for those who never gave up their turntables
THIS ARTICLE ADDRESSES BRIAN WILSON and the inspiration for his legendary SMiLE album. It bears the unwieldy title of “On Brian Wilson And SMiLE (A Convoluted Conversation Part 2),” because it is the second of a three-part article. Please find Part 1, which is an introduction to Arthur Koestler, and read it before continuing with this article. [Continue reading]
THIS ARTICLE ADDRESSES BRIAN WILSON and the inspiration for his legendary SMiLE album. It bears the unwieldy title of “On Brian Wilson And SMiLE (A Convoluted Conversation Part 3),” because it is the second of a three-part article. Please find Parts 1 and 2 and read them before continuing with this article. [Continue reading]
THINGS WERE GETTING WEIRD in Brian Wilson’s world when he met David Anderle. By the third quarter of 1966, many significant changes had taken place in his life and his surroundings. PET SOUNDS and Good Vibrations and the SMiLE sessions that everyone in Los Angeles seemed to know about had brought a very different kind of attention to Brian that previous Beach Boys records had not. [Continue reading]
IT IS ACCEPTED “FACT” that two seminal works of popular music—the Beach Boys’ PET SOUNDS and Bob Dylan’s BLONDE ON BLONDE—were released on the same day, May 16, 1966. And there was a second reason to celebrate that date: BLONDE ON BLONDE was also the first rock double-album of all-new studio recordings, beating the Mothers of Invention’s FREAK OUT! [Continue reading]
JUST AS LOVE AND SEX are not synonymous, neither is a great song synonymous with a great record. Hell’s Belles, in such genres as rock & roll and rhythm & blues and even country & western, a great song may actually impede the making of a great record! This is especially so if the artist and the producer focus too much on a pretty melody or a clever lyric and not on the actual making of the record. [Continue reading]
I PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE about the use of dashes titled “On Those Pesky Dashes As Punctuation Marks” on Neal Umphred Dot Com. There I addressed the em-dash (—), the en-dash (–), and the hyphen (-). It should have included some suggestions on the proper use of the forward-leaning slash (/). [Continue reading]
MIKE LOVE OF THE BEACH BOYS has a reputation that has dogged him around for almost fifty—and it’s generally as one of the most unpleasant people in the world of rock & roll music. Because of this, he has been unfairly castigated for his role in the Beach Boys. [Continue reading]
THE YEAR 1966 was rather magical for me in regards to music and records. I was 14-going-on-24 and the music with which I connected—the charm, the magic—has lasted all these years. There were a handful of records from that year (I should say that era, as 1966 seems like an era unto itself, lodged in between the British Invasion and psychedelia) that have an effect on me like few others. [Continue reading]
GREAT SINGLES IN 1967 by established artists that should have been BIG hits but weren’t were common. For example, Buffalo Springfield’s Mr. Soul, the Byrds’ Lady Friend, and the Hollies’ King Midas In Reverse (and I could go on but that’s grist for another mill). But perhaps the biggest disappointment was the Rolling Stones second single of the year, We Love You / Dandelion. [Continue reading]