Negative, schmegative. A few snaps from the touring M&B ensemble hardly qualifies as a seminal event. Just sayin'. It goes with the territory.

In the words of Murry, you gotta get out there and fight for success.  Sorry you got your feelings hurt. Oooo baby baby, it's a wild world...

This was posted on Dave Mark's Facebook page - finally, an audience vid of Little Bird. Very nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=djurDWM9o8o#at=94

Sometimes you just have to consider how lucky we are to hear some of these classics, nay underground classics live in a concert.

Ontor - in the words of Chumley...AWESOME! 

(for the record, I have Ray Manzarek's signature on my Kurzweil K1000 - he signed it after playing it during a Manzarek / McClure gig in Cleveland...outta take that baby down to the boys @ Pawn Stars)

I posted this in another thread but I'll post it here, too.

Well, this is the signature that Brian signed in front of me in person:





This is the signature on the BB50 program that I bought at the BB50 concert:





I feel very confident that Brian signed the BB50 program. You can see the upward tail at the end of Wilson. Also the 'bump' in Brian. Brian might have been tired but he signed the programs. He had to sign many, too. My opinion.

I don't know what happened in N.J. but I'd like to see the photo they were given. My only concern is that they signed one photo and then made copies from it. Still an autograph. I don't want to speculate on what happened when I wasn't there.

Signatures can change over time but you still have some elements that remain the same.

The two sigs are like night and day.
As you saw Brian sign in front of you, we'll presume that one is real. But the BB50 doesn't appear to be signed by Brian, but is more likely Jeff signing to appear as Brian
Any recent ( last 10-15 years) signature not personally witnessed is suspicious....

Whataya wanna do with it? Pawn it or sell it?



I'll have to have my guy come in to have a look at it...

I'm pickin' up Good Vibrations, Sunkist orange flavored taste sensation...

Not that is a great tune (if you ask Mr. Love). In the words of Joe Pesci's character in Casino, "all about the dollars with those guys...all about the dollars."

Hey, I've said it before - Mike has been creatively bank-oh for quite some time, and that in fact is why Brian would rather not work with him. The yin really isn't there for the yang. And if you disagree, then you must think that his pedestrian work on Mike Love Not War is deep stuff. I don't - downloaded it once off of a blog, listened to it a couple times, and then deleted it. Bland-oh.

Having said that, in regards to the video in question, I don't really see any friction there between Brian and Mike. In fact, it seemed a rather pedestrian wood shedding of a tune in progress. Hell, it was positively convivial in the studio that day; have you ever heard studio dialogue between the boys back in the hey day of Summer Days and Today? They used to bust balls constantly. Check out the stuff on the SOT boots. I'm sure that each of them quickly developed a thick layer of skin over the years.

Here's Old Man River/Cotton Fields live in Ohio. I don't have the intro nor the ending, sorry I'm lame like that.
You can read my description on the video as to why:


http://youtu.be/hOJWkwvhY_U

Al sounds fab. The crowd are really into aren't they ?

I'm not sure if they were conscious!

They were INTO it in Pittsburgh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hGq8YOhD-I&feature=youtu.be

From the Sun Times blogs - a very interesting interview with both Al and Paul.

http://voices.suntimes.com/arts-entertainment/music/boys-will-be-beach-boys/

By David Hoekstra | Get In Touch: @cstdhoekstra@twitter | dhoekstra@suntimes.com Music, None, Scratch Crib - July 22, 2013 5:43 pm   
Boys Will Be Beach Boys

I don’t know what it is like to be a member of a fractured 51-year-old rock n’ roll band.

I do know what it like to break up with someone you love.

That’s the feeling I get when talking to Al Jardine, a founding member of the Beach Boys.

You can’t stop talking about it. One of the greatest Beach Boy songs begins with “I may not always love you,” (from Brian Wilson and Peter Asher’s “God Only Knows”).

