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In the new beach reunion, it almost looks like the guys are toasting with glasses of water.   Guess no one ever told them that was bad luck!

Drinking is illegal on the beach. What a way to finish the documentary. A repeat of the ‘Failure To Surf’ Brian arrest…but with all 5 of them. 😉

Mentioned near the bottom of the RS article.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-beach-boys-family-reunion-documentary-clip-1235021836/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3CsgCFGK9RkynqUbjnZo1neD8IDFY0

I'm curious what the doc soundtrack will consist of.  Anyone have an inkling of a tracklist?

Considering they haven't announced anything and the doc is a week away, I would think the most likely scenario is just what essentially amounts to a Spotify playlist. I don't anticipate new/unreleased tracks. I would assume some shorter variation of "Sounds of Summer."

I'm curious what the doc soundtrack will consist of.  Anyone have an inkling of a tracklist?

My guess is that what Mike is really referring to when lamenting not writing with Brian on the reunion album is that there are no “Wilson/Love” collaborations.

You make a very good point. Yet in 2006 when the guys got the platinum (?) records for "Sounds of Summer" on the Capitol Tower rooftop Brian reportedly gave Mike a demo of a new song and asked if Mike wanted to write lyrics and the latter declined - https://youtu.be/OTSeL27Wq00?t=126
It sounds like this could've been a Wilson/Love tune. Now, I don't know what Mike's reason is. I have my theory but it's just that.

I don’t think Mike was/is manufacturing a grievance concerning writing with Brian. I just think it’s a bit of a stand-in or beating around the bush about the more specific grievance. And I think that grievance was, to put it bluntly, Joe Thomas. (And also Melinda, but I think the “writing alone with Brian” complaints pertain much less to her and more to Joe).

My guess is that what Mike is really referring to when lamenting not writing with Brian on the reunion album is that there are no “Wilson/Love” collaborations.

“Here Mike, Brian and Joe wrote 57 songs together and secured an album deal, now here’s a song you can add some lyrics to” is not the same as Brian asking Mike to help finish “California Girls”, “Good Vibrations”, etc. I suspect tracks like “Isn’t It Time” and “Spring Vacation”, etc. were not devoid of lyrics before being handed off to Mike.

So while this isn’t completely dissimilar to some of the writing scenarios back in the 60s for Brian and Mike, it’s probably Mike filling in lyrical gaps more than in the 60s, and he’s not working with songs Brian brought on his own. In the case of “Isn’t It Time”, Mike is adding to a song that already has *four* other writers on it.

And, I think what Mike is also referring to is Joe Thomas. I think it slowly irked him more and more that Joe was a co-writer on almost everything on the album. I think it irked him professionally/creatively, and also he probably also realized that Joe Thomas was collecting more songwriting royalties off the album than he (Mike) was.

I suspect, much like the project as a whole, Mike signed on at a point where he didn’t have this huge animus towards Thomas. I’m not sure precisely how that animus developed, because it seemed to have occurred literally *during* the tour. I don’t know if Mike just had slight misgivings about having Joe so heavily involved, and those misgivings just ballooned during the tour, or if there was some sort of inciting event that occurred that soured him.

I think the “writing alone with Brian” had less to do with the writing method or precise scenario, and more to do with being alone. Mike has gone on record that he has usually had “mixed feelings” about Brian working with other writers.

I think there had to be some cognitive dissonance though in getting involved in the reunion, because it was Joe Thomas that was a huge part in making it all happen. He helped secure a record deal. He helped secure the money and infrastructure to launch the reunion tour. And he was involved in the other ancillary products (two DVDs, the live album).

I think Joe Thomas teed up this big reunion project, with an album deal and a tour with advances ready to go, and Mike couldn’t turn it down. I suspect on some level Mike wanted to, or felt they should do, some sort of anniversary reunion project. As we’ve seen in interviews, his initial ideas in the years leading up to the 50th tended to involve one or maybe two shows taped for TV, not a 73-date world tour, a new studio album, two DVDs, and a live album.

I think Mike had to make a lot of concessions to do the reunion, a lot of loosening his grip on being in charge of everything, and he should be (and WAS) commended for that. But I think there was probably no way that sort of “power shift’ (whether we’re talking from Mike to Brian’s “camp”, or specifically Melinda, or specifically Joe Thomas, or all of the above) was sustainable. Mike clearly likes to do his job on his own terms. Is he willing to be passive and let someone else do stuff, is he willing to defer? Sure, but on his terms and by his choice. I think the reunion project was obviously a choice they all made in terms of getting involved, but once they signed on, Mike found himself having someone else to answer to in doing some elements of his job, and I don’t think Mike wants for any prolonged period of time to be *told* what to do. Again, I think he’s fine if Brian in the studio tells him to sing a vocal track again. But he doesn’t like the larger business machine telling him that they will placate him and let him add some lyrics to a song Brian, Joe, and two other guys wrote X number of years ago.

I’m not justifying or criticizing any of this really, it’s just how it was/is, as best as I can tell. I think Mike didn’t want to be the third wheel in a Brian/Joe/Mike “team”, but that wasn’t something he could bemoan for most of the reunion “year”, because Joe Thomas was a big part of making all of that happen. 

