Keepin' The Summer Alive

[lance]

Earlier this year, I listened to the music I had year-by-year, song-by-song in alphabetical order, in my little black shiney chinesey thing(already stopped working) that I got for Christmas.

MIU stunk up 1978. I couldn't wait for those songs to end.

Whereas, much of Keeping the Summer Alive held up surprisingly well. Perhaps that's the way to listen to it. As a three minute interval between hipper music...from 1980.

[coco1997]

Does anyone know what songs were cut from the "KTSA" sessions that would've improved the album had they been kept on the final tracklist?

[Domino]

I think this is the last decent beach boys album. Brian wrote some songs again. Oh Darlin is a good track, Some Of Your Love is catchy, Goin on is better than anything he have done after this. But there is also junk like Sunshine, it's probably the worst song Brian wrote in the 70s. I find the old song When Girls Get Together irresistible. Carls song KTSA is a good rocker(not great) but the other song Livin' with a Heartache gets stucked in my head and it makes me wanna puke. I think the album closer Endless Harmony is very underrated, probably because Bruce wrote it. It's a beautiful peace and you know what?  It's the last sound of classic beach boys.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Does anyone know what songs were cut from the "KTSA" sessions that would've improved the album had they been kept on the final tracklist?

KTSA sessions ? Right here - http://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/gigs79.html, and here - http://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/gigs80.html.

[Fear 2 Stop®]

Does anyone know what songs were cut from the "KTSA" sessions that would've improved the album had they been kept on the final tracklist?

Well, IMHO the version of "oh Darlin" with Brian on lead. His vocals may be "weaker" than Carl's at that point, but it seems to give the track more character.

[Alex]

I like the title track and When Girls Get Together...and nothing else from KTSA. I do like the LA version of Santa Ana Winds, but Al's spoken intro ruins the KTSA version.

[Dada]

I'm here to proclaim my love for "Goin' On", too. Those harmonies get me every time. What a fulfilling sound. Imagine if the BBs circa '66 sang it? I like to imagine that the happy, nostalgic bridge is the song's protagonist flashing back to when he was with his loved one.

I also love the harmonies on "Some of Your Love" during the verses. It has the 'that great roller skating rink in the sky (to borrow a phrase from Lester Bangs)' sound that Brian had on Love You and parts of 15 Big Ones. It's a very repetitive song, but it's catchy and harmless.

"Oh Darlin'" could have used a better arrangement, as others said, but Brian does some great vocal arranging again, salvaging the production a bit. They should not have included that "God only knows..." background vocal at the end of the song, though. It makes the song seem like a bad museum exhibit.

I love "When Girls Get Together" (what an interesting/bizarre arrangement and vocal melody - it screams 'welcome to Brian's mad circus tent world of benign insanity') and "Santa Ana Winds". Al's spoken intro on the latter doesn't bother me at all, and, can you believe that Brian could play harmonica like that? He should have tried out for the Stones.

"Livin' With a Heartache" is a weird song. It sounds like the bridge, chorus and verse of the song were cut to shreds and randomly spliced together. I can't tell which is which for sure. It has a great bouncy, rollicking sound and I like it because of that. With some rearranging of the song's structure it could have been a latter day BBs classic. It reminds me of "Rainbows" off of Pacific Ocean Blue.

"School Day" is an acceptable cover. The boys execute it well, although it's a retread of a retread, a BBs Chuck Berry cover done in the style of 15 Big Ones "Rock and Roll Music". Strangely, it's the most rocking thing the BBs ever did together as a group after Love You, except for maybe "Shortenin' Bread".

"Sunshine" I could forget. It has a few redeeming elements melodically, but that electric guitar just sounds ugly and ruins whatever chance that song had.

"Endless Harmony". Cheesy, pure Velveeta, but I've always loved my mac 'n' cheese. This song isn't something I'd listen to repeatedly, but it's not so bad. In fact, it reminds me A LOT of the Paley sessions from the early 90s.

The title song is a catchy rocker but the production is terrible, absolutely terrible. It could have been a good song, but as it is on this album it's mediocre. It needed to rock and it just didn't know how.

I give the album a 3 out of 5, surprising even myself with that high of a rating. I must be in a really good mood.