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"It all came to a head...when Mike Love, Carl Wilson and Al Jardine came to the studio and heard our version of 'Time To Get Alone'...They manoeuvred Brian into the control booth and reduced him to tears. It was a cruel and pathetic scene. Danny, Cory and I were in the studio and could see it all happening through the control-booth window. It was as if Brian had turned into a little boy. The conversation appeared quiet and calm, but we could tell it was emotional and intense. The others were doing most of the talking, like overbearing, controlling parents. Brian would move away, and they would block his escape. We couldn't hear what was being said, but I think a good lip-reader would have picked up something like, 'We don't give a sh*t about these guys, and we want those songs for us.' We could actually feel Brian crumbling, and when he came out of the booth, a tear dropped down his cheek. His head was lowered and his shoulders sagged. It was the body language of a child who had just been scolded and punished. And this brilliant musical icon - whose songs defined one generation and influenced another - weepingly told us, 'We can't do this. I have to give the songs to them. They're family and I have to take care of my family. They want the songs. I'll give you any amount of money you want to finish an album, but I can't produce it. They won't let me.'" - Chuck Negron

Do anyone want to elaborate on this story? I know Brian was very sick around this time but it seems a little far-fetched :/ and anyone have any more info on this?
(& If someone already posted something similar to this post the link or ignore this thread.)

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Well, I wasn't there.

But the BB version of TTGA is unbeatable.

I believe Danny Hutton said it's bullshit, or it at least didn't happen in front of him or anyone else in the band or who was around at the time. It's known that the guys DID tell Brian they wanted "Darlin'" and "Time To Get Alone" for the Beach Boys, but the confrontation wasn't thought to be like this.

The Redwood "Time To Get Alone" is totally fuckin' goofy, to my ears. Not a bad band at all, but that vocal performance - man. Not good. Especially when stacked up to Carl's attempts.

I pretty much knew that their version would be sh*t compared to the bb's....Whenever I hear cover songs of the bb's it makes me cringe like elton's & david bowie's rendition of god only knows..
I never even heard of redwood til now..it's so childish that he'd make up a story like that about brian :/

Eh. Maybe Danny Hutton's full of shit. Maybe I'm full of shit. Hard to say.

Also, the circumstances under which "Time To Get Alone" happened doesn't really make it a cover. Brian produced and directed these guys, this is his work and his arrangement with Redwood's vocals over it.

Anyone know if it was even finished? I haven't listened to it in a while, but I feel like all the harmonies of the Beach Boys version aren't there.

I like the Redwood version, but maybe more because it retains the beautiful french horn break. That original backing track is one of the single most beautiful productions he ever did imo. Just blows my mind every time I hear it.

I don't think you understand who Redwood was. Redwood was the original name for the group that became Three Dog Night. They did some things with Brian producing them in 1967, but their big break came in 1969 with the US #29 hit "Try a Little Tenderness" and then from then on, their next 19 singles all went top 19 or better on the Billboard top 100. 11 top 10, 9 top 5, and 3 number 1's. Songs included Easy to be Hard, Joy to the World, Mama Told Me Not to Come, One (a cover of Harry Nilsson), Liar, Shambala, Never Been to Spain, etc, etc.

As for the story, things get stretched and people try to make themselves look better or others worse, you can't really put a lot of stock into it.

wow i had no idea that they were the same group ..they had some pretty solid hits that i heard in a few movies and on the radio before :)
omg brian should've signed them..could've made so much more money $$...damn that mike! lol jk

Yeah...

1 - the sole source for this is Chuck Negron's book.

2 - in the 40+ years since it allegedly happened, Danny's never said word one about it, and he's never backwards in coming forwards...

3 - someone who knows their 3DN better than I says the dates don't fit.

What's really weird is that after wrestling the song away from Redwood the guys waited two years before putting it out on 20/20. Hands down it's better than pretty much everything on Wild Honey and Friends. It could have been a hit!! I think I even prefer the earlier attempt they did from the Hawthorne comp.

wow really? that's not true..there's a few songs from friends/wild honey that's better than that..."wild honey,let the wind blow,passing by,busy doin nothing"

Better than all of those, dude. (of course, opinion.)

