19 years ago today

[Don Malcolm]

Sorry to be late on this and not posting right on the date of Carl's tragic, premature passing.

The first eight paragraphs in "God Save Carl" are right on. After that a different voice takes over, making the reader feel that the essay has been hijacked.

I think Carl may have felt by 1995 that without a complete return to form from Brian, it would just not be worth the effort to go the distance to make a new LP's worth of material. IIRC much of the material for those sessions eventually wound up on Gettin' In Over My Head, which is to my ears one of Brian's weakest overall efforts. My sense is that Carl heard this in the material, and decided to opt out until Brian had gotten back to a higher level of output. Sadly, he was stricken with cancer the next year.

Wonder which leads Carl would have done for TWGMTR...

[HeyJude]

That long post says some nice things about carl but have you read the whole thing? It's ridiculously disrespectful towards Brian. What the hell does it mean "what Brian has subjected us to these last 15 years" A few clinkers sure but a lot of great music and some great concert experiences. The post illustrates the dysfunctionality of bb fans. Why does a post praising carl have to trash Brian? Carl and Brian's musical tastes may have diverged but if he'd lived I'm sure he'd find some kind words for some of his brother's work since 1998.

It was a Jason post. It is worth noting that in that late 80's interview that Carl did (where he admitted that Mike was the leader) , Carl enthusiastically praised BW 88.

That translated 1989 Carl interview is a super interesting one. I believe the BW '88 track he singles out is, surprisingly, "Let It Shine." When I read that when someone here translated it a few years ago, my jaw hit the floor and I remember thinking "Why couldn't someone have hooked Brian *and/or* Carl up with Jeff Lynne for some more tracks?"

Carl certainly had a higher opinion of BW '88 than Mike did when Mike was asked about it in the early 90s. Predictably, Mike's beef seemed to be less about specific musical moments and more about the fact that the Beach Boys weren't on it.

That '89 interview was also interesting in that the interviewer was surprisingly kind of calling out Carl (or rather the band as a whole) for the band's boring setlists.

Here's a link to the interview as posted here awhile back:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,15607.msg369021.html#msg369021

[HeyJude]

Sorry to be late on this and not posting right on the date of Carl's tragic, premature passing.

The first eight paragraphs in "God Save Carl" are right on. After that a different voice takes over, making the reader feel that the essay has been hijacked.

I think Carl may have felt by 1995 that without a complete return to form from Brian, it would just not be worth the effort to go the distance to make a new LP's worth of material. IIRC much of the material for those sessions eventually wound up on Gettin' In Over My Head, which is to my ears one of Brian's weakest overall efforts. My sense is that Carl heard this in the material, and decided to opt out until Brian had gotten back to a higher level of output. Sadly, he was stricken with cancer the next year.

Wonder which leads Carl would have done for TWGMTR...

Carl may well have had some legit political and personal reasons for being apprehensive about working with Brian in the mid 90s.

But I have no problem saying that Carl may have simply been, in my opinion, wrong on the quality of the Paley material. I don't think that material was all A+ material. But "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still a Mystery", which it should be noted are the songs presumably Brian and Andy (and Don Was?) chose to present to the other BBs, were excellent and arguably better than anything the band had worked on since the late 70s.

I know Bruce has also gone on record implying he didn't think Brian was up to snuff creatively during that time. But this all reminds me of those guys in Chicago complaining in the early 80s about all the Peter Cetera ballads. The question becomes, "Well, what are *you* guys brining to the proceedings these days?" I love Carl, but his "Beckley-Lamm-Wilson" stuff kind of puts me to sleep. Mike had just helmed a stinker with "SIP." Bruce wasn't writing or offering much of anything (maybe he was writing ten albums of material behind closed doors, but he never presented anything apparently). I haven't heard Al say anything negative about those sessions, so his glacial pace in doing his own material can be excused in this particular case.

