I'm going to pretend "Where I Belong" is about something else.... Maybe one of Al's horses or something.....

Yeah, seriously. I kinda wish I didn't know that. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. That John-Roger seems like a creepazoid to the max.

Has Mike said a peep of anything about Brian's film yet?

I think Lee is right that Carl and the Passions was one of the original possible ideas for the name of the group before they decided on The Pendletones.   

I do agree that, at least for the first two or three songs, the album doesn't really sound like The Beach Boys.  I think Marcella is the first BB sounding track on that album. 

I think Blondie and Ricky blended more with the group on Holland. 

Really only three songs that have the trademark harmonies; Marcella, All This Is That and Cuddle Up. I guess you could add He Come Down too. Personally, I liked that it was different. I liked that all four early 70's albums sounded different from each other. That they pushed themselves and tried new things to move themselves forward. It was great time to be a fan and see them progress as a band.

No doubt.  I agree 100%.  I don't think it's a bad album at all.  It's probably my least favorite of the four from the early 70s.  But still better than each album they released in the late 70s. 

And I should note one of my favorite tracks from this era is Leaving This Town, which sounds nothing like The Beach Boys. 

My biggest complaint with it is that all of the faster numbers like ...Stand ALone, Marcella and even ...Dear Brother could of used a little faster tempo. All good songs, but they kind of feel constipated, if you know what I mean.

Maybe the slower tempos were due to the band smoking a bunch of weed, which can lend itself to stony, slower BPMs...

One good thing that came from this is all the previously-unseen Brian photos.

This makes me wonder... what happened to the copious amounts of videos of Brian from this time? Wasn't everything filmed daily? There must be thousands of hours of footage. Not that this private footage should be seen by the public, but at the same time, from a historical perspective, I hope it wasn't just destroyed.

I think the BBs money machine as the real criminals in putting BW back with Landy. They had to get BW to make them money at all costs instead of taking him to a real doctor for help.

I am curious to know what lengths that Brian's family did (and didn't) do to get Brian to a real, actual doctor pre-Landy I or pre-Landy II. I know there was the other doctor who died in the rock-climbing accident, but not sure what other means they tried. Melinda mentioned on Larry King years ago how the family should have taken him to UCLA when they were literally only miles away; she's right, and I do wonder why that didn't actually happen. I would absolutely tend to think ignorance or naivete was the cause for that, as opposed to any greedy motives.

It was their unwillingness to face the problem and deal with it. Brian should have been committed in the early 80s by his family. 

Do you think it was just them being in denial that it was on the level of needing that type of full-on committing? It's tough to judge people for stuff like this, and I'm not trying to place blame, only to get a better understanding of the whole situation as best we can using common sense as outsiders, 35+ years on.

And he/they waited until the very weekend the film is being released to "set the record straight"? People reading this stuff aren't that naive. It's not about getting the total story in this case. The total absence of anything regarding the Landy team's efforts to change the will in this interview says it all. If getting the total story was the goal, surely that key point would have at least come up...but again, that wasn't the point and usually never is in these kinds of publications. If that fact had been written or asked in that article, anyone reading it would have immediately seen the bullshit apart from the physical health issues which were even more egregious.

In other words, ask the question about the doctor changing the will and every point or attempt to tell another side of the story that would follow would collapse. No matter how much of a positive spin you'd want to put on the story, some points are the nuclear bombs that wipe everything else off the map.

Here's a question... has Landy or anyone in the Landy camp ever been asked on record about the attempt to change the will? And that is a matter of public record, right? How and when did that information about the attempted will-changing come to light?

There's that awkwardly excruciating moment on the 20/20 Landy/Brian interview where Landy sorta clams up when he is vaguely accused of inappropriate activity, but I wonder if the will issue was ever specifically asked about. How could someone involved with Landy possibly reply to a query about that action?  

That's just the point, there is no reply and there couldn't be a reply because it's the nuclear bomb point that wipes everything else off the map. All the attempts to tell the other side of the story, "set the record straight", paint a more sympathetic picture of the whole scene and those involved...it all gets wiped out by that one issue. That's why it's not even hinted at in this article, if it were the whole article would be rendered useless and pointless. Or to use another word, it would read like bullshit.

