When in their career, if ever, do you stop listening to the beach boys?

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I don't understand why people argue about opinions. There is no right or wrong answer to this topic. Everyone has the right to like and hate whatever they want.

[b00ts]

Everything After 1970.
Standout Songs after 1970.. are "Til i Die".."All This is That".."The Night Was So Young" & "I Do Love You".

You lost, Bobby.

How am i lost?

The albums you weren't quite feeling are the same ones that left me confused and dissatisfied
i wonder why people think surf's up and holland are their best albums but everyone has their own taste and opinion.

Absolutely. I know there are some posters here who like the 80's and 90's Beach Boys albums that I can't stand.

(SNIP SNIP SNIP SNIP SNIP)

Most listeners get into The Beach Boys because of Brian's superlative, adventurous songwriting and production work, first and foremost. When Brian receded into the background, the group changed into a somewhat different animal. In hindsight, it is a small miracle that The Beach Boys managed to consistently remain viable creatively, if not commercially, for almost a decade after SMiLe collapsed.

The post-Brian Beach Boys were lucky in that they had five extremely talented band members who were champing at the bit to unleash their creativity by the time he abdicated. The early 70's influx of new blood and the group's willingness to change with the times, however belated and woefully brief, resulted in something new and different that you may grow to appreciate more with time.

ok what are the standout tracks from wild honey? sunflower? friends? and holland for you?
(curious to see what your taste is like)

Wild Honey:
- Aren't you Glad
- Country Air
- Let the Wind Blow
* Can't Wait Too Long (from the twofer)

Friends:
- Little Bird
- Meant For You
- Friends
- Busy Doin' Nothin'
- Wake The World

20/20:
- I Can Hear Music
- Time To Get Alone
- I Went To Sleep
- Be With Me
* Break Away (from the twofer) - the mix of Hawthorne, CA is incredible. Great song.

Sunflower:
- Slip on Through
- This Whole World
- It's About Time
- All I Wanna Do
- Cool Cool Water

Surfs Up:
- Long Promised Road
- Feel Flows
- Surfs Up
- Til I Die
- Disney Girls
* Honorable mentions - Day in the Life of a Tree and Disney Girl

Holland:
- Steamboat
- Big Sur
- California
- Trader
- Better Get Back In Bed

Carl & The Passions:
- You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone
- Marcella
- All This is That

15 Big Ones:
- Rock and Roll Music (used to find it mediocre, now I appreciate its demented quality)
- Palisades Park
- Just For Once in My Life

Love You:
- Roller Skatin' Child
- Honkin' Down The Highway
- I'll Bet He's Nice
- Airplane
- The Night Was So Young
- Mona
- Johnny Carson (when Brian mentions wanting to do a "rock and roll" album, this is what I think of).

M.I.U. Album:
- My Diane
- Pitter Patter

L.A. (Light Album:
- Good Timin'
- Love Surrounds Me
- Angel Come Home
- Shortenin' Bread

Keepin' The Summer Alive:
- Goin' On
- Keepin' The Summer Alive

The Beach Boys (1985):
- Male Ego
- It's Getting Late
- Maybe I Don't Know

Brian Wilson (1988):
- Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long
- There's So Many
- Rio Grande

Still Cruisin'
- In My Car (sounds like an update of Honkin' Down The Highway. Similar drum beat! Great stuff, love the synth bass).
* Honorable Mention: Somewhere Near Japan (Much of this album doesn't sound like it was given a proper mix down).

Summer in Paradise:
- The Blessed Silence (between the tracks on the CD)

wow interesting but overall you like most of the ones i like.
this is mah favorites from each album.

Wild Honey:
-Wild Honey
- Aren't you Glad
- Country Air
- Let the Wind Blow
- A Thing or Two
- Darlin'
-  I'd Love Just Once to See You
- Here Comes the Night
- How She Boogalooed It

SNIP SNIP SNIP SNIP

Keepin' The Summer Alive:
- Goin' On


The Beach Boys (1985):
- I Love You
- IIt's Just A Matter Of Time
- Getcha Back


Still Cruisin'
-  Still Cruisin' (Extremely Catchy, Don't know why it gets so much flack)
- Kokomo

I have to say, a lot of the tracks you included are ones that I now wish I had included! So much great music.

