Let's discuss the lyrics, shall we?

[Summertime Blooz]

I will get the ball rolling with a few odd bits that I have noted so far:

Why the hell do they sing "At the line in the grocery store"? Any normal person would say "In the line at the grocery store". (Rhetorical)
This irritates me a lot more than it probably should.

They're saying that they're on the cover of the magazines, which isn't in the line, it's AT the line, on the shelves beside it.  Makes perfect sense to me.  If you said "In the line", that would mean that you actually saw them, in person, standing in line. 

Thanks, Ron. I get confused sometimes. I hope the CD comes with printed lyrics.

[onkster]

I think the lyric "Easy money, Ain't life funny" might just be the most direct, refreshingly honest lines on the whole album.

...only if you also include the "Hey what's it to ya?" Which shows not just that they have it in perspective, but that we probably should too.  :-)

I've literally just listened to the album for the first time, and I'm still reeling from "Summer's Gone".  But one thing that hits me is that the song isn't quite as bleak and final as it sounds:

Summer's gone
Gone like yesterday
The nights grow cold
It's time to go...
...I'm thinking maybe I'll just stay.


Maybe that's me, clinging to any ray of sunshine.  But after "Pacific Coast Highway", for a moment I was worried Brian had completely given up!

Gulp,
Jon Blum

I agree. Initially the song sounds bleak, hopeless. But then there are lyrical hints of a season cycle starting again. "another summer's gone", he sings. It makes you wanna wait til next summer.

Oooh! You just gave me a great idea for a song for the BBs to cover: "Season Cycle" by XTC! And it has a rhyme just as weird as "when I/antennae": "umbilical/season cycle"! Can you imagine the guys pulling off those counterpoint melodies? Man! AGD, you better phone this one in to the guys...

[Summertime Blooz]

I think the lyric "Easy money, Ain't life funny" might just be the most direct, refreshingly honest lines on the whole album.

...only if you also include the "Hey what's it to ya?" Which shows not just that they have it in perspective, but that we probably should too.  :-)

I've literally just listened to the album for the first time, and I'm still reeling from "Summer's Gone".  But one thing that hits me is that the song isn't quite as bleak and final as it sounds:

Summer's gone
Gone like yesterday
The nights grow cold
It's time to go...
...I'm thinking maybe I'll just stay.


Maybe that's me, clinging to any ray of sunshine.  But after "Pacific Coast Highway", for a moment I was worried Brian had completely given up!

Gulp,
Jon Blum

I agree. Initially the song sounds bleak, hopeless. But then there are lyrical hints of a season cycle starting again. "another summer's gone", he sings. It makes you wanna wait til next summer.

Oooh! You just gave me a great idea for a song for the BBs to cover: "Season Cycle" by XTC! And it has a rhyme just as weird as "when I/antennae": "umbilical/season cycle"! Can you imagine the guys pulling off those counterpoint melodies? Man! AGD, you better phone this one in to the guys...

Y'know- people always point to Pale And Precious as XTC's Beach Boys homage, but that song you mentioned right there- Season Cycle    (   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH4oPCUoILQ  )- is just as much a Beach Boys pastiche as Pale And Precious.  It's very Smile-like; fantastic song. Another great XTC tune that is heavily indebted to the BBs is  the beautiful Wrapped In Grey from the Nunsuch album.       (   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0r4Wi2r1OU   )

[Summertime Blooz]

So I'm looking at the lovely colorful booklet that came with the CD  and reading the lyrics for Shelter and I see "Summertime". WTF is this now? Now I know there's some songs about the beach and ocean sunsets and such on the album, but I didn't think Shelter was one of them. Listening more closely at a slowed down speed I'm pretty sure he sings "Slumbertime- Make a few calls- Make a little love" (the second time it's changed to "Take a little love"). I'm pretty sure he's singing "Slumbertime" because that would actually make sense whereas "Summertime" has no logic whatsoever in this song. One other thing about the lyrics to this song- who goes "runnin' for shade" from "the dark of night"? Isn't the point of night that it's like ALL shade. We can't blame Mike for that one.  Really lovely colorful booklet though.

