A World Of Peace Must Come by Stephen Kalinich & Brian Wilson.

Brian Wilson was my first music hero. When all the other kids at my school were either Stones fans or Beatles fans, I was different and knew that The Beach Boys were the best group in the world. Although my music taste expanded as I got older, I still followed the ups and downs, trials and tribulations of Brian’s career with interest through the decades. I thought I was a bit of an expert on Brian’s life and music. Recently however I read about a recording Brian made in 1969 that I knew nothing about. I discovered that he had produced and played on a spoken word album by a poet called Stephen John Kalinich. The recording was completed in one day on August 22^nd, 1969, at Brian’s house in Bel Air California. It was Called A World Of Peace Must Come. I recognised the name Stephen Kalinich because he co-wrote three songs with Dennis Wilson, Be Still and Little Bird on the Beach Boys 1968 album Friends, and All I Want To Do on 20/20. Stephen and Brian couldn’t get a record company to release the album, and it was lost for decades until being rediscovered and finally released by Light In The Attic Records in 2008. 

I read more about Stephen on Wikipedia which told me that he was born in New York in 1942 and moved to California in the mid-60s where he became known as a poet and peace activist, appearing at such venues as The Troubadour in Los Angeles. He made a recording called Leaves Of Grass, but no radio station would play it, mistakenly thinking it was about marijuana, but it did bring him to the attention of Brian and Dennis Wilson. I decided I needed to hear this album, and the CD arrived here a few days ago. The album contains twelve tracks recorded at Brian’s house plus Leaves Of Grass as a bonus track. All the lyrics are written by Stephen. It begins with a few seconds of unmistakeable Brian Wilson harmony intro before Stephen recites the first poem Candy Face Lane. The album contains a very useful booklet with all the words, so you can read the poems while listening. 

I won’t comment on every poem, but I think they stand up very well against the Beat poets I know from this era such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti who are probably the only other American poets I can think of from the 60s. The themes are of spirituality, peace and nature.  Some tracks such as The Deer, The Elk, The Raven are performed as songs with some music accompaniment. On that track a dog can be heard barking in the background, which was probably accidental, but reminded me of Pet Sounds. On The Magic Hand there is a nice touch where Brian’s wife Marilyn Wilson sings a small section of Tears On My Pillow. My favourite track is Be Still which is based on the song which appeared on the Friends album. A critic described it as a ‘Unitarian hymn’ and interpreted the lyrics to be a description of the ‘sacred essence of life and the human potential to interact with God’. 

The words have a zen-like simplicity, but very profound. Although this recording was made 55 years ago, I think it is very relevant to today’s world. In 1969 America was going through a very dark time with the Vietnam war, political assassinations, and race riots. Today America and the world is facing equally dark times, but as in the 60s there is also a growing spiritual consciousness that opposes the darkness. Another track I really like is America I Know You (I urge you to watch video below) which points out that despite all the problems America is still a great country. Americans don’t need some jumped up real estate speculator telling them they need to make America great again. It is great already. They gave us the best music for a start. As in all countries there are big problems to solve, but the people have to solve them together and not be divided by hate.

I better stop now before I get too political. I am pleased I discovered this rare recording. I know it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I think it is a very interesting piece of the Brian Wilson legend. This is what Stephen said about Brian on his birthday which I agree with..

‘Brian Wilson puts so much good into the universe. It could fill all space the positive impact of his melodies, harmonies, thoughts, and contributions to the consciousness of humanity is beyond what any scholar or critic could capture in words. The music speaks for itself, it produces joy and tears just by listening to it, it opens up the senses when you’re really down, it’s cathartic, it can help toward healing you. Brian Wilson has been a great friend to me and I’m so grateful for him and he touched so many other lives. God bless him on his birthday and the goodness he puts out into the universe regardless of all the struggles he has gone through himself. This is astonishing, not only touches me deeply, but it touches humanity and I’m so grateful that he was born and may he always be blessed’. Stevie Kalinich

Stephen John Kalinich - Brian Wilson - America, I Know You.