Beach Boy fans knew the band’s “50th Anniversary Tour” in the summer of 2012 was headed for an unhappy ending. Sure enough, founding member Mike Love dissolved the tour after a stop in London. Now Love and original Beach Boy Bruce Johnston tour as the Beach Boys as they did before the anniversary tour.

In March, 2008 Jardine settled a suit brought against him by Love and the estate of Carl Wilson in the use of the Beach Boys name. When Brian Wilson makes his Ravinia debut July 26, the show is billed as “Brian Wilson Co-Founder of the Beach Boys” with special guests Al Jardine and David Marks (who played on the first four Beach Boy albums.)

“The anniversary tour was beautiful and it clicked,” Jardine said Monday as his tour bus rolled out of Pittsburgh, Pa. “Yeah, it was great…It had completeness built into it, which is nice. And conflict. Of course you have all that, too, because there’s so many different players. We like to call this an extension of the anniversary tour. We may not be the Beach Boys, but we’re the heart and soul of the Beach Boys. We usually get a standing o on that one.”

“Unfortunately it starts to get to be about the messenger. And that’s just a product of the way we developed as a group. There’s one lead singer and the rest of us are a support team behind that particular arrangement. Now we have so much music we don’t have to go there anymore. It’s a more complete message now. We love Mike and we wish he was with us, we really do. He has the best baritone in the business and that’s what I miss about not having Mike on stage.

“The heart and soul of the Beach Boys come into your neighborhood.”

Jardine, 70, said song selection is now easier. “We have more latitude than we had on the 50th,” he said. “For instance, we won’t be so heavy on the medleys. We’ll do a car song here and there but it won’t be a medley. We added ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ last night and it sounds terrific. But it doesn’t have to be in the midst of four other car songs. We’re a team. We should behave like one.

“Okay, that’s the end of that.”

Jardine did say the heart and soul of the Beach Boys added a medley of “Old Man River” and “Cotton Fields.” Jardine has always been the folk sensibility of the Beach Boys and covered “Cotton Fields’ last July when the 50th anniversary tour came to the Chicago Theatre. ‘It’s pretty outside our lexicon of music,” he said. “For some reason it connects. It is a very American thing and has similar value that ‘Heroes and Villains’ trilogy has from ‘Smile.’ You would learn these great American folk songs in school, which is my milieu. I asked Brian why he liked ‘Cotton Fields’ so much. He said it takes him back to his childhood.

“Paul (Von Mertens, the band’s Chicago based musical director) discovered ‘Old Man River,’ and frankly I forgot about it. Brian and I were scratching our heads because it’s been so long since we heard it. We were just goofing around. There’s probably as much unreleased things as released. We were into the Stephen Foster and thinking of old mythology. Van Dyke Parks probably expressed that in his own way with his own lyrics, more contemporary of course. I liken it to the ‘Smile’ project in some ways.”

Von Mertens, 52, was a distant Beach Boys fan growing up in the Chicago area. “I was aware of the hits,” he said in a separate interview. “I remember where I was the first time I heard ‘Good Vibrations.’ I was six years old and there was a turquoise green plastic radio atop the refrigeratorr in our kitchen. I heard that cello and (never before used) Theremin coming out of the radio and I remember  thinking I wasn’t sure it was a song. But it wasn’t until many years later when I was on tour with Poi Dog Pondering and Dag Juhlin gave me a copy of ‘Pet Sounds.’ I said I didn’t know that record that well. He said, ‘WHAT?’ So he sent a copy to my bunk with a Walkman.”

One of Jardine’s all time favorite Beach Boy tracks is “Don’t Worry, Baby,” made in 1964 with Brian Wilson on lead vocals “We did three songs that day,” he said. “We did ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ that day, I can’t remember the other one. We never gave enough credits to the engineers (the late Chuck Britz, who also worked with Jan & Dean in the mid-1960s). Because as you sit down and learn a song it develops, not only in front of the glass but behind the glass where the guys are listening and getting that good sound on the bass, which I played at the time. You can hear the bass and drums develop because of the engineering. We weren’t great players. But somehow it always ended sounding so terrific. It’s amazing what you can do in a professional studio.

