Brian Wilson 1974 Interview (audio) [NEW]

[Mikie]

But consider this is one of the conflicts that the guy had been dealing with for years, that age old battle between trying to break new ground without alienating his core group of fans.

Yep. And Endless Summer was released in what, June, 1974?  Imagine his mindset after this thing was going up the charts on its way to Platinum.  And the single of Surfin' U.S.A hitting #36.

[Rotat]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntO75t_B05I‎


This is an interesting one from 1974 too.

[KittyKat]

He was embarrassed about the artistic merit of School during a time when he wrote Ding Dang and was into singing Shortenin' Bread over and over again?  BTW, wasn't School a B side that just happened to create a double sided hit when DJ's played it and fans decided they liked it?  I think Brian was made to feel bad by the judge-y hippie types who were around in those times.   Those folks had a big double standard because the Beatles were allowed to move past their lightweight early records. He had nothing to apologize for, because it took those early records to create his career in the first place.

[guitarfool2002]

He was embarrassed about the artistic merit of School during a time when he wrote Ding Dang and was into singing Shortenin' Bread over and over again?  BTW, wasn't School a B side that just happened to create a double sided hit when DJ's played it and fans decided they liked it?  I think Brian was made to feel bad by the judge-y hippie types who were around in those times.   Those folks had a big double standard because the Beatles were allowed to move past their lightweight early records. He had nothing to apologize for, because it took those early records to create his career in the first place.

It was the opposite, "School" was the A-side and charted high/sold well, while the B-side "In My Room" was the one that a lot of DJ's flipped and played as another A-side (it was more popular in some regions than others), and which a lot of listeners got into, which eventually made it on the charts as well, top 30 average nationally in the US. That was unusual at a time when B-sides were often instrumentals or throwaways. "In My Room" years later appeared on several "best singles of all time" lists while the A-side disappeared into history (and concert stages), again rare for a B-side to not only chart but outlive in influence the A-side which was the stronger seller.

If we get philosophical about it, the single "School/In My Room" can look like the conundrum and the contradiction of the Beach Boys as played out on a 45rpm record, the month before JFK and just before the Beatles and the erroneously reported birth of cynicism in rock music. On the one side, you hear bragging about your school, talking about smashing 'em on the football field as your girl cheers you on, then showing off your two varsity sports letters as you're cruising around town. Total extrovert, total school-spirit braggadocio.

On the flip side, the same guys are singing about retreating to their rooms to find peace, comfort, and dream about the present and future as they laugh off the past. Total introversion, and introspection, coming at a time when the football hero narrator of the A-side would not be able to admit that kind of thing publicly to his teammates and school buddies, and if he did he'd never live it down because he'd be considered soft in his clique. Yet that was the escape, the place where you could think and dream and not have to play a role and brag about smashing 'em up on the football field in typical high school play-acting drama.

This band managed to sing about both school activities and personality types and behaviors on the same single, and chart both sides - wow.

Rock and roll always had cynical elements, "Heartbreak Hotel" was inspired by a report of a man's suicide note where he wrote "I walk the lonely street", yet the song typified pure, free rock and roll for millions of impressionable kids in 1956 and beyond. Del Shannon's "Runaway" is even more cynical, though even more cold and cynical because it's not a blues lament but rather a rocking cry out into the night asking for a reason why his girl left him. And he never gets the answer. Definitely not Hollywood's version of boy-meets-girl, but stark reality.

And the School/In My Room single is reality too, on a high school level. On one side it's the bragging and strutting you did in your clique and circle of friends, on the other it's what you did to escape from that scene.

On one side it's a band celebrating high school hedonism and loyalty to an established tradition, sounding like a party celebration in the process, and on the other side it's a band recapturing the naive magic of three brothers singing harmony together in their bedroom as they were about to go to sleep, free to think and feel whatever they wanted or needed to do to get themselves into a peaceful state of mind, totally up to them and devoid of any clique or peer influence in that moment.

Beach Boys: Extrovert hedonists or introvert dreamers? Both can be true. And there's the contradiction of that 45rpm single. It's no accident people started playing the B-side, and no accident it transcended its surroundings and outlived the A-side in influence and popularity.

I think In My Room just captured more of what Brian wanted to say and felt in his music than the A-side "Be True To Your School", which while true to their Hawthorne High experience, the memory of school perhaps wasn't as lasting as the introspection and safety of that room.

[Cam Mott]

BTTYS was Brian's musical progression when it was made. It did and does very well. Who knows what he really thought/thinks about it, he does not seem to be hitting on all 8 to me during this interview.

