# The Beach Boys Appreciation Thread



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I have been a lifelong fan of The Beach Boys starting when I listened outside my sister's bedroom door to her playing her records.

I've broken their career up into what I think are periods according to style:

*1962-1964*: In 1958 brothers Brian Wilson (16), Dennis Wilson (13), and Carl Wilson (11) formed the nucleus of the Beach Boys, singing in their bedroom, listening to records, and most importantly dreaming. Their father Murray Wilson was a minor songwriter but had connections in the L.A. music industry which would be crucial in their early career, but which would later become an albatross.

A friend and neighbor David Marks would join them as would their cousin Mike Love.

They had hits from the very start, and this became a problem since between the record company and Murray the band, especially Brian, was worked non-stop to keep the pipeline filled with catchy songs about the Southern California teen lifestyle: girls, cars, and surfing.

_Surfin' Safari
Surfin' USA
Surfer Girl
Little Deuce Coupe
Shut Down, Vol. 2
All Summer Long
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album _(Brian uses forty-one-piece studio orchestra, conceiving, arranging, and writing much of the music. in collaboration with Four Freshmen arranger Dick Reynolds.)

*1965-1967*: This was the band's creative peak with Brian Wilson taking complete creative control over the songwriting, production, and concept. He left the touring band in 1966 to devote himself solely to writing and producing their albums.

_The Beach Boys Today!
Summer Days (And Summer Nights)
Beach Boys Party
Pet Sounds_ (one of the greatest Pop/Rock albums ever released)
_Smiley Smile_ (truncated version of _Smile_, Brain Wilson and Van **** Parks's aborted masterpiece)
_Wild Honey_

*1968-1973*: After the Smile sessions debacle, Brian Wilson had something of a mental breakdown due to exhaustion and creative fatigue. After producing a dozen records in five years (including the masterpiece Pet Sounds) it is understandable how he would be tired both physically and mentally. In the aftermath the band lost much of its former luster.

Tracks from the _Smile_ sessions would pop up representing their past glory but by and large band members Al Jardine, Carl Willson, and Bruce Johnston would take the lead. Also during this period Dennis Wilson would emerge as a potent songwriter and singer, producing some of the bands best material after Brian, whose presence was intermittent.

_Friends
20/20
Sunflower
Surf's Up (the best from this period)
Carl & The Passions/So Tough
Holland_

*1976-1985*: I consider this the band's low point and these records are among their worst both critically and commercially.

_15 Big Ones
Love You
M.I.U. Album
L.A. (Light Album)
Keepin' The Summer Alive
The Beach Boys_

Since 1985 compilations, old live concerts, and reissues would appear and it was not until 2011 that the reconstructed _Smile_ album was released. Then in 2012 the first record to include new material _That's Why God Made Radio_ came out, a pretty good late career effort.

Here's where you can show some love to this iconic American band, whose career saw some of the highest creative levels of any Rock/Pop band as well as some of the lowest.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I am one of those weirdos for whom The Beach Boys Love You is a masterpiece. No matter what one thinks of it, there isn't another pop record that sounds quite like it.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fbjim said:


> I am one of those weirdos for whom The Beach Boys Love You is a masterpiece. No matter what one thinks of it, there isn't another pop record that sounds quite like it.


I have to admit that I've not spent much time with the records in this post-1975 period - but plan on doing just that for the purpose of this thread. But I do remember when that one came out, I was still buying everything they released, and being disappointed every time. _15 Big Ones_ was a big let down and none of the others really jelled for me.

You could be right, and I will listen with new ears.


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)

_The Beach Boys Today!_ is under-rated.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Jay said:


> _The Beach Boys Today!_ is under-rated.


Not by me, I think of it as a strong precursor to _Pet Sounds_, no weak songs and spome real stand out tracks like Please Let Me Wonder and the excellent She Knows Me Too Well. In The Back of My Mind has some interesting harmonic movement, and a good string arrangement. And I haven't even mentioned the hits "Help Me, Rhonda" and "When I Grow Up to Be a Man." Every song has some little tweak that takes it up a notch from the standard Pop song of the time.

All round strong record.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Most of the L.P s are still ( always being careful) in good shape, only bought a few on CD, love the sound .


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

fbjim said:


> I am one of those weirdos for whom The Beach Boys Love You is a masterpiece. No matter what one thinks of it, there isn't another pop record that sounds quite like it.


Thanks for telling me about this. I'm hoping there's more to Brian Wilson's songwriting than the little that I've looked at it, as I've really admired Pet Sounds.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Oh man, I love Love You but that's not the album I'd go for examples of Brian Wilson as songwriter. Much more one based on the weird mix of the unique production and the bizarrely juvenile lyrics.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I find The Free Design to be close to Brian Wilson/Beach Boys writing ability


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I quite like a handful of their songs, but their albums never clicked with me. I tried again with a few (including Pet Sounds) last year, but still not.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

regenmusic said:


> I find The Free Design to be close to Brian Wilson/Beach Boys writing ability


Also, The High Llamas, who acknowledge the influence/hommage - I've never listened to The Free Design, never even heard of them - but thanks for the tip, I'll seek them out on Spotify.



regenmusic said:


> Thanks for telling me about this. I'm hoping there's more to Brian Wilson's songwriting than the little that I've looked at it, as I've really admired Pet Sounds.


Some Brian Wilson songs which I think are exceptional and are _not_ on _Pet Sounds_, and not big hits or very well-known - from what I think of as their Golden Decade (I've Bolded the best two, IMO):

Surfin' U.S.A. (1963)
Lonely Sea

Surfer Girl (1963)
Catch a Wave (sounds like a ditty but has some interesting twists and turns)

Shut Down Vol. 2 (1964)
Don't Worry Baby
The Warmth of the Sun
Keep an Eye on Summer

All Summer Long (1964)
We'll Run Away

Summer Days (And Summer Nights) (1965)
Girl Don't Tell Me
Let Him Run Wild

*Smiley Smile* (1967, a grossly under-rated record)
Wonderful 
Wind Chimes

Wild Honey (1967)
Darlin'
Let the Wind Blow

Friends (1968)
Busy Doni' Nothin'

*Surf's Up* (1972)
Surf's Up (a masterpiece)
Till I Die
Day in the Life of a Tree (very unique but blew my mind when I first heard it - the organ!)

Holland (1973)
The mini-opera at the end:
Mt. Vernon and Fairway
I'm the Pied Piper
Better Get Back in Bed
Magic Transistor Radio
I'm the Pied Piper
Radio King Dom


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

SanAntone said:


> Not by me, I think of it as a strong precursor to _Pet Sounds_, no weak songs and spome real stand out tracks like Please Let Me Wonder and the excellent She Knows Me Too Well. In The Back of My Mind has some interesting harmonic movement, and a good string arrangement. And I haven't even mentioned the hits "Help Me, Rhonda" and "When I Grow Up to Be a Man." Every song has some little tweak that takes it up a notch from the standard Pop song of the time.
> 
> All round strong record.


In the back of my mind is one of my absolute favorites of them


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1962-1964*

The Beach Boys's band came into existence as an outgrowth of father Murray Wilson's activity to promote his sons using his connections in the Los Angeles music industry as a minor songwriter. Brian had showed dad their first songs, "Surfin'" and "Surfin' Safari" - here's Wikipedia's description the chronology:



> Brian and Carl were avidly listening to Johnny Otis' KFOX radio show. Inspired by the simple structure and vocals of the rhythm and blues songs he heard, Brian changed his piano-playing style and started writing songs. Family gatherings brought the Wilsons in contact with cousin Mike Love. Brian taught Love's sister Maureen and a friend harmonies. Later, Brian, Love and two friends performed at Hawthorne High School. Brian also knew Al Jardine, a high school classmate. Brian suggested to Jardine that they team up with his cousin and brother Carl.
> 
> Love gave the fledgling band its name: "The Pendletones", a pun on "Pendleton", a style of woolen shirt popular at the time. Dennis was the only avid surfer in the group, and he suggested that the group write songs that celebrated the sport and the lifestyle that it had inspired in Southern California. Brian finished the song, titled "Surfin'", and with Mike Love, wrote "Surfin' Safari".
> 
> Murray recalled, "They had written a song called 'Surfin'', which I never did like and still don't like, it was so rude and crude."


Despite his dislike of their first efforts, Murray called his own publisher, Hite Morgan, who had owned a small publishing company with his wife Helen. It was Helen who recognized the marketability of the song and on September 15, 1961, the band recorded a demo of "Surfin'" with the Morgans. A more professional recording was made on October 3, at World Pacific Studio in Hollywood.

After being turned down by a couple of record companies The Beach Boys (a name given to them by the publishers) the band was signed to the standard seven-year contract by Capitol Records. Capitol may have thought they had America's answer to The Beatles, also on Capitol. In any event Nick Venet was the producer for their first record _Surfin' Safari_, but had nothing to do with the music. Even at this stage Brian Wilson was in complete creative control.

_Surfin' Safari _(1962) is the only Beach Boys record that I don't hear anything out of the ordinary, except for the harmony singing. But the songs are just fluff.

Things pick up considerably with their second release, _Surfin' U.S.A._ (1963). Built around their first top ten title song this album solidified their brand: light weight rocking songs and 12/8 ballads about cars, surfing/the beach, girls, and eventually school. This was when Brian began double-tracking the vocals, something which would continue for their entire career.

The songs from this one worth mentioning are "Lonely Sea" an evocative ballad with some nice chord changes. Brian sings lead in his trademark falsetto inflected vocal, then launches into a spoken verse. Pretty hokey, but it works. "Shut Down" which would appear on two other albums within a couple of years. I mention this one because it has a couple of things which hint at stylistic aspects which will become part of Brian Wilson bag of tricks. There are some passing chords which are not standard, and Brian brings in a tenor sax guy to honk a one note riff during the bridge. He's already doing stuff out of the ordinary in the studio.

At some point between _Surfin' U.S.A._ and _Surfer Girl _Brian found his way into a studio while *Phil Spector* was producing and the experience would have life changing impact on him. One day while driving he heard "Be My Baby" and was so taken with the sound of the record he had to pull over. He was later quoted, ""I was unable to really think as a producer up until the time where I really got familiar with Phil Spector's work. That was when I started to design the experience to be a record rather than just a song."

_Surfer Girl _(1963) has several songs that stick out: "Catch a Wave"; "Little Deuce Coupe"; "In My Room".

Then "Little Deuce Coupe" reappears as the title song on their 4th album (1963) in two years. In these early days they would sometimes re-release a song that had done well as a single on a successive album. "Be True to Your School" although somewhat silly lyrically, has some nice musical aspects.

With _Shut Down Vol. 2_ (1964) we get some of their really good work. "Fun, Fun, Fun"; "Don't Worry Baby"; "The Warmth of the Sun"; are their strongest songs to date.

And with _All Summer Long_ (1964) it just gets better: "I Get Around"; "We'll Run Away"; "Wendy"; "Girls on the Beach"; "Don't Back Down".

_The Beach Boys Christmas Album_ (1964) is notable because of the orchestra for which Brian worked with a professional arranger and learned enough to begin doing his own writing. The Beach Boys had no George Martin, it was all Brian Wilson.

Next up will be their most creative period, 1965-1967, which produced one album few bands ever equalled much less bettered. They had left surfing behind with _Surfer Girl_ but now had to deal with The British Invasion. The Beach Boys were one of a handful of acts that could compete with The Beatles and chart records in the Top Ten along with the Fab Four.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

The greatest "pop" group of all time.
IMHO


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I think the BBs did well to keep the creative bar set relatively high for the few crucial years after Brian Wilson's meltdown - it must have been a testing time for them but thankfully there were others who could now take up more of the songwriting slack. That is also why I admire Pink Floyd in hanging in there once Syd Barrett had lost it. On the other hand, had the Kinks been deprived of the full-time services of Ray Davies in similar fashion after, say, _Waterloo Sunset_ there is no way in my mind that they could have fought back as well as the BBs and PF did.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

elgars ghost said:


> I think the BBs did well to keep the creative bar set relatively high for the few crucial years after Brian Wilson's meltdown - it must have been a testing time for them but thankfully there were others who could now take up more of the songwriting slack. That is also why I admire Pink Floyd in hanging in there once Syd Barrett had lost it. On the other hand, had the Kinks been deprived of the full-time services of Ray Davies in similar fashion after, say, _Waterloo Sunset_ there is no way in my mind that they could have fought back as well as the BBs and PF did.


Dennis and Carl Wilson wrote some really good songs. Carl's "Long Promised Road" and "Feel Flows" from _Surf's Up_ are among the best things he band ever recorded, easily as good as Brian's output. After Brian, I have to admit that Dennis was the next most prolific songwriter and to maintain a high level of inspiration.

Of the rest, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, had the best songs, but the shortly lived duo of Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin offered fairly mediocre stuff; their songs never sounded like Beach Boy material. And then there's Mike Love's indulgent and narcissistic contributions.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

SanAntone said:


> _And then there's Mike Love's indulgent and narcissistic contributions._


_Student Demonstration Time_ sticks in my mind like a malignant growth. Mike Love appropriates _Riot in Cell Block no.9_ and then adds some of the most toe-curling lyrics I can recall. It was hardly _Fortunate Son_ or _Gimme Shelter_, was it? :lol:


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1965-1966*
_The Beach Boys Today!
Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
A Beach Boys Party
Pet Sounds_

By the end of 1964, the stress of road travel, writing, and producing became too much for Brian. On December 23, while on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, he suffered a panic attack. In January 1965, he announced his withdrawal from touring to concentrate entirely on songwriting and record production. For the rest of 1964 and into 1965, session musician Glen Campbell served as Brian's temporary replacement in concert. (Wikipedia)

In his dream element without the distractions of touring Brian was able to devote his talents to his first love: creating aural masterpieces using all the tools a recording studio could offer. His respect of Phil Spector was a primary influence during the making of _The Beach Boys Today!_ (1965).

_Today_ is broken into two parts, Side 1 was made up of dance tunes, actually two songs have dance in the title, "Do You Wanna Dance" (a Bobby Freeman hit) and "Dance, Dance, Dance" (a song co-written by Brian, Carl and Mike). Both are infectious Pop miniatures that have, Spector's fingerprints are all over them, although with the latter tune the jingle bells, layered guitars (12-string & twang electric), and the riff, Brian brings a few things to the table.

The feature from this album is "Help Me, Rhonda" about as good a Pop song there is. I remember my school buddies and I mounted a campaign to call the local radio station and try to push the song to #1, which it accomplished, no doubt all because of us.

Side 2 has the more advanced songs, more involved melodically and harmonically but more importantly these display Brians growing sophistication with studio production. "Please Let Me Wonder"; "In the Back of My Mind" are both strong offerings but the real gem on this side is "She Knows Me Too Well."

