Brianisms Appreciation Thread

[TdHabib]

It was Don Henley, who was reportedly nonplussed.

[Mr. Cohen]

I looked up nonplussed in the dictionary, and man, what a terrible word. Look at this definition:

    *
      (of a person) Surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react
          o
            he would be completely nonplussed and embarrassed at the idea
    *
      (of a person) Not disconcerted; unperturbed


So it can have nearly opposite meanings. Nice. I realize that most people use it in the way it is defined in the first definition, but still. That's funny to me.

[BJL]

I remembered it being about a male songwriter...could be wrong though.  As I recall AGD knows the identity of the person in question.

Either way though, absolutely hilarious!  This is an excellent thread, Brian is the unintentional king of one-liners.

I dont know about unintentional...I think brian knows he's funny!  I mean, he did at one point talk about doing whole albums of humor. 

[Chris Brown]

I remembered it being about a male songwriter...could be wrong though.  As I recall AGD knows the identity of the person in question.

Either way though, absolutely hilarious!  This is an excellent thread, Brian is the unintentional king of one-liners.

I dont know about unintentional...I think brian knows he's funny!  I mean, he did at one point talk about doing whole albums of humor. 

Oh I agree that Brian does know that he's funny and likes to joke around, but a lot of these quotes that we've been sharing seem more likely to be the product of just blurting out what's on his mind at that exact second out loud.  Either way, the man is ridiculously funny, so let's keep the quotes coming!

[Pretty Funky]

Heard this one myself at a signing for 'Pet Sounds Live' in Sydney. Brian walks in past a line of 200 or so people applauding, sits down and just as the store goes quiet he lets out a very loud 'I really don't want to be here' type groan. 

[Ron]

Don Henley, lol that's interesting.  Oh well would have been better if it was a chick.

I like Don Henley though.  He's pretty damn great. 

[Mike's Beard]

Don has an ego that makes Mike's seem meek and humble by comparison so that exchange must have been priceless!

[Custom Machine]

From my October 09 interview with him:

What do think you have in common with Gershwin? Do you feel any connection with him?

Not really a connection, no I don't.

You've released quite a few albums and DVDs over the last 10 years. What's inspired you to be so productive?

Well, my synthesizer sounds so good that it makes me write good songs.

Classic BW!  Where can I find this interview.  Did you (hopefully) include the above?

[Andrew G. Doe]

I looked up nonplussed in the dictionary, and man, what a terrible word. Look at this definition:

    *
      (of a person) Surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react
          o
            he would be completely nonplussed and embarrassed at the idea
    *
      (of a person) Not disconcerted; unperturbed


So it can have nearly opposite meanings. Nice. I realize that most people use it in the way it is defined in the first definition, but still. That's funny to me.

Trust me, Henley stood there looking like someone had just rear-ended his new car. 

[Don_Zabu]

This immortal clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1EPXBQV3yM

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Going from memory on these...


Late 80s- "I don't care for heavy metal.  Well, I like Joan Jett's heavy metal (!)... I don't see a change ever happening...it's going to be heavy metal for the rest of time" (as a sidenote, 80s metal would die out a few years later)

Unknown (think this was from the Landy era)
"Music's like food, you know? Real good, spiritual food. That's what the music is like".

This was from  an interview  about 15 years ago, promoting IJWMFTT.

"I don't listen to my own music at all. It's like musical masturbation [shakes fist in an up and down manner], just lying in bed masturbating to my own music. I don't care to do that too much."

My personal favorite, 23 Oct 2004, Houston, TX...

BW: Wasn't that a great song?
Audience: Yayyyy.
BW: So now I'm going to do my cigarette lighter joke.  Everybody take out your lighters...
Me (yelling from Row G) : But I just quit smoking!!!!
(laughter from the audience, followed by awkward silence)
BW: I guess that's good. Heh. Ok, the next song is...

To this day, I still everytime I think about that. Like how Brian kinda played it off (was I THAT loud?!).

edit

I got that year wrong. Obviously it was 2004, not 2009!