“That’s why today a lot of music doesn’t sound so great because so many people have home studios. It lacks a professional touch.”

Von Mertens played clarinet and baritone saxophone on Mavis Staples recent “One True Vine,” recorded at Jeff Tweedy’s the Loft in Chicago. “I’ve toured with Wilco and it is really fun and interesting to  work with Jeff,” Von Mertens said. “He thinks of things that I wouldn’t think of. He has unconventional ideas like mixing instruments together that aren’t ‘normal’ combinations. And even choosing notes. He would see a look on my face and say, ‘Is that a wrong note?’ I’d say, ‘No, I think I’m going to like it the more I hear it.’ And it’s true.”

Recording with Brian Wilson is a completely  different experience.

“Brian gives me a good deal of leeway and I try to write things he will like,” he explained. “I do have an idea of how he writes and how he has written arrangements in the past. So I use that as a guide. A few times I’ve tried to do something a little out of the ordinary and he usually goes,” and Mertens pauses.

And continues, ““No funny notes.”

Brian works best in the moment,” he said. “When we did the Gershwin record I tried to prepare the band as much as possible for the songs by writing skeletal arrangements from my meetings with Brian. The band tracks were cut live in the studio. So the band would start playing and get the song up and walking around. Then Brian would start to do his thing. He’d hear what people were doing and say, ‘Can you play that up an octave?’ Bass drop out here…That’s how he works best. Or he has it completely done in his mind. He’s done that too, where he has come to a sound check and goes, ‘Here’s your vocal part, you play this.’ Since the Gershwin music was new material it was helpful to have the song in front of him so he could manipulate and move things around the way he wanted.

“GIve him something to play with and then get out of the way.”

No problem Mike! Nicely phrased and true dat.

It all goes back to the Mike is satan and Brian is God extremist views. I don't like political or personal extremism because truth is usually somewhere in the middle of two sides. Meaning I see fringe people on both sides going too far and being nasty.

I like the Beach Boys music hard core, it gets me passionate. I take a step back when it comes to them as people and try not to judge. My take is always that there isn't anything clear cut with the Beach Boys as people and they (like all of us) are both good and bad.

I think because of his issues (and yes he is a very nice man) Brian gets love of a different sort of love than most rock stars. Sure his story is inspiring, but his worst behavior and work is often justified or defended to where all reason seems missing.

Conversely Mike is hated with a strange passion because he (wrongly) went down in history as the guy who blocked Brian and the band from making progressive music. He has an ego and greed that has made life hard for the other Beach Boys at times, but his talent is buried, made fun of, written out of history.

To be fair, there are others who buy too far into the Beach Boys sun in the fun myth. Some unduly defend many of Mike's artistic choices from the Full House era which are to me indefensible. Then there are those who take shots at Brian for being the different sort of guy he is.

Try these guidelines out and see if you don't have a great time here from now on.
 
Focus more on the music or art.
Stop being so quick to judge Beach Boys, their circle, or board members as people.  
Respect the people who do take the extra step to find out the truth.
Respect the experiences we have had with individuals as fans or researchers-good or bad.  
If there is a debate really think how you handle it. Try to see the others point of view even if you hate it.
Lastly IGNORE those that just don't take olive branches of peace.

This was a great board a few years back, and the only real difference is that I found those who disagreed with others were more respectful.

It's the disinterest that bothers me. It goes beyond missing a cue or losing a line in the tele. More like, ahh whatever. As I said, the band adequately makes up for it - but at this point of the game (after a decade plus on the road), Brian should be into these shows and if he's not, then don't do the shows.

