Purchased my first Beach Boys album in 2006... and I am 48!

[blazer]

But in the last year, I have purchased 31 Beach Boys cd's (quite a few 2fers) and 6 Brian Wilson cd's.  I have always loved music and owned many albums, cassettes, then cd's over the years, but for some reason never a Beach Boys album.  I've always liked their hit songs and Good Timin' will always remind me of my college days.  I would have to say that in the last year, 90% of the songs I listen to on my iPod are by the Beach Boys and I have 7,000 songs on my iPod, of which about 750 are Beach Boys/Brian Wilson.  I have absolutely fallen in love with their songs!  Whenever I bought a new album, for me it was like a new release, where I had never heard most of the album cuts.   I own all of the Beatles catalog and I previously thought they were untouchable for the volume/quality of their music for my tastes.  The Beach Boys are now right up their with them for me!

I saw them (Mike/Bruce et al) at Branson, MO last month from the fourth row center and really enjoyed the show.  My wife went with me, but had no real interest in them.  She ended up enjoying the show and commented that she never realized how many hit, catchy songs the Beach Boys played.  I stuck around after the show and got Mike's autograph after the show.  The next time Brian tours the states, I will not miss it.

To bring an end to this rambling, how many of you were around during the Beach Boys heyday, yet did not fully appreciate them or never got into their music until later in your life? 

p.s. I just discovered this board and it is more interesting than most of the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson books I have been reading.  Thanks to everyone that contributes.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I'll share my story tomorrow, but have a quick questions...what was the first album you bought?

[blazer]

I'll share my story tomorrow, but have a quick questions...what was the first album you bought?

The Pet Sounds 40th Anniversary cd/dvd was my first.  My most recent purchase, 3 weeks ago, was the M.I.U./L.A. 2fer.  Despite the wretched reviews of these albums, I actually enjoy a number of the deep cuts... Full Sail, Baby Blue, Hey Little Tomboy, My Diane, Kona Coast.   Is there any album after L.A. worth buying? 

I look forward to your story...

[pixletwin]

[ Is there any album after L.A. worth buying? 

Keeping the Summer Alive is good (as well as the last real BB album-so for that alone you must get it). Beach Boys 85 is one you can live without... Summer in Paradise is not too bad if you like Mike Love... 

[Emdeeh]

I'm the opposite -- when I first discovered the Beach Boys, David Marks was still in the band (1962).

[shelter]

I got my first Beach Boys CD in 2004. Now my Beach Boys collection (including solo releases) includes 105 CDs, 49 LPs, 62 singles and 18 DVDs... 

Oh, and I'm 28.

[Ron]

To bring an end to this rambling, how many of you were around during the Beach Boys heyday, yet did not fully appreciate them or never got into their music until later in your life? 

I'm only 28, and when I was younger, all my dad did was listen to old 60's music... so I had a passing knowledge of them.  I was pretty into the Beatles @ around 16 or so, and I ended up getting free tickets to Mike & Bruce's rolling jukebox.  So I went to the show, and it was probably one of the best shows I'd ever seen up until that point.  EVERYBODY had a good time.  I had no idea about any of them, I just had read that there was only 1 surviving member on the stage, and that the true genius behind the Beach Boys had kind of went nuts and was now touring with this really fantastic band performing the songs 5 times better than the band I would be seeing that night! (It said something similar to that in the paper)

So I went to the show, and loved it.  So a little while later, I bought "Pet Sounds"... but found the music pretty dreary, I didn't get into it much.  I liked the singles from the album.

Then a couple years passed, and I popped that C.D. into my cd player, and it just blew me away, so I bought all of their stuff! 

[LostArt]

