Instead of doing work today I decided to hunt down Brian and Dennis Wilson’s notorious Cocaine Sessions, sometimes known also as the Hamburger Sessions or Things We Used to Get Brian to Show Up for Practice. The two brothers recorded this demo at Village Recorders during a real low point in 1981 while Brian was in temporary hiatus, not too long before Dennis’ tragic death. This short collection of fragments documents a sweet and haunting glimpse from the last years of their song writing partnership. I can’t brag about the quality, I know, the tape hiss is about as loud as the music, but with a little Treble Reducer the white noise dissipates and some pretty great sketches emerge. Stoned off their gourds, the duo navigate some pretty commanding melodies on organ and piano with vocals both exhausted and hysteric. The tape’s two ‘coherent’ tracks “Oh Lord” and “I Feel So Fine” were slated to be properly developed although they just never materialized, but maybe these dejected, underwater gospels were never meant to get cleaned up.
You can grab the whole bootleg here.
MP3 :::
Brian Wilson & Dennis Wilson – Oh Lord
Brian Wilson & Dennis Wilson – I Feel So Fine
