July 2, 2013 Guest Post: Tuesday 21+2: The Best Beach Boys Songs You’ve Never Heard
Today’s guest writer is a repeat offender: David. He is one of my oldest friends, both in the “time known” and “how old he is” categories, and he’s probably responsible for a lot of things I like.
As Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, James Brady, came to understand, a Beach Boys concert is an essential part of any Independence Day Celebration. But, since the Boys won’t be on any stage this 4th, and even if they were, most Zwolanerd readers wouldn’t be able to make it, we’ve made it possible for you to experience the next best thing.
O yez O yez O yez, zwolanerd presents: a virtual YouTube Beach Boys concert for the 4th of July!
But there’s a twist. With a few exceptions, you’ve likely heard none of these songs. Many people don’t realize that although the Beach Boys popularity went on the wane after 1966’s Good Vibrations, they still made a lot of great music. This concert features some of those songs.
Here’s how this works. There’ll be 5 segments to the show: A guest artist opening act, three sets (The Fun, The Art, The Melancholy), and an encore (also by guest artists). Each segment will include a live performance, and although most of the tunes were recorded between 1967 and 1976, you’ll also hear music from the Boys’ very first album as well as their most recent studio effort. And, yes, I know you’ve heard the songs the guest artists perform, but you likely haven’t seen these performances. I’m hanging my hat on that. Below the embed you can find song by song commentary.
No further ado.
OPENING ACT
- Surfer Girl (as performed by Paul Simon)-Would it set the wrong tone for me to say this might be the best version of this song in existence? Oh, thought so. But it’s true.
SET ONE
- This Whole World-A great rocker under-appreciated at the time of release. (Brian Wilson fans may note the ah-oom-bop-ditty tag he recycled on 1998’s “Imagination”.)
- You Need a Mess of Help-Ditto (to the under appreciated rocker part, not the recycling part). Plus this is at least partly live.
- Add Some Music to Your Day-Each Beach Boy sings at one point or another here. It’s fun to try to follow the “hand-offs”.
- Little Girl (You’re My Miss America)-From the Beach Boys first album, with Dennis Wilson on lead.
- Country Air-For some reason the wordless vocals on the verse section sets up the exuberance of the chorus perfectly.
- Big Sur-One of the few times in his life Mike Love wasn’t so totally, well, Mike Love.
- Feel Flows-Cameron Crow fans have heard this one before. Faux existentialist wordplay and a great lead vocal by Carl Wilson highlight this playful anthem.
SET TWO
- That’s Not Me-This and the following song are perhaps the best tunes on Pet Sounds not released as singles.
- I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times-Live from . . . Brian Wilson’s living room? Anyway, the forum reveals some nice nuance to the arrangement.
- Cabinessence-from Brian’s live Smile video.
- Let the Wind Blow-From Brian’ “Expend No More Production Effort Than Absolutely Necessary” period. Still, fun and somewhat wild.
- Wind Chimes-This and the next two are gems from Smile. Sit back and bask in the beauty.
- Wonderful-Still basking? I sure hope so.
- Surf’s Up-Listen, I’m telling you to bask!
SET THREE
- Fourth Of July-Dennis Makes a political statement, with some nice production by Brian; vocal by Carl.
- Disney Girls-Live. The opening banter reveals what mad Mike Love so (simultaneously) awesome and terrible. If I could tell who made the “Kokomo” crack, I’d send him a crisp hundred.
- Kiss Me Baby-Brian Wilson at the height of his powers. ‘Nuff said.
- The Night Was So Young-Brian Wilson doing his best at the ebb of his powers. Every move is totally intentional.
- Hold On, Dear Brother-In 1973, the Beach Boys integrated the South African group Flame. This is largely the work of the latter, and a great song.
- Til I Die-Sometimes I know just how this guy feels. The harmonies on the fade are exquisite.
- Summer’s Gone-The Boys’ 50th Anniversary album may have been a bit of a let down (autotune must die!), but this song, co-written by Jon Bon Jovi (!!), has the classic Beach Boys sound, and some real emotion.