From the opening 7th chords you know this song will be something different. The song unwinds effortlessly and organically. "Kiss Me Baby" is a soulful ballad but not one of Brian's better efforts, but even in something lackluster as this song Brian cannot help but throw in some surprising harmonic twists and turns. "In the Back of My Mind" has a well developed melody which drives the song, and I believe Dennis is singing lead. The orchestral parts feature fairly prominently on this track, and one can hear Brian's ambitions in this direction. It's a mere two minutes but so much is packed into that brief spin.

_Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)_ (1965) kicks off with an infectious dance song "The Girl From New York City" which reflects the band's fascination with '50s rock and roll, but with Brian's modifications, all in under two minutes. "Then I Kissed Her" is a feature for Al Jardine and is a Phil Spector hommage. "Salt Lake City" the capitol of drag racing, is next up and is a fun song with nice harmonic movement, and vocal arrangement.

The song on this record which is a new sound for the band is "Girl Don't Tell Me" and one can hear the impact The Beatles were having on Brian. With the strong acoustic guitars the song sounds like it could have fit on _Rubber Soul_. Carl sings lead, and the song has an advanced chord progression and melody, and the lyrics are a cut above their regular fare. And then "Help Me, Rhonda" makes a return appearance.

Okay, now we reach the first really statement of Brian's arrival as the "genius" he will demonstrate in the coming months. The introduction to "California Girls" is a masterful piece of writing, a mere 20 seconds but it's pure studio magic. The rest of the song is just a catchy clever little ditty for Mike Love. But that intro, that's the direction Brian will take the Beach Boys.

And we don't have to wait long, "Let Him Run Wild" is one Brian's solo efforts, and from the very start it is in the _Pet Sounds_ zip code. "You're So Good to Me" is not far behind, in hindsight you can clearly see the origin of Pet Sounds. The album ends with a one minute a cappella lullaby. Group singing was always what separated the Beach Boys from the pack, and Brian early on was a fan of the Four Freshmen and emulated their vocal sound throughout the band's career.

_A Beach Boys Party_ is just a fun little project, released I guess for the fans to have something while _Pet Sounds_ was still in the oven. But it oddly enough produced one their biggest hits, with "Barbara Ann." There are a couple of Beatles covers, "Tell Me Why" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" displaying their familiarity with their competition. I've love to hear the Beatles do a Beach Boys song, which I am willing to bet they did at some point. Bob Dylan also makes an appearance with "The Times They Are A-Changing." What we hear though is how easily the band is at casual entertaining, playing and singing their favorite songs.

From the first few seconds, punctuated with the snare hit, we know that _Pet Sounds_ is not just another Beach Boys album. In The Journal on the Art of Record Production, Marshall Heiser writes that Pet Sounds "diverges from previous Beach Boys' efforts in several ways: its sound field has a greater sense of depth and 'warmth;' the songs employ even more inventive use of harmony and chord voicings; the prominent use of percussion is a key feature (as opposed to driving drum backbeats); whilst the orchestrations, at times, echo the quirkiness of 'exotica' bandleader Les Baxter, or the 'cool' of Burt Bacharach, more so than Spector's teen fanfares." (Wikipedia)

Brian chose to write with Tony Asher a jingle writer who had an easy facility with lyrics. And the professionalism shows. If there had been a weakness to the Beach Boys songwriting it had been the lyrics. The music was always masterful, but the lyrics were often sound almost improvised and cliché-ridden, almost throw-away.

Brian had heard _Rubber Soul_ and was impressed that there were "no filler songs" and he later said: "It didn't make me want to copy them but to be as good as them. I didn't want to do the same kind of music, but on the same level."

Every song on _Pet Sounds_ is a statement of Brian Wilson's vision for the band, and Pop music, i.e. just how deep it could be. My favorites on this gem filled record are "You Still Believe In Me"; "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" (I'm not sure but I am pretty sure Brain wrote the string quartet parts); "Let's Go Away for a While" a beautiful instrumental; and of course "God Only Knows" one of the best Pop songs ever written; "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" featuring some fine writing for woodwinds; and finishing up with "Caroline, No." Has there ever been a more poignant Pop song written and sung?

There's so much that can be said about this record, the songwriting, the instrumental choices, the studio production, I'll just quote this summary:



> In its evaluation of Pet Sounds, the book 101 Albums that Changed Popular Music (2009) calls it "one of the most innovative recordings in rock", and states that it "elevated Brian Wilson from talented bandleader to studio genius". In 1995, a panel of numerous musicians, songwriters and producers assembled by Mojo voted Pet Sounds the greatest record ever made. Paul McCartney frequently spoke of his affinity with the album, citing "God Only Knows" as his favorite song of all time, and crediting it with furthering his interest in devising melodic bass lines. He said that Pet Sounds was the primary impetus for the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. According to author Carys Wyn Jones, the interplay between the two groups during the Pet Sounds era remains one of the most noteworthy episodes in rock history. In 2003, when Rolling Stone magazine created its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the publication placed Pet Sounds second to honour its influence on the highest-ranked album, Sgt. Pepper. (Wikipedia)


I am planning another post on the post-Pet Sounds period, but wanted to end here for now and let some of this soak in.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1966-1967*

"Good Vibrations" (1966)
_Pet Sounds_ (1966)
_Smiley Smile_ (1967)
_Wild Honey_ (1967)

Before proceeding to _Smile_, _Smiley Smile_, and _Wild Honey_ I really have to discuss the creation of "Good Vibrations," one of the Beach Boys's most complex songs; complex both in its songwriting as well as how it was put together:

Throughout the summer of 1966, Brian concentrated on finishing the group's next single, "Good Vibrations". Instead of working on whole songs with clear large-scale syntactical structures, he limited himself to recording short interchangeable fragments (or "modules"). Through the method of tape splicing, each fragment could then be assembled into a linear sequence, allowing any number of larger structures and divergent moods to be produced at a later time. Coming at a time when pop singles were usually recorded in under two hours, it was one of the most complex pop productions ever undertaken, with sessions for the song stretching over several months in four major Hollywood studios. It was also the most expensive single ever recorded to that point, with production costs estimated to be in the tens of thousands. (Wikipedia)

In October 1966 "Good Vibrations" hit the street making a huge splash and has been lauded as "one of the greatest masterpieces of rock music."



> There are six unique sections to the song. Music theorist Daniel Harrison refers to these sections individually as the verse, the refrain (or chorus), the "first episodic digression", the "second episodic digression", the "retro-refrain", and the coda.[72] Each has a distinct musical texture, partly due to the nature of the song's recording.[73][47] The track's instrumentation changes radically from section to section,[47] and for the AM radio standards of late 1966, the song's final runtime (3 minutes 35 seconds) was considered a "very long" duration. (Harrison, Daniel (1997). "After Sundown: The Beach Boys' Experimental Music" (PDF). In Covach, John; Boone, Graeme M. (eds.). Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis. Oxford University Press. pp. 33-57.)





> Virtually every pop music critic recognizes "Good Vibrations" as one of the most important compositions and recordings of the entire rock era. It is a regular fixture on "greatest of all-time" song lists and is frequently hailed as one of the finest pop productions of all time. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Good Vibrations" at number 6 in "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", the highest position of seven Beach Boys songs cited in the list. In 2001, the song was voted 24th in the RIAA and NEA's Songs of the Century list. As of 2016, "Good Vibrations" is ranked as the number four song of all time in an aggregation of critics' lists at Acclaimed Music. (Unterberger, Andrew (October 10, 2016). "The Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' at 50: A Masterpiece of Emotion as Much as Science". Billboard.)


During this process Brian bright Van **** Parks into his creative circle and they began spit-balling ideas for the Beach Boy's next album, _Smile_. Brian conceived of _Smile_ as a concept album, one of the first forays into Americana. Not "Americana" the alt-Rock style, but Americana similar to the kind of thing Aaron Copland, or Ferde Grofe, did in Classical music. This impetus was to draw on the rich American cultural and folk traditions of the West, cowboys, railroads, hoboes, some things Brian consciously wanted to reference were Native Indian and Hawaiian music, jazz, classical tone poems, cartoon sound effects, musique concrète, and yodeling.

Who knows the psychological pressures Brian Wilson was undergoing during the work on _Smile_? It can be assumed that he was feeling the pressure to keep coming up with material to answer The Beatles, their latest _Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band_ was their response to _Pet Sounds_, and Brian felt he had to up the ante yet again. He has said that there was competition between the two bands punching and counterpunching with each new record.

In any event it all caused him to keep tinkering with the music and studio sessions went on throughout 1967, delaying the projected release indefinitely until finally the project was shelved. Brian later said: "Time can be spent in the studio to the point where you get so next to it, you don't know where you are with it-you decide to just chuck it for a while."

In the meantime there were other distractions, Carl's legal problems with refusing to go to Vietnam, the bands's law suit against Capitol records for back royalty payments, which ultimately was to lead to the severance of their contract, and the alienation of close associates from Brian, Parks, and others. So by the end of 1967 the band has stagnated with no clear idea of how to proceed.

They still had to work so they attempted a European tour but because of problems with the UK, they did not have the logistical support and the concerts were widely panned. Further, they still had to satisfy their contract with Capitol to produce an album despite Smile had been cancelled.

Carl stated,"Brian just said, 'I can't do this. We're going to make a homespun version of [_Smile_] instead. We're just going to take it easy. I'll get in the pool and sing. Or let's go in the gym and do our parts.' That was _Smiley Smile_."

And so many of the songs from _Smile_ were re-recorded, much simpler, with most of the album featuring the Beach Boys playing their own instruments, rather than the session musicians employed in much of their previous work. It was the first album for which production was credited to the entire group instead of Brian alone.

I love _Smiley Smile_, always have, and for a long time could not understand the tepid response it garnered at the time of its release. There's some songs that are simply remarkable that survived the aborted Smile sessions. Those sessions produced exhaustive edits and incarnations, for example, for the song "Heroes and Villains". The history of the song is documented in the book by Peter Ames Carlin, (July 25, 2006). _Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson_.

Here's some of what Carlin describes:

The song was Wilson and Parks' first collaboration. Parks characterized the song as "historically reflective" and a "visual effort" that was meant to match the ballads of Marty Robbins. He said the lyrics were based on the early history of California, including references to the involvement of the Spanish and American Indians. Some accounts suggest that the song developed partly from a Wilson reworking of the standard "You Are My Sunshine". Early versions included sections with lyrics about farm animals ("Barnyard") and physical health ("I'm in Great Shape").

"Heroes and Villains" has the most complex evolution of any song in the band's history. Recording spanned virtually the entire _Smile_ sessions as Wilson experimented with at least a dozen versions of the track, some of which ranged in length from six to eight minutes. In 2004, Wilson remade the song and its related pieces for _Brian Wilson Presents Smile_. In 2011, _The Smile Sessions _was released with an entire disc devoted to the song's original recording sessions.

_Smiley Smile_ also included the single "Good Vibrations" and other strong tracks "Wind Chimes" and "Wonderful". Then there were the wacky tracks, "Vegetables"; "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter - Woody Woodpecker Symphony"; "She's Goin' Bald"; "Little Pad"; "Whistle In" - and the two most segmented songs "With Me Tonight" and "Gettin' Hungry" you have a record with a lot going on in about half and hour's worth of music.

Well, okay, I can see how some might question the record. But the highs are so good, I forgive the rest. Since its release the album has been recognized as a masterpiece and more recent critical opinion has shifted considerably from the initial response.



> Pete Townshend of the Who is a known admirer of the record, as is Robbie Robertson of the Band. XTC's Andy Partridge considered it one of "the most influential records for me" and it was a direct inspiration for his song "Season Cycle" (Skylarking, 1986). In an interview with Time, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith stated that his "island" music picks include Smiley Smile, "Just for the melodic **** all." Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka, who composed music for the Japanese role-playing video game series EarthBound, cited Smiley Smile among influences on the games' soundtracks. In 2017, the New York Observer's Ron Hart wrote that Smiley Smile sonically foreshadowed the work of Harry Nilsson, Elvis Costello, Stereolab, the High Llamas, the Olivia Tremor Control, and Father John Misty. (Hart, Ron (July 20, 2017). "5 Treasures on the Beach Boys' New '1967-Sunshine Tomorrow'". New York Observer.)


To rebound and try to gain back some lost credibility the Beach Boys put out _Wild Honey_, an obvious attempt to be relevant and commercial by doing some R&B/Soul music. Its music differs in many ways from previous Beach Boys records: it contains very little group singing compared to previous albums, and mainly features Brian singing at his piano. Again, the Beach Boys recorded mostly at his home studio.

The album kicks off with "Wild Honey" a strong song; but then the energy saps with "Aren't You Glad" is a charming song but a little bit like treading water. A Stevie Wonder cover is next, which really confused me when I first heard it. "Country Air" and "A Thing or Two" tread some more water. Then we get something that is really good: "Darlin'" features horns, a driving dance beat, and a full throated vocal by Carl.

"I'd Love Just Once to See You" almost takes off but ends up being a list song, a diary entry - musically it has some nice spots. "Here Comes the Night" a derivative song but "Let the Wind Blow" offers some Beach Boys trademark sounds. Then "How She Boogalooed It" and "Mama Says" close the album out on weak notes.

So, these two years saw the remarkable achievement of "Good Vibrations", and the disappointment of the missed opportunity of the _Smile_ sessions, which led to two albums with mixed results. Sadly, it looked like the Beach Boys had peaked with _Pet Sounds_ and would never again scale those heights. But they continued to put out records, and all of them had bright spots worth talking about.

So, my next installment with cover albums done during 1968-1971.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1968-1971*
_Friends_ (1968)
_20/20_ (1969)
_Sunflower_ (1970)
_Surf's Up_ (1971)

_Friends_ is the 14th studio album by the Beach Boys, released on June 24, 1968. The album has a generally calm and peaceful atmosphere, and is noticeably brief; with five of its 12 tracks clocking in at two minutes or less. Despite its lackluster sales, fans generally came to regard the album as one of the band's finest.

As had become their routine, _Friends_ was recorded mostly at Brian Wilson's home with a lo-fi production style. Sessions went from February to April 1968 as the band began to see financial problems with loss of revenue stream from sales which did not materialize from their last two records.

Brian Wilson actively led the sessions, later referring to it as his second unofficial solo album (the first being 1966's _Pet Sounds_). The group's recent involvement with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his Transcendental Meditation practice can be heard in some of the material and it was the first album to that had songs written by Dennis Wilson. However five of the songs were written by three or more co-writers, usually including Brian.

One single was issued from the album, "Friends", which didn't do much.

