The Smiley Smile Message Board

Brian goes for it, and hits the whole note at around 6:47.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2XfKc0iKUQ

Why doesn't he do this more?
It's still in him.

Sounded like he had a little help there .

Well, yeah.
He still did the whole note, on note.
He usually just let's Jeff do it.

No, Jeff sang the high note and Brian came in a full second later with the note a major 3rd lower, like he usually does.

yup.

That appears to be what is going on in that video, which is weird cause then there's very surprising moments like this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ORPi7T-uPQ

Just right before Jeff comes in, you can clearly hear how Brian's falsetto sounds in 2012, and it's gosh darn good.. why does he always leaves the job to Foskett then? being "lazy"?

It looks really difficult for him to hit that note.

Really? i thought it came out natural, and obviously no one asked him to do it.. oh well.

Ziggy, I don't agree with you 99 percent of the time, but on this I do.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but on that second video Brian seems to shoot Foskett a look, almost as if to say "zip it, I got this one".   Brian nailed the note, without sounding forced at all - I think he knows he can still do it when he wants to, and perhaps gets a bit annoyed sometimes at needing a crutch.

Not sure about giving a look at Foskett -well, now that you said it..-, but i kinda think the fact he can be a bit annoyed to always be helped is true..
anyway, i think that video is a great example that Brian still has that falsetto and that it naturally comes out whenever he feels like, surprising everyone, including his own band.


Hey, i love you too bro :(

Woah. Saw a similar video and heard him clearly for a brief second. Sound like Brian's still got it has to make a huge effort. My guess is that if he really tries he can do it but at his age he has to really push it. Still it's really impressive and the fact that he tried is good enough. The fact that he even attempted it is a bonus for me!

I'm no expert on this, but there's quite a few smile era videos on YT where he absolutely nails the falsetto on GV.

Just listened with headphones, and that's not Brian. Brian is singing the lower harmony, he starts to fade in at around 6:50. Listen closely.

Yeah, I think in that GV video where he starts the note and then give Jeff a glance as he drops out, that didn't take a huge amount of effort for him. I just think he's inconsistent in hitting those notes, and most of the time he just doesn't bother. He comes in a little ahead of the beat there, perhaps thinking that by doing so, Jeff would hear that he was going for the note, but Jeff's used to covering there, so I'm not surprised that he comes in anyway. He was still going pretty high in the studio on certain songs over the last decade. The bridge on "Saturday Morning in the City", for instance. He goes higher than the GV note on the "Rhapsody in Blue" opening of BWRG, too, right?

That falsetto he is doing in the main part of the chorus of Private life of Bill & Sue is breath-taking. To me, it has that same umm,brokenly beautiful modulating moment  that he invented on Dont worry baby.

 i don't know how else to try and describe it. Just dumb-founded at its greatness. :)

"california to mexico" is Jeff.

The oohs are Bruce, to these ears.

That's how I hear it aswell.

Agreed

Man, Brian's been singing a lot of backgrounds on this tour. So cool to clearly hear him singing a harmony in Shut Down, Don't Back Down, etc.

I wonder if at some point he'll give it a go on a falsetto part on something like Surfer Girl, which he's always done on past BB's tours. Being surrounded by The Beach Boys, I bet he wants to every now and again, as this GV note proves.

That's one thing I love about Brian's live performances. You never know what you're gonna get. He'll sound iffy for half a set, then do an adlib on a note that shows that if he wants to, he can still bring it.