Domenic Priore

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Domenic Priore
Domenic Priore 02A.jpg
BornDomenic Priore
January 15th 1960 (1960-01-15) (age 64)
Pasadena, California, United States
Occupation
  • Author
  • popular music and culture historian
  • documentary writer
  • television producer
NationalityAmerican
EducationPasadena City College
Genre American popular music, American popular culture
Subject Psychedelia, counterculture of the 1960s
Notable worksLook! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!, Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece, Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood

Domenic Priore (born January 15, 1960) is an American author, historian and television producer whose focus is on popular music and its attendant youth culture. [1]

Contents

Biography

He has written extensively about the Beach Boys' album Smile , including two books on the subject, Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! and Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece. [2] In 2011, he contributed to the liner notes of compilation album The Smile Sessions . [3] He has also published a number of books and articles on the greater Los Angeles area's youth culture during the 1960s, with special focus on the surf craze and the Sunset Strip music scene.

Priore worked as the primary writer and creative consultant on the AMC documentaries Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years (1955–1970) and Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The 1970s. [4]

Publications

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Beach Boys</span> American rock band

The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. They drew on the music of older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create their unique sound. Under Brian's direction, they often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways.

<i>Brian Wilson Presents Smile</i> 2004 studio album by Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson Presents Smile is the fifth studio album by American musician Brian Wilson, released on September 28, 2004 on Nonesuch. It features all-new recordings of music that he had originally created for Smile, an unfinished album by the Beach Boys that he abandoned in 1967. Revisiting Smile was an intense emotional undertaking for Wilson, as he had been deeply traumatized by the circumstances that had originally surrounded the project.

<i>Smiley Smile</i> 1967 studio album by the Beach Boys

Smiley Smile is the 12th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 18, 1967. Conceived as a simpler and more relaxed version of their unfinished Smile album, Smiley Smile is distinguished for its homespun arrangements, "stoned" aesthetic, and lo-fi production. Critics and fans generally received the album and its lead single, "Heroes and Villains", with confusion and disappointment. The album reached number 9 on UK record charts, but sold poorly in the U.S., peaking at number 41—the band's lowest chart placement to that point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brother Records</span> The Beach Boys record company

Brother Records, Inc. (BRI) is an American holding company and record label established in 1966 that owns the intellectual property rights of the Beach Boys, including "The Beach Boys" trademark. It was founded by brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, and their cousin Mike Love. As of 2011, the corporation was equally owned by four shareholders and directors: Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and the estate of Carl Wilson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Good Vibrations</span> 1966 single by the Beach Boys

"Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record charts in several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom. Characterized by its complex soundscapes, episodic structure and subversions of pop music formula, it was at the time the most expensive single ever recorded. "Good Vibrations" later became widely acclaimed as one of the finest and most important works of the rock era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surf's Up (song)</span> Song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks for the Beach Boys

"Surf's Up" is a song recorded by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. It was originally intended for Smile, an unfinished Beach Boys album that was scrapped in 1967. The song was later completed by Brian and Carl Wilson as the closing track of the band's 1971 album Surf's Up.

"Wonderful" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1967 album Smiley Smile and their unfinished Smile project. Written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, it was their only collaboration that resulted in a love song, telling the story of a young girl's sexual awakening and its disruption of her devotion to God and her parents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabinessence</span> 1969 song by the Beach Boys

"Cabinessence" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1969 album 20/20 and their unfinished Smile project. Written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Wilson described the song as a "rock and roll waltz" about railroads, while Parks offered that the pair were attempting to write a song that would end on "a freeze frame of the Union Pacific Railroad". The instrumentation includes banjo, cello, dobro, bouzouki, fuzz bass, trumpet, accordion, and percussion that was arranged to sound like the pounding of rail spikes.

"Fire" is an instrumental by American musician Brian Wilson that he originally composed for the Beach Boys' never-finished album Smile. Named after Catherine O'Leary and the Great Chicago Fire, the track was originally conceptualized as part of "The Elements", a four-part movement based on the four classical elements: Air, Fire, Earth, and Water. Wilson's friends, family, and colleagues later referred to its recording as heralding his period of psychosis and the unraveling of the Smile project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">You're Welcome (song)</span> 1967 single by The Beach Boys

"You're Welcome" is a song written by Brian Wilson for American rock band the Beach Boys. It was released on July 24, 1967 as the B-side of the "Heroes and Villains" single. It later appeared as a bonus track on the compilations Smiley Smile/Wild Honey (1990) and The Smile Sessions (2011).

