Last Great Brian Production and Song

[Bicyclerider]

I'm thinking big pop productions like Pet Sounds and Smile 67 . . . what was the last great Brian production?  Where Brian produced the whole shebang, not half produced and left Carl to finish it . . . I'd say Breakaway was the last big scale Brian production that ranks with his best.  (Day in the Life of a Tree is another great one, purely production wise, but Breakaway trumps it IMO.  Till I Die is a great production, but much simpler than the big productions of PS era)

Last great song that ranks with God Only Knows, Surf's Up and the like?  I'd pick The Night was So Young - although Still I dream of it is a great song as well, not as "typical Brian" as Night was so Young.

[mikeyj]

Yeh Id have to agree with Bruce on this one. Id say Brians last great production was Til I Die.

[Wilson Love]

For Bicycle Rider; I'd have to go along with your mention of "The Night Was So Young". Even though it wouldn't have  been an obvious choice, it really does have the " Brian" stamp on it, on a much simpler scale, of course. Classis BW production, none the less.

[Amy B.]

For production, Til I Die (was that Brian only?)
Rio Grande was, to me, terrific, but I guess that wasn 't all Brian.

For songwriting, well, maybe The Night Was So Young, or maybe even Solar System-- come on, that's a killer melody. Then again, there are lots of "newer" songs (meaning 1980 on) that are great--
The First Time (1983, was it?)
What I Really Want For Christmas is great
Love and Mercy
Your Imagination
Saturday Morning in the City (seriously)-- or was that really Andy Paley?

[XY]

For me, it's "Can't Wait Too Long".
Other songs would be "Time To Get Alone" (Redwood), "Wake The World" & "Til I Die", but I don't know if he produced those tracks alone. Really, after the SMILE, I think he lost interest in working alone for others.

[the captain]

It's hard to say regarding what productions were realy just Brian, and what were others contributing to his basic ideas. (At least for me--if there's a book or source that can really definitively say who was where and when, I don't have it.)

But as far as things released under the name Brian Wilson, I'd say his last great song was either Your Imagination or Lay Down Burden. (I don't particularly like the production on either, by the way, although the former is better than the latter in that regard.) Last great production...I really like the most recent track, as well as the production on the entire Christmas album. None of the above are GREAT-great, but all of them are really good, the sort of thing any artist can be proud of.

If it's a homerun you're looking for in this thread, then This Whole World, probably. (I have a fondness for several of the Love You songs, too, but it's hard to consider them truly "great" on the homerun scale.)

[Ebb and Flow]

I think the last part of Busy Doin' Nothin' is really the last time you hear something unquestionably great, orchestrated and compelling from Brian.  Sure there were other songs after, but how much imput was there by Carl, Desper, et al?

I do like to think of the "Mt. Vernon & Fairway Theme" being the last great work by the classic "Beach Boys era Brian", even though he didn't produce it.  That piece is almost like Mozart's Requiem for me, it's hard to describe.

[Sheriff John Stone]

The last song(s) that made me think, "How did he write that?", were on The Beach Boys Love You. The arrangements on specifically "Roller Skating Child", "Johnny Carson", "I'll Bet He's Nice", "The Night Was So Young" and "Airplane" are vintage Brian Wilson. There's a lot going on in those songs. I love to disect "Roller Skating Child" especially. And they were probably written/recorded very quickly. I have no proof of this, but I sometimes wonder if Carl had more to do with the recording of Love You than we know...

[MBE]

The production on his last three studio LP's are very good, better then anytime since Spring. His voice went out in 1975 so I can't really say anything after that is perfect. I think Oh Lord from 1981 was his last super heavy jaw dropper as a song.  The vocals are rough but they are intense. I suppose Child Of Winter and Hard Times are the last great moments of the original Brian. Sure they are goofy but they have that unique sound he never quite recaptured.

I look at his work from 67-74 as just as good as the early stuff. He had help sure, but Mike had done a lot in the first four years of the group, and you can Bruce help Brian arrange And Your Dream Comes True. With that in mind I would say that only Pet Sounds and Smile lacked at least some production input from the others. They did however add a lot vocally and suggested ideas. The Beach Boys creatively were a group  in my eyes with Brian as leader.

[pixletwin]

I really love the production on "A Day in the Life of a Tree" though (like Good Vibrations) I hate that the fade out happens so quickly. I wish we could float in that fade out for about 30 more seconds.

[PMcC]

'What I really want for Christmas" and "Christmasy"

[pixletwin]

You're right PMcC. What I rerally want for Christmas was a great production from Brian.

[Dan Lega]

I'd go with "What I Really Want For Christmas", too.

And before that I'd go with "Black Widow" (demo) and "My Diane" (demo only!)

Then there's lots of good stuff on "Love You" and "15 Big Ones".

But my real favorite last stupendously great production is....

        ...the Intro/Theme song (instrumental) of The Fairy Tale! 

With the synth croaking frogs/ducks, missed beats, slowly building/changing textures, et al, I just find that's a tremendously realized piece of music.


                  Love and merci,    Dan Lega