Brian in 1977

[RiC]

Am I the only person here who actually likes Goin' To The Beach?  

Goin' To The Beach kicks ass. Plus that cigarette-part in Everybody Wants To Live is awesome. One of the best late-BB lyrics. If you don't get it, you just don't. It can't be explained.

[Fire Wind]

Always thought it was about mortality and one's reaction to the fact of death.  A wonderful lyric.

[Nicko1234]

All of that song`s lyrics sound like placeholders.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

The Everybody Wants... lyrics are atrocious. There's nothing to 'get'. If there is, someone, please: explain.

Stevie, on the other hand, is one of the top 3 or 4 best BB songs of the '80's Wish it'd been on MIC. (Did Brian object to it's inclusion I wonder, perhaps because of painful memories of when it was recorded, of Dennis, or problems with the subject matter?)

[Sheriff John Stone]

Am I the only person here who actually likes Goin' To The Beach?  

I like "Goin' To The Beach". The album could've used another summer-y song. I put it right after "Keepin' The Summer Alive" and before "Oh Darlin". Keepin' The Summer Alive only has ten songs; it would've benefited from another one or two or three. Six songwriters in the group...

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Am I the only person here who actually likes Goin' To The Beach?  

I like "Goin' To The Beach". The album could've used another summer-y song. I put it right after "Keepin' The Summer Alive" and before "Oh Darlin". Keepin' The Summer Alive only has ten songs; it would've benefited from another one or two or three. Six songwriters in the group...

Yeah and every one of them massively off form. And was Dennis even really in the group at this point? Had he offered up a gem from Bambu would it have been accepted?

[leftybass77]

It was the Free Livers (Dennis & Carl) vs. The Conservatives (Mike & Al). I think in the end Brian respects Mike's decision making the most. Gaines mentions this in his book.

[bgas]

It was the Free Livers (Dennis & Carl) vs. The Conservatives (Mike & Al). I think in the end Brian respects Mike's decision making the most. Gaines mentions this in his book.

Well there ya go!  IF Gaines said it, it has to be true...

[phirnis]

Re: the Everybody Wants to Live lyrics, I think for a while he wrote about pretty much anything that came to his mind, unfiltered. That's what many fans love about Love You, among other things. He certainly stopped that approach when Adult Child got rejected. Brianisms in lyrical form either weren't even written anymore to begin with or didn't see release, safe for some very few exceptions.

[RiC]

The Everybody Wants... lyrics are atrocious. There's nothing to 'get'. If there is, someone, please: explain.

Stevie, on the other hand, is one of the top 3 or 4 best BB songs of the '80's Wish it'd been on MIC. (Did Brian object to it's inclusion I wonder, perhaps because of painful memories of when it was recorded, of Dennis, or problems with the subject matter?)

A song doesn't have to be explained, it speaks for itself. Stevie has good lyrics, but in my opinion is a pretty dull composition.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I only care about the music...lyrics are usually not important to me :/

[Fire Wind]

The Everybody Wants... lyrics are atrocious. There's nothing to 'get'. If there is, someone, please: explain.

I guess my post above was invisible or something.  The first two verses are downer existential stuff, whereas the chorus tries to provide a positive answer.  The cigarette is, or may be seen as, symbolic.  It has reached the end of its useful life and is snuffed out.  But the concept of death is not often faced.  It's routinely ignored, pushed aside with humour, comedy being the flipside of tragedy, so the sad narrator is saying that if you laugh and fail to face the idea of death, you're just a coward.

Is that making too much of it?  Perhaps.  I dunno.  That's just how the song seemed to me when I first heard it and have done so ever since.  Brian had written existential stuff before, using metaphor (I'm a rock in a landslide, leaf on a windy day), so it's kind of in tune with that.

[SMiLE Brian]

Nice fire wind, never though of the song's lyrics like that before. They totally make sense in that context.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

The Everybody Wants... lyrics are atrocious. There's nothing to 'get'. If there is, someone, please: explain.

I guess my post above was invisible or something.  The first two verses are downer existential stuff, whereas the chorus tries to provide a positive answer.  The cigarette is, or may be seen as, symbolic.  It has reached the end of its useful life and is snuffed out.  But the concept of death is not often faced.  It's routinely ignored, pushed aside with humour, comedy being the flipside of tragedy, so the sad narrator is saying that if you laugh and fail to face the idea of death, you're just a coward.

Is that making too much of it?  Perhaps.  I dunno.  That's just how the song seemed to me when I first heard it and have done so ever since.  Brian had written existential stuff before, using metaphor (I'm a rock in a landslide, leaf on a windy day), so it's kind of in tune with that.

