Great article.

I missed Al's birthday but I hope he had a great one. He deserves every bit of love we have to send him.

Agree 111%!

The songs Dennis wrote for the Boys are genius, so is Pacific Ocean Blue, and maybe I like Bambu even more (though it may be the "unfinished masterpiece" effect). The Deluxe Edition with the reconstructed Bambu was one of the most unexpected and thrilling musical surprises in my life.
However, POB sounds exactly as new and fresh now as 40 years ago. Really ageless.

Wow.

Just as it should be expected: an eccentric genius will always out-eccentric any average eccentric.

Only in your world, which seems to be dominated by a neverending stream of perceived Mike Love trigger moments

You'd be better off if you got used to it instead of getting your panties in a bunch because there's more coming your way, bub.
Question for you, who's putting the gun to your head making you read my posts? Huh? 

It's in the natural flow for people to read all posts in a thread, you're part of a community here and to expect your comments to just be skipped over by some is dichotomous to that. It is unrealistic to expect anyone with an opinion or reaction to sublimate it 100% of the time, and also defeats the whole idea of group conversation to ask that of anyone. Completely narcissistic and possibly sociopathic. Just sayin'....

"Sociopathic" is over the top.

Deleted.

I may be wrong, but think that when Brian says "psychedelic drugs", he's including "weed".
However, I'm impressed by this latest batch of Brian interviews. He's interesting and entertaining... this strenuous touring seems to have a surprisingly good effect on him.
Let's hope this effect even works the miracle of doing the fabled R&R album!

All my prayers for a fast and full recovery, Billy! As none less than Stephen W. Desper said, we all love you!

I would have preferred "Heigh Ho" to Colors of the Wind, Imagination deserves to be on it, and there's lots of uncollected solo singles and plenty more Andy Paley songs worthy of release.  Could have been a double disc easily.  Maybe Amazon/Target/Wal-Mart will have some bonus tracks on an exclusive?

Bonus tracks from some outlet (or multiple outlets) are possible. A second disc with scattered rarities might be nice, although a larger boxed set sort of presentation for Brian's solo rarities and outtakes would probably be preferable.

If forced to pick something off the Disney album, I probably would have gone with "Colors of the Wind."

I would've gone for "Kiss the Girl" personally

Agree 100%, Billy.

Smiley Smile

Love You

Summer In Paradise

OSD, maybe you're right, but seeing SS and LY alone in SIP's company makes me want to throw the monitor away.

Today it is:

1) 'Til I Die
2) Time to Get Alone
3) Wind Chimes (Smiley)
4) H & V (Smile)
5) Lonely Sea

To make a potentially very long story as short as possible...

Yes, Love You was the last truly great album from the Beach Boys.

It's such a pity that Mike didn't ask for Al Jardiine's collaboration on this formula thing.
The result would have been that the infamous "Don't .... with the formula" would have been replaced by a much gentler (and cleaner, of course) "Don't go near the formula".
So, Brian would not have been shocked, and on the contrary would have felt more than justified in staying the heck away from the formula (if you take my meaning).
So, maybe history as we know it would have changed for the better.

When I first read the track list for this release, tears came from my eyes. I was not expecting anything like this. It's like the 6th and 7th disc of the Smile sessions.
I'm also awed at the vastity of what must still lie unreleased in the vaults, and (again) at the greatness of the Beach Boys, which is beyond words.
Tears again as I'm writing this.

I have an easy first  answer to this question: I Get Around. I really tried to like it, but can't. It stubbornly remains my least favourite song in ALL BB canon. To my ears, it keeps "getting around" without ever going any place.

Daybreak Over the Ocean: no need of explanation here.
Almost all the post-Love You BB songs, sorry. The magic had gone.
The whole Imagination album. Niot for the production (though it didn't help), for the songs.

Very good interview, and with the Question/Answer ratio every good interview should have, also thanks to a very fluent Mike. Once I watched on TV an interview to Jean Paul Sartre, and the interviewer hogged 97% of the time. I was like: "Damn fool, the guy in front of you is one of the greatest contemporary philosophers! Let him say SOMETHING, dammit!" 

I wouldn't think most Beach Boys fans dislike Wind Chimes or Wonderful. A Thing or Two is a good one that doesn't get much praise. I would have to say Hey Little Tomboy, Bells of Paris and Male Ego

About Wind Chimes and Wonderful, fans usually prefer (often by a lot) the Smile versions. Instead I prefer the much weirder Smiley takes.
Another song I seem to love more than most fans do is Airplane from LY.

Thought of another one.

'Mt. Vernon & Fairway (A Fairy Tale)' is, to me, just about essential Brian Wilson. Magic, offbeat sure, but still magic pure and simple. A wonderful journey into the mind and heart of my favorite Beach Boy. This was, in a weird way, Brian's original Autobiography. If you love the childlike nature of Love You and the uniqueness of something like 'A Day in the Life of a Tree', then I can't see why you wouldn't love this one.

Oh yes, sure! How could I forget to mention Mt. Vernon & Fairway?
Also, A Day in the Life of a Tree.
On a wholly different note, I "confess" that I dig a lot the live version of Summer in Paradise featured in Made in California.

[And yes, that applies to myKe as well.]

