*Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread

[Jim V.]

Ray, what's your favorite song that you've heard so far from Brian's new album?

I would say "Sail Away" with Blondie ; tied with two others I don't know the titles of with Al and Blondie and "On the Island" with Zooey Deschanel on lead .

I love that it seems that Blondie will be on more than one song. That in itself will be good enough for me.

Also a song (or two) with Al and Blondie and Brian all together? Ah! Even if the other stuff sucks, I'm sure this stuff will be cool. Let's just hope all the stuff with the fellow Beach Boys doesn't get elbowed out for a duet with Wiz Khalifa.

[Mikie]

I don't think Big Star is as good as The Who.

[phirnis]

Speaking of album covers, is the cover for GIOMH the worst of all time?

It is pretty ugly, but it's done by the Sgt. Pepper cover designer, so they thought it was an honor. They would have been better off with Mark London as designer.

It looks like it was done by the Sgt. Pepper designer's teenage daughter, who didn't get around to finishing her high school journal collage. It is awful.

actually I like the cover! and I like the concert poster for the album (which is the cover)..... I have it signed and hanging in my house...

its no sgt. pepper....... but to me, nor is 'pepper' to the 'pet sounds' cover....

the 'pet sounds' cover is 'da bestest'..

to me the worst would be the BW 2004 'Smile' album cover ...... very bland indeed..

RickB

The BWPS cover looked like actual clip art. Really a missed opportunity. Almost as bland as the Imagination cover art.

Actually, the Imagination cover made me laugh. A friend of mind showed it to me, and I said on instinct: hey, is that the son of Brian Wilson? He had to laugh out loud, immediately grasping what I meant.

 

Still, for better or worse, the Imagination cover art gives a good impression of the album's overall sound...

[Ray Lawlor]

People seem to be using Lady Gaga as a yardstick of what's rubbish about modern pop music, but actually she's one of the few very talented people in the charts over the last few years. She's a musician, a songwriter, delightfully weird, and has a great head on her shoulders for someone who got so famous so young. I'd love to hear a true BW/Gaga collaboration. It could make Love You seem like a Joe Thomas production. Imagine if Brian took Beyonce's part in this track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U

If Frank Ocean has any say in his role on the album that could be great too.

I'm not a huge fan of Lana Del Ray, her music seems like a studio creation of the bland king of indie Dave Sitek, but i'll reserve judgement until i hear the track. Maybe Brian'll make good use of her.


On a separate note, I'm glad Brian's camp have spoken out about the excessive negativity surrounding the new album, but i'm disappointing they invoked BW's right to "foda with the formula". A, this phrase is a loaded one in terms of BB fandom, and suggests that what we're about to receive will be a gamechanger on a par with Smile (instead of perhaps the album that GIOMH should have been). And B, getting a bevy of young popular female popstars isn't really fodaing with the formula, it's rigidly adhering to a formula of aging sales-declining new-target-demographic-outreaching 60s and 70s popstars. If Brian's camp had claimed their right to stick to the formula, based on the fact that Brian has given us all the great music over the years, that'd be closer to the truth


On yet another note, has anyone been so poorly served by artwork as Brian in his solo career? GIOMH, WIRWFC, TLOS, Disney, Pet Sounds live... all of which suck mightily. The Gershwin one is good, though, and I have a soft spot for Imagination.

With regard to the negativity aspect , Brian was unhappy with some negative feedback from his own Facebook fans ; talking down the artists that he felt had done great work on his songs. He wanted to put the brakes on that negativity and that's what he did....essentially he just wants people to give this cd a listening chance before they respond to it ; that's the gist of what I got from when I spoke to him last night.

[JohnMill]

People seem to be using Lady Gaga as a yardstick of what's rubbish about modern pop music, but actually she's one of the few very talented people in the charts over the last few years. She's a musician, a songwriter, delightfully weird, and has a great head on her shoulders for someone who got so famous so young. I'd love to hear a true BW/Gaga collaboration. It could make Love You seem like a Joe Thomas production. Imagine if Brian took Beyonce's part in this track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U

If Frank Ocean has any say in his role on the album that could be great too.

I'm not a huge fan of Lana Del Ray, her music seems like a studio creation of the bland king of indie Dave Sitek, but i'll reserve judgement until i hear the track. Maybe Brian'll make good use of her.


