Harmony in My Head: Music That Inspired the Genius - Harmony In My Head: The Music That Inspired The Genius Of Brian Wilson / Various

Three CDs. Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys was one of the greatest songwriters and arrangers of all time. He was inspired in his art by the music of The Four Freshmen, George Gershwin and Johann Sebastian Bach. Wilson deployed these forces to create one of the most significant albums of the 60s, 'Pet Sounds'. Wilson saw 'Pet Sounds' not as a collection of tracks, but as a song cycle, an entity in itself. It's creation would necessarily be influenced by the music with which Brian had become enthralled; the innovative vocal harmonies of the Four Freshmen that he had studied intently in his early teens; the panoramic style of George Gershwin, who in the 1920s had embodied the new sophistication of American popular song; and the musical universe of Johann Sebastian Bach, master of counterpoint, whose vast body of work contained the technical prowess and emotional depth which Brian aspired to. The art of The Four Freshmen, Gershwin and Bach that captivated Brian is presented here, the first music he remembers hearing: 'Rhapsody In Blue' that epitomises New York City in the jazz age; his introduction to the Four Freshmen, 'Day By Day, heard on his mother's car radio, and, in it's entirety, Brian's first LP purchase 'The Four Freshmen And Five Trombones'; along with such Bach works as the cantata 'Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring', that inspired 'California Girls'.