Reviewing Adult/Child as an actual Beach Boys album

[Aegir]

I love Lines, beginning to end. I think that whole Adult Child thing is pretty great, with a couple exceptions. Fascinating piece of work.

Exceptions, eh? do tell. personally I think On Broadway is pretty weak. 

[I. Spaceman]

I love Lines, beginning to end. I think that whole Adult Child thing is pretty great, with a couple exceptions. Fascinating piece of work.

Exceptions, eh? do tell. personally I think On Broadway is pretty weak. 

For me, it is Hey Little Tomboy that is the great offender. Then H.E.L.P., which wasn't good enough to be on yet another unreleased album. The two weakest after that are On Broadway and Shortnin' Bread. But the other 8 tracks, those are worth standing by.

[runnersdialzero]

Carl sounds fine (albeit not great, as he usually was) if you put the song in its proper speed.

[tansen]

Carl sounds fine (albeit not great, as he usually was) if you speed the song up to its proper speed.

Yup, play back at 48kHz.

[hypehat]

I'm a little nervous to say that I do like "Little Tomboy". I don't suffer any mental disorders. I just like the song but I hate the lyrics.

What "mental disorders"? I don't see the connection between liking some song that nobody tends to like & having mental illness. Sorry, but I had to say it. Btw, I like Hey Little Tomboy too. And am sure there's nothing wrong with my head/mind.

The problem with 'Tomboy' is that it's a fairly inoffensive tune paired with utterly insane, borderline illegal lyrics about teaching young girls to be women, if you know what I mean. As a song, it's fairly pedestrian, but those lyrics are the dealbreaker for everybody.

[Dudd]

Anyone prefer the LA version of Shortenin' Bread?

[John Manning]

Anyone prefer the LA version of Shortenin' Bread?

Could never get my heard around it much, even back in '79 when I was young and open-minded.

[Nicko1234]

Late coming to this thread but the one word that strikes me about Adult/Child is 'unreleasable'. There are some good songs here and there but they don't fit together at all. It's a shame that Brian lost interest in the big band theme and the album was filled with whatever other songs were lying around.

It's Trying to Say and Lines would be decent contenders for the box set though.

New Album was much worse as Brian gave up even earlier and chucked 8 old songs onto it.

The early version of My Diane would be nice for MiC though.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Anyone prefer the LA version of Shortenin' Bread?

I love how Carl sings and yells in the AC version.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

Late coming to this thread but the one word that strikes me about Adult/Child is 'unreleasable'. There are some good songs here and there but they don't fit together at all. It's a shame that Brian lost interest in the big band theme and the album was filled with whatever other songs were lying around.

It's Trying to Say and Lines would be decent contenders for the box set though.

New Album was much worse as Brian gave up even earlier and chucked 8 old songs onto it.

The early version of My Diane would be nice for MiC though.

The Good Vibrations box set had two unreleased songs from Adult/Child, so I'm hoping there will be some more on Made in California.  My two picks would be "Life is for the Living" and "It's Trying to Say."  I agree that a full-fledged release of the album in its entirety is unlikely.  It's a shame, though, since I'm not sure it would have sold any more poorly than M.I.U. and is a much better album musically, in spite of its weaknesses.

[NHC]

Adult Child is a real lost classic, the true follow up to Love You.  It would have been a great record (which would have bombed commercially, i'm sure).  I have a vinyl boot and it seems the record was completed and ready to go (sequenced w/ the correct fades, etc).  

Also have one of those, and agree with your comments. i love it with all its rough spots and quirkiness.  First heard some cuts from it at the first fan convention in Oakland that Les Chan put together in 1982, particularly Life Is For The Living, and simply had to have it, which I finally did a couple of years later.

[Cabinessenceking]

Late coming to this thread but the one word that strikes me about Adult/Child is 'unreleasable'. There are some good songs here and there but they don't fit together at all. It's a shame that Brian lost interest in the big band theme and the album was filled with whatever other songs were lying around.

It's Trying to Say and Lines would be decent contenders for the box set though.

New Album was much worse as Brian gave up even earlier and chucked 8 old songs onto it.

The early version of My Diane would be nice for MiC though.

The Good Vibrations box set had two unreleased songs from Adult/Child, so I'm hoping there will be some more on Made in California.  My two picks would be "Life is for the Living" and "It's Trying to Say."  I agree that a full-fledged release of the album in its entirety is unlikely.  It's a shame, though, since I'm not sure it would have sold any more poorly than M.I.U. and is a much better album musically, in spite of its weaknesses.

I think it would've been a good idea back in 1978 for  them to say: " hey, neither of these albums are particularly strong, but we've got some good material from both. Why don't we just combine them like we did on 20/20 and maybe it can turn out alright?"

