June 17, 2025 • 31 mins
TrulySignificant.com presents A Tribute to Brian Wilson, Forever a Beach Boy, featuring Hall of Fame Songwriter and Hitmaker Kent Blazy.
Hear this special show that focuses on two of the most seminal songs from Pet Songs- God Only Knows and Wouldn't It Be Nice.
Always complex, optimistic, melodic and harmonious.....says Kent Blazy.
Visit www.kentblazy.com to catch Kent's latest hits and meet him at an upcoming concert.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
Hear this special show that focuses on two of the most seminal songs from Pet Songs- God Only Knows and Wouldn't It Be Nice.
Always complex, optimistic, melodic and harmonious.....says Kent Blazy.
Visit www.kentblazy.com to catch Kent's latest hits and meet him at an upcoming concert.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I may not always love you, but long as there
are stars of love you, you never meet you.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Daddy, I'll thank you, sir, should about it. God only
knows what I.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Believe without you.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
If you should ever believe me, will let us do God?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I believe me.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
The world showed nothing to me, So what good one
loving to me?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
God?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Don't He knows what I'd beam without you. God only
(01:30):
knows what I'd leave with that you.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
If you should ever be me, your life would still
God believe me. The word good should nothing to me,
So what God would live to me?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
God only knows what I'd be with that.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
Mhms and welcome back to success made the last.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'm Rick Tokenny. This show was presented by Truly Significant
dot com, the center where you can go and honor
the truly significant people in your life. We have got
back one of my favorite guests and friends, hit maker
Kent Blazy, all American country music songwriter. His credits include
(03:04):
many singles for Garth Brooks as well as Gary Morris,
Diamond Rio, Patty Lovelace, Chris Young, and he is the
host of the upcoming third annual Blazes. That's the third
and every year in the blazes. We have a memoriam
(03:24):
section where we honor people that have passed away in
the last year. But Kent and I thought it was
important to jump right into the middle of this and
honor the one and only Brian Wilson. So Kent, welcome back.
Even though this is a sad time, we want to
celebrate Brian Wilson today.
Speaker 6 (03:41):
Yes we do. What an amazing guy.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yes, sir, and I'll open with this. You two are
fellow songwriters. When you think of Brian Wilson, what is
it that strikes you about his artistry?
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Well, what strikes me is the metamorphous us from the
Beach Boys being a little surfer band to the amazing
work that he did in such a short period of time.
He went in you know, he was doing the records
with the Beach Boys in the early sixties and singing
(04:18):
about California and everybody thought that's what they were. And
then he went into the studio in sixty five and
did Pet Sounds and basically changed the world and changed
the beatles, you know, and just kind of showed people
how amazing he truly was. And it was a blessing
(04:39):
and a curse for him.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think perfectly stated, because I want to ask you.
I think Brian Wilson was often a genius and he's
also a tortured artist. Exactly how do you kent interpret
that duality in his life and in his career.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Well, there's so many different facets behind that. One was
evidently his father was not the nicest guy in the world.
He was his manager, of the Beach Boys manager, but
he was also abusive verbally and physically, and I think
that affected Brian. I think just this instant stardom that
(05:27):
they had affected him. And then the other thing that
affected so many people was the sixties and the drug use,
and I think he got into the drug use and
it kind of fried his brain and he never came
back from it.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, it's well documented, and I'm within our circle of
friends here in Austin. Everybody's wearing out all the Beach
Boy documentaries and coming up to me and saying, hey,
did you know that Denny was a part of the
Manson family. I go, yes, I knew that he housed
Charles Manson. Tell me something new, right, And I wonder
(06:05):
if you could just come in on how you think
family dynamics sometimes influence creativity. And provide a challenge to songwriters.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
Well, I think everybody knew right from the beginning that
Brian was the mastermind behind the whole thing. You know,
he wasn't the best looking guy in the band. He
was the bass player, you know, the drummer. Denny was
the good looking guy. And I think he just realized
what his role was from the very beginning. And he
(06:39):
actually realized early on that his band could not be
the ones that played on some of these records because
his knowledge and his ability of what he wanted to
create went far beyond what they were able to do.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
And he was lucky he had the Wrecking Crew in
La that those people could play anything, and they would
put up with somebody like him like they did Phil
Spector and so many other crazy geniuses, and they would
be willing to spend hours and hours with him to
get what he wanted. And that's not the case pretty
(07:17):
much these days.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
You better tell everybody who the Wrecking Crew is in
case they missed your other nineteen shows that you've done
with me.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
Well, if you can get the movie called The Wrecking Crew,
it's pretty fabulous. These were the musicians in the sixties
seventies who played on probably all the major records that
you thought bands were playing on, and they just were
an amazing group of people that could play anything. Most
(07:49):
of them were jazz people that kind of got into
studio work. And actually, the thing that's funny too, is
one of the best people in the whole thing was
Carol Kay. She was a female bass player guitar player
that was fabulous and they welcomed her with open arms
to being in the Wrecking Crew and she became the
bass player on just about everything anybody did in the sixties.
