One of the genuine bright spots in my pre-Record Store Day inbox this year was news of a 1LP retrospective spotlighting Brian Wilson’s late-1990s comeback and the transformational musical run that carried him deep into the 2000s.
The good folks at Oglio Records kindly sent me a preview copy of the album titled Brian Wilson On Tour 1999-2007.
The single LP collection offers a tasty overview of Brian’s live work from this period including choice late’60s Beach Boys nuggets, primo solo cuts and special cover tunes. Given the quality of Brian’s tremendous backing group at that time, there is a remarkable consistency of performance and sound quality on these recordings across the years.
The album opens with a rousing version of “This Could BeThe Night,” a particularly special tune originally written by Harry Nilsson in tribute to Brian and eventually recorded by Wilson himself on the 1995 Nilsson tribute album For The Love Of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson. Do look up the fascinating back story about this song on the wiki.
Brian Wilson On Tour 1999-2007 offers a mini medley of opening songs from Wilson’s legendary 1966/2004 SMiLE album which lead into a terrific version of “Heroes & Villains.” Three fan favorite Beach Boys LP cuts from 1968’s Friends including the title track are also featured. If you saw any of the tours around this time you know that when Brian performed “Marcella” — from the under appreciated 1972 Beach Boys LP Carl & The Passions — he took full ownership of the tune, turning it into a brilliant rocker only hinted at in the original.
The Beach Boys deep album cut “Drive In” from 1964’s All Summer Long is a special kick to hear performed live, with its decidedly humorous and slyly racy lyrics — apparently this song was one of Brian’s transformational early productions where the band’s sound first came together as he’d envisioned.
Heartstring-tugger “Melt Away” is one of my all-time faves from Wilson’s 1988 solo debut — such an incredible song, performed gorgeously. Brian delivers a genuinely rocking cover of the Chuck Berry classic “Johnny B. Goode” without sounding tired or cliche. The album ends with a curiously upbeat pop arrangement of “She’s Leaving Home” from The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper.
Sonics-wise, Brian Wilson On Tour 1999–2007 happily sounds really good start to finish despite its likely digital sourcing (hey, these are modern live concert recordings, folks). I was pleasantly surprised that the opaque marble vinyl actually is pretty nice overall — well centered, overall quiet. I did not notice any surface noise issues, which doesn’t always happen with highly patterned color vinyl.
Fourteen great songs performed live by music legend Brian Wilson at the peak of his late period renaissance seems like an equation for a must-get album for Record Store Day. Only 2000 copies of Brian Wilson On Tour 1999–2007 are being made so get to your favorite vinyl shop early to grab your copy!
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
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