Mike's band is fantastic. Brian's might be on the next level of quality but I have never seen Brian's band rock like Mike's.

but actually Al's band is better than both of them!  Especially in terms of actually sounding like the Beach Boys did (imho)

I remembered it being about a male songwriter...could be wrong though.  As I recall AGD knows the identity of the person in question.

Either way though, absolutely hilarious!  This is an excellent thread, Brian is the unintentional king of one-liners.

I dont know about unintentional...I think brian knows he's funny!  I mean, he did at one point talk about doing whole albums of humor. 

While we're on the subject of Holland's backing vocals, do we know who arranged them?  I've always thought steamboat had a very interesting vocal arrangement, which I assumed was Carl, but if Brian was there singing the falsetto might he have participated?  It seems he was often willing to lend a more active hand on Dennis's songs...  Do we know if he's in the mix on Trader, or was that pretty much all carl, because thats also a really cool vocal arrangement, I think.  I've always assumed he was the driving force behind funky pretty, but also that he wasn't really involved in anything else, but is that true?  Might he have had a hand in the california saga: california?  After all, he was there at least long enough to add the first line, might he have been guiding, or was it all carl at that point?  Finally, did Al participate in the california saga arrangements (do we know?)  and did Blondie and ricky help with the vocal arrangements and harmonies as arrangers?  I dunno, I think the process of that time period is really fascinating to me, because the whole band was involved and I'm always curious what exactly brian, carl's roles were, etc.  

Another question:  is Dennis's voice audible anywhere on Holland?  I know he flew off at some point, but I always thought it was odd he didn't sing either of his songs, since his voice was so great during that era (in my opinion).

Edit: person who asked where on Holland brian's falsetto is audible: listen really closely to Steamboat.  It sounds to me like there are places were it's just Brian by himself in the background doing his thing (over mike's bass bom bom boms).

I thought I'd get this one going, since there seem to be so many!!  Fair game, I figure, are references to Beach Boys songs, but also to Gershwin songs other than the one ostensibly being played (I'm fairly sure this happens at least once).  I'll start off with one I heard about on the board, and one I found for myself:

The end of I Got Rhythm pretty clearly references Farmer's Daughter. 

The background vocals during the solo on They Can't Take That Away From Me are a pretty clear reference to the Ronettes: Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love.

What else can we find?

Vinyl sounds different from digital, even from the same mastertape.  Vinyl has the advantage over CD in warmth, "smoothness," soundstaging, presence, and the sense of "air" around the instruments and vocals (however, whether these qualities will be perceived at all will depend on how the master was recorded and engineered).  Digital has the advantage in resolution of detail and in dynamic range - bass no longer needs to be "rounded off" or "shaved" to prevent the stylus from jumping.  Good digital mastering (particularly with SACD or DVD-A) on a good CD player can come very close to matching analogue in the categories analogue does best and surpassing analogue on the detail and dynamic range fronts.

I agree on the digital front.  I think the real advantage of analog isn't that it's inherently better, but that often vinyl pressings are better (I should say different) because of the way they were mastered/pressed.  For example, the "wall of sound" style has gone out of fashion, and so a lot of beautifully remastered CDs of classic albums really change the feel, making it clearer, separating out the instruments a bit more, sort of thinning out and modernizing the sound.  I don't know how they do this, some records are just remastered, others remixed, refiddled, rethises and thated, but a good example of this is Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run.  The wall of soundness comes across much better on the vinyl.  As things are remastered to modern tastes, things that made a record special can get lost.

On the subject of USB drive in your turntable...if you don't end up getting this, you'll still be able to do a decent rip by running a $5 chord from your stereo to your computer input.  It won't sound great, but it'll do the job for an mp3 player, etc. 

I've got a question, I'm just curious, not trying to bust your balls.  Why all the digital/analog talk when you don't have anything analog to play it on? 

I think its definitely true that an Analog recording might sound warmer than a digital recording, even played on a CD (although if you're talking mp3s...old casettes from the 80s sound better than mp3s...)

That said, I think a lot of what people attribute to analog equipment, especially with the BBs, is really due to other factors, for example the tape decay/mellowing that occurs over time, and more significantly, Brian's method of recording, which involved lots and lots of instruments in a big room, as apposed to individual tracks layered on top of each other. 

