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Good vibrations cover
News
Inside The Socially Distanced "Good Vibrations" viral-beach-boys-cover-heal-grieving-world-almost-didnt-happen

Why This Viral Beach Boys Cover, Meant To Heal A Grieving World, Almost Didn’t Happen

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Last summer, almost 30 musicians banded together from home to record a cover of the Beach Boys' 1967 classic, "Good Vibrations." After widespread COVID-related deaths and global protests hit, the group wondered if it would ever see the light of day
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Feb 5, 2021 - 7:33 am

The saxophonist, flutist, and keyboardist Sarah Johnson Melkeraaen's father was her number-one fan. A lover of soul artists like George Clinton, Lou Rawls and The Temptations, Julius Johnson danced at any opportunity—at the supermarket, after bowling a strike, or in response to good news of any type. Sometimes, his dancing made his daughter feel shy, but today, she misses it more than anything. Granted, Johnson wasn't particularly a Beach Boys fan. But when Melkeraaen—who records and performs as Lady Albatross—took part in a massive cover of America’s Band, it ended up a testament to his goofy, music-loving spirit.

In a YouTube cover of the exuberant "Good Vibrations” recorded last June, created to give a world in lockdown a much-needed lift, she played flute alongside almost 30 other musicians in virtual collaboration. Released this year after a months-long delay, the cover grew so popular that it caught the attention of Brian Wilson himself.

But because Johnson died of COVID-19 the month of its making, he's not around to cut a rug in response.

"In my mind, I'm picturing being able to tell him, and he definitely would have had an ear-to-ear, massive grin," Lady Albatross, who came onto the project by word-of-mouth, tells GRAMMY.com from her home in Odda, Norway. “He would have given me a really big hug and told me how proud he was."

Making The Cover

"Good Vibrations," which a 24-year-old Wilson concocted as the centerpiece to 1967's aborted Beach Boys album Smile, is only the latest tune that organizers Doc Crotzer and Matthew Smith have tackled. In the confusing, suffocating early weeks of lockdown, they cast out a net to record a quarantine-friendly cover of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'." "We thought maybe a few other people might be interested in doing it with us but didn't expect too many people," Smith tells GRAMMY.com. 

Through a network of friends recommending friends, like in Lady Albatross's and Jones' case, they followed up the Petty tune with a pitch-perfect rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run."

"By then," Crotzer says, "more people had seen the video and reached out to us, so we were able to grow our Social Distance Session Band, which added to the fun and challenge. 'Good Vibrations' came out of trying to answer 'How do we top "Born to Run'" with our group?'"

To help manifest their sun-kissed dream, Crotzer and Smith contacted Anders Fehon and Edwin Herder of Beach Boys musical replicators The Fendertones. Then, they recorded a scratch track for the instrumentalists, and Crotzer sang rough takes of each vocal part to place the singers properly in the harmony stack.

Sarah Johnson Melkeraaen and Julius Johnson

Sarah Johnson Melkeraaen and her father, Julius Johnson.

Two of those singers were MInhee Jones, a London-based alternative pop artist, and her friend, Celeigh Chapman, a country singer originally from Bakersfield, California. The recording process helped Chapman exhume the song from TV ads and oldies stations and examine it anew.

"For us, it was cool to pull apart the layers because [most of us] appreciate it in a passing way or understand that it's revolutionary for the time," she tells GRAMMY.com. "But then, to pull it apart and learn a specific part and see all those parts stack up, I think, gave us a whole other level of appreciation for them doing that at that time, considering where the technology is now and where it was then. When you look underneath the hood, there's a whole other level of, "Oh, this is actually why this is so omnipresent in our culture and has been able to sustain generations of fans and musicians."

Stitching together nearly 30 socially-distanced takes wasn't easy, but Crotzer and Smith found ways to circumvent potential hiccups. "For the instrumental part of the track, we let people do their own thing a bit more," Smith says, "but everyone was still playing to a guide track so that everything would stay in sync when we got the tracks back."

Near the end, the number of tracks so overwhelmed his laptop that he had to buy a better computer. "Fortunately, we had an awesome editor named Chase Johnson cutting it," Crotzer says. "He made it look easy and seamless."

Hitting A Roadblock 

The month they recorded the cover, the George Floyd protests hit. "Good Vibrations" wouldn't come out in June as planned. 

While the musicians never explicitly mentioned current events over the email chain, Chapman says there was an unspoken agreement that the timing wasn't right. In the midst of global racial upheaval, releasing a happy-go-lucky cover may have come across as blithe or tone-deaf. The following months brought mostly silence. "I remember sending an email asking, 'When is this coming out?''" Lady Albatross remembers. 

