July 7, 2017 episode of Connections on WPKN with Eric Cocks. New and vintage music plus two special sections of previously unreleased music from The Beach Boys in 1967. 

At the time, The Beach Boys were just coming off the Smiley Smile album, a different version of the legendary Smile sessions, officially unreleased for decades, eventually put together with an eye towards what it could have been. But The Beach Boys went on with a new perspective, recording the stripped down Wild Honey album at Brian Wilson's house in Bel Air, quite parallel to what Bob Dylan was doing with the basement tapes and John Wesley Harding, going back to the basics. About 58 minutes into the show, the focus shifts to recording sessions for Wild Honey, including vocal tracking sessions, backing tracks and excerpts of songs that were never released. It's so great to hear how they improvised vocal parts, or tracked with Brian's deliberately detuned piano to get a bigger sound with minimal instrumentation. 

After moving on to other music, the show ends with some songs from their 1967 live show in Hawaii, joined by Brian Wilson for the first time in several years, on vocals and organ. In great voice! More from these sessions to come in a future episode of Connections. 

The show starts with new and vintage music from Link Wray and The Wray-Men, Dan Auerbach, Gracie and Rachel, Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan rarities, Courtney Barnett, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Warren Zanes, Christine and The Queens, Euphoria and Com Truise. 

After The Beach Boy rarities, it continues with several 1967 songs by The Kinks (on vinyl in mono), new music from Portugal.The Man, Dutch Uncles, Benjamin Booker, HAIM, Chris Price, Broken Social Scene, Emily Duff, Cindy Lee Berryhill, Alvvays and more. 

Also music from George Harrison, Aimee Mann, The Blues Magoos, The Beatles, Carole King, The Outsiders, Boyce and Hart, The Squeaky Chairs and whatever happened in the moment before returning to The Beach Boys, live in Hawaii. 

Thanks for tuning in! 

Last week's episode of Spontaneous Connections is here in archives: 

http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/189413 

For additional info, updates and occasional videos, please check the Facebook page Connections on WPKN. 

Connections... with Eric Cocks

Explores the connections between songs, songwriters, musicians, producers and people... often in surprising ways.

Vital, intelligent music with true artistic vision. Or just because it sounds good...

Includes extended features on specific artists such as Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Beatles and far more. Also comedy by Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Eddie Izzard, Paul Krassner and others with a rock and roll renegade attitude. In depth explorations of early electronic music (and how it relates to current music). Vital new music that deserves to be heard. Surf music. Garage bands. British invasion. Rock and Roll. John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Jimi Hendrix, Laurie Anderson, William Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, The Blues Magoos, David Bowie, The Beach Boys, Dr Fiorella Terenzi, Beethoven, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Alex Chilton, Nilsson, Tom Petty, Lucinda Williams, Jon Brion, Aimee Mann, Tame Impala, Grimes, The Pretenders, Blondie, Caitlin Rose, Juana Molina, Mojo Mancini, Elliott Randall, Marshall Chapman, Jessy Lanza, Big Star, demos, rarities, unreleased new music and far more may be part of any given show. Also live interviews of performers, writers, producers, engineers, session musicians and people behind the scenes. Plus unexpected surprises...

Previous in depth interviews include Sam Phillips, Peppy Castro of The Blues Magoos, author/comedian Paul Krassner, Chris Frantz of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, Neil Innes of The Rutles, Tommy James, legendary session musician Carol Kaye, Warren Zanes, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, Rod Argent of The Zombies, Oscar Winning Composer Alan Menken, Patty Larkin and more. All are available in archives for about 385 days. (Maybe that'll get extended some day.) Stay tuned for future interviews and special features.

The show will keep changing over time.

Tune in every 1st and 3rd Friday afternoon of each month at the new  time of  4 to 7 pm eastern. Also special editions at other times. Available live over the air at 89.5, online at http://wpkn.org, tunein radio or listen later in the WPKN archives.

For further info, updates, news, videos and special features, please check the FaceBook site: Connections on WPKN

Thanks for tuning in!