And I bet that when those tapes were first played back in the studio in the 60s, before being pressed to vinyl or put in bins for 30 years, they sounded crystal clear!  This is just totally conjecture, of course, because I wasn't there. 

[P]

Bootlegs!!  Young people these days, no discretion!  No decency!  No respect for copyrights!  Why, I ought to write the Prime Minister!!  I would certainly appreciate a message like that... 

@Ron

I'm sure Brian really appreciates that you download his commercial output illegally. Wow, great way to show your artist support.

I'm with Ron on this one.  When you buy a record, then illegally download the bonus track which was provided with the digital copy of the album as a retail tie-in or whatever...I don't think there's anything unethical about that...and Brian's people admit as much by offering said songs for free online as soon as the exclusive contract is up!  It's meant to promote itunes and build buzz, not make dedicated fans by the same album twice!

Regardless of whether Brian was parroting someone else or not...its a fact that the commercial failure of L.A. Light was a HUGE disappointment for the band, the label, and anyone else connected to it. This was their CBS debut after being given a large advance and signed in a high industry profile. Although the band stumbled delivering the debut LP on time, and although it admittedly had about four great tracks, CBS and the Beach Boys ate dirt when it not only didn't make the top 40...it didn't make the top 99. A massive promo campaign was pumped into the LP and especially the 1st single, you can still find promo material by the container full for this(see ebay) picture discs, colored vinyl promo 12"s, posters, t-shirts, visors, promo singles, radio was bombarded with this stuff, as was the print media, plus high profile TV shows(midnight special), radio interviews by the dozen, the single was added to an impressive number of radio stations, a Radio City Music Hall kickoff, joint record store signings by ALL SIX Beach Boys!!!...and then people heard the goods... "Here Comes The Night" disco...THUD! Despite the largest promo campaign for the BB's since...don't say Brian's Back because that was a media campaign driven by the band's management...Reprise didn't do much like usual...and 15 BO's/R&R Music's success was at least partially radio driven...but L.A. Light was pushed by the label like one of those commercial's by Billy Mays(RIP). They did house-calls and shoved the thing under your front door(practically). People rejected it, yawned at it, and more than a few verbally eviscerated it for the inclusion of a 12 minute disco mistake(cue 11 people saying, "but I loved that track"...) "Good Timin'" did decent considering the BB's popularity cliff dive that occurred right before it was released as a single,  but it was too late, KTSA had no chance and was weak anyway. And then years before they whimpered to a CBS contract close with BB's 85. L.A. Light showed just how fast you can fritter away a label's hope, a fanbase's patience, and the media's interest. It was an epic disaster...oh...and the last partially good BB's LP.

Question: do you think if Good Timin had been the first single getting all of that hype, things would have been different?  It would be sad to think that all they had to do to have a hit album in the late 70s was swap the first and second single, but the way you just described it, it seems plausable.

Let's just say that all is not as it appears in Lady Gaga land.

The mixes on The Fame Monster were not what she intended. And the demo performance of Poker Face has to be heard to be believed. Unfiltered Gaga is a thing to behold.

Did you see her performance on Saturday Night Live a few months ago?  She did a very nice slow version of Poker Face while playing piano that was many, many times better (to my taste) than the 'hit' version.  My soon-to-be-14 year old daughter has a slow version on her iPod that sounds similar to that SNL performance, and I thought it was Lady Gaga, but it turns out that it is from Glee.

Oh yeah, congrats on 5000 posts, Andrew G. Doe, whoever you are.

I've seen her on t.v. do that song about 10 times and I think she always does that.  She has a small bit of talent.  She's juuuuust about to self destruct though, we'll see how that goes. 

I doubt it...don't understand how intelligent she is...her image is almost 100 percent constructed...but by her, not the record company!  Not that that has anything to do with her music, but while we're on the topic...

anyways,

Congratulations Mr. D

Les Baxter also scored all of the Beach Party movies...which Gary Usher and Roger Christian wrote the songs for (along with Brian on, I believe, Muscle Beach Party).  Whether that connection ever brought Brian and Baxter into the same room?  But I figured it was worth mentioning

Matt Jardine's falsetto is incredible. 
Al sounds almost eerily Mike like on the early hits...he sounds more like a young mike love than mike love does, on say california girls. 

