The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQu9tR6KRo. I like the song itself and especially the vocals Carl puts in, but does anyone detect some condescension here?

Not at all. I think it's a really sincere tribute.

As for my opinion, I don't rate it in my Top 100 or anything, but it's nice enough.

I think it's a nice enough song though the unsubtle personal nature of the lyrics makes it a little awkward in my opinion.  But it's listenable and Carl does sound very nice on the choruses.  I love the end too when Carl sings the beginning of You Still Believe In Me.

Nice melody. Typical Mike Love-junk. I can listen to it and appreciate it on the EH soundtrack but I'm glad it never made it onto a Beach Boys album

Excellent song. A lost classic.

If ever a song showcased what Carl's vocals brought to the Beach Boys this is it.

A banal song and production that suddenly takes off and becomes very listenable.

Pure crap with a wasted Carl part. As was said  in the above post-Myke Luhv junk.

Apparently Bruce didn't like it either, from PetSite in this thread:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,6054.0.html

A Voice From The Past Helps With Tomorrow: An Interview with Bruce Johnston on November 9, 1978:

BJ: Again, I don’t know. There’s a song called “Brian’s Back” which is dreadful I think. The intent of it is really nice. I’m saying it’s dreadful as a record. The idea is really nice … it’s something I’d play for Brian at his house.

Always liked it. Sappy, yes, but also quite touching.

Somewhere on this board one of Mike Love's daughters posted that when Mike played for her, he started crying.

Hang on a moment... is that Bruce "Endless Harmony" Johnson who said that???

Go to the thread I quoted, he says the same thing about 10 years harmony, which is then on the next record:

The same with “Ten Years Harmony” … Carl and I talked about that, and he said he’d feel really funny singing about himself. We decided to sing the verses in the second person, and when the chorus comes into the song, it would go to Carl singing in the first person. I’m not really trying to zoom any of my songs in.

I find it a little strange that Mike's the one singing it and that it was also intended (later) to go on one of his solo albums. Might find it touching if Carl or Dennis were singing it. Also, the lyric might just be the shlockiest thing ever written. "Teenage gamblers sittin' in a Rambler..." Really? It is a nice idea I guess, but not anywhere near "good". (IMO

Mike at his worst. give me sumahama or eilwy any day of the week.

Is it this one?: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,1680.msg37000.html#msg37000

Although it is a bit sappy I thought the song was decent and yes, Carl's "You Still Believe in Me" part at the end is the highlight of the song.

Yeah, that's it. I guess in the six and a half years since I read that my memory went from "choked up" to "crying", but still.

Didn't Brian find the song hurtful and insulting or something too?

I'm sure the intent of "I never knew that he was gone" was probably to emphasize Brian's ongoing influence on music, but coming from Mike it comes across as "We don't really need him, we've been doing just fine."

Never listened to it.

I love everything about the song if I ignore Mike's lyric - it's just a bit too cheesy for my taste.  The backing track is good and Carl's vocals are wonderful, especially the last minute or so.

I always liked the song; probably one of the best songs that Mike ever wrote. Nice melody and great vocal from Carl. The lyrics can be wince-worthy but that's typical of a tribute song like this.

"Brian Is Back", for obvious reasons, and rightfully so, never appeared on a Beach Boys' album other than a comp. But, if you ever compiled a Mike Love solo comp from all of his projects through the years, I'd definitely put it on there.

When did Carl do his vocal for the Endless Harmony version? Says '78, but holy sh*t does Carl's vocal sound like it was done in the 90s.

Just listened to it from start to finish for the first time. I enjoy how Mike himself admits to being a "sap" in the song. The story about Mike actually getting choked up when playing it for his daughter is pretty cool. The "You Still Believe In Me" reference at the end was also a cool touch - you'd expect teh Lovester to namedrop something a little more well known, but hay, there it is, and it makes things feel a little more authentic. Feels sincere. Derpeaoko9g9

Loved it (hated it) since I first heard it on the California Feeling bootleg, back in 89.

