Best Rock Instrumental Performance
(For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances, without vocals. Includes Rock, Hard Rock and Metal. Singles or Tracks only.)

Mrs. O'Leary's Cow
Brian Wilson
Track from: Brian Wilson Presents Smile
[Nonesuch Records]

What you see above represents hell freezing over. Brian Wilson won a Grammy for his Fire music. Brian Wilson first recorded "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" (aka "Fire") on November 28, 1966 for the next Beach Boys album, to be titled Smile. The next day, Brian found out that there were several fires in Los Angeles the previous night, including a fire nearly across the street. Brian concluded that the "Fire" music was the cause.

As a reference point, on the same two days in 1966, November 28th and 29th, The Beatles were working on "Strawberry Fields Forever".

The sessions for "Fire" were elaborate. Everyone at the session, including the orchestra, was required to wear fire helmets procurred specially for the occasion (see picture above). A bucket of wood was lit on fire to get everyone in the mood. Then the music languished for nearly 40 years.

Most observers consider the "Fire" session to be the beginning of the end of "Smile"; where Brian's delusions started to take over. The sessions for "Smile" officially ended in May 1967, then it was announced that the album had been abandoned. The Beach Boys' career limped along (with much great music, but little attention) until they became a nostalgia act. Brian Wilson occasionally composed great songs, but usually wrote average songs that were merely the best songs most composers could ever hope to write. His weight went up and down and up and down again. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, and prescribed anti-psychotic medications to fend off the voices he heard in his head.

The Beach Boys proceeded to finish a few of the "Smile" tracks over the next several years, but "Smile" was never completed. Brian Wilson totally divorced himself from the project, claiming the music to be "inappropriate" and that he burned the tapes, and refusing to discuss the topic. The "Fire" tapes were presumed to be destroyed. Bootlegs surfaced over the years with different tracks in varying stages of completion, including "Fire".

Then in 2004, Brian finished a new version of Smile. I wrote a little review of his new Smile on this here site. While many elements of what fans of the bootlegs knew as "Smile" were altered and/or enhanced for the new recording, "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow", was presented with the same arrangement as in 1966. Swirling violins, pounding timpany drums, distorted electric bass. The only addition were some harmonies. And then it won a Grammy. "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" was recognized by the establishment. What is perhaps Brian Wilson's most alarming and disturbing composition, and certainly the most notorious of his work, has now been awarded a Grammy.

Its a surreal moment for Brian Wilson fans. That's all I can say.