Exactly. It took Brian Wilson MONTHS and countless hours of studio sessions to create one song (GV)....whereas nowadays record companies are happy with a drum machine and some synths and in 30 minutes you have a #1 tune. I can't stand anything on the radio anymore. It's either really bad rap or meaningless pop songs. Good art (which usually takes a long time to create) becomes timeless (Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper, Blonde on Blonde)...whereas bad art (which little thought goes into) will be forgotten (take a look at the top 100 in 2000: http://longboredsurfer.com/charts/2000.php - are there honestly any that are worth listening to?)

California Gurls is just another crap teenage sensation pop song created for the mere purpose of making money.

I think you guys are taking a "rose colored glasses" view of the 1960s.  Let's take a closer look at that website: California Girls has become a classic overtime, but it was the 49th biggest song of 1965.  So what was the biggest hit of 1965?  The Stones, perhaps?  Dylan?  The Byrds?  Nope, it was Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaos.  Folks sure are still listening to that one!!  Surely that was an abberation!!  Surely the top of the charts in 1966 was dominated by the Beatles, the Stones, music we all remember...how about The Ballad of the Green Berrets by Sgt. Barry Sadler.  The Beatles highest charting single in 1966 was at We Can Work It Out at 17, well behind those famously manufactured pop groups The Monkees, The Supremes, The Righteous Brothers.  We still listen to the Monkees and the Supremes and the Righteous brothers because it was GOOD manufactured pop music.  And in 50 years they'll still be listening to Madonna, and they'll still be listening to Lady GaGa too!  It won't be to your tastes, i'm sure, but the people who liked it now will still like it later...of course, the bad stuff will be forgotten.  Your chart from 2000 has a number of songs and groups which I'm sure people (not you, again, but people) will still be listening to in 50 years.  Destiny's Child is a perfect example. 

Will people still be listening to California Gurls in 50 years...probably not.  But there are still people putting a hell of a lot of effort into pop music, Amy Winehouse comes to mind...  And there was a hell of a lot of shitty music in the 60s.  It's wierd to think that To Sir with Love by Lulu was a bigger hit in 1967 than All You Need Is Love...but in the long run, it's not the billboard chart position that counts...its the musical legacy.  So in a way we agree.  It's just good to remember that every generation has been responsibly for atrocious music.  And every generation has made incredible music as well.  And of course, the Beach Boys broke out of that cycle and made the greatest music that will ever be made!  but that goes without saying...

I could have sworn I read somewhere that Sloop John B was in their live set in the early 60s, but I can't remember where, so I don't know...  I always assumed in that iteration they would have been going off the Dick Dale arrangement from his first record.

I think what Al is talking about when he says he suggested the song to Brian is that he convinced Brian to re-record this old song they knew from way back when in the Beach Boys more modern style, and release it as a single, which in 1965 or whenever this conversation was happening, deciding what the next single would be was probably a big deal, and probably a decision that Brian usually pretty much made on his own.

At risk of courting controversy, Terry Melcher invented folk rock!!  When he kicked all the Byrds except McGuinn off Mr. Tambourine Man, replaced them with the wrecking crew, gave em that jangly british invasion meets west coast production, some beach boy like harmonies...Mr. Tambourine totally fits in sound wise with the kind of stuff Bruce and Terry were doing, in my opinion, around that time...and putting that sound to a folk song was one of the more important things that happened in the mid sixties in pop music. 

David Marks wasn't mentioned anywhere...I didn't know he was playing until he walked on stage!  They introduced him, of course.

I was surprised to only hear one new song too, although the lack of even remotely knowing the words to the title song of his new album sort of demonstrated something about Al...that may explain why there was only one new song!  But to his credit, every time he played a song from the record, he talked about who guested on it, so before California Saga, he said "this new song is on my record and we got neil young and the rest of CNN to play...I mean CSNY..." for example.  Richie Cannata was there, and the sax sounded really great too!!

Also I must say that I thought it was really first class that Al Jardine came out after the show and signed autographs and talked to the fans, and he seemed happy to do it too!  Al Jardine doesn't need to sign autographs to build an audience, he doesn't need to do anything for the fans really, we'll show up anyway :-) but he did, and that was really cool!  As for meeting Dave...that was much more luck on my part, he swung by on his way off stage when someone called his name, and I managed to reach my hand out and say hi, just at the right place at the right time.  But he was also really nice and smiling and just...good vibes the whole evening! 

