opinion of "Brian is Back" song?

[Mike's Beard]

Sappy drivel but oddly touching also - I'm sure Mike's heart was in the right place. And Carl's vocal at the end is goosebump inducing.

[Chris Brown]

Carl's vocal is the only thing that saves it for me, especially his vocal at the end - that little bit adds a lot of sincerity to the song for me.

[Aegir]

I love all the references in this one. Especially the cello under "good vibrations caused such a sensation".

Mike's version from 2004 is pretty cool, too. His voice sounds a lot more sincere. No Carl, obviously.

[Autotune]

Well, Mike seems to be emotionally connected to his childhood and Brian in ways we don't even know about. So I think this is a heartfelt song. You can see Mike weeping while he recites the lyrics of this song in a Landy-era report. Somewhere on youtube. He was trying to show how close they were and how estranged they'd become because of Landy.

I cannot understand people hating a song but loving a particular vocal on it. Or loving a song while hating a vocal on it. Recorded music does not admit such paradoxes.

For me it's a nice song. But I can do without all their self-referential numbers.

[EgoHanger1966]

I love all the references in this one. Especially the cello under "good vibrations caused such a sensation".

Mike's version from 2004 is pretty cool, too. His voice sounds a lot more sincere. No Carl, obviously.

You'll love the rhyming of "good vibrations" with "assasinations" in Looking Back With Love, then. 

[Aegir]

no, I mean the musical references. there's cellos in the chorus of Good Vibrations and there's cellos under the line "good vibrations caused such a sensation". I don't like lyrical references (although my favorite song on the new album is "Spring Vacation"... but that's in spite of the references).

[runnersdialzero]

I cannot understand people hating a song but loving a particular vocal on it. Or loving a song while hating a vocal on it. Recorded music does not admit such paradoxes.

It's pretty simple: You can think the song is sh*t, Mike's vocal is sh*t, but you can think Carl's part(s) is pretty well done, all things considered. How is that weird or a paradox?

An example of "Like the song, hate the vocal", for me, would be Hole's Live Through This album. I used be able to tolerate it as a whole, but then I listened to it again a couple years ago and while I still think the songwriting is good, Courtney Love's voice is f***awful on about 90% of the record and I'd give my left tit to hear someone else sing over the original tracks or, at the least, faithful covers with a singer who does not sing like Courtney Love.

They're good songs, but I don't care for the vocals. I'm not sure why that's weird or difficult to grasp.

Edit: A better, more obvious example that somehow eluded me would be just about any prominent Jeff Foskett vocal on TWGMTR.

[Autotune]

It's not a song. It's a recording. If the vocals suck, the whole thing sucks.

[runnersdialzero]

It's not a song. It's a recording. If the vocals suck, the whole thing sucks.

It's not a song?

Y'lost me, Leonard.

[EgoHanger1966]

It's not a song. It's a recording. If the vocals suck, the whole thing sucks.

It is both a song and a recording. Where does it say you can't like a certain part of a song, that you can only like all of it or hate all of it? For example, I like the melody of California Role, but I'm not so keen on the vocals in the first half. I like part of it. No law against that!

[Jukka]

I was aware of the songs reputation before I first heard it, but when I finally heard it I was... "blown away" may be pushing it, but I was genuinely impressed. Very nice and heartfelt song. Well done, Mike.

[Alex]

Belongs in the trash heap with most of Summer in Paradise...but it's so Gosh Darn catchy....WHHHHYYYYY Mike Love??!!!!! Why do you have to right such terrible songs yet fill them with irresistible hooks???!!!

[Mikie]

One of the best songs if not THE best song that Mike Love ever came up with. It's genuine and came from his heart. I love it - especially the Carl Wilson vocal on it.

I remember when I first saw Mike interviewed back in the 90's about the Brian Landy or lawsuit or whatever it was. I think it was on one of those nightly gossip shows - O'Reilly or Maury Povich or one of those guys.  It's on YouTube. Mike was all misty and choking back tears and blubbering a little bit (dunno for sure if it was intentional drama or not) and he said he'd written a song about Brian and it was "Brian's Back".  I first heard the song on vinyl back around 1980 on a Beach Boys Dick Clark radio special that I swiped from a DJ. So I think it debuted on a Dick Clark special sround that time. Then it showd up on the California Feeling vinyl boot in the 80's. Then finally released legitimately on the Endless Harmony CD with the acoustic bridge which is pretty cool.

[JanBerryFarm]

Mike is rather excellent on this song. Carl sucks, which ruins it for me.
The whole song is contrived, self-serving, trivial poop. But it's about Brian Wilson, so it needs to be enshrined.

