W i l d H o n e y

[ghost]

WILD HONEY!

Am I the only one who finds this album to be ten times more interesting than SMiLE (in any form)? I could listen to Wild Honey/Aren't You Glad/Here Comes The Night/A Thing Or Two/Let The Wind Blow etc FOREVER. Those are some psychedelic, happening songs. Brian/Mike at their best! Most ecstatic and carefree! Where did they get so much soul? Bruce becomes God when he plays organ solos. Also, Wild Honey/Wind Chimes is the best A/B ever made! Most psychedelic! I've never heard the sessions for this album, just a few stereo mixes which I did not like at all.

How do you all play the music? I play the mono albums through a Marshall guitar amp. I raise the mids a lot and the gain a little and blast the volume. Incredible experience to hear this album in such a way!

[Shady]

Top 5 BB album for sure..

But more interesting than SMiLE, What you smoking? 

[Alex]

Great album...but it could've used a couple more songs.

[ghost]

It is more interesting to me! Smile is a hodge podge, Wild Honey is a solid album. I get more enjoyment hearing (Carl?) riffing out on "A Thing Or Two" than I ever did hearing the faux-Gershwin horns on Hero Zen Villains or whatever else from Smile. It has just as much mystery! - Let The Wind Blow!

Wild Honey is even more colorful to me in the sound. It bursts out with confidence. Brian's psychedelic piano playing is everywhere! There is honesty of purpose in virility, such is my love for Wild Honey.

All the other stud bees keep buzzin all round her hive...

[Emdeeh]

I know you've heard me say this before, but ... Wild Honey is my favorite album of all time, by any artist. WH rules!

[GroovinGarrett]

Am I the only one who finds this album to be ten times more interesting than SMiLE (in any form)?

Most likely. Damn fine album though.

[Jon Stebbins]

Great, great album. But IMO not psychedelic at all. Actually its quite the opposite. WH is an anti-psychedelic record. WH is a crispy clean pop/soul album with baroque/ garage and folk/jazz elements. If you were to insist in 1967..."I refuse to jump on the psych bandwagon that permeates modern rock"...or "I'm comin' down from a bad trip and i want to get as far away from psych/acid sound as i can"...WH is the statement that one would make. To call it psychedelic is to completely miss what Brian was saying.

[Shady]

While we have a WH topic..

Personally I think the 2 fer sounds terrible, sound wise is that the best out there or is there a better sounding release to buy?

[aerolls]

I'm also a W.H. fan but I don't love it as much as Smile! Still an underrated gem. On my mega Beach Boys playlist I have Wild Honey after Smiley Smile. I love hearing both back to back when I'm walking in Huntington Gardens/library in L.A. How can you not be outside L.A. and listen or sing Beach Boys songs?

Adrian

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I'd put the albums from Wild Honey thru Holland up at the very top of the BB catalogue, even over Pet Sounds and Smile.

[ghost]

Great, great album. But IMO not psychedelic at all. Actually its quite the opposite. WH is an anti-psychedelic record. WH is a crispy clean pop/soul album with baroque/ garage and folk/jazz elements. If you were to insist in 1967..."I refuse to jump on the psych bandwagon that permeates modern rock"...or "I'm comin' down from a bad trip and i want to get as far away from psych/acid sound as i can"...WH is the statement that one would make. To call it psychedelic is to completely miss what Brian was saying.

Is that what Brian told you he was "saying" with the album? When I say psychedelic I don't mean as a musical genre but how I hear the sound. To me, that album is psychedelic. It bursts out like an explosion of color & love for life. Wild Honey is not coming down from a bad trip, it's coming up on a good one!

Also - "clean"? This is the raunchiest album I've ever heard!

[Rocker]

Probably my favorite BBs-album.
I don't hear anything psychedelic on it. It's more like soul...

[ghost]

It's psychedelic soul in cartoon-consciousness. Brian just got farther & farther far OUT as far as I'm concerned.

[punkinhead]

Great, great album. But IMO not psychedelic at all. Actually its quite the opposite. WH is an anti-psychedelic record. WH is a crispy clean pop/soul album with baroque/ garage and folk/jazz elements. If you were to insist in 1967..."I refuse to jump on the psych bandwagon that permeates modern rock"...or "I'm comin' down from a bad trip and i want to get as far away from psych/acid sound as i can"...WH is the statement that one would make. To call it psychedelic is to completely miss what Brian was saying.

