He also wrote the second part of “Layla”.

This was posted an hour ago on Mike’s Facebook page. Ron was a former member of King Harvest, was the touring keyboard player for the BB during the late 70’s, and co-wrote “Lady Lynda” with Al.

“ Our dear friend Ron Altbach passed away after being in a coma for several days. So many of us who had the good fortune to know him are saddened by the loss of a treasured friend. Ron and myself along with the great Charles Lloyd formed a group called Celebration. Ron also played keyboard with King Harvest of Dancin in the Moonlight and played for a time with The Beach Boys. He was an accomplished pianist of the classical kind. Ron was such a great friend to all who knew him and we all feel a huge loss with his passing. We all give our thoughts and prayers of condolences to his beloved Elka. Ron will be lovingly remembered by all who knew him.”

So this is in s few hours. The big question, will Brian be there?

I'll be following the various social media platforms for updates

Brian, Mike, Al, Dave, and Bruce are all there.

[I know Belinda Carlisle, but not Brandi.]

I guess I've really missed the boat on some of these acts. I've heard a few Weezer songs but they're not a band I really know anything about. Whenever I hear their name, I think of "Weezy" on the Jeffersons tv show.
I know Belinda Carlisle, but not Brandi. I know she's really big with the AA (Adult Alternative) crowd.
Of course I know Norah Jones quite well, but haven't heard anything of hers since the third album "It's Not Too Late". Ditto for Leann Rimes. I remember when "Blue" and "How Do I Live" were all over radio, but not familiar with anything recent.
Part of the problem here is there just aren't many peers of the Beach Boys left. It would have been nice to have an appearance from Christine McVie, in memory of Dennis. I'm sure everyone would want to see Paul McCartney participate, but what would be the point of him showing up and singing "Let it Be" or "Hey Jude"?
If the documentary ever happens, that might be something to get excited about.

Brandi Carlile (no “s” in her surname, BTW) is royalty in the folk/Americana world. She has won 6 Grammys all under the folk/Americana categories and has enough mainstream recognition to have been a regular musical guests on several TV shows (most recently SNL back in December).

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1848488/?ref_=fn_nm_nm_1

She also has several rather famous fans. Elton John (she does a terrific “Madman Across The Water” https://youtu.be/oMeXtjyk488), Joni Mitchell (Brandi was the emcee for Joni’s return to the stage at last year’s Newport Folk Festival https://youtu.be/sN9n41Q67zE), and Sheryl Crow.  She might not be Bad Bunny-famous, but she does have some mainstream recognition. .

As long as he wants to continue, then I will continue to go since 1. I would happily pay to see the Brian band play that catalogue without Brian, and 2. the shows themselves are like church to me.

But at the same time, I would be just as content to see him call it a day. Especially since he’s already given us more than we thought possible in his comeback run.

Curious if the producers of the show (or Michael McDonald) have seen the "Long Promised Road", where Jason Fine tells a story about Brian and "What A Fool Believes." Maybe it's a good thing if Brian isn't there.

This lineup is firmly in the realm of "eye of the beholder" as far as personal preference versus what would constitute current day "A list", etc. As I mentioned awhile back, the Beatles tribute show the same people put on 8 or 9 years ago (or however long ago that was) worked a little better because they at least mixed the latter-day artists with a few sort-of "contemporaries" of the Beatles. At least some folks like Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh, Frampton (in the backing band anyway), and so on. They also obviously had the benefit of getting both Paul and Ringo as well.

I'm sure the artists on this BB show have a wide ranging level of familiarity and fandom for the Beach Boys, but I sense a lot of these artists will either be picking very well-known hits, or will be learning songs they've never heard before.

It speaks to, well, something, that they couldn't get much of any of the "legacy" era artists to do this (McDonald presumably being of the most vintage), nor much of any artists that have any link or known strong affinity for the Beach Boys. I guess Hanson has worked with Mike. Pentatonix is an all-vocal group, so that's something I guess.

Not that it's surprising, but this cast seems to have been assembled much more as if it were a typical Grammy show lineup, with as much youth demographic appeal as possible, followed by an attempt to grab a bunch of different genres/demographics.