Brian's still probably kind of f-ed up from a decade with Landy, yet goes in and knocks out *more than an album's worth* of material with Andy Paley, but the Beach Boys come in and cast aspersions on Brian's stuff? They were either being pretty darn hypocritical, or their reasons for not working more with Brian in that time frame had far more to do with interpersonal stuff and politics than it did actual musical reasons. Yes, "Saturday Morning in the City" is dreck, and several other Paley tracks are rather "meh." But there was a good basis for an album, and it certainly wasn't a case of Brian being tapped out creatively. The band had *released* albums during earlier periods where Brian was creatively spent (e.g. "LA", "KTSA").

I just think it's odd for several members of the band to throw their hands up in the air and call it a day after recording "Soul Searchin'" when they were only a few years removed from having done this:

[Don Malcolm]

Man, to have been a fly on the wall of those '95 sessions...I think the BBs had a terrible time trying to "thread the needle" on their own in this time frame, and Carl's response may have been as much pent-up frustration at seeing how difficult a process it was going to be to stay on the straight-and-narrow and get a project finished--and possibly projecting ahead to a less-than-satisfying result commercially, which would simply put all of them back in the same situation they were already in. I'm sure Carl saw "Kokomo" as a dead end, crash-burned-and-buried by SIP, but he also knew that Mike would still be in there gunning for that type of material--and what he saw coming from Brian just didn't get them over the "roadblocks stumbling them." It must have been a shock for Brian when that happened--he was used to Mike's second-guessing, but to have Carl express reservations...I mean, Brian had become used to Carl finishing his work for him!

Carl and Brian's relationship was highly evolved and went through many permutations over the years. I've often wondered if Carl's desire to get SMiLE out in the 70s (fueled by Reiley and the media) might not have inadvertently fed into Brian's ongoing malaise, and that it might not be coincidental that SMiLE did not get re-addressed until after Carl passed away. It's such a complicated set of interlocking factors, based on very intimate interpersonal relations...the sad thing is that they didn't get the chance to work it all out before Carl passed away.

[rab2591]

I just think it's odd for several members of the band to throw their hands up in the air and call it a day after recording "Soul Searchin'" when they were only a few years removed from having done this:

What in the hell is this picture from?

[The Cincinnati Kid]

I just think it's odd for several members of the band to throw their hands up in the air and call it a day after recording "Soul Searchin'" when they were only a few years removed from having done this:

What in the hell is this picture from?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGYbvZ7OFX8

Enjoy! 

[CenturyDeprived]

The first eight paragraphs in "God Save Carl" are right on. After that a different voice takes over, making the reader feel that the essay has been hijacked.

I think Carl may have felt by 1995 that without a complete return to form from Brian, it would just not be worth the effort to go the distance to make a new LP's worth of material. IIRC much of the material for those sessions eventually wound up on Gettin' In Over My Head, which is to my ears one of Brian's weakest overall efforts. My sense is that Carl heard this in the material, and decided to opt out until Brian had gotten back to a higher level of output. Sadly, he was stricken with cancer the next year.
 

RIP Carl, who was a brilliant vocalist, the glue that held the band together, a great human being, and all that good stuff. But I won't say he was incapable of making a regrettable decision with regards to the band. All the members did at various times.

Here's something to ponder. It seems that in the last decade or so of his life, Carl had become more firmly in the Mike Love camp with regards to his decision-making in the band. Dare I say, it almost seems like Carl became somewhat of a yes-man to Mike's desires, sort of akin to how Bruce is these days. Maybe that was Carl just focusing on wanting to provide for his family and not rock the boat (because of feeling emotionally spent trying to do anything that was more artistically risky). Maybe he was just being passive, and I could never fault him for being out of emotional energy to fight, after what he'd been through for so long. But perhaps Carl was actively trying to "stick up" for Mike out of family love at this point. I dunno.

