Documentary!

[rab2591]

As a rabid fan of the first six (and ONLY legitimate) Star Wars movies, I was not expecting anything else from the House of Mouse, may Heaven confound them. They treated the Beach Boys exactly like they treated Star Wars, and treat everything else. At this point, being also ML propaganda is just a cherry on the pie.

Rogue One really surprised me with how good it was - I’d rank it higher than Episode II. And I thought the Force Awakens had a lot of promise (even though the story was a complete rip of ANH)…until they killed off Han. No reunion between Han, Luke & Leia was the biggest travesty (of many) about the “sequel” trilogy. When Han got killed off I remember how much disappoint I felt with the film - and I remember not even caring about the rest of the film from that point on, and it was at that point I completely lost interest in any of the future sequels. I never saw TLJ or TROS - but heard from way too many people that they are dumpster fires (though with beautiful special effects). Sorry for the off-topic talk!

Back to Disney; I won’t compare ‘Get Back’ with this documentary in terms of story/narrative/etc. However, I was so impressed with ‘Get Back’ that I had high hopes that a Disney helmed Beach Boys documentary would be created with the same care and attention to detail. When The Beach Boys trailer dropped it was like the Han moment all over again. It was so clear what a wasted opportunity this was.

[guitarfool2002]

I honestly don't care as much about the quality of Marshall's work via the final cut because honestly the film does have a linear narrative, and as I said before it isn't a complete mess that rambles incoherently. The team he had working on it are not first-timers and have a track record in making documentary films, so it isn't amateur hour. The knocks on that part of it are what was left out, and that it should have been longer, but that's pretty basic criticism.

My problem, which Rab called the elephant in the room, is that this film is putting out information which is biased, slanted toward Mike's narrative in obvious ways, and it is aimed specifically (let me repeat that, specifically) at new fans and casual listeners in order to promote the band's music and sell more product related to the band, and was overseen by a very large corporation whose goal is to sell the brand and move product and...wait for it...make money as a return on investment. The same fans who have been there for decades might watch, but are not going to buy or stream "I Get Around" when they probably already had the 45 or greatest hits CD or whatever in their collection for decades. The Disney audience who might be attracted by a Stephen Sanchez track on the "official soundtrack" is more of the target demographic.

So having said that, I will ask when does the bullshit narrative stuff end anyway? In the 70's, a TV movie showed Jan & Dean in the studio writing and recording Surfin - total BS. In the 80's, a TV movie showed a bearded 1970's era "Brian" clutching a copy of Sgt Pepper, rocking back and forth wearing headphones in his living room as Monterey Pop played on a TV in the background - total BS. In 2000 a TV movie showed the Smile sessions as the equivalent to a 60's opium den, where "Brian" played with squeaky dog toys and various druggies wandered in and out of the scenes in a haze of smoke - Total BS, and that production got served legal papers because of that crap.

What is the connecting thread there? First, they were TV movies based on reality but not documentaries. They did the usual Hollywood thing where characters and actual events are punched up to make for better storytelling. But at least one of those above was billed as "the REAL story", the "official" TV bio about the band, etc.

And how many millions of people watched that crap unfold on their TV's or on rental VHS tapes and actually believe what they saw as the official story, or worse, the "truth"?

So I'd think an actual documentary, with corporate weight behind it, billing itself as the "official" documentary of the Beach Boys, would have been more careful in telling the story, and at least would have checked the bias at the door...if they had done the research and saw what others, including an actual Beach Boys member, are seeing in this film.

It is based too much on Mike Love's narrative, and as that article called it, it is more of the same Mike Love propaganda that we saw in those ridiculous "Smile" scenes in the ABC TV movie.

That is a major problem, as I and others have been saying. I honestly don't care as much about Frank Marshall's shortcomings, because ultimately he made a cohesive film that left out a lot that should have been included, but I do care that both new fans and casual fans are going to watch this and believe Mike's version of these events 100% up and down.

And it's not accurate, it's a naturally biased take on certain key events, and it's not giving these viewers and curious new fans a fair or accurate take on the subject matter.

And whatever the actual viewership numbers are, the fact that we get yet another "official" TV project that paints a narrative which is slanted toward one perspective and opinion is not a good development, and in many cases it's simply not "the real story of The Beach Boys" as the PR hypemasters like to say...it's Mike Love's perspective which excludes the other guys' takes on the same issues.