[runnersdialzero]

I don't understand why people argue about opinions. There is no right or wrong answer to this topic. Everyone has the right to like and hate whatever they want.

While I'd normally agree, saying the band tanked in 1970 is just... I mean... no!

[JK]

- Bluebirds Over the Mountain(Don't see why anyone would hate this song)

-  Still Cruisin' (Extremely Catchy, Don't know why it gets so much flak)

Re: "Bluebirds": Why indeed?! The "Dutch version" is even better.

Re: "Still Cruisin'": Again, agreed. Lovely stuff. Although... oh never mind. 

[Exapno Mapcase]

Probably around LA.

I can give you ten RELEASED tracks from later than LA that I'd miss:

Where We Belong
Somewhere Near Japan
Still Surfin'
Strange Things Happen
Santa Ana Winds
It's Gettin' Late
Keepin' The Summer Alive
California Dreamin'
Male Ego
She Believes in Love Again

And some of those I'd only just miss. The again, there's very little I'd  miss on MIU (Pitter Patter, My Diane, maybe Winds of Change and maybe Woncha Come Out Tonight - at a push.)

[Mahalo]

SNJ is a great song, I wish I wrote it. Best thing they've done, IMO, from Love You to the Paley sessions of the 90's....maybe even since.

[sockittome]

I don't understand why people argue about opinions. There is no right or wrong answer to this topic. Everyone has the right to like and hate whatever they want.

While I'd normally agree, saying the band tanked in 1970 is just... I mean... no!

Well, uh.....yes they did......in some ways....IMHO 

I tried to like every one of their albums after Sunflower.  I've got most of 'em on vinyl.  Once in a while I'll throw one on and try to "get it".  Hasn't happened yet.  Doesn't mean I think it stinks.  Most of it sounds a bit pretentious to me.  It's a matter of taste, that's all.

[donald]

Gotta say, I like 20/20.   Better than Sunflower if you guage it by # of times I've played it. Like Surfs Up.   Love HOLLAND and Love You.  Like 85.  Like 2nd CW lp. Like LOS.  Like SNJ.

[b00ts]

Gotta say, I like 20/20.   Better than Sunflower if you guage it by # of times I've played it. Like Surfs Up.   Love HOLLAND and Love You.  Like 85.  Like 2nd CW lp. Like LOS.  Like SNJ.

20/20 is a good album. It almost plays like a compilation though, between the differing production aesthetics of the new songs and then the sound of the SMiLe songs tacked on the end. It is their Still Cruisin' of the 60's in a way, with various members bringing their songs to the table with their own production. I find Sunflower to be more cohesive and pound for pound I like it better but 20/20 is nothing to sneeze at.

It is pretty cool how much the band evolved between 20/20 and Sunflower; I think if Warners had accepted the first version of Sunflower, it would have been similar to 20/20 in the ways I mentioned above. Sunflower is probably the high point of the group as collaborative songwriters and producers. Surfs Up a little less so, with Dennis being excluded from it.

Man, I would kill for that never-released DVD-Audio of Surfs Up. It's worth listening to Sunflower, Surfs Up, Holland, and Carl and the Passions on a surround system through a matrix decoding technology like Dolby Pro Logic; the albums spread out and become three-dimensional.

[Newguy562]

- Bluebirds Over the Mountain(Don't see why anyone would hate this song)

-  Still Cruisin' (Extremely Catchy, Don't know why it gets so much flak)

Re: "Bluebirds": Why indeed?! The "Dutch version" is even better.

Re: "Still Cruisin'": Again, agreed. Lovely stuff. Although... oh never mind. 

I'm glad u have the same good taste

[MBE]

I don't like much of anything they did after 1974 really not counting Dennis. I will listen to the 1976-82 stuff once in a while, but other than the Don Was songs transplanted onto Paley backgrounds and SNJ I don't care if I never hear the post Dennis stuff again.

[Myk Luhv]

I stop at Love You (well, Adult Child might be more accurate) with a couple exceptions on a per-song basis. I think I've tried to listen to all of their albums up to 1985 before but I honestly can't remember -- so even if I have that's not really a ringing endorsement of the quality of the material! If only the Wilson brothers had gone off to do their own creative, artistic thing... which, in all likelihood, would've probably just resulted in what happened when they were together for much of this era anyway: excessive drug use, little musical/artistic output! But then, I suppose Love You is sort of like a Wilson bros. album, right? Oh, what might have been!

