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Smiley Smile Stuff => General On Topic Discussions => Topic started by: Wirestone on April 24, 2009, 11:16:57 AM



Title: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Wirestone on April 24, 2009, 11:16:57 AM
... Are available at BW.com

http://www.brianwilson.com/content/jukebox/index.html

... For what it's worth, these are the tracks that convinced me the TLOS record and previous sessions were the real deal.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Andrew G. Doe on April 24, 2009, 12:10:29 PM
I like TLOS very much, and have since the beginning... but, ah, how to put this... could have been better if Brian's original vision hadn't been, um, 'diluted'.

A f'rinstance - there's a killer extra verse missing from "Live Let Live"... there's a way better version of "Mexican Girl" (and you all know just how highly I rate that track...).

But, said it before, will keep on saying it - don't care who wrote what, Brian's performance of "Midnight's Another Day" is a towering, majestic achievement: his finest moment since 1970.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Bean Bag on April 24, 2009, 01:04:07 PM
Thanks for posting that!  Is there a way to download those?  Are they all available on disc?

TLOS is pretty amazing.  I've been listening to it a lot.  I mean a lot.  The live DVD and the studio disc.  Outstanding.

Andrew, what have you heard pre-tampered?  I remember in the DVD a mention of "I only tweaked the lyrics a little" in reference to Oxygen.  I thought...why the fck are you changing anything!!

I would love to hear this music "pre-tweaked." 


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Sam_BFC on April 24, 2009, 01:14:52 PM
I like TLOS very much, and have since the beginning... but, ah, how to put this... could have been better if Brian's original vision hadn't been, um, 'diluted'.

A f'rinstance - there's a killer extra verse missing from "Live Let Live"... there's a way better version of "Mexican Girl" (and you all know just how highly I rate that track...).



There is also a missing verse from FSBMSG that we heard on the version that was posted on BW.com in the run up to the RFH gigs.  Apart from these examples, how else was his vision diluted? Production-wise for instance? I personally would have preferred a bit more reverb the final record is a bit dry for me and one reason perhaps why many prefer the demo version of Midnight.

Are talking about just the demo version of Mexican Girl that was leaked or another?

EDIT - Also, are these bonus tracks from the Wilson-Bennet sessions or were any re-recorded at Capitol with the rest of TLOS?

Cheers


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: juggler on April 24, 2009, 01:17:26 PM
Is it just me, or does anyone else hate the spoken-word interludes on TLOS?  They seem really awkward, and there's some sort of weird echo.  Brian sounds like his mouth was covered with waxed paper or something.



Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: SG7 on April 24, 2009, 01:24:01 PM
For them to release this a whole 8 months after the fact...


Gotta love the BW management team  :lol :lol :lol :lol


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: ? on April 24, 2009, 01:36:17 PM
For them to release this a whole 8 months after the fact...


Gotta love the BW management team  :lol :lol :lol :lol

Maybe they had to wait until the exclusive clauses expired before they could do anything with them outside of Best Buy and iTunes?

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but there were two sets of demos for TLOS yes?  Has the first set been leaked at all?  I know there's a piece of footwear out there with 26 tracks but I don't know the tracklisting...


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: The Shift on April 24, 2009, 02:27:10 PM
I know there's a piece of footwear out there with 26 tracks but I don't know the tracklisting...

I think this is what you're refering to - www.giginjapan.com/scan147/brian-wilson-lucky.htm (http://www.giginjapan.com/scan147/brian-wilson-lucky.htm) but it's not the alt demo as far as I know. I really really don't have this one :(


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: MBE on April 24, 2009, 02:32:22 PM
Is it just me, or does anyone else hate the spoken-word interludes on TLOS?  They seem really awkward, and there's some sort of weird echo.  Brian sounds like his mouth was covered with waxed paper or something.



Yeah that's the major thing I dislike too. I love most of the songs, but I think the talking is kind of lame.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: The Shift on April 24, 2009, 02:36:37 PM
Is it just me, or does anyone else hate the spoken-word interludes on TLOS?  They seem really awkward, and there's some sort of weird echo.  Brian sounds like his mouth was covered with waxed paper or something.



Yeah that's the major thing I dislike too. I love most of the songs, but I think the talking is kind of lame.

I don't have a prob with the script, it's the delivery., BW's not the best for that and might have been better getting a guest to do the readings; maybe even an actor.   But then I can live it as is, as part of the concept.  I suspect I'm one of those who'd buy an album of Brian farting if one was available.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Wirestone on April 24, 2009, 04:57:03 PM
My suspicion is what Andrew is talking about is the shaping of the 06 BW-Scott sessions into the TLOS project in the first place. These songs didn't fit into the project, so they became "bonus tracks." The other songs were re-worked lyrically for the theme. That being said, I like the bonus tracks precisely because they seem to be mostly from those rough, original sessions.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: phirnis on April 24, 2009, 05:21:32 PM
I like the the spoken word interludes as they do remind me of Mt. Vernon and Fairway and the background music's very satisfying as well.
If there's one thing I mildly dislike about TLOS, it's California Role. I found myself skipping that song occasionally. It's not that bad but still sounds kind of forced in order to fit the overall California theme.

