Lowest point in the BB career?

[the captain]

Honestly, I don't think "Kokomo" sounds like classic BB recordings at all. No falsetto. No thick harmonies. No orchestral (or even Chuck Berry-style) backup. And Mike never sounded that creepy in any 60s hit.

Mike, don't f*** with the formula...

[Aegir]

Yeah, people don't realize that, though. It's got Mike Love singing on his own and then the whole group singing at once, and they're singing about the beach. There's a guitar solo. There's an accordion. Blam.

[Sheriff John Stone]

I've always been under the impression that the main reason the fans hated "Kokomo" was because it stole the thunder of Brian's first solo album.

I think that was true for a very short period of time. But Brian disappeared shortly thereafter, as did his album, and the resentment became ancient history in a hurry.

[Pretty Funky]

Kokomo was a hit for one reason. Cocktail!

It has nothing to do with it being any better or worse than any other Beach Boys song of the eighties.

It has everything to do with marketing of a Tom Cruise movie.

[the captain]

Kokomo was a hit for one reason. Cocktail!

It has nothing to do with it being any better or worse than any other Beach Boys song of the eighties.

It has everything to do with marketing of a Tom Cruise movie.

Reason already suggested ... and refuted.

Then why didn't Wild Again by Starship also become a big hit?

[Wilsonista]

I would argue "Kokomo" ended the Beach Boys, because it ruined Mike Love as a writer.

What I mean to say is, Mike was writing craptastic material before that, but he also came up with occasionally interesting -- well, passable -- stuff..."Rock And Roll To The Rescue" was proof that the Mike/Melcher team didn't have to blow chunks.  Then "Kokomo" goes to #1, Mike finally has his validation, and what does he do next?  An entire album of "Kokomo Part II, III," etc.  Everything Mike did after that reeked of trying to recapture lightning -- he wasn't even subtle about it.  And that's why SUMMER IN PARADISE and STILL CRUISIN' to a lesser extent are so awful.  It's not just that Mike was trying to be commercial -- he was also being cynical or worse, didn't know any better.  And people can smell that.  They don't buy it.

The proof to me is that the follow up to the Beach Boys' biggest single ever only went to #93 on the charts.  Do you realize how bad a song has to suck to not chart higher than that following a #1?  And that even though the Beach Boys charted regularly throughout the '80s, they never charted again after that.  So yeah, "Kokomo" was a low point.  Mike lucked into a #1 single and then spent the rest of their brief recording career trying to repeat the formula in the most clueless and obvious way possible.

Adam, thank you for that post. I agree 110%!

I will also add that some on this board, in an attempt to take the heat off of Mike (I'm looking at you SJS!!!) crticize Carl and Al for "not stepping up to the plate" during SIP. I think it is possible that someone like Carl noticed exactly what Adam points out in his post and thinks "the stuff I'm doing is good and something to be proud of, but it's not going to get a fair hearing from Mike, especially after 'Kokomo'".  Carl was following his own muse that had nothing to do with Mike's Kokomo-fueled vision of the BB.
 

[Jonathan Blum]

They clap more for "409" and "Barbara Ann" than "Here Today".  Always have, always will.

No reason to single out "Kokomo" for that...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Pretty Funky]

Kokomo was a hit for one reason. Cocktail!

It has nothing to do with it being any better or worse than any other Beach Boys song of the eighties.

It has everything to do with marketing of a Tom Cruise movie.

Reason already suggested ... and refuted.

Then why didn't Wild Again by Starship also become a big hit?

Think of a soundtrack album being the same as a album by a single artist. A few tracks will stand out as having  single potential and will be promoted as such I guess. Having Stamos onboard for the music video was also a stroke of genius by the marketing people. Although I have not watched the video for awhile, I seem to remember him getting more screentime than other long time backing band members.

[MBE]

Just imagine that Brian did write/record "Kokomo" for a second, and it went to No. 1. He/we would be ecstatic because he had a hit, even a single that charted! Fans would be saying, "See, Brian still has it. He could knock out these kinds of songs easily if he wanted to." Yeah, not only could he, he did. It's called "South American". But, "South American" never had a chance, because of what it DIDN'T have - Mike Love and Carl Wilson singing. But, I've been beating that dead horse into the ground...

I'm more inclined to think that "Soul Searchin'," as it was recorded in 1996, was the latter-day Brian Wilson masterpiece that both featured the Beach Boys and had hit single wirtten all over it. If only IT was placed in a hot summer movie with breezy P.R. that didn't come off as fake, it would have been huge.

Yes that should have been a single circa 1995. Best Beach Boys song in many years.

[MBE]

They clap more for "409" and "Barbara Ann" than "Here Today".  Always have, always will.

No reason to single out "Kokomo" for that...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

That's true but I feel those songs deserve to be remembered.

