Wonderful words, Andrew -

thank you for sharing these thought with us.

The only thing I learn from this piece is that mr Beck isn't the greatest diplomat in the world - he could have phrased it otherwise.

And the picture is an ill-chosen one.

Unfortunately at the time, the Beach Boys themselves were the epitome of unhip!

True dat.

Brian could have called himself Richard M. Nixon and no one would have raised an eyebrow.

I thought Carl's singing was superb on L.A. The only albums where his vocals suffered (a bit) were 15 BIG ONES and LOVE YOU.

It's not good on MIU either. I agree that he sings well again from L.A. on, but of course it didn't have that youthful sound of his teenage years.

Why would we want him to sound like a teenager the rest of his life? Maturity is not a bad thing, even in singing voices.

Pop music is a young person's game. A youthful image is essential... proof is on the back cover of the Imagination CD...

Ha - a then friend of mine had bought Imagination on its day of release and showed it to me at dinner. Immediately and on instinct I remarked about the front cover picture: 'Nice, that must be the son of Brian Wilson then.'

He had a big LOL moment and I took that as a real compliment.

I always loved Bret Wheadon's take on Summer Dreams (from www.beachboys.com):

REVIEW: If Looking Back With Love is your idea of a good Beach Boys album, then have I got the movie for you.  Summer Dreams has so many bad elements it's hard to know where to begin.  For one thing, where else can you find a movie that has achieved a degree of infamy for it's facial hair?  The fake beards here look like they were swiped from the Planet of the Apes.  Then there's the fact-impared script; derived from Steven Gaines' book Heroes and Villains, this should tip any curious viewer right off the bat that this is not going to be Masterpiece Theatre.  The film takes the point of view that Dennis was the most interesting Beach Boy, and is told from his point of view.  We see the young, 35-year-old 'teenage' Wilsons cavorting about on the beach, at home with Father (the perfectly-cast Arlen Dean Snyder as Murray) and starting their own band.  We see Sensitive Brian, the Chubby, Quiet Carl, the Hunky Wildboy Dennis (played with aplomb by Bruce Greenwood), the Balding Mike and that Other Guy all shuffling around making great music.  Then... Brian gets psychedelic!  Mike gets a beard!  Then they all get beards!  Dennis sings a song that he never wrote!  Then it's 1985 and everyone joins in for the 4th of July at the Nation's Capitol.  Inspiring!  Ugh.  A couple of the actors manage to capture some of the essence of the characters they portray, but on the whole, this is is Grade-C government process cheeze-whiz, and a poor introduction to a complex band.

(I hope I'm allowed to cite this.)

@rab2591 -

thanks for that hilarious 'scientific' post above! It really made me laugh, and I await further installments with eager anticipation.

Greenwood's great as Dennis in that flick! He doesn't look like him too much, but it's a very respectful, human portrayal .....

As cheeseball as the thing is, it reignited my childhood love for The Beach Boys. I remember watching it on the tiny little TV in my room, long after I was supposed to be in bed. I was still living in Hawthorne at the time and was simply blown away that these guys, this whole amazing thing sprang from my hometown.

I think the film's pretty awful. But I have nothing but praise for the person who portrayed Murry Wilson. He was the right choice and his performance was excellent.

Agree - Murry was played so well, by someone who really resembles him. IIRC you see him reflected in the mirror of that control booth, and he truly looks like some angry Deity...

Can I make a case for the motion picture classic Summer Dreams? AKA The Beard Movie, it made fake beards hip, after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5taTzrv400

Paul Dano as Brian Wilson

It is amazing. Everything's done right, I think. In fact, I was scrolling down to scan this thread, and mistakenly thought: oh, a BW piccie at the pool, nice, and went down farther, only to discover that it actually wasn't BW but the man portraying him... so there is definitely something very, very right here.

Maybe it's me, but at first glance I thought it was Stebbins.   

