Susie Cincinnati

[RangeRoverA1]

One thing I really like about the song is how it's an Al Jardine original that doesn't sound derivative at all. It also feels a bit like indie rock avant la lettre.

Don't start again this boring assumption based on nil evidence. For that matter, let's be honest, everything on music industry is derivative, there are lots of songs that use the same counter melody, riffs, the whole passages etc. If you don't hear it in regards to other musicians - well, I can't help you; one couldn't be more one-sided than now is all I can say.

[phirnis]

RangeRover, I do hear it in the work of other musicians too and still I think there are different degrees of subtlety. That said, I love most of what I personally consider Al's more "derivative" material, especially California Saga and At My Window. Lookin' at Tomorrow is great too. It's perfectly fine with me he took some of his ideas from other songs that already existed before. I'm aware of his background in folk music so it all makes perfect sense.

[Ram4]

I think the song is decent, but nothing special.  It reminds me of Back In The USSR.  I'm not starting a fan club for it like c-man that's for sure.  

[Matt Bielewicz]

Always different opinions on here (as you'd expect)... and here's another. I'm not, generally speaking, a fan of the more 'rawwk' direction the Boys went in the 70s. I like 1968-72 (ish) Dennis, the lighter, pop-rock songwriter, better than any other, later-period Dennis, and I like the poppier textures on Love You (and even the lighter bits on Adult Child, such as Lines and Baseball, rather like Steve Latshaw in the current Love You thread) more than any of the proggier or rockier gubbins on Surf's Up, CATP or Holland.

As a result, I freaking love Susie Cincinnati. It rocks, but not *too* hard. There's still a great pop song in there, and as already noted, the harmonies on the end of the song are amazing. To me, this is how I wished the Beach Boys had sounded through the early mid-70s... and less like, say, 'Funky Pretty', 'Leaving This Town', or even 'Long Promised Road' or 'Feels Flows', which I know are both generally regarded favourably, but I personally find a bit of a snoozefest.

It's no exaggeration to say that 'Suzie' is one of my favourite tracks released by the band post-1969. And like Micha, I prefer the Landlocked mix and the original mix better than the rockier MiC mix that came out last year. What some praise as 'looser' and 'rockier' just detracts from the pop excellence of the original for me...!


But there you go, we all got opinions...

[kookadams]

What irks me is when I see the BBs being called just pop. Pop/rock I get but they were first and foremost a rockNroll band. Yeah they were vocal based but the music was/is rock! 62-77 they were solid rock, when bruce took production control in 78,9 thats when they got watered down AOR/MOR and why that era is so hit&miss/forgettable.

[Mikie]

I think I read two different stories about Suzie over the years. One was that she was a cab driver who smoked and drove a few band members to a Beach Boys gig. Another was that she was a hooker or she hooked on the side, I don't remember.

[c-man]

I think the song is decent, but nothing special.  It reminds me of Back In The USSR.  I'm not starting a fan club for it like c-man that's for sure.  

Think of it this way...how many other rock or pop songs have a DOWNWARD modulation in the final verse? I can't think of a single one! That ALONE makes this sheer genius!

[Micha]

they were first and foremost a rockNroll band. Yeah they were vocal based but the music was/is rock! 62-77 they were solid rock,

I disagree in a way. Brian is not a musician tending to rock'n'roll at all. He used the rocking style as a vehicle at first, but very little of Brian's output after SD/SN is rock'n'roll to me. Carl and Dave were the rockers, and Dennis to an extent. 1977? Love You has nothing to do with rock'n' roll IMHO. Even MIU rocks more than Love You. I agree with Bruce producing LA it resulted in being a bit... um... well, not rock'n'roll anyway.

[Matt Bielewicz]

What irks me is when I see the BBs being called just pop. Pop/rock I get but they were first and foremost a rockNroll band. Yeah they were vocal based but the music was/is rock! 62-77 they were solid rock, when bruce took production control in 78,9 thats when they got watered down AOR/MOR and why that era is so hit&miss/forgettable.

Well, of course, these are all just labels, and labels can mean different things to different people. But certainly, in my world, to be labelled 'just' pop is absolutely not a bad thing. Good, catchy well-written pop music is insanely hard to create, and Brian did it in spades. The first time I heard 'Catch A Wave', it made me dance spontaneously around the room, and when that high final line came in, I was so excited, I thought the top of my head would come off. Same with the ending of 'Fun, Fun, Fun'. But by halfway through the solos in Feel Flows or Leaving This Town, I'm yawning and looking at my watch, wondering how much more there is of this track to go...! And something of that feeling returns on parts of Love You (the tag of Johnny Carson is catchy, warped pop genius in my opinion. Weird, short and simple, but could I get it out of my heard for days after I'd first heard it...?)

It seems to me that, sure, Brian's ealry productions have the amplified bass and something of the rhythm track of early rock and roll, but as Micha says, it soon departs from that track. Soon after 1965, you're looking at most tracks with no hi-hat and maybe a snare at most in the rhythm track, and no lead guitars. And there are hardly ever any guitar solos on Brian's stuff after 1965. Exceptions come when he was less involved, and suffer in the comparison IMHO (Bluebirds Over The Mountain, I'm looking at you!)

I don't really like Bruce's production either, but for me part of the reason is that it sounds more like generic MOR rock lite - the music loses that supremely well-crafted pop brilliance and nimble harmonic movement that Brian brought to it in the early years. Some of the stuff on Holland or 15 BO, too, seems so... *leaden* by comparison (for me, anyway).

And c-man, yeah again I hears ya - a downward modulation. That's one of the things I always liked about SC, as well. Just when you'd expect it to step up a semi-tone, it wrong-foots you and goes the other way altogether. Great songwriting.

And again - if we all agreed here, it would be boring, right? 

[The Shift]

And again - if we all agreed here, it would be boring, right? 

Right!

[JK]

One of my favourite moments in "SC" is when the harmonica bleats in B major (long after everyone else has moved on) before the final romp home.   

[Joel Goldenberg]

Why the different production credits for that song? Brian is credited on 15 Big Ones, and Al is credited on Best of the Brother Years.

[Niko]

Why the different production credits for that song? Brian is credited on 15 Big Ones, and Al is credited on Best of the Brother Years.

Al sat on Brian's knee during production/mixing, so no one is really sure which Beach Boy to give the credit to.

[Rocker]

I think the song is decent, but nothing special.  It reminds me of Back In The USSR.  I'm not starting a fan club for it like c-man that's for sure.  

Think of it this way...how many other rock or pop songs have a DOWNWARD modulation in the final verse? I can't think of a single one! That ALONE makes this sheer genius!

Well....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BMke6GDxpU

[Andrew G. Doe]

I think I read two different stories about Suzie over the years. One was that she was a cab driver who smoked and drove a few band members to a Beach Boys gig. Another was that she was a hooker or she hooked on the side, I don't remember.

Cab driver, real name Joellyn Lambert.

[c-man]

One of my favourite moments in "SC" is when the harmonica bleats in B major (long after everyone else has moved on) before the final romp home.   

And when Dennis goes "Awww-rrrrrr-rrrrrh" during the drum fill. Priceless.

[JK]

One of my favourite moments in "SC" is when the harmonica bleats in B major (long after everyone else has moved on) before the final romp home.   

And when Dennis goes "Awww-rrrrrr-rrrrrh" during the drum fill. Priceless.

Should have guessed it was Dennis! Thanks. That part reminds me of a similar moment in The Who's "Substitute"...