Van Dyke Barks

[Amy B.]

Well, for those who were complaining that VDP was being too vague in his tweets, he lays it out in the article.  

So VDP wants more recognition for the music of SMiLE, not just the lyrics? Um..ok.

He thinks Melinda purposely diminished him to let Brian have all the credit? Melinda ain't the writer and director.  

Mocking Brian for mispronouncing the cellist's name? Kind of a low blow.

VDP's tweets continue to suggest that he hasn't yet seen the movie, so I don't see where he can make a sound argument. The movie is not about him and it wouldn't really fit to highlight his contributions. But maybe THAT's his gripe. 

[clack]

Still don't get VDP's beef. He wants a credit on the record jacket : Countdowns by Van Dyke Parks? Thanks to Van Dyke Parks for a suggestion on the cello arrangement on 'Good Vibrations'?

[filledeplage]

A tweet from about twenty-five minutes ago indicates that he more than likely has not seen the film. When asked if he had seen it and if he liked it, he replied, "Those who were there & can remember, tell me it's a combo of "Fantasia" & "Reefer Madness"." So, he's being told about it. What is he being told - that simply he is not shown inventing the cello part of Good Vibrations? He also just re-tweeted this remark: "I enjoyed your 1.5 seconds in the film." I'm not sure what he expects this film to be.

I think he had a very legitimate gripe to complain about his portrayal in that awful TV movie from 15 years ago. This, I don't particularly understand. But ultimately I suppose that no biopic can please everyone who was actually involved when the events portrayed were actually occurring.

That is obnoxious. "Those who can remember?" Relying on hearsay?  He can go buy a ticket and see it himself.

True friends are happy for their friend's triumphs and successes.  The film targeted two periods and it was about Brian, not focused even on The Beach Boys, apart from the genesis of the band. This is Brian's time, not VDP's.  All about Brian.  

It is about extricating a friend from a predatory therapist.  Even if Brian was a garbage man, and not a musical legend, his friends (Melinda and Gloria) extricated him from this evil force. It is a universal theme.  

The real truth is that it could have gone the other way! Landy might well have killed Brian.  He might be happy for his friend's very important story being told. Therapist in the amended will? Yikes!

It brings to mind the brouhaha over some young artist's tribute work on Smile artwork a few years back.  Court injunction barred the exhibit.  

Omissions?  There is little about Brian's band, called The Beach Boys.  The film can only cover so much subject matter in two hours.  So unrealistic of him.  VDP isn't that important.  Too bad he didn't get the memo.

It is a distraction from the beautiful work done on the sets, the integration of the music, to tell this important story...too bad...maybe more to to be pitied, than censured...

[petsoundsnola]

A tweet from about twenty-five minutes ago indicates that he more than likely has not seen the film. When asked if he had seen it and if he liked it, he replied, "Those who were there & can remember, tell me it's a combo of "Fantasia" & "Reefer Madness"." So, he's being told about it. What is he being told - that simply he is not shown inventing the cello part of Good Vibrations? He also just re-tweeted this remark: "I enjoyed your 1.5 seconds in the film." I'm not sure what he expects this film to be.

I think he had a very legitimate gripe to complain about his portrayal in that awful TV movie from 15 years ago. This, I don't particularly understand. But ultimately I suppose that no biopic can please everyone who was actually involved when the events portrayed were actually occurring.

That is obnoxious. "Those who can remember?" Relying on hearsay?  He can go buy a ticket and see it himself.

True friends are happy for their friend's triumphs and successes.  The film targeted two periods and it was about Brian, not focused even on The Beach Boys, apart from the genesis of the band. This is Brian's time, not VDP's.  All about Brian.  

It is about extricating a friend from a predatory therapist.  Even if Brian was a garbage man, and not a musical legend, his friends (Melinda and Gloria) extricated him from this evil force. It is a universal theme.  

The real truth is that it could have gone the other way! Landy might well have killed Brian.  He might be happy for his friend's very important story being told. Therapist in the amended will? Yikes!

It brings to mind the brouhaha over some young artist's tribute work on Smile artwork a few years back.  Court injunction barred the exhibit.  

