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Author Topic: Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (Documentary)  (Read 5212 times)
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« on: October 02, 2015, 02:28:06 PM »

Since it is the 20th anniversary of this film I have been thinking about it lately. Probably has something to do with the release of "Love & Mercy", as well. I understand that there is a nice piece in the current issue of ESQ about the film. I need to get a copy of that!

At any rate, I've been thinking, shouldn't this film be on Blu-ray? Yes, I know it has been released on DVD and there's a perfectly acceptable two-fer available paired with "The Beach Boys - An American Band". However, this movie kind of stands on its own and would be a delightful release for Blu-ray. And a great companion to go with "Love & Mercy".

Recently, on the BW.com forum, someone posted this article which is a great read in its own right about the documentary:

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/brian-wilson-i-just-wasnt-made-for-these-times/

And I wrote the following stream of consciousness reaction to the topic:

Quote
Personal anecdote about this documentary. Back in 1996 my local cable company had a free weekend of the Disney Channel. Not being a Disney watcher at the time, in my early 20s, I was taken in by a quick advertisement about this very documentary that it would be airing, at some point, that weekend. The quick trailer presented really took my mind and shook it like a snow-globe. At that point in my musical appreciation I was well aware of Phil Spector’s "Wall Of Sound", The Brill Building, Motown, The Beatles, etc. But Brian & The Beach Boys had eluded me.

I believe it was specifically the inclusion of a snippet of Thurston Moore (from Sonic Youth) talking about Brian that pulled me in. SY was a band I was very much into at the time so that recognition from someone like that, that I greatly respected, caused me to sit up and take notice. Needless to say, I watched the documentary that weekend when it aired. Practically the very next day at my job, which happened to be in a medium-sized brick & mortar record store (remember those?) I pulled Pet Sounds off the shelf and cracked it open, playing it in store.

Now, this may be very hard to believe but it was absolutely love at first listen. We had a computer based machine, only running software though (pre-internet) called 'The Muze'. You could look up artists, albums, songs and cross reference. It was touch-screen, pretty cool stuff for 1996. As I listened to Pet Sounds I read through the listing for the album which included the mention of the recent voting from NME crowning it the "greatest record ever made". I didn’t have to ponder even for a moment why such lofty, grandiose things had been written about the record I was listening to — I could hear why.

From that day forward, Pet Sounds became the Citizen Kane of records, to me. And Brian perhaps not unlike a young Orson Welles, full of ambition and not surrounded by the best support system. The exalted reputation for Pet Sounds has continued to grow over the years , of course, and I suspect will continue to as time passes. And for me, my introduction to it and my personal re-examination of The Beach Boys is all because of this wonderful Don Was documentary about its creator.

So to kind of crystallize this post, I wonder if we could indeed get a Blu-ray release of this film?  Something like the following would do very nicely:

  • New HD transfer, with DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Additional Interview footage not included in the feature
  • Charlie Rose Interview with Don Was from 1995

Thoughts?
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« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2015, 02:42:29 PM »

Since it is the 20th anniversary of this film I have been thinking about it lately. Probably has something to do with the release of "Love & Mercy", as well. I understand that there is a nice piece in the current issue of ESQ about the film. I need to get a copy of that!

At any rate, I've been thinking, shouldn't this film be on Blu-ray? Yes, I know it has been released on DVD and there's a perfectly acceptable two-fer available paired with "The Beach Boys - An American Band". However, this movie kind of stands on its own and would be a delightful release for Blu-ray. And a great companion to go with "Love & Mercy".

Recently, on the BW.com forum, someone posted this article which is a great read in its own right about the documentary:

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/brian-wilson-i-just-wasnt-made-for-these-times/

And I wrote the following stream of consciousness reaction to the topic:

Quote
Personal anecdote about this documentary. Back in 1996 my local cable company had a free weekend of the Disney Channel. Not being a Disney watcher at the time, in my early 20s, I was taken in by a quick advertisement about this very documentary that it would be airing, at some point, that weekend. The quick trailer presented really took my mind and shook it like a snow-globe. At that point in my musical appreciation I was well aware of Phil Spector’s "Wall Of Sound", The Brill Building, Motown, The Beatles, etc. But Brian & The Beach Boys had eluded me.

I believe it was specifically the inclusion of a snippet of Thurston Moore (from Sonic Youth) talking about Brian that pulled me in. SY was a band I was very much into at the time so that recognition from someone like that, that I greatly respected, caused me to sit up and take notice. Needless to say, I watched the documentary that weekend when it aired. Practically the very next day at my job, which happened to be in a medium-sized brick & mortar record store (remember those?) I pulled Pet Sounds off the shelf and cracked it open, playing it in store.