I have to admit, when I first heard Wild Honey (the song) on BB Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (20 more good vibrations), I thought it was psychedelic; with that therimin and organ being outta sight and being played right after Heroes and Villains, I totally thought it was psychedelic. But when I got online and read about how the genre of the album is white R&B, I was confused...but listening to Darlin', a thing or Two, Let the Wind Blow, and Here Comes the Night, I realized how R&B influence it was....let alone I was Made to Love Her (which is a fantastic cover by the way). Carl really comes outta his shell of what he truely wanted to say/sing, granted, he was all over Smiley Smile, but someone had to take up the gaunlet. I could still see this being considered: part psychedlic, part R&B, part sunshine pop; which, in my opinion is pretty damn hip after coming off the Smile ride. Let alone that album cover, don't get me started on that!

[ghost]

Great, great album. But IMO not psychedelic at all. Actually its quite the opposite. WH is an anti-psychedelic record. WH is a crispy clean pop/soul album with baroque/ garage and folk/jazz elements. If you were to insist in 1967..."I refuse to jump on the psych bandwagon that permeates modern rock"...or "I'm comin' down from a bad trip and i want to get as far away from psych/acid sound as i can"...WH is the statement that one would make. To call it psychedelic is to completely miss what Brian was saying.

I have to admit, when I first heard Wild Honey (the song) on BB Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (20 more good vibrations), I thought it was psychedelic; with that therimin and organ being outta sight and being played right after Heroes and Villains, I totally thought it was psychedelic. But when I got online and read about how the genre of the album is white R&B, I was confused...but listening to Darlin', a thing or Two, Let the Wind Blow, and Here Comes the Night, I realized how R&B influence it was....let alone I was Made to Love Her (which is a fantastic cover by the way). Carl really comes outta his shell of what he truely wanted to say/sing, granted, he was all over Smiley Smile, but someone had to take up the gaunlet. I could still see this being considered: part psychedlic, part R&B, part sunshine pop; which, in my opinion is pretty damn hip after coming off the Smile ride. Let alone that album cover, don't get me started on that!

It sounded "psychedelic" to you as genre-definition? or in how the VIBRANT COLOR OF THE SOUND WOWED YOU INTO GROOVINESS?

How can you hear something one way, and then by reading some words (the Alphabet), hear differently?

[punkinhead]

It woulda been really awesome to cut out (Good Lord) How She Boogled It and Mama Says, then put in Can't Wait Too Long, what an album closer: the longest cut on the album that really focuses on that former Wind Chimes riff and a vocal workout which is still mind blowing. The instrumental sections could really play out really well as part of Wild Honey; I don't see CWTL being more appropriate than on any other album but WH...then again, it works really well for TLOS (but that's another story for another post).

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

Always felt like the Beach Boys Motown album to me

[punkinhead]

Great, great album. But IMO not psychedelic at all. Actually its quite the opposite. WH is an anti-psychedelic record. WH is a crispy clean pop/soul album with baroque/ garage and folk/jazz elements. If you were to insist in 1967..."I refuse to jump on the psych bandwagon that permeates modern rock"...or "I'm comin' down from a bad trip and i want to get as far away from psych/acid sound as i can"...WH is the statement that one would make. To call it psychedelic is to completely miss what Brian was saying.

I have to admit, when I first heard Wild Honey (the song) on BB Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (20 more good vibrations), I thought it was psychedelic; with that therimin and organ being outta sight and being played right after Heroes and Villains, I totally thought it was psychedelic. But when I got online and read about how the genre of the album is white R&B, I was confused...but listening to Darlin', a thing or Two, Let the Wind Blow, and Here Comes the Night, I realized how R&B influence it was....let alone I was Made to Love Her (which is a fantastic cover by the way). Carl really comes outta his shell of what he truely wanted to say/sing, granted, he was all over Smiley Smile, but someone had to take up the gaunlet. I could still see this being considered: part psychedlic, part R&B, part sunshine pop; which, in my opinion is pretty damn hip after coming off the Smile ride. Let alone that album cover, don't get me started on that!

It sounded "psychedelic" to you as genre-definition? or in how the VIBRANT COLOR OF THE SOUND WOWED YOU INTO GROOVINESS?

How can you hear something one way, and then by reading some words (the Alphabet), hear differently?

Well, I still consider part of it psychedelic, and mostly I was just considering the song of WH, which I heard way before I heard the rest of the album.
I do believe it was the VIBRANT COLOR OF THE SOUND WOWED ME INTO GROOVINESS

[ghost]

It woulda been really awesome to cut out (Good Lord) How She Boogled It and Mama Says, then put in Can't Wait Too Long, what an album closer: the longest cut on the album that really focuses on that former Wind Chimes riff and a vocal workout which is still mind blowing. The instrumental sections could really play out really well as part of Wild Honey; I don't see CWTL being more appropriate than on any other album but WH...then again, it works really well for TLOS (but that's another story for another post).

When I hear CWTL on TLOS I just think: damn, it sounded so much better before it turned into an aural steam roller.

