I wish that..

[variable2]

..in the 2004 SMiLE cd booklet, there were pictures of 2004 Brian doing crazy things like throwing vegetables and jumping and swimming like all those pictures from 66/67.. that would be cool!

okay.. maybe i'm a bit baked here..

[The infamous Baldwin Organ]

I completely understand. 

I wish Brian would go back to touring in a bathrobe. That's the stuff legends is made of!

[the captain]

Yeah, and I wish he were 300 pounds, smoking heavily, drinking heavily, doing coke and, if possible, worried that his house was bugged. That sh*t is funny. 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

..in the 2004 SMiLE cd booklet, there were pictures of 2004 Brian doing crazy things like throwing vegetables and jumping and swimming like all those pictures from 66/67.. that would be cool!

okay.. maybe i'm a bit baked here..

That reminds me, the other day I was feelin' on the same level as you must be on now, and I remarked to my wife "It'd be funny as hell if they did publicity pictures where Brian was reenacting different covers from the BB history", and for some reason the idea of 2009 vintage Brian in a snow globe surrounded by penguins like KTSA really split my merda.



edit


weird...the topic locked itself. I just unlocked it.

[Dove Nested Towers]

How about an updated Sunflower Good Humor ice cream man (in a bathrobe)? Let's bring back
wackiness and irreverence, which Brian still has in abundance.

[the captain]

I doubt we'll get much wackiness or irreverence. He still tosses off the oddball comment or funny moment, but for the most part I think his career is too carefully (if not always well) managed. I don't think off-the-wall Brian is quite the image his team wants to project. They're more stuck on the "he can still create magic; he's still very demanding in the studio; don't forget, he's a genius" mode.

[Aegir]

Hm, they're certainly not doing a very good job portraying Brian as a perfectly normal individual.

[the captain]

I don't think and didn't say they're trying to.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I think it's a mistake.  With this last "Brian's Back" campaign that began in 1998, they've positioned Brian to the general public as if he was the same guy he was around Today/SD&SN, when many of the diehards rather he be built up as the quirky guy who put out quirky, Love You-style music.

[variable2]

I think it's a mistake.  With this last "Brian's Back" campaign that began in 1998, they've positioned Brian to the general public as if he was the same guy he was around Today/SD&SN, when many of the diehards rather he be built up as the quirky guy who put out quirky, Love You-style music.

I think he's both those things

[Dove Nested Towers]

He still has the capacity to be irreverent, but only when he's very comfortable and if he's given
permission and prodding. He's like a talented comedian who is stereotyped as a straight man now, and his career and image is very tightly managed and controlled, as much as it's possible
to contain the loose cannon, unpredictable aspect of his personality, which admittedly doesn't emerge often these days, at least in public.

Let's encourage his management to let him off his leash and let whatever is left of the deadpan,
hilarious, offbeat Brian re-emerge!

[Sheriff John Stone]

Of course I don't wish for Brian to be back in the days of 1976-77 when he was battling obesity, drugs, and mental illness (which he always will battle anyway), but I do wish he would sit down and compose those 2:15 - 2:30 classics like he used to. I still think that's his best fit. The Beach Boys Love You, with 14 B. Wilson/M.Love songs, seemed so easy at the time. And some of that Adult Child stuff, it was so creative, it was so "Brian". It just seemed like Brian could sit down at the piano and, in no time, come up with this cool stuff.

Production-wise, I don't really wish for those raw, raspy albums. But I do wish Brian would/could sit down and compose a whole album, 13-14 songs of NEW material, of inspired material. Songs where, when you hear them, you say, "That's so Brian". That's what I wish.

[Shady]

I'm still hoping for Roller Skating Child Part 2.

[Jon Stebbins]

Of course I don't wish for Brian to be back in the days of 1976-77 when he was battling obesity, drugs, and mental illness (which he always will battle anyway), but I do wish he would sit down and compose those 2:15 - 2:30 classics like he used to. I still think that's his best fit. The Beach Boys Love You, with 14 B. Wilson/M.Love songs, seemed so easy at the time. And some of that Adult Child stuff, it was so creative, it was so "Brian". It just seemed like Brian could sit down at the piano and, in no time, come up with this cool stuff.

Production-wise, I don't really wish for those raw, raspy albums. But I do wish Brian would/could sit down and compose a whole album, 13-14 songs of NEW material, of inspired material. Songs where, when you hear them, you say, "That's so Brian". That's what I wish.

I think we'd be lucky to still have the 1976 version of Brian around. Watch the Lorne Michaels produced Its OK TV special, in those interviews from his bed, or the other interviews in that time period its so obvious that Brian was still present. The difference between those days and now are huge. he was probably still 80% or more there. Admittedly he was overweight and very troubled, but today the Brian we have is much much less present and much less Brian...I'd say he's operating at 60 % on his good days in comparison to '76. Don't take my word. Look at a filmed interview from '76 and look at one from the last 10 years. In '76 he was nervous, weird and unhealthy...but he's there...he's present.  Now he's completely on auto-pilot most of the time, maybe he's healthier physically, he's still nervous and wierd...but the guy that used to be Brian is diminished, partial, vacant. Anybody who thinks he's more "back" now than he was in '76 is fooling themselves. And I agree with SJS that the songs he wrote in '76/77 were closer in spirit to the real Brian than most things since. I guess that's the last time we weren't receiving Brian's offerings through a giant filter.

[Bicyclerider]

Humor was always such a great part of Brian's persona and his songs - certainly around Love You/Adult Child (if mars had life on it I might find my wife on it . . . Johnny Carson, I Want to Pick You Up, Had to Phone Ya, etc.).  Its rare that comes out now.  But we all know it's in there - his songs don't always have to be so serious and self-referential.

