Bunch Of Fives: Simon Taylor

Photo By Ellen Dixon

Stay Away From Me is the raw, impassioned new folk‑pop single from Newcastle singer‑songwriter Simon Taylor, written and recorded in the aftermath of a breakdown and channelling a clear plea to break free from a toxic relationship, with production from Ziad Jabero at Chilli Studios and Phil Richardson adding keys.

The song’s resonant guitar and intimate vocal delivery, paired with ambient harmonica and Phil Richardson’s tender keys, create something raw and honest while still beautifully easy on the ear.

Here, Simon tells us about his top five obscure Beach Boys tracks…

1. ’Til I Die (1971, “Surf’s Up”)
Firstly, a few words or two hundred on how I got into The Beach Boys before I dive into my little selection of obscure classics by this much-beloved ’60’s group.

One halcyonic day in June 1996 everything seemed to briefly come to a perfect point in my life. I was 18 and finally about to leave secondary school which I had found oppressive and stifling. It had been a beautiful sunny afternoon and me and my mates had watched England on the telly beat Scotland 2-0 in the Euros as thousands in the crowd sang “Football’s Coming Home” (hey, I’m just setting the scene). My mate Bob had lent me a tape of The Beach Boys’ classic album “Pet Sounds”. Well, dear reader, I was so blown away by the musical contents of that cassette that I remember listening to it seven times in full before going to bed that night. And the footy ended at 5p.m. So that was the beginning of my Beach Boys’ love-in.

I ended up a few months later going to the University Of Kent to study film, an institution that has sadly been in the news recently for horrible reasons. On my first day I warily took up residence in the shared room I had ended up in due to my utter inability to read the necessary literature about organising my own accommodation in advance. A big lad from Huddersfield who I found out soon was called Kevin came in an hour or so later and the first thing this young student did on entering our shared room was drape a Newcastle United scarf over his bed. Get in. We were going to get on. Soon enough, we must have got talking about music. Turned out Kev was big into The Beach Boys – and he had dived
in deeper than myself into their back catalogue but left me enjoyably playing catch-up in due course. So that is why I have become more versed in their music. Including track one…

Firstly, ’Til I Die” features beautifully poetic, gloomy lyrics that sensitive souls like myself and Kevin could certainly relate to at the age of eighteen suddenly far from our northern family homes. “It kills my soul, hey hey, hey”. Um, “hey, hey, hey” indeed. Secondly, man, those harmonies. Thirdly, despite the sense of mortality that naturally pervades a song with the title “Til I Die”, an uplifting finale that crystallises this track into pop perfection. Finally, you can pat yourself on the back that you heard it on “Surf’s Up”, a cult classic album of their’s. But, when it comes to it, they’re not short of cult classic albums as well as the obvious big-hitter “Pet Sounds”…

2. The Nearest Faraway Place (1969, “20/20”)
Love the title, love the track. Some folk might tell you this shimmeringly beautiful entirely instrumental piece from the under-rated “20/20” album is nothing more than cheesy elevator music. Just spin your favourite Burt Bacharach record, don a suitably sensible jumper and saunter groovily in the opposite direction of these cloth-eared philistines.

3. All I Wanna Do (1970, “Sunflower”)
This track perhaps pushes the word “obscure” to its extreme as it has 22 million streams on Spotify alone. It won’t be heard blasting out of Radio 2 anytime soon probably though, which is all our losses, I believe, as this track features perhaps one of the most gorgeous pop music melodies ever committed to tape. We have genius composer Brian Wilson to thank for that a man who, despite a terrible breakdown and subsequent
diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder brought on to some extent by trying to compete creatively single-handedly with no less a force than The Beatles, was somehow still capable of producing gut-wrenchingly touching tracks such as this one. On the one hand you are in awe of the composition, on the other troubled by what it cost on a personal level to drive a man to such musical heights.

4. Never Learn Not To Love (1969, “20/20”).
This choice is also troubling but in a different sense. In an ideal world I would not include it at all as the lyrics to the original version of this song were actually written by the heinous, crazed murderer Charles Manson, (he called it “Cease To Exist” and was friends with Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson for a time). Thankfully his musical imprint is not otherwise felt on this beautifully produced chamber-pop mini-classic. Perhaps the song’s ugly genesis discourages people from having much positive to say about it. Which would be entirely understandable given the circumstances.

5. Can’t Wait Too Long (1967, Smiley Smile 5:35 version, available on YouTube)
Five and a half minutes of peak 60’s pop experimentation that takes more turns than an Alpine stage of the Tour de France. This one sounds like a good trip all round. Biographer Brian Leaf summarises this piece perfectly by suggesting “the song needs no analysis or description other than to say it’s an incredible piece of music”. Hear hear.