Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Brian Wilson, Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA, 2-11-2005

As I mentioned in my last post, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys died a few days ago as I write this, on June 11, 2025. He's such an important musical figure that I considered it a must to post something in his memory. I did a little Internet browsing, and came across mentions of this tribute concert. However, I could only find a few songs from it, far from the whole thing. But luckily I've recently been getting some assistance from Fabio from Rio, who is a big Brian Wilson / Beach Boys fan. It turned out he had the DVD of this. He then figured out how to convert it to audio format, and sent it to me. So here you are. Earlier today, I posted an album that pays tribute to Brian Wilson created by Fabio, but two tribute albums is better than one.

MusiCares is a non-profit charity that is connected to the organization that runs the yearly Grammy music awards. Since 1991, they've been giving out a yearly award, MusiCares Person of the Year. They have a benefit concert celebrate the music of that person. It takes place in the same town and week as the Grammy awards, so lots of music stars are there to perform on stage or at least attend. The money raised from the benefit concert (and other activities) goes to an organization that helps struggling musicians, for instance those who are having medical trouble or drug addiction and can't afford treatment.

It seems that bootlegs of these yearly MusiCares concerts are basically non-existent. The audiences are relatively small and are mostly made up of music industry insiders who aren't likely to secretly tape record the show and then share that with the public. However, a handful of the concerts have been officially released on DVD. These are generally rare and already out of print. But I've managed to find most of them, concerts for: Paul Simon, James Taylor, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen (plus this one). I plan on posting all of those here eventually. I know of two more that exist: Barbra Streisand and Carole King. I'm not that interested in the Streisand one, but I'd be very interested in the King one, if anyone has that. (Or, heck, if anyone has any of the other concerts not on DVD!)

For this album, I don't feel I need to explain what happened in the concert, because I found not one, but two, articles that give good summaries. Here they are (with the second one from Rolling Stone): 

MusiCares Celebrates Brian Wilson As Person Of The Year | RECORDINGACADEMY.com 

Musicians Serenade Brian Wilson at MusiCares Gala 

I do want to mention though that I'm very disappointed this isn't the complete concert. Almost complete, but a couple of songs are missing, at least. One song that got left off the DVD, and thus left off this album, is a performance by Neil Young of the Beach Boys classic "In My Room." It seems to be the one and only time Young ever publicly performed this song, so it's a real loss. Another one that wasn't included is a duet between India.Arie and Brian Wilson on the even greater classic "God Only Knows." If anyone has either or both of those, please let me know so I can add them in.

Thanks again to Fabio from Rio. I looked everywhere and couldn't find this, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find he had it. After he sent it to me, I broke the audio into mp3s. So I think it's a safe bet that this is the first time this full concert is being shared in an audio format. 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long. 

01 talk (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
02 I Get Around (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
03 talk (Richie Sambora)
04 City Blues (Richie Sambora)
05 Sail On, Sailor (Jamie Cullum)
06 talk (Barenaked Ladies)
07 Brian Wilson - 'Til I Die (Barenaked Ladies)
08 talk (John Legend)
09 I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (John Legend)
10 talk (Backstreet Boys)
11 When I Grow Up [To Be a Man] (Backstreet Boys)
12 talk (Shelby Lynne)
13 Surfer Girl (Shelby Lynne)
14 talk (Michael McDonald & Billy Preston)
15 Don't Worry Baby (Michael McDonald & Billy Preston)
16 Surf's Up [Instrumental Version] (Jeff Beck)
17 Surfin' U.S.A. (Jeff Beck)
18 talk (Earth, Wind & Fire)
19 Don't Talk [Put Your Head on My Shoulder] (Earth, Wind & Fire)
20 talk (Darlene Love)
21 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Darlene Love)
22 Pet Sounds [Instrumental] (Brian Wilson Band)
23 talk (Neil Portnow & Brian Wilson)
24 Our Prayer - Heroes and Villains (Brian Wilson)
25 Good Vibrations (Brian Wilson)
26 Fun, Fun, Fun (Brian Wilson)
27 Love and Mercy (Brian Wilson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gzQuD2sf

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/6nJGwuHSdbQCB1H/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. That's India.Arie with Brian Wilson.