The Smiley Smile Message Board

Today is the 80th birthday of the most brilliant songwriter and producer of the rock era … happy Birthday !

Greatest songwriter of all time.

Love you Brian. Happy Birthday 🎂

Happy Birthday to the man!!!   :hat

👍👏🍾🥂

Couldn't say it any better.

Happy birthday, Brian!

Happy birthday to the one and only! Here's a little playlist I made for the occasion: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4qSDshVc4nHRL8CzvlOliK?si=57b826c48a384c91 (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4qSDshVc4nHRL8CzvlOliK?si=57b826c48a384c91)

😎Added to my library …nice running order!

Happy birthday to the man who is Sunshine, Love and Smiles all rolled into one and nestled deep in my heart! I love you, Brian!!

Thank you, great to hear - cheers!  :)

Happy birthday, Brian. I hope wherever you are that you’re enjoying life to the fullest.

Happy natal day to Brian!  :love

A few familiar faces wishing Happy Birthday to Brian:

01 - https://youtu.be/FWH93dDnfcI (https://youtu.be/FWH93dDnfcI)
02 - https://player.vimeo.com/video/721986824?h=098aecfecf&app_id=122963&autoplay=1 (https://player.vimeo.com/video/721986824?h=098aecfecf&app_id=122963&autoplay=1)

Happy birthday to you Brian!!! What a guy!


Also my jaw dropped when I saw Dylan in that video.

"Do me a favor: please keep writing all your wonderful music. I'll be listening." - Graham Nash. Could not agree more!

Al's comment made me laugh out loud haha.

All of these comments made me smile so much, but I gotta admit that I teared up when Jeff Bridges came on - him saying "it's going so damn fast." - ain't that the truth. The Dude abides, and so does Brian.

Thanks so much for posting that, STE.

Happy birthday, Brian!

Happy Birthday Brian!! I can't imagine just what the world would be like without you and your sooooooooooooooo wonderful music. The greatest thrill in my life has to be the several times I was able to meet you (and your brothers plus Al). We all are so blessed by what you've done for the world. I hope you have an incredible day with friends and family. :bw

With much love,

Oldsurferdude

God Bless You on your 80th Birthday, Brian! Thank you for everything your music and your inspiration has meant to me.

This is a small token of my gratitude and tribute. I did a cover of “Surf’s Up especially for the occasion.

Happy Birthday, Brian!


https://youtu.be/1GH6-7nye1s

Many thanks for the links... the video was and is the surprise of the day/week/month for me. So many of Brian's colleagues from the art and craft of great songwriting... in a natural way, as they are now - sort of 'unplugged', so to speak.

Joe Walsh, Bob Dylan, Smoky Robinson - who's not to like here? Deeply touching!

PS I presume both links refer to the same video? I couldn't get the second one, but at any rate... there can't be a version that touches this one (except some comedy one by members of the Muppets, or something...)

I was wiping away tears when Bob was on.

No, they are different videos. The second one features Brian's friends and collaborators.

Such a wonderful video.

You would have to wonder if Mike was asked to send a message

If you told me 20 years ago that both Andy Paley and Joe Thomas would be in a tribute video to Brian …

Out of the chauffeur's quarters and into the ether, happy 80th birthday, Brian.

Happy birthday!

Thanks for clarifying that! I had assumed the Vimeo link was the same video.

So awesome to see those familiar faces wish Brian a happy birthday. Really glad to see Fred Vail was a part of this too. I hope Brian is having a great great day!

Happy Birthday Brian!

Happy 80th Birthday Brian!!

From Mikes Facebook

Happy Birthday Cousin. I hope that no matter where you are today, you have a blissfully wonderful day, knowing that you are loved. I Love You Cous!
Peace & Love
Mike

Hoping that Brian enjoys a nice steak dinner on his 80th, looking out over the lonely sea...while being comforted to know that there are millions and millions of people in this whole world who love him and his music...and are grateful every single day for having it in their lives to heal their hurt and bring them joy.

 :bw

A lot of people wishing Brian a happy birthday, wherever he may be. Where he actually is is doing a concert in Kansas City tonight. He’s done a lot of concerts on his birthday. I guess it keeps him from dwelling about his mortality when he’s busy.

Just getting out of the car now to go and see THE MAN! Great weather and great venue. I'm sure something will happen to honor his birthday during the show. "Music is in my soul " because of you. See you very soon. Kansas City loves you.

