I've written a great number of these blog entries over the years but this might be a first for me; two entries about the same song but from a completely different angle. A little over two years ago, I wrote about the birth of my great niece, Caroline of course, and tied it into the writing of The Beach Boys' song, Caroline No. The gist of that devotional was that the original title was Carol, I Know but that Brian Wilson, who wrote the music, misheard Tony Asher when he first started singing the lyrics and both agreed Wilson's version worked better. (If you are interested, here is the link to that entry: https://stevehawley.blogspot.com/2017/01/caroline-no.html) Recently, I was watching a you tube documentary about The Beach Boys and heard a completely different perspective on the creation of Caroline, No and I thought it was worth coming back to take a second look.
The hour long insight to The Beach Boys was called Wouldn't It Be Nice?, named after one of their classic hits. Brian Wilson, the founder and leader of this family band, was married to a young lady named Marilyn who was only sixteen at the time when they had wed two years before. Marilyn, mother of singers Carnie and Wendy Wilson, talked about walking through the house when Asher and Brian were penning song lyrics and she always wondered if the song was about her. She said it was particularly trying (daggers, in her words) with Caroline, No because Brian had loved a girl named Caroline in high school. On top of that, the girl in the song had cut her long hair and Marilyn said Brian had been upset when she herself had cut her long hair. So, she lived in torment, imagining her marriage was being played out in musical drama listened to by the world at large, a drama in which she had no voice. Not surprisingly, their marriage didn't last forever.
I try to put myself in Marilyn's place but I can't. I'm not a public figure married to a public figure who has millions of fans dissecting every word they publish. Marilyn, an accomplished singer in her own right, was living in her own kind of prison. Her situation may have been magnified but it's something most people struggle with. Kids at school tell me their days are ruined by imagining someone is talking about them when they walk down the hall or choose a table in the cafeteria. They're in a time when their maturity level is not to the point where they easily overlook some perceived slight, as remote as the validity of that perception might be. But adults aren't immune, either. There is a guy I see almost every day and we are on a friendly, conversational basis. But today, he seemed to ignore me when I spoke to him twice. Immediately, I wondered why he was angry with me or what I did to offend him. Truthfully, it was probably nothing and he was simply preoccupied. The last time I saw him, we interacted cordially as we always do and there had been zero contact in the intervening 24 hours. I think we are no different than Marilyn in erecting our own mental jailhouse but with much less evidence to go on. Most of us know if we've wronged someone and if we haven't and the other person chooses to be angry over nothing, we can't help it. Jesus moved on when He was rejected- He didn't hang around and try to rectify every situation. He rejoiced and He wept but He didn't worry about every word spoken against Him. Just think how that would have slowed down His mission on these realms below. And come to think of it, plenty of songs revolved around Him as well!
To listen to Caroline, No click or copy/paste the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w7ZeSIC6K0
Applicable quote of the day:
"You say how you feel, and songs don't lie. Songs are the most honest form of human expression there is--there's nothing that lies about a song."
Brian Wilson
Applicable quote of the day, # 2:
"There's nothing greater than a girl.... Well a kid, your daughter, but that's a girl too."
Brian Wilson
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
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