This shall be the last post, the last word, the last love-offering from my mind to the collective Beach Boys fanboy mind

Enjoy, people, for I shall no longer bless you with my wizdom or humor

You will find your mouths dry in the desert wilderness of your obsessions & geekery, longing for my refreshing take on your square reality. You can reach me somewhere within that circle whose center is everywhere & circumference nowhere

I love to say dada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1IgXT3xFdU

Peace, Love, Empathy

Nobody

[Sgt Pepper sounds like pretentious bullmerda compared to Smiley Smile.]

Indeed Brian was still firmly controlling the show in 1967, I just think SS turned out the way it did more because he'd rather be partying with Danny Hutton (and not spending hours in a studio for the perfect take), than because he was aiming for some big artistic statement.

Why can't that BE the "big artistic statement"? Sgt Pepper sounds like pretentious bullmerda compared to Smiley Smile. I dare say many would have thought similarly about SMiLE had Brian continued going down that road.

No, Sgt. Pepper, compared to Smiley Smile, sounds like an album that has been properly thought out, recorded, and produced (nothing pretentious about that)...Smiley Smile sounds like an album that was recorded in someones bedroom and swimming pool...

What was it Brian said about what he learned on LSD? Something like - "I can't tell you what I learned, you either know it or you don't" ??

Same thing here man. Bedrooms and swimming pools are like paper covering the rock that is Sgt Pepper's indulgence.

Wow, those girls look just like pigs.

Human-Pig hybrids sold to American television??

When you go out on a limb, it's a vulnerable place to be.    

I think Brian spent the better part of his life second-guessing himself concerning Smile because it was so ambitious.  I think he thinks he showed his ass to the world.  A symphony to God?!?  Dad and Mike were right about me...who the hell did I think I was?  
  
What's that line in Smiley Smile?  "Don't think you're God"?  And then soon afterwards Brian was writing songs about puttering around the house, doing nothing, falling asleep, etc....

Maybe those songs about puttering around the house, doing nothing, and falling asleep ARE Brian's spiritual music. Sort of like Zen monks living simply, dig? We eat, we sleep, we get dressed. Brian's post-SMiLE music is VERY Zen... Imagine "I Went To Sleep" played in a soundtrack to a film about Buddha sitting under his tree. See? All makes sense in my mind.

Anyone got any good youtube links to Al Jardine on guitar? he seems to blend into the mix behind Carl all the time ... I want some good examples of badass Al Jardine guitaring... anyone got any?

Things are getting a little heated between me and AGD. So I propose we have a humor thread dedicated to BW, and about BW - funny things he's done or said, whether intentional or not.

I'll begin :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLx5Y5zRww

Go to about 1:00 on this video to see the funniest thing you will ever see in your entire life. Cherish it, burn it into your memory. It will help you through hard times. Wife passed away? Just remember Brian's face. Aliens invade earth announcing their intentions to eat us? Just remember Brian's face and everything will be COOL baby!

Heck yeah man, Bottom is a fun show

Indeed Brian was still firmly controlling the show in 1967, I just think SS turned out the way it did more because he'd rather be partying with Danny Hutton (and not spending hours in a studio for the perfect take), than because he was aiming for some big artistic statement.

Why can't that BE the "big artistic statement"? Sgt Pepper sounds like pretentious bullshit compared to Smiley Smile. I dare say many would have thought similarly about SMiLE had Brian continued going down that road.

I like to imagine, sometimes, Smiley Smile being a prank on Paul McCartney. Imagine: Brian knows that Paul is aware of a little bit of what Brian is doing with SMiLE. He heard Brian play Wonderful supposedly and one assumes Brian showed off telling him a bit about his grand ideas for the album. So he knows Paul's over there in Brit country with AGD trying to cook something up to beat him. So Brian reaches into his bag of tricks and pulls out Smiley Smile, just to f*** with Paul's mind. Imagine: you're Paul McCartney, you just made Sgt. Pepper with George Martin and those other guys, and you're feeling pretty darn good about yourself. Then you buy Smiley Smile expecting to hear Brian's big record that he heard about. Instead he hears Vegetables, Little Pad, With Me Tonight. He's been had. Brian tripped him up. Suddenly Paul feels incredibly self-conscious. He made this huge record thinking he had to compete with Brian's huge record, and instead Brian put out a whisper saying "Boo!" and it snuck right up on Paul. Now Paul feels like the kid at the science fair who got his dad to help and all the teachers know it.

