Sunday, October 1, 2017

Playback: The Brian Wilson Anthology by Peter Reum

Brian Wilson's latter day solo career began in the years he was treated for mental illness by Eugene Landy, a psychologist who slimmed a half-dead Brian from 340 pounds to a vital and fit 180 pounds. Brian began working with the late Gary Usher in the mid Eighties, but their collaboration was crippled by the constant meddling of Landy and Brian's keepers, who Brian called "the Surf Nazis." Usher and Brian's work resulted in roughly a dozen songs, many of which have remained unreleased.  One 45 emerged from the sessions, Let's Go to Heaven in My Car. It was only the second single ever released by Brian up to that time, the other being Caroline No from the Beach Boys Pet Sounds album.

One of Brian's rare public performing appearances in the Eighties led to an offer of a record contract from Seymour Stein of Sire Records. Brian's conflicted feelings about recording with Landy and the unending presence of a contingent  of Landy's "handlers" which Brian called "The Surf Nazis" became evident early on in some of the songs that Brian was trying to write with Andy Paley. Paley was recruited by Seymour Stein, and his role was fairly fluid during the sessions he did with Brian. Paley has mentioned in interviews that he wrote over 100 songs with Brian. Four songs from the Wilson/Paley songbook are present on this album's playlist.

Paley is a fine songwriter whose work style was compatible with Brian's. Their collaboration on Brian's first album was a major reason the album turned out so well. Landy's frequent interfering created a high degree of anxiety during the Brian Wilson album sessions. Paley helped calm a shaken Brian when Landy interfered. Brian had a number of songs which were top notch, despite the interference of Landy's numerous phone calls and arguments with anything that messed with his ideas for Brian, including being credited as a dubious "co-writer" on numerous songs.

The Brian Wilson Anthology draws four tunes from the eighteen on the album entitled Brian Wilson.  That first solo album is represented on the Brian Wilson Anthology strongly. The album sessions seemed to drag on, mostly due to ultimatums from either Landy or his bushy minions, the Surf Nazis. Complicating the album's public image was the 1988 single that the Beach Boys released. Kokomo was a catchy tune, and it rose to the top spot on the Billboard singles chart. Over several months, Brian's work on the album grew. Russ Titleman co-produced most of the album with Brian, Rio Grande was produced  by Brian Wilson and Lenny Waronker. Landy had production credit as well, but the credit was removed as were songwriting credits on several other tunes on Brian Wilson.

Love and Mercy leads off the album program, and deserves that honor easily. The tune has been recorded by other artists who also valued the song and it's message. The song is a standard at Brian Wilson concerts, and closes the show as the last song in the encore. The tune's lamentation on the violence in the world is a universal message. Recently, a young woman from Afghanistan recorded it, and was set to come to the USA. Her visa was denied by the Trump Administration.  She was moved by the song's lyric about there being too much violence in the world. Brian had planned to meet her, but it couldn't occur due to a ban on visits from several Islamic countries, including Afghanistan.

The second song culled from Brian Wilson is Surfs Up. The versions from the 1966 and 1967 recordings are remarkable, almost breathtaking. They lack the world weariness of the tune on Brian Wilson Presents Smile. Lionized by Leonard Bernstein, David Oppenheim, and Paul Williams, this version on the Anthology album offers an older and perhaps wiser vocal from Brian that beautifully reflects the worldwise emotions of an older Brian Wilson which better matches the message in Van Dyke Parks' lyrics. To say it bluntly, Brian's vocal from 2004 sounds more appropriate to the song's lyrics than the version from the 1971 Surfs Up album with Carl and Brian. For some Brian Wilson fans, this idea may sound heretical.

Heroes and Villains was one of the major compositions by Brian and the mercurial Van Dyke Parks. The song was to appear on the shelved Smile album in 1966. That the song is brilliant has never been questioned. Heroes and Villains was recorded in short musical pieces that Brian wanted to sequence in a matter similar to how Good Vibrations was put together. Brian's use of short snippets of sound, which were then spliced together was termed "modular production." The modules of Heroes and Villains were reworked for the Brian Wilson Presents Smile album. Thanks to Darian Sahanaja, Brian was able to listen to all of the aborted 1966-7 Heroes and Villains modules, and together Brian and Darian worked to assemble the beautiful version from 2004.

Melt Away is a solo composition, and Brian's lyrics on it perfectly reflect the instrumental track, which has an almost church hymn feeling to it. As Brian has matured and grown older, his ability to commit his thoughts and feelings to his songs has mushroomed. It is a great love song. For my money, it is one of the top 3 or 4 tunes on Brian Wilson.

