Carl Wilson - Extended Interview 1984

[PhilSpectre]

Just stumbled across this on Youtube. Seems to be newly posted. Serendipity or what? 

Never seen it before, so not sure how well-known this is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX7fLjUsmzU

22 whole minutes of Carl goodness!   

[rab2591]

Wow. Never seen this before. Thanks for sharing!

Some great quotes from this interview:

"I'd say the greatest single contribution by Brian, musically, is the integrity of his work."

"For us, recording was church...you know, it was just really a thing where you really wanted to be able to create from inside yourself."

"[Brian] told me that Beach Boys music communicates joy of living...just the simple joy of being alive."

[Rocker]

Thanks! Great to see and hear this. I wish there were more interviews of the guys like this.

[Nicko1234]

From 1986?

[zachrwolfe]

‍

[southbay]

From 1986?

Yeah, doesn't look like 1984.  If I were to make an educated guess just from Carl's appearance, I would say '86.  Who knows for sure...

[jeremylr]

Other than the interviewer taking what seemed like an hour to ask one question, I really enjoyed the conversation and thanks for posting the link. Carl put a lot of thought into his answers. I didn't detect any canned responses. Plus, it's always nice to hear Carl discuss other icons like Elvis, Bob Dylan & John Fogerty and his songwriting contributions to the Surf's Up album. When the interviewer asked Carl about Student Demonstration Time, all I can say is -- Carl gave a very diplomatic reply!

[Emdeeh]

Oh. My.... WOW -- so glad to see this!

I'm thinking 1986 too. Was this for one of those History of Rock'n'Roll series? I love seeing Carl giving an in-depth interview in a time when interviews with him were becoming rare.

[startBBtoday]

Carl talks about recording California Dreamin', so I'm guessing this is 1986.

[southbay]

After watching the whole interview it is indeed from1986 as Carl discusses it being the group's 25th anniversary and recording RRTTR. I have 2 takeaways from the interview: First, I wonder if Carl ever got just a little tired of ever answering questions about his brother? If he did you can't tell even though most of the questions here were about Brian. Second, Carl really helps the guy out here because most of these questions were really poor and without Carl carrying this thing it could have been about a 2 minute interview. Example--after finally asking Carl about his own song, the guy gets the name of Long Promised Road wrong. No matter, ever the good soldier, Carl carries on.

[Pretty Funky]

Carl talks about recording California Dreamin', so I'm guessing this is 1986.

Also the 25th anniversary mention.

[bringahorseinhere?]

bloody magic!!!

Priceless interview.  Thankyou for uploading the link..... and thanks Carl.

RickB

[metal flake paint]

Lovely to see and hear Carl, but could the interviewer have been any less engaged? Carl's level of patience and professionalism throughout this 22 minute interview is most admirable.

[Pretty Funky]

I may be wrong but it sounds to me like one of those interviews where a voice-over added later asks the questions.

I still have somewhere the Robert W Morgan BB radio program and he makes comments and mention in the studio, which group members elaborate on but obviously recorded elsewhere and prior. Whether he actually did the interviews or not I don't know.

[ppk700]

My favorite part of the interview is when someone offscreen coughs and Carl smiles and raises his eyebrows 

[Lonely Summer]

Thanks for sharing this, going to watch it a little later tonight.

[Pretty Funky]

My favorite part of the interview is when someone offscreen coughs and Carl smiles and raises his eyebrows 

Another thing I noted is he closes his eyes at times during questions and pauses, not unlike Brian. I suspect for Brian its medication but seeing Carl do similar I now wonder.

[Cyncie]

Nice interview. Makes me really miss Carl.

[Crow]

Great interview - such a thoughtful and kind man

[Loves The Sunflower]

Enjoyed that  -the highly disengaged interviewer notwithstanding. (And it's definitely 1986 given the mentions of "California Dreamin'", "Rock And Roll To The Rescue" and the 25th anniversary.)

[Rocker]

When the interviewer asked Carl about Student Demonstration Time, all I can say is -- Carl gave a very diplomatic reply!

I knew that this was gold for the "Student demonstration time"-haters.... 
"Well, that was Mike's...............thing"

[Ovi]

Youtube channel Music Vault is worth subscribing to, they are uploading tons of (often full) live shows as well as interviews form a wide range of artists. They promised over 13,000 live videos.

http://www.thevideoink.com/news/youtubes-music-vault-adds-13000-live-music-videos/#.U8lYyvmSxUU

I know I read about them in Rolling Stone as well, but can't find the article any more.

[PhilSpectre]

I wonder if Carl ever got just a little tired of ever answering questions about his brother? If he did you can't tell even though most of the questions here were about Brian. Second, Carl really helps the guy out here because most of these questions were really poor and without Carl carrying this thing it could have been about a 2 minute interview.

I think being constantly asked about Brian is a syndrome for all Beach Boys who are not called Brian  . Even though they know what he did more than most, it must stick in the craw sometimes. Just seen an interview with Al and it's mostly questions about Brian/ how 'out there' was Brian 'at that stage?' type questions. I'd wanna say, 'Why don't you just call up Brian's agent and book Brian instead?'

I always find it interesting watching interviews with Carl (though this is by far the longest one I've ever come across). There always seems to be so much going on inside the man, things left  'unsaid' in his demeanour. Just little facial expressions or his tone of voice; a flash of irony, or repressed frustration, past/ present sadness or impish humour. He's clearly thinking some private thoughts during the interview, but would never express them, always staying 'on message'.

Also amusing to see Carl start to get inwardly annoyed with the god-awful slow 'interviewer' near the end, but he still carries on being as polite and diplomatic as ever, just looking ever-so-slightly p.....d off  .

This interview is also interesting to me as we're with Carl for much longer than all other Carl interviews I know of, so you get more of a sense of the man, his mannerisms and the previously unrealised behavioural similarities with his brothers as some have already said, as well as the differences.

Now, just a few thoughts I've had on Carl and his role in the group -

I really get a sense of Carl being the long-suffering bandleader, diplomat and 'fixer' of the group from the early '70s to mid-'90s (obviously he had his early-'80s solo break), fielding all the curveballs he got from the other members, often fighting just to keep the Beach Boys ship afloat.

It's all very ironic as Carl didn't really build the 'ship'; that was Brian, Mike (and Murry, for better or worse on the business end) mainly, but Carl sorta took over as caretaker/ curator when Brian slowly faded out from the late '60s. Mike stayed as main frontman, while Carl was tour bandleader. Carl 'inherited the family business' in a way and ran it as well as he could for 20 or so years until he couldn't do it anymore ...

By that time, Brian was kinda getting ready to 'take it back' spiritually anyway. Wonder how Carl would have dealt with the much more active and relatively 'together' Brian we've seen over the last 15 years. Bet he'd have been stunned to see Brian become a successful, regularly touring live performer, leading one of the best live touring bands in the world. Sure, he'd be pleased for Brian, but might've have had mixed feelings about it and all the work he (Carl) had put in during Brian's much less active years. I guess he might have carried on leading the live Beach Boys with Mike and occasionally performing/ recording with his brother on the side.

Wish we had a similar lengthy in-vision Dennis interview (only with a better interviewer), as other than the quite insightful Pete Fornatale audio interview from the mid-70s (also on Youtube), we only seem to have two or three minutes snippets of him chatting.

But then, I guess all three Wilson brothers communicate so much better in music than in interviews anyway  .

[bonnevillemariner]

"Not available on mobile"  grr...

[Rocker]

"Not available on mobile"  grr...

Does this work?

http://www.musicvault.com/carl-wilson/video/interview_1010917.html