The Smiley Smile Message Board

So the story is Brian Wilson records most of  Love You in the fall of 76, and then leaves it unfinished. Carl steps in and rescues the project, acting as the "mixdown producer." What exactly happened in this chronicle, and how did the material worked on change under Carl?

This can be merged with the Insignificant Question threads if it doesn't merit its own topic. I don't think it's insignificant though... :P

I have wondered about this before as well, but I do not have any relevant information.  Thanks for bringing this up.

I find it pretty interesting (and cool) that Carl really stepped up in the 70s and is responsible for cool albums like Sunflower, Surf's Up, and (!) Love You (which people usually think of as a pure Brian album).

Just gonna wait for the experts...  :3d

Since Brian's interest had reportedly waned by '77, I find it interesting that he recorded the Airplane tag with Carl in January '77.  He sounds plenty enthused even being the one whi leads the count-in. It's made me wonder if it really was Carl solo working on the album on the homestrech or if Brian joined him.

Interestingly, I think this is the first Beach Boys album that was sat on for more than a month or so after the album had been assembled. According to AGD's site, it took approximately 2 months longer than average to release the album. I can't help but wonder what's responsible for that anecdote.  Were they waiting to see if Brian would produce it any more? Were label/band politics at play? Did they want a release closer to Summer because they're THEEEEEEEEE BEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAACH BOOOOOOOOOOYS? Maybe I'm looking too much into it and they were just busy?

in a nutshell...if one listens to brian's mix of the love you tracks then one understands why carl stepped up. carl also added more instrumental parts.
one's own ears will tell you why it was done.
short simple answer.

I've never heard Brian's mix.

Is there anything to suggest these were more than just rough, progress mixes?

Carl filled it with guitar parts. LY would be pretty boring without his additions. Are the rough mixes Brian made available anywhere?

Allegedly there are alternate mixes on a bootleg called Brian Loves You.

I have the Brian Loves you boot. Very basic, underproduced, basically a rough voiced Brian on piano. Some of the vocals, like I'm begging you please, are tough to listen to, as Brian's attempt at falsetto is poor.

Those tracks are demos, though, aren't they?

So the people who wish Brian would be left alone and make another "Love You"-like album are misinformed because the work they admire is actually Carl's? THe magic is probably in the combo of the two, right (as Carl never did anything like that entirely on his own)?

Without having actually heard Brian's early mixes somehow I doubt that Love You would've been "boring" without Carl's involvement. These songs wouldn't be boring even if they were played on nothing but a piano as proven by the Brian Loves You demo recordings that circulate.

i was not talking about the demo's. brian's full mixes are available. remember...google is one's friend. badman even talks about those mixes in his book. they are not bad....just missing something. carl filled that in.

Brian's mixes are just kind of flat and lifeless. Carl added a handful of parts as well as the Airplane tag and created a much more dynamic mix. A pretty selfless act, given that I don't think Love You was his kind of music at all ...

Didn't it have something to do with record label changes?







Don't know about Love You as I don't think I ever heard the Brian mixes, but I'm always fascinated when I listen to session outakes of the early years because when Carl is there he acts like what I'd call a co-producer. Just things like the sessions to "Our prayer" where it is Carl who tells the boys how to sing to get a certain sound. I think you also hear it during the Party! sessions that Carl's word definitely has authority.
All in all imo all of the boys did have much more to do with the creation of their records than what is mostly said. It wasn't just Brian although he of course was THE MAN

Nor the public's. Carl couldn't save it either. Johnny Carson...right. :o

Probably one of the best albums that happened in the Beach Boys catalogue 8)

I thought Mike handled that lead perfectly. Actually, this is the last album that Mike really sounds good on. He was too nasal on 15 Big Ones and from MIU to the present. He sounded like the Mike of the 60s on Love You.

He sounded pretty good on First Love too. The lead on that version of Sumahama is a lot more like "classic" Mike than what we heard on L.A.

I am 90000% sure the stuff you guys are thinking are final Brian mixes are incomplete working mixes.

I'm 100,000% sure you're 90,000% wrong.

Carl likely handled the Stereo mix, Brian did most of the work.

I checked Sumahama, you're right. He can't keep it up all through the song, but he definitely makes an effort to sound less nasal.

Johnny Carson is one of the best songs on the entire record. I wish they'd included it on MIC instead of Solar System, as to me it represents Love You's crazy brilliance perfectly.

Qft. Had the call and response harmonies been a little more polished, I wouldn't hesitate to call it the most single worthy cut on the album. It's undoubtably wacky, but the synthesis of unshakable melodic sensibility teamed with the patent playfulness found in some of the band's best work makes it an instant winner.

And the instrumental break in the middle is inspired. Only Brian could get away with that!

The guys at the radio station had a contest with LU-the music director said he'd be willing to play Roller Skating Child on the air if, while playing frisbee with the record in the studio, the album landed correctly on the turntable. It never did, but a good time was had by all. After that, the lp was put back in the jacket never to be played(with) again. :lol :lol

Either way, I'm not sure how people can assess the mixes to be "flat" when these are some of the worst sounding bootlegged Beach Boys recordings to surface. Not sure what you have access to, but the stuff we have sounds like total dicks and there are a lot of things I hear that kind of make me think these weren't intended to be final mixes at all.

I'm confident that what I've heard is much higher quality than these boots you mention. And they're flat...