The Smiley Smile Message Board

Darian seems to me like about the only guy in the BB/BW-history who is really a hero without any signs of a villain. He helped Brian to go on tours. He also played a big role in saving him from Joe Thomas. And he lived the ultimate fanboy-dream: He helped Brian to finish SMiLE. And he has damn great hair!

Darian is just an all-round cool dude. In 1988, he was too shy to talk to Brian at the Stomp convention: twenty-one years later...

This little anecdote tells you pretty much all you need to know about DS: backstage on the 2005 UK tour, he was talking with a group of fans... in comes Sharkey to tell him the tourbus is leaving soon. Sharkey does this about five more times, each with increasing asperity. Finally, DS turns to him and says "hey man, I'm talking with my friends, OK ?". Not 'these people', not 'some fans' - "my friends". The man is a true star, without the least sign of ego. (Probyn's exactly the same... in fact all of Brian's band are truly nice people who will go out of their way for the likes of us)

I hate him.

Stole the hair from me avatar, and swore at me when I threw a carrot at the stage during "Vegetables"...

It´s very obvious that he stole his hair from this guy:

(http://www.cineforum.bz.it/pellicola/archivio/film/rassegne/rarofilm/eraserhead/img/eraserhead1.jpg)


Plus, I recently found out that he is a huge Kubrick-fan. Another reason for me to become gay and marry him.  ;D

I should add a disclaimer, incase I get attacked by the "Darianistas"...

I hit him with the carrot, not deliberately (though it was a poor throw, I was aiming for that Liszik hack), and certainly not hard enough to warrant a mouthed 'f*** you'.

Darian is currently in the UK appearing in a sit com by the way about IT geeks... here's him in the show...

[attachment deleted by admin]

Hell of a nice guy, hell of a musician...but mostly hell of a nice guy.  And he appreciates what the universe has presented him in terms of his involvement with Brian; no ego, no sense of entitlement...just gratefulness.  You've gotta love a guy who "gets it."

He sent an email to me on myspace and thanked me for having The Wondermints all over the profile. He also said I had "good taste in music for a youngin'"  8) That deserves SERIOUS kudos  ;D ;D

(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c348/tracyhide/darian.png)


A fine pop songwriter in his own right (and I really wish that more Brian/BB fans were more hip to Darian and Wondermints).

A true musical perfectionist (ask Brian Wilson about that one).

A fine human being.

It's about time he got his own Appreciation Thread, dammit!

A hugely talented individual. An all-around great guy. Someone who calls the fans his friends is a damn good person. Kudos to him.

Wonder if him and Brian will start writing songs together and do an album?

Yes, a real hero in the Brian Wilson story.  Talented, egoless and commited to the cause.  Top man.

 :'(

I wish.

Bad bad bad idea. Smart fellow he is, Darian wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

Maybe a 6 foot Ukrainian ?

Arr.. Arr.. Arr.. Earth humor.
(http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/6588/morkandmindybookcomp10uy.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

Isn't there a ten-foot Pole in the NBA these days?

Almost. Maciej Lampe is a tad under 7 feet tall...if you can call him "in the NBA."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3733

I alked to Darian a coupla times, really one of the coolest guys ever, and what I really like is the fact that for him working with BW is so magical. He makes you feels that its Chrismas everyday. And he too is SMiLE after all!

Another parallel between Darian and Carl.


A point of divergence, perhaps.

Would Darian leave Dennis songs off of albums though...?

I think Carl had OK hair. 

I want that guy's "Smile" shirt from the live video.  And his hairdo.  Damn right.

A) Is Carl a directly guilty party in that- i.e., do we know he voted against Dennis' songs?  If so, disappointing, but also interesting.

B) I'm certainly no critic of Carl's hair, but comparing it to Darian's would be like comparing his fine guitar playing to Hendrix', or his tongue to Gene Simmons', or his forehead to Al Jardine's. Darian's hair made the Entertainment Weekly Hollywood Power List for 2004 at #56 and was recently invited to the White House (the twins wanted to meet it).  Now on chest hair I would rate Darian and Carl a push.

Not exactly - Carl & Dennis had a set-to over the sequencing of the tracks on Surf's Up, so reportedly Dennis  threw a hissy fit and pulled his tracks from the album. Not entirely sure I go along woth that 100% - sure, "Live Again" was finished (and is magnificent), but "4th Of July" had to be reconstitued for the box set from two, maybe three, saftey copies, and Carl's lead is obviously a scratch vocal. Go figure.

I'll wager Mike wishes he had Darian's hair.

Good information; thanks, Andrew!- I wonder what the sequencing battle was about?  Surf's Up was so close to being another Sunflower...

Hmmm...Mike with Darian's hair...?...Ear Candy, or somebody...make it happen.

I'm working on memory here, but I think Dennis wanted his stuff to close the album.

Very, very interesting...what a tragic twist.  I assume "WIBNTLA" and "Fourth Of July" were the songs in play?  What songs would they have replaced? 

I know it would have been politically impossible, but if you could have replaced "Student Demonstration Time" and "Take A Load Off Your Feet" with those two they might have had another Sunflower- at least a solid four-star album for the critics.  The only thing holding them back would have been that the album would have been a little morbid. 

Switch "SDT" for a straight cover of "Riot In Cellblock # 9" and throw in "Good Time" or even a studio cover of "Okie From Muscogee" and with Dennis' songs you might have had a critic and crowd-pleaser that might have set the band on a different course for a few years.

The saddest words...it might have been.  Thanks again for this information, which I don't recall reading anywhere.

Was there any contemporaneous criticism for the Surf's Up LP that specifically called out SDT?

That's a good question- I tend to doubt it.  It's never been a huge stinker to me; it's a good band workout and a nice groove; I think the lyrics are really the only problem.  It racheted down the hipness of the album. 

When I first got the album on vinyl many years ago it kind of raised my eyebrows, but I didn't mind it as much as "Take A Load Off Your Feet" and the vocal on "A Day In The Life Of A Tree".  Like I said, with the original L/S lyrics I think it would have been a great track.

Over time, as hardcore fans, we all get quite used to and sympathetic to the band, focused on the brilliant things that are present in even some of the weirdest material,  and forget how strange and off-putting some of these songs are to the average listener.  There are two main problems they tended to fall into- overtly amateurish lyrics (childlike and guileless to us, childish and silly to the masses) like "Solar System" on the verses, the uncoolness (and awkwardness) of "SDT", etc., and then outright (uncool) strangeness like the "Tree" vocal, and there are many examples of both things at once, like "Take A Load Off Your Feet" and "Johnny Carson".  These two things, more than anything else (I think), kept the Beach Boys from fully crossing over with a mainstream audience to the era that followed "Good Vibrations".

But anyway, we love ya, Darian.

I just went back and re-read the Crutchfield/Lindsey Planar interview with Darian. It's an amazing story, and there's no doubt that Darian is the hero of the story. He'd never claim that for himself, but I think he is. DS is simply terrific... terrific.