Well, I have a similar story.  I'll be 51 in a few days, and I never owned any Beach Boys records until 1989.  Actually, I was given the Barbara Ann 45 as a gift when I was 9 or 10 years old, but I was more of a Beatles and Monkees fan at that age, and I ended up liking the flip side (Girl Don't Tell Me) better than BA because it sounded like the Beatles.  In 1989, a guy I worked with started talking about Brian Wilson, and the Smile saga, and I was only mildly curious until he gave me a cassette with Smiley Smile on one side and Brian Wilson ('88) on the other.  When I heard Smiley, I was absolutely floored.  Stunned.  This is the Beach Boys?  I listened to that tape over and over.  Played it for anyone who would listen (which wasn't too many people).  I still have that tape.  Of course I ended up buying the CDs, starting with the twofers that contained any of the Smile material.  I bought a VHS tape of An American Band (which has since been replaced with the DVD), just to hear a part of Fire.  I bought Pet Sounds right away, too, and couldn't stop listening.  I'm still listening.  A few years later, when my girlfriend at the time found out that I had spent $65 on the Good Vibrations box, she was furious.  She just didn't understand my obsession.  Now I have all of the Beach Boys albums up to and including Love You, and I plan on buying MIU and LA.  I have every Brian Wilson solo album except for Pet Sounds Live, which I did own, but I sold it when I bought the DVD.  I had a chance to see the Mike and Bruce show a couple of years ago at a county fair for $8.00, but I wasn't able to attend.  I was, however, lucky enough to see Brian and his band perform Smile in October of '04.  I had third row seats, just between Brian and Darian, and I have to say that it was one of the best concerts that I have ever seen, although my first McCartney concert was right up there, too.  After the show, a kind-hearted stage tech gave me Darian's set list from the stage.  We went around to the back of the venue, where the tour buses were parked, and were standing there talking to some people when Brian came out, headed for his bus, but he did not stop to talk or sign autographs.  I don't know how I missed all of his great music for all of those years, but I sure am glad that I found it.   

[carl r]

If you grow to like something, rather than "catching the wave" first try, I think maybe you appreciate it a bit more. I'm a thirtysomething, I've always liked a lot of 60s music generally, but like many I steered clear of the beach boys on the basis of their perceived cleanliness and "chirpyness". However I gradually relented, as following Carl Wilson's death in '98 the media played "God Only Knows" a lot on the radio and I grew to like it. Then I heard Beach Boys Today! in it's entirety as the warm-up music for a Fall gig... can't remember which one, but through a big sound system and a few beers, the message and greatness sank in, but I didn't know who it was until years later! Got Pet Sounds in 2003, like many I felt the urgent need to hear something positive emerging from the USA at this point. Grew to love PS, but didn't start diving deeper into the back catalogue until very recently, YouTube has helped my early navigation! As a body of work it's a sprawling diverse entity, still wandering around the sprawling mass of it, absolutely lost in music 

[buddhahat]

Thanks for your story Blazer. I envy those just discovering the Beach Boys (Have you got Love You yet? That's one that certainly divides the fans!)

I liked them as a kid and then rediscovered them in my late teens:

Me and a friend were nuts about the songs Surfin Safari and Surfin USA when we were about 10 and I bought some compilations such as Made In USA and 20 Golden Greats. I loved their music - I think favourites were Heroes and Villains and I Get Around as well as the surf songs. Then I kind of 'grew out' of the Beach Boys and starting getting into more worthy teen music such as hip hop and indie bands! At around 18 my art teacher was gushing about Pet Sounds and I also heard a Frank Black cover of Hang On To Your Ego. I was curious that what I thought of as a harmless pop band were so respected by serious music fans. I heard Pet Sounds shortly thereafter and was intrigued by it but didn't instantly get it. Then gradually I heard other albums such as Surf's Up and by the time I got to college I was well into the weirder stuff such as Smiley Smile.

Curiously enough I'd only heard the released Smile stuff and wasn't that bothered to seek out the bootlegs despite all the mythology. I suspected it was more hype than anything else. I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Royal Festival Hall 2nd night and Smile just blew we away. Hearing this lost music from the peak creative period of my favourite musician's career was mind blowing to say the least. Hearing Old Master Painter, Child and Look for the fist time - then the ferociousness of Fire. I thought: So this is what the fuss is all about! At that point I went from being a Beach Boys fan to a Smile obsessed Beach Boys nut - a blessing and curse I think!

Anyway I'm now 30 and what I find the most astonishing is that I'm listening to the same music I adored when I was a child. I think that's one of the things that makes Brian Wilson's music so brilliant: It sounds fun to a kid yet it's sophistication stands up to the scrutiny of an adults' ears.

[Mahalo]

I think that's one of the things that makes Brian Wilson's music so brilliant: It sounds fun to a kid yet it's sophistication stands up to the scrutiny of an adults' ears.

Well put.