Watch this amazing video from Social Distance Settings of "Good Vibrations" featuring Minhee Jones and Jesse Hernandez, and musicians around the world. Their goal for this performance is to make everyone SMiLE. Hope you enjoy it! https://t.co/QwmGbLWGQS

— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive) January 26, 2021

In the months leading to his death, Lady Albatross's father became inward and uncommunicative; she's not certain he even knew about the "Good Vibrations" cover. Lady Albatross was already saddened her father would never hear it, but after a while, it seemed like nobody would. As the months stretched out between George Floyd's killing and the fractious 2020 election, the "blossom world" Wilson sang of seemed more out-of-reach than ever.

Jones felt wary of a world seemingly drained of the Beach Boys' promise. "I was pretty down around that time because it was so polarized," she tells GRAMMY.com. "You saw some disappointing ideals coming out of people. Just a lot of ignorance, I guess. It didn't seem like the right time to put out anything too light." 

Going Viral

On the heels of the inauguration and with vaccinations starting to roll out, it finally felt right to drop "Good Vibrations" on YouTube in the spirit of healing and brighter days ahead.

"I remember when I got the email from Doc and Matt saying, 'It's up! It's finally here! It's done!'" Jones says with a grin over Zoom. "It was right after the inauguration. I think they posted it on Facebook just like that: 'This could not have come at a better time. So many good vibrations. A weight has been lifted.' I thought the inauguration was amazing. We were all watching it around the world. I was over here with my glass of champagne in London. I thought the timing of that was spot-on." 

Almost immediately, the video was met with global excitations—and Brian Wilson's. "Watch this amazing video from Social Distance Settings of 'Good Vibrations' featuring Minhee Jones and Jesse Hernandez, and musicians around the world," he tweeted. "Their goal for this performance is to make everyone SMiLE." At press time, the video was on the cusp of 50,000 views.

Overall, the response has bowled over Crotzer and Smith, who had merely organized the video for the fun, fun, fun of it.

"I couldn't believe it when Brian Wilson shared our cover on his social media," Crotzer tells GRAMMY.com. "The first rock 'n' roll music I heard as a kid was written by him and got me into music in the first place. Waking up to see that Brian liked it was an incredible way to start a day. Just absolutely surreal.”

A No. 1 hit in its day, "Good Vibrations" was sparked by Wilson's curiosity about the human emotions that dogs pick up on. Had the crew had released their cover back in June, it might have clashed with the will of the universe. But because they released it in a long-awaited moment of political optimism, "Good Vibrations" acted as a beacon of light through the gloom—and elicited a hard-won smile from thousands of viewers. 

And Lady Albatross, who sticks out in the virtual crowd in her hand-crocheted octopus hat, says her old man would be right there with them.

"He would have given me a really big hug and a kiss on the forehead," she says, envisioning his response to the Brian Wilson-approved video. And, of course, "He would have done a little happy dance."

Dave Mason On Recording With Rock Royalty & Why He Reimagined His Debut Solo Album, 'Alone Together

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The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys

Photo: mptvimages

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The Beach Boys Are More Than Just Brian Wilson the-beach-boys-feel-flows-sunflower-surfs-up-boxed-set-carl-wilson-feature

Brian Wilson Is A Once-In-A-Lifetime Creative Genius. But The Beach Boys Are More Than Just Him.

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Brian Wilson is inarguably responsible for the Beach Boys' most flabbergasting creative triumphs, from 'Pet Sounds' to "Good Vibrations." But as a new boxed set, 'Feel Flows,' shows, they could have kept on blossoming under his brother Carl's leadership
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Aug 27, 2021 - 11:58 am

The Beach Boys may be the only canonical band in their league to be essentially cleaved in two, commanding two separate audiences. But it goes even deeper than that: Fans tend to understand them via two incompatible narratives.

One is that Brian Wilson—a once-in-a-lifetime harmonic innovator and studio visionary by the age of a typical college student—can do no wrong, only muzzled by that meddling Mike Love. The other is that their critically acclaimed mid-'60s experimental period—Pet Sounds, "Good Vibrations"—was where their run as hitmakers ended. Through that lens, their Brian-free 1988 tropical hit "Kokomo" wasn't a trapdoor into kitsch, but a desperately needed comeback after years of zero hits.

Such is the reductive, binary discourse surrounding these classic rock legends: It's "Brian good, Mike bad" or some form of the opposite. This brings us to the 1970s when Brian took a backseat due to mental health issues and creative demoralization. If Brian Wilson "walks on water"—as Love once put it—this may seem like the beginning of their long sundown. Dennis Wilson himself said it: "Brian is the Beach Boys. He is the band. We're his f***ing messengers. He is all of it. Period. We're nothing. He's everything."