I think the reunion was so good on multiple levels, Mike should have sucked it up in order to keep it going. Would it have also been nice if Brian’s side did some things to, well, essentially placate Mike? Sure, especially if that could have helped the reunion continue. It wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world to, after seeing Mike start to complain *during the tour* that he hadn’t had a chance to “write with Brian” the way he wanted (which meant “not with Joe”), Brian and his camp went to Mike and said “Look, let’s do another album, and we’ll set aside the extra Brian/Joe songs for now, or we’ll use some of those but we’ll stop and take more time and see if we can do some true Brian/Mike collabs.” And hey, even though their initial idea of a “rock and roll covers” album would not be my first choice, if offering to do *that* could have also helped keep the reunion going, I’d be all for that too. I’m not saying offering any of that would have saved the reunion. I think Mike just wanted to go back to being his own boss. But one can’t help but wonder if a ton of smoothing stuff over and extra compromises and negotiations could have allowed the reunion one or two more sort of “cycles”, to maybe get one or two more albums out of it, and another big world tour. An album and tour in summer/fall 2013, and then maybe another year of touring, and maybe a final album (if they had done the covers album first), and they could have wrapped this thing up nicely and nobody would feel like it ended prematurely.

But obviously, in 2024, we might as well be talking about the Monterey Pop Festival.

On Glen Campbell's final tour, he performed a few songs from Ghost on the Canvas. I'm sure he relied on the teleprompters for those songs.

Yes. It's also worth noting that he learned and recorded those songs during the early stages of Alzheimer's. So he was still capable of assimilating new musical material and retaining it during that stage of his illness.

 "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" was recorded after he was done touring and was of necessity simpler material, but he was still able to at least briefly retain the words and musical phrases and turn in a good performance.

Wonderful! ReelinInTheYears is a goldmine for all kind of rare stuff.

Not specifically a Beach Boys film, but...Thanks to the licensing company "Reeling In The Years Productions", footage from an ABC program that aired in February 1967 called "The Songmakers" has been released to YouTube, FINALLY! I've been writing about this and waiting for it for years.

This shows a Mamas And Papas session in Western #3 (Brian's favorite room) that was held in either late 66 or early 67, and features the Wrecking Crew cutting tracks. What is amazing is to consider we can see the same room with several of the same musicians in action during a session at the same time Brian was in there cutting tracks for Smile. So we get to see the exact same equipment and how things were set up and run inside Western #3 at the same time Brian was there. And it also shows...which I didn't realize until the clip was released...the band writing the song at John and Michelle's house with producer Lew Adler. This is the SAME house and likely the same room just a few months removed from when Brian and Paul McCartney hung out there for a jam session in April '67. And it's also where Brian spent time there too, hanging out and doing whatever else.

It's rare to see these things in live action, full color film/video, so this is short and apparently less content (I think?)  than what was originally aired but still a treat to watch. And there is more of the show (including a Bacharach-David-Warwick session) which hopefully the company will preview on their channel as well. The only other clip is Simon & Garfunkel from the same "Songmakers" program. More, please!

Here it is in glorious color, with audio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mspTGpiPzU

Here are some of my previous posts and research about that Songmakers program, which at the time was not available for public viewing and which had only trickled out in brief clips on an old M&P documentary (scroll down for more info and vintage press clippings) :

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,27354.msg666314.html#msg666314

The song being worked up became "Boys & Girls Together" on the "Deliver" album, released February 1967.

Shown in the video are the following musicians and staff, besides the M&P:
Hal Blaine drums, Tommy Tedesco guitar (with the Telecaster he smashed at a Mike Nesmith session later that year), Joe Osborn bass, "Doctor" Eric Hord banjo (the Doc was the M&P touring guitarist), Larry Knechtel on piano, Gary Coleman mallets/percussion, Bones Howe lead engineer, Bowen David assistant engineer, Lew Adler producer...and if anyone can spot any others in the film please add to the list! (Interestingly, Tommy is clearly shown playing guitar but is not credited on the album)

Enjoy!

Thanks, Angela...man, those lyrics are (literally) all over the map...clearly SOS was a tune that Brian had worked on before, maybe as a feel, and might have had 2-3 different sets of lyrics from Ray Kennedy and Tandyn Almer from when they were banging it out while "slightly altered" at Danny Hutton's house...at this point it looks like VDP gets into the act and the smorgasbord of lyrics will take another spin around the buffet table...but the rudiments of a stellar song are all there, which is exactly why VDP popped over to Warners with the tape when the first version of Holland was tossed back,
and Jack Reiley grudgingly came back to LA to help salvage the album project he'd convinced Carl to so lavishly invest in, finally bringing some kind of narrative coherence to the lyrics.

Another great legendary origin story for a great tune that, if the gods were truly beneficent, would have its own CD showing how it worked its way through the serpentine process of creation, all the false starts, all the variations along the way, until finally culminating with the final version, and, as coda and in keeping with the soulful vocalizing by Brian on the songwriting demo, the epic version of the tune sung by the great Ray Charles.

All of that would be endlessly fascinating, but I'm just glad to have that clear take of the SOS backing track so kindly provided by Alan Boyd lo these many years ago, which is just a fab example of Carl channeling Brian and adding his rock chops to the rolling sea-wave rhythm that embodies the uniquely eccentric soul of his older brother.

Regarding the lyrics on the demo, Howie Edelson mentioned in one of his "Sail on Sailor" podcast interviews that he has spoken to Ed Roach, and Ed had been at the house/studio the previous day working with a band from New York, and they deduced that some of the lyrics on the demo recorded the next day had been influenced by that, topically.