Blondie Chaplin said a few words too...

Sad, but beautiful memories of Buddy Boy,  a real good person. I will miss him dearly. My heart is shook up  and broken from all the times we’ve spoken of music and how important it is for the soul. Amen.

Al's tribute :

Brian Wilson, my friend, my classmate, my football teammate, my Beach Boy bandmate and my brother in spirit, I will always feel blessed that you were in our lives for as long as you were. I think the most comforting thought right now is that you are reunited with Carl and Dennis, singing those beautiful harmonies again. You were a humble giant who always made me laugh and we will celebrate your music forever. Brian, I’ll really miss you…still I have the warmth of the sun within me tonight.

Here's Mike's tribute on his FB page.

Today, the world lost a genius, and I lost a cousin by blood and my partner in music.
Brian Wilson wasn’t just the heart of The Beach Boys—he was the soul of our sound. From the first time we sang together as kids in my living room, I knew there was something otherworldly in him. His musical gifts were unmatched. The melodies he dreamed up, the emotions he poured into every note—Brian changed the course of music forever.
Our journey together was filled with moments of brilliance, heartbreak, laughter, complexity and most of all, LOVE . Like all families, we had our ups and downs. But through it all, we never stopped loving each other, and I never stopped being in awe of what he could do when he sat at a piano or his spontaneity in the studio.
Brian’s unique artistry and our collaboration gave the world the American dream of optimism, joy, and a sense of freedom—music that made people feel good, made them believe in an endless summer and endless possibilities. It was one of the greatest blessings of my life to experience that creative space with him.
It was our privilege to make the world believe in sunshine, surfing, and teenage dreams. My life was forever changed by Pet Sounds, God Only Knows, In My Room, Good Vibrations, The Warmth of the Sun and a hundred other pieces of his soul wrapped in music. He allowed us to show the world what vulnerability and brilliance sound like in harmony. He was fragile, he was intense, he was funny—and he was one of a kind.
My wife, Jacquelyne, and I are heartbroken. She stood beside me through so many chapters of this story, and we both send our love and prayers to Brian’s family, his children, and all who were touched by his life and gifts.
Brian, you once asked, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older?” Now you are timeless. May you rest in the peace you so deeply deserve, surrounded by the heavenly music you helped create. May your spirit soar as high as your falsetto, may your wings spread in effortless flight.
Thank you for the harmonies, the memories, and the love.  Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, Love leaves a memory no one can steal.
I’ll miss you forever, my beloved cousin.
– Mike

[The Drummer]

In 2010, a film about the last years of Dennis' life was announced to be in the works. It was called The Drummer and shooting was to begin in 2012. Aaron Eckhart was cast as Dennis, Vera Farmiga as Christine McVie and Chloë Grace Moretz as Shawn Marie Love. (Good casting, if you ask me...)
But later, Aaron Eckhart left the project, and the director / screenwriter / producer of the film, Randall Miller, went to jail due to criminal negligence after a woman died in an accident on a film he was shooting (Midnight Rider : The Gregg Allman Story). After that, The Drummer was never made, never heard of again.

I don't particularly like all those biopics (Bohemian Rhapsody and Back to Black are just awful), but The Drummer had potential and would have introduced Dennis to a whole new generation.

What I'd like to see, at least, is a good documentary about Carl's life. That would be a start. Carl's estate is sitting on a gold mine and they don't do anything with it. Carl should be considered one of the greatest singers of his (or any) generation, but I get the feeling that he's a little bit forgotten these days. It's not only sad, it's really unfair.  

[Arachnophobia]

Marshall's actual *director* resume is much less impressive. He's done a few action/drama/horror films, and a few documentaries.

Well, Arachnophobia was cool.
Congo not so much.

I'm not surprised about Al's frustration with the documentary.
Frank Marshall also directed the Bee Gees documentary (The Bee Gees : How Can You Men a Broken Heart), released in 2020, and it was the exact same deal : way too short. It stopped after the disco era and plenty of great material was not in the film. Very frustrating for the fans.

Obviously it's an impossible question to answer.
But if you ask me to name the most spiritual album I've ever heard, the first one that comes to mind is Pacific Ocean Blue.

I saw a great picture of Blondie visiting Brian at home yesterday on Blondie's FB page.
Glad to see that those guys are still friends and that Blondie's still visiting.

In a perfect world, Here She Comes would be included in every Greatest Hits compilation from the Beach Boys. It's an amazing song.

It becomes a problem when a rare case like George Lucas comes along and intentionally makes the originals unavailable. That will always be a ridiculous thing to do, yes it's Lucas' right as an artist I suppose, but it's messed up when a generation of people have a deep emotional attachment to the original.

