23 skidoo [bonus tracks]

[Joseph Tracy]

just wanted to pop this thought in again. Listen to the sax player  
for the lively ones if you can, He's good.

I like the Beach Boys or Byrds as closest approximations of the  
style, trajectory and feel of the Boards. But musically the sax is  
out of place with either band. The sax player for the Lively Ones, on  
the other hand has a weird combination of california bounce,  and  
jazzy minor key noirishness that fits perfectly with Harlingen.  Any  
way I don't see any direct comparison. To me this is a fictional band  
and P steers away from any evidence of musical devotion or respect  
from other characters,  which would be the norm in the culture of the  
time.

On Oct 10, 2009, at 1:25 PM, Robin Landseadel wrote:

> On Oct 10, 2009, at 9:17 AM, Bekah wrote:
>
>> So you are suggesting (or not) that Coy is a "ghost musician" for  
>> the Boards and actually plays with them as an associate,  like the  
>> Wrecking Crew?   Just wondering.
>>
>> Bekah
>
> Yes, that's one suggestion.
>
> Coy , like members of the "Wrecking Crew," is a musician from some  
> higher or more complex musical discipline then one usually finds  
> involved in "Surf Music." If you have any musical sense—say maybe  
> you're familiar with Beethoven and Rossini— you realize that one  
> sax player really sticks out in the surf music scene on account of  
> actually soloing as opposed to filling in with two-note fills.
>
> Listen to the bulk of big-label top forty from L.A., 1964/1970 and  
> you're hearing the Wrecking Crew.
>
> I'm also playing the "6 degrees of separation" game with Terry  
> Melcher, Dennis Wilson, Phil Spector and Charles Manson, tying some  
> threads together I've seen in other books of Pynchon's.
>
> I've long had a sense that the Paranoids best matched the Byrds.  
> All the talk about surf music in Vineland and Inherent Vice  
> obviously points to the Beach Boys. The Boards are a fictional  
> band, as are the Paranoids, but they both have recognizable  
> features from well-known and analogous bands of the same times and  
> places.
>
> If you have any musical sense—say maybe you're familiar with Jan &  
> Dean and Dick Dale— you realize that one musician really sticks out  
> in the surf music scene on account of actually composing as opposed  
> to filling in ready-made musical structures like the twelve-bar blues:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDfH_J4MAUQ
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcUeSDMll5s
>
> Though the Beach Boys LP "Surf's Up" was issued in 1971, the Boards  
> circa 1970 have issues and virtues analogous to the Beach Boys of  
> 1970. And "Surf's Up" has so very much to do with "Inherent Vice."
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xrZPBdYGVE&feature=related