Man, this is getting sporadic. As in years past, my journal-keeping tails off in March and usually doesn't ever recover. But it seems one of the benefits of having a public blog is that you get the occasional person who actually reads it and asks about updates. This in turn sends you into a guilt trip, which then makes you write just to satisfy the masses (OK, maybe "masses" is an exaggeration). But oh well, at least it in my case it gives me extra motivation.
Frankly, it seems I need all the motivation I can get, 'cos my current state of mind is one that makes it impossible to get anything done, ranging from work and school to blogging and testimonials. Lots of stuff I want and need to do, but I just can't seem to get going. Which is usually the case, but for some reason it's like my inertia has been amplified tenfold. Probably just too depressed by all the usual things (non-existent relationships, Dad getting on my case at least once a week, etcetera) to do anything productive. This is some real shitty funk I'm in right now, and I'm not even sure how I got here. It's got to the point where I end up staying in my room all day, not really wanting to deal with anything.
Speaking of seclusion, The Beach Boys still occupy most of my listening time and energy, and the indoctrination process is slowly gaining momentum, though it's tricky trying to strike a balance between tailoring those compilations towards the intended victims' specific tastes and being as comprehensive and representative as possible in a limited amount of space with regards to the band's entire career. You think of dumping the surf and car songs in favor of more obscure (yet more interesting) latter-day material, but they're an important part of the band's history, plus most of their hits are from that era. You want to impose as much of your personal taste as is possible, but you don't want to overdo it so as the listener will end up being turned off in the first few seconds. A while ago, my ex sent a text message, saying that she had just seen
High Fidelity, and that Rob reminded her of me. So what would Rob do if he were to introduce someone to the Beach Boys in the space of an 80 minute CD-R?
Anyway, still on the subject of The Beach Boys, but more to do with my own experiences: I have officially become even more consumed with them, especially Brian Wilson. And most definitely
Smile, the lost Beach Boys album he's finally got around to completing and performing on tour more or less in the way it was meant to be, 37 years ago. Dug out my
Good Vibrations box set to hear the
Smile snippets, and I've just realised why the backlash against
Smiley Smile was so huge: they turned the lush
Smile tracks into an assortment of minimalist instrumentation and irritating giggling. Earlier today, I downloaded the entirety of
Smile as performed on one of Brian Wilson's tour dates. It's well-known that The Beach Boys (make that Brian) had some sort of innovation competition with The Beatles, which The Beach Boys lost after they'd abandoned
Smile and The Beatles released
Sgt. Pepper. It's often been speculated if that album would've been as acclaimed and celebrated as it was, had
Smile not imploded.
After listening to
Smile 2004, I'd say that
Smile blows
Sgt. Pepper out of the water, especially if you're talking about the whole "concept album" angle. When you get down to it, what is
Sgt. Pepper's concept anyway? As mind-blowing as the songs are, the only thing tying them together is the idea that it's music by The Beatles pretending to be someone other than The Beatles. Whereas with
Smile...well to be honest I can't really explain what it's about in justifiable terms, so read
this and
this, and try tracking down the live mp3s. I don't know how you'll react, but I've found myself agreeing with what the late Dennis Wilson said all those years ago: "
Smile makes
Pet Sounds stink."
Oddly enough, I've also found myself getting into
Pet Sounds a bit more lately. Just bought the
Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live DVD, and can understand why people would like that more than
Smile, because it's more relatable in a lyrical sense. Sort of like comparing
Rubber Soul and
Sgt. Pepper: the latter may be the more advanced, at least musically, but the former is more touching on a spiritual level.
My, I seem to be rambling. Actually I've been meaning to write about it all and sell to it somewhere, so just consider the above a test run. Now it's matter of getting off my arse and finally getting around to it.