Totally agreed. I would just like someone on Team Landy to be asked about the will in an official capacity, just to see their facial expression or to hear an "explanation", since it will only serve to bury their cause even further. Maybe the explanation would be that he did a very, very shitty thing, but that he still had some good intentions too. That's a tough, if not near-impossible idea to reconcile.

Sorry for repeating myself, but in case anyone knows, I'd be very curious to know when the will-change attempt actually happened on the Brian-Landy timeline, and when this info came to light, both publicly, as well as privately to the family. That incident seems to be specifically what helped get the courts to take action, right? Because it obviously wreaked of indefensible and absolutely illegal scumbaggery, as opposed to other Landy actions which could possibly have been "spun" in a more positive light in a court of law.

Somebody should screenshot Landy's face when Sawyer asks him the million dollar question. The guy was caught red handed on national TV!

It is such, such an awkward kid-with-hands-in-the-cookie-jar moment for a guy who was pushing 60 at the time. What a yutz!!

And he/they waited until the very weekend the film is being released to "set the record straight"? People reading this stuff aren't that naive. It's not about getting the total story in this case. The total absence of anything regarding the Landy team's efforts to change the will in this interview says it all. If getting the total story was the goal, surely that key point would have at least come up...but again, that wasn't the point and usually never is in these kinds of publications. If that fact had been written or asked in that article, anyone reading it would have immediately seen the bullshit apart from the physical health issues which were even more egregious.

In other words, ask the question about the doctor changing the will and every point or attempt to tell another side of the story that would follow would collapse. No matter how much of a positive spin you'd want to put on the story, some points are the nuclear bombs that wipe everything else off the map.

Here's a question... has Landy or anyone in the Landy camp ever been asked on record about the attempt to change the will? And that is a matter of public record, right? How and when did that information about the attempted will-changing come to light?

There's that awkwardly excruciating moment on the 20/20 Landy/Brian interview where Landy sorta clams up when he is vaguely accused of inappropriate activity, but I wonder if the will issue was ever specifically asked about. How could someone involved with Landy possibly reply to a query about that action?  

The will-changing really is the smoking gun. Lots of the other things can be explained and defended in some fashion, blamed on others, stated to be a side effect of the time in which the events occurred, etc... but not sure how the will thing could be explained in any way, shape or form.

I think the BBs money machine as the real criminals in putting BW back with Landy. They had to get BW to make them money at all costs instead of taking him to a real doctor for help.

I am curious to know what lengths that Brian's family did (and didn't) do to get Brian to a real, actual doctor pre-Landy I or pre-Landy II. I know there was the other doctor who died in the rock-climbing accident, but not sure what other means they tried. Melinda mentioned on Larry King years ago how the family should have taken him to UCLA when they were literally only miles away; she's right, and I do wonder why that didn't actually happen. I would absolutely tend to think ignorance or naivete was the cause for that, as opposed to any greedy motives.

While I can understand (while still disagreeing with most aspects of) Evan's point of view, I'd like to know how he would address the fact (it is a documented fact, right?) that Gene Landy tried to become the chief beneficiary of Brian's will. I'd like to know how Evan would say that the opportunist and scumbag label could NOT be applied to someone who did that.

Maybe his view is that such an action was simply one of Gene's admitted "flaws", but that many other things he did were not ill-intended. But the will topic was perhaps not-so-coincidentally completely overlooked in the article.

http://tinyurl.com/nbclpnb

Wow, well I called it. I just knew someone was gonna come out of the woodwork to defend Landy. It is his son, so it's more understandable.

When's the last time Mike has owned a sax? Do you think he has one at home? I think I've seen a photo of a piano at his home, but I could be mistaken.

https://soundcloud.com/smilead/brian-wilson-my-little-red-book-with-wild-honey-era-drums

I sampled the drums from Darlin' and tediously lined them up with the demo of "My Little Red Book". Enjoy!

Super rad - thanks for doing this! Drum editing is super tedious, so the effort is much appreciated!

Didn't VDP publicly call Brian a "buffoon" not so long ago.

Yeah, I'd say they are estranged.

I think he used the term "buffoonary" in regards to some specific behavior/incident, which is different from calling someone a buffoon.

