Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin: A Review by Peter Reum
In 1960, I heard Rhapsody in Blue for the first time through the good graces of my mother, who decided she wanted to play some old sheet music she had found after my grandmother had died. I stood with my mouth agape, a seven year old hearing at the piano what I thought was the most beautiful music I had ever heard to that point. I begged my mother to play it again, and she did. I grew especially fond of the slow movement of the Rhapsody, and it moved me at a level only one other artist's music has ever done, Brian Wilson. Brian heard a recording of the Rhapsody in Blue at age 3 or 4 and had a similar reaction. He is often quoted as saying it showed him the power of music in a way he had never before experienced. In the early 80s, I was asked by a friend to find a recording of Stanley Black and the London Festival Orchestra playing Rhapsody in Blue. Brian Wilson needed it, the friend said, and I found it through the efforts of British fans Roy Gudge and Andrew Doe, who are still my dear friends today. I sent the cassette to my friend, who gave it to Brian. Later, meeting with Brian, he played the Rhapsody in Blue for me at his piano, then talked with me for awhile about how the cassette had saved his life and renewed his relationship with music. This was an incredible meeting, and I will never forget it. Later I learned that Brian had fallen in love with this version during his Pet Sounds/Smile period of recording and writing.
Speeding into today, my mind and heart leaped for joy when I heard my favorite musician was going to record an entire album of my other favorite musician's music.Thre was some trepidation, because I knew Brian would see this as a work of love, but also as a challenge to do right by a musician he loves and admires. George Gershwin has always been a musician's musician, as has Brian Wilson. Musicians record each other's works, or "quote" tributes to each other frequently. It is always eye opening to see how many musicians recording today cite Brian's work as a major influence. Brian has had the chance to not only record George and Ira Gershwin's work,but to have access to unfinished works from the Gershwin Estate Archive. Brian chose two to work into complete songs, and his results are on this album.
The generations after World War II lost some of the day by day exposure to George and Ira Gershwin's music that people of the Roaring Twenties/Depression Eras had. Jazz musician's carried on the legacy of recording and playing Gershwin tunes, usually instrumentally, wth the notable exception of vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. It is exciting to see Brian revive Gershwin music for several new generations of listeners through this project, which truly does reimagine Gershwin music. Eyewitnesses said that on February 12 1924, at Aeolian Hall in New York City, when Rhapsody in Blue was premiered by Gershwin with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra that Whiteman's musicians had tears rolling down their cheeks when the so called "Andantino" or E Major movement of the Rhapsody in Blue was played. Brian opens his own Gershwin tribute with a vocal and instrumental interpretation of the first several bars of this movement which reminded this listener of what an incredible arranger he is. Brian may be one of the most complete musicians of the 20th century because of his ability to write, arrange, produce, and then perform the music he records. These moments of pure vocal harmony are both beautiful and moving in their performance, and harken back to times when people likened The Beach Boys' voices to instruments at Brian's command. This opening to Brian's album had tears rolling down my cheek just as Whiteman's musicians did so long ago. Various bars of Rhapsody in Blue reappear throughout the whole album, and remind us of Brian's love for this music.
Brian's reworking of Will You Remember Me from the musical Lady Be Good is entitled The Like I Love in You. Brian's lyricist in this new endeavor is Scott Bennett, who so ably wrote lyrics for most of the Lucky Old Sun project. In its original form in 1924, the piece was written for Fred Astaire, who so capably recorded so many Gershwin songs. The piece was omitted from Lady Be Good because its slow tempo was much at odds with the frenetic pace of the music and dialogue in Lady Be Good. Brian has chosen to keep the slower tempo, turning it into an achingly beautiful love song, surely reminiscent of the Pet Sounds/Smile period. Portions of The Like I Love in You recall Brian's Wonderful from Smile, and Caroline No from Pet Sounds. This is a song any writer could call a career peak, and Brian has added a treasure to his oeurve of beloved ballads that people love to hear. The coda is pure Brian, and this could be the song one would imagine hearing had Brian ended Pet Sounds happily, instead of dejectedly.
