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That is a truly awful cover version.

I think this is merely mediocre. Although I just played it for my coworker who said it was "brutal". IMO Mike's lead vocal is certainly unfortunately pretty lifeless and dispassionate. I'll at least give credit that the M&B band is trying to do something different and a bit interesting musically between the verses.

If you're gonna do a cover song, might as well try to do something "new" and bring some interesting melodies to it, and Mike's band has at least done that.

Now if we want to talk Mike Love-sung Beatles covers that are "truly awful", this "Imagine" cover from 1983 (with a corporate-sponsored Mike proudly wearing a Radio Shack hat while singing a song that's supposed to be an anti-corporate anthem) is indeed truly awful on pretty much every level:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mALKo_QDLrU

4/5 star review in the Telegraph. Seemingly it lost a star for being too long... just skip all that boring stuff and get to Barbara Ann

The one problem was that the concert was too long. They could have lopped off 18 songs, ditched the interval and played 30 all-out bangers instead (that’s still five more songs than The Eagles currently play live, and 10 more than The Rolling Stones).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/beach-boys-review-royal-albert-hall-timeless-songs-triumph/

Is it just me or do they always do an extended set list in this venue?
The Beach Boys are still going strong in 2019!!

It's using the professional graphic production techniques of the era (when I was starting out in graphic design -- I still remember using those materials), so I'd say it could be something meant for legitimate use or at least a mock-up, but hoax / gag artwork can't be ruled out. Whatever its final intention, that piece of film is an intermediate step in production. If someone was goofing around, they put a lot of work into it.

It looks more like something that would have been a trade ad than actual album cover art.

It's vaguely reminiscent of trade ads of that era that appeared in Billboard, etc.

Thanks in heapfuls to RangeRover for alerting me to this fantastic song (and video) by Psychic TV. According to Wikipedia, "Godstar" is "about the life of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, with whom Genesis P-Orridge has a peculiar fascination".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1yr8w_vZ5E

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_TV

It almost seems too cool and interestingly-designed to be something fan-made. I kinda think it might have been actual test art for a legit BBs project.
Just a guess though. Either way, super cool and unique item to have!

It's worth noting that Carl *did* take issue with Landy's lyrics, at least in once published case. In that 1989 Dutch interview, he seemed to mock Landy's lyrics on "In My Car." This interview was done while Landy was still with Brian, and Brian was still working with the band on some projects. That was about as directly confrontational as Carl would get in interviews. And even then, he kind of seemed to at least attempt to play off his criticism as kind of being more bemused at the bad lyrics.

But really, while I'm not *in any way* endorsing either Landy being with Brian at all nor Landy's lyrics, I can't really say objectively that "I'm master of my fate, when I accelerate" is like the *worst* lyric the band ever released. I mean, Carl signed off a few years later on releasing "Summer of Love", and had previously *sang* on a song with horrendous lyrics like "Hey Little Tomboy."

I think the band rightly saw that Landy was bad news, and dinging his lyrics was just kind of an extra tangential thing to point out. The lyrics being there in the first place were a symptom of a much bigger *life* problem.

The only specifics we've heard even tangentially about what Carl thought of the '95 Paley stuff is that he didn't like the backing track to "Soul Searchin"", meaning the re-cut Don Was-produced backing track that he sang to (and that we've never even heard!). At some point *prior* to Carl's death, the first attempt was made to take the Was-produced vocals and graft them back on to the first Paley-produced (and performed) backing track. Otherwise, I don't think the band seemed to have a lot of specific issues with the quality/content of what Paley was writing, especially since they probably didn't know whether a given element was from Andy or from Brian.

It's worth searching out the Cindy Lee Berryhill first-hand account of the group session for the Paley songs, from late 1995. You can pick up some of the passive-agreesive weird stuff going on with the band, probably having as much to do with how they felt about Brian as they did about Paley. At one point, Mike asks who wrote the material, with the general consensus being that it was far-fetched at that stage that Mike had no idea who had written "Soul Searchin'", especially considering, as I recall, both Don Was and Andy Paley were *in attendance* at the session.

I’m not sure how much specifically the Landy co-writing issue impacted the band’s view of Andy Paley.

Certainly, the band observed as the 80s wore on that Landy was wedging himself into Brian’s career in a “creative” way, as far as wanting to co-write and/or producer/executive produce, etc.

But this really had to be more of an observational thing, and not so much something that regularly impacted the band on a creative/commercial release level.

