Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys

[jwinter]

After having some discussions about Brian Wilson, Smile, the new Beach Boys album, etc., it seems like there may be some interest in the subject in these parts.  If so, here's a place to discuss.

I'll toss out my last post from the WAYLT-NC thread to start...


Quote from: Bogey on Today at 01:00:17 PM >

I have come close to pulling the trigger on this set, JW.  My 13 year-old is a big Beach Boys fan.  Even at a young age he said to me, "Dad, all these guys sing about are girls, cars, and surfing."  I said, "Pretty cool, huh."

I have both [the Smile Sessions and Brian Wilson's Smile remake] -- the Beach Boys original is certainly worth getting if you're into it.  The downside of course is that the original recordings were never completely finished.  The Smile Sessions gives you what there is, sequenced and edited as well as possible, with lots of alternate takes etc., but it's still incomplete -- it's cool, but it's not really Smile, because a good chunk of Smile never made the jump from Wilson's imagination onto tape.  The Brian Wilson Smile album probably gives a much closer idea to what the finished album might have sounded like, had the Beach Boys been able to complete it back in the day. 

I watched a fascinating documentary on the remake the other day, ("Beautiful Dreamer," part of the Live Smile DVD), which compared how he struggled to piece Smile together in the 60s (literally going through reels of tapes with a razor blade), versus today where all the bits were recorded into a computer and he could shuffle and combine things with ease -- truly a case of being ahead of his time.  The lack of technology was apparently almost as much a factor in shelving the project as Wilson's mental illness and the drugs and all the rest of it.

It really is one of the great what-ifs of music history -- imagine if the Beach Boys had been able to pull Smile together (they really were pretty close), and then kept evolving from there.  They'd probably be revered today as one of the all-time greats, as opposed to the common impression of them as a nostalgia act about surfing, girls, and cars.  It's downright life-affirming to see Wilson finally finish the work and get some peace, and to hear how truly great and revolutionary it would have been in 1967, but it certainly is a bittersweet achievement.

Hey, let's start a Brian Wilson thread over in the diner -- the old boy deserves one...

[Leon]

Thanks for starting this thread; I will be a contributor since I have been a BB fanatic since my early teens, ~ mid-'60s.  I stayed with them throughout and am happy that they settled their legal and personal differences and managed to put out a record that rivals the best of their earlier work, short of Pet Sounds and Smile.

I agree that the Smile box pulled together is probably the closest we'll get to what BW would have released at the time - but much of it had already appeared on subsequent records.  I also thought Smiley Smile was a decent record and, in fact, like some of those tracks better than what is on Smile.  For example, "Wonderful" and "Wind Chimes" I thought were great on Smiley Smile.

A fave of mine is the song "Surf's Up" - always wishing there wold have been a fully produced version and hoping it would improve on the already excellent version of the fleshed out piano/vocal work-tape of Brian + vocal and instrumental overdubs.

They are a great band and one definitely worthy of a GMG thread!

[jwinter]

What's your opinion of the Beach Boys' post-Smile, late 60s-early 70s period?  I actually just ordered some of those albums (Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20), which I haven't heard other than a few songs that made it onto various compilations...

[Luke]

Indulge me - 'this-album-is-special-to-me-in-a-deeply-personal-and-irrelevant-to-anyone-else-way' moment coming up...

We are fast approaching the time of year when I stick the camping gear in the car, squash the kids in around it, and drive on down to the sunny south of France for a desperately needed holiday, all the windows open and Smile - invariably, it has to be Smile - blaring out. To my kids, the holiday hasn't started until we start down the road and those unmistakable vocal harmonies cascade out of the speakers. I'm not exagerating - in fact, I don't play it for the rest of the year, to keep that moment special. To my mind, then, that record is all Gallic warmth and rustic Mediterranean relaxation, smooth hot tarmac and the sound of cicadas on the breeze! On the way back we crank it up again, and have always reached that clattering climax of the album (around Mr's O'Leary's Cow, I think) just as we reach the top of the blustery hill at which we have to turn round say a farewell to the valleys and landscape we have been staying in, whilst the wind blasts through the car and the music through our ears. Then Good Vibrations sees us onto the motorway and home we go. It's a yearly ritual and both the kids and I love it. For that reason, if no other, I love Brian Wilson. 

Also, (different album of course) my son used to think that the line was 'Gallery knows what I'd be without you'...

[Leon]

What's your opinion of the Beach Boys' post-Smile, late 60s-early 70s period?  I actually just ordered some of those albums (Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20), which I haven't heard other than a few songs that made it onto various compilations...

All those you list are good with some great tracks but also significant amount of filler - but later on the albums go downhill:  Holland, M.I.U., 15 Big Ones (some like the retro rock'n'roll thing, but I'm not that into it), L.A. (Light Album) represent the nadir of their work, IMO.  But Surf's Up, Sunflower, even Carl and the Passions - So Tough have enough good-to-great stuff to make them worthwhile purchases. From this period I think Surf's Up is the best.  The songs "Surf's Up", "Long Promised Road", "Feel Flows", "Til I Die" and "The Day in the Life of A Tree" are some of their best work.

[Karl Henning]

. . . Also, (different album of course) my son used to think that the line was 'Gallery knows what I'd be without you'...

Hah!

