The Smiley Smile Message Board

It was 10 years ago today...

That Carl played one of his last shows (if not THE last show) with the Beach Boys.  A lot has happened in the past 10 years, and although there is still a lot going on for Beach Boys fans these days, he is sorely missed.

Good vibes,
Eric

 :rock

(http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4166/mh1007beachboys6sn4.jpg)

Where does the time go?

The passion still burns.

I wonder if he eventually would've worked with Brian.

That would have been great' the wilson bros rocks together.

I would like to think that if Carl were still alive that he would have had a hand in BWPS.He would have been very proud of his older brother for finally finishing it.

Who has Carl's Epiphone 12-String Electric? That picture above is amazing!

Carl is missed my Friends...........

Bri

An amazing singer, person..and a very underated guitarist.

The point of this thread is to remember Carl, but permit me an indulgence based on the suggestion raised above of what might have been had Carl lived.  The idea that Carl would help Brian in a finished “Smile” is a nice dream, but remember the family history is more turbulent and many darker scenarios would have been possible.  Peter Carlin tells us, for example, that it was Carl who nixed the idea of touring “Pet Sounds” live initially, thinking Brian would either bail on it or stink.  He makes an interesting case that one step in the completion of “Smile” was that Brian ended up being the last Wilson standing and thus was free to act – and reclaim his music to perform his way - without the old family baggage.  [Discuss, if you dare].

But other things might have happened:
(1)   Carl, Al and Mike keep the touring BB going.  It makes enough money they don’t need Brian.  Feeling left out, he stays home and sulks. The chances of Brian going out on his own?  50-50 at best, though he might enjoy a quiet retirement as his health improves.  Either way, “Smile” would take too much energy to contemplate.
(2)   Brian goes out on his own anyway, to the considerable resentment of the others.  They sue to stop him “diluting” the BB name and catalog, because obviously he’s being billed as Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, not Brian Wilson of the One-ders.  Even if the suit fails, the fact that they did it takes the wind out of his sails and he gives up.  No solo career, no “Smile.”
(3)   Brian and the touring BB go their separate ways for a while.  Carl and Al eventually fall out with Mike and Bruce, and they try to recruit Brian to retrieve the BB “legacy”.  The two factions sue each other over who gets to use the BB name.  Much unpleasantness in court and the BRI board room. Maybe a painful compromise is worked out a la the various editions of “Drifters” and “Coasters” performing groups.  The resulting waste of effort and money saps everybody’s energy to do anything new – so no “Smile”.
(4)   Same as (3), but Al goes off on his own toot and three factions go at it instead of two.  Rinse, Lather, Repeat.
(5)   Assume none of the foregoing: instead, years later,Brian, with encouragement from Carl, starts talking about finishing “Smile”.  Now it has more of a BB cachet since two Wilsons are working on it, even if it’s billed as a Brian project.  Mike won’t have this, and this time he moves quicker, suing to enjoin the completion of “Smile” as anything other than a BB project, since that is what it originally was supposed to be (he says).  He might consent to its going ahead with him having an equal share and an equal say in the final product.  That demand kills the project, as all the squabbling from 1966 is resurrected in all its horror all over again.

 Not so easy making these predictions after all, is it?

Very interesting post, Dr. Tim.
In some ways, I've often felt that Carl's death might have been a bit of a catalyst for Brian's solo career... or was it in the works before Carl died? Anyway, I feel like maybe, in Brian's eyes, as long as Carl was there with the BBs, Brian felt as if he had to be loyal to them, even if that meant not being with them, but doing little else. And I do agree that if Carl were alive and Brian did his solo Smile, Mike would have had more of a reason to argue that it wasn't legitimate. After all, "Here's the original singer of Cabinessence, still in good voice, and you're working with that OTHER band? What are you doing, Brian?"
Any thoughts?

If Carl would've lived, I don't think he would've had anything to do with Brian's solo career. However, I think that Brian would've occasionally been a Beach Boy (i.e. isolated concerts, maybe a Still Cruisin-type album).

I'm not painting Melinda and David Leaf as the bad guys, but I think they were very determined to make sure Brian had a solo career, which would've included recording projects separate from the Beach Boys; although I don't know why, because Brian still hasn't recorded a non-Beach Boys-like album in the over 20 years he has been a solo artist.

Let's not forget Carl was slated to sing on Imagination.

He was?  Were there certain songs he was going to sing on?

This is an interesting thought since Brian's solo career really took off after Carl's death. I'm wondering what Carl and Mike were thinking when Brian's first album came out in 1989. All I've heard is there complaint about Dr Landy, but I don't know what they thought about his music or doing a solo album.

Carl wanted to sing on Lay Down Burden. Doesn't mean he would've.

Melinda said on the blueboard that Carl wanted to sing on "Lay down burden", but that he died before he could...

I'm sure Carl would've done a beautiful job on "Lay Down Burden", but, ironically, that is Brian's best vocal on the Imagination album and the lyrics are more suited for him (Brian).