The Wilson Project now expanded

[Gohi]

Thanks so much for bumping this! So glad I finally have a copy of this book now. Can't wait to read it!

[Nicko1234]

Have just read this book and it is a cracker. The picture painted of Brian isn't exactly positive and the tale about him attending a swanky evening and farting in Marie Osmond's face is both hilarious and disturbing.

[petsoundsnola]

Have just read this book and it is a cracker. The picture painted of Brian isn't exactly positive and the tale about him attending a swanky evening and farting in Marie Osmond's face is both hilarious and disturbing.

I am almost finished reading the updated 2013 edition, and that is by far my favorite part of the book - a funny diversion from an otherwise disturbing and difficult read. 

Does anyone have information on the song "Carl and Gina" that Brian wrote for Carl's second wedding?  It is mentioned toward the end of the book.

[onkster]

Good gosh, I remember seeing the old Wilson Project books (pink) at Rockaway Records in LA for years (along with Denny Remembered). And I never picked either up. Kicking self now, of course.

Though, after several in-store flips through the Project books, I had decided they were too utterly depressing to buy.

[37!ws]

I found The Wilson Project anything BUT depressing. Angering? Sometimes. And at one point Usher, referring to Landy, said something like, "What does that little worm want now?" Actually made me LOL...

It's still gettable via Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/2954483407/ref=sr_1_2_twi_1_pap_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1437676242&sr=8-2&keywords=wilson+project+mcparland

[Andrew G. Doe]

I found myself shaking my head again and again at Usher's incredible naivety when dealing with Landy. Also, I feel he was, at this juncture, a better friend than a musical collaborator.

[HeyJude]

Usher comes across as a sweet, kind guy who was indeed probably too naïve. Interestingly, while I had heard the circulating Usher stuff way back when, I didn’t listen to the material while reading the book (of which I picked up the 2013 edition). After, I went back and tracked the stuff to remind myself.

As I mentioned in my review (on my blog linked below) back in 2013, the one area where Usher doesn’t fare well is when you actually listen to the music he was making with Brian. Usher discusses several times how Brian didn’t have an ear for what would be a hit in 1986 (which was undoubtedly true), but the stuff Usher offers up isn’t any better (Usher seems sure of himself about his writing and producing in the book, not excessively cocky or anything). There are a few solid moments, and most of those were the things that got aired in some format (e.g. “The Spirit of Rock and Roll”, “Let’s Go to Heaven in My Car”, etc.). But stuff like “Heavenly Bodies” is as embarrassing as anything Brian was bringing to the table back then.

Compositionally, the eventual ’88 album material has mostly stronger material than the bulk of the Usher sessions.

[petsoundsnola]

I found myself shaking my head again and again at Usher's incredible naivety when dealing with Landy. Also, I feel he was, at this juncture, a better friend than a musical collaborator.

That was my impression as well.  Why did he continue to meet with Landy even after a year of dealing with him and all of the drama, non-payment for services rendered, arguments, manipulation, broken promises, etc?   Usher said himself that he must have been a glutton for punishment - I agree.

Ultimately Usher was a loyal friend to Brian and I believe he sincerely wanted to help his friend create and succeed, but he could only take it so far.  He was a little naïve fish in a big pool of sharks.  I wish he would have been given more credit for being that initial impetus and collaborator that sparked Brian's solo career. 

[Bittersweet-Sanity]

A very fascinating read. I got some lulz out of Brian telling Melinda that he had "this strange urge to take my menu and hit you on top of the head w/ it...not very hard, just a small whack." That's how the date should've been depicted in Love & Mercy. Also, Gary's Usher's kid upon seeing a bald Mike Love: "God, who is that old man?" 

[bachelorofbullets]

Amazing how everybody around here is so anxious to slam Usher.  I guess you all wrote hit songs with Brian too...right?

Usher never claimed to be a singer so give the insults a rest, he sang when necessary but his job was to write lyrics and produce, he even said so himself in the book.