On a separate note, I'm glad Brian's camp have spoken out about the excessive negativity surrounding the new album, but i'm disappointing they invoked BW's right to "foda with the formula". A, this phrase is a loaded one in terms of BB fandom, and suggests that what we're about to receive will be a gamechanger on a par with Smile (instead of perhaps the album that GIOMH should have been). And B, getting a bevy of young popular female popstars isn't really fodaing with the formula, it's rigidly adhering to a formula of aging sales-declining new-target-demographic-outreaching 60s and 70s popstars. If Brian's camp had claimed their right to stick to the formula, based on the fact that Brian has given us all the great music over the years, that'd be closer to the truth


On yet another note, has anyone been so poorly served by artwork as Brian in his solo career? GIOMH, WIRWFC, TLOS, Disney, Pet Sounds live... all of which suck mightily. The Gershwin one is good, though, and I have a soft spot for Imagination.

With regard to the negativity aspect , Brian was unhappy with some negative feedback from his own Facebook fans ; talking down the artists that he felt had done great work on his songs. He wanted to put the brakes on that negativity and that's what he did....essentially he just wants people to give this cd a listening chance before they respond to it ; that's the gist of what I got from when I spoke to him last night.

Do you mean in terms of his facebook page or in general?  Because the negativity on this forum since the announcement of the collaborators has been running rampant pre and post Wilson's reaction.  In my humble opinion the only thing Brian Wilson speaking up did was add indignant voices to the already negative voices.  Indignant because these voices are now upset that a musician is saying they can't have a negative opinion on his career.  To draw a comparison: It's kind of like when Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins told the Phillies fans that they shouldn't boo them.  Victorino got run out of town and Rollins still gets booed if not more so.  

[Mikie]

Ray, do you think Brian wrote that Facebook post himself or did he have help with it? I have a hard time with him using the "f*** with the formula" verbiage.

[Ray Lawlor]

People seem to be using Lady Gaga as a yardstick of what's rubbish about modern pop music, but actually she's one of the few very talented people in the charts over the last few years. She's a musician, a songwriter, delightfully weird, and has a great head on her shoulders for someone who got so famous so young. I'd love to hear a true BW/Gaga collaboration. It could make Love You seem like a Joe Thomas production. Imagine if Brian took Beyonce's part in this track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U

If Frank Ocean has any say in his role on the album that could be great too.

I'm not a huge fan of Lana Del Ray, her music seems like a studio creation of the bland king of indie Dave Sitek, but i'll reserve judgement until i hear the track. Maybe Brian'll make good use of her.


On a separate note, I'm glad Brian's camp have spoken out about the excessive negativity surrounding the new album, but i'm disappointing they invoked BW's right to "foda with the formula". A, this phrase is a loaded one in terms of BB fandom, and suggests that what we're about to receive will be a gamechanger on a par with Smile (instead of perhaps the album that GIOMH should have been). And B, getting a bevy of young popular female popstars isn't really fodaing with the formula, it's rigidly adhering to a formula of aging sales-declining new-target-demographic-outreaching 60s and 70s popstars. If Brian's camp had claimed their right to stick to the formula, based on the fact that Brian has given us all the great music over the years, that'd be closer to the truth


On yet another note, has anyone been so poorly served by artwork as Brian in his solo career? GIOMH, WIRWFC, TLOS, Disney, Pet Sounds live... all of which suck mightily. The Gershwin one is good, though, and I have a soft spot for Imagination.

With regard to the negativity aspect , Brian was unhappy with some negative feedback from his own Facebook fans ; talking down the artists that he felt had done great work on his songs. He wanted to put the brakes on that negativity and that's what he did....essentially he just wants people to give this cd a listening chance before they respond to it ; that's the gist of what I got from when I spoke to him last night.

Do you mean in terms of his facebook page or in general?  Because the negativity on this forum since the announcement of the collaborators has been running rampant pre and post Wilson's reaction.  In my humble opinion the only thing Brian Wilson speaking up did was add indignant voices to the already negative voices.  Indignant because these voices are now upset that a musician is saying they can't have a negative opinion on his career.  To draw a comparison: It's kind of like when Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins told the Phillies fans that they shouldn't boo them.  Victorino got run out of town and Rollins still gets booed if not more so.  

John.  Totally in terms of his FB page . The only Smiley Smile he is aware of is the album !

