SMILE

The most famous 'lost' album of all time, The Beach Boys' Smile was intended as the follow-up to 1966's influential 'Pet Sounds'. Disappointed by the comparatively poor sales of his previous project, Brian Wilson set out to record a song which would be full of "happy vibes". The result was "Good Vibrations", a number one hit on both sides of the Atlantic and which still stands as a milestone in recording history. Subsequently, Wilson attempted to construct his "teenage symphony to God" - a whole album using the kind of unusual sounds and innovative production techniques which had made "Good Vibrations" so successful. Working with lyricist Van Dyke Parks, Wilson recorded a series of breathtakingly beautiful songs including "Surf's Up", "Wonderful", "Cabin Essence" and "Wind Chimes".

The project ran into problems when Wilson recorded the "Fire" piece for an "Elements" suite and became worried that his music was responsible for the start of several fires in the neighbourhood. Amidst increasingly erratic behaviour, Wilson continued to record sections for use in other titles such as "Heroes & Villains", "Do You Like Worms" and "Vega-Tables" without producing many finished recordings. Throughout the first months of 1967 the release date was postponed as Wilson proved unable to supply a completed version of the album, even though most of its components were finished.

Upon the release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in mid-1967, The Beach Boys scrapped the Smile album, speedily re-recording some of its music for the less groundbreaking replacement Smiley Smile. Extracts from the Smile sessions continued to surface on Beach Boys albums for the next few years, most notably on 20/20 and Surf's Up, and many of the original Smile versions were finally released on a 1993 box-set, Good Vibrations (edited by Brian Wilson's engineer of choice, Mark Linett, with minimal input by the man himself).

Wilson revisited the Smile theme and some of the album's significant stylistic devices on "Rio Grande", the closing 8-minute piece from his 1988 solo debut.

Track listing (based on a handwritten note that Wilson gave to Capitol Records in 1967)

Do You Like Worms
Wind Chimes
Heroes And Villains
Surf's Up
Good Vibrations
Cabin Essence
Wonderful
I'm In Great Shape
Child Is Father Of The Man
The Elements
Vege-Tables
The Old Master Painter

Other tracks and fragments from the sessions include

Look
I Ran
Barnyard
Tones
Three Blind Mice
He Gives Speeches
You're Welcome

BRIIII-AN!

I saw him again last night at the Royal Festival Hall. One must have deep pockets to fund repeated visits... this may be the last show for a while now. I was delighted to see Brian looking relaxed and comfortable on stage. He was clearly enjoying the performance. I was *thrilled* to see this. He has obviously taken some good advice and dressed for comfort (a velour "leeesuire suit") and good luck to him. This is the man who singlehandedly wrote, arranged, and produced Pet Sounds at the age of 23. He therefore should (and does) wear whatever he likes.

I had an eyeglass and could clearly see that his expression was more natural and less strained. He kept on smiling, spontaneously, and seemed SO much stronger than, say, one year ago or even six months ago. I think Britain is becoming Brian's second home. London seems to be saying "We'll have you!!!".

I can't wait for SMiLE to come out! It's to be released on September 28th, so not long now. Had it been released in 1967, it would have been as techincally accomplished as Sergeant Pepper.

SECOND-HAND BOOKS

Saw the following today on a book dealer's website. Serious dealers have what can seem like their own language for describing the spines, binding and general condition of books (tight/broken/straight/clean/etc), and they must list every defacement and scribble.


Title: The Mersey Sound
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Book Condition: Good
Type: Poetry
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: U K Penguin 1979
ISBN Number: 0 14042 103 3
Illustrator: Alan Spain
Seller ID: 005534

A used copy of this book. One long crease to the back cover and shelf wear to the covers. Some edge wear. "Oddballs book (so leave it)" is written to the inner page plus written sideways to the back of the front cover is "strap me up with rainbows and whip me".
---- 126 pages - browning to the edges. Poems from three contempory Merseyside modern poets. Reading / study copy.

Keywords: Poetry Liverpool Mersey

Price = 2.50 GBP
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CRONYISM

At Harrow School there are numerous references to Churchill (because he studied here). I'm currently teaching in one of the Economics classrooms where there are 'quotes' pasted all over the walls. Here's one of Churchill's pithier statements:

"Success is moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm"

...which Peter Mandelson knows all about. If I hadn't lost all respect for Blair already, I'd do so now.

In October 1998, Tory spokesman Liam Fox said of Blair:

"It seems that he wants to have his close friends in positions of authority even more so than many of his senior cabinet colleagues. I think that is something that as democrats we should be concerned about.
The fact that this government is extraordinarily prone to cronyism is a tendency we see almost at every turn now."

*NB - this was said in '98 with reference to Lord Falconer!*

I don't normally "go political" but news of Mandelson's new job was a bit sickening.

ON BEING DISCREET

'Once a word is spoken, four horses cannot drag it back'

Discretion is a skill as much as a virtue - and one that I've yet to perfect.

