There are a couple of Paramount tracks on the box. While we were working on it, Al was extremely impressed with the keys of FEET and was very happy to know that it was Meros.

He really wanted him to get the proper acknowledgement for services rendered. He never remembered hearing anything other than the Red Barn rehearsals of this material -- he was floored that it had been recorded on multis.

Get psyched everybody -- I promise, good things are on the horizon.

Yay, awesome - thanks again Howie!

Sweet Insanity is not as strong as BW88 but I do think it has some outstanding moments on it. With songs like Smart Girls and Brian/Thank You on it it's really no wonder they didn't release it though. Too bad, as the 2004 remakes of some of the better songs for Gettin' in Over My Head aren't very convincing.

I'll be one of the few defenders of Brian/Thank You. Yes the lyrics were controversial and perhaps come across as psychobabble. It does feel like a therapy session and of course the fact that he's putting down members of his band/family is going to make it excruciatingly awkward to release it ever. And yes unfortunately this song does come across as a direct PR attempt to rehabilitate Landy's reputation.

That said,the actual music on that song is really quite interesting and rad IMO. Some cool chord changes and I happen to love the musical vibe of the song.

It's one of the best songs on the album.

Agreed. And I wouldn't necessarily say the lyrics are outright "bad", just that they are awkward and politically ugly. It's too bad the song has remained unreleased and likely will always be that way, barring some unforeseen change in release strategy, due to the lyrics' controversial nature.

Sweet Insanity is not as strong as BW88 but I do think it has some outstanding moments on it. With songs like Smart Girls and Brian/Thank You on it it's really no wonder they didn't release it though. Too bad, as the 2004 remakes of some of the better songs for Gettin' in Over My Head aren't very convincing.

I'll be one of the few defenders of Brian/Thank You. Yes the lyrics were controversial and perhaps come across as psychobabble. It does feel like a therapy session and of course the fact that he's putting down members of his band/family is going to make it excruciatingly awkward to release it ever. And yes unfortunately this song does come across as a direct PR attempt to rehabilitate Landy's reputation.

That said,the actual music on that song is really quite interesting and rad IMO. Some cool chord changes and I happen to love the musical vibe of the song.

I totally agree with GF that it seems pretty logical that the Hawaii concerts were evidence of the band trying to get some sort of cohesive and consistent sound down between their live shows and their studio material. And I think WH was an extension of that. No way it was just accidentally easier for the band to replicate in a live setting. I'm sure they were aware that was an added bonus.

And of course, in theory that would've been a very understandable and desirable outcome, which if that consistency had lasted for multiple albums with a few hit songs to boot, would almost certainly been noticed by critics and would have elevated their stature somewhat as a live act.

One thing that I hadn't seen mentioned here is that Wild Honey (the album) was also probably created in its current form as a result of Brian finally agreeing to go back to a "Brian and Mike" songwriting team approach that Brian had been reminded/pushed/guilted (your mileage may vary) into promising he'd rekindle. I don't recall the source, but I do recall reading on this board that after Pet Sounds, at Mike's urging, Brian promised "the next album" would be a "Brian and Mike" album, and then when Brian went back on that promise to make SMiLE, and then sadly faltered in a massive way on delivering the goods of a finished album, that seems like it would have been a prime moment for Mike to again push for it (successfully this time) with the WH album as a result.

While one can wonder/speculate/debate how much of this was gentle nudging/guilt tripping/etc, and nobody will ever *truly* know (I feel it was likely there were grey areas, but that there had to have been an element of guilt tripping, somewhere on that spectrum, it was in the family DNA to do this stuff), I will certainly nevertheless say that the resulting WH album was a great moment and one of the best moments of the Brian/Mike songwriting collaboration in the history of the band.

The Theremin line on Wild Honey for example is an octave sweep that anyone could be shown how to play, and Mike could play it on stage easily.

How long a period of time did Mike play theremin onstage? And I'm guessing GV and WH are the only songs the band ever played theremin live? (I think only IJWMFTT was the only other song they ever recored with theremin, yet I suppose they could have included it on other songs in a live setting if they'd wanted to).

