The Mike version of the Beach Boys did doing Surf's Up on their recent tour of the UK.

Wanted to bump this since I found the photo from the article online.

[Over bearing take control only in studio when Landy said.]

Landy era I ('75-'76) is much less documented when compare to Landy era II (which is featured in the film), right?

-What type of Landy scumbaggery went on during the 1st era? Over bearing take control only in studio when Landy said.

-Was Landy fired solely over increasing his rates? That and he wanted to keep Brian out of the studio instead of working night and day to deliver Love You.

-Was the band and Brian's family otherwise happy with his era I actions? Mixed.

-Were the band and Brian's family ever seriously afraid Brian would relapse, or did they think that the appropriate work had been done to prevent such from happening? Mixed.

-How was the firing handled? Stephen Love fired Landy.

These explanations are pretty much the version told in the discredited 1991 autobiography. I thought it was Marilyn that had put an end to it after hearing about the flagrant rate increases.

So is it pretty much considered that Landy was fired in 1976 primarily because of the shadiness of rate increases, and not because of any other overstepping of bounds? In other words, if Landy had just kept his rates the same, is it probable that he would have continued on with Brian past 1976?

And how did Brian react to Landy being fired in 1976? Did Landy ever try to be in touch with Brian after that (before being contacted again in 1982)?

Nope not from Brian's book, tho that book may have said the same things. These answers are from other people's accounts. Steve Love himself said he fired Landy.

[Over bearing take control only in studio when Landy said.]

Landy era I ('75-'76) is much less documented when compare to Landy era II (which is featured in the film), right?

-What type of Landy scumbaggery went on during the 1st era? Over bearing take control only in studio when Landy said.

-Was Landy fired solely over increasing his rates? That and he wanted to keep Brian out of the studio instead of working night and day to deliver Love You.

-Was the band and Brian's family otherwise happy with his era I actions? Mixed.

-Were the band and Brian's family ever seriously afraid Brian would relapse, or did they think that the appropriate work had been done to prevent such from happening? Mixed.

-How was the firing handled? Stephen Love fired Landy.

For So long this has been going on. The fights are never going to go away. And everyone wants to pick sides. I really disliked Mike up until 5 years ago. Then I realized that it wasn't right for me to think that way because guess what, I don't know a damn thing about what went on. I don't know all the back stage machinations that thread throughout the Beach Boys story. I have just heard from both sides which are biased in their tellings. So many of my best friends wanted Mike gone. But I think that is wrong headed. I know alot of people who (when he was alive) thought Carl was a d**k and that Brian should have never had any further contact with him. And so it's been since I became a fan back in 1973. As I said elsewhere, the SMiLE crew around Brian was lauded for SO long that I am glad they are shown for who/what they truly are. So things change.

I do remember something I read by Don Was that has been repeated several times by others. He thought that Mike would be the most evil man in the world, but found him ok to deal with. And here is the part that so many others that have talked to Mike and the other Beach Boys have repeated. They were/are just tired of being referred to as Brian Wilson and the four assholes. I know I have heard that for far too long. Before you say well that's true, stop for a moment. That means Dennis is a no talent asshole. Carl is a no talent asshole. Mike is a no talent asshole. Jon Stebbins said it best. If you think Brian would have been as big as he was w/out the other guys, you are dreaming. Much as we would want to believe it, he needed them, just as they needed him.

Bob

Know what's weird in that LA Times interview? That John Mason stands up for Landy, then 3 years later says he could never talk to Wilson on the phone when interviewed by Diane Sawyer. WTF?

[He is currently at work on a novel whose main character, Supershrink, resembles himself.]

You gotta love that line:

He is currently at work on a novel whose main character, Supershrink, resembles himself.

Found an OLD OLD People from 1978. And Holy S**t!

From Alice Cooper to Rod Steiger, Shrink Eugene Landy Candles the Most Celebrated Heads
By Robert Windeler
September 25, 1978 - People


The Oscar-winning scenarist had a problem: A TV script was overdue, but he was suffering from writer's block. It was an obvious case for Dr. Eugene Landy, 43, the Beverly Hills star shrink. Landy promptly imprisoned the writer in a phoneless, windowless room for 2½ days, opening the door only to shove in sustenance or to allow the patient to relieve himself. The script got written.

