RIP Brian Wilson

We've talked about this here but let's give the man his proper due.

My favorite songwriter in the history of pop music.

def deserves his own RIP thread

via mh on bsky

"Shortenin' Bread" was recorded by the American rock band the Beach Boys numerous times. Only one version has seen official release, as the final track on their 1979 album L.A. (Light Album). The band's principal songwriter Brian Wilson was reportedly obsessed with the song, having recorded more than a dozen versions of the tune.[29] Beach Boy Al Jardine speculated that Wilson's obsession with the song may have begun after co-writing the song "Ding Dang" with the Byrds' Roger McGuinn in the early 1970s.[30] Numerous anecdotes have been reported about Wilson's obsession with the song:

Alex Chilton, the former lead singer of Big Star, recalled receiving middle-of-the-night phone calls from Wilson asking him to sing on a recording of "Shortenin' Bread"' ("He was telling me I have the perfect voice for it").[31]

The Monkees' Micky Dolenz said that when he tripped on LSD with Wilson, John Lennon, and Harry Nilsson, Wilson played "Shortenin' Bread" on piano "over and over again".[29]

Biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote that Elton John and Iggy Pop were bemused by an extended, contumacious Wilson-led singalong of "Shortenin' Bread", leading Pop to flee the room proclaiming, "I gotta get out of here, man. This guy is nuts!"[32]

Musician Alice Cooper recalled that Wilson considered "Shortenin' Bread" to be the greatest song ever written. According to Cooper, when he asked why, Wilson responded "I don't know, it's just the best song ever written."[33]

A number of Wilson-produced "Shortenin' Bread" and "Ding Dang" variations remain unreleased. Titles include "Clangin'" (recorded with Nilsson), "Brian's Jam",[29] and "Rolling Up to Heaven".[34] A version that was developed from a 1973 session, featuring American Spring as guest vocalists, was completed for the unreleased album Adult/Child in 1977.[35][36]

Such a sad week for losing music heroes. Rest In Peace.

what a week jfc

I salute his instincts:

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tw77ipw5w2xwv3hzc6mrljsf/bafkreihxjbiqbvjbgeag3gktpqhlhsdvlwvcny3m7eukvyjvlfbyfrbhc4@jpeg

such a creative, idiosyncratic guy

oh dear

My internet radio station of choice has been playing the BBs nonstop for an hour

https://la2.indexcom.com/player/big8radiom/

the Beach Boys copyright extension collections that have come out over the past decade or so are so fun, just endless little corners to get lost in.

well, yeah

That radio station is breaking my heart, MVB. Beautiful. Good night.

"Surf's Up" is my favorite song of all time. completely heartbroken - RIP to an absolute legend.

When I was first getting into music, Brian Wilson was an enormous presence because 1) my gateway to music in general was the Beatles, and you can't truly love the Beatles without appreciating how much Brian Wilson inspired them, 2) he had moved to St. Charles, Illinois of all places and it was a head trip that someone of his stature could be in another suburb in our state and 3) I think the late '90s and the '00s was when the influence of his work really peaked, because it felt like everything, from the indie bands to the pop stars, showed its DNA.

It's really sad Sly and Wilson are gone within days of each other, at a time when a hateful fascist sack of shit is coming down on their home state and doing the polar opposite of everything their music stood for. I figured this was coming given his retirement from touring, but it's still heartbreaking.

Hopefully this thread has made the overarching arc of [Sly's] career clear, even if it's a cliche at this point: a series of undeniable and monumental achievements, marred by a depressing capacity for self-sabotage that lasted for almost 50 years. Unlike Brian Wilson - whose own life and career is in many ways an inverted, white-bread, mirror image of Sly's (Sly loves dualisms but who knows if he would appreciate or acknowledge this one) - there hasn't really been any late-period redemption. Wilson, while still eternally haunted and damaged, got his shit together and appears to have achieved some measure of functionality and peace; the core of his musical talent has never left him, he still loves music, he needs it and believes in it and works at it. By contrast, when Sly attempted a similar comeback in the 2000s it was hampered by his all-too familiar problems and habits. In many ways it's just too late. The Summer of Soul doc and forthcoming QuestLove doc are a historical corrective, rightly emphasizing his massive talent and impact. Based on advance press and published excerpts, Sly's autobiography (which comes out tomorrow), will no doubt shed some light on the details of Sly's life and his perspective on it, but it seems unlikely to contain much in the way of critical self-examination. For an artist who claimed to write his songs while looking in the mirror, he seems to have spent much of his life running away from his own reflection.

― One Child, Monday, 16 October 2023 14:47 (one year ago)

Mourners who are short of time can get two-for-one with the Beach Boys' version of "Hot Fun in the Summertime" (which doesn't feature Brian, sorry)

“This person changed the world” sometimes gets thrown around a bit too casually but in the case of Brian Wilson it barely scratches the surface. RIP

― Davey D, Wednesday, 11 June 2025

Mourners who are short of time can get two-for-one with the Beach Boys' version of "Hot Fun in the Summertime" (which doesn't feature Brian, sorry)

― Halfway there but for you

honestly i feel more regret over the fact that the beach boys' version of "hot fun in the summertime" exists

Hopefully this thread has made the overarching arc of [Sly's] career clear, even if it's a cliche at this point: a series of undeniable and monumental achievements, marred by a depressing capacity for self-sabotage that lasted for almost 50 years. Unlike Brian Wilson - whose own life and career is in many ways an inverted, white-bread, mirror image of Sly's (Sly loves dualisms but who knows if he would appreciate or acknowledge this one) - there hasn't really been any late-period redemption. Wilson, while still eternally haunted and damaged, got his shit together and appears to have achieved some measure of functionality and peace; the core of his musical talent has never left him, he still loves music, he needs it and believes in it and works at it. By contrast, when Sly attempted a similar comeback in the 2000s it was hampered by his all-too familiar problems and habits. In many ways it's just too late. The Summer of Soul doc and forthcoming QuestLove doc are a historical corrective, rightly emphasizing his massive talent and impact. Based on advance press and published excerpts, Sly's autobiography (which comes out tomorrow), will no doubt shed some light on the details of Sly's life and his perspective on it, but it seems unlikely to contain much in the way of critical self-examination. For an artist who claimed to write his songs while looking in the mirror, he seems to have spent much of his life running away from his own reflection.

― One Child, Monday, 16 October 2023 14:47 (one year ago)

sly and brian both lived long lives and both suffered a lot. with brian, there's definitely something to mourn and... it's like when david lynch died. i knew it was coming. he had a long life, experienced a lot, left a mark on the world. he left a mark on me. of course i mourn, but death is inevitable. the beach boys' version of "hot fun in the summertime" wasn't.

i finally got around to watching _long promised road_, which i'd been meaning to do for a while. there's actually in there a little discussion about sly and the family stone (brian liked "hot fun in the summertime" - well, i mean, who the fuck _wouldn't_?)

idk. one of my problems is that i have a lot of trouble feeling my own emotions. seeing other people experiencing feels, that helps me feel my own feels about myself, which is really hard for me otherwise.

the idea of "redemption" is a difficult one for me. a lot of it is privilege. this doesn't invalidate what brian wilson did or make it any less... i mean i did tear up hearing elton john say "you gotta be tough to survive what he's been through", on the page that looks trite, but the way he said it, it meant something. it's really good to see that he's recognized and valued for the work he's put in.