Porgy and Bess is the great American opera, and no recording of Gershwin music would be complete without a sampling of songs from that work. Gershwin labored over Porgy and Bess for nearly two years, coming back to it in between concert touring and trips with friends. He spent part of a summer near the Barrier Islands of South Carolina, learning the rhythms, vocal nuances, and nomenclature of that area's African American population. This was at the behest of Dubose Heyward, a writer whose novel was adapted into the Porgy and Bess Gershwin finished. In its original place in the opera, Summertime is a lullaby sung by Bess to a baby she is watching for another character, Clara. Summertime might be called the "breakout" tune from Porgy and Bess, selling thousands of copies in sheet music, and becoming a tune that stood apart from the opera itself. Brian himself recorded a quick version of it in 1964, with a female vocalist named Sharon Marie. Brian's own version on this album captures the tension that Bess felt in her desiring to be at peace but never fully letting her guard down due to the possible return of Crown, her abusive male companion. Brian's version conveys Bess talking as much to herself as to Clara's baby, trying to be comforted, knowing that Crown could return at any time with the sexual and emotional abuse beginning all over again. His use of Don't Worry Baby's guitar rhythms appear to remind himself that everything will be all right.
I Loves You Porgy is the song Anne Brown as Bess sang to convey her love for Porgy and her plaintive plea to keep her safe from Crown. Brian sings in a manner akin to the vocal someone like Rosemary Clooney, a favorite female singer of Brian's might sing. There is vulnerability, but also a sense that she wants to be Porgy's woman, so he can keep her safe. Brian's own vocal style in this version is warm, with warm brass behind him. One can hear Brian perhaps recalling similar moments in his own life when he felt very alone and abandoned, hoping that someone he loved would protect him. There is the flavor of someone who is extremely vulnerable and who needs loving protection in this version, capturing the feelings that the Gershwins and Heyward were looking for in the original opera.
In the original notes for Porgy and Bess'e debut, George Gershwin told Todd Duncan, the first Porgy, that I Got Plenty o' Nuttin' is "a bitter song and you have to sing it with tongue-in-cheek; you have to sing it smiling all the time. Because what you are doing is making fun of us (rich people). You're making fun of people who make money and to whom power and position are important." Brian's instrumental version is certainly tongue-in-cheek. The use of bass harmonica conveys an almost Pet Sounds feel, with the accordian therein recalling the very naive, optimistic innocent yet quite sexual feel of Wouldn'y It Be Nice. The coda has a flavor of some of the Jewish music George Gershwin was so familiar with, and reminds me of Fiddler on the Roof. Who was more mocking of money and possessions than The Fiddler himself?
In Porgy and Bess, Sportin' Life is the character who makes fun of beliefs people hold dear, and John Bubbles, a vaudedille veteran, played the character in the original production. It is well documented that George Gershwin had to teach Bubbles how to sing It Aint Necessarily So by having Bubbles dance the song while memorizing the tempo and lyrics. Later, the song became well associated with Cab Calloway, band leader and jazz performer, who was famous for his own language, very similar to Sportin' Life's hip and cynical persona in the opera. In Brian's version, there is an odd, menacing feeling that the singer is imparting to the listener that captures Gershwin's intention for the song. There is an almost bitter, doubting, cynical timbre to the vocal that imparts the idea that "we tell the children the devil's a villain---it aint necessarily so." There is a disturbing sax/violin figure toward the end of the song that musically captures the sinister feeling of the song, and its pessimistic tone. The song at time almost lopes along, reminding the listerner that its first singer, John Bubbles, was a dancer who couldn't read music.
George and Ira Gershwin's musicals have enjoyed a renaissance over the last twenty years on Broadway. Because of the frequency of performance of Gershwin's long form compositions, the musicals lost some of their public prominence for a number of years. Yet in these shows are the vast majority of the songs that George and Ira Gershwin's reputations were based on. S' Wonderful is one of the Gershwin's most covered tunes, from Funny Face, performed by literally hundreds of artists in the 80 or so years since it was written. The song has been especially popular with jazz artists. In Brian's hands, the tune becomes a tribute to the Brazilian stylings of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrid Gilberto. Jobim's album with Stan Getz and the Gilbertos moved Brazilian music into the forefront of America's consciousness. The Bossa Nova arrangement of S' Wonderful reminds Beach Boy listeners of Busy Doin' Nothin' from the Friends album. There is a clear Wondermints influence in this song as performed, and it is exciting to hear Brian bow to them. This might be as close to tropical themed exotica as Brian has gotten in many years. This version by Brian is a tour de force, again demonstrating how he can absorb various musical influences such as bossa nova and exotica, mix them together, and apply them to a Gershwin song that has been very frequently covered and needed a new approach reimagined.
