muses – Page 4 – beckycochrane.com

…and we’ll meet again…

Everything that I am or will ever be is in the music. If you want to know me, just listen.

Dennis Wilson, September 1978

September 30 — Favorite quote

©Ed Roach

This is Ed Roach’s daughter Brianne with Dennis. Through all the years, this photo stands firm as my favorite one because this IS Dennis. He loved. He loved without reservation. Whatever he did in his life, whatever his wildness, failings, limitations, madness, or mistakes, he had a purity and tenderness of heart that never went away.

As he said, if you want to know him, it’s in the music.

If you have stayed with me to the end of this month, thank you. This was a labor of love that became quite challenging. I’ve had to emotionally travel through my life to find photos and memories that are deeply meaningful to me and which I’ve always kept private from everyone but very close friends.

No one should ever underestimate the patience, love, and wisdom of Tom. He doesn’t “tolerate” the feelings and fascination connected to my Muse. He understands and has, through the years, shown his support in many ways. Most recently, I found a framed set of favorite Dennis photos in a bin, and he said, “Why are these in there? They should be on the wall.” Where he hung them and they remain today.

The end of the 30 Day Idol Challenge.

Farewell, my friend

Rather than going through thousands of photos trying to find one in which I can discern whether Dennis is with band members, road/stage crew, or friends, here’s a picture of him from 1969 with Ed Roach. Ed and his wife had just landed at LAX and were about to embark upon a friendship and professional relationship that would still be going strong at the end of Dennis’s life in 1983. I think Ed continues to cherish and celebrate that friendship now.

September 29 — With friends ©Ed Roach

Many of the photos and stories that mean everything to me are thanks to Ed Roach, and his connections to Dennis’s friends, children and their families, colleagues, and places they shared remain strong. I couldn’t have done this month’s posts without him as the most valuable resource imaginable, and I hope to meet him one day.

I also hope my fictional musician has a friend as loyal.
(Spoiler: He does.)

Tiny Tuesday! (favorite interview)

Little bracelets.

Limits remain for what I want to revisit on the topic of Dennis Wilson. There are interviews online behind paywalls. I still own magazines with interviews. I’ve got lots of books with quotes or partial/full interviews. Considering the (just over) twenty years of his work as a Beach Boy and a solo artist, Dennis really didn’t give a lot of interviews. From my perspective: He didn’t talk about music, he made it. He didn’t talk about relationships, he had them. He didn’t pontificate about life, he lived it. Everything we need to hear from Dennis is in what he wrote, either lyrically or instrumentally: fun, energy, celebration, sex, soul, passion, tenderness, rowdiness, and love.

The times he came alive the most in interviews were when he talked about his brothers. When I read those, I’m reminded of a hot Houston night when I had the chance to meet and talk to Carl Wilson. At that time, it had been less than a decade since Dennis’s death; my own losses had taught me how raw grief can remain years later. Despite how huge a place Dennis had, still has, in my thoughts (he is my Muse, after all), instead, I asked about Brian, and Carl lit up. He smiled, he was infused with new energy, and he spoke freely and glowingly about his oldest brother. It was moving both because of Carl and because of how it reminded me of Dennis’s love for Brian.

Dennis and Carl are both gone now, but I believe that for Brian, they’re never gone. And the music… always the music. Here’s where I find a favorite “interview.”

September 28 — Favorite interview: My Love Lives On ©Dennis Wilson

ETA: I’ve returned to add a link to this 2008 article, because it has a lot of insight from people who knew and worked with Dennis as well as many quotes from Dennis himself.

Mood: Monday

I’m in an extremely pensive mood currently; let’s just skip to the post.

Pictures from Pacific Ocean Blue, later used also for the release that included remastered and completed tracks from the unfinished Bambu album, are variously attributed to Dean Torrance and Ed Roach. I believe both men were at those sessions; I’m not sure who took what. This is the photo shoot that comes to mind as having some of my favorite photos of Dennis.

September 27 — Favorite photo shoot

Much of Dennis’s work was recorded and produced at/by Caribou Ranch, and that’s his Caribou Ranch sweater he’s wearing in the photos.

Button Sunday

It actually does not. With The Arthritis in the ring and pinky fingers of both hands, I can’t shoot a good bird anymore. Broken wings. In Texas, maybe in other places, it’s for the best. Keep flipping people off, and sooner or later, you’ll get a return salute from their gun.

Haven’t we all been one of the people in this photo? Brian: Shocked. Dennis: Over Mike. Mike: Smugly oblivious.

September 26 — Showing middle finger. ©still looking for copyright attribution

I see your face (pretty face)

Another from the classic Pet Sounds album photo shoot.

September 25 — Cute face ©Capitol Archives

It’s not too late
I’ve always known we’d meet again
And then I’ll know
You’ve come to stay
It won’t be long
Please don’t be long
The time has come
When we could wake up and live again
I felt my heart close to you
Waited so long
Please don’t be long
No, no, no, no, no, no, it won’t be long
No, it won’t be long
Oh baby, it won’t be long
Sometimes I stare into space
I see your face (pretty face)
And you say words of love
Deep words inside of me
I cry for more
I cry for more
No, no, no, no, no, no, it won’t be long
No, it won’t be long
Oh baby, it won’t be long…

Lyrics by Carli Muñoz

Photo Friday, No. 773

Current Photo Friday theme: Isolation

I was laid off from my job in the spring of 2020 because of the Covid pandemic, and I began to isolate at home. I fought a prior catastrophic event with the new one by using the time to begin replacing, with CDs, some of the 294 albums Hurricane Harvey destroyed or damaged in 2017. I need my music.

I also need to create. I’ve completed four novels that are part of a family saga I’m writing covering the late 1940s to who knows when. I seem to be forever stuck in 1974 at the moment. Despite being a tumultuous time, the fiction of it is easier on my nervous system than the reality of now.

Still, I am present: grateful for the moment and hopeful for the future.

Reading has always been hot

Remember way back when several of us who blogged or journaled started the “reading is hot” campaign, and many of our readers sent photos of themselves reading our books. That was fun. Reading was hot long before us; it will remain hot for infinity.

Cut me some slack here; this is a challenging request. Let’s begin with Dennis reading a comic book. Looking very smart and sexy in those glasses regardless of the material.

Reading about one of his favorite pastimes.

Reading a weekly trade paper after landing in England for a tour. To the right, that’s Paul from Paul Revere and the Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsay, who were on the bill with the Beach Boys.

©Disc Weekly

I’ll tell you a secret. Several of the novels comprising the Neverending Saga contain characters with certain physical features based on Dennis Wilson and Mark Lindsay, among others, because as you may recall, Lynne and I were musician/band-loving teenyboppers on the edge of groupie-dom eons ago when we began inventing our guys. Saga characters have developed way beyond those early versions, but it’s still fun to remember where they got their start.

The biggest heart

My least favorite of these challenges and not because I’m envious. There are just so many stories a few photos can’t tell: of passion, adventure, and grief; of children and grandchildren who should still be enjoying this man who loved everyone in every way that a broken man with a big heart could love.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

I don’t know what year this was, but it was taken at the Plaza Hotel in New York and I’m not impressed with the bedding at all. Dennis, however, is rock star-sexy.