Record Collector presents… The Beach Boys!

[ducie]

Searched for this on the forum, but couldn't see anything - apols if I did miss a previous post.

https://recordcollectormag.com/rc-specials/record-collector-presents-the-beach-boys

It's £9.45 and 116 pages, only a couple of pages of ads. Just picked it up, I've only flicked through it thus far, but first impressions are it's a really nice collection, seems like a real labour of love - basically catnip for anyone on this forum! Interviews, articles and reviews of all the albums (All of them!). 

I don't often buy the monthly Record Collector mag, so unsure if this is all new material or with some culled from the mag's archive like Mojo/Uncut do with their specials, but it's all new to me at least! It certainly reads like the interviews are recent.

Anyway - recommended!

[Angela Jones]

I got mine today. Not too many ads in it. I haven't read much but I was underwhelmed by what was written about SMiLE.  Kingsley Abbott said 'It was 1971 and I think one of the things about Surf's Up was it had become a real legendary track by that stage, partly because it had the word 'surf' in the title.' That certainly wasn't what did it for me. I can't remember whether the Bernstein piece or at least bits of it had been shown  in the UK but we'd heard about it and there'd been various articles about SMiLE. I think it reflects really badly on fans if they are influenced by something as unimportant as whether it has any surf reference.

Nor can I agree that the lyrics don't mean anything. Brian himself gave lots of details of what they meant. They're certainly enigmatic. The article showed a photograph of handwritten lyrics without giving details of the date. The photograph showed 'handsome man and baton' and 'played' whereas Brian was singing on The SMiLE Sessions 'handsome-mannered baton' and 'play' (the former I believe a VDP pun about Baton Rouge but that's just a guess).

[Zenobi]

Thinking that the lyrics for Surf's Up don't mean anything is pure abysmal ignorance. If Surf's Up does not mean anything, then no poetry ever means anything. The problem is too few people read poetry, and so anything beyond the likes of "the cat is under the table" seems too "obscure".

[Angela Jones]

Thinking that the lyrics for Surf's Up don't mean anything is pure abysmal ignorance. If Surf's Up does not mean anything, then no poetry ever means anything. The problem is too few people read poetry, and so anything beyond the likes of "the cat is under the table" seems too "obscure".

They called the article In Search of SMiLE - when  you're searching for something, you have to really look for it! In fact, the article from which I quote below makes this exact point:

"Every good joke contains an element of the riddle---it may be childishly simple, or subtle and challenging---which the listener must solve. By doing so, he is lifted out of his passive roll and compelled to co-operate, to repeat to some extent the process of inventing the joke, to re-create it in his imagination."
- Arthur Koestler, The Act Of Creation

The plus was that it depressed me enough to make me do a search of my own for articles and I found Bill Tobelman's wonderful The Creative Consistency of SMiLE.  http://www.goodhumorsmile.com/page22.htm

Couple of quotes: "So here comes the allegorical artwork via Van Dyke's metaphorical lyrics."- Frank Holmes. And from Brian: "Yeah, I used to see notes, I used to visualize notes on paper in my mind and after I visualized it I wrote it down as I saw it in my mind."

[Zenobi]

Thinking that the lyrics for Surf's Up don't mean anything is pure abysmal ignorance. If Surf's Up does not mean anything, then no poetry ever means anything. The problem is too few people read poetry, and so anything beyond the likes of "the cat is under the table" seems too "obscure".

They called the article In Search of SMiLE - when  you're searching for something, you have to really look for it! In fact, the article from which I quote below makes this exact point:

"Every good joke contains an element of the riddle---it may be childishly simple, or subtle and challenging---which the listener must solve. By doing so, he is lifted out of his passive roll and compelled to co-operate, to repeat to some extent the process of inventing the joke, to re-create it in his imagination."
- Arthur Koestler, The Act Of Creation

The plus was that it depressed me enough to make me do a search of my own for articles and I found Bill Tobelman's wonderful The Creative Consistency of SMiLE.  http://www.goodhumorsmile.com/page22.htm

Couple of quotes: "So here comes the allegorical artwork via Van Dyke's metaphorical lyrics."- Frank Holmes. And from Brian: "Yeah, I used to see notes, I used to visualize notes on paper in my mind and after I visualized it I wrote it down as I saw it in my mind."

[Angela Jones]

From Record Collector again - Blondie's reason for quitting the BBs:
'Chaplin: My wife came to Madison Square Garden and was given tickets in the nosebleed section, and I wasn't too happy with that. I said to Mike Love's brother, Stephen, who was the business manager at the time, "This is bullshit. We're in the band, and these are our wives." And he didn't like the way I said that, so he landed me a few blows. I didn't say anything back. I was just full of tears, and said to myself, f*** it, I don't need this sh*t. There was a New Year's Eve gig in Long Beach, and I didn't show up. Everybody thought I was nuts, but I wasn't going to be treated that way. And I still feel good about leaving. No regrets.'

[Joel Goldenberg]

From Record Collector again - Blondie's reason for quitting the BBs:
'Chaplin: My wife came to Madison Square Garden and was given tickets in the nosebleed section, and I wasn't too happy with that. I said to Mike Love's brother, Stephen, who was the business manager at the time, "This is bullshit. We're in the band, and these are our wives." And he didn't like the way I said that, so he landed me a few blows. I didn't say anything back. I was just full of tears, and said to myself, f*** it, I don't need this sh*t. There was a New Year's Eve gig in Long Beach, and I didn't show up. Everybody thought I was nuts, but I wasn't going to be treated that way. And I still feel good about leaving. No regrets.'

1. I thought in the case of Blondie, it was Stephen's reaction to a family tragedy that prompted him to quit.
2. Linett and Boyd seem to strongly indicate in their interview that a Brian's Back-era set will be coming out next year, going from Brother Records sessions with Brian, Carl and Dennis in 1974 to the MIU era. Was also surprised to see that the BBs were performing Be My Baby and other covers in concert in 1963.