Free Republic

It’s the sound of summer, it’s the sound of love, and many would say it’s also the sound of the greatest song ever written. The Beach Boys classic ‘God Only Knows’ is a watermark in pop music. There is a before ‘God Only Knows’ and there is an after ‘God Only Knows’ with the masterpiece representing the moment that pop went baroque and stood firmly on the shoulders of all that had gone before, gazing ahead and forecasting the beach-bright future. It would’ve had its own place in music history for its beauty alone, but beyond the majesty was the...

One of the conservators appointed to oversee Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s golden years promises that his daily living needs will be satisfied and that he will continue to lead an active life. Publicist-manager Jean Sievers will work with Mr. Wilson’s business manager, LeeAnn Hard, as co-conservator of his person.

If you’ve ever wondered what connects Frank Zappa to Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach to The Beach Boys, the answer is Carol Kaye. The session legend tells the story behind her career and legendary bass recordingsIf plucking a ripe plum from a tree had a sound, it would resemble Carol Kaye’s signature tone – a tone that made her a ‘first-call’ bassist in the highly competitive studio session world. It wasn’t just that, though. Kaye is arguably the first bassist to exploit the instrument in a truly melodic fashion, a nod perhaps to her early days as a jazz guitar prodigy....

Jon Reisman, Professor of Economics & Public Policy Emeritus at the University of Maine, devoted Power Line reader, and self-described “Statler and Waldorf Intern,” passes along this update of the Beach Boys classic tune everyone will recognize from the opening line: California’s Grid With apologies to Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Greta Thunberg Well, East Coast grids are hip I really dig wind mills they wear And the Southern grid, with the way they spin They knock me out when I’m down there The Midwest solar panels really make you feel all right And the Northern grid, when the wind...

Now that it’s nearly over I’ve finally figured out why it hasn’t seemed a proper summer: not enough pet sounds. No, not the barking and meowing kind,the woofer and tweeter type. Specifically, Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys masterpiece that audiophiles have been talking about reverentially for 55 years. You're halfway through the album when you hear it — a heavenly harmony of instruments that features a harpsichord, organ, bass clarinet, string bass, sleigh bells, and a wonderful French horn. This is the intro to God Only Knows. While the music itself is the output of The Wrecking Crew, the legendary...

Brian Wilson suing his own musical group The Beach Boys to stop them performing at a hunting convention in Nevada which will host Don Trump Jr. Mike Love and several other band member signed contract to play at the convention against the wishes of Brian Wilson.

[Snip] Yes, we've lost some already. On top of the icons who died horribly young decades ago — Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, John Lennon — there's the litany of legends felled by illness, drugs, and just plain old age in more recent years: George Harrison, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty. Those losses have been painful. But it's nothing compared with the tidal wave of obituaries to come. The grief and nostalgia will wash over us all. Yes, the Boomers left alive will take it...

Concealed carry permit holder Byron Wilson drew his handgun and engaged a mass shooter in Texas on Sunday, possibly saving lives at great risk to his own. An Army veteran* of multiple tours in Afghanistan opened fire in Houston on Sunday, killing two people wounding and wounding six more before being killed by responding SWAT officers. What many news outlets seem to be glossing over in their reporting of attack is that the veteran’s attack, carried out with an AR-15 variant, showed that the weapon was anything but “high-powered.” Six of the eight people shot with the most common rifle...

The Beach Boys frontman opens up about his new solo album No Pier Pressure and alleged ‘rivalry’ with The Beatles. “Rubber Soul inspired Pet Sounds, which inspired Sgt. Pepper’s and that inspired me to make Smile,” Brian Wilson tells me, recalling his 1960s game of one-upmanship with the Beach Boys’ so-called rivals The Beatles. “It wasn’t really a rivalry, though. I was jealous!” Wilson says with a hearty laugh. “It was really just mutual inspiration, I think. I would get to hear their records before they came out and I was totally blown away by Rubber Soul. And Sgt. Pepper’s?...

I love the Beach Boys (not the way I love the Beatles, but still), so why can’t I wholeheartedly love Smile? I ask this question sincerely. I think Brian Wilson is a songwriter, singer, and bassist worthy of great praise. I understand why Paul McCartney was so blown away by Pet Sounds that he dreamed up the idea for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I’m glad Smile has finally seen the official light of day, and I’m intrigued by the what-if game of wondering about what might have happened if Smile had been released in 1967, as originally intended....

Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer (Ret.) is a CIA-trained former senior intelligence officer and he says that the rescue operation for American journalist James Foley wasn’t successful because President Obama “dragged his feet”. "Thursday morning, Shaffer appeared on WMAL radio in Washington, D.C., to discuss the ISIS execution of American journalist James Foley earlier this week. He told me and co-host Brian Wilson that the recently revealed rescue attempt led by Special Forces earlier this summer failed because President Obama was slow to give the go-ahead: I’m hearing from my friends in the Pentagon, they are giving him every single option...

Heroes [not] Villains The irony of the Beach Boys’ tragedy has made that tragedy all the more painful. For several generations of people around the world, the band’s vey name has been synonymous with good ol’ fashioned fun in the sun, of fresh-faced, pre-Vietnam American innocence. Even their more crestfallen later work was defined by a sweet, nostalgic ache. But the band’s tale of abuse, addiction, mental illness, dubious associations, premature deaths, and ugly lawsuits is by now almost as familiar as “California Girls”. At the center of it all, of course, has been Brian Wilson. In terms of public...

“That’s Why God Made the Radio” certainly has everything a vintage Beach Boys tune needs: Breezy harmonies, references to cars, and an almost exhausting sense of sweetness. There is something profoundly bizarre about the Beach Boys putting out new music in 2012, especially considering how many artists (especially in the indie world) have exploited the sound they helped invent. Their influence is everywhere, from Bon Iver’s lovely layers to Katy Perry’s beach-friendly youth anthems.

Original Title: WMAL EXCLUSIVE: LISTEN - Obama's New Rule For Political Civility. WASHINGTON -- A top aide to President Obama says Americans must decide for themselves how to be civil with each other -- a rather sharp departure from comments that Obama has himself made in the past. In an interview with the WMAL Morning Majority Wednesday, White House Communications Director Dan Pfieffer said the Obama administration is not going to be drawn into the "gotcha game" of reacting to comments made by Teamsters President James Hoffa, Jr. At a Labor Day rally in Detroit, Hoffa urged the President to...

Today, Al Jardine notified his legion of Facebook followers, that he and fellow founding member Brian Wilson had been invited by Mike Love to join Love on stage for the upcoming Ronald Reagan tribute concert.

It doesn't carry quite as much of a surprise factor as it might have some years back, before so many pop/rock stars felt the urge to sing standards from the great American Songbook, but the album by the near-legendary Brian Wilson due out on Tuesday certainly commands attention. A Disney Pearl release, "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin" -- it could have been called "Gershwin Goes Surfin' " -- puts the iconic leader of the Beach Boys and a great deal of that group's vintage sound into a blender with some of the 20th century's best loved songs. It's very much a...

For all the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fans out there in FReeperdom, here's a great late-summer surprise. I got a rush copy of it, and it's brilliantly done. Not "Smile" (what could be?), but your summer-into-fall listening will be all the better for this heartfelt paean to much happier days. No wonder Capitol grabbed it and re-signed Brian after all these years.

(10/16/06) - Imagine this. You are hooked on alcohol and you want help getting off the booze. You go to your doctor, and he or she says, "Drop some acid." That's right. LSD, the infamous drug of choice for many hippies in the 1960s and '70s. Lysergic acid diethylamide, the drug that caused hallucinations or "tripping," was, of course, outlawed, giving it immeasurable street cred in its time, before fading away as flower-painted bodies grew into gray-flannel suits. So, in the 21st century, why would a respected medical doctor even consider prescribing LSD as a wonder drug to help cure...

HONOLULU, March 29 (UPI) -- Psychologist Eugene Landy, whose controversial relationship with Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson thrust him into the national limelight, has died at age 71. Landy died of lung cancer last Wednesday in Honolulu, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. Landy treated a long line of stars with his "24-hour therapy" -- including rocker Alice Cooper and actors Rod Steiger and Richard Harris -- the Times said. He was best known for his treatment of Wilson, whose life hit bottom in the 1970s from years of drug abuse and mental illness. Landy literally took over the songwriter's...

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Mike Love is suing his cousin and former Beach Boys bandmate Brian Wilson, but Love's lawyer hopes the lawsuit won't mar their good vibrations. Love filed the lawsuit in federal court Thursday accusing Wilson of promoting his 2004 album, "Smile," in a manner that "shamelessly misappropriated Mike Love's songs, likeness and the Beach Boys trademark, as well as the 'Smile' album itself."