[punkinhead]

It woulda been really awesome to cut out (Good Lord) How She Boogled It and Mama Says, then put in Can't Wait Too Long, what an album closer: the longest cut on the album that really focuses on that former Wind Chimes riff and a vocal workout which is still mind blowing. The instrumental sections could really play out really well as part of Wild Honey; I don't see CWTL being more appropriate than on any other album but WH...then again, it works really well for TLOS (but that's another story for another post).

When I hear CWTL on TLOS I just think: damn, it sounded so much better before it turned into an aural steam roller.

It is a missed opportunity for the rest of what remains album-less. CWTL as a song is (to me) a part of an era rather than on any albums, but it needed to be on something (along the lines of Friends, 20/20, Sunflower, or So Tough). The song does define Brian just making music to cool down with as Carl or Bruce once said.

[GroovinGarrett]

While we have a WH topic..

Personally I think the 2 fer sounds terrible, sound wise is that the best out there or is there a better sounding release to buy?

Japanese "Pastmasters" (Toshiba/EMI CP21-6013).

If you have vinyl capability, try the mono Capitol green-label reissue from 1981 (Capitol SN-16159).

[tpesky]

WILD HONEY!

Am I the only one who finds this album to be ten times more interesting than SMiLE (in any form)? I could listen to Wild Honey/Aren't You Glad/Here Comes The Night/A Thing Or Two/Let The Wind Blow etc FOREVER. Those are some psychedelic, happening songs. Brian/Mike at their best! Most ecstatic and carefree! Where did they get so much soul? Bruce becomes God when he plays organ solos. Also, Wild Honey/Wind Chimes is the best A/B ever made! Most psychedelic! I've never heard the sessions for this album, just a few stereo mixes which I did not like at all.

How do you all play the music? I play the mono albums through a Marshall guitar amp. I raise the mids a lot and the gain a little and blast the volume. Incredible experience to hear this album in such a way!

Bruce Johnston was/is a fantastic organ player.  There's a concert on youtube from '69 in Europe with Bruce on organ and I love it!  Too bad you don't get to see him use those talents on stage anymore!

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Can't say I think it's more interesting than Smile. I disagree with your assertion that Smile is a "hodge-podge" but maybe that's because I don't quite understand how you're using the term. To me, Smile has a fairly consistent vision despite all the talk about Brian's confused mindset at the time.

That being said, I think that Wild Honey is very interesting and it's probably my third favourite released BB album after Pet Sounds and Today! As for the psychedelic debate, I think that there's some credibility to that argument. Remember that the line between R&B inspired garage and psyche is pretty thin and it's no surprise that these garage bands that did fuzzed out covers of Otis Redding  songs turned quite easily into bands who wore paisley and sang about pretty flowers. I think that, in many ways, Wild Honey anticipates the scene that brought about songs like "Judy in Disguise", "Midnight Confessions" and "Build Me Up Buttercup" - which, I think, one could argue is when the pop scene grabbed onto psychedelia and turned it into something a bit different by mixing in extra catchiness and soul sensibilities. Sounds like Wild Honey to me.

[punkinhead]

WILD HONEY!

Am I the only one who finds this album to be ten times more interesting than SMiLE (in any form)? I could listen to Wild Honey/Aren't You Glad/Here Comes The Night/A Thing Or Two/Let The Wind Blow etc FOREVER. Those are some psychedelic, happening songs. Brian/Mike at their best! Most ecstatic and carefree! Where did they get so much soul? Bruce becomes God when he plays organ solos. Also, Wild Honey/Wind Chimes is the best A/B ever made! Most psychedelic! I've never heard the sessions for this album, just a few stereo mixes which I did not like at all.

How do you all play the music? I play the mono albums through a Marshall guitar amp. I raise the mids a lot and the gain a little and blast the volume. Incredible experience to hear this album in such a way!

Bruce Johnston was/is a fantastic organ player.  There's a concert on youtube from '69 in Europe with Bruce on organ and I love it!  Too bad you don't get to see him use those talents on stage anymore!

I always preferred Bruce on organ, and I think Brian did too...unless he's got his baldwin and headed for Hawaii. 

Isn't Bruce on organ or piano for the Sail Plane Song? Well, I guess it's better to say Brian prefers Bruce to be on organ, if he's not participating.

[Shady]

While we have a WH topic..

Personally I think the 2 fer sounds terrible, sound wise is that the best out there or is there a better sounding release to buy?

Japanese "Pastmasters" (Toshiba/EMI CP21-6013).

If you have vinyl capability, try the mono Capitol green-label reissue from 1981 (Capitol SN-16159).

Thanks a lot I'll go dig around for those