I've been thinking about all the BB covers I've heard, and really the only one I can stomach is She and Him's cover of "God Only Knows." And even with that one, I still wish I was hearing the original.  

Yeah I don't think I've ever heard a good Beach Boys cover besides this guys 'Caroline, No'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_6bpunKQA4
But it's not like he sings or anything

I really like They Might Be Giants' version of "Caroline No". I was very impressed with that cover

don't recall any other BB cover that I like as much though, although "Little Pad" from one of those tribute albums I thought was interesting. Forgot what the band was that did it though. I think its on "Smiling Pets"

'My Diane' is a masterpiece.

Agreed. Everyone pans MIU but ignores the great songs on it like Pitter Patter, Sweet Sunday, Hey Little Tomboy and whatnot. My Diane is definitely the best. That is one of Brian's best songs imo. So much emotion and sadness in Dennis's vocals and the words - "memories haunt me/night and day"

"Crack At Your Love", despite the cheesy production and the hilarious title, is an awesome song.

The lyrics are really dumb. A 10 year old could have wrote them I feel. The song is really good though, and it is quite catchy. I appreciated it even more when I heard the instrumental version on MIC. Really a great arrangement.

I always found it funny (noticeable on the 2-fers especially) that Cool Cool Water from the previous album comes right before Don't Go Near The Water on the next album. First they extol the virtues of water and a year later they're telling us not to go near it.  

[Raspberries, Strawberries]

Judge for yourself:

Raspberries, Strawberries

Might find this amusing too:

The Wanderer

Yeah looks like they did take a lot from Raspberries, Strawberries. Should have checked youtube earlier. Even Brian's "it came to my window" backing vocal is a direct rip!

[Sunflower]

Well, as far as Sunflower, we know for a fact Brian wrote "This Whole World", "Add Some Music", "Our Sweet Love" and "Cool, Cool Water". As far as what he did with them is a different story. I guess we could say he pretty much saw "This Whole World" and "Add Some Music" through to their completion. For "Our Sweet Love", I'm pretty sure it's well known 'round these parts that he started it, and abandoned after he had the track cut, along with the fade, which one can listen to right here! After that apparently Al and Carl took it upon themselves to finish it, which would explain the credit to all three. We also know that "Cool, Cool Water" was originally started as a recording in 1967, and one could say that if you wanna trace it's roots you could say it's composition started in 1966 with with what was titled "Da Da" on the SMiLE box set. However, it is obvioius that Brian was involved at least near the completion of the song as he shares the lead with Mike on the last part of the song.

I suppose the only real question mark is "All I Wanna Do". I've heard some say it was mostly a Mike composition with Brian just finding the chords behind Mike's melody. But even that would still be considered worthy of a writer's credit right? Who knows if that's the way it happened anyways.

But regardless, I think my former belief that there were seven Brian Wilson songs on Sunflower isn't quite true, as "Diedre" is really Bruce's and "At My Window" is really Al's (or to be more honest perhaps Will Holt, who composed "Raspberries, Strawberries").

Thanks for the info. I totally forgot about that instrumental with Brian backing vocal version of "Our Sweet Love". That's a beautiful version, Brian's vocals are nice and clear.

Anyway it is fascinating to think about his contributions on Sunflower because I always took the credits to be as accurate to who wrote the song, and I assumed if Brian's name was first, he had mostly had something to do with it. As this thread proves, that's not always true.

I still wonder a lot about those 2 songs myself. Never even knew Mike had so much to do with "All I Wanna Do" until reading about that here recently. I've never heard the original "Raspberries, Strawberries" before though. Does the "At My Window" vocal melody sound anything like it? If not, I wonder who came up with the melody, because I find it to be a really nice one, one of my favorites.

I'm sure (like someone else here said, can't remember who), Brian most likely only just came up with the stupid French part and that's it.  

"In My Car" is too oddball to be awful to me. At least it isn't a completely generic 80s song like "Passing Friend" or "Happy Endings".

Wow.. those are all the most classic songs on the album for me..

I say "Time To Get Alone"

Hmm...

Its a stupid song, but atleast the production isn't super cheesy. I like the slick sound of the album.

My vote would probably go to Mike's disco/instrumental version of California Girls.

Or how about Mike & Celebration version of "Gettin Hungry"

(I don't think it's too bad actually  )

Al has said that he can't remember Brian having anything to do with California Calling and that Brian had very little to do with At My Window.

I always wondered about At My Window.. I'd be very surprised if Brian had very little to do with it. The song is very lush and produced very well, and the lyrics are very nice too. It'd be unusual for a non-Wilson to write such a nice song like this during this period, but then again Al did come up with some really good stuff around this time.

 Seems like Sunflower might be an album where Brian had much less to do with than it really seems like. He did sing a lot, write a lot of material during the period (which most of it was unreleased at the time), but who knows what he actually came up with on the album besides "This Whole World", "Add Some Music", and I suppose "Our Sweet Love". Even "Cool Cool Water".. Do we even know any info that Brian produced or coproduced that 3rd portion of that song? I think I read that Stephen Desper did quite a bit on it like playing the moog part for example.

