The Smiley Smile Message Board

So how are we all feeling?

That song will always remind me of being at the BB's fan convention on the Queen Mary in 1978. Mike and Bruce were there and Bruce was going on about this great new single they had cut, or great new version of an old song Here Comes The Night that was nearing release...when he said the word "disco" there was an audible grumble throughout the room, but he said this was "good" disco and that we'd all dig it. So after a while I approached Bruce and whipped out my perfectly MINT first pressing copy of the Wild Honey LP. I mean this thing was gleaming, the orig. shrink was removed just so Bruce and Mike could sign near their back cover photos. I handed it to Bruce, pointed to his photo and asked him to please sign it for me. He took the album, and with a sharpie drew a giant circle and arrows around the song title Here Comes the Night, and he scribbled some large notation about the new version...my hair nearly fell out. Lets just say I'm slightly anal about my collectibles. I mean Bruce was very enthusiastic and joyful, he was trying to be nice to the dopey long haired fan with the old record...but my jaw was absolutely resting on the floor when he handed my treasured mint original copy of Wild Honey back to me with black markings, circles, lines, and arrows all over the back cover. And then, I hated the song, which only made it worse. That's what Here Comes the Night disco version makes me think of...30 years since my perfect Wild Honey got tagged.

Wow, sorry Jon, but that's actually really funny.

:lol Well you did ask him to sign it...

Seriously, though, I'd have been real pissed.

When you think about it, Bruce Johnston proudly and boastfully defacing WILD HONEY -- and not realizing or caring how or why -- kinda sums it all up. No?

Ok...I have to say it. I did not like disco. I was a new wave guy (I liked Blondie before she was "Blondie"). BUT, I liked "Here Comes The Night". The 4:32 45 mix. I can remember hearing it driving my Dad's car on a Sunday night when KILT in Houston would play new songs. I was floored. After the rough production of Love You (though still one of my faves to this day) and the wooden production of MIU, here was a track that was sharp, crisp, and.......commerical.

Since I was an intern at KILT, I drove down to the station the next day after work and got a copy of the 45 from record library (yes they told me I could  ;D). I played it alot that night and the rest of the week. I have alot of good memories of not only that single, but of the LA light album and the times. It was on tour for LA when I first met them.

Bob

30 years? No wonder I have gray hair and less hair....I remember being in college when this came out and hoping that my music heroes had produced something of value amid the disco miasma. No such luck. But it's better than the all disco cover LP of Beach Boys songs done by, who was it?, the Good Vibrations?

It didn't work as a disco song.  Carl Wilson's lead vocal just never worked on the new version.

I always thought the most natural choice for a disco version of a Beach Boys song would have been "Dance Dance Dance."   

I can honestly say that I have never made it through the whole 10 minutes of that tune.

I do have to respectfully (and I meant that) disagree with Jon Stebbins when he says that the group "threw" away Baby Blue as the flipside HCTN. From talking with Bruce Johnston at that time (and from reading interviews with him at that same time), I think that both he and James Guercio thought that pairing Baby Blue and HCTN would make a very strong single. And it did. I remember finally getting a "stock" copy of HCTN (about a week or two after I got the promo with the song in mono/stereo) and listening to Baby Blue. I though that holy s**t, HERE is a strong double sided single for the group, like the singles of the 60's. Uptempo A side. Ballad B side.

Oh well......

I wasn't alive in 1978, but as someone younger who only heard the disco version a few years ago, I think it was pretty inventive considering the time at which they released it.

I don't like disco music and I sometimes have a hard time with it's placement on the LA album, but if you're driving down the road, and then all of a sudden Carl's vocal comes in...it can be pretty cool too. I give them credit at least for trying something new.

As David Leaf said, "At least Bruce was TRYING to make them Contemporary..."

I will say that Good Timin' is the best track on the LP!.

But Disco wasn't new in Feb. 1979 when this song came out. Disco was old, on the down slide, the trend was waning. Disco was new in 1974/75 when the Bee Gees and the Four Seasons decided to update their sound and get involved in that funky town dance scene. That was a smart move. But the Beach Boys in 1979 being nearly the last dinosaur to jump on that sinking boat of a trend was just pathetic. They looked like an old guy waking up from his nap and noticing everyone else had vacated the rock-house for the disco-house next door, and all the other old guys were over there making money...but by the time they got there that party was over. I think it made them look completely out of touch. It was like swinging at a fastball after it hit the catcher's glove.

Quite true, Jon, disco was a dying fad when the boys jumped on the bandwagon.
I'm afraid Curt Boettcher (then Becher) was partly responsible for that - eventhough I admire his work in the sixties, his disco period was his lowest point musicwise: just think of Bruce's Disco Pipeline 12", his own I Can Hear Music or the Geno Washington album he produced.

What a story,

what if you took you're in the plastic copy of Surfin' Safari around the time Bummer in Paradise came out and Mike draws a number on the Surfin' track label, remaking it and all....i could see him ruining that moment...though Mike ruins a lot of moments

In 1979 "HCTN" was even less relevant than the "disco" episode of CHiPS.

