The Beach Boys - "Smile Sessions" 2 x vinyl LP

The Beach Boys – Smile Sessions

2 x vinyl LP 180 Gram, 2011

Capital Records

For an album that caused so much anxiety, madness, and a world being torn apart, is ironically so happy sounding. I would even call it happy-go-lucky. But the truth is it is anything but happy – at least life outside this vinyl or music. But when I put the needle on the record I am transformed into a weird landscape that is for sure America, but America that is transformed into a combination of Walt Disney, psychedelia, and the brash corny humor of “Hee Haw.”

This vinyl set as well as the Smile box set is the official release of this remarkable album. First of all it is hard to grasp all of this after so many years of hearing the bootlegs of these recordings. I have heard so many different versions of this work, that it is sort of like Kenneth Anger, who have consistently tinkered with his films over the years. But what's amazing is that the different mixes, the out-takes, and even the banter while recording the album is equally fascinating. The only people I know who likes Smile are people who have all the bootlegs or just huge fans of Brian Wilson and the boys.

Nevertheless the new (and final?) version is sort of a musical theater placed in one's head. Way more abstract than Pet Sounds which is basically straight forward pop songs, Smile deals with the enjoyment and love of everyday objects and things. “Wind Chimes,” “Vega-Tables,” and even “Good Vibrations” deal with pleasure either through objects, food or spirituality. The lyricist Van Dyke Parks really gets into Brian's head. I know on paper and probably work wise, Parks was a big part of the foundation for these series of songs. But still, I feel it expresses the inner-world of Wilson, a man-child tasting the vegetable for the first time and listening to the wind chimes – and putting on a focus on that act of appreciation. Its really unique in that sense.

Also there is this tension between being healthy and sort of losing it. Almost a hyper attention to getting it together, but of course the sanity of it all is in question. Smile to me is not a downer, but it does expose the dark tinge of disappointment or UN-fulfillment of dreams. But every dark cloud still has that hope attached to it, and Smile is very much a positive outlook on life and how one leads that life.

Smile is very much a set-piece and it has its own narrative, so it's important to hear it from beginning to end. The ambition and scope of this album is pretty grand, and I miss the days when artists went all out to achieve that type of work.    

The Beach Boys - "Pet Sounds" Vinyl Album Mono

The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

Vinyl LP Mono

Capital Records

The mature masterpiece from The Beach Boys, or one should say Brian Wilson. While the band toured the world, Wilson slaved in a studio with the top L.A. Session players in making a work that is both emotional with that 'gee-wizz how great is that' type of feeling. If there was ever a white blues sound from the suburbs , Brian Wilson should have patented it, because the angst has never felt so dreamily personal and one-so-of-a-kind.

What works and totally fascinating to hear is the many layers and parts that's this record. On one level you have the great melodies, and on another is the arrangements that seem to be complicated but effortlessly done, and third, the brilliant and beautiful voices of The Beach Boys. What we have here is perfection which is technical but has a lot of feeling and tenderness. Very rarely does one hear a sound that is technically perfect in an aurally sense, but the emotion behind it is just a wow. The only thing I can compare it to is Bach. For the reason that Bach seems to add layers, and each layer builds and builds. Or supports another layer. Brian Wilson does that with this album.

For those who are obsessed with the sound of this album there is the Pet Sounds box-set which obsessively documents each take or layer that is put on this LP. Never boring because each piece itself is beautiful. So listening to it is very enjoyable.

Everyone should at least hear this album from the beginning to the end. Hating it is not a sin, but not to acknowledge its greatness is weird to me. It is like seeing a beautiful work of architecture and admiring the structure and how one feels inside that environment. That's Pet Sounds in a nutshell. 

The Beach Boys - "Love You" CD Album

The Beach Boys – Love You

CD Album, remastered, 1991

Caribou Records/Brother Records

Recorded at the height of the “Brian is Back” publicity campaign when Brian was clearly not back at all. But what is amazing is that he could write, record, and perform this album. Love You came out in 1977, and at the time Brian Wilson was fat, demented, and sort of forced out of his self-retirement by his band mates/management to work on this album. The record before Love You was another odd album that was forced upon the band due that it was their 15^th Anniversary. By law anything with a zero or a 5 at the end of that number, you must acknowledge it.

What is sad, now looking back, is that Brian Wilson was a very ill man, and he was sort of forced to get back to work, which may or may not been good for his mental health. But saying that we have 14 really odd Beach Boys songs. Not great songs, but songs of genius. It amazes me how an album like this can get made. There must be a 'genius' button inside Brian's system, that automatically goes on.

The album's sound has a flatness, and even though its in stereo, the aesthetic is very much mono. On one level most of these songs are not good, but somehow filtered through the Beach Boys sound, and the eccentric lyrical aspect of the tunes, makes this a wonderful curious piece of work. Songs like “Airplane” and “Johnny Carson” captures a moment or is more likely a meditation on its subject matter. It sounds stupid, but its really smart. The one masterpiece song is “Honkin' Down The Highway,” which has a beautiful melody. Al Jardine's lead vocals is perfect and it conveys a pictorial narrative in my head that is 1950's Broadway musical. Brian sings lead in lot of songs here, and his voice his gruff, as well as Dennis Wilson. But their roughness adds charm, especially when it is combined with the perfection of the other voices in the mix.

