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http://www.dallasobserver.com/1998-07-16/music/brian-wilson-reconstructed

"If I ever have a radio, I play the oldies-but-goodies stations," he says. "I don't really play it too much though. I don't really like to wallow in the mire. I never play the Beach Boys stuff in my house. Never, never play our stuff. Because I think that if you do that, it's like sitting around masturbating all over your own stuff"--here, (Brian) makes a jerking-off motion with his fist--"We're great, we're great. Skip that, you know?"

Classic Brian! Thanks for providing my daily laugh  :lol

Very interesting, not least for the confirmation that "How Could We Still Be Dancing ?" was written (if not recorded) by July 1998.

Thanks for the link, NightHider; I enjoyed the article very much!

Anybody know the "personal reasons" why Brian stopped working with Joe Thomas?

I'd like to think it was because... HE SUCKED... as a producer.

But, when Brian said that, Imagination was just released, and Brian referred to it as "Pet Sounds 1998". I know, I know, take THAT with a grain of salt....

In the early '70s, Brian said in a radio interview that "Spring" was as good as "Pet Sounds." But, you know, screw it, "Sweet Mountain" was as good as anything from "Pet Sounds," and show me on thing on "Imagination" that can boast that claim.

Imagination does contain, with the possible exception of "Love And Mercy", Brian's best solo song/recording, in "Lay Down Burden" - in my opinion of course. Now, I don't know how much of it he wrote, but he sings it great....

Imagination does contain, with the possible exception of "Love And Mercy", Brian's best solo song/recording, in "Lay Down Burden" - in my opinion of course. Now, I don't know how much of it he wrote, but he sings it great....

Wow. Interesting. I wouldn't even put that in my top 20 of Brian's solo songs. Though, you're right, he does sing it great.

AFAIK, he wrote at least the chorus by himself--he told the story of when he heard that Carl had cancer, he wrote the chorus. I'd say the verse was the Thomas/Wilson collaboration.

I love the song but hate the Imagination recording. Just hate it. The live version is so much better it's not even funny, the harmonies are magnificent. I will say the vocals on Imagination are fine, it's everything else I hate. My favorite on the album is "Cry" with "Happy Days" in close second place (even though it's a "My Solution" re-write.)

Very interesting article, Brian planned his collaboration with Carnie and Wendy to be Pet Sounds Vol. 2, but that didn't pan out. That would've been very interesting, since he was writing with Tony Asher again...

As for Imagination, it has some great things and some not so great things. Production is not it's strongpoint. I often wonder who had better musical taste, Joe Thomas or Dr. Eugene E. Landy? Landy helped write the lyrics to "Melt Away" (great) and "Daddy's Little Girl" (not so good), Thomas helped on "Lay Down Burden" and "Sunshine".)

Cry.

Brilliant. Solely written by Brian. Shame about the "blues" guitar.

I heard a long time ago that there's a demo for "Cry" that has Joe Thomas nowhere near it.

Thanks so much for posting the interview...Never read that before...!! Thanks again..

Recently, Love made idle threats from the stage that the band wouldn't do any of their car songs--"409," "I Get Around," and so forth--because they didn't want to perform tunes that celebrated "gas guzzlers"; the group had inked a deal to promote the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program


True? I remember he used to make a comment in concert in jest in the early 90s.

I like the guitar a lot.

 My favorite quote, which I think shows the manic part of his manic-depression:

"Tomorrow, which is Saturday...tomorrow, I'm going to go to a music shop, where they sell musical instruments, and I'm going to buy a real expensive, great instrument that has all kinds of beautiful stops on it. And it's going to inspire chords, which is going to inspire melodies, which is going to inspire words, which is going to inspire production!"

 I think Brian being bi-polar, even though it has affected his personal life, was an essential part of his creativity. I still wonder if he could be weened off medication and learn how to utilize his condition. I think he has been quoted as saying that he is able to create beautiful melodies during moments of deep sadness. The history of the Arts has its share of tortured artists. Brian still has mood swings, but the pendulum doesn't swing quite as far in either direction anymore because of the meds.

He may have re-written it when he learned about Carl, but the song (with the same title) was known to exist a fair time before it was learned that Carl had cancer - and the verse lyric is patently about a woman.

Well, the Joe Thomas credit on HCWSBD dates it at least to that general time -- Joe didn't last far past 98, right?

