Uncanny

"We and Capitol Records are considering hosting some local events to celebrate the release of "That Lucky Old Sun", and we need your feedback! As you know, Brian, his band and a select group of hand-picked classical musicians performed the full album live in the legendary Capitol Studios A and B a few weeks ago, and Capitol shot the whole performance in HD. We're thinking of giving you, the fans, the chance to see this special performance in a town near you, BEFORE the album comes out, and to meet and hang out with other fans of Brian. We see this as being like little pre-release parties in cities across America. Pretty cool, huh?"

"What we need to know from you is, if we brought the HD video concert to a movie theater near you (say, within 10-20 miles) would you come? Bringing this to theaters would be a logistically time-consuming and expensive process, so we want to gauge interest first, to determine if we will do it. We're envisioning a screening of the full performance of TLOS, plus a brief Q&A session with Brian, (live via satellite!) where he'll answer YOUR questions. The ticket price for the night would probably be in the $10-$15 range, and with proof of purchase of a ticket, you would also get to pre-order TLOS at a discount, via brianwilson.com"

"In addition to getting to be the first to see this intimate performance from Capitol's legendary Studios, we think these events could be a great chance for fans to meet up coast-to-coast. Maybe you could take your kids to the show, have a night out with friends and neighbors, turn one of your co-workers with bad musical taste on to some great music...the possibilities are endless!"

Click HERE to give your feedback.

BUSINESS WIRE

TELEGRAPH JOURNAL Dennis Wilson's longtime friend and co-writer Gregg Jakobson, says, "I always felt that, sooner or later, it would manifest, it would come out of the archives, come out of the vaults," he says. "Because it was too good. It hasn't changed, it's kinda timeless."

"He never did verse-chorus-verse-chorus stuff anyway. It was much more flow-of-consciousness music."

"I really wasn't surprised, because after all, I knew him as a teenager, as all those kids were. With Dennis, I couldn't help but notice he really was getting more sophisticated and writing better, his vocabulary had come up. I thought it was just great, he was writing some beautiful music."

"And, mind you, I was working with some of the great composers and writers, and there's no question that, had Dennis not met his unfortunate end, he probably would have been ranked up there with many of those writers. He was great."

"He had a teacher, his mentor was a musical genius: his brother. And all that stuff kept going in, and all the music and all the shows. All of a sudden, all that music, all that DNA that was in there, just surfaced He literally almost could sit down at the piano and play whole passages, whole arrangements, as if they, I'm sure, had been there all along. It's just that he never did it. They just finally surfaced."

"If Dennis had been alive these last 30 years, I can't imagine where he would have gone, 'cause he was just starting to scratch the surface with the studio and music when he left, when he passed away. Like his big brother, he really used the studio as an instrument."

"I think it'll wash away some of that stupid gossip that's out there, and a lot of it is stupid gossip. But yeah, Dennis was Dennis, he was always the kid who lit the empty lot next door on fire when he was 10. He's always been that."

EADT "Former Beach Boy Brian Wilson appeared at the Ipswich Regent as part of a brief three-date UK tour and thrilled the audience with note-perfect renditions of some of the finest songs of the last 50 years."

EVENING STAR "In the words of football pundits, it was a show of two halves; the first full of three minute slices of classic pop and the second packed with the longer, later Beach Boys classics that allowed the band to show off their harmonising skills. And they were absolutely spot on, with the arrangements so close to the originals. "

I recently stumbled across a small cache of Beach Boys promo 7" singles from the '70s. I have never seen any of these before. On all but one of the singles, one side has the stereo version of the song and the flip has the mono version. On the one single from the '80s here, "Goin' On," both sides have the stereo version, so I only scanned one side. To the best of my knowledge, these mono versions were only available on these singles.

BEATLES ANECDOTES "It is not widely remembered that Ringo Starr was also a member of the Beach Boys, albeit for a short period of time. After the tragic death in December 1984 of Dennis Wilson, the Beach Boys’ wild and charismatic drummer, Ringo was asked to fill in on drums for several concert dates as well as for the studio album The Beach Boys. Ringo played concert dates in the summer of 1984, including the widely remembered July 4th concert in Washington, D.C. He also lent his talents in the studio for The Beach Boys, which was released in 1985."

