Jeff Becks band around the time also was in the studio with the Brian Wilson project. I believe it was confirmed that originally Run James Run was a part of that with an Al lead vocal. Metropolis, as I recall, was Beck playing some moody guitar and Al singing some sort of na-na-na chant. I doubt it has anything to do with Half Moon Bay, but who knows. I really wish all this stuff would be released along with the TWGMTR-outtakes. Biggest bummer is we don't even know much about anything about these tracks! Just a lot of teasing and then nothing. There must be a lot of cool little things in the vault. I hope we get to hear them some day.

Thank you for sharing, that really made my day! He was such a great spirit during this era 

Also want to add, I love The Beach Boys in mono. I think Pet Sounds sounds utterly amazing in mono. But I also feel the same way about the stereo. And I also realize that selling comps in mono or trying to promote mono or the same remasters that have been available for 20+ years to a wider new generation just ain’t gonna fly in 2022 and beyond. Especially if the team is trying to make money making releases that will help propel traction for more rarity releases in the future.

Sure it would fly. Earbuds and iPhone speakers like mono mixes just fine if not more.

Might be slightly off-topic, but this is a great point I feel a lot of people, not just listeners but sound engineers and producers as well are forgetting a lot of times. The "youngsters" don't listen to music with a HI-FI stereo or 5.1 system. They, me included for 90 % times, listen to sounds out of their phone speaker or a bluetooth speaker, which basicly is almost equivalent to an old AM or FM radio. Earbuds, same thing, stereo won't make a difference. Mostly people hear it in MONO anyway, even if they don't realize that.

If no one here's gonna say it, then I will. These remasters and remixes are dreadfully brittle. Most of them sound like they're on the verge of crumbling into a thousand pieces. Like they're being held together by Elmer's glue and rubber bands.

Baby Blue is possibly the worst offender. That compression. That hiss. "The definitive mix"? Holy tomatoes.

Why do the horns on Let Us Go On This Way sound like they were recorded on a flip phone from 2005?

God help you, Mark. And God help listeners with misophonia. I'd never recommend this set as an entry point to the Beach Boys.

I couldn't agree more. I am glad that a lot of people are liking this, same time being extremely worried of the future of these releases. I have been waiting the Holland box set like crazy, but if it's gonna sound like this, I'm out.

I saw Brian three times in 2016 and again twice in 2017 and each time his mood and performance has been completely based on the particular song at a given time within the concert. Overall he's been mostly excited and happy on stage.

I remember him shouting things like "The drums on the next track are so hard they will make you sh*t!" and bouncing to Wild Honey.

Then again during some songs he looks at his watch kinda bored. He is very intuitive and can't really fake his feelings and he's never been that way. He has never been a Mick Jagger or even Bruce Springsteen on stage. To expect something like that from him, is silly.

I didn't have a chance to see him perform after 2017, and from what I've seen on Youtube, especially the Christmas tour in 2018? and the performances before his public announcement that he has to postpone some shows because of recent mental issues, seemed tough. I bet the back issues were also a big issue during 2018-2019 and propably still are.

The last time I saw Brian was at Pori Jazz Festival in 2017. He was great, even though it was an outdoors event and it was very cold. The showtime was just before midnight and it was very clear and "sunny" as it is in Finland during summertime at nights. Brian was looking up at the sky for propably half of the show, doing his hand gestures with each song and super enthusiastic, even though there wasn't even a lot of crowd because of the poor weather. At some point it started to rain and Brian shouted during a song (Love and Mercy maybe) very excited "It's raining! It's raining!"

And after the show ended he rushed to say something seemingly happily to Al as they were doing the final bows. That's not a man who is "forced" to tour.

Has any announcement been made as to when this film might become available in Europe?

I’ve seen no info about any release outside USA, not even a “stay tuned for info”. Very disappointing.

Which is weird, because last summer they announced that they already have international distribution covered. There's a lot of Brian fans outside of US and it's dissappointing not being able to see it when we are living the time of streaming. I tried a million ways to see it already, but VPNs won't work when all the platforms require a US credit card.

Here’s something I thought of when GOK came out last month, thinking about why this album might be happening right now.

Brian was pretty good at supporting himself on the piano in one-off performances through the late 80s and early to mid 90s. Here’s when the problem started: I remember a performance of your imagination on David Letterman in 1998 in which Brian started playing during the first verse, got kind of locked up on the first chord, and either his mike was faded down quickly or he stopped playing for the rest of the song. (In 94 or 95 on the same show, he did a great job with Do It Again.)

