Jump to content

The Beach Boys, THAT'S WHY GOD MADE THE RADIO


Joe

Recommended Posts

The_Beach_Boys_-_That%27s_Why_God_Made_the_Radio_Album_Cover.jpg

Listening to this now... "classic" in sound without being irrevocably nostalgic, IMO... and, while its not just a Brian Wilson solo album with different branding, it sure is something of a curiosity.

Any other members here interested in this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The_Beach_Boys_-_That%27s_Why_God_Made_the_Radio_Album_Cover.jpg

Listening to this now... "classic" in sound without being irrevocably nostalgic, IMO... and, while its not just a Brian Wilson solo album with different branding, it sure is something of a curiosity.

Any other members here interested in this?

Heard the title cut on Siriux/XM. While I could hear the "classic" influences, it just didn't sit right with me, but that may just take me hearing it more and getting used to it (the title cut to Springsteen's "The Rising" was that way for me). I'm a big fan of the ca. 2000-2005 Brian Wilson "Live at the Roxy Theatre", "Pet Sounds Live" and "Smile" albums.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ja joe, highly interested in the story but i'm afraid the album is better than not-horrible... i had to listen of course but could it be otherwise? there are two sleepers in BW's catalog (assuming we all recognize Love You as a form of genius) and they are the maligned but half great Andy Paley/Eugene Landy album Brian Wilson and maligned but brilliant blues album, Van Dyke Parks Orange Crate Art. The Smile simulacra was pretty good but the rest of BW's solo career is pretty sorry, though the unreleased Sweet Insanity would have at least been suitably weird.

Greatest Brian Wilson song ever as of June 6, 2012: "H.E.L.P. Is On The Way" (which I can't find on youtube but it's on Disc 3 of the "Good Vibrations" box).

Greatest Beach Boys book everyone should read but maybe haven't: David Leaf, "Beach Boys And The California Myth"--

http://www.amazon.com/The-Beach-Boys-California-Myth/dp/0448146266

Blondie Chaplin Changed Our Lives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRyD-biu7mQ

Edited by MomsMobley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The_Beach_Boys_-_That%27s_Why_God_Made_the_Radio_Album_Cover.jpg

Listening to this now... "classic" in sound without being irrevocably nostalgic, IMO... and, while its not just a Brian Wilson solo album with different branding, it sure is something of a curiosity.

Any other members here interested in this?

Did Brian produce it himself, or was it a "group effort"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BW is given producer credit. According to the (well-balanced, overall, IMO) ALLMUSIC review... "It includes frequently gorgeous charts from Wilson and just a little sweetening to the songs (musically with help from Wilson's regular band and arranger Paul Mertens, lyrically with help from Joe Thomas and Jim Peterik)"...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know, but I couldn't tell you the last time I bought THREE new releases the day they came out: this, the Walsh, and the Young. This was by far the biggest surprise simply because I'm enjoying it as much as I am. Reminds me a lot of BW'a Smile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be surprised if you like what you find there. If you like parts of Lucky Old Sun (which I forgot to mention as third mostly good or better BW solo) than this is everything that ain't. If the mere presence of Robot Brian as opposed to the engagement of whatever battered mix of memory, desire and humor the original Brian could summon along with his (food/drug mediated) depression/happiness then...

Note 1: I already suppressed the fact I listened to a song co-written by Jon Bon Fucking Jovi... Good luck with that one yourself.

Note 2: I didn't discount this record just because Carl and Dennis are dead but don't believe the wow-they-aren't-dead-yet-hype, this is the most BORING Beach Boys record w/ Brian since Keepin' The Summer Alive; again, at least Light Album was weird; at least Beach Boys (1985) had "Male Ego"; the new one is 'classier' at first listen (and obviously eschews the hideous '80s production style) but underneath the competent execution it's pretty much CHINTZ.

