The author, Carl Wilson (not the dead Beach Boy, I presume) is "concerned the younger generation may be suffering alarmingly low levels of acerbity."
Even teenagers and college students are capable of looking back gauzily on what they’ve recently grown out of or projecting themselves into the future and retroactively romanticizing where they are right now. The young are often the greatest sentimentalists, particularly in times of instability. (Do economic inequality, climate change, and maybe Snapchat help explain their eagerness for Adele, like YA novelist John Green, to make them weep over old, eternal clichés?)Enough of that. Here's the late Beach Boy Carl Wilson:
Best song ever. Does age mean anything at all?
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53 comments:
Facsinating. I was thinking today, THIS VERY DAY, that Barnie's inner monologue is composed only of tuba sounds.
Funny tuba sounds not music, but tuba thought only is the K-9 condition at best, like my little guy certainly is.
Adele is the most overrated singer of my lifetime. It would be nice if she had some sense of relative pitch.
It is a lovely song. There have been times when I would agree with "best song ever." This is not one, but it will roll around again.
I don't think that young people are as wedded to the idea of "our music" as boomers. Everything on YouTube is equal. (Sort of.) If they discover something from the 40's that "no one" has heard of, it's got street cred. This may be my prejudice since I listen to a lot of Americana. But if it's cool to listen to the Louvin Brothers, Adele has a lot of catching up to do.
It's on my list of top 10 songs, yes. Different songs are #1 at different times.
Others on the list:
Come Monday
Witchcraft
Miss Otis Regrets
How great thou Art
Nothing by Adele makes the list. I'd prefer to listen to Amy Winehouse.
"Do economic inequality, climate change, and maybe Snapchat help explain their eagerness for Adele"
Funny stuff. But if meant seriously, we are in worse shape than I thought.
Now back to listening to Christa Ludwig.
Not a bad song, but everyone knows that the best Beach Boys song is "Little Deuce Coupe."
Sheesh.
It is a great, great song.
My favorite Beach Boys song is In My Room.
Great song. I have it on an iPod in my car and that's what I listen to along with World War II songs by Diana Lynn.
And I'm not a baby boomer. I can't understand why my kids, some of them, listen to rap. Maybe they are growing out of it.
When I was in my 20s almost all I liked was classical.
Which Beach Boy is the guy in the fur hat? Feel kinda sorry for him. Looks so sad and isolated and out of place. And his part is very small.
I did not give the Beach Boys their due during the sixties.
I was a casualty of the British invasion.
Middle age can be cool? Once again too late for me. I was cool when young. Also quite an asshole, if I remember myself correctly.
Well, I don't know how to put this, except I know I don't wanna put it how you'd put it.
.
"Best song ever. Does age mean anything at all?"
Possibly the Best Althouse Line Ever.
Don't even know where to begin.
So I just like to think about it as it is.
I am Laslo.
Middle-aged music is one thing, but what is mine ?
Most of my favorite stuff is 80 years old - at least.
Music from beyond the grave I guess.
Other than Gwar. Greatest rock band ever.
The younger generation is starving for contemporary, quality content.
Pseudo-Religious Songs of the Rock Era (in the Best Way);
God Only Knows.
Let it Be.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
Those are the Obvious.
All Along the Watchtower?
You Can't Always Get What You Want?
Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show?
Spirit In The Sky?
Jesus Christ Superstar?
Day By Day?
Jesus is Just Alright?
Jesus Just Left Chicago?
Jesus Christ Pose?
Personal Jesus?
This is Where You Add More or Admonish.
I am Laslo.
http://specialneedsinmusic.com/folk_song_pages/battle_hymn.html
God only knows what a non-patriarchy raised persona might recongize as the bestest of the bst song ever, aka The Damn Battle Damn Hymn of the Damn Repudamnlic. Sure sure they don't Capitalize like I do, but by God's grace they don't and I respect that.
Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the lord,
He is trampling out the vintage
where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He hath loosed his fateful lightning
of His terrible swift sword,
His truth is marching on
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on
I have seen Him in the watch fires
of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar
in the evening dews and damps,
I can read his righteous sentence
in the dim and daring lamps,
His day is marching on
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on
I have read a fiery Gospel
writ in burnished rows of steel,
"As ye deal with My contemners
so with you My grace shall deal,"
Let the Hero born of woman
crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on
He has sounded forth the trumpet
that shall never call retreat,
He is sitting out the hearts of men
before His judgment seat,
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him!
Be jubilant, my feet,
Our God is marching on
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on
The following stanzas are presented
as sung by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 1960
In the beauty of the lilies
Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom
that transfigures you and me,
As He died to make men holy
let us live to make men free,
His truth is marching on
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on
He is coming like the glory
of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty
He is honor to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool
and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah
Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on
http://specialneedsinmusic.com/folk_song_pages/battle_hymn.html
Dennis looks incredibly bored with that song.
Mozart and Beethoven are still good. They even wrote some songs.
The Langley Schools Music Project did a lovely recording of it, way back when.
So I let Buckley do my thinking for me again, don't ask the specifics you wouldn't comprehend even if I went into ultimate depths, and Jeb should have, if he wanted political success like Buckley helped a guy, oh what was his name... Oh yeah, R. Reagan, by responding to the killing baby (Hitler as it were) question as Buckley responded to a judge when asked in court, under oath, idiocy:
Your honor, how do I answer a question that stupid?
Nobody knows what stupid means, but it means being totally unreasonable and not at all realistic in a given or any given situation.
Just little old that, which, having all of us grown from tiny imbeciles upward, we all know.
We know.
I can hardly wait for them to "discover" jazz and blues. Music that doesn't need a video.
They lip synced. Lip syncing wasn't considered a crime back then. Now it's a far more serious offense than marihuana possession.. We live in a more moral era.........The Beach Boys' reputation continues to grow. They were considered kind of lightweight in their peak moment, but their music fifty years on remains cheerful and enjoyable. Nowadays I like them better than the Stones.......There comes a time when you stop paying attention to pop music. Even before rap, I gave up on it. You're just not that horny or angry or alienated after you turn forty. I started going backward with music. I like Ella Fitzgerald and Rodgers & Hart especially because they were before my time. No poignant memories of lost youth is generated by such music.
Just saw Wilson and Jardine this weekend. Excellent show. I too did not appreciate them enough back then.
"Low levels of ascerbity," huh?
You know what being expected to constantly be ascerbic, or drawn to ascerbity, is? Exhausting. And if the "younger generation" is aware that music is about universal themes of human experience, about beauty, about passion, and that happens to be via Adele instead of the Sex Pistols or whoever would be sufficiently "ascerbic" for Mr. Wilson, great.
Well, the best song ever is Amazing Grace. But I am more concerned at your gender appropriation. This is a guy song. A guy wrote the music, a guy wrote the words, and guys sing it.
@chuck, as the alien said to Schubert, "Take me to your lieder!"
@sydney: "Which Beach Boy is the guy in the fur hat? " Mike Love. He was not particularly happy with the direction that Brian Wilson took the group with the "Pet Sounds" album, from which this song comes. This is portrayed in the recent movie "Love and Mercy" about Brian Wilson's mental breakdown and recovery. One of the better movies of the past year and Paul Dano gives a nice performance as the young Brian Wilson. I did get to see a "Beach Boys" band at a corporate event at Universal Studios about 1998, I think, with Mike Love the only original in the group. It was a good show that focused mainly on the beach music of their early years. I distinctly remember this song was not performed that night.
Sir Paul's favorite. Mine too.
Well, I'm sure they're taking careful notes, then. Slate is middle-aged media hoping to make their particular form of retro seem cool to the Snapchat kids.
I've linked it before and as I am me I shall again do:
This is a link showing y'alls kecthup lacings.
I did not come in like a wrecking ball, and if I did, love has or had little to do with it, save the tiny lil sexy girly voice asking for forced pleasure and whatnot.
Because of my rejection of the tiny lil sexy girly voice asking for forced pleasure, I declaim perfection beyond anything the yoga fucks be trying to fuck with.
