This is amazing, but it's funny how 'With a Little Help' blew his mind when he could probably write a better song than that in his sleep. Or he could've back in the 60s.

I was listening to 'California Girls' today and this one bit that I forgot about
https://youtu.be/fmIsdMWzdaE?t=2m35s
came up and after listening to that one bit over again 4 times I started thinking about other particular moments/bits in Beach Boys songs that always get me. I couldn't find a thread for something like this (I might not've looked hard enough but there you go), so here we are. I'm curious to see what other people choose. I could choose many more (and just all of Pet Sounds) but these are the few that immediately come to mind:

The whole flute bit
https://youtu.be/2r1V3oDSydM?t=1m40s

This little bit immediately followed by those strings always gets me
https://youtu.be/PiGGgBNon60?t=1m49s

The strings always get me, especially when he says "forever"
https://youtu.be/LU8Tpb3_2o4?t=53s

This is probably one of the most beautiful things Brian ever came up with
https://youtu.be/Uio_cnWZMsM?t=3m35s

The rest of the song from this point
https://youtu.be/QcHckXNq164?t=2m45s

The little bit Brian sings right after Mike does
https://youtu.be/mky-UhxUKoM?t=3m30s

I might be the only person that feels this way but I always felt this song was so sad because she didn't really exist and this last little verse just makes it obvious that he's really alone and she's just a dream
https://youtu.be/oTFOu8lSoYs?t=1m36s

And the ending of this song is still the most beautiful thing I've ever heard
https://youtu.be/8WUI4DhUfnw?t=3m9s

Apparently he also helped to produce the many moods of his dad, plus the album with the similar name.

Anyone know if Redwood the last band Brian ever tried to produce?

He produced Stephen Kalinich's 1969 album A World of Peace Must Come (that wasn't released until 2008). He also produced the American Spring Spring album.

There should be a list on here of everything he ever touched (musically speaking) if there isn't already.

JANUARY 6th

1964: The Survivors release their Brian Wilson produced/written single ‘Pamela Jean’ and the also Brian Wilson produced/written b-side ‘After The Game’. The Survivors were a one-off group that consisted of Richard Alarian, Bob Norberg, Dave Nowlen, and Brian. This is their only release. [Personal note: The b-side ‘After The Game’ is really beautiful, if you haven’t heard it. If you have, it’s just as beautiful.] Also on this day a recording session for Paul Petersen’s ‘She Rides With Me’ takes place at RCA studios, Los Angeles, California.



1977: The Beach Boys play a gig at the Sportatorium in Hollywood, Florida.

1982: The Beach Boys appear on the Merv Griffin Show.

1986: The Beach Boys play a gig at Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, Utah.

2015: The Beach Boys play a gig at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Sarasota, Florida.

It's funny, I forgot how weird Do You Like Worms (or Do You Dig Worms) was, I've heard it so much on it's own. But putting those vocals on top really brought out again how far out (for lack of a better term) it really sounds.

No problem! It was a fun project to help out with, i'll have to go back and listen as it's been ages since I've heard it. Since you're just coming back to this board I'm not sure if you've seen my 'Love' mix. It's kinda like those few compilations that Woodstock put together, but it's more like the Beatles 'Love' album where tracks are all split up and reimagined (at one point I have the vocals of Cottonfields playing over the instrumental of 'Do You Wanna Dance').

Anyways, here's the link if you're interested: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,23016.msg546648.html#msg546648

I'm listening to it right now. So far it's great. I Just Wasn't Wonderful was oddly affecting. Please Say Goodbye made me laugh out loud. I mean it's beautiful but I wasn't expecting that.

If we're thinking of the same thing those are two of three mixes made by the poster Woodstock, Judd, with a small bit of editing work done by me.

Here's a link to the first video, and from that Vimeo page you should be able to view the other two:
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,18190.0.html

Holy sh!t! Thank you!

This is probably a hopeless pursuit but awhile back on youtube there were two Beach Boy medley mix type things and each were pretty long and one had a picture of a sunny sky or something and the other had a dark sky (I can't specifically remember) and one of them started with 'It's a Blue World' by the Four Freshmen and they were both amazing and now I can't find them anywhere. Does anybody know what I'm talking about and if they do where I could find them if they're still on youtube?

Must've felt so amazing to be working on a second album for Capitol. Momentum building, fandom rising, and the recording of two songs that would clearly be hits.

And two songs that clearly wouldn't be.
No, they were pretty good especially for the early days. Brian's vocal on 'Farmer's Daughter' is heavenly.