Next: 1999. He pounded the same chord on the piano in his very first solo concerts for the entire show without moving his hands (I mean this literally: footage shows his hands locked on A major for 2 hours) and was of course not plugged in or was turned completely down. After that he stopped playing altogether during shows. A couple of years later, I think, he started playing Surfer Girl audibly. By 2010 he was noodling on the keyboard through at least half of the show. I think he has may have tapered off again in the last couple of years, but still plays much more than he used to.

Related: we know that his voice went through several stages since the late 60s, getting to its weirdest sound in the early 90s. By 1998 he was suddenly singing pretty but sounded kind of tired. He sounded slurry for a few years (sometimes attributed to changes in his meds), but made a huge improvement which started after SMiLE got out of his system. Lucky Old Sun was much better than prior albums vocally. I think the Disney album was his very strongest album vocally. He was 100% free of anything that had ever made his voice sound weird by then. Since then he’s done some weird speak-singing during the Pet Sounds shows, but other than Run, James, Run (which was pretty good, although it sounded like he was singing gently), we don’t really know how he sounds in the studio now.

So why this recording, and why now? I think Brian is probably keenly aware that people see his limitations at the keyboard, and he has seldom if ever played very exposed and intricate parts on his albums in quite a long time. I feel like he’s trying to prove himself as a keyboardist by putting himself out there as a soloist, however much editing/overdubbing is involved. I think this is therapeutic for him, and perhaps when he wraps up his career he wants to leave no unresolved issues.

Great post, I agree. I think his limited playing in the late 90's was propably attached to his stage fright quite strongly. I've been lately watching live clips of Brian's shows during the last 4 years or so, and it seems that when he is in good mood he always plays with the piano during the breaks between songs, and sometimes even forgets to sing his parts when he concentrates on the keys.

Does anybody know where I can see the 2012 (or was it 2011?) video of Do It Again? You know, the one with all of them at studio with the named parking spots in front of the Capitol Tower etc? I haven't seen that in years!

It's pretty ironic that a million scraps from the reunion are on YouTube, but not the actual video anymore (unless it's buried deep where it can't be easily found via search, and/or it's unlisted).

The session was around May of 2011. I think the "rough cut" of the "Do It Again" leaked around December 2011 (with no footage of Dave), and then at some point after that the "official" video was released, with some Dave footage added.

Obviously, bits and pieces of it are seen on the various C50 reunion videos. But it does indeed appear as though neither the rough or finished full version of the video is up on YouTube.

I even started to think, that maybe I imagined this thing even existed  It's weird that it's down. I hope I can see it someday again, I really loved it.

Does anybody know where I can see the 2012 (or was it 2011?) video of Do It Again? You know, the one with all of them at studio with the named parking spots in front of the Capitol Tower etc? I haven't seen that in years!

Yes indeed, there is a huge difference in having Brian doing a cruise gig on his own with his own name, than having Mike do show called A BEACH BOYS CRUISE apparently celebrating for the 60th anniversary of this legendary group.

It's tacky and it's based on a hoax.

The promovideo on the website, oh my... Robo Vibrations and musical legacy assassinations, way to go!

But anyway, if someone goes and enjoys, good for them.

Daybreak Over the Ocean has that one line which I first thought was something like "Wilson and we'll be together, never do depart".

It shocks me to read what some so called fans (once again) say about this, a new release, not necessarily here but for example on reddit. Stating to know that it's not Brian and how bad he looks in the photo. Are we living in the same universe here? He looks great on the photo, and if that's a cover of the album, it's very classy.

As stated above, the playing, especially chords, sound very Brian to me. Most likely quantized, and overdubbed, but those are  basic production techniques used for like decades now. There's nowhere a text stating this is supposed to be live!

The little clip on Brian's IG of him playing GOK some time ago is maybe for a cover shoot / music video coming out soon!

Now I only hope for a acoustic type of album like this with minimal vocals, call Blondie and Al to Brian's house and plug in a few mics in the style of Harry Dean Stanton's Partly Fiction.

