Saturday, May 25, 2013

Intriguing 1989 Carl Wilson Interview

 
 
A generous bunch at the Smiley Smile board have posted a transcript from a 1989 interview with Carl Wilson.
 
Carl interviews are rare, for whatever reason. It's confusing, because these guys did 100 to 150 gigs per year, every year, yet rarely were given the opportunity (or took the opportunity?) to sit down for substantive interviews. In any event, this 1989 interview features Carl being relatively candid about the band's current state, discussing the "Still Cruisin'" album, live show setlists, Mike's place in the band, Brian's solo work, and so on. This was in the later Landy era where that situation was unraveling, and Carl as he usually did refused to go into detail on that subject.
 
Some interesting tidbits/details from the interview:
 
- Carl discusses a possible "Caribou" compilation of some sort that obvioiusly never materialized
- They tried to get Brian in on the 1989 European tour, but obviously it didn't happen due to the Landy situation
- Carl describes the joy of being in the studio with Brian working on "In My Car", while also pointing out the horrendous lyrics Landy was adding to the proceedings
- Carl is pretty diplomatic about the issue of the band's stale setlist when the interviewer refreshingly points out they should be doing stuff like "Cool Cool Water" instead of "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena"
- Carl says he likes Brian's solo album, and interestingly highlights the track "Let It Shine"
- Carl is eerily and stunningly prescient about the band's future, semi-jokingly but correctly pointing out that Mike would probably still be there performing after everybody else is gone
- Carl still partly avoids addressing what the hell happened on the 1978 Austrlian tour
 
 


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