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Cool tidbit and think exciting news regarding the Televised Beach Boys Tribute Concert  from a new Rivers Cuomo/Weezer interview.
 https://consequence.net/2022/12/weezer-interview-sznz-rivers-cuomo/3/ (https://consequence.net/2022/12/weezer-interview-sznz-rivers-cuomo/3/)

“ What’s next for Weezer?
We have a big tour announcement coming soon. And in the “pure fun” department, we’re going to participate in this television tribute to The Beach Boys. So we’re in the midst of figuring out which Beach Boys songs we want to cover, and oh my God, it’s incredibly fun. It feels so good to play and sing these songs. And I’m reminded of how much I used them as a model when I was first starting out writing songs for Weezer”

I’ve always wished and hoped for Weezer/Rivers Cuomo Brian Wilson collaboration project, although that may never happen, excited to see/hear what Weezer comes up with and does for the tribute song(s).

Good catch!

This doesn't really excite me much. Seeing a bunch of bands, probably current and from yester year, performing classic BB songs. With or without whosever left, this strikes me as a worse effort that the 25th anniverrsary special from Hawaii...which wasn't really that good. We shall see. Maybe they can have that obnoxious guy play Do It Again, and have him strut around the stage with Mike screaming "DO IT"...or have Stamos mug for the cameras "playing" a guitar that isn't even plugged in. Would have been better to just have whose left, with Blondie and Ricky too, play a few classics...just that alone would have been enough IMHO.

Well…I think the whole point is to keep the BBs on the public radar and relevant to the younger folks-for whom even Weezer are oldies now! If it gets people to appreciate the band and sells some records than it is all good.

This is very exciting

That would be the perfect opportunity for them to dust off this little track they did:

https://youtu.be/RsG37JcEQNw

I dunno.  Let's see who shows up.  The tribute concert they did for Brian back in 2001 was quite good, featuring a stellar performance of "The Warmth of the Sun" by Vince Gill and a lovely reading of "Surfer Girl" by Paul Simon.  And speaking of Simon, his tribute concert they recently aired wasn't bad. 

Hopefully, it'll be classy and on PBS, rather than tacky and on Faux.

The date of the tribute show for the BBs has finally been announced (see below).

From https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/grammy-salute-the-beach-boys-2023-1235198488/:

"A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys, the latest in a series of "Grammy Salute" specials, will tape Wednesday, Feb. 8, three days after the 65th annual Grammy Awards are held in Los Angeles. The live concert special will feature a star-studded lineup paying tribute to the classic pop/rock group. It will tape at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and will air on CBS later this year."

Oh wow - let’s hope there are some actual stars. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to post, but others have floated (or read, j can’t recall) about big names of today and yesterday? In terms of today, I’m not a fan of Weezer, but Rivers Cuomo does seem to like The Beach Boys (and I think The Monkees too, IIRC). Maybe the Jonas Brothers for today? (I’m not a fan, but Nick Jonas was in LPR, so who knows?)

In terms of yesterday, who’s still around that’s would be up for and/or able to do it? The Rolling Stones, if they page brushed off Mike? :lol  Paul McCartney on God Only Knows, perhaps? (Imagine if Paul and Ringo Starr did God Only Knows together? A Beatles reunion for a Beach Boys event would be awesome.) Bob Dylan? Roger McGuinn? David Crosby? (Imagine a Byrds reunion too?) Micky Dolenz? Peter Noone? Barry Gibb? Maybe Willie Nelson doing The Warmth of the Sun again? The Eagles (now with 2001 BW special alumnus Vince Gill)? Bruce Springsteen? Maybe Elton John since he was in LPR? Jeff Lynne/ELO? Lorrie Morgan doing Don’t Worry Baby again?

What do we think the chances of any of the band, other than I’d say Al being 99% likely IMO, attending. I know it wouldn’t happen but a full band reunion (including Blondie and even Ricky if he was interested) backed by any/some/many/all of Ed Carter, Bobby Figueroa, (Mike Kowalski on percussion?), Brian’s band, Scott Totten, John Cowsill, and maybe even Brian Eichenberger would be pretty awesome!! (Especially since it would 99.99% likely be the last possible time.) I tried to narrow down a potential setlist, but I couldn’t get lower than like 15, which definitely wouldn’t happen. I doubt if it did happen that it would go above a handful.

After all, Paul and Ringo reunited for their special for a handful of songs, which I missed somehow when it aired — maybe my DVR deleted it on its own or something. (Did Barry Gibb play at the one for The Bee Gees? I also missed that one somehow when it aired - but I think I forgot to DVR that one.) Too bad they don’t re-air and/or release these on DVD or something.

The press release conspicuously does not mention any actual BB member participation, likely because either they don't want to reveal anything, and/or don't know who's confirmed yet.

As I've said many many times, these shows usually aren't great. The Paul/Ringo Beatles Grammy Salute they did several years back was about as good as it gets; they actually got some non-current-hit-maker contemporaries in the show (e.g. Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh, etc.) rather than having only wall-to-wall current hitmakers. And even that show wasn't great.

That this is a Grammy Salute event done a few days after the actual award show portends well for getting some "big names", but I really have to assume the worst of such a show on all counts and then be possibly pleasantly surprised as far as the other artists showing up.

The question of a full band "reunion" is a whole other ball of wax, and I have to think best case scenario is either some-but-not-all members joining in some group thing at the end, or *maybe* if Brian is in shape to do it, a very short set by the reunited band. And I'm just going to say it: Even with this being a pre-taped thing where they have months to do editing, Brian can't be in the same shape he was at the end of his 2022 Chicago tour if they plan on having him at the show. Even if they just have others sing, it's just not going to work if he sits completely stone-faced not reacting to *anything* around him.

The question from the fan perspective is; if Brian can't be there, do we want the rest of the reunited band? I honestly can't say I'm sure. There's obviously always morbid curiosity post-1997 to even see Al and Mike in the same room, let alone on stage together. But I guess if everybody *but* Brian showed up, I'd rather see individual members do some showcase numbers or work with other artists, rather than a "Partial Reunion Band" set.

As a fan of 45 years, experience tells me dial any expectations back to about a 1-2.
2012 was the exception.

So, who here is dying to hear Lizzo sing Don't Worry Baby?    :lol


j/k  I don't mean to pick on Lizzo.  I'm sure she's very talented.  But I have extremely low expectations in terms of the tribute lineup bringing anything new or innovative in interpreting the BB catalog.

Brian doesn't have to be on stage - just get Mike, Bruce, Al, David. Do a video tribute to Carl and Dennis.

I hope Bonnie Raitt shows up and plays something with Blondie and Ricky.

Maybe Al could get some of his collaborators from Postcard and reconstitute Crosby, Stills, Jardine, and Young for "CA Saga."

Cool, looking forward to it.  Was looking up some of the Grammy tribute events of Paul Simon, Beatles, Beatles, Bee Gees….looks like the ‘tribute artist(s) did show up for previous and overall seemed like a pretty good mix of top notch artists to Perform.  So hope whoever ends up on this one is top tier artist it’s new and older.  One artist that came to mind, not typically associated with Brian/Beach Boys etc and not sure has ever perform that I’ve seen is Dolly Parton, I could think of many songs imagine she would sound great on.

It's a safe bet that no one's going to perfom Carl's solo song "The Grammy."  ;)

I'd like to hear Bonnie Raitt do Sail On Sailor, with Ricky on drums, of course.

Let's not lie.. that's a huge disappointment

There are good ways of doing such tributes - the Kennedy Centre Honors type shows are generally well-regarded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cZ_EFAmj08

Of course I wouldn't put it past the BBs to do something completely full of naff inflatable palm trees and the rest, but this shows it can be done...

The set design is not what we should be worrying about when it comes to this show. I wouldn't be surprised if the set design ends up being the *best* aspect of this thing.

Also, while I would imagine Iconic/BRI are looped in on this, it appears they are not producing the show themselves.

The default position as many of us have stated is that expectations should be set very low on such things, and nothing I've heard in the last few days about this show has dissuaded me from that position.

The lack of almost *any* details in the announcement should tell you something, or in fact a number of things. (And I'm not talking about keeping things a surprise).

I think the best way to celebrate the band and whatever anniversary you might care to is to listen to the "Sail on Sailor" set, or pop in your favorite recording from the 2012 tour.

They're selling tickets for the tribute show. Still zero details on any guests. I'm starting to wonder if they should have just re-run the 25th Anniversary special.