the tragedy, for me, of sly stone is that he wrote "you can make it if you try", and he meant it, and he did try, and did he make it? i don't know. the world isn't fair or just. and yes, he did also run away. our lives aren't one or the other. i don't place any blame or value judgement on either of them, sly for not getting a "redemption arc" or brian for having the privilege he did.

what i focused on most when i saw long promised road was landy. i hadn't seen brian under landy's care before. it was scary. he _seems_ so well together, and at the same time... he's saying what he's expected to say. i've been in situations... where there was someone who was doing great things for me, like landy did great things for brian, and it was still fucked up and not good, because there's this element of control, and no matter how well brian did, the level of control he had over brian wasn't right. with melinda it seemed to be different. it seemed more like she supported him and encouraged him and didn't control him. i'd like, one day, to have someone in my life who can kind of support me like that.

i personally, i do find that i "need a mess of help to stand alone", so it makes sense to me, that song, and that brian was like that. brian's always was someone who's needed a lot of support, a lot of external validation to do things. and people have been skeptical of him because of that. i don't know who it was that said... if it was on ilx or somewhere else... but there was a quote, something someone said to the effect that "smile is only about 5% brian, but 5% of brian is all that's left". writing that out it seems an exceptionally cruel thing to say, but more than that, i don't think it's right.

the thing about brian that i can relate to is that sometimes he says weird, fucked-up stuff that's Not Normal. i mean yeah his obsession with shortnin' bread was not normal. "hey little tomboy" was... i mean that song is super fucked up. some of my friends... just yesterday, i had to say to one of my friends, girl, don't fucking SAY that, that's not OKAY. and i said it in the most polite manner possible. it was fucked up, though, and she clearly wasn't aware how fucked up it was.

i think... at least while melinda was there, while she was there brian was 100% there. it's just, like... i mean he was been open about the fact that there was all kinds of fucked up shit going through his head, and that sometimes he's not sure what's real and what isn't. i mean if you've read any interviews with brian, he contradicts himself a lot, he kinda listens for what he thinks the interviewer wants him to say and says it. for a while any time anybody told him what their favorite beach boys song was, brian would say "that's my favorite beach boys song too!" to me, that wasn't him being disingenuous or lying or anything like that. i understand on some level. he was a people-pleaser. if someone tells me their favorite song, and i know and like that song, _at that moment_ that song is also my favorite song. and you can call that, like, mental illness or whatever, but the idea of a _fixed favorite song_ is just nonsensical to me in the first place. i mean right now i can tell you my favorite song is "starless" by king crimson and five minutes from now it'll be something different.

that's what i loved so much about the film, the way the interviewer (i didn't get his name) knew how to _communicate_ with brian. with all that brian went through, he didn't necessarily communicate the way most people, at least in the anglosphere, are expected to. there was so much that he couldn't put into words. "put on long promised road." and then a minute later "stop. turn it off. put on 'it's OK' from 15 Big Ones." he didn't communicate feelings in words. and he still was able to communicate feelings pretty clearly to the people who knew him.

it was really cool and, like... not in an "inspiration porn" sense, but it gives me hope for my own life that brian was able to accomplish what he did even with all the problems he had. and at the same time i don't judge brian as a "success" and sly as a "failure". they were both people. that's all.

I lit a candle and spent my evening listening to Surf's Up on my record player and watching YouTube interviews.

I don't usually get too down about famous people dying. It's sad, but I never knew them personally.

This is an exception though. This feels personal. His music got me through my adult life. There is never a situation that can't be improved by the music of Brian and the Beach Boys.

:-(

Soundtrack to the food pantry this afternoon has been all Beach Boys and Sly.

Ugh. That's how I (sort of) found out Bowie died...hearing only his songs while shopping for food that morning. I didn't think anything was wrong until I got a text.

A little levity:

https://thehardtimes.net/blog/mike-love-posts-touching-tribute-to-mike-love/

He (I'm sorry, I mean "The Beach Boys") will be at Town Hall later this year....still have no urge to go.

Only 82, I thought he was older. RIP legend.

What did everyone listen to? I went In
My Room - Little Deuce Coupe - Don't Worry Baby - The Warmth of the Sun - A Day in the Life of a Tree - Til' I Die - Surf's Up. Love you, Brian.

So far, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”.

This is going to take me at least a few days to process. Suspect I’m not the only one.

Xp Brian Wilson presents SMiLE. Such a personal victory for him. I remember listening to a recording of his first live show of it in London (?) while I was at the office one afternoon. After Good Vibrations finished, it was so celebratory, damn. Tears of happiness that he not only completed it but that it was just as great as the legend had suggested for so many years. People at work probably thought I was nuts but it didn't matter to me.

I felt the same way. Seeing him in Washington DC on that tour was def. a personal highlight for me.

it was just as great as the legend had suggested for so many years.

Yup. I would never have believed it, but I was floored how everything fell into place. I went from being "it was probably for the best" to "holy shit, this really was a lost masterpiece."

Yeah, I know there are naysayers (probably members on that nutty audiophile forum) who will say "but he never would've made a three-suite album!" or some shit, I don't fucking care. When art works, it works, it doesn't need to follow any arbitrary rules that have nothing to do with what it's trying to do or say.

I only saw him on the 50th anniversary tour of Pet Sounds and I'm so glad I did. I knew he wasn't going to be perfect, but it really was wonderful to see him perform that from end-to-end, and with Al Jardine and even Blondie Chaplin, neither of which I knew would be there.

“Little Deuce Coupe”, my goodness

really feeling this one, like i can almost feel the dotted line around that space in our universe where he used to be, yknow?

saw him in 2014 at the Bridge School Benefit & have never experienced anything like the joy that was in that amphitheatre that night. it makes me teary to think about

and a stray memory from that night was my friend’s (now and soon to be then) ex girlfriend, a psycho cokehead full of extremely bad takes HATED the show hated that Brian was performing, sitting there sulking the whole time that Brian “should be in a home”
not AT home
IN a home

anyway RIP to the only person besides maybe Macca who‘s passing could completely buckle my legs out from under me :(

what a sad day

relistening to the Jokermen podcast’s David Leaf interview re Smile to try to heal myself a little (it’s v good)

_it was just as great as the legend had suggested for so many years._

Yup. I would never have believed it, but I was floored how everything fell into place. I went from being "it was probably for the best" to "holy shit, this really was a lost masterpiece."

Yeah, I know there are naysayers (probably members on that nutty audiophile forum) who will say "but he never would've made a three-suite album!" or some shit, I don't fucking care. When art works, it works, it doesn't need to follow any arbitrary rules that have nothing to do with what it's trying to do or say.

& have never experienced anything like the joy that was in that amphitheatre that night

I saw him in 2002, we had amazing seats up the front and I remember looking back at the theatre during Good Vibrations and seeing such joy, everybody up and dancing and it wasn’t corny or cringe, just this big outpouring of love and positivity (and I think also gratitude to the guy who crafted these little miracles)

Still kind've amazed that I got to see him, Sydney 2005, Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE. The show was fantastic, Wondermints and Beach Boy alums meshed so well, the music was alive and brilliant, Brian seeming in a kindly daze centre stage contributing his parts and enjoying everyone else's. Then "Surf's Up" hit and as it spiralled into the ether, I choked up and started crying freely, looking at this man whose life had been so blighted, living to see his greatest dream realised and feeling the love it created. An all time lifetime moment for me.

yes exactly!

