Really... the one thing I'd like more than anything from Brian and co now would be the Paley sessions released. That would make me very happy.

thanks for this! CW comes across as such a gentleman.

Well, it says 'ere:

Producer, Mixed By – Al Schmitt

which makes him (a) producer of the record, right? 'Cos producers normally do the mixing?

Nope. Your knowledge of how an album is recorded is... sorely ill-informed. 

I haven't been here for a while, I'd forgotten what it was like sometimes 

I think TLOS sounds a bit flat by comparison, though I'm not sure whether or not this relates to something or someone different involved with BWRG... has anyone got the vinyl of TLOS? How does this compare with the CD? Is it a good pressing?

It is good, but not amazing.  Definitely an improvement over the cd but it isn't stunning in the way BWPS is on vinyl, for example.

The (Gershwin) producer credit was just entered incorrectly on discogs.  I just looked at my record and BW is the only credited producer.  Schmitt is only credited with the mix.

Duly noted - do you think it's worth going for BWPS vinyl over and above the Smile Sessions vinyl? (sorry for going a bit OT)

It is quite possible that the details in Discogs are wrong, as I initially acknowledged. I'm not the one using green ink.

"http://www.discogs.com/buy/Vinyl/Brian-Wilson-Reimagines-Gershwin/152644734?ev=bp_titl was my (unreliable?) source for this..."

Can people take a deep breath, perhaps? Before inventing a conflict, when one doesn't actually exist? What's in the water on the Surrey/Hants border these days?

Well, it says 'ere:

Producer, Mixed By – Al Schmitt

which makes him (a) producer of the record, right? 'Cos producers normally do the mixing? Ultimately I think it's a semantic point, but can we have an arm-wrestle over it?

probably the main point here is that BWRG has a less plastic, or at least, more refined sound than TLOS, to these ears at least. And Brian's vocals sound better, generally. (Of course, I think the lyrics are also better, but that's another point for another slow Wednesday afternoon).

http://www.discogs.com/buy/Vinyl/Brian-Wilson-Reimagines-Gershwin/152644734?ev=bp_titl was my (unreliable?) source for this...

on the other hand, the fact I don't like the sound of TLOS is simply an opinion, right? No holes, or assertions.

I think the production on the Gershwin album is miles better (Al Schmitt?) giving Brian's original/semi-original tracks much more depth. It's not without its issues, TLOS... though I love bits of it. [adds: if they could get Schmitt to manage the re-recording, mixing and production of the Paley songs it would be  

Al Schmitt remixed the album (why, I have no idea - the original mix was perfectly fine and, TBH, almost indistinguishable from the released version): he had nothing whatsoever to do with the recording and production.

He's accredited with production, must be nice work if you can get it :-)

I think TLOS sounds a bit flat by comparison, though I'm not sure whether or not this relates to something or someone different involved with BWRG... has anyone got the vinyl of TLOS? How does this compare with the CD? Is it a good pressing?

Brian's greatest work since Love You. His best solo album by far. Absolutely magnificent. 5 all the way.

I think it might be a true classic. I can listen to it 4 years later and it still sounds amazing, if not better than it did initially.

I think the production on the Gershwin album is miles better (Al Schmitt?) giving Brian's original/semi-original tracks much more depth. It's not without its issues, TLOS... though I love bits of it. [adds: if they could get Schmitt to manage the re-recording, mixing and production of the Paley songs it would be  ]

Definitely more than the sum of its parts, but some of it goes a bit runny... even the songs I like have parts I'm not entirely sure about.

Once the bonus songs are included - Message Man, for example - things look up enormously.

There are issues with the sequencing and selection of material. The original version of Live Let Live should have gone in. So a reworked TLOS for me would be


That Lucky Old Sun      
Morning Beat
Between Pictures      
Oxygen To The Brain   
Can't Wait Too Long   
Venice Beach   
Live Let Live/That Lucky Old Sun (Reprise)                  
Good Kind Of Love         
Midnight's Another Day      
That Lucky Old Sun (Reprise)   
Just Like Me And You            
I'm Into Something Good    
Message Man
Southern California   


but even with this, there are bits which are a little bit sketchy. so it goes...