Shall We Dance was an Astaire/Rogers film that George and Ira Gershwin scored just prior to George's untimely passing in 1937. At the heart of Shall We Dance was that movie's Gershwin hit, They Can't Take That Away From Me. It is a bittersweet love song looking toward a divorce for a "staged" marriage that the leading characters entered, only to learn they really love each other. Like Brian's loss of the 1966 Grammy for Best Song to the absurd Winchester Cathedral, They Can't Take That Away from Me lost the 1937 Best Song Oscar to a forgotten tune entitled "Waikiki Wedding" from the movie Sweet Leilani. The version Brian cut for this album reminds this writer of the tempo of Help Me Rhonda mixed with the call/response form used in several Sinatra recordings. The quirky instrumental track is Brian at his most charming, eventually breaking into a stroll tempo similar to Little Deuce Coupe. There's a little Beach Boys Party album thrown into the song's bridge, with the whole production exuding pure joy, far from anything bittersweet. This is truly Brian reimagining Gershwin. A masterpiece....
Our Love Is Here to Stay is a tune begun by George and Ira Gershwin for Goldwyn's Follies (1938). George died before the song could be completed, and Oscar Levant and Vernon Duke reconstructed the song's chorus and helped Ira finsih the song. This tune has been one of the Gershwin songs most heavily used for improvisation by jazz musicians. Brian's version has a feel of a Les Paul type of recording, and one could picture Mary Ford singing Brian's arrangement of the tune. Background vocals are used for color, and Brian's beautiful vocal makes one believe that perhaps he selected this tune to be a message of love to his family, both those who have died, and those alive. One can imagine hearing this version on Your Hit Parade in the pre rock and roll era Fifties.
Strike Up the Band is the most famous home of I've Got a Crush On You, which was an outtake from an earlier show. Later it appeared in Treasure Girl prior to its best known appearance in Strike Up the Band. It was also recorded by Gene Kelly for 1951's An American In Paris feature film, but was cut once again. Brian approaches it as almost a doo wop recording, with pounding piano, a Wall of Sound production creeping itno the record in its second half, and its Ira Gershwin lyrics lend themselves to the sort of production one might hear a girl group do in the late 50s or early 60s. It has a cousin in 15 Big One's A Casual Look.
1930 was a great year for the Gershwins. They had two memorable musicals that year, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy. A new Broadway star named Ethel Merman made I Got Rhythm her signature tune, and countless jazz musicians covered the song in the Big Band and Bop eras. It is said that I Got Rhythm and Fascinatin' Rhythm, both Gershwin tunes, brought the term rhythm into common American everyday parlance. George Gershwin himself later used it as a base for a longer work entitled Variations on I Got Rhytym. Brian's version here is the most Beach Boy sounding of all the songs recorded for this project. It is a pure joy to hear, and reminds that he can produce Beach Boys sounding arrangements at will. The song begins with a Duane Eddy sort of guitar intro, then employs old Brian/Spector touches such as glockenspiels to convey a feel akin to some of the songs on Side 1 of Summer Days (and Summer Nights). This is one of Brian's best lead vocals on an album full of great Brian vocals.
Oh Kay was the musical that spawned Someone to Watch Over Me. The song generated an inspired quote from George Gershwin regarding keeping songs simple but sounding more complex, an approach Brian is also known for. Gershwin said "To my way of thinking, it isn't the fellow with all sorts of complicated chords up his sleeve who will capture the audiences. It's the man with a musical vocabulary, so to speak, of simple tonic and dominants---chords built upon the first and fifth notes of the scale, respectively---but who will be able, with those fundamental harmonies, to introduce the vital change, the little twist, which will make the harmonic structure scored rich despite the simple means. It's the old case of much-in-little, and much WITH little." Ironically, George used the rehearsal hall the way Brian uses the studio. Someone To Watch Over me was written at a fast tempo, and only through experimentation in the rehearsal hall did the Gershwins realize they had one of their greatest ballads. To this writer's ears, Brian's version on this album sounds like a marriage between middle era Beatle ballads, especially Paul McCartney's, and Pet Sounds. The introduction and early part of Brian's version are very Beatle sounding, only to yield later on in the song to a more Caroline No sort of feeling, with use of mallets, english horns, and strings reinforcing that impression. This is Brian in a very vulnerable emotional place, giving the song his heart, and reinforcing the notion that is is grateful for the friends through the years that have watched over him. Notes from Rhapsody in Blue creep into the song's coda.