[Alex]

I'm way too young to have been around during the BB's "heyday" (I'm only 22), but I've just recently also become a die-hard fan.
When I was kid my mom had a copy of Endless Summer on vinyl, probably something she got back in the 70s. When I was around 6/7 years old (1992-ish) my mom would always be putting on Endless Summer, always starting with side 4 (one record had sides 1 and 4, the other had 2 and 3), therefore making California Girls the first BB song I ever heard. It was some of the first "adult" music that I paid attention to. After a while, my mom gets over her Beach Boys kick, her LP sits around collecting dust. Around age 10 my parents split up, mom moves out but leaves behind her record collection. My dad was never a BB fan, so I was hearing a lot Queen, Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Supertramp whenever he played any music. I was also starting to develop my own musical tastes around this time.  I was always aware of the BB's, but never really paid much attention to them. In 1998 I saw a concert/doc on PBS where Brian was performing songs with a bunch of musicians (there was a guy from the Eagles, Glenn Frey?, and either Al or Bruce from the BB's), and if I remember right, did some sort of tribute to Carl, who had recently passed. This was probably around the time Imagination came out. There was another time I saw an E True Hollywood story about the beach boys, where I first heard about the whole Dennis-Charlie Manson thing. But I thought they were still just an oldies group. When I was 17, I pulled out my mom's old copy of Endless Summer and realized how great the BB's really were. My first year of college (2003) I bought Sounds of Summer on an impulse. Before this I only knew the songs from Endless Summer, I knew Kokomo because of a cover by Kermit the Frog that was played on kids TV all the time in the 90s, and had heard WIBN on the occasional movie soundtrack.. I heard God Only Knows, Good Vibrations, Sloop John B, Wouldn't It Be Nice (in its entirety), and Heroes and Villains for the first time. I had also heard about SMiLE for the first time ever when BWPS came out, I so badly wanted to hear the original recordings. By the end of 2005, I had bought Pet Sounds, fallen in love with it, and downloaded my first SMiLE boot (Ryan Guidry's). Next came some 2fers, SS/WH, Sunflower/SU, and on and on. I've since read Chuck Granata, Dom Priore, and Peter Carlin. Would love to read David Leaf's book, too bad its out of print. Still haven't read Look Listen Vibate Smile, or Steven Gaines, or Timothy White-though I plan on it. I've downloaded quite a few bootlegs, made my own SMiLE mixes/comps. The most important thing I've learned from all of this, though, is that Mike Love is a douche bag, but I'll rant about that in a different thread.

[the captain]

This is what you saw on PBS. It includes Bruce Johnston, Timothy B. Schmidt, Jimmy Buffet and others. Also has some interview stuff. The "live" music isn't entirely so (as the multitude of background vocals sung by Brian make clear).

http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Wilson-Imagination/dp/B00004W198/ref=sr_1_11/002-3459343-9583230?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1191189591&sr=1-11

[Jon Stebbins]

I'm the opposite -- when I first discovered the Beach Boys, David Marks was still in the band (1962).

Same here!

[the captain]

I'm the opposite -- when I first discovered the Beach Boys, David Marks was still in the band (1962).

Same here!

Hmm, I guess I can say me, too...kind of. I didn't "discover" them in that era, because my parents had Endless Summer and I was well aware of the hits, but I did truly become a fan when David Marks was in the band...his later tenure, in the late '90s.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I am 30 years old and when I was 13, my dad got Endless Summer and Hard Days Night. I didn't care for the Beatles, but loved the BB right away! But harmony has always been my main deal. Before I discovered proggressive music, I dug stuff like Boyz 2 Men and All 4 One.

I didn't care for the Beatles til I heard StrawberryFF. But nothing compares to the BB from 1966 - 1979 for me.

[Jon Stebbins]

I am 30 years old and when I was 13, my dad got Endless Summer and Hard Days Night. I didn't care for the Beatles, but loved the BB right away! But harmony has always been my main deal. Before I discovered proggressive music, I dug stuff like Boyz 2 Men and All 4 One.

I didn't care for the Beatles til I heard StrawberryFF. But nothing compares to the BB from 1966 - 1979 for me.

So you're saying you prefer the 1978/79 Beach Boys to the 1964/1965 Beach Boys? MIU over Beach Boys Today? You might wanna rethink that.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I am 30 years old and when I was 13, my dad got Endless Summer and Hard Days Night. I didn't care for the Beatles, but loved the BB right away! But harmony has always been my main deal. Before I discovered proggressive music, I dug stuff like Boyz 2 Men and All 4 One.

I didn't care for the Beatles til I heard StrawberryFF. But nothing compares to the BB from 1966 - 1979 for me.

So you're saying you prefer the 1978/79 Beach Boys to the 1964/1965 Beach Boys? MIU over Beach Boys Today? You might wanna rethink that.

