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    The Great Songwriters - Beginnings Vol 2: Paul Simon and Brian Wilson
    The Great Songwriters - Beginnings Vol 2: Paul Simon and Brian Wilson
    The Great Songwriters - Beginnings Vol 2: Paul Simon and Brian Wilson
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    The Great Songwriters - Beginnings Vol 2: Paul Simon and Brian Wilson

    By Michael J. Roberts

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    About this ebook

    Songwriting insights and inspirational stories surrounding the greatest songwriters of all time.

    In Beginnings Vol 2 we look at two of the most significant American popular songwriters of the modern era, both who rose to prominence during the tumultuous 1960’s and whose work and influence will live on for many years yet. In some ways it’s a tale of two coasts, as Paul Simon emerged from the pseudo-intellectual folk scene in New York, while Brian Wilson and his group, The Beach Boys, emerged from the nascent surf scene in Los Angeles, but both writers soon left any easy attempts at musical categorisation behind.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateFeb 26, 2014
    ISBN9781483521480
    The Great Songwriters - Beginnings Vol 2: Paul Simon and Brian Wilson

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      Book preview

      The Great Songwriters - Beginnings Vol 2 - Michael J. Roberts

      Resources

      The Musycks Philosophy

      The creation of a language of Music is one of the great human achievements, and its ability to touch, comfort and inspire us is endless. The 19th century German poet Heinrich Heine said When words leave off, music begins and it is the unique characteristic of music that it can touch the ineffable and the sublime, in ways that words cannot. In The Great Songwriters series, and in the companion 50 Great Songs... series, we will apply an observational philosophy to song writing that examines the deep, human need for connection and communication, attempting to shed light on the dimensions in which a great song can enrich our lives.

      The Great Songwriters series looks closely at the lives and influences of great contemporary songwriters, as well as going into depth about the make up of their work. These books will necessarily be heavy on historical content and context, because to know the writers and the events that shaped them is to know their work.

      The 50 Great Songs... series ( A Musycks Guide) breaks down the philosophy into bite sized pieces, looking closely at many fine songs from a myriad of musicians, shedding light and insight on each.

      Music is a force, from the mystical and magical at one end to the frivolous and ephemeral at the other. Mankind continues to try to explain the world in a poetic/romantic fashion and in times of uncertainty music is needed more than ever. The Musycks Philosophy affirms the existentialist value that music adds to the human experience and hopes that by encouraging reflection on the beauty and mystery of the art of song we can help people determine where true value lies. We have the goal of helping to give people the tools to join in the creation of music, or to help enhance their enjoyment of it and all you need is ears.

      Author’s Note

      If you’ve managed to find this book in the sea of words, firstly, thank you. Secondly I would hazard a guess that a large proportion of readers are looking for ways to explore the full dimension of possibility in their songwriting, and this book is designed to aid that quest, both for the amateur, the professional and the dreamers.

      I heartily recommend that the reader listen to the specific songs in concert with the reading to extract full benefit. Luckily in this day and age, all of the songs are but a ‘click’ away.

      Happy listening, happy reading.

      Michael J Roberts

      The Great Songwriters

      Beginnings Vol 2

      Songwriting insights and inspirational stories surrounding the greatest songwriters of all time.

      Volume 2

      Paul Simon

      &

      Brian Wilson

      Introduction

      Without music, life would be a mistake.

      - Friedrich Nietzsche

      In Beginnings Vol 2 we look at two of the most significant American popular songwriters of the modern era, both who rose to prominence during the tumultuous 1960’s and whose work and influence will live on for many years yet. In some ways it’s a tale of two coasts, as Paul Simon emerged from the pseudo-intellectual folk scene in New York, while Brian Wilson and his group, The Beach Boys, emerged from the nascent surf scene in Los Angeles, but both writers soon left any easy attempts at musical categorisation behind.

      War Babies, born 6 months apart on either side of America’s belated entry into WWII, the pair came to maturity during a post-war boom, when America enjoyed a consumerist explosion of pre-Cambrian dimensions, accounting for the purchasing of 60% of the world’s consumer goods. By 1960, per capita income was 35% higher than in 1945, and 61% of American families were classified as middle-class, as opposed to just 30% during the 1930’s. Paul Simon grew up the son of a college professor and his education gave him a particular insight into the humanities and after falling under the spell of the Everly Brothers he moved into folk music, a musical form that allowed a more appropriate place for his humanist/intellectual musings. Brian Wilson was similarly energised by sweet harmonies, specifically the complex and jazz influenced harmonies of The Four Freshman. Wilson took the energy of rock and roll and applied the four part harmony singing of the Four Freshmen and also of the 1950’s Doo-Wop groups, a genre equally beloved by Simon.

      Simon and Wilson shared a love of music in their upbringings, but that’s where the similarities end. Paul’s father was a musician, My daddy was a family bass man, and an academic, but Brian’s father was an asshole, he treated us like shit, according to his brother Dennis. Murry Wilson was a frustrated songwriter, a driven and unforgiving authoritarian who beat his three sons regularly and Brian certainly blamed his father for the fact he was effectively deaf in one ear, as he was told it came from a blow to the head he suffered as a two year old. The teenage Brian may have watched Fred MacMurray, the benign and attentive father in the hit TV series My Three Sons and wondered at the gap between the TV fiction and the brutal reality the three Wilson sons suffered. Murry was a real life, if more violent Willy Loman, an unhappy salesman who took out his frustrations at home. For Paul Simon music was an adventure, for Brian Wilson it was an escape.

      The two entered the fray at a good time for music in industry terms, as the growth initiated by the first wave of rock and roll from 1955 to 1960 saw the music industry in the USA increase in net value from $60 million to $205 million and it would increase again by 1965 to $600 million, as Baby Boom teenagers found significant disposable income. For many Americans the anodyne, antiseptic and absurdly prosperous 1950’s came to a shattering end, not in 1960 but in 1963, with John Kennedy’s tragic assassination and both Simon and Wilson were professional musicians by then. Both men came to prominence within a few short years of each other and even though they were separated by the width of the continent they actually shared a key connection, the Wrecking Crew, Phil Spector’s ace session players, who played on several iconic Simon and Garfunkel and Beach Boy tracks.

      Paul Simon and Brian Wilson also shared an inquisitive and relentless curiosity about music, both pushing their knowledge and refining their capabilities, rather than rest on their laurels. Paul became an accomplished and virtuoso guitar player and Brian became the last word in stacking and layering vocal harmonies to enrich his compositions.

      Paul Simon - The Simon and Garfunkel years

      The only truth is music – Jack Kerouac

      Paul Simon became one of the truly great American songwriters of the 20th century, a brilliant intellect and a master of lyric and melody. Simon also broke through as a performer, his prodigious talent producing a stellar career, first as the writing half of the most successful duo in pop history, then as a significant solo performer, and all from humble New York beginnings. If every generation throws a hero up the pop charts, Simon’s was the War Baby generation, being born in New Jersey in 1941 and raised in Queens, where he and school friend Art Garfunkel would harmonise together like their idols, The Everly Brothers. Simon started to write songs for the pair to sing and this led to a contract under which they eventually released a cover song, Hey Schoolgirl in 1957, that was foisted upon them by their label, Big Records, and which was a regional chart success. The Everly Brothers influence extended to the parallel third harmony, something they would use for years to come, and something Garfunkel eventually moved away from as his harmony choices became more elaborate and sophisticated.

      "I met Paul in our school play, Alice in Wonderland. He was this

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