$300 for the best tickets, and you could well end up with no Beach Boys on stage and/or in attendance, and Weezer may end up being the top-billed guest.

https://www.goldstar.com/events/hollywood-ca/a-grammy-salute-to-the-beach-boys-tickets

(https://i.gse.io/gse_media/123/0/1673542179-AGST_THE_BEACH_BOYS_logo_white_font.jpg?h=343&p=1&q=70&w=610&c=1)

A GRAMMY Salute To The Beach Boys Tribute Concert To Feature Performances By John Legend, Brandi Carlile, St. Vincent, Beck, Fall Out Boy, Mumford & Sons, Weezer & More; Tickets On Sale Now

https://www.grammy.com/news/beach-boys-grammy-salute-2023-lineup-john-legend-brandi-carlile-st-vincent-beck

If anybody can bring down the house, it'll be Brandi Carlile. Grateful for all the details you've filled in by sharing this Grammy press release, Rocker.

OK that is actually an amazing line up, now I'm very excited

Curious if the producers of the show (or Michael McDonald) have seen the "Long Promised Road", where Jason Fine tells a story about Brian and "What A Fool Believes." Maybe it's a good thing if Brian isn't there.

This lineup is firmly in the realm of "eye of the beholder" as far as personal preference versus what would constitute current day "A list", etc. As I mentioned awhile back, the Beatles tribute show the same people put on 8 or 9 years ago (or however long ago that was) worked a little better because they at least mixed the latter-day artists with a few sort-of "contemporaries" of the Beatles. At least some folks like Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh, Frampton (in the backing band anyway), and so on. They also obviously had the benefit of getting both Paul and Ringo as well.

I'm sure the artists on this BB show have a wide ranging level of familiarity and fandom for the Beach Boys, but I sense a lot of these artists will either be picking very well-known hits, or will be learning songs they've never heard before.

It speaks to, well, something, that they couldn't get much of any of the "legacy" era artists to do this (McDonald presumably being of the most vintage), nor much of any artists that have any link or known strong affinity for the Beach Boys. I guess Hanson has worked with Mike. Pentatonix is an all-vocal group, so that's something I guess.

Not that it's surprising, but this cast seems to have been assembled much more as if it were a typical Grammy show lineup, with as much youth demographic appeal as possible, followed by an attempt to grab a bunch of different genres/demographics.

Is is kind of interesting to see this right after having just recently finally read the updated version of David Leaf's book, where he goes into (kind of comically excessive) detail about putting together that 2001 TNT Brian tribute show. He managed to call in enough favors to get the likes of Paul Simon, Elton, Billy Joel, etc.

Hopefully at least the production value on this will be up to snuff enough and good songs and artists matched enough to sell young folks and other prospective new fans on getting into the Beach Boys.

And yes, for many reasons, it's probably best to forego any attempt at a "reunited" band on stage for this.

Interesting Line-up.  Suspect and/or hope for a great show.  Looking at names, although not really any ‘legacy’ artists basically ‘peer’ bands and or artists that are now in 60’s to 80 years old.   I also was hoping to see a couple more of the ‘legacy’ type artists on the lineup too.  Maybe some surprise guest or last minute additions before show.

I would say quite a few have pretty direct and deep influence or connections with quite a few of those artists. Weezer has always claimed big influence did a few BB covers and a song released called ‘The Beach Boys’ and several songs with lyrics calling out Beach Boys (they themselves called themselves Beach Boys with Marshall Stacks), My Morning Jacket (Jim James) of course just wrote the most recent new release single with BW - “Right Where I Belong'. Beck was very laudatory discussing BW/BB PetSounds in documentary ‘Echo in the Canyon,’  Norah Jones, John Legend, Hanson,  maybe others  have previously performed and or released BB cover songs.   Hopefully a couple of those artists are able to perform a few deeper cut songs too and not just the well known expected songs.

Many of those bands/artists are actually pretty well established and legendary in their own right if you are younger than me (I’m now in early 50’s).  Some I’m more familiar with than others for sure, a couple never heard of had to look up.  For example Weezer who I sometimes I think of as current ‘new artist’ is 30+ year old band, same goes for Hanson they are in there 40’s probably by now, Beck, Mumford and Sons, majority of artists been around for 10- 20+ years.   So basically I was thinking about when Beach Boys had a kind of comeback with Full House, 4th of July Concert, Endless Summer years and Brian Wilson basically starting Solo Career.  They were around same age as most of these artists and by then 15-20ish years depending on what ‘comeback’ moment counting.   Makes me feel old.

Still looking forward to the concert, wish I could go see in person, hopefully someone does and spills the beans on what happens.  We as BB/BW fans may not get many more events like this, and sadly so many of the ‘legacy artists’ that could’ve been part of lineup are no longer doing shows or have passed.

I wonder if Brian, Mike, Al, and Bruce (also maybe David?) will do a few songs together, at least Brian and Al seem to be winding down in terms of their performing days, might be the last time they ever appear together as a group which would be a special thing.

Well, for such a storied brand name, when they did Stars & Stripes, they weren’t really able to get the “stars”. Except for Willie and Tammy, most of the country acts on that album were either on the way up or on the way down.

True. Although it has to be said that there were some actual great names floating around in the pregame. Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Hank jr., Ronnie Milsap, Oak Ridge Boys were mentioned a.o. iIrc. I guess what it came down to was just that nobody cared to work something out with those people and went with the easier, make-a-quick-buck way (which unfortunately seems to be a very Beach-Boys-y way to do things). The potential of Stars&Stripes is one of my guilty pleasures and somewhere on this board I put togetehr a possible track & artists list for an alternative album which imo would have been a great release.

Yes, a good BB/country music album was possible.  Stars & Stripes wasn’t it.

They should have done this about 10-15 years ago; it probably would have had a more impressive lineup.  But this ain't bad.  Hopefully we'll get some remarkable performances out of it.  But I doubt it will top the fantastic 2001 tribute to Brian Wilson.  Vince Gill's performance of "The Warmth of The Sun" just about blows away any tribute performance of a Beach Boys song to date.

So I’ve lost all hope that I had, say, a couple weeks ago. I’m excited by Michael McDonald and Brandi Carlille, but I bet I’d skip most of the rest of the show when it eventually airs. I might be in the age group of fans of a lot of the other artists mentioned, but they hold no interest for me. So much for the best of YESTERDAY along with today.

We've already had at least two very similar events (the 2001 TNT show and the Musicares show from 2005 or whenever that was), and both were mixed bags.

I don't think it's really possible to make these things *great*; I think some greatness could be stumbled upon with the right performers and song picks. But it's very hard to do, even with an A-list group, which this show certainly isn't. I'm not totally ignorant as to who might be a young A-lister with a young fanbase, I think this show isn't even getting like A-list talent even if it's all artists with little or no connection to the BBs or their fanbase.

Assuming the show goes well enough to air later in the year in primetime on a network, it will get some eyes and ears on BB music. That's good.

As I mentioned, it's pretty interesting to see this thing unfold having just read David Leaf's excruciatingly detailed account of putting together than TNT tribute. Leaf essentially called in favors, and/or called in favors to call in favors, etc., and that was all to achieve what was really a mixed bag of a tribute show.

Why this Grammy show can't get top-tier talent from all genres and eras is a question I can't fully answer. Is a "Brian Wilson" tribute show more enticing than a "Beach Boys" tribute show? Has Mike's occasional well-known gaffes (Rock Hall speech, political stuff of recent years) soured a few folks on doing something that isn't more Brian-centric?

I've always hoped for something that isn't like Morgan Freeman at a podium narrating while the same dozen early-era Capitol publicity photos swoosh by. Or that same stupid early 60s stock beach footage.

And you know, especially as the artist list gets less interesting, the show's producers are going to push for the most recognizable songs.

I’m actually most impressed with the team behind this, and looking at a few of the previous tributes, the high standard of production. Artists aside, this should be a class act.

*Ken Ehrlich Productions has been the leading production company in Los Angeles and produces Television, Specials, series and events for over 40 years. We have produced the Annual Grammy Awards, Emmy Awards and Concert specials. We have also produced events like the Obama Presidency fund raisers to the Women's Cancer Research Fund gala. Additionally, we have produced and directed Las Vegas residencies for Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and John Fogerty. Our clients include CBS, NBC, ABC along with artists from Celine Dion, The Rolling Stones, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez to name a few.*

I have no reason to doubt the production values will be just fine as far as these type of TV specials go. I mean, there's a point at which it's less a resume and more like evidence of a kind of cookie-cutter, assembly-line, sausage-making sort of thing with all of these shows.

But I've never assumed there would be any problems with the nuts-and-bolts in terms of production values. I'm sure the camera work and set design and all of that will be fine (probably, I mean I do think it was kind of weird on that Beatles Grammy tribute to have the "house band" on a second stage off to the side instead of behind the performers).

