Rocky Pamplin book about The Beach Boys?

[adamghost]

Yikes!

Just as an aside, I wanted to put a thought out there that I don't think people have touched on enough.  The height of the 1970s music industry in Los Angeles would have been about the most toxic, drug-addled, morally backwards up-is-down world one could concoct.  Even the most rational, well-intentioned, reasonable person plopped down in that environment and forced to deal with it would be affected and warped and make some bad choices.  Aside from the (very real, and well-discussed) issue of how mental illness was dealt with and what the optons were at that time, you can't forget that the world the Beach Boys functioned in, quite apart from whatever issues the members themselves had, was deeply messed up and that messed up reality was the norm at that time.  It's hard for me at least to envision anything like a best case scenario emerging at that time with the pressures of that culture.

[Emily]

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[JK]

someone criticized my spelling... and my use of dot dot dot..

I'm sure your editor will do what is necessary in that department, while no doubt keeping to your writing style.

My only problem is with one name. It's MARILYN. I before Y.

Keep on posting, Rocky----it's a most interesting read!

[SteveMC]

I think because of social media I've started to care less & less about spelling and grammar. It's kind of like listening to old school punk music, it cleanses your need of the singer being in tune all the time. :-)

someone criticized my spelling... and my use of dot dot dot..

I'm sure your editor will do what is necessary in that department, while no doubt keeping to your writing style.

My only problem is with one name. It's MARILYN. I before Y.

Keep on posting, Rocky----it's a most interesting read!

[rockrush3]

  :)I hope all the Smile readers had a HAPPY JOLLY CHRISTMAS! I sure did...God is great. But I am curious about a gentleman who suggested Smile readers chant STEVE LOVE   STEVE LOVE   STEVE LOVE! I'm curious as to what you have accomplished  in life... did you graduate from college... any college... let alone U.S.C.? If so did you graduate Magna Cum Laude ? Did you ever manage a group like the Beach Boys?... or were you ever a personal manager of someone like Brian Wilson? Have you ever been the one that someone like Brian's wife called and were given the chance to save someones life...like Brian Wilson...or are you just someone who makes FALSE accusations? Like saying that Stephen is a dishonored guest! I can share with all of you that Stephen Love has been fully EXONERATED of the so-called embezzlement charge PURSUANT to SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE NANCY BROWN'S ORDER (Los Angeles Municipal Court Case No. A961401) dated February 22, 1996. Stephen also received a full EXPUNGEMENT!!!   But occasionally there is a DIMWIT that is completely uninformed as to the legal facts of this old controversy and voices an opinion... that is completely opposite of the TRUTH! For people who have been VINDICATED of any and all wrongdoing... two of their favorite words in the English language are EXONERATION and EXPUNGEMENT!!! For people who bear false witness against their neighbor, or a FAMILY MEMBER, there should be a special place... Oh, that's right... there is... it's called HELL.      

[SenorPotatoHead]

I'm by no means a member of the "Grammar police"   I make mistakes/errors in that dept often enough myself.  I don't mind being corrected though, so long as the corrector isn't a snotty jerk about it and I encourage others to receive such corrections with humility as well (that's humility, not humiliation) because it is important.  The world is "dumbed down" enough as it is (particularly, it seems, the USA), and I say it'd be a shame to let it go completely. 

[JK]

I'm by no means a member of the "Grammar police"   I make mistakes/errors in that dept often enough myself.  I don't mind being corrected though, so long as the corrector isn't a snotty jerk about it and I encourage others to receive such corrections with humility as well (that's humility, not humiliation) because it is important.  The world is "dumbed down" enough as it is (particularly, it seems, the USA), and I say it'd be a shame to let it go completely.

