The Smiley Smile Message Board

So we all know that Landy saved Brian's life in 1982 from, Drugs, Booze, Food, Etc. But as stated in the EH DVD "Brian would be in care of Landy until such time when Brian would be self sufficent as to fire Landy himself but it may take 2 years or so, but the years kept on growing and growing" or something like that. We know that happened in late 1976 I think?, So what stopped Brian from doing this? and did the Beach Boys really do nothing until 1990,91?? It must of been heartbreaking esp for Carl. Or was the fact that Landy and his meds he given Brian made it very close to impossible for anyone to help Brian during this time. If this has been answered before please point me in the right place. I'd saw the Diane Sawyer interview on youtube very scary Brian must of felt like he was in a living hell with no escape :(. Also wasn't Brian very close to being permaturely brian damaged from the meds Landy given more so then Drugs and booze ever did.
Sorry this is a very general question but Landy's Brian always interests me and not in a good way. It's like a horror story esp for Brian himself.

I try not to be a vindictive person, but let's be honest here, when news broke that Landy had passed away was anybody else initial reaction 'deserved'?

When I'd heard he died I thought good too, but then i wondered how Brian felt about it too?

I would dispute that Landy saved Brian's life. I think Landy presented a scenario much worse than it actually was so as to justify his method and influence

If the stories are true, Brian weighted 340 pounds, smoked 6 packs a day and snorted 5 grams of cocaine per day in 1982. I don't think that anyone who said at the time that his life was in serious danger was exaggerating.

I saw BW just before New Year`s of 1983. He was expected to die in the first 6 months of 1983, had Landy not intervened....

Yeah, I remember those times as a death watch.  Every time I heard the phone, I thought it might be news that Brian had died...

yeah i definitely have a mixed feeling outlook on landy.  He definitely saved his life and turned him around a great degree.  And then imo it was melinda who continued his step back to where he is now. 

Landy stated that Brian was functioning with one lung and had no liver. Wasn't that exaggeration?

People w/o functioning livers die pretty quickly w/o a transplant so it must have been hyperbole. Those are certainly vague yet strong statements that must havve been significantly exaggerated.

What he actually said was that Brian had no liver function (patently untrue as, to my best knowledge, Brian has never turned bright yellow: plus, as stated above, he would be yellow and dead) and 30% lung capacity, which I do find credible.

...which is the double-bind that makes it impossible to construct a clean story that fits our desires (a not uncommon script in real drama). We all have some desire to think that:

a. Landy did not save Brian's life, exaggerated everything, and thus did no good at all; or:
b. Landy did indeed save Brian's life, and thus everything that happened after 1985 or thereabouts would not have happened at all without the psychologist's intervention. Which means that we do have to thank the oft vilified doctor for something very, very meaningful to us.

The only additional and important thing I can think of is that according to AGD, Brian had a very good rapport with another therapist, who unfortunately died in a mountaineering accident (hope I remember this right).


Life is anything but simple and straighforward.

Steve Schwartz was his name.

Thank you Billy.

I just noticed that I did not formulate my 'option b.' very well. But I think my main point comes across nonetheless.

Fact: Landy saved Brian's life. This is beyond dispute.

Fact: he was brought back into the equation by The Beach Boys, based on the premise that he got through to Brian in 1975-6, therefore they have to shoulder their portion of the subsequent blame.

Fact: presented with a chain smoking, coke snorting, wine guzzling 300 lbs lump of lard and given carte blanche & a bottomless expense account, I think even your average Blooie could work out what the basic problem was. Rocket science it wasn't.

Fact: having saved Brian's life, he then proceeded to use his charge as a pass key for his showbiz fantasies, and damn near killed him again in the process.

Fact: given the sort and quantity of meds Landy was pumping into him 1982-91, without intervention the best possible prognosis for Brian was life as a (literally) drooling zombie. More likely he would have died by 1997. That he didn't is down to the resounding credit of a small cadre of devoted friends and fans. One passed on recently, one occaisionally posts here and I and pleased to call him a friend, another is the truly unsung heroine of Brian's story*.

So, Landy saved Brian's life in 1983: five brownie points, instantly forfeited by his increasingly despicable (and illegal) actions over the next eight years.  If you have any lingering doubts, compare his output (quality and quantity) 1976-77 & 1982-91 with 1992 to date.

[* no, not who you're thinking]

The fact that Landy helped Brian and did indeed save his life then makes the fact that he then turned around and willingly, knowingly and methodically used, abused and deliberately drove a wedge between Brian and his loved ones, makes his actions all the more despicable. Remember that old Chinese proverb about if you save somebody's life that makes you responsible for it? Rest in piss Landy.

Coach Hanes, Peter Reum and Gloria Ramos by any chance?

Was there much sign of this kind of agenda in the first Landy era?

Of course it is all conjecture at this point, but is interesting to consider how the situation became what it was in the end...at what point did Landy start abusing his position...was this his intention all along/was he overcome by temptation etc...

Another point that I am sure has been raised before...did Landy ever show remorse? When confronted by Diane Sawyer his reaction is fascinating to say the least.

Oh, God bless Diane Sawyer !  That interview should be required viewing for all the Landy apologists: she asks all the questions we fans wanted to ask... and he just does not have an answer - literally struck dumb. It's on YouTube. Go, now, and watch.

