New album info (as it rolls out...)

[Lowbacca]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

+1 for Joe in my book.

Could mean he wanted another "Student Demonstration Time" on the album. 

[Ziggy Stardust]

And that's how he wants to make them sound today? man..

[rocksong.flac]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*** u and f*** joe too.

[Zach95]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*ck u and f*ck joe too.

Um, excuse me? This is your third post here, and you're already on your way to getting banned.  You don't get to say stuff like that to other people on this board.

Secondly, (and I'm not quite sure why I'm even responding to this, frankly) where is that quote from? You can't really just quote something and not cite the source.

@ any moderators, um, I'm pretty sure this is not allowed and/or tolerated, right?

[SMiLE Brian]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*ck u and f*ck joe too.

Joe Thomas +1000

[Autotune]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

Um, excuse me? This is your third post here, and you're already on your way to getting banned.  You don't get to say stuff like that to other people on this board.

Secondly, (and I'm not quite sure why I'm even responding to this, frankly) where is that quote from? You can't really just quote something and not cite the source.

@ any moderators, um, I'm pretty sure this is not allowed and/or tolerated, right?

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*ck u and f*ck joe too.

Too bad your quote did not come out properly, Zach. But I'm with ya.

[Autotune]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*ck u and f*ck joe too.

Joe Thomas +1000

O'Hagan's account should be taken with a grain of salt. Brian did not care for him at all.

And he had a strong bias against the lead singer of the band he was supposed to produce.

[EgoHanger1966]

Ha. So on one account we have Joe Thomas as a huge fan of some of the critically acclaimed later period albums, and another account in which he knows nothing about the "genius" side of Brian. I guess the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Now, I hate to voice this, but it's a thought that keeps popping up in my head. Do you think Joe Thomas actually had a hand in writing all the songs he has credits on?

[SMiLE Brian]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*ck u and f*ck joe too.

Joe Thomas +1000

O'Hagan's account should be taken with a grain of salt. Brian did not care for him at all.

And he had a strong bias against the lead singer of the band he was supposed to produce.

Brian wasn't interested in working with a knock-off artist like O'Hagan, and was creeped out by him personally.

[Wirestone]

The direct source. Joe knew more than people give him credit for:

'When asked to compare his style of producing Brian to that of Andy Paley, Joe Thomas responds, “I think that Andy more comes from that historical perspective than I do. I mean he knows a lot more about the way Brian recorded stuff back in the ‘60s. I know they use a lot of the same musicians like Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine. When I listen to the stuff that Andy has done with Brian in the past, I think there’s more of that group mentality. I’ve got my guys that I really like. And the fact is that right now, I also don’t like to record with a lot of people in the room at the same time. My reasoning is that I just can’t keep track of what’s going on. I think it’s a different way of recording that Brian likes this time around. Brian thinks very conceptually and he’s definitely thematic. I think he’s on one tangent and I think the course that’ll probably happen is that he’ll go through a Joe Thomas phase and maybe we’ll do one more album or two more albums together and... God bless him. I’m just proud to be part of this phase.”

'When told about Brian’s interest in doing a rock and roll record next time around, Thomas replied, “Oh yeah, we came up with about 3 or 4 real rockin’ things. He likes that really crunchy guitar and the big heavy moog bass. So we’ve got a couple of things down. We’ve got 2 or 3 gems there that are really uptempo and slammin’. We recorded like 20 songs for Imagination, and I think he feels kind of guilty that some of the songs didn’t make it. There’s so much stuff that we recorded, and I really have to convince people that the reason some of the songs didn’t get on the album weren’t because they weren’t as good as the songs on the album. They just weren’t conceptual, they weren’t as thematic. So we’ve got a good kick start. There’s eight songs recorded and I’d say four of those songs would fit easily on a new Brian Wilson album. It’s funny too, when we did Imagination, Brian was thinking with the Beach Boys in mind. Even though it was a solo record, that could have easily been a Beach Boys record.” Asked what his favorite Beach Boys album is, Thomas gladly offers, “Surf’s Up was a gem. I gotta tell ya’, as much as everybody—and I’m one them—loves Pet Sounds, my favorite Beach Boys’ album of all time is Surf’s Up. I just was blown away by it, I couldn’t believe it. Sunflower is another one of my favorites.”

http://www.mwe3.com/archive/pastfeature/featurebrianwilson1998.htm

[Zach95]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

Um, excuse me? This is your third post here, and you're already on your way to getting banned.  You don't get to say stuff like that to other people on this board.

