Brian Wilson: Songwriter 1962-1969

[Mikie]

What is "Honey Get Home"?

Evidently, just a basic track exists.

[Mahalo]

What is "Honey Get Home"?

Evidently, just a basic track exists.

That's kind of vague. It could mean anything. My money says if it's even a shred of an idea from Brian it could be insightful and awesome....'specially if it's about Honey.

[Mikie]

Stand Back - Speak Normally.  That's what the sign said near the call box outside the gate at 10452 Bellagio when I went up to see Brian.

[bgas]

Stand Back - Speak Normally.  That's what the sign said near the call box outside the gate at 10452 Bellagio when I went up to see Brian.

Did you?

[Mikie]

Yeah.  Summer of '76.

[Peter Reum]

Hi Mikie...yes that is the list. Carl began doing the liaison work with Capitol shortly after Best of the Beach Boys came out and their promotional muscle went there instead to Pet Sounds. This is just a theory, but I think that Honey Get Home was an early working title for I`d Love Just Once to See You.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

This isn't based on anything I've been told specifically, and I'm probably talking out of my ass, but I have strong suspicion that there were more differences between the BW Wild Honey and what we got instead than just the track line up.

[Andrew G. Doe]

For those who wish to do the Sherlock Holmes thing, here's a list of shows & (known) sessions from the period in question:

September   
11 - session: Sloop John B/Help Me, Rhonda/Good Vibrations/California Girls/Surfer
       Girl/God Only Knows/The Letter [Wally Heider]
18 - Smiley Smile album released (Brother)
23 - session: With A Little Help From My Friends
26 - single session: Wild Honey
27 - single session: Wild Honey
29 - session: Bluebirds Over The Mountain [Western]

October
  ? - The Many Moods Of Murry Wilson album released
  4 - Wild Honey session: Aren't You Glad [Wally Heider]
  6 - State Fairgrounds Coliseum, Indianapolis, IN*
        [w/The Box Tops, The Idle Few and The Chosen Few]
  6 - Freedom Hall, Louisville KY*
       [w/The Box Tops, Soul Inc and The Alphabetical Order]
  7 - Cleveland Hall, Cleveland OH
       [2 shows w/The Box Tops, The Ohio Express, King Kirby and The US Male]
  8 - Civic Opera House, Chicago IL [2 shows]
11 - Wild Honey session: untitled song
12 - Wild Honey session: untitled song
14 - Redwood session: Time To Get Alone [Wally Heider] [12]
15 - Redwood session: Time To Get Alone [Wally Heider]
18 - Wild Honey/Wind Chimes single released
25 - Wild Honey session: The Letter/Game Of Love
26 - Wild Honey session: Here Comes The Night/Cool, Cool Water
27 - Wild Honey session: Darlin'/A Thing Or Two/Game of Love [Wally Heider]
28 - Wild Honey session:
       I Was Made To Love Her/Lonely Days/Been 'Way Too Long [Wally Heider]
29 - Wild Honey session: Cool, Cool Water [Wally Heider]
31 - Wild Honey session: Lonely Days [vocals - Wally Heider]

  November
  1 - Wild Honey session: Been 'Way Too Long
?? - Wild Honey session: Let The Wind Blow
?? - Wild Honey session: Mama Says [Wally Heider]
?? - Wild Honey session: Aren't You Glad [Wally Heider]
13 - Wild Honey session: I'd Love Just Once To See You [Wally Heider]
14 - Wild Honey session: Country Air [Wally Heider]
15 - Wild Honey session: How She Boogalooed It [Wally Heider]
17 - Masonic Auditorium, Detroit MI [w/Buffalo Springfield, Strawberry Alarm Clock,
       Soul Survivors and The Pickle Brothers (for all November shows) ]
18 - Le Moyne College, Syracuse NY
18 - Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo NY [w/Caesar and His Romans]
19 - Richmond Arena, Richmond VA
19 - Constitution Hall, Washington DC [2 shows]
20 - Bushnell Auditorium, Hartford CT
20 - Fairfield University, Fairfield CT
21 - Westchester County Center, Westchester NY
22 - Penn Theater, Pittsburgh PA [2 shows]
23 - Back Bay Theater, Boston MA
24 - Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence RI
24 - Back Bay Theater, Boston MA*
25 - Military Academy, West Point NY
25 - St Johns University, Jamaica NY
26 - Seton Hall University, South Orange NJ
26 - Civic Center, Baltimore MD
        [Baltimore band Bob Brady & the Concords added for this show only]
28 - Dennis Wilson session: Tune #L [Western]

December
15 - UNICEF Variety Gala, Paris, France
       [w/Lena Horne, Victor Borge, Johnny Halliday, Ravi Shankar, Marlon Brando,
       Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]
18 - Wild Honey album released
18 - Darlin'/Country Air single released

Whatever happened to change the album from Brian's to the band's did so startlingly rapidly

[Peter Reum]

The way it was explained to me, Brian was devastated after being told he couldn`t use company funds to do production outside The Beach Boys. He essentially withdrew from producing for a period of several months, just playing sessions with the band if he showed up at all.

[Mahalo]

Stand Back - Speak Normally.  That's what the sign said near the call box outside the gate at 10452 Bellagio when I went up to see Brian.

Thats so awesome...I was with ya in spirit...did you get to go in? Eat steak with the maestro?

[Mikie]

Yeah, I went in and it was awesome. I'll tell the story here one of these days.

