The remaster of Paul Simon's One Trick Poney features an earlier version of 'How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns' called 'Spiral Highway' which I find to be a far better song.

Though a find every track on Stevie Nicks' wonderful solo album Bella Donna to be a flawless gem, I  have just as much love for the tracks that didn't make the cut, like 'Blue Lamp', 'Gold and Braid', 'Julia', 'Belle Fluer', 'If You Were My Love' and especially 'Sleeping Angel' to be as good as anything on the album, and in some cases better.

Happy birthday Mike. You’re 80 now so it’s time to retire from touring before you break something.

edit: sorry, accidental double post

Well, Motown did package tour with multiple groups and solo artists called the Motortown Revue starting in the beginning of the ‘60s. Only thing I can think of that compares.

Yet more Beach Boys shirts and the like I designed on customink.com:

Orange Grove - front

back


SMiLE - front

back


Cool Cool Water beach towel


I swear I’m gonna buy my SMiLE shirt someday for myself. Took forever to make (Brian is made up of a bunch of different shapes and things), but I like how it came out.

More soon (no, really this time).

My favorite version of ‘Can’t Wait Too Long’ would be like GV box set mix with the descending bass outro from the twofer mix stuck on the end, fading out.

Yeah, I remember reading about that in Look Listen Vibrate Smile. Apparently it was the result of Capitol stressing out about ‘Heroes and Villains’ still not ready for release (unless Priore is dead wrong or I’m remembering it wrong, it’s been a long time since I read anything from LLVS).

Probably he was buying time, as it wasn’t complete. Only several days later, Taylor announced the abandonment of Smile to the press.

Episode 11 should end with Mike disastrous Rock And Roll Hall of Fame speech.

They get him and Marks as the neighbor guys. This time when Audrey forces Dennis in, it would be as a singer. He would be freed up from drumming and could sing lead and harmony as he had done since the first album (in the studio.) The live harmony would be huge with an extra voice on each song. Sorta on a different note, isn't it strange that on most of The Beach Boys albums, Dennis doesn't drum a whole lot, but he sings lead and harmony on every album. Then on stage, he mostly drummed and didn't sing a whole lot. How I miss Dennis Wilson!!!!!

Oh, come now. “Dennis didn’t drum a lot”. He drummed more than most realize. Especially in the early days. Then after the band become more of a self contained unit.

We need a list of every confirmed song Dennis plays drums on. I think it would shock a lot of people.

According to AGD’s site, Dennis drummed on:

- Every track on Surfin’ Safari (except ‘Surfin’’)
- Every track on Surfin’ USA (except the title track)
- Every track on Surfer Girl (though I thought Hal Blaine played on ‘Our Car Club’)
- Every track on Little Deuce Coupe
- Every track on Shut Down Vol. 2
- Every track on All Summer Long
- Every track on the Christmas Album (except the Dick Reynolds-arranged tracks I believe)
- Every track on Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), apparently
- At least one track (‘That’s Not Me’) on Pet Sounds

I’m not sure if he played at all on Today.

So yeah.

I want that baseball bat guitar. 😳 A mixture of two of my very favorite things, music and baseball. You simply can’t get more American than John, a true original. I’m happy he played ‘Long As I Can See The Light’, which I ranted lovingly about on the previous page.

Somehow I thought Little Richard would live forever, almost - he always seemed perennially young in some way. Whereas Elvis seemed pretty old when he died at 42, basically the same age as me, the youth of Little Richard as well as the fire in Jerry Lee Lewis would see them both outlive their peers. Now only Jerry Lee remains of that first generation. Their legacy is so huge, it’s immeasurable. RIP the Georgia Peach.

I remember a few years ago when it really dawned on me that Kraftwerk is one of the most influential groups ever, since the end of the ‘70s and the dawn of the ‘80s saw many synthpop groups, most of them European, come to the fore on the basis of what Kraftwerk did before. Back when they did Autobahn, Kraftwerk was one of the few doing that sort of thing, but as with The Velvet Underground & Nico, the few that heard it were inspired to do something along the same lines. They blazed the path. Rest In Peace, Florian.

