Oh no! I just went and bought 4 copies for some Christmas presents based on your post before it was edited!
 

Maybe the recipients will enjoy a gray-market release with overdriven bass.  

I just noticed a live collection "Paris 1969" was on Napster and Amazon but I've been informed it's a gray market release from earlier this year, not a copyright extension release.

a few posts ago mention was made of a mono mixed version of ADUFS with added hand-claps that aren't present on the stereo mix made by Mark Linnett for the two-fer bonus track, where the song debuted

yes that mono mix can be considered the original 'finished' version, but everyone here's forgetting the obvious - the mono ADUFS mix (w/ handclaps) WAS released (officially) about 8 years ago as a track in the Beach Boys Singles Collection set of 16 CD's

I assume this is the same mono mix as on Made in California.  But maybe Alan Boyd is referring to a different mono mix that is still unreleased.

Yeah, if Lee's right (though I must say that makes little sense from a copyright perspective to me, but I am not a lawyer...) we won't see one. The only unreleased songs, other than the Party tracks, I know of are Stella By Starlight, How Deep is the Ocean, and Three Blind Mice. I don't see them being worth UMG's while to put a set around.

Also "Sandy, She Needs Me," right?

Sandy was only (as far as I'm aware) a backing track and tag vocals, and those were released on the Made In California mix of Sherry She Needs Me (along with the 1976 [or whenever -- around then] lead vocal).

I was thinking there were two versions of "Sandy" recorded during the SDSN sessions.  A fully produced track with '76 vocal was released on MiC, but I thought the March 29, 1965 SOT version with some BVs was a different track.  Am I mistaken on this?

I figured since they released unfinished tracks on previous copyright protection releases, they might release  the alternate "Sandy" as well.

Yeah, if Lee's right (though I must say that makes little sense from a copyright perspective to me, but I am not a lawyer...) we won't see one. The only unreleased songs, other than the Party tracks, I know of are Stella By Starlight, How Deep is the Ocean, and Three Blind Mice. I don't see them being worth UMG's while to put a set around.

Also "Sandy, She Needs Me," right?

There have been some really good suggestions.  Two more:

A:  Good Night (would be a perfect BB lullaby)

B:  either:

B. "You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone"

or Sail Plane Song (with Beatles given liberties to add lyrics, etc)

Onkster, I hear the words "in the city" during the ascending piano chords passage and an ex-poster on my other board goes even further:

"in the city, yeah
come on and take me home
i don't want to be all alone"

or:

"in the city, yeah
come on and take me home
i want to get out of here"

He does add that his ears might be playing tricks on him for the second and third lines...

I know this is an old thread but I didn't see the point in starting a new one.

EQ'ing the bridge part in the CWTL piano track, I hear:

Line 1:  (unintelligible)
Line 2:  I'm gonna (close?) my eyes / hoping to see you   ["open" would seem to make more sense, but it sounds like one syllable, and "close" is more clever, like he is fantasizing]
Line 3:  I'm gonna let my eyes / (crawl all-all over you?)

Thoughts?

No problem about resuming an old thread. That 120-day policy baffles me-----surely it's best to keep as much information on one subject in one place? And if there's anywhere where time needn't be an issue, it's the internet!!!  

Interesting how different your words are to the ones my colleague heard! Sounds very plausible though----the angle is very Brianesque. Maybe someone with better equipment than me can help out more.    

It IS interesting how different people hear different things.  I really listened for the words your colleague heard, but couldn't hear them.  I definitely hear "hoping to see-ee you" at the end of the 2nd line.  But then, I have hearing loss and tinnitus, so who knows?!  I really hope one of the extraction wizards who post here will tackle this puzzle...

I've long been fascinated by this song and I've enjoyed this thread and Matt's post.

Edit:  I think Line 3 starts "I'm gonna let my MIND..."  Also makes more sense if he's closed his eyes and is fantasizing.