Top 5 Singles for 1978 (Billboard)

1    Andy Gibb
Shadow Dancing   
 RSO
 
2    Bee Gees
Night Fever   
 RSO
 
3   Debby Boone
You Light Up My Life   
 Warner Bros./Curb
 
4    Bee Gees
Stayin' Alive   
 RSO
 
5    Exile
Kiss You All Over 

Top 5 Singles for 1979 (Billboard)

1    The Knack
My Sharona   
 Capitol
 
 
2    Donna Summer
Bad Girls   
 Casablanca
 
 
3    Chic
Le Freak   
 Atlantic
 
 
4    Rod Stewart
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy   
 Warner Bros.
 
 
5    Peaches & Herb
Reunited   
 Polydor


So (except for the excellent My Sharona), disco was still topping the charts. Just FYI. No fights wanted!

Bob

Jon's story is both hilarious and sad...

My thoughts on HCTN? I like it as a three and a half minute version, but the ten minute version I don't particularly care for. The endless variations on the theme stink, however, Carl's vocal is superb as usual, I don't mind the harmonies and I like the string overdubs. But it has ZERO artistic value. NONE. Which is the thing that makes me squirm. Whereas somethings like "Good Timin'," "Baby Blue" or even "Angel Comes Home" and "Lady Lynda (a rip-off of Bach but a good one)" are bursting with creative, new and rereshing ideas; HCTN is just a retread. LA could've been a great later period album with a better track selection and a little more critical editing.

Oh, and it reinforces my opinion that BJ didn't do a good job producing the album; while the original HCTN is raw and ready, the "Angel Come Home" from Midnight Special is rocking and powerful, the newly remixed "Love Surrounds Me" lacks some backing vocals but makes up for it with better balance and more Christine in the mix. If I compare those to the official BB versions it doesn't go in BJ's favor.

But I do adore Carl's vocal...

I think the point is that Disco was a fading genre by then. And in 1978/9 -- or '68/'69 for that matter -- the Beach Boys should never have been chasing down a trend. The fact of the matter is, Beach Boys shouldn't have been trying to trump Donna Summer at HER game. It reeked of desperation when they did it with "HCTN," as it did with that Fat Boys masterpiece in the '80s. A perfect example of a GOOD decision (whether you like or loathe it) is "Kokomo" -- a hit on their own terms, topping the charts while playing THEIR game.  "HCTN's" only distinction is that it TRULY marked the end of the "Brian Is Back" era. To the Rock elite it solidified their reputation as washed up. It made them a punch line (again).

Worse yet, the world shrugged.

"HCTN" is stupid, plain and simple. And what makes it suck so badly isn't just Bruce and Boettcher's truly clueless production, it's that it's SO lame, SO soulless, SO "white" for want of a better term, that it doesn't even come close to missing the mark, it doesn't even RATE.

That same year McCartney released "Goodnight Tonight" which got lambasted for being a "disco" single -- it's actually not -- but, the song itself, the melody is phenomenal. The record is great too -- as always, amazing bass work. If you get in the zone and break it down and think of it as a Cole Porter tune, it'll blow your mind. Bruce Johnston (who was handed the producer reigns by BRIAN WILSON of all people!!!) was able to achieve the OPPOSITE effect of McCartney. He took one of the coolest and beloved hidden Wilson/Love masterpieces and actually made you feel BAD when listening to it. Like getting into a fistfight in Church. You just don't DO THAT.

Think about that. And while you're at it, strip that man of his ball cap, "Daisy Duke" OP shorts and Pacifico beer. The only accomplishment in "HCTN" is that it made "Sumahama" the second worse song on LIGHT ALBUM.

Wow, a lot of differing opinions. And, for this song, who woulda thunk it?

"Here Comes The Night" always reminds me of spring (the season). I live in Pennsylvania, and just when it came out, the temperatures got a little warmer, there were only a couple more months of school, AND THE BEACH BOYS WERE ON THE RADIO! Really, a lot of stations were playing it, and I thought it sounded good on AM radio. I mean, it is a good SONG, Carl is a great singer, the lyrics were fine, the production was similar to a lot of what was being recorded those days. What was not to like about it?

I thought the production was excellent, Carl and Mike were spectacular, and I have no problem with the song they chose to "disco-fy". While I like the Wild Honey version, I wouldn't go so far as calling it a masterpiece. Actually, how many people even knew it was a re-recording of an older Beach Boys' song from 1967?

A lot of the press made a big deal out of the Beach Boys going disco, and I never understood that. First, almost everybody was delving into disco in some fashion, some more than others. Second, the Beach Boys were a "pop" band, not really known for serious rock or hard rock music. Third, it was just one song, what was the big deal? If they would've done an entire disco album, I could see the alarm.

I did have two problems with it, actually three. Why did the album version have to be over 11:00 minutes long? That took up almost one-third of the album! But, there was still room for another two cuts on L.A. They could've saved a long version exclusively for the 12" single.

Next, the disco era was fading. Yeah, in 1978 the charts were topped by disco, but one got the feeling that it did peak (thankfully), and The Beach Boys were slightly late, which, of course, contributed to them looking bad. The Beach Boys used to create fads, now they were chasing one.

Lastly, and this is going to get me in trouble, but I don't care.....I always resented that Brian and Dennis did not get involved with the recording and performance of the song. There's always that stereotype that Mike and somewhat Al, and somewhat the group, were stuck on recycling the oldies. Then, when Mike, Carl, Al, and Bruce decide to "step out" a little, be a little bold, take a chance, and, try to create something artistic (you might not like it but it was artistic), Brian and Dennis didn't want anything to do with it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they attended the recording sessions. I saw The Beach Boys in concert a few times when they performed HCTN, and both Brian and Dennis left the stage; that bothered me; what happened to the TEAM? Then, when they appeared on national TV (The Midnight Special in 1979) and performed the song, THEN Dennis decides to stay on the stage. Anyway....

