Noname asked;
"A question that needs to be addressed....
did Spector's mind gangsters start the fire across the street to mess with Brian's fragile psyche?"

That's a good question. The reason we, the public, DON"T have the answer is that Brian wasn't/isn't sharing some personal experiences with us.

Based on Brian's "autobiography" though...one can, with a little imagination (remember, Einstein said "imagination is more important than knowledge") find out why Brian feared the mind gangsters and felt paranoid and why the fires made him uptight.

In the movie SECONDS there are numerous scenes that parallel Brian's LSD trip experiences. And since Brian was not sharing the contents of those trips--nobody picked up on what Brian was relating to in SECONDS (and Brian wasn't offering the info either), AND...Brian thought that somehow someone must be tapping into his mind for the secret info. And if you are familiar with some of the thinking typically associated with LSD experiences things like ESP and mind reading and vibes seem very possible.

As far as the fires across the street making Brian paranoid.....Brian was working on a new mystical album form (SMiLE). This was a project who's mystical power & potential was of uncertain quantity & quality. The one track which most embodied the idea of taking the negative trip experience to the listener was "Fire." So Brian got a little worried about what he was unleashing on the world and his growing paranoia had to do with these factors(which rarely enter into any SMiLE discussion).

As far as Phil Spector goes...Brian was always in competition with Phil (though Spector wasn't in competition with Wilson). SMiLE was to be Brian's advanced artistic leap which put him above & beyond Spector. Remember Brian was keeping lots of info about what he was up to secret. This secret info was what was putting Brian artistically beyond Spector. How could Spector compete? Well, when Brian saw SECONDS & saw his secrets on the big screen & the main character's name is "Wilson" and stuff. Brian couldn't explain how anybody got his secret info. Perhaps it was mind gangsters & the one person who might want to do this (to compete musically) was his assumed rival, Phil Spector. Maybe Spectorr was behind it.

Bob Hanes turned me onto The Tokes' album INTERCOURSE. It's really great and everybody should give it a listen.

The end of SMiLE started in November of '66 when Brian began to question the "appropriateness" of the "Fire" music. That was the point where David Anderle said they started to have problems.

Brian obviously knew what he was up to and nixed SMiLE cuz he wanted to play it safe. I can appreciate what a drag it was working with the guys & all those other "no smile" reasons.

Let us see man, C-man.

[THE]

Yeah, the idea of making your own version of SMiLE was what Domenic Priore proposed in his Surfin' Colors (DAG #2) book-Look!Listen VIBRATE!SMiLE!. Priore suggested compiling your own SMiLE on cassette tape from various sources. The suggestion was right there, couldn't be missed, on page one of the books introduction. That was THE SMiLE book (and suggestion) that really got the SMiLE movement going.

The essay was okay but I think the author would come to a different conclusion if he knew what SMiLE was really about.

BTW "dancing about archetecture" was originally an Elvis Costello quote.


Hi Rasmus!

-Bill

Just wanted to add something into the mix with regards to Brian's "paranoia" at the time.
In the mid sixties a big fad was the secret agent. This was brought about by the Cold War mentality & Bond films and spawned awareness of spying & "being bugged." So when Brian Wilson though he may be "bugged" it may have been an offshoot of this general paranoia that all this secret agent spy stuff helped create.

SJS said,

"I'm not following this "secret" line of thinking. What was Brian keeping a secret?"

The secret was that SMiLE was an intentional mystery. I know of no other album presented in this form.

The mystery is to help prompt a spiritual experience.

Have you heard of this aspect of SMiLE?
Probably not. It's a secret.

It's a mystery ain't it? Why didn't SMiLE happen?

I have another SMiLE mystery. Why did Brian apparently become so paranoid during SMiLE?

He wasn't "paranoid" during Pet Sounds or Smiley Smile or Wild Honey. Hmmmmm.

My guess is that when Brian was doing SMiLE....he was keeping a secret. The big secret was what SMiLE essentially was. Brian didn't tell anybody ('cept maybe Van Dyke & Frank Holmes).

