Playlisted Beach Boys

Here we are with a very quick blog, and the title says it all.

On Wednesday it was the 70th Birthday of Brian Wilson.  Now anyone who is a musician and is asking who he is needs to leave the business right now!

Brian Wilson is the writer of so many great classic songs for The Beach Boys, as well as a one-time member of the group and their most famous producer.

I remember hearing the music of The Beach Boys back when I was little and the gorgeous vocal harmonies were like I was dreaming, and even now listening to vocals such as those on 'Til I Die, Heroes & Villains, and so very many more, the feeling is still there.  There are so many other things about the songs that still to this day blow my mind.  Carl Wilson in particular is probably my favourite lead singer from the group, may he rest in peace.  His range was just incredible, and in a lot of ways that showed another facet to the brilliance of Brian Wilson.  Not only could he write great songs, but he knew who he was writing for.  He knew what their ability was, and he could picture everything about the song.

My favourite song by The Beach Boys, and probably my favourite song ever, is God Only Knows.  It is an amazing song that is filled with so much, but it is also one of those songs that in a way I don't want to understand everything about it.  As a musician and someone who records music in a studio, you can get carried away with trying to learn everything about the music you listen to.  I know a few things about the song, even having played it in practice time once or twice, but that's as far as it goes.  To me the song has such an incredible eternal beauty that in a way I don't want to spoil my love of it - a bit like enjoying a film with special effects and then watching the behind the scenes stuff, which can sometimes diminish effect that "magic" has.  I also see it as a song that is perfect in the way that I can't see anyone else performing it, except for The Beach Boys.  I don't think anyone has anywhere near that voice of Carl on the original recording, and Brian wrote that with Carl's voice in his head.

Carl and the boys must have been proud when Brian wrote a song like that, because he was writing for them.  Even after the boys carried on without him after the aborted Smile project (which was truncated and reworked to become Smiley Smile), Brian still appeared with gems for them to record, and he occasionally still produced them.  Surf's Up from the album of the same title, the aforementioned 'Til I Die, and more besides.

Anyway, I could go on forever about The Beach Boys and about Brian Wilson, the Wilson Brothers in general, and so much more, but needless to say they still hold that "magic" in my eyes.

On Tuesday night I was working on a site where I couldn't really get my laptop out, so I quickly borrowed Tim who I was working with's laptop to do an 18 song playlist of songs to celebrate the birthday of Brian on Wednesday.  Not many songs I know, but I didn't have much time to work with.  Next year I hope that I will be able to do a bigger playlist, but I think this playlist shows what is special about Brian's writing, production (in most cases), and The Beach Boys' performance to the fore.  There could have been more songs I know, but here we are then in alphabetical order;

1. California Girls
2. Caroline No
3. Do It Again
4. Fun Fun Fun
5. God Only Knows
6. Good Vibrations
7. Help Me Rhonda
8. Heroes & Villains
9. I Get Around
10. I Know There's An Answer
11. In My Room
12. Little Deuce Coupe
13. Sail On Sailor
14. Surf's Up
15. Surfer Girl
16. Surfin' USA
17. 'Til I Die
18. Wouldn't It Be Nice

All I did was set up this playlist and select shuffle on the iPod, and it's been bringing me that "magic" for a couple of days.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

June 22 2012 (41 years, 6 months, and 27 days old)

Happy birthday Paul McCartney

Okay I know it's a little late to do this, but in truth I have been wondering whether or not I should post a blog specifically with this in mind.

Another thing is the fact that I wasn't sure which one of the blogs to post this in either, because I do have two different blogs that I write.  The other blog is specifically about the careers of the ex-Beatles after they had split up.

So, after a lot of wondering whether I should be quite so forward, write a blog about it, and then where it should be, here it is.

(Sir) Paul McCartney is now 70 years old.  There I have said it and I am sure that some people have been really irritated about my constant going on about it today on the social networks.  I won't apologise for it, because over the years the music of Paul McCartney has been incredibly important to me.

Now I know that a lot of people have taken a dislike to the man for various reasons, but when all is said and done he has an incredible legacy behind him.  He may not have had a top ten hit for however long it is now, but then that's not all that important.  I saw an interview with Yoko Ono when they mentioned the whole "switching the credits" business with the names Lennon and McCartney, when she said "well, it won't be a best selling live album will it?"  I think that was a petty remark in a way, and please don't go moaning at me about that.  I can see it from both angles.  She is right that Paul has an ego, but then so has she.  All successful people have an ego to some extent, and that is one of the things that gets them to where they are.  The ego stems from a self-belief.  I believe that I am a good musician, that's not me showing off, but just stating a fact.  I'm not putting myself into the same category, but I can very easily get by playing music.  I think that I could quite easily step into a room with most musicians in the world and "jam".  There you have it - "the ego has landed" as George Harrison used to say about Paul during their less friendly period.

I was brought up with the music of all the Beatles both solo and together, but initially I think it was the music of Wings, plus the red (1962-1966) and blue (1967-1970) Beatles compilations that were in my parents record collections of the 1970's when I was a tiny one (I stayed tiny for a long while, and in fact am still only 5' 7'' I believe - I don't check height and weight).

The Wings albums were Red Rose Speedway and Band On The Run.  I played those and the Beatles compilations to death.  I remember my dad being absolutely distraught after my cousin broke one of the compilations by walking on it, and then blaming me (he still hasn't come forward about it).  I got punished for that severely.  I was unable to put records on the record player after that time.

