The Smiley Smile Message Board

"A Friend Like You" - 2022 Remix

https://www.brianwilson.com/video

I like that it's different. There's more Paul vocal riffing in several spots. I like that the mix on the whole is stripped back a bit as well.

That was pretty cool!

This reminds me that, with the all due respect for Sir Paul, I'd still have Brian's "solo output" over that of Macca, and over everyone else's, really.

Oh yeah, same here

I'm as big of a fan of Brian's solo output as can be, but no, I don't think I'd take most of Brian's solo output over McCartney's. In many cases, it's not even close.

Let's be clear: "A Friend Like You" is not a high water moment for either Brian or Paul. I like the chords, I like the sentiment of the song, and it's cool to hear them on a track together. But it's not Brian's best work. McCartney's vocals on the track are fine. He could have been used better vocally; I'd guess they didn't have a ton of time with him in the studio.

But yeah, if we're looking at Paul's entire catalog, or even just the concurrent 1988-present time frame, I don't think Brian's albums hold up nearly as well. Both made far from perfect, A+ albums, but I'll take "Flaming Pie" over "Imagination" any day, and I'll take "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" over "Gettin' In Over My Head" (and I seem to like GIOMH more than a lot of BB/Brian fans). McCartney's last few, especially "Egypt Station", were pretty weak. But I don't need to point out that Brian hasn't done much studio work past "No Pier Pressure." The "Long Promised Road" soundtrack is cool, but that's mostly old stuff. "At My Piano" is nice (McCartney had a slightly similar moment with his material on his "Working Classical" album in 1998).

There's obviously no need to pick one over the other, and I'm not sure how "A Friend Like You" would ever remind anybody that Brian's material is better than anybody else's, especially McCartney.

I think it just depends on what you’re looking for in your music. I love Brian’s harmonies, so while Imagination is kinda corny in places

(and I really can’t stress how annoying/devastating it is that Joe Thomas put awful nylon guitar on seemingly every second of that album….I mean seriously, you get to work with THE Brian Wilson and the 90s adult contemporary sound is what you go with? Reminds me of Kubrick making 2001 and opting to go with classical music rather than Pink Floyd because he didn’t want his movie to be dated to the 60s (which solidified that movie as a timeless classic). So, how on earth do you say “yes, this clearly to-be-dated 90s adult contemporary style is what Brian has been needing to do all these years.”? It’s interesting that the rest of Brian’s solo work isn’t really as dated as Imagination - okay, maybe BW88 but that album is just awesome so it’s forgivable. And the thing is I can totally dig South American - it is pure cheese but it fits Brian’s persona so well (in that it’s a quirky but fun song). So it’s not even really the songs themselves but that awful AC sound. But that nylon guitar needs to go. I know it will never happen, but they need to do a remix of Imagination and bury all that AC garbage. There is a great album tucked behind that mix somewhere. I know the powers that be won’t want to have Mark spend a couple weeks remixing the thing, but really what harm can it do? They’re probably worried Joe Thomas will sue them haha).

Anyways, rant over….so while Imagination is kinda corny in places, I could listen to Brian’s harmonies on that album any day over any solo Macca albums. But that being said, I totally get why people would love Macca solo albums over anything Brian has done in his solo career. Just different tastes. Thankfully it ain’t a competition. I’m glad both artists have stayed busy recording music well past the 1960s.

HeyJude, your preference is obvious, considering your nickname. :)
Tastes differ. I love Sir Paul myself.
On the other hand, I feel free of being reminded of Brian and Paul by a song by Brian and Paul...

Total agreement.  To even compare Brian's solo work to Paul's is pretty much an "apples and oranges" argument.  Paul's been doing the solo thing since 1970, has had many commercial and critical successes, and quite a few epic tours in stadiums. 

Brian on the other hand didn't even get his solo career going until the late 80's (although that doesn't necessarily mean anything in the scheme of things) and he has had nowhere near the successes Paul has had.  And no, that is not in any way a "knock" on Brian.  With perhaps the exception of the SMiLE remake, Brian's solo career has simply been far more lowkey than Paul's.  Although I enjoy most of his solo albums and think his return to touring (at least in the beginning anyway) was a personal triumph for him.

