How much did drugs do to brian's mind?

[18thofMay]

Excellent Fishmonk, I can relate to that song. It is like a recurring dream I used to have, the simplest thing like a bird or sleeping would envoke great panic. It is his voices that are labouring, lagging along slowing his mind down the bird or those above him are free to do as they feel, he is helpless alone but accompanied only by his mind that betrays him.

[runnersdialzero]

I Went To Sleep seems too oppressive to me to be simply about zoning out. It always reminded me Brahms' 4th Symphony, there's just something about the e minor key, it's a song with an ambivalent sort of melancholy. It's not a happy song about about taking naps, there's something depressed about it. The lyrics too are a little strange,

Oppressive? Hopelessness? Being unable to find yourself? Can't say I hear any of that. It's not a shiny, happy song as with their earlier material, but I don't hear anything near the terms you described. A touch of happy, something dream-like, a touch of sad, but nothing in the extreme.

I feel like people read too much into everything Brian does as being this profound thing about mental illness or drug use or whatever and are sometimes looking for something that isn't there. To me, Brian was seemingly on a kick of describing or possibly seeking simplicity for a few years, there. That's not a suggestion that that material lack substance - quite the opposite. See "Busy Doin' Nothin'", "I'd Love Just Once To See You", "Wake The World", and yes, "I Went To Sleep".

Different interpretations, I s'pose.

[Dunderhead]

I Went To Sleep seems too oppressive to me to be simply about zoning out. It always reminded me Brahms' 4th Symphony, there's just something about the e minor key, it's a song with an ambivalent sort of melancholy. It's not a happy song about about taking naps, there's something depressed about it. The lyrics too are a little strange,

Oppressive? Hopelessness? Being unable to find yourself? Can't say I hear any of that. It's not a shiny, happy song as with their earlier material, but I don't hear anything near the terms you described. A touch of happy, something dream-like, a touch of sad, but nothing in the extreme. I feel like people read too much into everything Brian does as being about mental illness or drug use and are sometimes looking for something that isn't there. To me, Brian was seemingly on a kick of describing or possibly seeking simplicity for a few years, there. See "Busy Doin' Nothin'", "I'd Love Just Once To See You", "Wake The World", and yes, "I Went To Sleep".

Different interpretations, I s'pose.

Brian in the '67/'68 period is a more complicated songwriter than I think some might realize. He had a very keen sense when it came to the marriage of a song's text with music. I'm a big fan of German art songs, and when it comes to composition Brian does a lot of very interesting things in his musical interpretation of lyrics, like Schubert or Schumann before him.

Busy Doin' Nothing is great in the sort of masturbatory tension it uses during the driving and phone sections. These little tasks become huge ordeals for Brian, and the way he resolves them and dissipates the tension musically is really wonderful, in this self important little orgasm. It's a song that evokes a feeling of routine complacency, of being isolated in your own little world where everything revolves around you.

I wouldn't say the song is "about" those things, but I think you're leaning too heavily on this misguided notion of what it means to be "about" something in the first place. The lyrics just describe someone giving directions and making a phone call, but it that what it's "about"? It evokes a range of ideas and emotions, it evokes how Brian felt in those late 60s heydays. Isolated, lost, satiated, pampered and overly comfortable, unproductive, unimportant, unambitious.

The combination of the text, the composition, and the production gives the song a more sophisticated depth that goes well beyond the literal meaning of the lyrics. It's a song that's couched in his life experience, piddling around his mansion, busying himself with trifles as the world went by outside his window. It's an expression of his lack of direction and aimless future.

I'd like to hear somebody take Brian's songs from Pet Sounds and Friends especially and arrange them for piano and voice.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

That was a beautiful interpretation of the song.

[Chris Moise]

I really enjoyed reading Fishmonk's posts in this thread. Inspired me to listen the songs discussed for the first time in years, wonderful to hear them with fresh ears. "I Went To Sleep" is one of the 2 or 3 songs that vaulted me into 'hardcore fan' territory. After hearing "I Went To Sleep" I knew I wouldn't rest until I heard everything they did.