Twenty years on, it’s clear that the SMiLE project was a labor of love. Not for Brian, but for the musicians who helped him finish it because they loved him, they loved his music, and—as was very clear in the Beautiful Dreamer documentary about it—they wanted to relieve him of the burden the project represented. It makes the whole thing that much more rare and special.

FWIW, a while back I sold something on eBay to a buyer who turned out to be Darian Sahanaja, so I wrote "SMiLE" (stylized just like that) on the package and drew a heart around it. Pretty much the only thing I did to let on that I listened to his work. Then a few days later, he left feedback where he drew a smile out of typed characters.

Tribute from Sting shared by the Beach Boys account - looks like he also broke the news to some in the German audience.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKxk2npKRCl/

this is the most i've been affected by a celebrity death.
― Kim Kimberly

I don't usually get too down about famous people dying. It's sad, but I never knew them personally.

This is an exception though.

― DLC Soundsystem (dog latin)

he’s not necessarily my absolute favorite musician who has died, but yeah. i’m not sure why that is.
i wanna talk about it but never have the strength to post more than two sentences anymore.

I had to put this on because I couldn't remember how it went. Funny it would drive anyone crazy, it's just a stomping nursery rhyme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eToSzhO0WM

Smile is really hitting tonight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojNrJMHZpNo

I read the most touching thing about Brian Wilson lately and I can’t remember where. Basically it was about seeing him in concert, and his hat fell off or something, and there was palatable audience reaction of pure love like everyone just wanted to put the sweet little man’s hat back on. It was much less patronizing sounding than that.

Right, it was from Bob Stanley’s book Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

“One of the most poignant moments of the 2004 Smile shows at the Royal Festival Hall in London wasn’t musical at all. As Brian left the stage to a standing ovation his shirt caught on something; he tried to walk off, his feet kept moving, but he was held back. Everyone wanted to run on stage and help him, wanted to help Brian Wilson. After what seemed like an age he noticed what was wrong, but not before he had appeared, in front of two thousand people, as a lost little boy, Charlie Brown aged sixty-five, bumbling and bemused”

I posted this story on one of the other Beach Boys threads awhile back, but it bears repeating on today of all days:

I was going through my Beach Boys vinyl, which is mostly their '70s albums (have CDs of all the original studio stuff up through L.A. Light Album), plus the '70s twofer of Wild Honey & 20/20. I was listening to the latter when "Cabinessence" comes on, sounding so fucking good (even on my less-than optimal setup), and I was just struck by this absolutely overwhelming sense of awe that a human mind could think up this music, transfer it to paper, explain and teach it to other exceptional minds to bring that sound to life and get it onto tape and then out into the world for us to experience.

hearing “Do You Like Worms” and just….. how does a brain get to that arrangement?! It’s “bohemian rhapsody” but with more changes and in half the time!

Van Dyke Parks kept it simple:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKybKdxupvk/

with melinda it seemed to be different. it seemed more like she supported him and encouraged him and didn't control him.

Three seats away from Melinda on the 2002 Pet Sounds tour, I got to witness that:

Mrs. Wilson is particularly demonstrative and supportive, rising to her feet after every number and extending her outstretched arms to him, willing him on.

https://troubled-diva.com/2002/06/13/brian-wilson-nottingham-royal-centre-friday-june-7th-2002/

Stingo looked genuinely broken up.

I was just about to post about the lovely Sting tribute.

What did everyone listen to?

https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/acclaimed-music-the-beach-boys/pl.u-RRbVMj5C31BKLM

Mrs. Wilson is particularly demonstrative and supportive, rising to her feet after every number and extending her outstretched arms to him, willing him on.
https://troubled-diva.com/2002/06/13/brian-wilson-nottingham-royal-centre-friday-june-7th-2002/

I enjoyed this, thanks Mike. I think I probably saw the wobblier show in London you mentioned, but it was still amazing. As I understand it Melinda also acted as a fierce advocate for Brian during the tours and preparations for the tours, when he may not have been equipped to stand up for himself so effectively. In these circumstances there is basically a bottomless demand for the time and attention of the figure at the centre of the show and Melinda made certain that Brian wasn't being overworked or pressured or forced to do things that bothered him. I don't imagine Brian's late-career touring success would have been as sustained (or as much fun) without her looking out for him.

I got to see him a few times, the first at Farm Aid (when he was still living outside Chicago?), where he played this lovely song about Carl, who had only recently passed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2f99ktgHHI

I think it was shortly after this that he started touring Pet Sounds, etc., and I feel lucky to have seen him play a couple of those gigs and a Smile gig as well, iirc. The final time was as part of the Beach Boys' 50th anniversary tour, and honestly he seemed pretty bad off, but I did get the sense that his regular band and others close to him were keeping an eye out for his health and comfort.

Yeah he was living in St. Charles, IL - saw him at a Quizno's sub sandwich shop once there!

Okay so you say that and I have to look it up and the location is closed but an old Mapquest entry still shows it and I see the street running north to south there and I think I know why he liked that spot:

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kqdyhnklmmv34nmml6btyqv6/bafkreienabcpashihj4j4qbgjyzhahccvqg7vycpqnexy6guarndt46q5y@jpeg

https://www.mapquest.com/us/illinois/quiznos-413055666

wow

lol!

rip

Not to judge anyone else, but it's hard for me to be too sad about the passing of Brian & Sly when they'd made it to their '80s against all expectations, and had been (hopefully happily) retired for some time. Jazz drummer Al Foster's death hit me harder, since he had been actively playing and sounding amazing until the end...not that whether someone is actively working or not should matter, but there you have it.

There you go with your Protestant work ethic and Medicare work requirements and uh wait hold on.

I really enjoyed the Pet SOunds release with isolated vocals etc.. Interesting and made me appreciate the songs more.

also The Beach Boys ‎– Endless Summer
one of the worst album covers of all time

https://i.discogs.com/OdeY9sSLycVr0pP9Prei7gVWmaWKjJ48S-cOEjEGiZI/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEzNDM1/NDU5LTE1NTQxNTUw/NDctODg2Ny5qcGVn.jpeg

When he wasn't at Quizno's, Wilson was dining at an Italian restaurant in downtown St. Charles, according to the town's former mayor:

"'He would go out to one of the local restaurants pretty often, that was ZaZa’s,' she said. 'It was pretty regularly that he would go out to eat, most every night. I think people kind of left him alone.'"

Brian Wilson was the most musically inventive voice in all of pop, with an otherworldly ear for harmony. He was also the visionary leader of America’s greatest band, The Beach Boys. If there’d been no Beach Boys, there would have been no “Racing In The Street.” Listen to “Summer’s Gone” from The Beach Boys’ last album “That’s Why God Made The Radio” and weep. Farewell, Maestro. Nothing but love and a lovely lasting debt from all of us over here on E Street.
Bruce Springsteen

A very good Craig Jenkins piece.

https://www.vulture.com/article/brian-wilson-sly-stone-death-racism-double-standards.html

Somewhat unrelated, but it warms my heart to see Brian Wilson's social media accounts still "liking" stuff like this earlier today:

https://i.ibb.co/4wht959v/1.jpg https://i.ibb.co/0yF1Yw6J/2.jpg

ZaZa’s is right across the street from where the whole Tilda Swinton sequence in The Killer was filmed.

