Brian Wilson Doing Disney...

from Rolling Stone, read about the project and listen to a stream of Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/song-premiere-brian-wilson-remakes-bare-necessities-from-the-jungle-book-20111013

It's a nice version. Brings back fond memories of the 1967 Disney animated classic and its soundtrack, which i rocked to death back in the day.... i do love brian wilson with all my heart and soul (didn't much care for the Gershwin project, despite having a soft spot for gershwin and a giant man crush on all things Wilson...) but he seems to be playing it safe here, especially compared with the freewheelin' approach of the Phil Harris original... or perhaps i'm thinking of the wild abandon with which we howled I Wan'na Be Like You (voiced in the film by the incomparable Louie Prima) at 3 am at a bar in prague a few years back.... or maybe it was all the Slivovice we drank...



Louis Prima - I Wanna Be Like You by redhotjazz

Now I'm the king of the swingers
Oh, the jungle VIP
I've reached the top and had to stop
And that's what botherin' me
I wanna be a man, mancub
And stroll right into town
And be just like the other men
I'm tired of monkeyin' around!

Oh, oobee doo
I wanna be like you
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you, too
You'll see it's true
An ape like me
Can learn to be humen too

( Gee, cousin Louie
You're doin' real good

Now here's your part of the deal, cuz
Lay the secret on me of man's red fire

But I don't know how to make fire )

Now don't try to kid me, mancub
I made a deal with you
What I desire is man's red fire
To make my dream come true
Give me the secret, mancub
Clue me what to do
Give me the power of man's red flower
So I can be like you

You!
I wanna be like you
I wanna talk like you
Walk like you, too
You'll see it's true
Someone like me
Can learn to be
Like someone like me
Can learn to be
Like someone like you
Can learn to be
Like someone like me!


(ironically, long-time Brian collaborator Van Dyke Parks arranged the original "Bare Necessities" for the 1967 film:


"...I worked hard here to do what I know, which is basically to be part of the collaborative part of music in many anonymous activities. I’ve made a living at it since I came out here. My first job was as arranger for a song called “The Bare Necessities” on The Jungle Book score. My first union job..."


http://www.avclub.com/articles/van-dyke-parks,49324/

Parks worked on Smile and other Brian projects. Mike Love called it "Acid Alliteration" and i'm still trying to figure out these lyrics from Surf's Up... ("Columnated ruins domino...")

A diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along, oh
To a handsome man and baton
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera glass you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn
Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping?

Hung velvet overtaken me
Dim chandelier awaken me
To a song dissolved in the dawn
The music hall a costly bow
The music all is lost for now
To a muted trumperter swan
Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping, Brother John?

Dove nested towers the hour was
Strike the street quicksilver moon
Carriage across the fog
Two-Step to lamp lights cellar tune
The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne

The glass was raised, the fired rose
The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting
While at port adieu or die

A choke of grief heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry

Surf's Up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song

Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
A children's song
Have you listened as they played
Their song is love
And the children know the way
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child
Child, child, child, child, child
Na na na na na na na na
Child, child, child, child, child
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child