Is is kind of interesting to see this right after having just recently finally read the updated version of David Leaf's book, where he goes into (kind of comically excessive) detail about putting together that 2001 TNT Brian tribute show. He managed to call in enough favors to get the likes of Paul Simon, Elton, Billy Joel, etc.

Hopefully at least the production value on this will be up to snuff enough and good songs and artists matched enough to sell young folks and other prospective new fans on getting into the Beach Boys.

And yes, for many reasons, it's probably best to forego any attempt at a "reunited" band on stage for this.

Well, for such a storied brand name, when they did Stars & Stripes, they weren’t really able to get the “stars”. Except for Willie and Tammy, most of the country acts on that album were either on the way up or on the way down.

True. Although it has to be said that there were some actual great names floating around in the pregame. Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Hank jr., Ronnie Milsap, Oak Ridge Boys were mentioned a.o. iIrc. I guess what it came down to was just that nobody cared to work something out with those people and went with the easier, make-a-quick-buck way (which unfortunately seems to be a very Beach-Boys-y way to do things). The potential of Stars&Stripes is one of my guilty pleasures and somewhere on this board I put togetehr a possible track & artists list for an alternative album which imo would have been a great release.

Yes, a good BB/country music album was possible.  Stars & Stripes wasn’t it.

Curious if the producers of the show (or Michael McDonald) have seen the "Long Promised Road", where Jason Fine tells a story about Brian and "What A Fool Believes." Maybe it's a good thing if Brian isn't there.

This lineup is firmly in the realm of "eye of the beholder" as far as personal preference versus what would constitute current day "A list", etc. As I mentioned awhile back, the Beatles tribute show the same people put on 8 or 9 years ago (or however long ago that was) worked a little better because they at least mixed the latter-day artists with a few sort-of "contemporaries" of the Beatles. At least some folks like Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh, Frampton (in the backing band anyway), and so on. They also obviously had the benefit of getting both Paul and Ringo as well.

I'm sure the artists on this BB show have a wide ranging level of familiarity and fandom for the Beach Boys, but I sense a lot of these artists will either be picking very well-known hits, or will be learning songs they've never heard before.

It speaks to, well, something, that they couldn't get much of any of the "legacy" era artists to do this (McDonald presumably being of the most vintage), nor much of any artists that have any link or known strong affinity for the Beach Boys. I guess Hanson has worked with Mike. Pentatonix is an all-vocal group, so that's something I guess.

Not that it's surprising, but this cast seems to have been assembled much more as if it were a typical Grammy show lineup, with as much youth demographic appeal as possible, followed by an attempt to grab a bunch of different genres/demographics.

Is is kind of interesting to see this right after having just recently finally read the updated version of David Leaf's book, where he goes into (kind of comically excessive) detail about putting together that 2001 TNT Brian tribute show. He managed to call in enough favors to get the likes of Paul Simon, Elton, Billy Joel, etc.

Hopefully at least the production value on this will be up to snuff enough and good songs and artists matched enough to sell young folks and other prospective new fans on getting into the Beach Boys.

And yes, for many reasons, it's probably best to forego any attempt at a "reunited" band on stage for this.

Well, for such a storied brand name, when they did Stars & Stripes, they weren’t really able to get the “stars”. Except for Willie and Tammy, most of the country acts on that album were either on the way up or on the way down.

Going down an Elton John rabbit hole, I found a wonderful fan made vocals only mix of “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”. 

https://youtu.be/x8K3TQkJ0l0

They're selling tickets for the tribute show. Still zero details on any guests. I'm starting to wonder if they should have just re-run the 25th Anniversary special.

$300 for the best tickets, and you could well end up with no Beach Boys on stage and/or in attendance, and Weezer may end up being the top-billed guest.

https://www.goldstar.com/events/hollywood-ca/a-grammy-salute-to-the-beach-boys-tickets




Why am I getting Three’s Company vibes from that logo?

We have all been here before…

https://youtu.be/YCs6Tpd5sFQ

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!

Oh, Cookie as in Cookie Monster? That would explain the growl-y voice Carl used on the vocal doubling!