The Beach Boys' Love You may not be their best album, but I think it's a work that many loves dearly. And I really really like it.

The Beach Boys - "Cabin Essence"/"Wonderful" 7" vinyl single

The Beach Boys – Cabin Essence/Wonderful

7” vinyl single, clear yellow, given free with an issue of Mojo, 2011

Mojo/Capital Records

One of the insane cuts from a great album Smile by The Beach Boys. Bach like with melody on top of another melody, which strange enough now reminds me of Associates' “Kitchen Sink,” As in everything in the kitchen sink, and this is one dense noise that is beautiful. Both songs. The flip side “Wonderful” is a gorgeous melody and with the layers of vocals and that beautiful piano that traces the song so wonderfully. Brian Wilson's orchestration couldn't be better. For an album that was troubled, it is amazing how it turned out. Total joy, like these two choice cuts from the album.

Also getting this single from Mojo, was a very nice touch.

The Beach Boys - "All Summer Long" Vinyl Mono LP

The Beach Boys – All Summer Long

Vinyl LP, Mono, 1964

Capital Records

All Summer Long lasts 12 months in the world of The Beach Boys. But the seasons to The Beach Boys are different from other folks. The cold despair of Winter is actually their summer. The wishfulness of Brian Wilson songs seduces one into a calm, but in actuality the music is like the ocean in a hurricane. It sucks you up, and then throws you on the pavement.

In 1964 the first thought when one hears the three words of The Beach Boys is 'surf.' All Summer Long is without a doubt not a surf album. Although there is one song “Don't Back Down” is perhaps their last stance on the sand and surf board. “Little Honda” is the only car song on the album, and now listening to it, the sexuality of the song brings up Kenneth Anger's fetish of the machine as a sex toy. Mike Love may or may not have other meaning for that song, but the urgency of the song is fantastic. Have the word “Go” brought such sensuality?

Without a doubt “Pet Sounds” and “Smile” are masterpieces, but for me The Beach Boys made incredible recordings between the early surf era and their progressive stance in later albums. Here, they are in a twilight age, where they see the 7” single as a brilliant medium. Some of the songs are total toss-offs (“Do You Remember?”) and “Our Favorite Recording Sessions” is....what is it?

On the other hand “Girls on the Beach” to me is pure sensual beauty. Sexuality never have been expressed so effortlessly, so easy, and enticing. But their happiness is fading quickly.

Barney Wilen - Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions) CD Album

Jazz In Paris Series

Barney Wilen – Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions)

CD Album, France, 1958

Jazz in Paris, Universal Music (France)

The great French Tenor Sax player Barney Wilen backed by ¾ of The Modern Jazz Quartet. Instead of John Lewis, we have the great vibe player Milt Jackson on piano, which I think is unusual. Nevertheless a great band with a fantastic rhythm section of Kenny Clarke and Percy Heath. These recordings always bring out the romantic in me, because I imagine these guys playing in a Parisian nightclub with numerous beautiful woman dressed in black with their gangster boyfriends. Drinking whiskey and water, and very little dialogue. Well, I think the Universal Music label 'Jazz in Paris' feeds that image for us foreigners, who spend a great deal of time in front of the TV/Computer to watch French gangster films of the 1950's.

So Jazz sur Seine (original title is Jazz Sessions) is a beautiful snapshot of what I imagine was a perfect time when French Jazz musicians played with American greats. It's the meeting of these two cultures that somehow becomes one-of-a-kind expression of a love shared by the few. This particular album has songs by Wilen as well as by Django Reinhardt, Charles Trenet and Thelonious Monk.

The original Vinyl album (1958)

Barbara - "Volume 2 1960/1961/1962 Barbara chante Brassens et Brel"

Barbara – Volume 2 1960/1961/1962 Barbara chante Brassens et Brel

CD Compilation, Paris

Philips

You can't do wrong with songs by Georges Brassens or Jacques Brel, but when you are Barbara it becomes something extraordinary. Like Gréco, Barbara is a singing icon and worth being passionate about. As I mentioned in a previous review, Barbara is very close to someone like Scott Walker, in that she's a songwriter, but also used her talents to interpret the great songs by these masterful songwriters. One source feeds on the other, and one of the great things about art is that it doesn't come out of nowhere. If you pay attention, and follow the clues, it can lead you into a sensual world. Brassens struck me as a writer commenting on his fellow citizens and Brel, conveys the sensual world that he lived in. Barbara's job is to convey these gentlemen's passions and put it into her own world.

What I have is sort of a greatest hits package. Its great, but it makes me hungry to own the original vinyl. Therefore I put the record covers up, instead of what I have – which is boring looking.