Omissions?  There is little about Brian's band, called The Beach Boys.  The film can only cover so much subject matter in two hours.  So unrealistic of him.  VDP isn't that important.  Too bad he didn't get the memo.

It is a distraction from the beautiful work done on the sets, the integration of the music, to tell this important story...too bad...maybe more to to be pitied, than censured...

Agreed.  He should be glad that he was even portrayed in the movie.  Poor Tony Asher gets about 2 seconds, and we haven't heard him complaining...

[Chocolate Shake Man]

He also must have way more lines than Bruce and Al. I'm not sure I can even recall them speaking in the film.

[Paul J B]

A tweet from about twenty-five minutes ago indicates that he more than likely has not seen the film. When asked if he had seen it and if he liked it, he replied, "Those who were there & can remember, tell me it's a combo of "Fantasia" & "Reefer Madness"." So, he's being told about it. What is he being told - that simply he is not shown inventing the cello part of Good Vibrations? He also just re-tweeted this remark: "I enjoyed your 1.5 seconds in the film." I'm not sure what he expects this film to be.

I think he had a very legitimate gripe to complain about his portrayal in that awful TV movie from 15 years ago. This, I don't particularly understand. But ultimately I suppose that no biopic can please everyone who was actually involved when the events portrayed were actually occurring.

That is obnoxious. "Those who can remember?" Relying on hearsay?  He can go buy a ticket and see it himself.

True friends are happy for their friend's triumphs and successes.  The film targeted two periods and it was about Brian, not focused even on The Beach Boys, apart from the genesis of the band. This is Brian's time, not VDP's.  All about Brian.  

It is about extricating a friend from a predatory therapist.  Even if Brian was a garbage man, and not a musical legend, his friends (Melinda and Gloria) extricated him from this evil force. It is a universal theme.  

The real truth is that it could have gone the other way! Landy might well have killed Brian.  He might be happy for his friend's very important story being told. Therapist in the amended will? Yikes!

It brings to mind the brouhaha over some young artist's tribute work on Smile artwork a few years back.  Court injunction barred the exhibit.  

Omissions?  There is little about Brian's band, called The Beach Boys.  The film can only cover so much subject matter in two hours.  So unrealistic of him.  VDP isn't that important.  Too bad he didn't get the memo.

It is a distraction from the beautiful work done on the sets, the integration of the music, to tell this important story...too bad...maybe more to to be pitied, than censured...

Agreed.  He should be glad that he was even portrayed in the movie.  Poor Tony Asher gets about 2 seconds, and we haven't heard him complaining...

Totally agree with both of you. And Pet Sounds is/was a completed masterpiece that does stand the test of time. Smile is/was subjective to what it should have been and ended up as, be it TSS or BWPS.

This guy apparently is one of those people that go through life making bad decisions repeatedly over the same issue. He walks off in '67 before Brian is done, refuses to add commentary to TSS book, takes legal action over a Smile related art exhibit, and now has to try and keep raining on Brian and Melinda's parade. Well the parade is on rain or shine and with or without Parks.

[Don Malcolm]

VDP is famously oblique, so it becomes as difficult to parse his train of thought as it was to pin Bill Clinton down on the definition of oral sex. But it is clear that he remains haunted by SMiLE and probably feels that he was used in order to complete a BWPS, and then summarily discarded. He's clearly had a strange off-and-on relationship with BW over the years, and it's one that's always leaving him dissatisfied. (Which is where that connection to Mike's experience, alluded to in some recent posts, becomes very intriguing.)

Many of you are quick to dismiss the influence of the Laurel Way crowd on Brian's musical evolution, preferring to paint them all as pretentious dilettantes. But  it's clear that there was musical "value added" from several of these folk, with VDP (who had a much more encompassing musical education than BW) being key to this. There's a barely articulated assumption that BW leapt from Wall of Sound influences to bass-driven "technicolor arrangements" to "Copland-esque" kick-ass tone poems ("Cabinessence") all on his own, or (as it's implicitly argued in LOVE & MERCY) due to sonic hallucination. While much of that is the case, there's room in that scenario for some amount of "expansion of musical horizons." I don't think it's outrageous to speculate that some of this came from VDP, who was in tow for the spring of '66 in the build-up to SMiLE.

