The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://youtu.be/Sr_8Mo3RhZA

Brian states he and Lennon never met, but surely that's been debunked, even by Lennon himself?

 


Thought as much: this by much-missed Mikie:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,19897.msg499162.html#msg499162 

And this, the best post I read on be subject: 

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,19897.msg501155.html#msg501155

I wonder what Brian would think about how several people have witnessed him interacting with John Lennon in the '70s.

I've always taken the May Pang and Alice Cooper stories as apocryphal: look at my wacky Brian Wilson encounter!

Brilliant words from Brian.... Thanks for sharing!  :hat

Thanks for the links, John.  Missed that yesterday.  His comment that "Imagine" was a favorite made me remember seeing the Beach Boys do it a couple of times in the early 80's at shows Brian was with them.  That might have come off much better if Brian had taken the lead vocal.

I've read those posts by Mikie before.  If he's still reading here, I want him to know that I miss him too.

Agreed, I've seen clips of Mike singing Imagine and it weren't pretty.

I didn't want to be the first to say it...  Just didn't fit Mike's style.  I do think Mike still had a fine singing voice in those days.  The song might have come up in the now more frequent practices Carl was leading them through.  The setlists were getting much better with Carl pulling numbers from both of his solo albums and Beach Boys numbers they had not played for years.

You're right, it's a bad match for his style, like the Do You Hear What I Hear duet from years back (http://youtu.be/eueN_-R5DBg). Yet Mike could nail ballad style - Meant For You springs to mind.

I liked the Do You Hear What I Hear duet, and with just two such distinct voices it really makes it easy to hear Mike's harmonies, which were quite nice. Eee-magine was another story altogether. He really played on the nasal voice for that one, which almost made it seem like a mockery. Would have loved to hear Carl sing that one.

You're right, I can hear more to like in the duet, but reckon Mike's style is better suited to the ballsier rockers like I Get Around and Shut Down.

Carl or Al should've sung Imagine back in the early 80s. 

That song was perfectly suited for Lennon's vocals.  I've heard plenty of cover versions, nothing comes close.  Even Paul Rodgers, one of the best singers of all time, attempted it when he was fronting Queen about ten years ago, and the results were......meh. 

Call me a curmudgeon, but I’m perplexed why people feel the need to cover this song ad nauseum. I think something like singing it *at* the Lennon memorial in a group is a different thing. But random concert cover versions or studio cover versions seem unneeded. Lennon’s version is overplayed as it is, and unfortunately a lot of people only know his solo catalog by mostly that song.

I recall an interview with McCartney where he’s asked about covering a Lennon song, and he says something to the effect that he knows a million people have covered “Imagine”, and in the past he has thought about covering it himself since everybody else has already had a crack at it. He has wisely stayed away from doing that, saving covers of even Lennon-heavy Beatles tracks for relatively rare occasions.

I’d say the only Beach Boy by 1983 whose voice was suited “Imagine” was Carl. Maybe Al or Bruce in terms of being in their range. But Mike’s tone was just all wrong for the song. I’m stunned in retrospect that he actually did the song in concert and didn’t get booed off the stage, for several different reasons. His intro to the song during some of those live shows was laughable too. He talks about Lennon like parents in the 60s used to talk about the Beatles. Mike’s version of “Imagine” reminds me a little of his one stab at singing “Good Timin’” at that Easter Seals telethon in 1979. Totally wrong choice, and in both cases, Carl inexplicably standing right there and could have sang it.

The other Lennon song I wish people would stop covering is Happy Xmas (War Is Over). 

Every few years, a new Xmas compilation gets released with another inferior version of Happy Xmas (War Is Over). 

Please stop.