My intro and my Beach Boys story
Feb 16, 2024 20:57:53 GMT -5
via mobile
Mikie, Cam Mott, and 2 more like this
Post by jwb on Feb 16, 2024 20:57:53 GMT -5
I sent this as an email to the Sail On podcast today- thought I’d just paste here as part of my intro:
I was born in 1970 and didn't start buying/listening to music until I was 10, John Lennon's death sparked an obsession into the Beatles after seeing all the news footage, Beatles related clips that would be shown all over television at that time. I started playing drums and for the next couple of years it was all Beatles. Their books, records, any videos I could find at that time were my go to.
But back up slightly to the summer before Lennon's death. I lived in Portland, Texas, just off the coast near Corpus Christi. I was, like many of us at that time, a child of television. And one commercial that came on that early summer was the Sessions Presents...The Beach Boys. I vividly remember the intro of the commercial was a huge blue wave backed with the intro of Surfin USA and from there on was a sampler of the songs on the album - and I was for whatever reason drawn to this commercial, the sounds and visuals that went with it. I loved it. I asked my mom if she would order the record for me and she did. Technically, it was to be for me and my brother but it was my interest that lead to the purchase. This in fact is my first record. I would listen to this on my parents stereo console in our living room. I don't remember being obsessive about it and at that time I probably wasn't but I definitely enjoyed it. As mentioned in the intro, Lennon's death but an end to the Beach Boys experience for me and the album lay dormant for a few years.
What brought me back to the Beach Boys were two things: The American Band video was broadcast on PBS whille I was now living up in northern Minnesota as a high school student. I video taped it with our vcr and obsessively watched it over the next year. And then there was this TV special on, years later I would research what that actually was, but at the time I remember James Ingram singing God Only Knows, a song I hadn't heard by the Beach Boys yet (just those rough live clips from American Band) and I was immediately drawn into this song, it got to my soul.
In my own musical life I was now playing guitar and keyboards at a novice level but was very interested in arranging and sounds and 60s music so naturally Pet Sounds appealed to me. We were living in a small town in Minnesota without access to many records. My mom was going back down to Texas to visit some friends and I asked if she would pick up for me a copy of Pet Sounds, which she did. I also dug out that Session Presents album I had acquired years earlier and thus begins my journey into their music.
Yes, for me Brian's music and what he was able to translate from his soul to sounds on a record resonated and still do. Like so many others, his music and sensitivity to his music could have been made just for me. 40 years later I'm still digging into their stuff and it still feeds my soul. In my life, Brian Wilson goes down as the most important writer, arranger, producer - the most meaningful musician I will ever know of. I got to see him on his first Pet Sounds tour back in the early 2000's in Minneapolis and it was perfect. Never have seen the Beach Boys in concert and probably won't at this point.
Time will take all of them soon but their music will live on forever.
Thank you to Brian and the guys for all they have given us!
I was born in 1970 and didn't start buying/listening to music until I was 10, John Lennon's death sparked an obsession into the Beatles after seeing all the news footage, Beatles related clips that would be shown all over television at that time. I started playing drums and for the next couple of years it was all Beatles. Their books, records, any videos I could find at that time were my go to.
But back up slightly to the summer before Lennon's death. I lived in Portland, Texas, just off the coast near Corpus Christi. I was, like many of us at that time, a child of television. And one commercial that came on that early summer was the Sessions Presents...The Beach Boys. I vividly remember the intro of the commercial was a huge blue wave backed with the intro of Surfin USA and from there on was a sampler of the songs on the album - and I was for whatever reason drawn to this commercial, the sounds and visuals that went with it. I loved it. I asked my mom if she would order the record for me and she did. Technically, it was to be for me and my brother but it was my interest that lead to the purchase. This in fact is my first record. I would listen to this on my parents stereo console in our living room. I don't remember being obsessive about it and at that time I probably wasn't but I definitely enjoyed it. As mentioned in the intro, Lennon's death but an end to the Beach Boys experience for me and the album lay dormant for a few years.
What brought me back to the Beach Boys were two things: The American Band video was broadcast on PBS whille I was now living up in northern Minnesota as a high school student. I video taped it with our vcr and obsessively watched it over the next year. And then there was this TV special on, years later I would research what that actually was, but at the time I remember James Ingram singing God Only Knows, a song I hadn't heard by the Beach Boys yet (just those rough live clips from American Band) and I was immediately drawn into this song, it got to my soul.
In my own musical life I was now playing guitar and keyboards at a novice level but was very interested in arranging and sounds and 60s music so naturally Pet Sounds appealed to me. We were living in a small town in Minnesota without access to many records. My mom was going back down to Texas to visit some friends and I asked if she would pick up for me a copy of Pet Sounds, which she did. I also dug out that Session Presents album I had acquired years earlier and thus begins my journey into their music.
Yes, for me Brian's music and what he was able to translate from his soul to sounds on a record resonated and still do. Like so many others, his music and sensitivity to his music could have been made just for me. 40 years later I'm still digging into their stuff and it still feeds my soul. In my life, Brian Wilson goes down as the most important writer, arranger, producer - the most meaningful musician I will ever know of. I got to see him on his first Pet Sounds tour back in the early 2000's in Minneapolis and it was perfect. Never have seen the Beach Boys in concert and probably won't at this point.
Time will take all of them soon but their music will live on forever.
Thank you to Brian and the guys for all they have given us!
