Brian Wilson - "Surfer Girl" - Private Party, 1991

[runnersdialzero333]

Wow, considering this is well past his supposed vocal "prime", he really nails this!

d00d can still sing damn well when he tries but rarely busts out the falsetto, but here it is after people said he'd lost the ability to do so in '74 and it really doesn't sound too bad at all. Very nice.

[Baguette66]

Brian's voice does not suck! His singing on the Gershwin album is proof positive, particularly "Summertime," & his vocal on " Porgy, I loves You" is an absolute knock-out! He so obviously still has a beautiful tenor! ----Also saw him perform Lucky Old Sun in its entirety and his singing was damn good! Better live than the recording! The quality of his voice has been erratic over the years, but when Brian is relaxed as well as inspired, he's still "got it!"---At least in the tenor range!

[musicmatty67]

This is further proof that under the direction of the late Gene Landy..Brians Physco Therapist at that time, that Brian was much more confident and capable of performing on his own unlike today. See here how he plays his own piano and sings his own vocals without ANY help. Today, he sits and plays absolutly Ziltch at the piano when in Concert and Has Jeff Foskett singing all his Parts for him. His apparence was even far better under Landy than it is even today. Divorcing Landy wasn't so great.

[Okiemom50]

@musicmatty67

You also have to consider that he was 20 years younger in this vid. His voice just isn't as strong now. He's almost 70.

[iferraro]

@musicmatty67 yeah, would you like to be under mind controlling drugs and not be able to talk to your friends or family? Didn't think so. Don't be a tool.

Brian is almost 70 now. I saw him a few months ago and he can still sing the lower parts quite well (especially for his age). But he doesn't even TRY his falsetto anymore, and he hasn't used it much since the late 60's (he used to think he was too feminine sounding) as his drug abuse/over-eating/smoking destroyed his once heavenly voice.

[peterp21]

@iferraro I hate to tell you but Brian is still on psychotropic drugs, even if of a milder nature than what Landy was overprescribing. Yeah, Landy broke major ethical boundaries big time (there's a reason these boundaries exist, and this was a textbook example). But hand it to Landy, he really saved BW, who was probably months from death. BTW, Brian's voice sucks today and his shows I hear are hit and miss depending on his mental state that moment. I think his wife/handlers push him on stage.

[TheBoldImperator]

@peterp21 Brian hasn't been on psychotropics for years. He's on antidepressants, and there's a big big difference.

[aftershock71]

@iferraro With or without drugs, most people will lose voice pitch and any falsetto ability as they age. The voice naturally grows deeper with age (both men and women), due to a change in vocal chords. Vocal chords, like skin, eventually tend to sag as one approaches middle age. This is why you often see vintage clips of singers and actors, with much higher voices, than they have in present day.

[TheBoldImperator]

@iferraro He can in fact still sing the falsetto (listen to his cover of "Heaven" for proof).

[TheBoldImperator]

@musicmatty67 The reason he "seemed so confident" was because he was being fed an incredibly powerful and dangerous combination of prescription drugs, that's had terrible complications for his voice since (if you listen to modern interviews, he slurs quite a bit. Before Landy, he didn't). Landy used Brian for profit, separated him from his friends and family, and took advantage of his weak mental state.

[ChiroQuacker]

this was filmed at my bar mitzvah..when it was over my dad and my uncle shmoolie and brian went to a whore house where i got my first piece....

great memories...

[Okiemom50]

Still sounds fantastic. Although...the band sucked. LOL! He said to speed it up and they barely responded. Idiots.

[clibinarius]

This entire private performance was beautiful. It shows also that Brian could still sing-when he wanted to, that is (which was fairly rarely).

Its a shame that the other clips of this performance are missing from youtube for the moment. They exist, Caroline, No was great.

[alburtise]

nice confident voicing, i must admit the bass at the end took me by surprise!

[DonZabu]

That was inspired.

[Markgr122]

His voice was pretty damn strong!

[mrtwang32]

Love it when he tells the band to pick it up. Nice to hear his falsetto, ragged as it it...