Doesn't the bass line and harmony section of "Fall Breaks" derive from "Fire", though?

I always just figured that. And if you ask me, the opening melody and bass piano in "Country Air" sounds like yet another Specter-inspired opening beat...  "ba-doom, bang bang... ba-doom, bang bang..."

"Love You" and "ADULT CHILD"... for some reason, I find both of these very pleasuring listening experiences despite their numerous flaws (particularly with the second, the first is actually not a bad album). This includes songs like "Johnny Carson"  "Solar System" (which I often get stuck in my head), and the original versions of "Hey Little Tomboy" and "Shortenin' Bread" (if they were ever going to release a version of Shortenin' Bread, this would be the one... it's just cool. All these are cringeworthy, but simply irresistible.

I like a few of the songs on "Keeping the Summer Alive"... maybe it's because I went into it with such low expectations and was pleasantly surprised with maybe three or four of them. "Goin' On"  "Oh Darlin'" even "Santa Ana Winds" are all good songs despite some of the cheesiness. "Endless Harmony" even with it's stupid little "god bless america" coda is a great song if just for Carl's absolutely breathtaking falsetto at the very end.

I guess my guilty pleasure index goes a little further for Brian Wilson's solo stuff than for the Beach Boys material, because I just expect that since Brian's got nobody tethering some of his more puzzling ideas to the ground that's he's just going to be more quirky:

Half of the material for "Sweet Insanity" isn't all that bad. I love the songs  "Thank You" "I Do" ...even "Make a Wish" is fine to listen to.  The same with "Let's Go to Heaven in My Car"  and "Living Doll" ...and "Metal Beach" I've even begun warming up to despite the cheese factor and the lame production. The funny thing is, I certainly find these pieces a lot more tolerable than some of his released material... most of "Imagination" I find unlistenable, and only like a couple tracks from "GIOMH." I also like most of the material for "Landylocked" ...  even songs like "I'm Broke" and "Saturday Morning in the City"

I've often wondered if Brian has read probably the most famous of the Metaphysics books, "Seth Speaks" by Jane Roberts.
And since Jane's passing in 1984 you now have quite a few in the field of Metaphysics that have supplied invaluable information. Serge Grandbois who channels "Kris" and Mary Ennis who channels "Elias". 
But it was Jame Roberts and her channeling of Seth that laid the groundwork for what is now a huge movement in Metaphysics. Especially now as we all move thru "The Shift" in consciousness.

Bri

According to what I read, Brian did read Timothy Leary (or one of those "Doors of Perception" kind of books that were prolific in the 60's), which is where he gets his ideas about the "ego death" (the subject of "Hang On To Your Ego), and supposedly carried over into his work with SMiLE (note the stylized "small i" ...meaning ego death). I can't remember what the title of the book was.

A person could easily get into the sorts of spiritualism being described without ever setting foot in a church, too. Astrology is hardly practiced the same way as the church of my youth. (Though now I practice them both with equal vigor: none.)

I remember reading about how Brian got into a lot of the spiritualism and philosophy just by visiting bookstores and glancing around. After his first acid trip, he was intensely interested in coming to terms with what he'd experienced and trying to find out what it all meant, and supposedly, (according to the Zen Interpretation of Smile) found that the question was itself the answer. Then he set out to one-up his already "spiritual sound" and produce music that would provoke similar reactions in others. It's very common in the psychedelic/religious experience realms. 

As far as his glancing around, this is why I called his attention to this stuff a "curiosity"...because I don't think he was a devotee. I think he saw it as little more than an intellectual or artistic pursuit, rather than something fundamentally "life-changing"... like I don't think he was advocating people go out and do LSD to the same extent that Mike was advocating all that TM stuff. He seemed more interested in the effects than in the "practice."

I think he's more or less been convinced over time that Landy had questionable motives. But I think that's just Brian being Brian, if he spends enough time around other people all saying the same thing, he tends to go along with them. I remember him saying something about Landy in a more recent interview, but I can't remember where I saw it. I think he's respectful of the guy, but probably glad to be out of his control.

