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Light My Fire
Steyn On-line ^ | July 30, 2017 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 07/31/2017 11:34:18 AM PDT by Twotone

Exactly half a century ago - July 29th 1967 - this song hit Number One on the Billboard Hot One Hundred. This essay is adapted from Mark's book A Song For The Season:

It was 50 years ago today-ish that Sgt Pepper was going on about how it was 20 years ago today. That's to say, the "Summer of Love" is half a century old: It's longer ago today than the summer of flappers and charlestons and bootleg gin was back in 1967. But, boomers being the most self-absorbed generation in history, we're going to be living with boomer pop culture until the very last one keels over at the age of 130 singing "Give Peace A Chance". So we might as well get used to it. And, to be honest, there's one aspect of the Summer of Love I'm quite partial to. What was America's Number One song in that bright new hazy psychedelic dawn? Oh, come on, baby...

Come on, baby, Light My Fire Come on, baby, Light My Fire Try to set the night on fire...

It set the summer on fire five decades back. The single was edited down to under three minutes, but the disk jockeys played the original seven-minute album track anyway, from the Doors' eponymous album The Doors.

(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...


TOPICS: History; Humor; Miscellaneous; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: anniversary; marksteyn; thedoors
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To: aomagrat

I get that all the time with people who didn’t know that Peter Gabriel was the frontman for Genesis.


61 posted on 07/31/2017 2:36:54 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: newfreep

I know. Hence, the awesome awesome movie you could make.

His relationship with Manson was far far deeper than he or any of the other Beach Boys has ever acknowledged. Granted, Dennis saw it as a means to access to a bunch of young hippie girls who walked around naked all the time.

But he got Manson into a studio to record some of his songs for Terry Melcher. And he more or less flat out stole one of Manson’s tunes as a rent payment (which did not sit well with Charles).

The house Melcher was living in when he met Manson is where Sharon Tate and friends were murdered.

Anyway, that’s only part of Dennis’ bizarre life. He was already a pretty serious drunk when he met Manson, but it got worse - possibly out of fear. He wrote some amazing songs in the 70s but eventually became useless on stage.

He had a falling out with Mike Love (who didn’t). It escalated to the point that Love had his brother (an NBA player who is the father of current All Star Kevin Love) to punch out Dennis. Being hit by an NBA player really really hurts.

Dennis later got revenge by...wait for it...marrying Mike Love’s daughter. Did I mention he and Mike were cousins?

In this middle of all this, he recorded an absolutely fantastic solo record.

And then he drowned while drunkenly swimming near where his boat used to be docked. He was retrieving items he had thrown overboard in a drunken stupor the year before.


62 posted on 07/31/2017 2:42:12 PM PDT by WVMnteer
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To: dainbramaged

Agree.


63 posted on 07/31/2017 2:44:55 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: WVMnteer

I lived less than 20 minutes from Sharon Tate’s home. It was “all hell breaking loose” when she and her guests as well as the LaBiancas were savagely killed.

Terry Melcher was Doris Day’s son - he was involved in The Byrds beginning in his role at Columbia records.

I didn’t know the Kevin Love’s father story.....but not surprised since Dennis was going down a very dark path.

I was always a Beatles guy but a friend was a die hard BB fan.

The BB should get on their knees every night and thank God for providing Hal Blaine and his “Wrecking Crew” musicians for making the BB songs sound so good for being a step above bubble gum.

As an entrepreneur, my business interfaces with the music industry and a highly acclaimed mastering engineer has become a good friend. He’s provided CDRs of hundreds of tracks burned from the raw studio master tapes that he remastered or had access to - amazing sound quality.

He’s gifted me CDRs of all of the BB hits and the mono “Pet Sounds” which he remastered on gold CD.


64 posted on 07/31/2017 3:07:48 PM PDT by newfreep ("If Lyin' Ted was an American citizen, he would be a traitor.")
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To: Fiji Hill

I thought it was the story of Oedipus (modernized a bit).


65 posted on 07/31/2017 3:20:38 PM PDT by Verbosus (/* No Comment */)
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To: Fiji Hill

I thought it was the story of Oedipus (modernized a bit).