Their TV show production resume is fine. Their resume when it comes to the Beach Boys is close to zip. I don't complain too much about this, because it's not like there's a BRI in-house team that regularly produces Beach Boys tribute shows that they can go to. *But*, there are folks at BRI and others who could certainly help them make this thing a little more special. I sense this is going to be that 2012 round-robin Beach Boys "tribute" from the actual Grammy show, just minus the actual Beach Boys. In other words, and again I don't expect otherwise, but these shows are not for fans. They're for the same people who would watch the actual Grammy awards telecast, who might be hearing "You're So Good To Me" or whatever for the first time.

My only wish for these things is less about getting cover artists *I* want, and just about making the thing a little more "Concert for George" than the Beach Boys 25th Anniversary special in terms of gravitas and esteem and tone. I don't sense this upcoming show will be such an event. The fact that a Beach Boys "reunion" is likely past its expiration date makes me less interested of course. But of course I'll watch, and if any artists pick cool songs or do a good job, I'll be happy to say so.

I guess I've really missed the boat on some of these acts. I've heard a few Weezer songs but they're not a band I really know anything about. Whenever I hear their name, I think of "Weezy" on the Jeffersons tv show.
I know Belinda Carlisle, but not Brandi. I know she's really big with the AA (Adult Alternative) crowd.
Of course I know Norah Jones quite well, but haven't heard anything of hers since the third album "It's Not Too Late". Ditto for Leann Rimes. I remember when "Blue" and "How Do I Live" were all over radio, but not familiar with anything recent.
Part of the problem here is there just aren't many peers of the Beach Boys left. It would have been nice to have an appearance from Christine McVie, in memory of Dennis. I'm sure everyone would want to see Paul McCartney participate, but what would be the point of him showing up and singing "Let it Be" or "Hey Jude"?
If the documentary ever happens, that might be something to get excited about.

When he played at the George Harrison tribute gig he was playing on George's songs. Hell, I even think he played on at least one song about himself - and not in a complimentary way!

Yeah, I'm sure if McCartney did show up, the point would be to do a Beach Boys song.

I'm not even sure I'd want to see McCartney on a show like this. He didn't sound so great singing "God Only Knows" at that benefit show with Brian back in 2000-whatever. I do think his current voice (read: not in good shape at all) could still be matched to a good song though.

But not landing a McCartney-type for this show is I suppose more just a bit emblematic of either not seeking out "legacy artists" or other contemporaries of the BBs, and/or not having the clout/pull to get such acts.

Knowing what I know, I think they probably had to bust their asses to get what they *did* get for this show. Like, that was probably achieved by a lot of last-minute cajoling and horse trading.

Brandi Carlile (no “s” in her surname, BTW) is royalty in the folk/Americana world. She has won 6 Grammys all under the folk/Americana categories and has enough mainstream recognition to have been a regular musical guests on several TV shows (most recently SNL back in December).

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1848488/?ref_=fn_nm_nm_1

She also has several rather famous fans. Elton John (she does a terrific “Madman Across The Water” https://youtu.be/oMeXtjyk488), Joni Mitchell (Brandi was the emcee for Joni’s return to the stage at last year’s Newport Folk Festival https://youtu.be/sN9n41Q67zE), and Sheryl Crow.  She might not be Bad Bunny-famous, but she does have some mainstream recognition. .

Ken Ehrlich is not producing the Grammy special.

Joel Gallen is.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0302778/

it's pretty funny to see anyone knocking Paul's 80-year old voice on a Brian Wilson message board. sure it ain't what it used to be but I caught Paul on his tour last summer and he gave an incredible performance, all things considered. try singing I've Got A Feeling at any age, let alone 80. not to mention the 35 other songs he did that night. Paul and Brian are like night and day as far as onstage charisma and abilities... he had an entire stadium in the palm of his hand.

Paul is exactly the guest we should want to see on a Beach Boys tribute, although it doesn't seem likely. and the idea of him showing up and doing Hey Jude or Let It Be is laughable, though Brian has given Let It Be the same type of praise that Paul gives God Only Knows.

I'm not too excited about any of the names we've been given, and some are downright headscratchers. but Brandi Carlile is definitely pretty huge these days and deserves most of the credit for getting Joni Mitchell to perform again last year... a highly celebrated event with a good amount of star power.

I bow to nobody in my love for Paul McCartney and his music. He's like THE guy, of all time. I've studied every nook and cranny of his career, of his life.  Defended him *here* many times to the most die-hard BB/Brian fans who from time to time have some weird hang-up about the Beatles.

But his voice has been in very rough shape for a number of years now, certainly the last decade give or take. It's indeed a totally different deal from Brian's issues over the years; it's difficult to compare too much.

But listen to Howie's Fabcast Beatles podcast; they talk about McCartney's voice in a very honest, direct way, but as die hard fans and scholars of the man. It's kind of like criticizing your kid; you're allowed to do it, but it's not so great coming from others, especially non-fans. I feel I can be pretty blunt about Paul's voice because I've listened to it and studied it and admired it since I could listen to music. And I've stuck with him and his voice though many, many, many ups and downs.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as the Fabcast guys. It's *heartbreaking* what has happened to Paul's voice. Yes, yes, of course he still can command an arena, a stadium, all of that. That's how amazing his music is, and how energetic he still is. And his voice even now can be fit into certain material better than others. As fans have pointed out, it's actually the throat-shredders like "Helter Skelter" and "I've Got a Feeling" that, these days, are more palatable in concert compared to him trying to sing like "Maybe I'm Amazed."

But I remember listening to that "In the Blink of an Eye" track Paul released several years back, and I was depressed for the rest of the day. It had reached a stage where Paul couldn't even rescue the voice in the studio.

Again, I bow to nobody in my love for the man and the musician/singer/writer. And some things still sound better than others. And, I don't even really think too much about trying to figure out exactly *why* his voice has deteriorated so much beyond the normal aging process, or how much we're like supposed to "blame" him for it. Smoking a million pounds of weed for decade after decade didn't help. But I also think some medical or medical-adjacent issues have come into play as well. And I do think "McCartney III" shows him finally starting to figure out how to work with his voice a bit better.

I was kind of just riffing previously about Paul being at this BB tribute show. I do think he could be paired with a good song. Not "God Only Knows." But something.

McCartney is a guy for me that wore out his welcome years ago. Too much ego and fake thumbs up, and probably just the fact that everybody worships him like he walks on water. Paul was the bright, sunny one of the Beatles, while John and George balanced that some darkness and reality.
The way Macca treated the other guys in Wings still annoys me.
But I'm a minority voice here; and no question about it, I do love most of the music Paul made or was a part of from 1962-1985.

Thanks Howie. I must have misinterpreted one of the links.

I just hope if Mike is there, he is not fasting and has time to meditate before he gets anywhere near a mic. 😉

I mean, his voice is thrashed, and recent albums have been pretty weak. I don't really agree with any of the above, though. Yes, his public persona is rather autopilot. I think all of these guys, from Mike/Beach Boys to Brian to McCartney are all playing to crowds of people who adore/worship them. All of them have fanbases who sometimes skew too far into the overly-forgiving/unquestioning category (e.g. liking "Kisses on the Bottom").

I think an actual deep dive into the Beatles and their lives and music proves the pigeonholing of each of them as a particular type (e.g. sunny vs. "real", etc.) is ill-advised.

The Wings relationships vary wildly depending on what we're talking about. He certainly has been too dismissive of them as far as even *mentioning* them. The "Wingspan" doc was embarrassing. That has been somewhat corrected with the "Archive" boxed sets that include ample inclusion of the other members. I think pretty much all of the various Wings members were nowhere near the same league as the guy. That he dropped them creatively is not something I can really disagree with. One can't help but wish he had at times been a bit more gracious about discussing them over the years certainly.

But back to the Beach Boys, I certainly feel like it would have been more likely to get him at a BB tribute show in the last 10 years than prior. If he's willing to get on stage with Ringo (which he wasn't often doing prior to the last decade or so), then certainly popping by to remind us he loves "Pet Sounds" certainly seems plausible. But I figure it would have been announced by now. As I've mentioned, from what I've heard, it's been all they could do to get who they have so far.

Fair enough.

So this is in s few hours. The big question, will Brian be there?

I'll be following the various social media platforms for updates

(https://tinypic.host/images/2023/02/09/20230209_022359.jpg)

Brian, Mike, Al, Dave, and Bruce are all there.

(https://sharedalbums.b-cdn.net/8d5455fd-a768-425c-8a3e-0723b769c4ed.jpeg?class=display)

Video proof!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/thebeachboys/comments/10xizrm/all_of_the_boys_together_once_again/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/thebeachboys/comments/10xizrm/all_of_the_boys_together_once_again/)

So it appears this is like a Kennedy Center Honors show. The honored guests sit in the balcony and watch younger acts do their songs.  I wonder if they will at least be interviewed? You know Mike will want to talk up his touring band; Al will mention the 225th reissue of Postcard; and Brian will talk about food. "I love food".