Snappy opening sentence sentence aside, a decent take on the lyrics, thanks. They just really jar with me, I can't get passed them (or carl's awful delivery), which is odd coz usually poor and/or unusual lyrics don't bother me in the slightest. I think it's the self-help speak feel to them that i find off-putting...

[Jukka]

As with most great lyrics, there's stuff to "get" and stuff to just feel. Separated from the music, the lyrics come across as just plain odd. But when you combine them with the hesitant mood of the verses and jubilant rapture that is the chorus (well, maybe "jubilant rapture" is pushing it a bit) it all makes perfect sense.

It's just like Fire Wind said. Stuff happens and death lurks. But everybody wants to live.

What's great about Brian's best lyrics is that you don't have to spend years scrutinizing riddles (unlike sometimes with Dylan and the likes). Brian says what he wants to say direct, but underneath the simple surface there's so much wisdom hidden, except it's not really hidden. His lyrics are a bit like... trees. One look, and you're like "well, it's a tree". But when you look more closely, you realize it's an amazing thing that generates the air we breathe. And breathing is a-okay with me, always dug it!

[Micha]

Good Timin' aside (and that was from 1974 anyway), I couldn't stand his vocals on LA Light, but part of it was because the songs were quite frankly boring as hell.

I once literally fell asleep while listening to Full Sail. 

I thought I was the only one bored by the L.A. song material. I like "Angel Come Home", though, and "Full Sail" actually grew a little bit on me. Still, it's an album I would never listen to if it wasn't a Beach Boys album.

What kills the album for me is that it is so boring . Not only do I prefer MIU, I actually prefer KTSA (except Oh Darlin-which to me the version with Brian on lead is better- and Endless Harmony). Goin South is in my bottom five songs they've ever done.

I didn't know that version existed, I just checked it out on YouTube. When was that vocal recorded?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

A little bit before, and IIRC, it was during the brief bit of time when Brian was working hard at the very start of the sessions. Most likely, on 22 Jan 1980.

[phirnis]

I think L.A. is a great album to fall asleep to.

Good Timin' is about as good as anything they did and while few of the other songs really stand out the album as a whole is a wonderful listen. I like it way better than TWGMTR.

[Cabinessenceking]

I think L.A. is a great album to fall asleep to.

Good Timin' is about as good as anything they did and while few of the other songs really stand out the album as a whole is a wonderful listen. I like it way better than TWGMTR.

It has a great, chill, glitz factor about it.

Good Timin, Full Sail, Angel Come Home, Baby Blue are all lovely songs. I even like HCTN!

[Steve Latshaw]

"I just feel that "Roller Skating Child" was such a rockin' little record that I'd want my jockey to play, with a Mike Love lead, and pretty great vocals all around (well maybe not Brian's)."

Child would have been a great single except that it needs some additional overdubs.  The lack of a bass line (other than moog) really hurts it sonically.  There's a live version from the 1979 Nassau FM broadcast with a great bass line that really kicks it.  A little disco bass and it could have been a big hit.

I also like Goin to the Beach.

[Mr. Cohen]

I know people think "Roller Skating Child" would be better if it was done like the live version, but that bass is exactly like the bass part you hear on all the up-tempo songs on MIU. Basically, like "She's Got Rhythm". It's an OK sound, but pretty damn generic. Gimme dat Love You outer space sound, pleas.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I'm with you there, Mr.Cohen.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

I think L.A. is a great album to fall asleep to.

Good Timin' is about as good as anything they did and while few of the other songs really stand out the album as a whole is a wonderful listen. I like it way better than TWGMTR.

It has a great, chill, glitz factor about it.

Good Timin, Full Sail, Angel Come Home, Baby Blue are all lovely songs. I even like HCTN!

Oh yeah, great album. HCTN is shite, but I either love or at least really like the rest - yep, even Goin' South. Post-Love You, I rate LA Light Album way above all other albums, with BB 85 in second place and TWGMTR a distant third.

[Steve Latshaw]

"I know people think "Roller Skating Child" would be better if it was done like the live version, but that bass is exactly like the bass part you hear on all the up-tempo songs on MIU. Basically, like "She's Got Rhythm". It's an OK sound, but pretty damn generic. Gimme dat Love You outer space sound, please"

That Love You outer space sound didn't work on radio in 1977.  And radio, in those days, ruled.  As good as Carl's mix of Love You was, none of those songs had a chance in hell on the radio, even had they benefited from WB promotion.

I had heard that a live version of Roller Skating Child was considered as a follow-up disco single in the spring/summer of '79.

[Mr. Cohen]

You know what else didn't stand a chance in hell in the late '70s on the radio? Everything else the Beach Boys tried. Their big hit, "R&R Music", had tons of Love You overtones.  "HTCN" was a mega-flop. MIU was considered a joke. Brian, at least, brought an edge with Love You and an indentifiable sound.