Again, Brian is a national treasure, but his drummer brother was wrong on this—and a new boxed set proves it once and for all. Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971, which arrived August 27, contains brilliant remasters of those two excellent, underrated albums from that fork in the road, plus plentiful outtakes and live tracks. Gorgeous songs like "This Whole World," "Add Some Music To Your Day" and "Don't Go Near the Water" show they could have continued like Pink Floyd post-Syd Barrett, making masterpieces without their erratic founding genius.

More importantly, Feel Flows underlines the radiant and lionhearted soul of Carl Wilson over and over. When Brian's struggles became untenable, his brother assumed the role of musical director without drawing attention to himself or making a big deal about it. And although they spent the following decades looking over their shoulder for Brian to return, Carl helmed the band throughout the '70s and beyond. When he died in 1998, the center gave way and the members toured as separate entities.

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys. Photo courtesy of UMe.

"I think in a post-Brian Wilson world when the band started touring extensively in the late '60s and especially the early '70s, it was clear that Carl was the leader of the band," Erik Long, who produced a major Beach Boys concert in the '80s and was close friends with Carl, tells GRAMMY.com. "I think what stood out about Carl is that when you were with him, he made you feel more special than he was. That's a remarkable feeling."

The largely home-recorded Sunflower came out in 1970, which was indisputably primetime for singer/songwriter music: Carole King's Tapestry, Joni Mitchell's Blue and Neil Young's After the Gold Rush came out within a year of it. That was the album where the Beach Boys grew out of their Pendleton shirts and rebranded themselves as a commune of hairy, soulful folkies. On the cover, they pose with their children in verdant climes; Al Jardine rocks cowboy getup; Love looks like he never left Rishikesh. They'd grown up.

While the music is a little more commercial and lighthearted than Pet Sounds, it's no less lush and cohesive. Here were six singer/songwriters at full bore: Dennis bared his soul with the majestic "Forever"; almost-founding-member Bruce Johnston wrote the loping, lovesick "Dierdre"; Al Jardine and Love have several co-writes. And Carl's musical and personal qualities shine through almost every note of it—especially when he takes one of his warm, punchy vocal solos, like on the goosebumps-inducing "Add Some Music To Your Day."

"Carl wasn't really credited for this, even though he was on the original track sheets, but he was producing this overall and just kind of quietly, methodically making sure everything was getting finished," Beach Boys archive manager Alan Boyd tells GRAMMY.com.

Feel Flows producer and engineer Mark Linett agrees, contrasting Brian's and Carl's temperaments and approaches. "Brian tends to be very instinctive," he tells GRAMMY.com. "Get it down, get it done quickly. As opposed to Pet Sounds, where the musicians recorded en masse, "When multitrack recording came in and became more a matter of layering vocals and different parts, I think Carl was better at dealing with a long-haul type of thing."

The Beach Boys got darker and more ecologically conscious with 1971's Surf's Up, whose shadowy cover features a defeated-looking Native American slumping on his horse. Whereas Sunflower was a democratic effort with Brian still part of the team, he was scarcely involved with its moodier, more scattered follow-up.

In his relative absence, Carl shone even brighter, contributing signature songs like "Long Promised Road" and, yes, "Feel Flows." Elsewhere, Love lets off some social commentary with "Student Demonstration Time" and Johnston slams it out of the park with his drop-dead gorgeous "Disney Girls (1957)." While the title track is a majestic Brian holdover from 1967's never-finished Smile and it contains oddities like the dirge "A Day in the Life of a Tree"—crooned by their then-manager Jack Rieley—Surf's Up is a rough-hewn classic.

To be clear, there is nothing quite on par with "God Only Knows" or "Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)" or "Good Vibrations" on Feel Flows. But it shows how their branches were growing in fascinating directions nonetheless, especially in the wealth of previously unheard bonus material.

Carl Wilson

Carl Wilson. Photo courtesy of UMe.

Could they have built on the funk of "Slip On Through," heard here in a trippy, groovy alternate version? What if they got deeper into the delicacy of "At My Window," giving us a run of Incredible String Band-style acoustic albums? To say nothing of the hard rock in these live tracks, which this band rarely gets credit for: What would the Beach Boys look like as unadulterated stadium rockers?

We'll never find out because the Beach Boys opted to take half-measures in Brian's absence. Given his monster talents, this is somewhat understandable. There are a small handful of other quietly great, Carl-helmed Beach Boys records throughout the 1970s, like 1972's Carl and the Passions — So Tough and 1973's Holland. But whether due to creative insecurity or outside pressures, that was it for their imperial reign as artists, even if they remain unbelievably popular and beloved six decades after they formed.

