The Smiley Smile Message Board

The Love You album was orig intended to be Brians first solo album in 77 but it was a BB album because of their contract? And in 77 when they signed with columbia/epic they were still on wb, is that why miu took almost a yr to be released from when it was recorded??

Was this really ever planned to be a solo album? In any case I'm glad it ended up the way it did. Never been a big fan of solo albums to begin with and I'm sure Love You is all the better for having the other guys' voices as well as Carl's "mixdown production" skills on it. To me it's every bit as much a BB album as Pet Sounds.

Yup - Brian Loves You.

Yes!

Is there any strong evidence they were seriously considering releasing this as a Brian Wilson solo album? I remember a discussion of this years ago, and the theory that makes sense to me is that it was going to be a Beach Boys album titled “Brian Loves You”, which then changed to “The Beach Boys Love You.” 

Other than in the early pre-recording stages as perhaps a vague floated idea, I can’t imagine this was going to be a Brian solo album. The other BB’s are still on numerous tracks (and some of the BB’s sang some of Brian’s vocals in early/rough takes). More importantly, the band knew they owed Warner one (and later two as it turned out) more album, and I’m not sure a solo Brian album would have even counted toward their deal.

I was under the impression that Brian considered most of the songs in their early stages for a solo album. Then it became a BBs album rather quickly. I would like to know a time frame on the issue, as well.

Well think about how many albums were recorded from early 76 to late 77- 15 big ones, love you, adult child, and miu..... that was a busy time for them, lot of turmoil .

...cuz when most of the leads are sung by other members of the Beach Boy while Brian is still a band member, it's kind of surreal to label it a solo album. Even in the bizarre world of the Beach Boys.

Huh? At that point (actual production/recording) it hadn't been considered as a solo project for quite some time. I don't get what you're saying. ;)

I was teasing. Some people claim that LY is a BW solo album, and others claim that LY is a Wilson Brothers album. Funny world.

Well, Love You is very much in the BW spirit. Hints of BW solo craziness remain. It's in the songs. But of course it's a BBs record.

Funnily enough, none of BW's actual solo records were even half as "crazy" as Love You.

Of course not. After all, his solo career started much later. Vastly different circumstances. Kind of a different man (and artist), as well.

If it had been a solo album, and certainly if Brian had sung all of the lead vocals, then it would have needed a masochistic record label to have chosen to release something that was always going to be a commercial failure.

Sweet Insanity would have been just as weird in its own way but, by this point, no masochistic record label was forthcoming.

Which, ironically, was also basically a Brian Wilson solo album.  :lol

Sweet Insanity, forgot about that one. Probably on the wrong side of "crazy" (personally I'd prefer to call it eccentric), although it does have its moments.

What's strange, to me, about his work past 1977 is that he never again did something as inventive as Love You in terms of arrangements. He seems almost as good as ever when it comes to vocal arrangements while in terms of backing tracks he seems to have "lost it" after Love You.

Don't think so at all. Wouldn't be remotely the same without the other guys' voices.

I think Smile4ever referred to the themes, and writing. From that point of view, he/she is quite right. After all, almost all of the tracks were conceived by Brian and Tony Asher (Asher translating Brian's ideas). Those are all Brian songs. Remember, "Caroline No" was even released as Brian's first solo single. Brian wanted to make that particular album. The BBs were his vessels, so to speak.

I see. Guess I just really don't like the idea of solo albums, it's not any of you guys' fault. :-D

"I want to call the album "Brian's In Love" [laughter]. I don't think they (The Beach Boys) will go for it though."

Brian Wilson interviewed by Bob Harris, 1976.

many interviewers around the time asked BDW 'why dont you go solo?' clearly he did ponder the idea. from what i understand, it seems that the album known as 'new album' was supposed to be the beach boys' 1977 release while 'brian loves you' was going to be his solo outing released concurrently just as dennis was doing

Brian was in very poor voice in 1977. Love You needed the other guys voices.

If love you aint a punk rock album I dunno what is/

I can't hear the punk thing at all with regards to side 2. I mean, Let's Put Our Hearts Together, The Night Was So Young... those are not even remotely close to anything punk. I think Love You is essentially "quirky millionaire" music, in the best way possible, that is.

Very raw album and a major bookend in the BBs quality output . 62 thru 65 being the signature 'golden years' if you will, 66-7 the creative peak, 68-72 the progressive era and 77 the last grasp of brilliant air... I think that bout sums it up.

Re your MIU q's: on, err, realising they owed Warners an album, the TM axis and Brian split to Marharishi Uni,IL, produced a Christmas album then submitted late '77, to which Warner's said no way, so new lyrics and some new songs were slapped together springish '78 and submitted, accepted cranked out as MIU.

yep, and peggy sue and come go w me from the 15 big ones sessions....just like how love you had good time from 70/1 and suzie cincinnati on 15 big ones...

