I resent the adult child approach that most people seem to have about Brian. There is always an external force that needs to save Brian from himself, girlfriend or doctor, or brother or what have you.

Ever think maybe Brian made his own decisions eating unhealthy, doing drugs, etc. Shouldn't that be his decision to make, weren't they conscious decisions?

Following years of that unhealthy lifestyle, a door opened to a healthier life in Hawaii, Brian decided to pursue that.
He could have told everyone to go to hell and become a street person. He knew inside that living that lifestyle was no long term way to live life, he needed to learn how to cope with depression and auditory hallucinations long term, Landy was his ticket out.

The more I read about Brian I get the sense about a person who gets his way in the end, but the means to get there never involves any form of confrontation more passive-aggressive behavior, think about it.

1. Band does not want to do the album. Brian hands over the keys to the studio to the band until they beg him to produce. Going as far as doing public campaigns
saying he is back, he keeps the album on the shelves for 40 years and then records it with a band that worships him.
2. Bad relationship with over-controlling Marylin. Brian goes into drug stupors until Marilyn ends the relationship.
3. Grow tired of doctor/patient relationship. Brian binge on meds and does incoherent interviews causing the family and state to end the relationship.
4. Grows tired of interviews. Brian memorizes standard answers and reverts to just yes/no if the answers are not in the current repertoire.

Brian is a living display of passive-aggressive control, so think long and hard before thinking that everyone controls Brian it
could very well be the other way around

Anyways end of rant.

#3....Brian didn’t chose to binge on meds. He had no choice in the matter; for those who were around at the time, things were actually *worse* than shown in Love and Mercy,

As he had no choice in binging on Coke, DexAmp, Food, Hash, Shortening bread

I resent the adult child approach that most people seem to have about Brian. There is always an external force that needs to save Brian from himself, girlfriend or doctor, or brother or what have you.

Ever think maybe Brian made his own decisions eating unhealthy, doing drugs, etc. Shouldn't that be his decision to make, weren't they conscious decisions?

Following years of that unhealthy lifestyle, a door opened to a healthier life in Hawaii, Brian decided to pursue that.
He could have told everyone to go to hell and become a street person. He knew inside that living that lifestyle was no long term way to live life, he needed to learn how to cope with depression and auditory hallucinations long term, Landy was his ticket out.

The more I read about Brian I get the sense about a person who gets his way in the end, but the means to get there never involves any form of confrontation more passive-aggressive behavior, think about it.

1. Band does not want to do the album. Brian hands over the keys to the studio to the band until they beg him to produce. Going as far as doing public campaigns
saying he is back, he keeps the album on the shelves for 40 years and then records it with a band that worships him.
2. Bad relationship with over-controlling Marylin. Brian goes into drug stupors until Marilyn ends the relationship.
3. Grow tired of doctor/patient relationship. Brian binge on meds and does incoherent interviews causing the family and state to end the relationship.
4. Grows tired of interviews. Brian memorizes standard answers and reverts to just yes/no if the answers are not in the current repertoire.

Brian is a living display of passive-aggressive control, so think long and hard before thinking that everyone controls Brian it
could very well be the other way around

Anyways end of rant.

I do not belive this is due to the the claimed TD rather Auditory hallucinations episode. If you picture other voices saying "not plesant" things to him everytime he looks away it makes perfect sense.

Its the second picture, not the first. They are the same.

If it is the same desk Brian is leaning over https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicianship_of_Brian_Wilson#/media/File:Brian_Wilson_1976_crop.jpg
it is the one from Clover Recorders. As seen in the second picture here.

https://www.discogs.com/label/359005-Clover-Recorders

I am pretty certain it is the same console, just looking at the pictures they align perfect with those white
sugar cube buttons. When people talking about building up the studio in Holland they just imagine the desk/console
but that was probably the most easy part. The hard part is the patch bay, tape machines, reverbs, dolbys, wiring etc.

You can read all about it here:

http://troun.tripod.com/holland.html

For some bizarre reason i cannot get Mikes bass part in Wonderful out of my mind.
Da da..da da….

Yeah you are right about the happy part, perhaps 6/8 is the way to go....

Yeah im a little split myself when it comes to the drum parts, probably because they are not tight enough (My fault). What speaks for it is the song "friends" which was the approach a was going for. I thought a bit about doing a piano part in the style of breakaway, with that weird harpsichord combination. Have to dive into what depser wrote about that, perhaps a friendly soul could pull that up?

Thanks Andrew, yeah i tried to not do it over the top (the mix is pretty rough). The drums are waltz ala "friends", i think thats sort of how Brian must have imagined it. Cant see any other way. The piano is synced up from the original piano he plays basically the whole thing through. From the piano i got the lead on how i think he imagined  the bass part.

