Posts Tagged Brian Wilson
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December 4, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
RNZ Reviews: December 2021
Once a month or so I have a chat on RNZ on their Afternoons show with Jesse Mulligan. I’ve been doing it for about five years now. Most months. This was my first time in for 2021. For my final session of 2021 I found two albums that featured covers, moving the original songs to solo piano; two […]Archive
November 30, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
The Nostalgic Pull: Forever Grateful
I’ve always been aware of the nostalgic pull; it drives my writing in so many ways. The reason I wanted to get into writing about music in the way that I did was to recap. I used to keep diaries of the albums I bought, the albums I listened to each day. For years I […]Archive
November 26, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: In His Room
Brian Wilson in his sandbox, making art. The grit between his toes calms the flitters in his heart, at least momentarily. Tearily, he’ll circle Gershwin, wash through Mozart, change lanes to get ahead of McCartney. Smartly, he goes wherever his mind takes him. Sadly, that’s far too many places. But we get round, round, get […]Archive
November 23, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Brian Wilson: At My Piano
Brian Wilson At My Piano Decca I can just imagine so many reviews missing the point, chuckling off at the redundancy of an instrumental set of Beach Boys songs, arguing that the sun-kissed classics need those vocal harmonies to really come alive.Archive
October 5, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Happy, Happy Gig Memories
We can’t see (m)any gigs. We can’t have (m)any gatherings. Live music venues are taking a hit. It might all feel doom and gloom – and possibly with the good reason that it actually is rather dooming and very, very gloomy….but we have memories of the past, right? We’ve seen some shows. Some incredible gigs. […]Archive
January 11, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: Trivial Pursuit/s
Phil Spector high on coke, shoves his gun at Leonard Cohen’s throat, says “You know, I love you Leonard” Cohen says, “I hope so!” There are other great stories – Charlie Watts putting on a suit and punching Mick Jagger in the face after the singer had told someone to fetch his drummer. “I am […]Archive
August 25, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 67
The Beach Boys, Wild Honey (1967) I have a few more Beach Boys albums to go but this was a nice find, recently. My favourite period for the band is 1967-1973 – they were out of the surfing phase and couldn’t rely on Brian at least not for brand new material all the time; so […]Archive
May 26, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: Brian Wilson Live!
When I saw Brian Wilson play he looked like he might have left the iron on at home, or was wondering if he’d put his car-keys in the salad bowl, or left the cat-food in the swimming pool (again). His hands traced tiny circles as they hovered over the prop-keyboard. Stabbing here, there and sometimes […]Archive
October 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 231
The Beach Boys, Rock And Roll Music [Single] (1976) It’s when you don’t really care about the A-side or the B-side and you own the parent album which has both songs on it anyway (and that’s also not great) that you realise you’re in pretty deep. This is me, in real time, with my latest […]Archive
October 16, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 234
The Beach Boys, Honkin’ Down The Highway [Single] (1977) I’m on a massive Beach Boys kick right now, if you’re a regular reader of any of my pages you’ll know that already – I come and go with the band in terms of listening, a bit like The Beatles and other artists I care a […]Archive
October 9, 2019 by Simon Sweetman