Funny Brian Wilson Fact

Back in 1979, after catching his wife, Marilyn, in bed with his former body guard/minder, Brian Wilson left the house without any identification and money, and hitch hikeed to San Diego, where he went into a gay bar and played Beach Boys hit songs in return for free beer.

He ended up in a mental institution for a third time, because of this incident... where he met a large black woman, named Carolyn. She had like four children and some dogs. Later on, in 1983, when Eugene Landy was Brian's doctor again, they had to get rid of her as she supplied him with drugs and food (he was 350 lbs). Well, so he goes off to Hawaii with Landy and his crew, and the movie ET comes out. The Beach Boys, his family, and Brian's now ex-wife, Marilyn, all knew he was going to Hawaii. But Carolyn didn't. She reported him kidnapped! Since the movie ET was out, one headline in a California celebrity magazine read "Brian Wilson, please phone home!!!" ... in fact, Brian lost like 100 lbs within three months and got to perform in Hawaii with The Beach Boys again, and Carolyn was in the city somewhere proclaiming "Brian Wilson is my man! I've been saving myself for him! My body is all his to use!" ... LoL.

Brian Wilson: Sweet Insanity (UNRELEASED Album Review)

For those that don't know, back in the 1980s, Brian Wilson, former leader of The Beach Boys, was under controversal care by a pyschologist known as Dr. Eugene Landy. Landy had also helped other celebrities deal with problems, Alice Cooper, being one of the ones to mention it. Besides helping (if you can call it that) Brian with his problems, he also took a role in getting Brian to produce/write/record music again. It started in 1983, and Brian finally released songs on The Beach Boys self-titled album in 1985, a solo single in 1986, Let's Go To Heaven In My Car b/w Too Much Sugar (The A-side track also was also on Police Academy: Citizens On Patrol", and Brian Wilson's first solo album, self-titled, in 1988, which featured eleven original tracks, two singles (Love And Mercy, Melt Away), one promo-only single (Night Time), and two b-side tracks.

Well in 1989, Brian decided to do another solo album. He and others recorded probably 70 or so different original songs. There's been so many releases of bootlegs of the album, that I can't specify which songs were meant to be on the album, but I have a basic guess (and you can't always trust wikipedia!). Also, there are two versions of most of the songs as Brian did one version of the album and Sire Records rejected it. They mixed it a second time, and they rejected it then as well.

You can basically find this as a bootleg, but I don't know where. You can also find the songs on Limewire, quite often these days. I highly recommend this album, I have a feeling this is the kind of music Brian would of created had it not been for The Beach Boys, as there's not much surfing involved in these songs.

Tracks
1. Concert (AKA 'Concert Tonite')
A 16 second introduction and also from the full song 'Concert Tonite'
2. Someone To Love
A nice song. Very catchy lyrics with a great rocking chorus. Features tons of 'rocking' vocals, as well as Brian's famous falsetto.
3. Water Builds Up
Features the same melody from the verses of 'Let's Go To Heaven In My Car'... as well as some of the lyrics, but the chorus' are totally different. I like 'Let's Go To Heaven In My Car', but this song is worth hearing.
4. Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel
This song is a nice ballad, and was also re-recorded and released on Brian's 2004 'Gettin' In Over My Head' album.
5. Do You Have Any Regrets (AKA 'I Do')
A very catchy pop song, this track probably would of been a possible single if this album wasn't rejected by Sire/Warner Records.
6. Thank You (AKA 'Brian')
This, I imagine, is one of Brian's favorite songs on the album, which Brian sings about everything! From his family not trusting him, to how his Dad beating him when he was a kid, and then about how he's healthy and he's come a long way, and thanks the ones who believe in him. I enjoy this song. Sire Records hated it.
7. Hotter
Another pop rocker. Brian's singing here about some woman who he meets at a dance club and turns him on. It's a nice and upbeat song, definetely would of been a possible single release.
8. The Spirit Of Rock 'N' Roll
There are MANY versions of this song, and I think it was first recorded in 1986, as Brian with The Beach Boys performed it in Hawaii for their 25th anniversary as a band. This version though, has a guest vocalist singing song of the lines in the verses, Bob Dylan! This song is great and could of been a big hit for either The Beach Boys or Brian, had it been released as a single. It was re-recorded in 2004/05 and released on a Beach Boys album that was only available at Hallmark stores. I prefer the original versions from the 1980s, as the newer one sounds too 'acoustic'
9. Rainbow Eyes
Very nice song and in this song, Brian sings a line in which mentions 'your sweet insanity'. Probably where the album title came from. When this song was re-recorded for Brian's 'Gettin' In Over My Head' album, he changed the lyric to 'your sweet conspiracy' or something like that. I prefer this version. My son, loves both versions of this song. It is his FAVORITE song. He instantly smiles and stops whatever he is doing when he hears the catchy beat from the beginning of the song playing.
10. Love Ya
Very catchy pop song. One of my favorites and plenty of background vocals. Some people might think it's too sugary for their tastes, but I love it.
11. Make A Wish
Great pop song. The only part I don't like is a female vocalist doing background vocals on the chorus. Again, like many Sweet Insanity songs, it was re-recorded for the 'Gettin' In Over My Head' album, but they basically did a note-to-note re-recording of it, so not much has changed except that Brian's vocals aren't as "whiney" as they used to sound.
12. Concert Tonite
The hard rock song of the album. Basically a song about rocking out, rocking around, rocking with everyone, letting loose, etc. Brian even mentions "let's get violent now, we'll be rocking violent tonight" such as in a mosh pit. Great song, and could of been a huge hit.

