Transcript
Speaker 1 (0:00)
I don't think the charm of his music, what I appreciate about it is something that I think of as being like, deeply profound and like he's like. He's some excellent song craft artist, like some. Some master, some secret master of the craft. And that's kind of how people talk about his solo stuff sometimes. It's like, oh, yeah, well, he's actually just a fucking genius. And I think that that's not really what I like about these. These expressions that he puts out into or doesn't put out into the world. That's not to say I. I find them to be bad music. I'll just leave it at that for now.
Speaker 2 (0:58)
All right. Being. Being tough on. On old Dennis there.
Speaker 1 (1:04)
More tough on the fans and like a certain kind of unrealistic way of positioning him, which I think sets him up to be. Not appreciated for. For things that are interesting and good about what he does. Maybe, maybe he just needs to be looked at through a more specific lens.
Speaker 2 (1:29)
I'm going to ask you to decide some of these fans that are praising him as, you know, such a genius at some point, you know, not right now, but I do think that he is doing, you know, a Dennis thing. You know, it is very much a thing that he does. And if it is your type of thing, you're gonna dig it. If it isn't your type of thing, you know, maybe less so. But unlike someone like Brian or, you know, like Carl even, who have the ability to speak in different vernaculars, you know, pursue different musical styles and wend in different influences. I mean, we were kind of joking about this on like the Holland episode. It's like a Dennis song. You can just pet you from a mile away. It smells like a Dennis song, it looks like a Dennis song, and it certainly sounds like a Dennis song. And so, yeah, it may. Or not. Or it may or may not be your specific speed of Wilson brothers music. Just to quote a little bit from this book here, the Real Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson by John Stebbins, sent to me by a listener of the pod whose name I forget at this point. But whoever it is out there, thank you again for sending me this and one other Dennis Wilson book to do some, you know, deep Dennis Wilson studies. Gonna go back to about 1971 when Jack Riley comes into the picture. The Beach Boys are recording Surf's Up. Dennis is in and out of the studio at this time. Dennis was busy writing beautiful music and planning to release a solo LP. Engineer Steven Desper revealed that, quote, 90% of it was 90% done. That's a good way to put it. During this period, Dennis performed some of his lovely new compositions, like Barbara, at various Beach Boys concerts. We're gonna talk about Barbara in a little bit. He was developing a power ballad style that would become his signature. Barbara, a song that prompted classically trained musician Daryl Dragon, the captain, his little partner in crime at this moment, who we've referenced on previous episodes. Barbara prompted Daryl Dragon to say, I never went to school with anybody who could write like that. So I guess there's a guy who's, you know, playing up his Dennis bona fides as a musician.