Love & Mercy

[scawsby steve]

I was standing in a bar

And watching all the people there

All the loneliness in this world

Well it's just not fair

Love and mercy, that's what you need tonight

So love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

Love and mercy tonight

The sheer genius of Brian Wilson. I watched the film "Love & Mercy" on BBC2 last night. It's all about Wilson, the Beach Boys, and Wilson's terrible battle against mental illness.

It's a great movie, featuring John Cusack, and is well worth watching. You can get it on catch-up.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Cheers SS, I'll look out for that.

Wilson is just sublime genius. I can think of no other songwriter who could have come up with The Warmth of the Sun. THE most exquisitely beautiful pop song of all time.

I once saw him explain the chord sequence in a documentary. He explained what the standard progression would be, then said how he'd just tweaked it. He made it seem so obvious, but the result is like nothing on earth.

[scawsby steve]

Cheers SS, I'll look out for that.

Wilson is just sublime genius. I can think of no other songwriter who could have come up with The Warmth of the Sun. THE most exquisitely beautiful pop song of all time.

I once saw him explain the chord sequence in a documentary. He explained what the standard progression would be, then said how he'd just tweaked it. He made it seem so obvious, but the result is like nothing on earth.

Wow BST, you and I being so close on something. " The Warmth of the Sun" just gets straight into my soul. The first song of his that had a similar effect was "In my room", which is featured in the film.

Incidentally, while Cusack plays the later version of Wilson, the younger version is played by Paul Dano, who looks incredibly like him.

[Bentley Bullet]

Love the Beach Boys. Music is a great leveller of souls.

(Bentley Bullet 2020)

[BillyStubbsTears]

Aye. If only it weren't for t**ts in politics, we'd all get along grand.

Apart from Coldplay fans. They can f**k right off.

[scawsby steve]

Aye. If only it weren't for t**ts in politics, we'd all get along grand.

Apart from Coldplay fans. They can f**k right off.

And Stormzy fans.

[IDM]

Cheers SS, I'll look out for that.

Wilson is just sublime genius. I can think of no other songwriter who could have come up with The Warmth of the Sun. THE most exquisitely beautiful pop song of all time.

I once saw him explain the chord sequence in a documentary. He explained what the standard progression would be, then said how he'd just tweaked it. He made it seem so obvious, but the result is like nothing on earth.

Might have to debate that point BST - I can think of several songs which could fit that description.

I’ll offer “Will You” for starters.. or perhaps “At 17”..

I suppose it depends on mood, and no one is right, and no one is wrong either.!

[scawsby steve]

I loved the film so much that I downloaded it tonight and watched it again, and it just gets better every time I watch it.

However, I was disappointed that the movie is 117 minutes long, and for some reason the download was only 113 minutes long, therefore some of the tracks playing during the cast and credits at the end were cut off.

Why do downloads sometimes do this?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Cheers SS, I'll look out for that.

Wilson is just sublime genius. I can think of no other songwriter who could have come up with The Warmth of the Sun. THE most exquisitely beautiful pop song of all time.

I once saw him explain the chord sequence in a documentary. He explained what the standard progression would be, then said how he'd just tweaked it. He made it seem so obvious, but the result is like nothing on earth.

Might have to debate that point BST - I can think of several songs which could fit that description.

I’ll offer “Will You” for starters.. or perhaps “At 17”..

I suppose it depends on mood, and no one is right, and no one is wrong either.!

No IDM. I'm not having it. There is no song ever that produced a chord sequence as revolutionary as that and made it sound inevitable.

And when you factor in that Wilson wrote it in a few hours on the night of JFK's assassination and as a direct response to that event...

That was a genius searching his soul in response to an epochal tragedy. And producing a work of historical beauty.

Just...the best...ever.

[BillyStubbsTears]

SS. Look at Brian here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVlSVkzbJDA

He's on a different plane. Utterly absorbed by the music.

It's no wonder he succumbed to mental illness. He was a once in a generation genius - just overwhelmed by his own connection with the art of music.

[SydneyRover]

Love the Beachboys, Warmth of the sun-not.

[i_ateallthepies]

I'll chuck in 'I will always love you', but the original written and performed by Dolly herself.  My experience of this song was that I only knew the Whitney Houston rendition, which was in itself an outstanding production and sung by a once in a generation artist but then years later I heard Dolly Parton's original and was astonished by the mood and feeling she gave it, perfection itself.  But that such a thing of beauty can be so completely reproduced into something else equally powerful speaks of what a great piece of songwriting this was.

[IDM]

Cheers SS, I'll look out for that.

Wilson is just sublime genius. I can think of no other songwriter who could have come up with The Warmth of the Sun. THE most exquisitely beautiful pop song of all time.

I once saw him explain the chord sequence in a documentary. He explained what the standard progression would be, then said how he'd just tweaked it. He made it seem so obvious, but the result is like nothing on earth.