+1

[Pretty Funky]

I hope all the Smile readers had a HAPPY JOLLY CHRISTMAS! For the gentleman who suggested Smile readers chant STEVE LOVE   STEVE LOVE   STEVE LOVE! I'm curious as to what you have accomplished  in life... did you graduate from college... any college... let alone U.S.C.? If so did you graduate Magna Cum Laude ? Did you ever manage a group like the Beach Boys?... or were you ever a personal manager of someone like Brian Wilson? Have you ever been the one that someone like Brian's wife called and were given the chance to save someone like Brian' life... or are you just someone who makes FALSE accusations?   I can share with all of you that Stephen Love has been fully EXONERATED of the so-called embezzlement charge PURSUANT to SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE NANCY BROWN'S ORDER (Los Angeles Municipal Court Case No. A961401) dated February 22, 1996. Stephen also received a full EXPUNGEMENT!!!   But occasionally there is a DIMWIT that is completely uninformed as to the legal facts of this old controversy and voices an opinion... that is completely opposite of the TRUTH! For people who have been VINDICATED of any and all wrong doing... two of their favorite words are EXONERATION and EXPUNGEMENT!!! For people who bear false witness against there neighbor... or a family member... there should be a special place... oh that's right... there is... it's called... HELL !

An admittedly quick search only gave me the 1988 case where Stephen Love pleaded no contest to embezzlement or such so I presume this is the charge in question. Anywhere we can read the details of the 1996 follow-up, as a search using the case number and judge drew a blank?

[rockrush3]

       To Big Daddy, just getting back to some of the smile readers... THANK YOU for the warm welcome!   

[Juice Brohnston]

      To Big Daddy, just getting back to some of the smile readers... THANK YOU for the welcoming!

Rock, see if you can get Stephen to come aboard. I found his comments on Man v Clown insightful.

Happy New Year.

[rockrush3]

 :)To John K, I just wanted to say thank you for you'r kind words... "That you feel my posts are a most interesting read and to keep posting" Also I do have an excellent editor for "WIPEOUT" perhaps that is why I don't worry about some of the more trivial stuff? In regards to the spelling of Marilyn... my mothers name was also Marylin... ie: the spelling! Once again thanks ... and keep posting me I can use all the friendly imput ! The more the "merrier" (well it is Christmas time)    

[rockrush3]

    :)Dear SteveMC, thank you for your post about not being that concerned about spelling and grammar... I try not to be so anal retentive myself! But it does help to know I have a great editor. I'm not a big fan of punk music...however I loved Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols!(not sure if there punk... more Grunge I think... there's so many categories these day's)

[rockrush3]

    Emily, I know you mean well but in regards to Marilyn's initial thought to have Brian committed... being a good one? I don't think so! Isn't it difficult to get out of a Mental Institution once you get in one? I reflect back on "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest"  In regards to music and Brian and myself... Yes there was a connection. Brian knew I loved music and wanted to record me on a song he had written called California Feeling. He said he liked my voice because it was an untrained voice! But the real reason, he confessed to me, was because he didn't want to go into the recording studio with the Beach Boys... said that whole thing gave him bad vibes! Brian also told Stan and I that when his music took off... it was like a TIDAL WAVE... and he didn't want any part of that again. Said that the whole TIDAL WAVE thing brought him nothing but sunburn... pollution...and  tremendous disappointment in all the people around him!                

[Emily]

Emily, I know you mean well but in regards to Marilyn's initial thought to have Brian committed... being a good one? I don't think so! Isn't it difficult to get out of a Mental Institution once you get in one? I reflect back on "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest"     