===========================================
Other songs that I have, that were going to possibly be released on The Sweet Insanity album
Heavenly Bodies (Note: beautiful ballad)
Metal Beach (Note: A hard rock instrumental)
Country Feelin' (Note: One of those "sophisticated" Brian songs... I think this was featured in a film)
Smart Girls (Note: This rap, yes rap, song managed to be released as a promo single back in 1989 to radio DJ's only, and Dr. Demento has played it numerous times on his station)
Turning Point
Daddy's Little Girl (Note: Released on the soundtrack to 'Daddy's Little Girl')
Save The Day (Note: Re-recorded with mostly new lyrics and re-titled 'Fairy Tale' on the 'Gettin' In Over My Head' album)
Still I Dream Of It

Sweet Insanity

I'm listening to songs off of Brian Wilson's un-released album, Sweet Insanity, from 1990/91. I'll give more info later on. Feel free to download it from limewire, it was never released!

I'll give a music review and post some info about the album later on this week.

Album Review Help Needed (part 1)

Yes, this is my blog, but I'd like to keep it constant and updated with nice album and song reviews.

I need song-to-song reviews of the following QUEEN albums -

Queen
Queen II
Sheer Heart Attack
A Night At The Opera
A Day At The Races

.... You will be given credit, of course, and I'll deeply appreciate it as I don't have much time to do many album reviews.

E-mail the reviews to jakebritt01@queenzone.com

Thanks!

Great Queen/Queen related websites

There are literally MILLIONS of sites dedicated to Queen and their band members. Most are the usual fan sites with common information, some photos, and mini biographies. But here's a list of some important and great Queen websites.

www.queenpedia.com

Queenpedia is probably the BEST Queen site out there. It features most of the albums and singles ever released on the site, as well as photographs of most. It features lyrics, interviews, quotes, musicians/producers/engineers/etc. who've worked with Queen on Queen projects or solo projects, it lists support bands, and a nice biography about the band. It's in the same style as Wikipedia basically, so it's very easy to navigate, yet sophisticated at the same time.

www.queenconcerts.com

Queenconerts is a great site if you want to know when and where Queen and their solo members have performed life concerts (even before they were a part of Queen). It will tell you if the show was recorded or filmed, and even has stories of a lot of the concerts written by Queen fans who attended them.

www.QueenZone.com

QueenZone is a forum I've been sneaking up on since September 11th, 2001 (no joke). There's a lot of nut cases on the forum but basically anyone fits in, except if you are going to ask about who gave Freddie AIDS, or if you ask for photos from the last two years of Freddie's life, or if you claim you love Roger, when he's old enough to be your grandfather, or Brian in that case, or if you ask where John Deacon is... for that last one, they'll probably tell you John has been dead for some time, but that's not the case. So you definetely need a sense of humor to joint the site, and I'm telling you, you WILL be made fun of and critisised at some point, but it's all in great fun. QueenZone also has it's own private messaging system, e-mail system, and chat room. Also a nice big photo section.

Doot Doot Doot

I just purchased some stuff on eBay... should be here within the next week or so.