But while Feel Flows teases what could have happened, it also shows what did: With Carl as their center and essence, the Beach Boys pushed beauty into the world even when Brian couldn't be there for it. There's a very visible and celebrated genius at the center of this story, and most of the attention is heaped on him as a result. But the reality is so much sweeter: There were six of them.

Why This Viral Beach Boys Cover, Meant To Heal A Grieving World, Almost Didn't Happen

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Nancy Wilson

Nancy Wilson

Photo: Jeremy Danger

News
Heart's Nancy Wilson Talks New Album 'You & Me' 2021-nancy-wilson-heart-you-and-me-interview-premiere-the-inbetween

Nancy Wilson On Her New Album, 'You & Me,' Missing The "Angels" Of Rock & The Future Of Heart

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Nancy Wilson's upcoming album 'You & Me' is partly a reflection on her personal relationships—both with the living and those who have passed. Its single "The Inbetween," premiering exclusively via GRAMMY.com, is all about the liminal spaces of existence
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Apr 28, 2021 - 7:20 am

Nancy Wilson was thumbing through some notes when she found a poem written by her son, Curtis. Perceptive and probing, it seemed to sum up our politically malignant era—and what was spiritually absent at the core of it.

"[He] wrote this poem for a class assignment," the Heart co-founder tells GRAMMY.com over the phone from her Sonoma County home. "I thought it was really clever. The words were so clever and so whimsical. He was like, 'Black and white, wrong and right.'" Feeling the words reflected tribalism and partisanship, Wilson flipped those dualities into a song, "The Inbetween." But instead of being portentous or doomy, the track is radiant and rocking.

"Putting it in a context of something more fun—a funny take on it all—takes it away from being so heavy and dark," Wilson adds. "It kind of sheds new light on a situation. It's a contrast from the heavy times we've had to live through and puts it in a different tonality."

"The Inbetween," which exclusively premieres above via GRAMMY.com, is the latest single from Wilson's upcoming album, You & Me, which drops May 7 via Carry On Music. Really, Wilson is preoccupied with in-betweens throughout the album—the spaces between life and death, dreams and memories, good relationships and poisonous ones. It's also her first solo album ever, despite making music with her sister, Ann Wilson, in Heart for nearly a half-century.

The sisters have had an up-and-down relationship over the last few years, and the pandemic gave Wilson space to define herself both within and without "the vortex that’s Heart." And while the door is open for the band to go out again in 2022, Wilson is cherishing the time to reflect and recalibrate—and You & Me is the heartfelt product of this period of self-examination.

GRAMMY.com gave Nancy Wilson a ring to discuss You & Me track by track, why it took her five decades to make a solo album and the future of Heart.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Over the decades, what was the biggest obstacle to putting out a solo album, whether internal or external?

Well, I think I would call it the vortex that's Heart. There's a vortex of the work ethic of Heart for the last almost 50 years, just to be honest. I hate to even date it. But it's been a mind-bending job to do every year for the touring of it and the album after album—mainly, the touring of it all. You know, everywhere with electricity, we've played there.

It's an interesting dichotomy with the pandemic stopping the hurtling, you know. Heart's been hurtling through space for nearly 50 years. It's an interesting contrast to that to have to be shut in and be at home and stop the momentum and reconvene with your personal soul and self, in order to be able to know what to do musically and creatively with that time I had in my hands like everybody has had.

It's really a blessing, you know? It's been a blessing outside of the larger curse of it all to be able to reconvene with your communication with your own self.

Who were you thinking of when you came up with the album title—and first track—You & Me?

That's dedicated to my mom, who left us quite a while ago now. She's still in my skin, in my DNA. So it's kind of a gravity-free zone where I can talk to her in that song. I think the word "gravity," in and of itself, kind of keeps the song from walking that too-precious kind of a line. [laughs]

I think the personal, confessional kind of thing about this album—it's almost too sweet. It walks a line that's almost too sweet, but I think in another way, you could say that it's more of a revolutionary act to be that open and that honest. Walking the line of sweetness can be more of a rock attitude than hiding out behind your feelings. I'm sort of burying a lot of my feelings in this album.

And, you know, tongue-in-cheek stuff too, but the honesty of it is kind of a rebellious act on a certain level.

It seems like you're preoccupied with that line where sweetness could tip over into treacle. You're consciously trying to stay on the right side of that.

Yeah, exactly. It's almost, like, not supposed to happen. You're not supposed to do that. It's against the rules to be that honest, to bare your soul like that. I guess if that's an issue, then I don't know what is. [chuckles]

Tell me about your relationship with your mom.