_Friends_ received favorable reviews in the music press, but like their records since _Smiley Smile_ (1967), the album's simplicity divided critics and fans. But in actuality the record is a near perfectly balanced collection of well-written songs. The only problem is that the level of inspiration, nor the unity of vision, is not nearly as high as with _Pet Sounds_, the _Smile _sessions, or "Good Vibrations".

In 2018, session highlights, outtakes, and alternate takes were released for the compilation _Wake the World: The Friends Sessions_.

Side 1 begins with a simple but pleasant 40 second fragment, "Meant for You" before launching into the title song written by Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, and Al Jardine . This waltzing track is primo Beach Boys sound (songs in three-quartet meter turn up in several places on the record). The title song has a imaginative arrangement with harmonicas, saxophones, and underwater guitar surrounding the vocals.

And some interesting chord choices in the verse:

Dmaj7 Gmaj7 Dmaj7 Gmaj7
Ebmaj7 Abmaj7 Ebmaj7 Abmaj7
Gm F Gm F A7
D7 E7 G7 A7 Bb C D

Each song on _Friends_ seems to grow organically from the proceeding song, and there are no dips in energy or lackluster moments.

"Wake the World" (B. Wilson/Jardine) lasts just a minute and a half but it has some unique harmonic features as well, in fact the whole album features unusual chord progressions. The surprising timbre of a tuba adds a counter melody during the brief chorus.

The side continues with "Be Here in the Mornin'" (B. Wilson/C. Wilson/D. Wilson/Love/Jardine); "When a Man Loves a Woman" (B. Wilson/D. Wilson/C. Wilson/Jardine/Steve Korthof/Jon Parks) ending with a Brian Wilson instrumental, "Passing By."

Side 2 features two songs by Dennis Wilson, "Little Bird" is one of the best songs on the record, but the stand out track is "Busy Doin' Nothin'" a nod to the Bossa Nova craze which had taken over the US since the mid-'60s. It is a kind of song which began turning up on Beach Boy records for the last few years: a daily diary song, listing what was going to happen throughout the day in rather mundane language - but sung to a catchy melody supplied with a harmonically intricate arrangement. "Busy Doin' Nothin'" also has a well-conceived woodwind background.

The nice thing about _20/20_ is that it includes two songs from the aborted _Smile_ sessions, "Our Prayer" and "Cabinessence," which are miles above the other songs. But the hit from the record, and one of the most successful songs is "Do It Again" - a nostalgic hommage to their early themes of the beach, surfing, and girls. Everything about the song is done expertly and very effectively. Released in July, it reached the US top twenty, and became their second number one hit in the UK.

As was true for _Friends_, some of the best songs were penned by Dennis, "Be With Me," "All I Want to Do," and "Never Learn Not to Love." But mixed in is the album's weakest song, an instrumental by Bruce Johnston, "Nearest Faraway Place" - just some meandering electric piano backed with lush strings. Liberace is in the building.

"Cotton Fields," the old Huddie Ledbetter song makes an appearance, somewhat like "Sloop John B," probably also at the instigation of Al Jardine who had a real folkie side. Another daily diary song, "I Went to Sleep" and another Brian wlatz, "Time to Get Alone" which could have fitted nicely on _Friends_.

Then we come to the last two songs, which bring the album up several notches in quality.

"Our Prayer" is an exquisite a cappella miniature lasting just 1'10" but is perfectly constructed and leads beautifully to "Cabinessence" (originally titled "Cabin Essence" during the _Smile_ sessions), which is a mini-symphony with Van ***** Parks's lyrics referencing railroads "the iron horse"; wide open spaces/the prairie, "waves of wheat" "the crow cries, uncover the cornfield" underscored with banjos and harmonicas.

A year's delay separated the recording of _20/20_ and _Sunflower_ due to the band leaving Capitol and needing to find a new label. They ended up signing with Reprise and had accumulated nearly four dozen songs for consideration for the album.

Dennis Wilson's growing competence as a writer is in evidence with his contributing several of the better songs with "Forever" being one of the best songs, ever, for the band. "This Old World" was a Brian concoction, which finds him back in full stride. "Cool, Cool, Water" is another track that dates from the _Smile_ period. Again, some of my least favorite songs were written by Bruce Johnston culminating in the overblown conceit, "Tears in the Morning."

Around three dozen songs were left off _Sunflower_. Each member of the band, including Brian, wrote numerous songs for the album. Brian alone had about a full-length album's worth of material that he had written by himself or with collaborators. Most of these songs appeared on compilation albums over the next forty years, usually re-worked and often re-titled.

Now we come to one of my favorite Beach Boys records, _Surf's Up_.

Carl Wilson supplies two of the best songs on any Beach Boys record, "Long Promised Road" and "Feel Flows." They were his first significant solo compositions and were recorded almost entirely by himself. In the years to come Carl would take on a larger and larger creative role until his untimely death in 1998 - but that is still 27 years into the future; and many albums still to go.

While _Surf's Up_ has some of their best songs, it also has some of not so good tunes, another Bruce Johnston effort "Disney Girls," which is actually not so bad, for him; some Al Jardine ditties, "Don't Go Near the Water", ""Take a Load Off Your Feet", and the embarrassing, "Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)."

Mike Love offers "Student Demonstration Time" a re-written Lieber/Stoller rocker, "Riot in Cell Black #9," with his newly penned lyrics the song is given a full Rock production and comes off okay.

But the two songs by Carl and the final three songs by Brian Wilson, "A Day in the Life of a Tree" (sung by their then manager Jack Rieley with Brian's excellent organ accompaniment), "'Til I Die," and the masterpiece "Surf's Up" that are the reason for _Surf's Up_'s appearance on several of The Greatest Rock Albums lists.

Two more albums remain of what I consider their best period, Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972) and Holland (1973) which I will cover in my next post. After that I might write about some of the archival releases which have come out in the last 5 years. These are valuable for the studio material and outtakes and alternative version of their classic albums.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

SanAntone said:


> Again, some of my least favorite songs were written by Bruce Johnston culminating in the overblown conceit, "Tears in the Morning."


That's my favourite BB song.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Art Rock said:


> That's my favourite BB song.


Well, there you go: "Where does beauty reside?" Actually listening to it again I may have been a bit too harsh. Aside from some uncomfortable phrases where the lyric doesn't sit well over the melody, the song is one of his better efforts.

I mainly don't like his voice and production instincts, but "Tears" is certainly a cut (pardon the pun) above his other songs.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> Well, there you go: "Where does beauty reside?"


I've been a devoted Beach Boys fan since the early 70s. I'm also a big fan of The Four Freshmen, one of Brian Wilson's main influences. And, of course, Chuck Berry, another major influence. My favorite songs of theirs, off the top of my head:
Heroes and Villains (By far my favorite of their songs)
Caroline, No
God Only Knows
Girls On The Beach
Rebel Without A Cause
Good Vibrations
Please Let Me Wonder
I Get Around
California Girls
The Sloop John B (A Beach Boys cover inspired by The Kingston Trio)


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Surf's Up has maybe my favorite melody ever put in a pop song. I prefer the produced version from Smile Sessions but any version of that song is amazing.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

There are only a handful of Beach Boys songs I really dig

Good Vibrations
Don't Worry Baby
That's Not Me
Surf's Up
God Only Knows


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fbjim said:


> Surf's Up has maybe my favorite melody ever put in a pop song. I prefer the produced version from Smile Sessions but any version of that song is amazing.


"Surf's Up" survived as three piano/vocal demos done by Brian at his house on a two-track recorder. A rough backing track had also been prepared for the first part during the _Smile_ period. The version on _Surf's Up_ used the first piano/vocal and the rough backing track with additional overdubs. I like the quality of the vocal and overall crispness of the track better than the one on what has surfaced from _Smile_.

Another recording from 1967 was found decades later and released for the 2011 compilation _The Smile Sessions_.

While I prefer the one on _Surf's Up_ they are all good and not that much different. The final version is the one Brian Wilson did for his recreated _SMiLE_ album, which I think is interesting but not as good as those contemporaneous with _Smile_.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> There are only a handful of Beach Boys songs I really dig
> 
> Good Vibrations
> Don't Worry Baby
> ...


The thing about The Beach Boys is that they were really an avant-garde band. Except for their early period they were more interested in writing songs that defied the conventions of Pop/Rock songwriting than putting out commercial hits. Often the lyrics are nonsense or about subjects rarely, if at all, addressed in commercial songs. And then the music was far and away outside the normal constraints of a Pop/Rock record.

Taking that into account, one can begin to appreciate the songs on their own merit and not filtered through the prism of other band's material. Of course they also put out some really uninspired stuff. But, I've found so many of their songs which were never hits or singles that are absolute gems.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> And then there's Mike Love's indulgent and narcissistic contributions.


For me, Mike Love's main contributions to the Beach Boys were:

(1) His excellent vocals;

(2) Not being a son of the abusive Murray Wilson, with his sons' resulting emotional problems;

(3) Adding a mood of confidence and optimism that otherwise would not have been there in the slightest. His "Split, man" in the middle of She's Not The Little Girl I Once Knew, which I assume is his lyric, is his greatest contribution as a songwriter.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I know Van **** Parks who collaborated with Brian Wilson also did stuff in that early avant-pop mode where he played with the conventions of pop music. I've always been wanting to give him a shot, just never got to him yet.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fluteman said:


> For me, Mike Love's main contributions to the Beach Boys were:
> 
> (1) His excellent vocals;
> 
> ...


"The Little Girl I Once Knew" is a great song that never appeared on any of their official releases; it was a single, and then appeared on the archival releases. But a great, great song that has one of the best intros for a BB song, right up there with "California Girls".


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> "Surf's Up" survived as three piano/vocal demos done by Brian at his house on a two-track recorder. A rough backing track had also been prepared for the first part during the _Smile_ period. The version on _Surf's Up_ used the first piano/vocal and the rough backing track with additional overdubs. I like the quality of the vocal and overall crispness of the track better than the one on what has surfaced from _Smile_.
> 
> Another recording from 1967 was found decades later and released for the 2011 compilation _The Smile Sessions_.
> 
> While I prefer the one on _Surf's Up_ they are all good and not that much different. The final version is the one Brian Wilson did for his recreated _SMiLE_ album, which I think is interesting but not as good as those contemporaneous with _Smile_.


This is inaccurate I have since learned after reading about the history of the song.

The piano/vocal that has been used was one Brian did in the studio while the original Smile sessions took place, and then the backing track was created from. The home p/v was never used for a commercial release. The version on _Surf's Up_ has Carl double tracking a new vocal on top of the original studio piano/vocal.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fbjim said:


> I know Van **** Parks who collaborated with Brian Wilson also did stuff in that early avant-pop mode where he played with the conventions of pop music. I've always been wanting to give him a shot, just never got to him yet.


*Van **** Parks* did several excellent albums during the '60s & '70s: _Song Cycle_ (1967) is the best IMO, also _Discover America_ (1972) and _The Clang of the Yankee Clipper_ (1975). Then he did _Orange Crate Art_ (1995) with *Brian Wilson* as vocalist, and most recently a song cycle with *Inara George*, _An Invitation_ (2008), that is fantastic.

Van **** Parks along with Randy Newman are two Pop songwriters who have used the orchestra to great advantage on their records.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

No love for the live set released in 1973 'The Beach Boys In Concert'?


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Malx said:


> No love for the live set released in 1973 'The Beach Boys In Concert'?


It's a very good selection of songs and performances collected from several different dates in 1972 and 1973.










I am also a fan of the 1964 _Beach Boys Concert_ which documents the band at its commercial and performing height with the original lineup.










Side one
"Fun, Fun, Fun" (Brian Wilson, Mike Love) - 2:26
"The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" (Don Altfeld, Jan Berry, Roger Christian) - 3:00
"Little Deuce Coupe" (Brian Wilson, Roger Christian) - 2:27
"Long, Tall Texan" (Henry Strezlecki) - 2:32
"In My Room" (Brian Wilson, Gary Usher) - 2:25
"Monster Mash" (Boris Pickett, Lenny Capizzi) - 2:27
"Let's Go Trippin'" (Dick Dale) - 2:34

Side two
"Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" (Carl White, Al Frazier, Sonny Harris, Turner Wilson Jr.) - 2:18
"The Wanderer" (Ernest Maresca) - 2:00
"Hawaii" (Brian Wilson, Mike Love) - 1:51
"Graduation Day" (Joe Sherman, Noel Sherman) - 3:29
"I Get Around" (Brian Wilson, Mike Love) - 2:42
"Johnny B. Goode" (Chuck Berry) - 1:56


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

I must confess to preferring the song selection on the seventies album - a good cross section, a few early hits and more from the period of the Beach Boys I like best.
I only have three albums on CD, Pet Sounds, Surf's Up and the BB Live we are discussing - I am content that is all I need now everything else is available to stream if I fancy a listen.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1972-1973*

_Carl and the Passions - "So Tough"_ (1972)
_Holland_ (1973)

_Carl and the Passions: "So Tough"_ is one of two records of the Beach Boys to include two members previously unaffiliated with the band, South African musicians Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar. They always seemed to me to stand outside of the group. Neither of the two songs they have on the record, "Here She Comes" nor "Hold On Dear Brother" sound like Beach Boys songs.

Guitarist Chaplin and drummer Ricky Fataar joined the Beach Boys when Dennis Wilson suffered a hand injury that left him unable to play the drums for almost two years. For the Beach Boys, it was a period in which long-time member Bruce Johnston had departed the band, and Brian Wilson's participation in the group was very limited. As a result, Chaplin and Fataar joined the Beach Boys as full-fledged members and not merely as backing musicians. Chaplin left the group in 1973 after a dispute with the Beach Boys' management; Fataar left the band the following year.

Some marketing person at Capitol had the bright idea that _Carl and the Passions: "So Tough"_ should be issued as a two-fer paired with _Pet Sounds_. I can't think of a worse strategy since the inevitable comparison with the older masterpiece could only highlight the deficiencies of the latest Beach Boys release.

The origin of the fictitious band name "Carl and the Passions" (were they copying The Beatles Sgt. Pepper?) is in dispute: Audrey Wilson (mother) said that the boys had a band in high school called Carl and the Passions, but Carl said no such band ever existed. However, Brian was quoted as saying that he did suggest to call their band that in order to help persuade the shy young Carl (he was only 11) to agree to join the fledgling group.

"You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone" is a good song written by Brian Wilson and Jack Rieley. Also "Marcella" is a catchy song that has a _Wild Honey_ vibe. But "Hold On, Dear Brother" by Chaplin/Fataar sounds like any generic band from the early '70s, in fact Cameron Crowe first mistook it for The Band he admitted in in his generally good review.