The only Mike theremin clip I can recall seeing is from that TV show circa 1968 where the band plays GV with all of those psychedelic bluescreen moments of the band members falling into multiple versions of themselves like a mirror room at a carnival. Mike always looked awkward and unhappy in that clip, I'm assuming he was not used to playing an instrument and singing simultaneously, although of course his mates had done that for years at that point,  yet it is a bit harder to play a lead instrumental line while singing lead.

The "Til I Die piano demo and some of the This Whole World material from the Feel Flows box set samples sound like they may have been sourced from these CDs, maybe a quiet deal was struck to obtain them from Klay and get some of it released.

I would imagine that band had those items in their archives already, after all the record label people who compiled this CD-R internally for potential tracklisting determination purposes within the record company had to have had access to the BBs vault, I'm assuming proper legal access.

I can definitely imagine he was told by lawyers not to share/post the songs though.

It's amazing to see VDP in that 1991 Twin Peaks episode. I've found I can get people to be very surprised and have their eyes bug out when sharing that piece of trivia. 

It's funny, just today I also made a discovery that Tony Asher is the son of 2 notable Hollywood folks, actress Laura La Plante:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0478851/

and Irving Asher:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0038868/

Laura what is a well-known Hollywood actress in the 1920s and 1930s, while Irving has a TON of major film producing credits, and also was the head of Warner Bros. UK in the 1930s, and his created with discovering Eroll Flynn.

What was the situation with the Beach boys having a merch stand back in the 1970s and early 1980s?

I wonder if anybody has any stories about what it was like back then.

How does it compare to the modern era? And when was the very first time the band had mech for sale at their gigs?

Interestingly, I read that Dennis's son, Gage, lives in Hawaii. Perhaps following in his father's almost footsteps.

Indeed, so many alternate possibilities for how things could've gone differently, it is simultaneously fascinating as it is sad.

I think things are going to change for the better in this regard in a big way as soon as the FF box is released 😊

Well there ya go 

It better not be September. Awful time to release a Beach Boys box set, especially Sunflower.

Sunflower itself was released August 31, 1970, literally one day before September started, so while I don't completely disagree with your opinion, it would be perfectly in keeping with the album it is culled from.

Also, if they release it in September, they'll perhaps get some people in the holiday gift buying mode, moreso than a July "summer" release - that may be a marketing call that's maybe happening here, and that'd actually be understandable.

It's coming.
It's major.

The machine is at full speed.

!!!

I had a heart attack and barfed when I read the title of this thread, thinking that Don had passed away...  Thank God he didn't!

ditto 

I'll listen to any and all mixes of this stuff, and I respect everybody that worked on every mainstream and niche version, but at the end of the day, who even listens to the actual quad mixes of "Band on the Run" or "Imagine" or "Walls and Bridges" or "Venus and Mars?" Those are far less niche than the encoded-within-a-stereo-mix surround mixes of "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up", and few are listening to those either.

I'm not a big fan of invoking Carl's name when trying to claim new mixes are somehow besmirching Carl's name or his intentions. The surviving BBs have signed off on archival releases, including stereo remixes.

If we didn't do anything Carl can't sign off on, we'd have *no* archival releases. And to be frank, Carl was more stingy about archival releases than some of the other band members. I've heard Carl was *not* into the PS stereo remix when presented with it in 1996. And while I know everybody would much rather have Carl alive, it has to be said that the only reason we got "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" in 1998 was because Carl wasn't around to object. I suspect Carl would have continued to be somewhat colder to putting out tons of remixes and outtakes had he survived. I'd like to think he would have come around, and he did eventually sign off on the PS Sessions set and the GV set.

At the end of the day, I'd have no objection to properly encoding Desper's mixes onto some sort of BD audio sort of format (so that we don't have to procure weird equipment to extact the mixes from the stereo mixes, which just seems absurd to me), but I'd probably listen to it once and then stow it away and listen to the HOURS of *actual outtakes* that we hopefully will have. Such a project is like 47th on a list of things that should be released. It's like the Fred Vail country album. Should it be released? Sure, why not? Do I think it's anywhere near the top of a list of things we'd like to see in terms of BB-related releases? No, of course not.

