The thing about Brian besides his incredible talent, I doubt you can find anyone on this board hardly ever saying a negative word about him. Yes he had his issues, but he always seemed like such a sweet/kind man. Just watch long promise road where he drives around and talks about his life. Hard to see him as anything but a wonderful person with a treat heart.

He will be missed for a long time to come. We should be glad we had him as long as we did. Everyone thought he was gonna die in the 70s he ended up outliving his bothers, even Melinda. A tribute to his toughness.

Does anyone know if Orange Crate Art 25th Reissue is available to buy or stream digitally?

Yeah the full 25th anniversary version is on Apple Music to stream I Just looked

This article had a  lot info about it. Worth reading.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/beach-boys-brian-wilson-suffering-004837002.html

Hard to feel anything but sympathy for someone like him with all he’s been through and all the mike loves and landys and murrys mistreating him still always has seemed like such a sweet/kind hearted guy.

Here’s the article

With Beach Boys former manager Fred Vail on vocals, the project known as Cows in the Pasture has been resurrected by an ambitious young producer, Vail, and Wilson himself
In early 1970, Brian Wilson called Beach Boys manager Fred Vail to a Los Angeles hotel room to propose an idea that was outlandish even by his wild standards: a country music album with Vail on lead vocals that he’d produce. The fact that Vail was a businessman without any formal singing experience didn’t strike Wilson as any sort of obstacle.

“I said to him, ‘Have you written any country songs?'” Vail recalls to Rolling Stone. “And he said, ‘Well, no.’ I said, ‘Do you have any idea who you’d like to use as musicians?’ He said, ‘Well, no. I’ve only worked with the Wrecking Crew for the most part. You find the songs. You select the musicians. We’ll go into Wally Heider’s Studio. We’ll start working on the album.'”

For a couple of weeks in April 1970, while the Beach Boys cut Sunflower at a nearby studio, that’s exactly what happened. Working alongside studio legends like guitarist James Burton, pianist Glen D. Hardin, and steel guitarist Red Rhodes, they recorded basic tracks for 14 songs. But midway through the process, before Vail had the chance to record anything but scratch vocals, Wilson lost interest and abandoned the project.

“He was dealing with a lot of issues,” Vail, now 79, says. “He had gained a lot of weight and was sleeping late in his big bed. There was a lot of things going on with him personally, and he didn’t have any interest in finishing it at that point, so the tapes went into the vault at the Beach Boy office.”

As the years ticked by, the aborted album became part of Beach Boys lore, taking on the name of Cows in the Pasture for reasons that not even Vail can recall. (It was nameless when they cut it.) Many Beach Boys aficionados dreamed of one day having the chance to hear what country music would sound like with Wilson behind the mixing desk, ace musicians in the studio, and an untrained singer on lead vocals.

They’ll have the chance at some point in 2025 when Cows in the Pasture finally comes out alongside a docuseries that traces Vail’s incredible life story and the unlikely resurrection of his country record, which is being finished right now with producer Sam Parker and a series of all-star guest vocalists. Wilson has signed back onto the project as an executive producer and guest singer on one of the tracks.

“Fred always loved country music and he was a big rodeo guy,” Brian Wilson tells Rolling Stone. “He’s a hell of a guy, one hell of a promoter, and I’m glad his album is coming out.”

Vail’s history in the music industry stretches all the way back to the Fifties when he was a precocious teenager that booked shows by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Jan and Dean, and the Diamonds at his high school. He even talked his way onto the set of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet to interview Ricky Nelson for the school newspaper. “I went on the radio as a teen announcer on a Saturday morning program when I was 12,” he says. “I’ve just been very, very blessed to have these opportunities.”

He went to Sacramento State College to study journalism just as a new music craze was sweeping California. “‘The Twist’ had been the big music in ’60, ’61,” he says. “It was now ’63. Surf music was happening. Every label, independent or major, had a surf band. There were the Challengers, the Merced Blue Notes, the Astronauts, the Lively Ones, Dick Dale and the Del-tones. They were all guitar bands, basically. Very, very limited vocals.”

