The Smiley Smile Message Board

Figured I'd start one of these, as tonight's actually going to be a truly big night, compared to most Grammy shows. Prob should go in the general music section, but posting it here for obvious reasons.


Decent opener by Springsteen, although he's losing his voice. 

Argh, the livestream still hasn't made it to the show! This is ridic.

Phew, thought I was using the wrong stream.

And still hasn't. Dammmmmmmmmmit!

Man the boss is not the boss anymore lol

Ironic that they would do a tribute to Whitney Houston and then segue to a performance by Bruno Mars, considering his own history with the powder. Song's not bad, but his voice don't really do it for me.


I thought Tony Danza was the boss... ;)

edit


okay, so this performance is not as bad as I originally thought. The megaphone is Scott Weiland's schtick, though, and needs to stay that way.

Slim are you watching it on the telly? if you're watching online, help a brother out?

this should work:
http://www.stream2watch.me/live-tv/cbs-live-stream

wait for that red font thing to load the stream for 15 seconds, then you should be good to go

Bruno was very good

The live stream is not showing the show just talking heads.!!

Yeah. I expect everyone is going to step it up a notch tonight

Yeah he was...I didn't like the first minute or so, but then again I've never heard his music before tonight so I didn't know what to expect. He won me over though.

I'm using the stream 2 watch link

Can't wait to see what Mike Love has got up his sleeve

Plenty of inane talk on twitter, at #BeachBoys, including this gem: "Cant support #BeachBoys the start of their career consisted of stealing other peoples songs, not paying for them and passing them as theirs!"

When did Jimmy Page join the BB?


Yikes, that was a BAD first note by ol' girl.

Ok, i think we're good.

f*** the haters, I like Adele.

And did I just see Bruno Mars throw a fit? :lol

Great, man it's madness on here

Another good one from twitter:  "Beach Boys:  Alot of rich old people who think there still good"  

Think where, exactly?  Wherever one might be, I would consider it a plus that my very thoughts could have goodness.

Chris Brown can suck a root.

Wife beaters on now.

Every award show I watch has a Chris Brown performance

Is this really happening? Doesn't feel real that the reunited Beach Boys are going to be on this stage soon.

I really hope it goes well.

Hope all the UK watchers don't have to stay up too late!

My namesake is obnoxious, and is trying way too hard to be Michael Jackson.

He's strangely forgiven.


did I miss Adele? sh*t, was looking forward to that  :'(

That autotune is REALLY f*cking grating.

5am baby

Is Wifey McBeaty done yet?

 :lol

Chris Brown can eat a big fat fresh one.. Get off. ok he is off.

Man, American telly is weird.

I thought it was going to be around an hour in?

Talent-wise he's somewhere below Tito Jackson.

Is there an itinerary for when our boys are on?

You can say that again, also way to many adverts. I'm starting to feel like we'll never get to the boys at this rate.

Is that the guy Jlo dumped

Uh Oh, Fergie's on stage...hope she don't piss herself.

Hey...did announcer b*tch just call him BUSTER Rhymes?! :lol

Just think how lucrative this is for the advertisers, that is why there are a lot of commercials, plus, the show uses it to transition between acts.

Chris Brown? No that was Rihanna.

f*** Watch The Throne winning a grammy. That's such a weak album.

This stream is great

http://www.vipbox.tv/watch/34073/1/grammy-awards-live-stream-online.html (http://www.vipbox.tv/watch/34073/1/grammy-awards-live-stream-online.html)

Kelly Clarkson was a lot more interesting before she went country.

Wow, much better!

I feel like i've posted more today than I have on every other day put together. ;D

Ugh, country

Damn straight. Since U Been Gone is such a guilty pleasure. And others, she used to be on the radio all the time here. Now, not so much.


God, isn't this song dull. Calling it a country song is an insult to countr music. How is it country and not 'rock'?

Beach Boys mention

And another advert. Fucking hell....

Cause of the twang and the hat, ya'll

-_-

Clarkson's second album was actually pretty good...wouldn't even call it a guilty pleasure. IMHO, of course.

get used to it -- this is quintessential north american programming style

You have no idea...  This is pretty light, actually.

Didn't you see the big hat and slide guitar? Apparently that is all it takes to be considered a "country" song anymore.

I just realised how much awful music we have to sit through for 5 minutes of The Beach Boys  :lol

CBS jingle there blatantly channeling good vibrations

Foo Fighters, so awful

More from Twitter:  "aren't only 2 still alive and one of those 2 is crazy and can't speak?"

Considering how much crap we're willing to sit through for that much of the Beach Boys just makes me think about what a freakin' geek I am to be staying up so long!  ;D

RE: Foos. Oh they're harmless. Which is exactly the problem, of course. Such a toothless band.

I pity the Foo. I mean I quite like them really.

I caught that too ^_^



;(

-100

I for one LIKE the Foo Fighters -_-

:lol

[quote a
I truly can't stand them

There not so bad compared to most rock bands around today, Coldplay and Nickelback (ugh) for example.

Actually, if you think about it, we get three Beach Boys songs. Everyone else is getting one.

 Are thems foo fightin' words?

I like them, 'cause their vinyl does not go unbid when I offer them.

 >:D

Too many damn commercials.

The performance isn't too far away, I'm excited for this.

Foo Fighters: I like them. I'd like to see them live, when they were on SNL last year they were excellent. This performance was strong, but the mix was pretty bad. Too much drums (especially kick), muddy guitars, barely any bass guitar, although I really like Taylor Hawkins as a rock drummer.

And to keep up the talk of adverts (COS HERE ARE SOME MORE), how short are some of them? That Lettermen spot lasted 10 secs, max. What the hell is the logic there.


I've watched American football and that was pretty dreadful too.

Oh god, Rihanna and Coldplay. Deliver me, o lord.

Has everyone else changed to the much better streaming webpage that Marshall Mat- I mean Emine- er Slim Shady posted?

http://www.vipbox.tv/watch/34073/1/grammy-awards-live-stream-online.html

Oh god, Coldplay! *Ducks for cover

The whole world is excited about this Beach Boys performance, man this is beautiful

So...where is Coldplay in this performance?

Oh, I think I heard a snare.

Now isn't this the epitomy of modern music?  ::)

Yeah, wtf.


Not that I'm pining for them, honestly.

Just turn the volume down and watch Rihanna, ya hear

It's been done already I see, but I can't resist bashing Chris Brown. He's one sad f*cker of a celebrity. That song was tripe.

At least The Beach Boys won't use any playback :p

gee there's some crap on this broadcast  >:(

Maybe if it was 2008 or so. Music's actually gotten a tad better since then.

Oh no, I hear the terrifying sound of a plaintively strummed acoustic guitar.

There's Coldplay!  ;D

For a moment there I thought they were the hip-hop dancers wearing the knit caps...

 :o What you do in your spare time is none of our business sir. ;)

As bad as this is, imagine...Rhianna and Chris Martin doing a cover of Battle of Evermore.

That would break the 7 seals and open the gates of hell, I imagine.

I remember when Coldplay were good

haha, he wasn't even playing that guitar.

What stream am I supposed to be on?

:lol My chihuaua just started howling when Martin did that "whooo oooo ooo" thing he just attempted (and failed)


Yah, I feel you on that one. Don't really care for their newer stuff.

Wait for it, wait for it...now where's the kettle drums and sampled strings?

Rihanna is out of tune, man...

That one is better quality

Oh god he sounds terrible.

This is out of tune. Not just Rhianna.

All I'm seeing is a montage of past Coldplay wins. It's clearly not what's being televised. So again, what stream am I supposed to be on?

Sound is better on this one

http://www.stream2watch.me/live-tv/cbs-live-stream

But vid's a little better on the one Maccabeatles posted. I don't think they're attempting a fast moving light and dance spectacular for the BB's, though, so I'm going for sound.

and she dances like me ... which has to be the ultimate insult!

Did someone throw a canvas bag full of cats on that stage?

Or how bout the Battle Hymn Of The Republic lol

Beach Boys next

From Twitter:

Povediitz TJ Detweiler
Jesse & The Rippers!-RT @ahRIHANNA: I WANT JOHN STAMOS TO SING WITH THE BEACH BOYS LMAOO

Jesus christ what the hell is wrong with these people?!

UP NEXT, THE BEACH BOYS.



 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

:lol I just visualized in my head Brian trying to break dance.

nervous

excited!

I hope Brian's still in the building ...  ;D

Damn i'm so nervous for them, I won't be posting till after there performance now. MUST, PAY, FULL ATTENTION.

Well, to start with, they're using Twitter :D

The anticipation is killing me. Whatever is left of me after the Coldplay-Rhianna duet.

THIS WILL BE THE REALEST OF TALK

Enjoy everyone ;D

So nervous yet excited

Oh man

Just read Ryan Seacrest is introducing them, come on

nooooow!!!!

Here we go

The Wondermints play the Grammys!!

 ;D

Wait...so is this a Mormon 5 performance only or something?!!

WIBN down a minor third.

Dammit...Foskett is miked up and Brian is miked down. Fucking sh*t

Brian looks terrified. No shorts for Brucie, though!

Eh.

This will be my last post on the Grammys.

F*cks sake I could not hear Brian AT ALL!!!  :angry :angry :angry

Oh boy, I sure wish I could find a live stream to watch this trainwreck but none of them -- not even the goshdarn official Grammys one! -- works. Oh well, YouTube after-the-fact it is.

Too many phonies in the crowd.  Crowd was into it though *shrug*

Ain't nothing like the real thing. The Beach Boys schooled all of 'em. That was a strong performance. Awesome. I wanted to hear more.

I thought it was absolutely fantastic! FANTASTIC! Mike was awesome! Brian sounded fantastic! He got a few smiles in there too! They OWNED Maroon 5 and Foster the People!

Brian sounded amazing

Yeah, Brian looked scared. Rictus grins and all.

You might think Brian was miked low, but with Jeff & Bruce doubling if he bottles it and sings quieter he's going to get buried instantly. And he was. I can understand, it's extremely high pressure.



Everyone else brought it. The Beach Boys are back ;D

I have Foskett anytime over the idiots that sang Surfer Girl and Wouldn´t it be nice! THEY SAW AWFULLY!

The audio mix wasn't the best. Someone's backing vocal mic was waaaayyy too hot in that mix, for all three songs.

That was Foskett.

Could have been 2 complete songs with only the Beach Boys rather than 3 part songs by 3 bands. Not the best format IMO.

what Brian... couldn't hear him at all... >:(

Beach boys rocked .Bruce hit the high notes..I shed a tear watching that

Ugh. Fucking terrible performance.

Maroon 5 was okay, Foster the People were better than I expected.

The Boys were great, but I heard more Foskett than Brian and that ain't right.

God, Brian looked so uncomfortable  :-\

Did anyone notice the striped shirts as well worn by Foster the People?

Brian was COMPLETELY mixed out. All you could hear was fucking Jeff, surprise surprise. So pissed.

Brian looked like he just wanted out - Mike was into it.  So so at best IMO.

Yeah, not even a forced smile

The best part of the other bands was Foster The People wearing the striped shirts and playing the Beach Boys guitars. Apart from that, being fair to FTP, no one can do that WIBN falsetto better than Brian did in '66. No one.

Good Vibrations was strong instrumentally, the vocal mix was a bit odd. Mike sounded good, though!

Macca's on next right?  :spin :banana

I thought the performance was very nice. I also thought Brian sounded nice, what i could hear of him anyway! I got the video in nice quality but my audio is all quiet and hissy :( Did anyone else record this?

Oh come on. Be positive for once. They rocked the house.

Foster The People and Maroon 5 sounded just fine.

32 more people and we break the most online ever record

I liked that. You can't expect much more from Grammy night. Nice to see David up there with the boys. Bring on New Orleans  ;D Who else is going?

THAT WAS NOT BRIAN.

i love how they got a standing ovation!

This was good! Maroon 5 were acceptable, Foster the People: hated the guys voice, all Fender guitars, striped shirt on the drummer: nice touches though.

The Beach Boys: sounded just great... Slightly awkard arrangement with and extra chorus tacked on up front. Was this to lift pressure from Brian (for singing right on the first note)?

The musicians:
David Marks, Al Jardine, Jeffrey Fosket, Scott Totten, Probyn Gregory: all on guitar and vocals (Probyn also tannerin)
John Cowsill on drums, Nelson Bragg on percussion and vocals
Paul Mertens; flute, saxophone and vocals
Brett Simons: bass and vocals
Brian Wilson on piano, Darian Sahanja and Scott Bennet


No Nicky Wonder...

Are we sure that's it from the boys, I've heard rumours of more

Oh, it wasn't that bad.  Strange, but then, what isn't?  Not going to win any new fans, but Dave certainly looked cool up there.

I heard Brian OK, but it could have been a better mix.  Grammy engineers probably not used to whoo-whoo machines.  Cannot get used to hearing WIBN in the key of D.

Trending on twitter:

Beach Boys
T. Swift
Brian Wilson
Good Vibrations
Adam Levine
No Kokomo
Foster the People
Mike Love
More Chris Brown
Austin Aries

He was drowned out, but not totally.

The crowd dug it a lot. But I can't help thinking as someone said the Boys could have done all three better than splitting it up.

I didn't hear him at all. I heard one voice, and that was Jeff's.

Agreed.  It was cool hearing his thunderous low F# fill the hall.

To be fair, there was no way on earth they were going to let Brian take a lead on something like this, and having Jeff sing it was the only real option. They could have not had Brian actually mime the lead though - or just done a different song.
But they looked happy to be there, they sounded good, Brian *was* in the mix for the choruses, and that's about all we could hope for.

Brian was scared shitless. I maintain the rest of the band performed well. But Brian was seen and not heard, sadly.

Some things never f*cking change...you know what I'm talking about.

Brian actually smiled! I saw it :p

I heard him loud and clear.

Joe done I guess

What was McCartney doing with that song anyway? That was a bit of a letdown, new album or not.

Chris Brown just won a f*cking Grammy. That's a travesty.

