"Gettin' In Over My Head"

By Nancy Stetson

Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys has released his third solo studio album. You can make whatever jokes you want about him not being as sharp as he used to be, but just listen to his new solo CD, "Gettin' In Over My Head" and you'll realize that the man can still do what he was put on this earth to do: make beautiful music.

"Desert Drive" sounds like quintessential Beach Boys - a song about the joy of driving around in your car, only this time he wants to go out to the desert, not to the ocean. And he literally pulls out all the bells and whistles for "Saturday Morning in the City," a song that's as bouncy as a calliope. For the CD's last cut, "The Waltz," he's actually composed a pop song with one-two-three, one-two-three timing.

The sentiments expressed in the songs are somehow simultaneously youthful and mature. Wilson still sings about the same things: cars, driving, dancing and love, but there's some looking back on the opening number, "How Could We Still Be Dancin'." He sings:

How could we still be rockin'
After all these times
How could we still be rollin'
And still be makin' rhymes?
How could we still make music
After MTV
How could we get things crankin'
And see what we can be.

Sir Elton John sings on the song with him and also provides some honky tonk piano. Other guest artists: Sir Paul McCartney, who duets with Wilson on "A Friend Like You," and Eric Clapton, who provides what the liner notes call "happy bluesy" guitar on "City Blues."

In "Soul Searchin'," Wilson sings a duet with his late brother, Carl Wilson. It was one of two tracks Carl had recorded in the mid-90s.

Wilson's lyrics are sometimes simplistic to the point of sounding like a bumper sticker or a Hallmark card, but you know his heart is true. The opening of "Rainbow Eyes" ("Rainbow eyes/Red yellow blue/Rainbow eyes/I want you") made me think of someone whose eyes are both bloodshot and jaundiced.

But the complex harmonies and layers are there in the songs, and it's obvious upon hearing this that Brian Wilson was the magic and mastermind of the Beach Boys.

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