The Beach Boys are playing this big NJ festival headlined by The Killers and Foo Fighters. Pretty high profile gig for Mike and Bruce https://www.seahearnowfestival.com/?utm_source=attentive&attn-vid=bfb488e3a3d44a19867259502484f403

I wonder if Brian, Mike, Al, and Bruce (also maybe David?) will do a few songs together, at least Brian and Al seem to be winding down in terms of their performing days, might be the last time they ever appear together as a group which would be a special thing.

Is Ricky not singing on “Funky Pretty”? I always thought he was part of that round with Al, Blondie, and Mike:

where's my spark in the dark? - Al
Glow glow glow c’mon glow - Ricky
The funky pretty flame in my heart - Blondie
Me and my Pisces lady are apart - Mike

But I can see how that could just also be Blondie.

Laughed at Carl “Cookie” Wilson, never occurred to me that was Carl doubling himself on “Mess of Help”, I never really questioned what that was but it makes for a cool effect!

The bonus instrumental track from Brian Wilson presents Smile is used as background music around 20 minutes in to “Mickey: The Story of a Mouse” and I was completely thrown when it started playing, I recognized it immediately!

EDIT: and perhaps not coincidentally, a photo of Brian Wilson wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt also appears in a montage later in the documentary.

This set also leads me to ask why was We Got Love left off Holland?  That could have been a staple on FM radio.

We Got Love was on the version of Holland that was rejected by Warner Bros. because they felt it lacked a good single. The album originally led off with Steamboat (which while a fine song is fairly mellow to be an opening track on a Beach Boys album) and We Got Love ended Side 1, coming after California Saga. When Sail On Sailor was added as the opening track, We Got Love was taken off to make room, though apparently some early German pressings came out with the original rejected track listing by mistake.

But clearly the band really liked the song, they kept it in their set list until Ricky left the group and including it on the In Concert album probably gave some incentive for fans to hear a “new song”.

Ugh, Depp is such a gross creep. This doesn’t interest me. It’s a shame Beck’s collaboration with Brian fizzled out.

I wouldn't call it a fan mix as Mark Linett and Alan Boyd had already been working with The Beach Boys for over a decade by that point, I think they were looking at the sequencing from a professional lens and not based on personal preference (though I'm sure personal preferences do come through, they still had Brian's approval and he trusted them). It was mostly based with a few exceptions on the 2004 sequence that Brian and his band had put together and that is the true finished version. Linett and Boyd wisely chose to use that as a blueprint since no other complete version of Smile ever existed, definitely not in 1966/67.

It's also worth noting that they occasionally used elements recorded in 66/67 that didn't appear in Brian's 2004 version, like the instrumental tags to My Only Sunshine and Vegetables, the Twelfth Street Rag part of Look, and the piano/vocal intro of Child is Father of the Man so while they mainly used the 2004 sequence, they still honored the original recordings as much as possible.

Long Promised Road is airing on PBS (US TV) this coming Tuesday as part of their American Masters series.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/stream-brian-wilson-documentary/21858/

Glad Blondie’s singing Wild Honey again. He absolutely kills on that song and I never thought his voice fit Feel Flows which he’d been doing instead for a while.

Their next single is a cover of “Darlin’”, I wonder if a full tribute album is to follow!

Some of the track selections for Discs 2 and 3 are surprising for sure, some of them just baffling.

It’s interesting to also note how much The Beach Boys compilations change over the years. The original companion disc to Sounds of Summer was The Warmth of the Sun but there are a lot of songs that appeared on that collection that are not included here.

Songs on The Warmth of the Sun not on expanded Sounds of Summer:
Catch a Wave, Hawaii, Little Honda, 409, Then I Kissed Her, Please Let Me Wonder (that’s a glaring omission), The Little Girl I Once Knew, Break Away, Why Do Fools Fall In Love, Cool Cool Water, Don’t Go Near the Water, California Dreamin’

Personally I would at least trade Pom Pom Play Girl, Farmer’s Daughter, San Miguel, Everyone’s In Love With You, and Where I Belong for Please Let Me Wonder, The Little Girl I Once Knew, Break Away, Cool Cool Water, and California Dreamin’.