Who knows, perhaps that could've given more critical success if not commerical. I'm pretty sure Carl and Dennis advocated this move but were overrun by Mike and Al...

[Nicko1234]

I think it would've been a good idea back in 1978 for  them to say: " hey, neither of these albums are particularly strong, but we've got some good material from both. Why don't we just combine them like we did on 20/20 and maybe it can turn out alright?"

Who knows, perhaps that could've given more critical success if not commerical. I'm pretty sure Carl and Dennis advocated this move but were overrun by Mike and Al...

They did that with Hey Little Tomboy.  The only song they considered good enough to take from New Album to Adult/Child to MIU.  Considering the state of the group at the time, if they had taken any more songs from Adult/Child then they probably would have picked On Broadway...

[hypehat]

The groups taste around that time was certainly questionable, so it's not surprising. A smart man would have put Its Over Now and Still I Dream Of It on any Beach Boys record and the critics faith in BW would have been restored. Instead, MIU had Belles Of Paris.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I recently went back and started watching the first season of SNL on netflix. A lot of the musicians playing around that time seemed to have a similar earthy rugged vibe as 15 Big Ones, Love You and Adult Child around that time. Brian's undergroomed look may not have stuck out back then as much as today.

I wasn't born until 1977, so I don't remember. But today, I am considered undergroomed, but might be one of the more well groomed of the 1970s.

[Generation42]

Anyone prefer the LA version of Shortenin' Bread?

I love how Carl sings and yells in the AC version.

I love everything about the A/C version of "Shortenin' Bread."  Thing rocks Sofa King much!

[Dudd]

It's a nice little oddity, deserves to be released in my opinion. For me the only mediocre songs on there are Lines, On Broadway, and maybe HELP Is On The Way. Everything else is fine (yes, even Hey Little Tomboy, as goshdarn creepy as it is). If I had to choose I'd say Love You is better, but this isn't far behind at all.

[John Manning]

Lines is a wonderful slice of life song.  I like it. Bit like Busy Doin' Nothing. Has a feel of Love You about it too.

[Nicko1234]

I don't think there is any chance of this album being released (except for in chunks) and it's a shame that instead of the box set that we aren't getting the 1970s albums released with bonus tracks (as happened with BW88 yonks ago). Love You with some demos and the best songs from this and New Album would have been a really interesting release.

[Dudd]

Lines is a wonderful slice of life song.  I like it. Bit like Busy Doin' Nothing. Has a feel of Love You about it too.

It isn't bad, but not as good as some of the other songs on the album (in my opinion!). Though I don't at all hear Busy Doin' Nothing, and I love that song to bits. On Broadway is definitely underwhelming though... that's probably the weakest on the album.

[Cabinessenceking]

Lines is a wonderful slice of life song.  I like it. Bit like Busy Doin' Nothing. Has a feel of Love You about it too.

It isn't bad, but not as good as some of the other songs on the album (in my opinion!). Though I don't at all hear Busy Doin' Nothing, and I love that song to bits. On Broadway is definitely underwhelming though... that's probably the weakest on the album.

With some more development it could've been the latter days "Busy Doin' Nothing", I like the verses but I feel the "he's gonna tell her, she's gonna tell him to" part isn't that pretty to hear and is rather disappointing considering the sense of a buildup one gets from the verses.

[hypehat]

It's also totally BW for the time, ie crazy.

I do hope it makes on the boxset though, it's one of the better A/C songs, those verse chords are classic BW. Also Baseball and Marilyn Rovell need to make it on there (the latter not in the running, but I always see it as contemporary)

[RangeRoverA1]

"Busy Doin' Nothin'" & "Lines" = apples & oranges.

[Dudd]

Lines is a wonderful slice of life song. I like it. Bit like Busy Doin' Nothin'. Has a feel of Love You about it too.

It isn't bad, but not as good as some of the other songs on the album (in my opinion!). Though I don't at all hear Busy Doin' Nothing, and I love that song to bits. On Broadway is definitely underwhelming though... that's probably the weakest on the album.

I don't hear Busy Doin' Nothin' in Lines too. Regarding the "the weakest track on A/C" talk, I think that refers to Shortenin' Bread (L.A. v-n is much better imo). I'm also not so keen on Deep Purple which is too slow & maudlin for my taste.

I like those two, though I will admit I can't decide whether I prefer the AC or LA version of Shortenin' Bread.

[wantsomecorn]

I think Life Is For the Living is a surefire bet for MiC. It was in the Brian Wilson Songwriter 1969-1982 documentary, sounding very nice, so they had to have remastered it at some point leading up to the anniversary and the box set. It was also the only unreleased song on either of the the two DVDs, so that has to speak for something, too.