The Smiley Smile Message Board

I stumbled onto this interview a bit ago on http://keepinthesummeralive.tumblr.com/

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There are a lot of interesting things in this article and I'm left with many questions, but the one that interests me most is his comments on television. He remarks that he "wants to make commercials for TV - with a twist."
Does anyone have any idea what he means by this?

Also, what the hell does "drugs are an underground train" mean?

I don't have an answer to your question but man, this guy was so downright funny, ambitious, and also very articulate around that point in his life. Still patiently waiting for him to come up with that symphony for drums! Didn't Steve Reich once attempt a thing like that? That whole interview brings back pleasant memories of what made me fall in love with the Smile myth in the first place.

Yea, I love this interview too, it's great. He's such a fascinating person.

Brian on suicide

"Things can always get better, but if you're dead, they may not"

Classic!

This interview is also in the Look Listen Vibrate SMiLE book - I implore anyone here, who doesn't have it, to get this book!

I need this book! ;D

On the other hand, if you're dead they may not get any worse, either.

If I had an extra copy I'd send it to ya! Unfortunately it's become quite a pricey item on ebay;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Look-Listen-Vibrate-Smile-by-Domenic-Priore-The-Beach-Boys-book-not-LP-/321088609476?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item4ac25f5cc4 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Look-Listen-Vibrate-Smile-by-Domenic-Priore-The-Beach-Boys-book-not-LP-/321088609476?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item4ac25f5cc4)

If you have the extra cash it's definitely worth getting - I never imagined there were that many magazine articles printed about the Smile album back in the day.

Might buy that, thanks rab!

FFS, you could have said something about Watts other than the fact that your mum didn't go out the house when she heard there was a riot four miles away. That's some nitpicking on one of the best BW interviews, mind. You can feel the subconscious influence of Van Dyke's verbal precision - he says a lot in some of those sentences!

Well, you know, you gotta stay away when there's a riot going on.

Cheers for putting that song in my head....

May I also applaud the Nilsson avatar while we are here? Nilsson rules the school imo.

Even my name is a reference...

Those were happier days....

I love that he snuck in "and he would pound her for a couple of days." Can't believe he got away with that.

To me that interview may be one of the saddest parts of the entire "SMiLE" saga because it offers us a glimpse of what could have been.  There are so many things that Brian Wilson expresses in that piece that seem to be so much in tune with a healthy style of living spiritually speaking to see it all come crashing down for him within a matter of months is almost too heartbreaking to contemplate.  I remember the first time I read that piece and thought how much ink has been spilled over philosophies espoused by songwriters like John Lennon or Bob Dylan, well in 1966 Brian Wilson truly was one cat who "got it" in my opinion.  He comes across as one of the most brilliant, intelligent and together people I have ever come across in that article and it's just incredibly sad to me to know the amount of turmoil that was circling or beginning to circle around his head at that point.  Again it's an interview that is almost too close for comfort and a glimpse into a time where there seemed to be endless possibilities.  I wonder if some of this is what Brian referenced years later when he wrote "I had to chase the sun"?

He was Harry Nillson, he could do whatever he wanted.

Real talk - the guy was the funniest musician to ever live because his humour was so throwaway, not laboured and forced like so called 'comedy' songs. His only rival in that regard was Randy Newman.

Yea, he was a very funny musician, and very odd (Son of Schmilsson.) It's funny that you brought up Randy Newman because, I'm sure you know, they were good friends and Harry even made an album of Newman covers, Nilsson Sings Newman, with Randy on piano.

You don't need to tell me nothing, I'm a huge Nilsson fan  ;D Nilsson Sings Newman is one of my top 5 records. I could listen to it for years.

Yea, it's a great record. This is the only place I've been were people a) love Harry as much as I do and b) know who Harry Nilsson is. I love it.  :)

I think Derek Taylor had more to do with that interview than Brian Wilson did.

I often find myself wishing there'd been a super group formed in 72 called WNNP. Wilson, Nilsson, Newman & Parks.  :hat

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and from their alternate reality reunion:

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That would be categorically my favourite band of all time