66 posted on 07/31/2017 3:20:54 PM PDT by Verbosus (/* No Comment */)
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To: beelzepug

They were all talented. Great musicians and great singer.


67 posted on 07/31/2017 3:31:42 PM PDT by Cecily
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To: Verbosus
I may be the only one who has ever come up with this interpretation, but it seems to me that “The End” is a melancholy reflection on the US-backed coup d’etat that overthrew the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam on November 1, 1963.

The singer starts out by describing South Vietnam in in the fall of 1963, with a struggling developing nation led by a corrupt military elite, yet facing an existential threat from the Communists. He then describes the coup itself. At the conclusion, he predicts the demise of the Republic of Vietnam and hints that he himself is heading into exile.

Here is some of the symbolism that I have noted:


68 posted on 07/31/2017 6:31:41 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: newfreep

The whole truth about The Beach Boys is just waiting to be made into a movie. Truly, the Dennis Wilson aspect was the most bizarre. I think Manson once held a gun to Dennis’s head and told him the gun carried a bullet with Dennis’s name on it. He was despondent when they took away his sailing boat and studio and he ended up a homeless street bum. Just like you say, he was diving at the spot where the boat had been moored and was diving down to retrieve stuff he’d tossed over the side over the years. He was only 39. He’d brought some stuff up and was making another trip, wearing only cut-jeans when he smacked his head on the pier and was knocked unconscious, only to drown. They say he was found in the bottom in the fetal position.
Call for the captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I want to go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I want to go home


69 posted on 07/31/2017 7:51:32 PM PDT by HandyDandy
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To: newfreep
Good grief.....your comment lacks any modicum of intelligence.

I could respond in kind and be as insulting as you, but won't. We all have our own likes and dislikes. I'm fully aware that Sinatra was very popular in his day and is still popular among some who like the old standards. I like that music, but have never liked Sinatra. I especially dislike his voice starting about his middle aged years.

It's my opinion...has nothing to do with intelligence, but with what appeals to me.

70 posted on 07/31/2017 8:45:14 PM PDT by Avalon Memories (The question about fighting back is not what average people can to do, but how to do we do it?)
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To: Avalon Memories

To not grasp the reality that ALL singers begin losing their voice at a certain age is indicative of a lack of basic intellect.

Thanks for exposing your level of acumen.

In addition, you seem to have a personal vendetta against Sinatra with your vile attacks that opposes the overwhelming majority of critical reviewers...and more importantly, “we the people” that Sinatra was one of the greatest pop singers of all time. Even in his latter years, he could still project the phrasing that made him so unique.


71 posted on 08/01/2017 3:44:10 AM PDT by newfreep ("If Lyin' Ted was an American citizen, he would be a traitor.")
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To: newfreep
To not grasp the reality that ALL singers begin losing their voice at a certain age is indicative of a lack of basic intellect.

Duh! You are the person who lacks basic intellect since you do not understand that I am talking about ONE singer, not ALL. I do not like the quality and timber of Sinatra's middle aged and older voice. So sue me.

Nowhere is it written that everyone must like a singer because you do or even because "critical reviewers" say otherwise. Personal preference is personal preference. You have them. I have them. Every person ever born has them. Deal with it.

you seem to have a personal vendetta against Sinatra with your vile attacks

Again, your lack of basic intellect (dealing with you on your level). Nowhere did I attack Sinatra. Not in any way, vile or otherwise. I merely indicated that in my estimation -- in other words, my opinion -- he is over-rated. Then I briefly stated why I hold that opinion. Make a list of all the singers you like and I'm sure we will agree on some and not on others. Again, deal with it.

This, by the way, is a truly stupid conversation between us since you clearly are incapable of handling the most simple differences of opinion without resorting to hysteria and insults. So I'm done with it.

72 posted on 08/01/2017 4:01:24 AM PDT by Avalon Memories (The question about fighting back is not what average people can to do, but how to do we do it?)
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To: newfreep

My father in law is the most meticulous man I’ve ever met. He kept all of his childhood baseball cards and comic books in mint condition. (One Christmas, he gave me a framed set of the 1957 Pirates and his son a framed set of the 1957 Yankees. It’s weird to get an amazing gift while also we insanely jealous of someone else’s amazing gift).