[TonyW]

The reason I dislike Kokomo (except for when Carl's vocal kicks in) is because it epitomises what had become so bad about the Beach Boys in the post Holland period. I'll call it the "Do It Again Syndrome" - The success of Do It Again in '68 showed that it was posiible to apply nostalgia and to milk the formula. Starting with It's OK on 15 Big Ones there was an unrelenting string of "Do It Again Syndrome" songs epitomised by Kona Coast, Keepin The Summer Alive and California Calling - and then the "Do It Again Syndrome" came to an ugly head with Kokomo. What made it worse was that what had become an albatross around the groups artistic neck became a bloody commercial hit! AAARRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

When I want to hear a song from that period were I can sit back and enjoy the listen then I put on Somewhere Near Japan, the last quality Beach Boys recording which was released.

[KokoMoses]

Good heavens, if this is a response to my post, I thought my whole point was that Mike's writing didn't become completely worthless until AFTER "Kokomo."   God knows I'm not a Mike fan but my point being after he had a #1 hit the desire to repeat the achievement poisoned everything he wrote from that moment onward.
[/quote]


Simple misunderstanding. I just disagree on point. I don't think it's worth slamming Mike/Brian/Carl/Al/Bruce (Dennis gets a pass because he never wrote anything bad) at all really for anything post 1976. They'd already given us more great stuff for a longer period of time that pretty much anyone else. Life is complicated and these guys are proof if there ever was any. So what if they did some silly stuff as middle-aged guys in the 80s!

Let them live in peace.

[adamghost]

Good heavens, if this is a response to my post, I thought my whole point was that Mike's writing didn't become completely worthless until AFTER "Kokomo."   God knows I'm not a Mike fan but my point being after he had a #1 hit the desire to repeat the achievement poisoned everything he wrote from that moment onward.

Simple misunderstanding. I just disagree on point. I don't think it's worth slamming Mike/Brian/Carl/Al/Bruce (Dennis gets a pass because he never wrote anything bad) at all really for anything post 1976. They'd already given us more great stuff for a longer period of time that pretty much anyone else. Life is complicated and these guys are proof if there ever was any. So what if they did some silly stuff as middle-aged guys in the 80s!

Let them live in peace.
[/quote]

Eh.  I get your point, but disagree.  It's not like they hung it up and just stuck to touring oldies (like they did in the '90s).  They had pretentions to staying relevant and continuing to make records.  Mike is particularly egregious in that he was trying very hard to be commercial, but was so inept at it that he wound up alienating a lot of fans.  He only pulled off a hit once or twice..."Almost Summer," "It's OK," and "Kokomo."  It doesn't really make up for "Kona Coast," "Summer In Paradise," etc.

Mike also comes in for bashing because he's one of those people that has a big ego but is essentially clueless.  True, I don't know the guy, but you can make a solid inference based on his public statements vs. his artistic output.  If he had the commercial sensibility he really thinks he has (at least post 1966), or conversely he was more honest with himself about the extent of his talents and composed accordingly, then we wouldn't be having this conversation...and Mike wouldn't have written the SUMMER IN PARADISE album.

Believe me, I understand better than most people the kinds of compromises working musicians -- even famous ones -- have to make to put food on the table.  And I have some sympathy for him in that being in a band with the Wilson Brothers had to be a vexing proposition in the '70s and early '80s. That said  in my opinion, Mike made a lot of decisions based on short-term monetary considerations that limited his options in the long term, and that he didn't really have to make.  But he had to live with those decisions, not me, so that's fine.  I just had to sit through the musical results, sadly.

[KokoMoses]

Good points and I can't argue with any of it. Maybe I feel a tad differently because I happen to love (well, not LOVE, but strongly like) MIU, LA Light Album, 15 Big Ones, Kokomo, therefore the relentless bashing anything post Love You, tends to offend. Simple matter of taste. There has always been a certain goofiness about the Beach Boys in general. And it only got more pronounced as time went on. Dennis really was the only one able to be hip and cool effortlessly. Maybe this is why nothing "bad" they've ever done has really offended me.

[phirnis]

I have to say I don't have the slightest problem with recordings like It's OK (which I happen to like very much) or Kokomo as such. To me, much more of a problem is how they were surrounded by poor artistic decisions, which were just so typical about The Beach Boys. Imagine It's OK being the successfull lead single off an album just as good as Holland, released in the wake of Endless Summer. Just about the same scenario can be applied to Kokomo: What about BW88 being recorded with full Beach Boys participation and Kokomo being on there instead of Night Time? Now that would have been one hell of a comeback.

That said, as it turned out in reality it always seems like Mike Love threw lots of sh*t against the wall until some of it eventually stuck. Mind you, some of that material still is quite enjoyable to my ears, yet I wish there was more of an artistic balance there (like in 1968, where they had Do It Again and the Friends album released almost simultaneously).

[Swamp Pirate]

I would argue "Kokomo" ended the Beach Boys, because it ruined Mike Love as a writer.

What I mean to say is, Mike was writing craptastic material before that, but he also came up with occasionally interesting -- well, passable -- stuff..."Rock And Roll To The Rescue" was proof that the Mike/Melcher team didn't have to blow chunks.  Then "Kokomo" goes to #1, Mike finally has his validation, and what does he do next?  An entire album of "Kokomo Part II, III," etc.  Everything Mike did after that reeked of trying to recapture lightning -- he wasn't even subtle about it.  And that's why SUMMER IN PARADISE and STILL CRUISIN' to a lesser extent are so awful.  It's not just that Mike was trying to be commercial -- he was also being cynical or worse, didn't know any better.  And people can smell that.  They don't buy it.

