How horrible. My heart goes out to Brian and their children.

I don’t think it would be a stretch, but Brian would not have had the solo touring career without Jeff at his side. RIP.

It's not a stretch at all.

Rest in peace, Jeff.

I think Capitol made a big mistake but making God Only Knows a B-side. If it had been released as a separate single after Wouldn't It Be Nice started sliding down the charts, GOK would have been a big hit and it would have kept Pet Sounds selling, maybe keeping Beach of the Beach Boys from happening.

You're right, Endless Harmony. Great performance, with a cool, tongue-in-cheek intro from Dennis.

The live version of "Long Promised Road" on the "Good Vibrations" box set was an amazing vocal.

I think Brian nailed the bridge on Surfer Girl at Knebworth.

Carl had the right to be skeptical of Brian's ability to do an album. I'm sure many here have seen this Brian interview from 1995: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUHUGXDIhz0  This is the worst I've ever seen Brian. Overweight, chain-smoking, grimacing frequently, struggling to be coherent. I think this interview is one of the few times fans can see what Brian's mental illness is like behind scenes. Carl had already seen Brian get used and abused several times prior and probably felt that Brian couldn't produce an album again.

Seeing this interview, I can absolutely see how Carl didn't want Brian to do a Pet Sounds tour. You see how Brian is completely twitching for about eight seconds as the interviewer is asking his question. Eight seconds might not seem like a long time, but that would be an eternity for someone in the middle of singing I Just Wasn't Made For These Times. Except for his worst substance abusing days in 1977-78, Carl was always protective of how everyone performed onstage, and definitely wouldn't have wanted Brian to embarrass himself.

As for what Brian was saying in the interview, he seemed to be pretty on-point, and was very complimentary toward Carl. It seems like with Carl's encouragement and support -- remember, he was the guy who basically produced Holland -- they could have gotten an album out, and maybe eased Brian back into the band onstage.

I think Brian and Carl would have gotten closer had Carl lived. Landy obviously poisoned Brian's mind about Carl, and Carl had to be hurt hearing the words come out of Brian's mouth, even if he knew intellectually it was really Landy talking.

By 1998, when actual good, caring doctors had begun to undo Landy's damage and more time had passed, I think the Wilson brothers would have grown closer again. Maybe there would have been a Pet Sounds tour with the Boys.

[I]

Any artist that would get their song on the show would likely only celebrate it. It’s a ton of exposure, and apparently even with the pennies that Spotify pays artists, at least Kate Bush is apparently bringing in some huge bucks.

But I can’t say much of any of the songs featured prominently in the show really reflect the artists a ton or are integral to the plot thematically. There are a few. Even the Kate Bush track could have easily been another song and still worked with the plot. The fact that the character listens to the song is what’s integral to the plot, more than the content of the song itself.

Artists being pleasantly surprised by the success this show’s exposure brings them is really more akin to an artist having a weird surprise hit, rather than the show really deeply delving into the thematic nature of the songs or the artist in question.

But yeah, this is easily the most exposure Al Jardine and Carl Wilson’s voices have seen in eons. The song has never left Mike’s setlist; I’m a bit surprised Al isn’t doing the song with Brian currently. But, especially prior to the BB’s social media picking up on the song’s success and upgrading the video on YouTube, etc., it wouldn’t have surprised me if Al had no idea about the song being in the show.

MATT: Dad, the BB version of California Dreaming was used on Stranger Things!
AL: Golly gee whiz, that’s great! *pause* What’s Stranger Things?
MATT: It’s a TV show on Netflix.
Al: Golly gee whiz, that’s great! *pause* What’s Netflix?

AL: Why did they use our California Dreamin'?
MATT: The show is set in 1986, and it was on Made In USA.
AL: If we'd put Loop De Loop on Made in USA like I wanted they would have used that.

Other than writing that It's About Time is sung by Dennis, I think the writer does a generally good job and has a solid list. IMO, there are two glaring omissions: When I Grow Up (to Be a Man) and Kiss Me Baby.

