The Specific Beach Boys Musical Moment That Is Kicking Your Ass Right Now

[The Demon]

the guitar riff from inoculated city

Great song.

[onkster]

I'm a relatively recent Dennis convert--and obsessing a lot over "Bambu", which is just a fantastic album.

My pet Dennis moment of late: the instrumental break near the end of "Only With You." (The BB's version is pretty great too, but the harmonium in the DW version just gives it that extra je deneau ouada faqidis.)

[SMiLE Brian]

Side Two of Today never ceases to amaze me with its emotional ballads.

[drbeachboy]

Side Two of Today never ceases to amaze me with its emotional ballads.

Side One is no slouch, either. That is one fine album, indeed.

[SMiLE Brian]

Side Two of Today never ceases to amaze me with its emotional ballads.

Side One is no slouch, either. That is one fine album, indeed.

Side one is great, with songs hinting at the direction side two is going take. (don't hurt my little sister) Today was truly the spiritual farewell to the early era of the beach boys.

[stack-o-tracks]

Not kicking my ass, but that 10 second clip of Spring Vacation has been repeating itself in my head at least once an hour for the past couple days.

[Sie W]

Late at night, When the whole world's sleeping, I dream of you, Close to you I feel your sweet heart beating, I dream of you...

This song is where I'm at at this time, when Dennis's voice comes in its so soothing.

[Cabinessenceking]

The outro of Sweet Mountain by American Spring

the best part is when Brian sings "well it rained on the mountain, the mountain of love"
It's so subtle because his voice was just starting to change (he almost sounds like on the Mt.Vernon EP, same croaky voice, beautiful for this song!)

[Ron]

If you've got a really nice stereo, (or maybe it would do this on headphones, too, I never use headphones)... the beginning of the last verse of "Friends" is really cool because when it resolves back to that, there's this really fat bass note that they play on the bassoon or whatever that instrument is.  It plays all through the song but for whatever reason it sounds better on that verse... I think it's a little unexpected that it'll go back to the verse there, so maybe when you hear that "BWAAHHHhhhhhh" or whatever it is, it just sticks out more.

Anyways that the specific musical moment. 

[mr_oleary]

At the moment it's the end of This Whole World, when the background vocals hit the

haaaaaahhhhmmmmmm

while Carl's voice goes all over the place then back to the chorus with the extra 'thiiiis....whooole....wooorld' in the background.

What a great moment.

[mr_oleary]

Other great ones:

-A Capella part of Heroes and Villains- this blows my mind every time I hear it.  Has this euphoric ragtime feel to it and it makes me so happy whenever I hear it

- End of Vega-Tables on the Smile Sessions, love the simple arrangement and the barbershop-esque vocals.  So cool.  Especially the vocal line that sounds like whoever is singing it is holding his nose and covering his mouth.

- Slip on Through backing vocals in the second verse.  Love the 'aaaaaah' on top, the 'yeah yeah yeah' coming in and the 'oooohhhh' at the end

- The end of Summertime on BWRG.  What a lovely tag.

- Vocals in the chorus of Wind Chimes.....WOW

- Ends of Til I Die, You Still Believe in Me, California Girls, God Only Knows.  Love those songs with beautiful melodic harmonies that repeat at the end.

- Chorus of Help Me Rhonda.  An expression of pure joy. 


There's like 10000 others I could name but this is off the top of my head 

[Magic City Surfer]

At the moment it's the end of This Whole World, when the background vocals hit the

haaaaaahhhhmmmmmm

while Carl's voice goes all over the place then back to the chorus with the extra 'thiiiis....whooole....wooorld' in the background.

What a great moment.

You are so right. This powerful moment transcends the rest of the song, which is already great.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

At present i'm wallowing in the Today sessions which are heavenly, and at times somewhat foul-mouthed (Brian singing at a session for Dance Dance Dance: 'dance dance dance/right there on the spot/my d**k's really hard').

[over and over]

The tag to Cabinessence and the intro to All I Wanna Do.

[Runaways]

chorus to my diane.

[Jay]

The chord changes during the line "But now my branches suffer..." from A Day In The Life Of A Tree. Actually, that whole song is awesome.  You have to listen to it on headphones though, to get the full effect of it.

[Runaways]

day in the life of a tree is in my top 10.  That song is insanely wonderful.  Should get more respect!

[Mendota Heights]

I am constantly listening to You're Still a Mystery. Good track!