I stand corrected, this is #749 on my list of corrections, Mr. Doe  :-D ;D

I always thought that "How Could We Still Be Dancing?" had at least a bit of a genesis with the mid 90's track "Dancing the Night Away" that the Beach Boys briefly worked on. I recall that on the instrumental track version that is floating around out there, there are a few chord changes at the beginning that sound similar to what Brian ended up doing vocally on the beginning of the track in 2004.

Joe did the first two US mini-tours (March & June 1999) but didn't travel to Japan in July. The stated reason was he didn't like flying.

Um... the intro vocal is nothing more than the vocals from another section grafted onto the front of the track (specifically from 2.04 into the song).

I understand that. The location of the vocal part in the recording isn't important. It's the musical similarity that I hear. I was just using the beginning of the 2004 recording to demonstrate one of the places where the similarity can be heard. The chord progression that is played on the piano at or near the beginning of the backing track of "Dancing the Night Away" (which I don't think is heard on the version that has a bit of vocals from the BB's, but I'm not sure) sounds similar to the part of the song that Brian sings that repeats itself during the song.

On top of that, the songs have a similar tempo and some similar chords and a similar general style in what I would guess could be called the verse sections. I don't think it's a case of the two tracks being the same song with different lyrics or anything. But, setting aside that both tracks having "dancing" in their lyrics, there are some notable musical similarities that, in a few cases, go beyond the songs just being similar in style. That both tracks also having "dancing" in their titles certainly doesn't dissuade me from pondering the possibility that the later song had a few roots in the older song.

Yeah, it seems very likely that it was originally written about a woman. But I think it still makes sense if you imagine it actually being about Carl. I like to think that Brian's singing about how he used to try to avoid having to record or perform with Carl and the Beach Boys and how he now wishes he would've done things differently. Even the line "Just remember the way I held you" could be about Carl: after all, they were brothers and Carl was five years younger, so you can think of this as an early childhood memory.

The assumption is that Brian wrote the lyric - any proof one way or another ?

Can anybody here estimate about how much of Brian's solo material Brian actually wrote per album percentage wise? Because some of the recent topics make it sound like Brian just bangs a few keys on his piano and then someone else makes an album out of it. If these people are supposedly faking Brian material, how come none of these people seem capable of making anything close to as good as what made it onto his solo albums without Brian (not saying that all of his solo material is great, but why can't Paley or Thomas make a decent album on their own, then?)?

Who's to say they can't? There's plenty of great music that the general public never hears.

(irony begins) Yep, actually, Brian doesn't even sing on those recent records. It's all computers.

And when he's live, that's Jeff Foskett doubling him.

He's just a husk of a man dragged around to make money for people.

Isn't this fun? (irony ends)

None whatsoever. I absolutely agree with you that it was very likely written about a woman. My theory's just one that I like, not one that I believe to be true. Hence the "if you imagine it" and the "I like to think".  :)

Given the fact that the line "and if I had the chance, I'd never let you go" is a direct lift from "Be My Baby" suggests that Brian did have a hand in crafting the lyrics.

Or that someone wanted to make it seem like Brian had a hand in crafting the lyrics.

Yeah, that doesn't say much. I guess that if you're a lyricist, you want to write something that the person who's gonna have to sing it can relate to.

Not that I have any basis for this conclusion (other than my own opinion), but it has always seemed to me that Brian's lyrical contributions on his albums were maybe 50%, maybe less.  A lot of the time I think he probably gives a basic sketch of the lyric which gets refined by someone else. 

The music, on the other hand, seems very "Brian" most of the time (the melodies, not necessarily the arrangements)...and obviously the vocal arrangements are probably mostly his as well. 

Cool interview BTW, thanks for posting!

Good point - I recall at the time that it was stated that the lyric to "Your Imagination" was written with a specific remit to reference Brian.

I completely agree that the lyric to "Your Imagination" was specifically written (by Steve Dahl) to make it sound like Brian considered himself to be "calling the shots" or whatever. But throwing in a line from "Be My Baby" into "Lay Down Burden" without really treating it like an homage (it's very easy to overlook) strikes me as something Brian would do while putting the song together. Doesn't really matter, I guess. Personally, I prefer the "Happy Days" and "Cry" lyrics more which are persumably Brian's own.