Nothing But Love is a song based upon a Gershwin song fragment from 1929 entitled Say My Say. The song has loveable Brian zaniness, especially in the instrumental arrangement. The song s layered, similar to the introduction to California Girls, adding an instrument or two in each pass through the theme. The melody is the embodiment of what would imagine a collaboration between Brian and Geiorge Gershwin might produce if both men could work with each other. It is simply a killer melody. In places the production sounds a little like Love You, and this may be Brian's intention. One is reminded of the old adage that when all else is gone, love abides, in listening to the lyrics. The end of the coda reprises a few notes from Rhapsody in Blue, which reappears in a gorgeous vocal only arrangement to end the album.
This is Brian Wilson's most musically coherent and cohesive recording since Pet Sounds. It is at once thematically unified and musically diverse. It is Brian Wilson's expression of thanks to George and Ira Gershwin for opening up the world of music into his consciousness so many years ago. This is an album that shouldn't be missed. It is Brian Wilson's best singing, arranging, and producing since Pet Sounds, and is an incredible gift to anyone who loves either Brian or Gershwin's music. His taste in songs is impeccable, and his awareness of each song's significance in the Gershwin Songbook is admirable. If you only buy one album this year, this is the one to get. It is a statement of love from Brian, not only to the Gershwins, but to anyone who loves great music in the American tradition.
Note: This reviewer would like to acknowledge the work of Howard Pollack an his irreplaceable book, George Gershwin: His Life and Work, publshed by The University of California Press in 2006, and The George Gershwin Reader, compiled and edited by Robert Wyatt and John Andrew Johnson, published by Oxford University Press in 2004. Both of these volumes were of tremendous value in preparing this review.
Copyright 2010 by Peter Reum-All Rights Reserved
In 1960, I heard Rhapsody in Blue for the first time through the good graces of my mother, who decided she wanted to play some old sheet music she had found after my grandmother had died. I stood with my mouth agape, a seven year old hearing at the piano what I thought was the most beautiful music I had ever heard to that point. I begged my mother to play it again, and she did. I grew especially fond of the slow movement of the Rhapsody, and it moved me at a level only one other artist's music has ever done, Brian Wilson. Brian heard a recording of the Rhapsody in Blue at age 3 or 4 and had a similar reaction. He is often quoted as saying it showed him the power of music in a way he had never before experienced. In the early 80s, I was asked by a friend to find a recording of Stanley Black and the London Festival Orchestra playing Rhapsody in Blue. Brian Wilson needed it, the friend said, and I found it through the efforts of British fans Roy Gudge and Andrew Doe, who are still my dear friends today. I sent the cassette to my friend, who gave it to Brian. Later, meeting with Brian, he played the Rhapsody in Blue for me at his piano, then talked with me for awhile about how the cassette had saved his life and renewed his relationship with music. This was an incredible meeting, and I will never forget it. Later I learned that Brian had fallen in love with this version during his Pet Sounds/Smile period of recording and writing.
Speeding into today, my mind and heart leaped for joy when I heard my favorite musician was going to record an entire album of my other favorite musician's music.Thre was some trepidation, because I knew Brian would see this as a work of love, but also as a challenge to do right by a musician he loves and admires. George Gershwin has always been a musician's musician, as has Brian Wilson. Musicians record each other's works, or "quote" tributes to each other frequently. It is always eye opening to see how many musicians recording today cite Brian's work as a major influence. Brian has had the chance to not only record George and Ira Gershwin's work,but to have access to unfinished works from the Gershwin Estate Archive. Brian chose two to work into complete songs, and his results are on this album.
