Heroes & Villains (16 Bit, SNES) - The Beach Boys

art is based on the 2011 mv, i like how silly they look in that, especially bruce i've been thinking a lot about lines from songs i like recently, and i think i've landed on a lyric that i'd like tattooed (if you're wondering, the chorus from okkusenman (do people even know what okkusenman is anymore?), 「君隠れた勇気は おっくせんまん ! ! おっくせんまん ! !」 (the courage [that] you gave me can't be counted; okkusenman!! okkusenman!! (yorick's note: this is an interpretive translation (which i usually hate (recall: my translation of sir gawain that i've been working on sometimes borders on transliteration in order to keep the pearl poet's original meter and alliterative qualites in tact) that incorportates the nature of 'okkusenman' as a term into the 'can't be counted' line, but it generally retains the loving nature of the statement. 'okkusenman' the term can't really be translated - and yes, i know that i wrote 'okkusenman' in hiragana phoenetically because the whole point is that it's supposed to be the japanese numerical equivalent of when i say 'billion dillion' in these descriptions; an infantile nonsense number that, well, can't be counted). i basically owe a good chunk of my life to okkusenman. that song has been with me for as long as i can remember and i'd be lying to myself if i said that the jam project version isn't a song so close to my heart that i'd call it worthy enough to immortalize. i think writing it out myself and then having them transfer that on to me has cool implications too. in thinking about lyrics to a million different songs, i was reminded of how cool 'stand or fall, i know there shall be peace in the valley - and it's all an affair of my life with the heroes and villains' is. parks really really hit something with that one. it's basically 'live or die, it doesn't matter; if i believe any one outcome to be in my favor, the outcome is in my favor and i win either way; devil may care if they call me good or bad when it's done because i believe in what i believe; i am peace.' most of the lyrics in this piece are illustrative; no uncertain terms and just an ole western tale, but there's a legacy to that one line that gives such magnitude to the nature of war, i think. 'peace in the valley' isn't something that's fought for and 'won' from one party or/to another - it's something that's believed in both ways and that belief is what makes it real (refer to previous episodes: your reality is what you can concieve of and believe to be real). the heroes and the villains of history both believe in peace in the valley, just on their own terms; they believe in the righteousness of their cause and the status of that as a personal and collective percieved truth alone is to justify war against percieved dissenters, because even in their own death at conflict will they believe in the infallibility of their cause removed from them alone as any agent of any war - macro and micro levels of war; common squabbles to nation-scaled conflict - and that is the farce of the indifferent peace in the valley. there's something scarily primordial about war and such vivid life is implicit in the ways that people understand the world - i think this could be best illustrated through social structures as foundational as grecian/roman religion. the process and relational synthesis that became the ideas of the gods of the natural elements (think zeus and posideon and all that) is contingent upon natural occurence, observance, reaction, result, so on: as in, lightning hits something, it causes damage (or sparks life-sustaining energy like fire) and humans suffer or act accordingly. be yourself a witness to something beyond your power and it's possible that, if all you've ever known to have such decisive power is humans, you would not be misguided to assume that a human with superior agency was acting beyond you. it so happens, then, that war can be categorized in the same occurence/result formula. the same could be said about the gods of any other passion or proclivity. war sucks, conflict sucks, but i really do often think about how interesting it is that it seems to be as natural as the motion of water. i don't think it's a symptom of a fundamental issue with creation, but it might be an issue with density of what can and cannot exist in however you want to concieve of the world. i hate the limited space in yt descriptions because my proposition is not only incomplete but is also missing a 'so what?' statement, so maybe i'll leave that to you to figure out on your own, 'cause i can't do that for you. this song is brian wilson's greatest work. the mix is weird and dense, but i see it as the ultimate realization of his love of phil spector. you can think whatever you want, but i'm just saying that i'm right. i know his favorite song he wrote was california girls, and my favorite beach boys song is probably not h&v, but musically, nothing tops this composition. have a wonderful day, everyone. god bless and i love you.