The Smiley Smile Message Board

excuse me if this has been posted, cuz I didn't see it if it was.  Just got this address from the Greek: 

http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/brian-wilson-and-the-south-bay-boys

Thanks. That was a nice read. But I don't know if I should believe it.....

Sandbox in his bedroom? That doesn't even make sense!

neat read....sounds like a lot of it could be believable..to me anyway

I don't believe any of it. 

That'd be a good point to say, um, WHAT SONG, then.

You'd think these prank phone calls would've oh, been traded eagerly and played on college radio stations and the like. Or at least played for your friends!

At the very least, tons of exaggeration based on published accounts that were well out of date by then. Wrong freakin' house for the sandbox! I guess an "I did drugs a few times with Brian Wilson" story isn't very exciting so you have to add some fun details.

Why would Mike Love be visiting Brian's house with Bruce Johnston in tow?  Especially not back then.  It sounds like a fan making something up based on things they've read. 

Also, that pic of the two dudes eating the frame around the gold record .... That doesn't look like the cover of IN CONCERT in the lower left-hand corner. A Reprise label, yes, but not a BB album. Looks like a Seals/Croft or Loggins/Messina or some other duo cover.

The writer says Brian would retreat into a shell whenever Marilyn would come around.  Considering Marilyn was living in the house 24/7 and raising the children, and would not divorce him for several years, that makes no sense. 

Everybody has their own way out of course; I think a lot of it sounds right on the money.   
Maybe Dave( thru Jon) will know whether the guy Tuck actually lived by the Wilsons...

The writer admits he had an agenda in writing it in his comments section after the blog article:

Thanks, Ed. I tried to see if I could start a 'mike love backlash,' but I nearly got whiplash in the process. Good stuff could be said about his writing contributions with Brian and his vocal contrast to the Wilsons. Just his history with Dennis alone is enough to know he's pretty ego driven and write him off in terms of personality..Nuff said....Courtney got it right...Thanks for readin about my brother and Tuck!


If this guy really did have a mentally ill brother who committed suicide, he should be ashamed.  But he might have made that up, too.  

Well...doing some fact-checking, there was a Ken Roland who worked as an engineer at Sound City Studios. He is credited on a live-in-the-studio album that comedian Jackie Vernon did. (The late Jackie is best known in the US as the voice of Frosty the Snowman on that ever-popular animated Yuletide special. He also used to play the Palladium in London a lot.)

But you often come across people on the edges of the music biz in LA who have a way of stretching their acquaintance with rock royalty. That said, in those days Brian (almost as much as Dennis) was liable to let anyone in his house who had a stash with 'em.

well sure! I see how this tiny point supports your theory. And then, of course, there's your inestimable knowledge on EVERYTHING BBs to back it up. 
Now, the author of that blog somehow, in addition to making up that whole story,  fooled reverbnation into posting this piece on his brother:
http://www.reverbnation.com/kenroland 

A lot of that stuff in that story does not add up no matter what the truth about the existence of his brother (and who knows if this guy is even who he says he is?).  You mean to tell me that Bruce and Mike were soul buddies back in 1976 and visiting Mike's cousin Brian as a duo?  Was there a Mike and Bruce show in 1975/6?  No.

There's also one small matter:  Bruce Johnston left the Beach Boys in 1972 and did not return until 1978. Believe what you want, though. 

I said it before, but it seems like every person in L.A. from that time (not just musicians) has a Dennis Wilson story