[phirnis]

Somehow I can picture BW not liking BTTYS as much as Mike Love does. Has Brian ever played this song during one of his solo shows?

Overall, an incredible document. Some of the stuff he says doesn't make an awful lot of sense, like the bit about almost drowning, followed by something along the lines of "I like water". Incredibly intriguing guy even when he's a bit out of it though. To me, he does sound like a bit of a tired millionaire in this interview, or at least like a guy who'd recently lost a considerable amount of energy. I mean, the bit about driving out to a record company in order to take care of business or the bit about teaming up with Roger McGuinn... He sounds pretty bored and unenthusiastic, like he thought his most active days were behind him anyway. As far as creative drive is concerned you can get the impression that by this pint he was mostly living in the past, albeit without being able to remember an awful lot of details about that past (or at the very least without being willing to talk about these very details in an interview setting).

[filledeplage]

Finally got around to uploading this one. Thanks to Steve Mayo for sending me the mp3 from his collection. This must be rare, haven't seen it on any of the boots out there. Enjoy!
https://soundcloud.com/smile-a-d/brian-wilson-1974-interview

Thanks for this, and I'm enjoying this.  Brian seems candid, in a stream-of-consciousness mode, and interesting that he talks about Mike doing a large chunk of Surfin' Safari, and moving quickly among songs, working on one section of one song, moving on to another, and another.  He seems to recall earlier stuff, such as singing in the small bedroom, with three beds close together.   He talks about "writing songs for society."  I'm laughing at Be True to Your School, and his concept that is not to be taken seriously.  But, somehow, the song struck a nerve with a certain loyalty with people, regardless of whether there was a perception that it was frivolous. But, he looks at "creating a craze" where the "subject" is a certain passion or craze.

The candor is amazing.  There is also a way that he "gives credit where credit is due" discussing Al's contribution to some of the Holland stuff.  He says that he liked Holland (the country) and that is a surprise.  He mentioned "trouble in colleges" in terms of SDT.  Lieber and Stoller.  There is an "ease" in conversation that is endearing, during the interview.  And an open mindedness.  He seems more focused than any perception, during that time.  Opinionated.  He knows what he likes.

And, what I loved is that Brian worked on getting a "feeling" of say, in 4-0-9, of the car revving, and its' sonority, into the music so that the listener can almost experience that without having to be there.  Says he likes Surfer Girl, the slow ballad.
3:35 for Good Vibrations! Knows the nuts and bolts.  Likes a short record 1:50! Brian is very funny. Interesting that, in sections Brian is asking questions himself, brilliantly making it a bilateral exchange, rather than just traditional Q & A.

Thanks! I really enjoyed that! 

[Micha]

He sounds coked up and fearful to me.

To me too. I'm thankful I could listen to this, even if I found it a bit disturbing...

BW sounds like the earliest version of his modern-day self to me.

In a way yes. It's not his old self by any means anyway. The voice had already changed, it sounds like it has a silk cloth over it, while two years later it was like covered with a scratchy wool mat, and occasionally some wet gravel on top of it.

It's like Bob Dylan says "If you're hearing a Beethoven symphony for the first time  then it's 'new' for you!" 

I assume if you played this interview to Brian it would be new for him also!

[filledeplage]

He sounds coked up and fearful to me.

To me too. I'm thankful I could listen to this, even if I found it a bit disturbing...

BW sounds like the earliest version of his modern-day self to me.

In a way yes. It's not his old self by any means anyway. The voice had already changed, it sounds like it has a silk cloth over it, while two years later it was like covered with a scratchy wool mat, and occasionally some wet gravel on top of it.

It's like Bob Dylan says "If you're hearing a Beethoven symphony for the first time  then it's 'new' for you!" 

I assume if you played this interview to Brian it would be new for him also!

Micha - it is 40 years old.  And, I won't be playing "armchair shrink" - I don't have the medical credentials.  At a point, Brian hears the doorbell, leaves, answers it, introduces the guest, which seems pretty normal functioning to me.  I was not there.  And, I find him spot on with the "issues of the day," in each era that he describes, contemporaneous to the music. 

He does sound lighthearted and chatty and inconsistent with fearfulness.  He didn't shy away from answering the door.  Fearful people are often fearful of answering the door.  Just saying.

[Myk Luhv]

You can be rather cordial while still being coked out, maybe even especially!

[filledeplage]

You can be rather cordial while still being coked out, maybe even especially!

It was not my impression.  Nor, my opinion.  I was not there.  

He could be showing ADD signs.  That, I know from the classroom.  Many ADD people are above average or have superior intelligence.  And have to learn how to make their ADD "work for them."