Even Lou Reed did disco ("The Bells", also 1979) for God's sake!

I give The Beach Boys a pass. Why the hell should I care about what was/wasn't popular at the time? Since when does that dictate how a song sounds when it comes out of your speakers? Hell, Sunflower was a complete flop at the time right? And weren't they a little late jumping on the flower power/Maharishi bandwagon with Friends?

I love Carl and the Boy's vocals, and the song itself is pretty friggin' great!

I thought Brian was in the hospital during the HCTN sessions, thus unable to participate? Any truth to that??

Yes, no doubt there were many high charting disco records in '79 but I think anyone who was around will agree that year was the butt-end of the trend. Kind of like there were some psychedelic or summer of love style hits in 1969/70 like Crimson and Clover, Aquarius ...but the cutting edge of that trend was 1966/1967 right? It would be like the Beach Boys releasing Good Vibrations in 1970...wouldn't make sense really(even though its a much much much better record than HCTN, and it still would have been great, but it would have been on the wrong end of the flower-pop trend instead of driving it, and probably perceived as bandwagon jumping quite a bit too late) With HCTN it was even worse because it was the BB's trying to be hip or current by embracing a genre that was not perceived by most people as either hip or current, a trend that was in the midst of generating a huge backlash among the kind of people who loved the BB's, and a trend that was slowly dying, and a trend or genre that the BB's fit into about as well as Carl fit into those really tight pants in 1964. I think if HCTN disco had been released in 1975 that would have been a cutting edge move, that would have been a move into a contemporary direction, but releasing it in 1979 was not a move into a contemporary direction at all...it was a miscalculated grasp at having a hit that ended up costing the '79 BB's something of which they had little to spare...credibility. I do realize that my opinion on this matter is not universally agreed with, but its one those that I feel very strongly about. I think L.A. Light might have been a better outing had they concentrated on Good Timin'/Baby Blue as the lead single instead of burning dollars, energy( and fans) by pushing HCTN.

Fair enough!

But consider this! If one were to go to the record store (I know, those days are pretty much gone) and buy a big fat 70s disco compilation because they wanted to have some disco stuff to groove on, and HCTN 79 was included, it would hold up pretty well, if not better, than whatever else would be included in the package!

Sure, they might've been dangling by the trailerhitch of the bandwagon, but it wasn't as pathetic as say, The Villiage People trying to become New Romantics!

Anyone remember that??

Jon, you and I are roughly the same age so we both remember HCTN pretty well....I agree with your assessment of the disco scene around the release date of HCTN, and you're right, The Beach Boys were late, no doubt about it.

To just repeat something from my earlier post, I was surprised that the Beach Boys were criticized so much for recording HCTN. First, as I mentioned, it was just ONE SONG. And, really, I was surprised that anybody really cared. After Love You and MIU, they were fading fast.

But, Jon, I have to take exception with something you posted. I don't think The Beach Boys lost much credibility because of HCTN, and I'll tell you why. HCTN didn't do that badly commercially. It charted almost as high as "Good Timin", and, I believe, the 12" single did well on those special singles charts also. And, talking about "Good Timin" which followed, well, that was a semi-hit, so, apparently they were forgiven.

And, oddly enough, the Beach Boys gained a little bit of a resurgence with the release of L.A. didn't they? HCTN charted, "Good Timin" charted, and even "Lady Lynda" was a big hit overseas. Then the band was invited to appear on The Midnight Special. HCTN quickly became ancient history, and now, it's just a footnote.

It was Curt Boettcher's baby. He was given a cassette of the separated tracks so he could  duplicate the BG's in the chorus. He tracked it in West LA with his guys and arranged the vocals (except for the parts he got from the tape). From what I heard, he really gave the boys a workout; they may never have sang so precisely. 

Curt was making disco records; possibly it was felt that the record would have club cred with his production.

Personally, I don't care that much for that rendition of the song; too many corny musical parts  and too much of Curt's vocal gymnastics in the vocal arrangement. 

I *think* he sketched out the vocal parts in the middle section and had the boys come in and sing over his parts; at least this is what I recall him telling me...

Brian Wilson was not part of HCTN because by the time the group started work on it, Brian was in Brotman Memorial Hospital for about 3 months, being treated as self-destructive and depressed. Dennis chose not get invovled with the track. Which is ok. He has every right to do that. So the track was Al, Carl, Bruce, Mike and Curt. And THAT was ok too. I really wished that Bruce had saved the 10:52 version for the 12 inch and just put the 4:28 edit on the LP. That way,  we could have at least gotten a few more tracks (like Calendar Girl, etc.).

Here is the thing. No one is right or wrong about which tunes they like. While I don't "groove out" to HCTN (I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Wild Honey version), I will always have very fond memories of the track. Btw, my cousin from England ws over for a visit and took the LP back with him. He used HCTN in his job as a traveling DJ for parites, etc. He later told me he bought 4 more copies of the LP cause he wore his original out. Everybody loved it when he played it.

My favorite track from that LP is still Good Timin'. Carl, and especially Dennis wrote some really high quality tunes that made it onto the LP. But Brian could always top everyone. I love POB. But Love You moves me more.

