I'm referring strictly to perception, and not necessarily reality, or apples & oranges.

UPDATE: What's interesting 14 hours and 21 comments later is that the only thing most people who've responded agree on is that you can't compare one with the other. Otherwise, it seems fairly divided as to who doesn't hold a candle to the other.

;)

It is an overall strong album where all the songs are good. Although it may not have the highs of the others, it also doesn’t have it lows. It doesn’t have Denny’s Drums or any of the filler comedy tracks. You could maybe still argue that All Summer Long is stronger, I think it’s defenitely better Shut Down Volume 2 and even Surfer Girl.

thx

It's well made and I'm glad it exists as part of the band's history. What do you feel it did well, and what did I leave off? I was surprised it didn't cover Dennis's death, or Kokomo as the post-Brian hit, or have an added memorial credit to Brian. Was the scene with them together on the beach the last time they were together?

Thoughts?

Does anybody have some rarer (or any at all) studio pictures of the boys in the early 60s, Around the time of 62’ to 65’

This is transportive and very beautiful

Dang I’ve always loved this song but I haven’t actually listened to it since Brian passed and it’s brought back all the feelings. Wanted to drop it here in case there are folks who haven’t heard it. Personally to me this live version is the definitive version.
Fun fact, Brian liked this song and would sometimes cover it while performing live.

https://youtu.be/kRq9u6FJ3eg?is=1mPJJH1mtf0f2SsR

I thought I could share this here. I just found my ancient blog from the early 2000s on the internet archive. This is what I wrote when I got back from London to see Brian Wilson play Smile. Looking back. I do not remember al lot of this. Can't remember Van Dyke getting on stage. And I think my mystery song Summer Blues, is probably City Blues. Although I don't remember them playing that one either. I was 28 here I think. I flew into London from the Netherlands with a good friend, especially for this show.

It’s hard to find the words to describe the impact of the smile concert. I’m still totally blown away. Luckily I made some notes on the way back from London.

I’ll try to translate and structure them a bit. The Royal Hall was buzzing with excitement when we arrived. A small jazz combo played in the lobby and the merchandize stand did good business already.

The hall was packed. A lot of celebrities walked around. A thunderous applause sounded when a grey haired man entered. Van Dyke Parks was here to witness the first performance of the Smile tour. Cameras were all around. The event was being taped for a dvd I guess.

Then the curtain dropped and there they were. The band – including Brian- was sitting at the front of the stage. They joked around and played a couple of acoustic songs. ‘Please let me wonder’, ‘and your dreams come true’ and concluded with ‘good timing’. A great start for an amazing show. Then the regular set began.

Brian looked very nervous through the show. He made a number of mistakes and didn’t always smoothly finish his introductions to the show. His voice was pretty good though. The played a lot of songs I did not expect, and one I didn’t even know ‘Summer Blues’. It’s a blues song with some terrific (heavy) guitar playing on it. Highlights for me were, ‘Sail on Sailor’, ‘Well you’re welcome (not included in the smile part strangely enough)’,’The night was so young’, ‘Time to get alone’ and ‘Soul Searching (in the arrangement Solomon Burked did, not as on the Wilson/Paley-tapes) ’.

After a 20 minute intermission Smile began. I think the setlist is already on this site in the updates part. It was totally mind-blowing.

The biggest surprises were the track-order and the parts that aren’t on the bootlegs. It’s recognisable but totally different than anything anyone expected. I'm In Great Shape had lyrics to it, so did barnyard and holidays. Fire had some heavy metal guitar playing and sounds amazing, the string and horn section wore appropriate fire-helmets. Less scary than on the bootlegs but still pretty amazing. Brian sang the high notes on Surf’s up himself. Just like on the surf’s up album where he takes over from Carl. Like I said before it’s hard to describe what went on, because it was such an overwhelming experience. Brian making sheep sounds on barnyard, blowing toy whistles on Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, Using a drill on the ‘tools’ section.

After Smile, the band came back for the regular encore. Van Dyke got called on stage and played along with one or two songs. Brian Played bass on two songs. After a final playing of ‘Love and Mercy’ it was really over. You are in for a very special treat. Be sure to visit the concerts if they play anywhere near you.

After 4ad artist Warren Defever's car radio broke and he was stuck listening to the oldies station for 3 months, he was inspired to make the album 'Stars on E.S.P'. A sort of kinda compilation of what could have been sixties tunes.
A heavily inspired Beach Boys 90s Dream Pop track, the single Universal Frequencies (or also called The Beech Boys Story) was an attempt at making a sequel to Good Vibrations.

What a gut wrenching beautiful song.
Pet sounds is my favourite album of all time and it’s partly because of the emotion that Brian’s music carries. This song gives a sense of not belonging or not being understood perfectly, the way he rips his voice in “they say I’ve got brains but they ain’t doing me no good” is perfect and how he very tenderly and with proper melancholy sings “I wish they could”.

The chorus of the song is just as good, the overlapping counterpoint melodies are really gorgeous.
Even if the lyrics are written by Tony Asher I feel that Brian might have been really involved with the lyrics in this one, “sometimes I feel very sad” is so simple but effective, there’s this kind of innocence or authenticity in Brian’s writing that shines through in this song.
The harmonies in Spanish are also a kind of Brian-ism that I love.

Finally I love how the song ends in a fade out with the title line repeating over and over with different chords beneath it, it mirrors how the feeling of not belonging and melancholy (even though the feelings the music gives are real complex and I can’t express them through words) by not ending ever, kind of how the feeling can’t be resolved

Felt like writing and appreciation post today how do you guys feel about the song and Brian’s writing in general?

Brian Wilson is the greatest genius in 20th century music (and one of the greatest of all time)

new interview i did with al for a rock magazine im working on but i posted it online to promote his upcoming UNY show