Teasing the Korean

I would say that jazz still had a certain amount of cultural relevance through at least part of the 70s. Kids were getting stoned to Miles Davis, Playboy still had a jazz poll, and you could hear Ed Shaughnessy and Conte Condole every weeknight on US network TV. People were still alive who remembered the big bands and even New Orleans jazz. But jazz was finished by the 1980s, and Wynton and the so-called young lions were a symptom, not a cause.

Art forms have life spans, jut like artists. The cultural climate that was conducive to producing legendary jazz artists and albums no longer exists. Jazz's biggest cultural splash since 1980 has occurred via sampling, and those are old jazz records getting sampled.

That's what I told her!

I know Les Baxter's daughter. She said that dog was vicious, and they got rid of it after it bit Joan Crawford!

It may have been Milt Bernhart.

Did you ever hear the two Gene Clark songs circa 1970 with all five of the original Byrds? McGuinn even dusted off his 12-string Rick.

I tend to agree with you here, but I am quite fond of Gary McFarland's version, especially the counter-melody on the "God only knows" refrain. Then again, I am a total Gary McFarland freak.

Happy Birthday!

Here it is by Andy's ex. The arrangement largely misses Brian's distinctive use of the third, fifth, or seventh in the bass note. It is pretty bad, primarily because of the arrangement. The ending is kind of nice, with the chorus of Claudines. And here is Carl performing it in 1992 at what appears to be a Japanese steak house!

Interesting! This speaks to my question about The Beach Boys being bigger in the UK than in the US during this time.

I think "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)" could work very well in a jazz context.

I agree that Gene Clark was the best aspect of the Byrds, and I wish that more of his Preflyte-era tracks had made their way onto the first two albums instead of things like "Oh Susannah." I have toyed around with making playlists integrating tracks from Clark's first solo album with Byrds tracks from around the same era, as though he had stayed with the group. I always thought it was an interesting paradox that some of my favorite Byrds albums were made after my favorite Byrd was gone, in particular the Younger than Yesterday album.

I thought that session musicians were on only the first single, "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "I Knew I'd Wan't You," but I'm not aware of any parts being recorded over later. I do know that in the CD era, they added some parts to complete some older unreleased tracks. Chris Hillman added an acoustic guitar part to "It Happens Each Day" and Crosby sang a couple of lines on "Triad." My placing it in the sequence around songs about drug use and Vietnam was deliberate. Collectively, they show the ugly side of the 1960s, so I think that "Triad" works in that context. By itself, not so much.

Auto-correct sucks.

Because they were covered by Claudine Longet and Astrud Gilberto. There you go.

I take it you mean Sly and not Sky Saxon? Yes, there was something different about the Timmy Thomas record.

I have friends in Portland, and it looks like we are turning a corner with Covid, so that may happen in the not-to-distant future.

I will check it out. I am actually a very nice person, and I would enjoy the opportunity to have a drink with you next time I am in Portland.

When you look at post-Beatles jazz and pop albums, it is interesting to see the contemporaneous songwriters who are getting covered the most frequently. At or near the top of the heap, you find Lennon & McCartney, Bacharach & David, and Tom Jobim. Maybe a notch below them, you find Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini, Tony Hatch, and Jimmy Webb. And a notch or two below them, you find various Brasilian songwriters, including Edu Lobo, Roberto Menescal, Marcos Valle, Carlos Lyra, Luis Bonfa, and Baden Powell. Also Ennio Morricone, mainly "Funny World." There are probably others I am forgetting. Collectively, these songwriters created the songbook for the international jet set aesthetic. Their songs in general share interesting melodic and harmonic components. So my question is this: Where does Brian Wilson fit into this group, and why was he not covered more? He was covered seldom enough that the few existing versions really stick out in my mind - Gary McFarland covering "God Only Knows," Hugh Masekela covering "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," and a few others. Do you think The Beach Boys' early surf/hot rod image created a mental stumbling block for artists and A&R guys? I would be interested to hear from the Brits on this board. The Beach Boys' artistic leap forward coincides with their rise in UK popularity, and their decline in US popularity. Maybe they were covered more in the UK during this time than in the US? What do you think?

Why do I get under your skin? We all have different opinions and approach music with different reference points and from different perspectives. I didn't think my take on this album would be so polarizing - many of the respondents agree with me. I don't know about the "Sanders/Floating Point" thing. It appears to be Pharoah Sanders with a symphony orchestra, correct? I will check it out. I can say that I love the collaboration between Ornette Coleman and Howard Shore on Naked Lunch, and I think Ornette should have received equal billing.

I'm trying to think of another artist who had essentially one hit that basically created it's own genre - Conn Rhythm Box/Baldwin Organ bossa/soul.

Completely agree. And nothing else in the world sounded like it, until Hall and Oates ripped off the arrangement for two of their later hits. RIP.

I thought I misfiled my copy of John Keating's Hotel. I looked in both Crime Jazz and SABP, but I ended up finding it in Now Sound.

Will check it out.

I would argue that electronica is the space-age bachelor pad music of today, in terms of style, function, and inventiveness. But I respect your opinion, as always.