Hey, that's great! The five of them have only been together maybe once or twice since the 2012 tour, correct?

This is great!!


Once from what I recall

Hardly formal clothing. All dressed in pretty standard performance attire for them. Hmmm?

Brian looks like he has lost some weight

God Only Knows


https://youtu.be/jPTQJdIcAPk

All the performances are https://www.setlist.fm/venue/dolby-theatre-los-angeles-ca-usa-23d5a8f7.html

Doesn’t show what song they all played but shows all the performers, weezer ended up doing California girls.
Really good list of a listers. Really suprised at fall out boy lol doing do you wanna dance

Nice to see all five of them together without the pressure of having to perform too. Just sitting there taking it all in. I will say from the picture they do look a bit uncomfortable and even a little bit sad especially by the seating arrangement. Looks like very little interaction amongst the camps but who knows. Bottom line they all showed up and it was good to see that

Looking forward to seeing this concert and hope it's entertaining.  To see perhaps my all-time favorite band (besides the Beatles) receive such a high-profile concert is a delight even if I'm at best indifferent to most of the performers.

As to the discussion of having Paul McCartney potentially attend a tribute show like this, while it would have been cool for him to participate (especially if this concert had been held 15-20 years ago when his voice was in great form), it's perfectly fine that he wasn't involved.  He doesn't need to be.  He's demonstrated over the years of his love and respect towards the band and doesn't have to keep proving it at this point. 

I also wanted to add my appreciation that this concert celebrates the band itself, and is not just yet another singular focus of Brian's accomplishments alone...as significant as they may be.  The whole band deserves credit for their overall contributions as spotty as some of them have been here and there.

It's undeniably heartening to see all of them together. And yes, there's also some sadness as well. I won't dwell on it too much here, but obviously there's the feeling of missed opportunities of the last 11 years (or more). Also, while we only have a few grainy stills and grainy video bits of the guys up there together, there is a sense of unease or kind of muted emotions. But we'll need to see more and see/hear more reports to know how much of that was actually present. I think Mike usually seems more muted when he's not like *the* guy, like when it's just he and Bruce at an event.

And, I think seeing Brian here could easily elicit all kinds of responses and feelings. It's a good sign that he's there. Does he seem in good shape? I mean, not particularly I guess? But I suppose on par with recent photos and those 2022 dates. Some or all of what we see may just be par for the course, or a result of just the scattered nature of the few pics we have so far. Is it possible all of the other guys might be a bit sad or humbled to see Brian in rougher shape than back in 2018 at that SiriusXM thing? Quite possibly. Is there still stuff between Al and Mike? Maybe. Is there a clear obvious logic and politics to the seating order, with the two "camps" seated opposite each other and everybody's favorite middleman David Marks in the middle? Probably.

If I had to guess, there was a lot of rigamarole involved in how to have any or all of the guys there. My guess is that a performance from Brian was probably firmly off the table, so then it becomes an issue of it being weird to have a 4/5 reunion *performance* (and even weirder if Brian is in attendance but not performing), so then it becomes an issue about whether to have any or all of the guys simply in attendance. Would it have been weird to have some but not all of them simply in the audience? Sorta, but I guess less so than if only some of them actually performed together.

So, having all of them seated together simply observing was probably the best case scenario.

As for the artists; I've watched a bunch of the performances on YouTube. I guess it's about what I would have expected? It's for prime time on network TV, so it's going to be mostly the recognizable hits. And that unfortunately hampers a lot of the artists, because I think a lot of these singers and bands could find *much* better fits for themselves than doing like "Fun Fun Fun" or "I Get Around" or "California Girls." I haven't seen anything that blew me away. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Puth guy has *live autotune* turned up to 11.

Beach Boys songs are often quite difficult to cover, because you either have to have a *very good* group vocal ensemble, or you end up with a weird stripped-down arrangement. Not that a stripped-down arrangement can't work as well if done creatively.

I was not surprised but still disappointed with the John Stamos narration/intros. I'm not trying to bust on the guy; he *read* the lines just fine. No issue with Stamos (assuming he didn't write the lines). But whomever wrote those lines, it's like they used an AI to say the same cliched stuff we've heard forever. Sun, surf, cars, innocence, good times, etc.

But I haven't heard anything particularly ear-catching so far. Beck singing "Sloop John B?" It's somehow just really boring. I suppose the Norah Jones "Warmth of the Sun" was interesting to hear in that jazz lounge arrangement, even if I can't *not* fall asleep listening to her perform. The bands doing the up tempo stuff mostly sounded like dorks.

I should say that for the most part everybody sounded solid in terms of not like singing off-key or biffing performance elements. I mean, Weezer was hitting those notes on "California Girls." But it all felt kind of perfunctory.

In a stop-the-presses moment, Pentatonix did a non-Christmas song. But the music stands suggest they didn't have a ton of time to grasp or rehearse "Heroes and Villains." They sounded okay, but I was surprised it was a little more lacking than I would have thought. I think, while their a cappella format seems an easy and obvious fit for BB material, and especially H&V, they actually don't have enough voices to do it. They've got the percussion guy and the lead guy, leaving only three-part harmony for all of the other parts of the song. But at least it was interesting I guess.

I haven't watched all of the songs of course, only some were up on YouTube as of last night.

Curious to hear more reports from the show. From a production point of view it looks like everything was pulled together and not like extra shambolic or anything.

Extra dork awards go to the Struts guy, who kind of came across like a bad Mick Jagger impersonator, and that Charlie Puth guy for seemingly not actually playing his piano and whatever the f*** it was he was wearing. And what sounded like autotune.

It's not everyday that "respectable" artists share a bill with radio country acts and top 40 pap.

Setlist.fm seems to only have the show logged under each performer, but this is what they show for the song lineup (certainly not in this order):

Beck - Sloop John B
Brandi Carlile - In My Room
Brandi Carlile & John Legend - God Only Knows
Weezer - California Girls
Fall Out Boy - Do You Wanna Dance
John Legend - Sail on Sailor
Lady A - Surfer Girl
St. Vincent - You Still Believe In Me
Hanson - Barbara Ann
Charlie Puth - Wouldn't It Be Nice
Norah Jones - The Warmth of the Sun
Little Big Town - Help Me Rhonda
Take 6 & Michael McDonald - Don't Worry Baby
My Morning Jacket - I Get Around
LeAnn Rimes - Caroline, No
Pentatonix - Heroes and Villains
Luke Spiller & Taylor Momsen - Surfin' USA, Fun Fun Fun
Andy Grammer - Darlin'
Beck & Jim James - Good Vibrations
Mumford & Sons - I Know There's An Answer
Foster the People - Do It Again

I added a few from YouTube that aren't on setlist.fm yet. Could be more stuff missing, or incomplete details still.

John Legend doing Sail on Sailor. Nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCOAHG5Njnc

Pentatonix on Heroes and Villains -- pretty cool to my ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ddcHu4hfQ

Nice to see the Boys together. And imo it's probably for the better that they didn't perform. I guess those days are over.

I’m surprised there are fans on social media asking why Blondie and Ricky weren’t at this thing. I mean, I’m not saying I would be *opposed* to them appearing, but I can’t fathom why anybody would have expected it. Blondie and Ricky have *never* been featured at any band events of this sort, whether tribute shows, anniversary shows, etc. The band just released a big boxed set that prominently features Blondie and Ricky and properly contextualizes their place in the band’s history.

Barring “Sail on Sailor”, nothing at the show focused on the Blondie/Ricky era. If it was a “Tribute to So Tough and Holland”, then I’d say it would make sense to have Blondie and Ricky there. But I think most of us just feel like, yeah, that’s the core five up there in the balcony. Again, I’d love to see Blondie and Ricky also appear with the guys; I wouldn’t have balked at all at seeing all seven up there. But I don’t feel it’s like a slight that Blondie and Ricky aren’t there.

Also, I think fans scoffing at their exclusion seem to not understand the band/corporate/interpersonal politics that *still* permeate everything these guys do, even in a situation like this when it’s mostly outside producers putting on the show, and even with Iconic owning a majority stake in the band. Even then, there’s still politics and I think adding Blondie and Ricky would complicate things (to say nothing of whether they would even want to show; Ricky seems pretty low key when it comes to BB stuff especially.)

