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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2020 1:34:22 GMT
This week's album is Sweet Insanity, an unreleased solo album by Brian Wilson which was supposed to follow his debut album.
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Post by B.E. on Mar 11, 2020 21:59:27 GMT
Sweet Insanity - 6/10
That rating is based on the bootleg I just listened to. With some minor changes, I'd probably rate it a 7/10. Had they produced it decently, I think it had potential to be an 8/10. To put things in perspective, I prefer this bootleg to what came immediately before and after it in the Beach Boys universe (SC, SiP, IJWMFTT, OCA) and I consider it on par with albums like MIU, Imagination, Gershwin, and Disney (all of which have the advantage of being easier to listen to - more polished). By the way, it's worth noting that I have a pretty strong bias against bootlegs.
Anyway, I like a lot of the songs and Brian's voice would never be that strong or youthful again. The production, though, is terrible. It keeps me from listening to it and it would have been a major disappointment following BW88 had it been released. My favorite songs are "Love Ya", "Water Builds Up", "Someone To Love", and "Do You Have Any Regrets". "The Spirit Of Rock 'n' Roll" and "Thank You" ain't bad. "Hotter" had a ton of potential. I prefer this version of "Rainbow Eyes". I can even listen to "Smart Girls" - for the background vocals. Vocally, Brian sounds really good on most of the album. His pristine falsetto had been shot for years and his mid '90s voice creeped in on a few lines (which I would have had him redo), but his voice sounded remarkably good during this era and was soon lost forever. Brian was also trying...hard. Too hard, in fact. Someone needed to rein him in and whoever his co-producers were needed to be reined in as well.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 12, 2020 0:50:15 GMT
I feel like I just went through this album, but I can't figure out where or why. I even checked the album discussions to see whether we had added this one, but nope, just the Paley sessions.
Anyway I'll listen again soon and make a rating or something. But basically I do think this is the piece of shit that it was considered by most Brianista types in the late 90s and early 00s. It isn't entirely lacking good material, and it isn't entirely lacking good performances, but it is mostly lacking both (to say nothing of production).
And I'll say this much: "Smart Girls" is not in the lower third of songs on this album. It is, like several other novelty songs he or the band has had, fun. Dumb. Silly. There is much worse on this album...
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 12, 2020 13:32:23 GMT
I agree with most of what B.E. wrote above. I like most of the songs on Sweet Insanity. I think overall they are stronger than Brian Wilson 1988. When I first heard this bootleg album, I thought (and I was trying to be realistic and not overly optimistic), hey, thankfully Brian can still write. I wasn't overy-impressed with the songs on his first solo album. My favorites on S.I. include "Someone To Love", "Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel", "Hotter", "Make A Wish", "Thank You/Brian", and "The Spirit Of Rock And Roll". If it would've been included, I also like "Concert Tonight". "I'm not a fan of "Water Builds Up" and "Smart Girls" is an embarrassment.
Brian's vocals, while inconsistent, do sound somewhat younger than his subsequent ones. However, they also sound kind of weird in places, like he didn't know how he wanted to sing. I got the feeling he was having problems figuring out how how wanted to sound if that makes sense. There were instances where he would rock and times he would be gentle. I felt that EVERY song on BW1988 was shouty to some extent, but on Sweet Insanity, especially on songs like "Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel", "Rainbow Eyes", and "Thank You/Brian", he sounds tender again. He could still go there.
We know Eugene Landy was still pushing Brian's solo career and injecting himself into the music, But, really, I don't hear much of his involvement or psychobabble on Sweet Insanity. Landy/Brian was trying to make a statement with "Thank You/Brian" and "Smart Girls", but most of the other songs escape Landy's fingerprints. Actually I hear songs and lyrics that resemble The Beach Boys Love You more than anything else. It sounds like Brian being Brian.
The bottom line for me, and also the most troubling part of Sweet Insanity, is the production. Brian first showed, again with Love You, that he could no longer produce up to acceptable standards. Write and arrange, yes. Produce? He now needed help, serious help. And that was frustrating. In Sweet Insanity, I heard an album that could've been a lot of fun. It had a lot of diverse songs, and it did have that Brian Wilson stamp. But it was unreleasible in that state, and Landy and Brian didn't realize that. The record companies did. And, sadly, as a BB/BW diehard, I felt it, too. Never again would Brian Wilson be in full control of his music/production/arranging/recording. In the future, he would have "co-" people around him.
