Love & Mercy Clip - 1988

[Steve Latshaw]

I'm sure this has been seen but it was a first time for me.  Brian is singing live, to a track, and doing a fine job.  I found the song as affecting as always, and the performance very endearing and hopeful, which is what the song is about.  Nice work... and with an additional verse at the end... very nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4QeAo6kIkg

[Lowbacca]

Never seen it either. Thanks.



That clapping though...

[Mikie]

Other than when Brian played this song at the Malibu Clinic for the kids in 1988, where there wasn't a dry eye in the house, this show is the only one where I can remember that he sings the extra verse to Love & Mercy. Really good.

[runnersdialzero]

I still cannot stomach the album arrangement of this song.

[Michael Edward Osbourne]

The audience is clapping on the 1 and 3 instead of the 2 and 4! Sounds messed up that way!

[Mikie]

This was one of the all-timers for me.  I think Brian was fighting back tears on this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcqvknM6vFI

[Steve Latshaw]

I remember when I first heard Love & Mercy in 1988, off a cassette single.  I was flabbergasted... it was one of the most beautiful things I'd heard.  I was shocked; I thought, wow, you can come home.  You can actually start to find yourself again.  You can tap into that inner core you thought you'd lost.  I've been re-reading some of the interviews with Brian from 1976, when he talks about how difficult it was to come up with songs... and then you get an instant classic like Love & Mercy all those years later.

The linkage, for me, is between 'Til I Die and Love & Mercy.  Brian released a lot of great songs between 1971 and 1988 - but those were benchmarks.  The end of the first phase - and the start of the second one, after years in the wilderness.  So this clip brought back some wonderful memories.

And so did the Kennedy Center. That's 4 minutes I'll never forget.  Thanks.

[Rocky Raccoon]

He's done a lot of versions of this song but I think he finally perfected it when he re-recorded it in 2005 with the "Walking Down the Path of Life" intro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQnlMQ538IA

[sea of tunes]

I'm really partial to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PISkFEzC5XE

[Matt Etherton]

Didn't the good doctor Landy write much of the lyrics?

[Rocky Raccoon]

Didn't the good doctor Landy write much of the lyrics?

He probably contributed a few lines or so but I think it's been said that Landy actually wasn't that involved in the making of that album.

[MJP]

I believe Warner Brothers requested that the additional verse be deleted from the released version.  Still. personally I feel they give the song additional depth and really complete the song.  I was really hoping that when the CD was reissued with the bonus tracks they would have given us the complete studio version.

[Mikie]

I believe Warner Brothers requested that the additional verse be deleted from the released version. 

Really? Did you read that somewhere? I wonder why Warners wanted that. Maybe Mo or Lenny found out that Landy wrote the verse? Not sure who wrote it, but it shoulda been released! 

[MJP]

I read that about the verse when the album came out in 88.  Might have been Rolling Stone.  The song is so much better with that verse.  If they didn't like the lyrics they should have changed the wording.  Something like this-

I was talking to Mike Love who just didn't seem to care.  The royalties we need the most is what we all fear.

[Mr. Cohen]

Listen to Brian dropping knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNtBL6sS8Gg

[Lowbacca]

This was one of the all-timers for me.  I think Brian was fighting back tears on this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcqvknM6vFI

I had something in my eye as well when I first saw this. Damn small summer bugs.

[Radfahrer]

This was one of the all-timers for me.  I think Brian was fighting back tears on this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcqvknM6vFI

I had something in my eye as well when I first saw this. Damn small summer bugs.

Since I heard "I Have A Dream" by ABBA for the first time, I just can't stand to hear children's choirs. It's too mawkish. 

And this didn't make it any better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpDEMdhmPVs 

Apart from that I'm asking myself what the youngsters in the audience really thought of Brian's performance...