The NY Times picked out this 1988 feature in their related links for Brian: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/26/magazine/back-from-the-bottom.html

Timothy White wrote it and it's a little sad to read because it's at a pretty bad point in Brian's life, as it details how Landy is controlling him. White even gets to interview Landy, and Landy comes off as really sleazy. For example, Andy Paley recalls finding out how Brian hasn't talked to his mom in three years because of Landy, and how he finds out (and what Brian says to his mom) is heartbreaking. Also, this was when Landy kept Brian from talking to anyone in his family or the Beach Boys, and it's sad to hear Brian admit that he and Carl aren't on good terms. Luckily things would completely change, but it's still very sad to read. Conversely, this is also when his physical health had turned around - he's actually on an exercise regimen as they do this interview - and he had just finished his debut solo album, i.e. he was making music again. (I was not a fan of his debut for a very long time, but in the past year I bought a copy out of a dollar bin and I've grown to like it. I still understand why people have reservations about it, they're aren't necessarily wrong about that, but the album has substantial merit, even if it is compromised.)

FWIW, Paley died last year and Brian actually called him on his death bed. His widow talked briefly about it then, but she shared a bit more in the wake of Brian's death:

Fifteen days after Andy was diagnosed, the oncologist said he needed to go on hospice. And two days later I realized he was going downhill so fast that I should try to reach Brian. And so I called Brian’s assistant Gloria, and for the second time in my life, I talked to Brian Wilson. I told him that Andy wasn’t talking much but he could still hear, and so I put Brian on speaker phone and he kept saying “Andy! Andy! It’s Brian Wilson. I love you Andy!”

Andy didn’t say anything – he hadn’t been able to say much that day - but I’m sure he heard Brian. He tried to smile when Brian was calling his name.

Andy died a few hours later.

Listen to “Summer’s Gone” from The Beach Boys’ last album “That’s Why God Made The Radio” and weep

Surprised to see Jon Bon Jovi in the credits, but from what I found in an interview with Joe Thomas, he apparently he heard a demo and said it was Brian's "My Way." He then suggested a change or two in the melody and helped write some verses.

re: St. Charles, I have a vague recollection that Brian didn't enjoy living there, and the weather had a lot to do with it. No surprise since he's from L.A. and moved back there, I can't imagine someone who's only known SoCal as their home would take to Illinois winters (and stormy and rainy springs) very well. IIRC he did a concert at the school auditorium too. I wish I could've seen that, but no way that was happening without a grown-up in the family who was willing to drive there.

Unpaywalled Vulture link: https://web.archive.org/web/20250612192406/https://www.vulture.com/article/brian-wilson-sly-stone-death-racism-double-standards.html

The Guardian had a "twenty best songs" retrospect earlier today, but they missed out "All I Wanna Do", which is uncanny because it sounds years ahead of its time, presumably because the cool kids e.g. actual literal kids at the time liked it and remembered it when they started writing their own music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeKSV8NrLGg

It was on Sunflower (1970) but sounds a lot like late-70s / early-80s power pop. "This Whole World" on the same album sounds uncannily like mid-70s Stevie Wonder. It's a kind of multi-part suite but it's only two minutes long.

It's really good. Sunflower was their last great album IMHO, even though there's stuff I like later on.

The final time was as part of the Beach Boys' 50th anniversary tour, and honestly he seemed pretty bad off, but I did get the sense that his regular band and others close to him were keeping an eye out for his health and comfort.

Hate to confirm this, but I found video of the 2016 Brooklyn/McCarren Park show I attended and it was just like that.

Here's the best quality one, starts at 10:25 and it's only a few short clips in a row, but you can hear. I remember Brian seemed genuinely happy at points but he definitely stumbled on the words and at the end he was ready to go, nearly leaving before someone reminded him he should stay for the applause. (He looked like a guy who was ready for bed, and I say this with experience taking care of elderly relatives and needing to get them home asap because they're done.)

i love the story of the David Anderle painting of Brian that freaked him the fuck out. I think it’s in Leaf’s book, kind of a garbled version of it here:

https://www.ratherrarerecords.com/anderle/

anyway suffice to say Anderle made a cursed portrait of Brian which basically ended their relationship lol

to be fair it IS a freaky-ass painting. def haunted

https://www.ratherrarerecords.com/wp-content/uploads/BW_Smile_Anderle_painting.jpg

ragh

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0a/a0/d9/0aa0d989f0a8155a56f7e9c811c4bc51.jpg

Is anyone going to ask the obvious question?

Was Brian’s sub toasted?

Ecce Hommo (to the tune of "Kokomo")

That portrait is awesome.

Haven't read the whole thread so may have already been mentioned. Quite often look at the newspapers in my local supermarket in my lunch break and was struck by the prominence of Wilson today, particularly in the Daily Star - the main headline on the cover was "God only knows what we'll be without you", without any snark.

That portrait is awesome.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Thursday, June 12, 2025 3:39 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

Listening to Smiley Smile is bringing me back to spending hundreds of hours lurking on The Smile Shop/Smiley Smile message boards in the 1998-2008 period.

Didn’t Brian participate in his own message board in the early ‘00s (or possibly the late ‘90s)? I have a vague recollection of him telling someone on that board how sometimes he’d scream into a pillow to relieve stress, advice he was giving to a user who was clearly not having a good day.

FWIW Jardine just told the LA Times he was hoping Brian could join in on their upcoming tour. Had things turned out differently I probably would’ve gone to a show.

There's quite a bit about Anderle's portrait in this great doc (in case anyone hasn't seen it...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H0Orfkaqf4

Anderle’s portrait has that Helen Daniels’ portrait of Mrs Mangel energy

Hopefully this thread has made the overarching arc of [Sly's] career clear, even if it's a cliche at this point: a series of undeniable and monumental achievements, marred by a depressing capacity for self-sabotage that lasted for almost 50 years. Unlike Brian Wilson - whose own life and career is in many ways an inverted, white-bread, mirror image of Sly's (Sly loves dualisms but who knows if he would appreciate or acknowledge this one) - there hasn't really been any late-period redemption. Wilson, while still eternally haunted and damaged, got his shit together and appears to have achieved some measure of functionality and peace; the core of his musical talent has never left him, he still loves music, he needs it and believes in it and works at it. By contrast, when Sly attempted a similar comeback in the 2000s it was hampered by his all-too familiar problems and habits. In many ways it's just too late. The Summer of Soul doc and forthcoming QuestLove doc are a historical corrective, rightly emphasizing his massive talent and impact. Based on advance press and published excerpts, Sly's autobiography (which comes out tomorrow), will no doubt shed some light on the details of Sly's life and his perspective on it, but it seems unlikely to contain much in the way of critical self-examination. For an artist who claimed to write his songs while looking in the mirror, he seems to have spent much of his life running away from his own reflection.

― One Child, Monday, 16 October 2023 14:47 (one year ago)

― One Child, Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Fall breaks and back to winter was my entree to loving the beach boys
The smiley smile wild honey 2fer and its booklet were very special to me 1991 and years thereafter
Then the GV box with the lions share of smile on it came out, holy fuck
I’d never found a bootleg to hear so that was a tremendous moment

Is there a tribute album?
This is all time--if it doesn't show, it's "Don't Worry Baby," by Bryan Ferry (solo by Phil Manzanera?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz2ZAOu-jlU

well there’s that Smiling Pets one which features a motley assortment of Elephant 6, Chicago post-rock and Shibuya Kei artists (and at least one European lo-fi band)

Isn't there a country tribute that I've managed to avoid my entire life?

^^That one is made up of "Duets" with the guys backing mid-'90s Country stars.