A clinical and social psychologist, Landy eschews such classical Freudian props as the couch or even an office. Instead, he applies round-the-clock therapy, as in the famous case of Brian Wilson, the creative genius of the Beach Boys, who had withdrawn into overfed self-exile in his Bel Air bedroom. For 13 months, 24 hours a day, either Landy or one of 14 assistants was with Wilson, directing his every action, from eating (they padlocked his refrigerator) to composing. "He was a master gamesman who had contrived for years to stay in bed," diagnosed Landy. The fee: $90 an hour. (Landy's rates have since gone up to $2.50 a minute.) The Beach Boys eventually discharged Landy—prematurely, he claims—because they needed Brian in the recording studio. In any case, Landy sourly says the LP in question, The Beach Boys Love You, was a flop. But even Landy's detractors concede that his methods helped make Wilson functional again.

He has applied variations of the saturation/servitude therapy to Alice Cooper, Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch and Rod Steiger. Richard Harris was so exultant he even dragged the doc onto TV talk shows to proclaim, "He literally saved my marriage." Numerous other names prefer the traditional shrink-patient anonymity.

The reason so many celebs go into treatment is not just because they can afford it or that it's trendy. The real explanation, says Landy, is that "everybody caters to stars, and they are isolated from reality. They lose some of their ability to function as normal people do. They're always on, so my treatment is always on too." His supporting cast depends upon the severity of his case load but sometimes reaches 30. "I feel," he says, with accustomed modesty, "like a conductor—the Zubin Mehta of psychotherapy."

Landy does hear a different drummer than some of his colleagues. "What some analysts call perverse," he says, "I'll call normal. Homosexuality, for example. It is not an illness. There are no perversities. Extremes, yes. Adults who rape and kill a 2-year-old child, for instance. But adults who reach out for and give love to each other in one form or another are not perverse," he believes. "Compare that to the chick who kisses her horse and calls it 'my darling'—and people accept that as normal!"

With drug abusers, however, Landy is more traditional. "A patient who comes to me with a drug problem," he explains, "must sign a commitment that if I find anything at all in his system after treatment begins, I am to turn him over to the police." Landy has not had to take that step yet, he reports; his patients are so "completely tied up they'll do everything I say."

The only child of a Pittsburgh physician and his psychodramatist wife, Landy was born with dyslexia, an abnormality of perception that causes things to appear backward. He could not read until he was 13, still cannot spell, and sometimes reverses numbers. (He notes that Nelson Rockefeller, Patton and Einstein, and a disproportionate number of actors and performers have been dyslectic.) Landy dropped out of school after sixth grade but later took entrance exams and earned a B.S. in chemistry at Los Angeles City College, studied psychology at the University of Mexico and took his doctorate at the University of Oklahoma. He married a fellow student and fathered a son, now 16. While in training he worked as an A&R (artist and repertoire) man at Coral, Decca and RCA records, was a production assistant on Liberace's old TV show, and wrote for Teen Screen and True Confessions. "California," he says, "always felt right to me from the moment I got here."

After helping instruct Peace Corps, VISTA and Office of Economic Opportunity psychologists in group methods, Landy began working in 1968 as a drug abuse therapist at Gateways Hospital in L.A. Now, in addition to treating the superrich, he also operates a clinic for lower-income patients.

Therapy occupies 60 hours of his week, not counting phone calls from his patients or staffers (some isolation cases ring him up 20 times a day). Still, he manages time to ski, fly and motorcycle, as well as read—from Melville to Vonnegut—and attend Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts. Divorced three years ago, he squires actress Alexandra Morgan, a onetime group therapy patient at his clinic.

Seven years ago Landy wrote a book called The Underground Dictionary. He is currently at work on a novel whose main character, Supershrink, resembles himself. Landy's only problem—not quite yet at the treatable stage—is that he has writer's block.