As has been said, it doesn't seem accidental or coincidental that a pro-level team of documentary filmmakers creates a Beach Boys documentary which leans obviously toward Mike's narrative. There were sources for that, there were people finding and providing that research and information, maybe there were band politics that got into the process and it had to be that way...who knows...and ultimately that's among the biggest shortcomings of this work. It should not stand as an official or definitive documentary of the Beach Boys.

And it's not hardcore fans who are the issue: It's those new fans which Disney-Iconic-Whoever wants to attract who may see this and believe that narrative when it's not 100% the truth or the "real story".

[Zenobi]

Suffice that Mark Hamill totally lambasted the Disney "sequeĺ" trilogy though acting in it, which is extremely rare. And one can only guess what Carrie Fisher would have said.
The only good thing about the Disney trilogy is that the "prequel" trilogy of Jar Jar Binks & C is much less controversial now. Now real Star Wars fans have looked into the abyss, and old George Lucas is more criticized for selling the franchise to Disney than for doing the prequel trilogy.
Similar situation for the Hobbit trilogy. Amazon's Rings of Powers is so ridiculously bad that the Hobbit will surely be positively reevaluated.
Those yahoos in the big corporations seem to have a sacred mission to try to destroy and ruin everything we loved in our youth.

Sorry, and back to topic. At least the 2024 documentary does not literally spit on the faces of fans like the Disney trilogy, Rings of Power and several other things around. For now, we are not seeing the Beach Boys impersonated by Stamos, McGrath  ( DO IT! DO IT!) and four false cheerleaders with false beards (no offense to true cheerleaders, of course). Whenever one should feel that Beach Boys fans are mistreated, please remember what other fandoms are suffering. Yes, the Beach Boys are still an oasis of beauty in this world.
 

[guitarfool2002]

Oh definitely the music of the Beach Boys will always be an oasis of beauty. But it would be nice to get an accurate history, free of talking points and slanted narratives, that fans can reference and enjoy alongside the music without it coloring their impressions of and experiences with the music.

I'll lay out my own experience from years ago: When I first heard a collection of Smile tracks, I thought it was the most beautiful and even stunning music I had ever heard. I played my old cassette of that stuff back in the day for rooms of people, mostly musicians, who were literally dumbstruck by what they were hearing - they couldn't speak after hearing it. That scene repeated itself multiple times. The music is still beyond comprehension for me, even though I gained the knowledge to eventually be able to play it, analyze it, chart it out, figure out the production and orchestration techniques Brian was using...and yet I still don't know how the f*ck a man 24 years old with one deaf ear could create such works of sheer beauty and mystery that sounded unlike any "pop music" of its day, and still in some ways to this day.

That's why the image of people watching this documentary and getting an association of drugs and failure when thinking of Smile music instead of the jaw-dropping beauty and mystery of Smile music that I and others felt when hearing it - I mean really hearing and getting it - for those first times makes me sad and angry.

Unfortunately I don't think this current "narrative" has room for the beauty and ultimate personal redemption that the Smile story offers. So it gets reduced to "drugs", "failure", etc.

Hopefully more listeners will see the beauty and redemption and associate THAT with Smile and ignore this more recent bogus narrative no matter how "official" some would like it to become.

[Zenobi]

Again, I agree that this documentary is a big pile of disinformation, though it may be cohesive. When you follow the linear, simplistic, and bogus, story I outlined before, it is easy to keep cohesive.
My point is that people so naive and superficial to take such a BS documentary at face value, in 2024, are not likely to like ANY music by the Boys, let alone the likes of Feel Flows, Little Bird or Time To Get Alone.
So, this documentary bleats to sheep, so to say.
Maybe I'm being optimistic. But the horrible "Amadeus", which portraits Mozart as a kind of idiotic clown, though its unwarranted success did exactly zilch to diminish the reputation of the real Mozart. Those taking such a pile of trash at face value do not listen to Mozart anyway.

[guitarfool2002]

Again, I agree that this documentary is a big pile of disinformation, though it may be cohesive. When you follow the linear, simplistic, and bogus, story I outlined before, it is easy to keep cohesive.
My point is that people so naive and superficial to take such a BS documentary at face value, in 2024, are not likely to like ANY music by the Boys, let alone the likes of Feel Flows, Little Bird or Time To Get Alone.
So, this documentary bleats to sheep, so to say.
Maybe I'm being optimistic. But the horrible "Amadeus", which portraits Mozart as a kind of idiotic clown, though its unwarranted success did exactly zilch to diminish the reputation of the real Mozart. Those taking such a pile of trash at face value do not listen to Mozart anyway.

