Caine's Blog: Sweet Insanity

Brian Wilson, Sweet Insanity: from the original cassette version submitted to Sire Records by Dr. Landy in 1990.

Some new thoughts on a lost Brian Wilson album.

Two segments from the "official" ESQ video of the Beach Boys Fan Convention in San Diego, August 1990. ABOVE: Brian Wilson performs at the piano for an audience of perhaps 300. (My brother and I are prominent in the reverse-angle shots from behind the piano, over Brian's left shoulder.). BELOW: Brian, Gene Landy & Co. at the Hard Rock Cafe downtown, after the fan convention.

Sweet Insanity, as a bootleg release-- I got mine on downloads-- came in two versions: the first included more songs, but the other had superior sound quality. Of the ten cuts (plus five extraneous tracks on my copy), four-- "Make a Wish," "Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel," "Rainbow Eyes," and "Let's Stick Together (outfitted with new lyrics by Van Dyke Parks and retitled "The Waltz") went on to "official" release in new versions on Gettin' In Over My Head in 2004. The original versions, however, were superior to the issued ones.

IN ROTATION:

Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Orange Crate Art (Omnivore 2-CD reissue, 2020)

To repeat myself from a prior post: Beyond any doubt, Orange Crate Art is the single best release of 1995. As one would expect, Van Dyke Parks's instrumental arrangements are lush and Wilson's multitracked vocals, arranged also by Parks (though they fit Wilson's voice as well as if he himself had done the charts) are some of the best of his later career. (Why did Parks enlist Wilson for the vocals? "Because I can't stand the sound of my own voice," he once explained.) All of the tracks are little marvels, from the opening title track through the instrumental "Lullaby" by George Gershwin, but my favorites are the loping-along Western epic "San Francisco" and the nostalgic "Turn Back Time," which manages to do just that with a magnificent harmonic shift in its chorus. The majority of the songs celebrate the same California settings that are depicted in the package's artwork.