Having had interaction with Darian, I have to say, this man is close to a saint. The guy is wonderful and knows how lucky he is to be where he is. Talent keeps him there, luck got him there. Brina being there that night. etc etc. He tried to call me one time when they were in Houston and he said Brian was sitting at a piano playing all sorts of unreleased tunes. And I was out for the evening. He has been so gracious that it boggles my mind.

The memory that will always stick with me? There are two. The sound check where Scott was late and he asked if I wanted to play organ on Good Vibrations. Since it was just the guys, I started to climb up onstage. Then Brian walked in and I said NO WAY am I playing in front of Brian. NO FREAKING WAY!! I got down off stage. Leaf was there and started laughing .

I will also remember backstage at the 2013 show with Jeff Beck. I told Darian that he KILLED Darlin that night. Then I said I still miss Carl so much. I said wouldn't it have been great if Carl had been there in 2012 on tour. Darian put his hand over his heart and lowered his head. He quietly said "That would have been so so awesome!"

Murray sped up Breakaway as well. He also had Carl sing the entire song.

You know, I had to wonder what was wrong with me. Everyone is talking about how the film hit them in the gut and Jon Stebbins said he was reeling from it. And yet it didn't hit me like that at all. I found it harrowing, but it didn't kick my ass like it has others.

Then it hit me as to why.

When the long trailer was released, the one that starts with Brian in the car and Melinda walking up to speak to him, THAT KICKED MY ASS. I must have watched that 20 times the first couple of days. It just floored me. Left me a little depressed, it was so visceral. So that kind of let me know what to expect when I saw the movie. It still hit me hard, but I knew what to expect. Had I not had that introduction, I might still be in bed (LOL).

Melinda was a sweetheart to me.

I am glad of two things in this movie.

1.) Bill did not go out of his way to portray Mike Love as an asshole. He came off like a man who was worried as to what was happening to his group, and yes his livelihood. There were changes going on with Brian that I am sure Mike at the time chalked up to drugs etc and thought that his cousin needed a verbal ass kicking to get it together. We know now that drugs took an already delicately balanced Brian and pushed him over the edge.

2.) I liked the way the SMiLE crew was portrayed. (So glad Bob Hanes isn't here to rip me a new one for what I am about to say. We argued ALOT over this). I have always felt that with 3 exceptions, the people that were around Brian during Pet Sounds and SMiLE were absolutely the most self absorbed people who could have invaded his world. Starting with Tom Nolan and carried on by David Leaf and others, these people (Lauren Daro, Mike Vosse, etc etc), these people were said to be hip and the Beach Boys were said to be non-hip and that was the ONLY thing wrong is that the boys couldn't or didn't want to go where the hip people were leading. Well, to put it mildly, these hip people were going NOWHERE. They were the kind of people I knew growing up that would get high and just ramble on about things and think of themselves as enlightened. And the 60's people had a way of thinking they saved the world. They didn't. They were too self-absorbed to save anyone. I always found it funny when they use to show these communes on shows like 60 minutes etc., and the men would spend the day meeting and discussing issues of the day etc, while the women did all of the work and child-rearing. So much for enlightenment. Those people added nothing. And look at them all. Except for Van, David, and Danny, they all went on to do......nothing. Some were homeless and addicted, Lauren worked as a fact checker for a publisher (so much for Mr. Brain Trust). These were evil people. Glad they didn't show them as heroes. Leaf tried to show them that way in the Beatuiful Dreamer video. They weren't. After watching Lauren speak, I told Bob Hanes I felt like I needed a shower.

It was a deeply satisfying experience to see Brian's story told with some dignity and not some TV movie with fake beards etc. It hit me hard watching this film, but it also was a story that I knew so well. I was seeing a story that I had absorbed and lived thru (meaning reading and talking to people all during the '80s that were close to Brian) that it was nice to finally see THAT story come to light.

In the words of Brian "it's a weird trip man."

Carl made a trip out to MIU. The AFM sheets only list Carl as present on December 3rd & 4th.

December 13 - session: Toys For Tots PSA/My Diane vocal [Kaye Smith, Seattle]

Dennis also may have played drums on an early version of She's Got Rhythm.

