The Smiley Smile Message Board

If you haven't seen the movie 'Yesterday' there are spoilers here. But to sum it up, a guy wakes up and the Beatles never existed even though he remembers them. So what if this happened in the Beach Boys world? So if you have seen the movie, you know that John Lennon was a real man and still alive which makes total sense because it was his celebrity status that was why he was shot and  the shooter wanted to make a name for himself. I wonder if Dennis or Carl might still be alive today. Would Brian be mentally more healthy?Also, if we wanted to duplicate the music, the magic of it would be very difficult to achieve. It's not just the arrangements,  but the vocal blend and the feeling that Brian added to it. Which is one fault of the movie. A guy playing Beatles song on the guitar is not the same energy that the Beatles as a band put into their music. Some of the arrangements and versions were good in their own way.

An exciting premise, but as you said I doubt anyone with the Beatles music or Beach Boys music would be very relevant today. That said, today's music would not exist if not for the pioneering sounds produced by both bands. As a mere layman, that's my theory at least  ;D

Seen its trailer. Did I get this thread right that the OP asks about what if guy wakes to find BBs don't exist but he rmbr they exist? I.e. Beatles in the film replaced by The BBs, as in the guy will play BBs music instead & be famous?

It's my opinion that Dennis and Carl would still be alive. Assuming that smoking played a huge role in Carl's death - I wonder had he never had the stresses of touring and recording and dealing with fame/chaotic band differences - that he would have smoked a little less than he did. And perhaps if he were around a more wholesome environment (he being a 9-5 working man, instead of a rock star) he would've made healthier choices (and perhaps he would've still smoked but perhaps he would've quit sooner like a lot of people do).

Same goes for Dennis (only swap cigarettes for booze). That being said, I swear there was only one trajectory that Dennis Wilson could go, and that was being a drummer in a rock band. I really wonder, had the Beach Boys never have been, what career he would've gotten into.

As for Brian. I truly think him smoking marijuana sparked the already festering schizo/anxiety fumes that were buried in his mind*. Would Brian have smoked pot if he weren't in a rock band? Say he became a music teacher? Or some other profession. If so perhaps he never would have tried it, and thus maybe he would never have sunk so low mentally as he did in the mid-60s.

*There are studies that show that marijuana sparks unearthed schizo issues in people who are predisposed to the problem...it's not that marijuana causes schizophrenia, rather: marijuana is known to uncover/spark schizophrenia in people who already have it but don't know they have it.

The trailer for this movie looked really good! I'm gonna wait for it to hit iTunes before I see it. But it looks like one I'll enjoy. Had the same premise happened to the Beach Boys, I would imagine that, like Cabinessenceking says, the music wouldn't be relevant today...I don't see it getting on the top-40. That being said, had The Beatles and Beach Boys never existed I bet today's music scene would be totally different, and thus maybe their sound/songs would be something new and refreshing that people would want to hear.

You got it right.  ;)

I had the same thought upon seeing Yesterday (which I loved, BTW).

What would The BBs film be called? In Whose Room? ;D

Also, I feel like The BBs' story (as opposed to The Beatles' story) in a very general sense in terms of public perception, is filled with a far greater quantity of frustrating "what ifs" - as opposed to the one big Beatles "what if" involving the tragedy of Dec 1980.

For that reason, I almost feel like the BBs'' movie version would be more of a "what if" certain events or people in The BBs' story never existed, or perhaps those people existed but simply weren't abusive dicks (ie. Landy).  

I've always felt a scripted BBs time travel premise where someone goes back in time to make some positive changes would make for a fascinating film. Maybe Mike is blocked from questioning the "cornfield" lyrics by him being absent due to comically losing his car keys before leaving his home to go to the studio. Probably won't ever get made, but then again it's shocking to me that Yesterday got made.

The BB's career pretty much is a giant "what if"

 Yep. And I feel like that's the only really interesting way to frame such a movie, as opposed to doing a total BB "never existed" clone of Yesterday.

I haven't seen the film yet, but the Yesterday premise itself posits an interesting question to the BB's story -- what happens to the BB's musical trajectory without the Brian / Beatles musical competition? Do we get Pet Sounds or something different? My own guess is that Brian finds someone else to be inspired by and compete with, and that would bring in a different set of influences.

Agreed.  But then also minus The Beatles, perhaps The Byrds never get super famous... And then does Terry Melcher attain massive success and get introduced to Manson via Denny? The alternate Beatles-less possibilities are fascinating and endless, and surely The BBs would be impacted.

Yikes...didn't think about that

The world would be a much different place.

If the members of The Beach Boys had never become a musical group, I still think Dennis and Brian would have grown up to have the same issues no matter what, due to longstanding psychological damage brought on by their dear old dad. Hell, Brian may have been plagued with feelings of being a failure, having all this musical talent and not being able to utilize it in a successful way.

