Long Promised Road

Seen at The Picture House , Crouch End

26th January 2022

Having been to just about all of the Brian Wilson UK concerts since the SMiLE premiere in February 2004, there was no way I was going to miss out on seeing this new documentary on the Big Screen.

Thus is not your typical documentary which splices loads of historical film footage together with a narrative overdubbed..... The film is personal. It is centred around Brian being interviewed by Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine accompanied with film from when the Beach Boys first started out in the early 60's through to footage from the present day concerts. A lot of the footage is from other documentaries that I have seen before, but there are others that were new to me, such as the girl in Oklahoma interviewing the band.

Fine has known Wilson as a friend for many years (since 1995) and appreciates the battle Brian has with mental health and the fact he is very uncomfortable with straight, direct interviews.  Fine interviews Brian whilst driving around LA, listening to Wilson's music and visiting the old haunts such as the Pet Sounds House on Laurel Way, the Bellagio House, the Wilson's old childhood home in Hawthorne (now demolished and a Beach Boys monument standing in place), and Paradise Cove to name a few. There is no sugar coating and what you get is raw Brian Wilson and at times it can be emotional to watch. I am not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes at times.

Wilson's battle with mental health is no secret and the biopic "Love & Mercy" from 2015, really brought home to me, the abuse from Landy, how much he controlled Brian and the long term damage done. Those 9 years with Landy has for sure resulted in a vulnerable Wilson who openly admits to being "scared". At times Brian is alert and funny and looks well and in other scenes he doesn't look so well, and seems quite frail.

And then you see Brian in the studio with the rest of his band and here is the genius we all know and love. Despite only having hearing in one ear, he picks up every nuance and directs the whole band and you get a small insight into how he makes such wonderful music.

What brought back special memories to us was seeing the Beverly Glen Deli. When we were in LA in 2011, Mari Wilson (no relation) and her (now husband) Mal Young took us there for lunch, knowing that Brian was a regular. We were there much later than Brian's usual time but the look on MY Brian's face when the great Brian Wilson wandered in and sat down at a table next to us was pure dead brilliant. Knowing it was Brian's sanctuary, we didn't disturb him but left him alone to eat his bowl of blueberries and drink his can of diet coke before he just wandered back out. To think the booth that Brian and Jason sat in could very well have been the booth we had occupied back in 2011!!

At one point, while watching the film in the studio with Brian and his band, both myself and MY Brian turned to each other and laughed as we had both realised Probyn and Rob Bonfiglio were playing their guitars left handed...... it's all in the detail don't you know!!! Obviously the camera was a phone that was on the front camera and was showing the "mirror" image!!! We had to laugh that we had both picked up on the same thing!

I am not going to cover every bit of the film, but below are the moments that caught me, made me laugh, made me cry and just stuck in my mind.

• How Brian found out a car that Fine and he were looking at was a 41 Caddy... "Hey Buddy........" - probably my favourite bit!
• Kicking Darian off the piano in the studio
• Speaking about Dennis, he says so softly "Yeah, I miss him"
• His reaction on hearing about Jack Rieley's passing
• Don Was' reaction to the vocal only tracks on God Only Knows
• The raw emotion when Fine left him alone in the car outside Carl's old house
• The credit to Nick Walusko's memory
• The baby at the end!!!
• When he says "I haven't had a friend to talk to in 3 years"
• Listening to POB (for the 1st time... really? wow)... "I wanna hear it all"
• The fact that out of all of the more recent concert / live footage that is available, segments shown included Scott Bennett and also the music he wrote with Brian such as Midnight's Another Day. I interpret that as support from Brian and Melinda as other, later footage is of course available.