Marvel and Mouse

Larry W. King was kind enough to send along his thoughts as a professional in the music industry and a fan of Brian Wilson. I have edited together several e-mails Larry sent to me on the subjects.

Brian Wilson has been very active as a solo performer over the last 10 years. All of his record contracts have been for just an album, maybe two.

For instance, when Brian finally finished his masterwork, "Brian Wilson Presents Smile", he signed with Warner Special Markets. They released "Smile"on  the Nonesuch label, and a sub-par solo album called "Getting In Over My Head" on  Rhino Records. Brian's team made Warners take "Getting In Over My Head", in order to get the Smile album.
 
Brian's latest album was pretty innovative. It was a song cycle called "That Lucky Old Sun", released on Capitol records. I'm sure Brian had to do some  other service for Capitol, to make the deal for "Sun". I suspected that Capitol  would get to release a box set from the original '60's recording of "Smile", but  that has not happened yet.
 
Brian's two album for Disney Pearl should be artistically successful. Brian is a big Gershwin fan, and I think the two artists are comparable.The Disney covers album seems like the easier album to make. Brian's music has always been about youth and childlike sensibilities. Or maybe Disney realized that "Surfer Girl" owes a great deal to "When You Wish Upon A Star".
 
The key man on Brian Wilson's team is Darian Sahanaja, who writes music for one of Disney's cartoon series (The Replacements). I believe he is the "clean-up man", and the person responsible for finishing "Smile" as such a quality production. "That Lucky Old Sun" was co-written by Scott Bennett, and it's not as good (nothing is).
 
Brian's latter-day work has been inconsistent.  He has to labor over his vocals and production. The results can be wildly inconsistent, and I  believe it was Darian acting as unofficial producer who was able to whip Brian into shape.
 
Brian is 66 or so, and he is the front-runner of the rockers in his age group. Contrasted with many of the other '60's songwriters, he has made some of his best work in this decade.
 
The Beach Boys 50th anniversary is in 2011, and there's a chance he'll do something with the old band, after these two Disney albums. The Brianistas are stoked.

Brian's M.O. with "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" and "That Lucky Old Sun" was to stage it as a live show first. Play some gigs, and the band gets real familiar with the songs. This is a shift for Brian Wilson, who used ace session  musicians on his '64-'67 sessions. The "Wrecking Crew" did an excellent job obviously, but they were playing it "cold", compared to a tour-honed performance.The business model his team is currently using, is a pretty good one.

I'm Larry W. King, deejay for Citadel Media  Networks' syndicated format
Classic Hits Radio.

LAR

Thanks Larry!