I am guessing Andrew Doe, etc can't help with this? Alan or Mark? Bueller.......

No long review here. Just one word to describe the film and the voyage it took me on.

Harrowing.

Was reading an old Goldmine article that announced The Beach Boys two-fer's that were coming out in 1990 (I must have missed this issue). Capitol gave a list of the bonus tracks for the two-fers to Goldmine to print. I looked over the list and lo and behold, what did I find for the Concert / Live In London CD?

Don't Worry Baby / Be True To Your School / Don't Back Down - Live from 1964
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - Live At U of M Oct. 22, 1966
Heroes And Villains - Live 1969 (think they got the year wrong).

Also, Stack -O- Tracks was to be extended to 25-28 tracks.

Anyone know why these extra's were dropped from the CD?

Bob

Peter Carlin said it best in his book.

Eugene Landy saved Brian Wilson's life. And after having done so, he proceeded to make it a complete mess.

I have been looking back over pictures of Brian from say 2009 to present. Brian has really aged in the last 2-3 years (yes I know he is getting older), but he really seems to be frail as of late. Am I off my rocker, or does anyone else notice this. Has me a little concerned.

I have listed some below to be pulled from. I restricted myself to the last several years before 1983.

Sweetie - Recorded with a Mike/Al/Brian lead
Stevie - Polish it up
California Dreamin'
Runaway
California Callin' - 1982 version
Goin' To The Beach
California Feelin'
San Miguel
Calendar Girl - only IF Mike didn't use it.
Lookin' Down The Coast
Our Team
How's About A Little Bit Of Your Sweet Lovin'
Brian's Back
Time For Bed
Johnny B. Goode
Surfer Suzie
Da Doo Ron Ron
Boys & Girls - Lead vocal needed
Been Way Too Long
River Deep Mountain High - lead vocal needed

Wow, this really started a debate. After reading Leaf's book in the 70's, I was like screw those guys, your the true leader Brian. But as you get older, you start to realize that everybody has feelings and you have to take those into consideration as well.  This actually happened, I had a good friend who got caught up in local "politics" and was told that he needed to drop us, his UN-connected friends, in order to further himself. His new friends would tell us, you aren't good enough for him, you will hold him back." Well, long story short, we let him go, and when the political move didn't pan out, they dropped him and he came back to us, his real friends. I was mad, but I though he had to do this to find out who was real and who wasn't. I think the same could be said here with Brian. Aside from Anderle (who I always liked, really smart guy) and Van Dyke, the rest were fair weather at best.

the people surrounding Brian that we know of, Lauren Daro, etc, who are telling Brian you don't need these other guys, you are THE MAN! How would you feel?

I wanted to say something here. It is so cool to read some of the responses about Dennis, Brian and there issues. When alot of this first came to light in the 90's (Cocaine Sessions), there was alot of "Well, Denny did self-destruct and die early, but it was so FREAKING COOL how he lived. He rocked!" Even Mr DP thought that about him at least some what. Now people are taking a reassessment and that is good. Denny had SO MUCH FREAKING TALENT it wasn't even funny. He just had it under that same black cloud as all the Wilson boys did. I just wished he and Brian could have cleaned up together and come out on the other side.

I have always had this fantasy about Dennis. It was that he got clean AND got his underlying issues dealt with. Then slowly, he would extract himself from the group and become one of those great Phil Ramone type producers that we here about. Probably alot like Don Was in the '80's and '90s. Cuz the boy KNEW the studio and how to make it sing.

Steve, I put this under another section but I can just put it here as well since THIS is the thread you are commenting on (dummy me!).

I know you have written extensively about these sessions in your book, but, I was just wondering an overall question. SO SO many writings on the Surf's Up track make it sound like it was a monumental undertaking to get this done technically. I would have thought that just transferring the old 4 track backing track up to a 16 track then recording the lead vocals would have started the process. But interviews with Jack R. (RIP) and others say that Carl spent night after night after night just trying to "find" the first part. Was he looking for something that wasn't found, or just kind of trolling thru the tapes?

COMMENT:    It's all in the book which you will just have to wait on. ~swd

Thank you for that. Can't wait!!!!