(08:13):
And it's a phenomenal movie on how they could go
in and create something like the association the Mamas and
the Papas. I think the Birds. I think mister tambourine
man Roger mcgwinn was the only person that played on
that record that was into birds, and they could just
play anything, and they were unseen, unknown people except for
(08:36):
the producers and the musicians who wanted somebody that could
go in and record amazing things very quickly.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
It is a great, great story. You have pivoted musically
several times in your career, and if you will allow
me to talk about Brian Wilson income comparison to you,
because Brian stepped away from this surf rock formula at
(09:06):
twenty three or twenty four years old and created something
so deeply moving in pet sounds, many of which many
people think that's one of the best albums of all time.
Talk to us about what you think inspired him to
pivot and what's inspired you to pivot.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Well, I think for him, the surf thing was getting
really old.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
You know.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
It was a great thing to latch onto because his
brothers were surfers and they said, hey, nobody's doing surfing music.
But I think he had the musical of talent and
ability to realize, I've got to take this where I
want to take it, whether they can go or not,
and it's just being put into a box. Like you know,
(09:51):
I felt that way as a songwriter. They would bring
in records, the publishers and stuff, would say you need
to write something like this for so and so. Write
something like this for so and so. So you were
being told what to do. Usually what I found out
is that if they were playing you these records and
said write something like this, you were usually six months
(10:13):
to a year behind what they were really looking for.
And so I think Brian was kind of that same way,
I'm going to take this where I know I want
to take it, and he was hearing sounds in his
head that very few people probably understood. And that's why
he was so lucky to have the wrecking crew that
would let this mad genius just go on and on
(10:35):
for hours to get what he wanted, because they saw
the genius in him as much as they did the
sad creativity and the mad creativity. And then he kind
of actually took it too far and nobody really knew
what he was doing. And so it's kind of I
think Joni Mitchell was kind of like that. For a
(10:57):
period of time. She was just person the songwriter, and
then she got into jazz, and then she got into
other things and she was great at all of them.
But your audience doesn't necessarily want to change with you
when you change. Like I think, Pet Sounds was really
not welcomed when it came out. It took many years
(11:19):
for people to realize how amazing that was, even though
people like the Beatles McCartney saw it, and he was
basically in competition with Brian Wilson. He was listening to
everything Brian did, and then he would try to take
it a step further, and then Brian would listen to
what Paul did and take it a step further. And
(11:39):
they had this thing going on that they didn't even
know they had going on between each other. But finally
Brian kind of took it to a place where everybody
was like, I don't know what he's doing. And I
think Surf's Up was kind of that thing. It didn't
come out for five or six years because everybody's like,
what the hell is this? And then finally when it
(12:01):
came out, people understood even more what a genius he was.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Thank you for that. And you and I've talked a
lot about collaboration and pet sounds was with Tony Asher.
But if you watch these documentaries, you'll see that he's
bouncing all over the place, talking to how, talking to
all the people in the wrecking crew, and kind of
getting the best out of everybody. In your opinion, beyond
(12:28):
the obvious answer, what did you what have you seen
in terms of his collaborative skills where he was actually
allowed to run wild and then produce something so magical
was what was happening there?
Speaker 6 (12:43):
Well? I think luckily it was a time period where
that was more acceptable. I mean, Dylan kind of did
the same thing, you know, when he came to Nashville
to record. The Nashville Musicians record at ten am, one,
one pm, and then five pm, and Dylan would show
up at three o'clock in the morning and say, okay, guys,
(13:06):
let's go record. I just wrote this, and they were
fine with it and they turned out some great records.
And I think it was the same thing with Brian.
It was the time period where he was allowed to
do what he wanted to do as long as it took.
And we went through that time period even with like
Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles taking an out a year
(13:27):
and a half to do an album and it being
totally acceptable, and they were phenomenal records. But these days,
I don't think artists have that kind of capability, or
the record labels aren't going to put up the money
to allow something like that to exist.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Are you implying, mister Blaze, that the system is ringing
out creativity.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
I didn't say that, but it sounds like a good
thing to me, Like you said, it just seems like
that to me, And with you know, all the pro tools,
the auto tuning, the AI, everything like that. It seems
like it's getting less and less of the creativity is
(14:13):
allowed to really grow. I mean to me, if you
listen to most country songs these days, they're using the
same four chords kind of over and over again, and
nobody differentiates out. Like say, when Glenn Campbell was doing
country like Wichita Lineman or even Gentle on my Mind.