Real nice melody, great Carl backing vocal, f*cking terrible lyrics.  "You fell in love with a pretty cheerleader / I even married one".  Could lyrics ever be more clunky??  (Oh wait, this is the Beach Boys I'm talking about.  Of course they could.  :-D)

Never liked it. Couldn't get past the terrible lyrics.

Sappy drivel but oddly touching also - I'm sure Mike's heart was in the right place. And Carl's vocal at the end is goosebump inducing.

Carl's vocal is the only thing that saves it for me, especially his vocal at the end - that little bit adds a lot of sincerity to the song for me.

I love all the references in this one. Especially the cello under "good vibrations caused such a sensation".

Mike's version from 2004 is pretty cool, too. His voice sounds a lot more sincere. No Carl, obviously.

Well, Mike seems to be emotionally connected to his childhood and Brian in ways we don't even know about. So I think this is a heartfelt song. You can see Mike weeping while he recites the lyrics of this song in a Landy-era report. Somewhere on youtube. He was trying to show how close they were and how estranged they'd become because of Landy.

I cannot understand people hating a song but loving a particular vocal on it. Or loving a song while hating a vocal on it. Recorded music does not admit such paradoxes.

For me it's a nice song. But I can do without all their self-referential numbers.

You'll love the rhyming of "good vibrations" with "assasinations" in Looking Back With Love, then.  :)

no, I mean the musical references. there's cellos in the chorus of Good Vibrations and there's cellos under the line "good vibrations caused such a sensation". I don't like lyrical references (although my favorite song on the new album is "Spring Vacation"... but that's in spite of the references).

It's pretty simple: You can think the song is sh*t, Mike's vocal is sh*t, but you can think Carl's part(s) is pretty well done, all things considered. How is that weird or a paradox?

An example of "Like the song, hate the vocal", for me, would be Hole's Live Through This album. I used be able to tolerate it as a whole, but then I listened to it again a couple years ago and while I still think the songwriting is good, Courtney Love's voice is f***awful on about 90% of the record and I'd give my left tit to hear someone else sing over the original tracks or, at the least, faithful covers with a singer who does not sing like Courtney Love.

They're good songs, but I don't care for the vocals. I'm not sure why that's weird or difficult to grasp.

Edit: A better, more obvious example that somehow eluded me would be just about any prominent Jeff Foskett vocal on TWGMTR.

It's not a song. It's a recording. If the vocals suck, the whole thing sucks.

It's not a song?

Y'lost me, Leonard.

It is both a song and a recording. Where does it say you can't like a certain part of a song, that you can only like all of it or hate all of it? For example, I like the melody of California Role, but I'm not so keen on the vocals in the first half. I like part of it. No law against that!

I was aware of the songs reputation before I first heard it, but when I finally heard it I was... "blown away" may be pushing it, but I was genuinely impressed. Very nice and heartfelt song. Well done, Mike.

Belongs in the trash heap with most of Summer in Paradise...but it's so Gosh Darn catchy....WHHHHYYYYY Mike Love?????!!!!! Why do you have to right such terrible songs yet fill them with irresistible hooks???!!!

One of the best songs if not THE best song that Mike Love ever came up with. It's genuine and came from his heart. I love it - especially the Carl Wilson vocal on it.

I remember when I first saw Mike interviewed back in the 90's about the Brian Landy or lawsuit or whatever it was. I think it was on one of those nightly gossip shows - O'Reilly or Maury Povich or one of those guys.  It's on YouTube. Mike was all misty and choking back tears and blubbering a little bit (dunno for sure if it was intentional drama or not) and he said he'd written a song about Brian and it was "Brian's Back".  I first heard the song on vinyl back around 1980 on a Beach Boys Dick Clark radio special that I swiped from a DJ. So I think it debuted on a Dick Clark special sround that time. Then it showd up on the California Feeling vinyl boot in the 80's. Then finally released legitimately on the Endless Harmony CD with the acoustic bridge which is pretty cool.

Mike is rather excellent on this song. Carl sucks, which ruins it for me.
The whole song is contrived, self-serving, trivial poop. But it's about Brian Wilson, so it needs to be enshrined.