Edit to title. It’s a series. Probably going to be lame but Space Force on Netflix end of the month.

https://youtu.be/bdpYpulGCKc

Starring Steve Carell from ‘The Office’.  I hope it’s huge! (That’s what she said  )

https://www.engadget.com/netflix-space-force-trailer-carell-142732497.html

I watched the Netflix mini series Waco yesterday, I guess it was released two years earlier but I didn’t see it then.
Jesus Christ. I was almost 14 at the time and I remember watching the Waco siege on TV, and everything I knew about what happened, who David Koresh and his followers were and what the ATF and FBI were doing, but this series opened my eyes. I had no idea. I had no idea. I really want to read both Waco survivor David Thibodeau and former FBI Negotiator Gary Noesner’s books, which the mini series was based on. Man...

As for today, I’m busy doin’ nothin’.

[Gettin' In Over My Head]

Honestly, most of Mike's music is not very good. There are some gems here and there, though.

Having said that, I do think its insane the amount of hate that he immediately receives for everything he puts out.

Mike, at his absolute best, has never been a Brian Wilson-level talent. I think sometimes people forget that.

And, even if he were, we can't expect top-tier material every time something gets released. For nostalgia reasons, I do love Gettin' In Over My Head, but comparatively, it is not a very good album. And, a real missed opportunity where Paul McCartney is concerned. For that matter, a lot of Paul McCartney's own music is a missed opportunity as far as Paul McCartney is concerned! Haha.

Its just meant to be a fun, harmless, pick-me-up charity single, nothing grand.

I guess some people read too much into other persons' critique of this song. It is bad, plain and simple. I am not a famous musician, have not written a hit or have any of my music released, and certainly I'm not the best songwriter in the world. And I would be ashamed if I came up with this. The charity aspect is a nice idea, sure, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the song itself. If the song's release would cure aids, it still would be a terribly bad tune. Got nothing to do with who wrote it or why he/she wrote it.

I totally agree with you. Add to that my lamenting that Mike was once a good lyric writer but for the last few decades or more, his lyrics have been truly heinous.

GIOMH is actually a strong album from a songwriting perspective. The songs on it range from good to great. The problem with the album is Brian's lackluster performance on at least half of the songs. Take "Rainbow eyes" - what a beautiful song, completely destroyed by the vocals and production. "Make a wish" could've been a nice rocking tune, but here as well, Brian's wall-of-Brian-vocals are unimaginative and boring. Not all songs are masterpieces, "You've touched me", "A friend like you", "The waltz" are album filler material, but still have a certain amount of quality. But from the point songwriting this could be the most versatile album of his solo career and a very strong one. Performance and production make it unfortunately a "could-have-been". The strong cuts on here show some of the potential.

I was largely disappointed with GIOMH though I suspect part of that was it being released so close to the feverishly awaited and massively adored BWPS. There are things on it that I do like, but overall I found it undercooked. Add to that, a bit too many guest appearances, though not as bad as on NPP, which made it feel less like a solo Brian Wilson album.
I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I’ve sat down and listened to GIOMH. I ought to go back. I should stop expecting a TLOS (my favorite Brian solo album, and yes, even over BWPS. I feel more of the spirit of Brian today. It’s just beautiful) from him every time.

Yeah, but you had the idea and put it there. Here’s the cover of a best of compilation I made some years back, and virtually none of it is mine, from the photographs, to the shapes to the fonts. It’s what you do with it the pieces that matters. After all, it’s not like Brian Wilson invented the chords he was using.

Anyway, my cover I mentioned (sorry it’s so huge):




When I can, I’d like to make my own compilation of Brian’s rare solo output and create a cover for it.

And? It just shows his relatively recent appearance on a George Harrison tribute album .

Edit: Nevermind, I see now.

If someone finds a picture of The Beach Boys Love You condom (not likely), please with all haste post it here. I just Googled it and now I hate having that in my search history.

I sincerely hope that the packaging, if any, included a line from one of the album's tracks as a promotional motto or something. You know, like "We'll make sweet love till the sun goes down, we'll even do more when you're mama's not around". With fine print warning against unprotected underage sex.