What regularly gets overlooked but is detailed very clearly in the Dave Marks bio (The Lost Beach Boy) is that Brian's interest in the metaphysical began at a very early age...pre-Beach Boys. The fact that Brian had a crush on a woman who lived directly across the street...a woman who was a born veiled psychic and who would become one of L.A.'s most sought after psychics to the stars, and who was an early seeker on the cusp of the 1960's metaphysical renaissance, and who introduced teenage Brian to a world of mysticism, and who happened to constantly use the term Good Vibrations starting in the 1950's...and is the same woman who introduced Brian to his personal psychic advisor J'nevelyn who influenced him heavily during the Smile period including the release date of Heroes and Villains etc... Somehow all of that never gets mentioned in these discussions of Brian's flirtations with cosmic, but his obsession with  psychic spiritualities obviously came from being influenced by David's mom Jo Ann Marks...who by the '60's and early '70's had a reputation as one of Hollywood's most in demand psychics.

Very interesting.

I remember in one of his "argument" recordings there's repeated references to some astrological phenomenon going on that Brian seems more fixated on... (He says something about how both of his dogs were pointed in a certain direction in his backyard...etc.).  I know it's been talked about here before.   

One thing that has always interested me about Brian Wilson was how curious he was about metaphysical things. I'm sure most of you have read the Esoteric Smile articles and the "Zen Interpretation of Smile" pages, which I have to admit are always interesting but perhaps a bit over-analytical (not to mention a bit over-reliant on his disowned "autobiography") but there's no doubt that Brian at one time was quite interested in and drew inspiration from that whole "let me use music as a medium for spiritual enlightenment" -thing. There's stories of him planning the release date of Heroes and Villains based on astrology and going to see mystics for guidance and such. Then there's the whole bookstore episode during his first acid trip that was vividly detailed in his autobiography, the intense experience he supposedly had while composing "Old Master Painter" where "God revealed Himself to him as a children's song." All of it is a whole side of Brian rarely discussed.

Let me say that I take a lot of it with a grain of salt. It seems when he was a young man he was really tripping out for a while on these things, and then more or less abandoned them--perhaps retaining what works and ditching the rest. "That stuff went out a long time ago."  He's usually quite dismissive of that whole scene. 

Anyone else find it interesting speculation?

When you compare it to his pre-SMiLE albums, it certainly is a great leap forward. He actually sounds more in control, and certainly more at peace with himself, than ever.

I only hope he continues this streak with his next projects. At the very least, the reception to BWPS seems to have been a major confidence boost.

Surfin'  
409  
Surfin' USA     (puh-lease!)
Shut Down
Be True to Your School    (spare me)
All Summer Long  (bad lyrics)
Fun Fun Fun
Girls on the Beach  (inane rewrite of Surfer Girl)
Help Me Ronda  (the Summer Days remake)
The Man With All The Toys
Barbara Ann
I'm Bugged at My Old Man
Add Some Music to Your Day  (feh)
The Nearest Faraway Place
Cool Cool Water  (Sunflower version)
Tears in the Morning  
Disney Girls  (not a Bruce fan, if you can tell)
It's OK
Had to Phone Ya
Solar System
Lady Lynda  (nah)
Sumahama  (would have been a better Mike Love solo project)
Here Comes the Night (Disco version, yuk)
Kokomo!   (can't stand it)

I know in the Les Chan interview from late in the 70's, Brian is asked if he'd ever considered, or ever will consider going solo, and he said then pretty adamantly "no, I don't believe in doing solo albums. I don't believe in spreading it too thin. Keep it in the group." Of course one decade later he was vamping up an awkward solo career with Landy... but such is the tale of Brian's life. It's likely that Brian didn't hold himself in such a high regard in '67 that he fancied himself "solo"... he needed to be wrapped in something close to home. It's just that that wrapping (The Beach Boys) wasn't as "inspired" as he found himself, so he had to always look outside. At the time of Smile, he got to a point where he says he feared his name... he feared what people were trying to pump him up into, so the only safe thing he felt he could do was retreat into the background.

I'm also reminded of an interview he did in '64 regarding his singing on the song "Blue Christmas" when the reporter asks, "could this be the start of a whole new career for you?" And at that point Brian said "I don't know." or something to the effect, "We'll see."

What's obvious is that these days he doesn't seem to really believe in the current Beach Boys lineup, and has said many times that on the basis of that, "I'm doing my own thing now. More interested in my own thing."

(damn double post)

Here's a few more too... so much of what I like about this band is that their best material is often all those underrated hidden gems.