SONICBOOMERS

METACRITIC

WESTWORD

EARFARM

BND "Cynics will say, with some accuracy, that when an artist dies, his previously dismissed work becomes overpraised. One could make that case for Dennis Wilson's 1977 solo album 'Pacific Ocean Blue,' now hailed as the first and the best solo album by a member of the Beach Boys. It briefly appeared on CD in 1991 but quickly went out of print. Sony Legacy's lavish, remastered two-CD reissue (or triple-vinyl LP) includes cuts in various states of completion that would have made up 'Bambu,' a proposed follow-up album Wilson never finished (he drowned in 1983). As such, 'POB' is worth a reappraisal. It would be easy to dismiss this music based on Wilson's singing. Years of cocaine and alcohol abuse, plus cigarettes, had turned his already raspy voice even raspier, out of tune, strained and wobbly. As a time capsule, 'POB' deftly captures the hedonistic West Coast ambience of the late '70s. Wilson's challenging melodies, layered harmonies and widescreen arrangements are darker than big brother Brian's optimistic pop tunes. They aren't instantly accessible. Yet much of this project rewards repeat listens. His subjects range from the ecology ('River Song') to the declining state of his marriage to actress Karen Lamm ('Thoughts of You') and a eulogy ('Farewell My Friend'). Sony has done a fantastic job of repackaging this lost album by including lyrics, insightful essays with links for more information online, period pictures and studio notes"

CNN
VIRGINMEDIA

BROOKLYN EAGLE "Kudos to Epic Records/Legacy Recordings for producing a reissue that is worth every penny of its $29.95 list price in Pacific Ocean Blue, the lone 1977 solo album from Dennis Wilson."

"Garnering most of his headlines from a brief association with Charles Manson, the only Beach Boy who surfed was also the only band member to fully take up the gauntlet of Pet Sounds, older brother Brian Wilson’s undisputed masterpiece. While earning favorable reviews and outselling the band’s contemporaneous Love You (itself a cause celebre among hardcore Beach Boys fans), the album lapsed out of print over the years, with CD and vinyl copies fetching hundreds of dollars on EBay. Wilson succumbed to lingering addictions while producing the follow-up to the album and eventually drowned to his death in 1983."

"Usually, bonus tracks hinder an otherwise great album. But Bambu (comprising the unfinished album and disc two of the package) places Wilson’s emerging artistry in a vital context. If Pacific Ocean Blue is blithely derivative of his brother’s past glories in places — a Smile for the Seventies — the recordings that followed were more spontaneous, sexually off-the-cuff, and triumphant in their bleary-eyed, ragged glory. Had Wilson deigned to finish the final mixes of the Bambu material (original producer/longtime Wilson confidante Gregg Jakobson and biographer Jon Stebbins have sequenced a more or less complete album), he would have been fully extricated from the Beach Boys’ rancorous legend."

"And, yes, if you have owned the bootleg for several years … 'He’s A Bum' is no longer hampered by generations of tape hiss."

GIGWISE
THE SUN

TIMES ONLINE "Half deaf, slightly mad but still rocking, the Beach Boy Brian Wilson will be wowing the crowds at the Albert Hall on Tuesday. But what of his old California bandmates?

Carl and Dennis Wilson

Brian’s brothers were American icons from the start. Lead guitarist Carl was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam war and died of cancer in 1998, outliving his drumming/Charles Manson-befriending sibling Dennis by 15 years.

Mike Love

The man who gave us the big bass vocals in Good Vibrations was a Beach Boys original too and at 67 is one of just two members of the band to use its name when he performs live.

Bruce Johnston

Love’s cohort when the modern Beach Boys take the stage was a relatively late starter in the band, making his debut on California Girls. He made a packet penning Barry Manilow’s smash hit I Write the Songs.

David Marks

The “forgotten” Beach Boy lived across the street from Brian Wilson as a nipper and was drafted in at 14. His tenure was short-lived, but he remains friendly with the band and was even offered the chance to rejoin in 1971.

Blondie Chaplin

This South African singer/guitarist was a member of the band in the early 1970s, but has more recently provided backing vocals for Mick Jagger when the Stones play live."