The most interesting song is by Dennis, "Make It Good" an orchestrated ballad with his fragile vocal, a song he wrote with Darryl Dragon (of Captain & Tennille fame). But the song that sounds most like the Beach Boys is "All This is That" by Carl Wilson, Al Jardine and Mike Love. The album ends with another Dennis/Daryl Dragon song, "Cuddle Up" - piano and voice dominate this tender ballad.

The album lasts a mere 34 minutes and was thought by fans at the time to be their low point. Unfortunately that distinction has several other nominees, the future albums had mixed results to put a kind spin on it.

_Holland_ on the other hand is a much better record, some think it among their best from the '70s.

To make the album, the band members and their families moved to the Netherlands. Al Jardine later commented:



> "It was rough being in Holland. We were working 24/7 in a small homemade rebuilt piecemeal little studio in a garage next to a cow pasture. Yeah, it was rough. We didn't even have the correct electricity [...] so that kind of affected the sound of our equipment. It was a mixed blessing." ("Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love Interview Part 3". Rock Cellar. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 23 October 2016.)


The first thing you notice about _Holland_ is that at 48 minutes is a full album and kicks off with a strong song "Sail On, Sailor" written by committee Brian Wilson, Tandyn Almer (songwriter, musician, and record producer who wrote the 1966 song "Along Comes Mary" for the Association), Ray Kennedy, Jack Rieley, and Van **** Parks. (Coincidentally, Ray Kennedy would go on to find great success in Nashville as a producer.)

Thankfully this was the last record to feature Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, except for some live concerts. They have one song on the record, which they co-wrote with Brian, and as such it melds with the Beach Boys sound more so than their others.

"Steamboat" (Dennis Wilson/Jack Rieley) is one of the better songs on the record, it could have made it onto any of the post-Pet Sounds records.

One interesting appearance on this record is a trilogy called "California Saga" written by Al Jardine and Mike Love. Robinson Jeffers was an inspiration, and some lines from his poems formed a narrated section. This ambitious effort is in the three parts titled, "Big Sur", "The Beaks of Eagles" and "California." It's the kind of thing you would have thought that Brian Wilson and Van **** Parks might do, but no, here we have Mike and Al, the two least intellectual members contributing something extraordinary. And it works. It is clearly the best thing they ever did.

The second side has some interesting songs by all the brothers, Carl's "The Trader"; Dennis's "Only With You" and Brian's "Leaving this Town" written (with the South Africans) and "Funky Pretty" is, despite its title, really good.

One gets the impression that Brian Wilson always harbored aspirations beyond Pop music, i.e. long forms and concept albums seemed to interest him. And his ambitions seemed to have something of the flavor of Classical composing. And his collaborations with Van **** Parks only encouraged him in this regard.

_Holland _has an example of this with the the 12-minute fairy tale written and produced by Brian and Carl Wilson, "Mt. Vernon And Fairway" (its own EP). Jack Rieley shares a credit on the last song in the suite, this will be the third and final studio album created under the management of Jack Rieley. Rieley had brought some badly needed stability to the band, he also joined in several times with crucial creative input and help with the writing, singing and overall studio work. However, it was he who suggested to hire Chaplin and Fataar, so there's that.

Sadly, the next period in Brian' life would be marred by the introduction of Eugene Landy, who called himself a therapist, but manipulative con man would have been a more appropriate title. I'll have more to say about Landy when I take up _15 Big Ones_.

Retrospectively, Mojo's Danny Ecleston referred to _Holland_ as his favorite Beach Boys album, as well as their "least-heard (and certainly last) great record." Less favorably, AllMusic reviewer John Bush wrote that _Holland_ was a "surprisingly weak" effort. Douglas Wolk of Blender felt that the band "got way self-indulgent, recording poetry, flutes and Moog solos."

Holland has been included in some opinion polls and rankings.

In 1999, it was ranked number 21 in The Guardian's list of the "Top 100 Albums That Don't Appear in All the Other Top 100 Albums of All Time". In 2000, it was voted number 648 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2007, it was ranked number 100 in OOR Magazine's list of the "100 Best Albums of All Time". Elvis Costello ranked the album as one of his favorite records of all time.

Up next: _15 Big Ones_ is the most interesting album, to me, out of 1976-1979 period.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Thanks for all who contributed to this great thread. 

I was surprised to see the Beach Boys kept on creating some innovative and good melody songs in the 70s. The way they are often represented is that the 60s was the last time they did that (except for the pop hits they had in 70s and after).


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

fbjim said:


> I know Van **** Parks who collaborated with Brian Wilson also did stuff in that early avant-pop mode where he played with the conventions of pop music. I've always been wanting to give him a shot, just never got to him yet.


I hated his Song Cycle at first, thinking WTF is this? But it really challenges the way pop music can be perceived. For me has the same sort of adventurousness the Beatles had, and way more interesting to me than any album by the Beach Boys.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1974-1976*
_15 Big Ones_ (1976)

After _Holland_, the group was swept up into touring fairly actively, and recorded very little in the studio for the next two years. Also, Brian became even more reclusive after the death of Murry Wilson which occurred in June of 1973. One might find this surprising, knowing how damaging Brian's father had been, it might have been cause for celebration. However, I suppose even those whom have been nemeses in our lives cause a disruption when they die. Brian retreated into his bedroom and withdrew further into drugs (prescription and other), alcoholism, chain smoking, and overeating.



> He reflected, "I used my room as my little castle. Added to that, I was very depressed with the Beach Boys. I couldn't talk to them and nobody in the band could relate to me. This went on for about two and a half years. But, on and off, I'd sometimes go and record."


Another long time associate also left the Beach Boys orbit in October 1973: the band fired their manager, Jack Rieley. The environment surrounding the band was always a charged atmosphere, what with the conflicting agendas, the scarred egos, the competition among the various members. It always seemed they were jockeying for control. Rieley stated that he had "pulled away" from the band due to "terribly complex, complicated and horribly distasteful situations involving aspects of their business and financial management."

Mike Love's brother Steve and Chicago manager James William Guercio were brought in as a pair of managers. Actually Guercio was a savvy music industry businessman, having effectively shepherded the band Chicago to finding super stardom. Having him in on the team was an improvement. More change came when Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, who had joined the Beach Boys as official members in 1972, left the band in December 1973 and November 1974, respectively.

Without much input from the band, their old label Capitol released a greatest hits compilation _Endless Summer_ in June 1974. This double record was met with unexpected success, becoming the band's second number-one U.S. album in October. The LP had a 155-week chart run, selling over 3 million copies. Its success had the effect of returning the group to being the number-one act in the U.S.



> Carl recalled, "There was a whole new generation of fans out there and some of them weren't even as old as the songs themselves. Our concerts were selling out and we were singing and playing better than ever."


With clear-eyed practical insight, Guercio wanted the group to include more of the older material in their live set lists, in order to maximize the momentum from _Endless Summer_'s success. He also combined both groups on stage later in the year, with Beach Boys appearing as guests on Chicago's hit "Wishing You Were Here".

At the end of 1974, _Rolling Stone_ proclaimed the Beach Boys "Band of the Year" based on the strength of their live performances. While the touring and exposure recharged the group, it delayed work on the new record, causing the recording schedule to become truncated.

Most of _15 Big Ones_ was hastily recorded in early 1976 at Brother Studios. From the start, the project was marred by disputes, as the band became divided over the choice of material and professionalism, or lack of it, exhibited by Brian. Carl and Dennis Wilson also felt that an album of originals was more ideal, while Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Stephen Love wanted cover songs to be included in order to speed up the project's competition. Carl and Dennis complained that the production quality was substandard because of the priority place on speedy sessions, but Stephen Love wanted new Beach Boys product rushed out in order to capitalize on the group's continued resurgence in popularity.

Into this mess entered Eugene Landy, who in the early period actually helped Brian come out of his bedroom and begin to do some productive work. Brian even joined his bandmates on a major concert tour for the first time since 1964, and agreed to participate in an NBC television special, titled _The Beach Boys_, that aired in August. But after two years Landy was forced out because once it became obvious he was dangerous because of his manipulative and controlling style. (He'd return in about ten years and stay longer until a huge legal tug of war ensued which inspired the book and movie _Love & Mercy_ starring John Cusack as Brian Wilson.)

The album includes a majority of covers most of which have some connection to the band, at least in their minds. According to Wilson, "We thought about songs that were standards and, since they were acceptable once, we figured they would be acceptable again. ... We figured it was a safe way to go."

Cover tunes:
"Rock and Roll Music"	(Chuck Berry) chosen, according to Love, because he felt that the band could possibly repeat the success they had with covering Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" as "Surfin' U.S.A." (1963).
"Chapel of Love" (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector)
"Talk to Me" (Joe Seneca)
"Palisades Park" (Chuck Barris) source of inspiration for the Beach Boys' songs "County Fair" (1962) and "Amusement Parks U.S.A." (1965). Carl recorded his vocal in one take
"A Casual Look" (Ed Wells)
"Blueberry Hill" (Al Lewis, Larry Stock, Vincent Rose) Dennis was originally slated to sing the lead on "Blueberry Hill", but Wilson gave the part to Love so that Love would not feel left out.
"In the Still of the Night" (Fred Parris)
"Just Once in My Life" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Phil Spector)

Most of the covers remain pretty faithful to the originals, however, "Blueberry Hill", "Talk to Me", and "Palisades Park" were exceptions. With these songs, the sense of being transported back to the band's beginning and a young Brian Wilson putting his unique stamp on the innocent music he loved.

Originals:
"It's O.K." (Brian Wilson, Mike Love) - an upbeat song about celebrating summer fun
"Had to Phone Ya" (Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Diane Rovell) mostly written by Brian while his wife Marilyn was away in Europe.
"Everyone's in Love with You" (Mike Love) written about the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was Mike Love's second ever solo contribution to a Beach Boys album.
"That Same Song" (Brian Wilson, Mike Love) was described by biographer Carlin as "a whimsical history of world music that came close to sparking the gospel fire it set out to ignite".
"T M Song" (Brian Wilson) begins with a mock argument between the band members, possibly based on the real life arguments that had been occurring among themselves.
"Susie Cincinnati" (Al Jardine) Jardine's only writing contribution to the album.[47] It was recorded in 1969 during the sessions for the album Sunflower (1970)
"Back Home" (Brian Wilson, Bob Norberg) originally written in 1963 by Brian and his roommate Bob Norberg. It is semi-autobiographical; Brian sings in the chorus of wanting to return to Ohio, which happened to be the homestate of his great-grandparents.

_15 Big Ones_ received mixed reviews and was largely disliked by the group's fanbase. Much of the criticism centers around the cover songs, the rough vocal performances, and the record's perceived unfinished, forced, and rushed quality. Brian's formerly angelic falsetto was nowhere to be heard, replaced with a gritty baritone voice growling out the lyrics.



> At the time, Brian described the album as "nothing too deep" and promised that his next effort would be as ambitious as "Good Vibrations". He mentioned that he felt 15 Big Ones was "a good album" and "if you listen to it, you can see where all the work went", adding that if it had been disliked by "the kids", then it "would have wrecked me and I'd probably have hidden out again."


In a 1998 interview, he referred to _15 Big Ones_ and the band's next release, _The Beach Boys Love You_ (1977), as his favorite Beach Boys albums. "That's when it all happened for me. That's where my heart lies."


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

One of my favorite non-classical groups.

SanAntone love your posts.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Don't mind me, I'm still on pins and needles for the Love You writeup.

The opening track on that especially actually works better with the shot vocals but the whole album is just bizarre in a way that make it sound like nothing else.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fbjim said:


> Don't mind me, I'm still on pins and needles for the Love You writeup.
> 
> The opening track on that especially actually works better with the shot vocals but the whole album is just bizarre in a way that make it sound like nothing else.


One thing that I am experiencing with this in-depth survey of their albums is a new appreciation for albums I had written off before.

I've also began reading more about their history and found out something you may find interesting as well. The album _The Beach Boys Love You_ has been a polarizing album, I knew that. But what I didn't know was that the fulcrum divided the response demographically: the fans over forty, who grew up with the early records and idolize _Pet Sounds_, generally don't like it while those fans under forty, who grew up with Punk and Grunge, love it.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

SanAntone said:


> One thing that I am experiencing with this in-depth survey of their albums is a new appreciation for albums I had written off before.
> 
> I've also began reading more about their history and found out something you may find interesting as well. The album _The Beach Boys Love You_ has been a polarizing album, I knew that. But what I didn't know was that the fulcrum divided the response demographically: the fans over forty, who grew up with the early records and idolize _Pet Sounds_, generally don't like it while those fans under forty, who grew up with Punk and Grunge, love it.


I think the reason a lot of older fans might have disliked it is that of the Beach Boys albums with at least something of a good reputation, Love You has probably by far the most simplistic songwriting, and probably the weakest, when conventionally judged - you aren't going to get Heroes and Villains, Surf's Up, or even I Get Around on this - more like Vege-Tables.

It's just that the combination of the strange, almost child-regressive songwriting and bizarre synth usage gives it this strange appeal that probably did appeal to the art-kid types at the time (Patti Smith wrote a glowing review on it). Like I said, it sound like no other album I've heard, and that, in itself, is valuable.

(and there really are some lovely songs- The Night Was So Young, I'll Bet He's Nice, and Airplane, for instance. Good Time was a Wild Honey outtake, so that one only sort of counts)


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I'm an avid *Beatles* fan, but was never really a fan of their contemporaries *The Rolling Stones* and *The Beach Boys*.

I really loathed the *Stones*; their music was sloppy, the vocals sounded sloppy, their songs were simple.

The *Beach Boys* I liked, but I never went apechit over 'em. Excellent harmonies imbued in mostly simple songs. Brian's masterful studio wizardry and arrangements went right over my head, which, in retrospect seems odd, as I noticed every little production and arranging detail in *The Beatles*' records.

Probably the top thing I appreciate about the *Beach Boys* is how they inspired *The Beatles* for a short time.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

The Stones are all about finding the right level of sloppiness. They were too uptight on their early blues covers records, but the sloppiness peaked in the roots rock albums, reaching the perfect level of hazy magnificence on Exile on Main St. 

Then after that they got even more into heroin and simply went from sloppy to lethargic. I do like Black and Blue, though. 


With regards to the Beach Boys - I'd hesitate to call their songwriting, at least at Brian Wilson's art-pop peak, "simple". Did anyone other than the pure artsy, underground groups have anything as complex as Heroes and Villains?


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I would argue that even in their most simple song forms, songs on _Surfin' Safari_ would incorporate precision group vocals. The group singing was integral to their sound, it wasn't just something they did, it would stylistically and thematically the most important aspect of their style and sound.