Ya know? A good friend of mine just texted me and remarked at how great they sounded.

WE on this board know what each person in that band sounds like; but most of the general public don't...they know the beautiful harmonies and the raw power of that music and that's exactly what I heard tonight. I thought it was an amazing performance and I really think it was a great reminder to the public about how incredible The Beach Boys are.

It was good!  Brian sounded great, and it was great to hear BW do a line, then ML do a line.  Solid as could be expected.  Great to see Darian Scott John and the others all together with the Beachboys.   WOW!!!

Maroon5 .. well..
Foster The People... were oh-kay.

Those Beach Boys... well, I had hoped they'd go all-out for Good Vibrations, but they played it fairly safe.   :-\
Mike in good shape, Brian rather nervous (mainly Jeff audible at the beginning?). What I heard from Brian was good, though. And they all looked great.
(Gotta listen to their performance again with headphones on..)

All over too soon...

Seeing Brian scared shitless behind the grand piano just made me picture him in the back corner of the stage in a bathrobe with a giant beard puffing away on his Marbs.

Highlight of my night, seeing Mike Love trending on twitter

It's completely disrespectful. I don't care if he's up there singing about how much he hates black people or fire fighters or something, the guy WROTE the f*cking song. Let HIM sing it, in Carl's absence. The guy can still sing just fine. Having Jeff sing it is a huge insult not only to Brian, but to the fans.

Mike "can't sing" just as much as Brian these days, why didn't they have Jeff double him, too?

For those saying "I COULD HEAR BRIAN", we're still talking about 90% Jeff and 10% Brian at best, maybe even 95% to 5%. Totally disgusting.

I heard Brian

I'd say it was about 67/33.

I'm sticking around, I have a feeling something might happen at the end of the night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN6Lv20qXhE

It was Brian's band and a ton of singers playing a passable, lifeless version of a Beach Boys song. The ONLY time I heard an actual Beach Boy was his part in the midsection, and he didn't sound good. Besides that, the performance would have sounded EXACTLY the same had no Beach Boys been present at all.

I fucking know. WTF.




Who did we see in the backing band? Darian, Scott, Jeff, Nelson, Cowsill, Probyn....

40 some odd years after recording Good Vibrations, as 60 something year old men, the Beach Boys show up, with the world watching, and turn in a great performance.  I think I almost had a heart attack when they were being introduced.  It was fantastic.

Pretty much, ya.

Just checked again. Brian is so low in the mix he basically just moves his lips to Jeff's singing on the verse. Brian's not audible at all.

You do have a point--but haven't almost all iterations of Beach Boys' separate bands all suffered a little bit from too many singers and maybe too slick of a band, at times?

Some pretty serious ballz for Macca to debut a new song (and an orchestral one at that).

Regarding Da Boys, these Vegasy shows really sap the spontaneity out of everything. You really have to dig to see something that makes you go  :o. Having said that, I really enjoyed seeing Al and Dave up there. They bring it all together and really add the good stuff, the spirit of the old days. I'll be real interested to see how the leads are distributed on the tour (as well as the set lists). Should be lots of message board fodder for us folks!

Yeah, that's all Jeff. If you say you hear Brian in there, you're lying.


I maintain the harmony blend in the chorus and bridge sounds better for Beach Boys, though. And everyone else is having a great night. Just not Brian. He's probably home by now.  :lol

I'm f*cking tired, but same. I get the feeling that since Ringo's a presenter and Macca's performed they might do a song or two at the end to close the show. ;D

Yeah. I shouldn't really have expected anything more, I guess.

Re-watching on youtube now, Mike's pointing is worse second time around

I hear Brian just fine.  If you say you can't hear him, you don't listen well.  There.  You've called me a liar and I've called you hearing-impaired.  What next?

Same as in a BW show.  Brian singing, Jeff doubling and doing the highs.

We already dealt with that.

Glad they did as well as they did.    I was satisfied in a realistic way.

I'm afraid that every time I've seen Brian on a televised performance - *especially* something as big as the Grammys - he's been *at best* competent. People still, to this day, make jokes about how awful he was on the Jubilee performance, and that was ten years ago. Sheer practicality says there was no way on earth that they were going to have Brian take a lead on the big TV performance to promote the reunion tour.

Of course, the sensible thing to do then would be to have done something which wouldn't have required Brian to mime - Cal. Girls or even Kokomo - but having Brian actually take the lead would never have been considered.

McCartney was really great.

Pistols at dawn, obviously  :lol

But seriously, unless Brian's vocal coach has performed some kind of miracle on him, the man who sang this (his Jools perf from last year) did not sing what we heard at the Grammies. Brian bottled it and was swamped by Jeff & Bruce.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMPmxjF0xhc

That really was Jeff singing the first verse.... no Brian to be heard AT ALL.

Remember:  This is the Grammys.  It is a made-for-TV variety show.  Consider the general quality of the whole thing.  If you were expecting early 70s live show stuff, you're expectations will have been frustrated.

The important thing is that these guys sang together on stage in front of a lot of people.  I don't care if they weren't even miked up at all.  All of the living Beach Boys just sang together on stage.

Taylor Swift just won the award for most Shure SM-55 microphones on stage since 1959.

I like Taylor a lot, always have. Good performance.

Back to the Beach Boys, I think that was the first time 90% of the folks in that audience heard Good Vibrations performed live in person by any version of the Beach Boys touring band(s).

We're spoiled that way, as fans, we know how cool it is. It blows me away any time I hear it.

I'd like to see if the song GV trends anywhere upward in iTunes tonight and tomorrow.

Yap... Definitely no Brian on first verse. Must've been planned that way. But oh..what the heck...

Were the Beach Boys just in a McDonalds commercial?

Let's be realistic: considering how important this reunion is and how much the group is hoping to have a successful comeback, would it be even remotely wise to have a terrified Brian Wilson warble his way over a verse he couldn't sing anymore to begin with?  In this ADHD world of music, *that* would be the lasting impression made of this reunion--a joke.  Is that what you want?  Burying Brian's vocals in the mix was the smartest thing they did.  

And speaking of the reunion performance itself, it did warm my cold heart to see these guys on stage.  

The Beach Boys are done for the night.  They're not coming back on stage. 

That's how I feel. I get that some people are let down, but I think it was a great performance. I'm 20 years old and this is the first time I've ever seen a live (albeit on TV, obviously) performance of a Beach Boys song with everyone together. It's kind of a huge deal for me! And seeing Glen Campbell singing along in the audience was awesome. I feel like my night is complete, I can't complain at all  ;D

Despite Brian bottling it, this is the good vibe I'm getting from this. Mike, Bruce, David and Al all performed and sung like they were so happy to be there.  :)

Brian can be heard on at least the "when" during "when I look in her eyes"

Jeff is more pronounced than at BW shows I've been too, but Brian is there.

That was really nice.

Taylor Swift best performance of the night.

Brian was definitely audible during the chorus...sounds better on headphones. Jeff was drowning him out on the verse, but Brian singing a different part than him otherwise was a good thing.

Have we beat a record for most people looking at a thread on this forum just now? Also besides not hearing Brian all that well that was actually a very good performance.

Mike sounds just as "bad" as Brian does these days, thus the logic of "Brian can't sing anymore, it would've been a joke" kinda falls flat.

Honestly, as disgusting as I find his voice, if they'd have just had Jeff actually sing that part instead of having Brian basically lip sync to Jeff, it would've been a whole lot less insulting. Carl isn't here anymore, after all.

Still, Brian, at his absolute worst, is totally competent enough to sing the verse of "Good Vibrations".

I thought she was horrible, personally

Somebody tell me, I'm a Beatles fan, should I wait up?

From what I'm hearing... I should...

Hey I got a question...about how long into the broadcast to the Beach Boys come on?

Wish they could have got Glen Campbell on stage just to greet Brian at the end or sing on the chorus, but they showed him excited out in the audience. Would have been nice to see all the boys gather at the end of the song & take a bow, but of course they had to cut to a commercial. For what the performance was at a venue like The Grammy's, I liked it.  I thought the lead singer from Foster The People started singing okay, but he got worse as he progressed. But as everyone's said, at least they dressed & played vintage instruments like their heroes.

I would've dug some Mike Love/Taylor Swift interaction myself  ;)

Okay, so I couldn't hear Brian as much in that video that was just posted, but Mike also sounded a lot louder than I remember, is there a chance difference streams could've had slightly different audio quality/mixes?

Around an half and 20-30 minutes

What are you hearing?

Let's argue about opinions! Fun!

Taylor Swift's performance was not horrible. Neither was the Beach Boys. The Coldplay-Rhianna debacle...a case could be made, I suppose.

But unless some folks
1. Personally dislike the artists no matter what they sing or
2. Like to stir the sh*t and get people fired up for kicks

Those performances were not approaching the level of "horrible". My opinion.

Appropiately, my stream has now broken. So if the Beach Boys come back on and bust into She's Goin' Bald acapella I guess I'll catch it in the morning.

Thanks Slim!

Not a bad performance, all things considered. I could barely hear Mike in the beginning. He has lost a lot of his voice. And of course Jeff was doubling Brian. I'd say it was about 20 percent Brian. You could hear him in the middle range, and he was TRYING to smile.You can't really expect Brian to hit those falsetto notes, and I guess you can't really expect Mike to get way down low and remain audible either these days. The band sounded great, and the audience stood for the band and gave them the respect they deserved. The quality of the music stood out above the other material being performed. Too bad the Beach Boys never won a Grammy.

Lots of people of Twitter saying stupid things about the BBs and nursing homes. The NY Times columnist Charles Blow said he was totally bored with the BBs. TV Guide said, "Where's Uncle Jesse?"  Groan.

Sorry, meant an hour and 20-30 mins

"Paul McCartney returns with some Beatles classics!!"  ;D ;D ;D ;D

HELL YEAH!

Were they praising Chris Brown, though? Or bashing him too? Seriously, I'm curious and I won't waste my time subscribing to Twitter feeds from wannabe hipster journalists to find out.

Sounds like McCartney and Ringo might do something

LOL Twitter.  Wasn't the world waiting for an invention that afforded everyday folks the ability to be so far up their own backsides that they lose all sense of reality.

I don't know what else they were saying. You don't have to subscribe. Just go to search.twitter.com and put in Beach Boys. Tweet from Kevin Love:
Kevin Love @kevinlove
Excited to watch the Grammys tonight. Tuning in to see my uncle Mike Love and the Beach Boys perform with Maroon 5 and Foster The People.

@questlove

Music lovers, educate yourselves & cop Pet Sounds/Smile Boxset now! #BeachBoys #Grammys


 ;D

He's there, btw

The Beatles fan inside me is exploding with happiness!  ;D ;D ;D

BBs being interviewed on Grammys Live right now!

Mike's voice is either really shot or he's got a killer bass vocal these days

Maroon 5 nailed Surfer Girl, Foster the People guy looked scared s**tless. The Beach Boys? Well, it was cool to Brian as part of the group again.

Mark Foster looked as scared as Brian. But the fender guitars and striped shirts were cool and you could tell they put a lot of love and soul into their version. Maroon 5.... not so much. Those two songs are motherf****in hard to sing. At least Foster had some sincerity.

Love looked like the pervert grandfather from down the block.

Adele is killing it!

Everyday folks? How about entertainment writers, music journalists, and critics whose egos still haven't come back to reality after blogging was invented? ;D Now they tweet little chestnuts about nursing homes and think people care.

I missed the interview. :-\ Did anyone else make a copy of it?

AHHH!!! (girlish scream)

Yes!  I love that song!

Missed it too, it's gotta turn up somewhere

I thought the lead vocals on the songs sung by Marron5 and Foster were okay, but not great, and that the lead singer on Surfer Girl looked nervous.  Can't blame him with that audience.

Adele lost a bunch of weight, good for her

The expression on his face reminded me of Brian's TAMI performance. I almost thought he was looking scared as a tribute to Brian! I like Adele more and more. That's quite a voice. Oh, and what a humble expression as she took in that standing ovation.

The Boys gave a solid performance, too bad they couldn't have done Vegetables with Paul McCartney munching on carrots!  ;D

Macca's going to play some Beatles tunes

I just realised I actually love Adele. Even if that completely staged applause and stare into the middle distance tried to tug at my cynical whiskey fuelled heartstrings.

That's just half of it. Remember the soundcheck?

What did everyone think of Macca's new Valentine song? Nearly put me to sleep!

Adele had one of the best songs of the year with Rolling In The Deep, it deserves an award. Fantastic performance she just gave, one of tonight's highlights by far.

I loved my valentine.

Yeah, absolutely titanic performance. Easy to see why she'll win everything this year.

Terrible

He could have chosen a better song for that spotlight. Stevie Wonder's introduction was more alive and vibrant than Paul's entire song.

I don't care what anyone says about tonight's performance. I thought they were brilliant. They played a fantastic song, one that we all hoped for, and two major bands devoted songs to them.  They rocked the house and Ryan Secrest even mentioned Pet Sounds and Smile in his introduction.  Everything was better than I thought it would be.  It was a near perfect performance, so much so that I even loved Mike's hand gestures.  He even showed Adam Levine a few of them  ;D

Meanwhile here in England, 3:18 AM  :o

So The Beach Boys get to do a two minute Good Vibrations yet Paul Mccartney get's to do a cheesy love song and come back later with a totally random Beatles set..

I don't get it

I'm going to sleep after Glen. Gentle On My Mind done by some nobodies, which is nice. If by nobodies. I

 wonder if Glen Campbell nerds think that was terrible like some of us are thinking Maroon 5 or FTP were terrible. Perfectly servicable.


Glen Campbell is broing out here. He's LOVING IT.

He's Paul McCartney.

You really think Brian should go out there and do another set at this farce?   :o

Seriously love The Beach Boys but I think the way this was mapped out was the best possible route.  I'm waiting for the real show when they hit the road and start rocking some sheds.

Couldn't have said it better.

Hey, the old Boys still got it!

Fun!

P.S.

