You say a lot in very few words, and. There’s a felt connection I haven’t found in anyone else’s writing of this. A book on Brian and Sly? Why not you? I know a publisher who wants that book.
Great sendoff. I discovered the Beach Boys through the Endless Summer comp (which annoyed me for being so short for a double LP, so I was thrilled to find an inexpensive import that put all 20 songs on a single piece of vinyl) after hearing dribs and drabs of their music on 1970's pop radio, bought The Beach Boys Today! at a garage sale while in high school and Pet Sounds from an indie record shop not long after graduating.
I enjoyed Lewis Shiner's novel Glimpses, a fantasy of finishing unfinished music of the 1960's (including Smile), and pondered Shiner's interview/profile of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks from 1995 (available online at https://medium.com/tell-it-like-it-was/wouldnt-it-be-nice-a67062c6415). Filled out my collection of the Beach Boys' catalogue with Capitol and Warners' 2LPs-on-1CD reissues around the turn of the new century when I worked for the same record store where I bought Pet Sounds.
And even after all this, I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the finished "solo" version of Smile, a richly textured tapestry of music and emotion that tempers the willed optimism and innocence of Wilson's Beach Boys work with deeper and darker undercurrents, e.g. the desolate melancholy of "Surf's Up" and the panicked orchestrated chaos of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow". It's like a missing piece of the 1960's, and I'm grateful it exists.
Incidentally, my local library system has a "virtual" copy of Why the Beach Boys Matter. Until recently I've resisted reading entire e-books, but finally broke down when I was on a deadline to record a podcast about the relatively obscure sf novel They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley and didn't have time to secure a hard copy through interlibrary loan. Why the Beach Boys Matter may be the second entire book I read online; I'll try to get to it after I finish Rob Sheffield's Taylor Swift book. Thanks again for the guest essay!
It was amazing and downright thrilling to hear the Beach Boys coming over the loudspeakers live at the Mayday 1971 antiwar demonstration against the Vietnam War.. They were first in the lineup of performers in the encampment.
Thanks, Tom and Robert. I love the Why the Beach Boys Matter book as well as David Leaf's The Beach Boys and the California Myth (although I have yet to read his new one Smile: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Brian Wilson.) What's your opinion of the Peter Carlin book Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and/or Timothy White's The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience if you've read those also?
Bri and the family Wilson, a name in an alternate reality where it wouldn’t have taken their same-week deaths to connect him with Sylvester. Thanks for these thoughts and Robert’s inviting them.
"Brian would pass on as L.A. was invaded by ICE and the US Marines"
Trump trying to fix decades of boomer fuckups. The worst generation in human history was handed a paradise and left behind a hell hole.
"a city now viewed as a cultural and political enemy by MAGA"
Well it is.
"not the celebrated destination of migrating midwestern white people it had been in Brian’s (and my) youth."
Key word here is "white." Yes, CA was a paradise, because it was SO WHITE. It hardly even had the toxic blacks there were busy destroying city after city in the East and Midwest. Now it's a third world shit hole, because boomer retards couldn't understand the centrality of race -- the ONLY thing that ultimately makes a difference -- and they were scared shitless of being labeled racist. A weak, feckless, cowardly, rapacious generation.
Well, the Day of the Boomers is slowly ending. The young men are all MAGA, and the young girls turning ever more to tradwife mentalities. It's beautiful to see them reject the toxic social poison of the boomer fuckups. Every day a few thousand more boomers drop dead, and the world slowly begins to heal.
Would Substack let you block him? I know you are a proud proponent of free speech, and prefer to avoid censorship of even views you hate. But this guy is a horrible troll who keeps coming back here and forcing us all to stare into the depths of human depravity. I, for one, would love to never have to see his spew again.
Listen you barren cuck, I don’t care about subscriptions and do nothing to increase them. In any case, your response is just point and sputter. Empty, vapid, weak. Your world is dead. MAGA is winning, loser.
Dude doesn’t have any friends. But I note with horror that some of the assorted maniacs he follows, many of whom are full on Nazis, are considerably more popular than he.
Why do keep piping in here with your vile, rabid, utterly brain-dead filth? Why do you know so much about Mr. Christgau? Did you use to be a fan before you got sucked down the rabbit hole of racist loathing?
Thankfully my boomer education provided me with enough clarity to smell rancid ideas and recognize when narcissistic racism pretends to be more than fear bred hate.
Now back to the focus of this discussion…
A friendly invitation to check out my interviews with Tom; a true Beach Boy scholar.
Dear Tom
You say a lot in very few words, and. There’s a felt connection I haven’t found in anyone else’s writing of this. A book on Brian and Sly? Why not you? I know a publisher who wants that book.
Greil
Tom Smucker intensified my interest in The Beach Boys back in the early 70s with a 2 part story in Creem magazine. Great stuff.