Good points, definitely. I think the difference with the Mozart film is that it wasn't a documentary, and for lack of a better term than "rock star" I think in some circles they were happy to see a classical composer be portrayed as a rock star, and potentially engage new generations outside the stereotypical classical audience especially in the 80's to get into Mozart's music and buy it, and also buy tickets to see orchestras perform it, let's say 200 years after the man himself died. This Beach Boys project is billed as an "official" documentary using actual footage while members of the band are still alive.

I see your point though, and again I hope that people watching this don't get too influenced by the various narratives to where it colors their experience with the music, as I worry might happen with Smile if these narratives continue, and instead choose to seek out more information on their own.

[Zenobi]

Oh definitely the music of the Beach Boys will always be an oasis of beauty. But it would be nice to get an accurate history, free of talking points and slanted narratives, that fans can reference and enjoy alongside the music without it coloring their impressions of and experiences with the music.

I'll lay out my own experience from years ago: When I first heard a collection of Smile tracks, I thought it was the most beautiful and even stunning music I had ever heard. I played my old cassette of that stuff back in the day for rooms of people, mostly musicians, who were literally dumbstruck by what they were hearing - they couldn't speak after hearing it. That scene repeated itself multiple times. The music is still beyond comprehension for me, even though I gained the knowledge to eventually be able to play it, analyze it, chart it out, figure out the production and orchestration techniques Brian was using...and yet I still don't know how the f*ck a man 24 years old with one deaf ear could create such works of sheer beauty and mystery that sounded unlike any "pop music" of its day, and still in some ways to this day.

That's why the image of people watching this documentary and getting an association of drugs and failure when thinking of Smile music instead of the jaw-dropping beauty and mystery of Smile music that I and others felt when hearing it - I mean really hearing and getting it - for those first times makes me sad and angry.

Unfortunately I don't think this current "narrative" has room for the beauty and ultimate personal redemption that the Smile story offers. So it gets reduced to "drugs", "failure", etc.

Hopefully more listeners will see the beauty and redemption and associate THAT with Smile and ignore this more recent bogus narrative no matter how "official" some would like it to become.

This is a very beautiful post, Craig. Yes, even among the collection of dazzling gems in the BB music, the SMiLE music shines. I think that Brian, with the help of VDP, came dangerously near to the essence of what music really is. Maybe that doomed SMiLE, at the moment.
Once somebody, I don't remember who, called SMiLE "the amazing album too beautiful to be actually heard by human ears". And I think it's true! To be heard, SMiLE needed to be made somewhat more "down to earth", and that was brilliantly accomplished with BWPS. It all but eliminated the dangerous "dark" undercurrent that still permeates Smiley Smile, particularly the unbelievably creepy Wind Chimes. BWPS is mostly happy and sunny, but I think the complex kind of exhilaration caused by the original sessions is incomparable. There is no music like that.

I think every true fan of the Beach Boys should be grateful to you for your relentless stance against any attempt to "revise" history. The "revised" history which someone would want is a travesty. We see it perfectly in this documentary: they practically reduce the (imho) greatest band ever, with the greatest songwriter and the best vocal harmonies, to a bunch of hits and to the "sunny California" mythology. Even Mike himself is diminished by that revision, whatever he may think. Nobody is ever snatching The Warmth of the Sun or Good Vibrations from him, but where are his later accomplishments? Also he has great contributions, and great leads, in the neglected 1967-1977 period.

Truth will probably prevail, but it's still right to defend the real legacy.

[Galaxy Liz]

 I honestly don't care as much about Frank Marshall's shortcomings, because ultimately he made a cohesive film that left out a lot that should have been included, but I do care that both new fans and casual fans are going to watch this and believe Mike's version of these events 100% up and down.

....
As has been said, it doesn't seem accidental or coincidental that a pro-level team of documentary filmmakers creates a Beach Boys documentary which leans obviously toward Mike's narrative. There were sources for that, there were people finding and providing that research and information, maybe there were band politics that got into the process and it had to be that way...who knows...and ultimately that's among the biggest shortcomings of this work. It should not stand as an official or definitive documentary of the Beach Boys.

But Frank Marshall was both a producer and director and likely had at least some input in the narrative of the film.  We can't absolve him of all responsibility at the very least he aided and abetted it.

