Group Interview On PBS - Charlie Rose Show Tonight

[Pretty Funky]

Wow....Enjoyed that interview. A lot of questions relating to how they are together now and are they in a good place. Would make a good bonus to any reunion doco later (as was done with a 'Shawshank Redemption' project a few years ago from memory).

Also the first interview Mike didn't mention the 'Brian thought I sang good for a 70 year old' story. Phew!

[Ziggy Stardust]

Brian mentioned taking some time off, so maybe that's where he's at. He does seem like he's aged a lot in some ways, yet he's singing better than he has in 20 years if you ask me.

yyyyyeaa, let's not exaggerate now.

[Zach95]

Brian mentioned taking some time off, so maybe that's where he's at. He does seem like he's aged a lot in some ways, yet he's singing better than he has in 20 years if you ask me.

yyyyyeaa, let's not exaggerate now.

I don't think it's an exaggeration. Have you listened to the Disney album? Or Gershwin? His vocal performances are incredible, and I don't think bossaroo's comment was too far off.

[Jim V.]

Yeah, I'm not a BW apologist, at all, but show me a better vocal that he's done than "Summer's Gone" in the past....hmm....40 years! He really does sound beautiful in the right circumstances these days.

[bossaroo]

yeah he's singing with a gentleness and sweetness that we haven't heard in quite some time. you hear it a lot on the Gershwin album, on God Only Knows from the QVC taping, etc. I can't think of anything since the early 90s or even the 80s that compares.

he just seems to care more about his delivery than he has in ages.

[Runaways]

i think what happened in BW88 is that he closed his air pipe when he sang, and held his breath.  Whenever I do that, i feel like my voice starts sounding gritty and shouty like his was.  I think he just learned how to breathe and sing again in the past few years.  Let the air out, makes his voice softer and sweeter again

[Amy B.]

Something I really like about their rapport is that when Brian says something that may or may not be BS (like writing a song without a piano only once in his life), the others aren't afraid to say, "Oh come on," or "Baloney," and sometimes Brian will tell the truth at that point. There aren't many others in the world who will call Brian on his BS.

[Jaspy]

The interview is nice, but the highlight for me is without a doubt the 1966 studio footage. So great to see Brian in action back in the day,  with the BB and the musicians, after hearing hours and hours of great session audio. Thank God that someone was rolling a camera and captured some glimpses of this creative peak time.

[Aegir]

I agree that the GV session video is the greatest part of this.

the interview is funny if you imagine that everyone is really stoned.

[the professor]

Lawbacca identified the high point for me: Brian asserting that exuberance and melancholy are indistinguishable. I consider this one of the most important axioms ever articulated about the BB and something at the core of my late analysis of the album in response to the (in part actualized and in part anticipated) critical reaction prioritizing Brian's melancholy.

I liked to footage, but it's the here and now of love and unity that is moving me. I lived on footage (old or new) for too long. Let it go lads; we are just born baby chicks, remember?

Also, the lost BB is not lost more; he is getting plenty of press, critical acclaim, and interview time; he speaks well and meaningfully and compels our thanks and respect with his gentle mien.

Finally, the PBS footage; it is the BB for sure, but it does not sound like the youtube footage from that or any show. So it plays a bit more like a music video than a raw live show.  I am not bothered by any studio magic nor overdubs (when could they have done that?) by the men themselves.

If chuck berry had to do it with Hail Hail rock and roll, it's OK with me.

[Micha]

"Surf's Up" is better than anything on Pet Sounds.

Actually that's an opinion, not a fact. Although Surf's Up is a fascinating piece, I think that some Pet Sounds stuff is better. I liked your last book though.

Mmmmh.. pretty sure Surf's Up is far more complex and deeper than anything from Pet Sounds.

Definitely more complex in terms of structure and melodies, and deeper lyrically in many aspects, I agree with you there. The arrangement for the second movement though is less complex than anything on Pet Sounds, but that may be because it wasn't finished in its time.

[Dove Nested Towers]

Anyone, including Mike, who thinks Dennis was in any way derisive of Pet Sounds by making that statement about Smile is an idiot. As many people with functioning depth and awareness have pointed out, Dennis loved Pet Sounds, he was constantly touting its greatness, and to him Smile was so unbelievably fantastic it made one of the greatest records ever recorded pale in comparison. Dennis was on the front lines of the Smile cult...and only Al had the guts to point out that Dennis was right. "Surf's Up" is better than anything on Pet Sounds.

