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The "Andy Paley sessions" is the unofficial name given to an unfinished recording project by American musicians Brian Wilson and Andy Paley. During the 1990s, the duo planned to record an album that would have comprised original material written and produced by themselves with participation from other members of the Beach Boys. It was the last time Brian worked with his bandmates before Carl Wilson's death in 1998. Wilson and Paley had previously collaborated on Wilson's solo albums Brian Wilson (1988) and Sweet Insanity (unreleased). In February 1992, California courts issued a restraining order on Wilson's former psychologist Eugene Landy. The next day, Wilson phoned Paley explaining that they were now free to produce whatever they wanted. Without an album or recording contract in mind, the two proceeded to write and record several dozen songs that reflected Wilson's artistic sensibilities more than any work since The Beach Boys Love You (1977). In the meantime, he completed two albums for 1995: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times with Don Was and Orange Crate Art with Van Dyke Parks. Many personal and legal conflicts prevented the album from being completed. Contemporary reports stated that Wilson was influenced by his wife and advisors to abandon the Paley recordings in favor of more commercial adult contemporary projects with River North Records owner Joe Thomas. Since then, several Paley collaborations have seen official release across Wilson's albums, though many more circulate on bootlegs. Background Andy Paley first met Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in the late 1970s. His first major project with Wilson was the album Brian Wilson (1988), which Paley later called "a pretty good record ... [but] there were too many cooks and Brian wasn't really calling the shots." Some songs from the album drew from close to 170 rough tape demos kept in briefcases next to Wilson's piano. Paley said: "There's great stuff, but there are also what I call 'hamburger songs'. A lot of those are real junk" (referring to songs Brian composed in exchange for hamburgers from his brother Dennis). After they worked on the material for several months, additional producers and songwriters were called in for Wilson. The duo reteamed for the recording of Sweet Insanity, which Paley called "even less real Brian than the first one". It was left unreleased. In February 1992, on the day after California courts issued a restraining order on therapist Eugene Landy from contacting Wilson, Wilson phoned Paley to work on an assortment of recordings destined for a potential album which could have featured some involvement with the Beach Boys. Paley remembered that Wilson would speak of each song's vocal arrangement in terms of which parts the Beach Boys would sing. Wilson called it "some of the best material I've done in a real long time", adding that he is "baffled" why Smile (whose recordings were still largely unreleased) continued to attract attention, saying: "Things are so different now. The new material just kicks the shit out of Smile." Sessions coincided with the recording of I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (1995) and the Brian Wilson–Van Dyke Parks collaboration Orange Crate Art (1995) in addition to his brief writing collaboration with power pop band Jellyfish. The band's co-founder Roger Manning told Rocky Mountain News in 1993: "Brian's an amazing guy and still has a lot of musical ideas. ... People ask me what he's like, and I've said he's like a really powerful computer with a really bad printer." Songs and production The material Wilson and Paley wrote ranged from full-blown rockers to delicate ballads. Their writing process involved one or the other convening at each other's house to sketch ideas on a boombox and contribute musical or lyrical ideas until the song was ready to be recorded in a professional studio with session musicians paid for by Wilson. Paley said: "We've just been doing what he [Brian] likes to do — the kind of records he's always liked; I don't try to change anything in any way — his vision of what he wants." Wilson described Paley as a multi-instrumentalist with "a lot of talent for anything you can think of. ... He's the most frighteningly talented person that I've met, and the most serious about music." Biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote of the material, Brian's new songs bore none of the stamps that had come to define latter-day Beach Boys songs – no references to beaches or surf, no self-conscious attempts to seem younger than the singers' actual years – they did reflect more of Brian's musical, emotional, and intellectual interests than any series of songs he'd recorded since The Beach Boys Love You. "Gettin' In over My Head" was written for the film Grace of My Heart (1995), a fictionalized account of the 1960s Brill Building era that included a character based on Wilson. "Soul Searchin'" was envisioned as a Philadelphia soul-sounding record; Solomon Burke later recorded a version for his album Don't Give Up on Me (2002). "You're Still a Mystery", according to Paley, was "a 50/50 collaboration ... except for the bridge, which Brian wrote by himself." "God Did It" was largely written by Paley and inspired by Beach Boys songs such as "He Come Down" and "That Same Song". "Chain Reaction of Love" contains various percussion that was meant to evoke the song's "chain reaction" theme. "Elbow '63" is an autobiographical song about Wilson's competition with bands such as the Beatles. Other titles included "Slightly American Music", "I'm Broke", "It's Not Easy Bein' Me", "Marketplace", "Proud Mary" (a cover of the John Fogerty song), "Desert Drive", "Frankie Avalon", "Dancin' the Night Away", "Off My Chest", "This Song's Gonna Sleep with You Tonight", "Saturday Morning in the City", "This Could Be the Night" (a cover of the Harry Nilsson song), "I'm Goin' Home", "I'm Psyched", "Mary Ann", "Stay Right Here in Heaven", "Must Be a Miracle", "In My Moondreams", "Where Has Love Been", "Rodney on the ROQ", and "Pleasure Island". Initial sessions The Wilson–Paley recordings span 1987–2008, though the main 1990s sessions commenced in spring 1992 and lasted until fall 1994 at Mark Linett's Your Place or Mine recording studio in Glendale, California. Weeks after Mike Love successfully sued Wilson for songwriting credits – which resulted in Wilson losing $5 million – Wilson told MOJO in February 1995: "Mike and I are just cool. There's a lot of shit Andy and I got written for him. I just had to get through that goddamn trial!" Two weeks after the trial, Love invited Wilson to his home in Lake Tahoe for a "serious" songwriting session, in which they wrote one song tentatively slated for the television show Baywatch Nights. Wilson said in March 1995: "I'm trying to get used to our new thing, and I think I will. It's so hard, you know. I feel like I'm on the spot, and I don't like that feeling." Next month, in April, it was unclear whether the project would turn into a W.... Discover the Carl Paley popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Carl Paley books.