Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Whale Music

No, not Orca Horizons; this book:


What's it about? Here's how Margot Mifflin's 1990 review in The New York Times, titled "Bad Vibrations," begins.

The story of the Beach Boy Brian Wilson is a tangled yarn of excess, knotted with the kind of pathetic drama only actors and rock stars seem capable of living. Brian Wilson has been riddled with mental problems, is 96 percent deaf in one ear, has snorted an entire gram of cocaine in one breath, used to keep his piano in a sandbox and, in the early 1970's, stayed in bed for the better part of four years. His Beach Boy brother Dennis kidnapped his own child and then killed himself by diving - drunk - off a yacht. His father was a jealous opportunist who, in 1969, for easy money, sold the rights to every song Brian Wilson had ever written. Add wealth, fame and a steady diet of drugs to his biography and you get a story that would strain credulity even if it were printed as fiction.

Paul Quarrington's ''Whale Music'' is, redundantly enough, a fictionalization of Brian Wilson's life.

Here's the beginning of the Publisher's Weekly blurb:

This nimble portrait of a rock 'n' roll legend turned Beverly Hills eccentric will amuse anyone who's followed the misfortunes of real-life ex-superstars.

So there are Hills as well as whales.

The cover of the first edition shows a naked man at a piano, and nakedness is mentioned in the Penguin blurb, too.

Des Howell is a former rock 'n' roll star who never leaves his secluded oceanfront mansion. Naked, rich and fabulously deranged, he subsists on a steady diet of whiskey, pharmaceuticals and jelly doughnuts and occasionally works on his masterpiece, "Whale Music."

In the account of Dee and Kelley's whale vision, the angels say that "the naked man is Dee."


So, despite one commenter's misgivings, I don't think "We come on the sloop John Dee" was noise. There seems to be a real connection there.


Note added: Apparently Brian Wilson is really big in Toronto -- hometown not only of Paul Quarrington, author of Whale Music, but also of Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies, who wrote a song called "Brian Wilson." Here's the cover art:


Here we find Brian Wilson juxtaposed with the word naked and with, if not exactly a whale, at least a large air-breathing fish (since smoking implies lungs).

10 comments:

cae said...

I concede the point ;-) Reading this current post, the Brian Wilson syncs do seem to be on track...

I'm struck now, by that 'lyric' (as you 'hear' it), "We come on the sloop John Dee", and I'm curious about the image of the sailboat you chose for yesterday's post....you know that symbol on the sail is a 'chaos magic' sigil?

A few years ago I was reading something on John Dee (can't remember where), which claimed that the "angels" he and Kelly were communicating with were actually demonic beings.
And apparently there was some ritual in Dee's writings (from the 'angels'), which Aleister Crowley (and some other occultist) performed back in the early 20th century, which supposedly opened a portal allowing evil entities (not sure where 'from') to enter into this world.

Anyway, I know it sounds nutty, but reading that phrase, "We come on the sloop John Dee", my mind went 'who is "we"'? And I suddenly remembered the stuff about Crowley and Dee's ritual..

Just food for thought..
Carol (sorry, I've been forgetting to sign my name)
p.s. Star Trek IV is one of my all time favorite sci-fi movies!

MVT said...

Over at creative minority report : https://creativeminorityreport.com/blog/2022/04/13/singer-robbie-williams-says-drugs-opened-him-up-to-actual-demons/
He mentions Brian Wilson as well:

I know that after Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys started taking drugs he began hearing voices that are still with him. I know there is mental illness but maybe there’s more going on there too? I don’t know.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

Carol, the symbol on the "John Dee sail" is Dee's own Monas Hieroglyphica -- a symbol which he created and wrote an incomprehensible book-length explanation of. (As Byron said of Coleridge, "I wish he would explain his explanation!") If it was later picked up by modernist "chaos magicians," that's their business.

As for the demonic possibility, certain psychedelics do seem to open people up to the influence of a wide range of "entities"; whether these include literal angels and/or demons is an open question. Dee and Kelley's "angels" do not seem to have been real angels, judging from some of the things they asked them to do (wife-swapping and such). I'm not sure if this was literal demonic influence or just Kelley abusing his own power over Dee.

Ra1119bee said...



William,

You wrote : "Here we find Brian Wilson juxtaposed with the word naked and with, if not exactly a whale, at least a large air-breathing fish (since smoking implies lungs)."

My response : The Astrological sign of Pisces the dual fish, as I'm sure you know, is one of Sacrifice OR Service.
The Fish is the only astrological sigil that is not land based.

Perhaps Brian Wilson always felt like a fish out of water, especially given his exceptional creative insight and introvert/yin nature.

I personally, being a Pisces , know that "fish out of water" feeling as well.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

I checked Brian Wilson's birthdate to see if he's a Pisces. He's not (June 20, Gemini), but Google informed me that "People also search for" the birthdates of his fellow Beach Boys, and it turns out that Mike Love and I share a birthday.

"Mike Love" struck me as significant name, given the etymological meaning of Michael -- "Who is like God? Love."

This made me realize I didn't know where the name Brian came from. Looking it up, I found this: "Meaning uncertain, possibly related to the old Celtic root *brixs "hill, high" (Old Irish brií)."

By the way, Pisces isn't the only aquatic sign. Capricorn is generally portrayed as a "sea-goat," and in India it is called Makara, a whale-like creature. (I was thinking about this the other day in connection with the goats on the cover of Pet Sounds.)

Ra1119bee said...


William,

Yes, I knew that Brian Wilson was not a sun sign Pisces, that really wasn't my point.
And yes, I knew about Capricorn as I have a Capricorn Moon.
However Cap's half goat IS land based.

There is also 3 Decans of each astrological sign depending on the date of birth.
. You are a third Decan Pisces (Pisces Decan 3 is ruled by Mars (Scorpio triplicity ) while I'm a first decan, and although the same sun sign, quite different.

I am no 'expert' in Astrology by any means, but I have found the subject matter quite intriguing and I've done a bit of research and from the information I've gathered it certainly answers a lot of questions that I wish
I knew the answers to many years ago.

I'm also a Chinese Ram ( Year 1955 ) and the Ram actually fits me to a T, too.

Ra1119bee said...


William,

I forgot to add :speaking of 'gills' check out the 1964 episode The Special One
of the Sci-Fi TV show The Outer Limits.
My sister and I were Huge Outer Limit fans.

If you recall I shared a little bit of The Special One episode with you on a previous post
about my sync with this episode and my dream that previous night about feathers.

After just googling the Special One, I just noticed that The Special One aired on APRIL 6, 1964.
hmmmmm

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

I'm a Chinese Ram/Sheep/Goat, too (1979). Small zodiac!

Ra1119bee said...


William,

Interesting you're an Earth Goat/Ram/Sheep.
Hmmmm....

I checked out your North Node Virgo, which from what little
I know of you by your writings, I think this sounds very accurate.

Do recall I shared with you my dream I had of a Ukraine Guy that I met at a school
which had a small select of ''gifted' students from all around the world.
I had that dream on March 10,2017 which I titled; School Dues


https://www.ryanhart.org/north-node-virgo/#:~:text=The%20North%20Node%20in%20Virgo%20is%20the%20career-minded%2C,driven%20to%20take%20action%20for%20the%20greater%20good.?msclkid=8bbd9ea4bc8c11ecb7442931f53136c1

Ra1119bee said...



That link doesn't seem to work..

just search : Ryan Hart
North Node in Virgo Meaning

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