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)