ENCORE
- Good Vibrations (as performed by Heart, et al.)-Ok, the Wilson (no relation) Sisters, a baritone from the Met, and a gospel choir. Awesome, right? But, amazingly, even greater than the sum of its parts. By the way, that’s George Martin introducing them.
Well, thanks for stopping by the show folks! Please be patient in the parking lot, and have a safe drive home. Oh, and Happy Fourth!
Tags: Beach Boys, guestpost, Tuesday10
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June 29, 2013 Ranking Even Worse
This is the fifth in a series of transplanted articles from my other blog. The transplants will run on Saturdays until they’re all over here. They are copied and pasted, but might get slight edits here and there.
But not the worst
One week shy of 24 years ago, Weird Al released this album, which featured a parody of another huge (pun intended, as you’ll see) Michael Jackson song. The title of the album and even the album cover are also spoofs – MJ’s album was “Bad,” this one is “Even Worse.” The album went certified platinum (over a million sold), Al’s first.
11. Lasagna – A parody of “La Bamba” that’s all about Italian food and the tendency for those who usually serve it to try to get you to eat more of it. It’s okay, but I skip this one a lot.
10. Alimony – Parody of “Mony Mony,” about a fellow who feels he is getting the raw end of the deal in a divorce settlement.
9. Melanie – Could also be called “The Stalker Song.” He wonders why Melanie won’t go out with him, and as the song progresses, we find out why. “Are you still mad I gave a Mohawk to your cat?” This song definitely goes on the “Dark List,” as the main character commits suicide because she won’t go out with him. Doesn’t sound funny, I know. But it somehow still is!
8. I Think I’m a Clone Now – “…there’s always two of me just a-hangin’ around.” A lot of great puns about being cloned, with the best one being “Every pair of genes is a hand-me-down.”
7. You Make Me – Another song about a girl, this one about a girl who makes him want to do weird things, like slam his head against a wall and buy a Slurpee at the mall. Pure silliness.
6. Stuck in a Closet with Vanna White – A song about recurring dreams, where no matter how his dream starts out, he always ends up as the title would suggest.
5. (This Song’s Just) Six Words Long – This song is the first one I noticed in his collection that makes fun of the actual song it’s a parody of. Most of his parodies are the tune with word changes, but this one makes fun of the fact that George Harrison’s original “(Got My Mind) Set On You” pretty much had the hook of those words and not much else to it. Poking fun at a Beatle! But he asked for and received permission, so George must have been amused by it.
4. Velvet Elvis – In the style of The Police, about a painting bought at a garage sale. I love love love the “He’s so fuzzy / He’s so great” lines near the end.
3. Good Old Days – If you’re making a list of Al’s darkest songs, this one would have to be at the top. I’ll let Al himself explain it: “I wanted to see if I could write a song as if Charlie Manson and James Taylor were collaborating.” He pretty much succeeded, and this one is twisted, twisted, twisted. Speaking of twisted…
2. Twister – A rap song about the board game that is just so smile-inducing. It’s in the style of The Beastie Boys, in case you were wondering. I always thought it was a Run DMC-type thing, but Wikipedia has corrected me.
1. Fat – Parody of MJ’s “Bad,” won Al a Grammy. It’s another food song – well, more of a “result of food” song, with every pun about being large that you’ve ever heard. The video for this one was just fantastic, and to this day, Al ends his live concerts wearing the fat suit from it.
I’m very excited about the next album, as it contains my very favorite Weird Al song. Stay tuned!
Tags: Weird Al
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June 27, 2013 Wonderfalls Recap and Update
I hope you enjoyed watching Wonderfalls with me as much as I enjoyed writing about it. I thought that I would take a few minutes to write about the series as a whole, and discuss my favorite (and least favorite) parts of it.
Favorite episode:
For sure Cocktail Bunny. No other episode has the pacing and suspense, or emotion.
Least favorite episode:
A cross between Barrel Bear and Totem Mole. Totem Mole is doubly disappointing due to the previous episodes and how fantastic they are.