[Ron]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQu9tR6KRo. I like the song itself and especially the vocals Carl puts in, but does anyone detect some condescension here?

Nah, not at all.  That's all Mike's got.  That's really heartfelt, for him.  It's just as bit as valid as Paul Macca's syruppiest ballad, or Al Green's sweatiest love song.  Different people are capable of different levels of expression, to Mike, this song was as intimate as he can possibly get.  He likely loves Brian as much as anybody alive, he owes his entire career to him and he knows it.  Brian's his oldest friend, as well.

[Myk Luhv]

Mike is certainly capable of writing good, if unspecific and abstracted, love songs -- I offer as evidence "Kiss Me Baby", "All I Wanna Do", and "Only With You" -- but I think his words here fail him because it's too specific. I might even charitably think the subject matter is too personal for him not to take refuge in corniness instead!

[D409]

Nice guitar work on the track from the great Jerry Donahue, good vocals from Carl, and the You Still Believe In Me tag a nice touch, but...clunky lyrics !

[Ron]

Mike is certainly capable of writing good, if unspecific and abstracted, love songs -- I offer as evidence "Kiss Me Baby", "All I Wanna Do", and "Only With You" -- but I think his words here fail him because it's too specific. I might even charitably think the subject matter is too personal for him not to take refuge in corniness instead!

Yup I believe that's the thing going on too.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Mike is rather excellent on this song. Carl sucks, which ruins it for me.
The whole song is contrived, self-serving, trivial poop. But it's about Brian Wilson, so it needs to be enshrined.

You've got strange ears, mate. Mike is excellent on this song but Carl sucks? Each to their own.

[Autotune]

It's not a song. It's a recording. If the vocals suck, the whole thing sucks.

It is both a song and a recording. Where does it say you can't like a certain part of a song, that you can only like all of it or hate all of it? For example, I like the melody of California Role, but I'm not so keen on the vocals in the first half. I like part of it. No law against that!

"I'm not so keen" ain't "I hate". Nuance is once thing, but not the extremes that some people find in different elements of a (recorded) song. But let us not turn this into a sub-thread. Peace to you.

[Amy B.]

I heard this song was bad before I heard the song itself. So when I heard it, I was pleasantly surprised that I kind of like it. It doesn't have the same effect on me as, say, one of Brian's classics, but it's a nice song. It might be best to compare it to one of McCartney's lesser efforts-- a sappy ballad where you think, "I know this isn't great, and it's pretty corny, but I'm kind of enjoying it." And I get that it's Mike's way of expressing his love and appreciation for Brian. It doesn't sound exploitative, like some of his other songs do. I don't skip the song when it comes on, although I would skip a song like "Tears in the Morning." Now, THAT, I don't like.

[Mr. Cohen]

I remember when I first saw Mike interviewed back in the 90's about the Brian Landy or lawsuit or whatever it was. I think it was on one of those nightly gossip shows - O'Reilly or Maury Povich or one of those guys.  It's on YouTube. Mike was all misty and choking back tears and blubbering a little bit (dunno for sure if it was intentional drama or not) and he said he'd written a song about Brian and it was "Brian's Back".

It was about Mike suing Brian for songwriting credits. He does the "those harmony highs [...] guess I'm just a sentimental sap" part and then starts to cry.

[Jason]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQu9tR6KRo. I like the song itself and especially the vocals Carl puts in, but does anyone detect some condescension here?

Nah, not at all.  That's all Mike's got.  That's really heartfelt, for him.  It's just as bit as valid as Paul Macca's syruppiest ballad, or Al Green's sweatiest love song.  Different people are capable of different levels of expression, to Mike, this song was as intimate as he can possibly get.  He likely loves Brian as much as anybody alive, he owes his entire career to him and he knows it.  Brian's his oldest friend, as well.

Don't forget that Michael is also Brian's biggest fan.

[oldsurferdude]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQu9tR6KRo. I like the song itself and especially the vocals Carl puts in, but does anyone detect some condescension here?

Nah, not at all.  That's all Mike's got.  That's really heartfelt, for him.  It's just as bit as valid as Paul Macca's syruppiest ballad, or Al Green's sweatiest love song.  Different people are capable of different levels of expression, to Mike, this song was as intimate as he can possibly get.  He likely loves Brian as much as anybody alive, he owes his entire career to him and he knows it.  Brian's his oldest friend, as well.

Don't forget that Michael is also Brian's biggest fan.

Myke Luhv to Brian on PET SOUNDS-"...who's gonna listen to this sh*t?" Fan? Friend?

[Gohi]

"Don't f*** with the [friend] formula!!"