If you are a follower of Electric Light Orchestra, you will no doubt recognize the sound of Jeff Lynne in Let It Shine. Brian had worked with Roy Wood, a bandmate of Lynne's on It's Ok during The 15 Big Ones sessions. Lynne is a fine producer in his own right, and co-produced Let It Shine with Brian on the Brian Wilson album sessions. For myself, this tune is one of the most upbeat and almost sounds like the beginning of an old fashioned Christian Revival evening. Of course, it is not sacred in its theme.

Some Sweet Day is a previously unreleased tune from Brian's work with Andy Paley. It is a tune that could have fit on some of the Beach Boys mid Sixties albums. It offers a peek into Brian and Andy's sensibilities. The tune's track is a song that is almost a dead ringer for Brian's tune from the Carl and the Passions tune He Came Down. It would be nice to hear a double or triple cd set of the best Wilson/Paley songs.

So much has been written covering Brian's work with Andy Paley on Rio Grande. Having grown up less than half a mile from the Rio Grande in New Mexico, as a kid, it was for me the river that fired my imagination. Lenny Waronker of Warner/Reprise took time out from his busy schedule as WEA president to coax Brian into writing a long form composition "like Cool Cool Water. "  Brian was reluctant initially when asked to record a long form composition.  The song's evolution from a sound sketch into an 8+ minute mini rock opera is covered on Rhino/Warner's extended reissue of Brian's first solo album. The song's Western theme pulls together a number of Brian's song fragments and was revised several times before the released version was completed.  One obvious song fragment is the earworm melody called Night Blooming Jasmine. The song's winding course mirrors the Rio Grande River itself. The input from Andy Paley was invaluable in the stitching together of the various song parts into a coherent song. It is a masterpiece, and boosted Brian's confidence in his own music and lyrics.

The Imagination album offers two songs on this anthology. The collaboration of Brian Wilson and Joe Thomas began with this album. As an overall album, Imagination was more polished and adult oriented than some of Brian's other work. The two songs on this anthology's program are Cry and Lay Down Burden. There are at least 3 other tunes that could fit here, Your Imagination, She Says That She Needs Me, and a sassy collaboration with Jimmy Buffett, South American. Cry offers a somber musical mood that borders on penitent. The tune is an apology to his wife, after he picked a fight with her when he was in a bad mood. The track for the tune literally exudes his sorrow after the fight. Lay Down Burden is a message to his brother Carl when Brian learned that Carl's cancer was terminal.

The two songs that follow Lay Down Burden are songs that appear on the Brian Wilson Live at the Roxy album that is excellent but long ago deleted until this anthology. The First Time is a song that Brian wrote for a Flintstones movie. This Isn't Love was initially written with Brian's Pet Sounds lyricist, Tony Asher for the Wilson Sister's 1997 album without Chynna Phillips. It also appeared as an instrumental on  a Windham Hill label album. The tune could have been a part of a new Wilson/Asher album, but the collaboration ended shortly after This Isn't Love.

As the years went by, Brian's next studio album was titled Gettin' In Over My Head. The album is represented on this anthology by two songs, Gettin' In Over My Head (the title track), and Soul Searchin', the product of an aborted Beach Boys album that was quickly shelved in favor of a Beach Boys and Country Music album with Country Music artists singing Beach Boys songs backed by the group. Soul Searchin' was recorded with a Carl Wilson lead vocal that was blended with Brian's 2004 vocal. The song oozed an earthy feeling track with Brian's vocal parts added. A version was later cut by Solomon Burke. The title track, Gettin' In  Over My Head, is an excellently produced melody, with lyrics that convey the questions men and women ask themselves when a new relationship proceeds more rapidly than the new lovers anticipated.  Both tracks are quite strong in an album that is uneven.

The Like I Love in You is one of two unfinished melodies composed by George Gershwin that the Gershwin family asked Brian to finish in 2010. The exceptiomal overall quality of the album, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, makes it my favorite Brian Wilson solo album other than Brian Wilson Presents Smile. The two Gershwin fragments of songs that Brian and his band completed are highlights of a project that Brian and his band were very enthused about. The album is a joy to listen to, and honored Brian's favorite composer and lyricist, George and Ira Gershwin, in a manner that was respectful to the Gershwin musical legacy. Any listener who listens to this album will find the range of human emotions that makes Porgy and Bess an American classic.

After playing Pet Sound live in 2002 and Smile in 2004, the Royal South Festival Hall commissioned Brian to compose the another long form concert to be performed at the hall where the earlier shows were played. The result was an extended performance which centered on a collection of songs themed around the life of a youth centered environment--Southern California. The song cycle was humorous,  even silly until it was revised. One song stands out the best, a biographic tune entitled Midnight's Another Day. Scott Bennett wrote the lyrics with Brian, and they as autobiographical as Brian has ever been since Pet Sounds. The entire theme is a musical portrait of the people, places, and activities that make Southern California special.

