I'm just glad i'm ignorant enough to think my version of the CD sounds fantastic. 

You're a snooty little fellow aren't you? It's just down to how each person hears the sound, man. To some people, it sounds fucking harsh and ugly and when it's turned loud it's uncomfortable to listen to.

Luther dear boy, would you ever consider recording yourself reading one of your lengthier posts?

You should cover I'll Bet He's Nice if you haven't yet, and if you have, send me a link nigguh

sounds like the High Llamas a bit

or like, Sean Lennon meeting with Sean O'Hagen over yogurt and green tea and coming up with some music

This is interesting -

I tripped last night and the message I got was : I'm insane.

I'm more reclusive than Brian. How come I don't get no help? I had a mental breakdown at a job and then spent the next year tripping every day and ended up practically confined to my bedroom as well. Where's my record deal?

I have always taken the acid thing during the "Prayer" sessions as one of Brian's incredibly awkward jokes.

I somehow doubt they would all be tripping during recordings for something so complex.

Now that's just rewriting history. Awkward joke? Yeah right. An awkward joke would be : hey Mike, can I borrow your comb?

What has Jeff said about Love You exactly? Or any of the other insiders who don't like it for that matter.

He just doesn't like how it sounds.

All the more reason to perform it live and get it to sound good, methinks    

I wouldn't want to hear the Love You material with faux 1965 production touches. I'm sure it wouldn't work anyway.

Right - it would have to be a zany synth filled show full of good vibes

Obviously I don't think Love You will ever get a single full performance but I could really see Brian doing a few songs from it at least - I'll Bet He's Nice, maybe. I'd rather hear them do the ballads than whimp out on the rockers. That is, unless they each have a serving of cocaine and birthday cake before taking to the stage.

He must know that songs like Cabinessence and Wonderful are unique and amazing though.

I wonder what a Smiley version of Cabinessence would sound like...

What boot? I said book - Goldman - and acid, not coke.

Take it up with him, not me. My memory is fine.

yeah, it's an instrumental, right? I heard it on the Smile CD-ROM...everytime I bring it up everyone overracts exclaiming that Indian Wisdom was on the back of the SS album cover...I know I know, but there's a song with that label! 

Yeah instrumental

It had an ambiguous feel, like Mike Love on acid in India or something

Everyone hates on Loren but one has to understand it in context.

To him, Brian's initial reaction to LSD probably was hilarious. Why not?

It's fun watching people break out of their minds.

Many people have so much baggage in their minds they have to throw out, like Manson teaching Dennis the dance.

I guess one can lay the blame on Loren for being Brian's Tim Leary, turning him on in that way

Why Danny Hutton? I can understand hearing his dad. I can even understand Phil Spector, but why Danny Hutton?

Maybe he hung out with him too much and assimilated his personality into his own mind.

Just imagine every time something funny happens, Danny Hutton's voice bursts out laughing in your mind...

Wait, so Brian really hears Murry, Phil, and Danny in his head?

Someone should make this into a cartoon

One significant reason why families tend to ignore members with mental problems is because treatment often includes themselves - the families are often very much a part of the problem and obviously Murry etc was for Brian. Helping Brian way back then may have meant a large scale intervention sort of thing where everyone comes together to work it all out. It's difficult. Everyone is innocent. It's always someone else's fault. No one wants to admit their mistakes. Just let it be, maybe he'll be ok... that seems to have been the prevalent attitude.

"It's called Pleasure Island: A Rock Fantasy. It's about some guys who took a hike, and they found a place called Pleasure Island. And they met all kinds of chicks, and they went on rides and — it's just a concept. I haven't developed it yet. I think people are going to love it — it could be the best thing I've ever done." - Brian Wilson, Rolling Stone, 2008.

There's some info about the album in this old thread:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,6970.0.html

Wow, it really does sound like a porn film. God, Brian, get your mind out of the gutter.

Here's video of Brian answering the Facebook questions.

http://www.brianwilson.com/youtube_video/01.html

Woah cool.

Wait, so people wrote in their questions and... how did they get to Brian by telephone?

When I read them in that thread I thought it was like Melinda typing on a computer Brian's responses or something.

This thread seems like the appropriate place to ask - does anyone have that "Indian song" or whatever it's called? I heard it years ago and it sounded like it was from 67-68.

I believe PAC is referring specifically to LSD when he said "a small handful of times."

And in multiple interviews with folks from the time, that seems to be true. Maybe as little as once.

On the other hand, there was a lot of pot around, and he used uppers all the time.

I can shoot you down with that "only once" acid thing right now.

1. "Are you feeling the acid yet?"

2. Tripping in Hawaii

3. California Girls

4. On the beach figures out how Good Vibrations should go

5. Fire meltdown trip

Those are five separate LSD trips that I count and there are probably countless others if one reads inbetween the lines. If Brian's giving the guys acid at the STUDIO, how much is he using in the privacy of his home and with friends? It's worth considering. Sure you could say he gave them acid to capture a true spiritual feeling in Our Prayer. You could also say he was just so into acid like many people that he was using it frequently and getting the band on it too.

