Thanks to hobie for introducing the great music of Libera to so many people.

This one is something different with the group singing the song "Love and Mercy" by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

A young member of the group introduces the song by saying:

"Mr. Wilson, we were born a long long way from your California beaches. But the sunlight of your music can be felt every day in our streets in South London."

... and the camera cuts to Brian standing in the audience smiling and perhaps a bit flustered and self-conscious.

Libera - Love and Mercy

http://youtu.be/9P8cKEeV0_Y?list=PL3369C24D1DBE627C

I remember this song quite well because I bought the album (CD) when it first came out and "Love and Mercy" was my favorite song on the album.

I rarely bought CDs in those days but the occasion of Brian's resurrection was a momentous event for a true Brian Wilson fan; it was his first record in a very long time after having suffered a long and difficult breakdown that was apparently triggered by a nightmarish bad LSD trip.

I had missed him. Most people would agree that he was a musical genius from the very beginning. The harmonies he wrote for all the Beach Boys songs are simply astounding and are loved by millions of people all around the world.

But sometimes genius comes with problems. Sometimes all the vastness and depth of vision is too much to bear, and the mind breaks down. Such stories are legion, and Brian's is one of them.

Thus it was that when he came back from the terrible brink, with the album this song is taken from, I felt compelled to buy it immediately.

Even now I sometimes play a few of the old Beach Boys songs just to marvel at the harmonies and "orchestration" Brian seemed to create as if it were just second nature to him. No one had done anything quite like that kind of harmony before him. Later the Beatles would approach a similar kind of richness but those fab four had Brian pointing the way and leading them on.

Here are the lyrics:

Lyrics for "Love and Mercy" by Brian Wilson

I was sittin' in a crummy movie
With my hands on my chin
all the violence that occurs
Seems like we never win

Love and mercy that's what you need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

I was lying in my room
And the news came on TV
A lotta people out there hurtin'
And it really scares me

Love and mercy that's what you need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

I was standing in a bar
And watching all the people there
Oh the loneliness in this world
Well it's just not fair

Love and mercy that's what we need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

And here is Brian's own version from the album I spoke of above. Although the Libera version was interesting and was sung to honor Brian at a concert, I can't help but favor Brian singing it himself and the victory for him it represented.

Brian Wilson - "Love and Mercy"

http://youtu.be/uMEiggGt9hg