I interviewed VDP a while ago, I can't pretend to know him very well, but he has had hard times. He has poured so much of himself into his work for relatively little recompense, suffered for his art, and seen his most dear friends fall by the wayside. As a survivor of a cataclysmic late 60s scene, he has developed a certain degree of stubbornness on some questions and his interpretation of issues can be inflexible (a prerogative which he claims and which I would allow). He is one of those people, along with Robert Wyatt, who has developed a distinct authorial voice, even if his music since the 80s has smoothed over some of the most awkward and interesting experimental aspects of 'Song Cycle,' most of it is fantastic. Like Robert Wyatt, many of us look up to him and admire him, especially for his mistakes and mis-steps... someone who has given us far more than we should ever be able to repay.

Isn't 'Shortenin' Bread' basically a bassline with rhythm? If we were going to hazard a guess as to what BW was playing in that picture, would I be totally wrong in thinking 'Shortenin' Bread'?

I've read some interviews and discovered more than I might like about Brian's love of Fox News and support for the McCain/Palin campaign... but much like a reactionary favourite uncle, it's very hard to hold this against him in any sense. Brian of the mid/late 60s did have more of a liberal or radical take on things, I'm quite sure, but as with Dennis, actual politics always appeared low on the Wilsons' agenda, they all have/had more a spiritual outlook I think.

I'm going to put my head on the line here, and say that the album will sell an amount of units somewhere between That Lucky Old Sun and TWGMTR. However, if it had come out last year, and got stinking reviews, it might have sold less than both. If it comes out this year and gets brilliant reviews, it might sell as many as TWGMTR! Does this help?

To be even more adventurous, I think the quality of the album might be somewhere between Gettin' [In] Out of My Head and Brian Wilson '88. Just like everything else (bar BWPS) in the last 10 years, perhaps?  

I have heard that the movie is a dud, essentially an homage to Melinda (Me-Landy) who saves Brian from himself and all those other jerks. It's going to be wretched. As for the album, I expect incoherence and maybe a few notable chords and some Al vocals, but it will be a tortured, senseless mess as a whole. Anything short of a BB album (made without JT and while Melinda is gone for 6 months visiting her sister) means nothing.

Did you have beaches in mind on your spring vacation?

Heh heh, exactly!

Nothing But Love.

Yes, it's a great track - a bit like the offspring of 'Breakaway' and 'Shortening Bread'. Not exactly sure what the Gershwin origin was here, this is very Brian.

Choosing 10 tracks is really hard - and the great thing is that every year it gets more difficult. Who'd have thought that, even 10 years ago?

It's been suggested that completing BWPS was cathartic ...

Certainly agree on the 2 standouts mentioned here, and Nothing But Love is a lot of fun, which as people have mentioned, could have been on 15 Big Ones. But that still makes a sort-of-OK strike rate, and I'd add those 3 to any best-of compilation. Much of the rest isn't that bad, and only criticism is a little bit bland. If I'm going to criticise individual tracks, I'd mention It Ain't Necessarily So, I Got Rythm, They Can't Take..., Summertime, S'Wonderful. But even then, can I really be inclined to criticise, they're all accomplished...

[just like]

Any other people think that this Scottish dream-pop duo channel some of the classic early-70s Brian Wilson? Doesn't this sound just like Spring could have sounded, if Brian had really, really bothered? What do people think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn6xdAfcGQo&feature=related

the music of van dyke parks is heavenly

any details of the new album which he recently referred to? Did he play a few new songs?

GIOMH is for collectors, I'd say. If you want to hear a lot of the tuneson this album delivered well, try buying The Zombies' Oddessey and Oracle. Try listening to 'Goin' Out of My Head' rather than 'Getting In Over My Head.' 

This is one album beyond salvage. Scrape off the barnacles and there just isn't enough to float. Nicely packaged sleeve, though.

it's all true. This is a fantastic mix and it sounds like a Smile should.

I'd probably go further than that, as there a flashes of 'Brian-as-Bach' on this album. I can think of a couple: the intro to 'Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight' is a hint at a sort of prog-rock synth landscape, though Brian and co would always be thinking of 'hit record' rather than developing this further, whilst the Night Blooming Jasmine part of Rio Grande has a synthy harpsichord bridge part which just for a sec glances towards pop as art. Of course, Andy Paley may have written these bits; but they do show how layered and intricate a lot of the songs on BW88 are...

I hope he get VDP in for some of the arrangements for the Disney album (assuming than Van Dyke would be interested, of course).