Great post HJ and I'm right there with your preface before going into each member. Any takes on Dennis and Carl as well? I've had encounters with all of them over the years and have basically found them to be, at least on the road, interested and willing to take part in accepting their role toward the fans quite well. And yes, that applies to myKe as well. I don't enjoy nor do I have the time to type long pieces about my encounters with them, but would like to share them someday.

Wow, OSD. I can't believe what I just read...

I never met any of the Boys, but have met several artists and musicians, and I would classifiy them in just two types: the shy (introverted) and the bold (extroverted). Never met one whom I'd call rude or ungracious.
A textbook example of a shy one is Alan Stivell, the Breton composer/singer/harpist/piper/multi-instrumentalists. He is a genius by any standard and practically invented modern Breton Celtic music. An idol for me. Add to that, he looks like a modern Merlin.
When I met him, was so awed at the great man thet I hardly managed to utter a word. I was not helped by realising that he was even more shy and embarassed than me. As gracious and unassuming as possible, but surely not a talker, and surely he doesn't like to mingle wih fans, but probably fears it. Exactly what I think of Brian.
Mike seems to be the extroverted type, instead, and I have no doubt he can be very pleasant unless you find him really in a hurry, or in a really bad day.
As for me... I may be critical of him here, but if I ever met him I'd be delighted. Because, though I am as Brianista as they come, there's still a Mike fan hidden within me.

P.S.
Is it me or this board is considerably mellowing out to Mike now that we can discuss him without being always accused of "Mike bashing"?

Hi, I found this thread in PSF and think it's a fun idea. Surely already done, but people come, go and change opinions. Anyway, I like it more than the more usual "Songs which are considered great but you can't stand".
Feel free to choose from the BB solo output, too.
My first choices is are "Wind Chimes" and "Wonderful" from Smiley Smile, and "A Thing or Two" from Wild Honey.

I think Brian's solo career has three phases: 1988-1998, 1999-2011, and 2012 on.

1988-1998: the very good but underproduced BW88. The acclaimed (and imho a bit overrated, but that's just me) Paley Sessions. Enter Joe Thomas, resulting in the underwhelming "Imagination". Brian is delivered form Landy, marries Melinda, but is probably still uncertain whether pursuing a solo career or trying to reconnect with the Beach Boys.

1998-2011: Carl passes, and any hope/wish of staying with the grievously diminished Beach Boys fades in Brian. Exit Joe Thomas. Brian starts the collaboration with the amazing Wondermints-plus band and, surprisingly, starts touring a lot, at least by previous standards. In the studio, what I consider his second halcyon period after 1966-1967: BWPS, TLOS, Gershwin. The sound, in this phase, is very organic and "indie-like", just as you would expect from a band where the Wondermints are so prominent.

2012 on: re-enter Joe. The temporarily reunited Beach do a great tour and a good album with a killer 4-songs finale. Brian doesn't take well the forced ending of the reunion, but makes the most of it continuing the collaboration with Al and taking on board first David then Blondie.
False start with Jeff Beck, but Brian & C insist with "external" collaborations, resulting in NPP, imho a good and generally underrated album.
In this phase, the sound has become much "slicker", unsurprisingly given Joe Thomas, and that's what seems most divisive among the fans. Some, like me, like it, others hate it to no end. Also divisive is the importance of collaborators, imho somewhat of a failed experiment; taking the songs one by one, I like them, but they are too many and by very diverse musicians, so on the whole they give the idea of a scattered album.    
Brian's focus seems to have further shifted from the studio to a volume of touring which is now "a lot" (bordering on "too much") by any standards. Let's hope for the fabled R&R album.  

Not much interest because there's not much to say....a few moderately successful easy listening albums and a heavy dependence upon Pet Sounds/Smile and revisit of past personal problems via the Love and Mercy movie to revive some interest in an otherwise somewhat flagging career...

To be a big Brian fan nowadays is to spend a lot of time in the distant past or a rather tepid present, unfortunately....

With a nickname like yours your views are hardly surprising! What you talk about is not "to be a big Brian fan", it's "to be a Beach Boys fan with a strong and declared preference for Mike Love", given the nickname.

As for me, I'd dump most of the pre-Pet Sounds period for Brian's solo career. In case you didn't notice, nothing* excites the real fans like Brian putting in a concert setlist a song (ANY song) from his solo career, ecluding of course L&M. Of course, this almost never happens because Joe Public has to be kept happy, and good old Joe likes Barbara Ann, and that only because after hearing it a million times he finds it somewhat familiar.

* Save maybe a cut from "Love You".

Welcome, Paul!

I gave advice. F.ex. you live in Netherlands, speak Dutch for many years. You're native. Then, say, Lowbacca lives in Germany & speaks German many years. Then there is Rocker, the other poster from Germany. Do they talk together in German, that everybody must ask them what it means? Exactly. They talk English, it's international language. It's just showing respect to the fellow posters. Hopefully, you will take this fair advice & don't repeat that stuff.

Now why, oh why, did I just know that that one simple sentence, twelve guileless Dutch words innocently strung together, would precipitate a minor riot in RangeRoverland?

I recall another ex-pat and I exchanging sentences in Dutch on the now-defunct Capitol Board and no one raised an eyebrow. Maar ik denk niet... I mean, I don't think I'll be doing it again. Unless I'm ripped to the giddy tits, of course.

JK, I wonder at your wonder. By now, you should well know that using anything but the Language of the Fathers is universally frowned upon.

Dark Shadows is my fav TV series ever, "by a landslide". And Barnabas was sure a part of that.