Nah, not at all.  That's all Mike's got.  That's really heartfelt, for him.  It's just as bit as valid as Paul Macca's syruppiest ballad, or Al Green's sweatiest love song.  Different people are capable of different levels of expression, to Mike, this song was as intimate as he can possibly get.  He likely loves Brian as much as anybody alive, he owes his entire career to him and he knows it.  Brian's his oldest friend, as well.

Mike is certainly capable of writing good, if unspecific and abstracted, love songs -- I offer as evidence "Kiss Me Baby", "All I Wanna Do", and "Only With You" -- but I think his words here fail him because it's too specific. I might even charitably think the subject matter is too personal for him not to take refuge in corniness instead!

Nice guitar work on the track from the great Jerry Donahue, good vocals from Carl, and the You Still Believe In Me tag a nice touch, but...clunky lyrics !

Yup I believe that's the thing going on too.

You've got strange ears, mate. Mike is excellent on this song but Carl sucks? Each to their own.

"I'm not so keen" ain't "I hate". Nuance is once thing, but not the extremes that some people find in different elements of a (recorded) song. But let us not turn this into a sub-thread. Peace to you.

I heard this song was bad before I heard the song itself. So when I heard it, I was pleasantly surprised that I kind of like it. It doesn't have the same effect on me as, say, one of Brian's classics, but it's a nice song. It might be best to compare it to one of McCartney's lesser efforts-- a sappy ballad where you think, "I know this isn't great, and it's pretty corny, but I'm kind of enjoying it." And I get that it's Mike's way of expressing his love and appreciation for Brian. It doesn't sound exploitative, like some of his other songs do. I don't skip the song when it comes on, although I would skip a song like "Tears in the Morning." Now, THAT, I don't like.

It was about Mike suing Brian for songwriting credits. He does the "those harmony highs [...] guess I'm just a sentimental sap" part and then starts to cry.

Don't forget that Michael is also Brian's biggest fan.

Myke Luhv to Brian on PET SOUNDS-"...who's gonna listen to this sh*t?" Fan? Friend? :o

"Don't f*** with the [friend] formula!!"

This one is a highlights of Endless Harmony which is my favorite compilation.  Mike's lyrics are consistent with the retelling of the history of the band.  What the essence captures, I think, is that Brian was always "conspicuous by his absence." And that his presence was felt through the music as the Touring Band performed it, and as Carl would say it was "spiritual."

That clip of You Still Believe in Me, is one of the finest sections of any song, that Brian ever composed, in my opinion.  Carl does a great job and there is a great remake on YouTube from 2005, where Christian does Carl's part. As Larry David would say, "pretty good...pretty-pretty good!"

And, I find it sincere.  Brian might not have rejoined the Touring Band, fully, at that point, but at least there was clarity as to Brian's continuing impact on the music.  It is not unlike the impact of Dennis and Carl felt at the reunion.  Still strong.  Still influential.  The applause for those two dearly departed was amazing.  

The only thing I like about this song is an alternate version from the late 70's - just a basic track and BV's with The Beach Boys, including Brian, enthusiastically singing his part as 'I AM BACK!'

Please tell me this actually exists and circulates.

This sounds amazing.

When I get home I'll find out what boot I've got it on, but I do have it! The backing vocal bit is kinda brief, tbh.

He never said that.

No way, I read about it on the internet and choose to disregard a recently read 1969 interview with Mike where he says it's a good album and complains about Capitol not promoting it.

Oh sh*t. I don't have it! I just have lots of versions of the EH track from dodgy boot comps. Am I insane?

Gee wiz, it wouldn't be Myke backpedaling for the 900th time would it???? :whatever

Key element of that response being 1969. It may have been 1968, even. It's not some recent thing where he's trying to save face.

I'm not sure where this "Who's gonna listen to this sh*t?" quote is sourced from. Any idear?

It is a misquoting of Mike's light complaints about recutting vocals for the umpteenth time during the PS sessions. Supposedly, at one point Mike said that the minute differences between all the different performances could only be heard by the ears of a dog.