Debating whether this or that sullies the original mixes of album is sort of like still complaining about classic rock songs being used in TV commercials. It happened like 30-40 years ago, and debating it is like stepping into a time warp.

While Carl allegedly was against the SOMS song being released due to his flubbed vocal, I do have to wonder if any resistance he had to PS being released in stereo might have had to do with avoiding the band politics and internal conflict that would be sure to arise when revisiting such archival material. Particularly since that material was sourced from a politically sensitive time in the groups history.

I think Carl wanted very much to avoid conflict, and as evidenced by Mike holding up the box set for purposes of changing the liner notes, Carl might have just wanted to avoid the whole thing once he saw that shitstorm coming, prior to it having been worked out. That's my hypothesis and take on it, anyway.

I do have to wonder what type of a stink Mike raised at the time when they couldn't isolate his vocal track on the bridge for WIBN, and went with Brian's vocal in its place. Oh to of been a fly on the wall to have seen how that went down. I'm glad vocal extraction techniques weren't yet available in 1996, because the Brian bridge is absolutely my preferred version of the song. But again, in the last couple years of his life, Carl might have been very aware of the politics about things like that missing vocal line, and just decided initially to not support the project because he didn't know what type of an emotional landmine the whole thing might implode into. Considering how battle scarred he was with regards to internal politics in this band, I can understand that point of view, but I'm very glad he did come around to signing off on that box.

Yes, there are a few different things at play:
- the original intention/Spatializer mix (3D stereo) reflecting what the band heard in the studio - this was rejected by the label but encoded into...
- the master for the album as we all know it. The first pressing LP is based on the best available LP master tapes (and approved by Carl); subsequent reissues may have used later-generation copies (as happened with many albums of the era) OR, in the case of digital reissues, received different mastering. Any current issue of Sunflower would be based on the original LP MIX but may have a different mastering. The Spatializer would still be able to decode it, but it wouldn't be the exact same as the Carl-approved version unless it was the first pressing LP.
- 5.1 or quad mixes that have been released on various products over the years are not what was originally developed in the studio (enjoyable as they may be)
- any new stereo remix would not be what was originally developed in the studio (enjoyable as they may be). I don't know what will be on the set, but it's likely that there will be alternate or modern remixes of many tracks, if not a "remixed album" (a la Pet Sounds sessions).

I can't speak for Mr. Desper but from what I've seen, I get the impression that his frustration stems from the refusal/reluctance to release the "original intention", while other remixes (5.1, quad) with no Carl involvement have gotten the green light.


In movie terms it would be like:
- original Director's Cut (Spatializer) is unavailable
- theatrical version (original LP) is still available but with different colour timings depending on format/pressing
- various "Special Editions" with modern special effects have been made with no involvement from the original director

This box set represents another opportunity to "right the wrong" and get the "Director's Cut" out there but it seems that it may not be happening (I'm not following too closely).

It occurs to me that with the unique technology of Stephen's at the time of recording and mixing, coupled with the subsequent reluctance by the label to 100% completely realize that vision when it came time to releasing it back in the day, coupled with the new enhancements which will happen with the box at that I can't wait to hear, this is almost a SMiLE Part II type of situation with the band, where the fully original intent may never be completely, 100% known.

Obviously the originally-released mix on LP should constitute the "final word" having been approved by the band, but if there was a spatializer intent/desire by the band beyond that which never saw the light of day, it just adds one more element of unsolvable mystery to this album and the band's canon, an interesting parallel of sorts to the admittedly much more complicated mystery of SMiLE.

I remain grateful for the different versions that we will soon be getting to hear, it's always cool to hear these amazing works of art in a new light. It sure would be great to be able to hear what Stephen in the band had intended for the spatializer mix to sound like, but if that's not possible due to any number of political and business practicality reasons, I nevertheless expect to be fully satisfied with the upcoming varieties we have to look forward to.