An in between reaction doesn't cut it, and this is coming from a dedicated fan

As an fyi, Dave sings Mike's classic part on GV - I'm pickin' up good vibrations... That was very cool and it sounded good. Sooner or later we'll have some video of that.

Thought I'd relate my own review of the Pittsburgh show.

Stage AE is a completely open seating venue, and while driving down to the show (circa 6:00pm) the skies literally opened up - waves of rain comin' down. It settled down a bit around 6:30 only to return to steady rain until 7:30. I was imaging 2 plus hours of sitting in a downpour...the things we do for Love! (I mean, WILSON) 

Thankfully, God turned off the faucet and the show was dry. This prompted a comment by BW during the first set - "Sure glad it stopped raining...if it kept raining you guys wouldn't be able to see the stage!"

Cali Girls started off, and imo it took about 3 tunes for the vocal blend and the band to lock in. First thing I noticed was how this was NOT just another Brian solo show; Alan and Dave (along with Paul) made a most entertaining three man front that was clearly grooving to the sound and providing a great visual. Of course, this contrasted with Brian (as is his nature) being somewhat subdued for the first half of the 1st set. We've been down this road before, and it is what it is, but I'm not particularly miffed by Brian missing the odd line or intonation. What does sadden me is when entire lines drop off, or get entirely clipped off. This is where trading off leads is not only unexpected but necessary. Believe me when I say it, the stretch of Don't Worry Baby (Jeff) to Little Bird (Dave) was solid and built a momentum that was nothing short of a revelation (I saw some old timers totally dig it - there was none of the gimme nothin' but the hits dynamic going on at Stage AE Sunday night.

Great dialogue by Al and David. A few highlights - Al: "Anyone wanna hear a car song? (Little Deuce Coupe) Okay...I'll do my Mike Love impression right now". Dave told a story how he was invited by Brian to the studio for a tracking session of Don't Worry Baby (Beach Boys were on tour at the time). Even though he had left the band at that point, Brian had him do the 'chop' guitar part on the instrumental section prior to the last verse. After the session, Brian took Dave to a Jan and Dean session in town, where he witnessed the session for Surf City. Cool story - if anyone there remembers it differently, feel free to interject.

As has been mentioned in the PG review, the 2nd set was dedicated to the deep cuts. TWGMTR sounded good to my ears - the band carried it off well. Darian of course nailed Darlin' and Scott did a soulful rendition of Sail On Sailor. Again this is me - I felt it a little too slick, but I can't knock the dude's pipes. He owned it last night.

This is the dynamic I'm talking about though; this felt to me like a permeation of C50 as opposed to a standard Brian solo show, and I'm absolutely fine with that. God bless Brian, but his vocals have always been a highwire act to me; when he's into it and completely in the moment, the mothership lifts off and there's nothing like it. Last night was not one of his best vocal nights imo, but this too in time shall come. It took several shows of C50 until we saw it happen (circa NYC, Chicago and Pittsburgh onward), but it does happen. Why it seems to take so long is still a mystery.

Having seen him nail Gershwin in Toronto, he really locks in when he's doing fresh material (which bodes well for later at the Greek when he'll appear with Beck and share some new material live). When it comes to standards such as All Summer Long, I just think that this stubborn genius just doesn't have the fire for some of the old stuff. All said and done, even though he may be unengaged, he's still driving a Lamborghini of a band - and that trumps all.

By all means, check out these shows if you can - there's much to ponder and much to enjoy. With Al and David, this truly is a BAND, and the closest we'll get to our warm memories from the summer of 2012.

Great interview with Paul Von Mertens. Sheds some new light on past/future Jeff Beck sessions.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/21404311-421/brian-wilson-trusts-a-chicagoan-to-shape-his-songs.html

This is the kind of news which heartens me - beyond the whole tour business. Brian in the studio. As it should be.

more:

Our Prayer -










The Beach Boys...kinda...