"Summer Dreams" is awesome as camp. That's about it.

Especially now that we have "Love and Mercy" (where they wisely choose not to try to cram all the years in), we don't need anymore actors trying to portray their story.

We need a "Beatles Anthology" style long-form documentary on the band, and it needs to be done soon while the remaining members can still sit down and do extensive interviews.

I really need to see this film, just for the camp value (I know it's on Youtube and I'll watch it sometime). Would be a gas if they got the rights (perhaps at a fire sale rate?) and put it as an Easter Egg gag on the Love & Mercy Blu-ray 

[Summertime Cruisin']

Help Me Ronda > Help Me Rhonda (and I don't terribly love either version)

Be True to Your School (album version) > Be True to Your School (single version)

Ballad of Ole Betsy (w/ Mike on lead) from the NASCAR CD is surprisingly not that bad (runs for the hills, but I'm actually serious!)

Little Deuce Coupe (song) is not too great, and excepting Barbara Ann, might be the weakest hit song the band ever had.

Eeeeek. I usually agree with nearly everything you post Century....

But that version of "Betsy" on the NASCAR CD is horrendous in my opinion. And this is coming me, who owns and actually sometimes listens to both Mike and Bruce's Summertime Cruisin' album and the Mike/Bruce/Dave NASCAR CD. It's just so.......plastic sounding. And Mike's lead just has no soul to it. It's exactly what you think a Mike Love lead on a Beach Boys cover album in the late '90s would sound like.

But you're still one of the best posters here Century!  

Thanks sweetdudejim!

Regarding Mike's vocal on the NASCAR Betsy, I guess going I was just expecting it to be really super bad, since virtually all of those cheesy remakes of previously-released 60s BB songs are bad (not just on NASCAR, but there are a good number of other studio re-recordings from the 80s/90s from various boots that are just plain terrible). When Mike is re-recording an old song that he did lead vocals on previously, one can only compare his much older voice to the original version and feel it's inferior (much like Brian's Imagination remakes), not to mention vastly inferior backing tracks... but with Betsy, I felt it at least brought something new which I'd never heard before. Almost a bit like the vastly different arrangements for songs on the Lei'd in Hawaii studio recordings, where it's just a very different take on a familiar song. I'm a sucker for Mike's hushed, less-nasal vocals, like Meant For You, Kokomo, Cool Head Warm Heart, etc., and this vocal sorta fits in with those types of his vocals, even if it's quite inferior to the original version. Plus it's kinda cool as a curiosity to hear another BB singing on a studio version of a song which was originally sung by a different BB. Sort of an alternate universe type of situation, even though Brian's original vocal and version are untouchable. Just IMHO!

It shouldn't be overlooked that out of some fans' request (right here) he went as far as singing All I Wanna Do, which requires a singing style he seldom, if ever, used before or after in his career. The mere fact that he went for it, in such a heartfelt manner, is praiseworthy for me. But not only that... he also sounds pretty cool in it.
 

Agreed.

Bobby F. drummed on "Angel", "LSM" and "LL". It's Dennis on "Good Timin'", "Shortenin' Bread", and a small overdub on "LSM". Plus "My Diane", "Hey Little Tomboy", "Come Go With Me" and "Peggy Sue" from the previous album.

Cool! I'm assuming the "Good Timin'", "Shortenin' Bread", "Tomboy", "Come Go" and "Peggy Sue" drum tracks date from the earlier sessions on those songs?  And even "My Diane" had its basic track in the can by late '76.  Which would mean that aside from leftover stuff and donated solo tracks, he basically stopped bothering to drum for them after the September '77 bust-up  (And they'd only done a little recording as a band throughout '77 before then.)

That makes his cameo appearance at the KTSA session (and "Stevie") even more remarkable!

Cheers,
Jon Blum

Yes. While at MIU, it appears Dennis attempted to replace Mike Kowalski's drums on the already-recorded "She's Got Rhythm" (maybe the idea was for him to do this on all the tracks they had cut there so far, thus making them more of a group effort), but that idea was quickly abandoned.

I'm not sure Dennis "stopped bothering" to drum for the BBs in the studio as much as they stopped inviting him to do so, as his condition (and professionalism) continued to deteriorate.