Slip on Through (Dennis is really underrated all around)
Got to Know the Woman
Deirdre
At My Window
All This is That
Cuddle Up
Steamboat
Marcella
Roller Skating Child (Just a really fun tune)
Mona (The majority of "Love You" actually)
The Night Was So Young
I'll Bet He's Nice
Pitter Patter (Love this little song)
Baby Blue (Beautiful Dennis track)
My Diane
Oh Darlin'

Here is my list:

Farmer's Daughter (great early Brian falsetto)
The Lonely Sea
Don't Back Down
Lana
We'll Run Away
Why Do Fools Fall in Love? (This is a really driving cover imo)
Hushabye (some of the best Brian/Mike trade offs)
Our Car Club (a lot of fun)
I Do (Brian's song for another group, recorded with the beach boys)
Don't Hurt My Little Sister
Girl Don't Tell Me  (very Beatles-esque)
Then I Kissed Her
Country Air
Wake the World
Time to Get Alone
Anna Lee, The Healer
Little Bird (Great Dennis song)
I Went to Sleep

Most of it is just too soft to even be able to infer, and the way he sings it obscures individual words, it's likely it was heavily ad-libbed... but just going on the sounds, this is what I came up with:

--
Oh lord, all my life with you,
there's so much to see
I'm not affraid.

Oh lord, let me hear their song
Let me be okay...forever more
Oh lord, when I believe, it's all that I know
All that I know.

Make me stand from everything
Let me see what there is to see
Oh lord, let me see all there is to see
Oh lord, when children see they're ever-loving.

Oh lord, please let me see all there is to see
Make me stand from everything
Let me see what there is to see.

I was born... [garbled] ...right now

Alright, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Oh lord, let me be alone
Let me live my life forever more.

Ohh, ohh, ahh, forever more

Oh lord, let me be alone
Let me be with my friends, ohh
Lord, I'm too scared.

Ohh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ohh yeah.

You know it's sad when the movie Walk Hard had a better depiction of Brian.

You know, I had the same thought when seeing this recently. If they really wanted to show the disintegration of Smile and compile it down to one scene, they could have just depicted the session of "Cabinessence" rather than Brian playing the "Geronimo Leaps" for the others in his house (or whatever it was supposed to be... kind of sounded like "I Love to Say Dada"). The scene in the Walk Hard movie over the song "Black Sheep" was probably a lot more true to life.  hehe

My earlier reply was a bit over-critical of Mike, and frankly I also think Brian deserves some criticism too, "mental illness" or not. I think Brian does, as has been stated earlier, a tendency to play the victim. Sure Mike didn't like Smile and didn't think it was a good direction to go in... I doubt even he wanted the entire project to just collapse, that's a bit extremist. I'm sure all Mike wanted was a bit of compromise... "do your songs Brian but let's change these lyrics so it doesn't freak out the fans." Fact is, Brian didn't have to collapse the project and then go into creative hibernation just because, in his own words "Mike didn't like it" (although I seriously doubt that's the main reason). He could have just released the finished tracks as the band was probably expecting him to do, let it sink or swim however history would have it, and then gone in a new direction. I've heard Brian contradict himself in interview, someone asked him if he blamed anyone for the collapse of Smile and he said "no, I blame myself, and drugs." And then like 30 seconds later he's blaming Mike.. "Reasons I didn't finish Smile... 1. Mike didn't like it." And I'm not too keen on his whole "giving drugs to the kids" episode either. So frankly, Brian annoys me sometimes as well.

At least when Mike makes wrong decisions he usually is doing it for genuine reasons... he genuinely wants the band to prosper--whether or not that happens is another story. Brian on the other hand seems to have actually tried to sabotage the band multiple times either out of personal problems or just out of spite. Some of his later antics and songwriting almost seem to be trying to do that. Unless he honestly thinks recording, re-recording, and re-re-recording various versions of "Shortnin' Bread" in the late 70's was going to be the splash they needed. I think he holds back a lot of good material just because he's not confident enough to be successful and doesn't want to do anything totally mind-blowing because he doesn't want any more worshipers. In that, he lets the personal issues get in the way of making good music... despite the fact that I think "Love You" and "Adult Child" still have quite a bit of charm.

Don't get me wrong, I'm nestled firmly in the so-called "Brian camp" for his awkward and interesting musical ideas and his sweeping personal statements that I think anyone with a pulse could relate with, but I'm no worshiper.

