The Beach Boys have decided to reform and tour for their 50th anniversary. As their ages all hover around the 70 mark, this is undoubtedly the last hurrah. I will pass on seeing this tour. 30 years ago, their concert vocals were terrible; I can't imagine they've improved.
As is de rigueur with these reunions, the Boys have recorded a new album. A new album declares, We are not just cashing in on a nostalgia tour, but our creative juices are still flowing and we have something to say in new music. Yadda-yadda.
Most of these new albums are mediocre. Often only a couple of songs are even done in that tour and then forgotten forever. It's still the old hits that fans come to see and that's what they get.
(I wanted to make an exception for The Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden, but it hasn't worn well enough for me to even listen to it in the last year.)
That's Why God Made the Radio is no different. Reports are that only the title track and "Isn't It Time" have made the set list. This tour is definitely about nostalgia. She will have fun, fun, fun every night (until daddy...oh, never mind).
This is not a bad album; it is certainly a pleasant enough listen. There's just not a lot to it. The lyrics are still about girls and beaches and going steady (at age 70? really?). In fact, listening to the words on most songs could cause you to wince or even laugh at their ridiculousness. Brian Wilson wrote more mature lyrics in 1966 than in the 2000s (exception: "The Private Life of Bill and Sue" is a clever look at reality TV).
Bruce Johnston was quoted as saying that this album sounded a lot like Sunflower, so I gave that album a listen immediately afterward. Nope. Sunflower is not my favorite Beach Boys album but it had more musical variety, better lyrics and themes, and more inspired performances.
The other thing this album is not musically is a return to the 60s wall-of-sound production that Brian Wilson pioneered, most famously on Pet Sounds. There are no odd instruments or even dozens of them on any track. Musically, it is a fairly straight-ahead new-millenium approach.
The most interesting part of the album, for me, is the closing mini-suite. It ends with "Summer's Gone" which really sounds like a elegy to be be played at Brian's funeral when he is finally completely gone from this earth.
I doubt they will do this song in concert because it would probably be too depressing. But as the album serves as a touchstone for the band to re-claim its ancient legacy, this song then puts it to rest.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Reject the Fear Mongerers
A few months back, when gasoline was creeping back up toward $4.00 per gallon in our neck of the woods, one of those "experts" said on a news show that gas would shoot up to $5.00 per gallon by Memorial Day. A lot of people heard that report and were concerned.
Well, guess what? Not only did gas prices not skyrocket, but the actually went down. In our city they went from a peak of about $3.89 all the way down to $3.15 on the holiday weekend.
I can't remember the name of the "expert." The news programs don't care; they'll put him back on next time they need a quote and will not remind viewers or his earlier failure.
That's not my reason for writing, however. I think we need to stop listening to the "doom and gloom" prophets who continually predict dire things ahead. Especially when there is nothing we can do about what we are hearing other than fret.
Who remembers the prediction that if South Vietnam fell to the Communists all of southeast Asia would be overrun? Even Australia would be in danger (I'm not making that up). South Vietnam fell. Nothing else happened. (In the meantime, something like 60,000 of our soldiers were killed.)
How about Y2K? The first reports (8-10 years ahead of the event) pointed out a real problem with certain types of computers (and it needed to be fixed). Then the boogeymen got hold of it and every device that had a computer chip in it was going to fail, from your car to the electric grid, to your personal computer, to the entire transportation industry. What really disgusted me was that several Christian authors got on the bandwagon and wrote books warning Christians and advising survival preparation. Some, like Gary North, continue to write books that are carried in Christian bookstores. Most systems that had a real problem were simply replaced with more modern software. There were a few glitches, but they were minor, and affected a tiny number of people.
We as Christians are preconditioned to being manipulated by the fear-mongerers because the Bible does seem to teach that things will get worse before the end and that the end, however it shakes out, will be particularly bad. But this doesn't mean we should allow ourselves to be scared by every frightening prediction that comes down the pike. Rather, we should have confidence in the keeping power of our savior.
Yes, bad things happen and will continue to do so. But let's not be in fear. Let's not let men and women (even if they're Christians) put irrational fear in us to further their own agendas. Let's stand in confidence that, even if the world order collapses and life changes drastically for all of us, that our God will sustain us and take us through.
Well, guess what? Not only did gas prices not skyrocket, but the actually went down. In our city they went from a peak of about $3.89 all the way down to $3.15 on the holiday weekend.
I can't remember the name of the "expert." The news programs don't care; they'll put him back on next time they need a quote and will not remind viewers or his earlier failure.
That's not my reason for writing, however. I think we need to stop listening to the "doom and gloom" prophets who continually predict dire things ahead. Especially when there is nothing we can do about what we are hearing other than fret.
Who remembers the prediction that if South Vietnam fell to the Communists all of southeast Asia would be overrun? Even Australia would be in danger (I'm not making that up). South Vietnam fell. Nothing else happened. (In the meantime, something like 60,000 of our soldiers were killed.)
How about Y2K? The first reports (8-10 years ahead of the event) pointed out a real problem with certain types of computers (and it needed to be fixed). Then the boogeymen got hold of it and every device that had a computer chip in it was going to fail, from your car to the electric grid, to your personal computer, to the entire transportation industry. What really disgusted me was that several Christian authors got on the bandwagon and wrote books warning Christians and advising survival preparation. Some, like Gary North, continue to write books that are carried in Christian bookstores. Most systems that had a real problem were simply replaced with more modern software. There were a few glitches, but they were minor, and affected a tiny number of people.
We as Christians are preconditioned to being manipulated by the fear-mongerers because the Bible does seem to teach that things will get worse before the end and that the end, however it shakes out, will be particularly bad. But this doesn't mean we should allow ourselves to be scared by every frightening prediction that comes down the pike. Rather, we should have confidence in the keeping power of our savior.
Yes, bad things happen and will continue to do so. But let's not be in fear. Let's not let men and women (even if they're Christians) put irrational fear in us to further their own agendas. Let's stand in confidence that, even if the world order collapses and life changes drastically for all of us, that our God will sustain us and take us through.
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