GRAVITAS is a contemporary concept album created by Grammy‑nominated international songwriter and record producer David Courtney, with spoken‑word composed by renowned poet and lyricist Stephen Kalinich.
At its core, GRAVITAS is an inspiring, motivational journey into self‑empowerment, a modern sonic manifesto encouraging listeners to rise, reflect, and reclaim their inner strength. Courtney’s music is powerful, cinematic, and emotionally charged, blending sweeping melodies with striking contemporary production. Kalinich’s spoken word threads through the album like a guiding voice, offering poetic insight, compassion, and clarity.
David Courtney is a Brighton‑born international composer, record producer, and entrepreneur whose career spans continents, genres, and generations. With more than 33 million records sold worldwide, multiple Platinum, Gold, and Silver Disc Awards, ASCAP honours, and a Grammy nomination, Courtney stands among Britain’s most accomplished and influential music creators. Across five decades, Courtney has collaborated with many of the most iconic names in rock, pop, and contemporary music, including: Roger Daltrey -David Gilmour -Jimmy Page - Eric Clapton, Sir Paul McCartney -Sir Tim Rice - Steve Cropper (Booker T & The Blues Brothers).
Courtney is widely recognized as the creative force behind the early success of Leo Sayer, co‑writing many of Sayer’s international hits, and also penned “Giving It All Away”, the breakout hit from Roger Daltrey’s debut solo album Daltrey.
Stephen Kalinich is one of America’s most distinctive poet‑lyricists — a spiritual, peace‑driven voice woven deeply into the history of rock music, especially through his long creative partnership with Brian Wilson and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys.
He emerged in the 1960s Los Angeles creative scene, performing poetry at venues like The Troubadour and immersing himself in the anti‑war movement. His work has always centered on peace, humanity, introspection, and spiritual awakening.
Kalinich’s career changed when he met Brian Wilson, who signed him as a writer to Brother Records. He went on to contribute lyrics to several Beach Boys songs, including: “Little Bird” (Dennis Wilson), “Be Still, “A Time to Live in Dreams,” and “All I Want to Do.” These works helped introduce a new spiritual, reflective tone into late‑60s rock. Brian Wilson has called Kalinich a “poetic genius” whose writing helped unlock Dennis Wilson’s full creative potential.
Kalinich’s “Little Bird” and “Be Still” were co-written with Dennis Wilson on the Beach Boys’ Friends.
In 2007, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton performed “Little Bird” in London at Ronnie Scott’s nightclub.
In March 2026, a Stephen Kalinich, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson song, “Rainbows,” is heard in the theatrically released Project Hail Mary science fiction drama movie that stars Ryan Gosling. Their composition was initially on the Dennis Wilson 1977 solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue.
Project Hail Mary has earned $684.3 million worldwide. This week it’s now available on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.
“Rainbows” is also on the soundtrack in the HBO series,DTF St. Louis.
On his website, https://stephenjohnkalinich.co.uk › homepage, Stephen reflected on the extraordinary creative bond he shared with Dennis Wilson: “I feel very fortunate that God or grace or whatever you believe in in my case I believe in God and grace brought into my experience when I was very young a person that I could send my words to, and he would hardly change a word and find a melody within the words in a sense nobody was able to do it with me like he was able to do it.
“I have done it with Brian and PF Sloan, but never so consistently as with Dennis. I would give him the words or leave them on his piano. He would either do it in front of me or call me when he had it. It was as if it was a gift from the universe that we got together. We were in our early 20s we were both in love, and we shared incredible experiences as friends. It was more like we were friends than writing partners. We talked about God and grace. People see how wild he was, but he also had a sweetness and an innocence. When he would hear the music or the lyrics, he would almost be in prayer.
“Songs like ‘My Love Lives On,’ ‘Rainbows,’ ‘A Time To Live In Dreams,’ and ‘Be Still’ were inspired — almost like prayers. I’m extremely grateful. It was beautiful, majestic, and humbling to experience something like that in my lifetime. Dennis had a humility that I have not often found in writing partners. I could recite a poem to him, and he could take a section from it and already hear a melody from memory. That was a rare, rare gift.”
Among the other vocalists who have recorded Kalinich’s lyrics are Mary Wilson of the Supremes, singing “You Dance My Heart Around the Stars”; Odyssey, whose recording of “Magic Touch” was a top 40 hit; and Randy Crawford, with “Only Your Love Song Last.”
In 2004, a Kalinich and Brian Wilson composition, sung as a duet by Wilson and Paul McCartney on Brian Wilson’s Gettin’ In Over My Head, “A Friend Like You,” in 2026 was listed as # 7 of 50, ranking the Beatles' Best collaborations in Ultimate Classic Rock.
