The Smiley Smile Message Board

Something I touched on under the Bruce reunion thread.
I would expect the early 60s would be the last time he sang a good percentage of leads but I have read he was pretty good in Hawaii 67 ? No problem in being corrected.

Just a question that may be worth a thread.

I think he was good in Hawaii, some people don't like those shows, but if you like the Smiley era they are a lot of fun. There is a 1970 tape of a Seattle show with him around. He sounds good from what you can hear but it's a muffled tape. Probably the Whisky shows at the end of 1970 were his last really good ones. He did a cameo in 1971 (which was loose but creative) and in 1973 but those were just a song or two. By 1976 you had the erratic stage Brian who sometimes seemed to be having fun but sometimes seemed so out of it or so off key that he all but ruined the show.

Brian's last good Beach Boys concert? LIVE AID, 1985. He never looked better.

What about that 1989 show the group did? I forget the name of it. During the campfire scenes, he was pretty good on the falsetto.

Really? No leads, sideman only IMO. Good for Brian but not a good performance by most entertainers standards surely.

I remember watching it at the time (I was at the Wembley gig, and saw the BBs on the big screen there) and couldn't believe how note-perfect he seemed, and wondered whether it was a mime or already being digitally tweaked somehow.

Brian did appear good at the Live Aid show.  However, all you can really hear during his "leads" is Jeff Foskett. For one last great performance, I would nominate the Jan 1985 Reagan inaugural gala where the Boys did Their Hearts Were Full of Spring.  Only one song, I know, but Brian absolutely nailed it. The look on Mike's face after Brian hit the falsetto is priceless.

for me it was 1987. i had just seen and recorded the group in feb of that year in morehead, ky. stamos joined them. a couple of weeks later i was in vegas. around the 20th. the group was there so at the last minute me and a couple of friends decided to go. talked to al before the show. just small, usual chitty chat type stuff. he never said anything about "surprises" at this show. i did not record this one because i had just seen them and didn't want to go through the hassle of recording them. low and behold but brian showed up. he was SLIM, playing keyboards, singing, twisting, swaying, dancing all thru the show. he was great. my jaw just about fell off.

was in vegas in aug of that year and saw the group then. recorded that show but no brian but jan berry did come out to sing little old lady.

but that feb show was fantastic to see.

I love the Lei'd in Hawaii shows. Some consider his organ antics annoying, but I enjoy it; really, had he gone back on tour then, I think he'd just sit behind that organ, and I woulda loved it. Think about how he'd get into those Wild Honey era tunes.

Yeah he was really doing some cool playing on that gig, He played bass part of the show too the footage in AAB shows him doing that at the end. I am sure he was better at some shows then others from 76-96 but I don't think he took as big a role as he did in the sixties. Perhaps it was due to the sidemen etc. Now he is less erratic and I think he is very good considering everything, but I wish he would play the keyboards more instead of mainly just make gestures behind it. I like when he plays bass now.

BTW Steve did he sing any  leads at that 87 show?

Personally I really like the Endless Summer TV campfire clips because for once-post 1977- Brian actually looks confident, in control and happy to be there-similar to how he looks in the Stars and Stripes video (1996).  Whereas at Live Aid he looked great but seemed a bit less like that. 

Is video from the Reagan inaugural on youtube, or anywhere else online?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vy4eVYJQrs

Brian's last hurrah as a member of the beach boys was probably in Las Vegas, 1995. He sang In My Room and Don't Worry Baby, and NAILED it.  :)

Thanks, variable2, for the YouTube link.  I see instruments behind them in that clip -- does anyone know what other songs they did?

I guess it's safe to assume we won't be seeing anything like this at the obama gala this year  ::)

Heard that one too and couldn't agree more on Brian being absolutely GREAT on that show. He can be heard crystal clear throughout Surfer Girl as well, while Carl handles the tag on Forever.

I saw some for me shocking footage of an early '77 tour.  Brian was playing bass the whole show, and he was nailing everything, albeit in a more crude fashion.  More than that, he was running all over the stage behind the front line, not singing much but just being part of the band, rocking out.  Honestly, it was like he was playing in a metal band...he was that active.  He may have just been having a good night, but I had no idea he'd ever had that big a role in the stage band, even briefly, after '66.

Wow, Adam, Brian must have had some good coke in '77.  Is any of that footage on the web anywhere?

There is some of that Australian tour footage from early '78 where Brian is marching, dancing, jumping, twirling and running around while playing bass through the whole set. He absolutely cannot stand still. There was, as has been documented in the lore, a major chemical infusion during that tour. I saw them during the winter '76 tour and he was playing bass and doing okay in a more subdued fashion, also singing quite a bit, some of it okay some of it not.

I have always felt that had more to do with "look at Brian up there giving it his all" than any sounds coming out of him. I'm going to watch it again now, but as is often the case, I'd be curious what sounds that keyboard was emitting. And for that matter, how often his mic was audible. I know in the just pre-coda section of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" there is an awful clunker sung, but I'm not sure if that was Brian. I'm going to watch that again.

Don't mean to steal your thunder but just re-watched it on youtube, and the only clunker I hear is when Mike flats "but let's talk about it", specificially the 'it'. Watching this again, Brian looks great, really comfortable and a bit like his own 1960s self. The drums sound horrible during the whole Live Aid performance, but I love how Mike says "The Beach Boys love you" before "Good Vibrations," pretty good performance of that one too, but I can't hear Brian on "Vibrations," although he's pretty clear vocally on "Wouldn't it Be Nice"

Had a look at a few of the 81 Long each clips on Youtube. Not the greatest vocally of course but he sang a lot of leads due to Carl being away during his solo period. Some not so bad I guess. Did he do the whole 81 tour and how were those shows compared to Long Beach?

It's funny...many people consider the '81 Long Beach shows to the greatest low point of their career, and Brian really does mess up in some of those clips. But look at the audience! They're loving it all the way! haha :lol

Everything sounds better in person.

That's true. You're not in a sonically perfect environment, you don't have the blessing/curse of repeated listenings and analysis, you're (hopefully) in a good mood and caught up in the moment. It's not the same experience at all.

My understanding is the audience mix was WAY better than the mix that went out live, and to be fair to the band, the mix was atrocious.  Al Jardine's mic was up way louder than everybody else's the whole time, for example, and the DI on the bass was so bad that all you heard was a high frequency thwack.  Not saying the band did a great performance, but a competent mix would have gone a long way to mitigating the damage.  And to my mind, Brian's vocals were better than Adrian Baker's (whose mic was also cranked, btw).

To be honest, DWB aside, Brian's vocals weren't that bad. Hell, on GOK he sounded better than he does these days on it.

I agree. Brian was probably on something, but, he actually appeared "normal". His facial expressions, his piano playing, his voice - it just sounded like he was THERE, as opposed to not all there. Brian seemed lucid for a lot of 1980 and 1981.

I also agree with Aegir that things sound better live, in person. I saw another Beach Boys' concert in 1981 and I thought Brian nailed "God Only Knows" and "Don't Worry, Baby". It almost brought me to tears. However, if I heard a recording of the show, it would probably sound not nearly as good.

Yeah but that ain't surprising... I can't stand Adrian Baker, his voice just annoys me.