She was a steel magnolia. I got a lot of her strength along the way. A military family, right? Marine corps, all those travels we had growing up were a strengthening kind of thing. We became really tight-knit as a family because we were always moving. Early touring experience, actually! [laughs]

She was the mom and my dad because our dad was off fighting wars. It's a total tribute to that strength of her character and her nurturing, strong, amazing … She was an amazing woman. When I sometimes dream of her, I feel like I got to see her again and I get to talk to her again. It's a zero-gravity space, and that's what the song is all about.

Can you describe the last dream where she showed up?

Yeah, sure. She took a lot of Super 8 home movies, and that's incorporated into the video [for "You & Me"] quite a bit. I took a lot of them too. She taught how to edit film and stuff, with the little editing machine. We used to make films in our family.

So, I used a lot of that footage in the actual video for the song and she appears in the video for the song. When I dreamt of her last, it was just her wonderful face. Her spirit. I felt like I had a conversation with her and the words were not even clear. It was just being together and the aspect of her spirit being there.

My collaborator, Sue Ennis, who's worked with us for years and years for Heart songs, had a song for her mom called "Follow Me." And I'd written a song for my mom called "You and Me and Gravity." I loved this music that Sue had. We both kind of have a mom thing. We've talked about our parents and we grew up together, so we had all those connective tissue things in our hearts about our moms.

So, we kind of collaborated on the ultimate mom song to try to reach into the ether and touch base with that. We morphed two songs into one. It's a hybrid mom song [laughs].

Tell me about "The Rising."

Well, luckily enough, a few years ago, we got to go to New York, when we used to be able to go anywhere, and we got to see "Springsteen on Broadway" live.

When I saw that show, it completely blew my mind. It changed my world around because I've always loved Springsteen and his amazing writing. Growing up with Springsteen on the radio, for instance, he'd be sort of behind this big wall of sound with this rock and roll accent where you could hardly understand the lyrics. 

Then, seeing him live, completely by himself, stripped-down, those songs and those lyrics—it completely altered my perception of Bruce Springsteen. He's an insanely great writer. Those words are so depth-y. Later, after having seen that, I watched it a million times on the show you can watch on television. Then he did Western Stars, his other album that got me through the whole last Heart tour. It was life-saving stuff for me.

So then, when I started to do this album, I was like, "I should do this because of the pandemic. I should do 'The Rising' because it was written initially for 9/11." Now, we're having 9/11 every day, so that's why I thought it would be aspirational and helpful for people to have an inspired message like that to help them through this insane ordeal we're living through.

Do you know Bruce? Did you say hi to him after the show?

I didn't say hi that night, but I do know him. His people told our people that he really liked my version of 'The Rising'! That made my day—my whole year, actually—to know that he thought it was cool.

Tell me about "I'll Find You."

Sue had actually started that song with Ben Smith, the drummer. My Seattle folks. They had this song that is, like, a "friend who's going to be there for you" kind of song. The support system that you've always dreamed of having. That's what the song talks about.

I've always been that person where I'm there for my people, you know? I show up. It's a really simple way of saying that you're going to be there for somebody that needs you. And that's a big deal! I mean, that's a huge thing to be able to do for anyone.

Can you describe a recent situation in which you were able to be that for somebody?

[laughs] Well, if you live long enough, that happens frequently. If you are that person for your other people, it's not an easy role to play to show up for somebody that needs help. A lot of people don't have that skill, you know? A lot of people are not equipped with the emotional wherewithal to be there for anybody else but themselves. So, that's what that song is all about.

How about "Daughter"?

"Daughter" is a Pearl Jam song. I had actually recorded it earlier before I got into doing the album. I'd done that in Austin with an amazing producer, David Rice, for a film, actually, which was made in South Africa. It's a true story about human trafficking in South Africa.

This guy, Simon Swart, who made the film—it's about to come out, actually—he wanted to see if there was a song I could do for the film. And so I decided that "Daughter" would be a really cool idea, because there's a lyric in the song that says, "She holds the hand that holds her down." That was really telling about what it is to be a girl. The movie's called I Am All Girls and it's about to come out.

Anyway, that's the backstory on that thing. And for [Simon & Garfunkel's] "The Boxer," that's something I've been singing with Heart for the last tour. I've been singing that song all my life, basically. It's a really amazing song. Somebody told me that the chorus part—the "Lie-la-lie"—was initially a placeholder, but he kept it in the song like that because the verses are so wordy. It sort of opens up and he kept it that way from the initial demo of it.

I got Sammy Hagar to sing with me on that because he's a buddy. He's a rock god. He's funny as hell and he's a really good guy. I said, "Why don't you do something with me on my album here? I want to bring in some people that I love!" He said, "Yeah, OK! What have you got?" So, I said I've got this big rock song called "Get Ready to Rock," which is not on the album, actually. It's elsewhere now.