Onkster, I hear the words "in the city" during the ascending piano chords passage and an ex-poster on my other board goes even further:

"in the city, yeah
come on and take me home
i don't want to be all alone"

or:

"in the city, yeah
come on and take me home
i want to get out of here"

He does add that his ears might be playing tricks on him for the second and third lines...

I know this is an old thread but I didn't see the point in starting a new one.

EQ'ing the bridge part in the CWTL piano track, I hear:

Line 1:  (unintelligible)
Line 2:  I'm gonna (close?) my eyes / hoping to see you   ["open" would seem to make more sense, but it sounds like one syllable, and "close" is more clever, like he is fantasizing]
Line 3:  I'm gonna let my eyes / (crawl all-all over you?)

Thoughts?

I helped identify dates for these (also The Who) since there was almost NO date/venue info provided with any of these photos/negatives...it was a fun project.  Photos from the individual UK tours apparently were then combined into lots.  I did NOT describe 1965-66 as "very early Beach Boys" however!

Don't know when the CD came out, but I don't think the CD ever came out in the states...my copy, btw, is a Japanese import.

Some of the songs had been released elsewhere before and since, others not. Here's the track list and what's going on with each:

With a Little Help from My Friends -- far as I know, unreleased before and never heard from since

Available on the little-known "Covered by The Beach Boys" from EMI Music Special Markets.  "The Letter" is also on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Covered-Beach-Boys/dp/B000FFJZEW

This is for anyone who has ever subscribed to ESQ.

After watching "Love & Mercy," it had me thinking about all the music created by Brian between the gaps in the film; 1969-1986 and 1988-present.

Here's a list of what's being considered for the next two editions.

•  No Pier Pressure
•  Brian Wilson-1988 solo album
•  Paley/Wilson sessions (1980's, 90's and 2000's)
•  I Just Wasn't Made For These Times documentary — 20 year anniversary
•  Adult Child

Thoughts?  Additions?  What is it about Brian's musical output that fascinates you, and how would you like it to be presented in ESQ?

ESQ has already covered Love You, Orange Crate Art,  Imagination, BW Presents Smile, That Lucky Old Sun, Reimagines Gershwin and Key Of Disney.


In Music,
David

Any NEW information on unreleased projects like Adult Child and Paley sessions is always interesting to me.  For instance, what did Mike and Al think when they heard AC, and what is their take on how it went down with Reprise?  What are Brian's memories of those tracks?

If Brian really opened up about the BW88 album and how Landy "worked with" Brian, that would be fascinating, but I don't see that happening.

I'm also interested to  hear more about the genesis of No Pier Pressure; where the individual songs originated, how they were composed and finished.  Were a lot of them basically pieced together from 1998 tapes, then lyrics written?  Who wrote what?

And one thing that I think is shortchanged in nearly all music journalism:  more about the writing process.  For instance, how were the songs written?  How did the song originate?  Who wrote what?  Did you get stuck and when did you come back to it, how did you go about finishing it, did you end up rewriting a lot of it? Was there a particular challenge in finishing it, or a certain part you came up with that you realized made the song?  Did you have an arrangement idea in your head as you wrote it, or did that come later?  I would love a detailed interview about BB songs like Lennon's song-by-song 1980 interviews.  We've heard all the pat answers about "God Only Knows," "Good Vibrations," etc.  What about songs like "Time to Get Alone" or "This Whole World" or "You Need a Mess of Help"?  Again, the problem is Brian probably won't give a lot of detail, and Carl is gone.

And I will suggest once again a lengthy dissertation on "Can't Wait Too Long" (preferably as part of a "CWTL Sessions" release containing the ultimate completed version).

Let's not forget they were still wearing striped shirts on the back cover.

This is a little off topic, I suppose...but many have speculated that striped shirts would have been laughable at Monterey, so I am curious:  did Derek Taylor ever advise the BBs to ditch them as unhip?  True, he was PR and not manager, but he knew what was happening on both sides of the Atlantic.

And on topic, I think Smile would have done much better than Smiley and at least as well as Pet Sounds, based on GV and presumably another Top 20 single (probably H&V).  And it seems to me that GV, H&V, Vegetables and Wonderful all could potentially have been performed in simple arrangements at Monterey.

