Time to put that ferrett-faced-fascist guy to work!
Yep, that's right, the review for today's CD is the work of none-other than Stephen T. McCarthy, he of the "Stuffs" and "FFFF" blogs.
In a hastily scrawled note on a cocktail napkin (well it was a regular napkin, but cocktail napkin sounds so much cooler), Stephen's ad-hoc review of the new Brian Wilson CD, "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin" was far better than anything I'd have come up with, due to Stephen's greater interest in the music genre and his greater passion for the artist (BW is to Stephen T. as Todd Rundgren is to me).
So without further fanfare, here, in McDogg's own yakkin' style, is what he had to say:
I hadn't even heard about this.
I knew from a couple of biographies I've read that Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" has indeed always been his favorite songs since he was essentially an infant.
He modeled the Beach Boys on the sound of the Four Freshmen but his big hero was Phil Spector & "Rhapsody In Blue" was the love of his life.
I was a little disappointed in this at first. "Rhapsody" should have been more fully developed. There was no way he was gonna touch Mahalia Jackson's take on "Summertime" not Miles Davis' version on "I Loves You Porgy."
But things really picked up with "I Get Plenty O' Nuttin'" and got fabulous with "It Ain't Necessarily So," and then to turn "S' Wonderful" into a bossa nova piece amid all the typical inventiveness that his genius applies to arrangements in the stuffs that follows…the guy is certainly a national treasure. Best version of "S' Wonderdful" ever!
"They Can't Take That Away From Me" done a la early rock 'n' roll doo-wop-who'd a thunk it? Probably my favorite version of that song, too.
"Our Love Is Here To Stay" still goes to Natalie Cole IMO, and I still don't like "Someone To Watch Over Me."
What's up with that song?
Why is it so danged popular?
It's been covered a million and two times, but there's nothing to it.
The supposed melody is flat and boring, the lyrics are sentimental tripe, and no man should ever sing the line, "I'm a little lamb who's lose in the woods."
WTF?
Postscript-I agree with Stephen that no man should ever sing that line. I've always thought of "Someone To Watch Over Me" as a song to be sung by a woman.
Why?
Real men do not compare themselves to little lambs. Not even to get a woman into bed. Never. Under any circumstances.
Thanks, Stephen, for the note and the permission to post it.
McDISCDUDE ~
ReplyDeleteThanks! In all honesty, I feel honored that you thought enough of my note to post it as a review on your own blog!
The only correction I might make is to point out that, in truth, Brian Wilson is not to me as Todd Rundgren is to you. No one is to anyone as Todd Rundgren is to you!
;o)
Also... there was some sort of glitch in this sentence:
>>....."bossa nova piece amid a;; the typical inventiveness that his genius applies to arrangements in the stuffs that follows..."
I can't recall what I wrote there, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't "a;;". Well, unless I was having some sort of "Summer Of Love, Acid Flashback" at the time.
;o)
And in closing, I want to say what a great coincidence it was that you should have titled this blog bit "And Now For Something Completely Different", considering the fact that I came here and read this immediately after posting a comment to you at "Stuffs" in which I happened to make mention of "Monty Python (soaked in 80-proof)".
We're apparently on the same wavelength today!
~ McDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Hey, yo wrote it-you can't be the editor, too!
ReplyDeleteSmall typo there, should have read "all" and now it does.
You were laying some pretty heavy praise on Mr. Wilson-but you're probably right about the degree of solicitude...although I am far from the world's most devoted TR fan (there are people right now booking flights for the spring repeats of the shows they already saw six times last fall).
In any event, I couldn't have said it better, so I didn't try!
Not at all familiar with this work and I am a Brian Wilson fan. But of course I don't really keep up with music like I did 20 to 40 years ago.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree that "Someone to Watch Over Me" is a total chick song. We men are supposed to be independent and in charge and tending the flock ourselves.
On the other hand there is that Whiffenpoof Song.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Lee-
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the whiffenpoof song is, but it was hard to bring myself to type "whiffenpoof" let alone sing it.
LC