Don't Worry Baby by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian (cover)

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by LWSog

Beach Boys music always makes me smile. I think the first record I ever owned was by them! Wonderful playing and singing as always, Glenn - I sure enjoyed this!

Hi Larry!

I am so glad to read that you enjoyed this! Being a California guy, I would expect you to be at least a little open to Beach Boys music.

Of course, my approach hardly sounds like the Beach Boys, just a single voice and guitar. But they did make some fun music way back.

In 1964 I was a 10th grader in my first year of high school. I never owned any Beach Boys music at that stage of my life (I do now), but I had a good friend who had all their albums. (He was also a singer.) He would bring his albums over to my house where we could play his albums on my dad's Heathkit stereo system. We'd lie on the living room floor below the speakers listening to the harmonies. That was really where I got immersed in Beach Boys music, way back when I was 15-16 years old and just starting to pick up the guitar.

Thanks so much for your comments Larry!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

By now I expect the fine performance, and of course that's what we get. And good observation in your post that it's often fun to stretch yourself to find something in a piece of material that you might not have thought about yourself.

But you know what I really appreciated? You credited the lyricist--something that almost never happens with Beach Boys songs (or Carole King songs, and sometimes other song-writing teams too).

I surely don't mean this a knock on Brian Wilson's music (or Carole King either), and I guess I'm just being touchy if I grimace at someone calling this a "Brian Wilson song" informally; but then so often it goes on to someone quoting the lyrics to this (or other songs) as particularly meaningful or poignant to them and says something like "When Brian Wilson, the troubled genius, wrote..." or "Only Carole King could have the insight to write 'Will he still love me tomorrow..."

Of course, Wilson (or King's) music helped make those words impactful. I'll accept mooting the point that their music was more important. But still, someone wrote those words. Thanks for recognizing that.

And I say this being someone who concentrated on writing music to combine with other people's words most of the past two years.

Hi Frank!

You always have such interesting observations! And I agree with you. Too often the lyricist in music writing seems to be left out. I do try to make sure that when I cover someone else's song that I am giving all the writers credit. It's true that when you look up YouTube covers, you often find players being rather careless about providing proper and accurate credit to all the writers in a team.

It's also interesting, Frank, that you have been involved in collaborations like this. I find that I can almost always come up with music for something but that the writing of really good lyrics is the hardest thing for me to do. I do it, but it's hard work. Coming up with music mostly just seems to happen intuitively for me, but lyrics and rhymes have to be pounded out and polished and stripped down to essentials. Making lines rhyme while maintaining a natural feel to the words is a real talent, and this natural feel to the lyrics requires a lot of trial and error and hard work.

Thanks so much for your observations Frank!

- Glenn

[MikeMcKee]

Enjoyed that Glenn. Really nice job on a great song.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by MikeMcKee

Enjoyed that Glenn. Really nice job on a great song.

Thank you very much Mike!

Glad to hear from you! I'm so glad you enjoyed this!

And it is a great song, and that's one of the reasons I thought I would lay out the chords in lyrics in my opening post on this thread. Maybe some others from the AGF would like to give this a try and see if it works for them. I played this song with the capo on fret 1, but obviously the capo could be removed to drop the pitch just a little.

Thank you for taking the time to comment Mike!

- Glenn

[MrEd]

Originally Posted by superbitterdave

Great fun, Glenn. Guitar, flawless and beautiful as expected. I enjoyed hearing your signature voice in it, yet also hearing strong echoes of Brian Wilson. As it's a song I'd not that familiar with, it was a treat to hear it first as yours, but feeling Wilson as well.

Cheers!

-Dave

Very nicely done. Beautiful!

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by MrEd

Very nicely done. Beautiful!

Thanks very much Ed!

I very much appreciate that you have taken the time to watch, listen and comment here! I'm pleased that you like this!

- Glenn

Very nice Glenn! Great rendition of a great tune!

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Very nice Glenn! Great rendition of a great tune!

Thank you Doug!

I appreciate your listening and commenting! I'm happy that you thought this came out okay!

- Glenn

[Zelig]

Another great one of yours! Brian Wilson has the genius of spectacular chords changes.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Zelig

Another great one of yours! Brian Wilson has the genius of spectacular chords changes.

Hi Zelig,

Thanks so much for your comments!

And yes, Brian Wilson really had a gift for making up music. This is actually the first time I have ever taken on a Beach Boys' song, and it was most definitely a learning experience for me.

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment here!

- Glenn

[Tahitijack]

For those that have a few minutes, Google search Roger Christian and you'll be surprised at the other songs he wrote.

Glenn, one of my pet peeves are bands or solo artists that annouce a song by the artists that recorded it. I always appreciate when a cover artist says the song was written by..... Thanks again for recognizing the writers.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Tahitijack

For those that have a few minutes, Google search Roger Christian and you'll be surprised at the other songs he wrote.

Glenn, one of my pet peeves are bands or solo artists that annouce a song by the artists that recorded it. I always appreciate when a cover artist says the song was written by..... Thanks again for recognizing the writers.

Thank you Jack for your insightful comments!

And of course, I agree with your viewpoint very much!

- Glenn

[Tele1111]

Hey Glen,

I really liked your take on this song. You made it work in so many ways!
Playing a acoustic set, it’s difficult to find a Beach Boys song that will translate well. Is it doable with one guitar and voice?-check. Is it well known enough without still being overplayed?-check. Can it be played and sung by one person, using the guitar to fill in the “important” hooks the audience will relate to-and even some “mock” harmonies?-check.

I liked it so much I immediately tried to emulate your version in the hopes I could add it to my set. Alas, no matter the key, I can’t really pull it off. But thanks for the inspiration! Very well done.

Mark

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Tele1111

Hey Glen,

I really liked your take on this song. You made it work in so many ways!
Playing a acoustic set, it’s difficult to find a Beach Boys song that will translate well. Is it doable with one guitar and voice?-check. Is it well known enough without still being overplayed?-check. Can it be played and sung by one person, using the guitar to fill in the “important” hooks the audience will relate to-and even some “mock” harmonies?-check.

I liked it so much I immediately tried to emulate your version in the hopes I could add it to my set. Alas, no matter the key, I can’t really pull it off. But thanks for the inspiration! Very well done.

Mark

Thank you very much for your comments, Mark! I'm very glad to read that you thought this cover came out okay. And I very much appreciate the thought that went into your post!

I found myself getting a little excited for you, that you might be able to add this to your repertoire. But I was sorry to read that for whatever reason you couldn't make this quite work.

I have learned as I'm sure you have, too, that we can't do every great song. Some fit us and some don't. I'm grateful that there are so many great songs out there to learn, and for both of us, there will be plenty that DO fit.

I really appreciate your thoughtful comments here! Thank you!

- Glenn

[Tahitijack]

Woops, BTW its Brian Wilson's birthday......