Here are 8 more from me to make 50:

Breakaway
Don't Talk (Put Your Head on Shoulder)
I'll Bet He's Nice
The Night Was So Young
Long Promised Road
We'll Run Away  -- my choice for most underrated BB song
Slip on Through  -- although Dennis is very well-represented on the writer's list
I'm Waiting For the Day

The Surf's Up album would have been a classic if Dennis hadn't pulled Fourth of July and Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again. Once Dennis pulled his songs, I think it would have been good to give him a shot at singing the lead on "Tree" instead of Jack (that's nothing against Jack, it just would have been nice to hear Dennis).

Such sad news. Billy died the same day as his mother.

https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-musician-billy-hinsche-dies-20211121-isbsudcip5ebtpwpjructauvka-story.html

If there is another side, lots of ex-friends and bandmates gave him a big hug.

Sad news. Don Everly has died at 84.

https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ny-singer-don-everly-dies-at-84-20210822-3vxg7uzrknhb5dnkqdsp2syl2a-story.html

Pretty much every harmony group that followed owes them a huge debt. Brian raved about them, and on the Party album Mike told Brian that you shouldn't fool around with an Everly Brothers song.

Hopefully he and Phil are making more heavenly harmonies.

One of my biggest Beach Boys "what ifs" is what if Brian decided, after the 1963 when Al subbed for him, that he was going to stop touring then and only join the band for TV shows?

Murry obviously preferred the mature, responsible Al over the young Dave, who Murry saw as a punk who would be a bad influence on Carl. Because he saw Al eager to come back in the fold, I think he probably picked fights with Dave to try to get him to quit.

If Brian had quit in 1963, maybe Murry realizes they need Dave, and Dave stays. And since Brian is not touring, maybe he never has a breakdown in 1964. The whole band trajectory and Brian's mental-health trajectory might have been different.

If I remember right, Carl had tried many times to help Dennis, and had promised that the group would pay for Dennis' treatment and buy the Harmony back for him if he would go to rehab. I think the Gaines book said that Dennis had checked in to dry out a couple of times in the final months, but left once because they wouldn't let a friend stay the night with him, and left another (and final?) time when Shawn called and said she needed him for something.

Again if I remember right, Carl was going to play the Landy card after the new year, after spending the holidays with Audree. It's so sad he never got the chance.

The dream scenario -- I know it would have been a HUGE longshot -- is that Landy would have gotten Dennis sober, then Dennis would have seen Landy for what he was and gotten Brian out, with both off booze and drugs.

Very interesting that the only Pacific Ocean Blue song Brian knew was the "evening news" one.

https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-brian-wilson-film-commentary-20210617-r2olme7rjzbwjmzfujx3qph6tq-story.html

I believe Kiss Me Baby and Let Him Run Wild we B-sides. If not, they should be on there.

We'll Run Away
I'm So Young
All the non-singles on Pet Sounds
Here Comes The Night (original version)
Be With Me
Time to Get Alone
All I Wanna Do
Leaving This Town
The Night Was So Young
I'll Bet He's Nice
My Diane

Solo:
Rainbows
There's So Many
Where Has Love Gone

One thing that I wondered about, is how much Murry Wilson and Joe Jackson knew about each other. I'm going to assume that during Murry's lifetime, Joe Jackson and the extent of his abuse towards his children was not public knowledge, but I don't really know. It's a remarkable what a similar trajectory both of those showbiz parents tragically took with their kids.

And Bud Cowsill was probably worse than both of them.

Mike may not have been 100 percent onboard for Pet Sounds, but he sang his heart out on it. That's Not Me and Here Today are great, and as much as I love Brian and his voice, I prefer WIBN with Mike singing the bridge, not Brian.

His bass vocal is great on a lot of songs, but All Dressed Up for School may be the best. For a lead vocal "snippet," I always liked his part on Breakaway.