And the fact that two of the major songs that hit a brick wall ("Surf's Up" and "Cabinessence") have much more overt VDP elements (the arrangements of these songs are more ambitious and unusual than the rest of the SMiLE tracks) might indicate how his view of SMiLE and what happened to it contains a perspective that is at odds with what now seems to be the "received wisdom." VDP resisted telling his own definitive version of that story for decades, preferring to be cleverly oblique. Possibly there are aspects of the story that he experienced which would paint everyone in a bad light (including himself) but that would have demonstrated how his role was larger than controversial lyricist...possibly he regrets not taking such a path earlier, when such a narrative could have been of some benefit to his own position--but throughout all those years, SMiLE was a failed Icarus-like moment, awash in myth, and given BW's long incarceration, he seems to have felt that he should lend support by remaining cryptic. One gets the sense that he's come to regret THAT decision.

So...locked out of credit as a musician and a creative supporter, self-censoring over details about the process for decades, kow-towing to BW's legend, losing out on song credits in several phases of his collaboration, feeling "seduced and abandoned" in the runup to BWPS...one can see how a troubled, complicated guy who's always been too precocious for his own good might wind up in a spot where he can only continue his oblique commentary instead of laying out a story that would put many in a bad light and would likely create more backlash against him. Trapped in the ongoing myth, relegated to a position that is a good bit less lauded ("controversial" and "pretentious" lyricist), VDP is probably feeling a not-inconsiderable amount of pain about all of this, what with the end of his life a whole lot nearer than his musical heyday.

None of this condones the behavior, but it does provide some plausible perspective (and a lot less moralizing) about why he's doing it and how he got himself into such a predicament. Acknowledging that he might well have some legitimate pain (and, quite possibly, some legitimate beefs) about things is less condescending than pitying him and less judgmental than censuring him. Clearly he's fallen victim to envy--and that's a shame, because when that happens, nothing good can come of it.

[CenturyDeprived]

Brian essentially invented (or was attempting to invent) the concept of non-linear editing while making SMiLE; that in and of itself was such a forward-thinking move that the album - from a technological breakthrough standpoint alone - should get a bunch of brownie points in whatever "competition" between the album's contemporaries that SMiLE finds itself in.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Brian essentially invented (or was attempting to invent) the concept of non-linear editing while making SMiLE; that in and of itself was such a forward-thinking move that the album - from a technological breakthrough standpoint alone - should get a bunch of brownie points in whatever "competition" between the album's contemporaries that SMiLE finds itself in.

Indeed.

[CenturyDeprived]

VDP is famously oblique, so it becomes as difficult to parse his train of thought as it was to pin Bill Clinton down on the definition of oral sex. But it is clear that he remains haunted by SMiLE and probably feels that he was used in order to complete a BWPS, and then summarily discarded. He's clearly had a strange off-and-on relationship with BW over the years, and it's one that's always leaving him dissatisfied. (Which is where that connection to Mike's experience, alluded to in some recent posts, becomes very intriguing.)

Many of you are quick to dismiss the influence of the Laurel Way crowd on Brian's musical evolution, preferring to paint them all as pretentious dilettantes. But  it's clear that there was musical "value added" from several of these folk, with VDP (who had a much more encompassing musical education than BW) being key to this. There's a barely articulated assumption that BW leapt from Wall of Sound influences to bass-driven "technicolor arrangements" to "Copland-esque" kick-ass tone poems ("Cabinessence") all on his own, or (as it's implicitly argued in LOVE & MERCY) due to sonic hallucination. While much of that is the case, there's room in that scenario for some amount of "expansion of musical horizons." I don't think it's outrageous to speculate that some of this came from VDP, who was in tow for the spring of '66 in the build-up to SMiLE.