[HeyJude]

Amazing how everybody around here is so anxious to slam Usher.  I guess you all wrote hit songs with Brian too...right?

Usher never claimed to be a singer so give the insults a rest, he sang when necessary but his job was to write lyrics and produce, he even said so himself in the book.

I didn’t go back and read all the posts in this thread, but did anyone claim Usher was trying to be a vocalist? I don’t think that was an issue.

As I’ve said before, Usher seemed to be a down-to-Earth, kind (to a fault) sort of guy. While doing so relatively humbly, he does tout his skills in the book in terms of songwriting as well as production and commercial instincts (essentially A&R sort of stuff), and the material, when you actually listen to it, is pretty weak in my opinion. I cut Usher plenty of slack, as Brian was not on his A-game at the time (as Usher points out, and this is has as much to do with Brian dusting the cob webs off as it does being under the weird thumb of Landy). I don’t think Usher was only touting himself as a lyricist, but even if he was, it’s worth noting that his “new” lyrics to “Still I Dream of It” are pretty jaw-droppingly awful.

I’m not particularly convinced that Landy broke off the deal with Usher because of sharp musical instinct. Usher was getting fudged the whole time in terms of putting time and money into the whole project. While Usher continually points out that they’re cutting demos (and interestingly and distressingly points out numerous times that Brian seems to think they’re cutting finished album tracks), and therefore I can cut him some slack in the production side of things based on the extant demos, the compositions (whomever was writing them) were uneven at best. Later on in the sort of epilogue, Usher doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the ’88 album. I can understand why he’d be pissed off about it, and the ’88 album isn’t amazing either, but the compositions on it (music more so than lyrics) are far superior to the songs we’ve heard that were cut with Usher. “Let It Shine” is a better song than “Heavenly Bodies”, whether Jeff Lynne or Gary Usher or Brian or anyone else wrote them.

[Mike's Beard]

Usher had about a million studio/side projects going in the '60s which he sang on and frankly his vocals do suck.

[Peter Pumpkinhead]

I've never got my hands on a copy of the book itself, but nonetheless I'm quite familiar with a bootleg version that a friend of mine played to me once or twice.

I remember enjoying "Black Widow" and "Turning Point" quite a lot, but really out of context so. May anyone supply a complete or approximated "sessionography" of Brian's and Gary's mutual work around that specific point of time? I'm still not that sure which recordings are genuinely countable as part of their sessions, and which sessions actually just got attached to the bootleg release(s). Some clarification would be welcome!

[Jesse Reiswig]

Bellagio is your friend: http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs86.html  and then carry on into 1987.

[CenturyDeprived]

Amazing how everybody around here is so anxious to slam Usher.  I guess you all wrote hit songs with Brian too...right?

Usher never claimed to be a singer so give the insults a rest, he sang when necessary but his job was to write lyrics and produce, he even said so himself in the book.

I didn’t go back and read all the posts in this thread, but did anyone claim Usher was trying to be a vocalist? I don’t think that was an issue.

As I’ve said before, Usher seemed to be a down-to-Earth, kind (to a fault) sort of guy. While doing so relatively humbly, he does tout his skills in the book in terms of songwriting as well as production and commercial instincts (essentially A&R sort of stuff), and the material, when you actually listen to it, is pretty weak in my opinion. I cut Usher plenty of slack, as Brian was not on his A-game at the time (as Usher points out, and this is has as much to do with Brian dusting the cob webs off as it does being under the weird thumb of Landy). I don’t think Usher was only touting himself as a lyricist, but even if he was, it’s worth noting that his “new” lyrics to “Still I Dream of It” are pretty jaw-droppingly awful.