Anyway, the one bad thing is that he had kind of lousy taste in music, because he kept his LPs in pristine shape. I have a vinyl collection and he did give me a nearly mint quality version of Pet Sounds on mono. Listening to that vinyl on headphones is a near religious experience.

I agree that the Wrecking Crew made the early stuff sound a step above Jan and Dean. But the difference is that Brian Wilson understood what he had with the Wrecking Crew and was able to maximize their abilities. Once he figured out how to really use a studio, he needed more than they could offer.

And then he went nuts.

Actually, the big difference to me with Pet Sounds is that Brian realized that Mike Love was a very limited lyricist who was only interested in the beach, cars, and girls stuff of the “classic” BB. Tony Asher took his stuff to a new level.

And then, of course, he went nuts.

Regarding the NBA player, Stan Love had his own fascinating life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Love_(basketball)

#1 draft pick who had a pretty short career, but then made a pretty good living as everyone’s bodyguard/Mike’s attack dog. Stan is who ended up with “custody” of Brian when they all sued Eugene Landy.

There has never been a more talented/more insane family than the Wilsons/Loves.

(Part of what makes Kevin Love such a unique player is the fact that Stan used to make him watch old tapes of Bill Walton at UCLA and channeled his game towards that. It’s why he’s the only guy in the league who can throw an accurate outlet pass).


73 posted on 08/01/2017 7:29:48 AM PDT by WVMnteer
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To: dfwgator

Morrison hated that song.

...

Morrison hated the Buick commercial that used and modified the song. I’ve never seen anywhere, other than you, that he hated the original.


74 posted on 08/01/2017 7:33:41 AM PDT by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: HandyDandy

Dennis’ end was truly sad. You left out the part that he was on something like his fifth bottle of wine and the water was 60 degrees when he drowned.

Young Dennis was also shockingly good looking. Putting him on stage with the rest of the let’s just say less than aesthetically pleasing Beach Boys was kind of unfair.

His biggest contribution to music is probably writing “You Are So Beautiful” with Billy Preston (though he got shafted on the songwriting credit).

I don’t think a movie could do it justice. A ten part HBO mini-series would do the trick, I think. You could spend three hours just on their dad.

I mean, you could literally make a movie about their early years with their dad, Brian’s descent into madness between Pet Sounds and Smile, Dennis’ life with Manson, and Brian’s life with Eugene Landy. And we haven’t touched on Mike Love being a lunatic yet or the fact that the “6th” Beach Boy wrote the worst pop song ever - “I Write the Songs.” Or the fact that everyone has sued each other approximately 78 times. And the fact that Carnie Wilson exists.


75 posted on 08/01/2017 7:37:40 AM PDT by WVMnteer
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To: WVMnteer

Tony Asher was the real genius behind Pet Sounds and, as you noted, lifted up Brian’s creation from bubblegum to something with more substance.


76 posted on 08/01/2017 7:41:04 AM PDT by newfreep ("If Lyin' Ted was an American citizen, he would be a traitor.")
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To: HandyDandy

The best work of Dennis Wilson is in “Two Lane Blacktop”.


77 posted on 08/01/2017 7:46:54 AM PDT by VietVet876
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To: Moonman62

Again, I think that’s a myth pushed by the movie.

Based on everything I read, Morrison saw the Doors as a means to an end. He wanted money, women, and drugs. The Doors got him all of that. He didn’t lose sleep over a song he didn’t write making him a fortune.

The thing he was personally passionate about was his poetry.


78 posted on 08/01/2017 8:17:10 AM PDT by WVMnteer
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To: Fiji Hill

He’d been toying with a lot of that imagery in his poetry for years.

The basis of that song is obviously Oedipus.


79 posted on 08/01/2017 8:22:36 AM PDT by WVMnteer
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To: newfreep

It’s kind of hard for me to give all the credit to a guy whose work outside of Wilson was commercial jingles and The Partridge Family.

His major value to Brian was being:
1. A talented lyricist
2. Who was not Mike Love

Weirdly, the best contribution on that record may have been from the Ringo of the group - Al Jardine. He’s the one that took Sloop John B to Brian and worked with him on the arrangements.


80 posted on 08/01/2017 8:27:02 AM PDT by WVMnteer
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