Secondly, (and I'm not quite sure why I'm even responding to this, frankly) where is that quote from? You can't really just quote something and not cite the source.

@ any moderators, um, I'm pretty sure this is not allowed and/or tolerated, right?

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*ck u and f*ck joe too.

Too bad your quote did not come out properly, Zach. But I'm with ya.

Fixed, thanks Lenny.

[rocksong.flac]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*ck u and f*ck joe too.

Joe Thomas +1000

O'Hagan's account should be taken with a grain of salt. Brian did not care for him at all.

And he had a strong bias against the lead singer of the band he was supposed to produce.

Brian wasn't interested in working with a knock-off artist like O'Hagan, and was creeped out by him personally.

Bruce Johnston: "Brian was a little intimidated by Sean, in the same way that Gershwin may have been intimidated by Oscar Levant."

Oh, and in regards to having a 'strong bias' against the lead singer, maybe this had something to do with it: "Mike Love was less than hospitable. "He called me a f****t straight away, because I'm from England. 'You're all f*ggots,' he said. I was stunned. "

[SMiLE Brian]

Here's a question:

How much does Joe Thomas know about Brian and The Beach Boys' history, and their catalog of music? I'm geniunely interested.

A great deal. His favorite album of theirs is Surf's Up, followed IIRC, by Sunflower.

+1 for Joe in my book.

"It was during this period that Brian was being coerced away from Andy Paley (by wife Melinda, according to observers), toward Joe Thomas, a former WBA wrestler, co-founder of the Adult Contemporary stronghold, River North Records, and producer of, as O'Hagan puts it, "real right-wing country artists." Wilson's lack of interest in the O'Hagan project manifested itself at dinner that night.

"I could already tell it was never going to happen," says O'Hagan. "The whole thing was absurd. As far as I can see, Joe Thomas hasn't got a clue about Brian Wilson or his legacy. It's all just 'Little Deuce Coupe' to him. He wanted Brian to make a big Eighties ballad record, all cavernous snares. He kept referring to Brian's potential as an Adult Contemporary crossover artist. I sad, 'Don't you realize Brian Wilson is essentially a 20th-century avant-garde pop genius?' And he went, 'Avant-garde? Not the Brian Wilson I know' "


f*ck u and f*ck joe too.

Joe Thomas +1000

O'Hagan's account should be taken with a grain of salt. Brian did not care for him at all.

And he had a strong bias against the lead singer of the band he was supposed to produce.

Brian wasn't interested in working with a knock-off artist like O'Hagan, and was creeped out by him personally.

Bruce Johnston: "Brian was a little intimidated by Sean, in the same way that Gershwin may have been intimidated by Oscar Levant."

Oh, and in regards to having a 'strong bias' against the lead singer, maybe this had something to do with it: "Mike Love was less than hospitable. "He called me a blueboarder straight away, because I'm from England. 'You're all blueboarders,' he said. I was stunned. "

Sean is no angel, here is this board's thread on this topic
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9255.0.html

[Ron]

That blurb from Joe that Wirestone posted makes me really like the guy.  He even says that Brian might only feel like working with him for a little while... he says that the other producer is better than he is.  He says that he keeps things simple because it's all he's capable of doing.  He seems like he really knows his place, IMHO. 


Also, since when does everything have to be perfect?  If Brian wants his next door neighbor to produce his album because they're good friends and they get along well, what's the problem?  Sure, he's capable of better, but maybe he doesn't feel like being a genius this time around. 

[Chocolate Shake Man]

I hear that's what Einstein said after he published his theory on hot wings and beer.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I really feel down when i think of what happened to The Beach Boys late 80's and during the 90's and 00's

i won't say name coz' then people will just say that i'm a h8terrr boii, but spending all of this time reaching out for more money when, i'm sure you already have plenty, by doing silly hits such as Kokomo or Wipe Out and filing a lawsuit against your cousin while keeping him out of the band (at least out of the most songwritting part), while you could just do it all again and focusing on art and music, and the talent Brian Wilson still has..
i mean, can you picture Love And Mercy done and recorded along with the rest of The Beach Boys ? their voices harmonizing on the background of that great ballad and Carl Wilson doing beautiful lead on it.. i don't know how people feel about Your Imagination around here, but i like some parts of it (the song that has the same title would have been an great single for the band, and Lay Down Burden is wonderful) and i heard Brian did it with the Beach Boys in mind.

And that album with High Llamas, man that would have been the top of the top.. and what about That Lucky Old Sun ? another very good record that would been great with The Beach Boys and made us all forgot about Still Cruisin', Summer In Paradise and all those useless dumb songs that failed and that we wished never happened..