[Andrew G. Doe]

This immortal clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1EPXBQV3yM

Classic... when Dennis is the most together Wilson on stage, you just know you've got a band in deep doo doo.

[The Heartical Don]

From memory, Pet Sounds Live In London, RFH:

BW is dressed in black, very cool, not his usual trainers, sneakers, and long-sleeve T-shirt stuff. He's the real gentleman on stage. Then it's time for 'Let's Go Away For Awhile'. A brief silence. He announces the song:

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, an instrumental..."

(nothing unusual)

"...that means: a song without words."

Well, that was a real eye opener, of course...

[Magic Transistor Radio]

"Beautiful dreamer wake. BDW. Brian Douglas Wilson. That's Me!"

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I love that one.

[The Heartical Don]

Or this one:

Brian is a guest at the popular TV show 'Today's Sound Today', hosted by MC Doc Oggilbie

Oggilbie: 'What pleasure to have you on the show tonight, Brian! I've ordered some doughnuts and a diet Coke for you, is that OK?

Brian: 'Very good, mr. Oggilbie... delicious indeed!'

Oggilbie: 'Brian, it's a special event that the 'Love You Box Set' sees the light of day this week. Wanna say something about it?'

Brian: 'Yes. It was in the days of '15 Big Ones', that I found the inspiration for the original 'Love You' album. It entered my mind that I might compose some music in primitive style whilst I was reading Friedrich Nietzsche's 'Die Geburt Der Tragödie (Aus Dem Geiste Der Musik)', a book that describes, amongst may other things of an intellectual nature, how out of primitive cultural rituals such as sacrifices, coupled with basic and exciting rhythms, eventually the great ancient Greek dramas materialized, such as Sophocles' 'Oedipus Rex' and 'Antigone'. I thought: I can emulate that complex process by creating superficially simple and synthesizer-driven music, which nevertheless contains a wide array of human emotions, and which may be supplemented by numerous indications of developmental lapses in the human psyche. My basic outline was definitely enriched by my reading of Michel Foucault's 'Les Mots Et Les Choses', a milestone in postmodernism, full of excellent analyses of the invisible power structures that govern our lives. Furthermore, Jaques Derrida's writings added to my concept, in that his structuralist vision provided elegant overtones to my material; I first had to understand, however, why Derrida disagreed with psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan on several crucial points in their discours'

Oggilbie: 'eh, yes, Brian, the audience will be glad you told us this, I think time is runn...'

Brian: '...mr. Oggilbie, but I am not finished yet. The influence of music on the reward centers in the human brain, the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area still need to be clarified for our attendees, not to mention the polygenic and pleiotropic genetic influences on the auditory system; and also fMRI scan results of persons who are exposed to the music of that 'Love You' album...'

(Floormanager makes cut-throat gesture; screen goes to black.)

[Mike's Beard]

Didn't he cut a rather loud, smelly one at the R&RHOF Dinner, to which he exclaimed jubilantly "Hey, I just farted!"

[Myk Luhv]

Or this one:

Brian is a guest at the popular TV show 'Today's Sound Today', hosted by MC Doc Oggilbie

Oggilbie: 'What pleasure to have you on the show tonight, Brian! I've ordered some doughnuts and a diet Coke for you, is that OK?

Brian: 'Very good, mr. Oggilbie... delicious indeed!'

Oggilbie: 'Brian, it's a special event that the 'Love You Box Set' sees the light of day this week. Wanna say something about it?'

Brian: 'Yes. It was in the days of '15 Big Ones', that I found the inspiration for the original 'Love You' album. It entered my mind that I might compose some music in primitive style whilst I was reading Friedrich Nietzsche's 'Die Geburt Der Tragödie (Aus Dem Geiste Der Musik)', a book that describes, amongst may other things of an intellectual nature, how out of primitive cultural rituals such as sacrifices, coupled with basic and exciting rhythms, eventually the great ancient Greek dramas materialized, such as Sophocles' 'Oedipus Rex' and 'Antigone'. I thought: I can emulate that complex process by creating superficially simple and synthesizer-driven music, which nevertheless contains a wide array of human emotions, and which may be supplemented by numerous indications of developmental lapses in the human psyche. My basic outline was definitely enriched by my reading of Michel Foucault's 'Les Mots Et Les Choses', a milestone in postmodernism, full of excellent analyses of the invisible power structures that govern our lives. Furthermore, Jaques Derrida's writings added to my concept, in that his structuralist vision provided elegant overtones to my material; I first had to understand, however, why Derrida disagreed with psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan on several crucial points in their discours'

Oggilbie: 'eh, yes, Brian, the audience will be glad you told us this, I think time is runn...'