I personally found this exchange during the interview to be very revealing. Brian was unable or unwilling to personally defend Cabin Essence in 1966 when he was the undisputed leader at the top of his game, so he's certainly not going to step up to the plate now in 2012 with essentially the most conservative members of the group there in the room with him. Their laughter at the very idea that Smile surpasses Pet Sounds... I wonder if that stings Brian on any level. Well, it stings ME. In fact, it pisses me off! I know it's not au courant to criticize Mike these days, but I found it disingenuous of him to twist Dennis's enthusiastic contemporary comment regarding SMiLE (a regard that Mike and Bruce obviously don't share for the work, outside of the official press junkets that they were clearly obligated to participate in) into the suggestion that Dennis was disparaging Pet Sounds. That's slimy, especially when the person in question can't defend himself, and laughable, to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Beach Boys history and how things went down. I've been very positive regarding Mike during this tour and I think overall he's great... but I'll call this one like I see it.

Al Jardine... he may be a little late to the party, but my respect for the guy has increased exponentially in the last year. Apparently he actually meant what he was saying in the SMiLE youtube series... good for him! He defended VDP in the recent Mojo article too, and is the only Beach Boy on the stage who even mentions the huge SMiLE release that occurred just 6 short months ago. This all would be a lot harder to take without Al 's perspective and willingness to speak up. Since Carl died, he stopped toeing the line for Beach Boys INC and so now he tends to have the most interesting things to say of any of the surviving members of the band. Wherever Dennis is on a spiritual level, and Carl for that matter, I'm sure that Al's gesture was appreciated. Maybe even Brian appreciated it, but who the hell knows!?!?

I love all the Beach Boys and am greatly appreciative of this tour, but I needed to get this off my chest. Just one man's opinion.

Nicely said.

[HeyJude]

The Beach Boys, individually and collectively, have often if not usually given pretty awkward interviews. I've seen a few times where individual members were able to do substantive interviews in print. But once it hits TV, either live or "live to tape", (or even edited!), I go into these things expecting it to be awkward.

This interview wasn't too bad considering all five of them where there and the potential awkwardness was multiplied.

Charlie Rose is a bit weird in terms of rating him as an interviewer. He certainly goes well beyond the vapid interviews you see on most morning or late night shows. But his style of questioning is not one that matches up well with the BB's style of professional awkwardness. He mixes questions that are too open-ended with random specific questions that kind of miss the point, as if he did 30 minutes of wiki research and pulled some interesting quotes to just throw at the guys.

Brian is a difficult interview in most circumstances. If you give him leading, "yes or no" questions, that's all you'll get. If you pitch him weird, vague, open-ended questions like a few or Rose's, you're usually not going to get a thorough answer.  You can tell all four of the other guys were doing their best to sort of jump in to help steer or interpret or clarify a few of Brian's answers.

The Dennis "Smile" comment was no big deal. They were just trying to awkwardly not agree with Dennis. Al poignantly supported Dennis' comment.

[HeyJude]

I'm also finding in interesting that David Marks has in several interviews been the one to point out that the band is moving past the lawyers, lawsuits, accountants, etc. While his excellent book with Jon Stebbins outlines how his royalties have worked over the years with the BB's, I would have to guess he has been the least impacted by all the legal actions and acrimony within the band throughout the years. It's just interesting to hear him make that point. I can't tell if he's saying it because he's the only one willing to step up and make that point, or if it's simply easier for him to say it since the other guys have had to plow through more of that inner-band turmoil and aren't as quick to at least vocally say it's all water under the bridge.

I'm still laughing about the awkward "Al Jardine Family & Friends" reference during the QVC show. I have to say, I never thought I'd see someone reference that band's name while standing next to Mike Love. 

[guitarfool2002]

Now that the interview has been pretty much available to those who want to see it, I was wondering if any knew why it wasn't announced officially as other appearances and interviews had been in the the recent past.

I don't recall seeing anything about it on the Facebook pages or bulletins, I don't recall anyone else mentioning it or advertising that it would be on at a certain time as happened with Fallon and others, and the most shocking thing was logging on here after catching it *totally by accident* that Friday night and hardly anyone had seen it where i thought it would have been a hot topic by the time I posted.

Overall it was a great interview, there was obvious "official" BB's-sanctioned video work done in the form of the 1966 studio footage and whatnot, and I really didn't see anything beyond what we saw play out around that table, except a few questions by Charlie Rose where he should have been more prepared as a veteran news-reader.

The silence around this specific appearance was deafening, I'm wondering why.

[seltaeb1012002]

I took the laughter at Dennis' comment more like... they were picturing a young Dennis saying what is actually a pretty funny comment, especially using the word "Stink". It probably took them all back to the early days when he was still around and able to be a young punk as he displays in that quote. I highly doubt they were seriously laughing at the idea of Smile having the potential to be better than Pet Sounds. As soon as Al responded seriously, Mike agreed in a split second. The laughter was probably more about the delivery than the idea itself.

