Brian and Don Was - what happened?

[HeyJude]

Also, to me anyway, "Smile" vs. "Love You/Adult Child" vs. the "Cocaine" tape vs. the Paley sessions are four very different things, so I can't see any Brian project where his "artistic side" is being pushed as being evocative of any or *all* of those other projects.

For Smile, Van Dyke Parks encouraged Brian Wilson to make music that didn't sound like Top 40, and prioritized substance over commerce.
For Love You, Earle Mankey encouraged Brian Wilson to make music that didn't sound like Top 40, and prioritized substance over commerce.
For the Cocaine sessions, Dennis Wilson encouraged Brian Wilson to make music that didn't sound like Top 40, and prioritized substance over commerce.
For the Paley sessions, Andy Paley encouraged Brian Wilson to make music that didn't sound like Top 40, and prioritized substance over commerce.

Those are tenuous comparisons at best, in my opinion. Facilitating Brian (e.g. a good supportive engineer) isn't the same as encouraging him or being a driving force. Those people all played varying important roles, but they are not particularly analogous to me, beyond a lot of us liking most or all of the material that was produced during those timeframes.

I'd hardly say the specific "Cocaine Tape" is strong evidence of Dennis at that moment in time driving Brian to make non-commercial music, yet music that they were looking to actually release. I'm not trying to criticize Dennis or Brian in this regard. But that tape is some zonked out  (and/or bored and/or unfocused) guys noodling around. If we could have removed the possibility of anyone OD'ing, does anyone think Dennis and Brian with no other outside input or help would have fostered that music to full, completed compositions let alone a full, completed album? They couldn't even often get into the studio to lay the stuff down so it could be included on archival releases decades later (though as we know they did on at least a few occasions try and were stifled; I'm sure they would have done some interesting things in the studio if allowed, but I don't think a full completed album would have resulted).

Again, I love all of this material. I think "Oh Lord" as both composition and performance on the "Cocaine" tape is a strangely but powerfully moving piece, especially in light of the condition Brian was in at that time. It deserves a thoughtfully-placed inclusion on some BB or Brian release, thought that's extremely unlikely to happen.

But again, these projects did not all have the same exact "not top 40/substance over commerce" driving force and motivation. They were all variations of some similar themes, but not analogous to me too much.

[Lonely Summer]

I would think that if the Brian of today wanted to do something that sounded like the Paley sessions (and believe you me, I love that material and wish it had all come out officially) he would do it.

Brian enjoys working with Joe Thomas and I believe Brian really wants the adult contemporary sheen Joe sparkles all over everything, hence that's what we get. Brian himself has said
"The measure of a man is how well he does in the trades" and I think he still has that competitive spirit when it comes to hit making.  

Gee, I would hope he's gotten over that by now. A 70-something guy is NOT going to have a hit record. It's just not going to happen. What format does he fit into? Classic rock? Oldies? No, those stations only play the old stuff. That inflexibility was proven to me once and for all when the reunited Beatles couldn't even get airplay on our local oldies station. For weeks they had been hyping it, "Beatles Anthology coming in November on ABC,  the first Anthology album, the first new Beatles song in 25 years". But they didn't ever PLAY it, or any of the Anthology tracks. Okay, so Brian isn't going to get support from oldies radio. Is his new stuff going to get play on whatever top 40 is called today? Ha! You gotta be kidding! Adult contemporary? Well, there was a slight chance for that 20 years ago, but no, in 2016, Brian's music sells to the die hard fans (or what's left of them). They all rush out to buy it the week it's released, so he can at least count on a decent first week in sales, as happened with TLOS, TWGMTR and NPP. After that, sales fall off a cliff, because there's nothing to support it.

Tony Bennett. And, if I'm not mistaken, the way he got airplay was via duets with younger hitmakers. I'm not saying that's realistic in Brian's case, or desirable in the case of us fans, but I think that was the goal with NPP.

Yes, I believe so - and it didn't work; at least not commercially. The only real hit Brian's had as a solo artist was BWPS, and of course that rode on the legendary status of the Smile sessions. I guess it's too much to ask that they just forget being commercial and do something artistic. I realize it is the music BUSINESS.