Hasn`t this been disproven now?

I thought that they worked on both the Christmas songs and the non-festive numbers simultaneously.

Talking about the MIU sessions, I really wish Brian and the group would've made a late-70s album consisting of songs such as Mike Come Back to L.A., How's About a Little Bit, and Do Ya. Brian (with the help of collaborators) had some really good quirky singalong stuff going at the time.

Not so. The 1977 Christmas album was never submitted because, in essence, it never existed. One look at the sessions at MIU shows that seasonal songs were recorded in tandem with non seasonal tracks. Also, to submit an Xmas album for 1977 that was still being recorded in early December ? Don't think so.

Yes, that's what I meant. Agree completely. And yes, I am a "he."  :)

Ah, thanks for the point in the right direction AGD - I sucked most of my initial post from the '04 edition of your book (btw, not saying that to be a smart ass).  On reading your reply, it dawned on me  :P to double check the Bellagio tours and sessions section - given the book is a tad out of date.

In order to help me better understand, and I think I'm clear now, I slapped together the following at lunchtime, and sharing it here for anyone else who cares about this sort of stuff (and re MI-freaking-U, no less).

(http://s2.postimg.org/zc9agxaih/MIU_Sessions.jpg)

http://postimg.org/image/5kc81qnp1/ (http://postimg.org/image/5kc81qnp1/)


I still have a couple of q's if anyone is happy to answer - re the Christmas offerings - agree submitting an XMAS album in December wouldn't fly - but even recording/submitting in November would still be equal folly if aiming for a Dec '77 release, surely?

Did Warners "reject" anything prior to the Master that was prepared in April '78?

Also note, the 10 March 78 session is a bit dubious given the band were in Australia at the time - refer the intro notes as per Bellagio.

I read that the 2nd xmas album was what they intended to record when they went to iowa and then the label rejected it and they then changed lyrics and made MIU,  while they were simotameously on both labels.

See above

It's probably just me but I fail to see even the vaguest connection between punk and the BB at any stage in their career. If anything, Love You is an outsider album----both the music and the lyrics (sometimes one, sometimes the other, often both) qualify it as outsider music in my warped view of things.   

I guess you could say there's a certain energy to some of their live performances that is somewhat reminiscent of what punk would bring later on. But other than that I'm not convinced either.

Well...

Punk = Cool

Love You is cool.

Love You is punk.

(http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16500000/Monty-Python-and-The-Holy-Grail-monty-python-16545691-845-468.jpg)

Well considering that with no BBs there woulda been no ramones or clash,,, and love you has a raw energy that to me fits in very well with the punkrock of that time...

The way I've always thought about "Love You" is, you have to take into account how things were going with them at the time.  Presumably, you had Dr. Landy essentially whipping Brian into shape in the previous year, and apparently part of his therapy was an insistence that Brian go back to work... writing, singing, touring, etc.  So you end up with a mentally ill man who at the time wasn't being medicated (thankfully, since Landy later over medicated him) but was sober and fairly, physically healthy (cigarettes be damned). 

So Brian gets healthy and starts working again... on the previous couple albums he hadn't done sh*t, basically... so around the time 15 big ones rolls around, he starts writing again, and by the time "Love You" is conceived, he's literally written an entire album worth of songs.

The whole notion of a solo album was probably just because at that moment, he had came up with everything, whereas on the previous Beach Boys albums he hadn't done much and the group shouldered much more of the responsibility.  Even though he was back touring with them, he had been living for years as almost an outsider, not a full member of the touring band but of course THE founding member of the band with the respect an older brother demands. 

I would imagine that it wasn't really Brian that wanted it to be a solo album... he was just writing songs as part of his therapy, trying to do his job... since he had spent years in this weird "I'm not going to do much but I still get a bunch of the money and I dare you to say anything about it" place... the other Beach Boys likely weren't sure if he was going to 'give' them those songs. 

He very well could have just 'kept' all the songs and made a solo album, but was generous enough or was coerced enough to make it a album with the other beach boys.  We're all the better for it!

Just my take on it.  I could be completely wrong, I wasn't there.

 

You could say it about each & every music genre, extent varies.

Where does Dennis and Pacific Ocean Blue figure in all of this. If Brian went solo with Love You would Dennis have followed with POB? Were both Brain and Dennis going solo at the same time? I wonder is they discussed this. Time frame seems the same.

I think Dennis was the George of the group.  Writes a bunch of stuff, nobody wants to put it on the album, so he starts wanting to put it out himself instead.  I personally dont' think Brian ever wanted to go solo (or not until '88 or so)