The second album that Brian recorded for Disney collected a set of songs taken from Disney motion pictures. Colors of the Wind originally appeared in Pocahantas, a movie about  an actual indigenous person from the 17th Century. The song works beautifully in the story told in this animated movie. It offers a theme of learning to live with our natural world instead of depleting limited energy that sets back Earth's ability to heal itself. For millennia, indigenous people worldwide have lived on Earth working with nature instead of trying to control it.

The first of two archival tunes is a Brian Wilson and Andy Paley composition most likely from the Gettin' In Over My Head sessions. Some Sweet Day is a bouncy and cheerful composition that seems to fit better in this set than it would have fit on the Gettin' In  Over My Head album. The song is bouncy and cute in a first relationship type of thinking. It fits the theme of many of the Wilson/Paley songs that center on first love types of relationships, with their corresponding happy naivety and innocence. The music for Some Sweet Day is cheerful and optimisticaslly forward looking. It fits this album well.

Run James Run is somewhat of an enigma as to when it was written. Clearly, it most likely dates from sometime recent. Some of the tunes that Brian and Joe Thomas wrote date from the year Brian lived in Illinois, around 1997. The tune is a light and bouncy song that fits well as an optimistic album closing tune here on Playback: The Brian Wilson  Anthology.

The album's strengths:

*The album flows very  nicely from beginning to conclusion
*Nearly all of the solo albums Brian has recorded since his 1988 solo album are represented
*This anthology on first blush can be considered an album that focuses on Brian's best solo work
*The musicians on this album are generally from Brian's touring band, and there is a feeling of continuity as a result.

The album's weaknesses:

*Some songs that this writer would have considered a "must" on this album are left out. Please refer to the list below
*The booklet that comes with the album is very well written. It would have been nice to have some observations from Brian for each track
*There are numerous one off types of tracks that have come out intermittently throughout Brian's solo career. Some of them are excellent and need the further exposure that they deserve
*A bonus DVD would have been helpful to show some of Brian's work

Appendix I

Some possible tracks that could be valuable in an expanded version of this anthology

Brian Wilson (1988)
* There's So Many
* Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight

I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (1995)
* Do It Again with Carnie and Wendy
* Still I Dream of It (demo)

Orange Crate Art (with Van Dyke Parks 1995)
*Orange Crate Art
*Palm Tree and Moon
*San Francisco

Imagination (1998)
*She Says That She Needs Me
*South American
*Your Imagination (vocals only)

Brian Wilson Live at the Roxy (2000)
*Caroline No
*Friends (from Japanese issue)

Brian Wilson Pet Sounds Live (2001)
*I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
*Pet Sounds - title track

Gettin' In Over My Head
*Desert Drive
*Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel
*The Waltz

Brian Wilson Presents Smile (200I4)
*Entire Second Movement
*On a Holiday
*Mrs O'Leary's Cow
*In Blue Hawaii

What I Really Want For Christmas  (2005)
*Joy to the World
*What I Really Want For Christmas
*Christmassy

Lucky Old Son (2007)
*Oxygen to the Brain
*Going Home

Brian Wilson Presents Gershwin (2010)
*Nothing But Love
*I Loves You Porgy
*I Got Rhythm

In the Key of Disney  (2011)
*Dwarf Medley

No Pier Pressure (2015)
*Half Moon Bay
*Our Special Love

Brian Wilson and Friends (2016)
*Marcella
*Heroes and Villains

One Off Songs for bonus material:

Live Let Live
He Couldn't Get His Body to Move
Being With the One You Love
Rodney on the Roc
Too Much Sugar
Let's Go to Heaven in My Car
This Song Wants to Sleep With You Tonight
Good Vibrations (live)
Our Prayer (live)
Our Prayer (Freeform Reform Mix)
Sweets for the Sweet
This Could Be the Night
God Only Knows (BBC version)
Surfin' USA live @ Bridge School Benefit
Goodnight Irene
What Love Can Do
In My Moondreams with Andy Paley
Listen to Me
Wanderlust
My Sweet Lord
California Feeling
California Sun
Country Feelin'
The Spirit of Rock and Roll
Speed Turtle
You Are So Beautiful with Carnie Wilson
Til I Die with Carnie and Wendy Wilson
Monday Without You with Carnie/Wendy
Everything I Need with Carnie/Wendy
Miracle with Carnie and Wendy
Friends live

Demos exist for a number of Brian Wilson songs with the Beach Boys and as a solo artist. This is a fertile source for other solo efforts by Brian.

For a single cd anthology, Playback is a fine introduction to Brian Wilson's solo recordings. I can honestly recommend it with few if any reservations.



Essay copyright 2017 by Peter Reum - all rights reserved







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