Fun, Fun, Fun

[poliphilo]

BBC3 has been relaying concerts from the Glastonbury festival. Last night they gave us Brian Wilson's gig. Yes, you heard right- Brian Wilson. The Beach Boys' mentally fragile, drug addled infant genius was up on stage with a great backing band belting out the classics. He's in his 60s, paunchy and had to do most of the set sitting down; his voice is weak, he can't reach the high notes but-wotthehell- this is only slightly less sensational than the raising of Lazarus.

Michael Moorcock says of the Beatles that they're "the poets of paradise"- well so they are- but so are the Beach Boys. Fun, Fun Fun, Barbara Ann, Good Vibrations- these are the happiest, most beatific songs of any generation.

Comments

[dadi.livejournal.com]

Ahahah you are truly awakening long lost memories with those music posts of yours :). The Beach Boys, oh my. Ba Ba Barbara Ann... soundtrack to so many silly nights!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I got exposed to the Beach Boys quite a lot as a kid through my Dad, so I've always liked them. But I saw the same footage as you did last night, and wasn't all that impressed. I didn't know about the health problems, so couldn't make allowance for that, but still - he just didn't look particularly pleased or even interested to be there, and that really took the edge off the enjoyment of the songs for me. If he'd just smiled once in a while, it would have helped.

I did love the girl who was literally surfing through the crowd on a surf-board whcih people were passing over their heads, though!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I love those frothy songs--Fun, fun, fun...

OMG: I thought Brian Wilson was dead. How icky of me.

(I suppose you've heard about the Live 8 effort that is being promoted to raise the collective consciousness about starvation in Africa. I heard a wag on the radio yesterday, and he was saying cynically, "Oh, well, I suppose Sir Paul will drag out "Let It Be" one more time, but really, I wonder how much good that song's actually done? Since he first sang it, we've had all kinds of war and trouble--hey! Maybe that song's CAUSING it!")