Brian Wilson - Your Imagination (CD Single Promo)
Smash Mouth - You Are My Number One (CD Single Promo)
Queen - Back Chat (7" Canadian Single)
Queen - I Want To Break Free (7" Canadian Single) (Roger Taylor picture sleeve)
Queen - One Vision (7" Canadian Single)
Freddie Mercury - I Was Born To Love You (7" Canadian Single)

Physical Vs. Digital

Why do people enjoy buying digital singles and albums? The only purpose I see, is for the use of the songs being played on their computer, and then they go and put it to their iPod's, etc. Seems like a bunch of work.

Personally, I enjoy the actual physical CD or LP. Why? I love artwork on the front of album and single sleeves, plus all of the liner notes, and information on the songs. I don't like reading those liner notes on the computer, thus is why I do not get my songs on the internet. I buy CD albums, CD singles, vinyl albums, and vinyl singles. There is nothing better than holding a vinyl album or single and putting it on the record player and listening to it. The same goes for CDs (and I never thought I'd say that!).

I remember back in 1998, when I first started buying albums with my own money, besides on the net, I could only buy cassettes at stores like Wal-Mart and K-Mart. I still like cassettes and both of my trucks have a cassette player instead of a CD player, so that works for my vehicles. Around 2000, everything in the store switched to CD and you could practically buy any album in the store on CD, not just compilation albums. Now all those big name stores only stock new releases or compilation albums (ie... Greatest Hits, The Best Of's). Still, that is okay.

If you want a new album, you can go buy one and when you bring it home, you can put all the songs onto your computer within a minute, it's as easy as that. Not to mention, in the liner notes, you can read who played what instruments, who produced, who wrote what songs, do you get the picture?

Now, out of all three (cassette/CD/vinyl), I prefer vinyl. No... I don't have a portable record player in my vehicles, but I do have two record players in my house, and both record players were bought brand new within the past two years. One of the record players will play CDs, vinyl, and cassette... so you can get anything. My other record player is state-of-the-art, and I can take the songs on the record and put them right onto the computer.

There are a lot of great older albums that were released only on vinyl and cassette, that are now out of print. For example, Peter Wolf's 'Lights Out!' album and Freddie Mercury's 'Mr. Bad Guy' album. Both came out in the mid 80s, and while CD copies were manufactured, they weren't popular at the time (neither was the price!), so they weren't manufactured in large quanities. While the albums sold very well, they have gone out of print. Peter Wolf's album on CD format, sells for around $80.00 - $120.00. Very pricey, and I've yet to get a hold of it. This is one reason that I enjoy a record player... I can play the LP.

Not many kids nowadays know what a single is. I probably wouldn't either if it wasn't for my big obsession with Queen. Anyways, when a band wants to promote a certain song for an album which in return will most likely get the people to buy the album in which it's on, they release a single. It can be on vinyl... 7" and 12" vinyls being the most popular out of vinyl, or on CD, or cassettes. Singles usually have two - three songs on it. What's great about singles, is that a lot of the times, they either have a different version or mix of the song, plus songs that won't even appear on the album (B-sides). Queen released numerous singles featuring extended versions of the songs, remixes, live versions, and non-album tracks.

7" singles seem to becoming a lot more popular, bands like My Chemical Romance usually release their singles on CD as well as on 7" vinyl. You can still and probably will always be able to buy record players. People always complain that it's hard to keep a record clean, but to be honest, I have more problems with CDs than I do with vinyl records. I don't have any vinyl records that aren't playable, though I have hundreds of CDs with scratches and which will skip everytime I play them, or they are totally un-playable.

If you want to buy a single, Newbury Comics as well as many regular music stores, usually has a section in which has a ton of new singles released. If you want a vinyl single, eBay is usually the best place to buy one, or old record stores. I prefer the sound of vinyl more than that of CD to be honest, it's hard to describe, but it just sounds more real.

Not to mention, buying any kind of single is fun to collect, as you get more product from the band and collecting records and CDs, is a great hobby for anyone.

Try it.

For information about music singles...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_single

For more information about CD singles...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cd_single

For information about promo (radio station/club) singles...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promo_single

For more information about vinyl records...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7%22_single

For more information about cassette singles...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_single

For more information about EP's (Extended Play Singles)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_play

For more information about Maxi singles...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxi_single