I watched the recent Sky TV adaptation with Eddie Redmayne, had some good moments but overall unsatisfying. Original film was great.
iirc Forsyth lived in Wicklow for a few years as a tax dodge back in the 1970s and 1980s, and set some of his stories here in No Comebacks and Cry of the Innocents.
BBC News reports the death of Brian Wilson aged 83 [EDIT] 82. Founder member of The Beach Boys, an influencer of The Beatles music and a giant in popular music. RIP Brian, sleep easily xxx
I hear you man. "Pet Sounds" and "Rubber Soul" kinda complememt each other. While they were in fierce competition for sales (via their record companies) on both sides of the Atlantic, musically they were very much in tune - pun intended.
I freely admit that I may be a complete philistines but while Pet Sounds was clearly a musical masterpiece and the harmonies on some songs are timeless and total earworms (Sloop John B) for me the lyrics are very pedestrian and lack any complexity or poetry.
That said Wilson was 24 when the album was released so it was a remarkable achievement for such a young artist.
Don't forget that in some cases the tracks released and heavily promoted were the record companies' choices rather than the composers'/artisits'. In this regard The Beatles, with George Martin's help and active collaboration, seemed more in control of their destinies than Brian and the Beach Boys. Much of the latters' output was undoubtedly background music to the California beach-bum/surfer life-style being promoted by the record company execs. Still, they managed to attract Glenn Campbell, no daw as a musician himself, to Beach Boydom for a while. They sure had something.They had it; Brian RIP had it spades though. Even complete philistines have their place in here as in life.
On the age thing, some Beatles songs were kicking around in their heads/hearts from the time they were teenagers until they eventually saw the light of day on a record. Brian was deaf in one ear, as well as having his more widely discussed mental health problems.
Thanks, and that's not even on the first page of the list of things wrong with me that people have to put up with. Maybe that's why I have such a positive view of humanity in general