'Farmers Daughter'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EUrKOTshIM

'Words Of Love'

They're definitely famous, everybody I know know's who they are. But they're famous for their surfing songs and that early image. A lot of people know of Pet Sounds and less know of SMiLE and I doubt a whole lot know of most of their records after those (with the exception of 'Kokomo' which is probably, in my experience, the song that kind of defines them in a lot of peoples eyes). But it's that early California girls riding in your woodie to have some fun in the sun and surf all the time image that most people know. They're icons because of that image.

But yeah also the individual members aren't really known at all by most of the people who only know them for that early image (because once you hear of Brian Wilson and care enough to remember his name and see why people talk about it you hear of Pet Sounds and then that probably changes your whole perception of them).

JANUARY 5th

1963: First recording session for the Beach Boys’ second album Surfin’ USA, which takes place at Western Recorders studio in Hollywood. Songs worked on include ‘Surfin USA’, ‘Shut Down’, ‘Lana’ and ‘Farmers Daughter’.

1967: A recording session at Western Recorders studio in Hollywood for ‘Heroes and Villains’. Diane Rovell, sister of Brian’s wife Marilyn, books all the musicians today, a job which she will continue on many more recording sessions.

1970: A recording session at Brian’s home studio in Bel Air, California sees the group work on ‘I Just Got My Pay’ and ‘Carnival’.

1979: A recording session at Sounds Good studios & (presumably later in the day) Dick Dalton Studios, Los Angeles, California, for the song ‘Love Surrounds Me’.

2001: VH1 ranks Pet Sounds the 3rd greatest album of all time behind Nirvana’s Nevermind (2nd) and The Beatles’ Revolver (1st).

2015: The Beach Boys play a show at the Artis-Naples Center in Naples, Florida.

JANUARY 4th

1961: Mike Love marries Frances St. Martin in Los Angeles, California.

1979: A recording session at Studio 55, Los Angeles, California. They work on the disco version of 'Here Comes The Night'.

1980: A recording session at Rumbo studios, Los Angeles, California, where work is 'Goin On'.

Whenever I think of Brian getting old I think of the song 'When I Grow Up To Be A Man' with the words of the outro "Won't last forever, it's kinda sad". I think Brian likes that his crazier years are behind him, but I'm sure he, like anyone else, would love to have a few more lifetimes to work on the things that he loves.

Also, to clarify my comment about Brian usually always being aware: from what I recall (I've got a terrible memory) he's usually always aware of everything going on around him...it's probably what makes him such a great producer in the booth - he is constantly aware of every note of music coming through the speakers.

It's funny, he spent probably most of his life scared sh!tless of growing up, and now that he's old he's probably pretty happy with it. That probably contradicts my last comment about how he wanted to be old, but I think it was the process of growing up that scared him. The pain is what scared him, the having to actually go through it. I'm sure he wouldn't have minded just pressing a magic button to zoom past all those years of growing up.

I'm always skeptical about what people close to Brian say to the public about his well being or whatever but I'm sure he's pretty aware. If he's still as aware as he was in the 60s then darn. Maybe the musicians just aren't working on as complicated of stuff haha.

One thing that people forget too is that Brian is getting older, and his back isn't in the best of shape...so of course he isn't going to look 100% (and all of that on top of what you said about his history with Landy and prior abuses). The people who actually know Brian, those who spend time around him these days, say that he is usually always aware of what's going on around him....and I'm sure it's easier for him to be more quiet and vigilant in these latter years.

I can't imagine them saying anything other than that, but I believe them. That's good to hear. I think he likes being old to an extent. Now he doesn't have to do anything haha. He probably spent a lot of time 1968 on wishing he was old.

So if the Beatles never did LSD, would they still have been singing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" in 1967?

Or more importantly, would Ringo have written 'Octopus's Garden'?

And I totally agree with your second paragraph; that's a perspective I never really thought of before. And with that innocence in mind (if that was the case for Brian) it makes you wonder just how scared he was about his own paranoia during that time. Right now we have so many resources we can look up in the palm of our hand: "Ok Google, my heart is racing, I have chest chest pain, extreme fear, and my hands are going numb." "Sounds like a panic attack". Whereas in Brian's day I'm sure it wasn't easy to research these issues let alone admit to anyone the full depths of what was happening to him.

You take any given 5 years of that guy's life between 1960 and 1990 and if it were any person besides Brian Wilson you'd scarcely believe any of those events happened to one person. You take the whole of those 30 years and it's a wonder he made it through alive.