Hi Rocky. I think the difference is between a state mental institution and a private one, and whether a family member is closely involved to make sure the treatment is on the right track. There's certainly a history of throwing people in state institutions and walking away (Frances Farmer is a famous instance, Rosemary Kennedy.. many thousands who were not famous). In many states before the 60's and 70's (when civil rights movements increased rights for mental health patients and would-be mental health patients) a family member could get another committed without even going to court.
But by the 70's the laws had changed and involuntary institutionalization needed a court order and would need to be renewed with new court orders periodically, so at least some oversight was involved.
But if a family member got a court order and placed another family member in a high-quality private care facility, they would work with the doctors to ensure the treatment was appropriate, and could get the patient released if the treatment was inappropriate. It is still the family member, not the institution, who has the legal control.
The patients in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" were people who were dumped into state facilities either by their families who had no interest in continuing to help them, or ordered into the facility by courts due to criminal activity, and who had no family interested in helping them.
The process that Marilyn Rutherford-Wilson or Carl Wilson or whoever went through to give Eugene Landy legal guardianship is the same process they would've followed to get Brian Wilson into a residential treatment program. It involved establishing with a court that BW was a danger to himself or others. Then the court gives someone else the right to make legal decisions for him. They gave that right to Landy. They should (I think) have kept that right to themselves and placed Brian Wilson in a treatment facility that would have weaned him off whatever drugs he was on and simultaneously evaluated his mental health and prescribed whatever the best treatment there was at the time. At some point (3 to 6 months - 6 is better for addicts) he would've been released but continued to work with the center as an outpatient, with follow up appointments both for addiction and mental health. If the guardian (Carl, Marilyn, whoever) thought that the institution was mistreating Brian or felt that he was ready to live independently, they would have the legal power to remove him from that institution.
I understand that there was a big stigma with 'institutionalization,' mainly because there had been so much abuse historically, but a caring family member could take the helm and ensure quality care. From what I've read, Eugene Landy took advantage of this stigma, and the ignorance of the Wilsons, and threatened BW and his family with "throwing him on the funny farm" if he was non-compliant. He should have been educating them on available options and removing stigmas. Obviously, he saw a way to increase his own power and that was his main interest.

[Emily]

In regards to music and Brian and myself... Yes there was a connection. Brian knew I loved music and wanted to record me on a song he had written called California Feeling. He said he liked my voice because it was an untrained voice! But the real reason, he confessed to me, was because he didn't want to go into the recording studio with the Beach Boys... said that whole thing gave him bad vibes! Brian also told Stan and I that when his music took off... it was like a TITLE WAVE... and he didn't want any part of that again. Said that the whole TITLE WAVE thing brought him nothing but sunburn and pollution...and  tremendous disappointment!                  

It does seem to me that one thing Brian Wilson needed, and didn't get, was a complete break from the industry and related pressures. I think putting the studio in his house, and moving him to Holland, and putting him on stage, and having him do interviews didn't help. I think he needed to be away from all that for a while. It probably would have done him good to live away from LA altogether (and not because he's supposed to be working on an album in Holland) for a few years.
Did you end up working with him at all in a studio? Or by a piano? Can you give us any descriptions of what it was like working with him musically?

[AndrewHickey]

Emily, I know you mean well but in regards to Marilyn's initial thought to have Brian committed... being a good one? I don't think so! Isn't it difficult to get out of a Mental Institution once you get in one?

No. Most people who spend time on a psychiatric ward do so for a period of weeks or months at most.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was written in the very early 60s, and was not intended as an accurate portrayal of life in a psychiatric ward -- it's a work of fiction about Kesey's beliefs about how society metaphorically castrates those who are different. But even to the extent it was applicable in 1962, it wasn't by the time we are talking about. There was a *huge* revolution in psychiatric treatment between then and the early 70s -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalization . The chances are that had Brian been involuntarily committed, even when he was at his worst, he would have spent maybe a month confined to a hospital while he was getting the drugs out of his system and cleaning up, then another few months being allowed out for increasingly extended periods, while being monitored to ensure he was taking his medication and not falling back into drug use.
Some people do, of course, still become institutionalised, but those people are usually ones who have no outside support and no-one to advocate for them. Brian was a rich man with rich, powerful, friends and family. He would have spent very little time in hospital, and nobody would have had to punch anyone.

[Emily]

Emily, I know you mean well but in regards to Marilyn's initial thought to have Brian committed... being a good one? I don't think so! Isn't it difficult to get out of a Mental Institution once you get in one?