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, The Komedia Bath, 12/02/2025

It was a cold and dark Tuesday February evening as I boarded the train for the short journey to Bath. I arrived an hour early as usual because I don’t trust the trains to be on time. I passed the time in this place called Eat a Pitta enjoying some middle eastern type spicy food. Then crossed the road when I saw the doors open at The Komedia. I have never been to a gig previously at this venue. It used to be a cinema. The last time I remember setting foot in this building was 1988 when me and Kim saw A Fish Called Wanda here. They have removed the seating downstairs leaving just the balcony as a seated area. I don’t like it as a music venue as much as my favourite Bath venue The Forum which has a beautiful interior and much more spacious, but I suppose it’s not fair to compare the two.

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets came on stage promptly at 8.00. I’ve seen Nick quite a few times before, but only once with this band which was Glastonbury 2019. I love their retro twangy guitar sound which reminds me of the guitar groups of the early 60s like The Shadows or The Ventures. They play cheap guitars that I think are made in Korea, but they sound wonderful. They are just bass, two guitars and drums. Nick jokingly called the extrovert drummer Gringo Starr. Their gimmick is that they all wear these bizarre Mexican wrestling masks, so you never know what they look like. All Nick’s songs tend to be quite short, and they fairly ripped through them. The first song was So It Goes from Nick’s 1978 album Jesus Of Cool. This was followed by two songs from his excellent recent release Indoor Safari which were I Went To A Party and Raincoat In The River. Then Nick performed Lately I’ve Let Things Slide from 2001, and I Live On A Battlefield written by Paul Carrack. This song is from Nick’s The Impossible Bird album of 1994 which was when I realised how great Nick is. A neighbour Dave gave me a copy of that album and I loved every track. This was followed by three more songs from Indoor Safari which were Love Starvation, Jet Pac Boomerang, and Tokyo Bay.

Nick then left the stage, and we were treated to an Interlude with Los Straitjackets who played five tunes, but the only one I recognised was the theme to the Magnificent Seven. Nick returned and the evening got better and better. Trombone was followed by the poignant House For Sale, then Ragin’ Eyes from 1983s Abominable Showman, Without Love from 1979s Labour Of Lust album, and 12 Step Programme (To Quit You Baby). I thought one of the highlights of the evening was the recent Blue On Blue which he sang very emotionally. I filmed three songs, but they didn’t come out very well, Cruel To Be Kind was the best of them, but still a bit blurry, (See video below) Half A Boy And Half A Man was followed by my favourite Nick Lowe song (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love And Understanding? which is a message the whole world should hear, especially in these dark insane times. Most of Nick’s songs are upbeat rock and roll, or sad ballads about good love gone bad, but this song has a universal message.

In The Heart Of The City was the B-Side of Nick’s first single So It Goes on Stiff Records in 1976. This was followed by the brilliant classic I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock And Roll). Nick and the band then left the stage, but we knew they would be back. The first encore was Los Straitjackets performing a song which included parts of Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow which I recognised from the Beach Boys Party album but was originally by The Rivingtons. Nick then joined them for the Dave Edmunds & Rockpile song When I Write The Book. 

The second encore was just Nick on his own performing a very moving song you will know from Elvis Costello which was Alison. That brought a most enjoyable evening to a close. I was back on the pavement by 9.45 and in plenty of time to catch the 10.03 train back to Westbury. Thank you very much indeed to Los Straitjackets and the legend that is Nick Lowe.

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets. Cruel To Be Kind, Komedia Bath 2025.