You have to find a better comparison than Philadelphia fans.....they booed Santa Claus at an Eagles game !

[Nicko1234]

We don't know for sure if that was Brian writing that... because we'd have to believe that either A. he reads all the negativity (highly doubtful) or B. somebody reads him all the negativity (why would they?).  So I throw the bullshit flag on that one.

Nail on head.

If any musician of Brian`s stature were to go on Facebook and read comments about music that hasn`t been released yet then it wouldn`t be the smartest move.

[Ray Lawlor]

Ray, do you think Brian wrote that Facebook post himself or did he have help with it? I have a hard time with him using the "f*** with the formula" verbiage.

Mikie; I doubt very highly he sat at a keyboard  and banged out the message but I am certain those were his sentiments....the Wilson's know Zooey Deschanel pretty well , for example . She followed the UK "SMiLE" tour and in my recollection even babysat the girls one night, so I guess it bothered the hell out of him that someone he really likes, who did a great job on his record , was getting slammed .  My two cents anyway.

[KittyKat]

There was negativity on the Blue board, as well, but Brian and his management don't post there much. He has more followers and page hits on Facebook, so that's where they decided to take a stand. I do give them credit for not deleting the negative fan posts on either Facebook or the blue board.

[adamghost]

I think it's tougher for classic artists and people who represent them to calibrate social messaging.  It's just such a different, more rough and tumble world from what older artists grew up experiencing.

[Jim V.]

Ray, do you think Brian wrote that Facebook post himself or did he have help with it? I have a hard time with him using the "f*** with the formula" verbiage.

Mikie; I doubt very highly he sat at a keyboard  and banged out the message but I am certain those were his sentiments....the Wilson's know Zooey Deschanel pretty well , for example . She followed the UK "SMiLE" tour and in my recollection even babysat the girls one night, so I guess it bothered the hell out of him that someone he really likes, who did a great job on his record , was getting slammed .  My two cents anyway.

As I said earlier, I think you are an invaluable part of this board Ray, and I hope you stick around.

However, I gotta ask if he knew Zooey so well, why he called her "Joey" during that MySpace thing. He seemed like he hadn't a freakin' clue who she was, even though she is a reasonable big movie star and a pretty popular musician.

[Dudd]

Ray, do you think Brian wrote that Facebook post himself or did he have help with it? I have a hard time with him using the "f*** with the formula" verbiage.

Mikie; I doubt very highly he sat at a keyboard  and banged out the message but I am certain those were his sentiments....the Wilson's know Zooey Deschanel pretty well , for example . She followed the UK "SMiLE" tour and in my recollection even babysat the girls one night, so I guess it bothered the hell out of him that someone he really likes, who did a great job on his record , was getting slammed .  My two cents anyway.

As I said earlier, I think you are an invaluable part of this board Ray, and I hope you stick around.

However, I gotta ask if he knew Zooey so well, why he called her "Joey" during that MySpace thing. He seemed like he hadn't a freakin' clue who she was, even though she is a reasonable big movie star and a pretty popular musician.

May have just been Brian being Brian, plus it was a number of years ago...

[Wylson]

Ray, do you think Brian wrote that Facebook post himself or did he have help with it? I have a hard time with him using the "f*** with the formula" verbiage.

Mikie; I doubt very highly he sat at a keyboard  and banged out the message but I am certain those were his sentiments....the Wilson's know Zooey Deschanel pretty well , for example . She followed the UK "SMiLE" tour and in my recollection even babysat the girls one night, so I guess it bothered the hell out of him that someone he really likes, who did a great job on his record , was getting slammed .  My two cents anyway.

As I said earlier, I think you are an invaluable part of this board Ray, and I hope you stick around.

However, I gotta ask if he knew Zooey so well, why he called her "Joey" during that MySpace thing. He seemed like he hadn't a freakin' clue who she was, even though she is a reasonable big movie star and a pretty popular musician.

May have just been Brian being Brian, plus it was a number of years ago...

I think he was just slurring.

[Ray Lawlor]

Ray, do you think Brian wrote that Facebook post himself or did he have help with it? I have a hard time with him using the "f*** with the formula" verbiage.

