How would Brian sound now if he hadn't ruined his voice?

[Ron]

I guess I'm alone in thinking Brian didn't permanently destroy his voice.  He did for a while, but he had a really fragile voice in the first place.  He doesn't sound like a kid anymore, but he never would have, no way that voice would have sounded like that his entire life.  I think if he wouldn't have had his 'rough' period ( ) there for awhile, he would have ended up sounding about like how he sounds now.  A lot of the stuff like his mumbling and the way he slurs words he did on the original stuff in the 60's!  You can't tell what he's saying half the time.  The earliest videos show him singing out of the side of his mouth, it's all more of a result of his hearing than anything that happened to him or drugs he ingested.  

[Rocky Raccoon]

I think he would sound the same.  Since the mid-90s, he pretty much stopped trying to sing high and by just singing what comes naturally, he sounds like his 60s self, just older.

[Ron]

Jay Siegel still has his falsetto at 80 or so, as people have mentioned.

Little Anthony still has his falsetto intact too, maybe even better.  He's probably 70 or so. 

[Awesoman]

Better. 

That's subjective

Nah. It isn't. 

[Don_Zabu]

I think he'd sound mostly the same as he does today except:

1. His phrasing would be sharper.
2. The tone might be more even.

[Runaways]

man i don't know how anyone can think he would sound the same as he does now.  Brian currently sounds like a smoother/better version of 1977 brian.  which sounds nooothing...NOTHING like 1960s brian. 

Look at Mike, Bruce, Al, Carl at the end, Paul Mccartney, Mick Jagger...etc.  At their best, they sound exactly like they did in the 60s.  Brian's old voice has been completely gone/changed since the mid-70s.  there's no way he'd sound like he does now. 

[Ron]

That's true about Al/Mick/Mike whoever, but damn man nobody sounded like Brian in the 60's, and nobody would sound like him today, including Brian.  Super smooth falsetto, nobody's ever duplicated it.  The closest they ever got to making that "young Brian" falsetto was when they had Brian, Jeff, and Taylor all sing at the same time. 

[seltaeb1012002]

No question, his voice would be much stronger. Just listen to any other remaining Beach Boy. And it's not hard to predict where Carl would've been vocally, if he were still with us.  

I think a lot of it is mental. He just doesn't attack singing the way he did prior to the bedroom years, due to the brain damage (for lack of a better term).

So while you have the tone and even emotion of old Brian coming through every once in a while, his pronunciations are almost always muffled/slurred.

I do think however, to this day, if someone were to REALLY work him in the studio, we could get some vocals that sort of resemble old Brian, moreso than what we've been hearing on his solo albums, and on the new BB's album. The trick is to get those consonants sounding sharper, which he pulls off every so often (see that new LA radio interview posted by Jon Stebbins yesterday). But knowing how artists can be, I bet it's hard to get him to do anything more than a few times in the studio. I also base that off the fact that his studio vocals sound very very similar to his live vocals.

On a few songs, I believe on TLOS, it sounds like they tried dubbing someone else's consonants, but that ends up sounding weird.

True shame, but it does makes the story interesting. It's almost kind of fun to try and pick out the rare spot where he sounds like his former self.

I agree that he sounds sweeter than usual on the Rolling Stone version of Surfer Girl.



 

[Lonely Summer]

man i don't know how anyone can think he would sound the same as he does now.  Brian currently sounds like a smoother/better version of 1977 brian.  which sounds nooothing...NOTHING like 1960s brian. 

Look at Mike, Bruce, Al, Carl at the end, Paul Mccartney, Mick Jagger...etc.  At their best, they sound exactly like they did in the 60s.  Brian's old voice has been completely gone/changed since the mid-70s.  there's no way he'd sound like he does now. 

Agreed. It sounds like two different people. I don't hear a radical change in his voice from 1977 onwards; on some albums, he sounds better than others, but they all sound like the same guy.

[Wirestone]

These days, I'd say Brian has more of his voice left over than many 70-year-old singers. And that's because he hasn't toured for most of the last 50 years. Yes, he has occasional issues with live performance, but his vocals overall are more than presentable these days. Sometimes (the Gershwin and Disney records, parts of TLOS and TWGMTR) they are simply stunning.