Nick Lowe - What's So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding

Bob Dylan - With God on Our Side (Live on BBC, 1964)

Greenwich Village In The '60s

It is Friday afternoon, and my boot heels don’t want to go a wanderin’ today, so I thought I’d write a few words about Bob Dylan inspired by a 2CD compilation I’m listening to at this very moment. It is called Greenwich Village In The '60s. It was seeing the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown recently that reminded me to give it another listen. As you may know I have long been interested in the music of this place and time and have written pieces previously about many of the musicians who lived and played in Greenwich Village during this era. People like Dave Van Ronk, Eric Anderson, Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, Karen Dalton, and Judy Collins who all contribute to this album.                                                    However, It was a song on the album by somebody I hadn’t heard of previously that got me thinking, and wondering about Bob Dylan and what motivated him during this time. The song is called Go ‘Way From My Window by John Jacob Niles. The lyrics Go 'way from my window, Go 'way from my door, Go 'way, way way from my bedside, And bother me no more, are so similar to Dylan’s It Ain’t Me Babe, Go away from my window, Leave at your own chosen speed, I'm not the one you want, babe, I'm not the one you need'. There can be no doubt where Bob got the idea for his song from.

The Clancy Brothers from Ireland also have two songs on the album. They had emigrated to New York and Bob saw them perform frequently in such places as the Gaslight Poetry Café, Gerdes Folk City, and the Café Wha. When Bob heard their song The Patriot Game which was written by Dominic Behan, he soon appropriated the traditional melody and altered Dominic’s words to create With God On Our Side and claimed it as a Bob Dylan original. Dominic criticised Bob publicly for claiming the song and called into question the provenance of Dylan's entire body of work.

I have read that during a tour of the UK by Bob, Dominic rang him at his hotel room with an angry tirade. When Bob Dylan suggested that "My lawyers can speak with your lawyers", Dominic replied, "I've got two lawyers, and they're on the end of my wrists” I can believe that story because it reminded me of a scene in the documentary Don’t Look Back where during an after show party in a hotel room Bob asked if there were any poets in Britain like Allen Ginsberg, and somebody suggested Dominic Behan, Bob replied, “I don’t wanna hear any Dominic Behan”, which suggests that there might have been a bit of bad feeling between them. I expect it was also the Clancy’s version of The Parting Glass that Bob heard in Greenwich Village that he soon changed to Restless Farewell. I’m not sure whose version of the traditional song Lord Randall Bob heard first, but it provided him with A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall in 1962, introducing each verse with variants of the first lines to each verse of Lord Randall. People often think Bob wrote it as a reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis, but in fact he first publicly performed the song a month before the crisis began.

Bob realised that one of the great things about traditional songs was the fact that they didn’t have any copyright on them, which meant you could help yourself to the melody, then change the words and voila! a brand-new song by Bob Dylan. While the likes of Joan Baez and Pete Seeger were quite content to keep the traditional ballads unchanged in their repertoires, Bob saw an opportunity to become the most famous songwriter of the 1960s. As Bob is quoted as saying, ‘Anyone who wants to be a songwriter should listen to as much folk music as they can, study the form and structure of stuff that has been around for 100 years. Opportunities may come along for you to convert something—something that exists into something that didn’t yet.” He carried on with this philosophy on his first visit to England where he heard many trad songs around the folk clubs. Hearing Martin Carthy perform Scarborough Fair provided him with Girl From The North Country and Boots Of Spanish Leather. Paul Simon also cashed in with that same song a short time later.

There are many other examples of Bob Dylan taking traditional songs he heard from other singers and making them his own, and other people have sometimes criticised him for this, but it was the words that Dylan wrote that marked him out as one of the greatest poets since Keats or Shelley. Once Bob had exhausted the rich mine of traditional folk music he found in Greenwich Village he was ready to enter his greatest era and create masterpieces such as Mr Tambourine Man, Visions Of Johanna, Desolation Row, and dozens of other inspirational songs that nobody could accuse him of stealing. I believe in centuries to come it will be as a poet that Dylan is remembered. This is why he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, and nobody has deserved it more.