Anyway, long story short, he said, "Nah, that's too predictable. I don't want to be so predictable, to be the Red Rocker on a song about rock." So I said, "What about 'The Boxer'?" He said, "I love that song! I used to be a boxer!" So having him on that song was really special for me, because he brings such an attitude with him. There's only one of him in the world. That's him.

And then the Cranberries cover ["Dreams"]—me and Jeff, my hubby, were just driving around in Sonoma County. We heard it on the radio and he said, "You've got to get Liv Warfield to sing this with you!" She was my singer in my other band right before this, Roadcase Royale. I said, "OK! Let's just do that! I think that can be done easily enough!" And so we did that, and it turned out really fun and cool. Easy.

Nancy Wilson

Photo: Jeremy Danger

How about "Party at the Angel Ballroom"?

I kind of heard myself saying something one night. I was like, "Wow, we've lost another angel of rock and roll." One of the angels that passed away recently, like Chris Cornell, Tom Petty, and now, Eddie Van Halen. It's kind of like, "Well, they're going to be having some big party up there at the angel ballroom." And it's like, "Hey, that's a good idea for a song!"

So I got Taylor Hawkins, who's another amazing friend, and Duff McKagan. I went and sang some stuff for Taylor for his last album, called Get the Money. Really good album. I said, "Well, I'm going to make a solo album now, so do you have any cool jams laying around, dude?" He's like [affects masculine voice] "Yeah, rad, man! I've got some cool jams kicking around, dude!"

He sent me this jam that they had. It was a completely long-winded jam that needed a lot of structuring. I structured it very differently from the original. And I had these words, so I put it together and it just became a fun sort of lark of a song. It's kind of a dark topic, but [you can] make it kind of a funny moment.

Sort of like the song "The Inbetween." That started with a poem that one of my boys wrote. I have two twin boys that are both 21 now. One boy, Curtis, wrote this poem for a class assignment—a poetry-writing assignment, I guess. I thought it was really clever. The words were so clever and so whimsical. He was like, "Black and white, wrong and right." 

Now, after this horrendous political era we just tried to live through with all the bully-pulpit stuff we've had to deal with, I was scrolling through my notes and I found that again. I thought, "This is really relevant for our times that we're living through politically." But putting it in the context of something more fun—a funny take on it all—takes it away from being so heavy and dark.

It kind of sheds new light on a situation. It's a contrast from the heavy times we've had to live through and puts it in a different tonality.

Sounds like Curtis is pretty wise and perceptive. What do you learn from your boys?

You learn everything from your kids. Everything. Being a parent is not an easy thing to do. It's one of the bigger challenges you could ever face. Because when you love somebody that much and you're trying to help them survive through their own childhood. Because you care. Because you love somebody even more than your own life, your own self.

It's bigger than you are and you're responsible for it. The best thing you could ever possibly try to do is keep them alive long enough to figure it out for themselves.

How about "Walk Away"?

That's a story about a toxic relationship that you have to get out of. You have to face the truth of how you've enabled yourself to be hurt and you've enabled the relationship to go bad. It's kind of self-examination of "OK, I have to be brave enough to get this out of my life and take responsibility for what my part in it was." 

It's kind of complex, but it's definitely a truth that we've all had to face at some point in our own relationship lives. There are some unhealthy things sometimes that leave behind.

Were you thinking of any particular relationship or was it a composite of relationships throughout your life?

[Laughs] Well, I'm not going to admit exactly what that's all about. There's been more than one! So, it's a conglomerate of various situations I've found myself in that I had to get out of and get over.

Nancy Wilson

Photo: Jeremy Danger

How about "The Dragon"?

"The Dragon" is something I wrote back in the '90s. After the '80s, we went home to Seattle. That was a time when all the Seattle bands were exploding. I thought, "Oh, no! They're going to hate us because we're '80s dinosaurs!" But they were really sweet on us and we got pretty close with those guys.

At the time, our friends from Alice in Chains … Layne Staley was still walking around and talking. But he was definitely on a course that everyone could see. It was going to go badly. He was going to self-destruct. We all saw that coming. He was a sweet soul, you know? It was hard to see that inevitable demise. He was letting himself go down that dark ladder.

So, that's when I wrote that song. He was still alive, but everyone could see that. That's what that song was about. It's sort of a cautionary tale, but it's also a very heavy message because I don't think he had a chance against that dragon. It was just a sad story in advance of the sadder story.