[Micha]

He sounds coked up and fearful to me.

To me too. I'm thankful I could listen to this, even if I found it a bit disturbing...

BW sounds like the earliest version of his modern-day self to me.

In a way yes. It's not his old self by any means anyway. The voice had already changed, it sounds like it has a silk cloth over it, while two years later it was like covered with a scratchy wool mat, and occasionally some wet gravel on top of it.

It's like Bob Dylan says "If you're hearing a Beethoven symphony for the first time  then it's 'new' for you!" 

I assume if you played this interview to Brian it would be new for him also!

Micha - it is 40 years old.  And, I won't be playing "armchair shrink" - I don't have the medical credentials.  At a point, Brian hears the doorbell, leaves, answers it, introduces the guest, which seems pretty normal functioning to me.  I was not there.  And, I find him spot on with the "issues of the day," in each era that he describes, contemporaneous to the music. 

He does sound lighthearted and chatty and inconsistent with fearfulness.  He didn't shy away from answering the door.  Fearful people are often fearful of answering the door.  Just saying.

I know I don't know everything and don't judge everything correctly, but my impression hearing this interview is what I stated above. Someone else's impressions, as yours, may differ. That's OK with me.

[Joel Goldenberg]

In a way yes. It's not his old self by any means anyway. The voice had already changed, it sounds like it has a silk cloth over it, while two years later it was like covered with a scratchy wool mat, and occasionally some wet gravel on top of it.

His voice sounds a little thicker, which I gather is the effect cocaine (or something else) had on his sinuses.

[Rotat]

He does not sound "fearful" to me at all.. Maybe coked out.. I'm sure he was since this was during that time when he was heavily on drugs, but I thought that was a strange description for this.. He seemed pretty relaxed overall to me.

His voice sounds a little thicker, which I gather is the effect cocaine (or something else) had on his sinuses.

Yeah you can hear changes in his voice occur.. It's pretty weird. When he laughs at times you can hear his voice crack a bit.. It must have been heavy smoking and cocaine because it's just bizarre how quickly and randomly it changed.

[KittyKat]

I believe BTTYS was a record key to Brian's development as a producer. The way he incorporated sound effects and a marching band sound, for example. It was, in a way, a precursor to what he did in parts of "Smile."  I'm sure he was very proud of at least that aspect of it when he did the original recording, as he should have been.

[James Hughes-Clarke]

I found this painful listening, to be honest.  We're hearing Brian literally at his tipping point, mentally.  They should play this at cocaine rehab sessions to demonstrate its dire effects. 

Saying that, it doesn't help that the interviewer asks fairly dumb/random questions.  He's almost as unfocused as Brian.

[KittyKat]

He sounds child-like and he sounds slightly well, like a guy who has the kind of problems with he's struggled with for years. He sounds more together in the Jim Pewter interview, what I can recall of it. But Jim Pewter is a much better interviewer. Brian seems to perk up and focus more when he's asked intelligent questions by a person he trusts.

[Mark H.]

He sounds just like Brian sounds today - just a high register voice and a touch on the manic side - ala coke.

[Sheriff John Stone]

It is fascinating how so many people can listen to the same interview, but have so many diverse opinions on what they heard. When I hear Brian Wilson in that 1974 interview, I hear absolutely nothing in common with the Brian Wilson of 2013-14. Except one thing...

At the time of that interview, it had been over a year since they recorded Holland. Just my opinion, but it didn't sound like Brian did a helluva lot of recording since that time, nor did it appear that he had a lot of plans or ideas going forward.  

We do know that Brian was still "fairly with it" in 1974, I think(?), and, by his condescending remark toward his own song ("Be True To Your School"), it sounded like he had moved on from that crap (my word). Yet, I focus on three things he did in the coming months. First, he recorded "Ding Dang" with Roger McGuinn, later in the year he produced/recorded 'Child Of Winter" (...a child of winter, a child of the snow, making a snowball, that someone will throw...), and then in 1975 he covered a cover of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" with somebody whose name escapes me. Yes, there were other stronger songs written and recorded in that time frame.

There have been numerous discussions here and elsewhere about that time frame after Holland and leading up to 15 Big Ones. "What happened?" is usually asked. Why didn't they (The Beach Boys) or Brian continue the path laid out with Surf's Up, CATP, and Holland? Why go with the oldies and "the fun in the sun" on 15 Big Ones? And MIU? And Keepin' The Summer Alive? Other than blaming the success of Endless Summer and the pressure that created, why didn't Brian recover or stretch out or blow minds or create "important" music like in the past?

