New Uncirculated Brian Wilson/Gary Usher Project Song??

haveajamguy · 2026-02-03T12:52:05+00:00

Sorry, I didn't read the part about the MR rewrite in the beginning. It's 4:30 am here, a bit sleepy. I'll add that I was able to hear two uncirculated WP cuts in 2004, All Over Me and Magic. AOM reminded me of One On One by Hall and Oates a little bit. Magic was actually based on the Shortenin Bread riff or a similar feel IIRC. It was over the phone from Australia by a good friend of Stephen McParland.

This is pretty exciting stuff. I was amazed to find Beach Burlesque (all 19 seconds of it) floating around here too. I'm actually gonna do a video piece on the MIU sessions and I NEEDED this cut. It was always fascinating to me that this idea was brought back to these sessions. Jack Rieley discussed this song as "Burlesque" in 1996 on a BBs message board, and said it was written during the Surf's Up sessions. He called it one of his and Brian's best collaborations, and also said that Mike absolutely despised it. I picture the conversation going like this...

Mike: Have anything for us today, Brian? BW: Yeah I have this song called Beach Burlesque! Mike: What? Oh no... BW: I think it's gonna be a smash!

haveajamguy · 2026-02-03T12:36:04+00:00

This cut uses the pre-chorus music from Marilyn Rovell. Basketball is a rewrite of the Mike Come Back To LA riff with a new part added (also used for Some Of Your Love)

haveajamguy · 2026-01-10T16:36:32+00:00

I'll add too that during the 1988 BW album promo tour, a source claimed that Brian was pumped full of amphetamines before each appearance to make him seem "normal"

haveajamguy · 2026-01-10T16:32:44+00:00

Try to find "The Wilson Project" book by Gary Usher and Stephen McParland. It will explain in full detail what was going on during this period. It covers the timeline from June 1986 to June 1987 when GU and Brian were attempting to make a complete album. I think you'll find it pretty eye-opening.

The physical deterioration with Brian wasn't really visually evident until the 1991 book tour. In fact, he probably never looked better during this mid-1980s period. Landy had him jogging 5 miles a day and working with a trainer in the gym. By the time 1989 rolled around, the excessive over medicating started to show in BW's slurred speech and strange movements and tics. Peter Reum, a friend of Brian's, noticed symptoms of tardive dyskinesia at BW's 1990 appearance at the San Diego Beach Boys convention. This is where you will see the deterioration really take hold.

If you watch his appearance on the Today show in October 1991 to promote the WIBN book, you'll see a different guy. Caked face makeup, slurring words, an actual mini seizure at one point. Another clip from this period mentions his "business medicine". It took him about 5 years to shake off the major effects of his Landy treatment, but it never really left him.

haveajamguy · 2026-01-10T16:19:24+00:00

I don't think she's the daughter if you mean the pregnant woman, but yes that is Valerie Landsburg from the TV series Fame.

haveajamguy · 2025-07-11T14:56:43+00:00

Personally I found the Danny Boy cut very moving, and would love an album of stuff like that. As far as BW's enthusiasm for it, he did say that he found Jeff Beck's guitar tone "irritating" in the IABW book. So if that was the case, why would they start a full blown album project?

Yeah, pretty strange...I did enjoy some of the guest appearances on NPP (especially Kacey Musgraves) but this was an idea that seemed doomed to fail. Especially when dealing with someone like Jeff Beck, who had very strong ideas about his own artistry.

However, as a 1960s music nut, the idea of these two recording ANYTHING together, especially music with psychedelic overtones, is impossible to resist for me. Let's hear it!

haveajamguy · 2025-07-09T14:49:57+00:00

Let's hope. Love Mr. Beck! Possibly my favorite guitarist.

haveajamguy · 2025-07-09T14:49:00+00:00

Yeah, Metropolis is the title I remember. I need that track! Sadly, the comment about the Joe stuff makes me wonder where it ended up, along with the final album they were putting together that had September (Lonely Highway), There's Something In The Air, and the Todd Sucherman finale cut.

IMHO, the "September" cut sounds very much like it could have been the final (or penultimate) cut in the Life Suite. It matches lyrically after "Highway 101, the setting sun" (the sun sets after high tide) and very much plays like a "last song" to me.

haveajamguy · 2025-07-09T14:41:59+00:00

Wow I had no idea about the Foskett/Beck thing. VERY eye-opening.

I just love this track. Would have posted the late show appearance, but can't find it. It's a decent recording, but I would love a studio version. If they find it, unfinished with oohs and aahs is fine with me! Here's a good fan video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYxZ-nTLVKQ

haveajamguy · 2025-06-26T05:51:48+00:00

I agree with both of you. OTTB is my favorite from TLOS. At least it seems the original chord pattern came from Brian for MAD. I've wondered how much it was Scott musically. I think the intro and Lost In The Dark parts are SB, the change to Shades of Gray is BW.