Actor Stacy Keach recorded Stephen’s “The Magic Hand,” and Beach Boy Al Jardine’s EP A Postcard from California features actor Alec Baldwin reciting Kalinich’s “Tide Pool Interlude.”
This decade, Kalinich had an acting role, co-starring as the Prophet character in the internationally acclaimed theatrical feature film, Emily or Oscar the Movie, written and directed by Christopher M. Allport.
In August 2026, the Strawberry Alarm Clock released a new album, Where’s One via Big Stir Records. It’s the group’s first album of all-new material since the 1960s, following their 2012 comeback album Wake Up Where You Are. The last track on Where’s One? is a Kalinch poem, “Galactic Symphony - Persian Skies,” that he narrates with Strawberry Alarm Clock providing the soundtrack. Stephen and the band have performed this composition in Hollywood at The Whisky A Go Go.
During the 2014 Record Store Day, the Light in the Attic label made available the Brian Wilson/Kalinich LP A World Of Peace Must Come, an album of music and psych-poetry that was recorded in August and September of 1969. The tapes were promptly lost, not to be heard again until 2008. Following the CD-only reissue in 2008, it was the first time this timeless snapshot of an era was available on vinyl. A World of Peace Must Come is a spoken‑word album blending poetry and music — a manifesto of peace and inner transformation.
Since 1969, I probably had 20-30 lunches or dinners with Brian Wilson, often with Stephen Kalinich.
In 2004, Brian supplied the back cover jacket testimonial for my first book This Is Rebel Music, published by The University of New Mexico Press. During 2007 I wrote the program booklet text and conducted extensive interviews with Brian for his Pet Sounds 40th anniversary tour. For the 2009 book That Lucky Old Sun for Genesis Publications, I did the interview with Wilson for his collaboration with Sir Peter Blake, and also thanked him on the 2011 Capitol Records SMiLE box set. In 2014, Brian penned the introduction to an award-winning book my brother Kenneth and I wrote and assembled on SMiLE-era photographer Guy Webster, Big Shots: Rock Legends and Hollywood Icons, published by Insight Editions.
In a March 2026 conversation, Stephen reminded me of eateries where I joined him and Brian that even with my memory, I had completely forgotten about. Various pizza joints, steak houses, and the chocolate milk shakes at Stan’s Drive-In coffee shop with the trays of French fries at Tiny Naylor’s with carhop service so we could eat in Brian’s white Mercedes-Benz.
In the mid-seventies Brian would pick up Kalinich at his apartment in Brentwood, write songs, and then go get something to eat. A few times they’d invite me to join them a few blocks from my residence at the Delores Drive-In on Wilshire Blvd.
My most vivid lunches with Stephen and Brian were at Warren Stagg’s H.E.L.P (Health, Education, Love and Peace) restaurant in 1969-1971. H.E.L.P. was a popular organic-vegetarian restaurant located in Los Angeles on 3rd St. by Fairfax Ave.
“At the H.E.L.P. restaurant, Brian, Mike and I loved the seaweed salads and boysenberry shakes,” Kalinich recalled.
“Mike suggested the somewhat comical concept of Rent-A-Poet for me to help expose his lyrics and my poetry around town. Mike was extremely kind to me. He took me all around Beverly Hills, introducing me to people like his tailor and Sky Saxon of the Seeds, when I was working at a flower shop in Brentwood. Mike also offered me the use of his car at the time, a Rolls-Royce if I needed it. It felt like I was in a dream.
“Just before the spring of 1968, Mike suggested a United States tour of the Beach Boys promoting Friends and a lecture on meditation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
“Mike was deep into Transcendental Meditation. The group wanted me as the opening act, doing poetry. They bought me a new wardrobe at the Sy Devore shop, but promoters didn’t want a spoken word artist on the bill. They did a few concerts, and the tour was cancelled. The Beach Boys then went on a 1968 tour of the South with Buffalo Springfield and the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Carl Wilson produced my first record ‘Leaves of Grass’ at Studio B at Capitol Records in Hollywood,” emphasized Stephen.
This decade, I asked Stephen about several of his Beach Boys tunes on the Beach Boys Made In California box set collection.
“One of my favorites is ‘My Love Lives On’ that I wrote with Dennis. It is a moving, touching ballad about losing but continuing to love no matter what occurs in your life. A cry to say love is the cement that love remains through all things, even if the one you love is no longer present in your experience. I also love both versions of ‘California Feeling’ and I love what Alan Boyd and Mark Linett created with the mix. I also love Brian’s original version that we did in the recording studio many years ago, and only Marilyn Wilson was there with the engineer Jim Lockett and me. It touches my soul.
“‘Little Bird’ also is on the Made In California box set. Two versions. I always love those days when we wrote ‘Little Bird,’ the innocence of that time. The sweet feeling of goodness, a real hope that peace could come back to the World before all this craziness set in,” underlined Kalinich.