I’m not particularly convinced that Landy broke off the deal with Usher because of sharp musical instinct. Usher was getting fudged the whole time in terms of putting time and money into the whole project. While Usher continually points out that they’re cutting demos (and interestingly and distressingly points out numerous times that Brian seems to think they’re cutting finished album tracks), and therefore I can cut him some slack in the production side of things based on the extant demos, the compositions (whomever was writing them) were uneven at best. Later on in the sort of epilogue, Usher doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the ’88 album. I can understand why he’d be pissed off about it, and the ’88 album isn’t amazing either, but the compositions on it (music more so than lyrics) are far superior to the songs we’ve heard that were cut with Usher. “Let It Shine” is a better song than “Heavenly Bodies”, whether Jeff Lynne or Gary Usher or Brian or anyone else wrote them.

I have a total soft spot for Heavenly Bodies, and while the vocal may be a scratch one, I like it more than a number of songs from BW88.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Amazing how everybody around here is so anxious to slam Usher.  I guess you all wrote hit songs with Brian too...right?

Usher never claimed to be a singer so give the insults a rest, he sang when necessary but his job was to write lyrics and produce, he even said so himself in the book.

I didn’t go back and read all the posts in this thread, but did anyone claim Usher was trying to be a vocalist? I don’t think that was an issue.

As I’ve said before, Usher seemed to be a down-to-Earth, kind (to a fault) sort of guy. While doing so relatively humbly, he does tout his skills in the book in terms of songwriting as well as production and commercial instincts (essentially A&R sort of stuff), and the material, when you actually listen to it, is pretty weak in my opinion. I cut Usher plenty of slack, as Brian was not on his A-game at the time (as Usher points out, and this is has as much to do with Brian dusting the cob webs off as it does being under the weird thumb of Landy). I don’t think Usher was only touting himself as a lyricist, but even if he was, it’s worth noting that his “new” lyrics to “Still I Dream of It” are pretty jaw-droppingly awful.

I’m not particularly convinced that Landy broke off the deal with Usher because of sharp musical instinct. Usher was getting fudged the whole time in terms of putting time and money into the whole project. While Usher continually points out that they’re cutting demos (and interestingly and distressingly points out numerous times that Brian seems to think they’re cutting finished album tracks), and therefore I can cut him some slack in the production side of things based on the extant demos, the compositions (whomever was writing them) were uneven at best. Later on in the sort of epilogue, Usher doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the ’88 album. I can understand why he’d be pissed off about it, and the ’88 album isn’t amazing either, but the compositions on it (music more so than lyrics) are far superior to the songs we’ve heard that were cut with Usher. “Let It Shine” is a better song than “Heavenly Bodies”, whether Jeff Lynne or Gary Usher or Brian or anyone else wrote them.

Agree with all that bar the "down-to-earth" bit, as Usher's spiritual leanings and mindset do come to the fore now and then (and are occasionally unintentionally amusing, or irritatingly twee). Were Usher a tad more grounded in the real world, I doubt he'd have been so repeatedly shafted by Landy.

[HeyJude]

I read the book back when it resurfaced in 2013, so it has been a bit since I read it. But I do recall Usher offering up some sort of hippy-dippy stuff. It struck me, when reading, as more innocuous than anything else. If it was detrimental to anyone, it was probably to himself more than anyone else.

While Bill Champlin comes off as kind of a d**k in the small portion of the book that discusses him (are there swaths of people super-clamoring for Champlin-era, Chaplin-heavy "Chicago" material these days?), Usher does use a rather blunt commentary from Champlin to highlight his (Usher's) naivety, when Champlin asks Usher who is paying for all of the sessions and who isn't getting reimbursed, and then asking the rhetorical question of who's crazy in that scenario.

Unlike at least *some* of the "Paley sessions" material, I've never viewed much of Brian's work with Usher as any sort of tragic, "what could have been" moment, either in terms of Usher producing a BW album or, as occasionally floated during that era, possibly even producing a BB album. The Usher book is really primarily a rare *detailed* insight into at least part of the Landy machine in that era, and also serves more generally as an interesting insight into the industry in general.

It's true that any book written entirely from one person's perspective is going to be rather one-sided. But, with a few exceptions of horn-tooting and some hyper-criticism of the '88 album, Usher's book is about as non-axe-grinding as a one-sided portrayal of an abandoned project could be.