Not exactly tribute sets, but Ace has two "Songwriter Series" volumes on Wilson, which mix vintage covers and more contemporary recordings.

https://acerecords.co.uk/here-today-the-songs-of-brian-wilson

https://acerecords.co.uk/do-it-again-the-songs-of-brian-wilson

i've never had much musical talent, but i always dreamed that if i started a band, it would be this doom-y Oneida meets Harvey Milk band called Snarl and the debut album would be titled Snarly Snarl. fast-forward a marriage, kids and not having time to make that dream a reality, i finally decided to put that band to use on our family Christmas card last year, complete with the Beach Boys' inspired Smiley Smile album cover.

XP

There was a Grammy Tribute concert in '23 that CBS aired a couple months later. My main memory is Foster The People performing "Do It Again", a song that basically invented that band.

YouTube provides a handful of less-appetizing bits (Pentatonix, anyone?)

Kevin Love, the basketball player, is Mike Love's nephew (and Brian Wilson's cousin). He shared some photos and stories from when his Dad served as Brian's bodyguard/caretaker in the late 70s and early 80s, including this one of Brian hooping:

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0612%2Fr1505874_1080x608_16%2D9.jpg

That's a Brother Records t-shirt, I think.

I saw him once, at BB Kings in NYC in Nov 2000… it seemed to me then that he was not playing anything, and nor was anything recognizable as his voice audible, despite being seated positioned next to a keyboard and a mic. Someone in the Wondermints was singing his parts. In no way did it seem to me that he was engaged in the act of playing music. and so the audience was in the same physical space at the artist who had created every aspect of music they were experiencing, and they were super excited as such, but he appeared to be not contributing to the music in that moment.

Does this track with anyone elses experience? Does it not matter that not only was he not contributing to the music in the moment (this may not be the case, maybe he was singing?? I really doubt it) but that (it seemed to me) he was ill at ease and would have preferred to not be onstage?

Appreciation post for Snarly Snarl

Re: Brian in concert, it was constantly changing. One reason I didn't feel the urge to see him for so long was because of reports that he didn't seem completely there. A classmate who got to see him on the first Pet Sounds tour with the Wondermints said it seemed like he was just fixated on a light up in front of him somewhere the entire time. He came off pretty well on TV - when I got to see him on Letterman (like doing "Sail On Sailor" with Matthew Sweet and I think Hootie?), he was clearly singing and having fun, but even if you knew nothing of his history, you can tell this was someone with some kind of disability. It wasn't until I saw the SMiLE DVD years after it came out that I decided to go. It included the live premiere of SMiLE and how his voice sounded was irrelevant - he looked like he was in complete command, directing and watching over his bandmates, and suddenly the guy I heard in the control booth on the Pet Sounds box set resurfaced on that stage.

It wasn't like that when I did see him - again in 2016 - but it was designed as a farewell to performing Pet Sounds in its entirety, and it really felt like the crowd was there to show their love and support for the guy, something reflected in his bandmates (including Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin). Rob Sheffield reported on that concert in his remembrance and he recalls Brian laughing when he said "I forgot the words" - it's possible he was much closer than me because I didn't notice and thought he was unhappy about slipping up, but the audience did indeed sing back the entire verse to him, just as they did when he fell into silence elsewhere during that show.

the smile shows were astonishing

at least the one i saw was

Appreciation post for Snarly Snarl

― let it not be known that I am not smart (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, June 13, 2025 11:21 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://i.imgur.com/v1I72a1.jpeg

i saw him at one of neil young's bridge school benefit concerts, in 2000 or 2001. at one point he asked the audience to put their lighters up and said something totally cute like "whoa that's a lot of fire" or something.

I saw the Brian Wilson Orchestra on TV several times, and he always seemed into it; fave was backing Dolly Parton (as Uncle Sam and herself), Fourth of July, outdoors in Nashville (by the Cumberland River, I believe).

That is, Dolly was in Uncle Sam gear, Brian wasn't (that would have been good too).

ha I was wondering!

When I saw him in 2002, he was singing live a lot more than Dolly did a few years later!

I saw him first on the Pet Sounds tour of 2002. He had trouble with the first super high note in the bridge of Caroline, No. He yelled for everyone to stop and for a few seconds it was a bit scary. He said he wanted to do the song properly and made everyone start again. He was already getting standing ovations every few songs at this stage, so he got yet another one. I was very pleased when he mentioned it in I Am Brian Wilson (even if he didn't specify which show) as it was one tiny bit of his history I happened to be a witness to that he felt worth including in the book.

I was at the Smile premiere, I blubbed pretty much all the way through it.

I had the wonder mints simile album thing but haven’t gone back to it. How does it compare to the original smile stuff on the thirty years box? I guess I should just check slsk and listen listen listen

Iirc it's ... cleaner?

There's a full Smile box with the original stuff, which is my go-to.

Same here. I think the Smile album in the box was assembled following the template of Wilson Presents Smile, but it sounds more of its time. But there’s not a drastic difference in terms of composition.

I listened to Brian Wilson Presents Smile for the first time in about 20 years today. I absolutely felt it was made redundant by disc one of The Smile Sessions, the sequence of which it was based on, but it was still a good listen - Brian's vocals are excellent and there are a few 'finished' sections that obviously could not be replicated on The Smile Sessions, i.e. the new "is it hot as hell in here" part, vocals on 'In Blue Hawaii'. It has a reason to exist and still be listened to, even if mainly for the diehards

Also, it's reminder of how unrealistic a Smile Sessions box set seemed (to me at least) in 2004, let alone an 'official' sequence being part of it. It was a very welcome release at the time

I like this version of "What would Smile have sounded like if it was released in 1967" which uses the track listing from the Beach Boys' own letter to Capitol Records in January 1967
https://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-beach-boys-smile-upgrade.html

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKytXhfujad/

And one more...I really hope these get released someday. They only did two songs, so why not a 45?

https://www.instagram.com/p/DK2ZWmGvgww/

Also whereas the Wondermints did an absolutely stellar job, the vocal harmonies lack a little of that unearthly magic of the BBs.

sorry xxp

No worries. FWIW, I never actually bought a copy of that 2004 album until recently (I think during the pandemic), and I only did because it was a $1. I always preferred hearing the vintage recordings using the 2004 structure as a template, but hearing a fully polished and finished version again was very satisfying, even if the voices were different, so at least for me I still see a lot of value in it. There's nothing that's a perfect comparison, but roughly speaking Lou Reed's Berlin might fit the bill - I have the original album AND a Blu-ray of Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse from December 2006, and they're both different but equally great listens to me.

Smile sessions it is then
Thanks geezers

Forgot the DVD actually has a performance filmed in Burbank, CA. ("Highlights" from the Royal Albert Hall premiere is seen on the first disc though.)

Someone made a 4K upscale and put it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3Hbn1MFOQ

Ah
I love the colorful 4k upscales she posts

The Smile box incl a disc of the complete album, assembled from tracks on other discs: a merry, iridescent blur, I thought, though I wasn't sorry to hear it. Then I heard Presents Smile, and thought I got a vision of his vision, or at least a good glimpse of a good glimpse: WASP male SoCal not-quite Boomer, schooled by Disneyland (whether Murray ever took the kids there or not, they knew about it) TV at least as much as radio, Saturday matinees, comics, candy, cola, cars zipping by, then discovery of outlandish talent for stuff kids cared about, money-hungry adults too, in the Golden State of magical thinking and unlikely opportunity, some of which wasn't even bullshit.
See also Joan Didion's Where I Was From, though lucky for her success didn't hit so hard and fast. But both of them spent the rest of their lives struggling with layers of fantasy injections etc. She addresses this explicity, with him it's more to be inferred.
He and Parks wrote some more for Presents, also reportedly uncovered even more material from the original Smile era. However it was finally assembled, I think it works. Not saying it's the only version that works, and I'm glad that there are several, at least.
Yeah, I do miss the voices of original Beach Boys, but have read about versions that merge those with Presents Smile---awright!
Also, I dig the rasp of later Brian here---like I said at the time, "He's the Old Boy In The Bubble, he just keeps rollin' along."

