What song would you propose Brian re-record for a project like this?

Re-record? I can't think of one that would benefit from re-recording. GOK has one of Carl's most beautiful vocal performances ever, and stands IMHO as the definitive version of all time. I welcome all live takes of old songs that Brian can sing well, and any slightly more obscure songs, but to re-record note-for-note versions of the gems is blasphemy.

Why do it?

I don't hear Bruce at all. I just hear Brian f-ing with perfection like he did when he re-recorded Let Him Run Wild. Those recordings can not be improved upon and should be left alone.

It feels like Brian wants to take his best loved song and show the world that he doesn't need the BB's to sound great. We get it Bri. Don't taint the catalog with your insecurity. Move forward.

Carl's cigarette consumption sure didn't seem to trash his voice like some other singers.

Looking forward very much to this book. Hopefully it will be sort of a cross between the Greg Panfile "Mind of Brian" essays,  and Walter Everett's "The Beatles as Musicians" books (although less theory-intensive.)

I have one

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The audience did seem to be a little on the older side, but maybe the younger attendees were sitting where the seats were reasonably priced. I had a friend who helped me get a great seat in the front that was kind of expensive. I'm not sure that I would have paid $125 or more for any concert when I was in my twenties.

I did talk to a guy who looked to be in his twenties who actually flew in by himself from Indiana just to see the show. He was all excited to hear PS live and had actually never heard SMiLE! I often wish I could go back to that amazing time when I first heard the 66/67 SMiLE stuff. I remember being so awestruck and excited about music.

Edit

The worst part is it's not even good porn.

Bri is wearing 3-D glasses in that first picture. The dude is just psychedelic(ate).

I did a yahoo search for "Heroes and Villains" and found a web site with all those stills from a flash video.

This site:  http://theelements.ca/hnv/02.htm

Put a version of this on your body:

         or alternately:

or this:     or this:

or this:      or one of my favorites:

or:      or this:

or Bri and Margarita:      armed with carrots:

or:

Just a few ideas. Some good, some not so good.

Sounds like "We'll make lovin' and money too, Saturday night girl me and you."

Lots of original comments in the "Back to the Beach" book.

I don't really listen to live recordings much. I think live stuff is meant to be enjoyed in the moment, in an arena full of fans. The Beach Boys were a studio band to me, and I just don't think of them as rock n' roll. Most of their rock n' roll type songs are among my least favorites anyway. Give me the stacked harmonies, sparkling production and studio players. Actually, after Pet Sounds I wish they had either supplemented the band with players who could fill out their sound, or just retired from the road completely.

Breakfast #1 (7AM): 1 cup Arabian Moca Java w/half & half, 2 bananas and a raspberry yogurt

Breakfast #2 (9:30 AM): Large bowl of 5 minute oatmeal with 4 egg whites (stirred right in), cranberries, cinnamon, honey, and topped with vanilla soy milk. Sounds gross to most people I'm sure, but tastes great to me and makes my stomach happy. Energy for hours and never had a day of constipation my whole life. 

I've not seen or heard any yet. 

?Really???

http://www.santoandjohnny.com/

I'm confused.

If there's no sound, no music, and no Keith Badman or Marianne Faithful narration, what is it? A completely silent movie? Did they just put MIDI BB's sound-a-like music on it?

Hmmmmm, now I'm not so sure. Side by side I think I like Paulie better. EW&F has fun with it though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22H1ciSvVm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBBN0T5PYXY

When Earth, Wind and Fire sent their hit version of Got to Get You into My Life, he wondered if he should have been more creative.

My absolute favorite Beatle cover ever. Better than the original, me thinks.

[he]

Looks like the same handwriting to me, just bigger for effect.

It's possible that he was shotgunned after he OD'd, but he had OD'd himself into a hospital a few weeks before that. Poor Kurt wasn't gonna be around much longer, he was just too unhappy. He wanted to die and you can't blame his death on somebody else, he made it happen.

I don't think there are nearly as many conspiracies in the world as we think. Somehow it's just more comforting to our loss if it's more complicated and we can blame more people.

I've got one of these and I love it. Think I spent about $400.

What I can never fully understand is why the Beach Boys became so un-popular in the late 60s when they were still producing incredible music.

Pretty easy to understand I think. They failed to release SMiLE, which would have established them as progressive and cool with the burgeoning hippie crowd. Instead they overhyped the crap out of, built expectations, and then released the god-awful substitute Smiley Smile. Next up they bailed out on Monterey Pop , thereby missing a golden opportunity to solidify their popularity with the Northern California crowd alongside Hendrix, Joplin, Airplane etc.  The BB's were now your parents music all dressed up in candy-striped, Disneyland squareness. People were not turned on, they stopped tuning in, and the BB's dropped out of the charts.

That Help Me Rhonda session makes me feel like I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown. He was a bitter, patronising, passive-aggressive, jealous control freak. I can't believe no one got to the point where they just told him to shut the "F" up. Just the amount of times he says "loosen up" and "sing from your hearts" makes me want to scream.

Look how angry this post is, and I wasn't even there!

I also need to throw a vote in for Billy Gibbons of ZZTop's tone in general!  Wonderfully nasty!!!


I got lucky this week and got invited to a pre-Oscar party at a house in the Hollywood hills. There was a groovy little rock band from Norway playing, and when they did their last number, the one and only Billy G. got up and jammed with them. That brother hits one note and the place went wild. Such an iconic figure with the sunglasses and that freaky long beard! He's got that ZZ tone in his fingers. He just starts to play and you recognize the sound right away. He only did the one song with them, but man what a thrill to see him up close layin' down that Texas boogie!