And once again, I respect Stephen's opinion on these matters, as should most any fan. It's a complex situation that is not possible to make everybody completely happy, unfortunately.

I genuinely love Mark and Alan's stereo remixes, and I too prefer listening to Pet Sounds in stereo compared to mono. That might be because I first deep dived this band circa 2000, so the stereo version is the one I fell in love with. To those who were in love with Pet Sounds from 1966 to 1997, they may feel that the stereo version craps on their memories... or they might also agree with my humble opinion that the stereo version has more ear candy to dive into and appreciate.

To each their own.

As long as the originals remain available, I think it's really not such a big deal. It becomes a problem when a rare case like George Lucas comes along and intentionally makes the originals unavailable. That will always be a ridiculous thing to do, yes it's Lucas' right as an artist I suppose, but it's messed up when a generation of people have a deep emotional attachment to the original.

I do understand and respect Stephen's point of view, and I am guessing he doesn't like the idea that a new version of the albums will become the "go-to" version in the new streaming universe for many new fans, thus undercutting his work as well as the approved-by-the-band-members-including-deceased-ones mixes from decades past. And yes, while the originals will always be available, I'm sure that plenty of new fans (and old ones too) will refer to new mixes as their preferred mixes, if only because maybe they'll sound more "modern" or accessible, although who knows how they'll sound, and it's always subject to interpretation.  So yeah, I get how that could irk someone. There's no way to get Carl or Dennis approval on a new stereo remix.

So even though I completely approve of skilled folks like Mark and Alan doing new mixes, and even though I disagree with the standpoint that mixes like that should not be done, I nevertheless empathize with those who are very much against tweaking old mixes.  But ultimately, there's no way to control the marketplace of what version people like/prefer to listen to. By the logic of trying to quash new mixes, we should also be mad at fans for doing their own fan mixes in case any of those mixes gain popularity as earworms, and get into new fans' heads and hearts more than the original mixes. And that's silly talk.

There's no stopping the inevitable. We're in the "roll your own" world these days, and people are ALWAYS going to find ways to tweak and fiddle with old classic recordings, and there will always be interesting experiments that come out of it. As long as the originals aren't made unavailable, I think it's not a big deal in my humble estimation, but of course, the mileage of those who were much closer to the proceedings back in the day may vary.

As was mentioned earlier, we have the very, very cool Desper alternate mix of Til I Die, and I'm very glad we have BOTH that version as well as the album version. The more the merrier! It's a new way to discover some of the magic contained in the original mixes. Some things will surely newly "pop out", and thus when going back to listen to the original Desper mixes, people can then also appreciate some subtle, hidden gems contained inside. It's not a bad thing, really it's not.

Not to flog a dead horse, but it is inconceivable to me that the engineer and co producer of Sunflower and Surfs Up wasn’t interviewed for this project and consulted on the remastering.  I understand they want a new mastering, but Steve is now the only one who knows what Carl and his intentions were in mastering how they did, and that info could be very helpful when remastering the albums even if they want to go for a more modern sound.  

At risk of joining in the dead-horse flogging, how can anyone possibly disagree with this?  It's incomprehensible to me that one could look at the situation objectively and shrug and say, "Stephen Desper? Hmmn, not really seeing how he could have any unique insights into any of this."  
 
The Sunflower-Surf's Up era is one of the most interesting in the group's recording history, particularly with the other members of the group blossoming to such a great extent while Brian was still delivering the goods in reduced, but still potent way.  And Desper had a hand in all of it.  And 50 years later, he's alive and cogent and responsive (and frankly seems like a very nice guy who was once very close to the Wilson brothers), and no one bothers to involve him?   As GF mentions, this sort of thing does happen (cf. Geoff Emerick and Beatles remasters/reissues), but it's unfortunate that it does.