I'd bet my last dollar that if someone had asked members of this forum to assign seats to the five based on public knowledge of cordial interpersonal relationships (or lack thereof), 98% of us would probably have come up with precisely the same Brian, Al, David, Bruce, Mike lineup that happened.  :lol

Just like the infamous "striped shirts" debate on the SiriusXM thing from 2018, there are all sorts of interpretations of that seating arrangement, from the very cynical to the pragmatic to the optimistic. But sure, it makes sense. The more pragmatic/optimistic interpretation would be that since Al has been with Brian more in recent years, he's more familiar with Brian's situation/needs, and Brian is more comfortable with him. The cynical reading of course is that they keep Brian and Mike as far away from each other as possible (and then Al and Mike the next farthest away from each other as possible, etc.).

I suspect they of course all talked/met up for at least some amount of time before and/or after the show. I think the degree to which anybody conversed with Brian would depend a lot on precisely how he's doing these days, and we still don't know exactly. That he showed up is certainly a better sign than *not* showing up.

I'm always curious how the song selection happens, whether it's the producers or the artists. I'm sure it's some of both in most cases.

But it's worth noting that, as far as I can tell, "Kokomo" was NOT performed. Did that even cross Mike's mind? Does he care? All relatively interesting questions.

While the overall slant of the song selections is not surprising at all, I guess I'm a tiny bit surprised there wasn't *something* a bit more out of the ordinary. This was all "Sounds of Summer" selections plus a couple "Pet Sounds" tracks. The only even slightly arguably "obscure" song was "I Know There's An Answer." But I can't not be a bit disappointed that after years of PS and Smile boxed sets, and other stuff honing in other eras, we still get "Barbara Ann" and "Do You Wanna Dance."

Oh man! I forgot all about Shirtgate. Too funny.  :lol

Brian and the Lovester with what looks like Al behind Mike.
(https://i.ibb.co/YRf0ZLF/BB23z.jpg)

Nice to see them shaking hands.  Despite all the acrimony, lawsuits, pettiness (nearly all of it ML's fault, IMO), Brian and Mike are, at the end of the day, still family.  And once upon a time, long before the BBs, they were close friends, attending church youth nights together, hanging out, etc. Mike's book recounts his taking Brian along as his plus-one on Senior Day at Dorsey High in 1958.

I think it's worth keeping in mind that Mike (and Bruce) have probably not seen Brian in person since that 2018 SiriusXM event.

I don't want to be overly dramatic or make any assumptions about Brian's shape, but I think it's quite possible that Mike (and Bruce, and probably David) may have some pretty strong emotions involved in seeing Brian in rougher shape. Like, I'm sure they've heard how last year's tour went down, at least the broad strokes. But seeing and talking to him, if he's still having a rough time as it appears he is to some degree, it may have been still jarring and emotional.

What I hope is that if/when Mike (because Bruce and Dave seem to rarely do interviews) talks about this, if he did find it tough to see Brian in rough shape, he shows some tact and is able to convey his emotions about it without being too blunt or unsubtle about it. I'm not trying to anticipate a negative thing about Mike, but I know in the past he hasn't been the best at speaking with true empathy about Brian, where it sometimes kind of comes across as patronizing and/or pity. He did this a bit many years ago talking about Carl.

But I'm hoping this meeting between all of them was a good thing for them, whatever came of it or however it went down.

I'd imagine it's more of a "when" than an "if."   Summer will approach, the Mike & Bruce tour's advance publicity machine will do whatever it does, and the entertainment reporter from the Puyallup Herald (or similar) will reach out to ML for a telephone interview. After the usual pleasantries, said reporter will inquire about Cousin Brian.  Will ML take the high road?  I'd like to hope so.  Or it will be along the lines of, "You know, I love my cousin Brian, but he wrecked himself with drugs and bad habits.  Same thing for his brothers.  I, on the other hand, through meditation and diet, will probably live to 150.  Oh, and did I mention that Uncle Murry cheated me?"

I so much appreciate those in the audience taking these videos for us to see, especially since we don't know when the TV special will air. I do look forward to seeing it when it does air, though, as I'd like to hear improved sound and see different camera angles, including shots of the backup band and singers. Lest we forget, they too were singing and/or playing the Beach Boys' parts. Just shows how talented our Boys and their side musicians were and are, that they were/are able to sing those difficult parts and play their instruments at the same time, and put on a great live show with significantly less people onstage than were there at the Dolby Theatre.

Nice to see Brian and Mike together, God know when we will see that again.

I believe this will air on paramount plus

I know it would have been impossible to get Brian to perform, and that there was a 99.9% chance it wasn’t going to happen, but I wish they had done a couple songs. The odds of that getting them all in the same place for the third time since 2012 are pretty much 0, unfortunately, and someone (hell, maybe even Stamos?) should have tried to make that clear to them.

Still not impressed art all by the lineup outside of Michael McDonald and Brandi Carlile (but at least Jim James has a connection to the group through Brian). Do we know who the backing band was? I assume it wasn’t, but it would have been Brian’s group plus Scott Totten and John Cowsill, just like the 2012 tour, and how it should have been if we could have had the rest of a brief reunited group performance. I know it was an unrealistic dream, but I’m still disappointed.  :'(

EDIT: Forgot to mention that it’s great but also bittersweet to see them all together again, just like HeyJude detailed. I also think it would have been nice to have Blondie and Ricky (or at least Blondie, given his last decade of work with Brian and Al) there with the core 5 as well.

ANOTHER EDIT: I was just on the Carnie interview thread and patsy6’s post about Brian and Carnie made me wonder again why Wilson Phillips didn’t perform at this like they did at Brian’s tribute in 2001? Couldn’t they have been given Good Vibrations or a deep cut?


Just curious, Shady, when was that announced?

Carnie mentioned Wilson Phillips was asked to perform, but they weren't all available on the date.

I think we probably should cut the feckless kids some slack, ya know? I think most of 'em were putting out their best effort, and there were really no outright embarrassments amongst the clips I've seen on YouTube (though I was seriously underwhelmed by Mumblecore and Sons' version of "I Know There's An Answer"). There's a level of unavoidable smarm that's sort of baked into shows like this, with all the ultra-anodyne between-song (award) patter--though they could really have avoided foisting Stamos off on us yet again. And I'm not sure that I want to hear any of these folk attempting to tackle any truly deep cuts.

What might have been a nice touch: adding in songs written by each member of the band (though I can't imagine any of the folk on stage pulling off "Disney Girls"--and while such an approach might have gotten us "Long Promised Road," "It's About Time" or "Forever", and "California", the doors would've been blown wide open for "Kokomo," which is doubtless what Mike would've put up for "his" tune). If Wilson Phillips could've played, they might have picked something like "This Whole World" or "All I Wanna Do," either of which would've been most welcome.

And if they were going to find a place for Blondie, having him perform--"Wild Honey"--might have been the way to go. And they could've reached back to the C50 tour and have David strap on the guitar for "Pet Sounds." After all of his years in the wilderness, that would've been a nice gesture.

The strength of the music is so solid that I often found myself moved in spite of myself.

The tribute show will appear on CBS and on Paramount+.

Hi HeyJude, thanks for the update. I wonder the exact unavailability, though I know we’ll never know (unless I try to ask Carnie on Instagram and see what happens).

EDIT: HeyJude, was that in the new BeachBoysTalk interview with Carnie (that I haven’t yet been able to watch), by any chance?


This Whole World by Wilson Phillips would have been wonderful; I happened to be thinking this myself too, Don Malcolm.

Great minds...  ;)

On another level, it would've been really appropriate as well...remember that Carnie & Wendy's mom and aunt did a cover version of "This Whole World" on their SPRING LP.

So it could've been a double tribute...and that would've been really cool! Ah, well...

Not to be cynical, but I think had Wilson Phillips shown, the best we could probably hope for as far as a deep cut would be like "You're So Good To Me" like they did at that show years ago. Clearly the producers of this show wanted almost everything to be lifted right off of "Sounds of Summer." I mean, I'm sure non-uberfan artists would tend towards hits anyway, so it doubly makes sense that the show would feature mostly hits.

On the other hand, these shows love brevity and "This Whole World" is very short.

I’m not Jude, but Carnie did talk about it. Wilson Phillips were invited to perform, but Chynna was in New York City and unable to get away.

And I'm sure many BB fans in their brain immediately then wondered why simply Carnie and Wendy couldn't perform, especially considering they've released multiple albums on their own (and perform with Al often to boot). It may well be that "Wilson Phillips" is the bare minimum name recognition the show was looking for.

Either that, or "scheduling conflict" was used to explain away some other reason. Not trying to bake conspiracy theories here. I would imagine it was a legit scheduling conflict. I do always wonder how hard it would be for these people to fly in and fly out of LA for one evening, though. They wouldn't need much rehearsal or anything.