I just thought I'd ask. I don't have the answers. After listening to the above 1974 interview, I'm even more confused. Did Brian sound "gone" to you? Did he sound like he was under any pressure from the group or record company (I realize Endless Summer probably didn't hit yet)? Did he sound to you like he had all the time in the world, not a concern in the world, like he could walk right over to his piano and compose anything he wanted, maybe even a masterpiece? But he didn't do that. Why? Or, why not? This interview, and I realize it's just that, an interview, raises more questions than answers.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to mention the one thing that the 1974 Brian (40 years ago) appeared to have in common with the 2014 Brian Wilson, not that anyone cares anyway... However damaged he may have been/is, many of us still think Brian has a lot of his skills intact and expect(ed) him to produce something great. That's all. Yes, that was boring.

[bringahorseinhere?]

hmmm ....

this is something to really think about.....

he does sound Great and 'With it' in a lot of ways......... but there is a lot of denial about 'BTTYS'.......

he sounds really interested in the leiber/stoller collaboration.....

maybe in some unconscious way, he was trying to separate himself from who he is (or was)....

when the interviewer asks him about his songs..... do you remember fun, fun, fun......... he pauses........

does he really have no idea how great his stuff is that he readily forgets about it???....

is he trying to be humble but also saying in his mind at the same time 'sh*t yeah!!!  how could you not know that and think its great!!?'

just to think 10 years prior in that youtube interview with Ida "B' Blackburn, he was rattling off singles and its b sides and songs he has written and the jan a

nd dean stuff without pause...... sounded Very focused and knew what he was doing....

so all in all I think............................................................

more thinking must be had over this.......


great interview........

the many minds of Brian Wilson  

RickB

[Rotat]

This interview sounds like it had to have been really early in 1974.. Doesn't sound like Endless Summer was released yet since there's no mention of it at all. Maybe Brian really honestly had no idea how great his early stuff was and how much people loved it until that record hit. He still sounds like the way he would have been in the rest of the early 70s. Just thinking that stuff they did back then ruined their ability to be successful making new music anymore, or people getting the wrong impression of them -  thinking that they should or are still a band making fun & sun/innocuous pop songs like those.

[Amy B.]

That was fascinating. Thanks for posting it.
One of the interesting things about this is that the interviewer (though it was hard to hear him) didn't ask Brian the types of questions we might ask or journalists might ask today-- about chords, arrangements, harmonies. It was more about "Why surf songs?" "Why did you go to Holland," etc. I got the impression that Brian was not being viewed as a legend yet, but a damaged pop star. I mean, it's only 10 years out from I Get Around, so it's like interviewing someone who had a hit in 2004. Pretty recent. So maybe Brian (and others) really didn't have a grasp on how important those early songs were , if he's being asked about them and dismissing some of them as being stupid or reducing Heroes and Villains to its length to explain why he likes it.

To me, Brian seems to be trying to come to grips with what is happening to him in such a short time... Thinking about it in context, within the last few years, suddenly his brain is foggy after all those years of productivity. And he seems to be, as someone put it, at the tipping point. Maybe he has something he's going to do with McGuinn, or Lieber and Stoller, or...maybe not. Maybe he doesn't feel like it? But why don't I feel like it? What's wrong with me? Why don't I have the drive that i used to? I imagine him asking those questions. And I feel like in 1974, if someone had been able to get him proper therapy/drug treatment and there had been today's anti-depressants (and I know he resisted treatment), maybe he could have been saved and almost restored to his former self.

I was also fascinated that toward the end, after dismissing some of his songs, he asked the interviewer which of the BBs songs HE liked, as if he was trying to figure out the appeal of these songs, or maybe figure out what it was that helped him get all those hits in the 60s. And I wonder why he was so perplexed as to why Lieber and Stoller wanted Elvis to sing their songs.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's an interesting listen.

[Amy B.]

Also wanted to add...someone said Brian seems more "with it" in his 1976 interviews.
The most raw, candid, articulate (in his way) post-60s interview I've seen is I think the one in I Just Wasn't Made For These Times. Of course that was chemically enhanced in its own way and I haven't seen it in a while, but I feel like there, he was speaking chronologically, without jumping all over the place, etc. He talks about how he learned to write harmonies, about his dad, etc. There's no filter, seemingly.

[KittyKat]

Didn't Brian's wife have his home studio dismantled just prior to the Holland trip? That might have something to do with his withdrawal from recording very much during that time.

[phirnis]

There's an interview from 1981 floating around where he still sounds pretty much "with it". Maybe he was "coked up" (can't judge it) but he obviously had his moments where he was candid and witty even throughout his darker periods.