And the fact that two of the major songs that hit a brick wall ("Surf's Up" and "Cabinessence") have much more overt VDP elements (the arrangements of these songs are more ambitious and unusual than the rest of the SMiLE tracks) might indicate how his view of SMiLE and what happened to it contains a perspective that is at odds with what now seems to be the "received wisdom." VDP resisted telling his own definitive version of that story for decades, preferring to be cleverly oblique. Possibly there are aspects of the story that he experienced which would paint everyone in a bad light (including himself) but that would have demonstrated how his role was larger than controversial lyricist...possibly he regrets not taking such a path earlier, when such a narrative could have been of some benefit to his own position--but throughout all those years, SMiLE was a failed Icarus-like moment, awash in myth, and given BW's long incarceration, he seems to have felt that he should lend support by remaining cryptic. One gets the sense that he's come to regret THAT decision.

So...locked out of credit as a musician and a creative supporter, self-censoring over details about the process for decades, kow-towing to BW's legend, losing out on song credits in several phases of his collaboration, feeling "seduced and abandoned" in the runup to BWPS...one can see how a troubled, complicated guy who's always been too precocious for his own good might wind up in a spot where he can only continue his oblique commentary instead of laying out a story that would put many in a bad light and would likely create more backlash against him. Trapped in the ongoing myth, relegated to a position that is a good bit less lauded ("controversial" and "pretentious" lyricist), VDP is probably feeling a not-inconsiderable amount of pain about all of this, what with the end of his life a whole lot nearer than his musical heyday.

None of this condones the behavior, but it does provide some plausible perspective (and a lot less moralizing) about why he's doing it and how he got himself into such a predicament. Acknowledging that he might well have some legitimate pain (and, quite possibly, some legitimate beefs) about things is less condescending than pitying him and less judgmental than censuring him. Clearly he's fallen victim to envy--and that's a shame, because when that happens, nothing good can come of it.

Despite going about his gripes in a poor way, I feel really bad for Van. He was a massive part of the most (or 2nd-most) artistically lauded project in the band's career, but I guess he wanted a scene or two showing more of what he brought to the table. Much like with Mike (who apparently (?) still hasn't seen the film, but seems to want to have a beef with it from the onset), I am curious to know what additional scenes or changes would be both  Van's or Mike's own personal desires for the film to have for them to feel content and happy with the film, and how it portrays their place in history.  

For Mike, I don't know if he could ever be pleased by a Mike film portrayal in a BW biopic, since I think his own sense of self/ego is way skewed beyond the parameters of reality, despite some absolutely legitimate essential contributions to the story. For Van, I'm not so sure it's quite as severe, but again - let's not forget that for whatever gripes or feeling shortchanged that Van feels (vs Mike), Van never seemingly came out ahead money-wise or career-wise, so in a sense I have a greater sense of empathy for his feeling shortchanged to a degree in the game of life, despite having a career that many people would absolutely still envy.

I guess maybe Van would like the film to present his character in such a way that the viewer would feel compelled to learn more about Van, his own talents (aside from working with Brian), or something of that nature. As has been pointed out, this is a film about Brian, and yes, Melinda being a part of the major storyline of the film, is going to get a disproportionate focus of the film; there's no real way around that if the film is inherently just about a few specific eras.  If a film was made specifically to mainly focus on the creation of SMiLE (as the main centerpiece of the film), I would better understand if he felt underrepresented.

I do think that whatever falling out there was between Van and Brian (which I wouldn't be surprised peripherally may involve Melinda) started well before the film's production (there was that "buffoonery" comment among other stuff, right?). I would also tend to think that in an alternate reality, if Van and Brian were perhaps on fantastic terms during the film's production, that possibly that could have led to one more scene of Van being shown in a positive light. Not saying that Van's or Mike's talents were shown to a lesser degree out of "revenge" or anything like that, but that it stands to reason that if somebody is on one's current sh*t-list in some fashion, it isn't a situation that's exactly going to *encourage* a greater quantity of scenes going out of the way to paint that given person as a more pivotal and important (in a positive way) to be included in the film, anymore than I would expect Mike to re-record Brian's Back in 2013, or for Van to do a tour performing the entirety of Orange Crate Art nowadays either.  

But yeah - it's sad, sad, sad to see old men fighting and feeling shortchanged out of things in life during their twilight years. Van was/is a huge talent, and what he brought to the project of SMiLE beyond just themes/lyrics is in fact something that isn't largely well-known or explored, and I can understand him feeling hurt over that. But I do still wonder what set off the post TLOS bad terms between the guys. Their collab on TLOS was stellar. Something went wrong somewhere along the line though, and I have a feeling that it might be something that I'd have a bit more understanding and empathy about than a request for a "room".