I'm Into Something Good should've been saved in order to become part of Pleasure Island of course.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: variable2 on April 24, 2009, 05:56:24 PM
Message Man is great..

I wish Brian had the confidence in his own work to put something like Message Man on an actual album, not just an 'exclusive bonus track', but the time for that is past methinks..

There's just too many conflicting things coming out.. like what AGD is saying, contrasted with Darian Sahanaja and Nelson Bragg in the TLOS documentary saying "we don't want to be a filter, we want the pure thing from Brian".. although now that I think about it, I do believe they said "we WOULD want the pure thing".. hmm..


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Wirestone on April 24, 2009, 06:12:20 PM
I don't think it's necessarily contradictory. Or any more contradictory than BW has ever been.

Brian is an impulsive dude. He cuts a lot of demo-not-quite-demo tracks with Scott, then gets a commission to produce a Smile follow-up. He wonders about retrofitting that earlier material. I mean, he accepted the commission, and he ended up suggesting using the earlier material that way. The band then has to team together to make it work as a live suite. That's diluting in one sense -- the finished TLOS album is certainly more polished and buffed than Brian belting away in Scott's bedroom -- but in another sense it's what people around Brian (since Murry) have helped - manipulated - bullied - assisted him in doing -- funneling that raw vision into work for a wide audience.

What's funny now, of course, is that Brian seems to be producing three- or four-minute pop songs and those around him are helping craft it into avant-garde suites -- as opposed to the other way round.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: sofonanm on April 24, 2009, 06:19:10 PM
Message Man is great..

I wish Brian had the confidence in his own work to put something like Message Man on an actual album, not just an 'exclusive bonus track', but the time for that is past methinks..

There's just too many conflicting things coming out.. like what AGD is saying, contrasted with Darian Sahanaja and Nelson Bragg in the TLOS documentary saying "we don't want to be a filter, we want the pure thing from Brian".. although now that I think about it, I do believe they said "we WOULD want the pure thing".. hmm..

Do you honestly trust anything said in DVD interviews like that?

I find it hard to believe that Brian was really %110 involved in the making of the album, but I don't really care. When I'm 60+ I want to be vegetating in a lawn chair staring directly into the sun, not being at work. Interestingly, though, in the BBoys heyday, when an album said Produced by BRIAN WILSON you pretty much knew that Brian was the man in charge, not just the name you put there because it sells. If I understand it correctly, that was part of the mystique around Brian that developed back then. Quit touring, stays in L.A recording for months producing things like Good Vibrations... like a mad scientist in the lab. Now he's like the scientist... just with a team of qualified specialists doing the work for him.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: juggler on April 24, 2009, 06:57:29 PM
Interestingly, though, in the BBoys heyday, when an album said Produced by BRIAN WILSON you pretty much knew that Brian was the man in charge, not just the name you put there because it sells.

Very true, very true.   What's the last thing labeled "Produced by Brian Wilson" that we can be sure is totally his production?    The Good Vibrations 45, perhaps?  IIRC, some recent Capitol repackagings list Brian as producer on some later songs originally credited to "The Beach Boys" (i.e., Heroes and Villains, Wild Honey, Darlin  and Friends).  And that's appropriate because it's certain (or at least very close to certain) that he did produce those songs.

On the other hand, I believe that "Produced by Brian Wilson" was on a lot of the American Spring stuff in the early '70s, but a lot of folks say that even by that time,  "Produced by Brian Wilson" didn't mean what it had meant a few years earlier.



Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: ♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇 on April 24, 2009, 07:06:51 PM
Quote
Now he's like the scientist... just with a team of qualified specialists doing the work for him.

Very well put.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Wirestone on April 24, 2009, 07:53:52 PM
My god, "Just Like Me and You" is a fabulous song.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: shelter on April 25, 2009, 01:29:39 AM
TLOS still gets better every time I hear it. Of course it doesn't have the vocal magic of the old BB records, but song wise, it might even be in my all-time BB/BW top five, right after Pet Sounds, Sunflower, Friends and Today... And it certainly is BW's sunniest album since All Summer Long...

*edit* Forgot about BWPS...  :-X Well, that makes it number 6 then. Still pretty good...


