I just realized last night I had a dream where I had a beer with Bruce Johnston. 

A sequel to the Mickey Dolenz song, no?

Somebody HAS to show these videos to BW. If only I had Foskett's phone number

He takes requests, ladies and gentlemen!

Re: Jonas, this is my theory: Carl's desire to break free of the BB world for a bit, which was rapidly disintigrating as of 1980-81, included, however unfairly, Dennis. That said, Dennis sure supported Carl and went to Carl's Roxy show with Brian (Ed Roach has some great pictures of this).

This is just me thinking out loud, but I've never considered the fact that Carl made significant appearances on Dennis' records as further ammunition as to why there was friction about Dennis' solo career within the BB: think of it this way, Dennis is saying "well I'm gonna make records on my own, and include my brother Carl, the best singer in the band, whenever I can," and then he one-ups the BB release in 77 in terms of sales and mounts his own solo tour...including Carl...it's starting to come together. Brian's the wild card of the group, and Dennis+Carl are going to progress with the POB band. That just leaves Mike and Al as the ones furthering the BB.

Take out of this what you will

This boxset could, in theory, help the BB critical appreciation and restore their standing as one of the best bands, at least that's what I'm hoping. I also hope there is as much integrity in both the selection, restoration and liner notes as there has been in this thread. Hope, hope, hope. This is also the most excited I've been since the double-punch of POB and TLOS, and before that...yikes...let's not go there...

A bizarre but funny anecdote from one of the Radio City shows (I think it was the first one) is that you can very clearly hear a guy requesting a song throughout parts of the show: "Tears in the Morning!" he says in a thick New York accent.

Once I picked out Dennis' part on "Don't Worry Baby," I realized that HE was what made the chorus work (in addition to Brian's sterling work). It's his voice that gives the song the "bollocks" so to speak, the extra notch that brings it to heaven. Listen to the snippett of that song that's acapella on the Summer Love Songs compilation. It's spine-tingling.

The other song I jumped up at when I heard the Dennis harmony was "You Still Believe in Me." No coincidence that those are two of my favorite songs period.

Lindsey Buckingham's "DW Suite".

seconded
Could "Only Over You" by Fleetwood Mac and written by Christine McVie also be considered as a tribute ? (as it was written and released before Dennis' Death)

"DW Suite" is a really great piece, and the Christine song for Dennis (whom is thanked for inspiration in the 1982 credits) is good too!

It just makes my head wanna explode to think that Brian's high vocals weren't falsetto--I completely believe they were not. What a MONSTEROUS voice he must've had to have hit those notes in chest voice. It's a gift from....well heaven at least.

I also heard Stevie Nicks say in a Fleetwood Mac documentary that she was gonna put a "high falsetto harmony" on top of the vocal stack--which made me laugh out loud.

Okay, thanks Clay and AGD for filling me in on some things. This was a very weird time for the BB, some much excitement was in the air...and in the end we didn't get much anyway.

One thing still doesn't click with me, and thats Carl's vocals on GIOMH: they're still synced perfectly to what is ostensibly the wrong backing track for them. Puzzling. Thanks for everyones help tho. Maybe Linnett can chime in here.

OK, so in the vein of the investigating threads on the Labour Day weekend and the like, I'm very curious about some of the situations surrounding "Soul Searchin'." AGD said it best when he mentioned the whirled of Wilson, and I doubt we'll get to any conclusions set in stone here (heck the only real conclusion set in stone in BB land is once upon a time in a faraway land---some good music was made), but I'm so damned curious I need to state this:

"Soul Searchin'" we know the chronology. Andy Paley starts this song as a tune for Carl to sing, Brian gets enthused and follows Andy to England where Paley was producing another artist and they finish the song in a hotel room. The pair set to work on a stompin track for the tune and Andy lays down a rough scratch vocal (some ruffians thought this was Brian, I was one and now can't see what the foda I was thinking). Sometime in the middle Mike and Brian start working again and Brian does some gigs with the BB. Now Brian's working with the Beach Boys again, IJWMFTT is released and Don Was and he are collaborating with Paley in a secondary role. Brian and Was re-record the backing track anew. THEN the BB are brought in to lay down vocal tracks in a well-documented session (Cindy something or another covered it way back when). After this session, so the story goes, Carl announces he doesn't like the song and the work grinds to a halt. Mike Love instigates a horrible project with right-wing country artists, everybody ambles along for that hoping it will bring in money and it flops big time financially (musically, let the fans debate that). Then in 2003 Brian records a new bridge vocal over the track and redoes (horribly) the BB backing vocals himself.