 

F*cking great song. Underrated as hell.  Mike sounds nasally cool plus Denny's tag is just pure awesomeness. It's OK = as good as Do It Again.

Actually, I find it better than DIA. I think the production values have something to do with this - DIA sounds a bit muffled to these ears, in comparison with 'It's OK'.

It's crisp, the 'Find A Ride' 'tag' (hm, that's understating it a bit) is a superb find, and Roy Wood's sax is another fine idea. Not for one moment does it sound outdated, or merely nostalgic.

Together with 'Just Once In My Life', it constitutes the finest performance(s) on 15BO.

Upshot: the very inspired cover and the lovely new track gave me real hope; that our boys found new options, new directions. To follow for, oh, the next decade, or longer.

Then came the quirky, cultish classic that is Love You, and hope continued.

But their style changed with MIU, although 'My Diane' is fantastic. L.A. had its moments too, but was unforgiveably marred by 'Here Comes The Night'. Had they done four new songs instead of that abomination, the LP could have been like Sunflower.

I think, though I'll have to check, that this may set a new record for the most items of totally inaccurate info expressed in the fewest possible words. 

 

The Beach Boys never fail to amaze me.

This is solid info, reliable and well-researched.

http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/specialpresentations/love-mercy

Nothing new, but a higher resolution photo of Dano as Brian.

Brian's been taken off the producer billing.

Can't see that as any sort of significant problem.

The frustrating thing is I'll try a new or different brew, then forget the name! I guess there is a joke in there somewhere.

One import I really enjoyed was Geffel Kolsch, and I wondered how it works in the actual country of origin when judging these beers. Like the Geffel Kolsch, I thought it was a great brew, but how is viewed in Germany?

Well, the "Kölsch" style of brewing is the favorite beer type in Cologne, and is only brewn there, but outside many people don't consider it worth drinking. As it seems to get stale very quickly, it is served in unusually small glasses, very thin ones called "poles" - you know, like telegraph poles. I only have one friend who loves Kölsch, but I don't know if the Gaffel brand is one of those Kölsch brands that he likes or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6lsch_(beer)

Kölsch is not my kind of beer, however, my favorite one served in pubs here is called "Staropramen dark", a Czech beer.

I love Kölsch! As well as Krombacher, Bitburg, and other German light coloured beers - their colour is such that they sometimes, under the right lighting conditions, seem to be luminescent, radiate light themselves.

Others: Bavarian stuff (e.g. Erdinger, and a couple the names of which I forgot, probably due to drinking too much of them).

Paul Dano as Brian Wilson

It is amazing. Everything's done right, I think. In fact, I was scrolling down to scan this thread, and mistakenly thought: oh, a BW piccie at the pool, nice, and went down farther, only to discover that it actually wasn't BW but the man portraying him... so there is definitely something very, very right here.

Hi Theydon -

thanks for your contribution and the links.

I have a hunch that you are the person who could give an excellent recommendation (or two) for clavichord (cembalo) performances of the WTC. And I would be very grateful if you'd do so.

Thank you in advance, the Don.

I would truly love to help but sadly I don't have any of these!  In fact, the only non-piano version of which I have any knowledge is Kenneth Gilbert's version (recorded on a restored 17th century harpsichord), which is very highly regarded:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bach-Well-Tempered-Clavier-Book/dp/B0000057CG/ref=sr_1_12?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1406226330&sr=1-12 (cheaper methods of purchasing this music also exist)
Arguably usage of a harpsichord is no better a solution to the problem posed by the WTC than usage of a piano, but I suspect that Gilbert's interpretation will be satisfying enough to your ears to transcend such concerns.  Hope this helps (even if it doesn't answer your question)!

Hiya Theydon (great, great name BTW - it oozes class...) -

thank you, this is really satisfying to me. See: the name of mr Gilbert immediately resonated with me... I'd lost track of the harpsichord versions somehow (I guess because I began to love comparing the piano versions), but now, after your call, I distinctly recall from years ago that indeed Kenneth Gilbert's was named as one of the mandatory performances to purchase (IIRC by Gramophone, amongst others).