Carl's opposition to the Paley material really indeed is a head-scratcher, so I'm trying to ponder what the factors could be. Because a good chunk of that material (especially the songs they did record) was GOOD. Very solid, despite a few clunkers in the bunch. So I literally don't think the reasoning had to do with the *actual* quality of the songs, because the better material from that batch is UNARGUABLY good and certainly better than lots and lots of BB material from the preceding decade and a half.

I think it had to be due to some sort of politics.

In an attempt to connect the dots... what did *Mike* think of the Paley material? Was Mike pissed in 1995 that he wasn't writing with Brian alone in a room, the way he would go on and on about being pissed about an outside collaborator being present in 2012? Because I wonder if it's possible that Mike was venting through Carl. That is, I wonder if Mike was internally, behind closed doors, making a stink to Carl about being upset that another non-BB collaborator was working with Brian, and got Carl onboard (who seemingly was on the Mike train of thinking in general at that time) with not liking that Paley-heavy songwriting arrangement either. The Brian/Mike/Carl strained relationships at that time had to have been some sort of factor too, I would think. They were strained and dysfunctional in a unique way, different from the way that the Brian/Mike relationships were also differently dysfunctional strained in 2011/2012.

I could see that Mike might have been of the mind that he could get better results if Carl was the one pushing the Mike agenda (ditching outside collaborators, and poo-pooing actually decent material that was largely cowritten by outsiders, solely for that reason), instead of Mike himself doing that agenda-pushing. (Which of course would be super ironic considering Kokomo and all the then-recent stuff that followed was written by outsiders, with some BB member input). Carl of course could think and make decisions for himself, but maybe he was still being utilized to be the one to deliver a Mike-dictated agenda, as a point of view would probably have had a better chance at going through coming from a Wilson. To me, it just smells more like a Mike decision (based on numerous past examples) to put down good material because of political/ego reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the actual quality of the material.

Who knows, this is just a theory. Whatever the reason(s) - and I suspect there were several - I really think the quality of the material is a red herring. And even though quality is subjective, and even though the bandmates can't necessarily always be objective in deciding what is quality and what isn't, something just smells fishy in trying to imagine that Carl *actually* thought and fully believed in his heart that the quality of that material was subpar enough as to kill the project. That doesn't add up. Because the better Paley songs were good in a non-oddball, non-risky way. I can talk about how I love Love You, Adult Child, etc all day, but at the same time, I could *understand* why somebody might object to some of that material, even though I disagree. But the better Paley material is up there with the better TWGMTR material. Solid in a "this material is not remotely potentially embarrassing to the brand" kind of way.

Issues related to band politics, perhaps one band member's ego, and the band being pulled in the direction to ALWAYS fully live up to the infamous Jack Reilley quote seems to be more of a likely culprit, IMHO.

To throw a completely different theory out there... could it be that after 1992 and the massive flop of SIP, that the band made a decision that the next entirely new album of BB material was going to be held up to a really high level of quality, and that it was thought that the Paley material just didn't cut it? I suppose that theory holds less water if one considers that they released and heavily promoted the terrible Stars & Stripes album in 1996.

I just wish Carl was still around, for SO many reasons. It was a tragedy of such major proportions for the family, the band, and the music world. We live in a far less awesome place without Carl's presence.

[Wirestone]

Hello everyone! I'm back.

Important to note that the '95 reunion didn't actually fail -- it just turned into something else. And actually was the beginning of the chain of events that led to Brian's current activities.

Consider: Landy departs in '92. Brian works with Andy, but he also keeps his options open by collaborating with Don Was and Van Dyke.

The BBs are roped into recording some Paley tunes in 95. Some are lukewarm about the material, but there's also the question of Don Was. Do they want this outside producer? Sean O'Hagen drops by at a certain point.

And then Brian, likely remembering "Warmth of the Sun" given that he'd recently re-recorded it with Don Was, suggests recording it as a duet with Willie Nelson. Connections are made, and Mike senses the opportunity to follow the example of the Eagles, who had recently scored with a country covers album serving as an appetizer for their reunion.