BIBLE STUDIES

"It's just called 'The Bible' now - we dropped the word 'holy' to give it a more mass-market appeal." - Hodder & Stoughton

Using the definite article ('the') as an integral part of a name signifies a one-of-a-kind/one-off commodity. Since most of us know what the bible is, was it necessary to further define it with an adjective? Perhaps the word 'holy' was always unnecessary. I can't think of qualitative adjectives in other well-known titles.

I can vaguely recall seeing books called 'Holy Bible' (as opposed to 'Bible'), but only just, which shows how quickly things are accepted/forgotten. I wonder when H & S (Hodder Headline, these days) took this decision and whether it affected sales.

COME AGAIN?

Often, when we are not properly engaged in the act of reading, the message enters the brain regardless. Our gaze might fall on a stray piece of writing or a text, and we see it as though from the corner of an eye. When we receive information in this way – passively, without fixing on the task – the message can be confused or transposed to comedic effect. Here are a few that I can recall. This happened a few days ago, which is why I’ve had cause to think about it.

It seemed unusually honest, on behalf of the publisher, to name a book “Annoying Poetry”. (A double take revealed “Enjoying Poetry”)

On food packaging, “Your friend, veggieburger” (“Your fried…”)

Casually looking at - rather than watching - the television, "The World's Strangest Man" (Strongest)

Browsing a lonely hears column, “Cryptic Idiot” (for Cypriot Idol)

In a shop window, “Pay with Delia, Smith and Visa” (Delta, Switch and Visa)

A board outside a run-down housing estate, “Persons found decomposing on the premises will be liable for prosecution”. A bit harsh, perhaps. On further inspection, the message ran “Persons found depositing litter on the premises…”

Does anyone else have examples of this?

TEMPORARY LODGINGS

Outside my second-floor window there's a tall streetlamp. It's an older style of lamp - the bulb has a yellow rather than bright white bulb and the curve of the lamp's neck is graceful with no hard angles. By my reckoning it stands more than 20 feet tall, which makes it proportionate to the three-storey boarding house where I'm staying. I've peered from the window of this building for the last few evenings - usually late at night - and something's caught my attention.

Imagine an inverted capital 'L' shape for the lamppost. Hanging from the angle of the 'L' is a magnificent, enormous spider's web. It's vast - like a fishing net - and it's only visible after dark. If it were hanging anywhere else it'd be invisible, but the light from the streetlamp illuminates it beautifully. I'm puzzled by it. A spider constructing a web in the angle of a streetlamp seems akin to people establishing settlements next to rivers. How resourceful the spider must be to exploit its environment in this way! It must be an exceptionally well-nourished spider, but how did it know? I've been indulging a notion of spiders as logical creaturs, speculating along the lines of "I like flies, flies like light, therefore it follows that...'

Each evening I spend a few minutes watching the July insects heading faithfully for the streetlamp's bulb. They're as reliable as mass obeying laws of motion. How do spiders know this would make a good spot? They must also be attuned to light, and, sensing it, shin up the lamppost towards the source. But they cannot be somehow 'aware' that lights are a favourite haunt of moths and insects.

Nonetheless, the web exists and is extensive. At night, by lamplight, it is studded with raindrops. The wind sometimes buffets the spider's web back and forth, but the web is built to withstand wind and moves only slightly to-and-fro. This lends it the illusion of weight, and the very gentle swaying makes me think of heavy, silver chainmail.

My window is almost level with the top of the streetlamp, otherwise I would never have noticed. I'm wondering now whether this is a typical location for spiders webs. Perhaps its a well-known phenomena that I've previously failed to observe, or was this particular spider unusually fortunate in locating its home?

DESIDERATA - THE TEXT

Okay, now for the writing. Perhaps it's all a bit 'fridge magnet' and edging towards sanctimony - paragraph six is grating. But try reading with fresh eyes, as though for the first time. There's a lot of very sound advice here ('be on good terms with others where possible and avoid obnoxious people'; 'take an interest in work (which will keep you grounded)'; 'age gracefully'; 'avoid paranoid thinking'...). It's just so very wise:

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble, it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in face of sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery & broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.

DESIDERATA - THE BACKGROUND n. pl. [Latin from desideratus]

Anything desired; that of which the lack is felt; a generally felt and acknowledged want; necessary and requisite.

Here's a short history of the piece, which makes interesting reading:

Every copy of Desiderata claims the original was found in a Baltimore church in 1692. It's comforting to believe that some truths are universal and that the human spirit is unchanging. A poem so relevant in today's world being found centuries ago supports those comforting beliefs.

That it's unsigned makes it more beautiful: one sees these words as the anonymous writer's gift to the world.

Meaningful as the words are, Desiderata's history doesn't live up to the fable built around it. The poem wasn't penned centuries ago, it was written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945). Ehrmann was a lawyer from Indiana. Like most of his writings, Desiderata failed to attract much attention during his life. Three years after his death, his widow had it and some of his other works published.