Lance said...
Dennis looks incredibly bored with that song.
11/24/15, 8:50 PM
That's because it's not his song. At all. The drums belong to Hal Blaine and poor Dennis had to go out night after night and play Hal Blaine's drum chops. God, the must have been tiresome -- enough to drive him to drink and to pick up hitchhikers.
The ironic thing is that when Dennis Wilson finally did his solo album, he asked Hal Blaine to play the drums on it.
I always liked that silly song running on the credits of Almost Famous.
Uh no. It's a wonderful song. But a song Brian Wilson would write a year later called "Surf's Up" would be even greater.
It was Paul McCartney who called it his favorite song,then a lot of people started paying attention to it. They even off-handedly get his quote into the recent Beach Boys movie "Love and Mercy" which by the way, is a wonderful film that hardly anyone saw. The movie has a number od studio scenes that emphasize the intricacy of Brian Wilson's particular genius.
Also, the best thing about the HBO series" Big Love" was the title sequence where the characters ice skate on thin ice to "God Only Knows".
Like others here, I didn't appreciate the Beach Boys then as much as I do now. "God Only Knows" is a great pop song but (again like others here) my best song varies from week to week if not day to day. Around the time my daughter got married, it was Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey, these days it's Las Vegas Turnaround (Hall & Oates). Check back tomorrow and it will probably be something from before I was born as I'm listening to Ella Fitzgerald's Songbooks.
Is a Symphony a 'song'? If so, I vote for Beethoven's 9th. If not, I throw my vote to:
Bach: Cantata, BWV 147, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
A symphony is not a song. But Ode to Joy is a song. One of the greatest songs ever composed. That man Beethoven could make magic out of six notes.
Adele? That has to be a birth certificate misspelling.
An anti-rap song Fauré Clair de lune.
Fauré leaves out the beat, rather than emphasizing it.
Putting it in is for people who can't count.
Abs-o-friggin'-loutely. My wife used to host karaoke shows, and regularly sang Adele's songs. I noticed immediately that the lyrics touch on topics in ways that is obviously well beyond her years and add a certain irony to her album titles (her age if you didn't know).
She's popular because she sings songs that make all of the Baby Boomer women think wistful of the years they wasted chasing bad boys before they settled.
#5: Surfer Girl
#4: California Girls
#3: Wouldn't It Be Nice
#2: All Summer Long
#1: Good Vibrations
If you're just talking deep tracks only, then Forever. Or Wendy. Or I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.
Thanks for those clips and thanks MountainMan for identifying Mike Love. I have not listened to Beach Boys for YEARS and this was a grand reminder how good they were/are.
I love the Beatles but desert island, one player, one group, it would be Beach Boys.
Its a song, better without a video.
(Do economic inequality, climate change, and maybe Snapchat help explain their eagerness for Adele, like YA novelist John Green, to make them weep over old, eternal clichés?)
No, you pathetic hack.
Does that help?
@Bobby, @Kieth Nissen: If you are on Apple Music they have a nice 50-song Beach Boys collection with most of their big hits. LIsten to it a lot off my iPad with wireless headphones in the office.
Adele? That has to be a birth certificate misspelling.
When she first arrived on the scene, my niece had her CD on her coffee table. She pointed at it and asked me if I had heard her.
I looked at the name and said, "AD a lay?"
Well, if we can cite symphonies, I want to toss in Sibelius's Symphony 7.
Wasn't Adele the music used in A Clockwork Orange to torture Alex?
Allegri's Miserere has mu ultimate vote.
Don't like Adele except maybe live.
I'm seeing Herb Alpert in January, one of the gods in my firmament.
MountainMan,
Thanks for the tip! I got a 5-disc, 142-song compilation set 20 years ago as a graduation present from my aunt (the fifth disc is all session stuff, and it's really cool to listen to The Beach Boys in the studio as they're talking through what they're about to lay down), and I can't even fathom how many thousands of hours I've spent listening to it. It's up there with The Complete Calvin & Hobbes Boxed Set as the best gift I've ever received.
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