Is there a multi-track recording of "That Same Song" with the Double Rock Baptist Choir that appeared in the "It's OK" TV special?  At one point the piano continues after the accompanist gets up to direct the choir, so there must have been a pre-recorded piano track.  I like it much better than the album version, and it's a joy to watch Brian come alive singing it.  Would love to have this released in good quality.

So it starts.
It happened. It's accurate. The only thing in the scene that is not accurate is the color of Melinda Ledbetter's dress

Thanks for that confirmation, Ray.  I accept that liberties have to be taken for the sake of the format, but this was the only scene that really felt like a screenwriter's fabrication.   Nice (and surprising!) to hear it was an actual incident.

Upthread someone wondered about the decision to release the film in June.  I can't help but think that it was to in some way also create a buzz about "I Am Brian Wilson" (the biography due from Coronet Publishing, this fall) and vice versa. 

That may be, and to me a summer release makes perfect sense for a Beach Boys related movie...I'm sure Capitol is hoping the film will boost summer sales of BB greatest hits as well as NPP.

Good news!  I hope Brian can take some satisfaction in this.

I saw the movie in Atlanta and the trailer is a decent representation of it, but the pacing is totally wrong. It's less of a love story than it seems in the trailer. It's a weighty experience to see the actual film and I nearly cried at a few of the Dano scenes because they were done so well.

That's a good point.  It's not like there are 30 minutes of running time devoted to Brian and Melinda in bed or something.

The trailer reflects the movie fairly well IMO.  The story told here IS the story of a troubled genius - his genius primarily represented by his 1966-67 creative peak - who breaks apart under internal and external pressure, and of the love (story) that saved him years later.  It may seem too Hollywood for you, but it seems pretty on target to me, if you have to boil Brian's complicated life and psyche down to a 2 hour general release movie.  It isn't the detailed story of his creative development, peaks, valleys, etc, so if you are looking for scenes about how he made All Summer Long or the Honeys singles or Wild Honey or Love You, you will be disappointed (truthfully, I can't remember exactly how detailed the pre-1966 years are treated, but they are generally pretty brief).  I understand why Brian thought it focused too much on the Landy era, since that is probably half the movie.  But to tell his whole story chronologically in two hours would be almost impossible to do well, so they chose two periods to tell the story.  Hollywood or not, the love story is very much a part of the film.  And I think it's very much a part of his life too.  Very arguably a major reason he is still walking on earth.

If you had to put percentages on it...how much of the film is Dano (1960s) and how much is Cusack (1980s)?

Hard to say since there's constant cutting back and forth, but it felt roughly 50/50.  Could possibly be more Dano since there were more characters (Beach Boys, Murry, etc) to establish in the early era than in the Landy era.  

For those who have seen the movie already, would you say that the trailer is typical deceptive/misleading movie marketing (i.e. selling the film as something it's not so as to appeal to a wider audience) or does the full trailer capture the overall mood of the movie faithfully?

I think this is significantly better and more promising than the teaser, but it still possesses a good amount of Hollywood genre-film/love story/tortured artist tropes. I suspect the actual movie will come off very different from the feel of this trailer. At least i really hope so! I mean, i keep hearing comparisons to Tree of Life and that element is obviously totally absent here...

Also, i want to believe that the decision to focus half the movie on '66-'67 has more to do with the insurmountable challenge of telling a wider period of Brian's varied life, as well as the sad reality that the #2 Greatest Album of All Time (OMG Paul McCartney loves it) + the mythology of Smile is probably the only avenue that could realistically sell this movie to the general public, rather than it being a continuation of the ever growing scenester mentality that The Beach Boys = The Genius Brian Wilson = Pet Sounds/Smile, man, and that's it (musically speaking). I'm having a bit of a hard time believing that Pohlad doesn't fall into that camp at least a little bit, but i really want to believe in him and his vision and be wrong about this.