[pixletwin]

I took it as them laughing at the hyperbole Dennis was using. It seemed like an affectionate "that's so Dennis" kind of laugh.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Overall it was a great interview, there was obvious "official" BB's-sanctioned video work done in the form of the 1966 studio footage and whatnot, and I really didn't see anything beyond what we saw play out around that table, except a few questions by Charlie Rose where he should have been more prepared as a veteran news-reader.

Really. It amazes me what Charlie Rose gets away with sometimes. Recently, he had on Slavoj Zizek, a major critical thinker, and said something to the effect of, "Don't you think the Arab Spring protests were free of ideology." Zizek (a man who believes that we are never free of ideology under any circumstance) halted and said, "Well, what do you mean by ideology?" to which Rose replied, "Well, you tell me!" What? You tell me? I mean, yes, he should be asking Zizek that but not to cover-up the fact that he clearly said something that he himself didn't even understand.

Yet, Rose is one of the few people on tv today who still stands by that "gentle art of conversation" shtick that has really gone by the wayside, and for that, he can still be interesting even when he talks about things he knows little about as if he knew everything about them.

[guitarfool2002]

It felt more like a simple misunderstanding of a quote that fans on this board may actually be more familiar with through LLVS and other sources than the band members themselves, which I think is the case with a lot of the trivia and minute details. It seemed like the quote was read and taken the wrong way. It was after all one sentence in one magazine published 45 years ago.

[Runaways]

actually i think the guys took it as "that's something dennis would say, but you don't need to put down pet sounds to say it!"

as in, they know Dennis didn't think Pet Sounds was a bad album, but in the quote he put "pets sounds stink" together, and thaat wasn't necessary. 

[Chocolate Shake Man]

actually i think the guys took it as "that's something dennis would say, but you don't need to put down pet sounds to say it!"

as in, they know Dennis didn't think Pet Sounds was a bad album, but in the quote he put "pets sounds stink" together, and thaat wasn't necessary. 

You'd figure though that a lyricist like Mike Love would understand that things are phrased in particular ways for effect.

[Jon Stebbins]

actually i think the guys took it as "that's something dennis would say, but you don't need to put down pet sounds to say it!"

as in, they know Dennis didn't think Pet Sounds was a bad album, but in the quote he put "pets sounds stink" together, and thaat wasn't necessary. 

You'd figure though that a lyricist like Mike Love would understand that things are phrased in particular ways for effect.

You'd also figure someone of average intelligence would immediately see beyond the literal interpretation of the quote, as Al did.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

actually i think the guys took it as "that's something dennis would say, but you don't need to put down pet sounds to say it!"

as in, they know Dennis didn't think Pet Sounds was a bad album, but in the quote he put "pets sounds stink" together, and thaat wasn't necessary.  

You'd figure though that a lyricist like Mike Love would understand that things are phrased in particular ways for effect.

You'd also figure someone of average intelligence would immediately see beyond the literal interpretation of the quote, as Al did.

Exactly. I mean, it's a pretty familiar mode of expression, isn't it? "Genghis Khan made Napolean look like Little Bo Peep." I mean, would somebody stop and say, "Hey, wait a minute, Napolean wasn't like Little Bo Peep at all."?

In fairness to Al though he was the only one to give Dennis some credit on the quote. Maybe halfway through the discussion on the matter Al realized what he meant. I can't believe there could be any real debate on the quote though let alone most of them completely misunderstanding it as they appeared to.

[Jon Stebbins]

actually i think the guys took it as "that's something dennis would say, but you don't need to put down pet sounds to say it!"

as in, they know Dennis didn't think Pet Sounds was a bad album, but in the quote he put "pets sounds stink" together, and thaat wasn't necessary.  

You'd figure though that a lyricist like Mike Love would understand that things are phrased in particular ways for effect.

You'd also figure someone of average intelligence would immediately see beyond the literal interpretation of the quote, as Al did.

Exactly. I mean, it's a pretty familiar mode of expression, isn't it? "Genghis Khan made Napolean look like Little Bo Peep." I mean, would somebody stop and say, "Hey, wait a minute, Napolean wasn't like Little Bo Peep at all."?

In fairness to Al though he was the only one to give Dennis some credit on the quote. Maybe halfway through the discussion on the matter Al realized what he meant. I can't believe there could be any real debate on the quote though let alone most of them completely misunderstanding it as they appeared to.

Like I said...as Al did. He got it right.

[endofposts]

One thing Mike Love and Dennis Wilson did have in common is a reputed history of hitting women.  Something that will always prevent me from putting Dennis Wilson on the pedestal that some of the male fans have him.