I love this video for its simplicity. And grace. The music isn't shabby either. I came upon it yesterday when tracking down a version of the Beach Boys' song "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" to include with my Trump article this morning, and thought I should include it here on its own. Without going into the long history, much of which most people probably have a sense of, for the last long while original Beach Boy member Mike Love has owned the rights to the name Beach Boys. And so the core founding member, Brian Wilson, has not been able to perform under that name, now that he's been back singing again. But here is with another another original Beach Boy, Al Jardine, singing an exquisitely lovely studio version of "Sloop John B," along with backup group members. By the way, the original Bahamian folk song dates back to at least 1916, probably further. It's gone through a variety of incarnations, though the version the Beach Boys recorded -- probably with a few tweaks by Brian Wilson -- largely comes from an adaptation by Lee Hays of The Weavers and the poet Carl Sandburg. There are other very good videos of this recording session -- and of Wilson and Jardine in concert -- but this particular video just stood out for me. Both fellows were in their 70s when they recorded this two years ago in 2016 -- 50 years after having originally recording it for the classic Pet Sounds albums -- and happily both (including to a large degree Brian Wilson, most-especially for all his issues over the years, limited though his range may be now) are in very fine voice. Indeed, I suspect to a big degree that that may be why they changed the very last line from the original.
2 Comments
GregVB
11/20/2018 01:44:35 pm
A few thoughts about this (and I agree -- it is wonderful):
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Robert J Elisberg
11/20/2018 08:30:40 pm
Dr. Buzz, thanks for the note -- and yes, I agree with all the points.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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