Just got back from seeing Al at a free concert on Long Island, and I can't resist posting my thoughts/reviews.  Basically, I was totally blown away! I didn't really know what to expect, but one thing I didn't expect was to go away feeling like I'd just seen The Beach Boys.  Unlike many of the people on this board, seeing the Beach Boys is (desperate 50th reunion hopes aside) something I never thought would happen to me.  I've seen Brian a couple of times, and it was wonderful and great, I havn't seen Mike and Bruce yet (although I'm going to see them next week at their free concert in Brooklyn!), but I never really considered them the Beach Boys. Half way through Al Jardine and the Endless Summer Band, I knew that I was seeing The Beach Boys!!  I could feel it, and the name on the program was completely irrelevant!

You know what else I didn't expect...meeting David Marks at the end of the show, shaking his hand and telling him how much I loved the music!!  I think he could tell how utterly stunned and ecstatic I was because he looked like he sort of laughed a little and he asked me my name!!  I told him I didn't want him to sign anything, just to shake his hand because he was a Beach Boys...and then I kind of trailed off in awe.  When I got home, I picked up my copy of Surfer Girl, one of my favorite albums EVER, and there he was, David Marks.  The Cute one!  I feel like I won the lotto! 

I also met Al, who came out and signed people's CDs, and joked about Mike Love (This is a complete paraphrase from a scene of great confusion, but what it sounded like to me was: fan: "your better than Mike Love!"  Al:  "Don't say that...something something...Mike always wanted to be the most popular Beach Boy...I guess he hasn't really succeeded...most greedy, maybe...") 

The Band was Al and David Marks, Bobby Figueroa (who provided an amazing highlight of the show when he sang Sail on Sailor), Ed Carter, Billy Hinsche, Matt and Adam Jardine (Matt Jardine was definitely channeling Carl Wilson...what a beautiful voice!), and a few people I didn't recognize.  The weather was beautiful...the crowd started out a bit lame...everyone in lawn chairs, but they definitely got into it by the second half!

I'm going to try and give a setlist/who sang what from memory, with some comments:

California Girls - Al
Do It Again (not quite sure on the order here)
Dance Dance Dance - Al
Do You Wanna Dance - Matt I think...
Catch a Wave
Hawaii
Surfin - Dave
Surfin Safari - Dave
I Can Hear Music - Matt
Don't Worry Baby - Matt (before this Al introduced a Doowop song, which I imagine was going to be Come Go With Me, then they decided to Don't Worry Baby because it looked like it might rain soon...luckily it didn't, the weather was beautiful!!)
409
Shut Down
Little Deuce Coupe - Dave
I Get Around - Matt
Post Card from California - Al forgot the words to the first verse, then he sang what I can only assume was the second verse...then he sang the second verse again!!  It was pretty funny, although I'm sure it didn't do much to promote the new record!
Runaway - Al 
God Only Knows - Matt (absolutely gorgeous)
Sail on Sailor - Bobby (A major highlight for me...the crowd seemed to like it too!)
California Saga: California (another HUGE highlight, the acapella breakdown was sublime!!)
California Dreamin - not my favorite song ever, but Al's voice really sounded great on this one!
Sloop John B
Wouldn't It Be Nice
Good Vibrations
Kokomo
Help Me Ronda
Surfin USA

encore: (I danced right up to the stage!! It was a blast...I was surrounded by little kids too, who were all dancing...and middle aged ladies...still, nothing could take away from how awesome it felt to be there for me!)
Barbara Ann
Fun Fun Fun

Moral of story: I don't know if an amazing Beach Boys concert with spectacular, passionate, and precise harmonies, Matt Jardine really rising to the occasion and shining on songs once sung by Carl Wilson, and basically an awesomely good time is what I should have expected from any old Al Jardine show, but I didn't expect it, and I was absolutely floored.  It was the most fun I've had in ages (and as happy as it makes me to see Brian Wilson active and playing with a great band, this blew the Brian Wilson hits tour I saw last year out of the WATER!!)  The sound was great, the music was great, it really felt...right...geniune, like how a Beach Boys show should sound!  and I MET DAVID MARKS AND AL JARDINE!!!

Brian does seem enthused by the Gershwin project....lets face it, Rhapsody In Blue has been important to him for decades. The chance to work with unfinished Gershwin works and to rearrange some of his favourites could well be what lights a flame under his bum. And when Brian's enthusiasm is engaged, he can still do it.