Still waiting mine 4LP and 5CD copies to arrive, argh! Even though Beach Boys has a very tiny fanbase in my country, it seems all the versions except the 2 CD one, are selling very well. The big sets at the moment are almost sold out, but more should arrive this week with my copies. I hope the sells have been good in the States as well, so we could get the 72-73 era as a physical set eventually.

Matchpoint of Our Love

"Love is still the only game in town" is totally stating the obvious, it's plain to see that Mike is the one who was and will always be pre-ordained to have the god-given right to cowrite all the songs with Brian Wilson, he's the only game in town after guys like Van have been rightly chased away

To be serious for a moment, horrible lyrics aside, this song is utterly great in every way. I'm absolutely convinced if it had decent lyrics written by somebody else, it would be known as a minor BBs classic. It somehow bridges both yacht rock and disco in a brilliant way.

I can stomach the bad lyrics and it's still a classic in my book, but I just mean with non embarrassing lyrics this song would have some public respect because musically and vocally it's absolutely outtasight.

I am not native in English, which is propably the reason I've always LOVED this tune. I don't mind the lyrics, I see why a lot of people find them horrible, but I listen more the music and everything about this tune just is so classic to me (though obviosluy not the lyrics, they are just OK to me). Brian sings so damn well on it, the production is great clean late 70s style and the melody is so beautiful.

What is up with the lyric: "With a girl the lonely sea looks good with your life"? isn't it: "...with moonlight"?

I usually skip it while listening the 85 album. It's not bad, it's kinda similiar with Kona Coast I guess, a little bit better though. Never a huge fan of this track, it's just so lame. I find the lyrics funny though. And I usually love Ringo's drumming but this track's drums sound like they were done with programming rather than by a Beatle...

I love this track, and would go as far to say it is, in my opinion, their best song post-Love You.

The vocal harmonies that kick off the track are brilliant and so BW. We know Brian had been playing around with that snippet since 1964's "All Dressed Up For School",  through "I Just Got My Pay", then in some of the many unreleased versions of "Heroes and Villains". He must have really believed in that snippet, and I don't blame him cause it sounds awesome. I love how it appears in half-time during the "I love you, I miss you, things won't be the same til I kiss you" section. Like Shortnin' Bread, it's one of those BW musical easter eggs that only the die hard fans will know about.

I think the production is cool! It's clean, not overblown, and uses pretty standard rock band instrumentation so hasn't dated badly like other synth-laden tracks from the same era. It has a tasteful arrangement (though admittedly doesn't sound like it was lead by BW - would Bruce have had a hand in it?).

The key change into the sax solo as someone else has pointed out is really quite inspired, musically.

Do people not like it because of the sax solo? Definitely the one element that dates it, but if you try to forget how we now in the 21st century perceive sax solos as cheesy, you can come to accept it... I have.

The chords are great. Love the dramatic, almost spooky sounding minor flat 5 chord on "Why is my love goin' on".

I love how they snuck in the lyric "awaken me beautiful dreamer" - my guess is Brian's input as we know he's a fan of the song it references, "Beautiful Dreamer" and the fact that Beautiful Dreamer Wake spells out his initials.

It's a rare Wilson/Love song from after the 60s that doesn't sound completely half-assed. As a (admittedly amateur) songwriter myself, I can tell that a lot of effort went into this one, from the music to the lyrics to the arrangement to the vocal performance from all members of the group.

It really baffles me that it quite often gets singled out by fans as a song they especially don't like. I don't think those people are wrong, taste is subjective after all, but still, it does baffle me! Maybe it is that sax solo after all...

I really do feel that the sax solo killed the possible success of the track. As much as I think it's OK, it's only that. Switch the sax to a killer guitar solo and you have a very Queen-esque track with a loot better chance at getting some radio play.

She Knows Me Too Well has great lyrics. It's telling an interesting and complicated story, much like other Today and Pet Sounds tracks.

There is though a few other lyrics in the Beach Boys world that irritates me in the similar manner that someone might think about SKMTW, first one being The Little Girl I Once Knew:

"We met when she was younger
And I had no eyes for her
A few years went by and I saw her
Now I'm gonna try for her"

That just sounds creepy to me. And it's a shame, because the music is great, but the idea behind the lyrics is just so stupid. Another one is of course Hey Little Tomboy and then there's also Lazy Lizzie, which is super interesting musically, but tells a straight up pedostory:


"It's so hard to walk home
When you're walking alone
I slow down in my car and I pull to the curb"

Great to finally see the comedy skit too! Brian did well.