In one of our series of interviews this century, Stephen recalled a 1964 encounter with a 12-string guitarist named Roger McGuinn, who had just relocated from New York.
“I was living at the YMCA in Hollywood in 1964. At the time, I had been doing poetry readings with the singer, pianist, and poet Esquerita. We listened to the R&B radio station, XERB.
“This is after I went to Syracuse University in New York. I was in a fraternity with Felix Cavilere before he joined the Young Rascals. I still communicate with him. Felix played keyboard, an organ, in a campus band, and then split school to join Joey Dee and the Starlighters. This is a period long before I signed with the Beach Boys’ Brother Records as a staff writer around 1967.
“I went out with someone to an after-hours club. There was a guy named Jim with a 12- string guitar, a very good player. We started singing Beatles songs together at the party, and a man came up to us and said, ‘You guys sound great. I have a club in downtown Los Angeles called Mrs. G’s.’ I think that was the place. Over the next few days, we all exchanged numbers. He offered us an evening there to just sing Beatles songs.
“We had no rehearsals. Jim McGuinn picked me up one early evening in his car. As I remember, it was a TR3 or TR4 convertible. I did not have a car. I was living at the YMCA then on Hudson in Hollywood for $15 a week. Harry Hall was the director. So, Jim and I played at this club. They were not overly receptive, but seemed to like us. The promoters were very encouraging and receptive.
“Jim played a song of his, ‘It Won’t Be Wrong,’ co-written with Gene Clark and Harvey Gerst, who designed the sound at the Ash Grove club. It was electric. The air sizzled. Jim was in the Beefeaters before the Byrds, who recorded it as well. This was almost 60 years ago. We did the gig, and he gave me his phone number.
“He was the first person to take me to the Troubadour club before I met the owner, Doug Weston. He played in the front room, and people would bring their guitars. He was so good. There were no Byrds he wasn’t Roger McGuinn yet, and I did not know Brian Wilson or the Beach Boys. Yet, Jim introduced me to many people. He took me to a few other places. He was just a young guy hoping to play music. Jim was very kind and nice to me. I wonder if he would remember…”
Stephen J. Kalinich was a close friend of songwriter and guitarist/PF [Phil] Sloan, who in the mid-1960s penned a slew of Billboard Top 20 hit singles for Barry McGuire, Jan and Dean, Johnny Rivers, the Turtles, Grass Roots and Herman’s Hermits.
A Kalinich/Sloan collaboration, “If You Knew,” is on a 2015 vinyl pressing of California Feeling Volume 2 from the MsMusic Productions record label.
“Spiritually, he was devoted to God and grace,” offered Kalinich. “PF believed in living love. From what to observe. He was kind. It was within him, but he had a strong spiritual practice.
“In my journal I wrote ‘Be open. Be still, allow all the good to flow in. Achievement is not dependent on a person. It works on principle. A good idea forms clusters around itself, and others feel and sense this and want to be involved. Just do your best and release it. Do not be urgent. Everything is available now, this second. All good is now. Not in the future. Open up to it and align with abundance.’
“Phil helped street people and his friends who were struggling. He was compassionate. He challenged me and was tough sometimes, but most always on the side of kindness and caring. He was a dedicated and determined hard worker, very concise and clear.
“I brought P.F. Sloan to MsMusic Productions, the record label, which issued his last album, My Beethoven, Listen to it. It touches my soul, lifts my spirit. I feel fortunate I helped him get it out on the label. Carol Schofield, the owner, loved his work. I miss him every day.
“My main goal and objective at this current time in my life that is the passion that stirs me is composing, writing poems and sometimes melodies, and now painting. The reason I do it is twofold. One it gives me great joy and satisfaction. It fulfills me and gives me a reason for living, but my second and equally important reason for doing what I do is to bring goodness into the world to touch, inspire, and encourage other beings to be more open to love, living love, and expressing it in practical terms that help others. I believe this will help the whole planet, and I am grateful for the gift of life, and every day I am thankful.”
(Harvey Kubernik is the author of 21 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015's Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016's Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017's 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love.
Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In 2021 they collaborated on Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble.
Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters. His Screen Gems: (Pop Music Documentaries and Rock ‘n’ Roll TV Scenes) was published in February 2026 by BearManor Media. Kubernik is researching a multi-voice narrative study on the Beatles scheduled for a UK publisher with a planned fall 2027 publication date.
Harvey spoke at the special hearings in 2006 initiated by the Library of Congress held in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation.
In 2017, he appeared at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in its Distinguished Speakers Series and as a panelist discussing the forty-fifth anniversary of The Last Waltz at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles in 2023. Kubernik attended the 1976 event celebrating The Band).
