The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://www.theweekender.com/cover/The_life_of_Brian_11-03-2009.html

I wonder which project he's talking about when he says "it's not going very good."

"BW: I’m working on a new album, but I don’t know which direction it’s going to go in. It’s in the beginning stages. There’s a semblance of a few songs but it’s not going very good"

Doesn't sound like the Gershwin project to me - "semblance of a few good songs" ?

And it's pretty obvious he's not thrilled with the 14 dogs, either...

BW: It’s going pretty good. It’s a little hectic around here because we have 14 dogs. Fourteen dogs.

Weekender: Are you able to remember all their names?

BW: Nah. No I don’t. But when they all yell together or bark together, it hurts my ears.

Weekender: Who takes care of these dogs?

BW: My friends and my housekeeper Gloria.

Weekender: What kinds of dogs are they?

BW: They’re all different kinds of dogs. Yorkshire terriers, a black female poodle that’s 12 years old. I don’t know, just all different kinds of dogs.

Weekender: Do you spend a lot of time with them?

BW: Not really spend time with them. But I can hear them all the time. They’re always barking.

 :lol

no wonder he is enjoying this tour so much.. start buying so many dogs as to drive Brian Wilson to get out of the house and be productive

There ya go kiddies!

In one sentence Brian has written his own epitaph:

"We made a few good records"

 ... its kind of Spike Millganish in its simplicity: " See, I told them I was sick".

1). Surprised the interview actually had the balls to ask him why he sits if he doesn't play the piano.
2).It has to be either the Disney album or quite possibly the R&R album.
3) He listens to an oldies station, but at least he's listening to 60s AND 70s now instead of 50s and 60s, I guess.
4). Usually he states that he has writers' block, or has had it. This time he says that he's not worried about not being able to write anymore.
5) Nice pun there.

Hey 50's music is cool! ;D

i like to think Darian or whatev give him new music to hear.  but his comment bout modern rap makes me think he doesn't hear music unless it's on the radio. 

and the interview was done before the Disney stuff was announced.  maybe he had already started working on Gershwin?

I've never been very good at maths, but aren't 2004 and 2008 four years apart?

TLOS was started in 2006. The Christmas album though came first, in 2005. So yeah, he's been active, just got the wrong album listed.

Great picture:

(http://media.timesleader.com/images/wkdr_04_COVER21.jpg)

Talk about understatements, from the UK's 'Fast Show': comedian Paul Whitehouse contemplates having cleaned the attic.

'...and then I found a splinter from a cross. I mean: the Original Cross. That was nice.'

Disney album isn't even in pre-production yet... and from what I know of the R&R album, I'd say no problems there.

The Disney album was always part of the package, from the go-get.

Eh -- I think we can read too much into this. He's pretty obviously talking about writing songs, not recording Gershwin or Disney material. And he told me that he didn't have any songs written for the Rock and Roll album (i.e., he doesn't see it as a covers project either). So it's ultimately a different form of the writer's block oldie-but-goodie answer.

He did ? Interesting...  ::)

Brian should do an album with Danny Hutton and call it "Fourteen Dog Night"...

There you have it.

... Or perhaps he's talking about Pleasure Island.

Awesome interview

Photo of the band (including Brian) in costume (but not Brian) on Halloween. Looks like Brian is genuinely smiling. It was posted on Brian's Twitter page:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2780747&l=6911a173f0&id=34250497240

Nick CLEARLY planned his costume months in advance  ;D

Gershwin! Also pretty clear here no reunion for Brian.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20091106/LIFE07/911060306/1044/ENT/Wilson-heads-to-A.C.-without-the-Beach-Boys


Wilson, who has the blessings of Gershwin's estate to work on the songs, admits he's at something of a crossroads with the project.
"I'm supposed to try to do a piano part that would be befitting to Gershwin's playing (style), but I can't seem to get it," he offers.

That's only a small part of the Gershwin project - two songs, tops. I have strong reason to believe that the initial tracking sessions back in mid-October went very well indeed.

Not just strong reason, but documented reason. Multiple band members wrote on FB about how well the sessions were going. It's my understanding that seven basic tracks have been recorded -- only four or five to go, and then the vocal / sweetening work. Too bad to know Brian has some challenges, but depending on how you read the quote, it could simply be that he can't quite match the 20s-30s playing style (and for good reason -- it was hard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYO4jAuL3Kg)

At least he's going to be playing the piano on the album and not just having Darian or Scott do it.

Here's a quote from Foskett in a recent article.

"He even continues to amaze Foskett. “When he sprung the Gershwin thing on me, I said, ‘Cool, that’s great.’ But I didn’t understand the extent of what it was,” he says, in awe of Wilson’s arrangements, which he calls nothing short of phenomenal. “I think the general public — and his fans especially — will be extremely happy.”"

http://www.timesleader.com/features/It_rsquo_s_back_to_the_beach_with_Wilson_11-08-2009.html

This is good news, because it means Brian's struggling, which means Brian's writing!! TLOS was so accomplished that I couldn't help wondering if Scott Bennett hadn't written it all, but the fact that our man is having difficulties is good because it means he is involved.