[Wirestone]

Did you ever see VDP promoting TLOS?

I think that's your answer right there ...

[CenturyDeprived]

Did you ever see VDP promoting TLOS?

I think that's your answer right there ...

Is there any indication that TLOS was originally ever intended to be more heavy on BW/VDP collabs than it eventually wound up being? I wonder...

Maybe there's a reason right under our noses for why the post-TLOS falling out happened. I dunno.

[filledeplage]

VDP is famously oblique, so it becomes as difficult to parse his train of thought as it was to pin Bill Clinton down on the definition of oral sex. But it is clear that he remains haunted by SMiLE and probably feels that he was used in order to complete a BWPS, and then summarily discarded. He's clearly had a strange off-and-on relationship with BW over the years, and it's one that's always leaving him dissatisfied. (Which is where that connection to Mike's experience, alluded to in some recent posts, becomes very intriguing.)

Many of you are quick to dismiss the influence of the Laurel Way crowd on Brian's musical evolution, preferring to paint them all as pretentious dilettantes. But  it's clear that there was musical "value added" from several of these folk, with VDP (who had a much more encompassing musical education than BW) being key to this. There's a barely articulated assumption that BW leapt from Wall of Sound influences to bass-driven "technicolor arrangements" to "Copland-esque" kick-ass tone poems ("Cabinessence") all on his own, or (as it's implicitly argued in LOVE & MERCY) due to sonic hallucination. While much of that is the case, there's room in that scenario for some amount of "expansion of musical horizons." I don't think it's outrageous to speculate that some of this came from VDP, who was in tow for the spring of '66 in the build-up to SMiLE.

And the fact that two of the major songs that hit a brick wall ("Surf's Up" and "Cabinessence") have much more overt VDP elements (the arrangements of these songs are more ambitious and unusual than the rest of the SMiLE tracks) might indicate how his view of SMiLE and what happened to it contains a perspective that is at odds with what now seems to be the "received wisdom." VDP resisted telling his own definitive version of that story for decades, preferring to be cleverly oblique. Possibly there are aspects of the story that he experienced which would paint everyone in a bad light (including himself) but that would have demonstrated how his role was larger than controversial lyricist...possibly he regrets not taking such a path earlier, when such a narrative could have been of some benefit to his own position--but throughout all those years, SMiLE was a failed Icarus-like moment, awash in myth, and given BW's long incarceration, he seems to have felt that he should lend support by remaining cryptic. One gets the sense that he's come to regret THAT decision.

So...locked out of credit as a musician and a creative supporter, self-censoring over details about the process for decades, kow-towing to BW's legend, losing out on song credits in several phases of his collaboration, feeling "seduced and abandoned" in the runup to BWPS...one can see how a troubled, complicated guy who's always been too precocious for his own good might wind up in a spot where he can only continue his oblique commentary instead of laying out a story that would put many in a bad light and would likely create more backlash against him. Trapped in the ongoing myth, relegated to a position that is a good bit less lauded ("controversial" and "pretentious" lyricist), VDP is probably feeling a not-inconsiderable amount of pain about all of this, what with the end of his life a whole lot nearer than his musical heyday.

None of this condones the behavior, but it does provide some plausible perspective (and a lot less moralizing) about why he's doing it and how he got himself into such a predicament. Acknowledging that he might well have some legitimate pain (and, quite possibly, some legitimate beefs) about things is less condescending than pitying him and less judgmental than censuring him. Clearly he's fallen victim to envy--and that's a shame, because when that happens, nothing good can come of it.

Don Malcolm - it is a true struggle to be neutral about VDP at this point.  And I like to give the devil his due and the benefit of the doubt.  However, some of us who bought the LP called Smiley Smile wondered whether the legacy would continue and be handed down.  Probably yes, with young people seeking it out, even via Kokomo, as was my experience teaching Pre-K.