[Summertime Blooz]

Here's a lyric I just don't get at all from  From There To Back Again:

The sun is shining, can we just find a way
If you just call, just fall, just fall
To the ground

To this I say: "Huh?" Does anyone have an interpretation of  what that all is supposed to mean? I love the song, but I'm scratching my head big time over this, and it's not just my flaky scalp.

[gsmile]

I'm pretty sure he sings "Slumbertime- Make a few calls"

I thought it was "SUPPERtime"!  That would certainly fit Brian's usual M.O. and it's something that's routinely done inside your "shelter".

[Freddie French-Pounce]

For Daybreak, the lyrics read '...by my side'. Now I know he says venus, but whats the middle word?

[I. Spaceman]

Here's a lyric I just don't get at all from  From There To Back Again:

The sun is shining, can we just find a way
If you just call, just fall, just fall
To the ground

To this I say: "Huh?" Does anyone have an interpretation of  what that all is supposed to mean? I love the song, but I'm scratching my head big time over this, and it's not just my flaky scalp.

I don't know what it means, throw it away.

[EgoHanger1966]

For Daybreak, the lyrics read '...by my side'. Now I know he says venus, but whats the middle word?

Leans?

[Roger Ryan]

I get the impression that the lyrics are transcribed by a fan listening to the album...which is why there is a blank drawn when Mike sings "Venus leans by my side" and the lyric following "This night's a special occasion" is omitted altogether. Couldn't someone in the Beach Boys confirm what the lyrics are before they're printed?!

As to the "lift up my antennae": since the song establishes the singer is in his car, it's passable that he refers to it as my antennae.

I love the "fall, fall to the ground" lyrics in FTTBA because it's so obviously Brian writing those. Who knows what's in his head, but it's so unexpected that it gives the lyrics an edge they might not otherwise have (all those lyrics are pretty good 'though). Perhaps the singer imagines he's addressing an angel or someone disconnected from reality (head-in-the-clouds) and is asking for the person to be more grounded or to return to earth to help him recapture what's been lost...

Now that I think about it, in an odd poetic way, it might be a wish for God to return.

[Summertime Blooz]

For Daybreak, the lyrics read '...by my side'. Now I know he says venus, but whats the middle word?

He's singing "Venus fades from my sight". He's referring to the stars fading from the sky as the sun starts coming up, although you can still see the moon. I think the song is sung from the perspective of a sailor or seaman. Mike Love did a very nice job on the lyrics for this song- it's very fleshed out.

I guess it's becoming apparent that the quality control on the lyric booklet was atrocious. If indeed it was created by someone just listening to the tracks, that's a really half-arsed process. I like the colors and the picture though.

On the lyric sheet for Spring Vacation, Mike's line "An encore or two won't take much persuasion" is missing completely

I did, however, appreciate the transcription of the radio report at the end of Private Life Of Bill And Sue, because it explains the whole dang song you just heard, and you can't hear it on the CD because it's mixed so low and fades too early.

[Summertime Blooz]

As to the "lift up my antennae": since the song establishes the singer is in his car, it's passable that he refers to it as my antennae.

The word is antenna (no 'e' at the end). That would be something on your car  or on the top of your house (back in the olden days) that receives radio waves.
Antennae are those things sticking out of this guy's head:



And so, on June 6, 2012, the Great Gazoo makes his first of many appearances on the Smiley Smile message board.

[Roger Ryan]

But, of course, the two words are related, right?

Nevertheless, you're correct; I misunderstood your complaint to begin with.

Not having the CD at hand, I forgot how the "Daybreak Over The Ocean" line actually went. It's a good line...I'm just flummoxed that half of it is represented in the booklet by "_____"  

[ivy]

What is happening during this line in Summer's Gone:

Summer's gone
Gone like yesterday
The nights grow cold
It's time to go
I'm thinking maybe I'll just stay

That is how it appears in the lyrics, but it sounds like Brian starts to say something else (change?) and then Bruce comes in with "stay."

It's a pretty interesting moment in that song.

[EgoHanger1966]

What is happening during this line in Summer's Gone:

Summer's gone
Gone like yesterday
The nights grow cold
It's time to go
I'm thinking maybe I'll just stay

That is how it appears in the lyrics, but it sounds like Brian starts to say something else (change?) and then Bruce comes in with "stay."

It's a pretty interesting moment in that song.