[Sheriff John Stone]

I'm still hoping for Roller Skating Child Part 2.

"Roller Skating Child" is genius.

[the captain]

But I do wish Brian would/could sit down and compose a whole album, 13-14 songs of NEW material, of inspired material. Songs where, when you hear them, you say, "That's so Brian". That's what I wish.

I'm with you there ... except one thing: inspired is a lot to ask for. And I don't think its necessary. He rarely wrote an entire album of "inspired" material anyway. Pet Sounds, maybe Smile (which wasn't an album anyway until his team made it one). I'd LOVE just an album of songs. Just songs. The faster the better, so nobody has time to muck around with them (including him).

As far as him being better or worse off than in the mid/late 70s, I think its a two-sided thing. There are different kinds of health, and as Jon said, while he improved in some ways, he's obviously long gone in others. I don't know that you can really choose one or the other. Would you rather lose your mind or your body? Neither option is really attractive...

[Shady]

I'm still hoping for Roller Skating Child Part 2.

"Roller Skating Child" is genius.

Did I sound sarcastic? Seriously hope I didint.

Because if I had one wish it would be that Brian would make another album like Love You.

Good Kind Of Love assures me it's possible.

[the captain]

Why Good Kind of Love? I don't see where that would really remind you of Love You at all. (Not being an asshole, just asking.) I'd say Oxygen to the Brain (which I know isn't new) is more along those lines. Or Message Man.

[Sheriff John Stone]

I'm still hoping for Roller Skating Child Part 2.

"Roller Skating Child" is genius.

Did I sound sarcastic? Seriously hope I didint.

Because if I had one wish it would be that Brian would make another album like Love You.

Actually, I thought you were joking. But, I'm glad you weren't. And glad to see you're a Love You fan.

Luther, maybe "inspired" wasn't the perfect term to describe the kind of music that I'm wishing from Brian. Or, maybe it is....

I like the kind of Brian songs where you can almost tell that he enjoyed recording it, it's just a vibe that comes through the music. Love You is full of it. It's also a vibe that gives you, the listener, that special feeling, the reason why we listen to Brian's music in the first place. Brian's honesty and personality is in his music; conversely, you can also tell when it's not there.

[TdHabib]

Honestly, the first time I heard "Goin' Home" was that this sounded like a Love You outtake. That insistant synth work, the raw "Home, home, be-doby-doby-do-do-" backing vocal from Brian, the keen harmonies popping up in the middle (a la "Let Us Go On this Way") and the over-the-top fade. Perfect and so enjoyable. And I'm dead serious.

Honestly, while I think Brian's not altogether there all the time (which he has never been), he's operating on a level where any influence he has goes into his music. So you have "Good Kind of Love" which sounds, to me anyway, like a Summer Days kinda thing. Simple and direct. The "Til I Die" like ambience of "MAD"; "Morning Beat" which has a Sunflower vibe and "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl." I'll say it again, I don't think that TLOS is completely successful, but it's certainly the most interesting and varied work since the Adult/Child era.

[Jon Stebbins]

On TLOS you have a team of musicians and management running around making sure what is released is palatable, acceptable, within the boundaries...do people realize this? I know they don't over on Brian's board. Love You is the last example of Brian being engaged, in control, and revealing his stuff on almost his own terms...its HIS stuff, not a little dash of his stuff blended in with Scott Bennett or whomever else is creating the shiny Brian facsimile. TLOS is a good record, and Brian is a big part of it...but compared to Love You its not at all genuine Brian Wilson. With that said there are parts of TLOS that put a major lump in my throat, in a good way. But I'd just love to hear something closer to the source, even if its disturbing.

[the captain]

That's kind of what I was getting at in the previous page about his team. It's not to say that TLOS wasn't a good album: I liked it quite a bit. But it's far from "from Brian to you," even though the songs are his (or his and Bennett's). It is a team's product. That isn't just because Brian is half-incapacitated: no major label release (or not many major label releases, with some exceptions maybe for people like Bob Dylan, who have taken control) is really just the artist or band making and releasing an album. But I'd guess it is even more so with Brian because of his limitations.

As Jon says, his career, including product, has been very heavily managed (i.e. filtered) for decades. To me, that means that it's not that what comes out isn't Brian, but it's that it's selective Brian. Nobody is going to say "hey, do whatever you want. Here's the cash to finance it."

[Sheriff John Stone]

And, the two previous above posts indirectly show why The Beach Boys Love You was such an intriguing album. In some ways, well, many ways, it is brilliant. On the other hand, because of its, and Brian's flaws, Love You was the last time THAT was ever gonna happen again. THAT meaning Brian's character. That embarrassing but honest, raw but fascinating, insane but entertaining Brian Wilson was never gonna get released again. And I can understand why; a lot was on the line. I mean, it is called the record BUSINESS. The Beach Boys made sure by going to other producers, Landy made sure (although Sweet Insanity almost snuck out), and Brian's current management definitely made sure. Love You was the album that showed Brian still had it, but it was also the album that broke the camel's back.

[TdHabib]

On TLOS you have a team of musicians and management running around making sure what is released is palatable, acceptable, within the boundaries...do people realize this? I know they don't over on Brian's board. Love You is the last example of Brian being engaged, in control, and revealing his stuff on almost his own terms...its HIS stuff, not a little dash of his stuff blended in with Scott Bennett or whomever else is creating the shiny Brian facsimile. TLOS is a good record, and Brian is a big part of it...but compared to Love You its not at all genuine Brian Wilson. With that said there are parts of TLOS that put a major lump in my throat, in a good way. But I'd just love to hear something closer to the source, even if its disturbing.

That's a very good point, I wasn't suggesting that Brian was in total control, just that I got a definite Love You vibe from "Goin' Home."