Whats on your turntable tonight?

"Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim" (Reprise FS-1021) Early pressing in very good shape. One of those library book sale finds that actually is in good condition.
Sinatra's voice is in mellow form on this one. Large band behind them and interesting enough, the only session player mentioned in the liner notes is the drummer: Dom-Um Romao. Makes you wonder what other hot shots are backing these guys up.

I've held off on 'Smile'. I have a friend, a veteran rock show-goer and sometime club booker, who went to the concert and proclaimed it the best show he'd ever been to in his life, period. That made me sorry I didn't take him up on his extra ticket offer despite the price.

But every time I see Wilson do some of this stuff on TV, I'm hung up by a few things. First, and last too for that matter, is that the man just can't sing anymore, at least on TV and I have to guess in concert either. Second, the instrumental backing quasi-sounds like the 60's studio orchestras they originally used in recording this material, but not quite; everything's just a little off, clearly not the real deal, no matter how much they may try to emulate the arrangements and use period instruments, etc. It makes me feel I'm listening to an imitation, both inauthentic and overly careful and reverent at the same time. The overall effect sounds somewhat stilted to me. Third, the backing vocals are not Beach Boys (even if the Beach Boys in this context were often just multiple overdubbed Brians). Forth, it keeps catching me out that the arrangements and lyrics for many of the Smile songs that did trickle out on other BB albums, and that I'm used to and like, are different as conceived for Smile. I'm not sure I want or need 'different' versions of these songs, even if the Smile versions were actually the originals. And fifth, I'm just not a huge fan of the Van Dyke Parks-style extended 'song-suite' method - Brian's tunes are so strong as stand-alone pop numbers, and I'm so accustomed to hearing many of these ones in that way, that the Smile settings often don't strike me as improvements, at least of what I've heard so far.

It took me a while to appreciate "Imagination", with it's extra handicap of over-reliance on contemporary digital-synth and reverb sounds that I abhor, and generally generic AOR backing band blandness. But though we weren't talking the second coming of Pet Sounds or anything, Brian's better songs still won me over in the end, taken on their own terms. That might be harder for me to do with Smile, since in my heart I'll always want it to be the Beach Boys, and it's just not. I'll be interested to hear what some of you guys think of it after several listens.

PS - Rushton: Why do folks so often feel they must make apologies for the sound of a harpsicord? What a cool-ass freakin' sound! I've always loved it to pieces, and really can't imagine anybody not liking it. Clanking of the mechanism and everything. And I never actually encounter complaining about it either - only acknowledging allusions to mysterious masses of people who allegedly can't stand it. But I will say that it's one instrument, perhaps above all others, that I never really heard a recording of reproduced properly (at least I *think* it's now properly) before my system reached a certain level of fidelity - quite recently actually. It's apparently very tough to do right, so maybe that has something to do with this supposed epidemic hatred of harpsicords (or at least harpsicord records?). But still, I've dug that sound even from when my system couldn't get it well, so I don't know. Just don't understand this one.

Sorry. The least I should do to rehabilitate the instrument's image to the lurking legions of harpsichord-haters is spell it properly. Harpsichord! AG why can't we edit these posts so much anymore?...

Zaikesman, I loved your musings about Smile and the Beach Boys sound. Thanks for that.

As to harpsichords... I find many people are just not fond of that hard edged transient that comes from the plucked string of the harpsichord. Even people who like and play a harp (also plucked) often don't care for the harder edged transients produced by harpsichords. And, since harpsichords are challenging to play with a good sense of dynamic shifts, many performances end up with a less flexible sound than gets pedantic. This is compounded by so many recordings that are bright and edgy to begin with, and systems that are not able to recreate the full harmonic envelope, and that's the way most people have experienced a harpsichord: in recordings and not live. My wife plays harp, but just doesn't care for harpsichord. It's taken a number of encounters with lovely sounding instruments played live to get her to at least appreciate the possibilities.

Editing these posts... We seem to have lost the "edit my post" capability on threads that are now being spread across multiple pages, like this one. It's still working on threads that fit within a single page. I've emailed Audiogon customer service about this, and the response is that they will have the programmers look at it.
.

I have been following everyone's comments on Brian Wilson's "Smile". I eagerly purchased the LP when it was released, based mainly on the buzz it had generated. I have not considered myself a Beach Boys "fan" but I like their tunes and the good time, summer air feeling they always invoke when I hear them.

I just cannot get my head around this one. I have been reluctant to come out and say so up until now, thinking I must be missing the point, or am ignorant of the reasons for the Magnum Opus status it has been given by the press.

To me, the title is a good one. It does make you smile when you hear it. That being said, I liken its overall effect on me to an amusement park: It makes me smile for a short time, but the novelty wears off. There are those who REALLY like amusement parks.

The production values are right up there, there are quirky sound effects, interesting turns of phrase in the vocals, but Brian's voice and years of hard living really show.

Honest, I want to like it, I don't dislike it, but I am really only good for a side at a time before I find myself saying "well that was fun. What's next?"