All TLOS bonus tracks ...

[Wirestone]

... Are available at BW.com

http://www.brianwilson.com/content/jukebox/index.html

... For what it's worth, these are the tracks that convinced me the TLOS record and previous sessions were the real deal.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I like TLOS very much, and have since the beginning... but, ah, how to put this... could have been better if Brian's original vision hadn't been, um, 'diluted'.

A f'rinstance - there's a killer extra verse missing from "Live Let Live"... there's a way better version of "Mexican Girl" (and you all know just how highly I rate that track...).

But, said it before, will keep on saying it - don't care who wrote what, Brian's performance of "Midnight's Another Day" is a towering, majestic achievement: his finest moment since 1970.

[Bean Bag]

Thanks for posting that!  Is there a way to download those?  Are they all available on disc?

TLOS is pretty amazing.  I've been listening to it a lot.  I mean a lot.  The live DVD and the studio disc.  Outstanding.

Andrew, what have you heard pre-tampered?  I remember in the DVD a mention of "I only tweaked the lyrics a little" in reference to Oxygen.  I thought...why the fck are you changing anything!!

I would love to hear this music "pre-tweaked." 

[Sam_BFC]

I like TLOS very much, and have since the beginning... but, ah, how to put this... could have been better if Brian's original vision hadn't been, um, 'diluted'.

A f'rinstance - there's a killer extra verse missing from "Live Let Live"... there's a way better version of "Mexican Girl" (and you all know just how highly I rate that track...).

There is also a missing verse from FSBMSG that we heard on the version that was posted on BW.com in the run up to the RFH gigs.  Apart from these examples, how else was his vision diluted? Production-wise for instance? I personally would have preferred a bit more reverb the final record is a bit dry for me and one reason perhaps why many prefer the demo version of Midnight.

Are talking about just the demo version of Mexican Girl that was leaked or another?

EDIT - Also, are these bonus tracks from the Wilson-Bennet sessions or were any re-recorded at Capitol with the rest of TLOS?

Cheers

[juggler]

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate the spoken-word interludes on TLOS?  They seem really awkward, and there's some sort of weird echo.  Brian sounds like his mouth was covered with waxed paper or something.

[SG7]

For them to release this a whole 8 months after the fact...


Gotta love the BW management team 

[?]

For them to release this a whole 8 months after the fact...


Gotta love the BW management team 

Maybe they had to wait until the exclusive clauses expired before they could do anything with them outside of Best Buy and iTunes?

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but there were two sets of demos for TLOS yes?  Has the first set been leaked at all?  I know there's a piece of footwear out there with 26 tracks but I don't know the tracklisting...

[The Shift]

I know there's a piece of footwear out there with 26 tracks but I don't know the tracklisting...

I think this is what you're refering to - www.giginjapan.com/scan147/brian-wilson-lucky.htm but it's not the alt demo as far as I know. I really really don't have this one

[MBE]

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate the spoken-word interludes on TLOS?  They seem really awkward, and there's some sort of weird echo.  Brian sounds like his mouth was covered with waxed paper or something.

Yeah that's the major thing I dislike too. I love most of the songs, but I think the talking is kind of lame.

[The Shift]

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate the spoken-word interludes on TLOS?  They seem really awkward, and there's some sort of weird echo.  Brian sounds like his mouth was covered with waxed paper or something.

Yeah that's the major thing I dislike too. I love most of the songs, but I think the talking is kind of lame.

I don't have a prob with the script, it's the delivery., BW's not the best for that and might have been better getting a guest to do the readings; maybe even an actor.   But then I can live it as is, as part of the concept.  I suspect I'm one of those who'd buy an album of Brian farting if one was available.

[Wirestone]

My suspicion is what Andrew is talking about is the shaping of the 06 BW-Scott sessions into the TLOS project in the first place. These songs didn't fit into the project, so they became "bonus tracks." The other songs were re-worked lyrically for the theme. That being said, I like the bonus tracks precisely because they seem to be mostly from those rough, original sessions.

[phirnis]

I like the the spoken word interludes as they do remind me of Mt. Vernon and Fairway and the background music's very satisfying as well.
If there's one thing I mildly dislike about TLOS, it's California Role. I found myself skipping that song occasionally. It's not that bad but still sounds kind of forced in order to fit the overall California theme.

I'm Into Something Good should've been saved in order to become part of Pleasure Island of course.

[variable2]

Message Man is great..

