Is The Beach Boys '85 Underrated?

[Aegir]

I hate reading threads like this, people tearing apart my favorite band.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

Well, it was started to appreciate a less-then-loved chapter for the band... so....

[Sheriff John Stone]

I hate reading threads like this, people tearing apart my favorite band.

What's even more frustrating is not knowing how THEY - The Beach Boys - felt about these recordings. There is just so little out there of them discussing, in depth, their past recordings.

[DonnyL]

What I think might be interesting (enlightening, even) would be for '85 to receive a more modern-sounding remix, simliar to that of John Lennon / Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy (Stripped Down).

Now, you won't find a bigger Beatles / Lennon fan alive than I and though the original Double Fantasy sounds of its time, I was never one to find fault with its production.  That said, 'Stripped' was, in its own way, a revelation and I'm quite certain a similar treatment given to '85 could yield a bounty.  I think it's a darn shame it won't ever happen.

Do the 'multi-tracks' even exist in playable format? It was recorded on junky early digital. In fact, I think it was one of the first (if not the first) all-digital recordings released (Dire Straits' 'Brothers in Arms' being the other).

[I. Spaceman]

What I think might be interesting (enlightening, even) would be for '85 to receive a more modern-sounding remix, simliar to that of John Lennon / Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy (Stripped Down).

Now, you won't find a bigger Beatles / Lennon fan alive than I and though the original Double Fantasy sounds of its time, I was never one to find fault with its production.  That said, 'Stripped' was, in its own way, a revelation and I'm quite certain a similar treatment given to '85 could yield a bounty.  I think it's a darn shame it won't ever happen.

Do the 'multi-tracks' even exist in playable format? It was recorded on junky early digital. In fact, I think it was one of the first (if not the first) all-digital recordings released (Dire Straits' 'Brothers in Arms' being the other).

Ry Cooder's Bop Til You Drop was the first, I believe.

[DonnyL]

What I think might be interesting (enlightening, even) would be for '85 to receive a more modern-sounding remix, simliar to that of John Lennon / Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy (Stripped Down).

Now, you won't find a bigger Beatles / Lennon fan alive than I and though the original Double Fantasy sounds of its time, I was never one to find fault with its production.  That said, 'Stripped' was, in its own way, a revelation and I'm quite certain a similar treatment given to '85 could yield a bounty.  I think it's a darn shame it won't ever happen.

Do the 'multi-tracks' even exist in playable format? It was recorded on junky early digital. In fact, I think it was one of the first (if not the first) all-digital recordings released (Dire Straits' 'Brothers in Arms' being the other).

Ry Cooder's Bop Til You Drop was the first, I believe.

yeh youre probably right ... i meant fully digital - D/D/D, i.e. released in digital form as well. This would be around '85.

[Shady]

Just to balance things out, I think 'Where I Belong' is bad and 'Male Ego' is the greatest BB song of the decade.

You have got a very interesting taste in music

[Gertie J.]

Well, it was started to appreciate a less-then-loved chapter for the band... so....

so.. youre right!!

[donald]

Take the best of KTSA,and 85, add Somewhere near Japan, and you have a very fine album.  Very much BB and very listenable.

[Generation42]

I hate reading threads like this, people tearing apart my favorite band.

Gosh, Aegir, I really hope it wasn't my post directly before yours responsible for inspiring your hatred.  I simply think that a lot of value could be unearthed by presenting the album in a new light (similar, for example, to how reimagining 'heavy' songs in an acoustic format sometimes allows for the beauty of a composition to shine through more readily).  Personally, I'm not one to ever try to 'tear apart' any artist or their works, particularly an act I'm as fond of as I am with the Beach Boys.

[wantsomecorn]

Take the best of KTSA,and 85, add Somewhere near Japan, and you have a very fine album.  Very much BB and very listenable.

Keepin' the Summer Alive
Goin' On
Endless Harmony
Getcha Back
Passing Friend (shortened version)
I Do Love You
California Dreamin'
Happy Endings
Kokomo
Somewhere Near Japan

Wow, this just makes me want an official best-of-the-eighties comp.

[Jim V.]

I hate reading threads like this, people tearing apart my favorite band.

I didn't know you were the kind of person that wasn't able to judge the fact that sometimes his favorite band put out stuff that sucks. Sorry, but the '85 album is nowhere near Pet Sounds. Shoot it's nowhere near L.A.

Just to balance things out, I think 'Where I Belong' is bad and 'Male Ego' is the greatest BB song of the decade.

You have got a very interesting taste in music

Honestly, I don't even remember what "Where I Belong" sounds like, but I'd probably have to agree with ol' Donny and say "Male Ego" is the best Beach Boys song of the '80s. At least the best Brian written Beach Boys song of the '80s. I suppose "Goin' On" is up there, and maybe there is something on the box set that will prove me wrong, but yeah I agree with Donny.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

Stevie.

