Brian Wilson Appreciation Thread

I suspect GIOMH was an outgrowth of his management's preoccupation with trying to undercut Andy Paley.

 

Then why did they have Andy do at least one tour with Brian? He wasn't exactly needed with that large band. I think the only reason they made GIOMH was because they needed material for an album, and the Paley tapes were already on bootlegs. Might as well cash in. His management probably thought they needed tweaking for release. They should have gone with officially releasing the original tapes. At least Brian sounds slightly better on the songs and the production benefits from being thinner.

 

Presumably because Brian likes him.

They didn't need material for an album: even discounting that he's Brian Wilson and hasn't been dependent on regular product to keep his name in the papers, they released SMiLE months later.

 

Interesting. I have to laugh a bit at the sparse amount of posts on this thread. While they're all mostly concise and positive, I can't help believe that if this were a, say, Ringo thread, it would have accumulated 14 pages by now. Four pages and that's it for one of the greatest talents we've ever had.

 

The irony.
Even Dr. Love gets more traction than the 'gifted' one.
28 pages and counting...

Mike Love nominated for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame*

 

One of my earliest memories is the original airing of The Beach Boys 25th Anniversary from Hawaii special. I was four, and wanted to watch it but it was definitely after bedtime! My parents let me stay up for the first few songs and then taped the rest. My brother and I watched that tape so much we wore it out as kids, and now sustain off a Japanese bootleg DVD.

We were lucky to see Brian at Carnegie Hall in 2004. It was a pretty amazing experience.

I'll always love The Beach Boys, as they were the first band I really knew since they were a family favorite. I have a lot of love for their discography, even if as I came to explore it more, I found myself enjoying the later years where Brian was less involved a little more than the earliest stuff. Even so, the melodies, the arrangements, the harmonies definitely set a tone for the kind of music I would continue to seek out and love as I got older.

Brian touched so many ears and, through that, lives. The music is a soundtrack to life.

 

I think the reason may be Brian Wilson's talent and "genius" is so universally recognised, that people don't see it as controversial - there is nothing really to debate.I myself could think of much useful that I could add to the discussion, that had not already been said.

 

In 1965 through the middle of 1967 the Beatles were at there creative peak. In the time period Brian’s peaks were higher.

 

What Brian did was 'blow the doors' off brilliant!
Compare what Brian was doing in 62, then jump to 64.
Likewise, compare what Brian was doing in 64, them jump to 66.
There's only a handful of artists that make those 'leaps and bounds' in music in such a short time.

 

Yup! And consider The Beach Boys Today! was released early March 1965. At that time the last Beatles album was Beatles for sale and that was only 3 months prior.

and (IMHO) Beach Boys Today! is way better than Beatles For Sale. It would take The Beatles nearly a year to get back into Brian’s league.

 

Yes, Brian's/Beach Boys jump from 1962-1966 is nothing short of astonishing. From Surfin' to Cabin Essence. Holy cow. And I think that Brian and the Beach Boys still remained one of the great pop/rock bands even up to 1973 -- that post Pet Sounds 67-73 is really very underrated still....maybe not on this board, but in general. it's like this big secret that they kept doing amazing music (with and sometimes without Brian) for several years.

What the hell happened in 1974-75? They were never the same after that.

 

Endless Summer happened. It effectively turned them into a nostalgia act almost overnight, tilting the power axis away from Carl and Dennis, who wanted to keep evolving creatively, to Mike and Al, who wanted to please the crowds and bask in the echo of past triumphs. It also cemented their early 60s fun-in-the-sun image in the eyes of the public, further hampering any attempt to branch out creatively.

 

Yeah; it was kind of a Catch 22 for them. It was a hard balance to strike, between commercial nostalgia and arty greatness. Made worse by the different lifestyles, I get it. It's a tragedy though. A Dennis and CArl led band would have led to a downward spiral into dysfunction, and disintegration; and then Brian might never have got treatment without the tour money to support that. On the other hand, a Mike-led band jetissoned all attempts at cred but made them money.