[Galaxy Liz]

That's why the image of people watching this documentary and getting an association of drugs and failure when thinking of Smile music instead of the jaw-dropping beauty and mystery of Smile music that I and others felt when hearing it - I mean really hearing and getting it - for those first times makes me sad and angry.

Unfortunately I don't think this current "narrative" has room for the beauty and ultimate personal redemption that the Smile story offers. So it gets reduced to "drugs", "failure", etc.

Hopefully more listeners will see the beauty and redemption and associate THAT with Smile and ignore this more recent bogus narrative no matter how "official" some would like it to become.

I think every true fan of the Beach Boys should be grateful to you for your relentless stance against any attempt to "revise" history. The "revised" history which someone would want is a travesty. We see it perfectly in this documentary: they practically reduce the (imho) greatest band ever, with the greatest songwriter and the best vocal harmonies, to a bunch of hits and to the "sunny California" mythology. Even Mike himself is diminished by that revision, whatever he may think. Nobody is ever snatching The Warmth of the Sun or Good Vibrations from him, but where are his later accomplishments? Also he has great contributions, and great leads, in the neglected 1967-1977 period.

Truth will probably prevail, but it's still right to defend the real legacy.

Applaud everything you both wrote!  I hope you are right that the truth will out!

At first when I read Carol Kay’s criticism of the movie showing vocal and instrumental recordings in quick succession thus implying they were done at the same time, without saying so, I thought she was nit picking.  After considering it together with other criticisms I’m re-thinking it. 
The overall narrative was subtle.  I’m not sure if Mike learned his lesson that head on attack (the 2004 lawsuit, the Rolling Stone interview and his biography) only gets you more bad press and more people hating you or if someone with more skill at honing publicity has tailored this.
It includes just enough fact to gain your confidence, then lies (Sea of Tunes - Hoffman has the fully story), accentuates the early chart hits, the reissues  and their importance, underestimates Pet Sounds, SMiLE, Surfs Up, Dennis, Carl, and ignores anything which would undermine the simple narrative, portrays Brian as the drug headed mad man and we get to the end with Mike tearily bemoaning that he doesn’t see Brian.  (A performance worthy of the Disney studio.) Because of the slick production you don’t even query it much at first and write it off as publicity fluff.  But it isn’t it is a deliberate and evil distortion of the truth.
I don’t know who funded the film if there are any contractual limitations or deals and with whom so I can’t be sure that Mike had any involvement in it at all but you can only ask cui bono?

[Angela Jones]

When grievances are continually expressed, even over issues which have been addressed  (the credits lawsuit, for example) it becomes very tedious.

What about things like this? 'The Beach Boys blamed Brian for the Beach Boys’ (i.e., the organization’s) debt — accurately. 7 or 8 months of recording with the best session musicians in the world at the best studios in the world is expensive.
'Brian Wilson, who by far had the most money of them all due to royalties, paid off over a million dollars of the band’s debt directly and saved the band from bankruptcy, which would have resulted in many of them selling their assets.' https://www.quora.com/How-did-Capital-Records-react-when-Brian-cancelled-Smile-and-The-Beach-Boys-put-out-Smiley-Smile-instead-Who-ended-up-paying-for-the-cost-of-The-studio-time-and-musicians-for-the-Smile-Sessions-Capital-or-The-Beach?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1a0V5Y7mLbeTpbZwYiSaDbRKShn7foZQOiD81r78Yl6POSzCBqJFhXiWU_aem_AREduGyibHNCqFQMSVVMXzik5oZ70rKdjxmgPbfpIIyEKWQl37BppvZx8H7KpBpuPhXjtb0AtjDIYYIip1V1F3pn
From quora again - someone had asked what if Brian hadn't a breakdown during SMiLE:
'But first off, I don’t believe he had a breakdown during SMiLE per se.
'It was a certainly a troubling and stressful time for him, but there doesn’t seem to have been time for a breakdown: he went from recording for SMiLE one day to recording for Smiley Smile a couple of weeks later. It’s true that he spent a month or so in the spring not recording, but I think he was just trying to paste “Heroes and Villains” together. That was pre-digital days, and putting together modular recordings was a lot more complicated than just cutting and pasting on a computer: you needed, like, razor blades and scotch tape to do it, and an engineer who knew what he was up to.
'It wasn’t until 1968 that he had the breakdown, after releasing three more albums. Then he was hospitalized.
'As far as taking to his bed: he was always nocturnal, but the mythological retreat to bed didn’t happen until the early seventies.'

