The Words and Music of Brian Wilson
Title | The Words and Music of Brian Wilson PDF eBook |
Author | Christian Matijas-Mecca |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
Pages | 333 |
Release | 2017-03-27 |
Genre | Music |
ISBN |
A fascinating study of Brian Wilson's creative career as a composer, producer, performer, and collaborator that addresses all aspects of Brian's five-decade-long music career through his creative methods and processes. The cofounder and central figure of one of America's most successful vocal groups, The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson is a standout artist with an astonishing volume of diverse work spanning over half a century that serves as testament to his creative output and influence on modern music. Today, Wilson stands as a survivor of life challenges stemming from substance abuse and mental illness and enjoys a revitalized career in which he continues to create new works and perform around the world to enthusiastic audiences in sold-out venues. This unique book covers the breadth of Wilson's creative life as composer, producer, performer, and collaborator, not only as a Beach Boy, but also as a solo artist and collaborator with artists such as Jan and Dean, The Honeys, Spring, The Castells, and The Hondells. The book also surveys his less-examined work as a performer of the music of George Gershwin, of the songs from Disney films, and of children's books and movies. Because of its breadth, The Words and Music of Brian Wilson will appeal both to dedicated and casual fans alike of The Beach Boys and of Brian Wilson as well as to scholars in popular music and American studies.
Inside the Music of Brian Wilson
Title | Inside the Music of Brian Wilson PDF eBook |
Author | Philip Lambert |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
Pages | 417 |
Release | 2007-03-19 |
Genre | Music |
ISBN | 1441107487 |
Inside the Music of Brian Wilson is, as author Phillip Lambert writes in the prologue "completely, and intensely, focused on the music of Brian Wilson, on the musical essence of his songs and the aesthetic value of his artistic achievements. It acknowledges the familiar biographical contexts of his songs, but it tells completely new stories about the birth and evolution of his musical ideas, identifying important musical trends in his work, heretofore undisclosed inter-song connections within his music, or between his music and that of others, and the nature and extent of his artistry. It aims not just to identify great songs, but to explain exactly what makes them so." Lambert, a renowned musicologist, brings to this work to life with both his professional expertise and an infectious personal appreciation of the power of pop music. His clear, engaging tone and accessible writing style allows even a musically inexperienced reader to follow him as he traces Wilson's musical evolution, with a particular focus on the years leading up to the writing and recording of Pet Sounds and SMiLE, albums which many consider to be the masterpieces of his oeuvre. Inside the Music of Brian Wilson is the definitive book on Wilson's music and is essential reading for fans of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and great pop music. Includes THREE amazing Appendixes: Appendix 1: Brian Wilson Song Chronology* Appendix 2: Four Freshmen Albums, 1955-1961 Appendix 3: Favorite Songs and Influences Through 1961 *The most complete song chronology ever published.
I Am Brian Wilson
Title | I Am Brian Wilson PDF eBook |
Author | Brian Wilson |
Publisher | Da Capo Press |
Pages | 337 |
Release | 2016-10-11 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0306823071 |
They say there are no second acts in American lives, and third acts are almost unheard of. That's part of what makes Brian Wilson's story so astonishing. As a cofounding member of the Beach Boys in the 1960s, Wilson created some of the most groundbreaking and timeless popular music ever recorded. With intricate harmonies, symphonic structures, and wide-eyed lyrics that explored life's most transcendent joys and deepest sorrows, songs like "In My Room," "God Only Knows," and "Good Vibrations" forever expanded the possibilities of pop songwriting. Derailed in the 1970s by mental illness, drug use, and the shifting fortunes of the band, Wilson came back again and again over the next few decades, surviving and-finally-thriving. Now, for the first time, he weighs in on the sources of his creative inspiration and on his struggles, the exhilarating highs and the debilitating lows. I Am Brian Wilson reveals as never before the man who fought his way back to stability and creative relevance, who became a mesmerizing live artist, who forced himself to reckon with his own complex legacy, and who finally completed Smile, the legendary unfinished Beach Boys record that had become synonymous with both his genius and its destabilization. Today Brian Wilson is older, calmer, and filled with perspective and forgiveness. Whether he's talking about his childhood, his bandmates, or his own inner demons, Wilson's story, told in his own voice and in his own way, unforgettably illuminates the man behind the music, working through the turbulence and discord to achieve, at last, a new harmony.
Good Vibrations
Title | Good Vibrations PDF eBook |
Author | Philip Lambert |
Publisher | University of Michigan Press |
Pages | 303 |
Release | 2016-10-07 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0472119958 |
An international, interdisciplinary exploration of the band that helped define 1960s America
Good Vibrations
Title | Good Vibrations PDF eBook |
Author | Philip Lambert |
Publisher | University of Michigan Press |
Pages | 303 |
Release | 2016-10-07 |
Genre | Music |
ISBN | 0472122274 |
Good Vibrations brings together scholars with a variety of expertise, from music to cultural studies to literature, to assess the full extent of the contributions to popular culture and popular music of one the most successful and influential pop bands of the twentieth century. The book covers the full fifty-year history of the Beach Boys’ music, from essays on some of the group’s best-known music—such as their hit single “Good Vibrations” —to their mythical unfinished masterpiece, Smile. Throughout, the book places special focus on the individual whose creative vision brought the whole enterprise to life, Brian Wilson, advancing our understanding of his gifts as a songwriter, arranger, and producer. The book joins a growing body of literature on the popular music of the 1960s, in general, and on Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in particular. But Good Vibrations extends the investigation further and deeper than it has gone before, not only offering new understanding and insights into individual songs and albums, but also providing close examination of compositional techniques and reflections on the group’s place in American popular culture.
Catch a Wave
Title | Catch a Wave PDF eBook |
Author | Peter Ames Carlin |
Publisher | Rodale Books |
Pages | 500 |
Release | 2007-06-26 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 1594868999 |
Now the subject of the movie Love & Mercy, starring John Cusack! Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, along with Mike Love and Al Jardine--better known as the Beach Boys--rocketed out of a working-class Los Angeles suburb in the early sixties, and their sun-and-surf sound captured the imagination of kids across the world. In a few short years, they rode the wave all the way to the top, standing with the Beatles as one of the world's biggest bands. Despite their utopian visions, infectious hooks, and stunning harmonies, the Beach Boys were beset by drug abuse, jealousy, and terrifying mental illness. In Catch a Wave, Peter Ames Carlin pulls back the curtain on Brian Wilson, one of popular music's most revered luminaries, as well as its biggest mystery. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before heard studio recordings, Carlin follows the Beach Boys from their earliest days through Brian's deepening emotional problems to his triumphant re-emergence with the release of Smile, the legendarily unreleased album he had originally shelved.
Brian Wilson
Title | Brian Wilson PDF eBook |
Author | Kirk Curnutt |
Publisher | Equinox Publishing |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2012 |
Genre | Rock music |
ISBN | 9781845536633 |
" ... This is the first study of Wilson to eschew chronology for a topical organiozation that allows discussion of lyrical themes and musical motifs outside of any ... presumptions about their place in the trajectory of his career. The chapter on lyrics explores questionsof qualty, asking why the words to [his] songs are so often considered a detriment, before surveying such tendencies as melancholy and introspecton, the conceit of childlike wisdom, his depiction of women, and Americana/nostalgia. The section on music focusses on his alsetto, the famous harmonies, the peculiar whiteness of the Breach Boys' sound, as well as song structure. A final chapter on iconicity asks how rock criticism's auteurship both maintains and limits his reputation. ..."--Back cover.