The trailer reflects the movie fairly well IMO.  The story told here IS the story of a troubled genius - his genius primarily represented by his 1966-67 creative peak - who breaks apart under internal and external pressure, and of the love (story) that saved him years later.  It may seem too Hollywood for you, but it seems pretty on target to me, if you have to boil Brian's complicated life and psyche down to a 2 hour general release movie.  It isn't the detailed story of his creative development, peaks, valleys, etc, so if you are looking for scenes about how he made All Summer Long or the Honeys singles or Wild Honey or Love You, you will be disappointed (truthfully, I can't remember exactly how detailed the pre-1966 years are treated, but they are generally pretty brief).  I understand why Brian thought it focused too much on the Landy era, since that is probably half the movie.  But to tell his whole story chronologically in two hours would be almost impossible to do well, so they chose two periods to tell the story.  Hollywood or not, the love story is very much a part of the film.  And I think it's very much a part of his life too.  Very arguably a major reason he is still walking on earth.

I guess I can see where The Tree of Life-type symbolism analogy comes from, but I would say that is a minor aspect.  One thing that may not come across fully in the trailer is how creatively the soundtrack is used to represent Brian's internal state.

I’ve enjoyed reading reviews by other posters and critics; it really reinforces how variable musical taste can be.  One person’s favorite song is another’s nightmare.  

I love a lot about NPP.  I give it 4/5.  

First the negatives:

I often don’t listen to pre-release samples, but this time I’m glad I did so I could be prepared for the glossy 80s/90s Joe Thomas-ness of the production, and to drop any hope of a CATP-Wild Honey vibe.  I (and many listeners, apparently) would possibly find this album more enjoyable with a little less Thomas-ness (regardless whose idea it was), but this is what we have, so, as Micha bluntly put it, we can “take it or leave it.”

I agree there are some generic lyrics here, but I’ve never sought out BB product for the lyrics (more often in spite of them).  So while it might be nice to have more Brian-like quirkiness, or more lyrical efforts from Scott Bennett, at least there are no lyrics reciting old Beach Boys titles, so I feel I’m in the bonus round.  “I’m Feeling Sad” sounds very Brian-ish, and “Guess You Had to Be There” conjures up scenes in Brian’s house in the “Love and Mercy” film to me.  There are other affecting phrases throughout; “what’s gonna happen to me?” for instance.  I’m 15 years younger than Brian but really relate to the sentiments in “Whatever Happened.”  And what’s gonna happen when Brian isn’t here to give us music like this???  That alone makes me listen with additional gratitude.

The positives:

I am thrilled he brought other singers in, and is doing different styles of music.  I feel all the singers are well chosen for their songs.  I think Zooey gets just the right feel on “On the Island,” and Nate and Kacey are spot-on for their turns.  All of the duets with younger singers are among my favorite songs, and Al is reliable as always.

I am happy to have the deluxe version because I like all three bonus tracks more than several of the "legit" tracks.

I hear catchy/memorable melodies all through this album, which is what I hope to hear from Brian Wilson.  Like Ray Lawlor, I would not have thought “Runaway Dancer” would be my type of song.  Initially I was turned off by the 80s sax, etc., and that kind of dance music is not my thing AT ALL.  BUT….by golly, it makes me smile and move, and it WILL NOT LEAVE my brain, probably for the rest of my life.  That is, except for brief moments that it steps aside for “Guess You Had to Be There” or “Saturday Night” or “I’m Feeling Sad” or “One Kind of Love”…  

“Runaway Dancer” has turned out to be the most polarizing tune, so perhaps the 2nd slot is not ideal for it, as some critics have mentioned.  But this is the man who followed the quietly ethereal “whispering winds” tag of “Wind Chimes” with the electronic jolt of “Gettin’ Hungry,” so perhaps RD following “This Beautiful Day” is just a taste of Brian’s sense of humor.   Then it's back to the gorgeous "Whatever Happened," a reflective bookend to "When I Grow Up" that would fit well on a "The Beach Boys Today + 50 Years" album.  In fact, maybe there's an exercise there...let's see, match "Dance Dance Dance" with "Runaway Dancer," "In the Back of My Mind" with "Somewhere Quiet"...   Nah.