Joe Thomas enters the picture -- not only can he produce audio and video, but he runs a small record label.

The band jumps into the country project. During that time, Brian and Joe start to work together, and they start to come up with some arresting material. (Whatever you think of the production, Lay Down Burden and Your Imagination are solid songs.)

Brian and Joe aim for a solo album, possibly because Joe has already gotten a glimpse of the complicated BB band dynamics. Andy Paley is shunted aside as the recording and creative process shifts to Chicago. The Beach Boys keep touring.

And then Carl gets sick. Who knows how much of a fuss he put up about the Paley material, but I doubt he or anyone else thought that would be the LAST CHANCE he had to work with Brian and the band. Heck, he and Brian were planning to have Carl appear on "Imagination" in the featured guest spot role that has become familiar through the GIOMH and NPP projects.

Carl dies, but Brian and Joe's album still ends up coming out (on a label owned by Eagles manager Irving Azoff, I should note). A touring band is put together.

Brian hits the road -- and the rest is history.

The point is, none of these events was discrete. Everything evolved and flowed from one stage to the next, often intuitively. And Carl was lost during the process, to everyone's regret. Yet Carl of all people must appreciate now, from his vantage point, the emergence of Brian as a mature recording and touring act had its origins in that BB reunion.

Because of course it did.

[SMiLE Brian]

Wirestone is back! Time to start a 15 big ones ad campaign.

[Don Malcolm]

Yeah, I think all the elements that could be in the mix of how things went down are now on the table. Thanks to Wirestone for filling in some of the areas that I was also thinking about vis-a-vis the subsequent results after the '95 sessions bogged down--and for doing it so succinctly.

I do think the rest of the band had (more or less justifiable) issues with Brian as a result of what was (from their perspective, particularly thanks to the Second Landy Era..) twenty years of instability and absence. The fact that they were at least partially responsible for that clearly became lost in their "frog in the pot" perspective on what was happening to their career, and this may have just increased levels of intolerance and grudge-jockeying.  I personally don't think that the Paley material was "the answer" to what the BBs needed in '95, and I suspect that everyone was gun-shy given how much other stuff had gone down in the very recent past (prime lawsuit time, it was!), so I would subscribe to the "overly elevated standards" mentality as certainly being in play, if not dominant. And remember that Brian was getting great press in this time frame from the Was documentary and OCA--something that probably stuck in a few craws.

I don't think Carl could remain completely free from thinking this way, which may explain how that went down. From there, I think Wirestone has it right--and folks should also be giving Melinda some credit for providing a more stable base for Brian. All (almost all) reports are that Marilyn is a good person, but she was very young and what she had to contend with is something that almost certainly cries out for a good bit more life experience to handle. For Brian, Melinda and Joe Thomas were the right people at the right time--and, as Wirestone said, the rest is history.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Hello everyone! I'm back.

Important to note that the '95 reunion didn't actually fail -- it just turned into something else. And actually was the beginning of the chain of events that led to Brian's current activities.

Consider: Landy departs in '92. Brian works with Andy, but he also keeps his options open by collaborating with Don Was and Van Dyke.

The BBs are roped into recording some Paley tunes in 95. Some are lukewarm about the material, but there's also the question of Don Was. Do they want this outside producer? Sean O'Hagen drops by at a certain point.

And then Brian, likely remembering "Warmth of the Sun" given that he'd recently re-recorded it with Don Was, suggests recording it as a duet with Willie Nelson. Connections are made, and Mike senses the opportunity to follow the example of the Eagles, who had recently scored with a country covers album serving as an appetizer for their reunion.

Joe Thomas enters the picture -- not only can he produce audio and video, but he runs a small record label.

The band jumps into the country project. During that time, Brian and Joe start to work together, and they start to come up with some arresting material. (Whatever you think of the production, Lay Down Burden and Your Imagination are solid songs.)