I imagine the lack of deep cuts, or even anything remotely approaching deep cuts, that were performed on the show probably speaks to the desperation of television ratings these days… The fear of audience tuning out is most likely the culprit in my humble opinion.

They probably could have dug deeper but I wouldn't exactly call songs like "Caroline, No", "Heroes & Villains" and especially "Sail On, Sailor" to be among the band's most well-known of repertoire.  "This Whole World" as well as some choice Dennis, Al and Carl songs would have been nice to hear performed though.

"Heroes and Villains" is on "Sounds of Summer", so I'd say it hews closer to "well known" than deep cut. "Caroline, No" is off of "Pet Sounds", which is by leaps and bounds their most well-known studio album. "Sail on Sailor" is the only track that at some point got the band any FM/Classic Rock radio airplay.

I honestly had forgotten that "Sail on Sailor" wasn't on the original single-disc "Sounds of Summer", which seems insane, but I know that single disc was jam packed about as much as it could have been.

Frankly, the three tracks above I'd wager are at least slightly *more well known* than a few of the songs that ended up on "Sounds of Summer." I'd wager more people know those songs than like "Getcha Back" or  the BB cover of "Come Go With Me."

Of course, the super-uninitiated that just know like "Kokomo" and "Surfin' USA" aren't going to know most ANY of these songs.

As I've said, I think the track selections make sense for this show; I'm not surprised. But I do think it was almost as conservative as a song selection could possible be, however it happened.

I would argue that all three songs I listed are probably second-tier songs in terms of overall familiarity and popularity among the casual fans despite the points you made about them.  These are songs the general public *might* become familiar with if they dig a little deeper into the band's catalog.  But the casual fan will still easily identify songs like "Don't Worry Baby", "Fun, Fun, Fun" , "I Get Around" and "Kokomo" before they will the said material in question.  "Caroline, No" was always a choice album cut despite them releasing it as a single under Brian's name.
"Heroes & Villains" was a moderate hit for the group that was completely overshadowed by "Good Vibrations" despite both songs appearing on the same album.   Hell, "Sail On, Sailor" doesn't even initially sound like a traditional Beach Boys track upon first listen and it was a complete rarity to hear on the radio anytime after the 70's and especially after the 80's.  And with Blondie tackling the lead vocal I couldn't fault anyone for not immediately identifying this song as coming from the Beach Boys.  If the Grammy team behind this concert were truly playing it completely safe we definitely would not have heard these songs performed at all. 

But yeah, it would have been nice if they had dug a little deeper and highlighted a song or two written by the other guys such as Dennis's "Forever", Carl's "Feel Flows" and even Al's "Susie Cincinnati".  But I believe what we got was a pretty fair selection all things considered.

The H&V 45 was a hell of a record, IMO, but it didn't top its predecessor sonically or production-wise.  The mix is a bit muddy compared to GV, and I imagine that it didn't particularly "pop" on AM radio.  It's a shame.  Chuck Britz, who certainly knew what he was talking about, spoke years later of early '67 H&V mixes that he considered better than GV, but that's not what the public got.  Ultimately, though, I don't think it's fair to blame H&V's failure on being overshadowed by GV.    Smiley Smile was such a dud commercially,  and GV's inclusion therein was approx. 10-11 months after the 45 had shocked the world.   Even the H&V 45 was, what? 8 months after GV?  If the public weren't ready for a new hit from the BBs then, they never would be.   I think there's something to the hypothesis that the long delay between GV and H&V caused the record-buying public to lose interest in the group.  Out of sight, out of mind.   It seems crazy to even say it now, but it's useful to remember that the Beatles released Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever because EMI and the Beatles themselves perceived that they were "fading a bit" in the public mind.

Agreed.  There were a number of factors that contributed to why "H&V" did not become a bigger hit than it could have been, none of them having to do with the quality of the song itself.  The point I was making is that because of its borderline lukewarm commercial response, it's not as well known as some of the group's bigger hits, even if it does sometimes pop up on greatest hits compilations. 

Here's the first promo for the special.

https://ew.com/tv/beach-boys-tribute-concert-special-first-look-lineup/?utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_entertainmentweekly&utm_content=manual&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_term=641086e09be59e0001309e4d&fbclid=IwAR0IsKiUMpc3RhQU1tpgJkgoAROcUIdAKYT0hhMJ-qi_hewCq3sWdC4SiKM

Screen grab from the video in the EW article. Brian looks frail.

(https://i.ibb.co/pvw05Z7/bb23BB.jpg) (https://ibb.co/C581Dvc)

The official announcement from the Beach Boys website today. Tune in on Sunday, April 9 at 8 PM ET/PT on CBS.

https://us.umusic-online.com/4YWS-6KME-9E79D5B66C46A0D21RTOSZFB048C0ABCCFABB8/cr.aspx

Cool.  Very much looking forward to seeing this with the added comments guests of Elton John, Bruce Springsteen etc, and maybe if real lucky, although not specifically announced or shown in article or trailer all or some of The Beach Boys comments on the night.

It was great getting the teasers and phone video from folks in audience, but really excited to see the production with high quality video and sound and reaction shots etc.

Would be extra cool if timing just happens to hit at right time and this becomes a big time thing and lots of people see this.  Never know what will make a mark and what doesn’t.  Bet nobody or very few expected a small appearance on some sitcom or a song on a Tom Cruise movie, or Endless Summer Greatest hits album or a 4th of July show, on off on again getting President attention would have such an impact.  Of course beyond the major impact the music the band and have had overall on the culture now 60 years later.

As a deep big time fan like most everyone on this board, always hope lots of others get to feel the impact and emotion and fun this band has had on me.  So if some of these bands and this special bring in some more fans.  Win Win Win!

Typically Sunday is the most watched night in the US. This show will be following one of the most popular shows on TV, 60 Minutes. It should do quite well and it will get a  lot of promotion during the NCAA basketball tournament.

Except it's  Easter Sunday

You make an eggsellent point

But I don't think it will matter.

The Masters will be on CBS on April 9, as well, which is one of the most popular sporting events on TV.

Those core demographics scream Beach Boys fan

"[Brian]: You know, there's nothing like grand opera.
[Al]: Yep and that was nothing like it."

https://kidadl.com/quotes/statler-and-waldorf-quotes-from-the-muppets-old-hecklers


 ;D

Al Jardine on the tribute. Seems to indicate the members were interviewed at least.

https://youtu.be/Pe4H2LjThrw

The Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston Speaks On "A GRAMMY Salute To The Beach Boys"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3m7WdM75s





The Beach Boys' Al Jardine Speaks In Awe About "A GRAMMY Salute To The Beach Boys"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe4H2LjThrw




Watch Norah Jones Reflect On The Beach Boys' Timelessness


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWCBG3u_x9Y

Do we know anything about the house band for the night?

Team Striped Shirt representing! ;D

CBS is running ads for the show in prime time.

I think Mike is a bit emotional near the end of this promo.

https://youtu.be/xHY-_zsg3Uc

I’m surprised at how little chatter there seems to have been about this event, given the audience videos available. Is there another thread about it? Saving it up for the airing? Or not so interested.

And hello, Mtaber! Sorry I swung through and made a comment then didn’t come back and see your reply to it, maybe a year or two ago.

Edited to add the word ‘videos’ to ‘audience videos’.

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this. The band they put together for the event was very good, and it was very cool to have Jason Falkner and Roger Manning on the same stage playing Beach Boys songs. Watch it if you can.

Should I know who they are?

Are you familiar with the band Jellyfish?  Manning (keyboards) was a co-founder of the band. Falkner was their guitarist until 1991/92.

Unfortunately I saw about 3/4's of the show.  Were Manning and Faulkner in the back up band?  I think the drummer is the guy who plays with McCartney - tremendous drummer and singer.  I thought the back up musicians and singers were a highlight.  Almost up to the standards of Brian and Mike's bands!  Overall I enjoyed it - if nothing else these incredible songs and arrangements speak for themselves.

I don't like to be the old guy hating on the younger generation of performers and their autotune or outfits or whatever.  In general I appreciate what I saw and heard.  I do dislike the American Idol overemoting vocal gymnastics some feel impelled to do.  The deepest cut I saw was a cappella Heroes and Villains where this occurred wihich was otherwise interesting.  Other artists seemed to need to go over the top as well - just not my thing.  Other mild complaint - not the back up band but the rock bands taking on the Beach Boy rockers always seem to trash the guitar solos.  No restraint.

Beach Boys looked like a bunch of old guys which they are.  Brian as disengaged mostly as you would expect, Bruce the most lively.  Ultimately what stood out was the greatness of these songs and arrangements.  Originals the best!

They weirdly chopped out the entire middle of "Heroes and Villains", even though I guess by default it was one of the more interesting performances.

