The Beach Boys Today!

[I. Spaceman]

I think Bull Session... is idiotic. I don't even consider it part of the album, to be honest. But I LOVE "Don't Hurt..." and not in that it "fits" with the other songs on side one...at least not in terms of lyrical content. On a pop album, I don't require any sort of lyrical coherence, or we'd be listening to nothing but Tommys and Joes Garages, and things would get tedious. But musically, I think it absolutely fits in as a relatively complex rocker, interesting chord changes throughout., cool vocals.

Don't Hurt ABSOLUTELY fits in lyrically. It forms part of an autobiographical two-song mini-suite about Brian and Marilyn's relationship. Good To My Baby is Brian's assertion that despite how it may seem to others, he loves her and treats her well. Then, on Don't Hurt, he takes the side of Marilyn's sister Diane Rovell, and assumes a protective role, warning him to treat her well or else. The song was originally meant to be sung from a female perspective, written for the Ronettes. I think the Baby-Sister axis is one of the best and most powerful sequences on an album, just as great as the vaunted ballad suite on the second side, where he revisits the same themes.

[Luther]

Fair enough. I wasn't even really thinking about the lyrics, by the way. I was saying that it fits perfectly well regardless of them.

H&V--Obviously I turn it off before Bull Sessions (or skip ahead to SD&SN). I said I don't even consider it part of the album.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Exactly. That's why I consider Today! to have no filler material. I don't see it as the bands choice to include that bit and it's also conveniatly at the end of the album. It's not like it's a bum song thrown in, it's just some stuff that someone thought would interest the fan ( that apparently doesn't).

[analogdemon]

As far as I'm concerned, if it was included on the album at the time of the release, it's part of the album and has to be judged along with the rest of the album.  Just because it's at the end of the album doesn't exclude it from judgement.  Just my opinion.

[Luther]

As far as I'm concerned, if it was included on the album at the time of the release, it's part of the album and has to be judged along with the rest of the album.  Just because it's at the end of the album doesn't exclude it from judgement.  Just my opinion.

Its position in the sequencing, and obvious intent as an amusing tack-on, lend it to being considered separately. I highly doubt anyone said, "ooh, Brian, let's top if off with that new masterpiece, "Bull Sessions...!" It's allegedly amusing filler at the end of Today!, not a song on Today!

[I. Spaceman]

As far as I'm concerned, if it was included on the album at the time of the release, it's part of the album and has to be judged along with the rest of the album.  Just because it's at the end of the album doesn't exclude it from judgement.  Just my opinion.

I agree, and I think that it was a very intentional and perverse move on Brian's part. I'd rather listen to it than Help Me Ronda, though.

[Heywood Floyd]

What do you think Brian was intending?

[I. Spaceman]

Playing a practical joke on the listener. Brian is not the ultra-simple fellow he turned into, post-LSD. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly the effect that putting 5 ultra-serious ballads in a row would have on the listener and he knew exactly what putting the Bronx cheer following it meant. It's a joke, that's all. He even has Denny saying Dick Rising in it, fer Chrissakes!

[Matinee Idyll]

What I find interesting is that on Today! and Pet Sounds, he put the most hotly debated songs, "Ronda" and "Sloop" slap bang in the middle of the album.

Sortof a 'foder you' to the listener (or the record company) perhaps?

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Sloop John B is essential to the flow of Pet Sounds for me.

As i've said before, it's the relief.

He probably had it where it is for that reason too.

[Aegir]

During my first listens of Pet Sounds, not knowing any of the background of it, Sloop John B did not sound to me as being out of place at all.

[Mitchell]

I agree, and I think that it was a very intentional and perverse move on Brian's part. I'd rather listen to it than Help Me Ronda, though.

It's similar to the joke that Cassius vs. Sonny does with The Warmth of the Sun, and even, to a lesser extent, our Favourite Recording Sessions does with Don't Back Down, only in the opposite direction. He does it again with Wind Chimes/Gettin' Hungry. In fact, this deserves its own thread.

[I. Spaceman]

Right on.

[Mitchell]

Your avatar is perfect for what you just said.

[I. Spaceman]

Haha, TCB, baby.

[Old Rake]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Vega-Tables" is that comic relief for Smile. All the albums gotta have one!

[NC]

Am I hearing this right? Someone dissing "Little Sister"? I love it. Two of the songs on side one, namely "Good To My Baby" and "When I Grow Up", boast the greatest examples of chord changes in a rock song I've ever heard.

 

[Compost]

This album makes me happy.

5

I'm glad they recorded it.

[TV Forces]

5 stars.  Brian's first masterpiece.  If Rubber Soul made Brian think albums were the next thing and should be a unified piece of art, he must have made TODAY that way on accident.  Many brilliant songs that won't ever show up on a Greatest Hits release like..

Good to My Baby, In the Back of my Mind, Please Let Me Wonder, I'm So Young, and
Don't Hurt My Little Sister (though an obvious rip off of a song I can't recall the name of.)

Kiss Me Baby, Dance Dance Dance, She Knows Me Too Well, When I Grow Up..  My GOODNESS!!  What an album.
If only Bull Session and the early version of "Rhonda" weren't on there, it would be perfect!  But both tracks blow.

My ideal track listing:
1. Do You Wanna Dance
2. Good To My Baby
3. Don't Hurt My Little Sister
4. When I Grow Up
5. Help Me Rhonda (single version)
6. Dance Dance Dance

7. The Little Girl I Once Knew
8. Please Let Me Wonder
9. I'm So Young
10. Kiss Me Baby
11. She Knows Me Too Well
12. In The Back of My Mind

[theeponymuseudonym]

I BURIED DICK RISING!!!!!!!!!

no really, when i first heard "im so young" i was floored, the oooh never get married part was beutiful to hear i turn up the fade.
i was glad to hear the booted studio mix up til the final note...made me cry