I found out it sold for 210 dollars, which is a real bargain IMO.

I also enjoyed reading the post about Brian. I just found this article from the Independent:

http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article2968760.ece

Brian Wilson, Royal Festival Hall, London
Paramore, Astoria, London God only knows what we'd be without him
Reviewed by Simon Price
Published: 16 September 2007

When America first sold us the pop dream, half a century ago, it never warned us about this part: the spectacle of the visibly very mortal authors of immortal songs, singing those same old tunes with the added poignancy of age. When Brian Wilson, a cuddly old silver fox in a rugby shirt, asks "Wouldn't it be nice if we were older?" we know he knows the answer all too well.

The gently-coaxed comeback of Brian Wilson has been one of the musical miracles of the modern age, for this is a man who, as a mixture of myth and reality would have it, lost it so badly that he spent a decade living in an indoor sandpit, defecating and growing his beard. His superb band is still led by familiar faces: the one that looks like Robert Redford, the one that looks like Jerry Hall, the one that looks like the guy from Eraserhead, and the one did look like Jeff from Curb Your Enthusiasm but has slimmed down. With their help, sitting behind an autocue and a mostly untouched keyboard, he's found a comfort zone without the need for sand, and the confidence to let that yearning voice fly free.

An educated crowd, then, indulge Wilson's eccentricities (acting out every word of "Sloop John B" with kindergarten hand movements, for example) without too many giggles. Respect, after all, is due to the man responsible for the vertiginous vulnerability of "God Only Knows", introduced as "Paul McCartney's favourite song". Wilson repays the compliment by ending the night with McCartney's "She's Leaving Home". There was a time, of course, when the Beach Boys and the Beatles were racing neck-and-neck to outdo one another, wrestling with the possibilities of what pop music could be. To my mind, Wilson won, and his friend and rival never wrote anything to match "Heroes and Villains" (we get the full-length Smile version tonight).

The second act of Wilson's show is a new work entitled That Lucky Old Sun (a Narrative), which cannot help but sound like a Beach Boys act with lines such as "forever she'll be my surfer girl", or the rhyming of "ocean" with "notion".

"We'll break the silence in just a couple of minutes ..." he says, calming the crowd's impatience during an intermission. He pauses, then wisecracks: "It was all silence before we came along." It's an exaggeration, but after a shamelessly feelgood encore ("Barbara-Ann", "Help Me Rhonda", "Surfin' USA"), he has a point.

From the sublime to ... well, to Paramore. Or "Para-fuckin'-mooore!", as their singer Hayley Williams unconvincingly puts it. They may perform in front of the word "Riot!" and a mural of civil unrest, but "Onward, Christian Soldiers" would be a more honest slogan for these Tennessee teens. They are, you see, Bible-bashers, with songs about striving for salvation through the Lord.

Even if you didn't know this, you could guess. Paramore – Williams backed by three guys in matching red jeans – are a Disney's High School Musical version of emo: imagine McFly with a punked-up Olsen twin on vocals. Their cliched dynamics raise high-pitched screams from 2,000 kids cutting loose after their first week back at school, but it's all a bit Kelly Clarkson. When the shrill, squeaky-clean singer throws the least sincere devil sign in rock'*'roll history, and the Paramore fans throw devil signs back, you can bet she prays for forgiveness the next morning.

Thank goodness you got him on a good night!

A good friend of mine interviewed him for radio around the time of the Smile official CD release...a pretty well known DJ in NYC, and a HUGE Brian Wilson fan...and Brian was not having a good day. When my friend brought up a benign question about Mike Love, Brian's mood got very dark, and the interview never got back on track. My friend was devastated...but I was able to edit the interview so it wasn't so bad, and he was very relieved...but still shaken that he offended his hero.

He's not gonna dance? Then I'm not going!

Posted by South Jersey News Online March 01, 2008 1:43PM
By John Barna
jbarna@sjnewsco. com

The dawn of a new day has barely broke over the horizon and Bruce
Johnston is able to pursue a childhood passion that this now 65-year-
old continues to embrace.

Surfing.

The Southern California beach, and his favorite surf spot,
is "literally 150 feet in front of me with nothing in front of me."

So why is Johnston, longtime member of the Beach Boys and an
accomplished songwriter in his own right (he penned "I Write the
Songs" for Barry Manilow) still on the road for some 170
performances a year including Saturday's scheduled stop at the
Commerce Bank Performing Arts Centre in Washington Township?

He's never tired of performing the music that vaulted the Beach
Boys -- Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine,
Johnston and others -- to being one of America's all-time favorite
bands.

"I'm kind of like my favorite pet, Wonder."

"Wonder is a mutt. He is 500 years old. Really healthy. And I can
tell he loves being Mr. Dog. He loves going outside, inspecting the
year and barking at the birds."

"He does not realize he is hundreds of years old."

"He has a great life."

•

Johnston's life is such that he can have his surfboard shipped to
the Atlantic City casino hotel where he and the band were staying,
getting a van from "Rent a Wreck" and heading to Brigantine to join
other surfers.

That was 15 years ago but the friends he met on that adventure have
stuck by him and they can catch up with each other as far away as
Costa Rica on occasion.