Mike Love kicked some a$$!  I love Mike Love!   :hat

Hey I don't think it's a who's bigger than who deal..

All in all The Beach Boys got 3 songs, I'm just saying I tink Sir Paul got a better deal, he's singing his own songs

The band rocked on GV's! ;D  Brian looked like he was just miked really low.

COMMENT:  Listening on Studio Monitors (JBL 4311) via live cable feed (like the rest of the country) I could hear Brian. Not as loud as I thought he should be in the mix, but he was there.

I heard Brian sing live last month. The man has no problem hitting the high notes or staying on key. I doubt he was afraid either. He just sings and that is that.

What I miss about these modern mixes is the echo on Good Vib's when the song breaks. Oooo echo echo echo. I use to put it there when I mixed the concerts. Why the hell it can't be done in this day and age is beyond me. Oh well, at least everyone was in good form. 

As far as Brian and the mix, remember this is a GROUP song. No solo parts here. 

Good Listening, ~Stephen W. Desper

I thought Seacrest did a fine job with the intro...he got the crowd amped up and led very nicely to cool intro to GV.  Good performance...the camera angle on Brian could have been better.  

Re: McCartney's Valentine -- I liked Joe Walsh's guitar solo. The rest was so-so. imho. Then again, I'm not a fan of that style of music.

As for the BBs, there wasn't enough of them, imho. It was good to see them all together and to see Dave as part of the band again.

I note that the first verse of GV was skipped entirely. Foskett sang the lead with Brian (which makes sense, he's filled Carl's shoes quite a bit in Brian's band). But Jeff's in the back line, not the front line, so they showed Brian on the front line, although he was the second voice in the balance, not the primary.

They're not nobodys in the country music scene, they're the equivalent of the successful newcomers (Foster The People - The Band Perry) and established commercially successful acts (Maroon 5 - Blake Shelton). Outside of country music those names are pretty much unknown.

Glen's segment was cool. :)

Yeah, although the quality of music might be comparable, Paul has got a better reputation and better management, too. It would have been nice if Paul had been one of the people to cover a Beach Boys song in the tribute. Or if he had introduced them, the way Stevie introduced him. It would have given them more credibility than Ryan Seacrest.

The only issue I have with Paul McCartney is the fact that The Beatles have to be integrated into everything he does now.  I would have been happy to hear one of his new songs off the Valentine's cd and maybe one of his classic solo hits.  To me I wish The Beatles music could be left as is.  John, Paul, George and Ringo are unfortunately no more and to hear seventy year old Paul McCartney up there performing The Beatle hits doesn't do anything for me.  It's probably the main reason why despite being a huge Macca fan I've never bought tickets to see him live.

I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink, i'm sooooo tired, my mind is on the blink. Seriously put Paul on so I can sleep afterwards! :thud

The Beach Boys are back! Hoping the new album turns out great! ;D

Guys. Ringo was at the soundcheck.

This was fun as hell, lots and lots of excitement...

I just hope we get tours dates soon

Now, Glen Campbell, he was great. That is the performance level I expect. Happy, in good form, dancing around. And he has ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE, fer cripes sakes! He has an excuse to sit there and walk through it, but he didn't.

I just get the feeling Paul's gonna sing Sgt Peppers and then introduce Ringo for Little Help For My Friends. I hope i'm right! 8)

Yet i saw it differently..From the CBS computer feed I saw clearly Bruce doubling Brian on the lead vocal.And in Chorus Bruce singin the highest parts with all he had..I also Heard Brian on the part Oh Ma Ma Ma what an elation. Jeff was so far back how could ya tell.? I did hear Jeff sing the intro to Surfer Girl..FLAT. !. I also thought neither of the 2 young bands came close to nailing their parts.Altho foster came off better on WIBN. I did shed a tear for the guys + in the end i think they should have just performed {BB} by themselves..BB did nothing to screw things up + looks like it will be a great reunion.!. Loved the way David was dressed + the hat. Everyone looked great for their age + havin fun + BW did looked scared..I did notice Melinda in audience..Maybe Brian needs Jeff closer by for moral support..Hope they change that around in concert.

Great to see the band out there. I think Mr. Desper really summed it up.

Glenn Campbell though singing wonderfully despite his illness has to be the highlight. WOW!

A friend who is not a BBs fan (indifferent) e-mailed:
"Just saw Beach Boys. Jeez ... kinda depressing. Too much to type on phone, but Wilson continues to look like a zombie. Damn miracle he didn't end up like Whitney years ago. Very sad."

Sigh.

Glen.  75 and decllining?  Saw him last month.  Maybe some dementia but for crying out loud.........the guy still has it as a performer!!!

Can we hope to have moment before this is over with BB an Glen being shown together?

The feedback I got from non-Beach Boys fans or more, umm, casual ones than me were that that they rocked it.  So they did their job overall, even if we may have had some quibbles.

I thought the first two performances showed how good the Boys in their prime really were- they made it sound so effortless and those were pretty decent signers not measuring up on any level.

I was kind of disappointed in the choosing of Surfer Girl, I wish they would have used an upbeat song like I Get Around or Help Me, Rhonda. Maroon 5 was okay. The instrumentation was the best part.

Foster the People were really good in the performance as a whole. Only thing would be Mark Foster used a bit too much vibrato for my tastes and he seems to always be nervous. To be fair to the kid, this is the biggest stage they've ever done. He was a severe drug addict in his late teens/early twenties and his friends feared for his life, so for him to even be up there living a dream with the band he admires most was great.

I thought the BBs were as good as I could have hoped. They are all nearing or at 70 for goodness sakes and have musically been apart for years. It was the first time for me to ever see them perform live on stage and I was thoroughly pleased.

Glen Campbell was great and the Band Perry are very, very far from being a nobody.

 ::) Again I fail to see the point.

This is very much a prickly issue for me and while in the end it's only rock and roll for me being a fan of The Beatles I would wish these onstage reunions between Macca and Ringo would end.  They are not The Beatles nor do their reunions in any way represent a reunion of The Beatles.  I'll give them credit for not even attempting to market it that way but I wish they would put an end to it all together.  It was different when George was still alive and Ringo and George would play together (as they did at Royal Albert Hall in 1992) or whatnot because of the fact three surviving Beatles at the time never reunited onstage without John Lennon.  To me having Paul and Ringo out there singing Beatles songs without John and George really plays the whole Beatles legacy kind of cheap.  

P much my gist. I am not down with the modern country.


When Brian gets more comfortable, this Beach Boys reunion is going to be off the chain. I know it.  ;D Night all.

From the yahoo article:

After a standing ovation, the Beach Boys themselves, all now in their 60s, then took to the stage to play "Good Vibrations," with famously glum-looking Brian Wilson almost smiling as he hit the high notes with his old bandmates.

http://news.yahoo.com/beach-boys-good-vibrations-grammys-034043025.html

Tonight proved the Beach Boys have an awesome online presence  ;D

I think it's a pretty little song; guess I'm just a sloppy romantic.

Didn't think the Maroon 5 vocalist was right for Surfer Girl.  Foster sang a respectful WIBN but he looked really nervous.  BBs... I couldn't be sure WHERE the vocals were coming from, because I sure didn't hear Brian when he singing on camera.  Have to admit it is hard for me to watch Mike Love, but I did think it was a respectable performance.  But my wife said "this isn't good PR for the tour" and described their appearance as "grim."  And she is a semi-fan.  Ouch.

Did I see the same show everyone else did?  Levine couldn't' hit any of the falsetto notes - other than that Surfer Girl was ok at best.  Foster's WIBN was weird, attempting to replicate the original arrangement rather than do their own version.  It wasn't't bad but it wasn't the beach boys.  Then GV was mediocre, to ne nice about it.  Al the unseen backing vocalists carried the song.  I hope they can get it more together for the jazzfest performance.

I was disappointed that the Decemberists lost to the Foos.

Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Foo Fighters and Deadmau5? Wow, talk about different walks of life.

Rhinestone Cowboy, Glen? Really? That's how you want to go out? Not with By the Time I Get To Phoenix or Wichita Lineman? Sure, Rhinestone Cowboy was a big hit, but I totally did not get that.

I doubt it was his choice.

Okay, I lied.

I watched it again, and it's a solid effort. Yes, Brian was mixed totally out of the first line of the verse. But he's audible, and sounds fine, in the rest of it. He looks as comfortable as he ever does at these sorts of things, which is not very. But he smiled several times and was keeping up with the rest of the group.

Ultimately, this is a performance by BW's backing band. And they did a nice job. Mike was, as ever, the ringmaster.

The real test -- and opportunity -- will come with the full-length live shows and the new album.

My thoughts exactly..

After watching it again a few times I think it was really solid

It's time for Lady Gag- I mean Nicki Minaj.

At least Gaga is talented - I don't mind utterly bizarre if there's talent behind it, but that isn't the case right now.

Fair enough, I mean what the hell is this?! This is terrible!

I don't either. I never will understand why people seem to favor the Beatles over everything damn else.

OMG...Nikki Minaj is TERRIBLE, even by the standards of her style.

That was absolutely atrocious. I can not believe that was shown on live television.

Nicki should have stayed on the bottom bunk of the bus.

dıpןo @diplo
Hope they playing some good commercials cause I board as fuc watching them set up for Paul McCartney

I'm kinda excited for Paul's set, this has been a total sh*t fest since TBB's took a bow

I've been following in here all evening. Some of you people really killed the mood tonight. I enjoyed the performance. GV was performed the same way Brian has been performing it for years. Brian acted no different than at any solo shows over the past decade. To expect anything different, you were just fooling yourselves. I thought Glen did a great job tonight. I really enjoyed Joe Walsh's guitar work with Macca. It was the best part of the total performance.

I mean, if you had watched the Brian group over the last couple of years, and the Mike and Bruce group, and you imagined them onstage at the Grammys, this is what you would get. It's not some crazy new arrangement, it's not some amazing new height -- it's these guys performing a song they all do live for the billionth time. I did HATE that they started with the chorus, though.

One thing I noticed after re-watching...Brian's PIANO is audible, as unless there was some creative mixing  going on, the main piano sound (not the keyboards) were coming from where Brian was at. Interesting...

Yes it was real bad.. real bad..

Too many commercials...

Hell yeah bring Paul on i'm really tired, but at least I can sleep in today since i'm off college for a week. Don't you have to go to college later on?

Wrong. They didn't play the whole song (Brian & Band usually do). Brian didn't (really) sing the verse(s) (as he usually does). Not like any BW solo show.  ;)

Has anyone seen this article from The Washington Post? After the BB performed Good Vibrations tonight, Mike was interviewed backstage and said he's blown away by a new Brian song called "That's Why God Made The Radio." First time I've heard of this song...





http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/taylor-swift-gets-revenge-and-grammys-amy-winehouses-dad-salutes-whitney-houston-etta-james/2012/02/12/gIQAXwNZ9Q_story.html?tid=pm_pop

Yeah, that's not gonna happen  :lol

Now that! Deserves it's own thread  :o

Heh.

I was talking about Brian just sitting there kind of stoned-faced and the way the music was played, not the time.

Paul's lost his pipes but he still does it live

Interesting......  :3d

Then that's just Brian. How could one expect anything else.  ;)

I can't believe Paul didn't bring Ringo on  :lol :lol

WOW Great finish

Exactly! Brian is Brian.

No Ringo? Ah well, still a great ending.

IKR! Damn it...

Macca just rocked my world.

:)

That was fun!

I'm going to bed then. Good night everyone, it's been fun getting to know you all better this last couple of hours. :)

I hope to be that rockin when I'm nearing 70.

I gotta say, Beatles music is pretty damn epic. That Golden Slumbers thing topped 'em all, and I don't usually like Paul sings Beatles Songbook performances.

I think not liking the Abbey Road medely is illegal in most countries  :police:

I can't believe I once said that Abbey Road was one of the most overrated albums of all time  :P

Macca's finale rawked!!! Mike Love didn't have to dare The Boss to get up on stage and jam!  :lol

They saved the best for last. Maybe not technically the best vocals, but that was such a surprising song choice that I just loved it. Go Paul!

Same here!

Yawn.

It honestly didn't do much for me.

That was really cool. I don't usually like the guitar jam session segments at award shows, but that one was really, really cool. It's the Beatles aura, that's the only way I can explain it. Seeing Bruce and Joe Walsh and Grohl up there smiling like kids jamming with Paul touched a nerve. I think anyone who plays music and loves the Beatles in any way pictured themselves in that scenario at one point or another.

Not a good performance by Paul-either of them (and I am a fan)  but The Beach Boys really did as good as I hoped. It felt right in a way it hasn't since Carl last graced the stage. Those voices belong together.

Can't believe he didn't play Her Majesty.

The hubby and I both loved the guitar jam at the end.

The thing that is so bizarre about the Grammy telecast now is that it is barely a celebration of the music of the preceding year any more. The Academy has a terrible voting history, so they feel that have to provide a capsule summary of modern musical history every time. I mean, imagine on the Academy Awards this year: "Now, we have Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, to re-enact your favorite scenes from Midnight Cowboy!!!".
Also, a patronising element is the need to bring in newer, younger artists to "help" every single older artist, from Paul to Campbell to Beach Boys to Bonnie Raitt etc.

I just gotta say the grammy thing did exactly what the Beach Boys and I'm sure management hoped for, it brought a huge amount of attention tot the guys, most of it good some of it bad

Anyway, album sales will get a spike and if they are smart enough to release more dates soon they will surely sell fast

Hate to say it, but you have a point. The lineup was deeply meaningful to those who have a feeling for this band's history.

As of this night...

THE BEACH BOYS ARE REUNITED !!!  :thewilsons



And now.... good night. :thud

Didn't think to put the TV feed through the big speakers.  Mr. Desper did, so I trust him on what he heard.  Methinks some of the carping about the BB performance was the live mix, there were more than a few problems.  Mike was definitely not there in the mix at first, not his fault.  Brian did no worse than he's done any other time I saw him. The other guys seemed to be having fun.  Notice Mark Foster was off stage right, nearer to Brian's side, while Adam Levine danced with Mike?  Wonder if that was staged that way.  The duettist's mic died completely during the Carrie Underwood duet.  I'm not sure that what happened to Katy Perry's first song of her medley was supposed to happen.  At least they didn't have the Wilco unplugged-cable zap that got in Paul McCartney's way.