Brian and Joe aim for a solo album, possibly because Joe has already gotten a glimpse of the complicated BB band dynamics. Andy Paley is shunted aside as the recording and creative process shifts to Chicago. The Beach Boys keep touring.

And then Carl gets sick. Who knows how much of a fuss he put up about the Paley material, but I doubt he or anyone else thought that would be the LAST CHANCE he had to work with Brian and the band. Heck, he and Brian were planning to have Carl appear on "Imagination" in the featured guest spot role that has become familiar through the GIOMH and NPP projects.

Carl dies, but Brian and Joe's album still ends up coming out (on a label owned by Eagles manager Irving Azoff, I should note). A touring band is put together.

Brian hits the road -- and the rest is history.

The point is, none of these events was discrete. Everything evolved and flowed from one stage to the next, often intuitively. And Carl was lost during the process, to everyone's regret. Yet Carl of all people must appreciate now, from his vantage point, the emergence of Brian as a mature recording and touring act had its origins in that BB reunion.

Because of course it did.

Thank you for that.

And welcome back!

[HeyJude]

Man, to have been a fly on the wall of those '95 sessions...

There actually was one fly-on-the-wall account of a session, which was originally published some years back. C-man re-posted this article in several parts in an old thread. Here's a link to the first part (and then just continue on in the thread for the other parts):

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,4774.msg78087.html#msg78087

It's interesting that it's Mike and Brian who seem to be having a weird (though perhaps funny?) antagonistic thing going on during the session. Carl is typical Carl, going so far as to give traffic/driving tips for the best route from the studio.

[Emdeeh]

Here's something to ponder. It seems that in the last decade or so of his life, Carl had become more firmly in the Mike Love camp with regards to his decision-making in the band. Dare I say, it almost seems like Carl became somewhat of a yes-man to Mike's desires, sort of akin to how Bruce is these days. Maybe that was Carl just focusing on wanting to provide for his family and not rock the boat (because of feeling emotionally spent trying to do anything that was more artistically risky). Maybe he was just being passive, and I could never fault him for being out of emotional energy to fight, after what he'd been through for so long. But perhaps Carl was actively trying to "stick up" for Mike out of family love at this point. I dunno.

I don't think Carl was being a yes-man for Mike in that timeframe, he was more likely playing the peacemaker between Mike and others. Anyway, my observations from the early- to mid-90s: Al and Carl shared dressing rooms and sometimes spent time together socially, Mike and Bruce shared dressing rooms, etc. But I also observed Carl staying apart from the other guys, hanging out with his wife. I lean toward him "being out of emotional energy to fight."

[rab2591]

I just think it's odd for several members of the band to throw their hands up in the air and call it a day after recording "Soul Searchin'" when they were only a few years removed from having done this:

What in the hell is this picture from?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGYbvZ7OFX8

Enjoy! 

Oh man I'm so sorry I asked . That screenshot HeyJude put up is like an alternate universe 90s cheese cover of Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Also, Wirestone, so glad to see you back here....great post.

[HeyJude]

Who knows how much of a fuss he put up about the Paley material

And this is a key point; I don't think there's much extant evidence that Carl was like pounding his chest during the sessions saying how bad the material was. I think there was a lot of political stuff. He reportedly did walk out of a later session (I think this may have been the "Dancing the Night Away"/"Baywatch Nights" session), but apparently not for musical reasons.

It sounds as though Carl never even got to the stage where any material was being vetoed. So it was more a case of several participants (potentially everybody outside of Brian other than Matt Jardine and maybe Al?) being rather "meh" about the material, and easily swayed to move onto something else. Mike told, I believe, Peter Ames Carlin that they were willing to do the material, but not necessarily enthusiastic. Howie Edelson has related what Bruce told him in an interview:

Bruce Johnston was very forthcoming to me regarding his thoughts on being in the studio for "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still A Mystery" and seriously recording with Brian Wilson for the first time in a decade, saying, quote, "That was a courtesy to Brian for us to be there. Brian certainly wasn't at any kind of peak in those days, but we respected his history and achievements for us to go and record with him and see what it might sound like. We were just trying to support someone who had been successful and good for us. I think if you use your ears, you'll hear that those tapes don't really lift off. It's fine -- but not fine enough."