That's been around for a long time. It never was destined to be a Heart song, although we tried to do that song a few times, in a few ways. It was on the Roadcase Royale album, which is called First Things First. That was a nice version of it. Somebody from the record company—my main guy, Tom Lipsky, from Carry On Music—said, "You've gotta do 'The Dragon' on your album!"

So, it was back by popular demand. I think this is the best version of that song yet. So far.

That's cool you knew Layne. I personally declare Dirt to be the most powerful album ever written about addiction.

Oh, for sure. Right? I love that band. I was so close with Jerry [Cantrell], Mike [Starr] and Sean [Kinney]—and William [DuVall], now. Mike Inez was actually in Heart for a while after Layne disappeared. He was our bass player for five years, I think. Michael Inez is one of the funniest humans on the planet, for Christ's sake. A seriously funny person. Maybe the funniest person I've ever met in my life.

How about "We Meet Again"?

That's kind of a take-off on Paul Simon. I cut my teeth on Paul Simon's stuff when I was nine, 10, 11 and 12. Early on in my playing life, as an acoustic guitar player. I'm actually glad I didn't get sued by Paul Simon because that basic guitar part in the song was a cue in Jerry Maguire, which was based on a Paul Simon-type fingerstyle part.

I kind of took that and ran with it and put lyrics to it, because I already had written it. I had already put that part together for the movie. If there's anyone to plagiarize besides Paul Simon, I suppose I could plagiarize myself [laughs]. That's the first thing I wrote for this album and I was just trying to touch base with my earlier self—my college-girl self with the poetry that I used to explore before I was in Heart.

Is Paul Simon the greatest living songwriter?

He's definitely in the top three, in my estimation. There's Joni Mitchell, there's Paul Simon, and of course, you have to include Bob Dylan in there. Maybe the Beatles. Those are the four pillars of greatness, I think, in music.

What about the last tune, "4 Edward"?

I wanted a tribute to Eddie [Van Halen]. When he passed away, I was really sad, of course. I was very moved to try to pay tribute to him in some way. 

When we used to be in the same place together in the '80s—we did some shows with those guys—he told me he thought I was a really great guitar player on the acoustic. I was like, "How can you say that? You're the best guitar player on the planet! Why don't you play more acoustic yourself?" He said, "Well, I don't really have an acoustic guitar." Then, I promptly gave him one: "OK, you have one now."

The next morning, at the crack of dawn, he called my hotel room and played me this amazing instrumental on the acoustic I gave him. It was just one of the most beautiful things I'd ever heard. Just an exciting, inspirational moment, although he'd probably been up all night partying. So I thought I would return the favor and make him a piece of instrumental music on the acoustic guitar.

That's what I did. I put a little piece of the song "Jump" in there. I tried to approximate what I vaguely remembered from what he played me that morning.

I know things have been kind of hot and cold with your main project over the last few years. How would you describe your personal and creative relationship with Ann today?

Well, that's a loaded question. I think we're fine. We both kind of welcomed the break from each other and from Heart in a certain way. 

I think there's a certain blessing inside the larger curse of the whole shutdown we've been living through. Personally, I feel like it's been a relief and a chance to reorganize who I am, thinking of who I am inside the larger picture of Heart and who I am outside of Heart altogether. 

There's a lesson in this shutdown for me, and part of it is to remember who I am without defining myself as somebody in Heart. Which is a beautiful reckoning, I think. 

There's an offer for Heart to go out in 2022. I think that would be awesome to do that. I would want to do that. But having been outside of the world of it and the pressure of it and the framework of it for this long now has been very freeing. I feel I've gained a lot of momentum as a person because of it.

Peter Frampton On Whether He'll Perform Live Again, Hanging With George Harrison & David Bowie And New Album 'Frampton Forgets the Words'

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Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson

Photo: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images

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Brian Wilson And The Zombies Announce Joint Tour brian-wilson-and-zombies-announce-something-great-68-joint-tour

Brian Wilson And The Zombies Announce "Something Great From '68" Joint Tour

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GRAMMY winner Wilson will primarily perform material from The Beach Boys' 1968 and 1971 albums, 'Friends' and 'Surf's Up,' while the British psych rockers will play their classic 1968 LP, 'Odessey and Oracle,' in full
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
May 7, 2019 - 1:46 pm

GRAMMY winner Brian Wilson and British psych-rock group The Zombies have announced a joint tour aptly titled Something Great from '68. The 15-show U.S. trek kicks off in Las Vegas on Aug. 31 and wraps up on Sept. 26 in New York City.