Brian and the rest of the group were very much interested in and influenced by the Doo-*** groups of the '50s (thought to be primarily an east coast style, but also popular in Los Angeles), as well as contemporaries like, the New Jersey band, Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons. Brian combined that Rock style with the the more complex vocal arrangements and harmonies of the Four Freshmen and the Stan Kenton band. I am also sure he was aware of the West Coast Cool Jazz sounds which were popular during his early years.

Finally, they were a close knit group, with genetically blended voices, three brothers, a cousin, and a best friend. That dynamic determined the style of the music just as importantly as the music that they heard and wished to emulate - a group that sang as a group. IMO they were one of the most unique groups certainly of the 60s, but as they evolved they got even more unique. In some ways too unique to maintain their audience.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Some of his later stuff is so intricate that his breakdown from a mixture of elements, not the least of which was probably stress, I get. One of the saddest things I've heard is for the longest time, Wilson refused to talk about _Heroes and Villains_ - composing it apparently took such a toll on him.

Even the writing in the earlier stuff though - _I Get Around_ sounds so appealing that the complexity of it simply doesn't strike you until you actually listen closely to the thing.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

fbjim said:


> Some of his later stuff is so intricate that his breakdown from a mixture of elements, not the least of which was probably stress, I get. One of the saddest things I've heard is for the longest time, Wilson refused to talk about _Heroes and Villains_ - composing it apparently took such a toll on him.
> 
> Even the writing in the earlier stuff though - _I Get Around_ sounds so appealing that the complexity of it simply doesn't strike you until you actually listen closely to the thing.


Very true. I listed both Heroes and Villains and I Get Around in my off-the-cuff top ten. I'm much less knowledgeable of their post-1970 work because that is when I began to focus exclusively on classical music. I would love to have sung either one in one of the choruses I belonged to, but there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for tackling them due to their difficulty.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

fbjim said:


> The Stones are all about finding the right level of sloppiness. They were too uptight on their early blues covers records, but the sloppiness peaked in the roots rock albums, reaching the perfect level of hazy magnificence on Exile on Main St.
> 
> Then after that they got even more into heroin and simply went from sloppy to lethargic. I do like Black and Blue, though.
> 
> With regards to the *Beach Boys *- I'd hesitate to call their songwriting, at least at Brian Wilson's art-pop peak, "simple". Did anyone other than the pure artsy, underground groups have anything as complex as Heroes and Villains?


I knew someone would come to their defense.

I have only one *Beach Boys* album in my collection, *Pet Sounds*, and I find nothing exciting about this album, in spite of it being referred to by others as one of the most groundbreaking albums of the 1960s.

In fact, I've probably READ more about them than LISTENED to their music. Occasionally I'll try.

So . . . *Heroes and Villains*? Which version? The *Smile* version, or the *Smiley Smile* version?


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> I would argue that even in their most simple song forms, songs on _Surfin' Safari_ would incorporate *precision group vocals*. The group singing was integral to their sound, it wasn't just something they did, it would stylistically and thematically the most important aspect of their style and sound.
> 
> Brian and the rest of the group were very much interested in and influenced by the Doo-*** groups of the '50s (thought to be primarily an east coast style, but also popular in Los Angeles), as well as contemporaries like, the New Jersey band, Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons. Brian combined that Rock style with the the more *complex vocal arrangements and harmonies* of the Four Freshmen and the Stan Kenton band. I am also sure he was aware of the West Coast Cool Jazz sounds which were popular during his early years.
> 
> Finally, they were a close knit group, with *genetically blended voices*, three brothers, a cousin, and a best friend. That dynamic determined the style of the music just as importantly as the music that they heard and wished to emulate - a group that sang as a group. IMO they were one of the most unique groups certainly of the 60s, but as they evolved they got even more unique. In some ways too unique to maintain their audience.


No argument from me on the point about their extraordinary vocal harmonizations.

In fact, I just realized, in my head, that the chord they sing at the end of the slow part of _*Good Vibrations*_ (@ 2:52) was mimicked by *The Beatles* at the end of the introduction of _*Sun King*_ (@ 0:51).










.

. . . And, of course, *Back in the USSR* was a direct nod to the *Beach Boys* sound as well.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

pianozach said:


> I knew someone would come to their defense.
> 
> I have only one *Beach Boys* album in my collection, *Pet Sounds*, and I find nothing exciting about this album, in spite of it being referred to by others as one of the most groundbreaking albums of the 1960s.
> 
> ...


I don't care one way or the other if you enjoy the Beach Boys or not. But I find it interesting that as a Beatles fan you appear to be ignorant of the high opinion Paul McCartney, and The Beatles, had of _Pet Sounds_, the song "God Only Knows" in particular, which McCartney said was the greatest song ever written.

Derek Taylor (also the publicist for The Beach Boys) brought the album to the UK and had a private listening party with the luminaries of the British music scene in attendance. They all sat in silence and listened to the entire album. The Beatles were so inspired that they went directly to the studio and began working on a new song, "Here, There and Everywhere" was the result.

McCartney also said that hearing _Pet Sounds_ influenced his bass playing, he started employing different melodic note choices.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> I don't care one way or the other if you enjoy the Beach Boys or not. But I find it interesting that as a Beatles fan *you appear to be ignorant* of the high opinion Paul McCartney, and The Beatles, had of _Pet Sounds_, the song "God Only Knows" in particular, which McCartney said was the greatest song ever written.
> 
> Derek Taylor (also the publicist for The Beach Boys) brought the album to the UK and had a private listening party with the luminaries of the British music scene in attendance. They all sat in silence and listened to the entire album. The Beatles were so inspired that they went directly to the studio and began working on a new song, "Here, There and Everywhere" was the result.
> 
> McCartney also said that hearing _Pet Sounds_ influenced his bass playing, he started employing different melodic note choices.


No, I'm quite aware of the high opinion the *Beatles* (especially McCartney) had of The *Beach Boys*. Yeah, they thought *Pet Sounds* was great, especially the combinations of instrument doublings Wilson used in his arrangements to come up with new sounds. The *Beatles* were inspired by that, took that and ran with it, leaving Wilson scrambling to keep up with those he inspired.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

pianozach said:


> No, I'm quite aware of the high opinion the *Beatles* (especially McCartney) had of The *Beach Boys*. Yeah, they thought *Pet Sounds* was great, especially the combinations of instrument doublings Wilson used in his arrangements to come up with new sounds. The *Beatles* were inspired by that, took that and ran with it, leaving Wilson scrambling to keep up with those he inspired.


One big difference between The Beatles and The Beach Boys is that Brian Wilson did everything: write the songs, arranged them, produced the sessions, taught the musicians and the boys all their parts, sang them, often all the parts. There was no George Martin, no Geoff Emerick, no equal partners to collaborate among the band. Brian had to look elsewhere to Tony Asher and Van **** Parks to find co-writers of his caliber, only to have the band rebel against and dismiss his creations. All of this led to a emotional breakdown in the post-Pet Sounds period.

What we have learned about his mental state was a man psychologically and emotionally exhausted during the Smile sessions. But during those sessions Brian Wilson still produced some of the most advanced music ever created in the Rock idiom. Nothing the Beatles ever did came close to songs like Cabin Essence, Wonderful, Wind Chimes, Heroes and Villains, and Surf's Up not to mention Good Vibrations.

I wrote previously that one of the greatest tragedies is the loss of Smile at the time of its creation. Brian has since said the world was not ready for it. Maybe so.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1977*
_The Beach Boys Love You_ (1977)

_The Beach Boys Love You_ is the 21st studio album by the Beach Boys, released April 11, 1977 on Brother/Reprise. Often called the band's "punk" album.

The follow-up to _15 Big Ones_ may well be the most controversial album the band ever did, with fans almost evenly divided between those who love it and those who hate it. And there's a good reason for this. _Love You_ is, quite simply, unlike anything else ever recorded, not just by the Beach Boys but by anyone. For one thing the instrumentation is different: Moog synthesizer featuring its "fart sound", low register saxophones, fragmentary drums often just a snare (sometimes distorted), and gritty vocals, with atypically stripped down group singing.

Another aspect is that this is one of only two Beach Boys albums to be made up entirely of previously-unreleased Brian Wilson songs (the other being _Smiley Smile_) and is as personal a statement as _Pet Sounds_, _Smile_ or _Smiley Smile_. A song like "Ding Dang" could have sat comfortably on _Smile_.

There are some who think _Love You_ is one of the pillars on which the Beach Boys' artistic reputation rests. Certainly this is the last album by the group that anyone could possibly argue was great, after this the albums barely rise to the level of even listenable. This is also a record that had a rave review on its release from *Patti Smith*, that *Peter Buck* considers one of the greatest albums ever and that, most importantly, Brian Wilson himself often says is it is his favorite.

*Eugene Landy* was the 800-pound gorilla in the room. He had been invited in by Marilyn Wilson as a desperate act to get Brian out of his bedroom, to rein in his eating, drugs, and alcohol. And Landy did make progress on all those fronts and got Brian back into the studio and working.

And though many of the new songs began as make-work tunes that sprang from his most familiar musical and lyrical touchstones, most of them ended up pirouetting through his quirky palette of melodic, harmonic, and structural tricks. Even if he started off writing simple me/you love songs set in classrooms, cars, and throbbing hearts, the years had warped his perspective in fascinating ways.



> "It's a frighteningly accurate album," says Earle Mankey, who engineered the sessions. "It may have sounded like a lighthearted album. But that's a serious, autobiographical album: Brian Wilson giving what he had. Sort of like Eraserhead."


But the songs that made up the album he planned to call _Brian Loves You_ (eventually retitled _The Beach Boys Love You_) was essentially a solo album, projecting a distorted and unsettling vision of life that was reflected from a fun house mirror.

It was a regular practice on the records Brian Wilson heard when he was growing up for Side One to have up tempo songs and Side Two ballads. And for some of his pre-_Pet Sounds_ albums Brian does just that, e.g. _The Beach BoysToday!_. He does it again with _Love You_.

The record begins with a clear idea of things to come with "Let Us Go On This Way" (Brian Wilson, Mike Love), the first of seven rockers. Over a a farting Moog riff, on-the-beat organ chords, honking baritone sax, and a solitary snare drum, Carl Wilson shouts:

_To get you babe I went through the wringer
Ain't gonna let you slip through my fingers_

The verse is drone-like over two chords, but then the chorus is something totally different: all the instruments drop out, replaced by a piano, and the two-chord riffs we've had so far are replaced by seven chords in three bars, as the ecstatic harmonies come in:

_God, please let us go on this way_

Even though the album is titled _Love You_, many of the songs use a different idea, the idea of yearning, pleading, instead of "love," the word "please" would be more fitting. In Patti Smith's review she writes, "they are pleading w/ the same urgency as the boy in the back seat to the girl in 1963. 'please it won't hurt. please. come to me/ give to me/ tell me/ listen to me' … "

The bridge offers another stark change in texture and sound, the snare drops out and is replaced by a tom, and Mike Love's tenor intones these spacey lyrics, his only contribution to this album:

_Seems we have extra sensory perception… now we can fly_

The track builds then fades out with a mass of Moog, organ, sax, and group chanting - a somewhat strong opener.

This theme is continued, although with a more adult perspective with "Roller Skating Child" (Brian Wilson) which is probably the most "Beach Boys" sounding track on the album. Mike Love sings lead in his nasal tenor, and band harmonizes on the barbershop/chorale chorus:

_And we'll make sweet lovin' when the sun goes down
We'll even do more when her mama's not around
Well, oh my, oh gosh, oh gee
She really sets chills inside of me_

Carl and Al sing a bridge which expands on the chordal pattern, but the most striking musical gesture is at the end, when abruptly there is a quick G-flat / A-flat / B-flat progression, in a polka meter, over which Brian in his ravaged voice chants:

_Roller … skating … CHI-ILD! _

This is the voice that will define much of _Love You_.

That these songs could only come from the imagination of Brian Wilson became clear with "Mona," (Brian Wilson) sung by Dennis Wilson. Simplistic rhymes outline a traditional, four-chord '50s-style love song. But Brian also makes it about his favorite songs:

_Come on, listen to "Da Do Ron Ron now" 
Listen to "Be My Baby"
I know you're gonna love Phil Spector …_

Speaking of whom, Brian creates an hommage to Spector's wall-of-sound style production, with massed backing vocals, multiple saxophones, and a fuller drum sound that all leads up to yet another pleading lyric:

_Will you, will you, will you, will you, just kiss me
When you leave me won't you just miss me?_

For "Johnny Carson" (Brian Wilson) Brian came up with a much more interesting approach, low piano chords and Moog in a minor key, with no other instrumentation, while singing in a low baritone, his overly serious tone is answered by a mocking Carl and Al:

_He sits behind his microphone (Joh-nny Car-son!)
He speaks in such a manly tone (Joh-nny! Car-son!)_

Meanwhile, the lyrics elevated the then-reigning king of late-night TV into an icon of male strength, resilience, and charm. All of which was extremely strange, of course, and became stranger. "Johnny Carson" is the song which separates the real fans from the pack. Casual fans probably gave up on the album at this point; but true fans carried on, and were amply rewarded for their indulgence and patience.

"Good Time" (Brian Wilson, Al Jardine) dates from the _Sunflower_ sessions and has a different sound from the rest of _Love You_. For one thing, Brian's voice is circa 1970, a much younger, cleaner, and frankly, more pleasant voice from the rest of _Love You_. But also the backing track uses completely different instrumentation, including strings and horns. Despite these differences, this song does belong on _Love You_, if for no other reason, for the eccentricity of the lyric.

Where else could lines like these fit?

_My girlfriend Penny, 
she's kinda skinny, 
And so she keeps her falsies on_

The only single from _Love You_ was "Honkin' Down The Highway" (Brian Wilson) sung by Al Jardine was a rambunctious rocker. It is also one of the fuller productions on the album, and looks back to the band's early themes of cars and girls. But as is often the case with Brian Wilson's songwriting there's hidden sophistication, if not in the lyrics, certainly in the music.

Brian and Dennis bellow "honk honk, honking down the highway", behind Al singing "honking down the gosh-darn highway", while an astonishing musical bridge, where the song that has been in E major diverts into a minor key, but only so the song can build up from Bm7 through Em7 and F#m7 before triumphantly going to G major and then to B major, an extraordinary lift combined with Al's bragging, "I guess I got a way… WITH… GIRLS!"

Al Jardine re-recorded this song on _A Postcard From California_, with Brian Wilson adding backing vocals, but this version on _Love You_ is still the best.

"Ding Dang" (Brian Wilson, Roger McGuinn) is the only song co-written with a non-band member, and it is a silly song that could have turned up on _Smiley Smile_.