Landy had a few co-writes on the BB ’85 album, and one co-write on “Still Crusin’.” And he shoehorned his way into the “25th Anniversary” TV special in 1986. Not a great deal else beyond that. Most of Landy’s overreaching was on solo Brian product.

Yes, Mike has said in interviews that Landy wouldn’t “produce” Brian unless he (Landy) was involved as a co-writer or producer. But I don’t sense the band actively turned down vigorous attempts on Brian’s part to work with the band simply due to not wanting Landy around. They did *allow* Landy’s name to appear on BB project (certainly begrudgingly), and Gary Usher’s 1986 diary on working with Brian strongly indicates that Landy was moving Brian away from the group and was going as “solo” as he could to avoid having to deal with the other Beach Boys having a say. So I’d say Landy moved Brian away from the band due to “Landy” more than the band rejected Brian.

Also, I think there were other “creative” concerns the band had, back in the Landy era, with giving over a whole project to Brian. Again, in the Usher book, it seems Brian kind of wanted to produce an album himself and was kind of edged out of it. Then Usher and Melcher were vying to produce the “next album.”

Ultimately, there really was no “next album” in that era. Melcher eventually continued to produce a number of one-off singles for the band, and later on did “Summer in Paradise.”

If the band viewed the Andy Paley situation in 1995 with skepticism, I don’t think it was so much directly to do with Landy. Certainly, the whole Landy debacle didn’t leave the band *more* ready to trust what was thrown their way concerning Brian. But some of those ’95 issues may have been essentially a variation on the beef Mike had in 2012, that being Brian working with an outside collaborator (Paley in ’95, Joe Thomas in 2012) and doing so seemingly to the predominant *exclusion* of writing with Mike. And then the commensurate royalties would then also go to that outside collaborator. So I’d say if they viewed Paley with skepticism, it was more of the same thing that happened going back to the 60s with Usher, Christian, Asher, Parks, etc. Add to that the lingering animosity the band may have had towards Brian due to his book, and some general ongoing chips on their shoulders about Brian not participating in touring, and then also the band’s general lack of motivation to write, record, and release albums in that era, and you’re left with, at best, middling enthusiasm for the Paley material.

If one wants to understand how Joe Thomas did in 2012 what folks like Usher, Melcher, Paley, and Don Was *couldn’t* do in prior years, namely make a full tour and album (and accompanying live albums, TV specials, and home video releases) with the full reunited band happen, I think one important factor is Joe Thomas being a major bankroller of the thing. Those other guys in the past were looking to jump start things without a full contingent of material, usually without firm record deals, and wanted to just slide into a producer-for-hire role (I’m generalizing here of course), and maybe exercise some amount of A&R on the material. Conversely, Joe Thomas had the money and organizational skills to be, as Howie Edelson once put it, the guy clapping his hands together and *telling* the band “okay, here’s what we’re gonna do.” He found the money, the infrastructure, and had a huge bag full of Brian Wilson songs ready to go, all earmarked as “waiting for the Beach Boys.”

[Ken Burns’ ‘Country Music’ Series to Release Massive Soundtrack]

Awesome!! 


Ken Burns’ ‘Country Music’ Series to Release Massive Soundtrack
Five-disc box set will be available on August 30th


https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/ken-burns-country-music-documentary-soundtrack-847764/?fbclid=IwAR2X_LLceTiFoBz7JfccptdhVWjeAioeICbm_zKHPHOz9Zuku-FhGiKkyN4



Here's the tracklist:


Disc One

    “Can the Circle Be Unbroken (Bye and Bye)” – Carter Family
    “Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. ” – Jimmie Rodgers
    “Barbara Allen” – Bradley Kincaid
    “I’ll Fly Away” – James and Martha Carson
    “If the River Was Whiskey” – Charlie Poole with the North Carolina Ramblers
    “Fox Chase” – DeFord Bailey
    “Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standin’ on the Corner)” – Jimmie Rodgers
    “Wildwood Flower” – Carter Family
    “In the Jailhouse Now” – Jimmie Rodgers
    “Comin’ Round the Mountain” – Uncle Dave Macon and Sam McGee
    “Pretty Polly” – Coon Creek Girls
    “T.B. Blues” – Jimmie Rodgers
    “Mountain Dew” – Grandpa Jones and His Grandchildren
    “Home on the Range” – Gene Autry
    “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” – Patsy Montana and the Prairie Ramblers
    “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” – Sons of the Pioneers
    “Keep on the Sunny Side”/ “I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes” – Carter Family
    “The Great Speckled Bird” – Roy Acuff
    “Whoa Babe” – Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
    “New San Antonio Rose” – Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
    “Wabash Cannon Ball” – Roy Acuff and His Smoky Mountain Boys
    “Mule Skinner Blues” – Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys

