Got this month's Golf Digest pay, and promptly blew it on comics and that Beach Boys/Brian Wilson DVD, haha. The DVD was like I thought it would be, very value for money. Two documentaries on one disc equals several hours of insightful viewing. Lots of neat vintage footage of Beach Boys concert footage from their dorky striped shirt-wearing early days to their older incarnation as men with very big beards. Cracked up at seeing Brian being interviewed from beneath the bedsheets, without his shirt on. (Considering that footage was sometime in his overweight recluse period, I hope his shirt was the only thing missing...*shudder*) Now that I think about it,
Brian Wilson was sort of like the
Michael Jackson of his time. He had an abusive dad, he formed a band with his brothers, he had a singing voice like a squealing girl, he was considered a musical genius, he acted like a child way into adulthood, he eventually let everything go to shit by going insane...sounds familiar, doesn't it?
But luckily Brian has managed to get his act back together and will perform the legendary unreleased album
Smile on
tour this year. After decades of rabid speculation on how the album was originally supposed to turn out, it could very likely be anti-climactic given the insane expectations. Sort of like
Wolverine's Origin: you speculate about it for years, and when it eventually happens, it's like "That's
it?!" It's inevitable that a good portion of the fans will be disappointed. But the thing with
Smile, at least compared to
Origin, is that it's by the person who was responsible for it in the first place. Whereas
Origin was more like Marvel saying, "Hey Paul Jenkins, you wanna come up with Wolverine's origin before the movie does it and make a lot of money?"
Whatever the final reaction, the main thing is that quality music will be played and the whole
Smile saga will have some sort of closure. Though then again, it could turn out to be another
Let It Be...Naked, which will have people going, "Are you sure that's how it was meant to be?". Ah, well. Some people just can't be pleased. I'll definitely be buying the inevitable
Smile: Live In Concert CD, since I obviously can't attend the gigs. Sniff sniff.