The proof to me is that the follow up to the Beach Boys' biggest single ever only went to #93 on the charts.  Do you realize how bad a song has to suck to not chart higher than that following a #1?  And that even though the Beach Boys charted regularly throughout the '80s, they never charted again after that.  So yeah, "Kokomo" was a low point.  Mike lucked into a #1 single and then spent the rest of their brief recording career trying to repeat the formula in the most clueless and obvious way possible.

I completely agree.  I was working in New Hampshire the summer Still Crusin' came out and there was anticipation about the BB's next single after Kokomo.  It came on the radio to great fanfare and afterwards I thought "that was it?"  Here's the galling part, after scoring a #1 single the best the Beach Boys could do was offer a record that was half new songs and the rest the repackaging of their classic hits.  What the hell? 

I wouldn't go so far to say that it's a low point, but Still Crusin' to me was a collossal let down.  It was like they threw a few songs together, packaged with a few classics, and just put it out just to say they had a new record out.  Total missed opportunity.

[KokoMoses]

Still Crusing the song is not all THAT bad! It's catchy and silly and not very endearing, but not all that bad. Still Cruising the album was a horrid decision that I will in no way defend. I don't mean to sound like an apologist in my posts. See, I just don't think they had it in them at this point. Honestly. But I also don't think it's something to be frowned upon so ferociously. Let it go. They've given us enough.

[Swamp Pirate]

No, the song itself wasn't Summer of Love cringeworthy bad.  But Still Crusin' was Kokomo with cars.

[KokoMoses]

OMG, now why'd you have to go and reming me of THAT song?

Do yourself a favor and look that video up on youtube

I swear Mike actually thinks those girls are into him.

[carl r]

wasn't it despite Kokomo/Summer of Love/Still Cruisin' that the Beach Boys have somehow gained new fans? Via the GV boxset, a few of the tunes on BW'88, namechecking of Pet Sounds,  or an old vinyl copy of Carl and the Passions So Tough picked up from a yard sale or old record shop? Thats how it seems from the UK anyway

[KokoMoses]

I'd say it 's a combination of both. Speaking for myself, I was raised in Hawthorne, so the Beach Boys were mythic, but it didn't mean I cared about them at all. Then I saw Summer Dreams on TV and was fascinated. Then Kokomo, then (gasp) Full House! Then I got the Made In USA compilation and was blown away by the Pet Sounds stuff. Keep in mind that PS was still out of print at this point, so all this cheeseball-ness actually did lead me directly to Pet Sounds.

On Kokomo; has anyone ever considered the possibity that so many people despise the song simply BECAUSE it's associated with Cocktail ?

[PongHit]

Newest low-point: the artwork for Brian's new album -- especially the text.  What were they thinking?!

[Wilsonista]

OMG, now why'd you have to go and reming me of THAT song?

Do yourself a favor and look that video up on youtube

I swear Mike actually thinks those girls are into him.

Hey Mike actually married one of those girls. ;o)

I have this funny memory of being 16 and watching TV with a buddy of mine and saw the video for Still Cruisin' on Much Music. His mom when she saw Mike leering at the BB cheerleaders went, "oh that is just GROSS!!!!!" 

[brianc]

Much as I think "Summer in Paradise," the album, is hokey and dull, I'm of the opinion that it, along with "Still Cruisin'," should have been paired for the Capitol two-fer series. And I agree with the person who posted earlier... part of the charm of the Beach Boys is the crudeness and idiocy that is applied to some of their dumb All-American music. In the early '60s, it was brash and teenage, from about 1978 on, it's been tepid nostalgia. But even at that, I get a kick out of it. It's not like following the Smiths or something. The cheese factor is kind of what keeps it interesting. Knowing that there was a real suffering artist, capable of writing the way Brian did, in the midst of something as pop, kitsch and locally-derived as the Beach Boys... it makes it this amazing experience... sort of an underground train, whereby the "serious" rock cognoscenti will NEVER take the Beach Boys that serious, but that if you care to get into it, you discover all of these amazing people like Jack Rieley, Steve Kalinich and Van Dyke Parks.

Like that Ken Burns ten-part documentary on baseball... watching the Beach Boys saga unfold is sort of like watching America through the years.

As for the song Summer in Paradise, I know that Mike Love and the Beach Boys backed Reagan and Bush, but remember, so did Neil Young and lots of '60s icons. I shudder at the thought of "I'm pickin' up Bush vibrations," but at the same time, I think Mike genuinely means what he said on Summer in Paradise, and the environment is still an issue that hardcore conservatives refuse to recognize as a problem. So, you know, whatever... Mike Love is a dufus... but who gives a crap? He's like Johnny Ramone. He's just a part of that world. Without Mike, things would have been a whole lot less interesting.

[carl r]

I haven't heard the album Summer in Paradise, life's too short. The videos for Summer of Love and Still Cruisin' are a scream, in hindsight - as the smiths said, I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible.  Mike Love may actually be gay.