You know that took it to different levels and he
(14:36):
had time to grow into who he was. And I
don't see people having that time to grow into who
they are as much as they did before.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well said, I want you to come in a little
bit about something technical before we start to unpack two songs. Today.
I was studying about the use of modular recording, breaking
songs in to sections and then stitching them together and
what Brian did. Can you talk a little bit about
what that meant back then and how it helped music
(15:10):
advance from the mid sixties.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
Well, the big thing that producers started doing, and I
had just read an article about a group called the
Outlaws that was a country rock band that was fairly
well known, and their producer was Paul Rothschild, who'd done
the Doors and other amazing artists. But what Paul had
(15:36):
the ability to do is cut up the tape and
paste it back where he wanted it to be, to
make it be the song that he wanted it to be. Like,
I think their biggest hit was high Tide in Green
Grass and it was like a seventeen minute song and
He's got out the razor blade in the Scotch tape
and put this tape together that was like seven minutes long.
(15:58):
That became a hit, and that was the first time,
you know, we moved so fast from mono to two track,
to four track, to eight track to sixteen track that
it gave people a capability that they didn't have before.
And that was kind of also a blessing and a curse.
You know, you listened to El Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong,
(16:23):
those people, they probably had one track and everybody had
to record on one track. And so Brian just had
the freedom with sixteen tracks thirty two tracks to do
whatever he wanted to do and piece it all together.
And that was kind of a brand new world that
came out of nowhere, and he was one of the
first people to really take advantage of that.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
He sure was. Tell me what you thought about and
what impressed you with his chord structure and harmonic choices.
Speaker 6 (16:53):
Well, it was really beyond anything anybody was doing in
pop music at that time. You know, you saw it
starting to come with even within my Room or things
like that, that he just had a capability far beyond
what most musicians at that time were able to hear.
And he took it to kept taking it to another
(17:15):
level and to another level, and it was kind of
unheard of what he was doing at the time, and
the Beatles were about the only ones who could really
keep up with them, especially McCarthy, and it just kind
of changed stuff. And you still have to realize, I
think Sergeant Pepper was still done on a four track machine.
So La was kind of ahead of what was going
(17:39):
on in England as far as the capability that people
had to do something way out there and then pull
it back how they needed to pull it back. And
Brian got to the point where he really wasn't pulling
anything back.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, what you describe as almost a Michelangelo or a
Da Vinci of music, Oh.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
Yeah, exactly. You know. The closest that I can come
to it in that time period. Maybe was Jimmy Webb,
you know, and he may have had an influence on
Brian to his chord changes. His modal things is playing
chords against other chords. And even like Hard Day's Night,
it's the same thing that chord in the beginning of
(18:20):
that is kind of a bunch of different people playing
different things. It turns out to be iconic, and I
think Brian was kind of doing the same thing.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I just love it when you isolate songs down to
one chord. That's one of the if you ever listen
back to all the shows that you and I have done,
you always get it down to one little fine detail
that's definitional. So that's I so much appreciate how you
do that. Okay, we're going to take a break. I'll
throw it to you first. What is your website so
(18:51):
everyone can buy your music and follow everything in the
world of kent.
Speaker 6 (18:56):
Blaze kentblazy dot com. It's hard to remember k E
n t bla zy dot com And hopefully it will
have my up to date stuff. If my PR person's
doing what she's supposed to be doing and I've told
her what I'm doing, which half the time I forget,
but that's where you can go. I also send people
(19:17):
the iTunes because they actually pay, and you can find
most of the stuff that I've done on there. So
come join me, wonderful.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
We will be right back after this quick message.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
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This book reminds me of one of my more stirring quotes,
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Speaker 8 (19:56):
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(21:09):
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Speaker 2 (21:14):
And we're back with Kim Blaze. We're celebrating the life
in times of Brian Wilson. On the back half of
the show, we're going to unpack God Only Knows and
wouldn't it be nice with a couple of songs and
then maybe get one more bonus question out of mister
Blaze so we can drive back to Nashville. God Only
(21:36):
Knows written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher Key of
E Major What.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Yep, Well, it doesn't sound like it is you know,
that's for sure. It may be in that key, but
there's a lot of other things going on rather than
an E chord.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
That's right. What does this line mean to you? I'm
not always love you.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
I think it's another sixties thing, you know, free love,
do what you want to do. I think he was
just channeling a lot of what was going on in
the culture at that time, the end people's culture and
you know the other things. Somebody said, is he kind
of how would I put this live the sixties? You know,
(22:29):
from that sweet Beach Boys thing, when America was all
you know, John F. Kennedy, Camelot, all that stuff. Then
it went through the assassination, It went through a lot
of assassinations, It went through the Vietnam War and came
out on the other side. America was a totally different thing,
(22:49):
and so was the Beach Boys music and what Brian
Wilson was making. I think he is the epitome of
what an artist went through in that time period and
trying to with what the hell was going on every
single day of every single year. Wherever you were.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That just said it, what the hell's going on? Because
it's a complex, bittersweet, spiritual I may not always love you.