Pittsburgh, Sunday night

'Pet Sounds' performed in Pittsburgh. Dave twangs it and the drummers bring it home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlxCHJMIi0M&feature=youtu.be

Summer's Gone - Pittsburgh show.

(starts @ 2nd verse)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FaAI4BTLe4&feature=youtu.be

Here's my video from Sunday's Pittsburgh show - Old Man River / Cottonfields.

Shot on a Samsung digital camera, so the sound veers tinny. I think you'll like it though - the medley was beautifully done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hGq8YOhD-I&feature=youtu.be

[Brian, Al, and DAVE!]

A very entertaining, thought provoking show in Pittsburgh tonight. Having Brian joined with Al and Dave made this much, much more than another solo Brian show. Much much more than another spin through the hits. I'll add some notes when I wake up on Monday.

I shot vids of Ol' Man River/Cottonfields, Pet Sounds and Summer's Gone. Shot through a standard point n shoot Samsung camera, audio's iffey but I think you'll be pleased (kicking myself why I didn't also shoot Little Bird - very cool rendition with Dave). I'll post 'em on Youtube and get you the url's tomorrow.

Photos as well coming.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Pittsburgh welcomes...the BEACH, ahhh I mean...Brian, Al, and DAVE!

They did as per their mutual agreement at Brian's insistence and ended the tour after 70 some dates to return their previous arrangement.

Well said, with all the warmth and understanding of Old Man Potter's Savings and Loan.

Of course we're kickin' ole Bessy. The problem here (and the rationale behind the thread) is that this tired old display will continue to resurrect itself whenever Joe McReporter interviews Al or whomever when Brian's band comes to play their town.

I still kind of admire Al for his blunt approach - an approach which in someway is probably an approach of last resort. C'est la vie.

I guess it depends on your perspective and opinion, but I find Al to be divisive and clueless.

In my opinion, I don't think Al has handled the end of the C50 reunion appropriately. I'm not questioning his right to be upset about being out of a job - he can feel about it any way he wants. I just wish he would('ve) confronted Mike to his face, privately (and maybe he did), discussed the issues behind closed doors, and left it at that. Taking shots at Mike in the press is not condusive to anything positive, and it reflects badly on The Beach Boys' image, which was finally turning around. For someone like Al who is constantly preaching about the positivity of The Beach Boys' music, I wonder how much he thinks about how his comments are viewed with the public. Other than getting things off his chest in public, which is sad that at this point in his life Al feels it is necessary to do, what does Al think he is accomplishing? It's no surprise that he'll be unemployed again in a few months.

That's a reasonable assertion, and while I can sympathize something in me just relates personally to Al right here. I've always performed well in business settings, but I am known for being petulant and not quite a 'team player' when I feel the need to speak up. And so what - there are too many phonies/back slappers in the entertainment business and in the business world in general. Sometimes you just have to stand up and be 'the bastard'. Bravo to Al.

That being SAID, in Beach Boys world this too shall pass. Never say never on any one-off reunion gigs. Just please spare me these "now we're all together, perfect harmony, blah blah blah's". Just do it with Luuuuuv

They are affordable. I know they were also offering VIP's @ $250 per as well.

Don't mess with Al!

Acknowledging the elephant in the room, this summer's short BAD tour will no doubt evoke press reports that poke at the whole wasp nest - the C50 wrap up (aka: whodunnit?)

I'd like to keep this separate from the BAD thread on the actual tour/setlists, etc. Here is a place to post late breaking press and the wildest of cards - The Al Jardine Interview!

I tell ya...the little guy from Lima has really grown some stones the past few years. I dig him. I really do!

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/music/preview-post-reunion-split-means-two-bands-are-playing-beach-boys-songs-695854/

 By Scott Mervis / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Beach Boys looked like one big happy family last summer on the band's 50th anniversary tour. Cousins Brian Wilson and Mike Love were on stage together for the first time since 1987, joined by surviving members Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks in an exquisite celebration of one of the best catalogs of American music.