A father of four -- one is still in high school and the others have
completed college and spread themselves around the globe -- he can
visit when a tour stops nearby or video conference from a hotel when
there is a distance.

Johnston savors the ability to "sit down in places where your family
can come out" and talk.

The Beach Boys catalog of songs is varied enough and large enough --
one box set has over 125 different tunes -- that shows vary
depending on the venue.

"The sets change every night," Johnson suggested, crediting Mike
Love with being "absolutely brilliant" about programming.

The outdoor gigs are typically the "sounds of summer" shows laden
with surf tunes -- "Surfer Girl" and "Surfin' U.S.A." -- reminders
of high school days - "Be True to Your School" and "Dance, Dance,
Dance" -- and the "simplicity of growing up in America" -- "Wouldn't
It Be Nice" and "Barbara Ann."

"It's rock 'em, sock' em," Johnston described of the outdoor format.

Expect a more laid back performance in Washington Township.

"In a performing arts theater," Johnston suggested the band "can go
a lot deeper" into the selection of tunes. Why?

"We know people will really listen," he replied.

You might find something like "Disney Girls (1957)," a song Johnston
wrote and has been covered by the likes of Art Garfunkel and the
Captain & Tennille.

No, the band will not rely Saturday on the "fragile stuff" that say
an English crowd may crave when the band hits their shores in April.

That is Love's responsibility to "pace" a show that is varied enough
from the last time the Beach Boys may have appeared in the area and
will be different than the Fourth of July weekend 2008 show planned
for the Hilton Atlantic City.

It will also differ than the private concerts Johnston and Love will
perform just before the Atlantic City gig on a private cruise in
Italy for an audience of maybe 200 people.

•

The four surviving members of the Beach Boys core band from the mid-
1960s are split into three performing groups -- Brian Wilson (whose
brothers, Carl and Dennis are deceased) is out on the road on his
own; Love and Johnston tour as the Beach Boys and Al Jardine tours
as the Endless Summer Band.

Johnston himself is not an original Beach Boy.

"I always thought my destiny was to be behind the scenes," he
recalled.

Johnston began as a producer -- teaming with Terry Melcher for
million seller "Hey Little Cobra."

He replaced guitarist Glen Campbell in 1965 after Campbell -- who
toured with the band while Brian Wilson stayed home over the
objections of his brothers to write -- left to pursue a solo career.

Candidly Johnston said he was a "bigger fan of writing than
performing."

He also thought, "I could look like a wrinkled runt one day but I
could still write."

One advantage he said he had was "being able to spend a lot time
with writers" and soaking up how they put together songs.

"I saw Mike wrote 'California Girls' in a hallway over Brian's
music."

"I Write the Songs" earned him a Grammy. No other member of the
Beach Boys can stake that claim. "You have to have a great song," he
suggested, "but you also have to have a great groove."

Johnston noted he was hired in 1994 to write the theme for the World
Cup when soccer's premiere event was being staged in the U.S.

The Swiss governing board, he noted, overruled the Americans.

In place of what Johnston wrote -- and was paid for - was
some "umpaa" theme.

"I was crushed," he reflected, noting his youngest still plays
soccer in high school and the likes of Elton John -- for whom he
sang on "Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me" has long been wrapped in
the sport.

"I'm smart enough to market after all the years," he observed.

He was also smart enough to retain the rights to I Write the Songs.

"I did not give anything away."

The Beach Boys have survived, he said, because they knew how to
market.

Songs are "packed" with themes that impact varied audiences.

Tunes move from romance and teen years to the complexity of "Pet
Sounds."

Pet Sounds produced such hits as "God Only Knows," "Wouldn't It Be
Nice," "Caroline No" and "Sloop John B."

For the Beach Boys, it was their answer to The Beatles' "Sgt.
Pepper's."

Today, Johnston asserted it would be difficult to duplicate those
two legendary albums.

"A lot of music today is downloaded for free or its downloaded
without the joy of exploration of hearing an album," Johnston
offered.

Bruce Johnston owes his long career with the Beach Boys to Brian Wilson, if you think about it. I read that he left the band in 1972. Around 1978, when the band was having problems recording an album, Brian suggested calling in Bruce Johnson to help out. 30 years later, he's still out there with the Beach Boy (Mike Love) every summer.

He always struck me as a pretty decent guy.

Bruce Johnston is part of the original surfing culture and actually had his recording debut two years before BB, in 1959. Some interesting Bruce Johnston projects are Bruce and Terry, The Rip Chords, California Music (Curt Boettcher's project), and Hot Doggers. And he also recorded three solo albums:

Surfers' Pajama Party (reissued in Japan, and in the US by Del-Fi and Collector's Choice)
Surfin' Round the World (Sundazed and BGO)
Going Public (Edsel and BGO)

Bruce is the reason I don't plant a bomb on the "Beach Boys" touring band's bus.

Wait, John Cowsill's touring with them, isn't he? OK, Bruce and John Cowsill are the reason I don't put a bomb on Mike's bus.

Yes, John Cowsill is touring with them as is Mike's son Christian who puts in some great vocals.