Mainly LY, LA and half of MIU. When I first heard 15BO, I almost considered giving up the BB altogether! Ha Ha! Ok not quite.

I definately like a lot of the early stuff. Surfin Safari is probably my favorite pre PS album. I love its raw garage sound. And I definatley like oldies BB better then oldies Beatles!

However, the main reason I'm a die hard BB fan has to do with the later stuff. Maybe 66-73 would be more accurate. But songs like 'The Night Was So Young', 'Airplane', 'Sweet Sunday', and 'Baby Blue' would be amongst their best imo.

[onkster]

I was around in the 60s, but as a kid.  My brother had a few BB singles, but can't say that they were the meat/potatoes of our listening at the time.

I discovered the BBs thru SMiLE--bought the SMiLE #2 vinyl boot in '85 just to check out what this "Fire" thing was all about--then my mind was blown by the incredible melodies and harmonies.  I then got Pet Sounds, and worked my way through the BBs from the inside out.

I think the most interesting doorway SMiLE opened for me was...jazz.  It actually made me appreciate jazz more than I ever have, because of the way Brian utilized the tones of the instruments, making them speak.  Suddenly, a lot of jazz records started to make sense to me.  So SMiLE opened worlds for me, not just in the pop/BBs sense.

Welcome to the club!

[Alf64]

  I got into The Beach Boys around 1975. My mother would play 45's on Saturday nights with most of the lights off. 50's and 60's rock and roll. No Beatles. That was when I heard the Beach Boys for the first time. It was the 45 of "Surfin' USA" I was immediately hooked by th up beat and tight song. That was my favorite for many years. A year later my brother had a copy of "The Army Reserve presents Nightbird & Company" Program number 289 LP. It is a promotional interview with Mike Love about the new album "15 Big Ones" From 11/14/76. That got em into the new LP. I never bought a Beach Boys album until around 1982. It was The Best Of the Beach Boys vol.2. I also at the time bought Carl Wilson's Youngblood LP. And the 45 "Come Go With Me" which was in the charts then. In the next year I would fill in all of the LPs they made one by one. Though re-issues, I loved them all. I have since replaced the re-issues with the originals that I got in an old record shop in the town I lived in then. In 1991, I bought the CD releases one a week as they were issued by Capitol. I looked forward to each weeks new release. I am now awaiting their next studio CD.

[Alex]

  I am now awaiting their next studio CD.

I doubt there will be a new BB studio album. BW is planning on releasing That Lucky Old Sun as a studio album, but not with the BB.

[passingby]

There's still life in this thread I hope...I’m 47. I got my first Beach Boys album in 1975 - a Capitol- era hits collection issued only in New Zealand and Australia called, I think, “20 Golden Greats”-I lost it years ago.  Soon after that I got Holland, which was their current album. After that I had to get everything, but besides “Pet Sounds” and some hits packages there was nothing much else in local record stores. It took over a year of systematic hunting in used-record shops to track down all the stuff I needed; “Smiley Smile” was the hardest to find. 

After a while, though, I gradually got more interested in other music. For one thing the Beach Boys were an obsession I couldn’t really share with my friends, who were listening to Pink Floyd or Elton John. But the main reason was that “15 Big Ones” and “Love You” came out and I realised things had changed.  I pretty much missed the next fifteen years. 
Then in 1992 I heard most of the  Smile tracks on an "unofficial" Japanese CD ...and realised that I had to get everything again. It was the original version of "Wind Chimes" that affected me the most. This was the real deal! These days I listen to some Brian or Beach Boys music almost every day.

[Robav63]

I got into the Beach Boys in 1976 - here in England thats when "20 Golden greats" was released with a massive advertising backup.
In those days and at age 13, info about the band was VERY hard to come by, so I started going into the city centre every Saturday to see what else I could find by the band. My next two purchases were "Spirit Of America" (a single album over here) and 15 Big Ones.
Obviously Big Ones had some new material on it, and has since been held by me as a personal fave. I was totally hooked.

Then I discovered a second hand record store called Reddingtons......after that I never had any spare money!!! I began purchasing all the 45's that store had in stock. I got hold of Pacific Ocean Blue in Woolworths in 1978!!!

After a lull in my buying antics for a few years the advent of eBay really did for me. I now have over 400 45s....all the LP's bar a couple of compilations, a few bootlegs, all the CDs, books, pic sleeves, demos/promos......a total addiction.

Of course the internet has been a massive help in obtaining lots of unreleased material