Uncanny

ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE "The news of their approach brought back memories of bygone days when the Beach Boys sang of a world unfamiliar to me. They were southern California surfers. I was a southern Minnesota farm boy. We didn’t have much in common. Surfing? Where would I surf? I suppose I could have taken my mother’s ironing board to the sewage ponds but it was difficult to catch a wave there. Besides, to me a wave was something done by a hand. The Beach Boys sang of California girls. Those girls sounded nice, but I was much more interested in Minnesota girls."

THREE BOOKS YOU NEED TO ADD TO YOUR BEACH BOYS/BRIAN WILSON COLLECTION

"The Beach Boys on CD (illustrated guide)," by Joe Thomas, 2004; RisingTide Publications, 300 p.
FRONT COVER

BACK COVER

"Brian Wilson Solo: The Complete Guide To The Solo Works of Brian Wilson," by Joe Thomas and Kie Miskelly, 2004; RisingTide Publications, 90 p.
FRONT COVER

BACK COVER

"The Japanese CD Releases of The Beach Boys & Brian Wilson," by Joe Thomas, July 2004; Rising Tide Publications, 64 p.
FRONT COVER

BACK COVER

LAYING DOWN THE GAUNTLET

HOW MANY CDS ARE IN YOUR BEACH BOYS/BRIAN WILSON COLLECTION?

JOE AND KIE PUT THE REST OF US TO SHAME

These three books are extremely valuable compendiums for collectors of Brian Wilson/Beach Boys CDs. For the contemporary collector, there's about seven years of CD releases that are missing because the books were published in 2004. It would be great if Rising Tide (long since defunct) came back to issue newly expanded editions to cover the intervening years. The original editions are long out of print. One seller on Amazon has a used copy of the Beach Boys book on sale for the outrageous price of $270.34. Nevertheless, if you collect Brian Wilson/Beach Boys CDs, all three volumes are a necessary part of your collection.

I purchased all three directly from Joe Thomas when they first were published . As I recall, they were self-published by Joe under the monicker "RisingTide Publications." Joe is from Ireland, and Kie, his co-author on the Brian Wilson book, is from Scotland. Overall, the printing quality is good. However, since they were self-published, the quality is not quite up to the standards of more established publishing houses. For example, while "Brian Wilson Solo: The Complete Guide To The Solo Works of Brian Wilson" and "The Beach Boys on CD (illustrated guide)" are "perfect bound," "The Japanese CD Releases of The Beach Boys & Brian Wilson" is more like a stapled pamphlet. Also, the quality of the printing of the covers is not very fine, and is in parts blurry; and the quality of the paper covers is not top notch. (Apparently, the Beach Boys volume was also released in a hard backed version, I only purchased the soft cover version, so I can only comment on that version.) Joe and Kie could have used the help of an outside editor to catch some printing mishaps and flubs inside. However, the wealth of information makes up for a few minor slip-ups here and there.

Each of the books is cram-packed with information. Each contains a multitude of scans of CDs, along with discographical details and other notes. The books cover both well-known/common discs as well as the ultra rare and obscure. Even the most thorough collector will find numerous discs she never knew existed. For each CD you get scans of the front cover, the disc itself and usually the tray-card. The more significant discs get a page of their own, that includes the above mentioned details as well as additional pictures, notes and related information. Most pages feature two or more discs. The more pedestrian discs get less attention and are featured en mass in sets of five or more discs a page. Other details of "The Beach Boys on CD (illustrated guide)" include a brief introduction to the members of the Beach Boys, the history of Beach Boys' music on disc, scans of flyers and other ephemera, and several appendixes- the most useful of which are an alphabetical song listing and a ten page index of all of the CDs covered in the book. "Brian Wilson Solo: The Complete Guide To The Solo Works of Brian Wilson" also has a significant amount of information/pictures related to the various solo tours that Brian Wilson embarked on. "The Japanese CD Releases of The Beach Boys & Brian Wilson" is kind of a separately published appendix; it's considerably smaller in size, and shorter in page number, than its counterparts. As I recall, it came as a free supplement if you bought the Beach Boys and the Brian Wilson books together.