And just saw a 2017 Telegraph article which suggested that 'It was when his father died in 1973 that Brian Wilson entered his darkest period: two decades of reclusivity, drugs, mental hospital admissions, drinking, over-eating and chain-smoking.'

This is a bit more complex and nuanced than just putting Brian's problems down to drug abuse.

[SMiLE Brian]

The Hoffman board is good to see what general fans think outside of our “bubble”.

[HeyJude]

I read Carol Kaye's complaints about the film, and it kind of just falls in line with her general demeanor of being a truly cranky, unhappy, mean-spirited person.

She doesn't like the doc. I don't like the doc. But I'm not into endorsing or supporting someone's point of view just because they share one overarching opinion. I'm not going to support someone being right for the wrong reasons.

The documentary makes points and implies things (and *doesn't* show things) that we're all agreeing are problematic.

But complaining that the film wants to imply by way of using that "Good Vibrations" studio footage anything purposefully misleading regarding how the songs were recorded is just goofy.

Back over a decade ago, they found a bunch of silent film of various "Good Vibrations" sessions. Essentially "b-roll footage", clearly including stuff shot across more than one day with multiple participants. This footage has already been used in the past in the 2012 "Doin' It Again" PBS/Blu-ray special made to promote the reunion.

Every use of that footage follows the most basic, simple rules of any sort of collage/compilation/music video. Here's a song, and here's some footage of that song being recorded. News flash: They even sometimes use footage of a *different* song! The Beatles "Hey Bulldog/Lady Madonna" being a classic example.

I'm sure the people who have done the hard work to look at all the AFM contracts and then listen to the session tapes still have a cold chill run down their spine just *thinking* about having to actually try to explain to Carol Kaye that her bass is not even on the finished version of "Good Vibrations."

Carol Kaye, ironically, has always struck me as having a very Mike Love-type personality streak running through in that much like Mike Love, she has genuinely achieved a TON of amazing things and is very talented, but will never not still feel aggrieved about something or other and need to complain about something.

[SMiLE Brian]

Carol Kaye is not important, She is just a crazy old lady that happened to once be 1960s session pro.

[HeyJude]

Back to Disney; I won’t compare ‘Get Back’ with this documentary in terms of story/narrative/etc. However, I was so impressed with ‘Get Back’ that I had high hopes that a Disney helmed Beach Boys documentary would be created with the same care and attention to detail.

I do think seeing how stunningly high-quality "Get Back" was would reasonably lead any fan of any other band into thinking "Hey, maybe we could get something on par with that!"

As I mentioned before, Irving Azoff being able to just call Bob Iger at Disney and make a sale on a BB doc is such a rarefied, high-level, bigwig sort of move, it's hugely frustrating that Azoff and Iger couldn't look at something like "Get Back" or even the "Beatles Anthology", and *insist* on something on par with that.

I will agree with everybody that Mike Love didn't/wouldn't need to work hard to get Frank Marshall to convey what he (Mike) wanted to get across in this documentary.

But, think about this:

Watch that press junket interview with Mike, Frank Marshall, and Al where Al complains right to Marshall's face about the documentary. Then watch as Marshall all but pats Al on the head and laughs at him and blows him off as quickly as possible, while Mike sits by and does nothing.

Now, imagine a Peter Jackson or some other director with major gravitas, talent, skill, and also drive/will to tell the true/full story as it should be, taking on a Beach Boys documentary. Imagine Mike going to that person and wanting the narrative to go a certain way. Then imagine that director politely but firmly blowing Mike off and pushing forward to actually make the film great, accurate, and fair to everybody. Imagine the director saying "Hrmmm, maybe we need to let people know about all the amazing music they made in the late 60s and early 70s rather than making fun of the perception of them as squares."

Imagine a good filmmaker not doing a junior high school-level book report post-script "And in conclusion, Pet Sounds was eventually considered to be one of the best albums of all times!"

Iconic has done such a good job supporting the audio/archival side of things, that I'm somehow extra disappointed with how Iconic and Azoff biffed this documentary by going with the Disney choice (and this Marshall), and apparently not having any major issue with Mike Love coming across as the lead on this thing.