Guys, if I was high and coked out, I'd be pretty annoyed with some guy coming into my house to ask me inane questions about "Be True To Your School" too. Who the f*** wants to deal with that when they just took a fat bong rip and a hog rail? Well, obviously not Mr. Wilson, and I can't blame him at all. Talk about a buzz-kill.

Haha this is probably closest to the truth. It does sound like he got bored during various parts of this particular interview. I love how cordial he still is through it all anyway though.

Could be wrong, but like I said, maybe it's because Endless Summer came out and was successful which is why the Pewter interview is so different. Brian sounds more excited on that one. Brian sounds frankly kinda depressed in this one in comparison.

Be With Me

I know people have very different definitions of what it means to be a "fan" of something, but I want to share mine:

When I'm a fan of someone (a musician, an actor) I pretty much think they sh*t gold.  Since I'm a fan of the Beach Boys, I must think that everything they sh*t out has some gold in it.  And I do.  

Back in the day they used to sh*t 90% gold, and maybe 10% sh*t.  Over the years the gold/sh*t ratio has changed, sure, but there's always gold to be found there, even if it takes some digging.

So to me there's no such thing as a Beach Boys song that sucks all the way, because if they're the Beach Boys, and they are, and if there's at least 3 or four of them involved, as there usually is, then there's must be some gold in that poop!

For example, the song It's A Beautiful Day.  It ain't great.  But Carl's "living out in LA... such a beautiful daaaaay" part is great.  So there's a kinda crappy song that has 20 seconds of greatness, but I must've listened to it 25 times.

I don't own Summer in Paradise, as it's been out of print forever, and it's kinda terrible, but I've still listened to it on Youtube dozens of times.  Why have I listened to something that's kinda terrible dozens of times?  Because it's The Beach Boys and they go ooooh and aaaaaah and how bad could that be?  And if I owned Summer in Paradise on CD I'm sure I would've listened to it 100 times... and that's THEIR WORST ALBUM!  

(which is why my mind is blown... BLOWN... when I hear some board members describe songs or entire albums as UNLISTENABLE!!!)

Anyhoo.  That's my fandom.  And sorry for all the scatological imagery.    

And for the record, i LOVE When Girls Get Together, Hey Little Tomboy, Bill & Sue, and I think Smart Girls is some kind of crazy demented awesome.

Awesome post! I feel about the same.. My theory is the voices. Or that's my own reason why I will like some of their shittier stuff. When at least a good chunk of the BBs are doing their harmonies and if there's a nice Carl vocal on it, it really makes it for me, like on Still Cruisin'. The production might be sh*t, and the song subpar (Island Girl for example), but it can be so catchy and it's great to recognize the guys voices on a song.

Regarding H.E.L.P: I love that song.. I think Brian didn't hold back on the lyrics on that song and wrote exactly how he felt at the time. Plus it gets stuck in my head all the time. That one has actually kind of been a classic for me. I actually kind of wanted to put together a comp of songs that were just 100% Brian creations during this 1969/1970 period, or co-writes that were very much his style that he could have recorded on his own, like Sail Plane Song also.

It's crazy the different tastes and various types of songs people are picking  in this thread (Day In The Life Of A Tree?? Really?? )

This interview sounds like it had to have been really early in 1974.. Doesn't sound like Endless Summer was released yet since there's no mention of it at all. Maybe Brian really honestly had no idea how great his early stuff was and how much people loved it until that record hit. He still sounds like the way he would have been in the rest of the early 70s. Just thinking that stuff they did back then ruined their ability to be successful making new music anymore, or people getting the wrong impression of them -  thinking that they should or are still a band making fun & sun/innocuous pop songs like those.

Brian also produced "We're Together Again" right? You'd think he'd try to give the other songs the same magical arrangements. Maybe this "Al Capps" is to blame.

He does not sound "fearful" to me at all.. Maybe coked out.. I'm sure he was since this was during that time when he was heavily on drugs, but I thought that was a strange description for this.. He seemed pretty relaxed overall to me.

His voice sounds a little thicker, which I gather is the effect cocaine (or something else) had on his sinuses.

Yeah you can hear changes in his voice occur.. It's pretty weird. When he laughs at times you can hear his voice crack a bit.. It must have been heavy smoking and cocaine because it's just bizarre how quickly and randomly it changed.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntO75t_B05I‎


This is an interesting one from 1974 too.

This interview is not new and has been circulating for years. So has the one after it, in August '74 with Jim Pewter. Brian's obviously been snortin' hog rails before this one and talks out his butt after half the questions. And if you notice, he hasn't changed all that much in the way he conducts interviews today (with exception to the yes/no answers).

Pretty sure "Bill" was a friend of Brian's named Bill Tucker.  Supposedly, he could do real good impersonations of Brian.

Do you or anyone know the source on this? I know that's asking a lot probably. I wonder who the interviewer was. It is surprisingly a really good quality recording. Can hear Brian's voice pretty clearly.