Now, this may be very hard to believe but it was absolutely love at first listen. We had a computer based machine, only running software though (pre-internet) called 'The Muze'. You could look up artists, albums, songs and cross reference. It was touch-screen, pretty cool stuff for 1996. As I listened to Pet Sounds I read through the listing for the album which included the mention of the recent voting from NME crowning it the "greatest record ever made". I didn’t have to ponder even for a moment why such lofty, grandiose things had been written about the record I was listening to — I could hear why.

From that day forward, Pet Sounds became the Citizen Kane of records, to me. And Brian perhaps not unlike a young Orson Welles, full of ambition and not surrounded by the best support system. The exalted reputation for Pet Sounds has continued to grow over the years , of course, and I suspect will continue to as time passes. And for me, my introduction to it and my personal re-examination of The Beach Boys is all because of this wonderful Don Was documentary about its creator.

So to kind of crystallize this post, I wonder if we could indeed get a Blu-ray release of this film?  Something like the following would do very nicely:

  • New HD transfer, with DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Additional Interview footage not included in the feature
  • Charlie Rose Interview with Don Was from 1995

Thoughts?

Don't think the film ever had a UK or region 2 release. That in itself would be nice.

Also nice to see it in colour. It's 2015 for chissakes!!!
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« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2015, 02:46:16 PM »

It definitely could use a new video transfer, quality-wise. The previous DVD releases (both the stand-alone, long out of print, and the two-fer with "An American Band") have a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer. Not even up to par by DVD standards of ten years ago really.

They'd have to either charge a really cheap price for a Blu-ray, or add some substantial bonus features. The film is only about 69 minutes long as I recall.

It would be interesting to know if all the trims and outtakes from the film still exist. More interviews would obviously be the main thing, but even any additional musical bits from Brian sitting with VDP or Carl and Audree would be great. I've always loved when Brian hammers out "God Only Knows" on just a piano. Add to that Carl singing, and I'd love to get as much of that performance as exists.
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« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2015, 02:53:54 PM »

It would be cool if they included the color TSWTSWYT segment that was supposed to end the film.  Was that ever recorded or just planned?  And yes, as HeyJude touched on, any extended cuts they have of Audree, Brian, and Carl around the piano.
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« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2015, 12:59:36 PM »

I think this is the best documentary about Brian, and it sure was welcome in 1995, a time when I hadn't heard anything about Brian in ages. Love the performance segments, if these exist in more complete form, would love to see them.  My memories of this film are probably a bit biased - 1995 was far and away the happiest time in my life, so any music I liked from that year brings a smile to my face 20 years later.
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« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2015, 05:29:49 PM »

It's a great documentary and probably the most intimate Brian has ever been on film.  I find it very strange though that Landy isn't mentioned at all aside from Andy Paley saying that when he first met Brian, there was this guy always hanging around.  Odd because he's such a huge and important part of Brian's story.  Maybe Don Was just wanted to make it more about the music.  But at least there's Love & Mercy now to tell that story.
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« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2015, 06:29:09 PM »

It's a great documentary and probably the most intimate Brian has ever been on film.  I find it very strange though that Landy isn't mentioned at all aside from Andy Paley saying that when he first met Brian, there was this guy always hanging around.  Odd because he's such a huge and important part of Brian's story.  Maybe Don Was just wanted to make it more about the music.  But at least there's Love & Mercy now to tell that story.

That's exactly it. A quote from this 1995 article https://web.archive.org/web/19980630153958/http://www.petsounds.com/mojo1.pdf

I ask Don why the movie pretty much ignores the strangeness surrounding Brian, those aforementioned gray areas.

“Well, my feeling is I’m a musician, so I wanted to do a film about his music, everything regarding his personal life in the movie relates to the music.  I could’ve done 30 hours of film on Brian.  He’s the most enigmatic person I’ve ever known.  The whole basis for this film comes from a performance I did with him for an AIDS benefit a few years ago.  It was a weird gig. Reagan was there and all these celebrities.  But Brian did a version of Love & Mercy that was purely transcendental.  I mean, it was literally one of the five pivotal points in my life!  And I thought if people could only see this - if they could only see this part of Brian Wilson.

“Everyone has some sort of emotional stake in Brian’s music, and the movie shows that - from Thurston Moore [of Sonic Youth] to David Crosby and Graham Nash.  So this is the important thing - not the sordid details and the gossip
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"So maybe Beach Boys fans are stupid and we can dismiss the whole thing. But maybe that's a pretty snotty attitude to take; maybe something is happening here that we just ought to know about" -Paul Williams

"Brian is an enigma, a leprechaun," said rhythm guitarist Al Jardine.