[jwinter]

Here's an interesting article on Smile, that Andrew Sullivan just linked from his blog. 

http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1932/article_detail.asp#

[Leon]

Here's an interesting article on Smile, that Andrew Sullivan just linked from his blog. 

http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1932/article_detail.asp#

Good article, which captures the Southern California context nicely and the competition with the Beatles.  I was one of those who called my local radio station in Shreveport over and over, requesting "Help Me Rhonda" in the hope to push it to #1 - which it managed to do despite the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride", which also was a #1 song around the same time.

[Mirror Image]

Pet Sounds and Surf's Up were two of the Beach Boys more interesting albums IMHO. I need to revisit Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys.

[drogulus]

     I loved the Lenny quote about Surf's Up. I was watching that night (I never missed a chance to see either of those guys back then). It was about 5 years later that the song finally made it onto an album.

[jwinter]

Gave Friends & 20/20 an inaugural spin today.  Surprisingly good!  I've always liked Do It Again, and wondered why they hadn't done anything else in that style -- turns out they did.     20/20 seems particularly strong, a bit of a harder edge in the guitars etc than I was expecting, very nice.

I also listened to Wilson's Gershwin album, and thought it was excellent.  You can hear the deep influence of Rhapsody in Blue in a lot of the Beach Boys' music, particularly SMiLE (Wilson talked about Gershwin quite a bit in the documentary that came with the SMiLE live DVD).  If you like Wilson and you like Gershwin, this is a no-brainer...

[asin]B002RWKSII[/asin] 

[The new erato]

God Only Knows is pretty high on my list of most perfect songs ever written.

[drogulus]

God Only Knows is pretty high on my list of most perfect songs ever written.

     It's on my list, too.

[Bogey]

Well, it had to happen:

http://www.examiner.com/article/beach-boys-announce-remastered-albums-new-hit-collections-coming-this-year

[jwinter]

Figures, I just finished filling in the early albums that I was missing... 

Although, I don't think I'm much tempted by this.  The main Beach Boys albums were already 24-bit remastered in 2001, sounded great and can be found very cheaply used (funny how the article only mentions the previous 1990 issues).  The sound is already drastically improved, and the albums are 2 to a disc, which is appropriate since many of them are less than 30 minutes.  If they are putting them out on single discs (fake stereo & mono), I'm not impressed.  They were originally recorded and mixed in mono, and if the "stereo" Pet Sounds in the Pet Sounds Sessions box set is any indication, the original mono is much to be preferred.

[Bogey]

Agree.....I will just keep collecting the vinyl. @

[Leo K.]

I prefer The Beach Boys on vinyl too, especially Holland, Sunflower and Surf's Up.

In the '70s Warner put out two-fer LPs of smiley/wild honey and Friends/20/20, if you come across these grab em! They sound AMAZING.

Anyone else dig Friends? What a laid back beautiful listen

[Bogey]

I prefer The Beach Boys on vinyl too, especially Holland, Sunflower and Surf's Up.

In the '70s Warner put out two-fer LPs of smiley/wild honey and Friends/20/20, if you come across these grab em! They sound AMAZING.

Anyone else dig Friends? What a laid back beautiful listen

Thanks for the tips!  Most helpful.

[jwinter]

Friends is indeed quite nice, I've been quite pleasantly surprised by the early 70s Beach Boys stuff.  The later albums were also done as 2fers on CD back in the early 2000s -- I also really enjoyed Sunflower & Surf's Up.  Heck, I even liked Carl & the Passions, which according to the "critics" is supposed to be pretty terrible.

[Bogey]

Cooooolness.  Our son needs to do a two major biography projects for his 8th grade lit class and was going to do George Harrison, but found the bio books (he has to read one major bio book for this work) wanting.  So, he went with Brian Wilson!  One of the pre-projects is just writing out and giving three sources for each of 15 interesting facts.  Here are the first five he typed out. I will not include his official bibliography:


Paul McCarteny said that the song,"God Only Knows"  from Brain Wilson's album Smile is one of the greatest songs ever written.

Sources:
Song Facts.com http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2136
Album Liner Notes http://www.albumlinernotes.com/Paul_McCartney_Comments.html
Brian Wilson Live Tumblr http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/the-beach-boys-god-only-knows-19691231

George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue had a great influence over Brian at a young age.

Sources:
Catch a Wave by Peter Ames Carlin (Kindle Edition - Jun 26, 2007)
The Claremont Institute http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1932/article_detail.asp
CNN Living http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/living/brian-wilson-creativity/index.html

Though Brian Wilson was the leader of the Beach Boys, he did not surf.

The Dennis Wilson Interview Circus Magazine October 26, 1976
By Scott Cohen  http://www.cinetropic.com/blacktop/circus.html
Ability Magazine Interview http://abilitymagazine.com/past/brianW/brianw.html

Brian Wilson did not like appearing on stage but did it anyway.

Sources:
Catch a Wave by Peter Ames Carlin
Ability Magazine.com http://abilitymagazine.com/past/brianW/brianw.html

Brian originally wanted to name the band the Pendletones
Sources:
Rockhall.com
http://rockhall.com/inductees/the-beach-boys/bio/

Catch a Wave by Peter Ames Carlin
Bio.com http://www.biography.com/people/brian-wilson-586000?page=1#beach-boys

Here is the bio he is reading:



We may just need to have our own little book club at the homestead.