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If he's "chief" at anything, it would be Chief Jackass. And yes, he is embarrassing himself by futilely "clawing" his way somewhere but it will never, in his lifetime or ours, be anywhere near the top as he wants it to be soooooooooooooo bad. 

OSD’s speech inducting him at the event?

Thanks Debbie, good to hear BW is recovering well.

OSD 1971 flashback?

What the hell??

I know Brian's voice and interest can change day by day, so I might be over analyzing my experience or these videos, but I'm curious to see if anyone else has noticed this too?

I agree! I think if he's feeling a bit winded, he might hand off a couple of verses to Al or Rob, so that he can hit the next song even stronger. It seems like he's got good air support and prioritizes that for most of the songs. When I saw him in Richmond, the only talk-singing I noticed was during "Don't Talk," which is such a different style of singing than he does now that it makes sense to mix it up a bit.

[Country music guitarist Roy Clark dies aged 85]

The incredible Roy Clark has died.


Country music guitarist Roy Clark dies aged 85

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/nov/16/country-music-guitarist-roy-clark-dies-aged-85

Those are some really good questions and comments, HJ.

From band member conversations, I can say that yeah, he's just really tired of Pet Sounds. As far back as the first show of his I saw in 2000, he often would tear into hit songs or other up tempo material with more enthusiasm than the tricker PS songs.

I do think having him rest up offstage during the seven-song span from "Don't Worry Baby" to "Sail on Sailor" wouldn't be a bad idea, and you could add an instrumental like Pet Sounds in there. It would be one thing if Brian was playing and singing enthusiastic backgrounds, like he was on the C50 shows. While he does play keys now and then, I noticed that he wasn't single any backing vocals at all last night.

As for the Christmas album shows ... I think we should all stay tuned. They could be miraculous or the opposite.

Here's my take as someone who was at the show (who can't travel, but my wonderful guest from out-of-town has attended several on this tour), Brian is getting better and better both physically and vocally and I was impressed with how he performed. I didn't even notice his lack of interaction with the audience and I forget how important that is to people, since I'm used to his moods (as someone who was there during his worst time 78-81, other than the Landy period).  Maybe that impacted my leaving the show feeling good about it - actually great in a certain sense.  I think the physical therapist and his loving assistants, on top of the music and his amazing band, are quite healing for him.  My guest commented that he's consistently improved in health and voice on this tour. I found it quite enjoyable after seeing many shows beginning in 1964.

Brian's a strong fighter in addition to his talents, and has endured so much in life that might have taken many of us out of this world, so if this is what he wants now, it's fine with me. I feel this way particularly since the audience was so joyous, and my own back injury was helped by the music (I needed help out of the venue myself, but lasting that long was something of a miracle for me), so I suspect it works for him, too.  However he wishes to continue with his career, I respect. People always have the choice to buy tickets or not. The audience was really enthused and happy, so I trust his judgment when it comes to these things. I understand the loving fans' concerns about him, and it's up to him.

I obviously noticed that he wasn't particularly interested in singing the encores, but he did walk on and off for them (with assistance) - and then he killed it on Love & Mercy for the finale - friends and I have never seen him neglect that song, so maybe that was his plan.

Thx, Clay for noting that it's his choice to tour. He's not being "forced" to do so in any way. I'm afraid I expressed a lot of anger in the past here toward a few people insisting on that idea (insulting my friends and Brian in the process), when I knew they were being fed crap propaganda from people with an agenda. One person claimed privately to me that they knew "too many to mention" in Brian's management for info (Um, that would be Brian, Melinda and Jean Sievers, who didn't speak with this person, so...) In any case, as long as Brian is happy and the fans enjoy the shows, it works for me. I'll bite my tongue this time if one of those "in the know" people with "contacts" posts again. I've become much better at ignoring them, since no one around Brian gives a damn anymore about what they say, nor do I.

If someone can remind me how, I'll try to post some nice photos. They're already up on www.BrianWilson.com's tour comments page and Ang Jones's FB page "Brian Wilson Tour," so someone better at downloading them and posting them here would probably do a better job, or I'd be happy to send the JPEGs. You have permission. Just let me know.

My guess would be that since Brian is not only improving in health and voice, and he loves the Christmas songs, those of you going should get a treat.

 

Such a great post, Deb. Thanks for sharing your incredible insight. You are a treasure!

Thx so much, Billy and OSD - lotsa love on this board and it's great.

Having Al there is invaluable based on recent clips

In a time when pop lyrics were blandly generic, Mike was one of the few who carried on in the tradition of Chuck Berry and Jerry Leiber in writing narrative lyrics with actualized characters and specifically detailed situations. He co-wrote some of the greatest, most enduring records ever made.

I would say that as a writer overall he was a minor figure -- but for a brief, key period (1963-1965, pre-electric Dylan) he was the equal of, say, Gerry Goffin, and deserving of at least a nomination.

Out of my love for Brian, I have never expressed this, but by the end of my little analysis, you'll understand why.

In my opinion, since C50 Brian's voice has really declined year by year. Not only his pitch, but his timing. He began to voice things differently. (I don't mean to sound like a heartless bastard, I know a lot of this is due to health, I'm simply analyzing from a musical perspective, and I'll reiterate that I have nothing but love for Brian)

This all climaxed when I saw him in person in my hometown of Milwaukee in April 2017. He was doing so much "talk-singing" and phrasing the lyrics in an out of time way, that it really broke my heart and made me feel hopeless about Brian's condition and future of touring. Watch this video of Here Today to know what I mean; sad stuff  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-8fBAFDgRI

I have more or less accepted that Brian's singing has declined and wouldn't recover. Until today.

Today I watched the videos on Youtube of his current tour, like this  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpbSNUbnsis,  the singing isn't perfect, but his voice is stronger and for the most part, his pitch is really good. He's doing a little bit of the odd phrasing, but much less than when I saw him in 2017.

I know Brian's voice and interest can change day by day, so I might be over analyzing my experience or these videos, but I'm curious to see if anyone else has noticed this too?

At the end of the day, I'm just so happy that Brian is still touring. Seeing Mike's Beach Boys, Dean Torrence, David Marks, etc. make me smile. Seeing Brian brings me to tears. Of joy of course.