But, with info on this board, about a young artist who was cut no slack, after inviting VDP to this Smile art exhibit, the response was, not supportive and celebrating young people becoming involved in the whole music/art dynamic, but an injunction.  Is this passing on a legacy and encouraging young minds and artists on their journey.  I happen to feel that it is our duty to encourage and nurture those who will carry the torch after us.  He crushed that artist. What artist does that to another artist? One paying tribute to the artwork? It's hard for me to understand that kind of meanness. He can "pick on someone his own size." He is a gifted guy who has done enviously diverse work.

Of course we weren't witnesses to the music creation.  We are only spectators.

It defies logic that this movie producer would not do his due diligence to present a picture as transparent as possible.  His reputation is constantly under review.  People tend to act consistently.  This movie wasn't a fairy tale.  It wasn't Fantasia. (One of my Disney favorites.) And why would VDP disrespect Brian's wife.  Daro disrespected Marilyn.  Is it analogous?

These tweets have an underpinning that appears taunting the reader. Is there a need for this behavior? Did he want recognition or just lyric credit? If he was owed royalties, he could go to a court and assert a claim.  The recognition thing may be what is the core issue.  Tweeting this stuff can only make him look bad. 

[SBonilla]

... And why would VDP disrespect Brian's wife. 

[/quote]

He is not dissing the wife. He is referring to Melinda, the partner in the business of Brian Wilson. She is a public figure now.  If she had no legal say-so or sway in Brian's business and creative affairs, I believe she would be hands off to such critical mention.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Can someone elaborate on this incident with VDP and the artist?

[Autotune]

Did you ever see VDP promoting TLOS?

I think that's your answer right there ...

Is there any indication that TLOS was originally ever intended to be more heavy on BW/VDP collabs than it eventually wound up being? I wonder...

Maybe there's a reason right under our noses for why the post-TLOS falling out happened. I dunno.

When asked at the time of TLOS, Van said he expected to see/collaborate with an old friend, or catching up with an old friendship, but it was not to be.

So: VDP's problem is he wants credit as arranger for Smile. And may I submit that the reason he did not contribute an essay to the Smile Box was precisely that reason. All would be fine if Van hadn't given the world his "I was a glorlfied scribe" quotes for decades. His problem is not with Melinda. It's with Brian; it dates from 1967 and has increased as Smile became what it is now.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

... And why would VDP disrespect Brian's wife.  

He is not dissing the wife. He is referring to Melinda, the partner in the business of Brian Wilson. She is a public figure now.  If she had no legal say-so or sway in Brian's business and creative affairs, I believe she would be hands off to such critical mention.
[/quote]

She's still his wife. VDP hasn't sunk as low as Daro calling her a cow or personal insults but he still implies that she's some kind of manipulating figure in his life. I think she's well meaning if possibly overprotective myself. I can understand Mike or VDP feeling disrespected by being mostly cut-out but I don't think that's all on Melinda

Edit: he also publicly supported Daro which means he has no problem with what he called Marilyn. Very classy

[Wirestone]

I believe TLOS was originally announced as a sole BW-VDP collaboration. It did not end up that way.

I'm pretty sure the origins of the current estrangement date back to then ...

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Did you ever see VDP promoting TLOS?

I think that's your answer right there ...

Is there any indication that TLOS was originally ever intended to be more heavy on BW/VDP collabs than it eventually wound up being? I wonder...

Maybe there's a reason right under our noses for why the post-TLOS falling out happened. I dunno.

When asked at the time of TLOS, Van said he expected to see/collaborate with an old friend, or catching up with an old friendship, but it was not to be.

So: VDP's problem is he wants credit as arranger for Smile. And may I submit that the reason he did not contribute an essay to the Smile Box was precisely that reason. All would be fine if Van hadn't given the world his "I was a glorlfied scribe" quotes for decades. His problem is not with Melinda. It's with Brian; it dates from 1967 and has increased as Smile became what it is now.

I don't understand why he would sell himself short like that unless he expected Brian to good-naturedely correct him and say "no, Van was essential to the SMiLE sound and helped with the arrangement" but if that was his hope...he's a fool.