I sure hope no one ever adds more stormtroopers and dewbacks in Cool, Cool Water.

I loved it.

But there are two persons missing in this video (apart from Brian, of course) that I'd like to see more involved in any new Beach Boys projects / possible reunions : Blondie and Ricky ! Blondie's voice is always a welcome addition to anything.

Did anyone tell Lennon "you can't do" Tomorrow Never Knows or Strawberry Fields? No - They worked to make it happen. Did anyone tell McCartney "you can't do" a single that lasts over 7 minutes? No - They changed the record-cutting process to enable that single to come out as recorded on 45rpm. Did anyone tell Harrison "you can't do" Indian music with Indian musicians featured on a pop record? No. It came out and influenced others to go outside Western music for inspiration.

Did anyone tell Ringo "you can't write a song about an octopus!"? No... Well... actually, yes, somebody probably did tell him that.

It's not very often that you can say that a person is a good person just by the way they look.
But Carl was probably one of them. He had that timid but angelic and benevolent smile. Probably never had a bad word to say about anybody (at least publicly), always cool, incredibly talented. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy... What a loss !

It's just not the same trajectories, their respective images are completely different in my mind.

I'm 44 and I guess I've known the names of John, Paul, George and Ringo since I was a kid. They're all icons in their own ways. I knew their faces and their names before I even knew their music. Like Elvis, I guess. The Beatles were EVERYWHERE. In cartoons, in Astérix, on t-shirts, etc.

The Beach Boys? I knew the hit songs, but I learned their names at the saddest occasion, when I heard on television that Carl had died. Weirdly, the only one I knew was Dennis, but only because I'm a movie buff and I'd seen pictures of Two-Lane Blacktop. (My videoclub had a huge yellow poster of the film). To me, even though I hadn't seen the film at that time, Dennis was "the actor from Two-Lane Blacktop"... It's only after Carl's passing that I started to get really interested in the band and all of their albums, listening to them one by one.

But, what's interesting is that before I knew any of their names, The Beach Boys were almost mythical to me. When I was in high school, a friend named Karl (!) lent me a compilation that had just been released on CD. That would have been around 1992-93. (I'm pretty sure it was Good Vibrations : 30 Years of the Beach Boys). I remember vividly listening to it and being blown away. I already knew the big hits from different movies of that era (I Get Around was in Look Who's Talking, Kokomo of course was in Cocktail, Good Vibrations, Surfin'USA and California Girls were in everything), but listening to that box set was quite the experience. Without any knowledge about the band's history, listening to that collection just conjured all those beautiful images that, to me, represented America. The beaches, the waves, the youth and enthusiasm of the sixties, but also the sheer joy and beauty of these songs I hadn't heard before, like The Warmth of the Sun or Don't Worry Baby... I remember listening to that compilation in my room one weekend and how magical a moment that was for me. For a teenage boy from Belgium, they were "the soundtrack of America". When I thought about The United States, it's The Beach Boys' music that came to mind first. I didn't need to know who they were because their voices were so unreal and godlike they might as well not have been human. That was my impression after listening to that compilation that weekend and falling in love with the music.

Years later, I bought the albums, learned their history and their names and, of course, all the sad episodes of the saga that we all know about. And they kinda lost that mythical quality they had before. You cannot see Bruce wearing those goshdarn shorts all the time or Mike being weird at the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame ceremony or Eugene Landy sitting in Brian's lap or Al's 90s ponytail or their apperances in Full House and Baywatch and still have that pure image of musical Gods I had in my mind.

That's also what separates them from the Beatles : the Fab Four never really had any of those embarassing moments. Plus, The Beatles are just four people. The BB had more lineups, the coolest one in my mind being when they added Blondie and Ricky. (And seeing Blondie playing with Brian these last few years has been a joy for me! - Now, Blondie, he's someone I still find REALLY REALLY fascinating for some reason. How cool is Blondie, seriously?...)

Now I wonder if I'd be a bigger fan if I didn't know any of their names and their whole history. With the Beach Boys, the music is and always will be enough. Their music is iconic. But apart from Brian, they're not really (and I'm saying this with love...) I remember crying my eyes out the day George Harrison died. I'm pretty sure I'll cry when we lose Brian (you know, years and years and years from now) and sure, I'll be sad for the others but... it's just not the same thing.

That being said, I'd really love to see them get the "Rutles" treatment. That would be fun!

I suppose that they simply haven't settled on a definitive release date and that's why there hasn't been any sort of promotion until now. It will come.