The first single someone bought me personally was Coming Up by Paul (I loved the Wings version on the B side, as well as the other song Lunch Box/Odd Sox - two B sides on a 7" single was really cool), closely followed by John's (Just Like) Starting Over.  The first album I bought was Paul's Tug Of War, which I think is a very underrated album.  In fact, I am really surprised that Paul and Stevie didn't perform it at the Queen's diamond jubilee - a wasted chance I think.  Some people don't like that song, but then some people do.  Music is about individual tastes after all.

Over the years I carried on buying material by all of the ex-Beatles (and the Beatles albums themselves as well), and of course bought other music.  I liked their music because they were never one specific thing.  A lot of the music I listen to is by people that don't stick to one type of music, which shows in my own music, because I like mixing it up and playing different styles myself.

Throughout all of those years I have constantly listened to the music from these people.  When the arguments about Paul's material come into play, I always think that it's awful comparing because he has issued much more frequently than the others.  I suppose that if he were to release at the same level as the others and be more choosy, then he could quite possibly have made more of an impact.  As it is though that isn't the case.  All the albums had great material in there, but there were songs that some people didn't care for.  As an open-minded person I listen to a lot and take a lot in.  I don't like to be critical if truth be told, but now in my other blog I have to be.

However, this is not the other blog, so I will finish by saying.  70 years old - well done Macca, here's to more great music and memories to come.  Let's hope people can listen to a wasted great such as the rocky Oh Woman Oh Why, Get On The Right Thing, and Old Siam Sir, and maybe forget The Frog Chorus (I like that one, sorry) and those sort of things.

Thank you for reading.  Take care.

A blog of many parts

So here we are then, another blog that I am going to make up on the spot.  I have no idea how this blog will turn out, but here goes.

So, my other blog series still doesn't seem to have come back yet, even though I promised that it would.  For some reason I just can't seem to get down in my mind what to write, or to find the private time to learn the songs, and write about them.

Unfortunately Louise has been let go from her job, and I used to utilise that "home alone" time to practise, learn, and all of that.  It isn't easy finding space to be able to practice, and when I work a minimum of 12 hour shifts, I feel like I'm being unfair nipping off into another room for an hour on my own each day like I used to do.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the sales of my music that have recently gone on sale, which I will get the first feedback from in July.  I don't really know what people think about it, but hopefully I'll at least get back the money that I have paid for it to be put out through tunecore.

I'm presently doing this blog while listening to the Filmsack podcast, in particular the one about the film Flatliners, which I saw many many years ago.  It starred Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, and William Baldwin, were they play medical students who decide to stop each other's hearts, leave them "dead" for five minutes, and bring them back to life, and then you see the outcome of this throughout the film.  That's about as much as I remember about it.

My brother has had a look at the external hard drives I own and couldn't get to work, and he says that they are now working okay, which is great news.  As soon as I have the time, I will find time to go to Mansfield and catch up with him and his family, at the same time picking up the hard drives, where I can hopefully make up some (sort of) new musical backgrounds for my friends Paul & Tony's podcast called Punky, which is a podcast made up of chat and alternative music.

To prove this is made up on the trot, I had to stop writing this because something cropped up at work.  I will now leave it until I get some more time on my laptop, which will probably not be this weekend because I am on site Saturday and Sunday night were I don't think I will have time to get onto the laptop.

Here I am with the chance to write another quick bit towards the blog, and it is Sunday morning.  I'm just going to talk about films that I've watched very quickly.  I worked with someone else during Saturday night / Sunday morning (Dave), and we watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and really enjoyed that.  Andy Serkis is brilliant at things that he does.  I have seen his work in a few things.  I'm particularly thinking of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, some of King Kong (the bits I didn't fall asleep through), and Tintin.

Me and Louise have joined Lovefilm, and really enjoyed the service that we get with them.  We've watched a fair few films from them, and have particularly enjoyed the films Hugo, Tintin, and Tangled that I can remember from the top of my head at this absolutely ungodly hour of the day.  I loved the film Super 8 recently, and I know that Louise liked some bits about the film, but the fact that Louise isn't much of a genre fan meant that she found a lot of the film boring.

This weekend they have sent us the films Morning Glory starring Rachel McAdams, and Moneyball starring Brad Pitt.  As well as this, they offer a service where you can watch things online called Instant, which I haven't yet used, but will sometime soon I am sure.

Now I'm writing on Sunday and have just thought about the fact that in the film Super 8 I watched the bonus bits on the disc and found out that they had used the actor Bruce Greenwood to do "an Andy Serkis" for the creature in the film, which in the credits and that is mentioned as Cooper for some reason.  Perhaps that's to keep secret that there is a creature in the film, which I have now let slip.  Oops, sorry.  It is cool that they have Bruce Greenwood doing it though.  He is Christopher Pike in the Star Trek reboots.  I liked the first of the Star Trek reboot films and am excited about the follow up, especially after a possible hint this past week where J J Abrams was filmed saying something for an awards show or something, and in the background was a monitor was a shot of what looked like a Klingon on it, which has made some believe that they will be in the next film.  We will see.

Now J J is the man of the hour at the moment, the modern equivalent to Steven Spielberg maybe.  He is the man behind the Star Trek reboot franchise, the Mission Impossible franchise, LOST, Fringe, and so much more.  The film Morning Glory that I mentioned earlier is produced by him as well as I think having a writing credit or something attached to it.

Anyway, I'm on with Dave again tonight, and he says "if you write any more you might as well be writing a book!"  I suppose he has a point.

Hope you all take care and are okay.  Thank you for reading.

June 10 2012 (41 years, 6 months, and 15 days old)

PS - Me and Dave have just started watching Captain America.