44 episodes
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS Season 4: The Brian Wilson Story Double Elvis
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3.7 • 278 Ratings
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In 1966, Brian Wilson planned to follow up the Beach Boys' groundbreaking album Pet Sounds with an even bigger musical statement. He was writing a teenage symphony to God. That album, Smile, was never finished. Instead, Brian slowly unraveled, as the pressure to make something profound weighed heavy on him. He worried that he wasn’t good enough. He worried that he was a failure in the eyes of the record company, his band, his peers, and his own father. He thought his house was bugged. He thought the music he was making conjured some strange voodoo that had a disastrous impact on the real world. He became paranoid. He self-medicated with amphetamines, hash, and LSD. He held meetings in his swimming pool. He imagined people who weren’t there. And eventually, in 1967, he went off the proverbial deep end. Did the real Brian Wilson ever resurface? Part true crime, part historical fiction, part spoken word lo-fi beat noir brought to you by Jake Brennan, and featuring the fictionalized voice Brian Wilson, BLOOD ON THE TRACKS sounds like nothing you’ve heard before. Because you can’t push the needle into the red without leaving a little blood on the tracks.
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Brian Wilson Is Smiling Again (The Brian Wilson Story, Chapter 10)
Sometimes you can find redemption, but you have to find it for yourself. No one is going to give it to you. You can’t find it in a movie or a song. You can only find it inside yourself. In the 21st century, decades after his pursuit of an unfinished teenage symphony to God that drove him to the edge of sanity, Brian Wilson found his redemption. But he also found something else, too: the realization of a dream that he thought had died long ago.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. -
Brian Wilson Is Free (The Brian Wilson Story, Chapter 9)
Brian’s lost masterpiece, Smile, continues to lurk in the background. It’s there when Brian’s troubled and talented brother, Dennis, takes one last swim in the Pacific Ocean blue. It’s there as Brian claws his way out of the grip of the doctor who keeps him apart from health, love, and happiness. And it’s there as he prepares his triumphant return, not as a Beach Boy – but as someone he’s just discovering. Himself.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. -
Brian Wilson Is…Back? (The Brian Wilson Story, Chapter 8)
The Beach Boys stage an intervention to get Brian the help he needs just as he reaches what he thinks is the bottom. He’s pulled out of the darkness by a doctor – a man Brian immediately recognizes as his savior. But Brian’s vision isn’t clear. He can’t see the doctor for who he really is: not the person who will set Brian free, but rather keep him trapped in a different kind of prison.
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Brian Wilson Is Sailing On (The Brian Wilson Story, Chapter 7)
Brian continues to lose control. And not just of his band and the music he makes. He loses self-control and becomes so dependent on drugs that he pays someone to deliver them to him. He loses control of his car and nearly kills himself in a crash. And then he loses control of himself – in front of one of the biggest rock ‘n roll stars of all time.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. -
Brian Wilson Isn’t Himself (The Brian Wilson Story, Chapter 6)
After months of frustration, the Beach Boys abandon Smile to work on new music. But for Brian it’s not that easy. He’s quickly losing control. He’s betrayed by those meant to be closest to him. And one of his brothers is flirting with a dark and disturbing group of people living on the fringes of society…a so-called family that may or may not infiltrate the warm and sunny climes of the Beach Boys’ world.