Keep in mind this was the guy raking in coin at this same time period by croaking out the bridge to "Summer in Paradise" every night.

[southbay]

Who knows how much of a fuss he put up about the Paley material

And this is a key point; I don't think there's much extant evidence that Carl was like pounding his chest during the sessions saying how bad the material was. I think there was a lot of political stuff. He reportedly did walk out of a later session (I think this may have been the "Dancing the Night Away"/"Baywatch Nights" session), but apparently not for musical reasons.

It sounds as though Carl never even got to the stage where any material was being vetoed. So it was more a case of several participants (potentially everybody outside of Brian other than Matt Jardine and maybe Al?) being rather "meh" about the material, and easily swayed to move onto something else. Mike told, I believe, Peter Ames Carlin that they were willing to do the material, but not necessarily enthusiastic. Howie Edelson has related what Bruce told him in an interview:

Bruce Johnston was very forthcoming to me regarding his thoughts on being in the studio for "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still A Mystery" and seriously recording with Brian Wilson for the first time in a decade, saying, quote, "That was a courtesy to Brian for us to be there. Brian certainly wasn't at any kind of peak in those days, but we respected his history and achievements for us to go and record with him and see what it might sound like. We were just trying to support someone who had been successful and good for us. I think if you use your ears, you'll hear that those tapes don't really lift off. It's fine -- but not fine enough."

Keep in mind this was the guy raking in coin at this same time period by croaking out the bridge to "Summer in Paradise" every night.

To which the obvious follow up is, "Bruce, what did you think of the SIP material when you heard it? Did those tracks lift off?   Or is it just  that you have such higher expectations of Brian than Mike?"

[SMiLE Brian]

I just think it's odd for several members of the band to throw their hands up in the air and call it a day after recording "Soul Searchin'" when they were only a few years removed from having done this:

What in the hell is this picture from?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGYbvZ7OFX8

Enjoy! 

Oh man I'm so sorry I asked . That screenshot HeyJude put up is like an alternate universe 90s cheese cover of Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Also, Wirestone, so glad to see you back here....great post.

Jesus, this is the same group on Pet Sounds!!!!

[CenturyDeprived]

I just think it's odd for several members of the band to throw their hands up in the air and call it a day after recording "Soul Searchin'" when they were only a few years removed from having done this:

What in the hell is this picture from?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGYbvZ7OFX8

Enjoy! 

Oh man I'm so sorry I asked . That screenshot HeyJude put up is like an alternate universe 90s cheese cover of Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Also, Wirestone, so glad to see you back here....great post.

Jesus, this is the same group on Pet Sounds!!!!

Hard to believe, ain't it?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Dear God

[SMiLE Brian]

I want BW in the video standing forlornly with a copy of pet sounds....

[southbay]

To be fair...that song was part of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin tribute album "Two Rooms", which also featured artists such as The Who and Eric Clapton in addition to the Beach Boys.  That album sold over 1 million copies in the US alone and went platinum.  The video was commissioned by the label and I'm not sure how much, if any, input the band had on it. Problem Child, well, that's another story....

[GhostyTMRS]

I just think it's odd for several members of the band to throw their hands up in the air and call it a day after recording "Soul Searchin'" when they were only a few years removed from having done this:

It's certainly odd to us but not unexpected when, as you mention, the Beckley-Lamm-Wilson project is more where Carl's head was at musically. I could've seen Carl pulling a late-period Peter Cetera, signing with a label like River North and duetting with Az Yet. Of course, to be fair, he would've sounded great doing it.   