Mike Love sings

_I love a girl
I love her so madly 
I treat her so fine
But she treats me so badly_

... with the band behind him singing "Ding, dang, dang, Whoo! / Ding and a ding dong" all on one chord, over and over.

A very silly song indeed, running slightly less than a minute long, however, this is Brian Wilson's favorite song from _Love You_ ... supposedly.

Side 2 opens with "Solar System" (Brian Wilson), a waltz-time ballad, with layers of synths under Brian's baritone as he sings about the planets. This was one of the first songs written for the album, although this album was not even in the works at the time. It was probably penned at least six months prior to the _Love You_ sessions.

Under Eugene Landy's regime, Brian was forced to spend 2-4 hours a day at the studio, doing … whatever. One day what he did was write this song after staring at a picture of a planet in space hanging on the wall for 20 minutes or so.

Harmonically, this is the most interesting thing on the record. It unclear what key the song is in, it moves from G or D, to A, before going to F for the chorus, but then ending on a D chord. It's one of the most harmonically mobile things Brian had done in years, and works beautifully. The middle eight, meanwhile, seems to stick mostly to the key of E minor, but with a Cm7 chord that doesn't fit into any of the other keys.

Lyrically, the song is straight forward list song, identifying most of the planets in the solar system (no mention of Uranus or the moon) in an almost childish manner. Maybe Brian wrote this song for kids?

For all the criticism Brian's voice on this record has received, I have to say that I find the vocals on this track to be alright. He was still a great singer, he just no longer possessed that pure, angelic, voice he once had. Brian multi-tracked the background harmonies, straining for some of the high notes, but it all works.

"The Night Was So Young" (Brian Wilson) is considered by many to be the best song on the album, and the consensus isn't wrong. This is the most fully-produced track on _Love You_ and it sounds like a lot of that production is the work of Carl Wilson. There are probably more guitars on this one track than on the entire rest of the album, with at least three distinct parts.

Carl Wilson turns in an extraordinary vocal performance. The backgrounds are stacked Brian's supporting Carl on lead. This is the only _Love You_ song that Brian Wilson has included in his solo sets when performing live.

"I'll Bet He's Nice" (Brian Wilson) is another lovely song, built on layers of synths, with the only other instrument a tambourine, low in the mix in the left channel. Dennis does a great job with the vocal (backed by Brian and Carl), investing it with just the right amount of poignant vulnerability with lines like these:

_I'll bet he's twice
As nice as me and it makes me cry
Please don't tell me if it's true
Because I'm still in love with you_

A really good song.



> "The simplest way to describe how good this is is to say there's a bootleg tape, quite widely available, of Brian demoing several Love You era songs for his bandmates. Their reactions to songs like Mona are… not hugely enthused. But when he plays this one, there are astonished noises and "woo-hoos" in the middle eight, Mike Love starts singing along with the choruses, and Love says at the end "Man, that knocked me out, that was a moth**f**ker*."


Bruce Johnston makes a appearance singing the "Well it's you…" multi-tracking the harmonies as the song fades out.

"Let's Put Our Hearts Together" (Brian Wilson) is a straight-forward duet by Brian Wilson and Marilyn Wilson.. There would be an appealing sweetness to it, but Marilyn Wilson was never a particularly good singer.

Some people have theorized that "I Wanna Pick You Up" (Brian Wilson) is really a song about infantilizing an adult lover. I guess they might have gotten that idea since the song is mostly sung by Dennis Wilson. And Brian had been working on a solo project he had been calling _Adult Child_ … but, they would be wrong. It was in fact a sweet little song sung to one of Brian's children, who were at this point old enough to be going to school, and maybe getting too big for the sentiment of "I love to pick you up, 'cause you're still a baby to me."

It's not one of the better songs on _Love You_, but it's an emotion that is very rarely dealt with in rock or pop music. And it does have some nice chord changes. The harmonies at the end are exquisite.

One of the very best things on _Love You_, is "Airplane" (Brian Wilson). Here, the lyric and music work perfectly together. They perfectly capture the feeling of floating along above the clouds, thinking about arriving home. Mike Love turns in a very good vocal almost out of his tenor range, but he manages it vey nicely. Brian proves he can still sing in falsetto, and he and Carl provide some "oohs and ahs".

After the two verses, we get a new section ("Airplane, airplane") which repeats until Brian sings a descending scale, "down down, on the ground, can't wait to see her face." At which point the song comes to a standstill, then a new count off for a tag: a two-chord vamp with, Brian and Carl singing in call and response "I can't wait (can't wait) to see (her face)". They do it with such bonhomie that you just can't help but smile.

The album ends, unfortunately with one of the weakest songs, "Love Is A Woman" (Brian Wilson), and it is the longest song on the record. Brian must have believed in it because he sings it so earnestly, it's almost funny.

Al chimes in with some of the most venal lyrics ever committed to vinyl:

_A woman is love, and if you're smart 
You'll tease her, please her tonight. 
So take my advice, you just treat her nice, 
And you'll find woman is love_

But, those aren't the worst lyrics in the song, those belong to Brian:

_Love is a woman
So tell her she smells good tonight
Love is a woman
So make her feel that way tonight_

The the coup de grace comes with this chant: "One two three / She's fallen in love with me / Four five six / She fell for all my tricks."

_Love You_ wasn't "Good Vibrations." It was barely even the Beach Boys. But _Love You_ was a mesmerizing portrait of the world as viewed through the eyes of an emotionally fraught 30-something rock star whose own success has become a trap. But even as Brian seemed to resign himself to working under Landy's thumb, the shrink was wearing out his welcome with the rest of the Beach Boys. When his latest monthly invoice arrived to the tune of $20,000.00 even Brian saw that Landy had to go.

_Love You_ would mark the last time Brian Wilson would have significant involvement in a Beach Boys record until 2012's _That's Why God Made Radio_. Wilson, embittered by years of rejection from the band dating back to _Pet Sounds_ and _Smile_, chose the path of least resistance when working with the Beach Boys for the next several decades. Which meant he did not care what went into making the recordings. He no longer even liked the members of the band and hardly wanted to be in the same room with them.

*Influence and other musicians*



> Love You is considered to have influenced the development of new wave [Dillon, Mark (2012). Fifty Sides of the Beach Boys: The Songs That Tell Their Story].
> 
> Journalist Adam Theisan wrote that the album's "prescience" is one of its striking elements, having anticipated "new wave experiments, arty bands like Talking Heads and synth-pop in general years before they hit the mainstream." [Adam Theisan. "Wanting to be Brian Wilson". The Michigan Daily, November 29, 2015.]
> 
> ...


_Love You_ jumped into the Top Fifty, sputtered for a month or two, then sank without leaving so much as a ripple. The band continued to play a handful of Brian's songs in concert ("Honkin' down the Highway" could really rock), but the commercial failure struck the others, and particularly Mike and Al, as license to take control of the band.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I love this album. Even if you don't love it, you really must listen to it just because it sounds like nothing else in your collection, I guarantee it. The only thing that sounds even close in terms of oddball production and almost naively simple lyrics is probably Stephen Merritt, but Merritt is completely different past those superficial elements - Merritt is borderline insincere (not in a bad way) and loves pastiche, but Love You is as sincere as it gets. 

About ten years back I was messing around with a speaker and aux cord with a kid my age (about 20), one of those kids with a virtually encyclopedic knowledge of rock and pop music. I put this on and he couldn't believe it was the Beach Boys. He was flabbergasted.


One other semi-distubring detail - I remember a story about Ding Dang, where one of Brian's friends (it may have been Carl Wilson) heard him jamming on the piano, singing the "I love a girl, I love her so madly/ I treat her so fine, and she treats me so badly" couplet, and thought it was a good start to the song. He went to bed, woke up, and Wilson was still playing the piano and singing that couplet on repeat.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

fbjim said:


> I love this album. Even if you don't love it, you really must listen to it just because it sounds like nothing else in your collection, I guarantee it. The only thing that sounds even close in terms of oddball production and almost naively simple lyrics is probably Stephen Merritt, but Merritt is completely different past those superficial elements - Merritt is borderline insincere (not in a bad way) and loves pastiche, but Love You is as sincere as it gets.
> 
> About ten years back I was messing around with a speaker and aux cord with a kid my age (about 20), one of those kids with a virtually encyclopedic knowledge of rock and pop music. I put this on and he couldn't believe it was the Beach Boys. He was flabbergasted.
> 
> One other semi-distubring detail - I remember a story about Ding Dang, where one of Brian's friends (it may have been Carl Wilson) heard him jamming on the piano, singing the "I love a girl, I love her so madly/ I treat her so fine, and she treats me so badly" couplet, and thought it was a good start to the song. He went to bed, woke up, and Wilson was still playing the piano and singing that couplet on repeat.


I like it - my earlier opinion was based on only a cursory listen when it first came out. But after this deep dive I think it is one of their better things.

I've spent decades just listening to my favorite records, and ignoring the rest - even though my son (!) is a rabid BB fan and has from time to time sent me bootlegs and privately produced albums like _Adult Child_ and _Landlocked_ (he sent me three different _Smile _reconstructions long before the official version came out in 2004) but I just put them on the shelf and never even listened to them. Well, I listened to _Smile_.

I'll have to ask him what he thinks of _Love You_.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

A brief interjection on my part to say I am thoroughly enjoying reading this thread - I will make the effort to listen to _Love You_ as a result of the commentary in posts above. 
Thanks for the enthusiasm San Antone.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

"In 1979, The Rolling Stone Record Guide counted _Pet Sounds _strong but spotty and rated it three stars out of five. In 1983, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide counted _Pet Sounds_ powerful but spotty and rated it four stars out of five. In 2003, the December issue of Rolling Stone declared _Pet Sounds_ the second-greatest rock album of all time."

- _Why the Beach Boys Matter_ by Tom Smucker

It is true that critical opinion about this masterpiece has evolved, although I loved it from day one.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1978-1979*
_M.I.U. Album_ (1978)
_L.A. (Light Album)_ (1979)

_*M.I.U. Album*_ is the 22nd studio album by the Beach Boys. Released on September 25, 1978, it marked their final recording for Reprise. Recorded during one of the most acrimonious periods in the band's history, only Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Brian Wilson appear consistently throughout the album, with Carl and Dennis Wilson's contributions confined to a handful of tracks. Produced by Jardine and Beach Boys touring member Ron Altbach under the nominal aegis of executive producer Brian Wilson, the album's title stems from Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, where the majority of the album was recorded. (Wikipedia)

The band still had to deliver a final album to fulfill their contractual obligations to Reprise before they could capitalize on the lucrative deal at CBS. So Mike Love got the group to agree to decamp to Fairfield, Iowa, where Mike had secured recording space and living quarters in the meditation-friendly dorms of Maharishi International University. Getting the group (mainly Carl and Dennis) out of L.A. and its many distractions, i.e. drugs, would encourage professionalism, he had argued. That might have been true, but the increased focus did nothing to enhance their creativity, and what eventually emerged from the Iowa sessions turned out to be the most cynical, spiritually void work the group ever produced.



> … the record had a generic easy-listening sound, heavy on the tinkly keyboards and sweeping strings, with nary a trace of Brian's ear for quirky texture ...


Not everything on the album is a disaster: "She's Got Rhythm," the opening song, kicks things off with what was supposed to be an up tempo club song. Instead we get a tired falsetto lead from Brian, and then Al Jardine singing a bridge which is probably the best thing on the entire record. The cliched lyrics don't help. Not a disaster, and compared to what was to follow, deceptively good.

Al Jardine contributes a couple of '50s covers "Come Go with Me" and "Peggy Sue" but the question is why if his renditions don't bring anything new to the table. They go down easily enough, but "Hey Little Tomboy," an _Adult/Child_ leftover, has got to be one of the worst of songs that ever sprung from Brian Wilson's brain.

The lyrics describes an adolescent girl putting away her skateboard and baseball mitt in order to get it on with an older guy portrayed by Mike, whose Henry Higgins to her Liza Doolittle invites her to sit on his lap as he tempts her with these lines:

_I'm gonna teach you to kiss 
It's gonna feel just like this_

Nothing spells ick like a late-thirties balding man who can't wait to get his hands on a young girl just coming out of her tween shell. And it only gets worse as the song continues. The fact that they were so clueless as to make this song the B-Side to their first single from the record is mind-boggling crazy.

There are a couple of other bright spots, weak lights as they are: Carl's lead vocal on "Sweet Sunday Kinda Love" a title stolen from the standard "A Sunday Kind of Love" recorded by dozens of artists, but made famous by Etta James in 1960 from the same album that contained "At Last". So they must have known it. Still among the slim pickins on _M.I.U._ it stands out as almost good. Also, "Pitter Patter" is pretty good.

"Tomboy" was a low point, yes, but there's stiff competition for that honor when Brian and Mike's "Belles of Paris" popped up a few songs later. Here, Mike's attempt to throw in some "tres chic francais" into his recitation of Parisian delights goes from merely dull to unintentionally comic.

Dennis gives a stolid performance of a song written by Brian "My Diane". He'd had always been attracted to his wife's older sister Diane, and here he mourns the loss of her, I guess. Or it's a different Diane. Whatever. Dennis sounds like he downed a bottle of Phenobarbital just before stepping to the mic, landing each note of the melody squarely on.the.beat. But his _Pacific Ocean Blue_ from the year before was so good he can be forgiven this half effort.

"Match Point of Our Love" is just ridiculous. It is hard to believe that they could keep a straight face long enough to get it down. Looking on the bright side it does have one of the better musical tracks but is so marred by the backgrounds of "match point" over and over, the song is evidence of how much they were scraping the barrel.

_M.I.U._' s final insult was the concluding track, keyboardist Ron Altbach's "Winds of Change," whose syrupy strings and reverb soaked piano under Al Jardine's silky baritone, all meant to convey the transcendental profundity of lines about "cosmic oceans" and "quiet dawns" touching your heart. Yuck.

Unsurprisingly, the gruesome album topped out at number 151 on Billboard's album chart, a failure in every respect.

AllMusic's John Bush states, "The mainstream late-'70s production techniques are predictable and frequently cloying. M.I.U. Album also included several of the worst Beach Boys songs ever to make it to vinyl. [...] Compared with what had come before, M.I.U. Album was a pathetic attempt at music making; compared with what was to come however, this was a highlight."

_*L.A. (Light Album)*_ is the 23rd studio album by the Beach Boys. Released on March 19, 1979, it was the band's first album issued on CBS Records. The production was credited to former Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, the band itself, and their manager James William Guercio. (Wikipedia)

After paying $8 million for the band to join the CBS stable of artists, CEO Walter Yetnikoff is reported to have said after hearing some of the new material, "Gentlemen, I think I've been f**ked." To bring in what were seen as saviors, Bruce Johnston and James William Guercio were air-dropped in to help produce.