It's like the Beach Boys' chakras were never aligned. They are just wildly out of balance. Still are.

 

In a perfect world, Mike and Al and Bruce would’ve continued using the Beach Boys name (like Mike and Bruce do now) and rode their woodies and surfboards to their hearts content in concert, generating revenue for Dennis, Carl, and Brian, to make music under The Wilson Brothers name (or whatever name they prefer); having full creative freedom easing Dennis and Brian’s mental issues that, along with therapy and rehab, allowed them to live long, healthy lives, making music on their terms, with Carl.

A guy can dream, can’t he?

 

I don't think that Dennis Carl and Brian could have pulled it togethr in the late seventies. I really don't. Carl could have pulled it together in the early 80s but I don't think that Brian and Dennis would have made it; and I don't think that it would have generated enough revenue to save brian. AS for Dennis, he was unsaveable -- they tried rehab and he just wouldn't do it.

 

Pretty much.
Brian, Carl and Dennis were all 'train-wrecks' by the late 70's.
It's hard to image a Dennis Wilson even being alive today to be honest.
Even if he had made it through those terrible early 80's for him, and recovered, I can't imagine
Dennis being here and making it to nearly 76 years old.
This is where the 'Mike/Bruce' whatever you want to call it, 'Beach Boys', continued to solidify the bands existence.

 

I'm guilty of not appreciating Brian's genius for many years. There's a spectrum of music that I enjoy, and it just so happens that Brian's "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Surf's Up" are the bookends. One is pure joy, and the other is pure art. There's nothing higher (better) on either end of the spectrum than these two songs. Any more happy than WIBN is too much, and any more "art" than SU is not enjoyable for me.

 

I've never gotten used to how amazing the "Friends" and "20/20" era was. Especially now when we got those copyright releases and we have all these backing tracks, stereo mixes, and a capella tracks with incredible sound quality.. That original 2-fer was an embarrassment of riches. Walk on By, Old Man River, Break Away, Celebrate the News, We're Together Again, etc. I Went to Sleep, Time to Get Alone.. I can't possibly tire of this material. As much of my life was spent on Pet Sounds and Smile, I gravitate to this stuff often. I took a walk the other day with Love You on my headphones and I was in the best mood ever.

 

I am not a completist, and having heard a couple of Brian's solo albums that left me unimpressed, I do not feel the need to have them merely because of who he is.

As I mentioned earlier I have Imagination and enjoy that one. It's no Pet Sounds or Sunflower, but it's got several excellent tracks.

The album I am in the process of re-evaluating is his eponymous debut. I was always put off this one by the back story of its production, along with the fact that I always thought the lead single, "Love and Mercy" was... OK, pleasant but not great. The only other song I heard from that was "Walking the Line", which affected me much the same way.
Recently however I was very impressed by the song "Melt Away", which I had not heard before and which reminded me a lot of songs like "I Wasn't Made For These Times" and "'Til I Die".

I'd be keen on reading people's thoughts on this album and how they feel it holds up relative to his other solo albums.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is just what they should have done, and I think the perfect name for the Wilson brothers' band would have been ... Sunflower.

 

This record is great and along with Pacific Ocean Blue the best solo Beach Boy record for me though not a massive fan of his solo work to be fair, though That Lucky Old Sun is a fine piece of work the Playback anthology is more then enough to get me by.
Lucky to have seen the great man a few times, probably won't see him again but when he was on form it was so special!

 

Rio Grande is awesome. I also love Little Children, Love And Mercy and Melt Away. The rest of the album isn't as good as those 4 IMO.

 

A new upload of a live recording from 2004, 'Soul Searchin'.

 

This is considerably more effective than the version on Getting In Over My Head, which felt forced and unnatural. The original track with Paley was more cohesive. The extra work on the track prior to its release did it no favors. But this live version is nicely energetic and Brian sounds great.