Has Brian ever commented on any of this later? All I know is that he has referenced the 76-77 time as some of his favorite times and "that's when it all happened to me" or something along the lines. It's quite a big contradiction to the common consensus of Brian not wanting to be there.

My idea would be:

- a great documentary that goes deep into the band and all of it's members, not just the Brian side.
- possibly a release of the 2012 Rolling Stone unplugged set and/or another show from 2012 in great sound and picture.
- if they can do another show and be as great as 2012, then I'll gladly take that of course as well. Same goes for another album. If they have the goods, then bring it on, althugh I was one of those who said, stop after TWGMTR and don't destroy that beautiful ending. But if Brian has more songs (he has, we know that), and Mike gets his sh!t together to finally come up with good lyrics again, maybe Al has something worthwhile as well (IIRC Mike and David worked on one of David's songs in 2012, so why not try that one?), Bruce certainly has something interesting, (but please Boys, don't even think of re-recordings of your old songs) I guess a new recording product coud be nice. Maybe get Blondie and Ricky in there. Athough I'm still not sure if the Boys would deliver. The band has a history of blowing everything up. I'm afraid the dignified ending of their recording carreer with TWGMTR will gest destroyed by another Stars&Stripes

I'm with you on these. The Rolling Stone unplugged is a treasure, just wish we could have it in HD. They must have the audio recordings and also a lot of video from the 2012 tour. Why not finally release that stuff out there? Without messing up with the material like they did with that horrendous "live" CD after the tour that sounded nothing like the shows. Now that would be a great way to celebrate the 60th anniversary and fans would love it. Especially the 2 last London shows were PHENOMENAL and Brian was on top of his game vocally and everything. I want to get a HD release of those, please! 

The streaming documentary sounds great, I've been waiting for that for years. I hope it's a deal with Netflix, that would mean a huge exposure and a lot of new younger fans. That would be great. Sure, HBO or whatever would be fine as well. My only issue with that is, that I hope that the group itself isn't too much involved. I mean, it's great to have new interviews, but my main problem with the older Beach Boys docs is the obvious whitewashing of the band history. And I hate it how EVERY Beach Boys doc just fast forwards from Pet Sounds to Kokomo. Just like the recent Bee Gees doc completely forgot to mention all the great stuff they did in the early 70s and in the 80s, not to mention their great last album from just 20 years ago. Just all about early days, disco and that's it.

I don't want to see yet another Beach Boys doc with the same superficial story that goes: Surf sound - Brian is a genius who does Pet Sounds - Band faces personal problems - Kokomo - Still cruising after all these years. There's no point to tell that story again. I want a deeper, longer, hopefully a miniseries type of thing with a director with a vision. Much like the great George Harrison doc.

Happy birthday Mike 

Yep got to agree with the other posters, I don't mind about this track much. It would propably be contesting for the worst BB song with Tomboy if I'd make a list. The lyrics are just unbearable to me. But well, I'm from Europe anyway.

I am beyond speechless by how bad this is. Does Mike really wonder why Brian didn't write more songs with him if this is what he comes up with? Or who wrote it? Well, I guess Mike meant it in a nice way... Did George Harrison at least get a writing credit for his melody in the chorus?

I thought it sounded similar 😂

But yeah, oh my god. This just made me appreciate Run James Run a thousand times more.

This Too Shall Pass sounds like something that would born if somebody held an 80 year old rockstar at gunpoint and said "write a new song".

After Mike's most recent actions I wish Brian to never work with him again. I'd love to see a a big tour with Brian, Al, Blondie and add in David and Ricky too if they can make it. Mike's voice has been going downhill fast the last few years and Bruce doesn't do much on stage. There's really no point in my mind to collide those two bands anymore. Mike's band really has no assets for that matter.

The ultimately greatest thing would be if Brian and Al would take The Beach Boys name away from Mike and do a tour without him, with the name and all. They have Matt and Brian's great band. They don't need Mike and Bruce for anything.

Mike's statements throughout the last 5 years or so about Brian and, for example No Pier Pressure, have been degrading. It's pretty funny that a guy who produces horrendous sounding super-autotuned music who nobody cares about, mocks Brian's solo albums (which Mike has done all the way back starting with the first self-titled one in 88). It's just funny but sad the same time. Nobody needs that power-greedy egomaniac around.