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| From | Popdude@aol.com |
| Subject | Oooops -Better formatted (hopefully) version of BW Interview |
| Date | Tue, 6 Jul 2004 16:13:06 EDT |
[Part 1 text/plain US-ASCII (3.9 kilobytes)]
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Summer Fun, Anyone?
Questions for Brian Wilson
Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON, The New York Times
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NYT: Your album ''Smile'' has been called the greatest rock record that was
never released. It's the Beach Boys' lost masterpiece.
BW: We started it in 1967, but we never finished it.
NYT: But it is scheduled for release in September. Why did you decide to
finish recording it now?
BW: I wanted to get it out before I died.
NYT: Are you dying?
BW: No.
NYT: And you also have a new solo recording that just came out, ''Gettin' In
Over My Head.'' Is it any good?
BW: Each song is different. They're not all the same like the Rolling Stones.
You know, Rolling Stones songs all sound kind of the same.
NYT: Mick Jagger probably thinks Beach Boys songs all sound the same.
BW: Probably so.
NYT: Do you think that the Beach Boys were more artistically adventurous than
the Rolling Stones?
BW: I think we're about even. The Beach Boys were a pretty good singing
group, but the Stones played their instruments better.
NYT: It has been a fairly long time, six years, since you last released a
studio recording.
BW: I can't explain it. I had writer's block for a while. Sometimes you sit
at the piano and play around, and if you can't get a melody you quit.
NYT: It's hard to imagine you as thwarted in any way. Most of us think of you
as a poet of surf-filled afternoons and fast cars. The Beach Boys turned
summer into the quintessential American season, a time of innocent fun and
wildness.
BW: Summer means happy times and good sunshine. It means going to the beach,
going to Disneyland, having fun.
NYT: But isn't that all a perfect fiction? You have led what seems like a
haunted life.
BW: Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear. I can't
understand what they are saying. It's a mental illness. I have been diagnosed
as a manic depressive.
NYT: When did you last experience an auditory hallucination?
BW: A year ago. I was writing music and I heard voices at the piano. I just
jammed on my head and said, ''Stop, stop, stop.'' I take Klonopin and Luvox.
They help me relax and keep me from being scared.
NYT: What are you scared of?
BW: I think about death a lot. I think about my brothers' deaths.
NYT: Your brother Carl died of lung cancer, and your brother Dennis died in a
drunken drowning accident. Do you think of them every day?
BW: No, not every day, but about once every two weeks I will think about them.
NYT: Is it true you are deaf in one ear?
BW: Yes, my father used to beat the hell out of us.
NYT: I guess your songs help carry you away from the memory of your father.
BW: Right. That is probably why I wrote those happy songs. I try to get as
close to paradise as I can. I try to steer clear of heartbreaks.
NYT: Do you listen to rap?
BW: I don't like it because I can't hear the lyrics of the damn songs. They
say them so fast, and you can't understand what they are saying.
NYT: Plus they curse. The Beach Boys never cursed.
BW: I think cursing is a bunch of malarkey.
NYT: Are there any musicians under the age of 60 whom you admire?
BW: Not at all. I don't listen to any younger musicians.
NYT: It sounds as if you are stuck in a time warp. Who are your heroes?
BW: Paul McCartney and Phil Spector.
NYT: But Phil Spector was just charged with murdering an actress!
BW: I think he will get off. I think it was an accident.
NYT: Who came up with the name of the Beach Boys?
BW: A promotion guy for Candix Records, which was the record company we were
on. I didn't like it. I didn't like the word ''boys.''
NYT: Do you surf?
BW: I never learned how.
NYT: It's not too late. You can learn now.
BW: I don't want to. I am afraid. I am afraid I would get hurt. I haven't
been to the beach in a decade.
NYT: Is summer your favorite season?
BW: No. I like fall.
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