No. Most people who spend time on a psychiatric ward do so for a period of weeks or months at most.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was written in the very early 60s, and was not intended as an accurate portrayal of life in a psychiatric ward -- it's a work of fiction about Kesey's beliefs about how society metaphorically castrates those who are different. But even to the extent it was applicable in 1962, it wasn't by the time we are talking about. There was a *huge* revolution in psychiatric treatment between then and the early 70s -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalization . The chances are that had Brian been involuntarily committed, even when he was at his worst, he would have spent maybe a month confined to a hospital while he was getting the drugs out of his system and cleaning up, then another few months being allowed out for increasingly extended periods, while being monitored to ensure he was taking his medication and not falling back into drug use.
Some people do, of course, still become institutionalised, but those people are usually ones who have no outside support and no-one to advocate for them. Brian was a rich man with rich, powerful, friends and family. He would have spent very little time in hospital, and nobody would have had to punch anyone.

a much clearer and more concise response. Thank you!

[Theydon Bois]

But the real reason, he confessed to me, was because he didn't want to go into the recording studio with the Beach Boys... said that whole thing gave him bad vibes!

I would certainly be interested in hearing more about this, if you'd care to expand on it at all.

[Emily]

But the real reason, he confessed to me, was because he didn't want to go into the recording studio with the Beach Boys... said that whole thing gave him bad vibes!

I would certainly be interested in hearing more about this, if you'd care to expand on it at all.

Me too.

[Pretty Funky]

      To Big Daddy, just getting back to some of the smile readers... THANK YOU for the welcoming!

Rock, see if you can get Stephen to come aboard. I found his comments on Man v Clown insightful.

Happy New Year.

I think Old Surfer Dude has that gig covered....Hang on!.....You don't think?....Could he be?

[rockrush3]

      There is a lot of chatter about this whole MENTAL INSTITUTION business ... I'm no expert! But I'm sure glad it didn't happen...  Brian probably is too? Brian is alive and well today... lets focus on the positive!   

[rockrush3]

    Smilin Ed H, in response to your question... did I ever hear any outstanding music by Brian when I worked for him? YES... in particular there was the first song I ever heard him record in the studio at Brother Records, on 5th st. in Santa Monica, It was a thrill for me because I had never been in a recording studio before and Marilyn, Stan and I had finally gotten Brian to write a song! It was a complete departure from anything previously recorded... so not Beach Boyish! It was entitled "Still I Dream of It"... it was a ballad... and Brian laid it down in one take... playing the Piano and singing it at the same time! It was BEAUTYFULL... when Brian finished the ONE take the engineer asked him if he wanted to lay down another track... Brian simply said NO... it's perfect and got up from the Piano! If you would like me to recite some of the lyrics... I think I still remember a few...  Smell the kitchen now... Hear the maid her solitude my thoughts are fleeting now...Still I Dream of It... of that happy day when I can say I'm falling in love... and it haunts me so... like a dream that somehow linked to all the stars above... I'll find my love... I'll find my love... I know I know I know I'll find my love!!! Brian said it wasn't a Beach Boy song... and that he wanted Frank Sinatra to sing it! So it was sent to Sinatra's people... and Frank personally sent Brian a thank you note... but respectfully declining. I think Brian was a little disappointed. Stan and I dubbed him ONE TAKE BRIAN from that moment on!

[Emily]

    Smilin Ed H, in response to your question... did I ever hear any outstanding music by Brian when I worked for him? YES... in particular there was the first song I ever heard him record in the studio at Brother Records, on 5th st. in Santa Monica, It was a thrill for me because I had never been in a recording studio before and Marilyn, Stan and I had finally gotten Brian to write a song! It was a complete departure from anything previously recorded... so not Beach Boyish! It was entitled "Still I Dream of It"... it was a ballad... and Brian laid it down in one take... playing the Piano and singing it at the same time! It was BEAUTYFULL... when Brian finished the ONE take the engineer asked him if he wanted to lay down another track... Brian simply said NO... it's perfect and got up from the Piano! If you would like me to recite some of the lyrics... I think I still remember a few...  Smell the kitchen now... Hear the maid her solitude my thoughts are fleeting now...Still I Dream of It... of that happy day when I can say I'm falling in love... and it haunts me so... like a dream that somehow linked to all the stars above... I'll find my love... I'll find my love... I know I know I know I'll find my love!!! Brian said it wasn't a Beach Boy song... and that he wanted Frank Sinatra to sing it! So it was sent to Sinatra's people... and Frank personally sent Brian a thank you note... but respectfully declining. I think Brian was a little disappointed. Stan and I dubbed him ONE TAKE BRIAN from that moment on!