Yeah, I was thinking about this too. It doesn't quite sound exactly like change, but that's the closest thing I can think of.

[Catbirdman]

The word is antenna (no 'e' at the end). That would be something on your car  or on the top of your house (back in the olden days) that receives radio waves.
Antennae are those things sticking out of this guy's head:

But isn't "antennae" just the plural form of "antenna"? I don't think natural vs. man-made has anything to do with it. The lyrics printed in the CD say "antennae." So perhaps Brian was envisioning a creature with a pair of antennae coming out of its head. Perhaps he was playing with words a bit, likening his own receptors in his brain to a radio antenna. Works for me.

[Summertime Blooz]

What is happening during this line in Summer's Gone:

Summer's gone
Gone like yesterday
The nights grow cold
It's time to go
I'm thinking maybe I'll just stay

That is how it appears in the lyrics, but it sounds like Brian starts to say something else (change?) and then Bruce comes in with "stay."

It's a pretty interesting moment in that song.

I think they got the lyrics right on this one. Brian sings "I'll just stay", but it's hard to hear because of the studio processing of his already slurred enunciation. AND there's a background vocal line (Bruce I think) singing "I should stay" (pretty sure) that also camouflages  Brian's line, giving it that 'ch' sound that we hear. So- yeah, really interesting that this would suggest the subject of the song, maybe BW himself, is hearing voices in his head telling him to stay. Many of us have heard about his medical condition of constantly hearing internal voices.

[Summertime Blooz]

The word is antenna (no 'e' at the end). That would be something on your car  or on the top of your house (back in the olden days) that receives radio waves.
Antennae are those things sticking out of this guy's head:

But isn't "antennae" just the plural form of "antenna"? I don't think natural vs. man-made has anything to do with it. The lyrics printed in the CD say "antennae." So perhaps Brian was envisioning a creature with a pair of antennae coming out of its head. Perhaps he was playing with words a bit, likening his own receptors in his brain to a radio antenna. Works for me.

The proper plural form of antenna is antennas.  http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=93958
But I also see what you mean about the wordplay, which is something I had already considered and deemed kind of lame.

[Catbirdman]

The proper plural form of antenna is antennas.  http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=93958
But I also see what you mean about the wordplay, which is something I had already considered and deemed kind of lame.

Thanks for that link, I love learning new things about words. Antennas for radio/TV, antennae for living creatures.

antenna / &n"ten@ / n
a (pl -nae / -ni: /) (Zool) antena f
b (pl -nas) (Rad, TV) antena f

[Summertime Blooz]

The lyric book says "Santa Barbara to Jersey Shore", but it sounds absolutely nothing like "Barbara" to me. Does anyone  know what Brian might be singing there or is it just another case of vocals being processed beyond recognition?

[EgoHanger1966]

I hear Oak Ridge, and it's Jeff singing those lines.

[Wirestone]

The lyric book says "Santa Barbara to Jersey Shore", but it sounds absolutely nothing like "Barbara" to me. Does anyone  know what Brian might be singing there or is it just another case of vocals being processed beyond recognition?

It's Jeff singing the geographic lines. Brian sings the answer answers.

And the line is, correctly, "San Onofre to Jersey Shore." It's a callback to "Surfin' U.S.A."

[Summertime Blooz]

The lyric book says "Santa Barbara to Jersey Shore", but it sounds absolutely nothing like "Barbara" to me. Does anyone  know what Brian might be singing there or is it just another case of vocals being processed beyond recognition?

It's Jeff singing the geographic lines. Brian sings the answer answers.

And the line is, correctly, "San Onofre to Jersey Shore." It's a callback to "Surfin' U.S.A."

Cool!  I never understood that line in Surfin USA either- never heard of San Onofre. Thanks for that info. Boy, that lyric booklet is really amateur hour. Now, isn't that Brian who sings "San Onofre" and then Jeff who sings "to Jersey Shore"? Sure sounds like it to me.

[Wirestone]

Seems pretty straightforward to me:

Jeff: San Onofre to Jersey Shore
Brian: At the line in the grocery store
Jeff: Everybody you ever knew
Brian: The private life of Bill and Sue

There may be some mixing and ghosting of voices in there (it sure does sound like Brian singing the single syllable of "San," for instance) but that's how I hear it.