Price: $ 16.98
Endless Harmony (TV Documentary O.S.T.)
Beach Boys Photos
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 Endless Harmony DVD |
Those familiar with the Beach Boys’ decades of familial squabbles and personal discord will find the title Endless Harmony almost too ironic. But this soundtrack from the band-sanctioned VH-1 television special wisely focuses on the band’s undeniable vocal prowess and the vaunted composing/arranging/producing skills of its chief architect, Brian Wilson. It also manages a fresh take on one of the most over-exposed catalogs in pop, largely by raiding the vaults for some unexpected gems. Twenty-one of the 23 music tracks (two brief radio promos are also included) here are previously unreleased. Several Brian Wilson demos give insight in to his creative process. Worshippers of that grail of unreleased albums, Smile, will be excited to find that the piano demo of “Heroes and Villains” also includes snippets of “I’m in Great Shape” and “Barnyard,” long-lost pieces of that legendary album/puzzle. Wilson’s demo for “Breakaway” illustrates how he would arrange songs by recording each band member’s vocal part himself–Wilson quite literally is the Beach Boys here. Also notable is “Surf’s Up” engineer Steve Desper’s radical (for 1970) remix of Wilson’s fatalistic classic “Til I Die,” early versions of “Do It Again,” and “Help Me, Rhonda,” and gorgeous (if heretical) stereo mixes of “California Girls” and “Kiss Me, Baby.” The other band members’ creative instincts are succinctly documented, but as always, it is the sound and vision of Brian Wilson that overshadows them. “Genius” might just be too weak an adjective. –Jerry McCulley