As for the access to the site...I can always get on the board at home, but often cannot from work. Its not banned by the filter (work is a school) it comes up as a 404.

I have the same problem...in the library or computer labs i get a 404, but at home i can access fine.

as for the album i'm insanely excited.  I got excited for TLOS, and hey, it was fricken awesome!!!  So i pretty much can't help myself but be excited for this!

Don't know if this will fit on a single CD...perhaps two sides of a cassette?  but here's my contribution.  One song per album, all studio albums, plus live and unreleased albums at my discretion (trying to go for a balance of ballads and rockers, so this is not necessarily the best song from each album):

1 Surfin Safari
2 Farmer’s Daughter
3 Your Summer Dream
4 Car Crazy Cutie
5 In the Parking Lot
6 Don’t Back Down
7 I Get Around (Beach Boy’s Concert)
8 The Man With all the Toys
9 When I Grow up to be a Man
10 Let Him Run Wild
11 There’s no other like my Baby (Party)
12 I Just Wasn’t Made for the Times
13 Heroes and Villians (Cantina Mix, representing Smile)
14 With me Tonight
15 Wild Honey
16 Little Bird
17 Aren’t you Glad (Live in London)
18 Time to Get Alone
19 It’s About Time
20 Long Promised Road
21 All This is That
22 Steamboat
23 Sail on Sailor (In Concert)
24 Just Once in my Life
25 I’ll Bet He’s Nice
26 It’s Over Now (representing Adult/Child) 
27 My Diane
28 Angel Come Home
29 Goin On
30 It’s Gettin Late
31 Somewhere Near Japan
32 Still Surfin

I paid $7 dollars for mine...lol. 
the value of vinyl records is a very strange thing though.  I am a college student slowly building a collection of Beach Boy's vinyl, and I have a regular guy who sells records on campus once a month or so, and he always seeks out and brings beach boys records for my perusal, and spends a few minutes talking about the Boys with me (he's a smile fan...skeptical on the later works)...  And I usually pay around $4-7 dollars for them, occasionally as high as ten or as low as 3 - usually depending on how clean the vinyl is/how rare the record is perceived to be.  If i buy a couple he often gives me a bit of a discount too...

So the other day I went to a record fair, and I was very surprised to see copies of Beach Boys records from the 60s like Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile, etc., going for as high as 30 to 50 dollars!!  While other vendors had copies lurking in their bargain bins for 2 or 3!!  I picked up a beautiful copy of MIU for 1 dollar...and passed on Smiley Smile for 40, given that someone else has Wild Honey for 7! 

so i suppose my question is, from someone perhaps more experienced in the market, how much are these records actually worth, in general? 

To me, of course, they're worth a small fortune because they make me so happy to own and hold, and listen to and stare at! 

In terms of losing the falsetto, even in the late 60s it wasn't what it had been. 
For example, Add Some Music; listening to the vocal only mix especially, you can really hear how nasal and weak his falsetto has become, especially compared to something like Hushabye, where his falsetto is practically a force of nature, 6 years earlier. 

I'm betting you're quite correct on this.  Most people seeing them now couldn't care less, and probably don't even know who the actual guys are/were, it's just "The Beach Boys."  
My feeling about this is, the argument is really kind of moot, because two of the key members are dead, one has been essentially banished, another would rather tour on his own, and the remaining guys using the name are so old now it won't last long.   Basically - there is no Beach Boys any more.  Not a real one.    It might have been nice had they or if they would, get together to make a decent age appropriate album of good material, but most likely that won't happen - what they'll make, if they make an album at all, will probably be...god, just something bad.  
I would never go see Mike and Bruce's version of the band because I've no interest in that.   But are they entitled to do it if they want?  Yeah, and more power to them, but I'd rather see a show with all the remaing original guys w/some back up musicians play a nice stripped down show where they swap stories and just be cool, and be their ages.  That'd be the only way I'd want to see these guys now live.  Other than that, I have all their albums and will always consider them one of the greatest ever, of any time and genre.  They were  music, and they wrote the songs - but it's all very much past tense for me.
As far as a band going out under the name after all the originals retire/die - ewww.   But I suppose that's not unforseeable.
Which makes me want to ask, anyone know of any tribute bands?  Are there any around doing the beach Boys?