Well, now they're finally back together, but it is different.. i guess the album is gonna be nice, sounds like, even tho i rather have another producer on it, but oh well.. i somehow hope it's the last one, but i somehow hope not and that Brian will come back and offer them something as cool as That Lucky Old Sun.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Well, now they're finally back together, but it is different.. i guess the album is gonna be nice, sounds like, even tho i rather have another producer on it, but oh well.. i somehow hope it's the last one, but i somehow hope not and that Brian will come back and offer them something as cool as That Lucky Old Sun.

I get the feeling that Brian would have never been able to make an album like That Lucky Old Sun with The Beach Boys, which is a damn shame. The last time Brian had any real control over an entire Beach Boys album was 15 Big Ones and before that it was probably Friends --> two albums in 44 years. And this is the 50th anniversary. Something interesting to consider.

[Aegir]

'When told about Brian’s interest in doing a rock and roll record next time around, Thomas replied, “Oh yeah, we came up with about 3 or 4 real rockin’ things. He likes that really crunchy guitar and the big heavy moog bass. So we’ve got a couple of things down. We’ve got 2 or 3 gems there that are really uptempo and slammin’.

The rock and roll album! man, Brian's never gonna get to do this rock and roll album he's been wanting to do for so long.

[b00ts]

'When told about Brian’s interest in doing a rock and roll record next time around, Thomas replied, “Oh yeah, we came up with about 3 or 4 real rockin’ things. He likes that really crunchy guitar and the big heavy moog bass. So we’ve got a couple of things down. We’ve got 2 or 3 gems there that are really uptempo and slammin’.

The rock and roll album! man, Brian's never gonna get to do this rock and roll album he's been wanting to do for so long.

The fact that Thomas mentioned the Moog bass circa 1999 is very interesting because it shows that Brian never lost his love for that sound. It also shows that Joe Thomas gets Brian more than many of us give him credit for.

I guess Brian doesn't have a lot of control over what actually comes out. It makes sense because, wife and managers and Beach Boys aside, it is not as easy to get funding for a major-label project nowadays, and paying all the people who are necessary for a Brian Wilson record - meaning the large band - must add to the burden.

It would be great if Brian would release more demos and rough tracks via the internet. Just bang out songs in his bedroom and pop 'em up online.

[Catbirdman]

As is my wont, I'll start this off with disclaimers (not that I need to, as I've learned... but why break the habit of a lifetime?). My apologies in advance for:
1. Being intoxicated (and if spelling/grammar/syntax doesn't betray this fact, well, that's because I'm anal about this sort of thing)
2. I haven't read this board since sometime yesterday (um, make that 2 days ago seeing as how it's now the wee hours of today, scratch that, tomorrow), and even that was just for a hot second

With that out of the way, I will say: I have skimmed this page, whereupon I am posting this here post, and I see talk of Sean O'Hagan vs./avec Mr. Joe Thomas... and naturally I feel moved to pontificate:

My opinion (and my asshole agrees) is this:
1. Sean is (or was, back in 1995) a tiny cog, with two pence in his pocket, a nobody, a Bloo-boarder, but young and not without talent, and all hail, because he has made me cry (what with his goats and bubbly synths), back when I too was younger, and being young and scruffy-bearded (as I picture him, stereo-lab-typing as I lazily do, all hipsters everywhere), he had his finger on a Pulse, and as such, he was a Midas of the mid-90s, with the promise of channeling Brian's inner soul-trip to Hawaii in his RV... which Brian had long since ditched.
2. Joe is (back then, and still is today, equally) a TNT, must-see TV, Aaron Spelling yesteryear heavyweight with balls and cred like you wouldn't want to f*ck with, and have a seat, end of. He, I imagine, was and is well-hung, hanging with the Solid Gold dancers, and could have produced Carl Wilson's solo albums in place of Steely Dan. He NEVER knew the Pulse, in ANY generation, but no matter: he bought/worked (both!) his way to the table, and make no mistake: HE IS NOT WITHOUT TALENT either. So there.
3. Joe wins. And what's more painful for me to say is this: Joe is... [ouch] ...better... [my guts are aching and my eyes are red] ...for the Beach Boys. Sean held open a window for Brian perhaps (had Brian taken to him, which he clearly did NOT), but for the Beach Boys at large, um, no. In my (moon)dreams.
4. I don't have to like it.