In 1974 I was preparing to marry my first wife and move in together. Strange how things change. Now she's got the kids and I've got... well, I've got these good times with AGD !

hey man - more to life than memorizing useless facts

What about the facts of life?

Like honing one's intuition to spot snobby people?

I listened to Smiley today for the first time in quite a few months and have to say as much as I was enjoying the thing, when it got to track 6 and GV came on it hit me again with the force of a sledgehammer how far behind the rest of the record come to matching it's brilliance. So I find it hard to believe that Brian chose the minimalist route for artistic reasons.

Good Vibes is the peak of the trip, man

little pad sets you up then WHAM good vibrations EVERYWHERE buzzing all round chuggachuggachuggachuggachugga psychedelic CELLO mystical sound goddess of the ocean and music luring you into the beyond

then back down to earth, to hawaii, with me tonight, i know you're with me tonight, on and on you go dom be do da

it fits PERFECTLY and it works to my ears, it makes GOOD VIBES sound all the better, and Smiley's tasteful unassuming scattered mind underproduced sound all the cooler

right at the end of Little Pad you have to take a huge hit of nitrous ready for good vibrations

by the time it's over you'll be coming down already, ready for With Me Tonight

see? it all makes sense

Who's Nick? I'm not familiar with all of them by name.

Why does this not surprise me ?

Rule #1 of trying to be a smartass - know your subject. You fail. 

hey man - more to life than memorizing useless facts

I luuuuuuuuuuuurve the Smiley Smile cover

Smile's cover is ok too... not as good as Smiley

Smiley's cover is a cheap man's Rousseau

Well, I believe it.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, historian.
Reality is not so simple, AGD.

Linear history is something of the past. The universe is a magical illusion that warps to the sound of Brian Wilson's music. Facts are baseless mirages in the mind. Imagination running wild.

Really? What's that I can hear in the left channel during the bridge?

Not listening right now but from memory are you referring to the what sounds like a harpsichord?

That's no harpsichord. Not even a BWPS "Harpsichord". 

It's cute that he's sort of hugging the cushion.

Can someone tell me - did fans speak to him? I haven't read this entire thread and it's confusing to me. I thought people wrote their questions on Facebook? How did they get to Brian by phone? In those videos is he speaking to fans on the phone? That must have been uncomfortable, one after another, everyone being so respectful.

Someone was reading his facebook page and phoning him the questions, then typing his responses.

Ah. Thanks for clearing it up.

Oh come on... he asks Dennis if he has any more joints! Any MORE joints!!! [before AGD human fact checker storms in...

It's a good thing AGD is here to put bullmerda posts to rest.

Yeah, I'm sure that's what made his wife fall for him.

I can't imagine anyone in Brian's band enjoying a smoke before a show.

Not even Darian and Nick?

Who's Nick? I'm not familiar with all of them by name. What's the name of the beautiful violin player girl on the SMILE performance DVD? Phone number? AIM handle?

I just don't think any of them would get high and then play music with Brian. I assume they respect him and would not want to involve him in any way with stuff like that if he didn't want to be involved. Sneaking a joint before a BW show seems sort of childish to me. "Quick, before Brian sees us!" It's just lame.

Has Brian ever performed Heroes and Villains with his band like the single/Smiley version?

I find the BWPS version to drag a bit. It doesn't have the exciting edits it most certainly would have had, ala Good Vibrations, if Brian had finished it in full back then.

Well if you believe that The Beatles weren't just a cutesy band of Liverpudlians and were actually a dubious marketing and mass brainwashing operation led by the powers that be... then it all makes sense. Their popularity was programmed. They were used by the CIA to spread sex and drugs among the youth of the world and to break down old ways of living ready for the new world order. Not to mention, Paul is dead.