I used to have a copy of the Brian and Dennis 80s Coca Cola sessions

xpost(The song about Hawaii is one that touched on the political, I thought.)

Also forgot he was awarded a Kennedy Center in 2007, and it was awarded to him only, not the Beach Boys. They made the right call, but weirdly they later gave one to the Eagles, and only to the current Eagles, meaning Timothy "I was only on The Long Run before we broke up" Schmit got medaled while Bernie Leadon, Don Felder and Randy Meisner got shit.

*Kennedy Center Honor

That's very on-brand for the Eagles.

Well, yeah.

Does make me appreciate Brian's gesture to Henley even more.

DON: There wouldn't be a California as we know it today without the Beach Boys, and there's no Beach Boys without Brian. A genius architect of music the likes of which the world hadn't seen since the times of the great Classical composers, a man who found poetry in cars, surfboards, and the love of a good California girl. I received the message loud and clear growing in a little town in Texas, and sought my fortune in the Golden State, following in his footsteps by forming the Eagles and carrying the Great California Myth into the '70s--and beyond.

GLENN: Me and 'ol Don, we thanked the almighty St. Budweiser every single day that a God named Mike Love walks the Earth, so we never had to share & wear the heavy crown of "The Biggest Asshole In Rock"!

DON: Well, yeah.

I just gave Brian Wilson's Smile a listen for the first time in a long time. I remember being utterly blown away when it came out, but for some reason, maybe after the Smile Sessions finally came out officially, it just dropped out of rotation for me; some part of me began to feel that it was inauthentic in some way. But a relisten affirmed my original feelings: this is a stupendous presentation of Smile, with insanely matched vocals and instruments, with arrangements that are 99.9% in line with the originals but with less muddy presentation. The few 'new' bits don't stick out a like a sore thumb. Brian sounds older but great! It's a completely reasonable way to experience Smile, and certainly the only available 'finished' version. Taylor Swift has made this kind of re-recording of own material more acceptable these days, so I think people should re-evaluate it if you haven't listened in a while.

oh now that I scroll up I see everyone else has said the same thing, that's good

In about 300 fewer words, yeah

no but akm I had the same experience too

yeah same

it’s not one of my favorite bb’s songs otherwise but i really like Good Vibrations from the POV of a dog.

She goes, son, because some dogs pick up vibrations from people and not from other people and when they pick up bad vibrations, they bark and so I said, well, what about good vibrations? She said, well, sometimes they pick up good vibrations and so on one day, I was with Mike Love at my house in in Beverly Hills and I him I had a song and…

I once made a cdr of good vibrations for an older Japanese lady

i really wanted to see brian wilson on the smile tour. i got into _smile_ around '98 when the Prokopy Tapes were the hottest stuff going and lurked on the Smile Shop for a bit, so i was very hype for the premier in '04. i didn't ever see him do it because, funnily enough, i'd had a nervous breakdown in fall of 2003 and was just too mentally ill to make it to one of the concerts.

i guess i technically saw brian and the beach boys. i think. my mom took us kids to yankee stadium... the yankees played and the beach boys opened, if i remember right. i don't remember much about them honestly. they played "barbara ann". that's about it. i do remember seeing van dyke parks in, i don't know, whenever he did that tour in the early '10s with clare and the reasons. he did "heroes and villains" and i figured that was as close as i'd ever get to seeing smile live, and i guess it was.

for me, the '04 "brian wilson presents smile" was _the_ finished version of smile. i don't know. there's definitely an "unfinished album" mystique to it. i don't know what more one could ask for - brian wilson and van dyke parks releasing a completed version of the legendary album they'd written most of together but hadn't quite completed in 1966-1967. i guess time travel, for the two of them to travel back in time and finish the album _then_. or maybe not even that.

i think a lot of the appeal to smile for me is that it _was_ unfinished. not just that, the way it was recorded. there are so many different possible versions of "heroes and villains".

there's this... i've seen a fair number of trans women who get this obsession with smile like i did. and me, personally, it's nothing really to do with gender. i mean if brian wilson wasn't a cisgender man, who the hell is? that's kind of how i feel. it's more an expression of trauma, loss, things that in a better would _would_ have been, but weren't. i read jeanne thornton's first novel _summer fun_ in the fall of 2022, and it fucked me up. a great book, and i was already in a bad headspace, and so reading it fucked me up. it's this alternate-universe take on the beach boys where the brian wilson character is a trans woman and the album is her attempt to come out. and she doesn't, of course, because you couldn't, of course. assembling my own version of "smile" in '99 was sort of... these people, brian and van and whoever else, they were trying for something great, and they were never going to get there. it was impossible, utterly impossible, under the circumstances. they couldn't say what they wanted to say, back then.

and to me it means more than anything that they said what they wanted to say. it doesn't make it in any way _lesser_ that it was 37 or so years after they'd intended. quite possibly the reverse. i think there's stuff brian and van said 2004 that they _couldn't_ have said in '67, emotionally. i think the element of time, brian's voice not being what it was, to me, that makes it _better_, more beautiful.

this is nothing really to do with the beach boys or brian or van but this is why i think 2004 smile is the "real" smile. when i was younger there was this important thing that i wanted to do, there was this important thing i wanted to say, and i tried but i couldn't say it. i didn't have the words, the way things were back then. i wish i'd been able to say it then and, at the same time, i did eventually say what i wanted to say then. it was 2019, i was 43 years old. only 23 years, i guess, 23 years after i first tried. in those 23 years, a lot of fucked up shit happened, i was pretty crazy during those years, for a long time. and i'm not young. life is about so much more than being young.

the smile sessions, we have the bones of the thing that they wanted sort of... squeezed into the shape of the album they eventually made. i do have the box set from 2011. it's interesting to listen to. the same way pet sounds in stereo is interesting to listen to.

i mean pet sounds is a mono album. to me, smile is a 2004 brian wilson album in the same way that pet sounds is a mono album.

I think one reason Brian gets the kind of love he has from his biggest fans - protective in a way, for lack of a better description - is that his work often reflects a fragility that comes from the life he's had. Most, possibly all, victims of childhood abuse never really escape its effects, and it can leave someone feeling all the less protected and even more vulnerable to the adult world, making it that much harder to navigate the rituals of growing up. With that in mind, songs where someone finds peace in acts of privacy and isolation (staying in your room, listening to records alone) or links that same feeling to their relationships (finding the same peace in their partner's eyes or the things they say) and feeling all the more devastated or confused when what they were expecting isn't given back (which brings to mind the devastation or confusion they might have felt when their parents didn't return the kind of love they expected), all of that feels apiece, as if the songs came from a set of shared experiences or through the same character. I don't want to sell the idea that these songs are autobiography, it would be misleading and goes down the wrong direction for many reasons, but in terms of writing from experience and what he knows best, it's not surprising that this is the territory he returns to and what's most affecting.

