It really pisses me off when people say Brian isn't really in charge of his solo career, that it's all a show put on by his family and his bandmates. There's no proof that such is the case, it's just really cynical. If you watch Brian in interviews, he seems genuinely interested in what he's doing. There is no doubt that Smile would have never been finished without Brian allowing it and overseeing it. So he had a lot of help, give the guy a break. One of the reasons Smile fell apart in the first place was that he was too determined to do it all himself, he was being overworked. This is the way Brian should work, just the right amount without putting him in a stressful situation. But it is still very much his work. Those are still his arrangements. That's still his music. Just listen to it and be glad it exists and shut up.
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I think that Brian is basically cool w/ the creation of the
music itself (i.e., writing songs, creating vocal arrangements, teaching the songs to his touring band or the BBs, and then recording). It's the "promotion/touring/doing interviews" thing that Brian isn't all that keen on doing. He's just not that into doing interviews and talking about himself, and I can't say that I blame him. Most interviewers ask the same boring questions over and over, and I imagine that Brian probably just gets tired of the lack of interesting queries when he does interviews. I absolutely love the way he zinged that interviewer on the BBs' Google interview (Google interviewer: "what goes through your mind when you sing?" Brian: "Well, nothing goes through my mind. When I sing, the sound goes through my throat and out of my mouth." I 've never laughed so hard in my life)! I think people take Brian's sometimes poker-faced demeanor when he does interviews (and sometimes concerts) as a sign that he's "being controlled," when in reality, to me anyway, it's just that he's more interested in being a
musician and a
creator of music than he is in being a "star" per se. He does the best he can, and I'm glad that we have both versions of Smile (BWPS and TSS) to dig.
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