As for "A Friend Like You", this new remix is certainly interesting and it's nice to hear Paul's contributions a little more prominently.  But the song was never very good in the first place. 

The name came first actually! I'd like to claim I was a BB and Beatles fan right out of the womb, and I guess I sort of was, but not really.

I get that the song makes one think of these guys and their links and their careers. I was only saying I don't think a middling track from the two should reflect particularly for better or worse on the *quality*, or *comparative quality*, of their catalogs. This is definitely not the song that makes me thing "Wow, I prefer Brian's solo albums to Paul's" (or vice versa). The track reminds me of that "Walk With You" track off whatever Ringo album that Paul was on (ironically, co-written by Van Dyke Parks!); it's a pretty anti-climactic collaboration. Though, "Walk With You" is actually truly bad, whereas "A Friend Like You" has some good stuff going for it.

Awesoman, somebody prefers apples, somebody (like me) prefers oranges.
I could not care LESS about who has the more success. If success were my guiding light, I'd be a fan of Justin Bieber and C.
And no, I don't think preferring Brian makes me a music illiterate. Quite the contrary.

O.K. I'll admit it. As much as I completely disliked the remixes on the new Sounds of Summer, I really enjoyed this version. Although, I've always been one of the outlier fans of Gettin' In Over My Head.

This was really lovely. They improved on Mark’s 2004 mix.

Paul’s solo output as a whole is better than Brian’s, but I would put 88 and TLOS up there with Paul’s best post-Beatles work.

Yeah, I don't think an artists' success and one's personal preference in music have anything to do with one another. I think the Beatles are the greatest band to ever come into this universe, however if left on a desert island I would 100% no doubt take The Beach Boys catalogue over the Beatles any day. Likewise, Paul has clearly had a better solo run than Brian (it's really not even a close comparison). However I'd listen to Imagination or the Disney album any day over anything McCartney has done. It's not a knock at McCartney, I just prefer Brian's music.

One area where this often gets hung up is that I think you can like “Thing A” more than “Thing B”, but also say from a sort of objective/critical point of view, “Thing B” is stronger/better/more consistent, whatever.

I’ve run into a lot of Brian fans (and I’m not saying anybody here necessarily falls into this category) who have, let’s say, a pretty narrow, insular bubble of music they listen to. And it has to be pretty narrow for *me* to feel that way, because I’ve never considered myself someone with an epically wide-ranging taste in music.

Like the person a few years back that liked Brian’s take on “Wanderlust”, but refused to even listen to or make room for the *possibility* that McCartney’s original was good, let alone better (and of course it is, but Brian’s take is good and one of the only good tracks on that awful tribute album).

To me, Brian’s solo career is similar to the late era/most recent era of Paul’s solo career in that there are always some great things on the albums, but the days of front-to-back stunning albums are long gone. (I think Brian’s “Smile” is kind of its own thing, but certainly if we count that as just his “next album” in 2004, it’s by far his strongest front to back).

It's a shame that this is the case. I would argue that the Gershwin album is a front-to-back stunner (every song on there is a polished gem if you ask me)....but it's not really pure Brian solo material either.

I think TLOS is front to back fabulous.
Loving Brian's "solo" work does not mean one is "insular", nor does it show bad taste in music. One can love John Coltrane, Indian classic music AND Brian (besides the Beach Boys, of course).
Every attempt to picture Brian's solo work as "objectively" subpar just annoys me. Say that you don't dig it so much, no problem. Objectively? No way.
According to several people, Smiley Smile is "objectively" a terrible album. Pity that for others it's a masterpiece.

That's not at all the point I was making.  Of course whoever you prefer is entirely subjective regardless to their successes.  I wasn't suggesting otherwise.  I was looking at it from an objective standpoint that their commercial/critical successes aren't really a fair comparison due to how different their solo career paths went.   But whomever you prefer to listen to is entirely your own personal opinion.

Let’s talk about the remix. I’m amazed they did this!

It sounds great to my ears. I only wish I had the original more readily available for comparison (my copy is stored somewhere on a hard drive). Really wish they'd remix the whole album and put it up for streaming or purchase on iTunes.