SOURCES
Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brain Wilson, by Peter Ames Carlin
I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir, by Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman
Wouldn’t It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, by Charles L. Granata
The Beach Boys second place in the sonic space race: 'Smiley Smile' (Far Out)
The flight that changed Beach Boy Brian Wilson's life forever (Far Out)
The astonishing genius of Brian Wilson (The Guardian)
The Truth About The Beach Boys Album Smiley Smile (Grunge)
Discover the story behind The Beach Boys' 'SMiLE' (Goldmine)
A SMiLE In The Echo Chamber - The Beach Boys Lost Masterpiece (The Big Takeover)
The tragic story of how Brian Wilson's career was almost destroyed by a rogue doctor (Smooth Radio)
“Good Vibrations” and the Lost Studio Footage (YouTube)
The Making Of…the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ (Uncut)
Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (PBS)
Bad Vibrations: Brian Wilson Sues Collaborator (Rolling Stone)
Brian Wilson Talks Mental Illness, Drugs and Beach Boys (Rolling Stone)
ELTON JOHN & BRIAN WILSON - Wouldn't It Be Nice (Live, 2001)
Inside the twisted relationship between Eugene Landy and Brian Wilson (Far Out)
How one quack doctor almost destroyed Brian Wilson’s career (NY Post)
'One of Charles Manson's murderers gang babysat my two children' says Beach Boys star Mike Love (Daily Mail)
The Beach Boys battle: Why does Brian Wilson hate Mike Love? (Far Out)
The True Story Behind The Film 'Love And Mercy' (Ranker)
Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece, by Domenic Priore
For behind the scenes info and news on this episode, follow:
Instagram: @DoubleElvis @disgracelandpod
Twitter: @DoubleElvisFm @disgracelandpod
Tik Tok @Disgracelandpod
Pinterest: @doubleelvisfm
Facebook: Double Elvis Productions
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS is part true crime, part historical fiction, and part spoken word lo-fi beat noir brought to you by Jake Brennan, host of the award-winning music and true crime podcast DISGRACELAND. For more shows like Blood on the Tracks, check out www.doubleelvis.com
To hear previous seasons of Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Phil Spector), check out: https://bloodonthetrackspod.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. -
Brian Wilson Is…a Son (The Brian Wilson Story Chapter 5)
Brian’s troubled relationship with his controlling and abusive father comes into focus. Paul McCartney stops by a California recording studio to chew some celery into a microphone. And the tragedies of the past threaten to echo endlessly into the future.
SOURCES
Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brain Wilson, by Peter Ames Carlin
I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir, by Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman
Wouldn’t It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, by Charles L. Granata
The Beach Boys second place in the sonic space race: 'Smiley Smile' (Far Out)
The flight that changed Beach Boy Brian Wilson's life forever (Far Out)
The astonishing genius of Brian Wilson (The Guardian)
The Truth About The Beach Boys Album Smiley Smile (Grunge)
Discover the story behind The Beach Boys' 'SMiLE' (Goldmine)
A SMiLE In The Echo Chamber - The Beach Boys Lost Masterpiece (The Big Takeover)
The tragic story of how Brian Wilson's career was almost destroyed by a rogue doctor (Smooth Radio)
“Good Vibrations” and the Lost Studio Footage (YouTube)
The Making Of…the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ (Uncut)
Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (PBS)
Bad Vibrations: Brian Wilson Sues Collaborator (Rolling Stone)
Brian Wilson Talks Mental Illness, Drugs and Beach Boys (Rolling Stone)
ELTON JOHN & BRIAN WILSON - Wouldn't It Be Nice (Live, 2001)
Inside the twisted relationship between Eugene Landy and Brian Wilson (Far Out)
How one quack doctor almost destroyed Brian Wilson’s career (NY Post)
'One of Charles Manson's murderers gang babysat my two children' says Beach Boys star Mike Love (Daily Mail)
The Beach Boys battle: Why does Brian Wilson hate Mike Love? (Far Out)
The True Story Behind The Film 'Love And Mercy' (Ranker)
Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece, by Domenic Priore
For behind the scenes info and news on this episode, follow:
Instagram: @DoubleElvis @disgracelandpod
Twitter: @DoubleElvisFm @disgracelandpod
Tik Tok @Disgracelandpod
Pinterest: @doubleelvisfm
Facebook: Double Elvis Productions
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS is part true crime, part historical fiction, and part spoken word lo-fi beat noir brought to you by Jake Brennan, host of the award-winning music and true crime podcast DISGRACELAND. For more shows like Blood on the Tracks, check out www.doubleelvis.com
To hear previous seasons of Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Phil Spector), check out: https://bloodonthetrackspod.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Customer Reviews
Sound design is like nails on a chalkboard
Story is interesting, but the sound design is beyond distracting. Intrusive, echoey asides interrupt the narrative, derailing the show, over and over again. 27 Club & Disgraceland are far better productions.
Too corny
I’ve enjoyed soke of his other podcasts. But i could get past the corny interludes and sound bites in this one. The creator probably had a difficult time translating the experience of mental illness into an auditory experience. And it just doesn’t work. It’s heavy handed.
Loved it!
Coming from someone that grew up on Brian and let Brian’s music be the soundtrack to my life. The good/bad times, the loves, the breakups, the crushes, the loneliness. I could always find it in Brian’s creations.
I really liked the presentation and format of your chapters. I knew the history, but appreciate the creativity to deliver the bio in a way that kept me wanting more. I liked how you went in and out of Brian’s head. It made me feel like maybe that’s how he was thinking and saw things.