Cool story Rocky. That's an awesome song. You say you, Marilyn and Stan had finally gotten him to write a song. Was he having trouble writing at that time? Was one of your goals/assignments to get him to write? How did you get him to write?

[rockrush3]

    Emily, Yes, getting Brian to write songs again was not only a GOAL of ours ... but we felt it was imperative for Brian's mental rehabilitation. He's a songwriter... that's what he should be doing! Just like an athlete should be working out... running?... lifting weights?...etc! Which is exactly what we were also doing with Brian every mourning. Up early for a healthy diet based breakfast and then off to the Y.M.C.A in Santa Monica, where Brian preferred to go, to play full court basketball (hence: the running). Brian loved to dribble and drive with the ball... to be honest with you. he used to double dribble alot... and even charge into the other players. But none of them minded or called fouls on him...hey... they were playing ball with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys! After an hour of that... we would  take two ten minute saunas, to lose weight, and then off to the physiatrist, twice a week for an hour session in Beverly Hills, and then we would go to the recording studio...(always Brother Records) because Dennis and Carl owned it and Brian wanted them to have the revenue. In the beginning Brian would just pace around the studio, and studio time is not cheap, smoking cigarettes, (until we slowly rationed him off them) and eventually he got tired of just walking around this environment he grew up in... and one day he just sat down at the Piano and told the engineer... lets roll tape on this! That was the making of " Still I Dream of It "... he wrote it in his head while pacing around. Who knows how long it took him to write it... the first song to come out of Brian in YEARS!!! ONE TAKE BRIAN!!! When we got home with the demo... which Brian always listened to, in the limo, on the ride back... Marilyn was ecstatic ... finally... a Brian Wilson original composition... with him singing it! She played it endlessly for days! LATER I'll tell you about the next song he wrote... "It's Over Now" 

[Emily]

  Emily, getting Brian to write songs again was not only a GOAL of ours ... but we felt it was imperative for Brian's mental rehabilitation. He's a songwriter... that's what he should be doing! Just like an athlete should be working out... running?... lifting weights?...etc! Which is exactly what we were also doing with Brian every mourning. Up early for a healthy diet based breakfast and then off to the Y.M.C.A in Santa Monica, where Brian preferred to go, to play full court basketball (hence: the running). Brian loved to dribble and drive with the ball... to be honest with you. he used to double dribble alot... and even charge into the other players. But none of them minded or called fouls on him...hey... they were playing ball with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys! After an hour of that... we would  take two ten minute saunas, to lose weight, and then off to the physiatrist, tiwice a week for an hour session in Beverly Hills, and then we would go to the recording studio...(always Brother Records) because Dennis and Carl owned it and Brian wanted them to have the revenue. In the beginning Brian would just pace around the studio, and studio time is not cheap, smoking cigarettes, (until we slowly rationed him off them) and eventually he got tired of just walking around this environment he grew up in... and one day he just sat down at the Piano and told the engineer... lets roll tape on this! That was the making of " Still I Dream of It "... he wrote it in his head while pacing around. Who knows how long it took him to write it... the first song to come out of Brian in YEARS!!! ONE TAKE BRIAN!!! When we got home with the demo... which Brian always listened to, in the limo, on the ride back... Marilyn was ecstatic ... finally... a Brian Wilson original composition... with him singing it! She played it endlessly for days! LATER I'll tell you about the next song he wrote... "It's Over Now"

Thanks for that description Rocky. You said before that Brian didn't want to work with the Beach Boys at that time. Were they always away from the studio when you were there? And was that planned?
Also, were you guys with Brian 24/7? And for how long a period were you employed with them? From when to when?