This is, of course, entirely my opinion.

[Our Prayer/ Gee]

Mine is composed mostly of the PC mix with a few additions because the mono on some tracks is actually vastly superior in sound to PC's forced stereo (particularly on Wind Chimes), and I subtract "Holidays" because I'm sure that would have stayed an outtake or would have been used on the SMiLE follow up, and it doesn't really fit in the middle of the Elements suite, as BWPS has it, even with the Wind Chimes coda attached.

1. Our Prayer/ Gee
2. Heroes and Villains -- the long version with the linking segments in the end and the Cantina sequence.
3. Do You Dig Worms? -- original title, version where the piano seamlessly segues into the Bicycle Rider sequence, I also added in the vocal overdub version of the opening on it's second appearance in the track.
4. Barnyard/ The Older Master Painter/ You Are My Sunshine
5. Cabinessence
6. Wonderful - mix fades into Song for Children
7. Song for Children
8. Child Is Father of the Man
9. Surf's Up - not the 70's version, original demo with the added instruments and other overdubs.

10. I'm in Great Shape/ I Wanna Be Around
11. Workshop/ Vegetables
12. Wind Chimes -- mono mix, added the "whispering winds" chant at the beginning that fades into the track, and an additional "booming chorus" after the bridge, then it fades out with the "wind chime" piano sequence
13. Cool Cool Water -- mix puts I Love to Say Dada at the end, added echo effect on the chanting middle part (sounds awesome)
14. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow -- added an additional two rounds from another take, no fire effects, but PC added the "Fall Breaks" chants, which sounds good. I put it after Cool Cool Water (although Brian probably would have done it the other way for thematic purposes), I find the track rather climactic, so I put it last in the elements suite.
15. Heroes and Villains --  this is the minute long piano sequence found as a part of the H&V sessions which fades into the "Bicycle Rider" instrumental, quickly segueing out to...
16. Good Vibrations -- PC's "creative liberty" mix with added session vocal overdubs at the end and the extended coda that halts rather than fades out.
17. You're Welcome  (as a hidden track)

Then I also include the tracks "He Give Speeches" (the longer version with the overdubs, and an additional instrumental section I compiled from the first 30 seconds or so that fades out at the end) "Tones" and "Holidays" as bonus tracks. I used to include "Tones" in right between "Do You Dig Worms?" and "Barnyard" but I found it really dragged the album out too long. 

Interesting. Very interesting. Thanks for posting it. A couple of questions...

- Do you fade out "Heroes And Villains" with the rambling "False Barnyard"?

- What is your theory putting "Cool Cool Water"  BEFORE the fire?

- Do you like "Good Vibrations" at the end or couldn't you settle on a place for it?

- Do you use "Song For Children" from BWPS or "I Ran"?

My Heroes and Villains is essentially the PC mix, so it segues into Do You Dig Worms?. The "reprise" is just there for my own personal liking, and comprises a minute long segment from one of the Heroes and Villains sessions that I liked but didn't want to include in the actual track.

I know Brian would have probably had Cool Cool Water come after fire as a means to "douse" it, but personally I just like it coming afterward because it sounds like such a climactic track. I clipped the very end of "I Love to Say Dada" (which is the tail end of Cool Cool Water), so that the final beat actually becomes the opening kazoo whistle for the Mrs. O'Leary's Cow... it's a seamless transition that just sounds cool... you have all these "wa wa ho wa..." sounds just cruising along and then all of a sudden "knock!" and you're submerged in the pandemonium Mrs. O'Leary's Cow. Then at the end it rumbles to a pounding finish and becomes the Heroes and Villains piano reprise... almost as a way to regain some balance after the destruction and to connect the main parts of the Elements suite to the grand finale Good Vibrations... the vibrations themselves almost representing the presence of a "fifth element" coming in at the very end. I do think that Brian had intended the Heroes and Villains theme to be used in various areas throughout the album.

Personally I like Good Vibrations at the very end. I was one of the people who got into Smile only after hearing BWPS (in fact, that album got me into the Beach Boys to begin with), so my version tends to mirror the released one because I figure if it were released, for the most part, it probably would have had somewhat of a similar line up to the released one eventually with a few exceptions. It's very likely that Good Vibrations would have gone at the end. I think it's possible that "I'm in Great Shape" could have gone with "Barnyard" because they both seem to have agricultural themes and I know Brian was envisioning a "down on the farm" kind of suite at one time.