I assume there are some unfortunate politics that we all simply don't know about. It's the same type of disappointment when Van Dyke Parks was not involved with the Smile Sessions 2011 box - that was also an inconceivable omission, yet it happened. I'm sure there are reasons why in both cases, neither of those omissions could simply be some random oversight, but certainly from a fan/historical perspective it's deeply unfortunate.

Personally if Desper is really being left out of the conversation, I think it's needlessly dumb. His sound is what made those albums what they were in the first place. I can understand not wanting to commit to new quadrophonic mixes, but it sounds to me that the archivists just want to rush the music out, and are probably underbudgeted. But in the end, I don't come into this set for anything else but the music, and assume that there are always going to be politics at play. That's the nature of being a Beach Boys fan. It's messy, and you gotta wade through all the politics in order to get into the music. Hopefully we can hear from Desper's perspective, but in the end, the fact that this music is getting reissued in the first place is a cause for joy in and of itself.

Totally, Steve Desper was an integral part of the 1970s BBs sound...

+1 to both of these posts. Much respect to everyone involved behind the scenes in championing this release, and to Mark, Alan, and Steve.

Politics suck.

4 years of Trump malarky and a post from S W Desper triggers the comment "Politics suck".      That's what I call late to the party.

Disappointed, like most people, that Desper has had little/no involvement in this, but this group has to remember that what we might want isn't always going to be commercially sensible. I'd love a 32 bit / 384 kHz release of every Beach Boys thing in existence (in multitrack). . . but it doesn't mean it makes sense for it to be released.

If there's been infringement of SWDs copyright then he has his rights - but we don't know that, and the last thing any of us want is a further delay to the set.

To clarify what I meant in this case... band/US/world politics suck when they adversely affect this band and its music/reputation/etc. Anyway.

Personally if Desper is really being left out of the conversation, I think it's needlessly dumb. His sound is what made those albums what they were in the first place. I can understand not wanting to commit to new quadrophonic mixes, but it sounds to me that the archivists just want to rush the music out, and are probably underbudgeted. But in the end, I don't come into this set for anything else but the music, and assume that there are always going to be politics at play. That's the nature of being a Beach Boys fan. It's messy, and you gotta wade through all the politics in order to get into the music. Hopefully we can hear from Desper's perspective, but in the end, the fact that this music is getting reissued in the first place is a cause for joy in and of itself.

Totally, Steve Desper was an integral part of the 1970s BBs sound...

+1 to both of these posts. Much respect to everyone involved behind the scenes in championing this release, and to Mark, Alan, and Steve.

Politics suck.

THIS COULD BE THE NIGHT was once called Brian Wilsons favorite spector production (listening to it it's easy to understand why).  Brian did it himself on the Harry Nilsson tribute CD (because Harry co-wrote the song, when he was working for Phil early on).  Harry himself tried recording TCBTN very late in his career, for an album apparently never officially released

TCBTN was used as the title theme song for the 1966 electronovision (b&w) movie THE BIG T.N.T. SHOW on which Spector was music producer (it's a sequel to the TAMI SHOW movie).  The Ronettes perform in TNT SHOW

But TCBTN, as originally recorded  by MFQ was never released as a record, although it was scheduled to be (presumably on Philles label) but cancelled the very day before (or so the story goes).  Reasons for this never went into detail except a major disagreement between the band and Phil.  Later in the '70s the song eventually snuck out on vinyl as a rarities track on a Phil Spector International import LP

This is amazing history, thanks because I did not know this info about TCBTN.

It would not surprise me if Brian himself was either consciously or unconsciously influenced a bit by Phil Spector in terms of recording some of his very best material and then socking it away and simply not releasing it.

Phil was Brian's musical idol, and both of these guys did that particular specific dysfunctional behavior, certainly for different reasons, but ultimately most likely out of some sort of fear of rejection in some capacity. There were a ton of amazing Phil Spector songs recorded right around this time in 1965/1966, which were never released and only finally came out many years later on the back to mono box set.