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: The Heartical Don on April 25, 2009, 04:00:23 AM
Call me Ishmael, but how can I capture these songs on my hard drive? I am not a tech wiz, but you may have gathered that by now... :-[


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: The Shift on April 25, 2009, 07:13:12 AM
If you're on a Mac, get yourself Audio Hijack Pro.... very good.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Sam_BFC on April 25, 2009, 08:32:41 AM
I found mp3s of the track in my temporary internet files folder, then copied them to my music.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: blazer on April 25, 2009, 11:05:09 AM
I found mp3s of the track in my temporary internet files folder, then copied them to my music.

Thanks for this awesome tip!!


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: phirnis on April 25, 2009, 11:09:04 AM
I'm really getting into "Just Like Me And You" right now. What a song!


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Wirestone on April 25, 2009, 12:12:32 PM
It's this wonderful combination of Love You style lyrics, odd 80s instrumental touches (that synth break!) and a Today-era chorus.

Just astonishing as a creation, and far more ambitious than many of the actual TLOS songs.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: SurfRiderHawaii on April 25, 2009, 02:01:59 PM
If you're on a Mac, get yourself Audio Hijack Pro.... very good.

I'd recommend WireTap Pro over AHP on the Mac.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: b00ts on April 25, 2009, 03:14:47 PM
Speaking of anachronistic synth sounds, did anybody else notice that at the end of the line "a reason to live, to live, to live..." in Oxygen to the Brain, there is what sounds like some sort of old sampler being employed - the harmonies behind the lead vocal are being pitch shifted deliberately, sort of sounds like an old E-MU Sampler


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: phirnis on April 25, 2009, 11:35:31 PM
It's this wonderful combination of Love You style lyrics, odd 80s instrumental touches (that synth break!) and a Today-era chorus.

Just astonishing as a creation, and far more ambitious than many of the actual TLOS songs.

And the best part is: these days this is probably as close to a "pure" Brian song as it gets and it's nowhere near as insipid and uninspired as most of the stuff we got to hear on GIOMH. On the contrary, it sounds very spirited and presentable. This just seems like an honest glimpse into the world of BW writing songs that "went number one in his living room".


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: pmugghc on April 26, 2009, 06:01:56 AM
If you're using a PC and Firefox then get the Downloadhelper add-on, then it's very easy to download the MP3.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: The Heartical Don on April 26, 2009, 06:12:39 AM
If you're using a PC and Firefox then get the Downloadhelper add-on, then it's very easy to download the MP3.

Okiedokie, cheers for that!


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Loaf on April 26, 2009, 06:26:07 AM
I want a whole album in the style of Message Man. I love it. The most complete BW since Love You.

I like the spoken word bits but I wonder what it would have sounded like with VDP narrating them? Better perhaps? Camper, certainly.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Weezer12 on April 26, 2009, 01:25:50 PM
I know there's a very special "flow" to "TLOS," but has anyone attempted to construct a new tracklist using these bonus tracks?


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Dancing Bear on April 26, 2009, 02:35:38 PM
1. Midnight's another day
2. Just like me and you
3. Good kind of love
4. Going Home
5. What love can do
6. Live let live
7. Message man
8. Southern California

Brian should hire me to be his Teo Macero.  :)


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: JB Wilojarston on April 26, 2009, 03:55:49 PM


Brian should hire me to be his Teo Macero.  :)

Yeah, cool.  Splice his little ideas together and make them into songs.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Ganz Allein on April 27, 2009, 08:56:14 AM
It's this wonderful combination of Love You style lyrics, odd 80s instrumental touches (that synth break!) and a Today-era chorus.

Just astonishing as a creation, and far more ambitious than many of the actual TLOS songs.

And the best part is: these days this is probably as close to a "pure" Brian song as it gets and it's nowhere near as insipid and uninspired as most of the stuff we got to hear on GIOMH. On the contrary, it sounds very spirited and presentable. This just seems like an honest glimpse into the world of BW writing songs that "went number one in his living room".

Is this a collaboration with Scott Bennett or a wholly Brian song?


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Wirestone on April 27, 2009, 10:13:46 AM
According to the BMI publishing database, both Oh Mi Amor and Message Man are credited to Brian alone. (Scott shows up on the TLOS tunes he co-wrote.) I can't find a listing for JLMaY.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Menace Wilson on April 27, 2009, 12:40:07 PM
LOVE THESE.

Message Man seems to pick up on a kernel of an idea from "Market Place", but is a MUCH more interesting song.

More proof that Brian still has it, even if he doesn't particularly want to use it that often.  :)


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Alex on April 30, 2009, 11:54:51 AM
Message Man is great..

I wish Brian had the confidence in his own work to put something like Message Man on an actual album, not just an 'exclusive bonus track', but the time for that is past methinks..



