this thread, which started off so strange, has become more interesting as it hangs on and on, and morphs into something else entirely.

As frustrating and flat out inane as this thread has been, it's light years preferable to the ludicrous excrement peddled on any topic polluted by the presence of The Rockster. 

That would be because he broke the rules? How dare the mods be so impertinent as to actually do their job ! 

Obviously, Mike never did this and did indeed miss a few little strings of shows. I don't know of any evidence that he tried to get the guys to not do shows without him; and it appears as though in the 1990 case it wasn't like an illness or anything, but a choice to book "ESBB" gigs.

No idea if he did what you say, but in 1976 a string of 15 shows from September 16th to October 8th were cancelled due to assorted illness, according to a press report of the time. Mike later stated he had hepatitis .

Interesting... I've been told by an FB friend that Brian was told of the less-than-flattering SMH review. Don't know if it was just "Brian, some dude gave you a really bad review" or if someone read it out to him. Hopefully not the latter: it's widely known that I'm not overprotective of Brian, but really, did he need to know this ? Hopefully whoever was responsible was censured. Maybe that's why the second night was a 180 turn.

Uh... can someone write a really, really bad review of the Cardiff gig, please ? 

[Brian was able to to a good job with Love and Mercy]

"My life has been written about over and over again, and that’s mostly okay with me. Other people can talk about my life. Sometimes they’ll get it right and sometimes they’ll get it wrong. For me, when I think back across my own life, there are so many things that are painful. Sometimes I don’t like discussing them. Sometimes I don’t even like remembering them. But as I get older, the shape of that pain has changed. Sometimes memories come back to me when I least expect them. Maybe that’s the only way it works when you’ve lived the life I’ve lived: starting a band with my brothers that was managed by my father, watching my father become difficult and then impossible, watching myself become difficult and then impossible, watching women I loved come and go, watching children come into the world, watching my brothers get older, watching them pass out of the world. Some of those things shaped me. Others scarred me. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. When I watched my father fly into a rage and take swings at me and my brothers, was that shaping or scarring? When we watched him grow frustrated with his day job and take solace in music, was that shaping or scarring? Those are all memories but I can’t get to them all at once. I’ve had a whole lifetime to take them in. Now I have a whole book to put them out there."

So, does anyone know the process in which they hammered out this book? I can't see Brian, sitting for a couple of hours a day and waxing poetically about his life. I look forward to reading this, but I already bought and read one biography that wasn't real.  Oh ya and looking forward to some genius on Clown action

Brian was able to to a good job with Love and Mercy, no reason why he can't do the same with this.  I'm looking forward to it.

The song... the movie... ? Confused.

Don't know if this is still the case but I was told a few years ago that it's still there because Brian likes it.

It's a bad idea to release BW's book close in time to the release of Mike Love's book.  The average book buyer is not going to buy two Beach Boys books within the space of a few months.  Wait until 2017.

I don't think the average book buyer is going to buy Mike Love's book. So I guess there's no problem from Brian's publisher's side

The average book buyer isn't going to buy either of them. The likes of you and I will, and anyone with an interest in pop history. Joe Q. Public ? Nope.

Hopefully there is no fear, with Mike's 'book' being released to the public first, that Brian will feel like he was beaten to the punch and, as a result, abandon the book idea...leaving it lying on some distant shelf somewhere for 40 + years claiming that he burned the manuscript.

If the original gameplan had played out, Brian's book would have been out for something like five months now.

Ben Greenman? Last I heard Ray was doing the book with Brian. There was also talk of this being an oral biography of Brian last year, but the word "memoir" indicates that idea was ditched.

Brian's book was always going to be an autobiography, so nothing's changed there. As for Ray writing it. I'm pretty sure that was a misunderstanding in the one interview where it was mentioned. As I recall, Ray was some amused by that. 

[Wilson Phillips]

Brian's daughters Carnie and Wendy and China Phillips (John and Michelle Phillips...Mamas and Papas)... from the ONE hit Wonder group "Wilson and Phillips"...

Man, you really do suck when it comes to EASILY CHECKABLE FACTS, dontcha ?

First album Wilson Phillips (1990) - #2

Second album Shadows And Light (1992) - #4

First five singles:

1990:
Hold On - #1
Release Me - #1
Impulsive - #4

1991:
You're In Love - #1
The Dream is Still Alive - #12

Whatever you're paying your fact-checker, it ain't enough and never will be.