Bob

Remember this was their debut moment for CBS. Unlike most of those years with Reprise, CBS put a lot of promotional muscle behind the BB's (at first)...the debut single was a crucial moment. I think any resurgence would have been greater if the lead single had been Good Timin', instead of that being the single that came after HCTN missed the top 40 after being pushed so hard. It was considered a real disappointment considering all the attention it was given. Yes Good Timin' did slightly better, barely making top 40, but in my opinion it would have gone much higher if it'd had the initial push that was (again IMO) wasted on HCTN. There was a lot of media buzz around the Beach Boys CBS deal, and the new record. All kinds of promotion including the TV appearances, the Radio City Music Hall stint(where HCTN was booed)...picture discs, promo singles, posters, in store appearances, and yes airplay. I just think it was a really bad marketing decision to peg their hopes on HCTN. To me Good Timin' was an excellent BB's record, and Baby Blue a wonderful B-side. That would have been a great single. I do think they lost credibility with HCTN, they sure did with the people that I knew at the time that gave such things any thought. They were laughed at for HCTN for all the reasons I listed in above posts, it was an embarrassment to a lot of fans. But again, this is a song that splits people pretty evenly, some think it was innovative and fresh, some like me think it was a sell out with no return.

Jon Stebbins makes a good point about it being the CBS debut. They really needed to deliver a good album to start their relationship with the new label, and the 11 misguided minutes of HCTN made sure they didn't. As long as they were reaching into the past, how about some replacing HCTN with some good unreleased stuff. Take out the disco song and replace it with Soulful Old Man Sunshine (just get rid of Carl's "Shunshine'), San Miguel and maybe a good version of California Feeling or a finally-finished Loop de Loop and you'd really have something.

And I may be crazy, considering how Dennis' rough voice might have played on the charts, but I think Angel Come Home might have been a hit off LA.

In lieu of "HCTN" -- throw "Almost Summer" "California Feeling" and "Wild Situation" on it and all sins would be absolved. Even "It's A Beautiful Day" (even though I think that one comes a bit after the fact).

I think Jon pretty well sums up how I feel about it. I don't think it would have been such a disaster if it wasn't the first single, and if the short one was the LP cut. It still would have stunk, but it wouldn't have hurt them really.

I had the L.A. version of HCTN in my head last night, and I had a small epiphoney. Yes, disco was the very last thing The Beach Boys should have ever even attempted to do. Yes, it sticks out on the album like a sore thumb. Yes, it just all around sucks. BUT, the absolute most evil crime the disco HCTN ever commited was, it defaced and forever tarnished the reputation of an otherwise GREAT song from Wild Honey. Never again would the Wild Honey track just be an underrated song. As soon as the disco version came out, that was and is what most people here probably think about when the song title is mentioned. Never again can we just sit back and listen to the Wild Honey track and appreciate it being what it is....a great R&B song. We are always reminded of the debacle that is: "the disco version".

sh*t then and sh*t now.  It brings nothing new to the game and desecrates a good song off a great album.

Don't forget, EVERYONE was doing disco.   Van, Eagles, Jackson Brown, Stones, even the Kinks (remember Superman?)it was a full blown plague.  Actually, Hold On by Jackson was my favorite disco era disco flavored album.

Here Comes the Night sounded like a parody of a stereotypical disco 12 inch single.  THAT is what was wrong with it.  Yes the Beachboys WERE chasing a fad..a fading fad at that.  And a weak showing to boot.

The old rallying cry DISCO SUCKS! applied doubly to the BeachBoys effort at the genre.  It is quite possibly their worst recording and that includes MIU and SIP.


But I don't really have an opinion on the topic ;)

I hardly ever listen to the Light Album in its entirety as it doesn't hang together too well, to my ears anyway. There's glimpses of ALL the Wilson brothers' brilliance of course and I do even like Lady Lynda and Sumahama, yet in a way the much-maligned M.I.U. Album is just so much closer to what I like about the Beach Boys than L.A. Light, with Here Comes The Night probably being the ultimate low point of their 70s recording career to me. Not because it's disco, mind you, but because it's pretentious in a way the Beach Boys had never attempted before (safe for Student Demonstration Time perhaps, which didn't sound half as desperate however).

That said, the group really should have cut a promotional music video for this track featuring beardy BW-lookalikes in Adidas jump suits doing some serious shaking underneath the mirror ball.  :-D

I think the ultimate verdict is how fast the BB's dropped HCTN disco from their set list. After going through a major effort to prepare their live presentation of that song, obviously with the hope it would be a hit, it was gone after a few gigs.

Wow, maybe we all need to take this a bit less seriously!

It's just another silly disco song coming from an era where it was in good company.

But this one has Carl Wilson singing lead on it, so, hey, who can complain about that?

No one involved thought this was going to be Pet Sounds Part 2! BBs fans should have stopped crying for that long before. It wasn't going to happen. Brian wasn't that 24 year old guy anymore. How many of us have stayed 24 and at our peak???

Hell, maybe they just did it for fun or because the coke was good (or bad)....

To be honest, when I put on LA (which is often) the only song I somerimes skip is Lady Lynda.

I think I speak for many when I say cocaine had literally NOTHING to do with "Here Comes The Night - 1979."

In fact, listening to it actually STOPS YOU from chewing on your cheek, cornering people to tell them something "REALLY IMPORTANT," and wanting more immediately.

Bruce Johnston = The guy who made you not wanna get high to The Beach Boys.
(Congratulations.)