I've previously said I was surprised Al even did the press junkets considering his clear beef with the final product. But maybe he did those junkets so that he could be a counterbalance to Mike and Frank Marshall in those interviews, at least as much as he could. There was only so much he could do, and I don't know if Al got swapped out on purpose with Bruce for the later Mike/Bruce interviews, or if that was just a traveling/logistical thing based on tour schedules.

[Galaxy Liz]

I read Carol Kaye's complaints about the film, and it kind of just falls in line with her general demeanor of being a truly cranky, unhappy, mean-spirited person.

She doesn't like the doc. I don't like the doc. But I'm not into endorsing or supporting someone's point of view just because they share one overarching opinion. I'm not going to support someone being right for the wrong reasons.

The documentary makes points and implies things (and *doesn't* show things) that we're all agreeing are problematic.

But complaining that the film wants to imply by way of using that "Good Vibrations" studio footage anything purposefully misleading regarding how the songs were recorded is just goofy.

Back over a decade ago, they found a bunch of silent film of various "Good Vibrations" sessions. Essentially "b-roll footage", clearly including stuff shot across more than one day with multiple participants. This footage has already been used in the past in the 2012 "Doin' It Again" PBS/Blu-ray special made to promote the reunion.

Every use of that footage follows the most basic, simple rules of any sort of collage/compilation/music video. Here's a song, and here's some footage of that song being recorded. News flash: They even sometimes use footage of a *different* song! The Beatles "Hey Bulldog/Lady Madonna" being a classic example.

I'm sure the people who have done the hard work to look at all the AFM contracts and then listen to the session taps still have a cold chill run down their spine just *thinking* about having to actually try to explain to Carol Kaye that her bass is not even on the finished version of "Good Vibrations."

Carol Kaye, ironically, has always struck me as having a very Mike Love-type personality streak running through in that much like Mike Love, she has genuinely achieved a TON of amazing things and is very talented, but will never not still feel aggrieved about something or other and need to complain about something.

I have no axe to grind for Carol Kay - I just think what she said, whilst being fairly unimportant in itself, fits into there being a narrative  in play which uses, omission, implication and lies.

[HeyJude]

I have no axe to grind for Carol Kay - I just think what she said, whilst being fairly unimportant in itself, fits into there being a narrative  in play which uses, omission, implication and lies.

I think Kaye's complaints are not justified and are part and parcel of her long-documented pattern of being cranky, unreasonable, and needlessly defensive. So I'm very uncomfortable just taking *any* complaint about the film, however absurd, and "fitting it into a narrative" about the *actual, legitimate* things the film omitted.

I guarantee that even if turns out Mike Love himself was manning the editing bay on this film, whatever Carol Kaye is complaining about has *zero* to do with the slanted narrative of this film.

[SMiLE Brian]

I think the attitudes toward woman in the workplace back then did a number on Carol Kaye. They weren’t trying to be jerks but they were middle aged men in the 1960s.

[Zenobi]

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE.

Carol is being subjected to enough character assassination in the Inclusive Board.
Let's try to be better people and not join in Carol-bashing. It's ugly.
She is a 87 old lady who managed to become a legend in a man-dominated environment. She says some questionable things now and then, so what? Just give her a break.

I said something very similar about Mike, some weeeks ago. As I am no "historian", don't apply two standards.

[SMiLE Brian]

I agree but Carol’s her own worst enemy and the feud with a certain historian didn’t help a whole lot.

[Zenobi]

Right, just as Mike has always been his own worst enemy.

[Lonely Summer]

 I'm not concerned in the least about the Disney doc having a Mike Love spin to it. We've got several documentaries devoted specifically to telling Brian's story. Did the Love fans complain about those docs having a BW spin to them? Probably.
Brian Wilson is loved and revered the world over as the genius behind the music of the Beach Boys. He's worshipped for the sonic goods he bestowed upon us from 1962 to 1966 - especially 1966. Nothing about the Disney doc is going to change that. Nothing about the Disney doc is going to rob you of the pleasure you got seeing Brian tour as a solo artist from 1999 to 2023; his solo shows were universally praised as musically brilliant, unlike the traveling jukebox Mike leads.
If the result of the Disney doc is that Mike gets a little more credit, how does that take away from Brian?