When Vail was asked to assemble a fundraiser for El Camino High School at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, his thoughts went to a new surf band that was just starting to gain national traction thanks to “Surfin’ Safari” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.” When he reached out to their agent at William Morris, he learned the Beach Boys could be booked for just $750. They never traveled far from Los Angles for shows since member Carl Wilson was still in high school, but he arranged plane tickets so they could make it.

The May 23, 1963, show was the band’s first headlining gig outside of L.A. It went so well that Beach Boys manager Murry Wilson hired Vail to map out a tour for the Beach Boys to play all across America in the years that followed. He tagged along for all the trips and grew close to the band. “Whenever I would pick them up at the airport, I’d have a country music station on, because that was my background,” Vail says. “I’d been a country DJ when I was 17. I’d be singing along to Johnny Cash or Marty Robbins, and they’d flip it to the pop station, just playing their new music. And then I’d tease them and I’d flip it back to the country station, and it was kind of like an ongoing gag.”

Vail was in the room when Brian Wilson and Mike Love sat on a hotel room bed and wrote “The Warmth of the Sun” the evening of the JFK assassination. He was counting out piles of cash from a concert on one bed with Murry Wilson while Brian and Mike created the harmonies on the other one. He’s the voice you hear (“Now from Hawthorne, California, to entertain you tonight with a gala concert and recording session, the fabulous Beach Boys!”) at the beginning of 1964’s Beach Boys Concert, an album he talked them into releasing. Vail left the group in 1966 to work at a live festival known as the Teen-Age Fair in Los Angeles, but was brought back into the fold in 1969 to manage them.

He wasn’t back long when Brian Wilson began reflecting on the band’s early days in the car when Vail would sing along to country songs on the radio. He wanted to capture that voice on record, and they came up with a list of songs that included Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely,” Hank Williams’ “You Win Again,” and “Burt Bacharach’s “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me.”

“We never did any keeper vocals,” Vail says. “They were mostly just scratch vocals that we never completed. There were no background vocals and no harmonies. It was a lot instrumentation. And when Brian lost interest, I just moved on. It was kind of like, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ I didn’t figure anything would ever be done with them.”

About 10 years ago, long after Vail left the Beach Boys world, he got a call from their management team. “They said, ‘Fred, we were going through the vault and we found these five two-inch rolls of tape with your name and Brian’s name on them,'” Vail said. “‘Do you know anything about them?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s the country album that Brian and I started back in 1970.'” And they said, ‘Well, what should we do with them?’ And I said, ‘Well, don’t throw them out. If you’re trying to clean out the vault, just send it to me and I’ll keep them.'”

Right around this time, Nashville-based talent agent/producer Sam Parker came across Fred Vail on Facebook. Parker is a lifelong Beach Boys fanatic, and he recognized the name immediately. “I reached out to Fred, not thinking he would actually respond,” Parker says. “But he did and I said, ‘Hey, I’d love to take you for a cup of coffee and hear some stories.’ And from moment one that we sat down, something inside was like, ‘You have to hit record on your phone.’ And I’m thankful I did, because every story he told was just jaw dropping. Fred was the fly in the room for everything.”

Parker and Vail developed a Tuesdays with Morrie-like friendship. “I went from fan to family,” says Parker. “I look at Fred at the grandfather I never really got to know. It’s been a journey.”

When Parker heard about the Cows in the Pasture tapes sitting in Vail’s garage, the wheels started moving in his head. This was an opportunity to not only finish the project Vail started with Brian Wilson back in 1970, but to tell the world about Vail’s life at the same time.

They will enter the studio with a group of guest vocalists they’re not ready to name yet. “They’re country music legends,” Parker says. “They’re rock & roll legends, contemporary country, and pop stars too.” But he can reveal that 13-time Grammy winner T Bone Burnett will be involved. (The instrumental tracks were largely completed back in 1970.)