We're so excited to return to the US we’ve scheduled 2 tours in 1!  We start in August with our own headline shows before meeting with Chris & Hugh in September to tour with fellow @rockhall of Famer @BrianWilsonLive! Full tour dates: https://t.co/hR4LXQ0TOi pic.twitter.com/8Q0usENTGG

— The Zombies (@TheZombiesMusic) May 7, 2019

Wilson will perform primarily Beach Boys material from their 1968 album Friends and 1971 LP Surf's Up. The albums were the pioneering surf-rock group's 14th and 17th studio albums, respectively. He'll be joined on stage by former bandmates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin for the full tour.

Related: Remembering The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds': For The Record

The Zombies, whose current touring lineup consists of founding members Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone, will open each show by playing their classic 1968 LP, Odessey and Oracle, in full. The British group's sophomore album includes songs like "Time Of The Season" and was recorded at two iconic London studios: Abbey Road and Olympic.

Beginning with the third show, in Pala, Calif. on Sept. 7, the pair will reunite with fellow co-founding band members Chris White and Hugh Grundy. The quartet will perform together for the remaining dates, which include stops at the historic Greek Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 12, the intimate Fox Theatre in Oakland, Calif the following day, and a final tour stop at New York City's Beacon Theatre on Sept. 26.

"It's been quite a year and I'm ready to go out and tour some music that makes everyone have a feel good vibe. The Friends album has always been one of my favorites, and I love the music from that time in history," Wilson said in a statement on his website.

The Zombies Revisit "She's Not There"

Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 10, with the pre-sale beginning tomorrow May 8. More info can be found on both The Zombies' and Brian Wilson's websites.

Get Tickets For MusiCares 2019 Concert For Recovery Honoring Macklemore

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Photo: Martin Mills/Getty Images

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Listen: 50 Essential Joni Mitchell Tracks joni-mitchell-2022-musicares-person-of-the-year-50-essential-tracks-playlist

Listen: 50 Essential Tracks By Joni Mitchell, Revolutionary Singer/Songwriter & 2022 MusiCares Person Of The Year

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Joni Mitchell was just crowned MusiCares' 2022 Person of the Year, which represents a feather in the legendary singer/songwriter's cap during her 77th trip around the sun. A career-spanning playlist shows her mastery in folk, jazz, blues and beyond
Morgan Enos
MusiCares
Sep 8, 2021 - 2:14 pm

Joni Mitchell is coming off a campaign of clamorous applause on the 50th anniversary of her 1971 masterpiece Blue, with adulatory features in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, NPR and other mainstream outlets. But when the popular YouTuber Rick Beato pondered what future musicologists would say about Mitchell hundreds of years in the future, he had a different answer.

"When music historians look at Joni Mitchell's catalog, they're going to see records like Mingus, he proclaimed in a clipposted last April, noting her collaboration with the irascible bassist and composer Charles Mingus shortly before his death. "They're going to see Hejira," he added, citing her immersive 1976 record backed by fusion masters.

"They're going to see that she played with all the greatest jazz musicians, like Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Larry Carlton," Beato continued. "The greatest musicians of the 20th century played in her band. Herbie Hancock. She was revered by the greatest jazz musicians."

https://twitter.com/MusiCares/status/1430606196705316866

We are excited to announce that @JoniMitchell, eight-time GRAMMY Award winner and 16-time GRAMMY Award nominee, has been chosen as the 2022 @MusiCares Person of the Year.

Joni Mitchell is the honoree of the 31st annual benefit gala happening on Jan. 29, 2022.

📷 Joel Bernstein pic.twitter.com/KkuV0gGRoN

— MusiCares (@MusiCares) August 25, 2021

Unlike almost any other singer/songwriter in her league—perhaps with the exception of Bob Dylan—Mitchell's legacy has a clear faultline in the middle, Beatles-style. First, she became the archetypal singer/songwriter, singing about female empowerment as a self-evident reality with a mastery of guitar and dulcimer and a composer's command of harmony. 

Then, she showed she could do the same in the jazz sphere, with those aforementioned records. And then, she made otherworldly space-folk albums in the '90s like Night Ride Home and Taming the Tiger, which stand among her most intoxicating works.

Mitchell was recently crowned MusiCares' 2022 Person of the Year (the event in her honor will take place Jan. 29, 2022). This marks yet another milestone for the legend, who was already having a big year with the love for Blue. 

Here's a playlist featuring her 50 most essential songs from across the decades.

Tables for the 2022 MusiCares Person of the Year event will be available for purchase starting Sept. 8, 2021, at 10 a.m. PT at www.musicares.org/person-year. For more information about MusiCares Person of the Year, please visit www.musicares.org or email personoftheyear@musicares.org.

For The Record: Joni Mitchell's Emotive 1971 Masterpiece, Blue

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy and its Affiliates. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy and its Affiliates lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy and its Affiliates.