The generations after World War II lost some of the day by day exposure to George and Ira Gershwin's music that people of the Roaring Twenties/Depression Eras had. Jazz musician's carried on the legacy of recording and playing Gershwin tunes, usually instrumentally, wth the notable exception of vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. It is exciting to see Brian revive Gershwin music for several new generations of listeners through this project, which truly does reimagine Gershwin music. Eyewitnesses said that on February 12 1924, at Aeolian Hall in New York City, when Rhapsody in Blue was premiered by Gershwin with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra that Whiteman's musicians had tears rolling down their cheeks when the so called "Andantino" or E Major movement of the Rhapsody in Blue was played. Brian opens his own Gershwin tribute with a vocal and instrumental interpretation of the first several bars of this movement which reminded this listener of what an incredible arranger he is. Brian may be one of the most complete musicians of the 20th century because of his ability to write, arrange, produce, and then perform the music he records. These moments of pure vocal harmony are both beautiful and moving in their performance, and harken back to times when people likened The Beach Boys' voices to instruments at Brian's command. This opening to Brian's album had tears rolling down my cheek just as Whiteman's musicians did so long ago. Various bars of Rhapsody in Blue reappear throughout the whole album, and remind us of Brian's love for this music.
Brian's reworking of Will You Remember Me from the musical Lady Be Good is entitled The Like I Love in You. Brian's lyricist in this new endeavor is Scott Bennett, who so ably wrote lyrics for most of the Lucky Old Sun project. In its original form in 1924, the piece was written for Fred Astaire, who so capably recorded so many Gershwin songs. The piece was omitted from Lady Be Good because its slow tempo was much at odds with the frenetic pace of the music and dialogue in Lady Be Good. Brian has chosen to keep the slower tempo, turning it into an achingly beautiful love song, surely reminiscent of the Pet Sounds/Smile period. Portions of The Like I Love in You recall Brian's Wonderful from Smile, and Caroline No from Pet Sounds. This is a song any writer could call a career peak, and Brian has added a treasure to his oeurve of beloved ballads that people love to hear. The coda is pure Brian, and this could be the song one would imagine hearing had Brian ended Pet Sounds happily, instead of dejectedly.
Porgy and Bess is the great American opera, and no recording of Gershwin music would be complete without a sampling of songs from that work. Gershwin labored over Porgy and Bess for nearly two years, coming back to it in between concert touring and trips with friends. He spent part of a summer near the Barrier Islands of South Carolina, learning the rhythms, vocal nuances, and nomenclature of that area's African American population. This was at the behest of Dubose Heyward, a writer whose novel was adapted into the Porgy and Bess Gershwin finished. In its original place in the opera, Summertime is a lullaby sung by Bess to a baby she is watching for another character, Clara. Summertime might be called the "breakout" tune from Porgy and Bess, selling thousands of copies in sheet music, and becoming a tune that stood apart from the opera itself. Brian himself recorded a quick version of it in 1964, with a female vocalist named Sharon Marie. Brian's own version on this album captures the tension that Bess felt in her desiring to be at peace but never fully letting her guard down due to the possible return of Crown, her abusive male companion. Brian's version conveys Bess talking as much to herself as to Clara's baby, trying to be comforted, knowing that Crown could return at any time with the sexual and emotional abuse beginning all over again. His use of Don't Worry Baby's guitar rhythms appear to remind himself that everything will be all right.
I Loves You Porgy is the song Anne Brown as Bess sang to convey her love for Porgy and her plaintive plea to keep her safe from Crown. Brian sings in a manner akin to the vocal someone like Rosemary Clooney, a favorite female singer of Brian's might sing. There is vulnerability, but also a sense that she wants to be Porgy's woman, so he can keep her safe. Brian's own vocal style in this version is warm, with warm brass behind him. One can hear Brian perhaps recalling similar moments in his own life when he felt very alone and abandoned, hoping that someone he loved would protect him. There is the flavor of someone who is extremely vulnerable and who needs loving protection in this version, capturing the feelings that the Gershwins and Heyward were looking for in the original opera.
In the original notes for Porgy and Bess'e debut, George Gershwin told Todd Duncan, the first Porgy, that I Got Plenty o' Nuttin' is "a bitter song and you have to sing it with tongue-in-cheek; you have to sing it smiling all the time. Because what you are doing is making fun of us (rich people). You're making fun of people who make money and to whom power and position are important." Brian's instrumental version is certainly tongue-in-cheek. The use of bass harmonica conveys an almost Pet Sounds feel, with the accordian therein recalling the very naive, optimistic innocent yet quite sexual feel of Wouldn'y It Be Nice. The coda has a flavor of some of the Jewish music George Gershwin was so familiar with, and reminds me of Fiddler on the Roof. Who was more mocking of money and possessions than The Fiddler himself?