Vail’s voice has changed quite a bit in the past five decades, but Parker saw that as an opportunity to try a different tactic with the vocals. “The idea was to take this kind of Johnny Cash approach,” he says. “Late in his career, when he didn’t have the twang he used to have, they reinvented his voice with a sort of spoken-work approach. That’s sort of what Fred is doing in the studio.”

A camera crew was on hand to film all of the studio work. “As of right now, we’re creating a four-part docuseries,” says Parker, who adds that Wilson will executive produce the series with him. “The first episode will tell Fred’s story. Episode two will be the story of Cows in the Pasture. Episode three takes place afterwards when Fred left California and came East. Episode four concludes the whole thing with the finishing of the album.”

They’re in talks with a “major distributor” to release the docuseries in 2025. Plans are in flux, but it might include “cinematic re-imaginings” of key moments from Vail’s life utilizing actors.

For Vail, all the attention has been overwhelming. “It’s been a roller coaster,” he says. “It shows me that the stuff we recorded in April ’70 is timeless. I was really, really proud of this record, and even though it sat in the can for decades, literally, I always was thinking, ‘Man, that’d be great to get back into the studio and finish this thing.’ And now that’s happening.”

All the performances are https://www.setlist.fm/venue/dolby-theatre-los-angeles-ca-usa-23d5a8f7.html

Doesn’t show what song they all played but shows all the performers, weezer ended up doing California girls.
Really good list of a listers. Really suprised at fall out boy lol doing do you wanna dance

Anyone else want to box Jason Fine's ears when he ambushed Brian with info that Jack Rieley had passed away? Brian looked like he might have liked to.

As someone posted, brian posted on instagram when jack died a small tribute to him, so he mustive known he died, but just forgot....

Also did anyone notice him say hes never heard pacific ocean blue? But ive literally seen video of him singing river song....

Guessing he just has a spotty memory...

Also, LOVED the documentary. My gf who isnt a huge BB freak like everyone on here , she loved it too. Thought it was great. Even told her mom to watch it. haha. Overall, was really impressed with it.

I always thought Mikes story about taking a shower at Dennis' house didnt add up. Who goes to a party and takes a shower? Especially after manson had already been weirding them out, supposedly...That he was with some chick in there makes it make a lot more sense.

I saw some of the Joe Rogan interview with the author pretty crazy. I will read the book probably...One thing that hasnt been mentioned in this thread is that quote from Dennis from the 70s when he says something like "i know everything about why manson did it and what happened... as long as I live, I'll never talk about that" or something similar....If it was more than just Helter Skelter BS then that makes a lot more sense. Especially if he was possibly protecting Gregg or Terry for some reason. Didnt want to say that Terrys story in court was BS or something?

I was just watching neil young old interview with howard stern and he mentions hanging with Manson a few times at Dennis' house. Didnt go into much detail tho just how much it impressed him that manson could just make up songs non stop on the fly.

yeah mike said he used to smoke pot and drink not just a little but "half a bottle" of whiskey, etc. I think its clear everyone in the wilson/love family has addictive personalities, he was just lucky to channel that into meditation, imho.

if Greatest == liked by most people, critics and their biggest hit, then Good Vibrations obviously.

And i do remember in the "what are mike loves best lyrics?" thread or posts ive read everyone says Good Vibrations...He really did do a great job with that...It was prior to his constant callbacks of their previous hits...it wasnt "im picking up good vibrations, shes giving me california girls..." or some crap

Everyone can have a different opinion, obviously, but i agree with the other poster who said its obviously Good Vibrations. Just going by what the chart success, sales and critical opinion. on Rolling Stones greatest songs on all time its listed, i think, (too lazy to google) at number 2 after Like a rolling stone.