I was surprised how kind of "meh" the whole thing was. This show should have been done like 10 years ago. The cutaways to the guys up in the balcony started feeling like those cutaways to Zorak in Space Ghost where they use the same stock shot over and over and over.

I think there is something inherent in a lot of BB songs, *especially* if they're inclined to go mostly 60s and mostly hits, that is not well suited to modern popular singers. That thing current singers do where they break syllables up staccato (there's probably a term for it) is obviously annoying in general, but sounds extra out of place on these BB songs.

It was kind of funny to see how they tried to mess with (or not mess with) the songs. LeAnn Rimes just decided she liked the bridge of "Caroline, No" enough to do it three times instead of one, including literally just doubling it up twice in a row.

The guy doing the bad Mick Jagger impersonation and the girl from the Grinch were pretty embarrassing on their medley. I'm curious if she even listened to the original recording of "Surfin' USA" based on how she tried to pronounce "San Onofre."

Some of the most (seemingly) irreverent performers were also some of the blandest. I though Brandi Carlile was a snoozefest. Beck was surprisingly pretty reverent to the original arrangements, but seemed super awkward singing those songs. John Legend sounded constipated on his stuff.

And the singer wearing the black trash bag singing "You Still Believe In Me" taking that soaring Brian melody at the end and breaking it up into "Cry..I, I-I-I" was pretty grating on the ears.

The one oddball track, "I Know There's An Answer", was another snoozefest. That's not a good song to strip down to such a minimal arrangement, because it ends up losing most of its musicality. It makes the song sound really uninteresting. That's one of those songs where the arrangement is a huge part of the song. Sure, you can perform a lot of their ballads solo with a guitar or piano. But that one was pretty inert.

I thought it was bizarre, even factoring in modern performance tics, that several of the singers were like smiling and dancing and doing the whole "c'mon sing along!" thing when performing sad, somber ballads. "But what good would living do me......Now c'mon and join in everybody!"

Stating the obvious, but I think better fits from the BB catalog could have been picked for almost *all* of these performers that would have far better suited them, but it would have required going into a lot of non-hits. 

I'm glad the music got exposure, and it was nice to see the guys all together, even if they looped the same shots over and over and over.

And no, I don't think Mike was tearing up. He just gets watery eyes sometimes as seen in a number of interviews.

I was kind of laughing out loud when LeAnn Rimes came out to give special shoutouts to Al, Dave, and Bruce, because it kind of came across as worse than not saying anything. It was like Mom told you to go out and say Al, Dave, and Bruce were in the band too.

Saw these on facebook:

(https://s20.directupload.net/images/230410/c4mq2v4f.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net)


(https://s20.directupload.net/images/230410/6umv9o3i.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net)

Great pix!

David always looks ultra-cool.

A performance by the Fendertones would have been great. Are they still performing?

I'll say at the outset that I really enjoyed this. I'm at least a casual of most of the artists that performed, and a big Weezer and Fall Out Boy fan. That being said, I wish they would've dug deeper. "Do You Wanna Dance?" is a great production and arrangement, but obviously neither a Brian or Dennis original. "Barbara Ann" is O.K. as closer, but I'm not a fan, personally. And, we all know Pet Sounds is THE greatest album ever made. But, six songs devoted to one album for a band that has so much back catalogue is a little much, even if they were all respectfully, and sincerely presented.

Not that anyone would assume otherwise, but I'm pretty sure the producers of the show were aiming for mostly recognizable songs. As I mentioned above, I suspect most if not all of the singers would have fared better if they had had more songs to choose from.

In particular, some of Carl's 70s and 80s lead vocal spots probably would have been a less awkward fit for some of these singers. "Good Timin'", "Full Sail", "It's Gettin' Late", "Long Promised Road", etc.

Or, most of them are not "huge fans" and listened to a hits comp in the days leading up to rehearsals.

Still stunned "Kokomo" didn't make it in somehow.

watching now for better or worse  ;)
it's currently streaming at cbs.com
https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/Xn3CwiS3o_LdViEd6IQ6tOGMDjjdnwco/

Thanks for this!

Answering my own question, it seems the house band included Probyn and the fella from McCartney's band.
Anyone else confirmed?
(not to sound defensive, but surprised no one else is interested in this question)

I did mention the band as a highlight for me and Macca’s drummer  who is Abe Laboriel Jr.  Great singing chops and all round musician - Brian should poach him!  I did not realize Probyn was in the band.  Someone mentioned something about Roger Manning and Jason Faulkner from Jellyfish - on reflection I can recall seeing them up there on guitar and keys - I think!  Would be nice to have all the info.  These guys were definitely the cats up there.  Very strong backing vocals as well.

BTW spell check turns “Macca”to “Mecca” and “Probyn” to “Polynesian.” 

I’ll post (or edit this to post) more complete thoughts tomorrow (I DVRed it and watched it tonight), but yes I didn’t notice Probyn at first. I was just surprised that they got someone to play tannerin. My first guess was that they loaned it from Probyn, but then I made several attempts (two of which were successful) to view the names in the band in the credits. They’re all there; you just have to be precise with the pause button.   :lol

I specifically remember seeing a Jamie Muhoberac on keys. The only other time I’ve heard that last name is a Larry Muhoberac who played with Elvis on a couple soundtrack albums and live in 1969 with the TCB Band. I wonder if they’re related.

FIRST EDIT: And I was very pleasantly surprised to see Abe Laboriel, Jr. there. I saw Paul McCartney last year and Abe was definitely a great part of the show, plus his comedic dancing during Dance Tonight.

https://variety.com/2023/music/reviews/beach-boys-grammy-salute-special-brandi-carlile-beck-pentatonix-1235577957/

*The most pleasant surprise of the show might not be any of the performances, but how good the band is at leaning toward faithful replications without sounding at all like they’re recording karaoke backdrops. Early on, if you’re a student of players, you will recognize faces like that of Abe Laboriel Jr., the longtime drummer for Paul McCartney, and guitarist Jason Falkner, who’s lately played in the touring bands of St. Vincent and Beck, and his Jellyfish partner, keyboardist Roger Manning, and know that you’re in good hands. Savvy fans will definitely be waiting till the end credits to see who the musical director was, but here’s a spoiler on that — the very proficient Mike Elizondo.

Props, also, to the special’s camerapeople and editors, who know that viewers will want to see not just the stars but some of these classic licks being played on-camera. That’s whether it’s multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory (a 23-year member of Wilson’s touring band) playing a French horn or pedal steel or the “Good Vibrations” tannerin part that everyone mistakenly thinks is a theremin, or whether it’s Elizondo himself playing the bass lick that makes “God Only Knows” start to come alive before any singers come in.*

From the show credits:

(https://i.ibb.co/tZy3NMm/band.png)

Thanks for posting the credits for the house band -- they went by too quickly to read when the show aired. The only person I recognized at first was Abe Laboriel, Jr., but noted the skilled hands playing the tannerin. I went back yesterday and rewatched the end of the show on the CBS free app, so I could pause and read the house band credits and find the spots where you can see Probyn Gregory at work. He was wearing a hat and was positioned in front of the horn section, but most of the time he's in shadow, so less easy to spot.

Certainly the house band could have been far worse. I have no major complaints. I think the backing vocals were still too light considering the material they were performing (how much of that was the band versus the mix, I'm not sure), and I don't think the typical house band configuration with the three backing singers really works well for BB material.

But I didn't hear as many oversights and shortcuts in the band arrangements for this material as I've heard on other shows/performances. There was certainly some kind of attention to detail in bringing Probyn in to use the Tannerin.

One can't help but be curious why they didn't just use Brian's band. I'm curious if it was just the producer/director decision to use their preferred players, or if they wanted to differentiate from past tribute shows that used Brian's band, or if there were politics at play so that a "Beach Boys" (rather than "Brian Wilson") tribute didn't skew towards Brian too much.

I'm also curious if Mike was happy with the between-song script the presenters used, as there were at least one or two bits that I would think would have irked him a bit.

For me, the non-inclusion of "Kokomo" was something of a highlight.  On one level it's a silly but harmless little ditty that was a legitimate hit for the group.  On the other hand, Mike Love has spent too much of the past 35 years talking up the song (i.e., "we had our greatest song ever with Kokomo!" blah blah blah).  It's been less about the merits of Kokomo itself and more about pushing a revisionist narrative that diminishes the importance of Brian Wilson to the group ("Oh, you think Brian Wilson is all that?  Then how come we had our greatest hit ever without him??").