B.E., I'm considering your 7/10 with some changes with a potential for a 8/10 rating. I'm having problems going that high but I hear ya. I think potentially - if it had The Beach Boys voices on it and Joe Thomas producing - it could've hit an 8. But it didn't, and we're left with an unfinished bootleg. Oh, and the album title was so inappropriate, and I'm not being politically correct. I really struggle with these rankings, and as usual, need .5 increments. I'm thinking of a 6.5. I'll probably go with a 6.
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Post by B.E. on Mar 12, 2020 15:20:29 GMT
SJS, just a few thoughts/responses...
Yeah, as far as the music and lyrics are concerned, I think Landy's influence is overstated. Not that it's nonexistent on BW88 and SI, but just that his influence was more behind the scenes (i.e. making these projects happen). Some fans seem to hear a word choice or two and dismiss the entire album outright. Context strikes again!
Songwriting-wise, I think the highs and the lows of BW88 are higher, but the rest is comparable. Vocally, I think I understand where you're coming from, but I didn't get the sense that Brian was having problems figuring out how he wanted to sound on SI. I think he was just serving the diverse material with his then-current voice. To me, it's the periods immediately preceding (though, there's less recordings to base this on) and immediately following this era that Brian seemed to have almost forgotten how to sing. As if he no longer knew quite where the notes were or how to navigate them. His voice was also worse, physically, during those periods. And, to combine both songwriting and singing, for a moment, one of Brian's biggest missteps IMO is when he started writing again in the mid 80s and continued to write songs featuring falsetto leads. Although he could hit the notes, he went from having the greatest falsetto in human history (says me!) to having a below average falsetto. And, honestly, I don't even think handing those parts off to any other Beach Boy during that era would have worked out too well. Bruce could still sound great in a stack but how many falsetto leads do you really want to give him? His voice isn't as dynamic. He's kinda ballad or bust, isn't it? (Though, I'm one of the few who thinks he pulls off "She Believes In Love Again" on BB85.)
In regard to "co-" people, they were already there. 15BO and LY were Brian's last albums in full control. Prior to that, Friends.
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Post by B.E. on Mar 12, 2020 15:27:48 GMT
But basically I do think this is the piece of shit that it was considered by most Brianista types in the late 90s and early 00s.
These Brianista types weren't restricted to 1966, I hope. Seriously, which works were in and which were out at that time?
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
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Post by bellbottoms on Mar 12, 2020 19:02:34 GMT
Brian's vocals, while inconsistent, do sound somewhat younger than his subsequent ones. However, they also sound kind of weird in places, like he didn't know how he wanted to sing. I got the feeling he was having problems figuring out how how wanted to sound if that makes sense. There were instances where he would rock and times he would be gentle.
I kind of think he was doing it on purpose, as if he was singing in different Beach Boys voices. Someone to Love is a perfect example. He sings in three different styles in that song, but very deliberately, in different parts. The first part of each verse is nasal - that’s Mike. The next part of each verse is either Brian himself or Carl - and he sounds friggin’ fantastic in those sections. And then in chorus when he goes all gruff and rocks out (which sounds awesome, I love it!), well maybe that’s Dennis. But anyway, I’m not so sure it was him trying to find his voice so much as thinking about those songs the way he thought about Beach Boys songs, and how each part should be sung, and who in his mind would be singing them. Maybe he didn’t do that on every song, but I do think the deliberate way he sang in different voices on Someone to Love is an indication that he was still thinking that way, and that there are instances where he was trying to channel a certain Beach Boy's voice. He really does sing fantastically well on most of these songs. Too bad about Water Builds Up being such a dumb song - it might his best vocal of that time period.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 12, 2020 21:06:39 GMT
In regard to "co-" people, they were already there. 15BO and LY were Brian's last albums in full control. Prior to that, Friends. Yeah, I often wonder about that, especially to what extent. But let me go back a little bit.