I wish Brian had the confidence in his own work to put something like Message Man on an actual album, not just an 'exclusive bonus track', but the time for that is past methinks..

There's just too many conflicting things coming out.. like what AGD is saying, contrasted with Darian Sahanaja and Nelson Bragg in the TLOS documentary saying "we don't want to be a filter, we want the pure thing from Brian".. although now that I think about it, I do believe they said "we WOULD want the pure thing".. hmm..

[Wirestone]

I don't think it's necessarily contradictory. Or any more contradictory than BW has ever been.

Brian is an impulsive dude. He cuts a lot of demo-not-quite-demo tracks with Scott, then gets a commission to produce a Smile follow-up. He wonders about retrofitting that earlier material. I mean, he accepted the commission, and he ended up suggesting using the earlier material that way. The band then has to team together to make it work as a live suite. That's diluting in one sense -- the finished TLOS album is certainly more polished and buffed than Brian belting away in Scott's bedroom -- but in another sense it's what people around Brian (since Murry) have helped - manipulated - bullied - assisted him in doing -- funneling that raw vision into work for a wide audience.

What's funny now, of course, is that Brian seems to be producing three- or four-minute pop songs and those around him are helping craft it into avant-garde suites -- as opposed to the other way round.

[sofonanm]

Message Man is great..

I wish Brian had the confidence in his own work to put something like Message Man on an actual album, not just an 'exclusive bonus track', but the time for that is past methinks..

There's just too many conflicting things coming out.. like what AGD is saying, contrasted with Darian Sahanaja and Nelson Bragg in the TLOS documentary saying "we don't want to be a filter, we want the pure thing from Brian".. although now that I think about it, I do believe they said "we WOULD want the pure thing".. hmm..

Do you honestly trust anything said in DVD interviews like that?

I find it hard to believe that Brian was really %110 involved in the making of the album, but I don't really care. When I'm 60+ I want to be vegetating in a lawn chair staring directly into the sun, not being at work. Interestingly, though, in the BBoys heyday, when an album said Produced by BRIAN WILSON you pretty much knew that Brian was the man in charge, not just the name you put there because it sells. If I understand it correctly, that was part of the mystique around Brian that developed back then. Quit touring, stays in L.A recording for months producing things like Good Vibrations... like a mad scientist in the lab. Now he's like the scientist... just with a team of qualified specialists doing the work for him.

[juggler]

Interestingly, though, in the BBoys heyday, when an album said Produced by BRIAN WILSON you pretty much knew that Brian was the man in charge, not just the name you put there because it sells.

Very true, very true.   What's the last thing labeled "Produced by Brian Wilson" that we can be sure is totally his production?    The Good Vibrations 45, perhaps?  IIRC, some recent Capitol repackagings list Brian as producer on some later songs originally credited to "The Beach Boys" (i.e., Heroes and Villains, Wild Honey, Darlin  and Friends).  And that's appropriate because it's certain (or at least very close to certain) that he did produce those songs.

On the other hand, I believe that "Produced by Brian Wilson" was on a lot of the American Spring stuff in the early '70s, but a lot of folks say that even by that time,  "Produced by Brian Wilson" didn't mean what it had meant a few years earlier.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Now he's like the scientist... just with a team of qualified specialists doing the work for him.

Very well put.

[Wirestone]

My god, "Just Like Me and You" is a fabulous song.

[shelter]

TLOS still gets better every time I hear it. Of course it doesn't have the vocal magic of the old BB records, but song wise, it might even be in my all-time BB/BW top five, right after Pet Sounds, Sunflower, Friends and Today... And it certainly is BW's sunniest album since All Summer Long...

*edit* Forgot about BWPS...  Well, that makes it number 6 then. Still pretty good...

[The Heartical Don]

Call me Ishmael, but how can I capture these songs on my hard drive? I am not a tech wiz, but you may have gathered that by now...

[The Shift]

If you're on a Mac, get yourself Audio Hijack Pro.... very good.

[Sam_BFC]

I found mp3s of the track in my temporary internet files folder, then copied them to my music.

[blazer]

I found mp3s of the track in my temporary internet files folder, then copied them to my music.

Thanks for this awesome tip!!

[phirnis]

I'm really getting into "Just Like Me And You" right now. What a song!

[Wirestone]

It's this wonderful combination of Love You style lyrics, odd 80s instrumental touches (that synth break!) and a Today-era chorus.

Just astonishing as a creation, and far more ambitious than many of the actual TLOS songs.