Strings are a cello and a viola and a violin.

I know people have are used to hearing it without backing. But just adding in Brians piano turns it into a real song -> https://soundcloud.com/tombjornebark/where-is-she-strings-and-piano  . I don't think this is intended to be heard with just vocals and a snare now and then, its sort of uncompleted, but guessing the missing parts is not rocket science.

Mixing it will come later, i think it should be built up a little more dynamically, first verse without string and marimba etc..

In other words a pile of crap, ah well worth a try, ill torch it and smoke the sound cloud ashes

I hear you, preference perhaps. Note that Brian is playing piano on the verse.

Did some backing experiment with - Where is she - from MIC.
Drums are a bit of and its not finished, is it worth finishing or does it sound
like a pile of crap? need you guys input..

https://soundcloud.com/tombjornebark/where-can-she-be-with-backing

Hi all, just thought i´d share a rough cut of 3 audience recordings of GOK from Greek Theatre 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swM9g3WryZA

It´s truly cool what you can do if you sync up a couple of ok audience recordings. Hope i dont get flamed
by the original clip owners though

I get the syncopation bit, but whatever murry says it sounds wrong!

Is it just me or is the timing completely of on the vocals for the new surfs up? I cut quite alot in cubase and this is just poor sync, it is lagging and makes me feel uneasy each time i hear it.

He is well read and does not ask the standard questions, i think Brian notices that... you can see when Harvey asks the standard questions the standard replies appear...

Can very well be, i always imagine the complex vocals sometimes sounds like gunfire, you know bullets flying all over the place.

I think Marilyn's comment of a surrendered Brian Wilson rings very true. He is saying what is expected and tries to please everyone, that is why the interview becomes so messed up, he tries to please the Beach Boys, Mike, The Reporter, Bruce everyone. You can hear the lead on by the reporter, but Mike did not like...Yeah Mike did not like it, he was disgusted with it. But some truth rings true and new in this interview like the "If you do not wanna grow you should not live", and the bouncing of notes back and fourth while writing H&W.

If you can read between the lines you can see that the conflict was between Brian and Mike, in earlier interviews Brian stated that he promised Mike while doing Pet Sounds that he was just going to make this one album and then get back to writing "hits", a good solid handshake apparently closed this deal, then he went on to make SMiLE without Mike. I think this conflict goes further than we think....

I always have the dream that they will go back to those eighties albums and remove all the tacky reverb on the drums and on the other stuff. Imagine Brians solo album with an updated sound, imagine that album with a current production sound. It is very possible with todays technology to replace the dx-7 samples and drum samples with current sounding stuff. They should release the multitracks, imagine the fan mixes that could be done, drums updated with drumagog, synth piano replaced with real piano samples, even strings replaced with current string samples.

Saw people complaining about how Brian hasn't "evolved" over time in talking about this album. It baffles me how people can even think most folks are capable of keeping up with their creative peak a decade after the fact, let alone a good 45 years after the fact. *shakes head*

I think a more relevant question to ask is has Brian the kudos in the industry to do whatever he feels like? can he record a humor album now? would the record company allow it.

Being said that the edits are good but the parts do not in my opinion fit that well. Clearly the "i know that you feel better" part should end the song. The "bop bop" edit should be before the ending.
The added end part seems to have no place in the song.

Never imagined someone complaining about to good edits, what a peculiar world we live in.

I'm not kicked sideways by the tune, but Brian's vocal on "Colors of the Wind" is a jaw-dropper.

You are right on the mark there Andrew as usual, my first impression was why not make a whole record in this style.

Perhaps my previous posts just contained negativity, i have stated before that Brian is a better singer than in the sixties. By that i do not mean his range or quality of voice has improved, but his intonation has, hes intonation is spot on on this record. He also sounds more relaxed while singing, and the consequence of relaxing is that he can put more emotions in his vocals.

Sigh all these source requests, well watch the movies from inside the studio, does he seem like the producer of the sixties? Do you think he sits up all night and write string arrangements these days? Look at the Brian Wilson presents smile, what is his big input on thing? "The bottom note is a little pitchy" , "I think you should go honk honk" , "One of the strings are not loud enough" , "Use a pick". Its not like "holy sh*t the surfs up strings are missing ill go home and write fresh ones!" it´s the band trying to get drag ideas out of him trying to make some kind of fair picture of what was supposed to be there.

Look at the interviews, the interaction footage with the band you get a fair idea of who does what. My point was someone who does not play an instrument in the band needs to take the producers helm, because Brian is not going to come back and say that something sucks or does not fit in.

And to ask Brian to contribute more, i think nowadays he is just the type of guy that needs to be asked. Brian what do you remember from surfs up? ahh there were some strings... Can you write new ones? Sure i can do that.