Great sendoff. I discovered the Beach Boys through the Endless Summer comp (which annoyed me for being so short for a double LP, so I was thrilled to find an inexpensive import that put all 20 songs on a single piece of vinyl) after hearing dribs and drabs of their music on 1970's pop radio, bought The Beach Boys Today! at a garage sale while in high school and Pet Sounds from an indie record shop not long after graduating.
I enjoyed Lewis Shiner's novel Glimpses, a fantasy of finishing unfinished music of the 1960's (including Smile), and pondered Shiner's interview/profile of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks from 1995 (available online at https://medium.com/tell-it-like-it-was/wouldnt-it-be-nice-a67062c6415). Filled out my collection of the Beach Boys' catalogue with Capitol and Warners' 2LPs-on-1CD reissues around the turn of the new century when I worked for the same record store where I bought Pet Sounds.
And even after all this, I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the finished "solo" version of Smile, a richly textured tapestry of music and emotion that tempers the willed optimism and innocence of Wilson's Beach Boys work with deeper and darker undercurrents, e.g. the desolate melancholy of "Surf's Up" and the panicked orchestrated chaos of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow". It's like a missing piece of the 1960's, and I'm grateful it exists.
Incidentally, my local library system has a "virtual" copy of Why the Beach Boys Matter. Until recently I've resisted reading entire e-books, but finally broke down when I was on a deadline to record a podcast about the relatively obscure sf novel They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley and didn't have time to secure a hard copy through interlibrary loan. Why the Beach Boys Matter may be the second entire book I read online; I'll try to get to it after I finish Rob Sheffield's Taylor Swift book. Thanks again for the guest essay!
It was amazing and downright thrilling to hear the Beach Boys coming over the loudspeakers live at the Mayday 1971 antiwar demonstration against the Vietnam War.. They were first in the lineup of performers in the encampment.
Thanks, Tom and Robert. I love the Why the Beach Boys Matter book as well as David Leaf's The Beach Boys and the California Myth (although I have yet to read his new one Smile: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Brian Wilson.) What's your opinion of the Peter Carlin book Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and/or Timothy White's The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience if you've read those also?
Bri and the family Wilson, a name in an alternate reality where it wouldn’t have taken their same-week deaths to connect him with Sylvester. Thanks for these thoughts and Robert’s inviting them.
Yes!
"Brian would pass on as L.A. was invaded by ICE and the US Marines"
Trump trying to fix decades of boomer fuckups. The worst generation in human history was handed a paradise and left behind a hell hole.
"a city now viewed as a cultural and political enemy by MAGA"
Well it is.
"not the celebrated destination of migrating midwestern white people it had been in Brian’s (and my) youth."
Key word here is "white." Yes, CA was a paradise, because it was SO WHITE. It hardly even had the toxic blacks there were busy destroying city after city in the East and Midwest. Now it's a third world shit hole, because boomer retards couldn't understand the centrality of race -- the ONLY thing that ultimately makes a difference -- and they were scared shitless of being labeled racist. A weak, feckless, cowardly, rapacious generation.
Well, the Day of the Boomers is slowly ending. The young men are all MAGA, and the young girls turning ever more to tradwife mentalities. It's beautiful to see them reject the toxic social poison of the boomer fuckups. Every day a few thousand more boomers drop dead, and the world slowly begins to heal.
I note that your racist bushwa has amassed TWENTY subscriptions in a year!!! Your dumb white friends must be so impressed!!!
Would Substack let you block him? I know you are a proud proponent of free speech, and prefer to avoid censorship of even views you hate. But this guy is a horrible troll who keeps coming back here and forcing us all to stare into the depths of human depravity. I, for one, would love to never have to see his spew again.
Listen you barren cuck, I don’t care about subscriptions and do nothing to increase them. In any case, your response is just point and sputter. Empty, vapid, weak. Your world is dead. MAGA is winning, loser.
Dude doesn’t have any friends. But I note with horror that some of the assorted maniacs he follows, many of whom are full on Nazis, are considerably more popular than he.
Why are you subscribed here?
I’m not
Why do keep piping in here with your vile, rabid, utterly brain-dead filth? Why do you know so much about Mr. Christgau? Did you use to be a fan before you got sucked down the rabbit hole of racist loathing?
Because you need the education
Thankfully my boomer education provided me with enough clarity to smell rancid ideas and recognize when narcissistic racism pretends to be more than fear bred hate.
Now back to the focus of this discussion…
A friendly invitation to check out my interviews with Tom; a true Beach Boy scholar.
https://prayforsurfblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/interview-why-beach-boys-matter-with.html?m=0
https://prayforsurfblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/podcast-picasso-of-pop-beach-boys-with.html?m=0