The Smiley Smile Message Board

This is a very interesting interview.  

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/30735864/beach-boys-legend-brian-wilson-surfs-back-to-good-vibrations/

Especially this.............

Led by Wilson’s cousin Mike Love, the Beach Boys now tour the world without him — they played Perth in November — a fact that doesn’t seem to overly bother the most famous Beach Boy.

“I’m glad that he can keep the Beach Boys name alive,” Wilson says. “He licensed the Beach Boys name. He has the name and he goes out with Bruce Johnston and a guy called Jeff Foskett. So, they’re the Beach Boys.”

I've once lain around in Austria too. ;D

Hi all,

Thank you you kds for posting this.  Thank you Brian for saying what you did about Mike and TBB name.  Now onto enjoying music!!!

Oops.  Fixed the typo.

Thanks

And now we know that our fellow board mate, Ray Lawlor is helping Brian with the upcoming book.

Congratulations, Ray!

Nice article, but boy, when are they going to get the facts straight on Pet Sounds? This "Written, produced and arranged almost entirely by Wilson with little input from the other Beach Boys" stuff drives me crazy every time I read about Pet Sounds. To my ears there is quite a bit of input from the other Beach Boys or am I having audible hallucinations?

Vocally, the other Boys are all over the album.   

While it's interesting to see Brian broach the subject, Brian has never really badmouthed Mike or Mike's touring band. He's used the "keeping the name alive" line numerous times. While Brian has never energetically endorsed Mike's tour, he has always shortly and simply, often I suppose somewhat dispassionately, said something along these lines.

Even in the acrimony of the end of C50, Brian didn't say anything negative about Mike's tour, but simply lamented not continuing the reunion.

Fans certainly seem to care about Mike using the name and whatnot more than Brian does.

Brian continues to take the high road when asked about Mike. Certain other members could learn something I'd say.

Much more interesting is that Ray Lawlor is helping Brian with his book. Curious to find out in what capacity (e.g. researcher, co-author, etc.)

Right! Except for less writing credit for Mike, this album was written, arranged & produced the same way as Today, Summer Days..., or any other Beach Boys album from 1963 forward.

We care about a lot of things more than the guys, themselves. Which is why I never understood why we fight about it with such vigor, instead of just discussing it rationally.

True, at least for mid 60s, until Carl, Dennis, Bruce, Al, and Mike got a little more involved.  

They just make it sound like Brian did this like a one-off specialty album, when in fact this is what he did with all of their albums from 1963-1966.

True, and I think there's a myth that the Beach Boys went right from surf/car songs to Pet Sounds when, in reality, the songs from Today and SDSN showed an evolution to Pet Sounds. 

"A guy called Jeff Foskett" is such a Brianism  :lol

Yeah, nice to hear that Ray Lawlor is involved, but does anyone know anything about "at least one co-author hired and fired?"

Maybe they refer to Jason Fine. It was discussed in one of BW autobiography threads.

Well, not quite...Dennis, Carl, Al, David (and Brian) actually played most of the instruments on Beach Boys records until 1965, and even then, they played most of the instruments on at least a few cuts per album. Pet Sounds, on the other hand, was studio musicians on every instrument on almost every cut.

The original co-author was Jason Fine: Amazon US currently lists as collaborator one Ben Greenman (born 1969), a contributor to New Yorker and ghostwriter for such showbiz figures as Gene Simmons, George Clinton and Simon Cowell. He's also a novelist in his own right.

Sad what's become of Brian and Jeff but that was a funny line  :lol

"I'm starting to feel like I was made for these times now".  I love it. (Well, Brian, in any event, you were certainly made for our times.)

Hi all,

Drbeachboy I like what you said that we care more about these things than the guys do.  That is 100% correct!!!  People like to fight.  I know that some think that since this is online they can be more free with words.  I do hope that now we can listen to the music and think about how much we like the songs. 

But now my post is absolutely pointless!  :'(

:wink