So yeah, let's lobby for a few solo spots for Al and Blondie. For that matter, they could have the entire band, sans Brian, come out and do a mini Al/Blondie set of less Brian-centric songs. "Lookin' at Tomorrow", etc.

Outstanding notion !

but your hearts in the right place. Not that you asked for my opinion but........

Reminds me of the splendid Robert Bloch quote: "despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk." 

There is something called "shallow water blackout" caused by hyperventilation which sounds very much like what happened to Dennis. My own opinion was that it was an accident that alcohol  played a part in. I don't buy the theory that Dennis just gave up, as tragically romantic as that may sound.

Dennis was homeless, penniless and was kicked out of the band he loved, and helped form, three months previously. He was finding items he'd thrown overboard from The Harmony when it was docked where he was diving. Hardly a positive mindset. I'm not saying his was a concious act, that he was diving with that intent, rather that he just wanted a rest.

Was this three month period the longest he had been kicked out of the band for? He had been kicked out of the band previously numerous times over the preceding several years, but I'm assuming this was the longest chunk of time?

Ummm... lemme check on the truly excellent 10452 BB site.  

No... excepting three dates in Nid-November, he got the boot from August 12th 1979 to June 1st 1980 (the European tour). Roughly nine months.

According to Roger Christian, the lyrics to Don't Worry Baby were already written when Brian saw them in his notebook and wrote the music to them...

Although it's never - as far as I'm aware - been explicitly stated, my impression is that all Christian's lyrics were lifted from the famous notebook. Certainly "Shut Down" was adapted and condensed from a much longer poem.

Reviews of the second show are coming in, and it looks like it was much better. Most excellent. 

He was also going back and forth to the boat his acquaintance/friend took him out in.

Not sure what you're saying here - The Emerald was moored in the marina, not under way or out at sea.

Then whoever put that schedule together needs a good talking to, as does whoever in Brian's organisation agreed to it.

That said, it seems the original report was broadly accurate, although l'd agree that it's unlikely the band were as bad as claimed (fwiw I've only once seen them truly poor, in 2005).

Were that the case he would have struggled to surface, not curled up on the bottom.

Maybe I'm being naive.  How could someone just choose to sit on the bottom and drown?  If you try it the next time you are in the water you would find how difficult it is to curl up at the bottom without floating back up.

But that's exactly what happened.

Then there is the body's natural reaction to scramble for air and try to get to the top.

I'm sorry but I find it hard to believe Dennis just 'gave up'.  The eyewitnesses said he was in good spirits that day.  He had overcome far worse than his financial problems at the time and losing the boat.  It was a tragic drowning accident.

If Scott's claim is true, and Dennis had been told he was dying... you see where I'm headed. The recovery team know what drowning victims look like after they've struggling for life, and Dennis didn't show those signs. He just... let go.

"Given the schedule" It's the third show of tour, not the seventy third. I wasn't there, and there have been contradictory reports, from fans as well as reviewers. All very confusing. Hopefully any potential kinks will have been ironed out by May.

Were that the case he would have struggled to surface, not curled up on the bottom.

There is something called "shallow water blackout" caused by hyperventilation which sounds very much like what happened to Dennis. My own opinion was that it was an accident that alcohol  played a part in. I don't buy the theory that Dennis just gave up, as tragically romantic as that may sound.

Dennis was homeless, penniless and was kicked out of the band he loved, and helped form, three months previously. He was finding items he'd thrown overboard from The Harmony when it was docked where he was diving. Hardly a positive mindset. I'm not saying his was a concious act, that he was diving with that intent, rather that he just wanted a rest.

As recounted in Scott Wilson's "Son of a Beach Boy," Dennis told his son that he had seen a doctor who told him that his liver was shot and that he was dying.
Perhaps in that water he experienced some difficulty and decided that he didn't want to fight it, and just let go.

No mention of that in the autopsy.

I remember reading it was cold enough water to freeze and he had been drinking enough to not notice. I've also read that freezing to death is a slow, slowly feeling drowsy and shutting down process.

The water temperature was 58f/14c. Cold, chilling even, but far from freezing.

I shall take the pledge. The man's as close to an idiot as makes no difference.

The searchers found him curled up on the marina floor under The Emerald, calm expression.

I'm pretty sure he hit his head on a rock...

In a man made marina ?

There are people who feel that when he was down there, he decided enough was enough. I'm one of them.