Confusion over Desiderata's authorship arose in 1956 when a Maryland pastor used the poem in a collection of material for the congregation of Old St. Paul's Church in Baltimore. He was fond of inspirational essays and poems and he often mimeographed the writings he liked, collecting them in booklets, and placing them in pews around the church. The Desiderata booklet was printed on a letterhead which bore the words "Old St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, A.D. 1692" (the year of the church's founding).

A member of the congregation must have liked the poem enough to pass it to a friend. From there it passed through many hands, along the way losing the attribution to Max Ehrmann and gaining - through a muddling of the letterhead's message - the claim that the work had been discovered in Old St. Paul's church in 1692.

The poem then found a foothold in California, where San Francisco's "flower children" embraced it delightedly as a centuries-old affirmation of their 'love and peace' philosophy. From there it spread further, as underground publishers started turning out inexpensive posters.

The piece hit a new level of popularity after a copy was found on Adlai Stevenson's bedside table when he died in 1965. He'd been intending to use the "ancient" poem in his Christmas cards.

A spoken version of Desiderata earned a Grammy award for Les Crane in 1971. Like many others, he'd seen the words on a poster and mistakenly thought them to be in the public domain. That error cost him - he was later forced to share the royalties with the late Ehrmann's family. (Ehrmann's original 1927 copyright was renewed in 1954 by Bertha Ehrmann).

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GRAMMAR BORE

The "EFL game" has made me more aware of language, and here are two trends I have become aware of. These are spoken - not written - trends, btw.

First of all is the tendency, when asking questions, to use the opposite word with a negative (especially as opposed to the contraction). So, for example, yesterday I heard someone say

"Is he not going?" rather than "Isn't he going?" or even "Is he staying"

Likewise "Are you not hungry?" rather than ("Aren't you..?)

An overheard question, directed to someone who had been looking for other people, was phrased "Were they not there?" (rather than "Weren't they..?")

Admittedly, the "not" is stressed in all of these questions, but what is going on? I'm sure this is a new-ish thing.

Secondly, the tendency to add 'most-'/'more-' to one-syllable adjectives (rather than '-est' / '-er').

For example, "It's the most lame dog you've ever seen" (not, "the lamest")

"He's the most slow of all" (of a student)

"Already, it's more dark" (not darker).

If some of these examples seem a little 'far out', that's because I made them up!! harhar. Although some were overheard. Does anyone else recognise this?

A NON-ENTITY IN A VACUUM ? (C S Lewis)

There was a great but short piece on Chekhov in one of the weekend papers. IMHO, Chekhov is the greatest short story writer in any language, of any time. THe journo writes "Like certain great pieces of music, his stories repay constant revisitings". The Norton Anthology series is a great edition, if you can get hold of it. The translation is highly rated and there's a section at the back with critical essays. Anyhow, under 'F' for faith (remember, this is from a newspaper) we have the following:

Faith: Chekhov's personal world was a godless one: despite his orthodox religious upbringing, he asserted, in 1892 that "I have no religion now". He wrote about religious folk, indeed one of his greatest stories is entitled "The Bishop". But intelligent people who believed in God seemed baffling to him. "I squandered away my faith so long ago and never fail to be puzzled by an intellectual who is also a believer".

Way to go, Chekhov!

Under 'K', the entry reads, Koumiss: a fermented mare's milk that was believed, in the 1890s, to be a defence against tuberculosis, as a source of "good" bacilli. In 1901, Chekhov undertook a koumiss cure, drinking four bottles of the milk daily. He gained 12lb in a fortnight. A month later he was still coughing up blood.

'No one gives more than he who gives hope', I suppose. I don't know who wrote that (it wasn't Chekhov, who died at 44. His lungs had been ravaged by TB).

REDUNDANT

A friend of mine this week opted into a redundancy scheme. In spite of it being a legal document, he was the first in the company to sign and return the ‘opt in/consent’ form to personnel, who told him “There’s no first prize”.

He then told the personnel woman, “When I’m made redundant, I’d like one of those very large, oversized cheques that charities and fundraisers have, and I’d like the Chief Executive to present it to me on the front steps outside the office.”

THE FOLLYE OF ASTROL'GY

From Lear, this is the young Edmund's abrupt rejoinder to his father's (Earl of Gloucester) whinging speech bemoaning the 'late eclipses' which 'portend no good to us'. It's fantastic.

Edmund:
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune - often the surfeits of our own behaviour - we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villains on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obediance of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting-on. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star. My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon's tail, and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and lecherous. Fut! I should have been that I had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardising. Edgar -
(Enter Edgar)
pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy. My cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o'Bedlam. (Aloud) O these eclipses do portend these divisions.
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According to the notes, the 'Fut' (clearly an intensifying or exclamatory word) derives from 'By Christ's foot'. D'you remember when people used to say (disbelievingly) 'My foot!'? Now it's only ever 'My arse'. So, for a modern translation, substitute 'arse' for 'fut'. (As if Puskas needs any help with this)