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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jun 21, 2022 13:22:06 GMT
After viewing several short clips of Long Promised Road on YouTube, I finally caught the entire documentary on PBS. Not trying to defend my predictions, but Long Promised Road turned out to be pretty much what I expected, even worse.
There have been several Beach Boys/Brian Wilson documentaries over the years in varying quality, but they all had one thing in common - they were fascinating to some degree. Watching Long Promised Road might've been the first time I was bored while watching a BB-related documentary/movie/TV show. Maybe because I already saw some clips on YouTube (and they were probably the juicier ones), I kept waiting for some scenes with substance, something to blow me away, some "keepers" if you will. I don't think there was one.
I have two main problems with the documentary. First is the Jason Fine factor. I have read over the years how Fine was successful, or more successful than most, at getting Brian Wilson to "open up". I saw very little of that in Long Promised Road. Oh, Fine tried. His questions were appropriate, and he did follow up on some. But, as usual, we got very little from Brian other than one or two sentence answers - and not very interesting ones at that. Just a few examples, and I'm paraphrasing...Fine: Why did you stay in your bedroom? Brian: I had some mental problems. Fine brings up Dennis Wilson, and Brian's response is, "Somebody called and told me that Dennis died." The same attempt by Fine about Carl Wilson, and Brian says, "I saw him a week before he died and Carl said that he was going to beat it. He died a bout a week later." That's it. Fine brought up the subject of Brian's new, large family/several children and Brian says, "Yeah, it's a trip." The scene where Brian becomes emotional when Fine tells him about Jack Rieley's passing is emotional, but the only thing Brian says about Jack is, "It was his idea to go to Holland." Fine would ask Brian what song(s) he wanted to hear in the car, or Brian requested some. Twice, Brian requested "It's OK" from 15 Big Ones. Why that song? And what about 15 Big Ones? A missed opportunity. Actually, Brian had very little to say about those songs played in the car.
The other part that I found disappointing or even confusing was their driving around to various Beach Boys-related landmarks in southern California. Not that there was anything wrong with the landmarks that were chosen, but Brian offered very little feedback other than, and again I'm paraphrasing, "Yep, there it is" or "It was right over there" or "It was much bigger". For some reason they pulled up to Carl Wilson's old house; Brian didn't have much to say. Was he ever even there? I really didn't get very much out of seeing where buildings used to be, and Brian didn't appear to either.
Again, somebody attempted to show Brian producing in the studio, and again it fell flat. I found Brian's producing "Honeycomb" underwhelming. Actually, there were a few of the more humorous moments of the documentary in the "Honeycomb" segment - "Hi, Tom. How are ya?" and "We need a click, Wes. (Wes: It's coming) What's coming?" and "It can fall apart, that's cool" and finally, "Can we come in the booth and hear it?" I found it interesting that no recording of vocals was included, something that Brian Wilson is renowned for.
To me, the deepest part and the most revealing part of Long Promised Road was the short conversation that Brian and Jason Fine had in the deli, when Brian was expressing his feelings for Jason. Brian so wanted a friend, somebody that he could just talk to, hang out with, go places with, express his feelings to. Never mind that Brian is a troubled soul. That's obvious and gut-wrenching. You can't help but feel for Brian. You just want him him to have happiness, the kind of happiness that he provided to so many people. And, that's what I got out of the documentary, or what I questioned. I'm not sure what the producer was going for with the Long Promised Road title. What WAS or what IS at the end of the long promised road for Brian Wilson? They never really said. Brian certainly didn't say. What was or what is Brian Wilson searching for? What is he still hoping for? What else is there to achieve? Well, this is my take or my conclusion. Brian appears to be a very lonely man. And, what complicates it is that he has such a large family, a large circle of bandmates/associates, and millions of adoring fans. But, who are his friends? Who can or who does he hang with, like he was doing with Jason Fine? This documentary goes along way at answering the question why Brian still tours. Human contact. Socializing. Just having somebody to talk to. But, I often wondered why Brian couldn't "pull that off" at home. Certainly, Brian's house is large enough to build a custom studio. Certainly, people would line up to visit Brian just to sing and jam and record in a relaxed setting. And, I'll bet people would line up just to hang out with Brian, eat sandwiches , sit by the pool, watch some sports on TV, or just...talk.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 21, 2022 13:41:05 GMT
To me, the deepest part and the most revealing part of Long Promised Road was the short conversation that Brian and Jason Fine had in the deli, when Brian was expressing his feelings for Jason. Brian so wanted a friend, somebody that he could just talk to, hang with, go places with, express his feelings to. Never mind that Brian is a troubled soul. That's obvious and gut-wrenching. You can't help but feel for Brian. You just want him him to have happiness, the kind of happiness that he provided to so many people. And, that's what I got out of the documentary, or what I questioned. I'm not sure what the producer was going for with the Long Promised Road title. What WAS or what IS at the end of the long promised road for Brian Wilson? They never really said. Brian certainly didn't say. What was or what is Brian searching for? What is he still hoping for? What else is there to achieve? Well, this is my take or my conclusion. Brian appears to be a very lonely man. And, what complicates it is that he has such a large family, a large circle of bandmates/associates, and millions of adoring fans. But, who are his friends? Who can or who does he hang with, like he was doing with Jason Fine? This documentary goes along way at answering the question why Brian still tours. Human contact. Socializing. Just having somebody to talk to. But, I often wondered why Brian couldn't "pull that off" at home. Certainly, Brian's house is large enough to build a custom studio. Certainly, people would line up to visit Brian just to sing and jam and record in a relaxed setting. And, I'll bet people would line up just to hang out with Brian, eat sandwiches , sit by the pool, watch some sports on TV, or just...talk. You've nailed the heart of the doc with this. (As well as the key question(s) at the end there.) That's why I found the doc successful, though. Yes, it still had a lot of the basic PR stuff, with the talking heads being the worst offenders. (Don Was honestly came off like an idiot. And Nick Jonas just didn't matter at all.) But I think the doc was very successful in showing what's wrong with Brian Wilson, how his illness affects him.
