Interesting Brian Wilson Biopic

[twowheeladdict]

https://youtu.be/tUcKL5ZBxYQ

I am familiar with their popular songs, but the Beach Boys were a little before my time so I didn't know the story of Brian Wilson.  I found this movie to be quite engaging and all the main actors did a good job IMO. 

[LowRyter]

It was a good movie. 

Paul Dano plays such strange characters.  He was so annoying in "There Will Be Blood" that I didn't mind when Danial Day Lewis....

[Bpreynolds2]

Now 51 I was lucky enough to rediscover The Beach Boys when I was about 23, then rescuing them mainly from the picture in my mind of some silly dudes in matching shirts writing catchy and classic songs that I grouped in with puff stuff like I Wanna Hold Your Hand and such.  Classic stuff but not my cup-o-tea at the time.  Then something clicked.  I listened to Pet Sounds, really listened to it.  It blew me away and I became near obsessed, then going back over their whole catalog and tearing headlong into the then unreleased Smile sessions much of which was released on their box set Good Vibrations in 1993 and the Pet Sounds box set from 1997.   As a bonus, you can listen to the instrumental tracks only from Pet Sounds (without the vocals) there and also, much more amazing to me even, you can listen to just the vocal tracks from the Pet Sounds.  You would not literally believe how incredibly well every single song there holds up AS A SONG on jus the vocals alone, a kind of a cappella version.  I do buy into all the hype; I do think the guy is a musical genius will always live on in my top 5 pop music writers of all time.  Wilson and the Beatles had such a wonderful little competition going that was favorable to both of them (see https://www.brooklynvegan.com/beatles-vs-beach-boys-a-brief-history-of-the-greatest-rivalry-in-pop-innovation/).  Sgt Pepper would never have been made without Pet Sounds and so forth.  Such as shame the drugs and the mental issues got the best of Wilson right before work on the Smile sessions was complete; hindsight is better than 20/20 but I think if it weren’t for those 2 things, Smile would have been released right after Pepper and it would be revered today in near the same level, being different enough from Pet Sounds and Sgt.  Of course, instead Wilson basically burned and/or scrapped the majority of the tracks and released Smiley Smile.  After this, The Beach Boys would go on to release many very good albums in the 70s and even into the 80s albeit with Wilson only there for certain songs and letting the rest of the band take over duties.  He wouldn’t make a full on mental/creative comeback until his still wonderful solo album Love and Mercy.    Later he would remake the whole Smile album doing recreated versions of the awesome tracks that were scrapped or released only in part on Smiley Smile.  For many people that was either a new discovery of him or vindication for longtime fans who had been saying all along that Smile would have been brilliant if released in full in its time, before Wilson scrapped them.  If you YouTube any interviews of Wilson from this time of, say, the late 80s to very early 2000s, you’ll see a guy speaking swiftly, conversing fluidly and smartly, fully aware of his musical capabilities and relishing it.  Following this, however, you can see where all the mental challenges and possibly drug abuse begin to really take its toll on him and by the early 2000s he’s still flaunting musical talent (still has a decent bit of it even today) but in interviews beginning to really demonstrate some basic communication problems and obvious mental challenges, things you could see to a part back in the late 60s and such, but now considerably worse on occasion.  But anyhoo, yes, the Wilson story is an amazing, sad, brilliant, and touching one. 

[yogidozer]

 

[twowheeladdict]

I listened to Pet Sounds, really listened to it.   As a bonus, you can listen to the instrumental tracks only from Pet Sounds (without the vocals) there and also, much more amazing to me even, you can listen to just the vocal tracks from the Pet Sounds. 

I listened to Pet Sounds yesterday on YouTube.  I was thinking that I would love to be able to hear it without the vocals so I could dive deep into the sounds.  I'm not a big fan of guys singing that high in the range generally.  Even with female singers I prefer them to be in the alto range generally.  Singing from deep within. 

[Bpreynolds2]

And Brian Wilson was buddies with Charles Manson 

No, Dennis Wilson was the one who befriended Manson.

[yogidozer]

No, Dennis Wilson was the one who befriended Manson.

You are correct, sorry.

[Moparnut72]

You should read Brian's. He explains how the drug thing came about. His manager is responsible  and how he was rescued. Brian is a musical genius, my all time favorite band.
kk