California Calling

[Alex]

This is by FAR my favorite track on the 1985 "Beach Boys" album. Why it never got the PR it should have is beyond me.  Maybe AGD can clarify on this? I personally think it would have been a GREAT single and hit.

I disagree. I find it completely synthetic BBs-by-numbers. I played it exactly three times and tried to forget it - unsuccessfully.

I'm with Don except for one thing: I can't pinpoint another track on that album as a favorite either. The whole album sounds mostly like "synthetic BBs-by-numbers" to me, a group that didn't know what to try next, went for what they thought was a hit-making formula (except they forgot to bring good songs) and failed. Again. Sad, considering we know Brian was still writing some decent songs and that the guys could all still sing at that point. There could have been more than 10 years of solid, if not groundbreaking, work. Instead there was sonic ipecac and lawsuits.

I'd say that "Where I Belong" is by far and wide the best song on BB85. I think it stands up to anything on LA Light, or maybe even Holland...the rest of that album ranged from utterly horrible to sort-of-alright (though I will admit BB85 is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me...as bad as CC is, I still enjoy listening to it every now and then.).

[punkinhead]

I always hated the reference to Pet Sounds in Brian's Back...it was like Mike actually liked that album or something

[Dancing Bear]

Well, in 1978 Pet Sounds wasn't nearly the hip thing thing to dig that it became in the 90s. He would do better - commercially - naming any track from Endless Summer.

[matt-zeus]

Hey, I like the lyrics to Brian's Back!

They say Brian's back
Well I guess he's had his ups and downs
They say Brian is back
But in my heart he's always been around

hmmm... but what about 'Not To Mention Ole' Pet Sounds' ?

Not as bad as Mike shoehorning 'Fun, fun, fun' into it and that is also in (off the top of my head) 'Summer in Paradise' and 'It's a beautiful day' plus numerous mentions of 'Good Vibrations' in other songs. There's a lot of self-referencing going on...

[donald]

I played the 85 album a LOT when it came out and for some time afterward.  I didn't care for California Calling because it sounded like they were trying tooo hard to sound like the BeachBoys.  It would have been like slipping the song n Holland.  Just didn't fit.  The big production Carl numbers sounded perfectly 80' and were quite satisfying to these ears at the time.  I guess by this time they had become quite split in their identity and felt they had to put some oldie sounding BB material on with the newer sounds.

I could easily mix Carls songs such as Maybe I Don't Know and Its Getting Late on a comp with Doobies and Dan from the same era. 

Other favs from the album Where I belong, Im so Lonely, and Male Ego.

All in all, a half good album and still more listenable than KTSA in many ways.

[southbay]

It should have been the b-side to Getcha Back....btw, that Getcha Back sounds like Don't Worry Baby mixed with Hungry Heart. 

[southbay]

It should have been the b-side to Getcha Back....btw, that Getcha Back sounds like Don't Worry Baby mixed with Hungry Heart. 

Interestingly, Bruce Springsteen has said (don't recall where) that he wrote Hungry Heart as a response to what feeling the Beach Boys' music gave him.  Mike Love has said (I believe in that infamous '92 Goldmine interview) that he wanted Getcha back to sound MORE like Hungry Heart; he wanted a "ballsier" sax, but STeve Levine "just didn't get it." Also, if you remember the BB's 25 year specila from Hawaii, they played a DOn't Worry Baby/Getcha Back Medley that sounded great together.

[punkinhead]

yeah, i remember that

[LittleSurferGirl]

I like this song & album. I love 80s Beach Boys & am not scared to say it!

I seem to be a rarity though....

[Alf64]

I like this song & album. I love 80s Beach Boys & am not scared to say it!

I seem to be a rarity though....

I am in your club then. I too love all their music. I like the fun sounding ones best.

[LittleSurferGirl]

I know! I especially loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee "Getcha Back". Thats a personal fav, makes me all melancholy & I think we all can relate to it.

[Shady]

Ya Getcha back is such an awesome summer song

And anytime I play it in work, people always ask who sings it, real people pleaser

[grillo]

Ya Getcha back is such an awesome summer song

And anytime I play it in work, people always ask who sings it, real people pleaser

Yeah, summer of '85 right? I remember being so proud that they were on the radio right when I was getting WAY into them. I spent that summer in Virginia Beach and remember it always being on!

[TonyW]

Hey, I like the lyrics to Brian's Back!

They say Brian's back
Well I guess he's had his ups and downs
They say Brian is back
But in my heart he's always been around

hmmm... but what about 'Not To Mention Ole' Pet Sounds' ?