That he is still so monosyllabic with Jason Fine--someone with whom he's somewhat comfortable--hints at what he's like when he's not comfortable. Seeing his anxiety as such a powerful force in his life even in seemingly safe situations was very emotional for me.
You're right about the touring aspect, which is why I've personally taken a different view of it lately. No, he isn't good on stage, but I don't think he's being forced to tour. I think, based on the movie and on bandmates' interviews in places like beachboystalkmatt's show, he really just appreciates the combination of company and routine. It's safe. And when you think back, there are other examples of Brian finding something like happiness, or at least security, in routine: in '95ish, with Andy Paley (like in the IJWMFTT doc, when Melinda says he wants to go to Andy's every day); in '07ish, with Scott Bennett (when Scott says once he came over, he wanted to come back every day).
Why can't he more often find that kind of company/security/routine at home, I have no idea. Maybe in LA it's just harder to find people who want to join him every day to do the same things, whereas on the road it's a professional obligation. I have no idea.
On the happier end though, there really were some funny parts. I loved when he yelled out the car window to ask the guy what year his car was, and the moment you mentioned in the studio. That he said hi to the junior engineering staff was honestly really admirable. And the line about the click was hilarious.
But no, he wasn't "Brian Wilson" in that studio. Regardless of the album-time PR that always comes out, I doubt he has been anything close to that for a long time (though I also have no doubt he has his strong opinions from time to time about what he wants).
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jun 21, 2022 13:56:28 GMT
To me, the deepest part and the most revealing part of Long Promised Road was the short conversation that Brian and Jason Fine had in the deli, when Brian was expressing his feelings for Jason. Brian so wanted a friend, somebody that he could just talk to, hang with, go places with, express his feelings to. Never mind that Brian is a troubled soul. That's obvious and gut-wrenching. You can't help but feel for Brian. You just want him him to have happiness, the kind of happiness that he provided to so many people. And, that's what I got out of the documentary, or what I questioned. I'm not sure what the producer was going for with the Long Promised Road title. What WAS or what IS at the end of the long promised road for Brian Wilson? They never really said. Brian certainly didn't say. What was or what is Brian searching for? What is he still hoping for? What else is there to achieve? Well, this is my take or my conclusion. Brian appears to be a very lonely man. And, what complicates it is that he has such a large family, a large circle of bandmates/associates, and millions of adoring fans. But, who are his friends? Who can or who does he hang with, like he was doing with Jason Fine? This documentary goes along way at answering the question why Brian still tours. Human contact. Socializing. Just having somebody to talk to. But, I often wondered why Brian couldn't "pull that off" at home. Certainly, Brian's house is large enough to build a custom studio. Certainly, people would line up to visit Brian just to sing and jam and record in a relaxed setting. And, I'll bet people would line up just to hang out with Brian, eat sandwiches , sit by the pool, watch some sports on TV, or just...talk. ...I think the doc was very successful in showing what's wrong with Brian Wilson, how his illness affects him.
Yes, it did show that, but again with me, it didn't show much more. And, I didn't need to see just THAT for an hour and a half. At the risk of beating a dead horse, I'll just say again that this documentary was an opportunity for Brian Wilson to share some personal feelings about some fascinating subjects, and even some lighter subjects (songs, band members, other musicians, etc.) - subjects that diehard fans and just general music fans would love to hear/see. Yes, we knew it was a long shot. It's Brian Wilson. I was hoping for more. I'll never learn.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 21, 2022 14:16:51 GMT
I'll just say again that this documentary was an opportunity for Brian Wilson to share some personal feelings about some fascinating subjects, and even some lighter subjects (songs, band members, other musicians, etc.) - subjects that diehard fans and just general music fans would love to hear/see. Yes, we knew it was a long shot. It's Brian Wilson. I was hoping for more. I'll never learn. I suspect he doesn't want to share personal feelings, or maybe just doesn't know how to. Perhaps he is of his generation in that respect, perhaps he just doesn't relate to the idea of sharing details (or understand what it is that people would find interesting), perhaps he doesn't think that stuff is really our business. Who knows?
The (second) autobiography is a bit better in that kind of thing. And it seems to be in his voice--unlike the first one, which was so obviously fake--so while there's always that bit of doubt on that kind of thing, I guess that's likely the best chance we have at getting more of his personal thoughts a bit more completely.
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