The title of this blog is of course pinched from The Beatles ‘Back in the USSR.’ When I worked at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Noumea, I wrote a comic version of what was already a pastiche of the Beach Boys musical style. There are two main schools of thought on the Beach Boys. One is that Brian Wilson is a genius and the band had a good run from the early sixties to the early seventies. The other is that they were rubbish and they were just a glorified barbershop quartet. I incline to the first school of thought. I think the close order harmonies on ‘In my room,’ and ‘The Girls on the Beach’ are brilliant and Pet Sounds and Smile were great albums. The Beach Boys had an influence not only the Beatles. Take a listen to ‘The Who Sell Out,’ which has Beach Boy harmonies all over it.
My favorite close harmony doo wop song is ‘I only have eyes for you’ by The Flamingoes, which was a re-recording of the song by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin, written for the film Dames (1934) where it was performed by Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. Their version was a faster more jaunty interpretation of the song. But The Flamingos version on their debut album Flamingo Serenade, is imho, the definitive version, using a prominent reverb effect to create a dreamy ambience. Art Garfunkel had a decent stab at it in 1975, staying close to the Flamingos version.
Since this is a literary blog, I should give updates on WIPs. ‘He Might Be Still on Mars is done’, but I am finding typos and other small horrors that are being fixed. The current WIP, Wedding Presents from PyongYang is moving, albeit slowly, not due to writers block, but just laziness, where I convince myself that I am using the time to properly ferment the story arcs. Lookout for new reviews of ‘The Friends of Eddy Relish’ and ‘Pax Britannica; the Golden Anvil’ on Goodreads. An oldie but goldie, Everything Hurts, is being reissued with a new cover and some editing of the text. I am reliably informed that the cover was too dark and may have hindered sales.
I am working on a large fisheries technical report, which occupies a lot of my time to write stories and blog output. I’ll try to be a more reliable correspondent on my blog. As Dave Allen observed, “May your God go with you.”