I'm not the biggest Taylor Swift fan but I liked she did her song acoustically, and de-glammed herself for her stage performance.  I also liked the Deadmaus/Foo Fighers/Chris Brown DJ segment.

It was rehearsed like that.

They were briefly the #1 trending topic on Yahoo tonight...so I would guess most of the reception was positive.

http://youtu.be/-BCIm1n9Ixk    better quality.

It will be interesting to track downloads and sales this week, too. I've already mentioned this, but we should track "Good Vibrations" among other BB's titles on iTunes and Amazon to see if there is a spike in sales from this broadcast.

Here's the link to the post-performance interview with the BBs:
http://www.grammy.com/videos/the-beach-boys-one-on-one-backstage

Wow....New album possibly before the tour according to that interview.

No TV at home  :-[

But it was cool to watch this, although Brian seemed a little tired and out of it.  Great to see all 5 together!

I was disappointed that when Brian opened his mouth to sing it was Jeff Foskett's voice I heard coming out of the speakers. :(

I can't believe they persist in asking Brian Wilson if he follows the current music scene.  You would think some of these interviewers would research some of Brian's recent interviews in promoting SMiLE where he flat out said he doesn't listen to anything except "oldies".  It just makes for a completely awkward moment when they go down that route with him (although nice save by Dr. Love in this instance) as it's obvious that Brian probably hasn't listened to Top 40 in at least three decades and I only say that because apparently he's aware of several musicians from the seventies.

It's not?  I guess those performances by Chris Brown, Bruno Mars, Adelle and Coldplay etc etc were all old.


What a weird analogy.  I have never seen an Academy Award broadcast where the current nominees actually performed any scene from the film they were nominated for.  Tonight the Beach Boys were reunited on stage for the first time in decades...were they supposed to just stand there and not sing anything?  Paul McCartney performed a new song from his latest album plus a classic cut later.  So what's the issue?  

The Boys Boys were reasonably good but i could hardly hear Mikes vocals even when he was singing lead let alone the harmonies.

The highlight of the night for me was Dave Grohls acceptance speech in which he he talked about music coming from the heart and the mind
without being tainted or touched up by computers.

And did you notice the house band cut him off?  He offended most of the current music makers!

lol Yeah and a few of the guests in the audience looked a little nonplussed as well.

Slowness and lack of comprehension are my guesses. Everything I said was entirely correct.

so great to see the group together again.  really awesome to see Dave up there keeping it real !

i think foster was better than maroon 5.  and who didn't love foster wearing blue striped shirts  ;D

Just watched that post performance interview video, and laughed out loud at the very end where Mike goes "Nice jacket." Don't know why, but that cracked me up. Also glad Bruce shared the love, letting them know Brian did win a Grammy too.

I agree. Is his voice really that bad/unreliable these days?

That's hard to believe considering all the praise he got for the BWRG performances and his lead vocals on the Disney album (which I admit I haven't heard in full).

Keep in mind cutting the first verse was probably dictated by the grammys. Despite Mike's usual Megalomania and Brian and Jeff's voices being screwed up in the mix, Tonight went pretty well.

I'm so glad I can come here and know I'm not alone ;D I've even bought movies I had absolutely no interest in just because it had a BB song in it (& I already had the songs on cd).



I totally cried when Seacrest talked about them :-[ I must say I'm eating my words on Maroon 5 though, they seemed to give it their best (nowhere up to par, but I guess nobody will ever be). Foster The People, imo, sucked but I did appreciate the fact that they wore the shirts and looked scared to death.

I don't really know what to say about the main event :-\ Was Brian even miked? Maybe what looked bad to me (focusing on Brian when Foskett was obviously singing) totally went over the average viewers head? Was that really Mike singing bass when they showed him? Something seemed off to me there. It sounded great, just looked super awkward. Mike didn't disappoint on the cheese factor, & Brain looked like he couldn't get out of there fast enough. I am just super happy that they are finally getting some of the credit they so incredibly deserve (especially from the mainstream). Now that this is over, here's hoping they come to all our nearest cities on the tour :listening


And did it bother anyone else that the Beatles were a presence with the McCartney stuff on a night with such a (rare) Beach Boy focus? I was totally thinking the Beatles are trying to steal the Beach Boy's thunder yet again ::)

Agreed!  I don't have tv at home and watched videos on youtube.  I could hardly sit through the M5 performance.  FTP was really good.  I wasn't familiar with their music beyond Pumped Up Kicks...exploring their music right now on youtube, and they're really good.

Did you even watch. Or read more educated feed back?

If they tried to have someone in that building perform after the Whitney tribute who HADNT been busted with Coke, they'd be down to the lady running the ticket booth....

I thought Bruno was pretty good.  Sounded good, exciting song, great dancing, really cool stuff.  

Don't insult Tito Jackson like that... Tito could play guitar.  Chris Brown doesn't deserve to clean Tito Jackson's bathroom. 

she was great on the show, but "Jason Aldean" gives country a bad name.  one of the absolute worst country singers ever.  ANYBODY else would have been better. 

I've always liked the Foo.  Dave Grohl, and good to see Pat Smear on stage with him!  Hell yeah!  The second performance though at the end was better.  They 'keep it real' better than about any 'big' rock band, Dave Grohl is perpetually 16. 

That arrogant f*** that leads the band actually had it say "Chris Martin.... coldplay" underneath his name when he came out acting like he could play guitar.  Three horrible musicians in the world, and we got two of 'em so far on this show.  (Chris Brown, Chris Martin, Thank god Bono isn't there)

I totally had that feeling too, but I also had it when Whitney Houston died so I must be disturbed  ;D

...more like over-inflated BS.  But I wouldn't expect you to recognize the difference.

My opinion:  Maroon 5 sounded pretty shitty singing "Surfer Girl".  I saw dude take the monitor out of his ear, maybe he couldn't hear, I don't know.

I think LARGELY the problem is this: Beach Boys songs are very hard to sing live.  Even the 'boys had trouble with their own songs all through the past 50 years, it's very difficult to sing that stuff live, no matter who you are.    So to THESE ears, Maroon 5 were off key almost the entire song.

Foster the People did a more acceptable job, but like said above they sang it three keys low, and the lead singer has no power or strength to his voice.  Al Jardine would have murdered this song, he sings it very well and in my opinion was the best person on stage to sing it.  I liked Foster the People's vibe and the way they handled the song, but it was a bit out of their league.

These people always miss what's so great about the song, in my opinion.  It's not a song meant to be sang 'pretty' or melancholy, or beautifully... it's a song about youthfullness, and it has an electric excitement to it.  It should always have a SHOUT in it, not a smile in it.  If you get what I mean.  Nobody ever sings it as optimistically as Brian did originally, I realize that's a tall order, but they're doomed from the start when they sing that song pretty. 

The 'boys did a great job on "Good Vibrations", certainly as good as can be expected at their age.  It rocked better than the other two songs, but too many cooks spoiled it for me.  Did we really need 25 people on stage to do that song?  There were TWENTY FIVE people on the stage.  Come on!  Brian's Mike wasn't turned off, he was singing very low however... I did hear his voice in the harmonies in a couple spots, it's always unmistakeable.  The lead they showed was Brian (very low), Bruce, and Jeff.  Sounded great, and most people at home probably just thought it was Brian singing. 

I'd be happy to see them do some shows with much less stuff going on, onstage.  Crowd seemed into it, so that's something.  Brian exited stage left as soon as possible, lol.  I DID see him smile though when he was doing his lead, so I think he was happy to be there, just scared to death that he'd do something wrong or stand in the wrong spot, or whatever.

Why don't you fall down off your high horse and realize that maybe BRIAN WANTS IT THAT WAY. 


Notice, for instance, that he didn't sing the song originally.  Sometimes he's content to let others sing.  He's better than you in that regard. 

To be honest, I don't think Glen is all that proud of his time as a Beach Boy!  I know that sounds crazy, but I've heard him joke about it, many many times and act like he was horrible at singing Brian's parts, etc.  Glen's always been a little bit egotistical... no big deal, I love the guy, but it would be way out of character for him to have anything to do with the Beach Boys or Brian.  He was singing in the audience because he likes the music, I'm sure, but I think he looks at his time in the BB's as a bad gig. 

His bass voice sounded pretty damn good to these ears.  Unless somebody was doubling him too... whoever was singing bass has still got it. 

What amazes me about the little bit of Mike I've heard lately (this performance, and the Do It Again re-record) is that he's doing creative bass things, which we always give him credit for, but he apparently realizes how cool that is and strives to do it. 

If you listen to the 'do it again' tape, for the entire outro of the song he's doing some wicked bass vocals. 

She's the real deal.  You can see a cool video on youtube of her singing in a radio studio "chasing pavements" with a guitar player chording it, she sings completely effortlessly.  It looks like it's 6a.m. and she just walked in off the street, she's wearing a big brown coat and doesn't have any makeup on, completely owns the song with nothing backing her.  She sings as effortlessly as she talks. 

Modern day Dusty Springfield. 

Personally, I'm not a big fan of "The Band Perry", but I thought they were nothing short of EXCELLENT doing Gentle on my Mind.  It had that folk/hobo/Roger Milller quality to it like the original had.  Very nice performance. 

I thought it was good, too.  Basically, Paul Macca has done it all, if he wants to indulge himself and write a sloppy love song (AGAIN) hell go ahead, Paul. 

The thing about Paul writing and singing a song like that is: That's how he's lived his life.  A "My Valentine" song from Paul is authentic.  He really believes all that sh*t he's singing about, and always has, and always will.  His wife died, and twice now he's tried to be in love again, no matter what the cost, no matter that he's got to know he's a magnet for Gold Diggers. 

The guy's legit.  When he sings a love song, he knows what he's talking about, as foolish and ridiculous as it is. 

I thought the same thing!  Why Rhinestone Cowboy?  I love the song but either of the two you mentioned would have been better, and BOTH of the two the other bands sang WERE better!  You'd think they would have pawned that song off on Blake Shelton, and let Glen sing the much better "Southern Nights". 

when the beach boys were performing my gf texted me and said "baby your one of your favorite bands did a good job" woot woot she's becoming a bb fan slowly..:]
foster the child didnt do too well..the main singer had such an annoying voice..but it's reminiscent of jardine's voice in a way. and maroon 5 did a great job :)..bruno did a great james brown impersonation
THE BEACH BOYS HAD THE BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE NIGHT!! paul mccartney let me down with his new shitty songs smh (he's still a living legend regardless) and i'm the only guy in the world that thinks adele is over-rated...FML!

So you'd take a huge gamble on Brian blowing it completely at a high profile event in front of millions on live TV, performing really badly and shredding both his confidence and the buzz for the upcoming tour ? Sir, you are a fool.

The event was the important thing, and by and large it went well (although to judge from Germanotta's expression she'd never heard "GV" before in her entire life...). Remember, 99.98% of those viewing didn't know it was Jeff and Bruce covering Brian to a degree.

Best group photo of the day.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-57376326-10391698/beach-boys-ditch-bad-vibrations-and-reunite-for-grammys/

It was great, but I cannot for the life of me 'get' Bruce Springsteen.  I've never been a fan.  He always looks like he smells something nasty on his microphone, and I learned tonight, after all these years, during this jam, that Bruce Springsteen cannot play guitar to save his life.  He's completely impotent now.  Paul Macca played lead 10 times better than Bruce, over and over again, and HE'S NOT EVEN A GUITARIST.  

i agree with you 100% :] ..i thought i was the only one that didnt feel his music.

I have "Taxman" on the line,  and it begs to differ.

Poor Brian, he looks so awkward.  I hope (and I pray, to be honest) that some of those demons that are still kicking around in there are calmed down by this reunion.  He is TRYING, people.  This is a guy who's absolutely staring fear in the face and moving right through it.  God bless him! 

I know, I'm saying he can play a mean guitar (10 times better than Springsteen!) but he's primarily a bass player and a pianist.  I know he started as a guitarist, etc. but the point still is a guy known for being one of the greatest Bass players of all time just smoked, over and over again, the 'boss' on guitar. 

I'm actually with you on Springsteen.  This is probably blasphemy, but I've always found him, both musically and lyrically, to be very cheesy and phony.  Then again, I've always loathed the whole overblown "working man" schtick, period.  And his voice never did anything for me. 

As for the Beach Boys, I thought they held their own.  Didn't like that they began "Good Vibrations" on the chorus, and Brian looked massively uncomfortable, but the latter is nothing new.  They also had a ton of help from the backing band, but it was dignified, classy, and a nice way to return.  It felt right hearing Mike's voice on the chorus again.  As someone said earlier, it felt all very genuine.  In some sense, it almost feels as cathartic for us fans as it does them. 

A nice way to kick off the reunion.  Should be good. 

I'm from New Jersey and there's a requirement to like Bruce Springsteen to maintain your citizenship.

(Is there really nothing off of "Born to Run" that you like, though?)

I was with you on many observations on these recent pages, but that last statement...here's a short list of McCartney's lead guitar credits:

Blackbird
Another Girl
Taxman
Fixing A Hole
Good Morning Good Morning
Back In The USSR
Maybe I'm Amazed
Drive My Car
Sgt. Pepper/Pepper Reprise
The End (1st solos of the 3)
Ticket To Ride

That's a pretty hefty resume for any guitarist! ;D All of those were McCartney playing lead.

Man, I can listen to two or three of his songs, but they're not essential and they're most certainly not on the caliber he's hyped up to be.  "Born to Run" is a great song, I liked the Streets of Philadelphia, everybody's got to like "Born in the USA"... but it dont' go much deeper than that sadly. 

