Live Grammy Discussion Thread

[urbanite]

40 some odd years after recording Good Vibrations, as 60 something year old men, the Beach Boys show up, with the world watching, and turn in a great performance.  I think I almost had a heart attack when they were being introduced.  It was fantastic.

[Lowbacca]

Ugh. f*cking terrible performance.

Oh come on. Be positive for once. They rocked the house.

It was Brian's band and a ton of singers playing a passable, lifeless version of a Beach Boys song. The ONLY time I heard an actual Beach Boy was his part in the midsection, and he didn't sound good. Besides that, the performance would have sounded EXACTLY the same had no Beach Boys been present at all.

Pretty much, ya.

Just checked again. Brian is so low in the mix he basically just moves his lips to Jeff's singing on the verse. Brian's not audible at all.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Ugh. f*cking terrible performance.

Oh come on. Be positive for once. They rocked the house.

It was Brian's band and a ton of singers playing a passable, lifeless version of a Beach Boys song. The ONLY time I heard an actual Beach Boy was his part in the midsection, and he didn't sound good. Besides that, the performance would have sounded EXACTLY the same had no Beach Boys been present at all.

You do have a point--but haven't almost all iterations of Beach Boys' separate bands all suffered a little bit from too many singers and maybe too slick of a band, at times?

[Doo Dah]

Some pretty serious ballz for Macca to debut a new song (and an orchestral one at that).

Regarding Da Boys, these Vegasy shows really sap the spontaneity out of everything. You really have to dig to see something that makes you go  . Having said that, I really enjoyed seeing Al and Dave up there. They bring it all together and really add the good stuff, the spirit of the old days. I'll be real interested to see how the leads are distributed on the tour (as well as the set lists). Should be lots of message board fodder for us folks!

[hypehat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN6Lv20qXhE

Yeah, that's all Jeff. If you say you hear Brian in there, you're lying.


I maintain the harmony blend in the chorus and bridge sounds better for Beach Boys, though. And everyone else is having a great night. Just not Brian. He's probably home by now.  

[SamMcK]

I'm sticking around, I have a feeling something might happen at the end of the night

I'm f*cking tired, but same. I get the feeling that since Ringo's a presenter and Macca's performed they might do a song or two at the end to close the show.

[I. Spaceman]

Ugh. f*cking terrible performance.

Oh come on. Be positive for once. They rocked the house.

It was Brian's band and a ton of singers playing a passable, lifeless version of a Beach Boys song. The ONLY time I heard an actual Beach Boy was his part in the midsection, and he didn't sound good. Besides that, the performance would have sounded EXACTLY the same had no Beach Boys been present at all.

You do have a point--but haven't almost all iterations of Beach Boys' separate bands all suffered a little bit from too many singers and maybe too slick of a band, at times?

Yeah. I shouldn't really have expected anything more, I guess.

[Shady]

Re-watching on youtube now, Mike's pointing is worse second time around

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN6Lv20qXhE

Yeah, that's all Jeff. If you say you hear Brian in there, you're lying.


I maintain the harmony blend in the chorus and bridge sounds better for Beach Boys, though. And everyone else is having a great night. Just not Brian. He's probably home by now.  

I hear Brian just fine.  If you say you can't hear him, you don't listen well.  There.  You've called me a liar and I've called you hearing-impaired.  What next?

[donald]

Same as in a BW show.  Brian singing, Jeff doubling and doing the highs.

We already dealt with that.

Glad they did as well as they did.    I was satisfied in a realistic way.

[AndrewHickey]

To be fair, there was no way on earth they were going to let Brian take a lead on something like this, and having Jeff sing it was the only real option. They could have not had Brian actually mime the lead though - or just done a different song.

It's completely disrespectful. I don't care if he's up there singing about how much he hates black people or fire fighters or something, the guy WROTE the f*cking song. Let HIM sing it, in Carl's absence. The guy can still sing just fine. Having Jeff sing it is a huge insult not only to Brian, but to the fans.

For those saying "I COULD HEAR BRIAN", we're still talking about 90% Jeff and 10% Brian at best, maybe even 95% to 5%. Totally disgusting.

I'm afraid that every time I've seen Brian on a televised performance - *especially* something as big as the Grammys - he's been *at best* competent. People still, to this day, make jokes about how awful he was on the Jubilee performance, and that was ten years ago. Sheer practicality says there was no way on earth that they were going to have Brian take a lead on the big TV performance to promote the reunion tour.

Of course, the sensible thing to do then would be to have done something which wouldn't have required Brian to mime - Cal. Girls or even Kokomo - but having Brian actually take the lead would never have been considered.