No, it was the BB's answer to "Rubber Soul".

Exactly

From Yahoo:

Legal deal restores good vibrations to Beach Boys

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The settlement of a long legal dispute over rights to the Beach Boys' name has restored good vibrations among the three surviving original members of the famed group, attorneys in the case said on Thursday.

The agreement, reached on Wednesday after two days of talks mediated by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, put to rest years of litigation that strained relations among members of the group that defined the California surf sound of the 1960s.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But lawyers suggested the amicable nature of the settlement could pave the way for a long-awaited reunion of the band's three surviving co-founders -- Brian Wilson, cousin Mike Love and Al Jardine.

"Certainly everybody would love it, but we're taking it a day at a time," Jardine's attorney, Lawrence Noble, told Reuters. "We've cleared out a lot of negative history, we're looking forward to the future, and hopefully a lot of good things will happen."

The years-long court battle grew out of use of the band's name by Jardine, who had been touring under such billings as "Beach Boys Family & Friends" until a federal judge ruled in 2000 he was engaging in trademark infringement.

The decision affirmed Love's claim as the sole licensee of the "Beach Boys" name under a deal he negotiated with the band's corporate entity, Brother Records Inc, in 1998.

A U.S. appeals court upheld that ruling in 2003, again siding against Jardine in the case brought by Love, Wilson and the estate of his brother, Carl, who died of cancer in 1998. A fifth founding member, brother Dennis Wilson, drowned in 1983.

Love and the Carl Wilson estate sued Jardine again on behalf of Brother Records in 2004 seeking $2.2 million in legal fees spent in the original litigation against him.

It was that case, set for trial next month, that was settled this week, said Carla DiMare, who represents the Carl Wilson estate, consisting of his two sons, Justyn and Jonah.

"Mr. Love and ... Mr. Jardine are looking forward to bringing more great Beach Boys music to the United States and around the world, particularly as they approach their 50th anniversary," DiMare said.

Love and Jardine both attended the settlement conference, spending the first day in court chatting and occasionally singing lines from the Beach Boys hit "Help Me Rhonda" and other songs while attorneys met with the judge in chambers. Brian Wilson also attended for part of the first day.

All three are shareholders of Brother Records, along with the Carl Wilson estate.

Founded in suburban Los Angeles in 1961, the Beach Boys reigned for several years as America's leading pop group with such hits as "I Get Around," "Surfin' U.S.A." and "Good Vibrations."

Brian Wilson, Love and Jardine made a rare joint appearance in June 2006 to celebrate the double-platinum certification of their 2003 greatest-hits collection, "Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys."

Jardine joined Wilson in November 2006 for a series of concert performances of the Beach Boys' landmark "Pet Sounds" album.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Cooney)

The problem is if there is a reunion, Bruce has said he wants to be in the audience. I hope he is just joking. To me the three founding members on stage is not a full reunion. I want at least David and Bruce on stage as well.

I would go see it, but I think Carl was a big part of the whole deal, and would be sorely missed. It would still be a pretty good version of the Beach Boys with those guys.

I hope it paves the way for prime-era material to be released from the vaults.

The Beach Boys have over 300 unreleased songs in the vaults, what are they waiting for???

They're too busy planning the next compilation, Relentless Summer: Beach Boys Greatest Hits Vol. 99. There's also a love songs compilation, Let's Mike Love: Best Of The Beach Boys' Beautiful Music, in the planning stages as well.

It's a joke and yet...it's not a joke.

COMING SOON, a new compilation: Endless Bummer: The Most Depressing Beach Boys Songs Selected By Brian Wilson.

To joke or not to joke, that is the question............ (or is it the vibration??)

Mar 26

Bruce Johnston: Mike Love Is Not Hitler
Notable quotes from a recent Bruce Johnston interview:

You know, I hope I’m a nostalgia merchant... I would say that Disney World is a nostalgia merchant. And they do a great job. I hope we do as good a job as they do.

Frankly, you can’t have the Beach Boys turning into the Ink Spots, or those guys from the ‘40s with about five bands using the name. It confuses the marketplace.

I think as an exercise in keeping him occupied, (Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE) is interesting... A lot of things could have happened, but they didn’t. And then they dust him off and roll him back out.

I talk to him every once in a while. But I’m never going to tell him that I’ll take “Pet Sounds” over what he’s doing now.

Without Mike Love, the Beach Boys would have never gotten this far. Brian’s absolutely brilliant, no doubt about it, but Mike kind of kept the groove going. He put the commercial sauce on stuff. It’s like you buy a really cool car and have it delivered to the dealership, but they detail it before you get it.

-- Mike Love gets the baddest rap, next to Hitler, I’ve ever seen. Hitler deserves it. Mike doesn’t.

There are guys like (author) David Leaf, who’ve spent years trashing Mike, and they’re partially successful in the world of minutia. But as far as the big picture goes, there’s that guy struttin’ the stage, singing these nasal, wonderful leads to songs he wrote, all these years later ... take Brian solo, Al solo or me solo, it’s just not gonna happen. But put Mike out there with Beach Boy music — and me, or Al or somebody — and it’s gonna do really great.