Very good call and question. My guess: Landy understood in the second round with Brian that he had indeed saved his life; that he'd pulled something off that may be called a rare feat. He'd turned the fat, addicted, chain-smoking, coke-snorting, boozing, overeating, short-breathed man on the brink of death into a well-trained and -groomed, muscular handsome person of 46 years of age. Now: this could have been the source of Landy's hubris. Perhaps it wasn't planned beforehand at all - but Landy may have been completely overcome by his own miraculous success, and may have felt that he could succeed in the music industry too. With Brian. I don't believe that there was a secret agenda all along.

Second time around, Landy was really on a hiding to nothing: Brian dies, well, it's what we expected, thanks for trying... Brian gets better, gee, this guy gets results, let's keep him around a while longer.

Thanks to everyone who's replied to my question, I do think that Dr Landy WAS the only one at that time who had the balls to save Brian and YES he did abuse Brian during his time spent with him same as Brian other Father figure Murry. But we have to be thankful that Landy did what was thought the impossible by everyone and changed Brian's life around, but of course that doesn't give Landy the right to dose Brian up the way he did. So I think maybe during the time of 85-86 Landy started to depend on Brian himself or it could of been eariler even?? But does anyone know how the rest of the Beach Boys felt about Brian during this time 1982-91?.
 

The fact that he had Brian's will changed to make him the benificiary to me speaks volumes. Of course, Brian's still here and Landy's worm food, so...

Funny how things work out, isn't it?

Yes, Landy did overstay his welcome by many years. But one thing that I almost never read about is, had Landy left the picture at around 1984-85, Brian most probably would have slid back down again, as he did in 1977/78. Kind of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

Agree. Brian would have been 42 by then, i.e. young enough to undergo a profound relapse into all bad habits. The older people get, the less they are inclined to make deep dives into all kinds of bad habits. But just over 40 can still be a tricky age for an addict who's just cleaned up.

YES we should all be thankful to Diane Sawyer and here it is!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-vhRkfFgj8
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9C_lKYhWr4
I can't believe it was oct 91!!! I thought it was eariler than that 89, 90??

Watching Brian and Landy in those clips is so unsettling.  I don't think I've ever been so uncomfortable watching Brian be interviewed, and Landy's smug attitude makes you want to punch him in the face.

I argee with Jay the whole Landy era is a two edged sword but Another question is when was Brian finally freed from Landy and what was his reaction too I'm only asking this because Brian has said that Landy is my best friend?

It's been reliably reported that Brian's very first action was to phone Andy Paley and tell him "I can do what I want now, let's make some music."

And they did.  ;D

Great stuff!! Brian is born to create beautiful music for us all and himself to enjoy ;D

Watching Brian and Landy in those clips is so unsettling.  I don't think I've ever been so uncomfortable watching Brian be interviewed, and Landy's smug attitude makes you want to punch him in the face.

You got that right.. :deadhorse.  Slap that smug attitude off his face.

Brian needed "tough love", in that he needed somebody to watch over him for a few years. Here is where the moral dilemma lies. The group obviously couldn't have let Brian leave Landy/treatment  when he wasn't ready. But Landy was the only person who made any progress. The group knew this, but also knew that Landy was a very suspicious charactor. The way I see it, it was a lose/lose situation.

The thing we have to remember is that Brian in 1975 was in bad shape but not nearly as bad as he got by 1982. In fact I think had Brian gotten proper help in 1975, he may have really had a degree of normalicy he can't have now because of the extra brain and neurological damage. Don't get me wrong Brian has done some really fine work over the last ten years, but he hasn't been quite the same since 1982 because of the sluring and general lack of engagment. He's very nice and still capable of some very good music but something was lost when Landy was hired the second time. Hell maybe something was lost when he was hired the first time. As bad as Brian was from say 1973-75 he was far worse from 1978-82.

True dat. I guess that, in the end, Brian's persisting problems stem from Landy's terrible overmedication, as well as his superhuman drug and drink ingestion prior to the Landy treatment. There is a certain bias among fans to ascribe all bad neurological effects to the overmedication, but if most descriptions about Bri's booze and cocaine use are right on the money, then I dare say that those addictions destroyed many, many brain cells, and/or proper connections between cells.


Heck, young people who develop a habit of binge drinking in weekends and combine that with the use of a party drug like XTC may have permanent damage by their mid-twenties - and they then will have used probably 2%  of bad stuff compared to what Brian did.

If Landy was around circa 1975-76, did he have any involvement in Love You? If so, was it just to get him in order to make such an album or did he also do his woefully unethical thing where he got involved in the creative processes too (or did that kind of stuff only happen later on in nineties)?

Don't know if Landy had a hand in Love You but maybe helped Johnny Carson??. Because I remember reading how Landy got Brian to write songs about everything from brushing his teeth to watching his fav tv show Johnny Carson. I could be wrong mind.
Wasn't Landy abusing Brian and The Beach Boys name from the very start after 1983 with co-writing credits etc?.

Brian claimed in his autobiography (said to have been written with more of Landy's input than Brian's) that Landy helped write some of the songs on LOVE YOU.  You can easily suggest that it's a self-serving statement inserted by Landy (and it is) but that doesn't mean it isn't true.  I actually find that particular claim fairly credible given the lyric content on that record, and the fact that Brian works without a collaborator on most tracks, which is unusual.

I'm one who believes there's insight to be found in Brian's book if you look at it in context and take it with an enormous grain of salt.  Some of Brian's comments about his relationship with Carl in the late '80s, for example, are enlightening.

I wonder if Brian really blamed Carl for Dennis's death? I know that he probably doesn't REALLY believe it, but I wonder if it's a thought that goes through his mind once in a while. Of course, if you're going to blame Carl, then you have to blame everybody...including Brian himself.