I like this one, though I'm generally not a fan at all of any of the Beach Boys' remixes. I'm a pretty staunch defender of the album, overall, but this song itself is not great. I always felt this was such a missed opportunity, and has always reminded me of the excitement around the news of a Chris Brown/Lil' Wayne collaboration and then we got... "Transform Ya" and it was just like "big oof."

But this mix gives it a little more energy and room to breathe and its awesome to hear Paul worked more and more prominently into the track.

I think one of the downsides to GIOMH is that most of the songs on the album go on for 4+ minutes. Back in the 60s he'd make these 2-3 minute (closer to 2 minute) songs that were just the right length to keep you interested. I feel like if each song on GIOMH was chopped in half it would have a lot more appeal.

So this song, A Friend Like You, isn't a monumental sonic achievement, however it is kinda catchy - and I feel like if it clocked in at around 2 minutes it would be appreciated a lot more.

  I fear that in this thread I was unconsciously trying to deflect the discussion away from "A Friend Like You".

Man, this is a good point. Something that Joe Thomas picked up on, actually — both Imagination and NPP have some super short songs. The new soundtrack, too.

I always maintained since 2004 that "A Friend Like You" has some good elements, but it was *vastly* overproduced/arranged. Way too many bells and whistles. Too many saxes and trumpets and all of that. It's slathered in way too much instrumentation. The original mix itself actually is okay, and doesn't sounds too muddy or cluttered considering how cluttered the instrumentation is.

I've said since back then that a remix could make the song much better. This new remix does strip it down *somewhat*. Not enough for my taste. But it's probably a better overall presentation of the song (though ironically a bit of the newly mixed-up McCartney vocal riffing sounds a bit awkward), and I think they even pushed up some additional Brian vocal stacks here and there as well.

A remix of the entire GIOMH album would certainly be interesting. I'll never get a Brian solo recording as dry and stripped-down as I'd like, but I'll take what I can get.

I'm not sure how much cutting down the songs would help the GIOMH album. I think the main issues are that it's kind of "underwritten" and "overproduced." I remember hearing the "Cocaine" tape years prior and thinking "City Blues" would make a good track. My jaw hit the floor when they did it for the GIOMH album. But it's a mess. It's muddy and cluttered, Clapton's guitar wankery does it no favors. It's hard to tell how much the issue is the arrangement versus the mixing. I guess it's kind of both? A number of the songs on the album have this issue. And that's looking at the *good* compositions. Then separately, yes, some of the songs just aren't too hot.

But I remember liking it more than the majority of fans back in 2004!

I wonder if there are any plans to release this mix for purchase.  Seems like a lot of trouble remixing this thing just for that rather trivial video it was attached to. 

It was a terrible combination of being overproduced and underproduced, if that makes sense. Like, it was cluttered and busy but the mix…eh…not even sure I can call it that. I knew this dude back in college , Audio IV class. I had 2 hours of studio time before class but had to wait for him to take his stuff down so I could set up. He talked about everything he’d done and how many tracks , and how he was proud of dubbing in harps , banjos, all this stuff. 40+ tracks worth of stuff. Consider this was 2001 in Pro Tools. Anyway , about a week later when we as a class we’re listening to each others’ projects, it was his turn. He never bothered to mix the f*cker! Literally just compressed the hell out of it and threw a limiter and called it a day*. When I heard GIOMH for the first time , I had the same reaction as I did to Johnny’s project.


* The wav looked hilarious, by the way… it looked like some wrapped a hoagie in a gym mat. Or as I called it, “the world’s smoothest rectangle “

Billy, GREAT post. Really.
You are both competent and no-nonsense. It's rare. You, Guitarfool and pretty few others. I'd wish.

As I’m sure many fans will recall, the *perception* anyway back in 2004 was that “Gettin’ In Over My Head” was being kind of just pushed out quickly to market to get it out of the way before “Smile” was released. As the story went, they had basically added the GIOMH album as a rider to the “Smile” deal, to basically get two albums out of making a deal for “Smile.”

