The Smiley Smile Message Board

So, I was listening to an audience tape of the 7/26/13 BAD show. TWGMTR comes on, and what do you know.. you could hear very faintly BW attempting the falsetto part on the line "to a whole new generation".

You can hear him start in falsetto and quickly dip down to the lower octave. Check it out: https://soundcloud.com/smile-a-d/twgmtr-live-7-26-13-bad-tour

..and he briefly goes back up at the end of the phrase. The second time, he does it an octave down. I'll be damned.

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He hit a couple of the falsettos at the C50 show I saw, including one at the end of 'Hawaii'...then proceeded to royally f*** up This Whole World.

Love how he always emphasizes the chart position, lol.  He's still just right around the corner from a REAL HIT, a HUGE HIT!!!!!

Brian probably forgot his role there for a minute and regressed 50 years back to when he was King.  he can't sing Falsetto because he doesn't try, I say let him go out there warts and all singing false in about half of the songs, and he'll sound pretty decent after a few months.  This guy was amazing, he can sing whatever he wants. 

Face it, none of us really care how it sounds.  If he told Jeff "Look Jeff, lets unplug YOUR guitar, and plug in MY keyboard!  YOU sing the middle, I'm takin' the top notes!" we'd all love it.


LONG LIVE BRIAN WILSON!!!!

Wow, Brian sounds fantastic there.

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He sounded great on This Whole World when I saw them.

EDIT: And he sounds pretty good here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WER04t6oN2Y

Absolutely!  I've got a half-ass decent voice... I'm 34, I can sing a few of those leads decent.  I cannot TOUCH the leads he does so beautifully on the Gershwin album.  I don't have anywhere near the tone or soul in my voice he does.  Why?  ...because even at 70, he's a fantastic singer.  Given time and desire, he could sing a great falsetto.

Little Anthony from the Imperials still sings his falsetto as great as he ever did, and he's older than Brian.  I don't mean it's alright, or passable, I mean it's better than it was on his records in the 50's.  I refuse to believe it's impossible with Brian. 

Exaaactly. I'd bet money that that was the first time he even attempted singing that line in false. The guy has to know he has a legendary falsetto.. even in its current state, the tone is still there. Someone in his camp needs to encourage him to run with it more often. Because since the reunion tour it damn sure seems like he wants to be singing those high parts like the old days. I'd take off key BW falsetto over Foskett any day.


Damn, you're right. Little Anthony still has it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSSmY2gdnVA

I remember sometime during last year, somebody posted a video of Brian singing the high notes in Good Vibrations a few seconds early, before Jeff came in, and Brian NAILED it. I wish I could remember which show it was from. I think Ron might be right to a certain extent. If Brian tried more falsetto lines, he'd probably sound pretty good after some practice. It might also be a good idea for Jeff to lay back a little more and let Brian try harder.

I remember that! It HAS to be about confidence! The guys that I know that speak or record with him regularly say he can still do a good job with it. Those late 70's early 80's years of touring must of caused great embarrassment.

He can still do it, the desire just has to be there!

He seems to be able to hit the high notes on God Only Knows without too much effort. Why couldn't he do falsetto?

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Another thing too, I know we all attempt to sing along with this sh*t because we love these songs so much.  I can sing a few of those awesome leads he did back in the day... but it will always be much easier for him to sing that stuff, because he recorded them, he's not imitating anything, he's just singing in his natural voice.  

So the reason that he sang "california girls" with that awesome "COULLLLD BE!" in the lead... was beacuse it's natural to him.  He could knock that out.

I hate Mental Illness.  Gosh Darn you Depression.  f*** off self-doubt.  This man was a king among peasants, why the f*** won't somebody prove to Brian that he was one of the greatest ever?  

Ultimately I suppose, it's just not that important to him.  I'll have to be content that he appears to have a loving family, and is doing a good job as a father, that's much more important than whether he cares to sing falsetto anymore.  

Summers Gone live last year. I think hearing may be an issue as well.

Sadly I much of the Woodlands show was not filmed. I'll check just in case. I remember he overshot Jeff who went flat a bit. And also...I made a mistake in that it was Don't Back Down.

Has he discussed his hearing at all in recent interviews? He's been deaf in one ear all his life, I wonder how his other ear is holding up after working in the music industry for so long. 

I don't think he really wears anything to help his hearing, he probably can't be bothered... and on top of that, hell everybody has trouble hearing on stage.  Especially with all those women screaming and throwing their panties on the stage.  What's a Wilson to do?

I think it was at the Grammy performance, an audience recording where the house mix was different to that which went on the TV.

The whole performance sounds pretty good. I usually don't care for TWGMTR played live, but this... :) I guess when Brian attempts such vocal stuff he must be really comfortable and enjoying himself. That's a good sign.



That TV mix was atrocious...

Maybe it's me but I can't here him doing falsetto.

He barely latches onto the notes and it's only for the first three words "to a whole".. Try listening with headphones, you'll hear the unmistakable BW tone in unison with Jeff.

