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I just read an article about Brian's old Illonois home being put up for sale. It sated afew things, like 90% of Imagination eing written there and Your Imagination being a top 20 hit. Any other tales from tis period?


http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110719/news/707199985/

Brian & Joe are friends again?  McCartney stayed at that house?  There is a lot of information in that article that I have never heard.

Me too.  Hopefully that doesn't mean the next album has shifted from rock n' roll to an album full of AC tunes with a "sexy, Sade" sound.

Wherever the single was a Top 20 hit, it wasn't in the US or the UK. try Top 20 Billboard AC chart.

The rest is interesting.

Did it not reach the top 20 in Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart or something?

Interesting read from today's Chicago suburban Daily Herald.....sounds like things have been patched up between BW and Joe Thomas!!
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BEACH BOY'S FORMER ST. CHARLES HOUSE FOR SALE
7/19/2011
 
  The custom-built, underground recording studio where Brian Wilson recorded most of his "Imagination" album has remained largely untouched since Wilson sold the house in 2001. The house is now on the market for $1.49 million.

"It's just space,” said the resident who answered the door there last week. But to Wilson's fans, that space — and the house itself — is part of music history.

Wilson, the former Beach Boys member and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who is legendary for his mad, musical genius, wrote and recorded most of his 1998 “Imagination” album in that St. Charles estate.

The album's most popular song, a Top 20 hit called “Your Imagination,” was cowritten and recorded there by Wilson, Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl and famous music producer Joe Thomas, who lives next door.

Overnight guests in that house have included celebrities like Paul McCartney, Sean Lennon and Eagles band member Joe Walsh.

The five-bedroom house in tony Crane Road Estates, near Randall Road and North Avenue, is now on the market for $1.49 million.

Thomas said he has fond memories of Wilson's former residence and spent many regimented days and nights there working with him on the album. Thomas said 90 percent of “Imagination” was written and recorded in St. Charles, and the rest in Nashville and California.

“Brian would get up around 11, and we'd work for two or three hours in studio, go out for lunch — Brian always had whitefish from ZaZa (restaurant in St. Charles) — then Brian would take a nap and I'd go golfing. We'd go out to dinner at Mill Race Inn in Geneva, and go back to the studio and write and work at night,” Thomas said. “It was pretty much the same exact thing every day.”

Wilson, a California native, had no connection to Illinois when he and his wife, Melinda, bought the St. Charles house in 1997 for $1.4 million.

During an interview with the Daily Herald last week, Wilson said he moved here because he wanted to work with Thomas. Their wives also were friends.

Thomas couldn't go to California. His River North Recorders business in Chicago — also a place rich in music history — had just gone public and his wife was expecting their fifth child. So the friends decided to buy houses next door to each other in St. Charles so they could make the album. Thomas still lives in the house he bought.

Shortly after moving in, Wilson put a massive addition onto the then-7,500-square-foot home, including the lower-level recording studio, Realtor Betty Theisen said.

Thomas said Wilson dug out the basement an extra seven feet deep just so they could record down there, and they had three recording rooms and a mixing room. According to a 1999 Daily Herald story on the house, the studio has separate security and air conditioning systems, and the walls were lined with black men's gaberdine suiting fabric for sound control.

After a falling out with Thomas, Wilson put his house on the market in 1999 and returned to his native California. The home's original asking price was $2.4 million, but after two years on the market, it sold for just $1.5 million, according to published reports.

Before he left town, Wilson did a live taping for VH1 in St. Charles East High School's auditorium to promote the “Imagination” album. Guest performers included Christopher Cross, Beach Boys member Bruce Johnston and Eagles member Timothy B. Schmit.

Excerpts of that show were featured in a 1999 VHS tape that, according to a Facebook page dedicated to the album, is now out of print.

Thomas said St. Charles is a perfect environment for someone with a music career and a family, because it has great schools and laid-back fans who don't hound him or other celebrities when they're out and about.

“Everyone we've worked with thinks this is one of the nicest places to live, and they could live anywhere in the world,” said Thomas, who has worked with many famous musicians, including Jimmy Buffett, Stevie Nicks, Toby Keith, Bon Jovi and Dave Matthews.

He also produced many of their DVDs at his St. Charles warehouse and studio, HD Ready, and also produces “Soundstage” on WTTW-Channel 11.

Wilson's St. Charles years weren't without strife. Wilson and Thomas ended up filing nasty lawsuits against each other in 1999 over the “Imagination” album, and settled them out of court a year later. Details of the settlement were not disclosed, Rolling Stone magazine reported.

Wilson and Thomas have since mended fences and resumed their close friendship and working relationship, Thomas said.