I love me some Brian vocal stacks, even messy ones. But some of them on GIOMH test any fan’s tolerance. That intro to “You’ve Touched Me” is pretty rough. (Conversely, I dig the Brian vocal stacks on “How Could We Still Be Dancing”, while the rest of the song is kind of meh). But some of the lazy *sounding* vocals on the GIOMH album didn’t assuage any concerns that the album had seemed to be “rushed.”

The “word on the street” back then was that while nobody had pushed Brian too hard in the studio on those vocals, Darian had “cracked the whip” as someone put it back then, getting very good (for that era anyway) vocals out of Brian for “Smile.”

How much all of these perceptions are actually accurate is debatable. I mean, some of the GIOMH tracks were older. It’s not like they went in and recorded 13 songs from scratch over a weekend or something.

One of the things with the sound of the GIOMH album is that Brian of course clearly likes big, lush, wet arrangements and mixes, with a lot of instrumentation usually. I think this has led to some stuff getting over-cluttered/muddy. On GIOMH, this was exacerbated by also just shoveling even more on top of some of the arrangements/recordings.

A stripped-down remix of the album I think would be more enjoyable. Like, I dig the new “A Friend Like You” remix, and I don’t think the ethos of either Brian or Mark or anybody is to do like a Johnny Cash-Rick Rubin sort of thing, but man, I’d love to hear “A Friend Like You” without *all* of those woodwinds and extra instrumentation. Stop it with the bass sax. I love Paul Mertens, but I never needed bass sax on “This Whole World” live either.

I like the Elton John collab.  Nice honest rock 'n ' roll, like Desert Drive.
Clapton, a wreck just like it was to be expected (the guy will always miss a Jack Bruce and a Ginger Baker).
Macca, no way. Simply a bad song, imho.That goes beyond arrangement or mixing. Just a bad song.
But the worst offender in GIOMH is the title track. In the WilsonPaley sessions it is sublime, with even slightly Arabian Nights overtones.

P.S.
I confess I love Paul Mertens' bass sax, particularly at the end of Fun, Fun, Fun live.

Perhaps irrationally, my definitive City Blues is the Richie Sambora version from one of those Brian tribute shows. I youtube it everyonce in a while, and every time I'm like... yea, I like it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y26yxO-fQbk

Also Solomon Burke's version of Soul Searchin' hits the spot. Have that on a few summer mixes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07lD2qTpayA

I think some of Brian's solo material, and this album and imagination in particular, are full of songs that are not quite brilliant enough to withstand the treatment they got, but are actually beneath the surface songs way beyond what the average songwriter is capable of, and are just dying to be covered. I'm totally off-topic by now, but Cry is one that I'd just love to hear reach it's full potential.

The Richie Sambora cover at that tribute show was funny, because I don't think there's much of any chance he just happened upon that song. I would imagine he or somebody noticed "oh hey, Clapton played a bunch of guitar on one recent Brian track, so that's probably in my wheelhouse."

Those tribute shows are almost always awful, and the second one can sniff out that the performer had never heard of the song prior to learning it for the show, it's even less interesting. Unless they really happen to stumble across a *great* random case of a performer really nailing the song. Which rarely happens.

I give maybe the Nate Ruess take on "Hold on Dear Brother" a pass, both because it wasn't really a "tribute" show, and hearing Brian's band nail that song was worth it. And even if Ruess found the song just for the show, it's at least an inspired choice. (Though one wonders if someone else threw the song at him for consideration).

Having Richie Sambora solo on a tribute show was already a B-list move.

Paul Simon's Surfer Girl
Red Hot Chilli Pepper's I Get Around
Backstreet Boys When I Grow Up (wildcard choice)

are tribute performances that I have enjoyed.

I think it’s more likely than not that Nate was very, very familiar with “Hold On Dear Brother” and the Carl and the Passions album. I was a pretty big fan of Nate’s band The Format (which was his group before he achieved more mainstream notoriety with his band fun.) and they wore their influences pretty heavily on their sleeves as far as I remember, definitely name checking Paul and Linda McCartney’s RAM and Nilsson. I’m nearly positive that they cited Brian as a major influence. So yeah, very likely hit knew that material very well.