I'm completely aware of what McCartney played guitar on, I learned to play guitar playing many of those songs, but he's not a guitarist by trade, he's a bassist, which is very different.  The guy is better on his THIRD instrument, than Springsteen is on his ONLY instrument.  Just 'sayin. 

BTW you forgot "I've Just Seen a Face", and "yesterday".  And "Band on the Run"... and ... well. 

Nah, totally didn't watch. I thought I'd watch E! or something instead of watching my favorite band of all time so I could catch (or keep) up with the Kardashians, then I'd come on here and pretend I did anyway ::) I don't know if I'm offended or amused that after watching 3 1/2 hours of almost total garbage (not the least of which included Taylor Swift pretending she's on Hee Haw) I'm being accused of having not been traumatized by the dj with the mouse head or the whole possessed/exorcism charade. And I appologize if my post is too uneducated for your liking, but if it's not how I personally felt I wouldn't have stated it.
And I think I only read about 2 pages of this thread (I don't believe I was enlightened by any of your posts before now), you see I was too busy watching some award show ;D

As far as Springsteen, I'm from the Philly area so naturally we're surrounded by his music, it's still considered "local". Our CBS affiliate ran a story on Bruce's history after the Grammys.

I like some of his tunes, some of his live shows I've seen/heard have been thrilling, but I have also never bought into all the hype or the praise. He's been put up on a pedestal even more in the past 10 years or so, and I haven't heard too much of the new Bruce (past 10 years) to justify all that hype, praise, and critical fawning. The best tunes at his live shows have been the old warhorses that sounded great in the 70's.

I think it's OK that Brian was hardly audible. If knowing that he was low in the mix was what it took to make him feel more at ease for such an important event, than that's fine. For as far as most people know, Brian sounded great and I'm sure he'll get plenty of "real" leads on the tour.

Macca is amazingly prolific, a la Woody Allen. While Allen's films have improved greatly recently, there was a long run of mediocrity. Similarly (although I haven't heard most of it), Paul's recent material is uneven but solid and occasionally excellent from most reports, though the new song he performed tonight was mediocre. Derivative (reminiscent of Besame Mucho, yes I know he didn't write that, and And I Love Her, to my ears). He has earned the right to indulge himself, however, is in love, and it is almost Valentine's Day, + he more than made up for it with a spot-on vocal and overall performance on the Abbey Road medley (far better than his rough, off-pitch singing on his recent SNL appearance, at which time he was probably hoarse from excessive touring).

It is unfortunate that Brian had to mime the GV verses, although most people watching (even some here) were undoubtedly unaware of it. It would have been folly to risk an out-of-tune performance on such a high-profile appearance, however, and while he is still capable of very solid vocals in the studio, and often live (esp. on newly recorded material from his latest project, while he is still freshly engaged) he was clearly nervous tonight (I did spot an early smile) and would have been unlikely to have nailed his lead. Again, from a hard-core fan's perspective, it was really too bad that Jeff's was the only voice that could be heard while Brian was ostensibly singing, but the only alternative would have been to do another song (could have been interesting). You can't argue with the choice of GV from any other standpoint though.

Although extremely slick and somewhat generic, it was a solid, high-octane delivery which suited the demands of the occasion. A solid launch to what will hopefully be a triumphant year.

I thought Maroon 5 performed quite creditably on SG, lovely really, but the lead singer's vocal flourishes fell flat (as did his pitch) a couple of times during the tag. Liked the tempo & key of WIBN, but the vocals were a bit clipped and sounded forced.

I've just read all sixteen pages, and maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but I am decidedly disheartened that in all this text, maybe three people have commented on the main event tonight - good or bad, glad or sad, this was The Beach Boys ,reunited in real time, all five on the same stage at the same time and looking happy to be doing exactly that. Yes, Brian was saftey-netted, but I heard him, even on youtube. This is the beginning of the C50 process: I'm expecting major press in the upcoming days concerning the album, archive releases and tour.

Everybody: Try this... I just opened the youtube clip of the Beach Boys performing, and *DIDNT* watch it, just listened. 


SOUNDED GREAT! 

Didn't forget them...just didn't list them! And McCartney was a guitarist when he met John and through the early Beatles years, he said he didn't want to play bass even when he took the role. That's what he says, at least. ;)

For the record, I started learning them when vinyl and cassette ruled the racks, and CD's were the "luxury", so I'd have tapes of my vinyl to practice with and several Beatles guitar songbooks which never sounded "right", no tablature just trad notation. I later figured out they were in the wrong keys, no wonder they didn't fit. :-D

Well over half of those on my list I thought for years featured George Harrison on lead...me and thousands of others I'm sure. It amazed me to learn how often Paul did play lead guitar, and how some of my then-favorites like Good Morning were actually Paul and not George. Despite the 'net, despite all the "complete scores" books and whatnot, you can learn something new about a Beatles guitar part every time you sit down to play it.

Well I couldn't stay up to watch it but caught up on the videos whilst eating my breakfast this morning. I'm so happy with how it went as I actually dreamt that people on here were just calling it "rubbish"! :) It's so nice to see them all together but it makes it so sad that Carl and Dennis aren't there. It's a real shame as I think they would have loved this.

All I can say is that I am excited about this year on the back of this and I am proud of the Boys and to be a fan!

Paul Plays drums too.  Dave Grohl would hand him his ASS though if they jammed together, I'm just saying, somewhere, in L.A. right now, Bruce Springsteen is ashamed of himself. 

:)

Keep that feeling, then, no matter what any of the rest of the lot tell you.  That the music still touched you and you got something good out of the video proves that the boys still have what was always the greatest thing they gave their music anyways :  heart. 

What excites me is I think the positivity and the warmth they have for each other has the potential to actually increase over the next few months if everything goes good.  If that happens, think how great it'll be for fans in a few months.  What if Mike and Brian actually get comfortable around each other?  What if Al doesn't have to worry about Mike suing him?  What if the fans and Mike accept Jeff?  This might get really positive. 

It's like those videos that float around of Brian and his band rehearsing, and Jeff or somebody says "That's not how you sing it, show 'em Brian!" and Brian, in a good mood, sings something falsetto out of nowhere just for the hell of it. 

I want the Beach Boys to have fun and enjoy each other like they once did, that would be the best 'celebration' they could give us fans, imho. 

I think the fact that all 5 were on stage has been processed and absorbed already, that was a done deal well before the performance itself. So we were expecting that part of the deal - how much more can be said about that which we knew? It was time to deliver the goods! I think they did, I still think the band by itself could have done better than the special guests on the songs. And Mike Love had *great* stage presence tonight and his bass voice, when audible in the mix, was a treat to hear on GV in 2012.

I think the mixing was a bit off, giving the benefit of the doubt for the engineers there may have been too many musicians for the good of those songs...was it necessary to have that many guitars? :)

This speech was a highlight for me as well...and to play him off stage with LMFAO...I'm happy to read I wasn't the only one that noticed all these little things that happened. ;D

The he said "LONG LIVE ROCK AN ROLLLL!!!" as loud as he could.  Like I said: forever 16.  Which is a good thing when your main purpose in life is to make garage band music.  I've always liked Dave Grohl, and really his entire band shares the same philosophy.  They don't care whether or not they're the greatest in the world, they just want to rock.  Dave Grohl is happy to play drums on a puff daddy song.  He'll do duets with Chris Brown.  I mean the guy just wants to play his guitar, or his drums, as loud as he can and watch people dance around and have a good time.  He's a very honest musician, imho.  Doesn't take himself too seriously, and he's fairly great at what he does.

Not only were the boys probably a nightmare for the engineers, they probably usually don't have vocal blends to worry about.  Most bands on the radio anymore have 1 guy singing lead, then if any backing vocals, it'll either be a tape or just two or three mics singing the same thing. 

The Beach Boys just had 3 different guys kind of singing 'lead', then had about 15 people singing 5 or 6 different melodies. 

It's like Brian's mad experiment in his mind finally came to fruition on the stage.  This would be about the time he'd be doing more takes, and telling everybody "Forget Time, they can fix that with the machine, all we have to worry about is the blend!"

I thought the Beach Boys did fine.  I'm not expecting them to be spectacular, because I'm not sure they ever were outside the studio, at least not consistently.  Having a good backing band helps.  I wasn't impressed by either Maroon 5 or Foster the People (at least not their lead singers).  Both of those guys were rather off-key.  That part of it was cringe-worthy.  It just seemed awkward.   The Beach Boys and Glen Campbell were really the only reasons I watched at all.

Looked at it again in the cold light of sobriety. Brian's nerves were my only problem with it, but yeah - Everybodys having a great time! The Beach Boys!


THEY ARE BACK! ;D

It was less about "evil computers" and more about playing from your heart.

Am I the only one who didn't think Brian looked that nervous? To me, it looked like he was concentrating on playing the piano, and I think we're all missing the fact his playing was more audible than his vocals, which were audible in everything except the verse.


I'm really excited about the album, and would eat kitten brains if it meant I could see a live show.

I think Dave's main point was to highlight
(amongst other things) pitch correction and that its OK too not sing every-note pitch perfect.
It was a dig at contemporary recording techniques, so actually it was ALL about the Evil computers. >:D >:D

I'm with you, he looked cool, and smiled a time or two, like he was enjoying it.

Yeah, it's really exciting - not sure if I'd go the kitten brains - but I will keep a spoon in my pocket in case I change my mind

Anyone notice the Beach Boys page has gained roughly three thousand more "likes" on facebook? Yeah!  ;D

I think if I'd actually stayed up and watched Nicky Minaj I would have had some kind of a seizure. What the hell was that?!

You're right, I think he looked nervous also.  All the band members also looked like they'd had an hour in make-up applying fake tan too.  Made them look weird to me.

Brian had every right to be nervous – for all the band members this would have been one of the biggest nights of their lives and one of the most important gigs with regard to their career.

This is the kick-start for the Beach Boys revival. The Smile set bought them credibility but this will bring them widespread public attention.  I'd've shat myself if I'd've been on that stage last night (well, this morning here) with the enormity of what lay on their shoulders.  Thank God they had (most of) Brian's band behind them.

Mike looked utter professional in that Love-sleezy way of his, but if I had to read his mind I'd say he was in awe of what they'd pulled off.

Bruce looked utterly professional, with a professional eye on what was happening -  perhaps the only one of the five not so in awe of the moment.  Good for him -  he could help hold the whole thing together.

The whole performance was an over the top cacophony, too many lights, too many musicians, too many surfboards, too many celebrities there just to be seen, too many vocal safety nets… typical LA schmuck, utterly tasteless…

And yes perfect.

Please sir, can I have some more?

I completely agree with this sentiment.

Love how they opened up with Mike's line. He sounded strong compared to other recent performances. Great seeing them all up there.

Only disappointment: no shorts for Bruce!  :lol

Yeah, Grohl would destroy Paul on drums but Paul would destroy him on piano/guitar/bass/vocals.

We have to remember that this was just the appetizer and that the main course is the tour. Reserve judgment on Brian's role in the mix until then. I thought the other four members all deserved great credit for putting on a show and for putting the band back in the spotlight for the first time since Kokomo, irrespective of who was in the mix and where.

AGD is on the money with his observation that 99.98% of the audience would not have seen or heard the doubling of the vocals or the fact that the Wondermints et al carry most of the instrumentation. Frankly, who cares? You have one of the seminal recordings in music history, GV, being performed to a high standard by an ensemble that includes (to varying degrees of participation) the surviving original artists (plus David Marks, who performed it with the band in 1997-99).

After watching the BB's performance a few more times this morning, I still have some mixed feelings about it.  Yes, it was absolutely beautiful to see them all onstage together doing their thing.  I think the performance as a whole was pretty good.  There was nothing terrible or embarrassing about it.  I can see both sides of the whole "Brian's mic was/wasn't buried" thing.  Yes, he was audible, but barely so.  Foskett was definitely dominating that verse section.  I understand why and agree with AGD that the repercussions of Brian nervous and not doing a good job would have been a disaster.  I totally understand why they did it, even if I was a tad bit disappointed  by it.  That being said, I'm not sure it was a good thing for the casual or non-fan to witness.  I've already had 2 people at work today say that it looked like they were lip-synching their performance.  Of course, we all know that isn't true and understand what was going on, but for anyone not in the know, it didn't look so great to see Brian's mouth moving with an obviously different voice coming from somewhere else.  Towards the end of the verse Brian and Jeff weren't in perfect synch and with Jeff overpowering Brian in the mix but the camera focused solely on Brian, it didn't look great.  Again, I enjoyed the performance and understand the situation and why they chose to bury Brian's lead vocal.  I just hope the general public gets it.

I didn't care for Foster the People or Maroon 5's performances.  The Maroon 5 singer butchered Surfer Girl.  Looked like he was having monitor issues.  He was flat for a lot of the performance.  Foster the People was a bit better, but I don't care for the singers tone at all.  They really should have let the BB's do the entire set alone.  For God's sake, it's their 50th anniversary!  They shouldn't have to share the spotlight with anyone!

Highlights from the rest of the show:  I guess I'm in the minority on this board, but I love Springsteen and thought his performance was great.  His new song isn't my favorite of his by any means, but it's good and he and the E Street band did a great job opening. 

While I'm not a fan, I thought the Bruno Mars performance was pretty good.  The guy has a good voice and was entertaining to watch even though I don't care for his tunes. 

I enjoyed Paul's Valentine song.  Sure it was low key, but I think it was a pretty good tune and he performed it well. 

Foo Fighters performed well, but I'm starting to get tired of them.  I enjoyed their first few albums, but I think they are beginning to sound a bit tired in their songwriting.  They still perform well, but the songs on their last few albums haven't been that great. 

Chris Brown can dance well, but that's it.  His music is terrible.  I shouldn't be shocked, but I can't believe he won a Grammy.  Katy Perry is also awful.

I hate Taylor Swift's little, "Oh my God!  I can't believe they really love me!" act after every standing ovation she gets.  It's old.  You know that you are one of the biggest stars on the face of the planet right now, stop acting surprised by it.  Her music is neither here nor there for me.  I don't like it, but it isn't as cringe worthy as the two performers listed above.