[can't think of a Denny-lead hit of the top my head but 'Forever' should have been a hit)]

Good point, with the exception, of course, of God Only Knows. Carl always gets the short shrift in this department, even though he had the best voice of ANYONE in pop music throughout his career.

 
And, of course, Carl was the lead on the verses of Good Vibrations.  It's a shame that he got short-shrift on this list.  And let's face it, the BBs had hits with Mike, Al and even Blondie on lead vocals (can't think of a Denny-lead hit of the top my head but 'Forever' should have been a hit).  Brian's falsetto provided perhaps the group's most *unique* voice, but "best"?  No, that's a silly thing to say. This is unfortunately a list that reflects a sort of journalistic laziness where Brian is credited for the singing talents of the whole group.

Do You Wanna Dance just missed the Top 10, peaking at 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Lots to dispute with that list, although I won't argue their no. 1 pick -- Aretha is the greatest.

RS could have at the very least mentioned Carl by name in the article on Brian, but no-o-o-o... And they couldn't even get Brian's inspiration the Four Freshmen right, referring to them as the Four Seasons.

I often wonder if the reason why Carl gets excluded from these lists is that his peak and dominance came during the post-SMiLE era that is not included in the telling of rock history. Whereas, the part of the BB story that gets told in the story of rock music is 62-66 where the lead vocals were mostly dominated by Mike and Brian.

Congratulations, Jared!

As a fan of reaction videos, I’m always getting them in my various feeds.  This one by a UK YouTube-er named Crafty takes a look at the BB appearance on Ready Steady Go from 1964.



https://youtu.be/3nhvHzbNarU

I think it’s a cute video. It captures that period very well.

*sigh*

“ But it wasn’t anything from their newer albums that crazed the throng.  You guessed it, ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ and ‘I Get Around’ blew the place down…Why did the Beach Boys have to force their current styles on us, when we came to hear ‘Surfer Girl’?”

[Get Back]

I love "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". Absolutely love those recordings! The video for "Real Love" is pretty bad though.

The "Get Back" movie I didn't watch. A friend of mine and I were going to but after he zapped through all three parts and basically only saw talking bits and other stuff that didn't seem to be very interesting, we decided not to. I only made sure to watch the rooftop performance (I love that and the idea of it). And honestly I don't feel like I missed anything. But I'm not a fan. If I was I probably would have a different view (although, I still haven't seen "Long promised Road" yet).

I'm not a huge Beatles fan either! But I lived through their entire career and I do appreciate their immense talent as a band.

I think if you weren't to watch the talking bits, the rest of the film would make no sense. It's the talk that drives Get Back: Paul's Herculean efforts to create something good out of the mess they started off with; John's ability to twist everything into hilarious one-liners; George's complaints about being ignored (and walking out of the sessions at one point); and Ringo's lack of talk, but when it comes to trying out stuff, he's onto it straight away.

My wife and I watched all three parts and were mesmerized. That's another thing -- if you miss out on the "preamble", the concert seems facile, whereas it was a major struggle to put it on at all. And Billy Preston's entry into the project at a late stage is worth the price of admission alone -- what an inspiration he proved to be!

Just my two euro cents.            

I still haven't seen it. I don't get cable tv at all, but I didn't think it would be a big deal; I figured I would buy the DVD when it came out. I looked in Target, Wal Mart, all the local stores, nobody has it. They want to force you to buy it online.
So I am waiting for a copy from the library. In the meantime, I found a bootleg copy of Let it Be in our thrift store, so I will watch that again.

It wasn’t on cable tv. 😂

That is probably the worst bad take in BB fandom: “Brian was better when he was hopped up on bad meds because that made him more conversational”.

And some of you (not you Billy), always guessing that Andy Paley, Scott Bennett, even Joe Thomas (!!!) actually composed many of his songs.
Ableism to 10000000000000000000000000000000%.
Brian is the greatest songwriter in the world, but he has mental problems and answers yes and no in interviews. So he can't be the real composer, right? It must have been that famous songwriter, Joe Thomas. Or whoever.