Disc Two

    “Honky Tonkin’” – Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys
    “It’s Mighty Dark to Travel” – Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys
    “New Mule Skinner Blues” – Maddox Brothers and Rose
    “I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)” – Eddy Arnold and His Tennessee Plowboys
    “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” – Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys
    “Molly and Tenbrook” – Stanley Brothers
    “Lovesick Blues” – Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys
    “I Saw the Light” – Hank Williams
    “Hey, Good Lookin’” – Hank Williams
    “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” – Kitty Wells
    “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys
    “Jambalaya” – Little Brenda Lee
    “New Step It Up and Go” – Maddox Brothers and Rose
    “I Walk the Line” – Johnny Cash & the Tennessee Two
    “Crazy Arms” – Ray Price
    “Bye, Bye Love” – Everly Brothers
    “The Long Black Veil” – Lefty Frizzell
    “El Paso” – Marty Robbins
    “Night Life” – Ray Price
    “Hello Walls” – Faron Young
    “I Fall to Pieces” – Patsy Cline
    “Ring of Fire” – Johnny Cash
    “Crazy” – Patsy Cline
    “I Can’t Stop Loving You” – Ray Charles

Disc Three

    “Dang Me” – Roger Miller
    “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” – Buck Owens
    “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” – Loretta Lynn
    “Coal Miner’s Daughter” – Loretta Lynn
    “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” – Charley Pride
    “Hungry Eyes” – Merle Haggard and the Strangers
    “Mama Tried” – Merle Haggard and the Strangers
    “Harper Valley P.T.A.” – Jeannie C. Riley
    “Don’t Touch Me” – Jeannie Seely
    “Folsom Prison Blues” – Johnny Cash
    “Stand by Your Man” – Tammy Wynette
    “She Thinks I Still Care” – George Jones
    “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” – The Byrds
    “Me and Bobby McGee” – Kris Kristofferson
    “Help Me Make It Through the Night” – Sammi Smith
    “Sunday Morning Coming Down” – Kris Kristofferson
    “Okie From Muskogee” – Merle Haggard and the Strangers
    “Man in Black” – Johnny Cash
    “Girl From the North Country” – Bob Dylan with Johnny Cash
    “Grand Ole Opry Song” – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
    “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Disc Four

    “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” – Waylon Jennings
    “Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. ” – Dolly Parton
    “Jolene” – Dolly Parton
    “I Will Always Love You” – Dolly Parton
    “We’re Gonna Hold On – George Jones and Tammy Wynette
    “Texas Cookin’” – Guy Clark
    “If I Needed You” – Townes Van Zandt
    “I Can’t Stop Loving You” – Johnny Rodriguez
    “I’ve Been a Long Time Leaving (But I’ll Be a Long Time Gone)” – Waylon Jennings
    “Love Hurts (Live)” – Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels
    “Boulder to Birmingham” – Emmylou Harris
    “Bluebird Wine” – Emmylou Harris
    “Whiskey River” – Willie Nelson
    “Miles and Miles of Texas” – Asleep at the Wheel
    “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” – Willie Nelson
    “Good Hearted Woman” – Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
    “Family Tradition” – Hank Williams Jr.
    “Seven Year Ache” – Rosanne Cash
    “Pancho and Lefty” – Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard
    “He Stopped Loving Her Today” – George Jones

Disc Five

    “Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’” – Ricky Skaggs
    “On the Road Again” – Willie Nelson
    “Amarillo by Morning” – George Strait
    “Somebody Should Leave” – Reba McEntire
    “Diggin’ Up Bones” – Randy Travis
    “Why Not Me” – The Judds
    “Honky Tonk Man” – Dwight Yoakam
    “Streets of Bakersfield” – Dwight Yoakam with Buck Owens
    “Where’ve You Been” – Kathy Mattea
    “I’m No Stranger to the Rain” – Keith Whitley
    “Go Rest High on That Mountain” – Vince Gill
    “Guitar Town” – Steve Earle
    “She’s in Love With the Boy” – Trisha Yearwood
    “Tennessee Flat Top Box” – Rosanne Cash
    “Get Up John” – Emmylou Harris & the Nash Ramblers
    “Uncle Pen” – Ricky Skaggs
    “I Still Miss Someone” – Rosanne Cash
    “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Brian on Culture Club:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBXV0qbbdcU