I think one reason Brian gets the kind of love he has from his biggest fans - protective in a way, for lack of a better description - is that his work often reflects a fragility that comes from the life he's had. Most, possibly all, victims of childhood abuse never really escape its effects, and it can leave someone feeling all the less protected and even more vulnerable to the adult world, making it that much harder to navigate the rituals of growing up. With that in mind, songs where someone finds peace in acts of privacy and isolation (staying in your room, listening to records alone) or links that same feeling to their relationships (finding the same peace in their partner's eyes or the things they say)

I'm really glad you mentioned that, birdistheword! i remember as a teenager telling my mom that hearing beach boys albums made me feel safe. I wanted to say something similar itt but you put it much better than I would have.

ty to Kate and bird for your observations. brilliant posts, both of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JMdw__a77A

Great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PejT7jp7_o0

TIL this is a Mike love song

"I saw the Brian Wilson Orchestra on TV several times, and he always seemed into it; fave was backing Dolly Parton (as Uncle Sam and herself), Fourth of July, outdoors in Nashville (by the Cumberland River, I believe)."

This intrigued me, but it turns out they were two separate events, both on 04 July 2003. Dolly Parton appeared in A Capitol Fourth in Washington, and Brian Wilson was in This Is Your Country with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Parton wore this dress, which is fantastic:
https://i0.wp.com/gettingmyacttogether.storiesofourboys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IMG_3151.jpeg

Yhanks, Ashley! Good to know there were two---but also, I cherish my illusion of the oneness.
Speaking of the pleasures of the unfinished album, leave us not forget Big Star's III/Sister Lovers, which co-producer Jim Dickinson confirmed as never having a set set list---or if it did, Chilton never shared it. The Ryko selection/sequence is still good, but you can make your own from Omnivore's splendid box, with alt mixes and takes, outs too, not that the whole thing isn't frequently out, of course.

So now, we've got the Eagles and Big Star in here, of course---what's the Steely Dan connection?

Same planet, different worlds

Hal Blaine played drums on "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)"

*claps*

IIRC, Blaine was maybe the only old school Wrecking Crew guy who worked with the Dan.

Further Big Star connections:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yD_YeSuTzQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atm3FG0NwYw

xp you’re welcome deflatormouse, and I agree - the music does make one feel safe and comforted. And thanks Jeff!

And thanks for Hal Blaine/more Big Star connections, C.!

Further Big Star connections

The BB covered "The Letter" extensively.

...and the Box Tops toured a bit with the BBs in the late '60s. Alex and Dennis were tight (imagine that!), and later on Chilton hoped to place what became the "1970/Free Again" album with Brother Records.

Alex and Carl were close as well, he credits Carl with showing him the ropes on guitar.

Alex said that one day Brian called him out of the blue, telling him that he had a perfect voice for “Shortnin’ Bread.”

Is Rhino Handmade around anymore? Maybe we can get a box set of “Shortnin’ Bread” versions.

It’s some other level of drugs and inebriation which I’ve never experienced that would make me interested in that tune

The last time I checked (a few years ago), looked like all the Rhino Handmades were available as downloads---on Amazon..

It’s some other level of drugs and inebriation which I’ve never experienced that would make me interested in that tune

― calstars

ahhh, i don't really do drugs myself. i think i'm interested in it as someone who's suffered severe, chronic mental illness.

also, the top comment on the "wouldn't it be nice" upload:

@PaulRockWildhoneyfoundation
15 years ago
In Dec, 1994, in Santa Monica, ca, Alex hung out with Brian after playing our Wild Honey Tribute to Brian. Brian and Alex both performed that evening. They hadn't not (sic) seen each other since the 1960's.

That same evening, Brian saw the Wondermints for the first time and later incorporated them into his current band.

finally, putting my "childhood abuse survivor" hat on, co-signing birdistheword's post 100%.

there's this... i've seen a fair number of trans women who get this obsession with smile like i did. and me, personally, it's nothing really to do with gender. i mean if brian wilson wasn't a cisgender man, who the hell is?

lol, just browsing this beach boys shitpost channel and came across this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBXV0qbbdcU

One of Cale's finest evah:
"Mr. Wilson"

No this is it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlOaRmnDZ58

Love this song.

That clip of him hearing Ronnie Spector's recording is sweet, but it's weird that neither he nor the interviewer mentions that he originally intended the song for her. Maybe the setting was just such that it wasn't conducive to bringing it up.

Darian Sahanaja:

https://variety.com/2025/music/news/brian-wilson-darian-sahanaja-salute-solo-band-beach-boys-1236432399/

As a pre-teen, I was ridiculed and even physically abused by my so-called friends for favoring Beach Boys music over the heavier FM rock acts of the mid-’70s they deemed as “cool.” Yet even that amount of peer pressure wasn’t enough to sway my opinion — a testament of how good that music was to me. By the time I got to junior high, I was much better equipped to manage criticism and was able to develop a solid understanding of what I did and didn’t like.

I wanted to thank him for that. I wanted to show him how grateful I was for all the opportunities he gave me. To live out the dreams of every musician. To play Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, Madison Square Garden… to share the stage and mingle with the likes of Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Pete Townshend and even the Queen of England after performing for her at Buckingham Palace.

I mean, how does one possibly show gratitude for all of that? By singing a song by the Ronettes and making him smile.

To add to the Big Star connection, supposedly Alex and Chris actually played the #1 Record tapes for Carl one night when the Beach Boys came through Memphis. Carl was knocked out enough that he got Brian on the phone to listen with them. Terry Manning tells the story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjsPl9A4Tiw

Maybe we can get a box set of “Shortnin’ Bread” versions.

i'd be surprised if there aren't a bunch of versions on the late 70s box set that's coming later this year

From "Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road," which I've yet to see, but heartbreaking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJBfsglFGo8

FWIW apparently his social media commemorated Jack's death with a message that was supposedly from Brian. I don't think they'd fake that, but given his dementia (which may have began by the time they filmed the doc), it's very possible he genuinely forgot.

Author Carl Wilson on Brian Wilson, Sly Stone, and David Thomas
https://substack.com/home/post/p-165770233

man I thought I'd finally pick up Brian Wilson Presents Smile on vinyl as my CD is long gone now and had no idea it was OOP. I'm guessing someone is going to capitalize on this death and get both that and the BB Smile stuff back into print.

could get a bootleg vinyl of it but it might say Brian Wilson - Smize on the jacket

Alex Chilton loved LOVE YOU a lot. This Love You cover done in the style of Big Star is so f'n good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evuWI44bRmU

this is cool too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK8fOnD2yos

xps FWIW, the album was recorded directly to digital in ProTools. They did the final mixdown in analog, but most of the work was done digitally, and even Bob Ludwig the mastering engineer got the final mixdown as a digital file sent via ftp. Not to knock analog, they clearly wanted to color the sound with the analog devices they had, but given the way it was made, I wouldn't pay too much for a vinyl edition - I'd just save your money and get another copy of the CD in the meantime. I picked a VG+ copy (complete with booklet and slipcase) for $2 a couple of years ago, and I regularly see copies in that price range everywhere on Discogs.

