I think Nick Venet came to court and testified against Mike.

Brian and his wife Melinda sued Jerome Billet, the court-appointed conservator for Brian at the time of the suit, and said that Billett was the one who refused to settle the lawsuit out of court and in fact, the lawyers defending Brian against Mike suborned perjury. At least one of Brian's witnesses was paid a bribe, according to Brian's own lawsuit. It didn't specify who they paid off, but since Brian had so few people testifying on his behalf, I wonder who it was who got a pay-off.

It is a little silly from the standpoint that not only is it two years old "news" (if it is news at all), but that he posted it where very few people could see it, including John himself. Maybe Nelson was hoping the post would leak into other parts of the Internet.  Nelson needs to learn to spell (douche without the e at the end, your instead of you're).   

It doesn't mean much. Most of the lists on Ranker.com only get a few votes, less than 100 for the top-ranked. So, no one much visits the website for most of their lists, some of which are pretty ridiculous. The only people voting on the songwriter list are stuffing the ballot box for their favorites.  I'm sure that poll has been discussed on Beatles and Dylan message boards, too.

By the way, Ranker.com also has a list for greatest living songwriter, and Brian is not even in the Top 20 on that list.

http://www.ranker.com/list/greatest-living-rock-songwriter/lons

Brian only needs less than 700 votes to overtake McCartney on the greatest-living list, who's #1.

Billy Joel is there, lower on the list. I notice Michael DeMartin has gotten in on the act, telling people on Facebook to vote for Brian.  Between that and this board, there's suddenly a surge of voting for Brian and he's Number 3. It's a little hard to overtake Dylan and Lennon/McCartney.

Considering the movie is going to be a large chunk of Brian's life with Landy and afterwards, there may not be a lot of time devoted to the Beach Boys years, anyways. They only have to feature maybe four or five key tracks to highlight his biggest hits with the Beach Boys. The rest of the film can use his solo work. They might use a mixture of the old studio recordings with freshly done remakes. Brian himself mentioned that he liked John Cusack's singing, and Paul Dano said he learned piano before undertaking the role. It would seem natural that those actors did at least a bit of singing and playing themselves. It would make a better match for their speaking voices than the way it was done for a piano-and-voice scene in "American Family," where they had the middle-aged Brian Wilson do the singing voice for the young actor who played him. It sounded completely out of place.

It's an independent production. It's not a major studio financed movie or a movie financed by a big TV network like ABC (American Family).  It was financed by individual investors.  I guess we'll know when the movie is released. It may also use non-original versions of Beach Boys songs. They can show Paul Dano singing a song at the piano as he writes it rather than having the original record playing.

I can't find a link to the quote for what the song rights cost for "American Family," but remember an interview with John Stamos in which he said the cost for using original recordings of Beach Boys songs ran into the millions. I looked up the movie on IMDb, and it only listed 15 songs total, but I'm not sure that was the definitive list or not. In any case, it's not uncommon for the rights to a major hit to run into six figures for one use.

That was an official leak, though. I'm not sure why they put that short clip on the official Facebook page if they weren't expecting some to form an opinion, good or bad. 

I did find it funny that when Mike later cancelled a gig at a SeaWorld property, Busch Tampa Gardens, due to the controversy over the "Blackfish" documentary, several people posted on his board that they hated him for cancelling that show and claiming that if it were Brian Wilson, Brian would never cancel on his fans. Well, considering his fans supposedly appreciate Brian for not playing that type of venue in the first place . . .

It depends on the casino, doesn't it? I went to quite a few shows when I was a child at the Nevada casinos (Tahoe and Vegas). I remember my parents being very careful to keep us kids away from the casino floor, but there was no problems with the people in the theater. Other kids were there, too. Maybe the Indian casinos are different?

Here's a quote from the director Bill Pohlad,  from the LA Times back in 2011:

I have no interest in making a biopic.…What's fascinating to me is to look at the different elements in his life, like that super-creative period when he was doing Pet Sounds and the later part when he was redeemed.…You don't have to know the music here in the same way you didn't have to know the math in Beautiful Mind…What we want to do is let you experience the story in a personal way.


I doubt there will be much Beach Boy music in it because the rights to it are very expensive. The last film project to feature a lot of original Beach Boys music, American Family, cost millions of dollars in music rights, to the point that it took up almost one-third of the total budget.

People have complained here about Mike playing casinos. It may be more noticeable in Mike's case because he plays over 100 gigs a year, so he probably plays more casinos in a year than Brian ever does.

I looked on Brian's website, and there is nothing on this gig on the main tour page, nor either of his later gigs in Modesto and Long Beach. A fan mentioned it on Brian's message board, after noticing a news article on it a few days ago. The only things on Brian's tour page are the past gigs in Cork and Hopyard Farm.