In Porgy and Bess, Sportin' Life is the character who makes fun of beliefs people hold dear, and John Bubbles, a vaudedille veteran, played the character in the original production. It is well documented that George Gershwin had to teach Bubbles how to sing It Aint Necessarily So by having Bubbles dance the song while memorizing the tempo and lyrics. Later, the song became well associated with Cab Calloway, band leader and jazz performer, who was famous for his own language, very similar to Sportin' Life's hip and cynical persona in the opera. In Brian's version, there is an odd, menacing feeling that the singer is imparting to the listener that captures Gershwin's intention for the song. There is an almost bitter, doubting, cynical timbre to the vocal that imparts the idea that "we tell the children the devil's a villain---it aint necessarily so." There is a disturbing sax/violin figure toward the end of the song that musically captures the sinister feeling of the song, and its pessimistic tone. The song at time almost lopes along, reminding the listerner that its first singer, John Bubbles, was a dancer who couldn't read music.
George and Ira Gershwin's musicals have enjoyed a renaissance over the last twenty years on Broadway. Because of the frequency of performance of Gershwin's long form compositions, the musicals lost some of their public prominence for a number of years. Yet in these shows are the vast majority of the songs that George and Ira Gershwin's reputations were based on. S' Wonderful is one of the Gershwin's most covered tunes, from Funny Face, performed by literally hundreds of artists in the 80 or so years since it was written. The song has been especially popular with jazz artists. In Brian's hands, the tune becomes a tribute to the Brazilian stylings of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrid Gilberto. Jobim's album with Stan Getz and the Gilbertos moved Brazilian music into the forefront of America's consciousness. The Bossa Nova arrangement of S' Wonderful reminds Beach Boy listeners of Busy Doin' Nothin' from the Friends album. There is a clear Wondermints influence in this song as performed, and it is exciting to hear Brian bow to them. This might be as close to tropical themed exotica as Brian has gotten in many years. This version by Brian is a tour de force, again demonstrating how he can absorb various musical influences such as bossa nova and exotica, mix them together, and apply them to a Gershwin song that has been very frequently covered and needed a new approach reimagined.
Shall We Dance was an Astaire/Rogers film that George and Ira Gershwin scored just prior to George's untimely passing in 1937. At the heart of Shall We Dance was that movie's Gershwin hit, They Can't Take That Away From Me. It is a bittersweet love song looking toward a divorce for a "staged" marriage that the leading characters entered, only to learn they really love each other. Like Brian's loss of the 1966 Grammy for Best Song to the absurd Winchester Cathedral, They Can't Take That Away from Me lost the 1937 Best Song Oscar to a forgotten tune entitled "Waikiki Wedding" from the movie Sweet Leilani. The version Brian cut for this album reminds this writer of the tempo of Help Me Rhonda mixed with the call/response form used in several Sinatra recordings. The quirky instrumental track is Brian at his most charming, eventually breaking into a stroll tempo similar to Little Deuce Coupe. There's a little Beach Boys Party album thrown into the song's bridge, with the whole production exuding pure joy, far from anything bittersweet. This is truly Brian reimagining Gershwin. A masterpiece....
Our Love Is Here to Stay is a tune begun by George and Ira Gershwin for Goldwyn's Follies (1938). George died before the song could be completed, and Oscar Levant and Vernon Duke reconstructed the song's chorus and helped Ira finsih the song. This tune has been one of the Gershwin songs most heavily used for improvisation by jazz musicians. Brian's version has a feel of a Les Paul type of recording, and one could picture Mary Ford singing Brian's arrangement of the tune. Background vocals are used for color, and Brian's beautiful vocal makes one believe that perhaps he selected this tune to be a message of love to his family, both those who have died, and those alive. One can imagine hearing this version on Your Hit Parade in the pre rock and roll era Fifties.