It's like I don't know what's going on on top
of the guy was hallucinating most of the time.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
Yeah, you all know that.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So what a what a line? And I thought we
would land on that because it's got such the lack
of commitment and being sentimental at the same time.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Well, it's kind of like if you can't be with
the one you love, love the one you're with you know,
it's a it's a kind of Stephen Stills, but you
know he stole the line from Billy Preston, but it
was that same kind of free love kind of thing.
You know, well, I love you, but hey, you're not here,
(23:58):
so uh, it's like a momentary commitment.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Right, that's exactly right. And you talked about Carolkay earlier
in that song, and we'll play a little cut for
you folks. Carol Okay's bass a bass performance in how
Blaine's subtle percussion to me are key And maybe it's
because I always listened to drums first, but boy, that's
just it stands out to me. You're so stunned with
(24:29):
that comment. You're not even going to say anything.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Well, I'm just waiting to hear it, because you know,
a drummer hears things different than anybody else. And you know,
Martin Molsa, the drummer's a musician's best friend. So I'm
going with the with listening to what you're hearing.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
A musician's best friend. That sounds like the victrola dog
I kind of think.
Speaker 6 (24:52):
So I think was very good with drummers, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
It's hilarious. Okay, let's jump to Wouldn't It Be Nice?
Opens the pet sounds with this sense of youthful longing
and optimism. And for you geeks out there, key modulation
was from A major to F major and back again
to keep it harmonically interesting. What say you, mister blazy
(25:19):
about that?
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Well, that's kind of the same thing Jimmy Webb did
on Wichita Lineman. He went back from a D to
an F to a DP to an F and not
really a chord change most people would come up with.
And so you know, Brian may have heard that and
influenced him on what he was doing. And it was
that thing of everybody was listening to everybody else and
(25:43):
being a sponge, and hey, that's really cool. I think
I'll try doing something like that.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
That's right, that's right. It tickles me to hear that song,
and I'll have Carla play it here so we can
listen to it. And what I hear is this uh
weird tension and release accessibility complexity. I mean, it's almost
like it's talking about a bottle of wine here, but
(26:11):
it's a song, but it's got hopefulness to it. Wouldn't
wouldn't it wouldn't it be nice life? You know, So
it's somebody out there is saying love is tough, love
is not perfect, and wouldn't it be nice? So it
was very very idealistic. Anything else on that particular song,
(26:31):
mister Blazey.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
No, I'm just I want to hear it listening to
it through a drummer's ears.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Now, okay, you ought to hear a drummers sing it.
It's a at least in my ears, that would be tough.
It's a little it's a it's an easy song to
go pitchy on. Uh, let's wrap this thing up with
talking about the Brian Wilson toolbox. He you used something
(27:01):
that was I thought was so forward and futuristic. The
power of counterpoint in his vocal arrangements kind of sometimes
competing against each other. Shed some light on that.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
Yeah, it was chords playing against each other that maybe
never even resolved, so you didn't know really what key
it was in. And you know, that was pretty new
at that time too. Maybe Mozart had done something like
that Beethoven, but in classical music, but in rock music.
(27:36):
To have it be unresolved was a pretty crazy thing
at that time.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
M that's right exactly, and we don't we can't forget
the other two brothers. And this is one of those
moments in time where he's the last of three brothers
to go because Carl Dennis preceded him. The Wilson brothers
are now all passed on going on to their heavenly
(28:05):
place or wherever they went. And it makes me think
about other groups where they were family and they had
such a special sound. I'd love for you just to
say a few words about brothers and sisters that are
out there forming a group and maybe how special they
could be as well.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
Well. There's nothing like family harmony, and the Beach Boys
definitely had that, and there's just a blend that comes
out of that blood that nobody else can really match
most of the time. And in every group where it's
brothers and sisters or brothers and brothers or sisters and sisters,
it's just something that other people can try to replicate,
(28:51):
but it's not going to be exactly what it was
with the siblings doing what they're doing on the.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Songs exactly exactly. Thank you, mister Blacy for being back
on for this quick memorial to Brian Wilson. We'll leave
you folks with one of our favorite songs, and for
you young musicians out there, listen carefully to the significance
(29:19):
of Brian Wilson. Folks, have a great week.