When Brian saw the movie SECONDS he freaked cuz he saw some of his secrets on the big screen. How could that happen? "Somebody must be bugging me. Somebody must be tapping into my mind. There could be mind gangsters, right?"

And since Brian was keeping a secret....nobody really knows what SMiLE was really about.

SMiLE is Brian's biggest put-on (a planned spiritual turn-on) and when he started questioning the project's appropriateness he decided to scrap the whole thing. He started to see the project as an evil thing (later expressed VIA the "witchcraft music" quotes in the seventies) and hoped the subject would eventually fade from the public's eye.

Didn't happen.

Anyway, that's my take.

Hi Susan,

I'm probably just going to show up the day of the show...as usual. 

-Bill

Brian claims that Mike's vocal is off on the "California Girls" single. The timing is off.

Thanks Lee.

PUNK Magazine is pretty much like it used to be. These days a good chunk of the articles are about the seventies punk scene, but there are current band articles as well.  Great rare photos of the Ramones have been in each issue so far. There are comics & commentary.

http://www.punkmagazine.com/

Does anyone know if there is a spring issue of ESQ this year? Did the winter issue count as two?

Slightly off topic but PUNK magazine has restarted and has 2 new issues so far. Also there's a Bosko mag filled with old and new antics from America's least favorite cartoon character (bosko.com). Go Holmstrom!

Peter,

It sure seems that Brian wasn't letting too many people in on what those other two (or so) LSD trips were all about. Same goes for the acid flashback noted in the discredited bio.

Brian indicated (to writer Tom Nolan) that his musical direction for "Good Vibrations" and Dumb Angel (SMiLE) was due to what he learned as a result of two LSD experiences. It would seem key to learn more about these experiences in order to explain "GV" and SMiLE better.

What you say about the toll of amphetamine use is very interesting.

It would therefore seem that if there is any problem with Brian discussing his other LSD trips; that problem isn't likely due to anything psychological but perhaps may be due to the different way he saw things as the result of LSD.

Thanks Peter.

[never]

Peter' book covers Brian's first LSD trip to some degree (Loren says it was an full ego death experience). This trip preceeded the writing of "California Girls."

Peter, were you able to gather any information about any of Brian's other LSD trips or possibly an acid flashback?

These events made for some choice reading in the dis-credited bio, but never surface in any other Brian Wilson literature.

This is strange, especially since these later LSD events would seem to be important influences on PET SOUNDS, "Good Vibration," and SMiLE.

AGD said;

And... you're applying the rules of good reasoning to something Beach Boys related ?   Come come, my good fellow...

But you do see how fine reasoning could tend to validate some parts of Brian's "bio," right?

I honestly pick up an online vibe that people are supposed to totally ignore everything contained between the covers of that book.

But even if the book is just 20 percent correct, if you are citing something within the 20%, then you are correct.

You can cite part of Brian's bio and be 100% correct. It all depends upon which part one selects.

I have a question for Andrew who said;

As for basing your text on dubious source material such as Badman or Brian's pseudobiography, no excuse - there's this thing called the internet. Check out a few recurring names, email them, get the true picture. That's why Jon gets my utmost respect . He questions everything.

Andrew, what if one were to find some text in Brian's bio that was unverifiable by a second source. And suppose that same text, if given a reality check, allowed one to explain a wide variety of previously unexplainable phenomena.

Wouldn't one, given that this piece of text is the best explanation of things to date, be forced (by rules of good reasoning) to accept this piece of text as most likely true.

While folks are right about the idea that the Beatles got a SMiLE preview is wrong, they can still get the feeling, at least from Van Dyke's  quote, that Brian & Van Dyke were in competition with the Beatles and that they took it very seriously.

Priore's book is good for a few things. The Frank Holmes stuff at the end of the book is good stuff and the Van Dyke Parks interview stuff is also very good. Also the quotes from the "Inside Pop" tv show are good.

But Domenic's own view of SMiLE seems to be the one we get too often. And this is presented as the truth.

So what if "I wanna Be Around/ Friday Night" was to follow "Fire." Then what? What does it all mean?

Anyway, Reum & Hanes gave the book 5 stars on Amazon.com so you know it has got to be the truth.