I have a little different perspective.  How I see it, the Beach Boys are not so much a name, or a corporate entity, as a loosely connected group of people who forged a distinct sound and feel and created a lot of beautiful music over the years, and did so in a lot of different configurations with the help of all sorts of people.  For example, Pacific Ocean Blue may have been a solo album, but so far as I'm concerned, it was made by a Beach Boy, it's Beach Boy's music, and when I think about awesome Beach Boys songs from the late 70s, I think of River Song and Rainbows and all the rest! 

Right now we don't have NO beach boys, we have MANY BEACH BOYS!!  We have new Brian Wilson albums!!!!!!!  Now if a new album made by Brian Wilson isn't just about the essence of Beach Boys-ness i don't know what is!!  And we have bands playing Beach Boys music, with original voices, adding new interpretations, bringing the catalogue to new people!  I don't care if its called the Beach Boys or Endless Summer Band or Brian Wilson Band on the ticket stub, so far as I'm concerned, its Beach Boys music!

I feel incredibly blessed that I live in a world where the Beach Boy's are not in any way "past tense."

just my two cents. 

I'd say Holland.  Side 2 is pretty weak, even though The Trader is one of my all time favorites...Only With You gets lost in the shuffle, and it's obvious that Sail On Sailor is out of place on the album, kind of like Good Vibrations on Smiley Smile...both great tracks that are very different from the rest of the album.  Not sure how I'd re-sequence it...let's give it a try:

Side A
1. We Got Love
2. The Trader
3. Only With You
4. Leaving This Town
5. Sail On Sailor

Side B
1. CS - Big Sur
2. CS - Beaks Of Eagles
3. CS - California
4. Steamboat
5. Funky Pretty

Not sure if that's really an improvement...it's hard to improve it with Leaving This Town on there...but I think that adding We Got Love on there adds something to it.

Here's a challenge I've been working on: how best to re sequence Holland including both We Got Love and Carry Me Home, without taking anything off.  I love both those songs (live version of We Got Love...so far as I know the studio version isn't around?) but I just can't seem to make Holland flow with both of them and sail on sailor.  Funky Pretty becomes particularly tough to place, and I start to appreciate how Carry Me Home actually is pretty depressing compared to what's around it.  This is what my current mix is:

A:
 
1. Trader
2. Steamboat
3. CS - Big Sur
4. CS - Beaks Of Eagles
5. CS - California
6. We Got Love

B:
1. Sail on Sailor
2. Funky Pretty
3. Leaving This Town
4. Only With You
5. Carry Me Home

but im still not satisfied...I don't like all the slow songs piled up at the end...unlike say Surf's Up, which uses that technique to great effect, these three songs don't really build together.  and I don't like Funky Pretty buried in the middle of the second side.  but I also don't like funky Pretty after Carry me Home...thats a bit too jarring...

thoughts?

Also, it's possible that when Brian stole bicycle rider for heroes and villians, he also imagined other parts relocating: The Hawaiian chants could have become part of the elements (water) or been mixed with some early version of little pad or even with me tonight.  This would leave only the verse and rock, rock, roll parts actually scrapped. 

That said, from a narrative point of view, Worms seems like a really key smile track to me, in terms of making an americana album.

my vague understanding was that Carl had a handful of songs lined up for the Holland followup (which I assume would have been in a similar vein to long promised road, trader etc.).  I think its hard to imagine how horrible it must feel to lead a band for years after a certain sound and feel, and work really hard to grow as a producer and songwriter, and then to finally have a real shot at mainstream success and then....release 15 big ones.  Brian Mike and Al never really had real artistic ambition (brian after 197ish obviously).  Even Love You doesn't seem like Brian trying hard so much as it seems like Brian being so talented it doesnt matter how hard he tries.  So for Carl and Dennis, who had very real artistic ambitions that they clearly took seriously...it must have been a hell of a blow.  Also, in my opinion, Carl's first solo album and also the TV appearances he did to promote it show a man really happy, excited to be playing rock and roll, having a good time, making music he wants to make.  Is it great music...maybe not, but its contemporary sounding, and a heck of a lot of fun.  But I think having his solo career just completely bomb commercially and go nowhere must have been a real blow.  Followed immediately by the death of his brother, who he had clearly been close to.  It's really not surprising at all that he stopped trying after that.