Speaker 11 (29:39):
It's going to make you, oh mama.
Speaker 12 (30:06):
Appetized together week. Baby, I'm gonna say every Christmas, who.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Wouldn't need be.
Speaker 12 (30:23):
With a convention of the brain in my country?
Speaker 13 (30:29):
A baby, the one may say anything, who may be there?
No one you know.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
It seems the Morgans. It only makes you quest.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
But let's be step time, bad bad space time.
I may not always love you, but long as there
are stars of love you, you never meet you.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Daddy, I'll thank you, sir, should about it. God only
knows what I.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Believe without you.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
If you should ever believe me, will let us do God?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I believe me.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
The world showed nothing to me, So what good one
loving to me?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
God?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Don't He knows what I'd beam without you. God only
(01:30):
knows what I'd leave with that you.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
If you should ever be me, your life would still
God believe me. The word good should nothing to me,
So what God would live to me?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
God only knows what I'd be with that.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
Mhms and welcome back to success made the last.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'm Rick Tokenny. This show was presented by Truly Significant
dot com, the center where you can go and honor
the truly significant people in your life. We have got
back one of my favorite guests and friends, hit maker
Kent Blazy, all American country music songwriter. His credits include
(03:04):
many singles for Garth Brooks as well as Gary Morris,
Diamond Rio, Patty Lovelace, Chris Young, and he is the
host of the upcoming third annual Blazes. That's the third
and every year in the blazes. We have a memoriam
(03:24):
section where we honor people that have passed away in
the last year. But Kent and I thought it was
important to jump right into the middle of this and
honor the one and only Brian Wilson. So Kent, welcome back.
Even though this is a sad time, we want to
celebrate Brian Wilson today.
Speaker 6 (03:41):
Yes we do. What an amazing guy.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yes, sir, and I'll open with this. You two are
fellow songwriters. When you think of Brian Wilson, what is
it that strikes you about his artistry?
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Well, what strikes me is the metamorphous us from the
Beach Boys being a little surfer band to the amazing
work that he did in such a short period of time.
He went in you know, he was doing the records
with the Beach Boys in the early sixties and singing
(04:18):
about California and everybody thought that's what they were. And
then he went into the studio in sixty five and
did Pet Sounds and basically changed the world and changed
the beatles, you know, and just kind of showed people
how amazing he truly was. And it was a blessing
(04:39):
and a curse for him.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think perfectly stated, because I want to ask you.
I think Brian Wilson was often a genius and he's
also a tortured artist. Exactly how do you kent interpret
that duality in his life and in his career.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Well, there's so many different facets behind that. One was
evidently his father was not the nicest guy in the world.
He was his manager, of the Beach Boys manager, but
he was also abusive verbally and physically, and I think
that affected Brian. I think just this instant stardom that
(05:27):
they had affected him. And then the other thing that
affected so many people was the sixties and the drug use,
and I think he got into the drug use and
it kind of fried his brain and he never came
back from it.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, it's well documented, and I'm within our circle of
friends here in Austin. Everybody's wearing out all the Beach
Boy documentaries and coming up to me and saying, hey,
did you know that Denny was a part of the
Manson family. I go, yes, I knew that he housed
Charles Manson. Tell me something new, right, And I wonder
(06:05):
if you could just come in on how you think
family dynamics sometimes influence creativity. And provide a challenge to songwriters.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
Well, I think everybody knew right from the beginning that
Brian was the mastermind behind the whole thing. You know,
he wasn't the best looking guy in the band. He
was the bass player, you know, the drummer. Denny was
the good looking guy. And I think he just realized
what his role was from the very beginning. And he
(06:39):
actually realized early on that his band could not be
the ones that played on some of these records because
his knowledge and his ability of what he wanted to
create went far beyond what they were able to do.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
And he was lucky he had the Wrecking Crew in
La that those people could play anything, and they would
put up with somebody like him like they did Phil
Spector and so many other crazy geniuses, and they would
be willing to spend hours and hours with him to
get what he wanted. And that's not the case pretty
(07:17):
much these days.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
You better tell everybody who the Wrecking Crew is in
case they missed your other nineteen shows that you've done
with me.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
Well, if you can get the movie called The Wrecking Crew,
it's pretty fabulous. These were the musicians in the sixties
seventies who played on probably all the major records that
you thought bands were playing on, and they just were
an amazing group of people that could play anything. Most
(07:49):
of them were jazz people that kind of got into
studio work. And actually, the thing that's funny too, is
one of the best people in the whole thing was
Carol Kay. She was a female bass player guitar player
that was fabulous and they welcomed her with open arms
to being in the Wrecking Crew and she became the
bass player on just about everything anybody did in the sixties.