I always felt, and I have no proof, that Brian's contributions on Carl & The Passions - So Tough, "Marcella" and "You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone", were Carl Wilson productions. They just don't sound like Brian Wilson productions to me; they sound like Carl Wilson productions during that early 70's period. And, of course, we know that Brian did get a lot of help on Holland. How many cooks were involved in the creation of "Sail On Sailor"? We do know that Carl was directly responsible for finishing (and maybe writing some of) "Mount Vernon & Fairway".
Now, 15 Big Ones...I think Brian was pretty much responsible for that album. It certainly sounds like a Brian Wilson production. However, because of Brian's recent absence along with the other guys becoming more prolific songwriting-wise, it wouldn't surprise me if Carl, Mike, and Al were more proactive in making suggestions, both in arranging and production. I remember reading something Al said (in People Magazine at the time?) about the guys sneaking back into the studio to re-record some vocals. I don't know if that was true, but why would you even want to mention it and embarrass Brian like that.
The Beach Boys Love You? This is where I've always dig in my heels. I heard a few of the Love You songs before they were finished - not those early demos but songs that were pretty much finished. Yes, they were missing...something...but not much. It sounded to me that Carl was brought in the graft his guitar onto some selected tracks; I don't think he did much other arranging. And, if Carl was supposed to smooth things out and get rid of the rough edges, he didn't do his job. Seriously, I don't know exactly what that Mixdown Producer title meant, but, again, I think Love You was mostly Brian's baby, too.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 12, 2020 22:06:04 GMT
I feel like I just went through this album, but I can't figure out where or why.
Now I remember: when we did Still Cruisin', I went through this one as we discussed how much better a joint album would have been. I think I gave that one a 3; this is better than that, but it's still pretty bad. I'd say somewhere in the 4-5 range.
The problems are hard to pin down because they're all over. Bad lyrics here, awful arrangement or production there, decent song here, bad song with good singing there.
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Post by jk on Mar 12, 2020 22:09:20 GMT
I feel like I just went through this album, but I can't figure out where or why. I even checked the album discussions to see whether we had added this one, but nope, just the Paley sessions.
Edit: Sorry, Cap'n, I didn't see your post of a few minutes ago. So it wasn't at PSF at all... I'm not familiar with the album myself so I'll sit this one out (along with all the dozens of other topics I'm sitting out right now ).
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 12, 2020 22:12:02 GMT
Seriously, I don't know exactly what that Mixdown Producer title meant, but, again, I think Love You was mostly Brian's baby, too. It isn't a title/credit usually used but taken at face value it means he would be the guy who sat down at the mixing board with all the tracks that had been recorded and oversaw the mix: pan this guitar left, more Mike here, less of that piano, etc.
This would presume Brian produced during the sessions themselves, saying what he wanted included, but didn't handle the (tedious, but hugely important) final mix. So Brian oversaw the compilation of raw materials and Carl oversaw the final sculpting into finished recordings.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 12, 2020 23:28:24 GMT
Seriously, I don't know exactly what that Mixdown Producer title meant, but, again, I think Love You was mostly Brian's baby, too. It isn't a title/credit usually used but taken at face value it means he would be the guy who sat down at the mixing board with all the tracks that had been recorded and oversaw the mix: pan this guitar left, more Mike here, less of that piano, etc.
This would presume Brian produced during the sessions themselves, saying what he wanted included, but didn't handle the (tedious, but hugely important) final mix. So Brian oversaw the compilation of raw materials and Carl oversaw the final sculpting into finished recordings.
That's about what I thought, and that was certainly an important role; I won't downplay it. But I wonder how much Carl's mix was different from what Brian would've done? And I do presume Brian produced the sessions themselves. He does have the producer credit, and I've said it a hundred times - those songs are sooooo Brian.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 13, 2020 0:37:05 GMT
My guess is that it was less about how different from what Brian would have done and more about the time-consuming, tedious, detail-oriented work that mixing is ... and whether Brian was willing or able to handle by those aspects. Sit in a chair for a few hours at a time, A/B this mix to that mix, try it now with a bit more reverb here and less there, and so on. It's REALLY a slow job.
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Post by B.E. on Mar 13, 2020 0:54:27 GMT
I doubt Brian's done much hands-on mixing since mono died.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 13, 2020 1:18:11 GMT
Oh I’m sure you’re right.
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