Modern Country music is bad.  I already knew that, but the point was driven home when Glen Campbell came out and blew every other Country performer from the evening out of the water.  An old man battling Alzheimer's disease destroyed the other country performers.  He was in terrific voice and performed well.  Awesome.

Adele was terrific.  My wife loves her and owns her albums.  I don't love every cut on her records, but I respect her a great deal.  Her voice is out of this world and it's good to see her win due to her voice and not have to be trashy.  Her performance was great.  Rollin' in the Deep is a great tune.

I turned it off after Glen.  I had seen all I wanted to see.

on amazon a few of the group's lps are having a nice sales increase after last night's appearance.

anyone else think this bruno mars song is similar in production/structure/sentiment to "i do"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz2J0ZivptI

You basically summed it up perfectly.  Anyone trying to discredit Bruce's merit as a songwriter is fighting an uphill battle.  One of the greatest songwriters of his or any generation.  "Thunder Road" alone I think might be one of the top ten songs ever written.  It's pure poetry.  But he hasn't done anything truly on the level of his early output since the early eighties.  "Nebraska" was his last truly great album and everything since then has been relying on those "old warhorses" that you mentioned.  As far as his live performances go, check out some of his shows from either of his acoustic tours.  You might find some pleasant surprises there.

Well I was disheartened that this circus of a show turned out to be what I feared.  This is the supposed big kickoff that has been shrouded in speculation and secrecy for months and we get a snippet of Good Vibrations with about 600 extra people onstage? Brian peeking out from behind the piano? The Surfer Girl cover sucked, WIBN was OK, but where were the Beach Boys? The Grammys have always been a horrible spectacle and I realized a few minutes into it why I have not watched one in probably 20 years. I did not need this craptacular show to get excited about seeing whats left of my all time favorite band one more time before the clock runs out.

After thinking about it and listening again, Maroon 5 still stunk (well, the singer did anyhoo), I liked the FtP one (though he seemed nervous and a bit intimidated), and while I was disappointed that Brian was mixed out, they still sounded great and looked good.

I thought it was interesting how the artists that offered little in the way of substance had the most spectacle (Minaj, Katy Perry, Chris Brown - I am looking at you). Adele sounded great.

But the highlight for me was the "The End" jam at the end. It was exciting. Dave Grohl and Paul had a really interesting chemistry and it was weird seeing them play together. Surreal even.

Just stop with this line, it's ridiculous.  There is no sense in which Paul McCartney is "not a guitarist".  He's always been a guitarist.  He has a level of skill on guitar that any novice should grovel to attain.  The fact that he has an equal level of skill on drums, keys, and vocals, or the fact that you've seen him more often with a bass in his hand in public appearances doesn't make him "not a guitarist".  He ended up on bass in the Beatles as a matter of convenience, and he's happy to oblige the public's desire for his Beatles image in an ongoing way, but he has never not been a guitarist.

Agreed. Even then, it's not as if he never recorded any live guitar licks on Beatles records. The man is just a fabulous and well rounded musician.

Come on.  What's the point?  This kind if thing is so tiresome.

Why are you guys giving Ron a hard time about this. His point is simple: Paul is a great guitar player. He's always been a great guitar player. You can hear evidence of his great guitar playing on all those songs. And what's funny about all that is that ultimately he is known for being the bass player while John and George were known for being the guitar player. Put it this way, if you were to draw a picture of The Beatles with them each playing an instrument, would it be more likely that you draw Paul playing a guitar than either a bass or a piano? If you were to see a mock Beatles band live, would you find it unquestionable if the Paul character played guitar through the whole show, not playing a bass or a piano once?

I'm pretty sure Wouldn't It Be Nice it out of the league of 99% of all groups ever.

FTP's lead singer does have power and strength to his voice, he just didn't use it and along with being subdued with the lead, was nervous on top of it (vibrato didn't help on a song that doesn't need it) because of it being the biggest stage they have ever been on. Really, FTP has only been touring big stages like this for about a year and to top it off, they are playing a song off an album of a group and person the lead singer idolizes. The nerves had to be unbelievable.

What confidence? 

Man, find a clip on youtube of Paul and Dave playing at the grammys about 3 years ago.  They played "I saw her standing there" with Dave on drums, and then played "Helter Skelter".  They're fucking AWESOME together. 

I will check that out. Thanks for the heads up. This was the first Grammy broadcast I have watched in about 19 years so I was unaware of their history. I thought this was the first time. lol

Let me spell it out for you since you still don't understand.

Bruce Springsteen gets acclaim for playing guitar.  He ONLY plays guitar.  He played lead last night on "The End", like Harrison/McCartney/Lennon did.  

Standing next to him was Paul McCartney.  Paul McCartney is known as being one of the greatest *BASS* players of all time.  Paul is known, worldwide, for his piano playing.  The THIRD instrument Paul is good at, is GUITAR.  On the instrument he's THIRD best at, he's MUCH better than Bruce Springsteen.

How you and others can't get the comparison I'm making is beyond me.  Paul is a better bassist than he is a guitarist.  THATS A FACT.

Paul is a better pianist than he is a guitarist.  

THAT IS A FACT.

Third, Paul is so great on guitar he ate Bruce Springsteen ALIVE at 70 years old.

Bruce let a 70 year old BILLIONAIRE roll him up and smoke him on stage last night.  

That is all.  

Exactly, that's the whole point, I'm saying Paul is so fucking great at guitar, his THIRD instrument, that he just owned one of the most beloved guitarists around. 

If Paul played piano, he's even better, and if by chance he played bass, nobody could touch him. 

I'm not dissing Paul, I'm a huge Paul fan, always have been, know many of his songs on guitar and love them all.  Guys I ride around playing "C Moon" in my car.  My McCartney credentials don't need to be suspect. 

Those are opinions.

THAT IS A FACT.

Like I said I liked the vibe they gave it, and deep respect to them for the striped shirts.  I would have been scared to death!

What's your problem, Bro?  Would it make you feel better about Brucie if I said Paul McCartney is abetter guitarist than he is a bass player?

What fucking world do you live in when you think Paul plays guitar better than bass?  He's ONE OF (I'm just saying this to appease people, in my opinion he's hands down the greatest bassist of all time) ONE OF the best bass players ever.  He invented the bass sound you hear on records today, you haven't heard about the grooves ? :)

Bruce Springsteen sucks.  That's just what it comes down to.  Paul, McCartney is old and feebile, he may even be dead already and he ate Bruce alive last night.  I can still see it.  It was beautiful.  Paul was running across the stage pumping his hands up in the air like a 4 year old, somebody brought him out a guitar, he stood around letting Bruce try, and then used his feebile old billionaire fingers to outplay Bruce, over, and over, and over, and over again.  I think it was 5 times.  So, Over, and Over, and Over, and Over, and Over again. 

:)

I thought Adam Levine sounded terrible on Surfer Girl.  Foster The People did a decent job though, and the striped shirts were a nice touch.

here is an interview with Al at the grammys...she asks him to give her his tax advice and it seems to have caught him off guard...lol..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QRJGeD1Ebc

To me it was live so I expect a lttle rough. Love the Boys' segment rough and all. Looked like the youngsters were properly gobsmacked in the elder's presence.

I have to agree that Springsteen really muffed it during "The End" to the point I thought his guitar was broken.

When I hear his voice it reminds me of a wiggly strip of a spaghetti noodle.

I don't care one way or another about how much Bruce did or didn't suck, I didn't watch it.  I'm saying that there is not, to my knowledge, some official certifying board which has granted that McCartney's "third best" instrument is guitar, and acting like it is somehow surprising that Paul can shred on the instrument he has, in 2012, been shredding on and off for 50-some years, is a ridiculous position to put yourself in.  I grant that he is generally fixed in the public eye as a bassist, but this is neither here nor there with regards to his instrumental skill: if your McCartney credentials are not in question, you know as well as I that the dude is a musical polymath of the highest order, that he can shred on pretty much whatever instrument he wants, and however much Bruce sucked, using Paul's alleged "third best' status on guitar is a torturous hoop to watch you jump through just to score some weak points on Bruce.

(http://i.imgur.com/HSxRo.jpg)

Hmmm - most noticeable thing for me was how Al's hair changed colour between the rehearsal pictures and the actual performance  :lol

Wow...did I just walk into a sports bar mid NFL game? Is this a Rush message board? I'm waiting for an Yngwie Malmstein reference. If Steve Vai had been there he would have kicked everybody's butt...who gives a rat's nut sack? This isn't the rock and roll olympics...no medals are given out. Anybody who thinks Springteen is supposed to be a technically gifted guitar player and that its somehow noteworthy that McCartney can play a  better solo must have not seen the last several decades of Bruce playing his obligatory Duane Eddy turtle paced five note runs which are all his song's require, while McCartney has given the world some of the tastiest melodic guitar moments in rock history. Was Bruce the favorite going into this knife fight? I think not. Should we remind everyone that Dweezil Zappa can probably play faster and cleaner than Hubert Sumlin? He could smoke him, roll him, toast him...is that important? I bet Bruce could bench more weight than Paul...should we take that into account? Is this a soccer riot or a BB's message board? Bruce can't jam, Paul can...they both have done pretty well with their lives. I doubt they were taking it all that seriously, just having some silly, loose fun. Nothing takes the fun out of a rock and roll party more than a hard a*s keeping score.

I didn't think Bruce was bad at all last night. I thought he boogied! And I'll bet New York/Jersey fans were estatic.

Justin Bieber sucks.  A great deal of music that comes off that "American Idol" program sucks.  Please don't even think about putting Springsteen in that category.  You may dislike his music but lets have a little perspective here.

I think that vampires suck. Except for the Count from Sesame Street.

Great performance from the Boys I thought, Brian looked a bit scared but that's how he always looks when playing live and people need to stop acting like they don't know this. It was great to see them all together on stage, David looked the coolest by far and even Bruce looked good, no more shorts for Bruce please!

Also was Ricky Fataar playing with Bonnie Rait? I haven't seen the whole show.

Two points I needed to restate, and mention about Wouldn't It Be Nice.

A few pages back, Ron posted something which *nailed it* for me about the lead vocal on that song. Brian sang it which such force, such intensity...it's something I did not notice for a long time until the Pet Sounds Sessions and SOT let us hear the bare vocal tracks. Brian is going all out, he sounds young, enthusiastic, and he's "belting it out" to use a vocal term. Full voice, in that glorious high range of his. It fits the perspective of the lyrics, a young man looking ahead with a lot of positive, wishful vibes.

I've heard covers, I've tried covers, and that power of the original lead vocal falls through the cracks. A lot of singers can't help but try to do the precious side of that falsetto, trying to equate a softer, gentle delivery with the sentiment of the song. I don't think it works as well. Al Jardine, on quite a few live shows, belted out the song as it should be done, and I almost wish Al had contributed a lead last night. He understood what the vocal was all about, as did Ron who posted a lot of my sentiments on it.

Not taking away from Foster's vocal - I'd be nervous as hell singing that song next to one of my musical idols, too, as anyone! He was probably living a dream he's had since getting into the BB's music...that's pretty intense stuff. His love for the band showed in other ways last night.

It's a vocal performance that I think cannot be equaled, it's that powerful and that well-delivered, and it is also my favorite song and probably favorite recording of all time. It's a massive order to fill when trying to cover that one.

I thought The Beach Boys sounded great! For a bunch of 70 year olds you could not ask for more. It's also a little ironic that as the guy who was not allowed to sing on the records all those years ago, David Marks may now be the best vocalist in the band.

"Wow...did I just walk into a sports bar mid NFL game? Is this a Rush message board? I'm waiting for an Yngwie Malmstein reference. If Steve Vai had been there he would have kicked everybody's butt...who gives a rat's nut sack? This isn't the rock and roll olympics...no medals are given out. Anybody who thinks Springteen is supposed to be a technically gifted guitar player and that its somehow noteworthy that McCartney can play a  better solo must have not seen the last several decades of Bruce playing his obligatory Duane Eddy turtle paced five note runs which are all his song's require, while McCartney has given the world some of the tastiest melodic guitar moments in rock history. Was Bruce the favorite going into this knife fight? I think not. Should we remind everyone that Dweezil Zappa can probably play faster and cleaner than Hubert Sumlin? He could smoke him, roll him, toast him...is that important? I bet Bruce could bench more weight than Paul...should we take that into account? Is this a soccer riot or a BB's message board? Bruce can't jam, Paul can...they both have done pretty well with their lives. I doubt they were taking it all that seriously, just having some silly, loose fun. Nothing takes the fun out of a rock and roll party more than a hard a*s keeping score."

Thank God someone is keeping it real.

It's so corny and full of sh*t...she's talented but i'm tired of her.

It was just Bonnie Raitt (guitar) and Alicia Keys (keyboard) playing a tribute to Etta James. No backing group to be seen.

Thanks for that.

"I mean, imagine on the Academy Awards this year: "Now, we have Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, to re-enact your favorite scenes from Midnight Cowboy!!!"

These days, Voight would probably blow him away.

Granted, Wouldn't It Be Nice is not an easy song to sing, but I was really surprised that guy didn't sing with a little more intensity. Very non-ballsy - kinda boring. Maybe that's his style, like Eddie Vedder or something - no emotion at all. Reminded me of how Christian Love sings.....In contrast to the very good version of Surfer Girl, not that good. Really liked the nJ.C. Penney's vintage Beach Boys striped shirts, though. Gotta get me one of those!

As far as the little blonde girl, Taylor. I don't think she's fake at all - very real in fact. I like the way she sang "God Only Knows" during her California concerts. It's on YouTube. Very nice. I like her.

I like Taylor Swift, but not for her musical ability... >:D

Why's everyone slamming Bruce? At least he wasn't wearing shorts!

Oh, er, wait: we're talking about Springsteen?

All I know is the bloated, fake R&B vocal hysterics, production number laden Grammys,  ended with a bunch of old guys cranking out awesomely sloppy guitar solos led by a 70 year old!
I went to sleep smiling :)

BTW, Glen Campbell smoked everyone, in my opinion.