“I just wanted to show him on TV”- which IMO is exactly what Dennis’ motivation was here.

Thank you!

Also, when the interviewer talks about Mike's collaboration with Jan and Dean, he says : "It's like a little Rolling Thunder Revue, isn't it?"... And Mike's weird answer makes me wonder if he has any idea what the interviewer's talking about.

The sound of the video is quite bad.

What does Dennis say to Mike just before he leaves?
He puts his hand on Mike's shoulder and says "I just wanted to..." What?
"Show him to you."
Then Mike says "Good" with a grinning fake smile.

Is that what he says? "Show him to you"?
Sorry, but I can't tell for sure with the noise in the background.

And then Mike goes on a tirade about Brian not having any breaks and overeating. And he's rolling his eyes when he says the words "psychiatric program".

This video is sad but fascinating. An amazing find!

Call me crazy but I love and have always loved the disco version of Here Comes the Night.

Other bad decisions :

-parting ways with Blondie and Ricky in the seventies. I love what those guys brought to the band ;
-letting Bruce wear short shorts all the time ;
-Full House ;
-Baywatch ;
-Crocodile Rock.

I had the exact same dream except I was totally naked.
I really don't know what it says about me.

Relevant to perhaps nothing, I want to share a story.

Roughly 20 years ago, a co-worker at the time got tickets to see Vanilla Ice live. It was near where he lived, and the price was good, so he went. This was when Vanilla Ice was doing a tour of clubs and smaller venues - I guess to fund his real estate ventures or something.

So he's at the club, and everyone is waiting for Ice to come out. He has a DJ/mixer with him who's also acting as the emcee and trying to fire up the crowd, spinning some tracks, etc. He's yelling into the mic to give Ice his props, give him his props, etc. So the crowd does. And the guy keeps yelling at the crowd to give Ice his props, and the crowd does repeatedly...but they get tired of that bullshit and want to see Ice perform, which is what they paid to see. And Vanilla Ice is still not performing anything. The crowd is getting restless.

So the guy says it again, and my friend finally yelled back "We already gave him his props, now it's time to fucking perform!". Which Ice finally did. But the show was stopped at some point after the house lights came up and the emcee started yelling "Who's smokin' that wet? Is someone smokin' wet?". But eventually he did Ice Ice Baby which he could have done 12 times in a row and still given the crowd their show.


I guess the point is, the fans are growing tired of giving our props (i.e. continuous support and encouragement) to this band and this shelved box set and hearing dead silence. It would be nice to get at least some acknowledgement, or else fans will grow tired of repeating the same damn things over and over again for weeks if not months on end. The petition is there, the comments on all social media platforms including this forum are there, the fans have been consistently enthusiastic and active in their support for a release...It's time to f**king perform. 

I'm surprised Mike didn't try to do a collaboration with Vanilla Ice.

"Rollin' in my Five Point Wheeeennnnnnn"

Please, don't give him ideas...

..

Funny I started to read this whole thread (well, most of it...) the exact same day that the release of Tom Petty's long-awaited Wildflowers & All the Rest album was finally announced.

In that particular case, the delay was due to legal and family disputes between Petty's daughters and his widow. (I seem to remember it was annonced by TP himself around 2012 / 2013, four or five years before he passed away).

Completely different situation, of course, but there's a similarity in that we might finally hear the best music that particular artist's ever recorded.

So, it might take years for Feel Flows to finally come out, but I'm not losing hope!
Let's just hope it comes out in our lifetimes and that it doesn't have time to become another "BB mythic lost album" like Smile.

I signed the petition.
 
Greetings from Belgium.

Yes, Dennis could have been a good actor.
But at least he wasn't in that damn Baywatch episode. Or in Full House.

I bought it. I was thrilled to spend a nice afternoon at home listening to the Beach Boys. Listened to it once. Had to force myself to listen to it entirely. Then I sold it in a discount store the next day. I don't think I've ever been that furious after listening to an album.

I didn't have the chance to go to one of the shows (I'm from Belgium, by the way - Hi from Brussels!), so I was really thrilled to hear that a live album would be released. But the way they butchered most of the songs with that disgusting sound? No no no. I kept thinking : I'm glad Carl and Dennis will never hear this.

"Crank up the Beach Boys, baby, don't let the music stop!" sang Randy Newman. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have said that after listening to this monstrosity. It's probably one of the worst releases of all times from a major band. I can listen to SIP and actually enjoy a song or two. (I don't, but I think I could.) But this? Never again! What a waste, what a shame!