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http://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/music/qa-brian-wilson (http://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/music/qa-brian-wilson)

I think there's a certain degree of tongue-in-cheek going on here...  ;D

Isn't there always?  :quote

That guy knew jack sh*t about Brian,  and I can tell Brian was fucking with him a bit!

How does VDP compare to Joe Thomas? Really?! I mean, I think Parks is an asshole  (based on my own experience ) but even I think that's a ludicrous question.

I immediately turn off from liking the author of an article about Brian when there is a “Smart Girls” mention in the introduction

the part where he asks Brian if he ever heard the stereo mixes of Pet Sounds, then Brian responds with how he couldn't because he was deaf in one ear, reminds me of that part on "Walk Hard-The Dewey Cox story" where the interviewer asks Dewey if he had ever stopped and smelled the roses, for which he replied "I have no blankety-blank sense of smell." lol...

This was a GREAT interview! Who else has ever asked him about Smart Girls??

Brian has some pretty bizarre stock answers. Check out the one about "sampling"

Not every interview or article can be written by an expert, or a hardcore fan. The guy did his homework to the best of his ability and produced one of the most entertaining and playful BW interviews of recent times. Also, he seems to be transcribing verbatim answers, which means that Brian is giving longer and more engaged answers these days.

I don't think the interview was *that* bad. It was sort of a weird hybrid of the "knows nothing about Brian but wiki'ed it for five minutes before the interview" sort of interviewer and the "is moderately informed on Brian" interviewer.

But jeez, the most lucid artist ever doesn't always remember every track and every album, especially when they've done like 30 or 40 albums or whatever it is, and especially stuff that went unreleased. (Even McCartney one time joked that he flipped over an album like "Press to Play" and looked at the songs *he* had written and asked himself "I wonder how that one goes?")

I'd rather see an interviewer get as specific as possible with Brian rather than super general, even if it results in some scattered answers.

I will say that this is yet another interview where Brian continues to be highly complimentary, respectful, and a gentleman when discussing Van Dyke Parks and Mike Love even when those guys won't do the same when talking about Brian. Whether it's by choice or because Brian has a better PR person, taking the high road like that is quite refreshing. I sense no sarcasm when Brian HIGHLY praises the work of both Mike and Van Dyke.

It's because Brian may just be the kindest, gentlest soul on Earth. 8)

With “Pet Sounds” was there an appreciable difference to your ears between the mono version and the stereo version?
Well, I’m deaf in my right ear, so I couldn’t be able to give you an answer.

That’s really interesting. So when you wrote it, you wrote it specifically with mono in mind?
Right.

So you’ve never heard the stereo version at all then?
No, I haven’t.

I guess he's just actually making sure he's actually deaf...  :P

I've got a question about this. I've seen references to Brian having some sort of surgery to correct his hearing.. but I've never seen him address it. Any truth to this? Did it just not work?

Carl spoke about the operation sometime in the (early ?) seventies. Obviously it didn't work.

Interesting. I don't know anything about hearing loss, or what really caused Brian's, but I find it interesting that they even thought it could be corrected.

1971, if I recall correctly

"Well, Mike Love is probably the greatest lyric writer in the world. I think he’s my favorite lyric writer. He just wrote a lot of good songs."

Elephant in the room.

Mike just posted a link to the interview on his FB, including a commentary on it and quoting Brian's answers. He seems to be happy about it, and it's nice that both acknowledge each other. And I think he's right about Mike (as Brian's best lyricist during their peak). Expect more bile from other camps though.

Brian and Mike are far more complimentary about each other than people give them credit for.

Quite a turn around from the answer he gave when Melinda was with him.  ;)  >:D

Isn't posting about expecting 'more bile from other camps' before anybody has even said anything derogatory a bit biluous  itself?

I may be 100% on team Brian,  but I've ALWAYS said Mike was Brian's best lyricist,  pet sounds aside.

Which was?

Exactly wirestone!

He doesn't think about Mike anymore and doesn't want to talk about him.  In interviews like this one, he's always very positive about Mike when he is by himself.

How many joint interviews has Brian done with Melinda in the last 15-20 years? Wasn't the one interview they gave in the last month or two one of the first they had done in ages? I believe they may have done a few internet Q&A's as well. How often is Brian giving joint interviews at all?

Brian has actually been giving more unfiltered interviews than anybody else lately. Would any of the other guys have let through a "Did you bang my Mom?" question? And Brian answered it to boot! And it was one of the funniest answers he has ever given? AND... now that I'm thinking about it, wasn't that one actually from one of the joint Q&A's he did with Melinda?