[Wild-Honey]

Yes Fishmonk also inspired me and I listened to them walking my dog today.  Could never be as wonderfully descriptive about them though.  Do you take requests?   

[pixletwin]

What the hell is "masturbatory tension"?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

What the hell is "masturbatory tension"?

Get me a baggie of hydro and a let me stare at my wife while she naps, and I'll show you.


Kidding.

[cablegeddon]

BW always said that the LSD trip in the 60s shattered his ego into a thousand pieces.


What I can't get my head around is that:

• He had his worst meltdown in the early 2000s after being under professional medical care for over 10 years.
  
  He seemed more coherent and together in the 80s than in the 90s.

[SMiLE Brian]

Brian seemed more coherent in the 1980s because Landy had him hopped up on speed for public appearances.

[cablegeddon]

See that doesnt' make sense to me. I'm no  chasing some big conspiracy but I just don't get it.

[SMiLE Brian]

Brian also didn't feel the full abuse of Landy until the 1990s when the damage from the landy drugs became apparent.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Yes, these things are cumulative.

[Dunderhead]

Yes, these things are cumulative.

You know, we like to paint a pretty bad picture of Mike here. But I think the real villain of the Beach Boys' story is Landy.

[hypehat]

Absolutely. BW today is pretty much down to him.


Mike is an asshole, true, but that is balanced out by his many redeeming features - songwriting, performances, etc. Landy is irredeemable.

[Paulos]

What the hell is "masturbatory tension"?

Get me a baggie of hydro and a let me stare at my wife while she naps, and I'll show you.


Kidding.

 

Brilliant Billy, I actually did 'lol' at this!

[Lonely Summer]

Absolutely. BW today is pretty much down to him.


Mike is an asshole, true, but that is balanced out by his many redeeming features - songwriting, performances, etc. Landy is irredeemable.

right on!

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Absolutely. BW today is pretty much down to him.


Mike is an asshole, true, but that is balanced out by his many redeeming features - songwriting, performances, etc. Landy is irredeemable.

right on!

[runnersdialzero]

Yeah, except the whole thing where Brian didn't die in the 70s or early 80s, which there's no doubt in my mind that he would have. Guy went way too fucking far and did some really disgusting things, obviously, but let's be real here.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Yeah, except the whole thing where Brian didn't die in the 70s or early 80s, which there's no doubt in my mind that he would have. Guy went way too f*cking far and did some really disgusting things, obviously, but let's be real here.

Yes, and the Kathy Bates character in Misery has good qualities.

[MBE]

Yes, these things are cumulative.

You know, we like to paint a pretty bad picture of Mike here. But I think the real villain of the Beach Boys' story is Landy.

Landy is the only one in the whole story I have nothing good to say about.

[Dunderhead]

Yes, these things are cumulative.

You know, we like to paint a pretty bad picture of Mike here. But I think the real villain of the Beach Boys' story is Landy.

Landy is the only one in the whole story I have nothing good to say about.

I was reading some of your old posts when browsing earlier looking for stuff about the mid-'68 period. I hadn't heard about your book, but it sounds really amazing. I hope you'll get it out soon, I'd buy the first copy.

[MBE]

Yes, these things are cumulative.

You know, we like to paint a pretty bad picture of Mike here. But I think the real villain of the Beach Boys' story is Landy.

Landy is the only one in the whole story I have nothing good to say about.

I was reading some of your old posts when browsing earlier looking for stuff about the mid-'68 period. I hadn't heard about your book, but it sounds really amazing. I hope you'll get it out soon, I'd buy the first copy.

Thank you and I hope you get to read it as soon as possible. Because of your enquiry I will put up a full update tonight.

[Aegir]

Yeah, except the whole thing where Brian didn't die in the 70s or early 80s, which there's no doubt in my mind that he would have. Guy went way too f*cking far and did some really disgusting things, obviously, but let's be real here.

Landy was not the only psychologist and was probably, in fact, one of the worst options available.

[Peter Reum]

Let's be grateful he lived through it to make all the beatuiful music that has poured out of him since 1995.