Brian should've put "Marketplace" on the album..."Message Man" was just a re-write of that song. Whenever I listen to "Message Man", I always want to sing "message man, message man, buy some bananas and apricots, lox and cream cheese, can I take your order please". :lol


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: sofonanm on April 30, 2009, 12:00:52 PM
What's the deal with Just Like Me And You? A Brian Wilson original? I like it a lot more than Message Man. It actually sounds like something Brian would've done around 1965-1966. And why, on that website, does it show up as TLOS when clicked and played? It's confusing.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: buddhahat on April 30, 2009, 12:18:25 PM
It's criminal that Message Man and Just Like Me & You are bonus cuts isn't it? They're better than 80% of the rest of TLOS imo and Message Man is one of my favourite Brian songs since BW88. It just lifts you right up whatever mood you happen to be in. What I love about these two bonus cuts is there's something very Brian about them, and to my ears they both prove that he's capable of writing songs easily as good as anything he's written since BW88. I just can't understand why they weren't saved for a proper album but that's nothing to moan about I guess. I just hope there is more of these loose, natural type of Brian songs to come.



Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Wirestone on April 30, 2009, 01:46:28 PM
Message Man is many things, but a rewrite of Marketplace isn't one of them. It uses the general feel of the opening "Marketplace - Marketplace" line, but I can't see much else in the newer tune that resembles the older.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Menace Wilson on April 30, 2009, 02:43:01 PM
Did I read somewhere that Danny Hutton did the backing vox on Message Man?  They sound fantastic, great compliment to Brian's voice.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: jeremylr on April 30, 2009, 10:08:08 PM
You did, that's Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night (AKA Redwood) on background vocals for "Message Man."


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: phirnis on April 30, 2009, 10:23:27 PM
Hanging out with Danny Hutton...  :afro


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Wirestone on April 30, 2009, 10:29:42 PM
I'm fairly sure it's Brian and Danny (and possibly Scott) together. I think I hear Danny on the "surrender to love" bits.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: pmugghc on May 01, 2009, 07:53:16 AM
For some reason I got hooked on "I'm into Something Good" w Carole King, a very simple but pleasing pop-song! Could have fit on American Spring maybe ?


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: TonyW on May 01, 2009, 01:36:35 PM
I recall that after Brian had debuted TLOS in the UK and before he went into the studio in LA to record it was reported that he had written some new songs that he wanted to add to the suite but was convinced by "others" not to do so. Is it known if any of these bonus cuts were those new songs?


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Mr. Cohen on May 01, 2009, 02:03:23 PM
Good question. I remember hearing about "Message Man" awhile ago. Who cares, I want Pleasure Island damn it!


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: buddhahat on May 02, 2009, 05:19:43 AM
Wasn't Message Man called Beatle Man at one point? This possibility makes me think the song is about Paul McCartney but I may have got my facts mixed up here.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: variable2 on May 02, 2009, 08:32:08 AM
Wasn't Message Man called Beatle Man at one point? This possibility makes me think the song is about Paul McCartney but I may have got my facts mixed up here.

Yeah I got that vibe too.. I also wondered if it was about himself during his heyday (1965-66)


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: lance on May 02, 2009, 09:39:35 AM
I thought it was about John Lennon.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Andrew G. Doe on May 02, 2009, 10:23:33 AM
According to the BMI publishing database, both Oh Mi Amor and Message Man are credited to Brian alone. (Scott shows up on the TLOS tunes he co-wrote.) I can't find a listing for JLMaY.

I'm told it's a collaboration with Van Dyke, but I'll double check that.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Rocky on July 01, 2010, 06:20:22 PM
Ya know when you take all of the songs from TLOS (removing the narratives) and add "Message Man" and "Just Like Me And You" you're left with a very eclectic playlist that does a good job of demonstrating all the many "shades" of Brian. It's almost like a stylistic retrospective, a Brian 101 if you will...took me nearly two years to get bored enough to try that...


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: buddhahat on July 02, 2010, 09:49:35 AM
I want a whole album in the style of Message Man. I love it. The most complete BW since Love You.


Yeah Message Man is right up there with any of his post Love You material for me. It has such an effortlessly uplifting melody - I don't think anything makes me feel happier than this song! This and Just Like Me & You are the types of songs I want to hear from Brian, and they feel free from any of the commercial or thematic restraints that you sense possibly hinder his creativity sometimes.


Title: Re: All TLOS bonus tracks ...
Post by: Myk Luhv on July 03, 2010, 06:52:42 PM
"O Mi Amor" is also a good song with a surprisingly strong vocal from Brian! If there was an album full of songs that reach the quality of "Just Like Me And You", "O Mi Amor", and "Message Man" it would be one of his best albums released since Love You! I've had the melody and refrain of "Message Man" stuck in my head for the last two days!