I have the PC mix of Song for Children, that segues into Child is Father of the Man, and doesn't include the children's theme in the middle (the one that goes "dee dee dee daa doot...dee dee dee daa doot... dee deet da deet dee dee, doot." --don't know what it's called).

[more]

Just to add something here, I feel just as Mike has received a lot of ill-feelings, he's also spent a good deal of time in the last few decades exalting himself and depreciating those around him.

Take the Beach Boys bio-pic "An American Family" that Mike supervised the writing of, for example. Every 20 minutes it depicts Mike as not only being the ambitious man in the group, but also as the constant "savior" of the group, as if every good idea they ever had somehow links to him, he takes credit for coming up with so much stuff that it almost becomes a comical element... "well, why not call it Endless Summer?"  "I like that!"  it focuses heavily on the problems of Brian and Dennis and pushes Carl and Al into the background. It makes Brian look gifted but totally incompetent (even at his prime), diminishes the legacy of the songs that Mike's not taking credit for, makes Van Dyke Parks look like a bumbling fool, and totally trashes the recording of Smile without the faintest glimmer of respect given. It's actually a rather sad spectacle.

And then with his opportunistic flip-flopping. After making such a big stink about not doing the "spiritual" kind of thing with the Hang On To Your Ego, and the "acid alliteration" lyrics in '67... just 6 years later he's co-writing songs like "Funky Pretty" and not putting up a stink over Carl's "Feel Flows" and such... included in those songs are even more direct spiritualism and obtuse lyrics than Brian had ever tried to shoot for. All of this combined just makes Mike look like a commercial opportunist who will bend to almost any musical direction so long as it has already proven profitable...which automatically renders the feeling behind it flimsy and fake.

The thing is, two members are dead, and Brian isn't in his right mind to contest this revisionism at this point, so Mike gets away with it. Dennis always seemed like the only member of the group with the guts to stand up to Mike, and in his lifetime was not shy about his own feelings towards him just as Mike continues to be likewise. It's sad that now Mike more than any other controls how their legacy is promoted, but the way things turned out just gives him more ability to say "See, I'm not dead or messed up in the head. I was right all along. This is what the Beach Boys are."

And to add, just because Donovan claims he came up with the "sea of green" line in Yellow Submarine, you don't see him going to court for ownership of the song.

[Our Prayer/ Gee]

Mine is composed mostly of the PC mix with a few additions because the mono on some tracks is actually vastly superior in sound to PC's forced stereo (particularly on Wind Chimes), and I subtract "Holidays" because I'm sure that would have stayed an outtake or would have been used on the SMiLE follow up, and it doesn't really fit in the middle of the Elements suite, as BWPS has it, even with the Wind Chimes coda attached.

1. Our Prayer/ Gee
2. Heroes and Villains -- the long version with the linking segments in the end and the Cantina sequence.
3. Do You Dig Worms? -- original title, version where the piano seamlessly segues into the Bicycle Rider sequence, I also added in the vocal overdub version of the opening on it's second appearance in the track.
4. Barnyard/ The Older Master Painter/ You Are My Sunshine
5. Cabinessence
6. Wonderful - mix fades into Song for Children
7. Song for Children
8. Child Is Father of the Man
9. Surf's Up - not the 70's version, original demo with the added instruments and other overdubs.

10. I'm in Great Shape/ I Wanna Be Around
11. Workshop/ Vegetables
12. Wind Chimes -- mono mix, added the "whispering winds" chant at the beginning that fades into the track, and an additional "booming chorus" after the bridge, then it fades out with the "wind chime" piano sequence
13. Cool Cool Water -- mix puts I Love to Say Dada at the end, added echo effect on the chanting middle part (sounds awesome)
14. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow -- added an additional two rounds from another take, no fire effects, but PC added the "Fall Breaks" chants, which sounds good. I put it after Cool Cool Water (although Brian probably would have done it the other way for thematic purposes), I find the track rather climactic, so I put it last in the elements suite.
15. Heroes and Villains --  this is the minute long piano sequence found as a part of the H&V sessions which fades into the "Bicycle Rider" instrumental, quickly segueing out to...
16. Good Vibrations -- PC's "creative liberty" mix with added session vocal overdubs at the end and the extended coda that halts rather than fades out.
17. You're Welcome  (as a hidden track)

Then I also include the tracks "He Give Speeches" (the longer version with the overdubs, and an additional instrumental section I compiled from the first 30 seconds or so that fades out at the end) "Tones" and "Holidays" as bonus tracks. I used to include "Tones" in right between "Do You Dig Worms?" and "Barnyard" but I found it really dragged the album out too long.  