Great take. I agree with you and Ron. I wish he would have belted it out because I think it would have been better. He's capable, but obviously he went a different direction..

If you can, check out this performance of one of their songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BicDt5HGddU

That;s the thing with the Beach Boys: they just sang, sang out and sang with enthusiasm and heart. They employed little to no vocal technique (other than breathing) and sang with their individual and unique natural voices.

When you try and tackle a Beach Boys song as "a singer" it really never quite comes off unless you make the song your own.

 

Glen Campbell was great last night. Looked good. Very happy! Better than I thought he would for a guy on his way out. His new album is pretty damn good too.

Anybody here see ol' Joe Walsh play acoustic for Macca last night?  Funny faces and all.  Wow!!  How cool is that?

Wasn't Glen Campbell part of the Beach Boys or worked with them? i know i heard his name before and it had something to do with the BB's.

Glen Campbell was the first stand in for Brian when he quit the touring group in '64, and was a session guitarist on some songs too. He also has a BW produced tune called 'Guess I'm Dumb', which is amazing. His music in the 60's is also great - Listen to Wichita Lineman, Where's The Playground, Susie?, By The Time I Get To Phoenix, Gentle On My Mind, Galveston..... Lots of schlock otherwise, but the guy is a supertalented guitarist and singer.

The Boys, once again, were a Class Act last night at the Grammys.  That kind of singing will never go out of style.

There IS just something magical about those voices.

I thought they did quite well.

My only complaint was that they shortened GV for the show; would have loved to hear another tune from them!

Ron, I have to admit, FTP did way better than I thought they would.  I was one of the ones (stupidly) ragging on them before the show, but I have to say, they respected the material, and hey, they did all right!

"like"

He was excellent with Macca on the acoustic guitar. He didn't play too shabby on The End, either.

Yeah! Almost forgot about "The End"!  All of 'em up there rockin'!  Superb!!  Add J.C. Fogerty and Petty and Dylan up there and you woulda had an ass-kickin' band!

Long time lurker, first time poster...

Does anybody know what the flub was as Mike asked the Audience to sing along? After he said something like, "Everybody sing along." you can here someone in the band (backing band I think) say, quite loudly, "Hold on!"  Did Mike skip over a instrumental break, or was someone just not in place to start singing?

Sorry if this was answered already, I spent all morning searching but came up empty.

You forgot to mention, Paul is a better DRUMMER than Bruce is a GUITARIST
LOL

Mike Love is a complete riot!  At the end of the interview he says "nice jacket" to the interviewer!

FUNNY!

Have to say: I'm feeling the Love for the Lovester!

Couldn't we afford to merge some of these Grammy threads together?  Seems a little much to have to open 3 or 4 threads about the same topic.

The Ultimate Classic Rock.com site had several excellent reviews:

"Every note sounded magnificent, and it was great to see Wilson and Mike Love together again, even if in general the band seemed terrified by either the moment or the crowd. We sincerely hope that Wilson enjoys making music in ways that don’t register via his facial expression. Because we sure like hearing them perform!"

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/beach-boys-reunite-to-perform-good-vibrations-at-the-2012-grammy-awards/

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/2012-grammy-awards-performances/

"The 2012 Grammy Awards finally arrived Sunday night, and while classic rockers weren’t up for many awards on the big night, they were well represented onstage. Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and the Beach Boys all turned in top-shelf performances. "

I imagine we, on this board, knowing the music so well have a higher expectation on the vocals.  Bottom line - No Carl.

Agree with the last line, no doubt.  The LA Times put it well this morning though, when discussing the Boys vis-a-vis Maroon 5 and the Fosters.

" The Beach Boys, in fact, showed the limitations of the acts they performed with. "

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/02/grammys-2012-more-beach-boys-less-maroon-5-foster-the-people.html

True, but if Brian steps up, this can just be a return to the Brian/Mike led early Beach Boys.

Of course, they might not want to tackle, say "Trader" on tour minus Carl  :-\

Are you tone-deaf?

Maybe he means "nailed" it as in F*#ked it?

I don't think that Maroon 5 has f*cked anything in their lives except that song.

"...and though Wilson isn't all that mobile these days, there's no denying the look of sheer joy on his face every time he gets to perform."

Not quite sure that was *joy* we saw from him last night.  He looked terrified.  

But honestly I think the best way to go was to can Moron 5 and Foster The People and let the Beach Boys do the full version of "Good Vibrations".  Give Mike Love a little chance to work the crowd a little bit.  They could have had a guest vocalist handle Carl Wilson's lead vocals.

Erik, Jeff has been doing this in concert since Brian began touring again. You know as well I do that the Grammy people, as well as the band couldn't afford a major screw up, so they had to make the decision to lower Brian for this one performance. This won't happen like this in a regular concert setting. I don't think they were trying to fool anyone, just making sure the band had a successful first outing.

I'm surprised that I was as accepting of the abbreviated version of "Good Vibrations" as I was when I watched it last night.  It actually was a great way to go right into the song, getting the crowd energized for it.  Sure it would have been great to do the whole song...but after that buildup by Seacrest...the opening to GV might have taken longer to get the crowd going.   

Hi Jon;
  Since you called me a hard ass, i'm going to go hard like a motherfucker on you. 

The whole point of it (which I guess you can't comprehend) is I'm asking, pleading "what does bruce DO" who the hell is he?  He opened and closed the show, and he sucks.  Period.  I find out while they're playing "The End" that Bruce Springsteen can't even play guitar right. 

So the whole point is, I'm trying to find out why Jon Stebbins is such a big fan of someone with obviously so little talent. 

Justin Bieber can probably play guitar better than Bruce. Just sayin'. 

Bruce's live show bootlegs from the 1970s are amazing.

Yeah, it's getting a little old.  I guess it works for her though, she has a straight up LEGION of fans. 

I think she's very real too, but she goes way out of her way to try to be really appreciative of everything, and it comes off really fake.  She doesn't 'win' very gracefully, she tries to go way over the top with the "OH, I should have NEVER won this, Oh I can't BELIEVE this, I didn't EVER think this would happen THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!" 

Yeah!  One of my favorite examples is for instance in "God Only Knows", Brian has Mike do his "Bom ba bom ba ba ba, dahh... dahh..." whatever in the bridge.  Completely out of place in such a beautiful song, but it works because Mike's being Mike.  Very natural voices, on every song by all of them. 

Yeah it was pretty bad, I give them props for even trying it, i sure as hell couldn't sing it.  He stayed with the whole song, it was like Long Beach '82 all over again. 

If I'm ever at a funeral or stuck on the runway at an airport for 6 hours I may try to listen to 1 song from one of those bootlegs.  Is there a particular one that shows off just why he's "THE BOSS" ? 

Wish I had an ounce of 'so little talent'. ;D

I thought it was a great show.  Best Grammy show in a long time.
I'm ecstatic that the Beach Boys are all back performing together.

He would do phil spector, doo-wop covers, and motown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwf2jl04nOg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8MNCH_tWU4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haswOsMWW_k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFsulgiAWqI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwV9dJ2yJMs&feature=related

All I know is I thought Bruce was gonna break into Wild Honey. It sounded like his new song borrowed just a little bit. :)

I know Mike does those parts live sometimes, but it's not him on the recording.....

Right?

OSD ought to love me for this one!

Let's not forget "Let Me Roll It", the awesome  leads on "It's All Too Much" and the more than just average strummed acoustic parts on "Yesterday" and "I've Just Seen A Face", to name just a few more.   ;D

Long Beach '81, Ronnie.

I love Long Beach :]

I was hoping that either the Decemberists or Mumford would've beat out the Foos. At least Bon Iver got best new artist. I was surprised that neither the Fleet Foxes or Leslie Feist didn't perform or at least weren't nominated as they both had new albums released within the last few months.

I wonder what the fans of those bands thought. They might be just as mad as some people here: expecting to see your favorite band perform some of their material, but they end up performing on somebody else's tribute. 

I agree it's just a typical Mike Love line, but my ears say on the original it's Brian (a little bit too loud in the mix). Maybe Mike was no more in studio, just like Carl didn't sing on the tag cause he was tired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybvruzd3XE0&t=1m06s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybvruzd3XE0&t=1m06s)

What do you mean, not supposed to know?  Bruce was very visible, standing right out front, as he doubled (tripled maybe) the lead with Brian.  I don't think anyone was trying to hide anything.  Even if Jeff (or whoever) was also singing the part, what is the show's producer supposed to do?  Show Jeff on camera singing lead during the much-hyped Beach Boys reunion?

Misc. observation: Anybody else notice Joe Walsh throwing a little James Gang "Walk Away" into the guitar solo extravaganza? 

Consider this: When Taylor Swift was young and going to school, she would sing all the time because she loved to sing and loved music. She was teased by other girls and if I'm remembering correctly what I heard, they'd make fun of her and tell her not to sing. It's good she had the strength to not listen to the jealous or selfish ones around her and pursue what she loved to do. She got her start building up her profile from singing the National Anthem at local sports events and singing country covers to getting a songwriting/publishing deal in her early teens.

So maybe consider that when she wins an award or gets a big ovation for doing something she was teased for and hurt by when she was younger, there was a history behind her reaction and part of her - millions of record sales later - may still be holding some of the feelings she had when she was in school, which amazingly wasn't all that long ago.

(She's also a local girl who grew up in my area, so I admit I've been a fan and a supporter of the local girl who made it big.)

Yep, caught that.

Walsh also threw in the discordant/angular/'out' phrase that he famously used in the solo he played for Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry". It's a neat guitar phrase, totally out of key, but Walsh makes it work. Skunk Baxter had a similar odd phrase he'd throw in to solos every so often. Must have been the era...

Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about! 

Didn't Jimmy Page also use that lick in The Firm's "Radioactive"?

Yep, or something very similar.

Yep, I noticed Joe's little 'Walk Away' riff too.  The guy's great, I tells ya!  Especially when he makes those faces  ;D

Ordinary average guy.  Picks up the dog doo, hopes that it's hard.

Wonder how Walsh and Paul got together.  Was it Paul's idea, or were they paired together by the Grammy staff?

That wasn't all that hard. I guess you've made it very clear that YOU don't like Bruce Springsteen. Got it. Everybody else got it? OK...we got it. I didn't realize the whole point of all of this is to find out why I'm "such a big fan" of Mr. Springsteen. But since you put it that way, here's the truth...I absolutely loved the "Born To Run" LP when it came out in '75. I was in high school then, and BTR was a very "alternative" sound compared to what most people were listening to, Zep, Sabbath, Doobies etc...I was a fan of sixties rock mainly, Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys...I saw Born To Run as a throwback to Phil Sector, Girl Groups, and even Brian Wilson in its attitude, feel and especially the dramatic productions, with the saxes, reverbed guitar, glockenspiel, drum fills...it has a definite late '50's - early '60's vibe, but it still was progressive enough to sound modern in 1975. I fell in love with that record and i still love most of it. I liked Darkness On The Edge Of Town too but I never bought a copy, just heard it at a lot at friends houses and stuff. I went and saw Bruce on the River tour, i guess that was 1980 or so, he was great, but i was in an uncomfortable situation with a girl at that show so i was distracted big time. That's the only time I went to see Bruce until 2009 in New Jersey at Giants Stadium...that was an incredible party...I had a great time, although my California being felt a little like an alien in that culture, it was a spectacle. I'm glad i got to see that. Watching a stadium full of fans, who knew every word to every song, all doing the same hand motions etc...it almost seemed like one of those Nazi rally films from pre-WWII. That guy has intense devotion from his fan base for sure. So, for the 37 years I've been a fan of Born To Run I've seen Bruce twice. Don't think that qualifies me as one of his bigger fans. But I respect him, and things like Thunder Road, Born To Run, She's The One, Badlands, Prove It All Night, Hungry Heart and a bunch more are classics. He probably wouldn't make my top ten or top twenty favorite artists...but if he's in someone else's top five i can't say that's such a bad choice, the guy has done some great things in my opinion.

40-45  years later, I did not know that Paul played lead guitar on all those on that list. I'm Amazed.  No Maybe about it.

Beach Boys top the list for the 'best' of the grammies in this story. F*ck me......They are hot!


The Best:

The Beach Boys reunion: Sure, the aging band might not legitimately be called “boys” anymore. Yet the newly reformed group showed they could still deliver tight harmonies, and listening to the fragile Brian Wilson croon his solo parts tugged at the heartstrings. The enthusiastic crowd reaction proved that “Good Vibrations” still resonates with the young and old.


http://blindedbysound.com/post/viewPost/the_best_worst_and_so-so_of_2012_grammy_awards_beach_boys_adele_nicki_minaj_springsteen/7b810f1964ee9c35a4ce37fab29bd3f0

By the say, GF, there is no documentary evidence as to whether Paul or George played lead on these songs: Fixing A Hole,
Good Morning Good Morning, Back In The USSR, Drive My Car, or Sgt. Pepper/Pepper Reprise.

Paul, of course, played drums on Back in the USSR, and so possibly didn't play lead there.

But, nevertheless, your general observation stands!  Good point.

and now, back to the Grammys!!

His playing on most of those songs is fairly common knowledge amongst those who care about that kind of stuff.  Adding another (of many), he also played the lead parts on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (in addition to the reprise) too  :)   George had the edge on rockabilly and (especially) slide but no one in that band held a candle to Paul when it came to really rockin' guitar stuff like "Tax Man" etc.  

I don't mean to beat a dead horse.  I'm just trying to do my part to erase the rumor that John (whom I love nearly as much as Paul and Brian) or George were the "real" talents and "all Paul did was write the sappy ballads."   ::)

If it adds to the discussion, I can list which guitars and amps McCartney used for some of those solos, specifically the ones from the Pepper album. Fixing A Hole in particular was Paul playing through a very small, low-wattage "El Pico" amplifier that he had bought way back in Liverpool before the Beatles became famous, and that's why his solo has such an odd guitar tone. Good Morning is definitely Paul, he used the same Indian flavor he used on Taxman, and it was either that same Epiphone Casino or the Fender Esquire he's pictured playing in several pepper studio photos.