Also, unfortunately it seems to cut off abruptly.. I wonder why it does that. I'm guessing they ran out of tape though.

Can't forget "Oh Lord" too.. It's not a Beach Boys song, or anything near releasable, but it's pretty damn dark.

Also the version of "This Isn't Love" on the same boot has a dark, very sad sound..

I really appreciate you posting this interview, seltaeb1012002. Fascinating stuff, absolutely fascinating. It continues to be amazing how Brian did change so much - his personality, his look, his voice, his producing skills - in such a seemingly short period of time. I'm beginning to wonder if Landy damaged Brian in early 1976 in much the same way he did in early 1983. Compare the Brian we see in 1976 to the Brian of one or two years earlier. It's frightening, actually. There isn't much, if any, footage of Brian in 1975. But, the Brian Wilson we see in 1976 had "those eyes", he stuttered, he talked more prominently out of the side of his mouth, he produced records differently than previous years (sometimes including/leaving in embarrassing parts), and seemed like a different Brian than the one we/his family/his fans knew. Was this change due to what Brian went through in 1975 with the drugs and mental illness - or - was Landy's treatment in (late 1975?) 1976 already producing disturbing effects?

I was thinking of the same thing Sheriff.. This interview made me ponder whether Landy maybe corrupted Brian earlier than we thought.. I know some people are saying that he seems more out of it here than other places earlier or later on, but to me he seems more like his old-self then he would in 1976. He may be high yes, but he's not really rambling, not giving short answers that don't say much at all and he doesn't sound like something is radically wrong with him. He is very personable, honest, forthcoming with answers here to me.

With Me Tonight on Smiley Smile is pretty dark too.. especially the part towards the end where the Baldwin organ gets louder and louder and drowns out the vocals.. There's definitely something strange going on on pretty much every song on Smiley.

"My Diane" is pretty grim.

Of the ones mentioned I like "Wind Chimes" from SMILEY SMILE in the sense that it is REALLY disturbing.  It might not have the darkest subject matter, but it has menacing and psychotic feel to it...and the cheerful little cadence that leads into the outro does nothing to leaven the mood, in fact it just makes it all creepier.  I'd actually vote for SMILEY SMILE as darkest album overall, odd considering its humorous intent (though I wouldn't argue with HOLLAND, though I would argue that part of the darkness is its murky production style).  But there are so many jarring WTF moments on SMILEY SMILE.  Is it the weirdest full-length album ever made by a major band at the height of their careers?  Is their a parallel elsewhere?  

That album (and that is one great song example) endlessly fascinates me. You're right there's a lot of WTF moments on Smiley Smile, and that's what fascinates me. The only explanation given for how Smiley sounds the way it does is they smoked a lot of pot and/or hashish. I think even Brian explained it on that 1974 interview posted in another thread. It's still very weird how the album came out though, and you would think it would be funnier than how it came out. So many creepy or disturbing moments (like that interlude of Wonderful.. just what in the f*** are they doing??), you wonder why it came out that way.

Much thanks for posting this. This is a great interview. Brian is really lucid and he still sounds like his old self. You can hear his voice changing a bit but it hasn't changed all the way yet. Some interesting insights on this.

I don't think he sounds lucid at all. He sounds entirely scattered. Like he can't concentrate for more than 10 seconds. It also sounds like maybe he didn't really know the questioner so he was talkative but going off in 20 different directions at once. I know that myself, I've sometimes tried to make conversation with someone I might not really know, and by keeping on talking I start to go in nonsensical directions, or at the very least would just insert meaningless "filler phrases" until I ran out. That's what it sounded like with Brian. I'm sure he might have been using cocaine or some kind of uppers. Which also probably leads to the scattered thoughts.

I will say, however, his voice sounded pretty clear. But it's also evident why he probably wasn't finishing many songs around this time.

I'm sure he was coked up here but he still sounds slightly more articulate and "with it" then he would later.. I don't know, something still reminds me of the old Brian. He was laughing and giving good answers, sometimes thought out what he was gonna say and gave his best thoughts instead of just say the first thing off the top of his head compared to the 1976 interview on youtube. I don't know what happened in 1975 but he did change for the worse in just a year or 2.

Much thanks for posting this. This is a great interview. Brian is really lucid and he still sounds like his old self. You can hear his voice changing a bit but it hasn't changed all the way yet. Some interesting insights on this.

Few things I could have sworn Brian said different things about:

-Thought he said Holland was a bad time for him. Here he says everyone including him seemed to like it there. Unless he's just downplaying in this interview the hard times he's had the past few years

-Thought he said in a later 1976 interview that he does Transcendental Meditation occasionally. Maybe it was Landy who encouraged him again. He didn't seem really into TM anyway (except in 1967-1968) so not surprised he said here he's not into it.

- Yeah I second that, Fun Fun Fun in Australia?

- Brian is in great spirits here.. He laughs a lot.. He's very down to earth. He still seems like the Brian of old. What in the hell happened in 1975? Just so confusing.. He didn't seem like this a little later.