[Aegir]

I hate reading threads like this, people tearing apart my favorite band.

Gosh, Aegir, I really hope it wasn't my post directly before yours responsible for inspiring your hatred.  I simply think that a lot of value could be unearthed by presenting the album in a new light (similar, for example, to how reimagining 'heavy' songs in an acoustic format sometimes allows for the beauty of a composition to shine through more readily).  Personally, I'm not one to ever try to 'tear apart' any artist or their works, particularly an act I'm as fond of as I am with the Beach Boys.

No, it's actually just a coincidence that you were the last post in this thread... I was responding to the thread as a whole, your post was one of the nicer ones.

Perhaps it can objectively be said Pet Sounds is a better album. Sure, why not. But just because Pet Sounds is great doesn't mean BB'85 is bad. What does one have to do with the other? Why is it so strange to like a band's entire discography?

[I. Spaceman]

Why is it so strange to not like a band's entire discography, particularly when the styles, sounds, producers, eras, vary so greatly? Especially considering how few Beach Boys fans highly rate certain albums?
Value being in the minority, man! I wish I liked BB85. I honestly think it is awful. But most mainstream music from that decade was.

[NHC]

Take the best of KTSA,and 85, add Somewhere near Japan, and you have a very fine album.  Very much BB and very listenable.

Keepin' the Summer Alive
Goin' On
Endless Harmony
Getcha Back
Passing Friend (shortened version)
I Do Love You
California Dreamin'
Happy Endings
Kokomo
Somewhere Near Japan

Wow, this just makes me want an official best-of-the-eighties comp.

This works well for me. I like it.

[Quzi]

Take the best of KTSA,and 85, add Somewhere near Japan, and you have a very fine album.  Very much BB and very listenable.

Keepin' the Summer Alive
Goin' On
Endless Harmony
Getcha Back
Passing Friend (shortened version)
I Do Love You
California Dreamin'
Happy Endings
Kokomo
Somewhere Near Japan

Wow, this just makes me want an official best-of-the-eighties comp.

This works well for me. I like it.

It's sad, even when cutting and pasting the best tracks from this era together, it's still the kind of "worst case scenario" album you'd imagine the band who gave us all of those great '60s and '70s records would give us. That being said, it was the '80s and the Beach Boys were definitely not the only band to fall victim to the pitfalls of that decade. Lahaina Aloha, while not an '80s song, is perhaps the only redeemable part of SIP so I've chucked it on this list so it has a home.

Getcha Back
Somewhere Near Japan (single version)
It's Gettin' Late
Calirfonia Dreamin'
Lahaina Aloha
Goin' On

Keepin' the Summer Alive
Kokomo
Some of Your Love
She Believes in Love Again
Where I Belong
Endless Harmony

If the success of Kokomo was backed with an album of this quality, I could imagine it being a huge hit actually.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Take the best of KTSA,and 85, add Somewhere near Japan, and you have a very fine album.  Very much BB and very listenable.

Keepin' the Summer Alive
Goin' On
Endless Harmony
Getcha Back
Passing Friend (shortened version)
I Do Love You
California Dreamin'
Happy Endings
Kokomo
Somewhere Near Japan

Wow, this just makes me want an official best-of-the-eighties comp.

This works well for me. I like it.

It's sad, even when cutting and pasting the best tracks from this era together, it's still the kind of "worst case scenario" album you'd imagine the band who gave us all of those great '60s and '70s records would give us. That being said, it was the '80s and the Beach Boys were definitely not the only band to fall victim to the pitfalls of that decade. Lahaina Aloha, while not an '80s song, is perhaps the only redeemable part of SIP so I've chucked it on this list so it has a home.

Getcha Back
Somewhere Near Japan (single version)
It's Gettin' Late
Calirfonia Dreamin'
Lahaina Aloha
Goin' On

Keepin' the Summer Alive
Kokomo
Some of Your Love
She Believes in Love Again
Where I Belong
Endless Harmony

If the success of Kokomo was backed with an album of this quality, I could imagine it being a huge hit actually.

Again, you're all leaving out Where I Belong which to me is utter lunacy. It is just a tremendous Carl song - in terms of melody, vocals, everything - and it's by far the best produced and least dated track on BB'85. What am I hearing that you people aren't?

[Quzi]

Where I Belong

Again, you're all leaving out Where I Belong which to me is utter lunacy.

*Ahem* 

[EgoHanger1966]

Stevie.

Stevie might just be the best thing the Beach Boys did in the 80s, and it's not even technically The Beach Boys. Go figure!