The Pepper/Pepper reprise is Paul doing lead, and you can actually hear the bare guitar tracks isolated on those Pepper 4-track mixes that leaked awhile back.

Some of the info I posted came from interviews he gave with Guitar Player and articles in Guitar World magazine, and the books "Beatles Gear" and Geoff Emerick's "Recording The Beatles".

It's all very, very fun to read through - a lot of that info on who-played-what was a revelation for me, as I always assumed certain Beatles played certain parts on those records.

The two that *are* the big questions/unknowns which haven't been proven 100% are who played the guitar harmonies on "And Your Bird Can Sing" (no one remembers exactly to this day) and "Hey Bulldog" (I and others hear John, others hear George - both are shown on film playing the red Gibson SG, so who knows...)

 :)

I guess the horse is officially dead now, but, no, you are just incorrect about "common knowledge".

Some of these songs it's confirmed, often by album liner notes, that Paul played lead: Blackbird of course being a solo, Another Girl, Taxman, Maybe I'm Amazed (his solo LP of course), Ticket to Ride, of course The End (1st solos of the 3).

On these other songs, among people who know, not people here by the way, there is a quite lively discussion about who played lead: Back In The USSR Fixing A Hole, Good Morning Good Morning, Back In The USSR, Drive My Car, or Sgt. Pepper/Pepper Reprise.  It's in no way "common knowledge".

However, of course, I agree with your final point about Paul, the man is freakishly talented.

Where shall we bury the horse LOL?

"Can't we settle our differences amicably?" -- The Magic Christian

There are resources to consult if you want in-depth info on Beatles sessions: Mark Lewisohn's sessionography (out of print, I think) Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head (which references the former, and is in print), even Geoff Emerick has a book out I think.  So maybe not "common knowledge", but neither is it pure up-for-grabs speculation; plenty of reportage exists on who played what.

If we have to stomach Nicki Minaj's trainwreck "performance", I'm sure we could sit through the opening chords to "Good Vibrations". 

Nicki Minaj is taking the Lady Gaga route.

Here's a snippet from his biography on allmusic.com:

"In the decades following his emergence on the national scene in 1975, Bruce Springsteen proved to be that rarity among popular musicians, an artist who maintained his status as a frontline recording and performing star, consistently selling millions of albums and selling out arenas and stadiums around the world year after year, as well as retaining widespread critical approbation, with ecstatic reviews greeting those discs and shows. Although there were a few speed bumps along the way in Springsteen's career, the wonder of his nearly unbroken string of critical and commercial success is that he achieved it while periodically challenging his listeners by going off in unexpected directions, following his muse even when that meant altering the sound of his music or the composition of his backup band, or making his lyrical message overtly political. Of course, it may have been these very sidesteps that kept his image and his music fresh, especially since he always had the fallback of returning to what his fans thought he did best, barnstorming the country with a marathon rock & roll show using his longtime bandmates."

That would have been a cool session at which to be!

Just read my post before burying it. ;D

There is a photo of Paul with a Fender Esquire and his Epiphone Casino leaning against a Selmer amp during Pepper - some say the session he eventually tracked his lead guitar on Good Morning. No doubt Paul played that one, no discussion necessary, it's 100%.

Back In The USSR - George played 4-string bass, John played a Fender Bass VI, Paul played lead guitar and piano. There is talk all three Beatles minus Ringo contributed some drums on this track, with Paul's being the most prominent. Again, all but confirmed.

Fixing A Hole - confusing to a point. Paul played two lead guitar tracks through his small "El Pico" or "Elpico" amplifier. Some say George did the solo on a Stratocaster. It could be both, but when you have Paul and others saying the specific amp used on the session, that's a lock...whether it was "lead guitar" or "guitar solo", Paul played through that amp. John played bass on this track, which is why it's a very simple bass line, very non-Paul.

Sgt Pepper - John originally played bass because Paul wanted to play guitar, he wanted a specific part and he knew it better than having to teach George. John's bass didn't cut it, so Paul later recorded a replacement. And he also eventually played lead himself, instead of George. George's style comes in during the crossfade to With A Little Help, playing that little descending riff. The Reprise - little cloudy, as it was cut live on the studio floor with all four playing at the same time. Not sure on overdubs, will check on that.

Drive My Car - Paul playing slide guitar. Confirmed in several sources.

Note: Some of these cases of Paul playing lead caused some tension between Paul and George at the time.


I referenced his book by name in my post above as well, unless it's just being ignored, it's called "Recording The Beatles" and it's a fantastic read. Highly recommended.

Hopefully that cleared things up.



And yeah, I think Nicki Minaj's performance was a travesty and pretty much unwatchable/listenable. I'm not an entertainment reporter or an Associated Press reporter so I can say that publicly.  :-D

"Helter Skelter" was no sappy ballad.  McCartney has always been one of my favorites; and the fact that he keeps going (and pulling it off) is very impressive.  The only real period where he really wimped out was with Wings.  Never cared for this "other band".  However his best songs from that period sound light years better when he's performing them live.  He has played "Let Me Roll It" to death for the last 10 years, but that song *never* gets old for me, and his touring band plays the hell out of it.  :-)

i always wanted to give the wings a chance :) mainly because they will always be over shadowed by his "other band" lol

Thanks for chiming in again, guitarfool.  I appreciate the support :)

No offense meant heysaboda, but like the man said, the information IS out there.


And speaking of Paul (I swear tho, I'm digging the horse's grave right now), I've often wondered if "Hey Bulldog" couldn't be him as well.  After all, on some of the songs we've mentioned, John and/or George played the rhythm guitar part and (guitar-wise) Paul only contributed the overdubbed solo.  That and the fact that the video is only a partial reconstruction of the session could explain why we don't see him playing guitar in it.  The solo certainly has his style of "attack" but I've never been able to convince myself 100% because the higher notes do sound a bit like George's playing.  I never thought that it might be John.  I guess that's something to mull over :)

Again, sorry about the horse.  I think they're lowering him in now :)

I think McCartney's biggest mistake with Wings was trying to make it a collaborative effort.  Like anyone gave a crap what Denny Laine had to say.   :lol  Had McCartney just billed them as his backing band, they probably would have gotten a little more respect.  

Harrison played the guitar solo in "Hey Bulldog".  McCartney did the dog barking sounds.  :-)

I worked in music retail (recordings, not instruments) for years.  At one point while playing yet another Wings CD, an employee asked if I liked them more than the Beatles.  I replied in the negative (of course) but felt that they get enough press and I tried to keep his later band in the public's consciousness as much as I could.  

As for wimpy, it's a bit of a myth/illusion.  They were (not surprisingly) a LOT like the Beatles  in terms of style: They're stuff was all over the place.  The difference is, the Beatles' album cuts are way more popular than most of Wings.  Check out stuff like "So Glad To See You Here", "Soily", "Rock Show", "Beware My Love", "Old Siam Sir", "Cafe On The Left Bank", etc. (especially the live versions).

The main reason Wings gets a bad/wimpy rap is he (figuratively) released the London Town and Back To The Egg in the wrong order.  I know first hand many people were incredibly disappointed that the very mellow and very Beatle-y London Town was released as the follow up to the VERY rockin' Wings Over America.  Only later did fans not still holding grudges admit that most of it is top notch Paul, but the difference between it and WOA was too much to take at the time.

Conversely, Back To The Egg tanked at the time and everyone accused Paul of trying to cash in on the "punk craze" of the early 80's when all he was doing was delivering an album more in line of what fans said they wanted instead of London Town.  Damned if ya do...

Of course the main reason Wings paled Paul's old band was quality control stopped with him.  He had no John, Ringo, or (either) George to offer any sort of criticism (constructive or otherwise).  On top of that Wings's entire output suffered from "White Album syndrome": Paul had to deliver a full album's worth of songs each time, rather than a little less than half.  And I assure you if you took the best less-than-a-half of every Wings album, most of his "clunkers" would have never seen the light of day. :)

I'm voting John on this one, and guitarist Elliot Easton from The Cars among others backed that up...the style of playing, especially the one specific run where notes are tremolo-picked with pure abandon, is something you'd hear from John more than George, and some of that came out later in a similar way on some of the Plastic Ono guitar tracks he did with Yoko.  Not to mention the end of the electric "Revolution" where John ends the track with similar tremolo-picked notes high up the neck. Paul's bassline on Bulldog is amazing, I doubt it's Paul on guitar. I think George played one of the main riffs, along with John, and John took the solo.

Myth-busting is tough. :-D

And note: I'm adding that Geoff Emerick in his book says George played the Bulldog solo, and I always give him more weight than other sources...but in this case, it just sounds more like John's reckless guitar style to my ears. Sorry Geoff. ;D

If people are still going on about Macca vs. Bruce...  it's worth pointing out that Paul's been playing lead on "The End" at pretty much every single gig he's done for the past twenty years.  If he weren't way better than Springsteen or any of the others at it, something would be really odd!

Cheers,
Jon Blum

Does anyone have a "copy" of the One-to-One backstage Grammys interview with the full BB lineup? Please could you PM it to me if so, I've viewed it online only at the Grammys website so just after a copy of my own...

(http://fabgear.synthasite.com/resources/mccartney%20esq.jpg?timestamp=1236234549703)

I'll see your Fender Esquire, and raise you a Casino and a Selmer Zodiac amp... ;D :lol
(Good Morning Good Morning session)

(http://www.theallens.theallens.com/paulesq1.jpg)

Oh my... ;D

(http://subrealities.absoluteelsewhere.net/PsychedelicSixties/RecordingAYNIL/Recording%20Graphics/paul_on_guitar_red.jpg)

WOW Great pics, GF!

thanks for posting!

ha ha, well yes GF, of course I do read your posts; they are all very excellent, and so you will have to pardon my little "quibbles".

The Geoff Emerick book is titled "Here There and Everywhere".  It's an interesting read, but I come away from it feeling that he very much disrespects, extremely, George H. as a song writer and a musician, so the book is somewhat spoiled for me by his obvious bias, which I find really strange.  But for this, the book is a good read.  But, even Emerick's memory has been demonstarted to be NOT 100%, compared with other reading I've done, so, I am just saying, take it with a grain of salt.  You can't trust that book, every time.  This is just my opinion, based on other reading.

You also referred to a book called "Recording the Beatles", and I'm assuming you meant the one by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, and yes, true, THAT is one of the best, if not the VERY VERY best out there.  Well, one day I'll have enough dough to buy it.

Also, by the way, Macca himself has commented in fairly recent interviews that the harmonizing guitar parts in And Your Bird Can Sing were, indeed, by him and George.  If I can find this I'll post it, somewhere.

So, question to anyone, is there a BEACH BOYS related book, comparable to the above, that goes into detailed recording sessions?  Thanks for any help.

-- David

ha ha Phoenix, no offense taken, of course!  Good discussion!  Perhaps someone will say some nice words about the horse!

By the way, in Emerick's book, on page 165, he writes that George did the solo on Fixing a Hole, so there you go!

 :3d

I must say, I dug Mark Foster's falsetto when he was going "GOOOooood night, ooh baby".

A little video about the mixing of the show...featuring our very own Mark L.

http://www.waves.com/content.aspx?id=12012

With the Grammy awards happening tonight, I'm bumping this thread to mark how it was 5 years to the day when the Beach Boys appeared and performed on the Grammy award broadcast, and a group of us here who were watching started posting rolling commentary on the show and then the performance...and all related stuff. It's not the night of the RFH Smile premiere concert, but it was still pretty fun that night waiting for the band to appear. Those who weren't here 5 years ago can relive one of the higher-profile reunion/C50 moments from 2012 as it played out here. There are a few other discussions about the show with commentary as well, just check the archives around the Feb 2012 date and you'll see them.

5 years ago to the day - Hard to believe. Seems like a different era in some ways.

5 years reminds me of this in some ways about those changes: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vUgs2O7Okqc

That clip from Fear And Loathing nails it, and not just what Thompson is looking back on. 5 years, the high water mark. Of course with the C50, there was also a feeling that the wave was going to crest - it had to given all the elements involved - and reading some of the old discussions before during and after the whole thing, it felt like people were wondering when and how it was going to break and roll back to the sea, as if the moment was impossible enough let alone able to be sustained. And look what happened Fall 2012, the tour wasn't even over and in the books before it wiped out in dramatic and public fashion.

But we still had the excitement of things like the Grammy telecast, Fallon, Charlie Rose, whoever was fortunate enough to see the tour, and whatever memories exist on video to relive the good stuff as well as reminders of all the bullshit that put the "set end date" firmly in stone.

5 Years seems longer than it really is, you know?

The SS board was wonderful with everybody so damn happy and new people constantly joining due to buzz about the tour. Even the most hardened fans were excited to the point of (temporary) new respect for Mike Love and his frontman role. Then the wave broke and rolled back. :)

There were still issues, before and after, of course no sea voyage is without the expected storms and rough waters...but a lot of the completely nonsensical if not militant attempts at damage-control and attempted history rewrites that have infected the community of fans at large since Fall 2012 seems to have either come from or got awoken by what transpired and trying to spin events and attitudes in certain ways. Protecting the brand and trying to whitewash and remove anything critical surrounding that brand name to the point of taking out fans on these boards who didn't toe the line somehow got connected to that atmosphere whereas in the past, a lot of it was the usual inter-personal squabbles and dust-ups that come and go.

The band who was on stage in 2012 has been and is the most honest representation to the public at large of the "Beach Boys", after the fact that two original members and Wilson brothers are deceased.

Here's John Legend and Cynthia Erivo singing God Only Knows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R7kPZF8wRA

The version they performed on the show was shorter, piano only, and split in half. Hopefully this will raise awareness about the song and the Beach Boys.

Thanks for posting that, looks like Legend got that studio version up on his VEVO/YouTube tonight to capitalize on people hearing the broadcast. I hope it exposes more people to the song, as you said!