[I. Spaceman]

McCartney was really great.

[hypehat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN6Lv20qXhE

Yeah, that's all Jeff. If you say you hear Brian in there, you're lying.


I maintain the harmony blend in the chorus and bridge sounds better for Beach Boys, though. And everyone else is having a great night. Just not Brian. He's probably home by now.  

I hear Brian just fine.  If you say you can't hear him, you don't listen well.  There.  You've called me a liar and I've called you hearing-impaired.  What next?

Pistols at dawn, obviously  

But seriously, unless Brian's vocal coach has performed some kind of miracle on him, the man who sang this (his Jools perf from last year) did not sing what we heard at the Grammies. Brian bottled it and was swamped by Jeff & Bruce.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMPmxjF0xhc

[GuyO]

That really was Jeff singing the first verse.... no Brian to be heard AT ALL.

[Justin]

SOooooooooo...the performance comes on at about 1:30 into the show?

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Remember:  This is the Grammys.  It is a made-for-TV variety show.  Consider the general quality of the whole thing.  If you were expecting early 70s live show stuff, you're expectations will have been frustrated.

The important thing is that these guys sang together on stage in front of a lot of people.  I don't care if they weren't even miked up at all.  All of the living Beach Boys just sang together on stage.

[guitarfool2002]

Taylor Swift just won the award for most Shure SM-55 microphones on stage since 1959.

I like Taylor a lot, always have. Good performance.

Back to the Beach Boys, I think that was the first time 90% of the folks in that audience heard Good Vibrations performed live in person by any version of the Beach Boys touring band(s).

We're spoiled that way, as fans, we know how cool it is. It blows me away any time I hear it.

I'd like to see if the song GV trends anywhere upward in iTunes tonight and tomorrow.

[Lowbacca]

That really was Jeff singing the first verse.... no Brian to be heard AT ALL.

Yap... Definitely no Brian on first verse. Must've been planned that way. But oh..what the heck...

[Shady]

Were the Beach Boys just in a McDonalds commercial?

[Awesoman]

To be fair, there was no way on earth they were going to let Brian take a lead on something like this, and having Jeff sing it was the only real option. They could have not had Brian actually mime the lead though - or just done a different song.

It's completely disrespectful. I don't care if he's up there singing about how much he hates black people or fire fighters or something, the guy WROTE the f*cking song. Let HIM sing it, in Carl's absence. The guy can still sing just fine. Having Jeff sing it is a huge insult not only to Brian, but to the fans.

Mike "can't sing" just as much as Brian these days, why didn't they have Jeff double him, too?

For those saying "I COULD HEAR BRIAN", we're still talking about 90% Jeff and 10% Brian at best, maybe even 95% to 5%. Totally disgusting.

Let's be realistic: considering how important this reunion is and how much the group is hoping to have a successful comeback, would it be even remotely wise to have a terrified Brian Wilson warble his way over a verse he couldn't sing anymore to begin with?  In this ADHD world of music, *that* would be the lasting impression made of this reunion--a joke.  Is that what you want?  Burying Brian's vocals in the mix was the smartest thing they did.  

And speaking of the reunion performance itself, it did warm my cold heart to see these guys on stage.  

[Awesoman]

I'm sticking around, I have a feeling something might happen at the end of the night

The Beach Boys are done for the night.  They're not coming back on stage. 

[Nicole]

Ya know? A good friend of mine just texted me and remarked at how great they sounded.

WE on this board know what each person in that band sounds like; but most of the general public don't...they know the beautiful harmonies and the raw power of that music and that's exactly what I heard tonight. I thought it was an amazing performance and I really think it was a great reminder to the public about how incredible The Beach Boys are.

That's how I feel. I get that some people are let down, but I think it was a great performance. I'm 20 years old and this is the first time I've ever seen a live (albeit on TV, obviously) performance of a Beach Boys song with everyone together. It's kind of a huge deal for me! And seeing Glen Campbell singing along in the audience was awesome. I feel like my night is complete, I can't complain at all  

[hypehat]

All of the living Beach Boys just sang together on stage.

Despite Brian bottling it, this is the good vibe I'm getting from this. Mike, Bruce, David and Al all performed and sung like they were so happy to be there.  

[Matt H]

Brian can be heard on at least the "when" during "when I look in her eyes"

Jeff is more pronounced than at BW shows I've been too, but Brian is there.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

And seeing Glen Campbell singing along in the audience was awesome. I feel like my night is complete, I can't complain at all  

That was really nice.