Friday Music

The missus and I recently watched a documentary on PBS featuring Beach Boy Wunderkind,  Brian Wilson.  The piece chronicles Wilson's life as he reflects upon it during a drive through Los Angeles with longtime friend and Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine.  

This production is a touching piece as you get a glimpse into Wilson's extraordinary musical talent as well as the dark side of his life as he opens-up and shares intensely personal reflections about his struggles with drug abuse and mental illness.

I last blogged about this song slightly more than five years ago and having watched this story on streaming television I was reminded to post a redux of this live studio production.

If you have an opportunity you can watch American Masters - Brian Wilson: Long promised Road.  You can catch it on Roku or any internet television via your Amazon account, Apple TV, PBS or wherever you stream your on-demand television.  But I digress.

Getting back to the song and Brian Wilson; it is a traditional West Indies tale about a sunken boat - The John B. Sails.  It also happens to have been included in Carl Sandburg's 1927 collection of folk songs: The American Songbag.    

It is best known for its adaptation of the 1958 Kingston Trio version by the Beach Boys which was produced and arranged by Brian Wilson and Al Jardine.  Released in 1966,  Sloop John B was the lead single for the album Pet Sounds- peaking at number 3 in the US and number 2 in the UK.  It resides at place number 276 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.