The Smiley Smile Message Board

I would love for him to do a mono album. Everything is defacto stereo today, it's almost experimental by today's standards to do a record in real full-blown mono. Didn't he have an operation at some point to let him hear out of both ears? To be honest I have no idea about his deafness, it seems the story changes every time I hear it.

You must be reading some very badly-researched stories then. Yes, Brian had an operation in the late sixties: didn't work, as Carl stated in the 1971 Rolling Stone articles. The cause is what varies - Audree said it was a damaged ninth nerve, thus congenital, Brian's stated that it was A) a kid down the block with a baseball bat... B) Murry with a 2x4/slap/baseball bat... C) "I don't know, it's always been like this". Take your pick.

Have Carnie or Wendy ever had hearing problems? If they haven't, then I guess we can rule out a congenital defect. Unless there are any other relatives who have had similar problems.

THe important thing is that Brian's hearing loss did not at all affect his abilities to write music.

Or did it?!  :o :o :o :o :o

I have on occasion covered one of my ears when listening to music. It is very difficult to get a "full picture", so to speak, of a song with only one ear. Which makes what Brian accomplished in the 1960's even more incredible.

Since Brian can only hear with his left ear, it is the right hemisphere of his brain interpreting the sound. Brian is always in Wonderland.

Nonsense man, it's easy. Years ago someone here like H suggested listening to Brian's mono mixes from ONE SPEAKER (god) with your RIGHT EAR COVERED and left ear facing the speaker, or even up against it as i've read of Brian doing.

I play the following albums somewhat obsessively: Today, Summer Days, Smiley, Honey and all through a 25 watt marshall guitar amp. I am god.

They sound amazing this way. One Speaker, Phil Spector, GOD. I don't know if that makes sense to you. But I get into Brian's headspace, or try to, when I hear his music. Like the single 1967 Herozenvillains is very trippy to me. The organ - a friggin' BALDWIN ENDORSEMENT OR NOT - is so expressive and has a sound texture that seems to exist outside the speaker very substantially. imagine being brian playing it loud! all day! or mike love leaning on it or next to him picking up the vibration! man, it's a crazy thought. can someone tell me whether there's existent tapes with audible content of one Brian Wilson doing nought but playing the piano, or organ, for a long time, forming songs in mid air? i've heard the sessions with brother dennis, but want to hear - for example, the holy grail of such thoughts - brian conceiving smile piece by piece with van dyke at the piano together. f*ck the wrecking crew, i find BRIAN & VAN DYKE PARKS alone together more interesting. just imagine Brian coming upon the music to the fade in Cabinessence at the piano. VDP must have got giddy. Brian sounds like he's on something on that Herozenvillains piano demo, is it known what?

Who else thinks Brian's 70s TV appearances were PURE GENIUS?! Come on, they are inimitable masterpieces. His Sloop John Be is amazing! He seems to enjoy it almost falling apart with his rickety strange child in a crib playing honky tonk sound, but then he's back again pounding out that left hand bass line like it's nothing! just like hey guys did you miss me, alright lets pull this fukkin thing back together eh? and then he's back again, and you can feel in just that, all the power that made the beach boys. that spark, that when nicely lit, charms your whole mind upon hearing and seeing. Brian is God. Love You is the new Gospel. The Eternal Message Is: SMiLE, Remember the Day, Remember the Night, The Children Know The Way, Child is Father of the Man, Our Love Is Here To Stay, S'Wonderful, Till I Die. We don't pray, we get our groove on to Funky Pretty, Roller Skating Child, Let Us Go On This Way, MONA.



 

Do you mean - have I died the meditative death & transcended duality through the vortex into the void singularity of infinitely inwardly potentialized space consciousness?

hearing works in the brain just as much as the ear(s) ... brian can "comprehend" stereo but i doubt he finds any specific enjoyment from it ... it's pointless for him.

I am pretty severely hearing impaired in the right ear.  Not deaf.   But so bad that if a person is sitting to my right at a restaurant , I nearly have to turn my head 90 degrees in their directin to understand what they are saying.  But, I can listen to stereo by adjusting the speakers so the right ear is very close to one speaker (2-3 feet),  and the other is across the room.  Also, on adjustable headphones I can set the left side low and the right side on high volume and turn up the overall volume on the amp getting a decent taste of stereo albiet not what I heard when my ears were much younger and functioned normally.  So , what I am geting at, is that maybe Brian is not deaf in one ear and hears well enough to "get" stereo with some effort.

I am pretty severely hearing impaired in the right ear.  Not deaf.   But so bad that if a person is sitting to my right at a restaurant , I nearly have to turn my head 90 degrees in their directin to understand what they are saying.  But, I can listen to stereo by adjusting the speakers so the right ear is very close to one speaker (2-3 feet),  and the other is across the room.  Also, on adjustable headphones I can set the left side low and the right side on high volume and turn up the overall volume on the amp getting a decent taste of stereo albiet not what I heard when my ears were much younger and functioned normally.  So , what I am geting at, is that maybe Brian is not deaf in one ear and hears well enough to "get" stereo with some effort.

Is pornography allowed in this forum? I won't speak for anyone, but I'm sure some might find it offensive.

Brian has, at best, 4-6% hearing in his right ear: I'd call that functionally deaf. Try this: put something on the stereo then turn the balance to almost entirely hard left (but not quite). That's what he hears.

Do the breasts scare you? Or make you desirous of warm milk?

Brian's yet to be recorded rock 'n' roll album title has often been compared to this porn movie title. It doesn't bother me seeing it, rather it has quelled my curiosity. It's not like pornography is being strewn all over the board.

That's not how the brain works - or maybe you were joking :-\

Some's been recorded, or at least demoed.

Anyone wanna bet with me that an album named Pleasure Island will never be released? Its certainly not an official title for any forthcoming project from what I understand...

Why, the Pleasure Island album! Brian's been talking about making a rock 'n' roll record since 2005 or so.

But all the matters to me is that Brian realizes it as he appears to have it somewhat planned or at least vaguely conceived.

1999 actually.  :)

I desire an intelligent forum with decency and taste in which there are no stupid posts.

I think the title is great! But all the matters to me is that Brian realizes it as he appears to have it somewhat planned or at least vaguely conceived. I really think it could be Brian's last masterpiece. Let's free him from this role of summarizing his own career (Midnight's Another Day, Oxygen To The Brain, etc) and let him write some Mona's if that would please him! I'm sure it would please Mike to be involved!

Just imagine it, Pleasure Island: a 35 minute blast of Wilson/Love newly written classics, the grooviest album of the past twenty years!

Amen! The album had better be in mono!

I just wonder why people keep talking about an album that'll never exist?

You got a source or is this conjecture?

You got a source or is this conjecture?

Well, staged or not, there is the picture of Brian at the piano with a rough tracklist jotted down on a sheet of paper.  Though the only thing written for it appears to be the Pleasure Island theme.  The rest is 15 Big Ones Part 2.

Really, that long ago? Seems my first encounter hearing about it was after GIOMH was released.

I got the impression that Brian was reacting to the overly Adult Contemporary production of IMAGINATION by telling journalists shortly after its release that he wanted to do a rock-and-roll album (with "big drums" and a social message if I remember correctly). When GIOMH was issued, I thought it might have been the rock-and-roll album Brian had talked about, but he then he kept saying that the "next one" was going to be the rock-and-roll one!

Darian is cool for Darlin (for the names too) because he looks like an E major chord when he wears that green shirt. Don't you think?