Brian: '...mr. Oggilbie, but I am not finished yet. The influence of music on the reward centers in the human brain, the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area still need to be clarified for our attendees, not to mention the polygenic and pleiotropic genetic influences on the auditory system; and also fMRI scan results of persons who are exposed to the music of that 'Love You' album...'

(Floormanager makes cut-throat gesture; screen goes to black.)

what the f*** is this

[markcharles75]

Heartical Don

That was brilliant.  Philosophy major also I take it?  If so, I shake hands with thee.

[The Heartical Don]

Heartical Don

That was brilliant.  Philosophy major also I take it?  If so, I shake hands with thee.

Thank you!! I really was curious how an inversion of reality would work out... a down-to-earth host, and a very, very verbal Brian Wilson. Glad you appreciate my spoof.

Actually, I am a M. Sc. in Neurobiology, with a firm interest in philosophy. Long ago I devoured Karl Popper (logical, given my study), and then others followed: Nietzsche, Hume, Wittgenstein, well, you'll know them. Still, I shake your hand with great pleasure!

[Mr. Cohen]

Here's one from a radio interview in the early 80s:

Interviewer: A lot of fans were surprised when you released Love You. What were your feelings about releasing a record like that under the Beach Boys name?

Brian: Love You? Well, you see, we first have to recognize how punk was Zeitgeist, "the spirit of the times". It's funny, to use such a German word for something that arose out of ennui, isn't it? It sprang the boredom of the bourgeoisie. [Brian laughs] Humor is spiritual, I always say.

Well, ss I was writing the songs for the album, I was doing it with one eye fervently watching how groups like the Ramones were reappropriating the simplicity of early rock, which had fallen out of favor in the mid-70s amid a slew of progressive rock bands, such as Genesis and Pink Floyd. In fact, we did some music in that style when we released Holland. Anyway, back to punk music. There was a certain degree of irony present in Punk music. They were interpreting the innocence of the early 60s through a prism of cynicism. That juxtaposition made for a powerful statement, while at the same indicating that youth were still essentially the same as they had been 15 or so years ago. Except, of course, for the fact that their amps were turned up a little higher. There was no room for illusion. It was in your face.


So, I thought, why not give the Beach Boys music that sort of treatment? I myself had been made cynical by the last decade or so. With that album, I made the phrase "the Beach Boys" a true idiom. We were men, with hoarse, gravelly voices and pedophilic tendencies. What better way to make that changes clear than by placing it with songs that were compositionally similar to our earlier material? The arrangements of the songs, with the extensive of Moog, was like me winking at you, but you not be quite sure if I really did wink. So you're not sure if I'm in on the joke or not, but you suspect something is up.

But I'm not really verbal, so take that explaination with a grain of salt and a dash of cocaine. Whooooo!

[Menace Wilson]

From Beautiful Dreamer (paraphrasing):

Interviewer: "Brian, what did you do in that tent you built in your house?"

BW: "....ate sandwiches."

[The Heartical Don]

Here's one from a radio interview in the early 80s:

Interviewer: A lot of fans were surprised when you released Love You. What were your feelings about releasing a record like that under the Beach Boys name?

Brian: Love You? Well, you see, we first have to recognize how punk was Zeitgeist, "the spirit of the times". It's funny, to use such a German word for something that arose out of ennui, isn't it? It sprang the boredom of the bourgeoisie. [Brian laughs] Humor is spiritual, I always say.