For lyrics, Good Vibrations is great, and of course I have to go with Sound of Free. :-)

I know it's just a movie, but I think of "The Manchurian Candidate." Even after Frank Sinatra finds out he's been brainwashed and realized he never particularly liked Raymond Shaw, he says there's STILL a part of him that thinks, "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”

It's hard to get over brainwashing easily, especially for the number of years it went on with Landy and all the medications the evil doctor used to reinforce it. So even after Brian was "freed," there was probably still some Landy in his brain, so he might have believed the things Landy said -- like all Carl cared about was whether Brian could write and produce hits.

For Carl's part, logically he probably knew that when Brian said bad things about him they were Landy's words, but they still had to hurt coming out of the mouth of his brother -- a brother who he had to go and rescue several times. Those bad feelings probably carried over into the abortive 1995 sessions.

I think time would have healed most of those wounds, but unfortunately Carl didn't have enough time.

I love the top photo is that's is Carl clowning around onstage and not Dennis.

The second one shows how complicated the family dynamic could be and later got. I remember in the Timothy White book where White described accompanying Brian to the studio and walked in on Dennis having a pleasant conversation with Mike and Stan, telling them how much he enjoyed seeing "The Wiz" in New York,

That's great. I hope Brian did write it.

The recent Bee Gees documentary was very good. I was hoping Brian would be in it. No one in the world could emphasize more with Barry, singing amazing harmony with your brothers and having them predecease you even though you're the oldest.

1. Monterey Pop. If only someone had been able to convince them to ditch the striped shirts, play "Pet Sounds" tracks, "Good Vibrations" and tease "Heroes and Villains." A good reception there might have gotten to finish "Smile" -- and kept the group cool in the eyes of the general public.

2. Releasing "Breakaway" and "Celebrate the News" for Capitol. With the relationship shot, Capitol wasn't going to promote it. They should have given them "We're Together Again" and another track for the B-side and saved those two gems for the new album. Maybe Fred Vail is able to get this one on the radio, and replacing "Got to Know the Woman" and either "At My Window" with "Breakaway" and "CTN" turns "Sunflower" into an all-time classic.

3. So many oldies on "15 Big Ones." When the concept of a double-album of oldies and originals died, they should have scrapped most of the oldies, saving them for B-sides and maybe to sprinkle one or two on each successive album. Replace some of them with tracks already done like "San Miguel," "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" and "Loop de Loop," which were done or almost done, would have made them seem like less of an oldies act. (Sure, those songs had been recorded years earlier, but in the pre-internet days, very few people would have known).

4. Disco version of "Here Comes the Night." I don't think the Beach Boys should have been doing disco at all, but even so, they were far too late. Take off that 10 minutes and replace them with a finished "California Feeling" and a couple of those in No. 3, and L.A. is a solid debut for CBS.

5. The 1995 reunion falling apart. Many of us have wondered how Carl could sing on "Summer in Paradise" but think the Wilson-Paley material was too weak.

I think you mean Bruce on the last point

Yep. It's fixed now. :-)

I think the guys' relationship with Bruce, like everything else, is complicated. Obviously there were troubles, but also positives.

Brian clearly liked Bruce's voice, since he made it prominent on three of the key songs they recorded in Bruce's first year with the band, "California Girls," "The Little Girl I Once Knew" and "God Only Knows." And he also sang lead on the Brian-Al "At My Window."

Bruce and Dennis may have had issues, but Bruce taught Dennis to play piano (or expanded on the training Audree had given him). He also sang on "End of the Show." And in live shows, when Dennis would sing "You Are So Beautiful," it was Dennis playing the piano, when Mike Meros could have easily done it.

And while Bruce was anti-drugs, he's there smiling with the three Wilson brothers at the "Love You" release party when he wasn't even in the band.

People on this board who've encountered Bruce who say sometimes he's not nice, and sometimes he's great. He was great here.