Brian has an incredibly hip side and an incredibly square side. Part of his charm is that he doesn't always know the difference.

This record comes largely from the Brian Wilson who hired Dick Reynolds not just in the 1960s, but in the 1970s. The Brian Wilson who cites Herb Alpert as an influence on this record. The Brian Wilson who listened to Four Freshmen albums over and over and over as a teen.

That's not the Brian Wilson everyone necessarily idolizes, but it's undeniably part of him. It's the old, dorky, white guy side.

(This, incidentally, is one of the reasons I backed "Imagination" some 12 years ago. Sure, BW has avant garde/rocking stuff, but his easy listening side is no less true and deep. I am not equating BWRG and Imagination, though, so let's not even start that.  )

Yeahhh I love perspectives like this, everything taken into account. True, part of Brian's style is effortlessly blending the incredibly cool and incredibly dorky. Wild Honey is a great example. Both song and album.

Hope this hasn't been posted already.  It's a recording of Brian Wilson on piano, playing "Mt. Vernon and Fairway" for a friend in 72'(?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oth3QmPq09Y

Woah, cool man.

Love your sig, too, lol.

Jeff loves his cookies.   

I really and truly believe that when it comes to pot, hash and even LSD -- which Brian did maybe a small handful of times, according to everyone I talked to who knew him back in those days -- you just don't see any longterm psychological effects, bad, good or otherwise.

I keep seeing this "small handful of times" type of dismissal of Brian's use of psychedelics and stuff like pot, but it seems to me that he used them more than a "small handful of times". Obviously I wasn't there / haven't spoken to anyone who was there / but it seems more likely to me that Brian Wilson, hip guy in the scene, could get whatever drugs he wanted, as often as he wanted, and I simply cannot imagine Brian regulating his use during those times.

To me, "a small handful of times" suggests like... dabbling a few times, never getting into it much. But isn't this Brian with the tent in his living room where Marilyn blew smoke into? Off the top of my head I count way more than three times that Brian used LSD, just based on stories like the one about their Lei'd in Hawaii performance.

What I think really happened is that Brian had a few really stand out trips on acid, and those are the only ones he speaks about, much like anyone who has used these substances often - you speak about the really good times or the really bad times, never the in between.

"In “Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin,” Mr. Wilson dresses Gershwin tunes in surfer attire."

Think you can stop right there and ignore the rest.

Having now heard BWRG I can agree wholeheartedly with ADG. The reviewer clearly hasn't even given the album one proper listen. Brian is not trying to dress Gershwin in surfer attire, nor has he even accidentally done so. There are 'Beach Boys moments' but they are actually quite few and far between.

Yeah the surfer thing is ridiculous. Brian's not even into his old surf group image, is he? I thought he'd been trying to distance himself from that since the mid 60s...

I think it is fair to say this album is not for everyone, BW fan or not.  While I think there are some nice moments here, in all honestly the album isn't really *grabbing* me.  It's a little heavy on the schmaltz for me (which is to be expected since it's a Gershwin project).  And I'm not really digging some of the arrangements here; some of which play it a little too safe.  Totally agree with the review that the Happenings version of "I've Got Rhythm" is better than the one on here.  And my hopes aren't very high over the Disney music album he plans to put out next. 

Pleasure Island----hooooooo!!!

These thoughts occurred to me as well on the first few listens. However, I had to sit back and get some perspective on things. I can't reasonably expect Brian to be as innovative as he was in 1967 and to put out records like Smiley, so I have to see what he IS doing and what's good in it. And in the Gershwin record I feel Love from Brian - his eternal central message. Paul Von Mertens may have played it incredibly safe but Brian still encodes a lot of love into the record. I just feel good listening to it. It's something I see myself turning to when I'm feeling in the mood for something from Brian. I'd take it over Getting In Over My Head (except Rainbow Eyes which is cool), Imagination, BWPS, etc.

Oh my god, I must hear this.

How I would love to be a fly on the wall in Brian's house during the making of SMiLEY SMiLE.

Reckon I'd get pretty high too with all the smoke billowing around...

Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin on Pleasure Island : A Homoerotic Tale of Forbidden Lust

Brian has said he used a lot of alcohol for a period of time.  That and stimulants..coke and amphetamines, go hand in hand with a lot of  cigarette smoking.  Even some pot smokers follow a smoke with tobacco....double trouble to the throat and lungs.  He is in amazingly good voice these days given his past.

mmmm american spirit perique blend tobacco following a smoking session......

Yeah, but it's not Brian's fault it sounds like merda. He doesn't master his own albums and ostensibly doesn't care to know how to do this either.

I wonder whether Brian even knows what his records sound like these days. The guy has one ear and his records are mixed in stereo. That alone speaks volumes. Block off one ear entirely and try to mix accurately in stereo.

What I want to know is - does Brian make a mono mix for himself? I would LOVE to get my hands on something like that. I believe that Brian was masterful at mixing in mono and it's a damn shame that he hasn't bothered with it for years.

Damn that sounds cool.

I'd question the title Pleasure Island if it were by anyone else but... come on, it's Brian, it's gotta be awesome!