Alternatively, I think if Smile had been released by the rest of the Beach Boys after Brian canceled his involvement, they would have just treated the tracks as more or less like any other album, and it could have looked something like this:

1. Our Prayer/ Gee
2. Heroes and Villains (single)
3. Do You Like Worms?
4. Barnyard/ You Are My Sunshine
5. Cabinessence
6. Wonderful

7. Good Vibrations (single)
8. Child Is Father of the Man
9. Vegetables
10. Wind Chimes
11. Cool Cool Water
12. Fire
13. Surf's Up (piano version)

By first two I mean Brian Wilson and Imagination, as well as Sweet Insanity.

What I like about the Paley sessions is that they're devoid of all that synthy claptrap that bogged down his first two albums (save for a small bit in "Proud Mary"). It really proves to me that Brian's sound is and always was best when it was organic, whether it's with big-band type pieces like "Desert Drive" or more minimalist songs like "You're Still a Mystery."

Personally, I think the paley sessions represent Brian's best solo-work other than SMiLE of course, even Lucky Old Sun has some cringe-worthy moments for me. The only song I don't like is "Market Place" ...mainly because it's dull and pointless. But I like the majority of the other tracks and think that had the more polished songs been released, it would have been his most approachable solo album.

Carl's vocal on Soul Searchin' is amazing, as always.

Concerning the name change to 'The Beach', I believe that Mike claimed in an interview that he threw that out there as a joke, but it was not a serious idea. That story conflicts with the ones written above. I am not saying one is wrong. I don't know, I wasn't there.

That Mike sure likes to take credit for things... hehe

I like Sweet Insanity. Once you strip out some of the dead weight songs like "Smart Girls" and such, it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. In fact, I find it more listenable and original than Imagination. The production is cheesy, and Landy-lyrics abound... but Brian's production (post Beach Boys but pre-Wondermints) has always been a bit cheesy, and he rarely writes his own lyrics anyways. Sweet Insanity really exposed me to a different side of Brian that didn't even come out on his first solo album, nor any of his sparse but wacky projects from the 70's (the goofy and sublime "Love You" and "Adult Child"), in that Brian sounds rather condescending for the first time, but come on, he sings his heart out all over the Sweet Insanity songs, and it's criminal that some of them haven't seen release (Concert Tonight/Someone to Love, Love Ya, Thank You (Brian)). Some of them have an 80's Springsteen quality to them which is odd for Brian, but he pulls it off.

Here's the album I strewn together that works for me:

Concert Tonight/ Someone to Love,
Don't Let Her Know
Thank You
I Do
Rainbow Eyes
Love Ya
Make a Wish
Being With the One You Love
He Couldn't Get His Poor Body to Move
Water Builds Up
In My Car

Although I think "Spirit of Rock and Roll" is a decent track, I find it to be pretty pointless. "Country Feeling" and "Daddy's Little Girl" are really corny in my opinion, although they're decent. There was an instrumental that I haven't heard, but that doesn't bother me based on what I've read about it. "Smart Girls" should be forgotten about.

All that being said, I understand why it was rejected, but I honestly think it had more to do with the situation than with the music itself, per se. The record companies have let Brian get away with FAR more embarrassing stuff (save for "Smart Girls").

Surely the demons helped Dennis come up with such a tortured masterpiece as POB. A clean Brian in the 70's? He was sober for 15BO, wasn't he? That didn't go too well... Really glad he's sober now though.

Well, I think "will" has a lot to do with that (the name's "Wil"son after all...). Dennis seemed really up for a solo effort and just "took off" with a little encouragement. Brian was more or less forced or at least manipulated to regurgitate something to capitalize on a moment.

A clean Dennis and Brian being the most obvious.

You get a clean Brian and a clean Dennis together, and you would have had the best album of the 70's.