Maybe I shouldn't be doubtful of Brian's abilities but given that Brian Wilson is a man who, as someone once memorably put it, can barely put his trousers on the right way round, it does make you wonder if he really can write a song or an arrangement without someone standing behind him and guiding his hands.  ::)

Looking forward to whatever the Big Guy puts out.

i scratch my head then laugh.

I think the "it's not going too well" line is just Brian saying words to get the interview over.  It was probably his 12th interview of the day. 

i don't think Brian can white lie like that.  Foskett thinks it's amazing. Brian thinks he's having problems.  sounds like he's being pushed.  which is great.

I don't think he's white lying, I think he's opening his mouth and saying whatever comes out of his mouth.  He's very capable of it; he does it in every interview! 

BTW, I think the album is a great idea and will be very, very good.  I'm just saying you can't really put any merit on anything at all that Brian says in an interview.  He's likely to say anything. 

Just to restate: Brian isn't talking about the Gershwin project in that interview. He's talking about something else -- a rock and roll album or something like it. He doesn't really have any writing to do for the Gershwin album (assembling the Gershwin fragments aside, but even those may end up being just instrumental interludes).

And yes, Brian can still write songs. TLOS has a lot of after-the-fact gloss -- but the 10 or so songs at its core are Brian hammering away at a keyboard in Scott Bennett's apartment. From Brian and everyone else's accounts, he had a burst of inspiration in the summer of 06, and he wrote and recorded 18 or so songs. Good Kind of Love -- BW only, music and lyrics. Ditto for Just Like Me and You. The bonus tracks especially show Brian still a creative force. Scott helped, of course, but very little of what Scott has written and recorded on his own sounds like TLOS (bits of MAD aside -- and for such a terrific song, I'll make that exception).

Is Nelson Bragg dressed up as "The Goof"  ;D

Also Taylor Mills...VA VA VOOM!

I'm encouraged by this clay, but do you mind me asking what you base your assertions on? Its still kinda hard for me to accept Brian as a creative force, even though I don't think his gift will ever die, just maybe sink below the surface a it.

I simply go by what people say. And I know that's not always kosher in the BB/BW world, but a lot of sources have confirmed the basic facts. In the summer of 2006, while Melinda and the kids were away, Brian wanted to record some songs and called Scott because he had a studio set up in his apartment. They recorded a lot that summer.

It's also my understanding Scott wrote little of the music per se -- he generally added or revised lyrics to tunes that Brian brought over. He did, however, arrange most of Mexican Girl and totally revamp Midnight's Another Day, which seems to have originally been a rock tune. You can hear most of this on the demos, which have been leaked. Brian is pounding keyboards on most songs and sings a lot of backing vocals and most leads. Scott sings some backing vocals (and a lead here and there) and adds extra instrumentation.

These demos sound like BW songs, pure and simple. Quirky lyrics and wacky basslines are all over. The bonus tracks from TLOS come from those basic demo sessions, and if anything, they're better than many songs that made it in.

Brian was then commissioned to do write a suite in 2007 -- but he didn't do it. He played with some ideas, but he didn't end up following through on any of them. With the deadline looming, he asked Scott about going back to that 2006 material to fashion a suite from. Scott and Darian then put the album together; Van Dyke was called in toward the end to add the narration. So Brian had almost nothing to do with the final sequencing of the piece -- and everyone has also pretty much admitted that. (I think his one addition was "Southern California," which came so late in the process that it was performed as piano and vocals only.)

So it depends on what you mean by musical force. Did TLOS, as released, flow from Brian's brain as a piece? No. Did he arrange the strings and horns? No. But the core of songs on the album, as well as the re-arrangement of TLOS (the song), come from Brian. The basics of the arrangements come from the demos.

Brian's band is exceptionally sensitive to any charges of exploitation. Recall what happened to Andy Paley and Joe Thomas. They collaborated, and then they were gone. No one in the band worked with Brian for the first seven years in songwriting (that we know of). The only way that a collaboration would happen is if Brian took the initiative. And he eventually did.

Brian Wilson:


Scott Bennett:




Those come from an EQ magazine piece on the sessions.

TLOS was sequenced by Darian & Scott in LA while Brian was on tour in Europe during June/July of 2007.

Which explains how cool bits like "Can't Wait Too Long" and the mow-mama-yama-holy-halleujah chant got included, I've assumed.

I also don't want to understate how important Scott was to this process. He contributed when the songs needed him to contribute (or when the results, like MAD, speak for themselves), and stayed out when the songs were fine as is.

The former was, I believe, Darian's notion. Resurrecting the "Clangin'" chant* came from someone else entirely.

[* see Rolling Stone #225, 11/4/76]

Scotty also contributed the all-important comfortable working environment. When Brian's comfortable, and the static is at a low or non-existant level, great things can result.

Absolutely, Darian admitted it was he in the NPR radio interview.