When all is said, _L.A. (Light Album)_ is better than _M.I.U._ - but then again, it didn't have to do much to improve on that record.

The real difference between _L.A._ and _M.I.U._ is the presence of Dennis Wilson. His solo record had come out and his followup was stalled, so some of that material surfaced on _L.A._ and they are the best songs on the record, "Love Surrounds Me" and "Baby Blue".

But it's his vocals which really lift this record above their other recent recordings.

Carl has a number of songs which are also good, "Angel Come Home" sung by Dennis has been singled out as among the band's best. "Full Sail" sounds like an attempt to capture the magic of Surf's Up", it misses, but is still better than most of their other songs. "Goin' South" is a slow evocative song about, obviously enough, going South. Nice.

Those are the highlights. Now for some of the low points. Al Jardine or Mike Love are usually involved.

Al's "Lady Lynda" about his wife is based on the famous Bach melody from "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" something their keyboardist often played at sound checks, and Bach is lucky to be unavailable for this homage. "Sumahama" is Mike Love's only song here, and uses every Oriental musical trope he could think of. Nice background vocals, is about all I can say.

They first track "Good Timin'" is the only song here that conjures up the Beach Boys sound of old. The stacked vocals are produced better than ever, and provide a lush pad under Carl's vocal. This was supposed to be the hit from this record, which for some reason never landed.

The record ends with the traditional nursery rhyme, "Shortnin' Bread" - overdone with screeching guitars and full Specter style production. Why?

Upon its release, Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh wrote, "The Beach Boys have not made great rock music since _Wild Honey _[and haven't] made competent pop music since _Holland_;" he concluded that the album "is worse than awful. It is irrelevant."


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

pianozach said:


> No, I'm quite aware of the high opinion the *Beatles* (especially McCartney) had of The *Beach Boys*. Yeah, they thought *Pet Sounds* was great, especially the combinations of instrument doublings Wilson used in his arrangements to come up with new sounds. The *Beatles* were inspired by that, took that and ran with it, leaving Wilson scrambling to keep up with those he inspired.


That is the view I have. Pet Sounds was inspired by Rubber Soul, and I think it's pretty obvious Pet Sounds went further in terms of production, as Rubber Soul was still pretty pared down. But by Revolver, the Strawberry Fields single and Sgt. Pepper, Brian felt he couldn't top that. I never felt the material for Smiley Smile or its 2004 version ever was in contention to outdo what the Beatles were doing in terms of sonic impact. Brian was a great songwriter, but I believe he lost, and could never have won, in his rivalry with the Beatles in terms of influence.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

BrianWilson At My Piano: "Good Vibrations"


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

SanAntone,

What are your feelings about the movie _Love & Mercy.? _


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

arpeggio said:


> SanAntone,
> 
> What are your feelings about the movie _Love & Mercy.? _


It's been a while since I watched it, but as I remember it was okay. I'll probably watch it again. Apparently there's a newer documentary which has come out this year called _Long Promised Road_, which I will try to find.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Phil loves classical said:


> That is the view I have. Pet Sounds was inspired by Rubber Soul, and I think it's pretty obvious Pet Sounds went further in terms of production, as Rubber Soul was still pretty pared down. But by Revolver, the Strawberry Fields single and Sgt. Pepper, Brian felt he couldn't top that. I never felt the material for Smiley Smile or its 2004 version ever was in contention to outdo what the Beatles were doing in terms of sonic impact. Brian was a great songwriter, but I believe he lost, and could never have won, in his rivalry with the Beatles in terms of influence.


He wasn't obsessed with surpassing The Beatles with Pet Sounds, the Good Vibrations single or Smile, he was trying, like most great artists, to surpass himself. This bizarre Beatles-centric view of pop music history is objectionable.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

incidentally i highly do not recommend seeking out the adult/child bootlegs, which is a project that, as much as I adore Love You, is best left in the mists of time.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> *1978-1979*
> _M.I.U. Album_ (1978)
> _L.A. (Light Album)_ (1979)
> 
> ...


Wow. THAT is some really prickly assessement of an album from a group that used to be thought of as highly influential.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

pianozach said:


> Wow. THAT is some really prickly assessement of an album from a group that used to be though of as highly influential.


I tell it like I hear it; M.I.U. is not one of their better efforts.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

fbjim said:


> He wasn't obsessed with surpassing The Beatles with Pet Sounds, the Good Vibrations single or Smile, he was trying, like most great artists, to surpass himself. This bizarre Beatles-centric view of pop music history is objectionable.


As the story goes, Brian Wilson heard Strawberry Fields and pulled the car over and cried, saying they got there first. I think the problem is that Smile would have had more of an impact it would have if it was released earlier before that single and Sgt Pepper.

https://medium.com/cuepoint/how-the...brian-wilson-a-nervous-breakdown-4b3939c4e0e5


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Released on Nov. 19 a new documentary on *Brian Wilson*, _Long Promised Road_ (ironically a song written by Carl)


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*The Rivalry of Paul McCartney & Brian Wilson*






What's interesting is that The Beatles were very influenced by American music: early rock 'n' roll (Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry) as well as The Beach Boys. Of course The Beach Boys were also influenced by early rock 'n' roll but other music as well: Phil Spector, West Coast Jazz, Exotica, and The Four Freshmen.

Watch the video, it lays out the chronology.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

^ Good video. For me, I think the Beatles greatest strength came in the form of George Martin. He was the conduit through which the songs made a more direct impact on the listener, for me at least. i've heard outtakes of some of their songs on just guitar, and it seemed over 1/2 the song is missing. The Beach Boys were obviously more of a vocal ensemble than the Beatles (except for maybe in Because), and didn't focus on recording technique.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> ^ Good video. For me, I think the Beatles greatest strength came in the form of George Martin. He was the conduit through which the songs made a more direct impact on the listener, for me at least. i've heard outtakes of some of their songs on just guitar, and it seemed over 1/2 the song is missing. The Beach Boys were obviously more of a vocal ensemble than the Beatles (except for maybe in Because), and didn't focus on recording technique.


Yes, I would agree that George Martin was a big part of The Beatles sound. Which, in contrast, only highlights the importance of Brian Wilson's talent and impact on The Beach Boys' sound and, by extension, their influence on other bands, some far into the future.

Brian Wilson exercised complete control of the sound of the records, instructing the Wrecking Crew musicians about exactly what he wanted. He used a variety of methods: written charts, demonstrating their parts on an organ or piano, some he sang into their ear. But what is clear is that he had a very specific idea of what he wanted and expected them to play and would keep them in the studio until he got it, even if it took a two or three days or months.

He was also very interested in and exploited to the max studio technique of the time. His method of recording short sections and then splicing them together was a revolutionary way to create a song at the time, and to a certain extent is still innovative today. One reason why the Smile record was shelved was because he had amassed hundreds of recorded sections of songs, in various arrangements.

Imagine hundreds of boxes with 30 seconds, or a minute or two of music meant to be spliced together into a completed song. He reached an impasse of decision faced with all those choices, and along with the pressure to compete with The Beatles, and the pressure from some members of the band to "stick with the formula" as well as rejection and loss of confidence by Capitol records, ultimately led him to his mental breakdown.

Finally, The Beach Boys vocal blend and stack was complex and meticulously worked out by Brian. If he couldn't get the individual guys to get the parts, he overdubbed himself singing all the parts. This is essentially how Pet Sounds was made.

I love and respect what The Beatles accomplished; they were a ground-breaking band and made some of the greatest rock/pop music of all time. But The Beach Boys were arguably the second greatest band (IMO Pet Sounds is better than anything The Beatles did) at least for a period of time.

And The Beach Boys continued to make interesting and good music long after The Beatles broke up.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Phil loves classical said:


> ^ Good video. For me, I think the Beatles greatest strength came in the form of George Martin. He was the conduit through which the songs made a more direct impact on the listener, for me at least. i've heard outtakes of some of their songs on just guitar, and it seemed over 1/2 the song is missing. The Beach Boys were obviously more of a vocal ensemble than the Beatles (except for maybe in Because), and didn't focus on recording technique.


Early on *The Beatles* were known for their vocal harmonies, and excellent backing vocals.

Even so, for how great their vocals were, when it came to luscious vocal harmonies, this battle would be won hands down by the *Beach Boys*. That's NOT to say *The Beatles* DIDN'T have great harmonies, it's just that Brian did it better.

That said, there were actually plenty of bands that did some pretty great vocal harmonies at the time: *The Four Seasons, PP&M, The Coasters, The Lettermen, The Four Preps, The Swingle Singers, The Temptations, The Miracles, The Drifters, Four Freshmen*, and dozens of others that likely inspired Wilson.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Just to show how hard it is to sing "Surf's Up" - here's two singers, with great falsetto voices, doing their best but not coming close to Brian's original.

*Chris Thile*






*Vince Gill*






*Brian Wilson*


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> As the story goes, Brian Wilson heard Strawberry Fields and pulled the car over and cried, saying they got there first. I think the problem is that Smile would have had more of an impact it would have if it was released earlier before that single and Sgt Pepper.
> 
> https://medium.com/cuepoint/how-the...brian-wilson-a-nervous-breakdown-4b3939c4e0e5


You may be getting this story mixed up with "Be My Baby":

"But it was the Ronettes who performed the song that Brian calls his all-time favorite: "Be My Baby." "When I first heard 'Be My Baby' in my car, I had to pull over to the side of the street. It blew my mind," he said."

- _Wouldn't It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds_ by Charles L. Granata, Tony Asher

In response to a fan's question on his website in 2014, Wilson denied that hearing [Strawberry Fields] had "weakened" him and called it a "very weird record" that he enjoyed. [Wikipedia: "Brian Answers Fans' Questions in Live Q&A". brianwilson.com. 29 January 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2017.]


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

SanAntone said:


> You may be getting this story mixed up with "Be My Baby":
> 
> "But it was the Ronettes who performed the song that Brian calls his all-time favorite: "Be My Baby." "When I first heard 'Be My Baby' in my car, I had to pull over to the side of the street. It blew my mind," he said."
> 
> ...


There are slightly different versions:

"Brian Wilson was driving in his car one day when "Strawberry Fields Forever" came on the radio. He immediately pulled over to the side of the road to just listen.
After the song ended, he went to tell his bandmates and his other collaborators, "you know what, guys, let's just forget it." The Smile project was shelved, and a watered down version of it, called Smiley Smile was later released. Meanwhile, the Beatles released the iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and, for the second time in their careers, became the new voice of their generation."

https://musicgoat.com/the-beatles-and-the-beach-boys-race-to-the-toppermost-of-the-poppermost

"Brian Wilson, who had been struggling to complete the Beach Boys' Smile album, first heard "Strawberry Fields Forever" on his car radio[180] while under the influence of barbiturates.[181] In the recollection of his passenger at the time, Michael Vosse, "[Wilson] just shook his head and said, 'They did it already - what I wanted to do with Smile. Maybe it's too late.'"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Fields_Forever


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> There are slightly different versions


I place more importance on his own words in 2014 in response to a specific question about this issue.

In any event, _SMiLE_ ended up officially being released, granted it took until 2004. I don't know if you've heard it, but even today (over 50 years later) it still sounds revolutionary. Nothing the Beatles ever did came close to the avant-garde nature of Brian Wilson's expansion of what is possible on a Rock album with _SMILE_.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

That actually makes a bit of sense, Specror's maximalist production has at least as much relation to what Brian Wilson was trying to do than the psychedelic era Beatles.


As far as pop songs go, "Be My Baby" (and "Then He Kissed Me") is about as revolutionary as you can get. That reaction reminds me of Brian Eno supposedly flipping out (a story by David Bowie) over hearing Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" for the first time.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

SanAntone said:


> I place more importance on his own words in 2014 in response to a specific question about this issue.
> 
> In any event, _SMiLE_ ended up officially being released, granted it took until 2004. I don't know if you've heard it, but even today (over 50 years later) it still sounds revolutionary. Nothing the Beatles ever did came close to the avant-garde nature of Brian Wilson's expansion of what is possible on a Rock album with _SMILE_.


Yup, I heard the B Wilson Presents Smile, and thought it was great. But I don't think I agree with your comparison with the Beatles. I'm not sure if even Brian Wilson would agree.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> Yup, I heard the B Wilson Presents Smile, and thought it was great. But I don't think I agree with your comparison with the Beatles. I'm not sure if even Brian Wilson would agree.


The big difference between what Brian Wilson did first with "Good Vibrations" and then more extensively with _SMiLE_ was a modular approach to assembling the "songs" - which he conceived as parts of a movement, and symphonic in scope. His "cut and paste" studio methodology has primarily been adopted in avant-garde Classical scores.

For a Rock record this was and is still revolutionary, and beyond anything the Beatles did.

The closest they came was to have one side of _Abbey Road_ as a suite of songs which are loosely related, if at all - and, of course, the concept of _Sgt. Pepper_'s which was only maintained for a few songs.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*1980-1985*
_Keepin' the Summer Alive_ (1980)
_The Beach Boys_ (1985)










_*Keepin' the Summer Alive*_ is the twenty-fourth studio album the Beach Boys, released March 24, 1980 on Brother, Caribou and CBS Records. Produced by Bruce Johnston, the album peaked at number 75 in the US, during a chart stay of 6 weeks, and number 54 in the UK. It is the group's last album recorded with Dennis Wilson, who drowned in 1983, although he only appears on one song. (Wikipedia)

CBS insisted that the next Beach Boys record have actual Brian Wilson involvement. Unfortunately, Brian Wilson wasn't in any state to do anything much. In order to pacify the record label half of the record is made up of old songs written by Brian and Mile Love which were polished up and recorded, and are interesting and worth hearing.

"Goin' On" was released as a single and has a 12/8 ballad Beach Boys sound, but lacks the magic their best songs possess.

The title song is also decent. Written by Carl Wilson and Randy Bachman, one of two songs written by this duo, both with more of a Rock edge than anything the BBs had done recently.

The sound of the record is good, thanks to the temporary return of engineer Steve Desper, but overall a sense that this record was an obligatory effort.

The first Beach Boys album of the 1980s would also be the last to be even nominally by the band's classic line-up, but just barely, Dennis Wilson only appears briefly on one song playing drums.

Other songs worth mentioning besides are "Sunshine" another one written by Brian and Mike from the vault, and the next to last song, "Santa Ana Winds" (Brian Wilson, Al Jardine).

The album ends with a self-referential "Endless Harmony" by Bruce Johnston and incorporates lyrics about the band celebrating itself, all done over a syrupy electric piano but with their best group vocals on the album.

Which is a bittersweet way to end the record, hinting at the kind of record they might have made if only they had cared more.