[HeyJude]

I'm not concerned in the least about the Disney doc having a Mike Love spin to it. We've got several documentaries devoted specifically to telling Brian's story. Did the Love fans complain about those docs having a BW spin to them? Probably.
Brian Wilson is loved and revered the world over as the genius behind the music of the Beach Boys. He's worshipped for the sonic goods he bestowed upon us from 1962 to 1966 - especially 1966. Nothing about the Disney doc is going to change that. Nothing about the Disney doc is going to rob you of the pleasure you got seeing Brian tour as a solo artist from 1999 to 2023; his solo shows were universally praised as musically brilliant, unlike the traveling jukebox Mike leads.
If the result of the Disney doc is that Mike gets a little more credit, how does that take away from Brian?

Well, the theory would be that if a ton of people see this new version, and only this new version, they'll get a slanted point of view.

If this doc had gone "viral" and was like the next "Stranger Things" or "Wednesday" or even other doc series like "Wild Wild Country" or "Making a Murderer" or something, then I'd be far more worried about all of a sudden a zillion "new fans" getting a wonky version of the story.

But I don't think this Disney doc is any sort of ratings juggernaut. For a big new Disney+ doc, it's not getting a lot of attention. It's certainly not "viral" the way the Beatles "Get Back" series was.

I don't think every doc has been either "pro Brian" or "pro Mike". "Endless Harmony" was both fair and also GOOD. That's a very good measuring stick for what a BB doc should be. We would just need a longer, more up-to-date version of THAT.

[SMiLE Brian]

Can Oldsurferdude handle this? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2OF3P4x1v4A&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.stevehoffman.tv%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo

[Zenobi]

I was just wondering about OSD. He has been absent for a while now, as far as I know. I hope he's well.

[rab2591]

I'm not concerned in the least about the Disney doc having a Mike Love spin to it. We've got several documentaries devoted specifically to telling Brian's story. Did the Love fans complain about those docs having a BW spin to them? Probably.
Brian Wilson is loved and revered the world over as the genius behind the music of the Beach Boys. He's worshipped for the sonic goods he bestowed upon us from 1962 to 1966 - especially 1966. Nothing about the Disney doc is going to change that. Nothing about the Disney doc is going to rob you of the pleasure you got seeing Brian tour as a solo artist from 1999 to 2023; his solo shows were universally praised as musically brilliant, unlike the traveling jukebox Mike leads.
If the result of the Disney doc is that Mike gets a little more credit, how does that take away from Brian?

I just want a story told correctly. I don't care if it gives Mike all the credit in the world for the things he has actually accomplished during his life (because he has accomplished a lot worthy of praise). And likewise, I don't care if it paints Brian at times in an unsavory way, because Brian hasn't always been an upstanding role model.

It would've been great for a DEFINITIVE documentary to just tell the story in a truthful and unbiased way where someone wouldn't have to comment "I'm not concerned in the least about the Disney doc having a Mike Love spin to it" when talking about it. For someone to comment that about a documentary that promotes itself as "The Definitive Look at America's Band." shows perfectly (a) that this documentary truly isn't "definitive", and (b) what a wasted opportunity this was for the band.

This documentary wasn't documenting the creation of TLOS or BWPS. It is supposedly the "definitive" look at the band so there shouldn't be ANY spin on it. Again, I go back to Ken Burn's baseball series - it would've been great to have a documentary like that where the people at the helm actually cared about the material. I guess I really expected a company that made 'Get Back' and made 31 billion dollars last year to be able to fund and create a documentary about "America's Band" that is actually worth watching.

And the rest of this is a reply to Hey Jude. Whether 10,000 or 10 million people see this, there are a couple worrisome things relating to this doc:

1) that the research team did their homework and came up with this tabloid-esque overview of the band (is this viewpoint held by so many people that it has become gospel now? or that there is never any official pushback on this lazy narrative that it was given the green-light due to being the easy way to put their story into an hour and a half movie? either way, it's worrisome that this narrative is what was put in a "definitive" documentary)
2) it upholds the viewpoint/understanding that SO many casual fans have about this band, so it's only going to bolster that false viewpoint. Especially when it calls itself "definitive". Regardless of it not going viral, it is now exclusively on a platform with 149 million subscribers (and growing), and from hereon when any casual person watches this film on there, they will walk away with the idea that this is THE official story. To someone who'd just like to have a truthful/beautiful documentary made, that is worrisome to me.

I will say, as Zenobi said above: the music will triumph over all this garbage. But in the meantime it's sad that our outlook is "in 200 years this won't matter" when in an alternate universe we're all on this message board talking about how great the new 5 part unbiased Beach Boys documentary series on PBS is. Sigh.