Brian's always wanted a collaborator, and he's always brought out the absolute best that his collaborators had to offer. It seems like one of the most important things for Brian was to work with someone who didn't have a strong ego about it, and that this is partially, perhaps, what led him to collaborate with so many unknowns in the 60s, and someone like Joe Thomas in the 90s (and what made working with Mike so hard). But as a creative mind Brian is just such a dominant force that it is blindingly obvious that his collaborations are all Brian Wilson songs, and that when they fail it's up to what Brian brought to the table, not the collaborator. Imagination is a deeply flawed record but so many of those songs are catchy as hell. If Joe Thomas could write hooks like that without Brian Wilson sitting next to him, he'd have done it. And if Brian had cared about how the backing tracks sounded, he'd probably have shown up to the sessions. Basically, I agree with you completely. Brian has had a lot of problems over the years and a lot of struggles, but in the big picture, it's pretty clear that, with the exception of Landy, who really exercised extreme psychological control methods, the buck has stopped with Brian. He's responsible for the sound of his music, both when you like it and when you don't, and Love You or Paley are not *more* Brian or *more* authentic, they're just a direction Brian pursued at one moment, and at other moments he pursued other directions, and sometimes he was hands on and sometimes he was hands off, by choice.

BJL, I think you nailed this. And yes, I don't think that Smiley Smile, Love You or the WP sessions are the only "authentic" Brian. It's simply the Brian I prefer, the one I consider almost consistently great. The "mellower" Brian, after Pet Sounds, has been more hit and miss, imho.
That's the reason the Long Promised Road soundtrack has been such a nice surprise for me.

I think this is absolutely spot on. We may disagree on what we like, but I think nearly everything released under Brian's name as a solo artist has _something_ distinctive from him in it. It's really just how he approached the collaboration and what folks' individual tastes are. I find a lot to enjoy in most projects, but I acknowledge that the easy-listening BW isn't to everyone's taste (although also something he's done for a long time, going back to his Four Freshmen fandom).

I would also add that compared to his own work, Imagination can come off as bland. But compared to the music that the audience that he was trying to reach with that album? It’s extremely odd and quirky compared to what Adult Contemporary was playing in 1998. Celine Dion’s music didn’t sound as idiosyncratic as Imagination.  That’s probably a reason why it didn’t really click: too slick for the Brian fans who love Pet Sounds, SMiLE, and the Brother era. But also too damn weird for the Celine Dion crowd even after making concessions to that audience.

Hello all -- wanted to let you know that ahead of the US release of God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the California Myth, Phil Miglioratti and I have dropped a new episode of Surf's Up: A Beach Boys Podcast Safari welcoming back author David Leaf. We talk about his motivations for updating his 1978 book, his long-ago mission to write about and befriend Brian and help him finish Smile, navigating Eugene Landy, Brian exorcising his demons, where Brian is at today, and The Beach Boys' 60th anniversary. David gives us his insider view on the Life of Brian. Please check it out and let us know what you think. It's available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Amazon Alexa, Audible and on SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/user-93394161/david-leaf-on-his-book-god-only-knows

I’ll be listening later on, Mark! David’s earlier appearance on the pod was also excellent!

Nelson's comment on this are interesting

Who Nelson? Rick? Ozzie? David?

Maybe they mean BW Band member Nelson Bragg.

Don’t feed the troll.

As much as Mike can be a dick, I don't think any Wilson would have a problem with that crappy country party drinking song. No point looking for extra thing to bash Mike with, there's plenty already.

I don't think anyone is looking for anything extra to bash Mike with. Whether or not the Wilson's would think it's a fun party song, the point in bringing up the LoCash song is that Mike seems to bring up the pitfalls of drug use anytime he's asked a question even remotely relating to modern-day Brian. We're bringing up the LoCash song because it's insanely hypocritical to judge Brian for drug use 40 years ago whilst promoting a song in 2022 that promotes excessive drug use.

"promotes excessive drug use" - It's kind of a spring break bro country song. Stop making it something it's not.

70,000+ were killed by opioids last year in America. 80,000+ were killed by alcohol alone last year in America. Call the song whatever you want, but alcohol is a drug, and it's abuse does kill millions of people worldwide each year. Just because it's marketed and legal doesn't make it any less lethal than the drugs that Mike constantly crusades against (when it comes to Brian).