Speaking of getting high/not getting high to The Beach Boys!!!!

Never do acid while listening to 90% of their!

All the various background chatter, noises, ect, will wreck havoc if you get the leat bit paranoid while on acid/pot/ect!

Smiley Smile: Avoid altogether

Sunflower: Avoid, especially if you have a fear of drowning. Cool Cool Water will push you over the edge.

Smile: AVOID

20/20: Manson!!!!

However, back in the day, "Surf's Up" (the album) did do the trick. Feel Flows was like a giant melting prozac pill from God!!!!

Its automatic that when a thread turns fairly passionate and differing points of view are pointedly posted that someone will insist that "maybe we all need to take this a bit less seriously". But if you really read this thread you can see its filled with humor, some of it very cynical humor, but humor nonetheless. I think the subject of HCTN is one of the deepest mines in BB's lore for humor. I don't think we need to take this less seriously, but then maybe i need to take Erik's suggestion that we all take this "less seriously"... less seriously.

BTW...I've really enjoyed both Smiley Smile and Smile on acid, back when i did that kind of thing, but I don't frighten easily...and yeah Feel Flows is perfection while tripping, you are right about that. I am in no way endorsing this kind of action that I often undertook in my much younger days ;) Stay clean, go to school, get educated, find love, be there for your children, and teach them to live in peace. But don't take it too seriously or someone will follow you around telling you to lighten up.

Yes, yes, I could have been doing many other more important things at the time than trying to figure out what Beach Boys album matched best with whichever substance!

And, no, please don't take my plea for less seriousness... serious!

I just had to say something when our varying views on the wee travesty of HCTN 79 begin to verge into anger.

I really like when everyone can get "up on their hind legs" as they say in Texas and get passtionate without getting abusive. IE: - Passionate: Here Comes The Night sucks! Abusive: And any one that likes it sucks too!. :lol

Again, from my exeperinces as a 20 yr old when HCTH came out...(thats right, do the math...that makes me.....OLD!). I remember before LA Light Album came out (about two weeks before), KILT-FM here in town played it as their "midnight album" on a Firday night (the primo LP audition time, other LPs got the middle of the week treatment). The DJ (whose name I can't remember cuz I interned on the AM side) intro'd the LP by saying it was the strongest BB LP since HOLLAND. And I think it kind of ranks there. On Monday, I went to the station and got THAT copy of LA (which I still have, it was in a white sleeve, no LP sleeve was availible yet). Circled on the first side was "Good Timin'" with the note to "play this track.....ALOT".

I am listening to LA right now (my 1985 CD release). I still like this LP. Hell, I love all of them to some extent. Even SIP. That's right, you heard me.....(well, I like the melody and the track to Still Surfin').

It still seems funny tho that James Guerio wanted SMiLE tracks on LA. That would have been......interesting.

I think the ultimate verdict is that the group chose to play it on national TV (The Midnight Special), it reached #44 on the charts which was higher than most of their singles in the 1970's, and, although I don't have the chart info in front of me, I'm pretty sure the 12" single also did well on those special disco singles charts. I think the negative affect of the "disco" experiment was overrated; don't give HCTN THAT much credit. It was quickly forgotten, like most of The Beach Boys' records of that era....

I vividly remember holding that lovely digi-pack of SIP at the Wherehouse in Manhattan Beach and was about to buy it but my friend was making fun of me so, I put it back on the rack.... If I remember correctly, he was buying a Nelson CD!!!!!

I think the ultimate verdict is that Luther is great.

a great racantour is always appreciated  ;D

I've listened to disco 'HCTN' one time, ever.

And never, ever again. It gives me nightmares.

Next time I have a bad dream, I'm blaming Bruce.

Oh, I've been doing that since 2001 anyway. Before that, I had been blaming Whitesnake's David Coverdale since 1994. And before that it was Jeff Lynne since 1987. Yeah, I just don't like accepting responsibility for my bad dreams, so I project it onto people in pop who piss me off. Zombies in my dream? Sounds like Danny Hutton's fucking problem to me.

I honestly don't remember a single bad dream before I heard 'HCTN' disco.

So it's the only logical reason for my sleep disturbances  ^-^

I blame Bruce for my lifelong fear of guys in tight white short shorts!

And I thank Freddie Mercury for curing me of mine.

Yes, and Freddy did the same thing for moustaches!  :)

It peaked at number 48 on the Billboard Disco chart. I think its safe to assume that they performed it on Midnight Special because they were putting all their promotional chips on it at the time of filming. Unfortunately the single had fallen off the charts by the time the episode aired, and the band had already eliminated it from their set list. You say it was "quickly forgotten". You might have forgotten it, but I know a whole bunch of people who didn't.

Well, hell, let's build a bonfire and round up the few remaining HCTN 12inch singles and LA copies and toss em in????

Maybe we can also find some faded old "DISCO SUCKS" shirts!  >:D

Maybe we need to stop taking this so seriously.

I don't think this: is someone taking things too seriously.

well you haven't had MY nightmares!!!! :P

Speaking of Disco: Pink Floyd!!!! even went disco!!!

Another Brick In The Wall kinda/sorta counts, right?

And guess who's on that track????? BRUCE!

well, he IS singing on that album and might have been an influence

Hmmmm, maybe there is a point to all this  :smokin

Are we sure Bruce didn't ghost write the entire 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack  ;D

Somehow, that wouldn't surprise me.