So your reply really is helpful, cheers for that!

THD.

COMMENT:  The key word in this question is "influence." Brian as well as every other person in the western world listens to music via the Well Tempered Scale. This was invented by J.S. Bach.  Therefore, all and I mean ALL music has been directly influenced by J.S. Bach.

I hate to do this since I'm a big fan of your work and your contributions here, but I'm going to have to correct this.  Firstly, Bach did not invent Well Temperament.  The person normally credited with developing this tuning system was Andreas Werckmeister (1645-1706), whose "Werckmeister III" temperament (which he published about in 1691, decades before Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier) was used for tuning pipe organs and is still sometimes used today by period-instrument string ensembles.  Details of the various intervals involved can be found here:
http://www.tonalsoft.com/enc/w/werckmeister.aspx

Some academics (especially Lehman) have argued that Bach developed his own version of Well Temperament, though this idea is based on inferences and is not uncontroversial.  An interesting article on this topic, promoting the theory that Bach used his own tuning:
http://www.bjarne.altervista.org/music/temperament.html

But secondly, even if Bach did invent his own version of Well Temperament, it should be noted that Well Temperament as Bach understood it and Equal Temperament as used today are different things.  So when you say that "every other person in the western world listens to music via the Well Tempered Scale", this is not true.  A good article explaining the difference between the systems and providing details of the different intervals involved can be found here:
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~mrubinst/tuning/tuning.html

Here's a YouTube video showing the same Bach piece being played using three different tuning systems: the one believed to have been used by Bach, modern Equal Temperament and Werckmeister III:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8M-JzIwbog

I do largely agree though that most Western music after a certain point can point to Bach as a (sometimes distant or indirect) ancestor.  He was the daddy.

Hi Theydon -

thanks for your contribution and the links.

I have a hunch that you are the person who could give an excellent recommendation (or two) for clavichord (cembalo) performances of the WTC. And I would be very grateful if you'd do so.

Thank you in advance, the Don.

Re: the Well-Tempered Clavier -

thanks go out to Stephen W. Desper for mentioning this piece, and its influence, in particular. To pop fans it may sound fairly abstract at first; but still, with a sustained listening effort it's bound to become a perennial favourite (well, it has with me, to start with).

Recommended versions:

Glenn Gould (CBS or Sony): succinct, terse, on the 'staccato' side, IMHO, but still: great, it commands one's attention. Great comment by GG himself, having been asked why he plays several pieces of it so fast: 'Ah, simple: the ones I don't like much I did very quickly indeed, to leave them behind me ASAP.' (Not a reply that many a classical musician will give one, I am certain.)

Edwin Fischer (Naxos Historical, dead cheap, mono): elegant, well-paced, and lovely to start with, it has no obvious 'bias' and still so much feeling. For beer money.

Angela Hewitt (Hyperion): the best most recent performance I know. On a par with her Goldberg Variations (also Bach, same label).

Special recommendation: Sviatoslav Richter (RCA): this is the 'romantic' one. Not sentimental, not syrupy, mind. Just: more elegant, 'dancing', freer... perhaps the best idea for pop fans; also a great starter.

Perhaps this will get considered a stupid question, but -

wasn't there an album planned by BW and with Jeff Beck as a main collaborator? Or was that just a rumour flying around before and during their joint touring enterprise?

The Women's Pet, The Men's Regret

Very touching indeed -

thank you for posting, Andrew.

I found this response to be very interesting, though:

Brian: I can't make any decisions anymore. I also can't say no. I'm too weak, really I'm too weak. Everything has to be done for me.

