JSngry

No photos here, because she's not a "calssic" babe figure-wise, and the camera does not do her justice. But watch her move, and watch her eyes and mouth when she talks, and tell me that this ain't one fun/fiesty woman, Y'all can take the bimbos. Give me some spunk. Give me some Rachael Ray!

Even the NYT is in on this debate! http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/18/opinion/18sat3.html?th Brian Wilson and the Significance of an Abandoned Masterpiece By VERLYN KLINKENBORG Published: September 18, 2004 Some readers, and I am one of them, prefer the version of "The Prelude" that Wordsworth finished in 1805 and laid aside to the version published soon after his death in 1850. "The Prelude" is an autobiographical poem, and a certain freshness and immediacy evaporated as Wordsworth revised the text. His is a case in which an early work of art comes to have greater authority than the artist, in later life, who made it. As a poet, the young Wordsworth overrules his older self. And so it is with Brian Wilson, the singer and songwriter who made the Beach Boys what they were. In late September, he will release a record called "Smile," a reconstruction of a song cycle he abandoned 38 years ago. Earlier this year, Mr. Wilson and a backing band performed the songs from this new version of "Smile" to rave reviews on a tour of Europe. It was an act of courage for Mr. Wilson to confront this part of his musical legacy, written at a time when his artistic confidence and emotional stability had begun to shatter. But the new recording of "Smile" - the entire reconstruction, in fact - poses a problem. Mr. Wilson's achievement as a musician is enormous in its own right and for what it allowed other musicians, including the Beatles, to do. He composed an extraordinary catalog of music, and he revolutionized the songwriter's use of the recording studio. He created two-minute masterpieces for the Beach Boys, as well as a succession of darker, more somber songs that redefined the possibilities of popular music and painfully evoked his own isolation and anxiety. But that Brian Wilson never made it out of the 1960's. I say that with regret, because I have loved his music for more than 40 years. In an extremely chaotic but productive few months in 1966, Mr. Wilson laid the groundwork of an album he wanted to call "Smile." Some of its tracks eventually appeared in one form or another, including "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains." But the record collapsed even as he was collapsing. He had long since given up touring with the Beach Boys, and they had begun to question where his music was headed. The artistic success of the album "Pet Sounds" only increased the pressures on Mr. Wilson - to write new hits for the Beach Boys, to live up to the impossible reputation of his own genius and to face the difficulty of living with himself. His retreat from the world was well documented. His second comings have been, too. But the "Smile" pieces that surfaced over the years - including most of the songs on this new album - were remarkable. Some, like "Good Vibrations," are immediately familiar to almost everyone. Others, like "Cabinessence" and "Vegetables," are not. The original versions are not timeless, and yet that's what engraves them permanently in my mind. They capture a moment in Mr. Wilson's musical evolution, a moment of great ambition and surpassing silliness. He has broken free of most of his restraints - the two-minute single, for instance - and that freedom is about to do him in. And what still makes those songs matter, apart from their beauty, is the fact that they were sung by the Beach Boys. Mr. Wilson used mostly studio musicians when he was recording. He collaborated with a legendary lyricist, Van Dyke Parks. But even in 1966 he was still writing for the voices of the Beach Boys - his brothers, Dennis and Carl; his cousin, Mike Love; and Al Jardine. The timbre of those voices, singing together, is virtually a native American idiom. Critics often argue that the commercial appetite of the Beach Boys and their willingness to stick to a Top 40 formula held Brian Wilson back. But you could argue just as easily that they stuck with him until he came apart. They shared his naïve sense of humor. They sang what he taught them to sing. They gave his songs a vocal identity that is as instantly recognizable as the songs themselves. Why does this matter? Dennis Wilson died in 1983. Carl Wilson died in 1998. The importance of what they, especially Carl, brought to the band has been swamped, and in some sense properly, by the legend of Brian Wilson. "Smile" was going to be a Beach Boys record, but it became a Brian Wilson record. His collaboration with Van Dyke Parks was heralded at the time as the union of two geniuses. But Mr. Parks's contribution - nonsensical lyrics - pales utterly compared with the contribution of Carl Wilson's voice alone. Audiences have celebrated this new version of "Smile" as much for the survival of Brian Wilson - his recovery from years of mental and emotional illness - as for the music. Everyone loves a therapeutic tale. But these versions of long-familiar songs add nothing to what we have already heard. The new lyrics for "Good Vibrations" grate on my ears, as does the absence of those old essential voices. In the 80's and 90's, the Beach Boys, without Mr. Wilson, became a Beach Boys cover band. Now Brian Wilson, without the Beach Boys, has become a Brian Wilson cover band. The younger artist - the original art itself - still possesses greater authority.

I love how the product is from "Creative"....

What with all the panic about copy protection, file sharing, etcetcetc, do think that the industry is now viewing their "scorched earth" introduction of the CD and the similar attempted assassination of the LP as perhaps being the opening of Pandora's Box? This is not an "analog v. digital" question. It's a question of whether the industy would/should have put a little more time and thought into the format change and protected their asses significantly better than they did before they went all gung-ho into the future. Or whether they COULD have. Any thoughts/ideas?

Yeah man, it's cool. It's not like Republicans have a monopoly on squaredom. Far, FAR from it....

They're only making 37!

If not, then Billy Byers stands as the only man who has played with all three!

Take your eyes off the cover and listen to the music.

Well, yeah, but as an ex posto facto collection of live tapes, not a planned album (and Sheppwas just sitting in too), which is why I refered to it as an "official bootleg". Kind of a wink thing, that was. No matter - you now have TWO answers!

It's not the same album at all. The two Supraphons, that is. Unless Muse is giving wrong info. Who knows? Why do they say this? The Muse liner notes DO say that "This album is one of a series which has been released by the CBBB organization, recorded in Czechoslovakia (Prague International Festival of 1967)" I see that the Muse is missing a "Griff's Groove", which kinda pisses me off, but hey...

Not from the Trane end. From the Zappa end. This is getting confusing!

Not unlike Paul Bley playing a standard.

Thanks, guys! And to think that Da Bastids let it go for $7.00!

Considering that these are both "official" projects, and the Shepp is a "legitimate bootleg", I think that THIS should be the "official" answer to the Coltrane connection!

Billy Byers - Grand Wazzo w/Zappa & LEGRAND JAZZ w/Coltrane.

Ooops, Couw beat me to it.

George Duke.

Archie Shepp! http://www.science.uva.nl/~robbert/zappa/a...chie_Shepp.html

And that would be wrong.

Excuse me, I was thinking Chuck Findley.

Sal Marquez would be the Miles connection.

Muse liners (by the enigmatic - to me, anyway - Fred Norsworthy) say it was recorded in Prague in 1967 for Supraphon. Good stuff, FUNKY recording quality. Where else has this material been issued (LP or CD), and if so, has the sound been cleaned up? Is this Muse LP the only non-Euro issue of this? As always, thanks in advance.

Jim Morrsion? (still trying to decipher that signature, against RT's advice...)

Ok - "college age" in 1961, "famous" (and not necessarily a jazz musician), with a talent for painting, may or may not have gone to art school in the early 60s before going into music as a career, who could that be besides about a cuppla hundred people...