I have to think that Brian and Carl were going to be involved in music, even if fame never reared her head. Dennis had the talent, but without the nurturing aspects of the Beach Boys fame, he probably never would have developed it. But I just can't imagine a guy like Carl, with that beautiful voice, and the great guitar skills he developed as a teen, giving up on music just because he didn't become famous. Brian? What else was he going to do? There was one thing he was born to do, create music that helps and heals. And he might have done better personally if he was just a small scale star, playing coffee houses, teaching harmony to kids in high school.
And in an alternate reality, Mike runs for President as a Republican, and wins, despite 7 divorces and multiple bankruptcies!

I think the real question is, "Would Mike Love as President be better than trump?"  ;D

The script would go like this : the guy wakes up in a Beach Boys-less world. Says to himself : "Hmmm, no Summer in Paradise?" "No old Bruce wearing short pants?"... Cool, the world is safe again! End of the film.

Just kidding.

I wonder who would appear in the John Lennon sequence (SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't seen Yesterday : at the end of the film, the hero, crippled with guilt because he has "stolen" the Beatles' music, pays a visit to old John Lennon (played by Robert Carlyle under heavy make-up), who lives in a little house on a beach, a pivotal moment, but also a very emotional one.)

I think it should be either Carl or Dennis, obviously. Or maybe a perfectly happy and healthy Brian... No Al, no Bruce, no David, no Ricky, no Blondie... they're not enough well-known by today's audiences. But I think we should see Mike cameo, playing himself, as the proud owner of a gas station or something like that.

In this day and age, that would be a minimum prerequisite to win on the Republican ticket!  ;D

:lol

Yesterday is a nice little film, by the way. Hamish Patel and, especially, Lily James are great. But that story had, more or less, been done before. In 2006, in the french film "Jean-Philippe", a guy played by Fabrice Luchini wakes up in a world where his idol, french rocker Johnny Hallyday, isn't a star. He's alive but not a star, he's a nobody and lives under his real name, Jean-Philippe Smet ("Johnny Hallyday" is a pseudonym). Nobody knows him or his songs, since they were never written or recorded. Luchini tracks Johnny Hallyday and tries to persuade him to become a singer. Comedy ensues between the obsessed fan and the reluctant singer...

I know that Johnny Hallyday (1943-2017) isn't very well known in the United States, but in France, he was bigger than Elvis, probably the best-selling french musician of all time.

The best hope for the Beach Boys music would be if something like this happens to Darian Sajanaja, or one of the guys in the Explorers club. No, it wouldn't be top 40, but I bet they could give it an indie following. Most people could never do the Beach Boys music justice. 90% of covers I hear are watered down and cheesy.

I feel like anyone reasonably talented could do justice to the Beatles songs but what makes the BB songs standout is really the blend/harmonies......Theyre great songs but its the Wilson blend that really sets the records apart....one dude waking up and trying to show the world surfing safari or surfer girl i feel like wouldnt have the impact of the original records

Excellent point and I agree. A lot of trauma was baked into the family early on, and I think the three Wilson brothers were going to have a tough time of it no matter what. We are lucky today that they were able to channel their pain into great, timeless art.

At least in Brian's case, I can't see him having the exact same issues. What are the chances Brian takes acid had he never been in the music business? And on top of that, had he never been in the music business he'd never have the money to buy the amount of coke, marijuana, and whatever else he was buying post-65. In the words of Brian Wilson, LSD "shattered my mind in I don't even know how many pieces" - had he never taken acid I don't think his mind would've shattered like it did for him....which led him to be completely reckless...

...and I just don't see him destroying his life with coke had he never been a musician. So many of his issues were exaserbated by the use of drugs. And had he never had the blank check to buy as much coke as he wanted, I doubt Landy would've ever entered the picture - and think about how many issues Landy alone must've given Brian. I just don't see any of that happening had Brian ended up being an accountant, high school baseball coach, music teacher or something.

No doubt he would've still had anxiety and paranoia, but not to the degree that the drugs pushed him into.

Not to derail this topic to much, but you have just touched upon an interesting "What if?" question. What if Brian had never tried pot or lsd ? Or any drug at all for that matter. I can't remember if it was the marijuana or lsd, but supposedly the voices Brian hears constantly to this day started immediately after Brian tried one of the two substances.

His first nervous breakdown happened in late 1964 after he had marijuana for the first time. His 2nd breakdown happened in the spring of 1967, which lead to paranoia  and hearing inner voices. I'm not sure how long before that he had LSD.  I think he had his first LSD trip in 65 before recording California Girls. Perhaps there was another drug he took later, or those things began the process that slowly built up to the inner voices.

Now that I've seen the film Yesterday, the film mentions some things that also stopped existing besides the Beatles, including Coca-Cola, Harry Potter books, and cigarettes. So, in the world of Yesterday, there's a good chance that, having never started smoking, Carl Wilson and George Harrison are still alive in that alternate world.