(08:13):
And it's a phenomenal movie on how they could go
in and create something like the association the Mamas and
the Papas. I think the Birds. I think mister tambourine
man Roger mcgwinn was the only person that played on
that record that was into birds, and they could just
play anything, and they were unseen, unknown people except for
(08:36):
the producers and the musicians who wanted somebody that could
go in and record amazing things very quickly.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
It is a great, great story. You have pivoted musically
several times in your career, and if you will allow
me to talk about Brian Wilson income comparison to you,
because Brian stepped away from this surf rock formula at
(09:06):
twenty three or twenty four years old and created something
so deeply moving in pet sounds, many of which many
people think that's one of the best albums of all time.
Talk to us about what you think inspired him to
pivot and what's inspired you to pivot.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Well, I think for him, the surf thing was getting
really old.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
You know.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
It was a great thing to latch onto because his
brothers were surfers and they said, hey, nobody's doing surfing music.
But I think he had the musical of talent and
ability to realize, I've got to take this where I
want to take it, whether they can go or not,
and it's just being put into a box. Like you know,
(09:51):
I felt that way as a songwriter. They would bring
in records, the publishers and stuff, would say you need
to write something like this for so and so. Write
something like this for so and so. So you were
being told what to do. Usually what I found out
is that if they were playing you these records and
said write something like this, you were usually six months
(10:13):
to a year behind what they were really looking for.
And so I think Brian was kind of that same way,
I'm going to take this where I know I want
to take it, and he was hearing sounds in his
head that very few people probably understood. And that's why
he was so lucky to have the wrecking crew that
would let this mad genius just go on and on
(10:35):
for hours to get what he wanted, because they saw
the genius in him as much as they did the
sad creativity and the mad creativity. And then he kind
of actually took it too far and nobody really knew
what he was doing. And so it's kind of I
think Joni Mitchell was kind of like that. For a
(10:57):
period of time. She was just person the songwriter, and
then she got into jazz, and then she got into
other things and she was great at all of them.
But your audience doesn't necessarily want to change with you
when you change. Like I think, Pet Sounds was really
not welcomed when it came out. It took many years
(11:19):
for people to realize how amazing that was, even though
people like the Beatles McCartney saw it, and he was
basically in competition with Brian Wilson. He was listening to
everything Brian did, and then he would try to take
it a step further, and then Brian would listen to
what Paul did and take it a step further. And
(11:39):
they had this thing going on that they didn't even
know they had going on between each other. But finally
Brian kind of took it to a place where everybody
was like, I don't know what he's doing. And I
think Surf's Up was kind of that thing. It didn't
come out for five or six years because everybody's like,
what the hell is this? And then finally when it
(12:01):
came out, people understood even more what a genius he was.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Thank you for that. And you and I've talked a
lot about collaboration and pet sounds was with Tony Asher.
But if you watch these documentaries, you'll see that he's
bouncing all over the place, talking to how, talking to
all the people in the wrecking crew, and kind of
getting the best out of everybody. In your opinion, beyond
(12:28):
the obvious answer, what did you what have you seen
in terms of his collaborative skills where he was actually
allowed to run wild and then produce something so magical
was what was happening there?
Speaker 6 (12:43):
Well? I think luckily it was a time period where
that was more acceptable. I mean, Dylan kind of did
the same thing, you know, when he came to Nashville
to record. The Nashville Musicians record at ten am, one,
one pm, and then five pm, and Dylan would show
up at three o'clock in the morning and say, okay, guys,
(13:06):
let's go record. I just wrote this, and they were
fine with it and they turned out some great records.
And I think it was the same thing with Brian.
It was the time period where he was allowed to
do what he wanted to do as long as it took.
And we went through that time period even with like
Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles taking an out a year
(13:27):
and a half to do an album and it being
totally acceptable, and they were phenomenal records. But these days,
I don't think artists have that kind of capability, or
the record labels aren't going to put up the money
to allow something like that to exist.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Are you implying, mister Blaze, that the system is ringing
out creativity.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
I didn't say that, but it sounds like a good
thing to me, Like you said, it just seems like
that to me, And with you know, all the pro tools,
the auto tuning, the AI, everything like that. It seems
like it's getting less and less of the creativity is
(14:13):
allowed to really grow. I mean to me, if you
listen to most country songs these days, they're using the
same four chords kind of over and over again, and
nobody differentiates out. Like say, when Glenn Campbell was doing
country like Wichita Lineman or even Gentle on my Mind.
You know that took it to different levels and he
(14:36):
had time to grow into who he was. And I
don't see people having that time to grow into who
they are as much as they did before.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well said, I want you to come in a little
bit about something technical before we start to unpack two songs. Today.
