Day 1001 & a 1/2: Postscript

I named my blog after '2001 a Space Odyssey', and much like the Kubrick film of the same name, I feel as though I’ve gone through a dizzying, disorienting kaleidoscope and come out the other side as an old man and with a baby floating around somewhere in the mix. 

My copy of the book also looks like it's seen some sh*t.   The dust cover is missing, presumed dead, the spine has been ripped off and the whole thing is scarred with coffee rings, because I'm a slob.

 Though I've been listening to, writing and posting stuff about these albums in different places at different times, I believe I listened to the first album (Sinatra "In the Wee Small Hours") around 1 June 2016 and finished up Bowie's "The Next Day" 4 December 2020.   At the time Jenni commented that it would be weird that I'm not doing the 1001 any more because I'd been doing it the entire time she'd known me at that point.

I have loved this experience though.  It has opened my ears to new music, it's made me reassess bands I maybe made some unfair assumptions about, and even made me listen more intently than I have for a while to some old favourites (I often find myself becoming more and more of a passive listener as I get older).  I've enjoyed the experience of always having something lined up to listen to while at the same time being relaxed enough about it that I could totally blow it off if there was something outside the list that I'd prefer listening to at any given time.

My music collection has been added to throughout as I've been turned on to new things, and while there are lots of albums I'd deem more deserving to be in the list, and one or two albums on the list were 'just okay', there have been few stinkers.

As the old adage goes, "talking/writing about music is like dancing about architecture" so I'll sign off here and go play some more music.... I'll probably still talk about it though.

Day 0385 - Pacific Ocean Blue

Dennis Wilson "Pacific Ocean Blue" (1977)

 
I'm looking forward to the next run of 3 or 4 albums.  This album is one that I listened to and enjoyed when I checked out the book the first time around 2011.

Dennis was looked on as not being (according to one doco I saw) the greatest of drummers.  Some Beach Boys drum parts were completed by session musicians and other people who were not Dennis... so in some ways, it was kind of a ballsy move for him to go ahead and make a solo album.

This doesn't sound a like a "Drummer album".  This is a vocal-heavy album, but not the clean complex harmonies of a Brian Wilson production (I'm actually now listening to the Beach Boys' "Friends" album as I type this) it's more of a cathartic clamour.  That's interesting, as the music is certainly not a non-stop journey of joy.  Dennis himself struggled with alcoholism and cocaine addiction.

It was always that rather odd thing with the Beach Boys where they sang all about surfing but Dennis was the only one who surfed (It would be like if all of RHCP except the drummer were virgins, or if Motorhead were teetotallers) and he ended up drowning after a vodka binge.

The album was well received and Dennis was grateful for the recognition. He started recording a follow-up but died before he could complete it.