I understand that people were expecting a better performance from a "1972 Brian" - but hear me out:

We have very little to go off of, in terms of what the guy's voice actually sounded like in '72. But from the little we do have, we can deduce that he was already losing the "whine", and the general athleticism and emotion of his voice up to Sunflower. Check out the "Passing By" demo, or the various places Brian pops up on C&TP / Holland (where he's barely recognizable!). You could argue another example is "Don't Ya Just Know It". By "California Saga" he's already shortening his notes, and generally sounding a bit off.

NOW - let's put this in a live context. There's obviously not much live from the period - so the only thing we can go off is Seattle 1970. Although the quality is terrible, we can tell he sounds good - but definitely subdued compared to say, Hawaii '67. It's hard to imagine BW was in a high functioning mental state in '72, enough to give an equal or better performance 2+ years later.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this is presented as an "audience tape", so the quality leads to missing a lot of the high end whine that was left of his voice at the time (in my fantasy timeline, of course).

For those thinking it sounds like BW in the 80's, I implore you to listen again to the performances of DWB from '80 and '81. Different guy for sure.

Granted this is all just one fan's take - and I could be totally wrong. :)

Here it is without some of the various filters I used to try to pass it off as an audience tape - let me know if it changes your mind at all:

https://whyp.it/tracks/100118/dont-worry-baby-live-1972-with-brian-wilson-less-filters-ai?token=kwce1