There's footage from the 2004 Smile rehearsals where Brian, sitting at the keyboard during some downtime, starts playing and singing that Long Promised Road chorus part out of nowhere. You can see Darian and Probyn in the background give each other a "Whaaaaa" look, and then recover to sing the "ba ba, ba ba" part the second time around. It seemed so random at the time, but it is obviously very meaningful to him.

A handy audio/visual reference guide that David just shared on Facebook.

https://omnibuspress.com/pages/the-viewing-listening-and-reading-list-for-god-only-knows

I hope people are enjoying the book. I'm glad that we have a color version of my father's painting in it this time around and I was very happy to contribute the handwritten Smile-era Brian note that I inherited from pop as well.

The original edition was obviously very personally meaningful to me and it's great that it is once again widely available, in addition to being significantly enhanced.

Congratulations to David.

https://floodmagazine.com/105707/brian-wilson-flood-12-feature/

 Brian likes food, with Al and Darian. And I'd like to go back at sit in the next booth over from Brian and Spector at Canter's, please.

Regarding the new video Mike is using, I'm a little confused why they'd use a Guy Webster "vegetables" photo of Brian, David Anderle, and Michael Vosse in the background imagery for a song that came several years after the Smile era. Hmmm.

Wow. Just...wow.

I remember that during the band rehearsal footage for Beautiful Dreamer there was a moment of downtime, and out of nowhere Brian started playing the bridge of Long Promised Road. Darian and Probyn immediy popped their heads up, gave each other a "Whaaaaaat?" kind of look, and recovered in time to sing the "ba ba, ba ba" backing parts during the second line. So I guess it's something that's been percolating in Brian for a while. Darian has said that Brian loves the song and sings the bridge often, that it makes him feel closer to Carl.

Of course his Smile-era photos are closest to my heart, but a legendary and brilliant photographer all around. Thank you Guy.

It's nice of him to say and I have no reason to believe that he didn't have that thought at the time, it's just a little funny to see now.

Speaking of, Johnston had some thoughts on the band’s great unfinished concept album from the ‘60s, Smile, which Wilson eventually abandoned after it was mired in band discord and studio complications: “I would have made it your solo album on [now defunct classical label] Angel and we would be invited to be the vocalists on it with you because it was way up there in your head. Everything was great.”

You don't say.

Matt Jardine and Nicky Wonder are now part of this wonderful night as well.

Here is the updated version...it's going to be a fantastic night for a wonderful cause.

Can you imagine Zappa getting introduced to Murry Wilson as the guy who would be working on the Beach Boys' album...

That would have been an outstanding moment.

There is a moment in the rehearsal footage for the Royal Festival Hall performance of Smile where Brian is sitting at the keyboard during some downtime, and he proceeds to start playing the chorus of LPR out of the blue. The best part was watching Probyn and Darian pick up on it, give "Are we really hearing this?" grins to each other, and then sing the backing "Ba ba, ba ba" parts when Brian repeated the chorus. I don't know if this appears anywhere on the Smile DVD.

I once found a video on YouTube of Brian playing and singing a portion of Long Promised Road from a few years ago(before the C50 reunion tour). I would love to see that one again. I think it was some kind of "behind the scenes" feature from one of Brian's tv show appearances. At one point he just randomly starts to quietly play part of Long Promised Road.

[David Anderle]

I miss that car; I always knew when dad was almost home for dinner because you could hear it coming a mile away.

I wish I could ask all the questions...I can tell you my pop was the original owner of his Porsche, and the color it is in those pictures is close to the original color of the car, although it was painted a darker color the majority of the time that he had it. I never remember it being the gold color until it was redone.

He never mentioned anything about Brian ever driving the car, which is not to say it never could have happened, just that it was not something he ever told me. I unfortunately don't really know about Brian and dad's relationship in 1968.

I guess I would say I would be wonderfully surprised if Brian is driving dad's car in that clip.

 Corrections welcome as always...

I wanted to clip the original photo of Brian with the Porsche into this for an A/B comparison but it was too large, maybe trimming it down to 3 individual photos would be cool if necessary to see them side-by-side.

BUT - Here is what I'm 99.999% sure is that very same car Brian is driving in the home movie clip, as it appeared after being restored and as it looked in 2006.

This is a 1968 Porsche 911 L, important to note the "L" because that was at the time the most expensive version of this car offered in the US. It was and is a rare car, there were apparently 449 produced as the 1968 model, and that was the only year it was made. So when you see either a modern or a vintage photo of one, as with the Brian film and the 2006 shots, there isn't much doubt what it is because there are/were less than 500 made, ever.

As of 2006, it had been restored to original condition and specs, had 70,000 original miles (according to those posting the info back then), and had all original paperwork...which means you could trace the title and ownership back to the original owner.

And a previous owner of this 1968 Porsche 911 L ?

David Anderle.  

Now the question is, and of this I have no idea, was Brian driving David's Porsche in the original film? Or was it Brian's car? In the vintage car market, if it were ever Brian's car his name would be signed on the original title and anyone owning the car as a collector would make sure to point out that this was Brian Wilson's 1968 Porsche with his name on the title, if that were the case. In this case, David is listed as the previous owner, so I'd bet without knowing for sure that Brian was filmed driving David's car.

The restored car as it looked in 2006:

Thank you for the kind words, PS.  I was the tall, bald guy hanging with my pop and Van Dyke at the Smile taping not quite believing what was happening.

My pop kept all his appointment books from 1967 on. It's all incredibly meaningful, but yeah, the late '60s to early '70s ones are a bit out of control.

Now back to Mr. Love...

In looking through my dad's appointment book from 1967, there are mentions of Mike Love recording sessions with the Rivingtons on the 8th, 9th and 11th of March (there was a Beach Boys session on the 10th). I hadn't heard of those sessions before and couldn't find any information about them. I would definitely love to know more about that.

Thanks for the reminder! I forget where I saw the picture of it (maybe CLB's Facebook page), but the 1975 Beach Boys satin tour jacket she's offering as a pledge reward is very cool.

Thank you all so much for the kind words and sentiments, it means more than I can truly say.

Michael was one of the best people I ever knew and will ever know. He loved me and my folks deeply and we loved him back so much. I'm jealous of the life he lived, and so grateful that I got to share in it. Like Peter said, he never stopped caring about Brian and always wanted and hoped for the best for him. He was and will always be my uncle Michael, and I miss him more than words can say.

Thank you very much for posting these; it's cool to see this kind of stuff.

Godspeed Paul, and thank you.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to have videoed Steve Gregorpoulos' (WACO, Lavender Diamond) John Cale-esque deconstruction of "Kokomo,"

I'm very sorry to have missed the whole night, but yeah, this sounds pretty amazing.

Jim Gordon's work with Delaney and Bonnie (and Friends) was just sublime.

I believe that's Jim with Brian in "BW24" on here: http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq306/Dstevenb/ContactSheet-001.jpg

"I'm never, ever still. Always in turmoil, you know. Hoping that somebody will save me, or someone will come along and save my life, or save my day, you know...That the world won't blow up, the universe won't explode, we'll never have each other again, you know."

<beat>

"I have my fears."

Still, for a band that wanted everybody to think that they were all equal members, doesn't it seem sort of odd that Brian was separated from the others? Is this the first instance of that happening?

Don't know if you're just talking artwork, but there was the Caroline, No single...