Not chintz:

I can go there, then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Plus, it's just a nice record, which says a lot these days no matter who's making the music. Sure it's no TODAY or PET SOUNDS or even FRIENDS (which is likely going to end up my all-time favorite Beach Boys record), but at the very least it has aspirations to those three, meaning it sounds like they're at least TRYING to make a nice record. Which, like I said, they succeeded in doing, AFAIC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somewhat low-but-benevolent expectations mostly met, occasionally not met, and every now and then very pleasantly exceeded. The first two cuts set up hopes for a real gem, but hey...maybe this is the At Peace At Last Love You. Or not.

BTW, "Summer's Gone", the song co-written by Jon Bon-Jovi, is a little on the eerie side, and in a good way, another (the last?) in a distinguished line of Beach Boys album closers such as "Caroline No" (which surely it is meant to reference) & "For Once In My Life" that can, if you so desire, choke you up (and wipe away the memories of the overall averageness of the album that was beginning to accumulate). It's a pop song, so..it is what it is, and you get out of it what you bring to it, which for me is more or less a quarter-century of Pulling for Brian, Because I Believe.

Seems like he's finally at peace with The Whole Thing (which was so much darker for him than This Whole World). Maybe there's no more need to pull, maybe's he's finally made it there. Sure hope so.

Summer's gone. Indeed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somewhat low-but-benevolent expectations mostly met, occasionally not met, and every now and then very pleasantly exceeded. The first two cuts set up hopes for a real gem, but hey...maybe this is the At Peace At Last Love You. Or not.

BTW, "Summer's Gone", the song co-written by Jon Bon-Jovi, is a little on the eerie side, and in a good way, another (the last?) in a distinguished line of Beach Boys album closers such as "Caroline No" (which surely it is meant to reference) & "For Once In My Life" that can, if you so desire, choke you up (and wipe away the memories of the overall averageness of the album that was beginning to accumulate). It's a pop song, so..it is what it is, and you get out of it what you bring to it, which for me is more or less a quarter-century of Pulling for Brian, Because I Believe.

Seems like he's finally at peace with The Whole Thing (which was so much darker for him than This Whole World). Maybe there's no more need to pull, maybe's he's finally made it there. Sure hope so.

Summer's gone. Indeed.

Book I just read, Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall & Redemption Of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin, claims that Wilson made his peace with the past in the remake of Smile. His theory is that album was such a freak-out for Wilson, that it effected his mental/emotional life ever after, but with the remake, Wilson achieved some sort of peace with all the went before. Still thinking about that one...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if there is anyway for Brian Wilson to come to terms, or at peace, with Mike Love. Speaking of the whole original Smile fiasco, ML comes off as a huge jerk, who didn't care what kind of damage he did to Wilson, or to his music -- Love's treatment of Van Dyke Parks, his whole "What the f' do these lyrics mean!" bs, causing VDP to walk out, was supposedly the turning point of the whole thing, when Wilson really started to fall apart.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, there's always the money possibility, but unless Brian's broke, I don't think he'd do it just for that. Too much baggage to carry, so I'm going to assume that there's been some kind of closure at last, noting that closure doesn't = warm-fuzzzies, just that you're finally able to let it go and not eat you up any more.

I mean, Love (who nobody I respect likes, much less loves) is already 71, Brian turns 70 in a few days...they ain't got that much time left, ya' know? Not just professionally, but to simply be alive. Time to start making things as right as they can be, before there's no time left at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, there's always the money possibility, but unless Brian's broke, I don't think he'd do it just for that. Too much baggage to carry, so I'm going to assume that there's been some kind of closure at last, noting that closure doesn't = warm-fuzzzies, just that you're finally able to let it go and not eat you up any more.

I mean, Love (who nobody I respect likes, much less loves) is already 71, Brian turns 70 in a few days...they ain't got that much time left, ya' know? Not just professionally, but to simply be alive. Time to start making things as right as they can be, before there's no time left at all.

Which, if true that Wilson and Love have reconciled, is great for them and shows good emotional maturity. It might sound obvious, be at peace with someone because your time on earth is short, but in counseling families, I find that is rare. There's nothing worse than meeting with a family before a funeral, and people are in tears because a family member died, and they're crying because of the very fact that they did not reconcile with the deceased. Life is short.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...