I heard he's working on a 25 minute disco re-working of Disney Girls as we speak!

4 pages of replies!! I really wasn't expecting this.. I love you guys  ;D

Funny you should mention that. I was lucky enough to hear one of the rare times it was done live, and I wondered at the time how they pulled it off. Did they use backing tapes? It sounded a lot like the album version.

My only wish is that the track could have been longer.

Kiss's disco album, DYNASTY, was released in Oct. 1979, The Rolling Stones didn't issue "Emotional Rescue" until 1980, & The Grateful Dead's GO TO HEAVEN was also from '80.  B-Boys may not have been cutting edge on the disco scene, but they arrived late to the party with some high-profile company...

(http://991.com/newGallery/Grateful-Dead-Go-To-Heaven-358224.jpg)

Let's boogie............

(http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l7/dannyjelinek/e1120.jpg)

(http://systematicdeath.blogg.se/images/2008/bboys_1212060505_6404586.jpeg)

(http://www.wxb.addr.com/bbbb0779.jpg)

(http://i10.ebayimg.com/05/i/07/a6/d3/74_1_b.JPG)

(http://i19.ebayimg.com/07/i/001/32/a0/58af_1.JPG)

Also kind of interesting that this track has never been released on CD in the states (the 4:28 edit), even though it has been remeastered by both Andrew Sandoval and Mark Linett.

It shoulda been on SOME comp, probably the boxed-set...

So you clubbers of the late 70s....did you ever hear it played? :afro

i can remember hearing both the 45 version and lp version being played. plus i have a lot of old billboard magazines stashed away in the house. i can remember seeing the song being added to the disco playlists around the country in those early '79 billboards.. so it was getting played before they withdrew the single.

If you are alluding that the Stones and Kiss arrived at the disco party later or (as late) than the BB's you are forgetting the Stones had cut disco in way back '76 with Hot Stuff, and had a huge disco hit in '78 with Miss You, Ace Frehley/Kiss had a hit in '78 with Back in the NY Groove, so they'd been at that party long before the BB's arrived in '79.

a quick search thru a box of stuff located me 2 billboards from march 1979. 1st one dated march 10th 1979 has the single at 73 with a star (up 10 places). also has the single listed the radio action playlists as being a breakout in the north central region and the mid-atlantic region.
the 2nd issue is dated march 24th 1979. inside of back cover has full page ad for the group and lp (for the first time in years, the genius of the beach boys comes to light).  single at # 55 with a star (up from 63). on album radio action playlist top add on in midwest region and as breakout in southeast region and northeast region. also has a review for the la light lp. funny..they say outside of HCTN "not much else on the album is very stimulating"
yep...difference in opinions is what makes the world go round...  :)

Any other comments in the review that are interesting? I love reading reviews written upon release of older albums: they always show just how fluid sensibilities are over time.

Plus don't forget that the Stones' "Fingerprint File" from 'It's Only Rock 'n' Roll' was started in late '73 at Musicland. So they're WAY ahead of the curve. Also those 'Black And Blue' tracks stem from '75 -- that's still on the early side of "disco."

But in truth, the Stones never "went" disco. They just went four on the floor. HUGE difference.

Review:
LA (Light Album)
The Beach Boys
Dave Marsh - May 31, 1979

The Beach Boys are easily the most overrated group in rock & roll history---which presents the reviewer with a problem: simply stating the facts invites an overreaction from the band's maundering cult who exaggerate the surf bums' importance. But the truth is that Brian Wilson was never a musical genius, though he executed some of the most crafty reworkings of Phil Spector's production style ever done and, for a few years, tapped into the heart line of teenage lifestyle; that the Beach Boys have not made great rock music since Wild Honey; that the Beach Boys have not made competent pop music since Holland.

Like the LPs that preceded it. L.A. (Light Album), the Beach Boys' CBS-distribution debut, offers hope to the faithful with a mix of the barely listenable and distant echoes of the good old days. Even the vaunted disco track, "Here Comes the Night," is not so much a sellout as it is simple padding.

The saving grace of L.A. (Light Album) is the coproduction team of Bruce Johnston and Jim Guercio. Johnston and Guercio operate from an atavistic memory of what the group sounded like when it was still half alive, and come up with a few songs worth hearing: "Good Timin'" has sufficient massed voices to evoke the days of hot-rod trivia, while "Sumahama" is kind of cute, though Mike Love has sung more flat notes by now than anyone else in rock history (a triumph in the face of considerable competition). Of the rest, only "Baby Blue" is as exotic and portentous as it would like to be. And "Baby Blue," like the Beach Boys themselves, is going nowhere.

Don't get me wrong. It would be easy to attack L.A. (Light Album) as an awful record, if only out of spite for being bored to death by the jabbering of the Beach Boys' champions. But this LP is worse than awful. It is irrelevant.

And I really remember reading this for the first time. Really thought the guy was too harsh!

Review:
Keepin' the Summer Alive
The Beach Boys
STEPHEN HOLDEN - May 15, 1980

Had it been released five years ago, when gasoline was cheaper, nuclear energy "safe" and punk rock only a rumor, Keepin' the Summer Alive might have given the Beach Boys one last platinum-perfect wave to ride out on before hanging up their surfboards and retiring to Las Vegas as an oldies act. Handsomely produced by Bruce Johnston, the new album blends the pantheism of Holland, the tunefulness of Pet Sounds and the sweetness of Surf's Up into a polished, hook-filled retrospective that has the ring of an official farewell. Unfortunately, it comes too late to matter much culturally. Time has passed the Beach Boys by, and all the gloss in the world can't redeem them from terminal irrelevancy.

