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| Zack |
A little clarification on the sandbox . . .
Brian did not retreat to the bedroom until after the shelving of Smile. He composed and recorded Pet Sounds with Tony Asher in a professional way, although he'd sometimes halt sessions to catch Flipper on television.
After the success of Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations, Brian's star was rising high. He got a new set of sycophantic friends, got into dope, and became more eccentric as the Smile project unfolded while the rest of the group was out on tour without him. Some of the stuff he did was put a toy castle at the front door of his house, which you had to crawl through to get in. Cleared out all the furniture and put, first, excercise mats because of a health kick he got on. Even bought a health food store, the Radiant Radish, and worked the till sometimes. Went out searching for a ping pong table at 4 am and vowed to open an all night ping pong table store when he couldn't find one. He later got rid of the mats in the living room and put in a huge Moroccan tent with hookas and cushions, which no one ever went in because it was too hot. Then he had a sandbox built around the piano in the living room on which he and Van Dyke Parks composed several key Smile tracks. But after the dog shit in the sand, Van Dyke refused to go back in. Then sand also started getting in the piano strings. Like the other whims, this didn't last long. He also got paranoid and insisted all business meetings take place in the pool so no one could eavesdrop.
He never had a piano in the bedroom, but he did have a studio in the basement. After his mental breakdown, he could hear the rest of the group trying to carry on without him through the floor, and sometimes come down in his bathrobe with this idea or that. Thtat's why there's only one or two Brian Wilson songs on the BB albums from 68-73 or so. After that, he descended into true schizophrenia and contributed nothing until they started hiring the psychiatrists. |
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| mac_daddy |
interesting. thanks for the info, Zack
[Edited by mac_daddy] |
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| Joey |
A great story ! Thanks Zack .
I love this board .
" Learning Something New All the Time Ronnie ! "
Snarky !
[Edited by Joey] |
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| doo doo doo Dude |
Well done Zack. Check out Nick Kent's "The Dark Stuff" as the first chapter is all about Brian and his looney antics recording Smile. There's also a great chapter about the Stones. |
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