November 12, 2004
Smile
People seemed upset with my Bocelli musing this morning - didn't mean to offend, just a musing. I'm not a mean person, unless I've been mean to. Or something. Well, I removed it - it now resides in the Internet's trashcan.
So here's another musing:
I bought Brian Wilson's new, old album Smile when it came out about a month ago. If you don't know the story of Brian and this album (and the decades it took to come out) I urge you to read up on it. It is a bizzarre and interesting tale. At any rate, I have wanted to hear this thing for many years now and never gotten my hands on the rare original takes.
Now that it is out I have listened to it extensively and I have to say that this album took a good deal of work from me. Generally I come to understand any music pretty early on. I don't mean I understand what the artist was thinking or trying to express, I could never fully do that. I mean that I come to my own understanding of the music. This album took over a month for me to understand for myself.
It is beautiful, odd, and shows extreme brilliance. All that and I am not even a Beach Boys fan. To me it seems as though it was a chance for a young generation to make what they felt was American "classical" music. For years people thought of American classical as Aaron Copeland and, what I call, "western wear" themes. Brian Wilson has made music that similarly mirrors America but does so through myths and legends, but reality. To me it speaks more to what is truly American than anything Copeland ever pulled off.
By the way, I refer not to Van Dyke Parks' lyrics either, simply the music. The lyrics are something completely different that I still don't have a grasp on and probably never will. I think of them now as simply another instrument in a swirling piece of composition.
This album is worth every penny.
Posted by dmason at November 12, 2004 03:02 PM