Strike Up the Band is the most famous home of I've Got a Crush On You, which was an outtake from an earlier show. Later it appeared in Treasure Girl prior to its best known appearance in Strike Up the Band. It was also recorded by Gene Kelly for 1951's An American In Paris feature film, but was cut once again. Brian approaches it as almost a doo wop recording, with pounding piano, a Wall of Sound production creeping itno the record in its second half, and its Ira Gershwin lyrics lend themselves to the sort of production one might hear a girl group do in the late 50s or early 60s. It has a cousin in 15 Big One's A Casual Look.
1930 was a great year for the Gershwins. They had two memorable musicals that year, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy. A new Broadway star named Ethel Merman made I Got Rhythm her signature tune, and countless jazz musicians covered the song in the Big Band and Bop eras. It is said that I Got Rhythm and Fascinatin' Rhythm, both Gershwin tunes, brought the term rhythm into common American everyday parlance. George Gershwin himself later used it as a base for a longer work entitled Variations on I Got Rhytym. Brian's version here is the most Beach Boy sounding of all the songs recorded for this project. It is a pure joy to hear, and reminds that he can produce Beach Boys sounding arrangements at will. The song begins with a Duane Eddy sort of guitar intro, then employs old Brian/Spector touches such as glockenspiels to convey a feel akin to some of the songs on Side 1 of Summer Days (and Summer Nights). This is one of Brian's best lead vocals on an album full of great Brian vocals.
Oh Kay was the musical that spawned Someone to Watch Over Me. The song generated an inspired quote from George Gershwin regarding keeping songs simple but sounding more complex, an approach Brian is also known for. Gershwin said "To my way of thinking, it isn't the fellow with all sorts of complicated chords up his sleeve who will capture the audiences. It's the man with a musical vocabulary, so to speak, of simple tonic and dominants---chords built upon the first and fifth notes of the scale, respectively---but who will be able, with those fundamental harmonies, to introduce the vital change, the little twist, which will make the harmonic structure scored rich despite the simple means. It's the old case of much-in-little, and much WITH little." Ironically, George used the rehearsal hall the way Brian uses the studio. Someone To Watch Over me was written at a fast tempo, and only through experimentation in the rehearsal hall did the Gershwins realize they had one of their greatest ballads. To this writer's ears, Brian's version on this album sounds like a marriage between middle era Beatle ballads, especially Paul McCartney's, and Pet Sounds. The introduction and early part of Brian's version are very Beatle sounding, only to yield later on in the song to a more Caroline No sort of feeling, with use of mallets, english horns, and strings reinforcing that impression. This is Brian in a very vulnerable emotional place, giving the song his heart, and reinforcing the notion that is is grateful for the friends through the years that have watched over him. Notes from Rhapsody in Blue creep into the song's coda.
Nothing But Love is a song based upon a Gershwin song fragment from 1929 entitled Say My Say. The song has loveable Brian zaniness, especially in the instrumental arrangement. The song s layered, similar to the introduction to California Girls, adding an instrument or two in each pass through the theme. The melody is the embodiment of what would imagine a collaboration between Brian and Geiorge Gershwin might produce if both men could work with each other. It is simply a killer melody. In places the production sounds a little like Love You, and this may be Brian's intention. One is reminded of the old adage that when all else is gone, love abides, in listening to the lyrics. The end of the coda reprises a few notes from Rhapsody in Blue, which reappears in a gorgeous vocal only arrangement to end the album.
This is Brian Wilson's most musically coherent and cohesive recording since Pet Sounds. It is at once thematically unified and musically diverse. It is Brian Wilson's expression of thanks to George and Ira Gershwin for opening up the world of music into his consciousness so many years ago. This is an album that shouldn't be missed. It is Brian Wilson's best singing, arranging, and producing since Pet Sounds, and is an incredible gift to anyone who loves either Brian or Gershwin's music. His taste in songs is impeccable, and his awareness of each song's significance in the Gershwin Songbook is admirable. If you only buy one album this year, this is the one to get. It is a statement of love from Brian, not only to the Gershwins, but to anyone who loves great music in the American tradition.
Note: This reviewer would like to acknowledge the work of Howard Pollack an his irreplaceable book, George Gershwin: His Life and Work, publshed by The University of California Press in 2006, and The George Gershwin Reader, compiled and edited by Robert Wyatt and John Andrew Johnson, published by Oxford University Press in 2004. Both of these volumes were of tremendous value in preparing this review.
Copyright 2010 by Peter Reum-All Rights Reserved
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