Love You Appreciation thread

[donald]

"Love You is siphoned from the meandering mind of a madman." Definitely a missed opportunity for a promo pull quote there.

Siphoned from the meandering mind of a madman.   My day to day life and approach to living  is thusly siphoned.    I think I love love you for that reason........because I relate to it.    I suspect those who Love It do so for similar reasons.   An album of madness for madmen.    this stuff doesn't grow on trees.    those who love it appreciate that fact at some level.

[Half Moon Bay]

Just reading this thread makes me want to play it again. I love this album I played it yesterday and at least every week prior to this.

I still remember the day I bought the LP. It was my first Beach Boys Album I bought on release day.
First impressions were, "who is that old chap with the croaky vocals" , can't be Brian? At this point I had not yet bought "15 Big ones" so was not use to the more "mature" sounding Brian.  I loved the synth sounds and moog bass. It was when I listened to Solar System that everything clicked. The rough vocals and nursery rhyme lyrics with the slightly wobbly but great sounding harmonies and it hit me that this is a gem, ahead of its time. I couldn't stop playing it. My family had no ideal it was the Beach Boys , they thought it sounded like one of the new age/punk bands that were around at that time.

[Don Malcolm]

As stated by several posters, many of these songs would shape up wonderfully if they were given a more "traditional" arrangement. The Wilson brothers were all a bit impaired vocally during this time frame, and songs that could have been closer to what we hear on Sunflower ("The Night Was So Young," "I'll Bet He's Nice") are filled with a pathos that so about the emotional situation described in the lyrics but the underlying anxiety that emerges from the sub-par vocal performances.

Mike and Al weren't suffering from vocal issues, but they don't get a lot of airtime, though they make the most of their appearances. I have to say that Mike's extra nasality here is priceless and adds significantly to "Roller Skating Child" and "Johnny Carson"...and Al chips in wonderfully on "Child" ("that's right") and then nails "Honkin' Down the Highway"--still my favorite cut (yes, it really helps to have a top-notch lead vocal!).

But it's just too uneven. Its functionality as a unit of songs is kind of like Friends, only Brian's not quite up to integrating all of the disparate genres and sounds in a way that puts the pink ribbon on it. "Busy Doin' Nothing" and "Diamond Head" take Friends into new genres of Beach Boy music that escape their context and enhance their surroundings--the tracks on Love You that are supposed to sort of do that ("Solar System," "Airplane") just don't rise to the occasion. They don't get far enough away from the core sound, don't sufficiently expand the range of the material.

But am I glad that we got this record? After listening to MIU, KTSA and SIP, I get down on my knees and thank God for Love You...you bet!