SOMEONE had to ask...

[LostArt]

There's a great interview with Mike Love from 1976 where he talks about how he came up with the title of "15 Big Ones." And he talks about it for like two minutes. It's so surreal. Like, he thinks it was a nab at brilliance that he came up with the title.

Well, it was a top ten hit due to the title, whereas Sunflower wasn't because he didn't think of that Title. It's a good title ARTISTICALLY but people just don't relate to it like they relate to 15 Big Ones. He tried to tell the others . He LIKED the title Sunflower, but just knew it wasn't where it was at--looking at it from a strictly COMMERCIAL point of view, of course.

That is funny!

[Aegir]

.... Mike..... has a unique voice and a very specific thing he does well that is specific to The Beach Boys. And that thing is his bread and butter and he recognizes what it is and embraces it. It is an essential component to the band and had a lot to do with their initial success. Problem is, Mike will always be associated with this element no matter how many other kinds of songs he wrote or contributed to, mainly because his voice, his sound, his THING is almost the first thing one associates with The Beach Boys as the fun in the sun "america's band" part of their legend. It's a tricky thing but it's very important to The Beach Boys appeal.... For me, something really cool clicks in my head/soul when I hear Mike come in at the end of Wouldn't It be Nice and on his leads on Pet Sounds. Here you have this mature and wonderous music, no surfboards or woodies in sight, but then you hear Mike's voice and right away you're reminded that, yes, this is that same band!! The same guys!! It's hard trying to describe this. But Mike doesn't sound any different than on Surfin USA or all that stuff, but everything else has changed, so here we don't have Burt Bacharach or a zillion years ahead in maturity to where the old stuff can be tossed in the trash, but this weird sort of limbo, kind of like hanging onto your adolescence even though all this heavy stuff is happening....

I completely agree with you. I love that the guy that sings "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield" is the same guy singing "my surfing knots are rising and my board is losing wax". When people hear "Hold on Dear Brother" they're don't make the connection to the early sound because Blondie wasn't around in the early days.

[Fun Is In]

Gimme Gimme Surf Treatment!

[KokoMoses]

The Ramones should get together with Mike love and do an album of Beach Boys/Ramones covers with Mike on The Ramones songs and Joey..... er...... wait..... The Ramones are all dead!

Damm, it's horrid to be reminded of this fact!

Does anyone else find it odd that out of all The Ramones, only their 3 drummers are still alive? (well, and CJ ramone)

Well, maybe Ritche, Marky, and Tommy can go in the studio and do Surfin Bird with Mike and Bruce and Brian....

and.......

Ok, I'm an idiot!

[MBE]

Mike was kind of like Mick Jagger really. Certainly talented but they became characters. Hell even watching them in 1965 makes me kind of laugh because they both are such attention hogs not nearly as cool as the Brian's in their groups. Still both are part of what sold the package and they were certainly fun for those who doesn't take things too seriously. Rock and Roll is meant to be fun.

[kookadams]

The Ramones should get together with Mike love and do an album of Beach Boys/Ramones covers with Mike on The Ramones songs and Joey..... er...... wait..... The Ramones are all dead!

Damm, it's horrid to be reminded of this fact!

Does anyone else find it odd that out of all The Ramones, only their 3 drummers are still alive? (well, and CJ ramone)

Well, maybe Ritche, Marky, and Tommy can go in the studio and do Surfin Bird with Mike and Bruce and Brian....

and.......

Ok, I'm an idiot!

Yeah that would be cool, or what about if Brian produced their End of the Century album instead of Phil Spector? Wonder how different the album would have sounded. But yeah Mike Love is like Mick Jagger in the sense that he's an attention hog and wants to take credit for everything and always be acknowledged. I've never met Mike personally but I've pretty much never heard anything positive 'bout him, other than that he co-wrote a lotta classics.

[Roger Ryan]

The Ramones ended up being the "anti-Spinal Tap" in that only the drummers survived.

I doubt Brian in 1980 would have given the Ramones that big Spector sound on END OF THE CENTURY  I think Joey was going for. But Brian might have come up with a better alternative; I never thought Spector's approach to the Ramones blended well with their sound. ROAD TO RUIN and TOO TOUGH TO DIE seemed to capture the Ramones sound about the best.

[KokoMoses]

Brian probably thought the Ramones were too loud. Plan and simple. Dee Dee probably would've given him drugs, and it would have been a nightmare situation and he would have been terrified that Johnny was gonna beat him up.

I think End Of The Century is an amazing album, song-wise, but I don't know what the hell Spector was thinking with the drums. Here you have the "wall of sound" guy, known for this cavernous drum sound, and you have a serious pounder like Marky Ramone, and what does Spector do? He gets the tinniest drum sound possible and dillutes Marky with Jim Keltner (a fantastic player, but he belongs nowhere near The Ramones)

Tommy and Ed were really the only guys capable of really producing The Ramones.

Joey's vocals sound amazing though! Spector got that part right.

[brianc]

Spot-on review, Erik!

Nobody describes the production of an album better than Pet Sounds/Wall-of-Sound fans.