Brian's new collaborator

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I wish Brian and his organization would figure out that people see Brian as a legendary wacked out musical genius and that they should run with that image .

You know...I was thinking just now...maybe they should play that up, you know? Let him write/record whatever the hell he wants, lyrics included. It definitely won't be commercial, but we might get some strange gems. Just let Darian produce Brian's vocals, though.

[Sheriff John Stone]

I wish Brian and his organization would figure out that people see Brian as a legendary wacked out musical genius and that they should run with that image .

You know...I was thinking just now...maybe they should play that up, you know? Let him write/record whatever the hell he wants, lyrics included. It definitely won't be commercial, but we might get some strange gems. Just let Darian produce Brian's vocals, though.

I think this is what happened with The Beach Boys Love You. While there was obviously genius at work there, there were also some moments on that album that could be considered embarrassing, or at the very least unsettling..

I believe that as great as The Beach Boys Love you is, it was also the last straw in letting Brian do whatever he wanted to do. It's almost as lf the people in charge (with The Beach Boys and in his solo career) made a conscious attempt to "normalize" his recordings, and you can hear what we were left with...

[MBE]

Rubin and Brian worked on the new Neil Diamond LP. Brian's work is a bonus on the vinyl version. go to www.vinylmatters.com to order it

[Ron]

Yeah, the 'crazy genius' idea would be pretty cool. 

Just let him sing things like "PIEDDD PIPPPAAA, I BETTA GET BACK IN BEDDDDDDD!!!"

I would love that.  It would be good to friek friends out with. 

[Peter Ames Carlin]

I don't think it's accurate to say Brian and VDP don't like each other. In fact, I'd argue quite the opposite. Certainly, they're certainly very different kinds of people -- everyone in the world who isn't Brian is a very different person from Brian. And maybe Brian isn't always sensitive to Van Dyke's wants or needs. Recall, for instance, that he announced the "Smile" revival, tour dates and so on, without even telling VDP that he had any plans for their old collaboration. That didn't make VDP very happy, and understandably so. But the moment Brian did call -- needing to decipher lyrics for "Roll Plymouth Rock" VDP was there to help. Just as he'd helped the Boys nail down their Warner's contract in '70, and intervened to help drag "Sail On, Sailor" out of Brian when the BB's needed to plug a hole in "Holland."  Brian's reputation, and the "Smile" legend, certainly added to VDP's lustre over the years, it's true. And when Brian asked if he could come up to help finish the rest of the third movement, he was there again. Just like Brian was there for VDP to add his vocals (and commercial buzz) to "Orange Crate Art."

So it's not as simple as "do they like each other," or if Brian once called VDP a "butthead." In '76 he told Lorne MIchael's camera that VDP was his favorite collaborator, ever.  He may have said something different ten minutes later, but that's Brian: a visceral being, floating in his internal breeze, saying exactly what he feels at the moment he feels it.

Forty years after they first got together, those guys may not hang out much. They may not have a lot to talk about. But their professional and creative lives are inextricably linked. And it's done both of them a world of good, wouldn't you say?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Very good post, Peter.

I think this is what happened with The Beach Boys Love You. While there was obviously genius at work there, there were also some moments on that album that could be considered embarrassing, or at the very least unsettling..

But I personally think an album like that would actually work better now than it did back then. Maybe that's just me, though.

[cta]

Ugh god...I hear you about Imagination and Joe Thomas' production.

For one thing, the whole album sounds very childish...like a Phil Spector production on some music box noise.  Brian's already stunted enough from medications and other factors in the personable sense.  I don't know...we shouldn't have been too surprised.  The guy (Thomas) had a mullet in anti-redneck 1998 for crying out loud.

And it seems like anyone who's worked with Brian usually disappears quickly on bad terms sooner or later.   I don't know how anyone would be able to work along with the "politics" - for lack of a better description - that involves the Brian Camp and keep a straight head.

Just throw him Darian and call it done.   He's the best candidate and has proven himself highly worthy of hovering in both  Brian-Spaceland and the real world.

[rb]

Just throw him Darian and call it done.   He's the best candidate and has proven himself highly worthy of hovering in both  Brian-Spaceland and the real world.

Still, I'd be more interested to hear him with someone different - someone who could take him outside his comfort zone a bit. Also, someone who has a name and an outside rep. Darian is basically his musical secretary, right? (Well, maybe a bit more.)

And cta - thanks for telling who your avatar is in the signature. I coulda swore it was Redd Foxx in a turban...