I Just Wasn't Made for These Times

I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
Studio album by Brian Wilson
Released	15 August 1995
Recorded	Fall 1994 (except "Still I Dream of It": circa 1976)
Genre	Rock
Length	29:27
Label	MCA
Producer	Don Was and Brian Wilson
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Robert Christgau link
Brian Wilson chronology
Brian Wilson (1988) I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (1995) Orange Crate Art (with Van Dyke Parks) (1995)

I Just Wasn't Made for These Times is the second released album by former Beach Boys member Brian Wilson. It followed his eponymous debut seven years after its release, a period that saw much upheaval in Wilson's personal life.

After his solo debut, Wilson's controversial psychotherapist, Dr Eugene Landy, also had significant influence on Brian's projected follow-up, Sweet Insanity, which was shelved and never issued in 1990. Finally, after several years of overmedication and manipulation at the hand of Landy, Wilson was released from his care in late 1991, by court order, and was forced to restart a new phase in his life. After Landy's enforced departure, Wilson began a relationship with Melinda Ledbetter, who would help Brian reunite with his family and begin his re-entry into public life.

Feeling ready to become active again, Wilson felt the best thing to do was to remind his fanbase – and himself – how far he had come by revisiting a sampling of songs from his vast catalogue. Teaming up with Don Was, and setting himself in an understated and modest musical environment, he created some refreshingly restrained versions of his songs.

Simultaneously with the recording, a black and white documentary, also directed by Was, captured Brian's public re-awakening, bolstered by interviews with family members and friends.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Brian Wilson; except where indicated

1. "Meant for You" (Wilson, Mike Love) – 0:50
2. "This Whole World" – 1:55
3. "Caroline, No" (Wilson, Tony Asher) – 2:39
4. "Let the Wind Blow" (Wilson, Mike Love) – 2:44
5. "Love And Mercy" – 3:13
6. "Do It Again" (Wilson, Mike Love) – 2:44
   • Features daughters Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson on backing vocals
7. "The Warmth of the Sun" (Wilson, Mike Love) – 3:48
8. "Wonderful" (Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 2:14
9. "Still I Dream of It" – 3:35
   • 1976 demo and intended for the unreleased Adult/Child album
10. "Melt Away" – 2:58
11. "'Til I Die" – 2:47

"Love and Mercy" and "Melt Away" were originally credited as Brian Wilson/Eugene Landy, but those credits have since been revised to show Wilson as the only composer

I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (MCA MCASD 11270) reached #59 in the UK, and did not chart in the US.

Sources

• AllMusicGuide.com