Well, ss I was writing the songs for the album, I was doing it with one eye fervently watching how groups like the Ramones were reappropriating the simplicity of early rock, which had fallen out of favor in the mid-70s amid a slew of progressive rock bands, such as Genesis and Pink Floyd. In fact, we did some music in that style when we released Holland. Anyway, back to punk music. There was a certain degree of irony present in Punk music. They were interpreting the innocence of the early 60s through a prism of cynicism. That juxtaposition made for a powerful statement, while at the same indicating that youth were still essentially the same as they had been 15 or so years ago. Except, of course, for the fact that their amps were turned up a little higher. There was no room for illusion. It was in your face.


So, I thought, why not give the Beach Boys music that sort of treatment? I myself had been made cynical by the last decade or so. With that album, I made the phrase "the Beach Boys" a true idiom. We were men, with hoarse, gravelly voices and pedophilic tendencies. What better way to make that changes clear than by placing it with songs that were compositionally similar to our earlier material? The arrangements of the songs, with the extensive of Moog, was like me winking at you, but you not be quite sure if I really did wink. So you're not sure if I'm in on the joke or not, but you suspect something is up.

But I'm not really verbal, so take that explaination with a grain of salt and a dash of cocaine. Whooooo!

  now it is my turn to hand out the kudos... great job, well done!

[Myk Luhv]

From a mid-'60s interview:

Interviewer: There has been a change recently in the music of the Beach Boys. Their mastermind, Brian Wilson, is here with us now to discuss what might have precipitated a seemingly about-face from the teen anthems of "I Get Around" to compositions like "Good Vibrations" and especially the forthcoming album entitled SMiLE. Welcome to the show, Brian.

Brian Wlson: Thank you for having me.

Interviewer: Can you explain to us what motivated your curious musical trajectory, especially the off-the-beaten-path mystique of SMiLE? There is no doubt that both songs like "Don't Worry Baby" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" are fantastic, but there is a certain... 'I know not what' about this new material that we, the listeners, are astounded with; can you elaborate upon this?

BW: Well, you see, I had known I was doing something real good musically for a while now, something I'd think people would feel nice about! One day, then, as I was reading fragments from the 19th century German philosopher Novalis's notebooks, I came across something that totally blew my mind! He said, "The world must be romanticized. Then one will again find the original sense. Romanticizing is nothing more than a qualitative involution. In this operation the lower self is identified with a better self. In the same manner we are such a qualitative series of powers. This operation is still completely unknown. When I give the commonplace a higher meaning, the customary a mysterious appearance, the known the dignity of the unknown, the finite the illusion of the infinite, I romanticize it. The operation is the converse for the higher, unknown, mystical, and infinite; through this connection it becomes logarithimized. It receives a customary expression. Romantic philosophy. Lingua romama. Reciprocal elevation and debasement." And that hit me, you know? I went, "Wow, that guy is saying something I can really dig!"

Interviewer: Could you maybe explain that a little bit? I don't think Tiger Beat readers are especially well-versed in 19th century philosophy -- certainly not German, at any rate.

BW: Sure, well, I'll tell you what I got out of this. I thought Novalis was saying that the world we live in and the divine we believe in should not be distinct, basically. I thought that was groovy because it really emphasizes the unmediated connection humans have with God. Spirituality is important for us in The Beach Boys, and I do think that God is suffused throughout music, expressed in multifarious ways -- as if He were the white light refracted through Newton's prism, presented as a wondrous array of expressivity we can comprehend! I think SMiLE will be a hell of a record when we're finished, and I think if he were around Novalis would dig it too. He also said, in Pollen, that "Many books are longer than they seem. In fact, they have no end. The boredom they generateis absolute and infinite. [. . .] This is a pot into which everyone can throw their own example." I think that's true of music too, and I really hope no one feels that way about our new LP; I just want everyone to dig the cool music and great tunes above all else!

Interviewer: That is deeply felt, Brian, thank you. I'm sure no one could ever think such a sensitive young man was capable of releasing an album of such transcendence that is boring; you don't have to worry. Thank you again for your time.

BW: My pleasure, thank you.

[summerinparadise.flac]

"Always up, always up. Drinking, cocaine...the works. [Pause and shrugs] Throw me in jail."