I was studying about the use of modular recording, breaking
songs in to sections and then stitching them together and
what Brian did. Can you talk a little bit about
what that meant back then and how it helped music
(15:10):
advance from the mid sixties.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
Well, the big thing that producers started doing, and I
had just read an article about a group called the
Outlaws that was a country rock band that was fairly
well known, and their producer was Paul Rothschild, who'd done
the Doors and other amazing artists. But what Paul had
(15:36):
the ability to do is cut up the tape and
paste it back where he wanted it to be, to
make it be the song that he wanted it to be. Like,
I think their biggest hit was high Tide in Green
Grass and it was like a seventeen minute song and
He's got out the razor blade in the Scotch tape
and put this tape together that was like seven minutes long.
(15:58):
That became a hit, and that was the first time,
you know, we moved so fast from mono to two track,
to four track, to eight track to sixteen track that
it gave people a capability that they didn't have before.
And that was kind of also a blessing and a curse.
You know, you listened to El Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong,
(16:23):
those people, they probably had one track and everybody had
to record on one track. And so Brian just had
the freedom with sixteen tracks thirty two tracks to do
whatever he wanted to do and piece it all together.
And that was kind of a brand new world that
came out of nowhere, and he was one of the
first people to really take advantage of that.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
He sure was. Tell me what you thought about and
what impressed you with his chord structure and harmonic choices.
Speaker 6 (16:53):
Well, it was really beyond anything anybody was doing in
pop music at that time. You know, you saw it
starting to come with even within my Room or things
like that, that he just had a capability far beyond
what most musicians at that time were able to hear.
And he took it to kept taking it to another
(17:15):
level and to another level, and it was kind of
unheard of what he was doing at the time, and
the Beatles were about the only ones who could really
keep up with them, especially McCarthy, and it just kind
of changed stuff. And you still have to realize, I
think Sergeant Pepper was still done on a four track machine.
So La was kind of ahead of what was going
(17:39):
on in England as far as the capability that people
had to do something way out there and then pull
it back how they needed to pull it back. And
Brian got to the point where he really wasn't pulling
anything back.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, what you describe as almost a Michelangelo or a
Da Vinci of music, Oh.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
Yeah, exactly. You know. The closest that I can come
to it in that time period. Maybe was Jimmy Webb,
you know, and he may have had an influence on
Brian to his chord changes. His modal things is playing
chords against other chords. And even like Hard Day's Night,
it's the same thing that chord in the beginning of
(18:20):
that is kind of a bunch of different people playing
different things. It turns out to be iconic, and I
think Brian was kind of doing the same thing.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I just love it when you isolate songs down to
one chord. That's one of the if you ever listen
back to all the shows that you and I have done,
you always get it down to one little fine detail
that's definitional. So that's I so much appreciate how you
do that. Okay, we're going to take a break. I'll
throw it to you first. What is your website so
(18:51):
everyone can buy your music and follow everything in the
world of kent.
Speaker 6 (18:56):
Blaze kentblazy dot com. It's hard to remember k E
n t bla zy dot com And hopefully it will
have my up to date stuff. If my PR person's
doing what she's supposed to be doing and I've told
her what I'm doing, which half the time I forget,
but that's where you can go. I also send people
(19:17):
the iTunes because they actually pay, and you can find
most of the stuff that I've done on there. So
come join me, wonderful.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
We will be right back after this quick message.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
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(21:09):
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Speaker 2 (21:14):
And we're back with Kim Blaze. We're celebrating the life
in times of Brian Wilson. On the back half of
the show, we're going to unpack God Only Knows and
wouldn't it be nice with a couple of songs and
then maybe get one more bonus question out of mister
Blaze so we can drive back to Nashville. God Only
(21:36):
Knows written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher Key of
E Major What.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Yep, Well, it doesn't sound like it is you know,
that's for sure. It may be in that key, but
there's a lot of other things going on rather than
an E chord.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
That's right. What does this line mean to you? I'm
not always love you.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
I think it's another sixties thing, you know, free love,
do what you want to do. I think he was
just channeling a lot of what was going on in
the culture at that time, the end people's culture and
you know the other things. Somebody said, is he kind
of how would I put this live the sixties? You know,
(22:29):
from that sweet Beach Boys thing, when America was all
you know, John F. Kennedy, Camelot, all that stuff. Then
it went through the assassination, It went through a lot
of assassinations, It went through the Vietnam War and came
out on the other side. America was a totally different thing,
(22:49):
and so was the Beach Boys music and what Brian
Wilson was making. I think he is the epitome of
what an artist went through in that time period and
trying to with what the hell was going on every
single day of every single year. Wherever you were.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That just said it, what the hell's going on? Because
it's a complex, bittersweet, spiritual I may not always love you.