Ahem. I have way too much time and weird stray thoughts on my hands, as do we all.

What the hell, I’ll play devil’s advocate: what about ‘Smart Girls’, OSD? What about the more lamented tracks on Gettin’ In Over My Head? Was Brian losing his marbles when he wrote these? Mike hasn’t gone full dementia just because he recorded something (for charity) that is hazardous to listen to. Mike just doesn’t have the awesome capability that Brian has to bring a good song into being, and even a lot of those are labored. And even some of those don’t turn out all that good, as per my examples above. There’s a limit to hating on Mike, OSD, and you’re getting there quick.

I’m gonna go wash my hands, partly because, well, we all should, and partly because I just defended Mike “Let’s shoot harmless animals for fun with the president’s brain dead son” Love. Ick.

Didn't Brian write Smart Girls during just such a time, when he was not doing well mentally?

Yes, but not dementia as OSD said. Maybe I should’ve said ‘Hey Little Tomboy’, a wretched song that has too many fans.

Sir, there is no limit to the amount of weird facts about our favorite band. I’m sure if the band had ever released Adult/Child, the LP would have included a training bra that you’d have to unfasten just to pull the record out of the sleeve.

What the hell, I’ll play devil’s advocate: what about ‘Smart Girls’, OSD? What about the more lamented tracks on Gettin’ In Over My Head? Was Brian losing his marbles when he wrote these? Mike hasn’t gone full dementia just because he recorded something (for charity) that is hazardous to listen to. Mike just doesn’t have the awesome capability that Brian has to bring a good song into being, and even a lot of those are labored. And even some of those don’t turn out all that good, as per my examples above. There’s a limit to hating on Mike, OSD, and you’re getting there quick.

I’m gonna go wash my hands, partly because, well, we all should, and partly because I just defended Mike “Let’s shoot harmless animals for fun with the president’s brain dead son” Love. Ick.

The fact that the surviving Beach Boys were able to bury the hatchet at least for a little while to the delight of all their fans but CCR can’t, speaks to the closeness of the former and the distance between the latter. Brian doesn’t necessarily see himself as the reason for the existence for the band to begin with. I love John Fogerty but I don’t think he thinks of himself the same way. The odds of CCR getting back together for an extended tour and new album are not good, to put it mildly.

A shame since I’ve loved many of their songs since I was a teen. For a long time ‘Who’ll Stop The Rain’ was my favorite but many years ago a girl, no, woman I loved told me how much she loved ‘Long As I Can See The Light’, a song I’d previously not given a lot of thought to. I remember listening to it again with newly opened ears and I marveled at its beauty. It’s been my favorite CCR tune ever since and every time I listen to it, which isn’t often enough, I think of her, what she’s doing, who is he and is he good to her, after so many before him who weren’t.

Anyway, yeah. Fogerty, a tremendous songwriter.

I guess the most underrated aspect of Brian's work are his little side-projects, like covers in tribute albums and backing vocals in other artists' songs. Some of those turn out to be real gems: the first coming to my mind are "Listen To Me", "Wanderlust", "Hand On My Shoulder".
Someone should compile and issue a "Pet Projects II" album.
Is there anybody having a complete or near complete list of these side-projects?

On the old german Beach Boys messageboard we compiled a 2-disc collection of Brian's recordings that weren't on one of his albums (or only as bonus for download etc). Excluding live recordings, Christmas songs, guest performances on other artists recordings and unreleased stuff. That was shortly after That Lucky Old Sun came out, so since then there are like 7 new ones afaik.

We called it "Believe in yourself - The solo works of Brian Wilson"
The artwork was really just a quick copy&paste like job I did, so very amateurish, since I don't know nothing about such work. But anyway, here's front and back cover:

Well, I’ve extensively studied graphic design (didn’t finish for life-got-in-the-way reasons) and design my own BW/BBs album covers in Photoshop, and I gotta commend you on that back cover. When I was reading the track list I thought I was looking at some illustration of a weirdly bright blazing sun in a late summer sky only to realize it was the center of an orange. That’s awesome.

I’d love to see a release along these lines someday.