Thanks for very interesting and insightful (and sad) information.

[I Am Brian Wilson]

Yes, thanks for posting the link.

One question I have though is about I Am Brian Wilson.  I noticed it is listed as 'Slated for Fall 2016'.  Was this pushed back?  For some reason I thought it was coming out this fall.

I think it was originally pegged for 2015 according to various articles. Frankly, given the vibe I've gotten from Mike lately in interviews (e.g. the Beard "interview"), I'm concerned what kind of slant his book is going to give things. Given the requisite promo tours on talk shows he'll probably do, I was saying some time back that it might be a good idea for Brian to wait until *after* Mike's book incase anything mentioned in that book needs to be addressed.

If Brian tried to do that, I have a feeling that Mike would then want push his back too. I think both of those guys want to see what the other is going to write so that they can have the last word. Both men are probably going to roll their eyes at parts of each others' books. I hope this doesn't fall under the umbrella of "bashing" anyone, but I'm quite sure this scenario is very probable. Of course, at some point, the guys will just have to buckle and release their books. Maybe on the same day can be a compromise.

Or perhaps this conundrum could be remedied either by a Cool, Cool Watergate break-in to take a peek at in-progress manuscripts, or simply a Kindle E-book release, where any rebuttals can easily be implemented digitally.

If Mike ever authorizes his own biopic with heavy Stamos input, it needs to be called Mike Love & Have Mercy.

Listening to San Miguel recently... sounds like Denny was specifically aping a Phil Spector sound in parts.

Why? Because of the marimba, the castanets, the bullfight trumpet? Nah. Dennis' Latin vibe was Mexican. Phil's was Puerto Rican.

It's likely that Dennis was writing about San Miguel (a surf spot) on the Baja California coast. The song owes much more to Lonely Bull than it does Spanish Harlem.

The basic track and vocals make for a straight ahead rocker. Not Phil Spector or Brian Wilson.

And aping?  Really.

I guess I shouldn't have used the term "aping", as it could imply a negative connotation, and I did not mean anything negative by it. I love love love San Miguel, and think it's criminally underrated and unknown. I think the slightly murky, yet beautiful production and vibe (not just the castanets) reminds me of Spector's productions.

Do you think we can persuade him to dust off Big Sur next? 

He really, really should. And to throw a curveball at the naysayers, how about dusting off the 1970 arrangement? 

There are a number of examples of this, but I'm most curious of which BB members' songs actually sound like they could have been written by another BB member.

Listening to San Miguel recently made me realize how this song could maybe be mistaken for a Brian-penned tune, even though it has some touches specific to late-60s Denny productions. It also sounds like Denny was specifically aping a Phil Spector sound in parts.

There are a number of other examples of other members' songs which almost (though not quite) sound like they could have been written by Brian... there are also probably a few late 70s Carl and Denny songs where the two mens' songwriting styles could be confused with one another.  What other examples can you all think of?

All I Wanna Do from Sunday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exwt69SOTbg

Mike's vocal sounds much better!

That's very good, makes you wonder why the song was never given an airing back in the day.

That does sound quite good, and Mike looks like he's feeling it and giving his A-game. Gotta give props, and glad that Mike is no longer overlooking this gem of his and Brian's. I wonder if this song was ever even considered for playing live in the early 70s.

The last time I strayed away from this board is because a large amount of members attacked me with the same "starry-eyed blind praise" you mention above for our resident genius, Brian Wilson. The point is, there are very few on this board that seem to be able or interested in observing every aspect of the "band" currently (if you even want to call The Beach Boys a band anymore). Very few of them are for Mike Love, an insanely massive and offensively vocal amount of them are for Brian Wilson. It's very clear to everyone here, and not here.

Not sure why this has to be some sort of competition, or attempt to even out things. It's not an even thing to judge, because the two are very different people with different histories. Two wrongs (differencing types of extremism) don't make a right. I almost feel like the people on this board who are unable to say a critical thing about Mike became that way out of feeling pity for how much admittedly unfairly vicious and over-the-top hatred from others that he gets on the web, as opposed to an actual true belief in the things they themselves either say (or can't bring themselves to critically say). Maybe the anti-extremists made them pro-extremists of their own; it doesn't make it right either way.