I have always felt as though Brian had some sort of brain damage / mini-stroke in the early 80s that changed his voice. The problem at that point wasn't the notes anymore -- it was that he seemingly forgot how to phrase songs. Over the last 20 years, he's basically had to relearn that, and has gotten to the point where the before and after voice are pretty close.

[MBE]

These days, I'd say Brian has more of his voice left over than many 70-year-old singers. And that's because he hasn't toured for most of the last 50 years. Yes, he has occasional issues with live performance, but his vocals overall are more than presentable these days. Sometimes (the Gershwin and Disney records, parts of TLOS and TWGMTR) they are simply stunning.

I have always felt as though Brian had some sort of brain damage / mini-stroke in the early 80s that changed his voice. The problem at that point wasn't the notes anymore -- it was that he seemingly forgot how to phrase songs. Over the last 20 years, he's basically had to relearn that, and has gotten to the point where the before and after voice are pretty close.

I agree 100 percent and I am very hard on Brian's worst 1975-96 vocals.

[Jay]

Ok, here's a thought provoking statment/opinion. With Brian's circa 1964 "classic" voice, an album like Love You wouldn't be nearly as good. Discuss. 

[MBE]

Ok, here's a thought provoking statment/opinion. With Brian's circa 1964 "classic" voice, an album like Love You wouldn't be nearly as good. Discuss. 

Actually me not being a Love You fan is largely down to the vocals. Good Time blows the rest of the LP away vocally and in most other ways too. I don't think the Brian of 1964 or even 1972 would have let such sloppy performances out. Just my two cents I know many love the record.

[Jay]

I ask because I stumbled onto an album review website last night, and the reviewer tried to argue that most of the mid 1970's Beach Boys albums would have been much better had Brian not lost his old voice. I couldn't disagree more. Yes, his voice was very hoarse, and he did seem to go flat a lot. But I think it just adds to the songs and gives them an interesting and unique quality. Take Let's Put Our Hearts Together, or Solar System, for instance. His beaten and worn out voice seems to give the songs new meaning, or more depth. The same goes for Dennis.

[Ron]

If Brian would have had a sweet voice still when he did Love You, he would have had Dennis sing all his leads.  If he wanted the song to sound rough, he sang it, if he wanted it to sound sweet, he had Carl or Mike sing it. 

[Aegir]

If Brian would have had a sweet voice still when he did Love You, he would have had Dennis sing all his leads.  If he wanted the song to sound rough, he sang it, if he wanted it to sound sweet, he had Carl or Mike sing it. 

This makes sense.

[MBE]

If Brian would have had a sweet voice still when he did Love You, he would have had Dennis sing all his leads.  If he wanted the song to sound rough, he sang it, if he wanted it to sound sweet, he had Carl or Mike sing it. 

This makes sense.

Yeah that does make a lot of sense.

[kwan_dk]

. Are there any kick-ass falsetto guys around who still can deliver when in their 70's?

Gibb, probably.
Valli lip-synchs.

Are you sure about that? Just saw this video the other day and I thought it looked & sounded like he could still do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhIoZMCc8I0

[seltaeb1012002]

One time I did an A/B analysis of every live version of "Oh What A Night" I could find on youtube from the past few years. It's only that short bridge part that he sings. I'm almost positive it's a pre-recorded vocal track. Knowing his voice through the years, it seems unlikely that he'd hit it with autotune-like precision every single night with the same exact pronunciation, emotion, timing, etc. But hey, who knows lol...

[hypehat]

The 70s just damaged his vocal cords, but the 80s damaged his ability to sing well.  Today I think you hear a lot more 80s in his voice than 70s. 

This - for me, when Brian sings REALLY well (as when I saw him do Gershwin live) he sounded like BW88. Not like his 60's voice.

[Wirestone]

The 70s just damaged his vocal cords, but the 80s damaged his ability to sing well.  Today I think you hear a lot more 80s in his voice than 70s. 

This - for me, when Brian sings REALLY well (as when I saw him do Gershwin live) he sounded like BW88. Not like his 60's voice.

See, I think he sounds terrible on almost all of BW88. If he'd sounded like that on Gershwin, it would have been a big flop for me.