The Smiley Smile Message Board

For all the discussion about Brian live, etc., I just found this on YouTube. It's from the last year or so, and this is a hoot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CSVt6prH9g&feature=related

And that's exactly why I think he should be doing songs off albums like Friends, Love You and Wild Honey instead of performing the Greatest Hits (which I love to hear as much as anyone) ad nauseum. Thanks for sharing!

I love that song, and a lot of the lesser known tunes. He seems to be having fun, too, which is nice. But let's also think about the quality of his performance. If this were someone other than Brian Wilson doing that exact same performance, it would be ignored or disliked. He might be into it, but that isn't the same thing as being good at it.

i like how he goes into falsetto at the end even if it's out of tune..

According to those who know well (and I'm pretty sure of this), this was not a good day for Brian...he was a little out of it and didn't want to do the show. So we can't judge him too hardly on it...

I actually thought it was quite a nice performance -- it's why I brought it up.

Correct... half an hour before showtime he decided he didn't want to play. I understand it took pretty much the whole band to persuade him to carry on. The unscheduled interval after 13 songs may not have been coincidental.

Amusing aside - the footage, which clearly shows Brian not enjoying himself or performing at all well, was shot by Stu Levinson's wife. Can you say 'blind adulation' ?

Okay everyone, sorry I brought it up.

Don't be...I enjoyed it too.  I'd love (pardon the pun) to see Brian do these types of cuts more often.  Bad night or not, it was cool to hear.

A year earlier, at the RFH TLOS premiere, he did it well.

It's always interesting to read how people percieve certain things, in this instance, a concert. In MY opinion, Brian's version of Please Let Me Wonder was pretty damn good. A little "shouty", but better than the version on the Roxy cd.

From the tapes I heard from that tour, to me he sounded a lot like he did during the original recording. Amazing.

This wasn't his shining moment,although I still thought it was good. Not his best, but I do like the part when the guy in the audience goes "YEAH" and the rest of the audience laughs.

That's so fascinating about Brian not wanting to go on..

Was there a reason for him not wanting to do this show? I would guess it's the fact it's an outdoor show, Brian never seems to enjoy them, which bothers me because he's headling a music festival here in Ireland in a week in front of 35,000 people  ???

Don't be!

I found that very charming, imperfections and all! :)

Last summer, Brian wasn't in a good place, generally.

Shame, hope he's doing good this summer

This whole mini summer tour in 2008 was disastrous. Especially the Royal Albert Hall show.

Heroes and Villains is being played, everything's going horrible as always, and then, right when the "la la la" vocals come in, half of Scott's drum kit falls off the stand, and he has to continue with a depleted set for the rest of the song. Embarrassing, indeed.

This is a slightly better performance of the song by Brian -also from last year.
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9g6wXx1w0I


 8)

MUCH better. You can hear the difference from when Brian is trying and just going through the motions.

I have a boot of the Sage show and the Paradiso show is almost completely on YT. Brian's having moderate fun, very talkative and sounds pretty good. I think he was just plain overworked last summer.

Absolutely.  He sounds much more into it on this one...there are a few times in there where he sounds like the Brian of '67. 

Having been at the Paradiso concert, I can tell that it was a (pleasant) surprise to see Brian in a pretty good mood, especially when afterwards it became clear that he actually was over-tired (tour-bus broke down on their way from Germany to Amsterdam, little sleep, etc). We were waiting outside the Paradiso-theater, and BW came out, the guards made VERY clear that we had to leave the man alone as he was very tired. And to be honest, he looked like a train-wreck when he passed by.
So - in all - I guess we were lucky he got through the concert OK ...

Just how many shows did Brian do last year?

36. Count 'em here - http://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/britour.html (http://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/britour.html).  ;D