I don't buy it.

Maybe there's a seed a truth in there, but some of these guys have a way with embellishing their memories and mixing stories together.  And yeh, I think this guy had a drug or drinking problem, and likely a ghost-writer for this book.

He probably saw some kind of heated discussion or argument at a Beach Boys session and also remembers the supposed 'Time to Get Alone' tug-of-war and put the two together or something.

Another thing I've noticed is that some old-timers actually read the stories in the media/books and then 'remember' them.

i think it was embellished a bit too, but i think i could go along with the guys wanting it to be a beach boys song

What was recorded by/for the Beach Boys on Oct 11 & 12 1967?

I'm not with you. Are you talking about the Wild Honey era recording of TTGA? But it should have been logged as Redwood, not the BB, right?

I think he's referring to the logged Oct 11&12 Wild Honey sessions for "untitled song"(according to the Bellagio site), which occurred right before the Redwood sessions for TTGA on the 14&15(also according to Bellagio)

Right, its not wildly beyond stuff everybody probably already assumes is true.  Brian did seem to want to pull away from the band around that time, and if he was coming up with full-bred Wilson Magic for outside artists at a time when the group was struggling, then something like this may well have happened.  The narrative that Negron forwards about Brian being totally cowed or psychologically destroyed by Carl is the dubious part, and in the end its not really the important part.

Now was it Hutton or Negron who had the story about his penis exploding during sex from overuse?

I thought it had been established that the BBs had recorded a track for one of the established or alleged  Redwood recordings, Darlin or TTGA, before any documented Redwood recording date? Maybe not.

UPDATE: It is not. I was completely wrong. Disregard.

Negron.

These guys were always shuffling around with and sitting on songs for some time occasionally. Worst sentence ever, but you get what I mean. Keep in mind, too, that "Time To Get Alone" went through some changes in that time. It could have been a matter of dissatisfaction with the bridge until it arrived to the point that it did.

There's also the fact that it was two songs, too - "Time To Get Alone" and "Darlin'", the latter of which was put on an album right away. "Time To Get Alone" wouldn't have fit on Wild Honey at all (imo), and maybe Brian was thinking two waltz-y tracks on Friends was enough. fuckifiknow.

If you read this account of the Three Dog Night history, Van Dyke Parks all but takes credit for not only the name of the band but also claims to be their producer in those early days...he was close with Danny Hutton and this account was a tribute for Danny...and that could very well have been part of the story but it is told more often that Brian Wilson was the band's early "producer" and all but got them together to make records as a trio (so I thought).

Hmmm. Conflicting stories? Brian's work with Redwood or the name Redwood isn't even mentioned.

VDP's piece is here: http://www.fufkin.com/columns/fufkin/whatever_hutton.htm (http://www.fufkin.com/columns/fufkin/whatever_hutton.htm)

As ridiculous as it sounds, I've read this can actually happen :'( It doesn't literally "explode", the blood vessels can burst. That's what the always questionable interwebz said, anyway.

I've read some Grand Funk Railroad member's member exploded, too. But I don't get it, how is it possible?

Go to Web MD and ask them. Unless there is a doctor in the house on this board.

I wanted to repost this because I think some things contained in this article/link are being overlooked, namely that Van Dyke seems to be claiming that he, *not Brian*, produced the band which became Three Dog Night.

Some facts seem to have slipped through the cracks, it was either Van Dyke or Brian that got "Redwood-Three Dog Night" up and running...which is it, and was it a case of Brian producing them first then Van Dyke later taking over as producer? Because - please correct if I'm missing something - we have recordings which Brian produced for Redwood-TDN, but I wasn't aware of any similar recordings where Van Dyke was credited.

And Van Dyke's account of Danny's solo career seems to have a different tone than other accounts, especially the influence that Danny's vocal arranging and recording styles on his solo single had on Brian and others. I honestly thought for years that Danny's hit just kind of came and went without much fanfare, and it was an asterisk to his career where TDN was the main body of work. Yet Van Dyke seems to be saying the record was more influential than that, naming both The Beatles' "Help" and Brian Wilson as those who were influenced. Interesting.