Also, I get it that Mike Love always wears a hat or cap, but the same tired old malt-shop-script Beach Boys logo cap?  Really?  I mean, there's a certain logic to him wearing it to a general Grammy-type event. "Oh, look that's Mike Love from the Beach Boys; it says so on his cap."  But come on, it's a Beach Boys tribute show.  He's sitting in the box with Brian and the rest of the guys.  We know you're the Beach Boys.  Wear a Dodgers cap or something.  And of course, Bruce has to follow suit, sporting a nearly identical cap.  Ironically, if you go back to photos from 1966-67 era, Bruce was once a pretty well-dressed guy.

As to performances...  pretty forgettable stuff.   Beck and Jim James clearly love the material.  Mike McDonald's Don't Worry Baby was nice.   The Pentatonix truncated H&V was odd.  And, yeah, LeAnn Rimes' extended Caroline No  was unnecessarily redundant.   Overall, nothing truly "cringe,"  but noothing like the Brian tribute show from 20 years ago when you saw truly memorable, show-stopping things like the Crosby, Gill & Webb "Surf's Up."

Seems so:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Muhoberac

BTW Larry was also part of the Memphis shows Elvis gave in early 1961, though not part of Elvis' band. And afaik he also did a little studio work for Sun Records, filling in for Jerry Lee Lewis when the latter wasn't allowed to play piano on his own records due to union problems. I love Muhoberac's playing. It's a little more bluesy than Glen Hardin's.

Cool info.

And of course Abe Laboriel Jr provides post Smile premiere comments in the Beautiful Dreamer DVD. What a guy.

Cool that Probyn was involved. Of course we would have welcomed seeing more of our heroes also performing (Darian, Scott T...). Interesting to ponder the reasons behind the band being what it was. Noting that there might have been political reasoning, I wonder if something close to the 2012 lineup was considered.

Haven't streamed the show yet but reports from others have certainly aroused my interest.

As per the makeup of the house band - certainly there is some strong BB sympathy among the players.  But they’re not there to back up The Beach Boys - they’re backing more contemporary artists and their styles.

Wow, this show has shot the beach boys to the top of a lot of online charts. Always cool to see

And now for the $64,000 question: How does this compare to the 25th Anniversary show?

You're right.  There it is....

Amazon.com pop rank....

1. The Beach Boys: Sounds Of Summer
2. Lana Del Rey: Paradise
....
17.  Sounds of Summer (3 cd edition)
....
30.  Pet Sounds vinyl

‘Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys’ Picks Up Good Ratings Vibrations
The show had the largest audience for a Grammy Salute special since a 2020 tribute to another music legend.

America still loves The Beach Boys. A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys, which aired on CBS on Sunday April 9, was No. 1 in its time period with 5.18 million viewers and was the night’s No. 2 primetime broadcast in viewers. (The night’s champ was its lead-in, the venerable 60 Minutes, with 6.43 million viewers.)

https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/grammy-salute-to-the-beach-boys-tv-ratings-1235301134/

I was mostly indifferent to the special for the most part due to the fact that I was unfamiliar with at least half of these artists and mostly lukewarm towards most of the artists that I did recognize.  That said the performances were mostly good.  I think LeAnn Rimes knocked it out of the ballpark with "Caroline, No".  Mumford And Sons provided a unique take on "I Know There's An Answer".  Norah Jones' jazz-tinged reading  of "The Warmth of The Sun" wasn't bad.  I can't say I really liked Jim James' involvement in Brian's clunky song "Right Where I Belong", but he made up for it here with a lively take on "I Get Around".  It was also cool when that CEO Harvey Mason Jr. happened to mention that time Ray Charles gave a cherished and criminally forgotten performance of "Sail On, Sailor" back in the 80's.

Any exposure of the Beach Boys music as a whole is good exposure.  This tribute concert was charitable enough but it will never top the 2001 tribute concert done for Brian. 

Can't compare. The 25th anniversary show had the Beach Boys - for the most part - performing with the guests. The 25th had some legends among the guests - Ray Charles, the Everly Brothers, Glen Campbell. The Grammy show had John Legend. The 25th had Belinda Carlisle. The Grammy show had Brandi Carlisle.
The Grammy show certainly had a younger, hipper group of performers; the 25th was clearly aimed at middle America,  with people like Patrick Duffy, Gloria Loring, Joe Piscopo, and yes, Stamos.

The only real downside of the 25th anniversary special was the overall cheesiness that came with specials from the 1980's.  The atrocious scripted lines that the band awkwardly delivered, and a couple of oddball song selections that weren't even Beach Boys songs.  But hey, it was a small price to pay to hear Ray Charles tackle "Sail On, Sailor".  

This Grammy special was nice but I wasn't familiar with nearly half the artists that were involved and very few of the performances really rose to the occasion.

But the 2001 tribute concert for Brian remains my favorite.   From a healthy selection of guest artists (Paul Simon, David Crosby, Elton John, Billy Joel, etc.) to some fantastic performances (Vince Gill delivering my favorite performance of "The Warmth Of The Sun"), this one had the right balance that these other tribute concerts simply lacked.

An argument could definitely be made that the 25th show was musically superior in myriad ways (not least of which was the BBs' own performance).  But, yikes, yes, the aforementioned cheesiness .... Mike Love prancing around shirtless with a beach towel around his waist, plus the over-the-top number of bikini-clad babes

But you also had Brian looking better than ever  - except when he had to deliver those scripted lines.

The 25th Anniversary show is pretty much "Mystery Science Theater 3000" fodder at this stage. At the time, I think it was cool/interesting to see and hear the new song at the end. And Carl offers a truly earnest and heartfelt "Heaven" dedicated to Dennis. The cheesy show frankly didn't deserve the class Carl brought to it.

But everything looks and sounds awful at that show, save a few numbers. They pre-recorded most of the audio (see the Gary Usher diaries book for the story on that), and while that negated them actually biffing the songs, they very much sound like they were recorded in a TV dub studio.

Even most the guest spots were kinda awful. Two Dog Night was okay I guess. Everybody always cites Ray Charles, and I can't fault his performance, but frankly I would have been fine with Carl (or god forbid they called up Blondie) singing it. Glen Campbell seemed to be on something at the show and they actually left in the part where he sings the lyrics to the wrong song.

But it's highly entertaining as cheese. Brian squinting to read the lines without glasses. I've always loved Mike's randomly blurting out "Don Ho, what are YOU doing here?" during the end of the show. The truly awful editing, including not even showing the guys in the order they got off the stupid boat for their leis at the beginning of the concert.

There are actually some network like interstitials that the guys taped that I don't think even made it on the Japanese laserdisc, including Brian lifting weights.

As we learned from the Gary Usher book, the 25th show seems to have helmed by an old fashioned, cranky, demanding network variety show producer who yelled and demanded everything yesterday. You can imagine how *that* guy enjoyed dealing with Landy.

Anyone have an HD capture of his by chance..?

There's just no pleasing some people. It's the Beach Boys, it's prime time tv in 1987. I was just happy ABC gave 90 minutes to our guys on a Friday night.
I don't remember Glen singing the wrong song; he did mess up the words on I Get Around, though. "Now none of the guys go steady, no, no, because it wouldn't be right to leave her alone on a Saturday night"...or something like that.

That's an interesting take.  Ray Charles is just about the best thing going on with that special.  It's not every day you get one of the greatest and most iconic vocalists of all time to sing on your song, especially when said number is one of the group's lesser known and more obscure songs. 

But yeah I agree with the rest of your assessment.  The 80's were a strange decade; people were far less cynical back then so watching content from that era especially in this day and age can feel surprisingly jarring at times. 

Well yes, my assessment was from the point of view of literally 35 years later. It wasn't that great when I watched it back then, and it certainly hasn't aged well; that was my main point. It's not exactly "Concert for George."

The only way to get the band in primetime, even in 1987, was to stuff the show with flavors of the moment and mostly b-listers from the past (or A-listers past their prime, hence Two Dog Night). And even then, they weren't even getting A-listers *of that era.* Mike actually said later on in an interview that he was disappointed with the number of artists who turned down appearing on the show. I recall him specifically citing Billy Joel. Mike lamented that Billy Joel had opened for the BBs in his pre-superstar days, and Mike seemed to feel it was disappointing that Joel now seemed "too big" to do the BB anniversary show.

Who knows. If the band's 25th had fallen right after "Kokomo" became a hit, maybe a better show could have been finagled with better guests and better production values. But probably not.

Watch LeAnn Rimes Perform A Moving Version Of The Beach Boys' "Caroline No"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXXP5EDO_v4

I think Mike really was tearing up. His expression matched it. This was not only a "This Is Your Life" show, but it very well may be the last one with his cousin, who sang "Danny Boy."  I wish Mike and Brian would have been seated in the middle. Just think if one of the artists would have come out and started singing "Teenage gambler, sitting in a Rambler, listening to the radio." What would have been their reaction?