The Smiley Smile Message Board

Smiley Smile Stuff => General On Topic Discussions => Topic started by: Bicyclerider on August 30, 2006, 12:09:51 PM



Title: When did Brian start hearing voices?
Post by: Bicyclerider on August 30, 2006, 12:09:51 PM
The first time I remember it being made public knowledge that Brian heard voices in his head was in 88 at the time of his solo album and his Landy therapy.  Is there any prior mention of voices before that?  Does anyone know (Peter Reum, Bob) if he was hearing voices in the 60's, or 70's?


Title: Re: When did Brian start hearing voices?
Post by: Rocker on August 30, 2006, 12:32:11 PM
I think he said that it started in '65 when he wrote "california grils" (while being on his firts LSD-trip btw)


Title: Re: When did Brian start hearing voices?
Post by: petsite on August 30, 2006, 12:52:47 PM
When people say that drugs can't make you hear voices or cause "mental illness", they are partly right. Taking LSD did not cause Brian's illness. But taking the drug did just enough to "tickle" Brian's neuro-recepters to push his emotional instablity over the edge to a full blown depressive illness. From then on, any of the drugs Brian did only worsened his problem.

Some of us (myself included) have a predispostion toward depression and any number of things can set them off and if left untreated can result in disaster after disaster.

Also, does it bother anyone else that in the bio Beautiful Dreamer that while Brian is discribing his first LSD trip in frightening terms, Lauren Daro recounts the same trip while laughing about Brian's reaction and saying "This is a great story!" This man is an arrougent little p***k! That people keep using him as a source of "reliable" information regarding SMiLE is obscene. His statement that the LSD allowed Brian to write his greatest material discounts Brian's talent and elevates Lauren as a guru to Brian.

BULLS**T!

Bob F.


Title: Re: When did Brian start hearing voices?
Post by: Bicyclerider on August 30, 2006, 02:36:18 PM
Brian has himself in interviews admitted that drugs helped his creativity - nothing is black and white.

I wasn't talking about hearing voices while on a drug trip - I mean the frequent hearing of voices that he's complained about since 1988.  Was that something new that happened under Landy's care (perhaps related to the medications he was on)?  It seems we've heard reports from Brian and others on almost everything Brian underwent in the 60's, and despite reports of nervous breakdowns in 1967 and hospitalization in 1968, I don't recall anyone mentioning these voices that haunt him today.  Is that what Brian was referring to when he asked Van Dyke to convince him he wasn't insane while writing Sail on Sailor?


Title: Re: When did Brian start hearing voices?
Post by: endofposts on August 30, 2006, 04:14:17 PM
According to Brian's poorly-regarded, Landy-inspired autobiography, Brian started having aural hallucinations as early as 1964, though they were vague and not as threatening as they became later.  Since no one knows the source of some of the info in that book, it's hard to say.  I don't think that was ever revealed in earlier books, though, so the source might have been either Brian or Landy.

Brian was "in the closet" in regards to much of his mental illness until Landy came into the picture.  And Landy apparently encouraged him to talk about it to everybody, including journalists, because there are no interviews with Brian where he ever discussed his mental health issues until Landy's regimes in the '70s and '80s. 


Title: Re: When did Brian start hearing voices?
Post by: Sheriff John Stone on August 30, 2006, 04:54:15 PM
Also, does it bother anyone else that in the bio Beautiful Dreamer that while Brian is discribing his first LSD trip in frightening terms, Lauren Daro recounts the same trip while laughing about Brian's reaction and saying "This is a great story!" This man is an arrougent little p***k! That people keep using him as a source of "reliable" information regarding SMiLE is obscene. His statement that the LSD allowed Brian to write his greatest material discounts Brian's talent and elevates Lauren as a guru to Brian.

Bob F.

Yes, that bothered me greatly. It's almost as if David Leaf was determined to eliminate/excuse the drug intake (which Brian was ultimately responsible for) as a reason for Brian's problems, and put the blame almost entirely on the mental illness (which, of course, is mostly biological). Van Dyke Park's statement, and I'm paraphrasing, "Don't let the marijuana fool you" bothered me too, as do many other things Van Dyke Parks says.


Title: Re: When did Brian start hearing voices?
Post by: Wilsonista on August 30, 2006, 05:26:47 PM
Also, does it bother anyone else that in the bio Beautiful Dreamer that while Brian is discribing his first LSD trip in frightening terms, Lauren Daro recounts the same trip while laughing about Brian's reaction and saying "This is a great story!" This man is an arrougent little p***k! That people keep using him as a source of "reliable" information regarding SMiLE is obscene. His statement that the LSD allowed Brian to write his greatest material discounts Brian's talent and elevates Lauren as a guru to Brian.

Bob F.

Yes, that bothered me greatly. It's almost as if David Leaf was determined to eliminate/excuse the drug intake (which Brian was ultimately responsible for) as a reason for Brian's problems, and put the blame almost entirely on the mental illness (which, of course, is mostly biological). Van Dyke Park's statement, and I'm paraphrasing, "Don't let the marijuana fool you" bothered me too, as do many other things Van Dyke Parks says.

I think you are both (particularly Bob) overly harsh on the "bohemian" element, like the rest of the extended BB family.  Brian's illness was not caused by the drug use, but it was symptomatic. It was the 60's. No one knew how dangerous drug use was particularly to someone of Brian's makeup. And, according to Peter Reum, Brian had everybody fooled.  Schwartz, though is deplorable in BD, but  as someone who is mentioned in BB lore, but never really seen or heard from, I think it was neccesary to have him there no matter how much of an ass he made himself look like.

Parks' comment? Brian didn't appear to be stoned if you listen to the SMiLE sessions, but again maybe that's because he was so good at fooling everybody. And BTW, in a more just and kinder world, Van Dyke Parks would be President of the US.


http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,2688.msg50940.html#msg50940