Might have to debate that point BST - I can think of several songs which could fit that description.

I’ll offer “Will You” for starters.. or perhaps “At 17”..

I suppose it depends on mood, and no one is right, and no one is wrong either.!

No IDM. I'm not having it. There is no song ever that produced a chord sequence as revolutionary as that and made it sound inevitable.

And when you factor in that Wilson wrote it in a few hours on the night of JFK's assassination and as a direct response to that event...

That was a genius searching his soul in response to an epochal tragedy. And producing a work of historical beauty.

Just...the best...ever.

I certainly agree that the Beach Boys has a unique sound and wrote in a period where bands like them and the Beatles were re-inventing music.

However how we “rate” a tune or a song is a very personal thing, about what emotions they raise when we hear the tune and lyrics, especially if they map with certain things in our lives.

Yes Warmth of the Sun is a beautiful track, but even with the Beach Boys alone, I would raise you “God Only Knows”.

As for me, the song I would rate best in such a way may be different from one day to the next, one year to the next..

[IDM]

PS I would add “Alone again, naturally” as one of the most beautiful tracks..

[Bentley Bullet]

Aye. If only it weren't for t**ts in politics, we'd all get along grand.

Apart from Coldplay fans. They can f**k right off.

And Stormzy fans.

Racist!

ONLY JOKING BEFORE ANYBODY STARTS!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Course it's a personal thing. It's everybody to their own.

There's just something about Warmth of the Sun that transcends pop music and encapsulates Wilson's genius. I wish I knew enough about music theory to know what it is, but to me it's like classical music distilled into a 3 minute pop song. It has all the depth and sophistication of Bach or Beethoven yet it sounds so simple.

I agree about God Only Knows too. Mrs S-T and I had that for our first dance at our wedding reception. It was either that or Tanz Mit by Laibach and she lost the toss up.

SS. What do you think of this version by the way?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK6dQTS8VwM

[Bentley Bullet]

Love this BB's song with the Bach melody....https://youtu.be/Pzd4D9ndtok

[Ldr]

Aye. If only it weren't for t**ts in politics, we'd all get along grand.

Apart from Coldplay fans. They can f**k right off.

Proof BST is not all evil 🤣

[BillyStubbsTears]

Coldplay make interesting and original music.

Unfortunately the interesting bits aren't original and the original bits aren't interesting.

[Pancho Regan]

Coldplay make interesting and original music.

Unfortunately the interesting bits aren't original and the original bits aren't interesting.

That reminds me of that Tommy Cooper gag:

"I was up in the attic the other day and I found a Stradivarius and a Rembrandt.
Unfortunately, Stradivarius couldn't paint and Rembrandt made lousy violins"

[BillyStubbsTears]

I will never know how Coldplay got away with stealing the entire hook line from Kraftwerk's Computer Love for their dirge "Talk."

Two crimes there.

1) Intellectual property theft. NINE consecutive notes are all identical.

2) Crime against art. The original is light and elegant. Coldplay's one sounds like an elephant in a tutu.

[Welling Rover]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwwNXpIXgdY

Thinking of troubled souls copy and paste above into your address bar ( sorry can't do link) for a version of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart. Listen to the lyrics which highlight the tortured state of Ian Curtis.

[Bentley Bullet]

Same with U2 and Bonio. That Beautiful Day song is a complete rip off of A-ha's The Sun Always Shines On TV, to the trained ear.

[IDM]

Don’t get me “start”ed on the Jam nicking the riff from Taxman...

[Bentley Bullet]

I remember listening to the intro to Bowie's Jene Genie and wondering if it was gonna turn out to be The Sweet's Blockbuster. They're identical.

[ravenrover]

Jean Genie was 72 Blockbuster was 73 just saying, remember Bowie singing Jean Genie at the Rank in 72 1st time round not sure if he did it again later as the glammed up Ziggy but yes it is almost the same

[redwine]

If we're talking Beach Boys, I have always loved "I guess I wasn't made for these times".

Great lyric.

[IDM]

I remember listening to the intro to Bowie's Jene Genie and wondering if it was gonna turn out to be The Sweet's Blockbuster. They're identical.

As is “fat bas**rd” by the Macc Lads..

[selby]

  The haunting words of lyricist Mitchell Parish, a great melody from Hoagy Carmichael, and the voice of Nat King Cole singing Stardust, close your eyes just perfection.

[scawsby steve]

SS. Look at Brian here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVlSVkzbJDA

He's on a different plane. Utterly absorbed by the music.

It's no wonder he succumbed to mental illness. He was a once in a generation genius - just overwhelmed by his own connection with the art of music.

Thanks for that BST. Just wait while you see the film. That whole scene is re-enacted perfectly.

Every detail is meticulous, right down to Mike Love's flat cap and ginger beard.