BRIAN WILSON: REIMAGINES GERSHWIN (2010)
1) Rhapsody In Blue (intro);
2) The Like In I Love You; 3) Summertime; 4) I Loves You Porgy; 5) I Got Plenty
O' Nuttin'; 6) It Ain't Necessarily So; 7) 'S Wonderful; 8) They Can't Take
That Away From Me; 9) Love Is Here To Stay; 10) I've Got A Crush On You; 11) I
Got Rhythm; 12) Someone To Watch Over Me; 13) Nothing But Love; 14) Rhapsody In
Blue (reprise).
It would be okay, I guess, except for the
title. Why shouldn't Brian Wilson, an
icon of American pop music from another age, find the time to pay tribute to
George Gershwin, an icon of American pop music from before another age?
However, «paying tribute» is not quite the same thing as «reimagining» — the
latter implies that you will somehow be able to look at the music in a completely different light. For my
money, Janis Joplin singing ʽSummertimeʼ is a textbook case of genuine
«reimagining»; whether Brian would at all be capable of a comparable feat
remains an open question, even upon multiple listens to this platter.
Naturally, this album here sounds nothing like
Bing Crosby, or Ella Fitzgerald — as you can easily predict, the arrangements
are one hundred percent Beach Boys/Brian Wilson: instrumentation, harmonies,
rhythms, you couldn't mistake this for not
the author of Pet Sounds in a
million years. This is the way Brian works, and this is his paradigm into which
he will gently force everything that comes his way, Gershwin or Cannibal
Corpse. From this point of view, this is certainly a «reimagining» — sometimes
a «mutation», even, as is the case with the introductory and outgoing bits of
ʽRhapsody In Blueʼ over which Brian plasters a thick wall of Smile-style harmonies. But in all other
respects, this is just an album of Gershwin covers, no more, no less.
Really, there are two reasons to justify an
album like this. First, Gershwin songs are vocal pieces, so it makes sense to
crave for a new rendering once a fresh new vocalist with a special twist comes
along. I guess it is pretty obvious that a 68-year old Brian Wilson does not
fall into this category: it is nice to see that his singing has not at all
deteriorated in more than a decade, but he still has too much of a hard time
trying to hit and hold all the notes so as to divert his brain to other tasks —
such as special ways of vocal modulation or inflection that would depend on particularities
of the lyrics. Nice, but expendable.
Second, one could try to somehow load the
original songs with additional layers of depth — truly «reimagine» the songs so
that, for instance, ʽI've Got A Crush On Youʼ would not properly sound like
he's really got a crush on you, but
made it ironic, or melancholic, or stalker-ish, or something. These
interpretations, however, are all pretty straightforward and, I must admit,
fairly bland. ʽSummertimeʼ has a few nice things going for it (like the grim
cello line and the little orchestral climax at the end, hinting at the song's
implied darkness), but on the whole, never rises above «nice», a pleasantly
loungey delivery. ʽIt Ain't Necessarily Soʼ sounds like a school professor
explaining to the kids the meaning of metaphor, rather than a cynical drug
dealer taking pot shots at religious faith, which is what it used to be. So,
okay, you could perhaps object that «disney-fying» the songs (almost literally
so, because the album was released on the Walt Disney label, in exchange for
the courtesy of Brian covering Disney songs on his next record) is a sort of
«reimagining», but would that be an objection in favor of the record?
Ultimately, there are no two big reasons to
subject yourself to this, but there may be two small ones. First, it is cute to
hear how Beach Boy rhythms and melodies, sometimes directly reminiscent of
classics, make their way into Gershwin songs — for instance, once ʽThey Can't
Take That Away From Meʼ blasts out of the speakers, most of us will probably
want to hum "little deuce coupe, you don't know what I got" before
the real lyrics even start; ʽSomeone To Watch Over Meʼ sounds like a Pet Sounds outtake that could have,
with a few twists, become ʽI Just Wasn't Made For These Timesʼ; ʽI Got Rhythmʼ
ends with harmonies directly transposed from ʽFarmer's Daughterʼ, etc. Again, I
wouldn't call this «reimagining» (no more than a thick Russian accent out of
the mouth of a native Russian speaker of English would be «reimagining
English»), but it's charming and certainly unique.
Second, also on a technical note, there are two
«new» songs here (the second and the next-to-last tracks, symmetrically),
permission to use and finalize which were granted to Brian and his pal Scott
Bennett by the Gershwin Estate — reason enough, I guess, for hardcore George
fans to sit up and take notice, even if the original melodies were obviously «wilsonized»,
and, frankly speaking, the songs are not all that special. Well, I guess ʽThe
Like In I Love Youʼ, as you can already see from the title, offers another
small collection of Ira Gershwin's trademark word games, so at least there's
some linguistic interest. Other than that, I can't think of any more exciting
associations — clearly, it is at least more rewarding to listen to Brian sing
Gershwin than to listen to him singing ʽCan You Feel The Love Tonightʼ (a
coming-up experience), but maybe it would have been a better idea to have him
record all these songs around, say, 1969, when he was mad, uncool, and
unclean, and the results may not have been so predictable.
The only track that really stood out for me was "I got plenty o' nuttin'": Brian's version positively bristles with depth and energy thanks largely to the Pet Sounds-like production, with the harmonica and bass harmonica driving the melody. Brian has a bit of history with the bass harmonica, most notably on the Pet Sounds song 'I know there's an answer' (the solo is wonderful).
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletePerhaps if they hadn’t used the word “reimagines” in the title, you’re review wouldn’t have been quite so dismissive. What exactly were you expecting -- a Brian Wilson album not to sound like Brian Wilson?
I find this to be an interesting hybrid between more traditional arrangements and Brian’s own style. Of the former, stuff like “Summertime” or “S’Wonderful”, Brian and his band at least add some appealing, distinctive vocals instead of just trying to emulate people like Sinatra or Tony Bennett. He actually takes one risk in not altering the gender of the protagonist in “I Loves You, Porgy”, taking on the persona of either a woman or a gay man, depending on what you’re into, I suppose. And did he alter the melody of “It Ain’t Necessarily So”? The only other version I’m familiar with is that of the Moody Blues – which is substantially simpler.
Still, the stuff which evokes the Beach Boys is more fun. The drums on "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' " remind me a lot of the original version of “Holidays”, from “SMiLE”; “Someone to Watch Over Me” is similar to that album’s “Wonderful”; "They Can't Take That Away from Me" does indeed borrow the rhythm of “Little Deuce Coupe”. “I Got Rhythm” doesn’t sound like a particular BB’s track, but it’s hilarious. Opening and closing with a vocal version of “Rhapsody in Blue” is as fitting as opening “SMiLE” with “Our Prayer”.
This was yet another artistic triumph for Brian. Unfortunately, it looks like his last…