Isn't the original a line about "no more cut-off jeans"? It could be the person listening wasn't familiar with cut-off jeans or didn't hear the line correctly, for some reason. Sometimes printed lyrics are transcriptions by people listening to the recording, not the lyrics as submitted to the publisher.

There is a story from Carnie in 50 Sides of the Beach Boys about her playing for Brian the Wilson Phillips cover of Our Prayer. After she plays it for him, he tells her "I have to tell you something. Do you know what inspired me to write Our Prayer? it was Bach."  He then takes her to the piano and plays the chord sequence for her and shows her the Bach-isms that went into that piece of music.  The parallel movement that is in the piece (and Craig is correct - classicists frown on parallel movement), I suspect comes from pop vocal harmony that Brian had also cut his teeth on during his youth.

Brian in 2011 told radio host Jian Ghomeshi that California Girls was influences by Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.

Now anyone can deny the Bach influence is beyond me.

I hear the "Jesu" influence more in "The Little Girl I Once Knew." There's something familiar about the organ parts, though maybe it's not that.

"Brian" forgot his chocolate donuts.

 

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

When there are people who haven't heard the album who are already saying it may be a great album, how is that different than people saying they think it might not be? They're both uninformed opinions. It's the battle of guessing games.

Then, there's this perspective:

http://www.sfbg.com/noise/2014/07/22/why-brian-wilsons-next-album-will-probably-be-masterpiece

I don't know if that's very flattering to Brian or his fanbase over the age of, say, 35. He thinks TLOS is a crappy album, even though it's the most Brian-controlled album among all his solo albums. He thinks surf music stinks and that the only audience that counts are young music nerds. Then he makes his entire argument at least slightly ridiculous when he says that Brian is touring with the current Beach Boys.  I suspect he's not really a fan of Brian or the Beach Boys, but has read about them and thinks what he wrote is what hipster indie rock writers should think about Brian.

The two-for-one full album CD's can be picked up for very cheap off of Amazon.  Some for less than $5 (used, in good condition). It's a good way to get a complete collection of all the albums from the '60s through the '80s.  The vinyls can be obtained later, and some of the albums you might not even want on vinyl.

They were shooting for this film just this past Sunday. Must have been for finishing touches, because the casting call was for cars (from the mid '80s).

http://www.projectcasting.com/casting-calls-and-auditions/love-mercy-movie-casting-call-for-extras-cars-in-los-angeles/

Why is it an insult to Ray Lawlor to say he's entitled to his opinion, but other people may not have an identical opinion once they hear the album? Some people may like it even more than Ray, some people may like it less. Some people may like or love it but not compare it to the life suite. Having people who have heard it in advance and say things about it doesn't make it so for another person's experience once they have the same opportunity. That also goes for Don Was and his remarks in the latest RS article.  The fans and also music critics will form their own opinions once it's released. Maybe it will mirror what has been said -- or not.

If Joe Thomas is such a great guy, and if he's worthy of not being regarded with "contempt" in spite of what he did with the C50 live album, then why did Melinda Wilson once sue him? It wasn't just a suit about business matters either, it had charges about Joe trying to make a name for himself off the name of Brian Wilson. And Joe Thomas countersued Melinda Wilson, making some pretty nasty charges about her and making it way more personal than she did in her suit against him. Just wondering how so many fans of Brian don't find it weird that they're working together again and why it's not logical to have some residual mistrust of the man. That, and the fact that "Imagination" is such an Adult Contemporary style of album. Though lots of fans like that album, it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Brian had no immediate plans to do much touring this year due to recording his new album.  That may have been a factor.  If he were doing over 70 shows this year, who knows, maybe Jeff would have stayed.

Brian has only booked four shows so far this year and I'm not sure he's ever played more than 50 or so dates in a year. The Beach Boys play more than 100 in a year. He had already left Brian's employ before Mike decided to hire him after Christian Love left. In fact, Jeff already had a gig with the band America, but the Beach Boys offer came along and he took it.

I'll tell you what's forced. People who insist on seeing manipulation and conspiracy in every corner of Brian Wilson's life. It's a lie. And there are folks here who believe that they can make the lie true through sheer repetition. But it just doesn't work that way.

Read up on what happened the first time Brian worked with Joe Thomas and you might understand some fans' skepticism. I'm amazed that Melinda Wilson allowed Joe back into the fold ever again.

Can anyone think of a similar project by another artist? By which I mean, it's not a set of duets only. It's not the artist singing all the songs himself. It's not the artist having guest singers on all tracks, only some.  Maybe it's something that's never been done . Or perhaps it has, I'm just not aware of it.