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Yo! Brian Wilson raps
07.27.2018
08:57 am
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A bootleg CD of ‘Sweet Insanity’ (via Discogs)

Circa 1991, the house of hip hop welcomed an honored guest. Accompanied by his longtime shrink, Dr. Eugene Landy, the gifted harmonist Brian Wilson shambled through hip hop’s laundry room into its spacious two-car garage, where he blessed the microphone with this still-unreleased ode to “Smart Girls.” Over a drum machine and a Frankenstein medley of Beach Boys hooks said to be produced by the late, great Matt Dike of Dust Brothers and Delicious Vinyl fame, Wilson spat about how he used to glorify stupid women in his songs, but lately had turned to celebrating “you brainy babes with your attitude.”

The project to which “Smart Girls” belonged was among the final straws in the Landy-Wilson relationship. According to Peter Ames Carlin’s biography Catch A Wave, Landy was, by this point, calling himself Wilson’s creative and business partner rather than his therapist. (A shrewd move on Landy’s part, because the Man soon came for his license.) In the Pico Boulevard HQ of their company, Brains and Genius, which included a recording studio, the pair were hard at work on the follow-up to Wilson’s self-titled comeback album: Sweet Insanity, co-written and co-produced by Landy. Carlin writes that “Smart Girls” was the result of Landy “pushing Brian to try his hand at rapping.”

The MC speaks on the sessions in I Am Brian Wilson:

Since the first solo record had been a success, Dr. Landy wanted me to go right back and make another record. We started one that was going to be called Brian and then was going to be called Sweet Insanity. The title wasn’t exactly the best. It was supposed to be a comment about the way that mental illness could turn into something beautiful, but I wasn’t sure I wanted a title like that. I had spent a lifetime proving that point, but why did we have to say it straight out like that? Plus the way Gene was trying to force me to make the record wasn’t a good scene. He kept on me all the time. He asked questions about every part. It was the strangest and worst way to make a record, with so much pressure and so much interference.

Brains and Genius delivered Sweet Insanity to Sire, who excitedly forwarded it to the trash can.
 
Hear why, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Oliver Hall
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07.27.2018
08:57 am
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Patti Smith’s review of ‘The Beach Boys Love You’
09.02.2016
10:12 am
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The Beach Boys Love You, from 1977, is not everyone’s favorite Beach Boys LP, but it is Bucks Burnett’s. The onetime manager of Tiny Tim believes Love You is of a piece with another ‘77 record that nearly everyone regards as a classic, David Bowie’s Low. Burnett wrote in a recent Facebook post:

My bizarre theory is that the two albums are almost interchangeable. Here it is, ugly medicine in a plastic spoon; this was Brian Wilson’s Berlin trilogy, in one album. Low is Bowie’s Love You.

If you aren’t familiar with The Beach Boys Love You, it’s called that because it was dedicated to Brian Wilson by the other members of the band. One might question whether the album was really the other Beach Boys’ to make a present of in the first place, since its major selling point was that Brian Wilson himself not only produced it, but had written or co-written every song. (“Happy birthday, honey. Here’s that delicious cake you made!”) But it’s the thought that counts, right?
 

From the sleeve: “TO BRIAN WHOM WE LOVE WITH ALL OUR HEARTS”
 
Many of the songs—especially those credited to Brian alone—are marked by an unconventional approach to lyric writing, compared to the way the art is generally practiced by the human people of the planet Earth. Take the often-mocked (but lovely) “Johnny Carson”:

He sits behind his microphone
(John-ny Car-son)
He speaks in such a manly tone
(John-ny Car-son)

Ed McMahon comes on and says “Here’s Johnny!”
Every night at 11:30, he’s so funny.
“It’s nice to have you on the show tonight
I’ll see your act in Vegas—outta sight!”

When guests are boring, he fills up the slack
(John-ny Car-son)
The network makes him break his back
(John-ny Car-son)

Ed McMahon comes on and says “Here’s Johnny!”
Every night at 11:30, he’s so funny.
Don’t you think he’s such a natural guy?
The way he’s kept it up could make you cry.

Who’s a man that we admire?
Johnny Carson is a real live wire.

I think Bucks might be onto something. As far as I can tell, Beach Boys fans who hate this record just can’t stand the words, while I find them oddly affecting. Who but Brian Wilson could have seen his own body torn on the gears of showbiz in the image of Johnny Carson, of all people, or heard “such a manly tone” in the Tonight Show host’s voice? Is the objection that these lyrics give too clear a view into Wilson’s pain and confusion? Whatever: I don’t recall anyone disputing this album’s musical merits, and in my opinion, reconciling oneself to lyrics such as “Honkin, honkin’ down the gosh-darn highway / Tryin’, tryin’ to get past them cars” and “Love is a woman / so tell her she smells good tonight” is an excellent form of spiritual discipline.

Patti Smith looked into this controversy at the time, and “you’re into it or you’re not” was her conclusion. From the October 1977 issue of Hit Parader, here is the confirmed Johnny Carson fan’s review of The Beach Boys Love You:
 

via smileysmile.net
 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Oliver Hall
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09.02.2016
10:12 am
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The fabulous BMX Bandits: Interview & performance of ‘(You Gotta) Fight For the Right (To Party!)’

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A handsome young Duglas T Stewart of BMX Bandits gave this brief tour of his favorite things for 1980s pop show FSd. Amongst the items on display in Duglas’ den were: a fan’s portrait made from sticky-back plastic, records by Village People, The Beach Boys and Throbbing Gristle (nuff said?), and his plastic fish tank. This will go in some way to explaining why BMX Bandits are one of the most beloved, beautiful and inspiring bands of all time. As has been said by others in the documentary film Serious Drugs, BMX Bandits’ music is like being hugged by all the people you love, all at the same time. Pretty heart-warming.

Duglas’s piece to camera segues into a quick clip of Wray Gunn and the Rockets, featuring a very young Keith Warwick, now with The New Piccadillys, before we return to Duglas and BMX Bandits performing a subversively delightful version of “(You Gotta) Fight For the Right (To Party!)”

Serious Drugs - The Film about BMX Bandits is to be shown at the Portobello Film Festival, in London on 7 September 2012, check here for details.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

The New Piccadillys: If The Beatles played Punk


 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.13.2012
07:30 pm
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The Beach Boys: Vintage concert form March 1964

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This is The Beach Boys’ so called lost concert from March 1964. The line-up includes Brian Wilson, and in a 20 minute set, The Beach Boys rip through a selection of 9 superb songs, including tracks from their freshly released album, Shut Down Vol 2.

These are: “Fun Fun Fun”, “Long Tall Texan”, “Little Deuce Coupe”, “Surfer Girl”, “Surfin’ USA”, “Shut Down”, “In My Room”, “Papa Oom-Mow-Mow”, and “Hawaii”.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.27.2011
06:26 pm
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