For anyone interested in this sort of thing, found this old and detailed article on the engineering aspects just to confirm:

...the recording itself was not made to tape, but to Mark Linett's Pro Tools HD system. But given the nature of the record, Mark thinks this too was only sensible. "Random-access editing has been a part of this from the very conception. Brian was making a record that was tailor-made for something like Pro Tools, but trying to do it 40 years ago! If he had had these tools, who knows what he might have been able to accomplish. Any concerns about the sonic quality — and I don't have any of those now we're recording at high resolutions, with better converters — are more than outweighed by the benefits. At heart, I'm an analogue guy — I still mix in analogue — but I have no problem with the sound of Pro Tools. I don't think recording to tape would have benefited us sonically, and we would have had to transfer into Pro Tools pretty quickly for the editing anyway"...

Mixing began in June and ran into early July, with Brian and Darian present. As is his preference, Mark mixed in the analogue domain, using Your Place Or Mine's custom API 2488 console, and both Pro Tools-based and Flying Fader level automation. Similarly, processing was carried out both by plug-ins such as Waves' Renaissance Compressor and also analogue outboard, including a Fairman TMEQ six-band valve equaliser, and a Universal Audio 175A compressor. Universal Audio also supplied a UAD1 card, which ran several hardware emulations as plug-ins, including a Pultec EQ plug-in. The mix proceeded from Pro Tools via Mark's Apogee D-As, was mixed and laid back to Pro Tools in stereo at 24-bit, 88.2kHz resolution, passing back in via a high-quality DCS 904 stereo A-D converter. Tannoy SGM10s (with Mastering Labs crossovers), handled the monitoring, fed from a DCS 954 D-A attached to the stereo output from Pro Tools.

The mixing nonetheless posed a problem which had not been resolved even after the basic backing tracks had been recorded. On the original SMiLE recordings, Brian recorded most of the songs in sections, but cut them together to make a complete backing track before adding vocals over the top. The exception was 'Heroes And Villains', where vocals were added to sections prior to assembly. But what was the best approach for the 2004 recordings? In the end, a 'Heroes And Villains'-type approach was adopted, whereby vocals were recorded separately on each section, each section was mixed into stereo complete with its vocals, and then the parts were assembled into songs by slightly overlapping them on two sets of stereo pairs in Pro Tools...

Mixing and assembly were complete by mid-July, only just before Brian and the band had to travel to Europe for another round of SMiLE concerts. A few tweaks were deemed necessary before mastering, and Mark sought the approval of Brian and Darian by putting Pro Tools Sessions of the slightly remixed sections up on a secure FTP server so that they could download them and hear them in their London hotel rooms. The same method was used to transfer the final Brian-approved mix to Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering on July 16th. By late July, the record was done.

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/resurrection-brian-wilsons-smile

not sure that recorded to digital should really be a factor in whether you buy a vinyl record or not

Slightly paraphrased from the documentary 'Long Promised Road'*

Did you have a room where you would work?

"Yeah it was in a sandbox. I would take my shoes and socks off and I'd write at the piano in the sandbox. I put up an Arabian tent, and eight Tiffany lamps hanging from the ceiling of my living room. It was a trip."

What did you do inside the tent?

"Smoke grass. Ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You know? Young and rich..."

I love his reflection here. I mean, isn't this what EVERYONE would do if they were young and rich? :-)

*strange to call it this considering it was a song entirely played, written and sung by Carl, no?

It's on the soundtrack album recorded by Brian who was playing it on tour around then. Lyrics by Jack Reilly

XP - I rewatched LPR recently and ended up replaying that part when he says 'You know...young and rich' several times, it was such an unusual thing to hear him say, first time I thought I'd misheard him.

it was that line. it tickled me. the matter-of-factness of it all. "You know... That's just what young people do with their money... Eat sandwiches in a sandbox"

BTW, Smile Sessions vinyl is back in print apparently; you can find it on turntable lab currently, limited to 2 per customer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwbd5ADCc6g

The editing is really annoying, but this collects a few of Love's worst sound bites, particularly the last one at 1:33:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgepFKVVKVE

I suspect Mike Love is going to redeem himself with the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame when he delivers his solo career induction speech.

Mike Love hate is so "you know who I hate - Nickleback!" these days

People feeling nostalgic in the wake of Brian’s passing could do a lot worse than listening to the closing suite on That’s Why God Made the Radio. It’s very much post-Wondermints Brian, with orchestral flourishes and more than a little POB-era Dennis in places. But even if very on the nose, its autumnal vibe goes down easy for those mourning the man.

With a similar vibe: "Southern California" from the That Lucky Old Sun album.

Mike Love hate is so "you know who I hate - Nickleback!" these days

― PaulTMA, Monday, June 23, 2025 5:43 AM bookmarkflaglink

he's a conservative homophobe who was nasty to Brian and hated recording anything that would have sounded out of place on their first four albums. hating him might be an easy opinion but it's also the right one. Nickleback hate is just a meme really

(that said, he sounded good on BB tunes so)

'Our Prayer' on a Church Organ, sry FB link only.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1591xpkX8c/

he's a conservative homophobe who was nasty to Brian and hated recording anything that would have sounded out of place on their first four albums. hating him might be an easy opinion but it's also the right one. Nickleback hate is just a meme really

― Neanderthal

yeah i mean mike love is genuinely evil, i think hating him is justified

i don't know that there's any call for hating reggae mike love tho

https://bsky.app/profile/sedricandcharlie.bsky.social/post/3lscaxiyfts2c

"Alright new idea: chiptune cover of 'Smile'. In the spirit of Brian Wilson, every individual unit of the songs, every verse, chorus, bridge and middle eight is separated up and arranged for multiple soundchips with the finished album assembled from the composer's favourite versions of each snippet"

idk i thought maybe PaulTMA was referring to the horrible presentation of the video and all of the awful extremely not funny comments ... the thing is that of course Mike Love is a piece of shit, but he's also kind of darkly funny in a way that really doesn't need or benefit from everyone on reddit formulating their own "joke" about how Mike Love cured cancer and invented bacon

what are the chances of you all NOT shitting up the RIP Brian Wilson thread with endless Mike Love shit talk?

there’s a perfectly utilitarian mike love shittalk thread and a Beach Boys thread. go do it there. for my sanity

i wasn't shittalking Mike Love, i was shittalking the people who make make miserable unfunny jokes about him

i didnt say you specifically i said “you ALL”

but if if you feel targeted then maybe take some time to do a little soul searching

i would like a Chipmunks Smile album

lol

There have been a bunch of Brian tributes on WFMU — my fave was probably the Frow Show last week, https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/153206. 3rd hour goes into experimental territory, with a Carl Stone deconstruction of "Fun Fun Fun" and a long Reorder Narcotic piece called "Only Dogs Know" which layers and relayers the vocals of "God Only Knows" into a noise cloud.

that carl stone piece belongs on a comp of stuff that predicted animal collective, along with adrian belew’s op zop too wah and olias of sunhillow.
will have to check out ‘only dogs know’

hated recording anything that would have sounded out of place on their first four albums.

i mean he did okay on ‘she’s goin’ bald’ and some other things, it seems he was willing to go along with the more out there shit to a point. i think the thing he really hated was being cut out of the writing process. he said something similar about how joe thomas excluded him from that’s Why God Made the Radio, he'd thought it was supposed to be him and Brian writing together like the old days. well, joe thomas is hardly van dyke parks!!
the rest of that post is otm!!!

a good meditation is to imagine being Mike Love at Rishikesh with the Beatles et al

and then as Brian making the bedroom scene

Not sure I can offer a better tribute to Brian right now than this 18-minute mix of Shortenin’ Bread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pylWc_UVeB4