The Smiley Smile Message Board

Larry: "Do you write your own songs?" Brian: "Yeah, I do"  :p

add it to the Brianism pile!

Larry King asked some of the dumbest questions ever - but I guess that was the point, being as clueless as the average viewer.

Larry King was so overrated. I think he asked a similar question of Paul McCartney. "Did you write the music or the lyrics?"

Paraphrasing from memory, "So was it called Glen Campbell and The beach Boys then?"

His style of interviewing has even been taught in universities. He rarely read the books of celebrity authors on his show, he didn't believe in the deep probing / research type interviews - he just developed an 'everyman' style that he felt was his calling card. I suppose at the end of the day, we're not talking PBS here...it's showbiz.

I want Nardwuar to interview Brian... or Mike!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLIbu6sJ4-I

 :lol

.

Not many people remember this, but it was the death of that specialist in the weird and unusual, Long John Nebel, in 1978 that gave Larry King his big break nationally. He had been a broadcast legend in the Miami area for years, but it was Mutual Broadcasting's hiring him to replace Nebel on an all-night radio show that took him coast to coast.

(Nebel, famous on New York radio for decades, and a kind of Art Bell of that time - for those of you who go back as far as Art Bell - had taken over at Mutual from the mercurial Herb Jepko....now that's a name to conjure up memories. I remember my cousin telling me about an all-night road trip he made from Kansas City to Salt Lake around '72.  He told me, "You haven't lived until you're out in the middle of nowhere and the only stations you can pick up" - he had a car with just AM, no FM - "are ones from Juarez and Monterrey playing Mexican music, and Herb Jepko's Nightcaps on KSL.")

Indeed, I wish Long John - or Herb, for that matter - had had the chance to talk to Brian. At least about UFOs. Brian, as he's indicated in interviews from time to time, does have a bit of an interest in 'em.

Will never happen... even though he did interview Daniel Johnston with no problems.

Brian Wilson is often mentioned in Nardwuar interviews. I think once by Timothy Leary, again by Wayne Coyne, and others I'm forgetting.
"...If you interviewed him like this, he would cry." -  Wayne Coyne

I heard Larry King explain his interview style years ago - it's true, he didn't do any special research on his guests, he said he wanted to approach them like the average viewer/listener would. I guess that's okay for mainstream tv/radio, but I much prefer an interview by someone who knows the story.

Tommy Chong mentioned him too, said he saw him riding an elevator in Las Vegas continually, looking drugged out. (Don't recall if Tommy dated this interaction but it might've been the '70s?) Nardwuar asked if he tried to help Brian and Tommy responded with, essentially, "That's just Brian, what can you do?" I was surprised at how harsh Leary was towards Brian actually. Did they have a bad meeting at some point?

Honestly, I think Brian could go either way. Maybe he'd really like Nardwuar's unorthodox interviewing style and meticulous research (plus his general good-natured goofiness might appeal to Brian's oddball sense of humour) -- if nothing else, he'd certainly not get asked the same old sh*t and could show off his supposedly elephantine memory to good effect! I wonder if it's been attempted but Brian's people routinely refuse or something...