Mikie; I doubt very highly he sat at a keyboard  and banged out the message but I am certain those were his sentiments....the Wilson's know Zooey Deschanel pretty well , for example . She followed the UK "SMiLE" tour and in my recollection even babysat the girls one night, so I guess it bothered the hell out of him that someone he really likes, who did a great job on his record , was getting slammed .  My two cents anyway.

As I said earlier, I think you are an invaluable part of this board Ray, and I hope you stick around.

However, I gotta ask if he knew Zooey so well, why he called her "Joey" during that MySpace thing. He seemed like he hadn't a freakin' clue who she was, even though she is a reasonable big movie star and a pretty popular musician.

I think he started to say Joey , and tried to segue into Zooey , and it came out somewhat slurred.

[Ron]

This is the kind of information that helps fans NOT be negative about things.  Again, it comes down to ignorance or a lack of information on our part.

If I hear he's doing songs with people (again, he doesn't know Lana's name, mispronounced Zooey's) that he's not familiar with, it raises the hair on the back of my neck thinking the guy's being forced to do ARTISTIC work with people he has no connection to.


Now that more info comes out (He's fairly close to Zooey, etc.) that will help change the negative perceptions.

I don't think his management should care one way or another, for a couple reasons.


1. Those of us who have a problem with it are diehard fans.  I will buy an album of Brian snoring as long as it's less than about 50 bucks.  I'll certainly buy whatever this album turns out to be.

2. None of the fans are saying "Brian doesn't have it anymore" they're saying "Brian's so much better than this". 













If Brian wants successful, popular songs that get radio play, philosophically he should understand that something like that is a challenge.  If everything that flowed from that harmonious pen of his went straight to #1 that wouldn't be much of a thrill would it?  If everybody swooned over every drop of news on duet partners, where's the challenge in that?

What would be a thrill is, info leaking about a new album.  All of the die hard fans poo poo'ing it.  The album coming out, blowing everybody away, and having a #1 hit. 

Much more satisfying... I hope he wows us again and this isn't GIOMH but more like "That's why God made the Radio".

[guitarfool2002]

Again, it comes down to ignorance or a lack of information on our part.

That's what I've been saying for several days on this thread. Stressing the ignorance part of it. Same with the film. And unfortunately a lot of what the man has been doing recently has been subject to this ridiculous criticism based more on ignorance than any real notion of what's been going on as the projects move through the production process, and what will be a finished product.

When it happens here, it's sad but predictable, as there are agendas beyond the actual projects. But when it showed up on Facebook where people need to "like" the page, it's assumed they're fans willing to be a bit more open-minded before criticizing something in the works, and a few comments obviously struck a nerve which led to a strong reply. Then a thank you in return, posted today.

[Andrew G. Doe]

As I said earlier, I think you are an invaluable part of this board Ray, and I hope you stick around.

We've had people like Ray post here before, and they don't post any more, because some half-wit tries to be smart, or thinks they know more than he does.

[Jim V.]

As I said earlier, I think you are an invaluable part of this board Ray, and I hope you stick around.

We've had people like Ray post here before, and they don't post any more, because some half-wit tries to be smart, or thinks they know more than he does.

Surely, you aren't referring to me Andrew? I think I have contributed a studied opinion, but have also wisely deferred to people like you and Ray who I understand are bound to know a whole lot more.

[Ron]

When you say "Rock album!" then it doesn't happen..

then you say "Jeff Beck" then Jeff goes around saying it won't happen...

Then you wait a year and a half, and start popping up what seems to be half-assed collaboration ideas....

It's no surprise that things get a negative response, by some.

WTF is going on over there?

That's the ignorance I'm talking about, and it's not the fans fault that they're uninformed, if they're trying to promote an album by releasing info they're doing a pretty piss-poor job of it.

AGD: Surely you're talking of yourself, then?  ... I can't think of a better example of 'thinks they know more than he does' ?  You're being hard on yourself, however, you're not a half-wit.

[Andrew G. Doe]

As I said earlier, I think you are an invaluable part of this board Ray, and I hope you stick around.

We've had people like Ray post here before, and they don't post any more, because some half-wit tries to be smart, or thinks they know more than he does.

Surely, you aren't referring to me Andrew? I think I have contributed a studied opinion, but have also wisely deferred to people like you and Ray who I understand are bound to know a whole lot more.

No, of course not - just a general observation badly couched. I was thinking of Steve Gaines in particular.

Ron: you keep thinkin' it's what you're good at.