Maybe people should be sending Brian links to performances by the mature and still amazing Lou Christie.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-QKpR3l62A


Note how at the beginning of the clip Christie shows how low he can still go as well.  Wow.
(And he seems to be making a nice joke about adjusting his balls....)
Love Lou!

Lou Christie is amazing, but he never weighed 300 pounds, have an extreme mental illness, chain smoked, or freebased coke, so that might explain why he sounds pretty good. Jay Siegel ("The Lion Sleeps Tonight" falsetto guy from The Tokens) still sounds as good as 50 years ago, too.

There was also his attempting his original falsetto part on "Forever" on one of the last couple Beach Boys shows they all did together last year. Any time he attempts something like this, he tends to trail off a bit, I think either because he loses confidence, he gets lost in the music and just goes for the parts he used to do but then catches himself, or realizes Jeff is doing them or some kind of combination of any of those three.

I'm sure he could do a fine job with some of the less strenuous falsetto parts and it'd really be cool if he was encouraged to do some specific falsetto parts for a few songs instead of just "Hey, let Jeff do it instead" or whatever.

Brian doesn't sing falsetto, Foskett just croaks a bit... and it's worsened because Brian dropped out for a moment, as he usually does.

I hear Foskett hitting the notes properly. Brian's the "croaking" sound. You have a point though, it's not really falsetto.. yet. He's kinda in that "winding up" in between voice where he's about to unleash the falsetto. But he stops before the big note.

Ahh, yep I remember that. And of course the moment when he whipped out the falsetto at the end of "Please Let Me Wonder".

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Certainly makes an authentic impression: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq_5uw_hcuo  :3d

Unfortunately, yes.

(I should qualify this. From what I've seen, he's at least not singing live some of the time. And he's "digitally enhanced" in some way.)

After a couple of clips I can hear it as well. He's certainly singing live but the signature higher parts don't sound 100% 'real'. "Digitally enhanced" - yeah, maybe. But with 'good taste', I'd say. No Robo-Brian.

Ah, I think I hear I kinda hear it now. Not very clear though.

I caught him live last year and to be honest I couldn't say but I want to say no. What makes me want to say no is the show was beamed on to a pair of huge screens which I looked at very closely during those falsetto numbers. He either was the real deal or very good at hiding it.

Well, innocent until proven guilty, I guess. :) Some of the recent performances I watched on YT sounded a bit too perfect/clean for a man his age, though.

'Sherry' Close up from last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtogPu6XmRo&list=PLQOSCpKNA4MfgbWzTWF7-RENGtk5imX1T

Listening to the original "Sherry' and his other falsetto hits, they were sung in a voice shredding style compared to his measured, conservative version today. 

I don't know Valli's history but compared to Brian I think he has cared for his voice. Who knows what cards we get dealt health wise but look at Bruce. Pretty clean cut living and I think a non- smoker but his voice isn't what it once was.

Re: Valli - One time I went and compared every recent live version of "Oh, What A Night" back to back *

My conclusion is that it's the same processed vocal track every time. No question. Maybe I'll rip them and sync them up just so we can be 100% sure, but I definitely noticed it without knowing how many other people suspected it as well.

*I'm somewhat obsessed with Valli's part in the song - partially because I compare it to the way BW lost his voice around this time. FV sounds strained and almost like a different person there, imo.

Here's a great one from the Royal Albert Hall show at 2:29:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsB3s9xDzRI

Close up again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFFUhbmglHM

If he is singing with a backing track, he is doing it the best of any artist I have ever seen.

Ah yes!! There it is!

I guess when you lip sync to the same vocal track for years, you get pretty good at it  :lol

Well, what's keeping you?

Ironically enough - Frankie Valli was a smoker and is also now partially deaf. Completely different circumstances - but sound familiar?

Thanks for posting this, that's beautiful. His smiling at 2:06 makes him look like his former self. It must have been a great night for Brian.

Oh I'm sure you would. Sorry to harp on about this, but the song 'My Eyes Adored You' was one a poster on youtube accused Valli of lip syncing. Below are 2 clips 5 months apart with a few minor changes. Note the "walking home every day" with the 'every' lengthened on the 2nd clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVBc4g6gBD4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi0hntgncTI


Another note on Valli. He uses a pick-up brass section in a lot, if not all his concerts. Could be hard to keep a backing tape secret from them. He's also gone through more Seasons than Mike Love has wives,  yet nobody has talked.

Man he enjoyed that gig didn't he. :thumbsup

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It was actually at one of the shows during the tour, after the Grammy's show. It's bugging me, because I can hear it clearly in my head, but I can't remember which show it was from.

Here we go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ORPi7T-uPQ

there are rumors he uses pitch shifting technology when singing live... or just lip synchs

That's it!  ;D Thanks! I agree with one of the first YouTube comments that he can still sing the song if they'd friggin' let him.  ::) He hit a high note on the words "clothes" as well. So why did that opening note sound lousy? Brian is a weird paradox.  ;D