"There ain't a rocketship powerfull enough to be able to blast Jeff's fat ass into space."-Mike's Beard
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« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2015, 10:30:36 PM »

It's a great documentary and probably the most intimate Brian has ever been on film.  I find it very strange though that Landy isn't mentioned at all aside from Andy Paley saying that when he first met Brian, there was this guy always hanging around.  Odd because he's such a huge and important part of Brian's story.  Maybe Don Was just wanted to make it more about the music.  But at least there's Love & Mercy now to tell that story.
There may have been legal reasons to avoid mentioning Landy.
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« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2015, 05:47:53 AM »

I don't know if there were legal reasons behind not mentioning Landy (I would doubt the separation order forbade Brian, and certainly others, from mentioning Landy's name). They perhaps may have feared slander/libel issues (I would doubt "Love & Mercy" would have been made if Landy was still alive, for instance).

I always assumed the whole Landy thing was just too painful and awkward and fresh. Wasn't the IJWMFTT doc footage mostly shot in like 1994? At that stage, they were only 2-3 years out from the Landy situation (didn't some of the Landy hangers-on stick to Brian into 1992 after Landy was gone for some time even?).

I think beyond all of the horrendous, criminal things that had gone on and Brian had been the victim of, they also had a weird credibility gap going on in the aftermath of Landy. Pretty much everything Brian had done in terms of interview, PR, etc. was tainted and not necessarily to be believed. If he was trying to do something more credible in 1994 or 1995, he (or Was) may not have wanted to draw too much attention to a recent near-decade of Landy-tainted interviews and so on.
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« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2015, 07:10:39 AM »

Scheeeze. Has it really been TWENTY YEARS???

I'd love a DVD or Blu-Ray of this; it was beautifully made and filmed. Like JCM above, the Beach Boys and Brian had passed but obliquely through my orbit by 1995, and I was a fan of lots of artists that would name-check them, but I hardly knew any of their songs, and I wasn't any kind of fan. I could have named prolly three songs by the Beach Boys, max, and none by Brian solo.

All that changed when I sat down to watch Don Was's film, which was screened on BBC2 in the UK as part of Arena, a weekly arts programme. In my case too, the film was solely responsible for kickstarting a major obsession! The short sequence of Carl and Brian singing God Only Knows at the piano, and the similar segment at the end with Brian and VDP playing the title track from Orange Crate Art, are still some of my favourite Brian performances. I wish they were complete, although I'm guessing the filmmakers excerpted the best, most complete (or both!) parts of each performance for what we saw in the edited film.

I just remember that feeling, watching Brian pound out God Only Knows and hearing Carl singing along and thinking, 'Wait, I know that song... kinda. BUT I NEED TO KNOW MORE...!'

And then, near the end of the film, the performance of 'Til I Die' really sealed the deal. It felt like the top of my head was coming off watching that. By then I was like, 'What's THIS song?? I MUST POSSESS IT. NOW!!!!!' I went out and started buying Beach Boys CDs the very next day like they were going out of fashion.*

For me, the 1995 Brian solo performance of Til I Die still shades the 1971 version, although I'm aware that I'm probably in a minority on that one...

I still have the VHS I made of the BBC2 Arena transmission of the film, but something better with outtakes and full interviews, if such a thing is still possible, would be very sweet...!

* Which they sort of were. In 1995 I couldn't find the Surf's Up album anywhere in the UK, and had to make do with the Was film soundtrack, the Beach Boys then-current Greatest Hits 2-CD collection, and the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey twofer. That wasn't bad going, though, because the last of these led me to find out about SMiLE, and so, eventually, to be posting here...
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« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2015, 08:19:22 AM »

I absolutely love this documentary...it distils my love of Brian perfectly, I send people to it immediately if they want to know why I'm so obsessive....

 As for a Blu-ray release....sign me the hell up! An early poster was right in saying there is no UK release and my only copy is the two-fer region 1. So I have to watch it on my laptop rather than TV :-( (no YouTube leak either...anyone....anyone?)

 I have asked before but am sure the answer is no but all those performances from the documentary would've been live and complete, they most exist as whole pieces in DW's vault, oh to get them dusted off!! Imagine being able to put the whole OCA and GOK from those sessions in a playlist....bliss! I can't believe they've never leaked onto a boot (maybe they have and I'm just not ITK).