Not as bad as Mike shoehorning 'Fun, fun, fun' into it and that is also in (off the top of my head) 'Summer in Paradise' and 'It's a beautiful day' plus numerous mentions of 'Good Vibrations' in other songs. There's a lot of self-referencing going on...

Self-referencing?

You mean like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lw7dYGl-yg&feature=related

 

[phirnis]

Self-referencing?

You mean like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lw7dYGl-yg&feature=related

 

  =>  => 

I had never heard this before... ouch.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Hop in honey, sit right by my side
I'm gonna take you on a little ride
A desert drive...out where the cactus grow
A desert drive...hey don't you wanna go
Gotta get crankin' now, goin' on a desert drive

Throw on your sneakers, T-shirt and jeans
Better take your shades in case the rays get mean
A desert drive...we're gonna have some fun
A desert drive...out where the coyotes run
Gotta get crankin' now, goin' on a desert drive

[TonyW]

Hop in honey, sit right by my side
I'm gonna take you on a little ride
A desert drive...out where the cactus grow
A desert drive...hey don't you wanna go
Gotta get crankin' now, goin' on a desert drive

Throw on your sneakers, T-shirt and jeans
Better take your shades in case the rays get mean
A desert drive...we're gonna have some fun
A desert drive...out where the coyotes run
Gotta get crankin' now, goin' on a desert drive

It might be post modernist to the extreme and it might play off a single musical theme from the past (as do many Brian songs) but it is not self-referencing.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Hop in honey, sit right by my side
I'm gonna take you on a little ride
A desert drive...out where the cactus grow
A desert drive...hey don't you wanna go
Gotta get crankin' now, goin' on a desert drive

Throw on your sneakers, T-shirt and jeans
Better take your shades in case the rays get mean
A desert drive...we're gonna have some fun
A desert drive...out where the coyotes run
Gotta get crankin' now, goin' on a desert drive

It might be post modernist to the extreme and it might play off a single musical theme from the past (as do many Brian songs) but it is not self-referencing.

Didn't say it was.

Forever she'll be my surfer girl
Forever she'll be my surfer girl
So sweet
Now there's all kinds of music
So sweet
And don't you know the truth is
So sweet
You were my special lover

[TonyW]

Hop in honey, sit right by my side
I'm gonna take you on a little ride
A desert drive...out where the cactus grow
A desert drive...hey don't you wanna go
Gotta get crankin' now, goin' on a desert drive

Throw on your sneakers, T-shirt and jeans
Better take your shades in case the rays get mean
A desert drive...we're gonna have some fun
A desert drive...out where the coyotes run
Gotta get crankin' now, goin' on a desert drive

It might be post modernist to the extreme and it might play off a single musical theme from the past (as do many Brian songs) but it is not self-referencing.

Didn't say it was.

Forever she'll be my surfer girl
Forever she'll be my surfer girl
So sweet
Now there's all kinds of music
So sweet
And don't you know the truth is
So sweet
You were my special lover

Then what are you saying?

[TdHabib]

I love the "So Sweet" counterpart in "Forever She'll Be Surfer Girl," beautiful.

[Jonathan Blum]

Then what are you saying?

Why say when you can, y'know, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more?

Oh great, the cat just threw up,
Jon Blum

[the captain]

For me, at least I'm consistent: those kinds of self-referential lyrics are my least favorite part of TLOS. And that song is tied with Southern California as most offensive to me in that regard. (Both beautiful songs, by the way. I'm not knocking them that way.) Whether it's Mike, Al, Brian, Paul McCartney or anyone else, it's just a little gross.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Then what are you saying?

Why say when you can, y'know, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more?

Oh great, the cat just threw up,
Jon Blum

Try Resolve, it works great.

PT Cruiser don't you know you're really lookin' fine
It happened on the beach down at oceanside
Two PT Cruisers running side by side
A little surf woodie there was makin' the scene
She was shooting the cover of a magazine

Fuel injected engine coming off of the line
And when the super charger you can hear her whine
Ah wah wah, wah wah wah wah wah wah


 
 

[Smilin Ed H]

Let's see TLOS is meant to be about BW, isn't it?  Are the lyrics of FSBMSG surprising in that context?

[Amanda Hart]

For me, at least I'm consistent: those kinds of self-referential lyrics are my least favorite part of TLOS. And that song is tied with Southern California as most offensive to me in that regard. (Both beautiful songs, by the way. I'm not knocking them that way.) Whether it's Mike, Al, Brian, Paul McCartney or anyone else, it's just a little gross.

I totally agree, I hate all the self-referencing, without TLOS would be a great album.  I don't like on TLOS, I didn't like it on Summer In Paradise and I don't like it in the Futurama movies either!