It's like I don't know what's going on on top
of the guy was hallucinating most of the time.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
Yeah, you all know that.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So what a what a line? And I thought we
would land on that because it's got such the lack
of commitment and being sentimental at the same time.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Well, it's kind of like if you can't be with
the one you love, love the one you're with you know,
it's a it's a kind of Stephen Stills, but you
know he stole the line from Billy Preston, but it
was that same kind of free love kind of thing.
You know, well, I love you, but hey, you're not here,
(23:58):
so uh, it's like a momentary commitment.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Right, that's exactly right. And you talked about Carolkay earlier
in that song, and we'll play a little cut for
you folks. Carol Okay's bass a bass performance in how
Blaine's subtle percussion to me are key And maybe it's
because I always listened to drums first, but boy, that's
just it stands out to me. You're so stunned with
(24:29):
that comment. You're not even going to say anything.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Well, I'm just waiting to hear it, because you know,
a drummer hears things different than anybody else. And you know,
Martin Molsa, the drummer's a musician's best friend. So I'm
going with the with listening to what you're hearing.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
A musician's best friend. That sounds like the victrola dog
I kind of think.
Speaker 6 (24:52):
So I think was very good with drummers, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
It's hilarious. Okay, let's jump to Wouldn't It Be Nice?
Opens the pet sounds with this sense of youthful longing
and optimism. And for you geeks out there, key modulation
was from A major to F major and back again
to keep it harmonically interesting. What say you, mister blazy
(25:19):
about that?
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Well, that's kind of the same thing Jimmy Webb did
on Wichita Lineman. He went back from a D to
an F to a DP to an F and not
really a chord change most people would come up with.
And so you know, Brian may have heard that and
influenced him on what he was doing. And it was
that thing of everybody was listening to everybody else and
(25:43):
being a sponge, and hey, that's really cool. I think
I'll try doing something like that.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
That's right, that's right. It tickles me to hear that song,
and I'll have Carla play it here so we can
listen to it. And what I hear is this uh
weird tension and release accessibility complexity. I mean, it's almost
like it's talking about a bottle of wine here, but
(26:11):
it's a song, but it's got hopefulness to it. Wouldn't
wouldn't it wouldn't it be nice life? You know, So
it's somebody out there is saying love is tough, love
is not perfect, and wouldn't it be nice? So it
was very very idealistic. Anything else on that particular song,
(26:31):
mister Blazey.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
No, I'm just I want to hear it listening to
it through a drummer's ears.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Now, okay, you ought to hear a drummers sing it.
It's a at least in my ears, that would be tough.
It's a little it's a it's an easy song to
go pitchy on. Uh, let's wrap this thing up with
talking about the Brian Wilson toolbox. He you used something
(27:01):
that was I thought was so forward and futuristic. The
power of counterpoint in his vocal arrangements kind of sometimes
competing against each other. Shed some light on that.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
Yeah, it was chords playing against each other that maybe
never even resolved, so you didn't know really what key
it was in. And you know, that was pretty new
at that time too. Maybe Mozart had done something like
that Beethoven, but in classical music, but in rock music.
(27:36):
To have it be unresolved was a pretty crazy thing
at that time.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
M that's right exactly, and we don't we can't forget
the other two brothers. And this is one of those
moments in time where he's the last of three brothers
to go because Carl Dennis preceded him. The Wilson brothers
are now all passed on going on to their heavenly
(28:05):
place or wherever they went. And it makes me think
about other groups where they were family and they had
such a special sound. I'd love for you just to
say a few words about brothers and sisters that are
out there forming a group and maybe how special they
could be as well.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
Well. There's nothing like family harmony, and the Beach Boys
definitely had that, and there's just a blend that comes
out of that blood that nobody else can really match
most of the time. And in every group where it's
brothers and sisters or brothers and brothers or sisters and sisters,
it's just something that other people can try to replicate,
(28:51):
but it's not going to be exactly what it was
with the siblings doing what they're doing on the.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Songs exactly exactly. Thank you, mister Blacy for being back
on for this quick memorial to Brian Wilson. We'll leave
you folks with one of our favorite songs, and for
you young musicians out there, listen carefully to the significance
(29:19):
of Brian Wilson. Folks, have a great week.
Speaker 11 (29:39):
It's going to make you, oh mama.
Speaker 12 (30:06):
Appetized together week. Baby, I'm gonna say every Christmas, who.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Wouldn't need be.
Speaker 12 (30:23):
With a convention of the brain in my country?
Speaker 13 (30:29):
A baby, the one may say anything, who may be there?
No one you know.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
It seems the Morgans. It only makes you quest.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
But let's be step time, bad bad space time.
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