But here's some of what I don't get:
1) First of all WHY re-record the backing track at all? It was a spiffy one to begin with?
2) The widespread story is that the Don Was backing tracks were dull and what we hear on the boots are the BB vocals synced up to the Andy Paley/BW track. BUT that doesn't make entire sense to me for a few reasons: Carl's vocal and the backing are amazingly in time on the bootlegs for being "flown in" from another track. That would mean the Don Was track was recorded at a very nearly exact tempo to the BW/Paley track to which the vocals are flown into. The BB vocals sound so good over top the "wrong" backing it's just toooooo perfect for me to believe it.
3) When Brian re-released the track on GIOMH, he uses the ORIGINAL PALEY/WILSON backing track. AND FURTHERMORE dubs in Carl's original vocal. BUT why not use the Don Was backing track if it was deemed superior in 1995? Whose decision was that? And for Carl's vocal to be "flown in" over the "wrong" backing track for a professional, major label release seems...well...original I'd say. And Carl's vocal, again, syncs in perfectly. Something just isn't clicking here...
4) I still don't understand why Carl rejected the song. Obviously Mike and Al were willing participants. Bruce griped on the Beach Boys Britain board that he didn't think the songs were something special BUT he would not have been the one to stop them from being finished/released. Bruce never made that critical of a decision in his life, at least with the BB. And he Bruce sings very well on the bootleg version. But why CARL, such a dedicated fan of rhythm and blues would reject such a rootsy track is beyond me. ESPECIALLY one with the commercial potential this had (with good BB vocals, an impassioned Carl lead, the right promotion, some Mike Love hyping and all that jazz this could've been a VH1 hit for sure). AND MOST PUZZLING is the reason we've been given: the Don Was tracks were dull, subpar. Well, WHY didn't they improve THOSE? Add some more guitar, some more rocking drums, some more percussion, ANYTHING? There's been more Beach Boys "sweetening" sessions then there have been bad Mike Love jokes! I still think Carl was ill and either didn't know it, was hiding it or wasn't it is right mind when all of this went down.

I'm probably making too much of this, but there has to be an answer to some of these questions somewhere, somehow, in some universe. And now I'm going to bed, see you tomorrow!

Ringo and Dennis are actually similar drummers in some respects--they both kept it simple when they needed it to (Ringo's very tasteful when he does add in some fills) and of course, very deep pockets for both of them. Ringo has a bit more flash/polish, but emotionally it's a dead heat---they are both terrific.

And then theres the story Blondie relates in the (fantastic) BBC docu on Dennis, he (Blondie) was playing at the Roxy when same guy grabs him by the ankles. Blondie starts to kick him off, not knowing who it is and then he hears "It's me!" and is mortified by the reaction. One of the more chilling parts of the docu.

Haven't talked to the other mods but these posts are getting a bit annoying. Don't need a day to day update on these shenanigans. Things are starting to get trollish.

I don't give day to day updates. My life is not what I call shenanigans and Im not a troll. All I did was answer a question for a few. Why Is that bad?

It's not, as far as I'm concerned. And the only person that stepped over the line, imo, was ukelelejesus, but that's just me.

.......And wasn't there another song recorded called "Raspberries & Strawberries"? 

That was used, I believe, as the backing track to "At My Window."

Pissed in the American sense means one thing--angry, furious being examples. Rather, in the English sense it means something else entirely...I don't doubt AGD's been that a few times

Alan's saying it was being released was convincing, his recantation was as clumsy as a tap dancing hippo.

I've gotta use that expression in my future conversation Mr. Doe

That he didn't is down to the resounding credit of a small cadre of devoted friends and fans. One passed on recently, one occaisionally posts here and I and pleased to call him a friend, another is the truly unsung heroine of Brian's story*.

Coach Hanes, Peter Reum and Gloria Ramos by any chance?

I'm confused about what the heck Let Him Run Wild is about. Is the narrator of the song trying to get the girl?

There's a (somewhat prevelant but nowhere near conclusive) theory that it's about Murry, Brian talking to his mom about Murry's extramarital affairs.

We need correct grammer in the culture at large---it frustrates me no end.

First of all the Spirit of Rock and Roll TV show is a great find, never seen it before although I'd heard the audio to two of the songs from a Cousin Brucie thing I used to have. Two comments: Brian sounds really good on the "Surfer Girl" performance, much better than I expected and second, anybody else notice on GOK he song "God may not always love you"?

I talked to my boss, I can have vacation in april 17th-24th. I like that much better.

Question: Do Carl's boy's have a band? I never heard their music. How about Denny's kids, are they talented like Denny. The only Wilson's that I know are Brian's girls that made it big in music. I remember listening to Wilson Phillips, not knowing their back ground, and what a surprise I got when I found out who they were.

no i don't think any of them do music.  I think michael is a chef.  Just judging off his chefs uniform in the dennis biography. 

I noticed the uniform also. I was told Carl's boy's and Al did something together. So none of Denny's kids are musician's. I'm hearing rumors one or more of Denny's kids make music. I searched but came up with nothing.

One of the experts can confirm this, but even though he may not be a musician professionally, Carl B. Wilson has a great voice. I have a version (live albiet not the best quality) of him doing "Forever" with BDW and it's quite good.

So, was it the real Brian who recorded the young character's vocals in Brian's "new" voice? Those vocala weren't bad at all

Brian re-recorded two short clips for the 1st part - both were when he was at the piano in the Rovell's house. One, as I recall was a song for the girls, and the other was "I Get Around". It was very obvious the voice was 2000 Brian.
Brian's comment on the mini-series was "It wasn't very nice".

I'm sure "In My Room" was another one he re-recorded.

I was VERY happy to see them back together, it was very touching; however, it don't think the result sounded that good at all. Brians band...no, it's not worth it. There's no way I can win...

What a terrific post Ed.