 So it's two hands straight in the air on this one...make it so someone, make it so....
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« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2015, 12:46:39 PM »

Watched this last night, first time in many years. Like a lot of these documentaries, comments from the participants can get a bit tiresome after awhile. They really play up the "Brian staying in bed" "his own band was against him" angle - as if he was not in the studio for Wild Honey, Friends, Sunflower, etc. Not as much music in the film as I remembered, either - a lot of the performances are incomplete. I would love to see complete performances of Warmth of the Sun, Wonderful, and the stuff with Carl and Audree. It also struck me that Don Was must have been the last guy to really get Brian to open up in an interview. These are far more than the one word or one sentence answers he is known for. I especially liked the scene where he talks about humour.
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« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2015, 04:28:27 PM »

Important to note here that the scenes of Brian "performing" with the band in the film are all mimed.
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« Reply #13 on: October 12, 2015, 12:08:58 PM »

Important to note here that the scenes of Brian "performing" with the band in the film are all mimed.
Do we know this for a fact? Anyway, it was a revelation for me to see Brian back in '95 performing like he was 'into' it, instead of staring blankly ahead like a deer in the headlights.  And if there is any additional footage of Brian, Carl and Audree, or Brian with Van Dyke at the piano, I would love to see it.
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« Reply #14 on: October 12, 2015, 12:15:46 PM »

Important to note here that the scenes of Brian "performing" with the band in the film are all mimed.
Do we know this for a fact? Anyway, it was a revelation for me to see Brian back in '95 performing like he was 'into' it, instead of staring blankly ahead like a deer in the headlights.  And if there is any additional footage of Brian, Carl and Audree, or Brian with Van Dyke at the piano, I would love to see it.

I don't know how egregious the instances are without going back to watch it again, but I recall that there area some moments when Brian's lip-syncing is off enough that you can tell. There are other "tells" as well, such as Brian leaning into or away from the microphone, yet the audible voice not changing in volume at all. Things like that.
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« Reply #15 on: October 12, 2015, 06:45:59 PM »

In the "Do It Again" clip everybody seems really into it for a lip sync.  I don't know but would guess recorded live then sweetened?
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« Reply #16 on: October 12, 2015, 08:50:05 PM »

Important to note here that the scenes of Brian "performing" with the band in the film are all mimed.
Do we know this for a fact? Anyway, it was a revelation for me to see Brian back in '95 performing like he was 'into' it, instead of staring blankly ahead like a deer in the headlights.  And if there is any additional footage of Brian, Carl and Audree, or Brian with Van Dyke at the piano, I would love to see it.

Yes, we do know it for a fact. AGD and others have confirmed it. (http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs93.html)

Don Was and the band tracked the entire album without Brian present. Andrew Gold sang all the lead vocals as placeholders. BW then showed up and overdubbed his leads in two-three days.

The use of double tracking on "Love and Mercy" and "Melt Away" should suggest that something is up, at the very least.

That being said, I'm sure the stuff of Brian alone at the piano or with Carl and Audree was done live.

In the "Do It Again" clip everybody seems really into it for a lip sync.  I don't know but would guess recorded live then sweetened?

That's the one song where I've sometimes wondered if they did a live take. Brian is actually playing piano, which you don't see on the other tracks, and he's not making his weird over-enunciation-lip sync faces. I would guess they simply played along to the track, rather than miming.
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« Reply #17 on: October 12, 2015, 09:01:50 PM »

From the dear departed Andrew Gold himself --

Quote
You and I have met a few times, briefly, but I doubt you'd remember as both times it was very brief. Van Dyke will know me. I am a singer songwriter etc. etc. and has some success in the 70's and 80's as an artist (lonely boy, thank you for being a friend, etc) and am still working as an artist, and as a producer, and am a pretty creative guy. I am also a very good friend of Jeff, Nelson and Probyn, Brad Gilderman and Mark Linnet, and in fact, when Jeff and the lads are not playing in your band, they often play in my band when I do 60's homages, especially for Byrds songs. I also did most of the background vocals and scratch vocals for you with Don Was on your "Just Wasn't Made For These Times" special, and you and I even sang together, though not at the same time, on a Ringo album Don and Peter Asher produced. I was also Linda Ronstadt's bandleader/arranger for much of the 70's (along with others in the band...to give them proper credit. I also had a band, WAX, with Graham Gouldman in the 80's (he of "bus stop", "for your love" and 10cc fame.) I even was the voice of Alvin in the chipmunks on a few albums.

http://thetimemachineradioshow.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html
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« Reply #18 on: October 12, 2015, 11:24:41 PM »

Sometimes I get the impression that the released recordings of Brian are not things he's necessarily all that interested in. Disappointing that all he did for IJWMFTT was lead vocals. I can't tell in the clips if he is playing piano or not, I don't see his hands, but at least he's not clapping or waving them around. OCA also seems to be a project he had to be talked into; meanwhile, the stuff he was really enthused about, with Paley, has to collect dust in vault somewhere.
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