[guitarfool2002]

For Ron in response to his post, and in general, let's take a minute and put it into a larger perspective.

First, we're talking about a musician who it was assumed up until the 90's would not do anything close to what he's done since the 90's, both touring, recording, and writing.

More important, look at the body of work in the albums since "Imagination" that we've gotten from Brian.

We wanted more from the Van Dyke - Brian collaboration, we got that.

We wanted Smile, we got that.

We wanted the original Smile, we got that.

We wanted new Beach Boys songs with the surviving members participating, we got that.

We wanted Brian to stretch out a bit musically, not rely on the trademark sounds from the 60's and whatnot...

...we got an album of Brian covering the American Songbook and jazz standards on the Gershwin album, we got him covering classic film music on the Disney album.

We wanted something new, like a concept album: We got Lucky Old Sun.

We got Brian adding various musical elements to other artists' projects, like Neil Diamond and others.


Adding it all up, that's quite a body of work, right? Are other artists from Brian's hitmaking era in the 60's or even the 70's giving the fans that much *musical diversity* in their album releases?

I guess I don't see what all the doubt is in light of a simple review over what the man has given his fans musically over the past decade. He's definitely not locked into one sound or style of music, and he's crossing all kinds of genres and generations on these releases.

Cut him some slack, maybe, if he's now working with different and younger artists? It's actually nothing new for him to be trying something outside of the expected BW realm, again looking at that span of recent albums.

[Ron]

Fair enough.... I would again just say, some people are going to like news some aren't. 

Nobody's saying the album is going to be horrible, we're just saying it sounds like it might

[18thofMay]

For Ron in response to his post, and in general, let's take a minute and put it into a larger perspective.

First, we're talking about a musician who it was assumed up until the 90's would not do anything close to what he's done since the 90's, both touring, recording, and writing.

More important, look at the body of work in the albums since "Imagination" that we've gotten from Brian.

We wanted more from the Van Dyke - Brian collaboration, we got that.

We wanted Smile, we got that.

We wanted the original Smile, we got that.

We wanted new Beach Boys songs with the surviving members participating, we got that.

We wanted Brian to stretch out a bit musically, not rely on the trademark sounds from the 60's and whatnot...

...we got an album of Brian covering the American Songbook and jazz standards on the Gershwin album, we got him covering classic film music on the Disney album.

We wanted something new, like a concept album: We got Lucky Old Sun.

We got Brian adding various musical elements to other artists' projects, like Neil Diamond and others.


Adding it all up, that's quite a body of work, right? Are other artists from Brian's hitmaking era in the 60's or even the 70's giving the fans that much *musical diversity* in their album releases?

I guess I don't see what all the doubt is in light of a simple review over what the man has given his fans musically over the past decade. He's definitely not locked into one sound or style of music, and he's crossing all kinds of genres and generations on these releases.

Cut him some slack, maybe, if he's now working with different and younger artists? It's actually nothing new for him to be trying something outside of the expected BW realm, again looking at that span of recent albums.

Zing..cheque please

[JohnMill]

As I said earlier, I think you are an invaluable part of this board Ray, and I hope you stick around.

We've had people like Ray post here before, and they don't post any more, because some half-wit tries to be smart, or thinks they know more than he does.

I enjoy Ray's posts as well as do I most of the honored guests here.  I do however take issue with the notion that other less informed users need to keep quiet in order to facilitate the honored guests remaining on this board.  If we were all to subscribe to such nonsense there would be no forum period as most of what we do here is exchange ideas and opinions in the first place whether right or wrong.  Trolling as they call it is one thing and should be handled immediately by the powers that be in order to preserve the sanity of the forum at large.  The free exchange of ideas and opinions however is another thing entirely and in my tenure on this forum I've unfortunately borne witness to both instances (for lack of a better term) being viewed as interchangeable entities.  Then invariably someone chimes in and says "That is why so and so doesn't post around here anymore".  The problem with that is that as much as I respect the input of those who may have posted here at one point and no longer do, that is nothing other than a choice on their part.  Now if those people left because of a specific troll or agitator, then as I mentioned that is something that probably should've been addressed long before we lost those vital members of the forum.  If they left however, due to the overall tone of the forum then that is obviously a much more malignant problem as it's the general discourse that members of the forum find themselves engaged in which was found to be displeasing to other now regrettably former forum members.