Saturday Music for Faded Summer Memories

AS stated in another (or other) music posts, THE FUTURIST! is not fully musically knowledgeable. He knows who The Beach Boys are and has heard a lot of their very iconic tunes. But he had never heard their PET SOUNDS recording.

When he was about 17 years old, THE TEEN FUTURIST! and his friend John decided to co-write a movie script outline of a fabulous horror tale they concocted. John was a very morose, yet talented young man who made clever and fascinating stop action clay animation movies in his Utter Despair house basement. He eventually won The NJ Young Filmmakers Award in High School. THE TEEN FUTURIST! remembers watching the first preview of the movie before his friend submitted it for nomination.

As is the case with young fertile minds that glow with optimism and dreams of having every idea sprout and magically become reality like a glorious tree for all to admire, THE TEEN FUTURIST! and his friend laughed and plotted and radiated with the desire to CREATE! THE FUTURIST! recalls their enthusiasm, their talking over each with their grand plot points and character analysis. The movie idea became a real outline and they dreamed of it being made ... why young John had made an actual movie of clay people moving that lasted 7 minutes! It had musical accompaniment by another friend who played piano. If he could produce a tedious time consuming film that involved snapping a shutter every second for figures to move ... well, an actual film with real people would be a snap!

The horror film idea involved people stranded by snowstorm in a college of the arts in a remote area of New Jersey. It involved a psychotic professor and his ability to use fear as a weapon ... to use the mind to falsely manufacture the worst fears one would have ... and there was romance, ancient fetishes coming to life, religion and humor. It was a grandiose scenario that the young men could and would never accomplish or have the means to do so.

The film had to have music. THE TEEN FUTURIST! thought it would be eccentric to have music of happiness or sounds that were the opposite of what was being experienced by the characters . The Beach Boys came to mind ... happy sunny pop tunes to accompany the horror and snow and sadness. Eureka! They thought they were so clever. John suggested the music on PET SOUNDS. THE TEEN FUTURIST! had never heard the record. John was shocked. He went to find the record among his father's collection and played it for THE TEEN FUTURIST!. The album seemed so melancholy to him ... an echo of times gone by ... a sound of faded memories. And it had a couple of tunes that had no singing ... one is the song you will hear below ... the title tune. They thought this particular song would be excellent final credit music.

The memories of that time seem as faded as the nostalgic aura triggered by Pet Sounds. THE FUTURIST! has not seen John in years ... they lost touch. The movie idea they created was the product of happy young minds that saw no obstacles and knew no limits to creation. THE FUTURIST! does not know what happened to those legal sized yellow sheets of paper with the scribblings of imagination. But, he remembers the story and the elation the process engendered. And this piece of music reproduces the images he and his friend saw on the screen of their minds ... to flicker once again.

Listen:


PET SOUNDS
performed by The Beach Boys