[doinnothin]

We'll Run Away - Somehow this one slipped by me, until like last week. But man, that thing's a beast.
Don't Talk - Always kicking my ass. Everyday of every week. That song makes me feel like I'm touching god.

[Sam_BFC]

day in the life of a tree is in my top 10.  That song is insanely wonderful.  Should get more respect!

Agreed...the tag might even be my *top* tag of all...people don't like the lead vocal, I think it is great, especially when he lets rip 'Oh lord I lay me down...'  However, I wonder if it would have been even more great if a Wilson had sang it...

[Catbirdman]

For me a real highlight that I never see anyone else give any love to is the bridge of "Oh Darlin'." Great harmonic movement in that bridge, ascending harmonies sung perfectly. The only downside is it's juuust a bit clunky in the handoff back to the chorus. But still a little gem. Too bad nobody ever seems to notice this ass-kicking moment.

[drbeachboy]

For me a real highlight that I never see anyone else give any love to is the bridge of "Oh Darlin'." Great harmonic movement in that bridge, ascending harmonies sung perfectly. The only downside is it's juuust a bit clunky in the handoff back to the chorus. But still a little gem. Too bad nobody ever seems to notice this ass-kicking moment.

Indeed, Mike & Carl are terrific. The highlight that makes a so-so song more listenable.

[NHC]

Fade-in intro to Don't Worry Baby - unique treatment for the start of a song.

When the background vocals come in full force on DWB, (I mean on the 2nd verse, not the first chorus)

"I close my eyes and here it comes again  . . . . . . . . . . I can hear . . . . "

Almost any part of Add Some Music . .

"When I take her to the drags, she really shines . . . . . She always turns in the fastest time . . . . . ."  Pure Mike Love at his best
                                                                 

[Chris Brown]

Mike's lead on "All I Wanna Do."  Damn I wish he'd kept singing like that for the next 20 years!

[punkinhead]

Side Two of Today never ceases to amaze me with its emotional ballads.

Side One is no slouch, either. That is one fine album, indeed.

Yeah, that side 2 is a killer, especially that last ballad....the acapella on Big Daddy is so good. 



All kidding aside, I feel like the order of how the tracks play out is so primitive. side 1 has it's two singles at the start and end like most of record companies plan these tracklistings (I think).....A Pet Sounds essay or book taught me about that....the 2nd side is a different story, I do believe Please Let Me Wonder is a B-side to one of the current singles but the ending of side 2 doesn't follow that format...I do believe Kiss Me Baby is the B-side to Help Me Rhonda...and I wanna say She Knows Me too Well is the b-side to something else.
Hypothetically, I always wanted Guess I'm Dumb to end the 2nd side...I thought it'd be appropriate AND it'd be a fantastic "thank you" to Glen C. for being in Brian's in place. Although All Dressed Up For School was a current track that coulda been on Today! I don't think it'd be a good idea to end the album with that, although it'd sound rather interesting...kind of a Brian type of humor...like he's expressed all these dark ideas and themes and then goes into another litlle fetish of his.

This brings up a couple other things that bug me and I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about it. Had the track to Sandy/She Needs Me, first off, I think it'd be a great b-side to a 3rd single to Summer Days (perhaps Salt Lake City be the A-side?) anyways, I just think Summer Days is in dyer need of a ballad like so...we kinda get one (Girl Don't Tell Me) that's Rubber Soul esc (and I know-Ticket to Ride) and I guess Let Him run Wild is a ballad...but what I mean is more of a slowed down ballad (since Bruce had just joined, isn't he known as the ultimate balladeer?  ) such as Sandy...But I will give ue....the 2nd side to Summer Days is very creative and different: yes it starts with a single but goes into LHRW (which is fantastic and CG b-side) and then You're so Good To me, which in my opinion is a fantastic song and its simplistic production is fantastic....kind of a predecessor to Wild Honey album imo. Summer Brings New Love is a great instrumental...honestly the best one up until this album...even though focusing on guitar like most BB instrumentals up to this point, it's still really a great relaxed tune...the strings at the end are fantastic, almost like the ending to In the Back of My Mind...Bugged at my oldman, yeah, we see Brian's humor which comes in smalll doses in each album....at least this was in the form of a song and not an album filler (i.e. spoken track)....and of course And Your Dreams come True is one of the best album endings of any beach boys album...up until they found out how to put a smile song at the end of an album but that's another theme for another post or essay as I've just written.