When the tour ended they drove the Woodie right into a ditch.

Mr. Love, who specializes in the car songs and surf rockers, announced that The Beach Boys, a title he owns, would revert back to the lineup without Mr. Wilson, Mr. Jardine and Mr. Marks for a fall tour. He explained in an open letter to the Los Angeles Times that it was "not feasible, both logistically and economically" for the reunion band to play the smaller markets in which they were booked. He also said, "None of us wanted to do a 50th anniversary tour that lasted 10 years. It was meant to be special."

Mr. Wilson didn't take that decision well, noting, "It sort of feels like we're being fired."

For the summer of 2013, Mr. Love and Mr. Johnston are playing as The Beach Boys competing with the offshoot tour of "Brian Wilson with Al Jardine + David Marks," backed by the stellar band that has been accompanying Mr. Wilson for years and also played the reunion.

"It's a pretty darn good band," Mr. Jardine said in a phone interview. "It will primarily be a Beach Boys' library of songs because that's what we do best when we're together. It's ostensibly a continuation of the reunion tour although we don't call it The Beach Boys for obvious reasons. We would love to have Mike and Bruce with us, but they don't want to work with us. So we can't force them to work with us. We are going to do our very best to carry on with the reunion."

One recent twist to the story is that Mr. Love said in a July 8 interview that he misses his cousin and would love to work with him again.

"Well, what a wonderful thought," Mr. Jardine said. "That's very nice of him. I'd like to work with Mahatma Gandhi, too. Maybe that's the wrong [comparison]. I'd like to work with George Gershwin. Those are the things we wish for, but wishing is one thing and actually doing it is another. So if you really mean it, you come out and you work with us. But put your thoughts into action. That's my response to that."

With Mr. Love out of the picture, Mr. Wilson's band is without the singer who took the lead on such songs as "Surfin' USA," "I Get Around," "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Be True to Your School." (Mr. Jardine's shining moment with The Beach Boys was "Help Me, Rhonda.")

So what do they do with the Love leads?

"We'll probably cut a few of those out, but there's no reason why we can't do 'Little Deuce Coupe' and a couple of those. Why not? It's not about the messenger, it's about the music. I have my own band called Endless Summer Band, and I go out and sing those songs. I love them. They are priceless little gems. It's just how you present them, that's the only difference."

Part of the great success of the reunion was creating the first album of new Beach Boys material in 20 years. And it wasn't just shoved aside. "That's Why God Made the Radio" debuted at No. 3, the highest charting Beach Boys record in 37 years, and received positive reviews and a good reaction from fans on the tour.

"They loved it. They were really receptive," Mr. Jardine said. "I was surprised. Normally, new music doesn't get that kind of reaction. We couched it in the shows in a way that wasn't overwhelming, and got a great reaction to it."

"We did a follow-up single that never matriculated called 'Isn't It Time,' which I thought was a great follow-up. We even re-recorded it on the road in Europe, so I was thinking 'follow-up single, fall tour, perfect for spring time the following year,' and then Mike pulls the plug on the whole darn thing ... finished."

On a positive note, there is talk that Mr. Wilson has more solo material on the way.

"We are all writing all the time, that's what we do as musicians. We're constantly coming up with ideas and sharing them with each other. That's what made The Beach Boys so successful. We collaborated with one another and I think we did a pretty good job over the long haul, and to not want to do that to me is crazy. This band is wonderful and I think you'll hear The Beach Boys' repertoire performed in a pretty spectacular way."

Where: Stage AE, North Shore.

When: Gates open at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $49 reserved; $25 lawn; www.ticketmaster.com.

Throw 'Punchline' in there as an unexpected curve ball. Punky surf rock fun. Lightens up the mood.

I knew what was talkin' about, but then again I am infused with Beatles trivia DNA.