And, I think the original point still stands. Brian has in recent years has, at absolute worst, shown perhaps brevity when asked about Mike, and usually has been complimentary. I won't dredge up the litany of things Mike has said about Brian just in the last few years, but it's a bit ball of genuine compliments mixed in a bunch of back-handed compliments mixed in with rather unflattering things about Brian's present and past.

If someone can show a pattern of Brian being negative about Mike predominantly only in joint interviews alongside Melinda, I'd like to actually see the evidence. I'd even argue that "I don't think much about him" isn't overtly terribly negative. It's perhaps dismissive. Then again, Brian tends to give very blunt answers that usually aren't meant to carry some subtle undertone of dismissiveness.

I do think it's possible that some PR folks or Brian himself could have decided in the aftermath of C50 that they should just avoid talking a lot about Mike in general, especially after the diatribe "interview" Mike offered to David Beard as NPP was being readied for release.

Duplicate post.  :3d

That's my point.  The one time he was asked about Mike with Melinda, he was completely dismissive about Mike.  Any other time he always has nice things to say.  Not sure what Mike says in interviews has to do with that...

It could've been just how he was feeling at the time too.

THIS:

"Well, they influenced me … well, I don’t believe I was influenced."

It appears you're trying to imply that either Melinda forces Brian to hold back positive comments about Mike, and/or Brian doesn't feel comfortable saying positive things about Mike if Melinda is in on the interview. I don't think you have enough data to work with (e.g. ONE interview where Brian is not even negative about Mike but, *debatably* dismissive and more likely simply blunt and brief.)

I'm pretty sure Brian had shown a similar amount of brevity in discussing Mike in other interviews as well. I don't think there's a pattern here. I don't think he has been resoundingly positive with copious amounts of compliments of Mike in *every* interview he has ever done sans Melinda. Whereas, there simply aren't enough joint Brian/Melinda interviews to even indicate a pattern.

BW is human and has mixed feelings like anyone would on a day to day basis. Now Mike seems to be constantly negative about BW these days.

I think that's it. Brian is pretty unfiltered in these interviews for better and worse (e.g. weird, funny responses, insightful responses, sometimes little response at all), so I'm guessing he was probably thinking that at that time he literally was not giving much thought to Mike. He was/is promoting a series of projects with which Mike has no connection.

It could have.  And believe me, I'm definitely not one of those "wifeandmanagers" people.  I just found it very interesting that the only time in recent memory that he was negative about Mike was when he was with Melinda.  Look at our past pm discussion for where my mind is at on this, even if it's not as extreme.

The answers aren't contradictory. Just because Brian might not want to think or talk about Mike, doesn't mean he dismisses his lyrical contributions.

Now take Mike's interviews, it reeks of a man obsessed with BW.

Here's Mike's answer to Brian's comment, posted on his Facebook page :

"I was awaken by a phone call this morning regarding Brian's recent Q&A...I just wanted to say, Thanks Cous!! Right back at you."

Awaken by a phone call? Like someone had to wake him up to tell him that "Cousin Brian" had nice things to say about him? Anyway, that's it : Mike's the most brilliant lyricist in the world. It's official. Forget about Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash or... Brian Wilson. Mike "Summer of" Love is the man...   ;D

Just like most people around here then  ;D.

The bit about Sweet Insanity is interesting...   ^-^

Aside from your most masterful work, you’ve made some really interesting forays into exploring different sounds. Can you talk to me a little about “Sweet Insanity”?

“Sweet Insanity” was never really released. You’ve got bootlegs, but it was never released. And I thought some of the stuff was pretty good. It wasn’t the best album I ever wrote. We just didn’t think it was good enough.

Were you intending it for release, or were those pretty much just demos?

They were just like demos. We recorded about 10-12 songs, and we decided not to put it because we thought that maybe people wouldn’t like it, so we junked it.

Part of the record ended up on “Getting In Over My Head.” Did you just take what you thought were the best tracks — what you felt were the best tracks — from that session and kind of rework them?

Yeah, we took “Let It Shine.” I think I wrote that with Jeff Lynne from ELO; he and I wrote “Let It Shine.” And, you know, I can’t remember those songs, you know?

There was song in particular that I thought was kind of the anomaly in your entire catalog called “Smart Girls.” Was that just you fooling around and having a good time?

Yeah, we were just having a good time. Yeah, it was fun. We were just kidding.

This.

Forget the elephant. Brian and Mike should write in Mike's "room".

"The room" is just Mike's buzzword for total control.

Expanding on that, it would be total control in the "Vibe Room".  ::) ::)

If the catering is good, Brian would be in! :lol

I always come back to this...

(http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/ultimateclassicrock.com/files/2013/07/138852512-wilsonlove.jpg)

I would indeed like to know who woke Mike up phoning him to tell him about a random Brian interview, and why.

Are there different ringtones for different scenarios?

Ring Tone 1 for complimentary Brian comments.