[bgas]

Yeah, I went in and it was awesome. I'll tell the story here one of these days.

NOw Now Now Now Now NOW Now Now Now Now Now NOW

[TdHabib]

Doing the Sherlock Holmes bit, we could very, very tentatively place the change of Wild Honey hands at the first two weeks of November--since we don't have any definite dates for those tracks marked ??

[markcharles75]

Just finished watching this documentary and wanted to add my thoughts.  I liked Bruce's commentary in this documentary.  He really is such a huge Brian fan.  I was particularly struck by his comments of how Brian was such a leader in the studio for his age.  The comment he made of Brian basically trying to wrangle together his group of "wild boys"  to do the sessions just struck me.  As Bruce said, here you had a bunch of young guys with girlfriends, money etc...and in a sense they wanted to hurry up and get out of there (the studio). Here Brian was with this huge responsibility of writing, producing, arranging, getting the guys to sing the parts.  I'm finding it hard to articulate what I am trying to say here.  I guess I am saying that I am (once again) in awe of how young Brian was and what he accomplished.  He really really was such a gifted unique talent.  Yes I know this. sometimes you need a certain slant of light on a well know fact to jar you from your sleepy familiarity of the subject at hand.  Often, I will see a new interview or read a post here on a well know fact and the way it is put or spoken about snaps me to attention and I go "wow, yeah...that's right...isn't that amazing?" lol 

All in all, good documentary.  Also, over the years, the more I read and watch, I can really see why Brian withdrew.  Poor guy could only take so much.  I really believe it was a big "F" you to everybody.  "F" this, I am not doing this anymore.  Can't blame him really. 

[CosmicDancer]

Mikie, from documents I had in my old collection that came from Capitol, I have concluded that the Wild Honey that Brian would have finished was quite different than the Wild Honey The group eventually submitted to Capitol. After the Darlin and Time To Get Alone blowout, I have come to the conclusion that, based on the documents I had in Carl`s hand that went to Capitol, along with Capitol`s memoranda in response, that Brother 9003 was the Brian Wild Honey lp, and that Capitol 2859 was finished by the group, with Brian`s occasional participation, with help from the rest of the group. As Bruce points out, Brian was "cooling out" by that time. Anecdotal evidence from David Dalton`s eyewitness account of the Brian of the period in Fish Wrap Magazine supports this conclusion. Wild Honey, as finished was the first evidence of Carl`s slow but sure transition into the leadership of  the group. Evidence from the earlier period would indicate that he took over day to day dealing with Capitol shortly after Best of the  Beach Boys was put out and promoted over Pet Sounds.

I have never heard about a TTGA/Darlin' blowout.  Can anyone explain?  I'm sorry if it's been gone over multiple times before.

[Roger Ryan]

I have never heard about a TTGA/Darlin' blowout.  Can anyone explain?  I'm sorry if it's been gone over multiple times before.

The short version is that one or more members of the Beach Boys were not happy that Brian was putting his songwriting and production efforts into the group Redwood instead of his own group. Both "Time To Get Alone" and "Darlin'" were initially worked on as material for Redwood who were being groomed as a Brother Records signing (they eventually became Three Dog Night). Eyewitness accounts differ, but Brian was reportedly made to feel like a traitor for giving such good material to others (there's a certain logic behind this when one considers that both "Darlin'" and "Time To Get Alone" are superb commercial compositions and productions, and were worked on in the period that immediately followed some very un-commercial material being thrown together for SMILEY SMILE).

[Chris Brown]

On the one hand, you can't blame the Beach Boys for feeling like that - having said that, it's very telling, in my opinion, that Brian deliberately gave his most commercial compositions to another group over his own.  Seems like a very deliberate act of rebellion (for lack of a better word) for a guy that supposedly just wanted to get back to making music with the band again.

[Mark H]

Just finished watcing this (and the great 1969-82 follow up) and have to echo the comments of others by my disappointment at Bruce Johnston's opinion of Friends.

Each to their own but him saying that Friends shouldn't have been top 1000 (!) has made me question his taste/opinion of his own band! 

[hypehat]

Just finished watcing this (and the great 1969-82 follow up) and have to echo the comments of others by my disappointment at Bruce Johnston's opinion of Friends.

Each to their own but him saying that Friends shouldn't have been top 1000 (!) has made me question his taste/opinion of his own band! 

I would have thought his continuing membership would have been cause enough for concern....

[Nicko1234]

Just finished watcing this (and the great 1969-82 follow up) and have to echo the comments of others by my disappointment at Bruce Johnston's opinion of Friends.

Each to their own but him saying that Friends shouldn't have been top 1000 (!) has made me question his taste/opinion of his own band! 

Although I like the album, it is completely uncommercial. A lot of the songs sound like half-ideas that have been fleshed out a little (which probably accounts for the length of the album).

[hypehat]

It also features some of Brian's most adventurous songwriting. What to make of that? If you play Friends (the track) on a piano, it makes very little sense - the verse shifts key at least 3 times, and you'd never know unless you tried to play it. When A Man Needs A Woman shifts key downwards, which is rare enough. Little Bird has a very weird relationship with the home key. Transcendental Meditations horn arrangement! I hardly think Brian or the band weren't trying

[SMiLE Brian]

I wonder if Brian had retired from the group completely after 1967 that Mike and Bruce's "commercial" album would be "Surfin 1968" with the dated formula.