And with those statistics in mind, the repeated line "drink em down down drink em down" "Instead of Jack D, shoot some Cuervo. Mix up some rum" is promoting excessive drug use.

And to top it all off, it's just churlish to promote such a song when Dennis Wilson died due to his problems with alcohol.

Again, I'm not making up these statistics. I'm not "making something it's not". The lyrics are there, the facts are there.

You should consider a career in politics. You're reaching far too much. I agree alcohol is a dangerous drug but that song is still just a dumb ass party song.....nothing more and means nothing re:Dennis Wilson.

Dennis Wilson drank all day every day in his last years. Big difference than binge drinking at a party or whatever this song is talking about.

Look, I am really not trying to reach too far. If I am then I will concede my point. But logically in my mind, alcohol is a drug that leads to death for many people (whether or not your an alcoholic). I've had a good friend die because of drunk driving, I've seen it destroy families, I've seen more people die of the long-term effects of it. Billy shared his story above as well. And it's not really subjective when the numbers show 3 million people die of alcohol related incidents a year....be it drunk driving (which you don't need to be an alcoholic for), or fights that lead to deaths, or just alcoholism in general.

Again, my point is that if Mike is on some crusade to fight the evils of drugs, then he shouldn't be promoting/singing on a song that promotes the use of alcohol (a drug that you yourself admit is dangerous). Even if it is just a "dumb party song" - it is a song promoting the use of a drug that kills people.

I don't see the logic behind that being something akin to a political stunt. Sorry if you see it that way, and if you care to pick apart my logic I'd be happy to concede my point.

Sorry to hear you have lost someone. There are a hell of a lot of songs out there about drinking/drugs and partying to excess. Do we condemn them all or just Mike Love associated ones?

Tbf I've already picked apart your logic and again you're doing what I referred to in my last post. As is the nature of the internet, we can continue to post endlessly but tbh I've yet to see you concede a point on this board so.....

It’s one thing for Motley Crüe to sing about getting wasted: they never claimed to be choirboys or any kind of role models. But Mike buddied up to Nancy “Just Say No” Reagan and routinely brings up his cousins’ histories of substance abuse. And then turns around and sings on a song about partying and drinking only because the song uses the hook to I Get Around and is called “Beach Boys”. If Mike never, ever said a word about Brian’s or anyone else’s drug abuse and still did this song, no one would care. Literally. You would get eye rolls, yes. But other than that, nothing. Whether it is fair or not, Mike makes himself an easy target when he does stuff like this.

Think some folks are going just a tad overboard with Mike's admittedly glib comments.  Even if Brian stopped using heavy drugs 40 years ago that doesn't mean they didn't have some kind of permanent effect on his psyche or even physically.  At least that's how I took those comments.  The truth is there were a number of factors that affected Brian over the years besides drugs including mental illness and an abusive, narcissistic therapist among other things.  But yeah, even if Mike's comments could be perceived as insensitive, he's technically not exactly incorrect in his assessment.  And Mike has always been kind of an anti-drug guy anyway.  His comments on Brian remain consistent to that. 

My issue with Mike when he talks about Brian’s health is that he so damn judgmental. And often, he comes off like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He makes these off-base “diagnoses” of someone that he hasn’t really spent a lot of time with since the early 80’s at best. He makes these comments about Brian’s health when he should be deferring to the people who do spend and have spent time with Brian. Like, you know, Brian’s wife. One of Brian’s oldest friends was with him for some of the 2012 tour.  Mike had the opportunity to talk to said friend about Brian’s physical and mental health which would have gone a long way toward have a better understanding of someone that he professes to love. But Mike sees these people as “interlopers”, I am sure. People keeping him and Brian from going back to 1964 when everything was seemingly simple (spoiler alert, Mike: being Brian Wilson was never simple). So, Mike did what Mike does and doesn’t engage. Odd that a guy who professes curiosity about TM and Eastern spirituality is so uncurious about Brian’s health. Does he look at his nephew Kevin, who has spoken publicly about his battle with depression, the same way he looks at Brian? Is everything all about bootstrap pulling?

The only thing I agree with Lonely Summer about is that Mike is not going to change at 81 years old. And that is a damn shame. If there is anyone who needs some evolution, it’s Mike Love.