BRIAN WILSON: IMAGINATION (1998)
1) Your Imagination; 2) She
Says She Needs Me; 3) South American; 4) Where Has Love Been; 5) Keep An Eye On
Summer; 6) Dream Angel; 7) Cry; 8) Lay Down Burden; 9) Let Him Run Wild; 10)
Sunshine; 11) Happy Days.
It looks like there is yet another manipulation story going on here, this time involving
producer Joe Thomas, who teamed up with Brian under an obligation to
«modernize» his sound — only to have Brian later come back at him with a
lawsuit, seeking damage compensation and creative freedom. I know what you're
about to ask: «Geez, with so many schmucks and leeches sucking up to the man
over the years, couldn't he finally have learned a thing or two about making
friends? Or could it be so that the blame actually lies — at least partly — on
Brian himself, rather than on those who may have actually helped him get along all this time?..»
To answer these, though, you'd at least have to
be a criminal inspector, or a judge, or a psychoanalysis freak. One thing is
certain: Imagination, Brian's first
truly new musical project in a decade, would have unquestionably sounded
different with a different producer. We are not even talking here of «modernistic»
production, the way Simon Climie produced Clapton's Pilgrim around the same time — Joe Thomas cut his producer's teeth
in the late Eighties, and that is
what much of Imagination sounds
like, with dated synthesizer tones that are largely drawn from that period's
adult contemporary data bank. He may be a Beach Boys fan, but he does not show
much understanding of what it takes to make a Beach Boys album.
That said, harsh criticism of Imagination, which seems to be the
default mode in review circles, is exaggerated. In reality, there are some very
nice, and quite obviously inspired, Wilson compositions here: the mere fact
that many of them are credited to Wilson and Thomas should not be taken as an
obligatory turn-off before you give them a proper chance. The record is
noticeably short, and I guess that in some way, Brian was still suffering from
writer's block, because no other reason exists for our having to listen to
re-recordings of ʽKeep An Eye On Summerʼ and ʽLet Him Run Wildʼ: both songs fit
in with the album's general mood, but so do at least several dozen other Beach
Boys tunes, and it never helps when you juxtapose classics from your peak
period with non-classics from your struggling old age period, even if you sing
them in a struggling old age voice and bring them down to mediocre level with
poor production values.
Maybe they thought of remaking ʽLet Him Run
Wildʼ by way of association, since the chorus of the title track goes "you
know it's just your imagination running wild". The comparison would
certainly not be in favor of ʽYour Imaginationʼ, which has a rather cloying
verse melody and a much more simplistic and repetitive hook in the chorus — but
it is still a good song, innocent and charming in a typically Brian sort of
way, and with some space left for angelic harmonies (that's the second time in his life that he made the
idea of «running wild» reflect heavenly beauty rather than the roar of a Harley
Davidson). Not even the dinky keyboards can take its quality away, though one
can only wonder how much better it would have sounded with, say, an authentic
harpsichord. Or a grand piano.
Other highlights include ʽShe Says She Needs
Meʼ, a re-write of the old Beach Boys outtake ʽSandy She Needs Meʼ from 1965
for which Thomas at least had the good sense to include an easily noticeable
clarinet part, giving it a bit more of a «classical» feel than anything else on
here; ʽLay Down Burdenʼ, which begins as a Spanish guitar-embellished adult
contemporary bore, but redeems itself when it comes to the pacifying chorus
(mellow out a bit and the summon to "lay down burden" might just make
you do that); and ʽHappy Daysʼ, which also hearkens back to the old days (part
of it being based on the «goofy-scary» outtake ʽMy Solutionʼ from 1970) and
does a terrific job of contrasting the «doom» verses with the happy boppy
chorus of "happy days are here again" (provided they really are, but
whatever).
Other songs are more questionable — like, I am
not sure what to think or feel about ʽCryʼ, a pop ballad with weepy
Claptonesque blues guitar all over it (generic on the whole, but not without
brief moments of unusually pointed emotionality), and I am even less sure if I
like Brian's musical advertisements for tropical resorts (the Jimmy Buffett
collaboration ʽSouth Americanʼ, which goes as far as to feature the line
"I'm hungry and I'm doing lunch with Cameron Diaz"; the all-too-happy
cod reggae piece ʽSunshineʼ), but I am not altogether put off by them, either,
because they still show the man in a creative phase, no matter how skewed or
twisted.
In the end, a thumbs up here. Yes, plenty of
technical handicaps and strange decisions, but really, bottomline is: either
Brian Wilson creates or he coasts, and whenever he creates, nothing can stop him from
channelling some of the pop fairy's most heartwarming vibes, even if the
ability to attract them inescapably wanes over time and can be further harmed
by (figuratively) tonedeaf collaborators. But at least he does not rap here, or
perform duets with Missy Elliott or Jon Bon Jovi, or engage the Backstreet Boys
to do the harmonies for him, so it could have been much, much worse. As it is, Imagination largely shows that some is
still left, and that at least Brian's veteran fans have themselves a nice new
musical companion to get old to.
Summed up pretty much perfectly George. Would only add that the early outake he re-recorded ("She says that she needs me", easily the best song on this album) was also sometimes called "Sherry she needs me" and that it can be heard on the Made in California compilation: it consists of wrecking crew instrumentation (1965) and wrecked beach boy vocals!! (1976). Shame it wasn't finished in 1965 as it would have fitted perfectly on the Today album.
ReplyDeleteToday is Brian's birthday!
ReplyDeleteDo not get the appeal of latter-day solo Brian Wilson at all. I get he's a legend, but so is Aretha Franklin and she sure doesn't get a pass for making badly (awfully, actually) produced music with well past-it vocals just for being a legend.
ReplyDeleteAnd I say this as the Beach Boys being among absolute faves of mine. Brian had his time.
The difference is Aretha's later records had crappy production on generally uninteresting or crappy songs. If what George says can be taken seriously – and I often do – the melodies at least show Brian to be capable, more so than the rest of the living Beach Boys at that time anyways.
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