Yeah. So, anyway - the point of my whole post was this:
Holy crap!  I was just surfing the "Internet" looking for (stuff that absolutely nobody cares about but me), and (for reasons that nobody cares about), I googled "Brian Wilson Pacific Coast Highway" and came up with this:

http://oldielyrics.com/lyrics/beach_boys/pacific_coast_highway.html

How/Why the does the Internet know of these lyrics?

Interesting in any case. And I quite like them. Very much in fact. Kind of like a take on "California Slide," but artlessly literary and self-aware. I DIG these lyrics, if I dare say. Without disclaimers even.

[Christian]

Holy crap!  I was just surfing the "Internet" looking for (stuff that absolutely nobody cares about but me), and (for reasons that nobody cares about), I googled "Brian Wilson Pacific Coast Highway" and came up with this:

http://oldielyrics.com/lyrics/beach_boys/pacific_coast_highway.html

How/Why the does the Internet know of these lyrics?

Different song! These lyrics belong to The Mamas & Papas´ "Pacific Coast Highway", released on their "People Like Us" album.

[SloopJohnB]

Holy crap!  I was just surfing the "Internet" looking for (stuff that absolutely nobody cares about but me), and (for reasons that nobody cares about), I googled "Brian Wilson Pacific Coast Highway" and came up with this:

http://oldielyrics.com/lyrics/beach_boys/pacific_coast_highway.html

How/Why the does the Internet know of these lyrics?

Interesting in any case. And I quite like them. Very much in fact. Kind of like a take on "California Slide," but artlessly literary and self-aware. I DIG these lyrics, if I dare say. Without disclaimers even.

1 - none of the lyrics heard in the amazon/iTunes snippets can be seen in the lyrics in that link and
2 - the writer is "John Phillips".

These are pretty big hints.



Edit: Christian's been faster than me

[debonbon]

The direct source. Joe knew more than people give him credit for:

'When asked to compare his style of producing Brian to that of Andy Paley, Joe Thomas responds, “I think that Andy more comes from that historical perspective than I do. I mean he knows a lot more about the way Brian recorded stuff back in the ‘60s. I know they use a lot of the same musicians like Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine. When I listen to the stuff that Andy has done with Brian in the past, I think there’s more of that group mentality. I’ve got my guys that I really like. And the fact is that right now, I also don’t like to record with a lot of people in the room at the same time. My reasoning is that I just can’t keep track of what’s going on. I think it’s a different way of recording that Brian likes this time around. Brian thinks very conceptually and he’s definitely thematic. I think he’s on one tangent and I think the course that’ll probably happen is that he’ll go through a Joe Thomas phase and maybe we’ll do one more album or two more albums together and... God bless him. I’m just proud to be part of this phase.”

'When told about Brian’s interest in doing a rock and roll record next time around, Thomas replied, “Oh yeah, we came up with about 3 or 4 real rockin’ things. He likes that really crunchy guitar and the big heavy moog bass. So we’ve got a couple of things down. We’ve got 2 or 3 gems there that are really uptempo and slammin’. We recorded like 20 songs for Imagination, and I think he feels kind of guilty that some of the songs didn’t make it. There’s so much stuff that we recorded, and I really have to convince people that the reason some of the songs didn’t get on the album weren’t because they weren’t as good as the songs on the album. They just weren’t conceptual, they weren’t as thematic. So we’ve got a good kick start. There’s eight songs recorded and I’d say four of those songs would fit easily on a new Brian Wilson album. It’s funny too, when we did Imagination, Brian was thinking with the Beach Boys in mind. Even though it was a solo record, that could have easily been a Beach Boys record.” Asked what his favorite Beach Boys album is, Thomas gladly offers, “Surf’s Up was a gem. I gotta tell ya’, as much as everybody—and I’m one them—loves Pet Sounds, my favorite Beach Boys’ album of all time is Surf’s Up. I just was blown away by it, I couldn’t believe it. Sunflower is another one of my favorites.”

http://www.mwe3.com/archive/pastfeature/featurebrianwilson1998.htm

I still love the Paley stuff, more than anything official. I'd kill for a really nice quality version of the songs.

[Catbirdman]

1 - none of the lyrics heard in the amazon/iTunes snippets can be seen in the lyrics in that link and
2 - the writer is "John Phillips".

These are pretty big hints.

Yes, huge hints, and I even own that album! What can I say, I was drunk. Speaking of the man, I love his solo album - that Wolf King of L.A. thing, as I suppose it's known.

[Ron]

I hear that's what Einstein said after he published his theory on hot wings and beer.

His theory of relativity still covers it.