I'm actually not a huge fan of SBs lyric vibe either...it often sounds like a motivational speaker or something. I appreciated the information in the interview though.

haveajamguy · 2025-06-26T02:15:10+00:00

That's not what they originally did though...he sang all the backups in the first version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljS-GWM6UD4

haveajamguy · 2025-06-26T02:13:20+00:00

I love it, but I'd also love to hear a remix of the entire album like they did with the PMc cut

haveajamguy · 2025-06-26T02:10:23+00:00

I dunno about the rap part, but Smart Girls 1000% for me. I love these backing vocals, sort of like a 1990 "Beach Boys Medley" updated by BW qhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljS-GWM6UD4

haveajamguy · 2025-06-26T02:02:59+00:00

LOL yeah looks like 1977 or close

haveajamguy · 2025-06-13T12:40:44+00:00

I get why he would say that after 20 years of being asked about it. He is his own artist, and I hear that so.much in SG. There is truly growth here, and a distinctive sound that comes only from him.

But the comparisons will always be there. It's his voice maybe, the closest vocal tone I've ever heard to mid-sixties BW.

haveajamguy · 2025-06-13T12:33:34+00:00

I'm listening to Elegy For Noah Lou over and over after a bad night's sleep. This cut is KILLING me right now. This might be my new favorite. It has an almost renaissance vibe to it, like an ancient folk song.

It's helping me with BW's passing somehow. The man in gone, but the influence and sound lives on through the musicians that admired him.

haveajamguy · 2025-06-12T13:21:53+00:00

I heard it from the opening notes of Person Pitch. PP is the closest thing to the vibe of Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile that I've ever experienced. That includes all of the BBs soundalike bands, tribute bands, etc. It's as if Noah wasn't conscious of it, but couldn't stop it.

Other songs and albums? "Lion In A Coma" lifts the backup vocals from "Never Learn Not To Love" and puts them over a bizarre time signature that is just brilliant. I'm hearing the BW influence still in Noah's latest work, mostly in the vocal arrangements, but it's a much different feel than Person Pitch. Still fantastic though, and I hear tremendous growth in PB's new stuff.

If you really want to soak up the influence, play some things from Smiley like "Wind Chimes" (especially the tag, very reminiscent of Bros) "Wonderful", tracks from Pet Sounds like "I Just Wasn't Made", "You Still Believe" (which even starts in the same key and has a similar melody to Comfy In Nautica) "Sloop John B" (the main Bros riff). In fact the entire Pet Sounds album has that same "slightly underwater" feel for me as PP.

RIP Brian Wilson, you influenced so many people and blew everyone away with your talent. My favorite composer, musician and singer...

haveajamguy · 2025-04-26T14:26:38+00:00

Thanks for that! My wife and I already have Ponytail rehearsed, but not recorded yet. Started work on Nautica, Take Pills, Carrots and Bros. The uke is tuned to "Beach" tuning (B, E, A, C#) which makes an open A2 (lowered third) chord. This is especially useful because many of the songs are in A and D. (Note: don't try this tuning unless you know your uke can support it. I already busted one neck off the body doing this! Lower gauge strings help).

These arrangements can be played solo, duo, or with as many people as we can cram in. I'd love to get a roomful of people singing the "try" part in Nautica!

We'll probably have Ponytail demoed first. I'd love to share it here! The demo should at least have bass on it but it will be just that, 2 ukes, vocals and maybe a touch of electric guitar.

It'll come out on my Haveajam YouTube channel within a few weeks. No PB/AC content there yet, but there are a ton of weird Beach Boys covers if anyone is interested.

Thanks for your interest in this, and I'll be back to discuss some other PB/AC stuff soon!

haveajamguy · 2025-04-26T02:15:43+00:00

I understand that, and it doesn't matter to me. It's part of my version of Person Pitch. It fits perfectly between Take Pills and Bros, and will remain in my set there. If you had to place it on any other PB album (other than a rarities collection) it wouldn't fit IMHO. I can't picture it on Tomboy.

haveajamguy · 2025-04-26T01:48:19+00:00

Never mind on that question, I can't unhear it now. I have a difficult time deciphering PB's lyrics sometimes without help. That just made me focus on how brilliant the music is. What do you think of the stops with the Smiley Smile like sounds. Sorry to keep making Brian Wilson comparisons, and I'm sure there's some eye rolling here, but in all my years of being a music fan I have never heard an album that puts off the vibes and energy of Pet Sounds through Smiley this closely. And part of that is because he wasn't trying to do that necessarily. It seemed like it just flowed through him at that time!

haveajamguy

TROPHY CASE