They both played at the "roosevelt jam" in the 70s a big fesitval in new york along with CSNY and some other bands....no idea if they interacted...altho joni's close friend neil young of course mentions the beach boys on "long may you run"

heres an article where they are all interviewed separately about it
https://www.jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=797

It was postponed if I remember
Wonder if I got filmed
Sorry for posting in dupe thread haha

Random question: does anyone else have a hard time listening to thoughts of you because there’s a short piano part that sounds just like the MASH theme song?

In case people haven’t seen it I believe this is the interview in question
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a1mg5p-49C8

What about signing the 8 million dollar cbs contract in 77(?).  It gave us a run of ok albums like Light album, etc The band was in a horrible place (think tarmac incident) and probably shouldn’t have been recording but obviously they wanted the money so they kept putting out records that had a few good songs but pretty much killed their recording career after the contract was up. What it from 77-85 they had only put out 1 album when they had enough great material? I know miu wasnt on cbs but including that in the list of albums they never made would be a good idea too imho

https://youtu.be/T2NMO-5srgk

Digging this version.

https://youtu.be/T2NMO-5srgk

Digging this version.

Edit: somehow thus posted twice sorry! Delete this one

I thought there was some talk on here about Dennis being sort of racist taking about beating up a black guy or something like that? Forget what the actual accusations were.

[Still Cruisin']

I do like a lot of the stuff from Still Cruisin'. Especially, "Somewhere Near Japan" and "Make It Big." I grew up with Troop Beverly Hills. Haha.

Sort of of topic but do you like Jenny Lewis? Her new album is really good
For those that don’t know she was child star of troop Beverly Hills.

It's been written Murry had diverticulitis just before his first heart attack, and IIRC that he and Dennis would watch the fights together, at times "virtually" via phone.

Yeah mike said he had several feet of his intestines removed right before he died.

I’d love to see some pics of him later in life. There’s hardly any pics of him online, in general. There’s that 1 pic of him that is everywhere and any pic besides that are rare and hard to find. I’m sure there’s lots of physical pictures in Wilson family picture albums, etc that Brian or whoever might have but hardly any online.
It’s almost surprising how few pics there are online of someone so important to musical history.

 Is that his studio in the our team documentary? It looks similar but maybe a diff studio?

Side note on YouTube the our team documentary is paired with footage of them in Belgium and the part where Carl is being interviewed and talked about Brian’s musical ability and the interviewer goes “wow Brian must have a good ear” and Carl laughs incredulously and goes “uh yeah he does” always makes me laugh

Bruce Springsteen said he played backup for Chuck at a local show before he was famous...They didnt do any rehersals, didnt know what songs they were gonna play and chuck didnt even make eye contact with them or acknoledge them or tell them what songs were coming they just had to try and figure out what he was playing and play along...

pretty ridiculous.

I didn’t know Dennis ended up as the sole owner of brother studios I assumed it was always him and Carl
Did Dennis lose a lot of money on the studio? Did that contribute to him being broke when he died? Or was that mostly his reckless spending/cocaine buying/divorces?

I read in an interview that Michael Stipe used the word "smile" as a reference to smile...and they put the cello triplets at the end to sound like good vibrations and the bells and stuff to sound like pet sounds and chord inversions to sound like the beach boys too....apparently stipe isnt a beach boys fan but the other guys are huge fans....i believe mills or buck wrote liner notes for....sunflower? or some other album.

The DJ mentions that the kenny and the cadets record was going for "thousands of dollars"....i googled it and found this, it looks like its worth 100 or 200 now according to this:
https://www.popsike.com/KENNY-and-the-CADETS-BARBIE-RARE-EARLY-BEACH-BOYS-45-ON-RANDY-RECORDS-NM-BEAUTY/252043422135.html

was it really worth "thousands" back in the 70s? or was he exaggerating?

great interview tho. Interesting that he said that "Brian loves you" was approved by the other guys as a title....Of course it was changed, but i didnt know they all approved it originally

FYI i noticed today that "Made in California" is back on Apple Music! was happy to see that...wonder why it dissapeared for ~a month or whatever it was..