“Brian's one of those guys who can just walk over to your house, open the refrigerator, and make himself a sandwich,” Thomas said.

Wilson might be doing just that, because he plans to stay with his former neighbor when he's in town for a greatest hits show Saturday, July 30, at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles.

Thomas wouldn't reveal details during an interview last week, but don't be surprised if Wilson stays in St. Charles and writes some new songs while he's here.



Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110719/news/707199985/#ixzz1SaozGRcd

My bad for not noticing that somebody already posted the information today! Sorry. I actually heard Steve Dahl guest-hosting on WLS radio in Chicago this afternoon, and they were talking about this story. Dahl seemed to be making fun of Brian's, shall we say, day-to-day functionality. Wasn't real flattering.

Thats not cool to make fun of somebody who has been from hell and back.

I was shocked to read this line in the article above


I can't believe Brian is subjugating black men and taking their suiting fabric to line the walls of his studio......Disgusting!

Do you believe he sent them away acapella?

Steve Dahl's an alcoholic piece of feces and has no business making fun of anyone. He also claimed to sing backup on the Imagination single. Thankfully, I can't hear him.

Hmm, I don't know him personally. I did get him to sign my picture sleeve of "Do You Think I'm Disco"( I think he signed it in Joe Thomas' basement, at the BW show after-party; but it might have been some other time) 
Brian, evidently,  liked him at some point( or used him?)

W... why did Brian move to Illinois?

He was in "still I dream of it" mode, and Chicago is Frank's kind of town

More like just tolerated him. That was a Thomas thing, for what its worth.

Merged the two threads.

Thank you for the merge. I was my fault to begin with that it was separate.

Brian and Steve knew each other long before Joe Thomas came into the picture, though.

Steve Dahl was actually present on-stage during Brian's debut solo concert in Ann Arbor, MI in March, 1999. He was hitting a tambourine or something. Fortunately, the stage was small enough (and the band large enough - Joe Thomas was even on keyboards during this leg) that Dahl was barely visible at the far edge.

He "played" at all the shows in 99.  I saw 4 of them, and met him before the Boston gig that year.  He laughed about how he was "playing" the theremin, but it was not turned on, nor was his acoustic guitar plugged in or microphone.  He said that he was there because Brian thought he was funny, and his jokes helped keep Brian calm.

*koff*

I am from the Chicago area, and Steve did a LOT of on-air promotion for Brian, Imagination, the St. Charles show, and so on. He talked up Imagination time and time again. I remember VERY clearly how he "previewed" cuts from the CD and was clearly very enthused about it. I'm sure some of the enthusiasm was because he got a writing credit on the CD - but so what! I've gotten a couple technical credits on a couple CDs and I'm very proud and excited about it.

I learned about the Imagination CD and the mini tour from Steve Dahl's radio show.  The first time I heard the Imagination CD was when Steve played it on his show.

I heard Brian when he was a guest on Steve's show - they had a long and (especially for Brian) really interesting on-the-air conversation.

Steve was very popular in Chicago - a lot of people besides me heard him say some very nice things about BW and the new CD - as well as the mini-tour show in Chicago - which I attended.

So maybe you might want to tone it down a bit. Yes, Steve is not Mother Theresa. And after the Brian/Joe Thomas falling out Steve clearly took Joe's side. But he did a LOT to help Brian at a very important phase of his comeback too - don't forget that.

“Brian's one of those guys who can just walk over to your house, open the refrigerator, and make himself a sandwich,” Thomas said.

Brian must have been watching a lot of Seinfeld at the time ;D

Maybe you're right. I have a tendency to judge people based on my own interactions with them, and the one I had was not pleasant at all. Maybe he was having a bad day or something.

f*ck...I owe an apology to Steve if I ever meet him. I don't know what the f*ck I was thinking, but I had him mixed up with Bubba the Love Sponge, who was a complete and utter f*cktard  the time I had the misfortune of being in his company, to the point where if I ever see him again I'll likely end up in jail. Two completely different people, and a very unfortunate mistake. Although I don't like the fact that Steve has taken credit for things that he didn't actually do, that has absolutely nothing to do with what I was on about.

 My apologies.

i've spent many years in st charles and it does have some beautiful homes. wish i could afford it. geneva is also quite nice, i love eating at the mill race inn; sadly i never ran into him while dining there. when my wife would drag me shopping with her in geneva, my fantasy of running into brian was the only reason i would go.

Speaking of McCartney, I sure hope he shows up on stage in St. Charles next Saturday night.  It's not out of the question since he's playing Wrigley Field the next two nights. ;D

Why ?

I'll be there in St. Charles on the 30th, and to me, it would be just fine for BW to remain the focus.

Because they are two of my idols and I'd love to see them do a song together. ;D