Favorite guest character:
Mary Anne Marie Beattle from Muffin Buffalo. I still chuckle about how she opens her scene talking about her hysterectomy and her psychic in the same sentence.
Favorite muse:
This is kind of a throwaway, but the air freshener in the taxi in Lying Pig, when Jaye is on her way to the wedding chapel. That line (I didn’t even say anything!”) makes me giggle every time.
Final thoughts:
I definitely feel like Wonderfalls is two different shows in one. The first half of the series is quirky fun, with interesting ancillary characters. It was also building a world around Jaye, with Gretchen Speck-Horowitz showing up multiple times, the family’s relationship with Dr. Ron, and Jaye’s job at Wonderfalls. Somewhere around Muffin Buffalo, the story changed. It became about Jaye’s love story with Eric, and the muses throwing random things around to prevent their relationship from happening. When I first watched it, I couldn’t understand why a network would cancel such a wonderful show, but now that I’ve watched it again, episode by episode, and with a critical eye, I get it. The first half of the show is kind of lame. It doesn’t engage the viewer in the same way that the second half does.
What’s next:
I’m taking the summer off from doing rewatches. While I do enjoy doing it, it is also incredibly time consuming. It takes about 6 hours for me to watch each episode, make notes, write up my post, look for references and trivia, and watch any commentaries that may be included. When I only have one night a week in which I am guaranteed to be toddler-free, time is a precious resource. However, I’m hoping to write a few guest posts over the summer about a variety of subjects, so look out for that.
I aim to begin a new rewatch, or completely new-to-me-watch, in September. It’s been bandied about on the blog here whether I will watch a show I have never seen or rewatch an old favorite. Some suggestions of mine:
Rewatches:
- Veronica Mars
- Chuck
- Freaks & Geeks
New watches:
- Roseanne
- Battlestar Galactica (2004)
- Lost
- 30 Rock
- Sports Night
Of course, I’m up for any other suggestions, although if it’s too violent or creepy, I’ll probably pass. It’s also convenient if it’s available on Netflix or Amazon Instant.
Tags: LWST, Wonderfalls
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June 27, 2013 BtVS BtS
Behind the Scenes videos are a mixed bag for me, ranging from Boring to Fascinating, with rarely an entry in the middle. Most times it is directly related to how much I like the thing being behind-the-scened and the actor(s) involved. Jim Carrey behind the scenes is always going to be way more interesting to me than, say, Christian Bale. I like Christian Bale, but your serious actors tend to make for boring behind the scenes, always in character, preparing for the moment, yada yada yada.
These things always remind me of just how much work goes into making TV and movies and it’s always mind-boggling. So many people doing so many things. I always think, “How much does that dude make in a year for this?”
I’m sure most of you saw this video floating around the other sites the last day or so, but in case you didn’t, here’s some behind the scenes footage from season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is totally on the Fascinating end of the scale for me.
- Stunt fighting intrigues me
- Sarah Michelle Gellar knows how to iceskate. Yet another Slayer skill I don’t have. (Also on that list: femaleness, super strength, angstyness)
- The vampire makeup does a great job of making people look evil even if they’re being friendly
- “Chief werewolf stylist”
- How do the people in the full werewolf getup not get super claustrophobic? I would go nuts.
- How adorable is Alyson Hannigan in this? Official ranking: Too
- Oz!
- Very weird to see Angel out in the daylight
- Werewolf Rehearsal would be a good name for a rock group
- They dropped SMG from a height I would’ve thought was too high, but she’s fine
- I’m guessing David Boreanaz was wearing some kind of padding to jump off that trampoline and into that tree, but it still looked like a solid thump
- I tend to forget that girls wearing overalls was a thing
- The behind the scenes videos of the fights always look so much more frantic and fast (and realer?) than the finished product to me
- Angel is wearing those leather pants and all I can think of is Ross on Friends trying to grease himself back into his pair
- Angel holds his sword with his finger looped over the guard. If his opponent’s sword slid down he’d lose that finger for sure
- I didn’t even recognize Joss Whedon there for a minute!
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