The Heavy Blinkers were a Canadian orchestrated-pop music group, from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Their music is influenced by Brian Wilson, Serge Gainsbourg, Ennio Morricone, Paul McCartney and Harry Nilsson. They released six studio albums from 1998 to 2013.

"Child Is Father of the Man" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys that was written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. It was originally recorded for the band's never-finished album Smile. In 2004, Wilson rerecorded the song for Brian Wilson Presents Smile. In 2011, the Beach Boys' original recording was released on The Smile Sessions.

<i>The Beach Boys: An American Band</i> 1985 film

The Beach Boys: An American Band is a 1985 biographical musical film directed by Malcolm Leo. The movie is a biography of the American rock band the Beach Boys, with interviews, concert footage and clips from movies and television shows in which they appeared.

<i>Smile</i> (The Beach Boys album) Unfinished studio album by the Beach Boys

Smile is an unfinished album by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was intended to follow their 1966 album Pet Sounds. It was to be an LP of twelve tracks assembled from modular fragments, the same editing process used for their "Good Vibrations" single. Instead, after a year of recording, the album was shelved and the group released a downscaled version, Smiley Smile, in September 1967. Over the next four decades, few of the original Smile tracks were officially released, and the project came to be regarded as the most legendary unreleased album in popular music history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California sound</span> Popular music aesthetic originating in the early 1960s

The California sound is a popular music aesthetic that originates with American pop and rock recording artists from Southern California in the early 1960s. At first, it was conflated with the California myth, an idyllic setting inspired by the state's beach culture that commonly appeared in the lyrics of commercial pop songs. Later, the sound was expanded outside its initial geography and subject matter and was developed to be more sophisticated, often featuring studio experimentation.

<i>Leid in Hawaii</i> Live album (unfinished) by the Beach Boys

Lei'd in Hawaii is an unfinished live album by American rock band the Beach Boys that was produced shortly after the completion of their 1967 studio album Smiley Smile. It was initially planned to include the band's first live concert performances since their tour of Europe in May 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radiant Radish</span> Heald food store formerly owned by Brian Wilson

The Radiant Radish was a health food store located at the corner of Melrose Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard in West Hollywood, California, from 1969 to 1971. It was managed by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, his cousin Steve Korthoff, and friend Arny Geller.

"Holidays" is an instrumental by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson for their never-finished Smile album. In 2003, it was rewritten with new lyrics by Van Dyke Parks as "On a Holiday" for the project Brian Wilson Presents Smile (2004).

<i>Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution</i> 1967 film

Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution is a 1967 American television documentary by David Oppenheim about young pop and rock musicians producing music as "a symptom and generator" of social unrest and generation gaps. Hosted by Leonard Bernstein, it was commissioned by CBS and broadcast on April 25, 1967. Musicians who appeared in the documentary included singer-songwriter Janis Ian, who performed her song "Society's Child", and Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who performed his song "Surf's Up".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Wilson is a genius</span> Promotional campaign for the Beach Boys leader

"Brian Wilson is a genius" is a line that became part of a media campaign spearheaded in 1966 by the Beatles' former press officer Derek Taylor, who was then employed as the Beach Boys' publicist. Although there are earlier documented expressions of the statement, Taylor frequently called Brian Wilson a "genius" as part of an effort to rebrand the Beach Boys and legitimize Wilson as a serious artist on a par with the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

References

  1. Crew, Adrienne (July 18, 2005). "LAist Interview: Domenic Priore". LAist. Archived from the original on May 30, 2014.
  2. Alpert, Neal. "That Music Was Actually Created". Gadfly. Gadfly Online. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  3. Peters, Tony (October 31, 2011). "Show #124 - Domenic Priore (10/31/11)". Icon Fetch. Archived from the original on December 29, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  4. "CONTRIBUTOR: Domenic Priore". The Inertia. 20 January 2011.