Best of all, each book contains a lengthy section devoted to bootlegs, primarily "silver disc" bootlegs. Approximately 50 pages of "The Beach Boys on CD (illustrated guide)" are devoted to bootlegs. A large section of both "Brian Wilson Solo: The Complete Guide To The Solo Works of Brian Wilson" and "The Japanese CD Releases of The Beach Boys & Brian Wilson" describe the bootleg scene. While many of the bootlegs detailed here are known to the more avid collectors, e.g. "Sea of Tunes" and related labels, there are very few collectors who've seen all of these before. You will definitely be left drooling with envy as you flip through page after page of illicit discs.

You could spend a lifetime collecting Beach Boys/Brian Wilson CDs and only be able to amass a fraction of the discs detailed by Joe and Kie. Without a doubt, only a handful of collectors have all of the discs detailed by these authors. Their books demonstrate just how popular the music of the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson has been and the number and variety of forms in which it has ben published. However, with these three books, you at least know what to aim for and you can pick out the discs you really want and focus your collecting on those. Happy hunting!

Links to reviews of all three books:
"The Beach Boys on CD (illustrated guide)"
"Brian Wilson Solo: The Complete Guide To The Solo Works of Brian Wilson"
"The Japanese CD Releases of The Beach Boys & Brian Wilson"

Going though some old files and I located this scan of one of my favorite Brian Wilson collections. This is a "grey area" Japanese only release. Although many of the tracks on this collection have been released officially on one compilation or another, there are still some tracks unique to this set. The amazing, over-sized booklet is filled with tons of cool pictures; unfortunately, most of the text is in Japanese. This can be a hard disc to track down, and if you are lucky enough to find a copy, be ready to shell out some heavy bucks to make it yours.

Here are a few links with some more information:

M&M RECORDS 1 M&M RECORDS 2
CUEBURN BLOG
BEACH BOYS DOT COM

DAILY HERALD "The custom-built, underground recording studio where Brian Wilson recorded most of his 'Imagination' album has remained largely untouched since Wilson sold the house in 2001. The house is now on the market for $1.49 million."

Read more at the CHICAGO TRIBUNE.

THIS IS NOT A PHOTO OPPORTUNITY "Van Dyke Parks starts the evening, accompanied by a double bass player for most of his hour long set. Spending time with Van Dyke Parks is such an extraordinary way to spend time. It’s not just that the music that he plays is so eclectic; from a version of Waltzing Matilda that opens the night, through classical compositions, calypso, and his own songs, including Orange Crate Art and The All Golden from Song Cycle, but that the between song bits are as, if not more enjoyable and memorable than the music. He just has such a poetic way of talking, every sentence that comes out of his mouth is so carefully composed and thought out and he manages to make the between song banter into an art form of its very own. At one point he repeats his agent’s view of the four stages of Van Dyke Park’s career:

Who is Van Dyke Parks?
Get me Van Dyke Parks
Get me a younger Van Dyke Parks
Who is Van Dyke Parks?

Thinking about that afterwards, is there anything that comes close to being a younger Van Dyke Parks working in popular music in the modern age?"

COVER ME SONGS features covers of every track off The Beach Boys classic album "Pet Sounds."

TM.ORG
What is Transcendental Meditation?
Mike Love discusses Transcendental Meditation
TM-Free Blog: Skeptical Views of Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Transcendental Meditation- The Beach Boys song

Transcendental meditation
Can emancipate the man
And get you feeling grand

Fusion of
The never changing wind
The ever changing wind
The never changing world
It's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good

Transcendental meditation

Transcendental meditation
Can emancipate the man
And get you feeling grand
It's good

All praises to EARCANDY.

DAN METH 1 and DAN METH 2

Quote from: James Maxton via this blog of the same name.

DAILY BREEZE has a nice interview with "Lost Beach Boy" David Marks.

ZAP 2 IT Carnie Wilson is quoted as saying: "It is in a short sale situation ... It can be two weeks and it could be a year. My house is not in foreclosure. My house is in a short sale ... I am not talking about it because it is not anybody's business ... It shouldn't be anybody's business. And everything is so great with my family, and my life. We moved into another place. It really is nobody's business ... It's a very common place to be right now, with the market right now ... especially in a home with this value. It is in a short sale and that is what people need to see. It isn't anything anybody should know about. I am not in the business of real estate. I am in show business."

Read more about George Barris at HEAVY PAPERZ.