"Saturday Night" and "Guess You Had to Be There" could hardly be more catchy and radio friendly; if they don't get radio play, it just illustrates why I don't listen to Top 40.

“I’m Feeling Sad” is just a gem, in the same lineage as “Lonely Days” and “Busy Doin’ Nothin’.”  The doo-wop part is reminiscent of The Association, in a very good way.   Even though it’s about being sad, it is so infectiously bouncy that I can’t help but be happy.  Yet, when he sings the last line “Just want you to know / I’m feeling sad,” it actually chokes me up a bit.  Love it.

“One Kind of Love” was a real grower for me and that unexpected chord change on the chorus is just heart-twisting.  I think this could be a new BW classic.

Guitarfool has a great approach with the “driving with the radio on” idea.  I think Brian is having fun with different styles here.  Something like “Don’t Worry,” which some find appalling, I think, “Brian is doing a 70s Philly soul/Four Seasons thing, cool!”  I would love this kind of thing on an Adam Marsland album, why wouldn’t I love it on a Brian Wilson album?  Because he’s supposed to be doing something else?  The synth horns don’t bother me at all…it’s exactly what Brian would have used in the era he’s revisiting!

“The Last Song” is a choker, perhaps slightly less powerful in comparison to “PCH/Summer’s Gone” because they were more understated and already such perfect “career wrapups.”

I was going to do a song-by-song rating but it is just too difficult.  I would put nearly all in the 3-5 star range.  The only one that I haven't warmed to is “Tell Me Why,” which sounds a tad too generic to me despite the nice vocals.
 
And the vocals…it’s almost easy to take them for granted on a BW-BB album, but my gosh, there are just layers and layers of gorgeous harmonies and vocal parts.  Who else makes music like this???  Even if I didn’t know how hard he worked on this album, you can hear it with the care in the vocals, including his leads.

TLOS has been my favorite non-BWPS Brian solo album.  However, there are more songs I like on NPP (there are 16 to choose from), so I might rate NPP about as high.

If this was the album Brian wanted to make to follow his Muse, I say more power to him, critics be damned.  If he really wanted a big hit, he might have been better served with a more current co-producer.  Either way, this is what we got, and I’m darn happy to have it.

Great trailer.  I saw L&M at SXSW but STILL looking forward to June 5 so I can see it again!  Very powerful film, even more so for any fan who already knows the story.

Just a few:

Runaway Dancer - the way that high "Yeah" jumps in for each addictive chorus, and the bass line on the "conversation/explanation" part

On the Island - Zooey's vocal

Our Special Love:  The way Brian sings "except for here, that's where you are."

Guess You Had to Be There:  Brian:  "were suddenly MI-INE!"

Somewhere Quiet:  "I wanna take you somewhere quiet so I can hear what's in my heart" - great line and great delivery

I'm Feeling Sad:  the whole thing, including the guitar intro, the doo-wop interlude, and the last line, which is oddly affecting to me.

One Kind of Love:  The climbing, soaring chords/harmonies of the chorus, concluding with that unexpected left turn!

Saturday Night:  Nate:  "with nothing to do-oo-oo-oo-oo"   That's not an easy phrase to sing but he wraps right around it.

Another thanks here to Guitarfool for that thoughtful review...it also helped my appreciation of the album, and of the musical variety on display.

I've actually decided that it's my favorite song on the album.  I love in the chorus when he sings "unconditional" and "wishing for" and it kind of hits a minor note and it's unexpected.  You know what I'm talking about?  It's one of those things like the chord changes in "The Warmth of the Sun" that just kind of sneaks up on you.

I call it "heart-twisting"...that's where I literally felt it the first couple of times I heard that chord change.  Doesn't get much more direct than that.

Much better than the Kimmel performance.  Good, upbeat song choice.  Brian was mixed low but I thought they sold the song, which to me is the point of these appearances...make people want to check out the album.  I wish they could do "Saturday Night" with Nate or "Guess You Had to Be There" with Kacey on national TV soon...