Ring Tone 2 for negative reviews or commentaries from journalists.

Ring Tone 3 for actionable Al Jardine comments or press releases.

In all seriousness, I love having all of the guys reunited so much, I actually wouldn't mind if a bunch of mutual fawning comments got them to get back together.

Al needs to post to Facebook too, pointing out how he thinks *everyone* is a genius. "Okay Brian and Mike, you're both geniuses too. Now syncopate....."

You may be right. But I don't believe Van Dyke reads my posts.

That's a fairly huge "if" based on myKe's bare bones, stripped down state of mind these days. Maybe he could spring for a bag of pretzels or chips...with a receipt of course.  ::) ::)

Brian also said quite complimentary things about Landy as well. The Larry King interview comes to mind.

I think Brian, far more than most people on this Earth, has an ability to see the positive things in people, and block out/avoid the negatives, which when it comes to a wealthy, kind and generous person, can (and has) led to instances of exploitation.

I beg your pardon?

When I saw the thread title, I thought it meant Brian was going to come back to the forum for another Q&A.

Well now that Stamos is going into rehab, Mike might have to rethink his "them=addiction, us=clean" stance and let some former bandmates back into the sacred camp.

Nice separation between "inspiration" and "influence" for Brian where the Beatles are concerned. I do see how they inspired Brian to reach higher, but musically, I don't think they really influenced him that much.

Mike Love's never going to be acknowledged as a great poet in his own right because his lyrics only really came to life in the sonic surroundings of BW's music (save for a few exceptions like Big Sur). I mean that in an entirely positive way. These two really had an extraordinary writing partnership going for a couple of years, where Mike's simple yet highly effective lyrics were the perfect counterpart to Brian's increasingly lush and complex arrangements. It's very apparent in songs like Good Vibrations or California Girls.

As for stuff like Summer of Love, I think Mike's main lyrical approach was never meant to work beyond a certain age. It's all about being young and, in a certain way, naive. That is what made some of his later stuff seem so utterly contrived or sometimes even cynical. People have very refined sensibilities with regards to whether a fun-in-the-sun lyric sounds either genuine or forced.

But Pet Sounds and Rubber Soul are SO similar musically... :P

I think the main reason is because he wants to be, and had made no secret of having that desire. And making that desire publicly known never works. I defy anyone to name an artist who consistently seems to publicly verbalize a desire for more acknowledgement and respect, over and over again, and for that to lead to some sort of magical turnaround in public opinion. It's sadly detrimental to the cause simply due to human nature; people do not like to be told/reminded by an artist that the artist needs additional respect. It has to happen naturally, even despite and regardless of misinformation that is out there (as in Mike's case), and if not naturally and organically over time, it simply will not happen at all.

He did not. I think that "doing your homework" when it comes to Brian Wilson means that you should at least read his Wikipedia page once. If he would've done that, he would've known that Brian is deaf in his right ear.

Yes, Mike is the world's best lyricist, just like Bach wrote Ode to Joy.

And the word is 'awakened'.

Yeah, but he's a naif writer. Probably semi-amateur, looking at the way he transcribed the answers and the fact that he could have edited the questions (after the interview) in order not to come off as ignorant about his deafness while remaining faithful about the questions and anwers. He chose to keep what seems the original wording, just as he transcribed Brian's request for a question to be repeated.

Brian seems to think so.

Probably.

Such as?

Only this board could turn Brian's positive comments about his cousin into some sort of negative. To those participating in thist kind of discourse, I speak for a lot of us when I ask you to PLEASE STOP. It's exceedingly boring to read, cuts down on actual valuable posts, and most of us don't care about your back and forth who can more poorly prove a moot point.

For anyone confused by Brian talking about Bach and Ode to Joy and California Girls, here's a clip that should clear things up.

https://youtu.be/_m1va4JjgfY?t=9m47s

Obviously, Ode to Joy has nothing to do with California Girls, or Bach for that matter...  California Girls was inspired by a different "Joy" composition actually by Bach - "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (yes, the same one that Lady Lynda lifted from - good for them to get two songs from the same source material).  It makes more sense when you can see/hear him explain it.

Of course - just a slip of the tongue caused by two pieces of classical music written by composers beginning with 'B'  which each include the word 'joy'.

Brilliant, thanks for this!

You speak for no one other than yourself, and it's offensive to claim otherwise.

We've had negative turned to positive often enough. 'That's what he says TODAY' and other such comments. No doubt some are encouraged by any indication that there may be hope of another reunion. Some are discouraged by that. They have just as much of a right to an opinion as those in favour.

Sure, it's very easy to do when Mike isn't here to defend himself. I know you get upset when people get on you. I am sure that you know that it is one thing to be critical and another to be nasty and mean spirited about it.