."
10. The album that follows Pet Sounds and Smile is another masterpiece. Wild Honey is one of the handful of great white r&b albums of the period, and if you doubt it check out the title song or Carl's gorgeous reading of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made to Love Her." And in it's back to basics way, it's very much of a piece with the Beatles White Album.
I could go on about the Beach Boys early 70s output -- you could make a fabulous comp album with songs like "Marcella" (one of their best ever rockers), "This Whole World" (Brian's canniest pocket symphony), "All I Wanna Do"(the most glorious use of reverb in history), "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" (progressive rockabilly, if you can believe it), "Do It Again" and any number of others up through "Trader" on Holland.
The decline after that was appalling, to be sure, but you get my point....the Beach Boys have a huge body of really transcendent work, and Brian wasn't the only big talent in the band.
Have I mentioned that Mike Love sucks?
In any case, the above 2021 cover of one of his greatest songs, by fellow Angelenos Los Lobos, seems like an appropriate tribute.
This afternoon, while walking home from lunch at my Forest Hills watering hole, an attractive woman (of, as they say, a certain age) who I've never seen before in my life, stopped me on the street and said, out of the blue -- "Brian Wilson just died."
I really don't know where to begin. We looked at each other and just...ah hell.
Anyway, here's a glorious song you might not know from a solo album he did in 1998.
Other than that, I kinda lack the appropriate words at the moment. Maybe tomorrow.