Keepin' the Summer Alive gleams like a well-kept Edsel, with harmonies as passionless as they are precise and lyrics that hark back to seasons so long gone and territories so provincial that the nostalgia here is of more pathological than historical interest. The songs try very hard to bring the LP's title to life in a dogged attempt to recapture the innocence of white teenage America circa 1960. Done as a rock & roll barbershop-quartet tune, the record's lone oldie, Chuck Berry's "School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes the Bell)," dates from 1957. Only one Beach Boys number, Johnston's "Endless Harmony," acknowledges that anything important happened in the last twenty years -- and that event was the rise of the Beach Boys. The rest is all infantile paeans to nature, girls, the sun and especially "sum-sum-summer-time." We've heard it before, done with more zest, humor and immediacy.

In "Santa Ana Winds," one of the album's prettiest cuts, Al Jar-dine (solemnly playing the part of the wind) syllabicates like a superannuated flower child about "bringing life into human-i-ty." Keepin' the Summer Alive's most anachronistic songs -- "Some of Your Love," "Oh Darlin'," "Sunshine" and "Goin' On," all coauthored by Brian Wilson and Mike Love--are sonic clones of the type of high-school ditty this duo wrote in the early Sixties. These compositions are so unbelievably naive that you can't help but wonder if they're scraps exhumed from a trunk in some-one's attic. Or are ninth-grade romances and summer vacations still the only experiences that Wilson and Love, both deep in their thirties now, remember as having meant anything?

Keepin' the Summer Alive does contain a few glimmers of wit. Wilson and Love's "When Girls Get Together" syncopates a lively melody above a lumbering bass, while the guys eavesdrop on women strolling through the park and chatting about men. Bruce Johnston's elegiac "Endless Harmony" glibly sums up the Beach Boys myth: "ocean lovers" enjoying "striped-shirt freedom" singing "God Bless America." Midway through the number, Johnston asks, "What's it all mean?" then quickly mutters, "Oh, I know it means there's an endless harmony." The group chimes in behind him, exhaling sadly on a minor sixth chord. That's the one poignant moment in this expensive, nicely maintained rock & roll wax museum.

MAN - It was hard to be a fan of these guys! I worked in radio and the abuse was worse!

Marsh can write well, but he doesn't get the Beach Boys at all. In fact his writing here and in the Rolling Stone record guide was horrid. There was a great article in Add Some Music called Getting Out Of The Marsh that totally rips him apart. Roger Daltry cannot stand the guy as he wrote a very one sided book on the Who. He's one of those guys who has his nose so far up Springsteen's rear that his ears are clogged.

I think the KTSA review really hit the nail on the head and was in no way too harsh. "We've heard it before, done with more zest, humor and immediacy." - That sums it up just so perfectly.

Amazing that in 1979 the Beach Boys were consdered 'the most overrated band of all time.' I feel that, while we overrate them, they are underrated by most people...but that's only because they've done so much crap...still...

I've always tried not to get too offended. Dave Marsh is a "ROCK" guy, and we all know The Beach Boys aren't exactly "ROCK" (as it if mattered).... so, who really cares waht jackasses like him think, or have ever thought?

BTW, I got my old quad system hooked back up in the living room and put on my vinyl copy of LA (Light Album) , and DAMM does HCTN sound amazing!!! It really is a great showcase for the vinyl sound! Tons of stuff going on, but it's still warm and enveloping, and you can really crank it without it grating at you.

I know Dave Marsh. He's actually NOT a "Rock Guy." He's an "R&B Guy" -- and THAT'S his issue. His core belief is that unless it has some type of earnest and righteous power to it (e.g. MC5, Bruce, The Who) it's not relevant. The further away from soul that rock gets, the less valid it becomes. Personally, I think he's missing out on heaven, but THAT'S where he's coming from -- not some elitist ROCK corner, but an elitist SOUL corner. Which is why he's a Spector guy as opposed to a Brian guy -- despite the fact that Spector created all that music with a heart of coal and Brian was the most righteous dude in L.A. It's the perceived "whiteness" in the Beach Boys that bugs him, I guess. His latest book on 'The Beatles' Second Album' sheds some light into why he's formed some of his opinions.

Personally, no Ray Charles track or performance ever made me feel an NNNNNNTH as spiritual as "The Warmth Of The Sun."

Well that explains something and looking through his Elvis book you may be right as he loves Elvis' bluesy stuff far more then his pop recordings. Still he got Jan and Dean pretty well when writing about them, he shouldn't be so ignorant when it comes to the Beach Boys. Frankly I feel strongly that no one should write about music they don't have passion for on some level. I'm not saying you have to love everything someone does, just understand what they were shooting for or have some sort of understanding of their prior achievements. I love Rock and RnB and yes you can love both. Hell I even like classic country and some folk.

I was re-reading the reviews I put up. Man it was tough being a fan back then. Not only because of the group, but the attitude of those in and around the biz at the time, not to mention just friends, etc. When you are 20 and read reviews like those posted, it tears your heart out. Now that I am 50, you realize that a Dave Marsh or whoever's opinion is bullmerda and your own opinion is all that matters. Like the potlical discussion of a Rush Limbaugh or Micheal Moore. These people are PAID for there opinions. And the more out landish, the better. Same for reviewers. If you had told anyone (but a select few) that one day the BB and Brian Wilson would be reconized has pioneers in rock, they would have asked you what you were smoking and could they please have some. Must be why I never tried drugs at all, not even pot. I always assciated it with the "too cool for school" people. "Well you know, the Beach Boys were never socially relevent or took a stand against the war or Nixon.....want a hit of this?".......Shut the hell up!

