Andy Paley passes away

[Don Malcolm]

https://variety.com/2024/music/news/andy-paley-brian-wilson-collaborator-spongebob-dead-1236216365/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYJDVNmpT2_TJsEVCQF6MD5xCTP6z8EqC7WRAnR7HaBEVChopfBB8Uwq5o_aem_-3N9YOLtx_8ISPZhZfk4eg

Apparently a fast-moving form of cancer took hold recently; Andy was 72.

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

RIP. Was so sorry to hear this.

[Acechaser]

Another surprising death within Brian's personal/professional circle - how sad.  Andy Paley seems to have been a great and talented guy.  

[Rocker]

Such a great talent. R. I. P.

[jeremylr]

Andy's widow Heather Crist has been documenting his cancer struggle and its aftermath on Substack since November 8 and divulged that Brian briefly got on the phone with Andy as the end drew near. Andy was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer of the throat in July, endured radiation, declared cancer free in September, but by late October the cancer had metastasized and spread to his lungs, ribs, liver, and sacrum.

https://heathercrist.substack.com/

From Heather's Nov. 21 Rendezvous post: "Brian Wilson called (or at least, Brian’s friend Gloria called and put Brian on the phone) and I swear I saw Andy try to smile when Brian kept saying his name."

https://heathercrist.substack.com/p/rendezvous

[Bedroom Tapes]

RIP.  I do know that there's still quite a few Wilson/Paley songs that have not seen the light of day and hope they get released in a nice way.  It's a very intriguing period in Brian's solo career IMO. 

[jeremylr]

While Brian's still with us it would definitely be nice to get an archival package together compiling all of his collaborations with Andy. Do we know what the last session was that they did together?

[FreakySmiley]

Rest in peace, Mr. Paley. Warm wishes for his family. Such an under-appreciated figure in the BBs sphere.

[juggler]

Can't remember where I read it, but a long time ago, some interlocutor said to Andy, "You and Brian did a lot of demos that remain unreleased."  Andy corrected the person, saying something along the lines of "Brian and I did a lot of *masters* that remain unreleased."

[HeyJude]

There are a few threads over the years where we hashed out the semantics of calling the Andy/Brian tracks “demos.” I don’t have a problem calling them demos, and the degree to which anybody should have ever been offended by them being called demos would depend entirely on what someone means when they call them that.

Here’s some of what I wrote in an old post:

The definition of "Demo" is certainly murky. I would certainly weigh the stated artist intention heavily. Ultimately, the term means the recording is for "demonstration" purposes, and anything from a scratchy home demo to a full studio production can serve this purpose. Technically, if Paley and Brian were cutting some studio tracks that they intended for the Beach Boys to finish (and even planned to play a collection of the songs *to* the Beach Boys to get their opinion), I don't think it would be out of line to say those tracks certainly *served* as demos in some sense. So if, for instance, there is a Paley backing track and Brian/Paley vocals on a version of "You're Still a Mystery" that we haven't heard, I'd kind of call that a demo in light of the "finished" version having a Was backing track recorded later and all-new vocals recorded.

I totally buy that Paley felt he was cutting masters, not demos. I also buy that, as Paley said in an interview, the Beach Boys could have simply cut vocals on top of those tracks in a day or two and released that as an album. I'm not 100% sure what Brian thought, or if he thought about *that* aspect of it one way or another too much. (Ironically, during Brian's sessions with Gary Usher in 1986 they had the opposite problem; Brian thought they were cutting "masters" while Usher was very clear that those recordings were demos, and at one point mentions how much he's worried that Brian has the wrong impression about what they're recording).

In the case of the Paley tracks, the songs could have used so much additional work in some cases that I guess I'm not sure what to call them. Not that I really *need* to call them anything particularly. I've never gone around calling them "Demos" either; I don't think that's the most accurate term to use. I usually just call it the "Paley Sessions" or the "Paley tracks" or whatever. The only time I usually cite "Demo" is to point out the interesting factoid that Paley seemed offended that someone else would call them demos. I don't think someone listening to the recordings and assuming the recordings are high quality studio demos is a particularly outlandish assumption.

Maybe they fall somewhere in the realm of the "Lucky Old Sun" demos, where the tracks are recorded in some sense for "demonstration" purposes, but are also used as the basis for the finished product.

[All Summer Long]

RIP Andy Paley.  I guess this will be the ultimate motivation for me to finally check out more of Brian and Andy's sessions.

[Acechaser]

Now that Andy has passed, who (if anyone) would be appropriate to review/edit a Wilson Paley compilation for release?  Darian?   

[Bedroom Tapes]

Perhaps Linett/Boyd too.  They seem to have everything BB related.

[jeremylr]

Andy's memorial service will be livestreamed on Facebook tomorrow, December 8, at 2:15 p.m. EST.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1766687660762377

[jeremylr]

Filling in the blanks a little further.....

https://heathercrist.substack.com/p/the-eulogy
Written by Andy's widow Heather Crist (although they were separated, she was Andy's primary caregiver)

"Brian Wilson called that last day too. Brian didn’t make the call but his assistant put him on the phone and he kept saying, 'Andy! This is Brian! This is Brian Wilson! I love you Andy!'

"And the nurse kept telling us that hearing is the last to go, and I know that on Andy's last day he heard Brian telling him he loved him, he heard Lenny Kaye serenading him, and at the end, he heard us telling him we loved him and playing his favorite songs. The last song he heard was 'Clouds Are Rolling Away,' which Mandy Barnett sang at our wedding, and he heard that recording again as he died."



Another interesting passage from Crist's December 10 "Eulogy" short story on Substack......

"Shortly after I met Andy [in August 2009], he introduced me to his friend Seymour Stein. We had dinner at Mandarette, one of Seymour’s go-to restaurants in LA – and after dinner, Andy went to get the car to pick up Seymour and me at the front door. This gave us some time alone.

"Seymour leaned over and asked if I’d met Brian Wilson yet – I said no.

"Seymour said, 'Andy and Brian are a lot alike.' He said they both had a childlike sense of wonder and that was where their talent came from. He also said it would make Andy a wonderful parent. And he was right about that – especially when the boys were little. They both have incredible imaginations and I credit Andy for that, for all the make believe and silly games he played with them when they were little, and the comedy bits he did with them in recent years."

[Jim V.]

It's nice to hear that Brian was there in his own way for his friend.

And Andy really did seem like an absolutely wonderful guy. I feel blessed to to have heard just some of the wonderful work that he did with Brian. And I don't want to make it about us, the listener, but hopefully at some point, more of the Brian/Paley stuff gets released. They did some great work together and it deserves more attention in my opinion.

[juggler]

"Brian Wilson called that last day too. Brian didn’t make the call but his assistant put him on the phone and he kept saying, 'Andy! This is Brian! This is Brian Wilson! I love you Andy!'

I'm not crying. You're crying.