Anyone else think that John Lennon might be a good example of a sort of extroverted acid case? He didn't withdraw from public life like Brian & Syd but from what I've read (Goldman  ) he was plenty nuts himself behind closed doors. He just seemed to put on a strong public image of a strong resilient man.

I relate to John in a way. I've read that he was anorexic - and seen a naked photo of him proving it. I'm the same weight - 125lbs 5'11" - and when I read about that it was like reading about myself.

Goldman also related a fun story about how Yoko would pull pranks on John like put cat poop in his path from his room to the kitchen or wherever, so he'd step in it. Oh Yoko, how I love you.

Dunno why I didn't think of this before, but for anyone who says that acid doesn't rewire (or dewire) your brain, I have just two words:

Syd Barrett.

Good point Andrew. In fact such a good point I was going to mention him this morning on the board but dammit I had to get ready for work!!!

Contray to popular myth Syd Barret wasn't taking acid morning, noon and night as most would believe. He took it now and then like most people from that scene by several accounts of people that were close to him around that time.  Isn't that the truly scary thing? That there is just as much chance of you developing psychiatric issues as the result of one trip as you are on a dozen? It is playing Russian Roulette with your mind.

Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. Even members of Pink Floyd deny that acid was the cause of Syd's problems. Some point to other drugs he used more often - mandrax pills among other things. However it sounds like Syd got HPPD from acid. I saw one of his paintings and it reminded me of HPPD.

Maybe it is just me but that "can you feel the acid yet" has always seems strange. To me it doesn't seem to be directed to anyone in the studio judging by the non-reaction. I wonder if it was directed to someone in view in the booth? It doesn't really say Brian is tripping either does it? I don't know, something just doesn't hang right with that comment and its context.

Oh come on... he asks Dennis if he has any more joints! Any MORE joints!!! [before AGD human fact checker storms in... Brian says "do you have any hash joints left? i know u do"

To me it sounds like Brian wanted to get Our Prayer sounding really good, and not just sounding good but FEELING good, and he thought the best way would be to have everyone in the same headspace high and a bit spaced out. Is that really too hard to imagine? It was a vocal session, it's not like Brian is there tripping directing the Wrecking Crew musicians or something. It may have been a couple of hours in an afternoon before hitting the beach or something for all we know.

Plus one listen and my verdict is... all of these guys are at least high.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHTgN_PqHk8

After a closer listen, when Brian asks "feel any acid yet?" i hear what sounds like Carl say "i feel great"

As a side note - anyone else find it strange hearing Mike curse "f***" during this session? I feel about Our Prayer that it's sacred music, "white spiritual sound", and it's strange hearing the mundane human side of it as well like that.

Little Pad is not a real composition? Lol wut

BW&band should do that song live... it would bring down the house

Big Jeff with tiny ukulele, BRIAN on organ drones, whole band chimes in on harmonies while wearing Smurf masks... heaven
 
And if you think about it, Brian's current voice is very well suited to low key songs like that... all the more reason why there should be a tour featuring Smiley Smile and Friends, and a few cuts from Wild Honey too! I've never seen Brian live ... don't have money or transportation ... but that would be a show I would find a way of seeing no matter what.

It's cute that he's sort of hugging the cushion.

Can someone tell me - did fans speak to him? I haven't read this entire thread and it's confusing to me. I thought people wrote their questions on Facebook? How did they get to Brian by phone? In those videos is he speaking to fans on the phone? That must have been uncomfortable, one after another, everyone being so respectful.

[Pleasure Island]

An albums' worth of material is in the can.

True... and some of it's pretty good, but I have the impression that the Pleasure Island notion has been put on the back burner.

I think Wirestone was joking but inadvertently got AGD to admit to something he otherwise might've been more guarded about!

Result!! The myth machine is in full swing now. Love You 2 (Aka Pleasure Yourself Island) here we come ...

Brian "Loves" You (in a way that might make most listeners uncomfortable)

He already did that... see I Wanna Pick You Up, or Roller Skating Child...

Keep your children away from BW. He lures them in with birthday cake and zany antics. Then behind closed doors, naked, he turns into Murry, complete with glass eye falling out of its socket.