While I was reading this, all I could think of was substituting in "Pete Townsend" and "Lifehouse." Dale. In a message dated 9/2/2003 5:22:52 PM Eastern Standard Time, velaires@earthlink.net writes:

I think the obvious answer to the whole thing is that Brian Wilson built a mountain he couldn't climb and he eventually knew it, but, since the stakes were so high, he kept recording stuff that he thought would tie together all these elements and finally got to a point where the record had mutated into something he could never shape together, and at the same time, he couldn't deal with the professional/family pressures that would have broken anyone his age with his responsibility.