[jabba2]

I listen to almost nothing on SU/Holland/Passion or Big Ones and probably little after. I like a few tracks on BB '85 I consider 20/20 an awesome record, but only like 1 or 2 tracks from Sunflower.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I stop after Stars N Stripes 

[phirnis]

I listen to almost nothing on SU/Holland/Passion or Big Ones and probably little after. I like a few tracks on BB '85 I consider 20/20 an awesome record, but only like 1 or 2 tracks from Sunflower.

1 or 2 tracks only? Which ones are they?

[jabba2]

I listen to almost nothing on SU/Holland/Passion or Big Ones and probably little after. I like a few tracks on BB '85 I consider 20/20 an awesome record, but only like 1 or 2 tracks from Sunflower.

1 or 2 tracks only? Which ones are they?

AIWD of course, then a mix between Cool Water and sometimes OSL.

[Reverend Rock]

BB85 is where it ends for me.  From there on, it's all about Brian.  I'll give anything he does a chance (but I'd rather he stick to doing original projects instead of what he's done the last two outings).  Any of Brian's original solo projects are easily head and shoulders over anything that the Mike and Bruce show could manage at this point.  And when Brian is at the top of his game (as on BWPS or TLOS), he's as good as vintage Beach Boys for my money.

[Mike's Beard]

Holland was their last consistently great album. After that each record would contain one or two gems, around 50% good to listenable songs and a chunk of crap.

[Reverend Rock]

Holland was their last consistently great album. After that each record would contain one or two gems, around 50% good to listenable songs and a chunk of crap.

Yeah, but up through BB85, I'm willing to dig through what ever crap there is to get to the gems.  

[lance]

Still Cruisin' is pretty much the end of one line and the beginning of antoher(BW solo). I don't love it, but I can listen to it. SIP..I have it burned on CD. I never listen to it, it's not on my computer. It's a dirty little secret that for some reason I'm loathe to rid myself of completely.

[I. Spaceman]

I'll leave if you want

That'd be great! And don't tell me to bugger off, lady, ya don't impress me a bit. I'm just the only person straightforward enough to state outright what pretty much, well, EVERYONE else is thinking. Quit trying to correct other people's personal views, it is embarrassing. It doesn't make you look smarter than anyone else, seriously.

Listen I Spaceadet, I'll post and reply to whatever I damn well please. I have just as much right as anyone else in here to give my views. What are you, the censor cop? Don't like me, don't F'in READ my posts. Now for the second straight time, Bugger Off!!!

Oh bitch, please. You're embarrassing yourself again.

Anyway, to get to the topic at hand, I generally stop listening to the band after KTSA, but I like a few tracks after that, including Getcha Back and Kokomo. My favourite period of the band is the pre-Smile era. But I love the stuff after that as well. Truth is, besides a few specifically conceived albums, The Beach Boys were more of a singles act. And the whole Rolling Stone-generated album-as-statement focus has done a lot to harm the reputation of the band, and many others who didn't hew to that scheme, including many black artists.
People go off about Sunflower as a cohesive album, but I think  it only seems that way because of Desper's sonic sheen overlay. The songs were recorded over a long period of time, and were the band's third pick of their available material, to satisfy Warners. Any of those tunes could have ended up on any number of album lineups in that era. Sunflower, 20/20 and Surf's Up are just great mixtapes of BB productions from that era.

[Keri]

I stop with Love You, the pickings after that just seem too slim for me, Brian's material just doesn't seem like he is being allowed to do what he wants with it, the arrangements are pedestrian. They lack character and commitment. I move over to Brian's solo career after Love You.

[Cabinessenceking]

Hardly listen to anything pre-Today! and nothing after Love You. I dont listen to 15 Big Ones either, maybe Just Once In My Life gets some play now and again.

[runnersdialzero]

Hardly listen to anything pre-Today! and nothing after Love You.

This seems too common. You folks are really missing out. To each his own, though (I GUESS.)

[Emdeeh]

I go all the way through Stars & Stripes, too, although I tend to listen to the late '60s-early '70s material the most frequently. I listen to Dennis, Carl, David, and Al's solo stuff, and some of Brian's as well.