"Little Deuce Coupe" by The Beach Boys :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2scNZ1NrZg&feature=related
Posted on 08/01/2010 6:40:24 AM PDT by curth
The on-again/off-again news of a possible 50th anniversary reunion tour has been a bit taxing for fans just hoping to hear those sweet harmonies one last time.
But Al Jardine, the band’s original guitarist, has already brought about a reunion for his new solo album A Postcard From California. Jardine’s track, “Don't Fight the Sea,” began as a track on a proposed solo album back in 1978 and Jardine brought Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston to sing background. The track never surfaced and 10 years later, Brian Wilson popped in to sing a high harmony.
In 2009, Jardine coaxed Mike Love into the studio to record the baritone part. Jardine told Rolling Stone, “All the negativity between us is gone. He would have been very disappointed had I not asked him to be on it.”
As befits Jardine’s place in pop history, the album features a plethora of superstar guests from David Crosby, Neil Young and Stephen Stills to Alec Baldwin and Steve Miller.
A Postcard From California is currently available digitally through iTunes and Amazon.com.
Alec Baldwin?
Oh well...sounds interesting. Maybe I’ll try it.
Baldwin certainly doesn’t belong.
Not me, anything that involves Alec Baldwin disgusts me. I’m still waiting for him to move out of America. He stated he would leave when George W. Bush got elected. Leave already!
Alec Baldwin = Bitch Boy
Twice!
"Little Deuce Coupe" by The Beach Boys :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2scNZ1NrZg&feature=related
The Beach Boys played at New York’s Coney Island last Thursday night. Unfortunately, I missed it.
http://coneyislandfunguide.com/Events/Seaside-Summer-Concerts-The-Beach-Boys_7_22_2010-2525.htm
Baldwin reads some poetry. I hate his guts, but I won’t hate the album because he’s on it.
#13 on Billboard wasn’t too shabby for an artist whose peak was in the mid 1960’s.
The remake sounds quite different, due to the change in the vocal forces (especially Brian's voice), and the new arrangements.
To me, at least as interesting as the remake is the box set that assembled the album from legacy materials, and included all available outtakes. I am speaking of the non-bootleg release by Capitol that had some artistic input from Brian.
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I got interested in the BB when Good Vibrations came out. Now there was a new and interesting sound! Way out of the generally boring mainstream of rock-n-roll. So I began seeking out their music. Some of their previous tunes, certainly, but especially their albums from 1970-73.
Hearing Surf's Up for the first time (from the album of the same name), I decided that nobody, including Brian Wison, would likely ever top what he and VanDyke Parks had achieved. That opinion has stood the test of four decades.
Ironically, the post-Capitol era, the era of Surf's Up, Sunflower, and Holland marked both their artistic peak and their commercial decline.
Many, many musically knowledgeable people consistently point to the Beach Boys as having broken new musical ground with harmonies, complex music, electronic music etc. etc. Try as I might, all I can conjure up when I hear them or hear of them, is that “surfer music” that ultimately all sound like the same song to me. Surfing USA, Little Deuce Coupe, Surfer Girl etc. etc. - all sounded like Chuck Berry music with a California, surfer feel to it. Much like the Byrds were often Dylan music with a Rickenbacker guitar feel. I’m sure there’s some good stuff in there, I just never have “gotten” it.
I have a copy of Pet Sounds, pre-stereo.
Didja know that Brian was/is deaf in one ear? He preferred to record/mix/engineer in mono since he couldn’t appreciate stereo. Obviously it didn’t stop him from creating amazing soundscapes.
Many accounts say his deafness was the result of a blow to the head by his abusive father Murry. The father denied it of course but frequent physical and verbal abuse was a near-daily occurrence.
Didja know that Brian was/is deaf in one ear? He preferred to record/mix/engineer in mono since he couldn’t appreciate stereo. Obviously it didn’t stop him from creating amazing soundscapes.
Many accounts say his deafness was the result of a blow to the head by his abusive father Murry. The father denied it of course but frequent physical and verbal abuse was a near-daily occurrence.
Taste is individual no doubt but as is often the case with bands featuring a ‘new sound’ it was the combination of several factors that made the Beach Boys unique. To wit:
Chuck Berry was a definite influence of course (as he has been to 90% of bands anyway!) but Brian Wilson’s great love was the Four Freshmen and their harmonies which he gladly nicked for use over a rock beat and chord progression.
Yes the Beach Boys and their record label(s) milked the surfing thing for all it was worth but song and lyric subjects quickly moved on to other things (mostly relationships) after the initial flush of success.
Ironically, ‘surf’ music means the Ventures and Dick Dale and not the Beach Boys to many people.
Talk about harmony, I went to a concert in 1991 that had the Beach Boys and the Everly Brothers on the same stage. Brian had his huge beard then and probably had just emerged from rehab but what a sound! The Everlys had been on and off as an act over the years yet they still had the great harmony. Most of the audience were of an age to be original fans of the groups and really got into it.
The absolute best sounding version of Pet Sounds is DCC’s gold CD label remastered from the original mono masters by Steve Hoffman - amazing!
Interestingly, the BB’s never played instruments on their albums but used session players ie. the Wrecking Crew featuring Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Glenn Campbell and other notables.
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