[guitarfool2002]

Who knows how much of a fuss he put up about the Paley material

And this is a key point; I don't think there's much extant evidence that Carl was like pounding his chest during the sessions saying how bad the material was. I think there was a lot of political stuff. He reportedly did walk out of a later session (I think this may have been the "Dancing the Night Away"/"Baywatch Nights" session), but apparently not for musical reasons.

It sounds as though Carl never even got to the stage where any material was being vetoed. So it was more a case of several participants (potentially everybody outside of Brian other than Matt Jardine and maybe Al?) being rather "meh" about the material, and easily swayed to move onto something else. Mike told, I believe, Peter Ames Carlin that they were willing to do the material, but not necessarily enthusiastic. Howie Edelson has related what Bruce told him in an interview:

Bruce Johnston was very forthcoming to me regarding his thoughts on being in the studio for "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still A Mystery" and seriously recording with Brian Wilson for the first time in a decade, saying, quote, "That was a courtesy to Brian for us to be there. Brian certainly wasn't at any kind of peak in those days, but we respected his history and achievements for us to go and record with him and see what it might sound like. We were just trying to support someone who had been successful and good for us. I think if you use your ears, you'll hear that those tapes don't really lift off. It's fine -- but not fine enough."

Keep in mind this was the guy raking in coin at this same time period by croaking out the bridge to "Summer in Paradise" every night.

To which the obvious follow up is, "Bruce, what did you think of the SIP material when you heard it? Did those tracks lift off?   Or is it just  that you have such higher expectations of Brian than Mike?"

Another follow up is to consider what the Beach Boys sans Brian were able to do after the Kokomo success in terms of putting out something (anything?) new of quality to keep the momentum going...nothing. In terms of crafting a new album, we got Summer In Paradise. I agree - Did that one lift off? Did the band playing a terminally long version in concert for the next years after the release do anything to lift it off? Did the band featuring the song in a Baywatch episode when that show was a massive worldwide hit do anything to help it lift off? No.

What I do remember is Don Was saying that Brian wanted to get back with the Beach Boys as soon as he was free of Landy. And Don Was facilitated that. But look where that went.

Brian came into the fold for Stars And Stripes project, did the video, made some live appearances and on TV shows...he was most involved in what was perhaps the best track to come out of the project, the Willie Nelson track...after that, not as much if at all in some cases.

As Wirestone said, Joe Thomas picked up the ball and ran with it and at least facilitated getting Brian back into the studio and working on new songs while the Beach Boys were still tourin'. Who knows what may have happened with some of his songs had the band rallied around another project instead of splitting into factions more focused on the touring than on cutting records with Brian.

And back to Baywatch...after they did get Brian back, they had him on the beach for a video to a song which he had no involvement in. Pointless. Brian's expression in the video says it all.

So Brian came out of it by the time 1998 rolled around with a solo album and a solo tour once thought impossible, along with a band of musicians who, for lack of a better term, "got it" and understood the music with a reverence that some in the Beach Boys I don't think brought to the table.

It worked out for him. He went out on his own with a great band and musicians who facilitated new music being written and recorded without the Beach Boys and all the baggage. Maybe that's where some of the jealousy that played out over the next few decades up to the present intensified.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Well said as usual...a couchman could almost understand it.

Seriously, though, you made a bunch of good points.

[Lonely Summer]

I think the mistake in the reunion sessions was to rely strictly on Brian and his 'handlers' for the material. Brian hadn't been a fully participating Beach Boy for many years. The way forward should have been to take the best of Brian's material with Paley, and get some new songs from the other BB's (if they had any). I'm sure Carl and Al had a few tunes stored away. I can't fault the guys for being a bit suspicious of Brian's new group of people - they'd been screwed before by Brian's 'handlers'.
It's also possible that Carl looked at this potential album differently than SIP. SIP was Mike's baby; if the new album was to be Brian's baby (be my baby?), Carl knew the critics and fans would be paying closer attention, and if it was anything other than Brian's best, it would be savaged in the press. Carl didn't want to see Brian destroyed again by critical reaction to his work.