Sheriff, I can see what makes that quote seem interesting, especially as it plays into one of the predominant narratives about modern-day Brian: that he can't and doesn't do anything and his management or handlers do everything. But speaking as someone with depression issues running through his family, the quote doesn't surprise me or strike me as especially important. I don't claim any authority here whatsoever, as everyone is different and I don't know Brian outside of the public persona and music--I'm just sharing my experience.

I have family members who are regular, productive members of society, holding down professional careers and living seemingly normal lives, who have said very similar things here and there when the depression is flaring up (or weighting them down). The dramatic, dark feelings come out and those are the sentiments you hear. Then what? Then they get dressed, go to work, go out with friends, and do all the same things everyone else does. It's an honest statement describing the moment's feelings--I'm worthless, I'm useless--but it passes. It wouldn't surprise me at all if that's all we're seeing there: Brian at a bad moment. (Not some glimpse into the "reality" of his puppet status, for example.)

One of the best posts I ever read here; a compliment is in order.

I know a couple of things about depression, and this is one of them. The brain is 'locked' in some fixed state, for the time being. It is thought that the messenger substance glutamate in the brain can, though it being present in too high states, create 'valleys', in which the patient is temporarily trapped; dark, ruminative states are the results, feelings of helplessness and guilt prevail, and self-accusation may occur. Verbal utterances are in line with this state.

But all of this is not representative of what normally constitutes personality and character of the subject in question, as you eloquently illustrate.

Ha -

I recognized the text immediately, there are a couple of small (parts of) phrases that I recall from 10 years ago; and moreover, 'always afraid', or 'afraid all of the time', were English translations of the Dutch title of the article itself. It appeared in the cultural supplement of our quality newspaper De Volkskrant (July 9, 2004), and the interviewer was Gijsbert Kamer, a respected music journalist (he addresses Brian with 'U', which is courteous Dutch for 'you'; in all other pop interviews 'je' and 'jij' are used to ask questions, the informal ways of addressing others).

For those interested, here is a link to the original piece: http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2676/Cultuur/article/detail/723272/2004/07/09/Altijd-bang.dhtml

Get this one, 'Time Will Tell' is probably the best BBs homage ever recorded:

He looks really happy.... I know he can fake it but these pictures don't look fake to me.  Seems like he enjoys being in the studio.

It totally makes sense, that being the place he was always free and encouraged to express himself most of his life. People who are older especially tend to feel happiness and meaningful if they have something to get up for, whether it be a dog to walk, plants to water or in this case, an album to work on. I recall reading some less than flattering accusations that Brian is being forced to work on new material by his "wifeandmanagers" but I'd like to think he really does just love to produce music.

I don't think that one could ever force Brian into a studio to work on new music. Should this happen, then at best he'd sit there quite passively, perhaps banging out some dreadfully routine piece every now and then. He has this passive-aggressive resistance about him... doing nothing would be his way of saying: I am not here out of my own free will.

It is well possible that some real convincing was/is necessary to get him out on the road - IIRC he already showed marked uneasiness when playing live long before his health deteriorated; also please recall his breakdown on board of that plane (was that 1964?).

From what I know him playing live nowadays has immense therapeutic value, it is possible that this consideration plays a part if those nearest to him try to get him on stage. People with depressive illness benefit very much from what researchers call: novelty, enriched environments, social contacts, physical efforts. Let me get a bit scientific here (I'll try not to be pedantic): in depression and related disorders, there is a circuit-like system in the brain that may 'take over' for a while, it's called the 'default system'. This happens especially when there is no 'external input' of stimulating things/events. Then, lack of incoming positive signals leads to a state of ruminating, passivity, having negative thoughts (about being alone, about death, even). From what I know about Brian's history, he has had these phases oftentimes, and drugs aren't really required to enter them; endogenous depression is enough.

Going by reports here and elsewhere, he experienced live shows (e.g. during the C50 tour) where he needed time to get into the flow of the proceedings; he started out uneasy, but visibly got more active and happy later on. That more or less confirms my ideas, I guess.