That “concert” was such an embarrassing and overblown spectacle in retrospect, and whoever came up with the idea for Joe Piscopo (who was already a few years past his SNL prime at that point) to do multiple comedy interludes, I sincerely hope they were fired.

I was listening to Nancy Wilson’s score for Almost Famous and noticed that two of her themes, “Cabin by the River” and “Cabin in the Air” are both heavily influenced by Cabin Essence. Really cool!

https://youtu.be/MyN5FiU3Tns

https://youtu.be/NC2jOhDlDV0

It would be cool if they did a DVD release like The Beatles did with their 1 reissue a few years back, collecting some of the old TV performances and promo films. I think the Beach Boys are overdue for a video collection of sorts.

Phew, thought you guys were gone for good!

I was sad I couldn't mourn Ronnie Spector's passing with everyone here. A sad time in the music world and in the world of the Beach Boys too, as she was so hugely influential for them, Brian especially.

Thanks for your well thought out post, positivemusic.

I will say that of the concerts I've been to in the last five years, only at one have I seen Brian disinterested (Pet Sounds tour). The rest of the concerts he has been engaged with the audience, and seemingly happy to be there (especially the most recent one I went to right before the Covid shutdown). And those positive concerts sounded amazing - people all around us having an awesome time. I was fortunate enough to meet Brian backstage at one concert and he had the biggest smile on his face when he greeted me...He didn't at all seem disinterested to be there. I've seen Brian perform soundchecks where he is totally into directing the band through certain songs - he is in control, and it looks like he loves every minute of it.

That’s surprising to hear. The last two times I saw him, on the Christmas album tour in 2018 and The Zombies tour in 2019, he wasn’t engaged at all and it just made me sad. I’ve seen him many times and I decided then that I wouldn’t see him again. I don’t think it’s necessarily that he doesn’t want to be there, I’m not worried about him being exploited or anything like that, I trust that he’s in good hands. I think he’s just too old and tired at this point to give an engaging performance. I love the band too but if Brian is just going to sit motionless at the keyboard when he doesn’t have a lead vocal, it’s honestly just uncomfortable to watch.

I really do not like the new recording of “Long Promised Road”. I’ve enjoyed when Blondie sings it in the live shows but the recording just seems poorly mixed and the vocal blend on the chorus sounds sloppy. Given that it’s the title of the movie, I was expecting something better.

I wonder if they’ll have Al sing some Chicago songs and Robert Lamm sing some Beach Boys songs like they did in the old days.

So sad to hear about this. A talented singer and musician and so important to The Beach Boys legacy, probably should have been made an official member at some point. Definitely gone too soon.

Sail on, Billy… https://youtu.be/FkYuGN7zyho

There’s not a lot of film footage of The Beach Boys in the studio at their peak. I don’t think they ever allowed anyone to document them as extensively as The Beatles did during that time.  The only thing I could think of that might be cool is the raw footage from the 1976 TV special if it exists, if there’s more of that concert for instance and more rehearsal and interview footage, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s enough for a full-length documentary there.

I thought The Monkees were done after their current tour dates but I guess money talks. From what I’ve seen though, Nesmith doesn’t look too well these days. He can’t play guitar anymore and walks with a cane. I figured they were wrapping up so that he could retire.

I think the chances of such a tour are very poor to begin with. As for The Honeys, they’ve been retired from performing for many years, at least Marilyn has, and it might also bring back painful memories with the way her and Brian’s marriage dissolved.

Personally, I would love them to go with more of the lyrical nod to the project naming (a la Sunshine Tomorrow), though I suppose I can understand why they wouldn't.

Ooh they could call the next one “Beyond Tomorrow”.

California Saga would also be a good simple but appropriate title.