Was it because he expected Brian to die young, and/or SMiLE to just remain some vague legend? And now that Brian survived it all and is as revered as ever, with SMiLE finally released and getting mainstream recognition he feels like he's missing out on his due credit? I mean, that's a real shame. And I guess he can't set the record straight without looking like a Mike Love. So he's hoping Brian will set the record straight himself which will never happen. We all want Brian to spill the beans and tell all he knows about those sessions, but he can't or won't. He probably doesn't even remember vdps contribution. And these lame pot shots aren't gonna make him want to talk if he does.

It's a shame because his best chance to give himself credit without looking like a jerk was the box set and he blew it. From what I'm told, he had a valid, non-petty reason for doing so, but still

[SBonilla]

The 'life of a record,' as they used to say in the record business, was eight weeks. If the record charted and was successful, you got an extension. All of the pre-planning, marketing, promotion and distribution was in place  just prior to and/or during this span of time. It was fly or die; after the record ran its course, no more money was spent on it and not much attention was paid to it; it was on to the next release.

I don't know the movie business, but there must be a 'life of a movie.' There is lots of money being spent on making the public aware of Love & Mercy. Interest is high. If  it's nominated for an Oscar, it will add more life to the film.

There is no better time than now for VDP to be airing his views. After the movie runs its course, the general public's interest will die down, drastically.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

The 'life of a record,' as they used to say in the record business, was eight weeks. If the record charted and was successful, you got an extension. All of the pre-planning, marketing, promotion and distribution was in place  just prior to and/or during this span of time. It was fly or die; after the record ran its course, no more money was spent on it and not much attention was paid to it; it was on to the next release.

I don't know the movie business, but there must be a 'life of a movie.' There is lots of money being spent on making the public aware of Love & Mercy. Interest is high. If  it's nominated for an Oscar, it will add more life to the film.

There is no better time than now for VDP to be airing his views. After the movie runs its course, the general public's interest will die down, drastically.

Disagree. To do so now would be like Mike suing Brian in 2004. It would look like a bitter old man trying to steal the spotlight.

[bgas]

The 'life of a record,' as they used to say in the record business, was eight weeks. If the record charted and was successful, you got an extension. All of the pre-planning, marketing, promotion and distribution was in place  just prior to and/or during this span of time. It was fly or die; after the record ran its course, no more money was spent on it and not much attention was paid to it; it was on to the next release.

I don't know the movie business, but there must be a 'life of a movie.' There is lots of money being spent on making the public aware of Love & Mercy. Interest is high. If  it's nominated for an Oscar, it will add more life to the film.

There is no better time than now for VDP to be airing his views. After the movie runs its course, the general public's interest will die down, drastically.

Disagree. To do so now would be like Mike suing Brian in 2004. It would look like a bitter old man trying to steal the spotlight.

Hmmm, I'd go with Olmec if only VDP was actually airing his views. Instead he beats around the bush and doesn't say much of anything at all. Ready Fire Aim 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

... And why would VDP disrespect Brian's wife. 

He is not dissing the wife. He is referring to Melinda, the partner in the business of Brian Wilson. She is a public figure now.  If she had no legal say-so or sway in Brian's business and creative affairs, I believe she would be hands off to such critical mention.

She's still his wife. VDP hasn't sunk as low as Daro calling her a cow or personal insults but he still implies that she's some kind of manipulating figure in his life. I think she's well meaning if possibly overprotective myself. I can understand Mike or VDP feeling disrespected by being mostly cut-out but I don't think that's all on Melinda

Edit: he also publicly supported Daro which means he has no problem with what he called Marilyn. Very classy
[/quote]

Exactly.

[Mike's Beard]

He's had 50 years to let the world know that he had a hand in the musical side of Smile and he's said jack, getting pissy about it now is not doing him any favours.

[Misterlou]

He's had 50 years to let the world know that he had a hand in the musical side of Smile and he's said jack, getting pissy about it now is not doing him any favours.

A whole hand? Isn't it more like a pinkie finger? Can anyone definitively say what he contributed musically, beyond, arguably, the cello triplets suggestion and playing an instrument or two here or there on Smile? So he may have, and probably did encourage or influence Brian to expand his musical horizons. That's great, and his lyrical contributions to Smile are just as important as Asher's on Pet Sounds; they are evocative, and fit perfectly with the music, but that's different than actually composing, arranging, and producing the songs.