_*The Beach Boys* _is the 25th studio album by the Beach Boys, released on June 10, 1985. Produced by Steve Levine, the album is the band's first after the drowning of founding member Dennis Wilson. It was also the band's first album to be recorded digitally and the last released by James William Guercio's Caribou Records.

"Getcha Back" written by Mike Love and Terry Melcher has the classic Beach Boys sound and comes off okay. Two songs written by the trio, Carl Wilson, Myrna Smith-Schilling, and Robert White Johnson are well-written Pop-Rock, with good vocals by Carl.

The best songs have Brian Wilson's name on them, "Crack At Your Love" written with Al Jardine, has a great intro, but it doesn't really deliver a song to match it. Another Wilson/Jardine collaboration is "California Calling" a throw-back to their sunnier days. There's a couple of Brain Wilson solo songs - "I'm So Lonely" and "It's Just a Matter of Time." Both are a cut above the rest of the material, and have decent Brian lead vocals.

There's a Stevie Wonder's contribution which brings the record into the fullness of the mid-80s. Wonder plays all the instruments and Carl and Al Jardine sing lead The song is a bright spot on the record, even though it sounds more like Stevie than the B-Boys.

The CD included a bonus track, written by Brian and Mike, "Male Ego". Mike offers his traditional nasal tenor and the production keeps the song within the band's sound.

This record is listenable and not a train wreck, if that sounds like faint praise, well, it is.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

_*SMiLE*_ (LP)










The Deluxe _Smile Sessions_ box included a 2 LP recreation mix of the original album, likely tracking program, along with some archival material. Also included are 5 CDs, and two 45s with the songs, "Surf's Up" b/w "Vega-tables" and "Heroes and Villains" Parts 1 & 2.

As I listen to this record I am struck by the level of work. It is an amazing piece of music; symphonic in nature with three "movements".


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Stealing this observation from another critic but it's clear Smile would have fixed my one major problem with Pet Sounds, which was the homogenous atmosphere of that record. Of course Pet Sounds has a singular atmosphere (reminded of a criticism of Wilson at the time, that he only wrote "sad songs", including "sad songs about happiness") that I love getting immersed in, but the variety of styles and moods on Smile is the one thing I always thought was missing from Pet Sounds.

I prefer the less complete Smile Sessions version to the Wilson solo version, by the way. The original Beach Boys vocal harmonies are irreplaceable.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Regarding the "sad songs", here's an excerpt from the wonderful "500 Worst Rolling Stones Reviews" RYM list from Nik Cohn, who was no fool, even if I don't share his opinion of Wilson -



> And yet, at the time many prominent critics seemed to share this [the early Beach Boys songs being the best] view. "As he has become more and more of a recluse, so he has got increasingly hooked on the concept of Wison (sic) as a creative artist," Nik Cohn lamented in Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom. "No more surfboards and hotrods, no more amateur myth-making. Instead, he has emerged as a full-blown solemn romantic, turning out successions of near tone-poems, fragile pools of sound, very limpid. Small choirs running through mockfugues and rambling boy sopranos. Sad songs about loneliness and heartache. Sad songs even about happiness...I'd lay money that 'I Get Around' will be the best record he'll ever make."


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged*












> Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged is a compilation and remix album released by Capitol Records on November 20, 2015.[1] It is an 81-track expansion of Beach Boys' Party!, presenting it without informal chatter overdubs followed by a selection of outtakes collected from the album's original five recording sessions.


Vastly more interesting than the original with the fake party atmosphere.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> *Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh, man, that Beach Boys Party album was really scraping the bottom of the barrel, wasn't it?.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

pianozach said:


> Oh, man, that Beach Boys Party album was really scraping the bottom of the barrel, wasn't it?.


Not really. There's some good stuff there which is why this archival release from 2015 is so important. Not to mention that one of their biggest hits emerged from the Party album, Barbara Ann.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

_*SMiLE*_

The question remains if SMiLE still comes off as "unfinished"?

We have to accept that it is unfinished in the sense that Brian Wilson gave up on finalizing the arrangements/splicing together the final versions of many of the songs, and then sequencing. Any sequencing done in the wake of Brian's abandoning of SMiLE must take into account the "three movement" scheme, each with four songs but with some transition fragments in between the larger movements.

The _Smile Sessions_ seems to be the best sequence in that regard, but _Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE_ could be construed as his final statement of the work. They are very close, and the producers of the 2011 box most likely used his 2004 album as a guide.

The first movement has the *Western Expansion of America* theme:

Heroes And Villains
Roll Plymouth Rock
Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine
Cabin Essence

The second movement's theme appears to be *Relationships*, *Family/Children* or even *Spiritual Love*:

Wonderful,
Look (Song for Children)
Child is Father of the Man
Surf's Up

I Want to Be Around acts as an instrumental transition.

The third movement, unclear as to theme but seems to be about *Nature* or *The Environment*, beginning with Vege-Tables is the most fluid as far as various approaches to song selection. Good Vibrations seems to have been thrown in to close the record, and is unrelated to any larger thematic sequencing:

Vege-Tables,
(On a) Holiday(s)
Wind Chimes
Mrs O'Leary's Cow (The Elements),
In Blue Hawaii or Cool, Cool, Water or I Love to Say Da-Da

Of these choices, I prefer Cool, Cool Water - one of his best songs, IMO, that often gets overlooked.

The inclusion of Good Vibrations occurred for a couple of reasons: 1) its collage technique was the modus operandi for teh entire SMiLE project and 2) a holdover of needing a "hit" for the LP.

My sense is that Brian had a loose idea of an original plan to make the thematic movements more developed but ran out of steam.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

The *Smiley Smile* and *Smile* thing is too disjointed to wrap my brain around.

As near as I can figure, Brian was trying to create the music using studio techniques, and got in over his head. The *Beatles* did as much, but there was all four of them, plus George Martin and the studio engineers. Wilson seems to have been flying solo.

I've listened to tracks from *Smiley Smile* and *Smile*, and while it's some nice songs, I don't find myself getting all excited about any of it.

Oh, and about _*Barbra Ann*_ . . . Yeah, it was a hit, and you'll still hear barbershop quartets woodshedding covers of it, but it's merely a very catchy average song with above average vocals. Musically it's pretty simple.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

pianozach said:


> Oh, and about _*Barbra Ann*_ . . . Yeah, it was a hit, and you'll still hear barbershop quartets woodshedding covers of it, but it's merely a very catchy average song with above average vocals. Musically it's pretty simple.


Well, yeah. I never said "Barbara Ann" was a great song; it could be described as a great performance of a simple song.

I was also saying that the _Beach Boys Party_ is unique in their output as a stripped down live set of covers and past hits - and also produced one single that was very successful.


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## Guest (Dec 29, 2021)

I had a Christmas celebration with a female friend in the week beforehand and we had a "Beach Boys Fest". Playing all their old hits and singing along, much to the chagrin of her neighbours. I really like this one of theirs:






Paul McCartney really admires this song!!


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Christabel said:


> I had a Christmas celebration with a female friend in the week beforehand and we had a "Beach Boys Fest". Playing all their old hits and singing along, much to the chagrin of her neighbours. I really like this one of theirs:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sounds like great fun - wish I was there. Yeah, "God Only Knows" is a classic.


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## Guest (Dec 29, 2021)

"God Only Knows" was the theme tune to a television series called "Big Love", starring the late (and much missed) Bill Paxton. It's about polygamy and I enjoyed the series and its excellent acting and very high production values.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Some info about the abandonment of _SMiLE_ and the subsequent "bunt instead of a home run" that was _Smiley Smile_:










When The Beach Boys were taken out of downtown Hollywood and installed in Brian's house, the discipline of the clock, rates and overtime disappeared. The group began to shove their weight around. Worse, Brian's home studio was built in such a way that, when The Beach Boys left for concert tours, much of the equipment went with them, leaving him little to record with in their absence. This preposterous situation was not questioned by the group, but in fact was set up this way as a deterrent; Brian would no longer create masterpieces without their 'assistance'.

Initially, it was a good, intimate situation at the _Smiley Smile_ recording sessions; 'Little Pad', with its slack key references and 1920s hula-hut ambience, is one of the group's finest moments. The acoustic setting brought The Beach Boys together for vocal sessions that Hit Parader would praise as having 'probably more a cappella harmony than on any album since the fall of the singing-group era in the late 1950s', demonstrating an innate understanding of rock 'n' roll at its source in a review juxtaposed alongside the first long-player by The Pink Floyd. The Beach Boys' roots in the R& B vocal-group sound played out well.

Paul Williams of Crawdaddy! described their sound as 'beautiful and subtle', while Cheetah raved in a similar fashion, pointing out that _Smiley Smile_, 'even without "Surf's Up" and with all its flaws and lapses, as far as I'm concerned, is the most beautiful rock album ever recorded in this country. The expression that emerges from this music is very strange: it's a very personal mood. Most of the music is unnaturally quiet; it has a feeling of softness, even when it's loud, unlike anything I've experienced (listen especially to the end of "Wind Chimes"). And the mood is rather childlike (not childish)-the kind of innocence that shows on the album cover, with its Rousseau-like animals and forest, and the smoke from the cabin chimney spelling out the title.' Despite these accolades, even the most favorable response was laced with a sense of what could have been. Cheetah added the most crucial point: 'The greatest pity of all is that "Surf's Up" is not on the album; as I remember it from the TV documentary last spring (and I don't think anyone who heard it could forget it), it was better than anything that is on the album, and would have provided the emotional catharsis that "A Day In The Life" provides for Sgt Pepper.'

Crawdaddy!, meanwhile, reported that '_Smiley Smile _could no longer be a perfect work, so it might as well be whatever it was. Smile was the one that got away.' And, despite their evident enjoyment, Hit Parader was blunt about _Smiley Smile_: 'We still like _Pet Sounds_ better.' But it was the UK's NME that best summed up the general philosophy about the post-Smile Beach Boys: 'By the standards which this group has set itself, it's more than a grade disappointing.'"

- _Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece: The Official Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece_ by *Domenic Priore, Brian Wilson*, et al.


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)

Exemplary sunshine pop, with Glen Campbell on lead vocals and Bruce Johnston in a Gary Usher project, 1968. Remind you of any particular BB song you can think of?


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I just watched this documentary written by David Leaf that tells the complete 37 year sage of SMiLE.

_Beautiful Dreamer_ - Brian Wilson and the Story of 'SMiLE'






Excellently done.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*The Beach Boys Celebrate a Creatively Fruitful Era With Sail On Sailor - 1972 180g 5LP+1EP Limited Edition Vinyl Box Set on November 18*










*News from Analog Planet*
The Beach Boys sailed into quite a creatively fruitful period in 1972, and a new 180g 5LP+1EP box set dubbed _Sail On Sailor - 1972_ — slated to be released on November 18 via Capitol/UMe — captures the gist of their labors during such a key transitional year in the band’s history. In addition to the linchpin bookend releases _Carl And The Passions – “So Tough”_ and _Holland_, this 105-track collection also includes 80 unreleased outtakes, live recordings, demos, alternate versions, alternate mixes, instrumentals, and a cappella tracks.

_Sail On Sailor - 1972_ is but the latest chapter in The Beach Boys’ ever-expanding archival series of releases. It was produced by Mark Linett and Alan Boyd, the team behind 2013’s _SMiLE Sessions_, 2021’s _Feel Flows – The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971_, and 2022’s T_he Very Best Of The Beach Boys: The Sounds Of Summer_ box sets respectively.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971*










*Excerpt from Pitchfork review:*

_As the 1960s came to a close, even the Beach Boys knew it wasn’t cool to be a Beach Boy anymore. Brian Wilson floated the idea of simplifying their name to “The Beach,” arguing, “We’re not ‘boys’ anymore, right? We’re men!” The rest of the band rejected the notion. They brought their past with them whenever they performed on stage, still dressed in the matching surfer uniforms from before the psychedelic epiphany of 1966’s “Good Vibrations.” The hits dried up, and the downturn coincided with Brian Wilson’s breakdown during the 1967 sessions for Smile, his abandoned project intended as the sequel to Pet Sounds. Left rudderless without their leader, the Beach Boys stumbled through the remainder of their contract with Capitol Records, often making good music while slipping further away from the center of public consciousness.

Documenting this complicated era, _Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971_ is a five-disc box set featuring augmented remasters of the band's first two albums for their new label Reprise alongside unreleased songs, alternate versions, live tracks, session highlights, and a cappella tracks. This music traces the group’s long road back to the spotlight. It was not an easy journey. Embroiled in an ugly divorce from Capitol, the Beach Boys searched for a new label home and discovered that most companies were reluctant to sign them due to concerns about Brian’s health. While the labels and press were focused on their primary songwriter, his brothers Carl and Dennis, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston kept themselves busy on the road and in the studio, figuring out how to be a band without Brian. When it came time to record their first album for Reprise, they had a surplus of material ready to go—more than could possibly fit on a single album._

Initially I ignored these somewhat redundant archival releases but I've recently begun to see their value. The unreleased and studio material is actually pretty interesting and not without its entertainment value. 

Overall I've done a 180 regarding these boxes and wish I had not ignored them when they first came out. This one can still be found new, and is available to stream on Spotify.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Facing choppy waters without much input from captain Brian, The Beach Boys run adrift with all hands on deck.*

With _Sail On Sailor – 1972_ (UMC), the enjoyable *Beach Boys* archive series arrives at an unusually bizarre period, even by their standards. By late ’71, they’d struggled to sell two excellent records in their deal with Reprise (_Sunflower_ and _Surf’s Up_) and were wondering how to refocus themselves as rock became the dominant thing. “It’s safe now to listen to The Beach Boys,” ran one of hipster manager Jack Rieley’s pithy slogans.

A frustrated Bruce Johnston had departed and two members of South African band *The Flames*, drummer Blondie Chaplin and guitarist Ricky Fataar, had been recruited to beef up the sound (Dennis Wilson had injured his hand and couldn’t drum). Some thought the new line-up required a new name. One suggestion was simply, The Beach. Another was to revert to the group’s original name, *Carl & The Passions*. The expanded group’s first effort, _So Tough_, seemed to be issued under that name, but wasn’t really. It was all a bit confusing. (read more)










Mindful that this is not the best-loved region of the band’s career, UMC have gone to town on formatting: 6-CD edition, 5-LP+7-inch EP vinyl edition, both including a previously unreleased Live At Carnegie Hall, a bumper crop of session outtakes and remixes, with or without limited lithographs and original _Holland_ promo booklet, plus 48-page book, stretch of Californian coastline etc, etc. There’s fascinating, excellent music here for sure, but if you’ve not heard these records before, don’t expect instant gratification.


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