I wonder how much knowledge Brian had of this happening at the time in 66, but I would think he had a hunch that some of that was going on with Phil, and when it came to Smile, it might've seemed like a logical extension of a thing that a talented producer simply does sometimes, it probably entered his head as a notion once the external pressures of Smile became too much to handle. I suppose it's always possible that Brian did what he did in a bubble completely separate from Phil without an iota of knowledge or influence, but something tells me the career trajectory of Phil Spector around this time had an influence on Brian, perhaps freaking him out that the style of music was no longer relevant and should not be released.

Side note: Yet another big artist (Linda Ronstadt) sold her catalog to Azoff:

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/linda-ronstadt-irving-azoff-catalog-1144437/

Really remarkable how this is all playing out.

Just saw that a recent birthday post for Mike Love on the Wrecking Crew FB page devolved into a mess of profanity, arguments, and general bad vibes in the comments section to the point it got taken down by the admins, who posted a follow-up explanation. I did not see the original post which got removed, just the follow up discussions.

I found it interesting because part of the new IAG deal involves marketing, and presumably trying to reshape or rebrand the band and its image to continue marketing them and the music into the future and giving them a better public image, making them more visible (and marketable) moving forward. It made me wonder how this issue on display at the Wrecking Crew FB page will be addressed, if at all, regarding the negative opinions floating around the internet for several decades now. Some attempts to change those opinions have failed in the past, mostly because it seemed the tactic was to try denigrating or even attacking Brian Wilson in order to boost up Mike's profile and resume, and some involved what looked like deliberate attempts to overstate Mike's credits. A lot of those were squarely the fault of those people who tried to do those things, perhaps not realizing that knocking someone's legacy or trying to smear them outright in order to boost another really does not work with most of the general public outside of the political arena.

It will be an interesting task at hand if that element even gets addressed, and what steps may be taken to lessen it in the future, but I can't see how it would not be on the table in terms of a global marketing and rebranding plan worth millions when there seems to be an elephant in the room.

I think just about the only way to reverse the damage and make any sort of change in peoples' minds (to minimize that so many such BBs threads, especially anything directly about Mike, descend into ugly arguments - not just here, but on the web in general), would be if there was some sort of real public heart-to-heart between Mike and Brian, where Mike straight up apologizes for a bunch of stuff, talks about being hurt, talks about his own culpability in all sorts of stuff, etc.

It seemed like that Rolling Stone article "The Ballad of Mike Love" from 2016 was a half-baked *attempt* at something like that, maybe for PR purposes, maybe just because Mike is pissed at Mike's own reputation and wishes things were better, and thought this would be a step in that direction. I give Mike a little credit for a few things in that article, but overall it could/should have been much better, but obviously he was only willing to open up and let his guard down a little bit.

Well now that the brand name sale has taken place, and there's an actual team of business people who are trying to figure out how to monetize the brand, possibly this could lead to Mike (and Brian) making some sort of other overture to mend fences even more, if only to appease the suits who now own the brand. I don't envy those suits, they are surely keenly aware of the fact that the brand they just bought has a huge fracture in it, namely the Mike/Brian issue and how deeply disliked Mike is by many fans. Many other fans don't care who Mike is, what he did, etc, but still I'm sure the business interests involved with the brand *wish* this issue was no longer an issue. Why would stockholders in the brand *want* to see every Youtube video/FB comments section descend into ugliness? I'm sure it's the last thing they want, but it's the reality. How much this hurts the profit potential of the brand is of course another question that I unironically am sure they have charts for determining.

While I do think at this point this is next to impossible to happen between Mike and Brian, I did recently see an example of two stubborn celebrities, one very powerful and wealthy, and one whose star had fallen, mend fences in a very public way - on the unscripted documentary show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air reunion on HBO Max, Will Smith and Janet Hubert who have publicly feuded for nearly 30 years, and who repeatedly sh*t-talked each other in the press very much, actually sat down and had a long talk, with many tears. Again, I think it's a minuscule chance, but I think it would be very healing if Mike and Brian did something like that. Not just would it be good for the brand, but it would first and foremost be good for them as human beings. But only if it were totally sincere and didn't feel "produced" -  The Fresh Prince of Bel Air segment was amazingly very, very real feeling and just felt like 2 people who had a TON of water under the bridge, but they seemed to mend fences and admit where they both f*cked up.