Received a letter from Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman last week. The letter is about Iran and it appears that the Neocons are ready to go into Iran.

It was too bad that BWPS, the vinyl version, didn't come out as a single LP release. All the material would have fit, and it would be interesting to see what track started off side two. I sort of think that it may have been "Surf's Up" but "Child Is Father Of The Man" would have been okay.

Thumbed through a few pages of the book this weekend. It does look like an interesting read and the author is well schooled on Brian/Beach Boys literature.

I think there may be some insight to gain VIA this book and if you are a really sharp Beach Boys fan you'll discard the mistakes.

It's business as usual SMiLE-wise.

I've been trying for decades to write good songs (songs that I would buy if I heard them).

These days my stuff seems acceptable so here are my answers to the original questions.

-Do you write a consistent way all the time, or does it vary?
Goes both ways. If you're in a samey rut you try and approach things from a different angle. Usually I try & start with melody. Picking out a melody on guitar expands my melodic palette better than a melody off the top of my head. I try for a bluesy type of melody with some interesting notes in there for effect. Then I give the melody the singing test cuz if it's too clumsy to sing you've got to smooth things out. Then I go for backing chords trying various combinations.

- Music before lyrics, lyrics before music or simultaneously?
Lyrics need to be okay but I'm more hung up with the music.

- Do you sit down and decide "now is time to write," or just do it when the spirit strikes you?
Do it both ways. Sometimes if you force yourself to do it you'll start off crappy but after a while you'll get connected and be into the process.

- Do you prefer to be left alone or to work with someone else?
Alone.

- Do you write entire songs, or in bits and pieces?
I work on bits & pieces--but I also connect things in a way which flows via your chord progressions. In this way the song is unified and it harmonically guides you through the listening experience.

- From where do you tend to get inspiration?
Inspiration comes from the excitement of listening to cool music. You want to recreate that feeling via your music.

- Do you censor yourself in any way, and if so, how?
This may seem like a weird way to answer the question but I censor my songs by removing lame chord changes or anything that sounds too obvious. Then I try and use chords & vamps that harken back to the Tin Pan Alley days. The corny chord changes & accents add a uniqueness to the music and a heightened level of listening enjoyment.

Pacemakers' drummer Freddie Marsden (Gerry's brother) died earlier this month. He was/and is my favorite drummer ever!

Here's some more internet based info on Curtis Springer and his concoction made from vegtables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Howe_Springer

From hot springs to curative povers of water to his homespun religion, there's quite a few things that Brian could have related to his own experience.

"Vegetables" seems like one of those spur of the moment type of things. Brian wants to do the song & Van Dyke does the lyrics. It seems pretty impulsive.

But on the other hand, Brian got the idea from a radio "evangelist" (Curtis Springer?) and realized that this idea that folks who ate vegetables could accomplish anything fit into his goal of promoting spiritual enlightenment. Van Dyke was aware of this stuff as well (as his ESQ interview indicates). Then Brian deliberately decided not to take a pompous approach and made it a fun song. Brian wrote skits about vegetables & had people act them out. Maybe this is impulsive but there seems to be a lot of thought going into those impulsive things.

"Heroes & Villains" was supposidly done in no time flat. Brian gave Van Dyke the title & then it was off to the races. But Van Dyke used "El Paso" as a rough guide and once told me he was thinking along the lines of Robert Service. Maybe he was able to do all of this on the spot but it seems to me that there was a lot more thought involved than the participants are letting on.

When Brian had a flashback in the Pickwick Bookstore he remembered that Loren Schwartz told him that flashbacks were comparable to Zen riddles, mysteries full of meaning. And I think that this "full of meaning" thing is what we are presented with in SMiLE (notice also that presenting things as mysteries "full of meaning" would then, in essence, be posing something akin to Zen riddles; which would be promoting spiritual enlightenment in yet another way).

Michael Vosse said that Brian thought that laughter could trigger a spiritual experience, vegetable & health are important ingrediants in spiritual enlightenment, and "mysteries full of meaning" could also promote a spiritual experience.