It blows my mind when people complain that Brian's not seeming "100%" or that he seems lacking somehow these days. Like look what he went through! It's amazing he could make Love You in 1976, let alone be touring regularly today after Love You when he slipped into a deeper depression possibly because he had gotten help and nothing had happened and the Boys yet again said "No Brian, we don't like your music" and left him to just rot at the piano while his mind drifted even further out while he smoked like a chimney and a half and ballooned again to 300/350 lbs (however much) and then spent 10 years with Landy extremely medicated and living in a twilight zone episode where his Dad comes back in the form of some guy who's both in love with Brian (and himself) yet doesn't actually give a sh!t about what Brian wants and needs. Eugene literally took a person who already suffered from psychosis (at least someone who had it in him), and trapped him in a fantasy. That sounds like a nightmare beyond comprehension. Now Brian might not be as smart as he used to be and his childlike dependency on others might be stronger than any more useful independent emotions, but he was certainly smart enough to know what was happening to him on some level. There's no way he didn't know it. Imagine that.

So anyone expecting him to be 100% is... I don't like insulting others with words like this, but that kind of is delusional. I just hope Brian's happy. I hope he's accepted his past and present as much as he's capable of.

He was totally naive. I mean, that's what makes his work so powerful and endearing. I think Eugene Landy was vaguely right when he said Brian didn't have a sense of humor. He did in a way, but he so sincerely believed in everything. He was completely uncynical. That kind of quality is really rare in people, especially adults. He was just a kid. "A children's song.... their song is love and the children know the way..." Brian was that child. And he wanted everyone else to realize the child in themselves, and if they were older than to try to reignite that truth.

Sorry that whole long thing was kinda rambly, but I think it gets my point across somehow.

@Aduit Child; Timothy White wrote a great book called 'The Nearest Faraway Place' and in it he traces the family lineage and I do believe talks about the history of mental illness in Brian's family. From what I recall he had a relative with manic depressive/bipolar disorder (or at least he showed obvious signs of it). And even his father showed signs of depression (after he got fired by the band he stayed in bed for a long time due to depression). So I think a family history contributed a lot to his own mental health problems, as well as his problems at home. You're absolutely right: he didn't deserve it at all.

I've never heard of this book, thanks for telling me. I'd heard about Brian's dad in the I Just Wasn't Made For These Times documentary (and a 1976 Rolling Stone article I think maybe Audree mentioned it that early). And I'd read about one of his relatives in Catch a Wave. I'll definitely get a copy.

The really sad thing about Brian is I feel that a lot of the same things that helped him when he was good hurt him badly when he wasn't. Drugs are the obvious thing, but like his own sensitivity and his childlike pure belief in things. When he felt confident and on top of himself then that sensitivity helped him write all those perfect songs. But when his illness kicked in (maybe it was cause of the illness too) he was too affected by emotion to really do anything. And that belief made him able to make something like 'Fire', which is so heavy; it sounds like an actual fire. But he couldn't see that his paranoia was unjustified because he actually believed in it all. His innocence I think kept him from realizing some of his problems when he could've used that knowledge.

The 1964 breakdown showed the issues existed before drugs.

Yeah, a lot of things seemed to show issues did exist. At least emotional issues. Obviously his father hitting him, and as he said in the Beautiful Dreamer documentary he'd walk around school with a hand over his chest so no one would hit him.

But it's really hard to say what actions or events had to do with mental illness and what had to do with just strong emotions. It was obvious as hell that he was a deeply insecure dude for alotta reasons: his fathers abuse, trying to live up to his fathers expectations and shake off his fathers shadow, his natural lack of macho-ness and his not so great way with girls (apparently, unless Mike was talking out of his Lovehole, but it makes sense), his need to be the best, his inner conflicted feelings of wanting things his way but his fear of offending anybody and of confrontation in general, etc. I mean we know he was mentally ill but it's hard to tell where and when that illness showed itself as opposed to being just emotional stuff.

It's so sad. He really didn't deserve it (not that anybody does).

That would be crazy. Literally. Har har.

Har har. I haven't laughed that har hard in decades.

It is certainly not certain. As I said, the science is out.

Well somebody should let it back in!

Only kidding. I mean it'd be crazy if he'd had no mental problems already boiling up and then drugs just caused him to freak out as much as he did.

My own beliefs don't really allow me to celebrate someone dying, but I will say I will not shed a tear when the time comes.

I don't really like celebrating people dying, but it's not Mother Teresa we're talking about.

It's about time he ceased to exist