I wish someone could convince Mike and Brian to do something like that, but while I won't hold my breath, I still think there's any number of possibilities that this type of fence mending could happen which would make some of the negativity subside. And it can't just be a simple reunion of a few gigs without addressing this specific relationship fracture for the reunion to carry any weight in repairing Mike's reputation, which again, if sincere, I can't think of many people who wouldn't want to see those 2 guys actually apologize for stuff and hug it out.

I'm also aware that Brian probably isn't keen on sitting down and talking about deep feelings on camera, so yeah I'm not sure how this would work, but I remain truly convinced that Mike really could redeem his reputation *somewhat* if he publicly talked about mistakes he's made, and asked for forgiveness, something of that nature. In some fashion, but in a high profile way. No, Mike doesn't have to do it, neither did Janet Hubert/Will Smith. Nobody *has* to do this stuff, but while they are living on this earth they *can*, and it can be a beautiful thing if done with sincerity.

Definitely all dressed up for school. Surprised no one did that. He kills the bass vocals and the tag.

Mike does sound great on it.

Is Brian even on that song vocally? It blew my mind completely when I found out that Al Jardine was the one singing falsetto on it. Even though once you recognize that it's Al, you could never unhear Al on it.

I hope this doesn't turn into a concert like the 25th anniversary from Hawaii. If it's going to be 1 show or 3 or 4, let's just have it be the Boys, maybe the kids too for a portion of the show(sort of like what Simon and Garfunkel did with the Everly Brothers on their last tour a few years ago). But I don't want t see other bands or singers joining in singing their songs.....that just doesn't work for me.

Here's the quote from Mike's interview last year:

Mike Love:
"Well I don't know how much there is in the vault, but I'd, I'll tell you this, we're coming up on probably the 60th anniversary of the group in another year or so, and that warrants something special that's for sure, and so, um, I've got some ideas on that but we're too early to talk about it. But um, uh, I think there will be opportunities to come up with compilations and and as you say archival but also new renditions with other artists and stuff of many of our songs and that, that'll be a lot of fun to do. And I think I'm looking forward to what the future may bring."


Of course it's pure speculation, but I'm also not as enthusiastic about these "new renditions with other artists" whether it's a Beach Boys greatest hits karaoke on stage with a lineup of special guests like that Hawaii show in the 80's, or yet another version of the "Stars And Stripes" concept where The Beach Boys are backup singers for other artists remaking their old hit records. It doesn't work for me either, but it sounds like that's what Mike is into and ostensibly what Al is talking about regarding live shows, especially if some kind of an album will be in the pipeline along with these "tribute shows".

At this point, for me at least, the best tribute would be to have a studio booked with a sign reading "Real Beach Boys Only" on the door, get the surviving members in there with video and tape rolling, and let them make music together for a day. The whole "tribute" thing has gone stale for me too, especially when the members are still alive and able to make music, without paying tribute to themselves by being backup singers.

Especially true because I'll bet dollars to donuts that *if* this tribute artist thing comes to fruition, that it's almost a certainty that audiences would be subjected to Sugar Ray and Orange County Biff Tannen aka Mark McGrath as part of the equation. Ick to the max. It'd just be so damn corny and lame.

Honestly the whole reunion is not something I have much if any interest in or hope for, but maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. I won't keep my hopes up because this "BBs as guest stars" thing is of little to no interest to me, considering who I imagine the younger whipper snapper bands would likely be. And I also fear and fully expect Mike's many recent Trump associations will sour this whole reunion in general for many.

Hate to be a downer, but I have little hope in this whole thing. But if good new BBs material WITH NO LAME GUEST STARS comes out of it, even a little, I suppose it'd be worth it. Also if could indirectly lead to more vault material getting out into the world, and/or getting more positive notoriety, then I guess it'd be worth it too.