He does love Bruce though, goes out of his way to praise him both times, and shockingly seems to offer his best praise of KTSA to WHEN GIRLS GET TOGETHER!!! ..I didn't know ANYONE felt that way about that song

Funny story.....I played "When Girls Get Together" to a gathering at my girlfriend's apartment in Austin in 1980. It was a gather of the local chapter of the National Organization Of Women. They didn't like it for some reason..........

I liked how Holden treated the Beach Boys as a group and referred to several songs as Brian Wilson and Mike Love's. Nowadays anything Brian co-wrote gets credited soley to Brian... Oh, unless it 'sucks" ... then Mike gets the blame.

"deep in their 30s now"

OUCH!!!!

Since we're on the subject, I thought I would post a video I found. This is even shorter than the 4:00 edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYboGE243jA&feature=related

The song is just much better with the edited version, how they just couldn't put that on the album and decided to dump the 10 minute one on there is ridiculous.

maybe it was because they could!

simple as that

It's easy to just program your CD player and skip it!

or made a CD-R of LA and remove it!

Notice Al's guitar falling at 1'01. Maybe the instrument was trying to escape from that nonsense.

Brian and Dennis don't look too impressed!

This I can agree with!

Great find, Jay. An official video for "Here Comes The Night"!!!! Only with The Beach Boys would they leave in the drummer sleeping, the guitar player dropping his instrument, and the piano player trying to sing "dit dit" with a cigarette in his mouth. Only in the world of The Beach Boys.

But, I still like that song. It's such a period piece, and that's what I like about it. You had to be there, I guess.... :police:

Hey, I was there in those days. Possibly not yet potty trained, but there...

And drinking out of a bottle then, too? The more things change, the more they stay the same.... :p

HA!

Joke's on you guys: I'm drinking out of a wine glass at the moment! So ... um ... damnit.  :-\

well, i finally decided to post to this thread about my feelings on this song. i am not ashamed to say i really like the song, always have. i love the vocals..and i have since i 1st heard the song in 1979.

That 3 1/2 minute version is WAY better than the 4 1/2 minute version!!  But I think I like the 11 minute version the best.  I'm with Steve, I've liked this since the first time I heard it.  I was only 3 when it came out, but when I heard it for the first time in the early 90's, I really felt like I had heard it before.  Maybe the radio stations in my hometown played it back then.

Nowadays I find Marsh's writing frankly unbearable. That 'Heart And Soul Of Rock' list falls apart under his inflated sense of morality. Do I want to know whether Sly Stone had anything in his fridge in 1969? Of course not. In the entry on 'White Lines' by GM Flash, he's beratinig All Citizens Of The Planet on drug abuse. Totally uninteresting. In the text on Prince's 'Kiss', he tells us that he can get horny too, man. And in something on some other disco song (perhaps also that GM thing too), he tries to convinces us that some white guy, could be Plato (he don't know) told us that when the music changes, the walls of the city shake. Yes, dude, whatever. At any rate, he didn't get at all what Plato meant.

It's his anti-intellectual stance (trying to deride Plato), and still wanting to sound streetwise smart, that irritates me beyond belief. There is a book (forgot the author, think he is a certain Fred...) who elegantly exposed the issues that men like Landau and Marsh faced. Looking out of their window, looking down on the street kids, and letting their romantic fantasies spiral out of normality. Did they want to be so badly part of a 'scene'? Yes. Did they truly realize what it must have been like in such a scene? No, not at all.

I don't buy the romanticism of Springsteen's 'Born To Run' anymore (I did when I was 15). The text of 'Jungleland' is fairly ridiculous, IMHO, as that of 'Meeting Across The River'.

Sounds harsh, but I think he totally bought the myths of the young Springsteen as a replacement for (perhaps) a different life. That in itself is no shame, but everytime he tries to tell his readers that rock and roll is the most important thing in the universe, I burst into laughter. Without any N2O, that is.

And the way he re-issues the same old hagiographies on the Boss every couple of years, and is serving a double interest someway (because his wife is Bruce's manager, legal representative)... is a bit odd.

Rant over.

I forgot: 'HCTN' (deesco) blows SMiLE out of the window. Totally.

it certainly has a better beat and you can dance too it easier ;)

What a weird video format. Carl looks slim. 8)

I have the same HCTN video but with a normal frame view, no vertical elongated perspective, just a normal full frame. There is also a Good Timin' video filmed on the same day, same stage set-up...Dennis is behind the drums on that one...Brian appears even less than on HCTN, if at all...haven't viewed it in a while. 

I have that video in a normal format but when I saved it on my PC it somehow changed so that's why it looks so strange. Don't know what's the reason, other videos look fine. I have another clip version with some footage of a woman going out at night with a limousine and so on.

what happened to the Midnight Special footage of HCTN?

it used to be on youtube!

Why didn't they cover it again on 'Stars And Stripes'?

Last night I took out LA and listened to it from start to finish. I still like the album. I wish a finished Calendar Girl had been on there and the short version of HCTN tho.....