Happy 80th Birthday to Brian Wilson, the greatest living American songwriter and composer in popular music! Brian created music which became the soundtrack to so many lives, and music which expressed emotions and feelings in his listeners which they often could not put into words but they knew how and where to find those sounds which spoke them so perfectly. The man who created an entire geographical mythology through passages of music and sound, and the man whose music continues to bring joy to countless millions around the world. The man whose music heals, saves, and enriches those often most in need of such things.

Watch a sunrise while the intro to California Girls or Wouldn't It Be Nice is playing, and watch a sunset while "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" or the coda to "Til I Die" is playing, and the power of that music in the bigger picture of life becomes crystal clear.

Here's to an amazing 80 years, we love you Brian!

To one of the greatest musicians of ever (objectively) and my personal favourite ever (subjectively)...  and, anyway, the only and one KING OF ROCK 'N' ROLL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MANY HAPPY RETURNS, BRIAN! YOU'RE THE MAN! :woot  :woot  :woot :thumbsup

https://youtu.be/OPbSbFLYvIo

https://youtu.be/_gkuHQojrd0

It's utterly fantastic to see so many of the Tony Ashers and Andy Paleys and Danny Huttons et al. of Brian's orbit participate in this.   And to his credit, Mike Love wrote some very nice words on twitter.

And speaking of twitter, very interesting to see Van Dyke Parks mark the occasion by tweeting about how HE wrote Heroes and Villains.  ::)   VDP is a great talent, and I'm a huge fan of his music and lyrics, but ....  Well, I'll shut up now.

Happy birthday to the great Brian Wilson!!!! 🎂

You know, Van Dyke MAY have written H&V (applying one or two versions of the variable senses of that term)...but, even if he did, Brian rewrote it--many, many times! And all of those variants and snippets remain a fascinating (if labyrinthine) listen. Thank goodness Brian got over his phobia of playing it, as it seems to have been the key to getting him in the frame of mind to re-tackle SMILE.

The worlds most expensive Cameo lol.
Happy Birthday Brian!
I had the great fortune of attending Brian's 70 th birthday party backstage in Montreal. Crazy to think that was 10 years ago!

Pity that he did not write something like "I wrote SMiLE with Brian, including Heroes and Villains." That would have been absolutely true, while highlighting his own importance.

VDP's bitterness has turned me off his music quite a bit in recent years, apart from the Smile stuff and Orange Crate Art - too bad really.

Not trying to hijack Brian’s birthday thread, but prior to my own negative experience with VDP, I already wasn’t really a fan aside from those two projects and the melody of the song later remade for TLOS

Billy, if you don’t mind my asking, what was your negative experience with VDP?

Ever since TLOS, he has had a bug up his ass about Brian and I can’t figure out why. It’s very disappointing that he used Brian’s birthday to belittle him.  When Mike Love shows more class….

I would also agree that Van has gotten bitter over the years. Maybe because he never had Randy Newman-level success.

He made mention of one of my posts here in an interview and referred to me as an anti-intellectual* in addition to insulting a then-member here (by name) in the same piece.

*which is hilarious…in “real life” I’ve been called pretentious, I’ve been called a hipster douche, but that was a new one to me.

Apologies to all for first mentioning the VDP comment and derailing the thread.... but since it's too late to undo that, here's the VDP tweet for posterity;;



He followed that with a link to a Google search of the song.

Before his non-participation with the Smile Sessions box, did anyone know he was angry/bitter toward Brian?  I don't remember noticing anything before that.  Hard to believe the box was 11 years ago.  It's a long time to carry a grudge.  Kinda sad. 

@Billy, that sucks. I don’t know the full context, but VDPs has definitely been more edgy in recent years. Perhaps like the rest of us, the internet has made him more cynical.

Honestly, even with his recent idiosyncrasies, I don’t mind the guy. He has always followed the beat of his own drum, which is very admirable. His Song Cycle album is fascinating to hear through the lens of its inspiration from the Smile Sessions. I love the Esso Steel Trinidad Band album (and accompanying documentary). And Discover America will always be one of my favorite albums from the 70s.

Does anyone know if David Marks posted anything? (IIRC Bruce also doesn’t have “social media” other than the I believe now-defunct Beach Boys Britain board?)