The Smiley Smile Message Board

As he couldn't be bothered writing a new song for TWGMTR (just joking Mike fans!) and instead decided to re-record one of his old First Love solo songs, I wonder what made Mike opt for 'Daybreak..'? It's not terrible, but neither is it particuarly good. He's far better tracks in the vaults; Viggie and Glow Crescent Glow for instance are both genuinely great songs. Has their been any insight on why he chose to re-record Daybreak in particular?

It was re-recorded during the sessions for the Mike Love Not War solo album of 2005-ish, not for the new album.

All that was done for the new album was overdubbing the rest of the Boys.

Wow

I believe the approved response is...

"Well, oh my, oh gosh, oh gee".  ;D

I would have prefered Wrinkles...  ;D ;D ;D

That i did not know. So actually Mike genuinely couldn't be bothered then...

 :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh :ahh

Regardless how many may feel about it, Brian seemed to have been really impressed with the tune.  The new "Old Friends together" video they put up last week, shows Brian really happy when he listened to "Daybreak" with Mike for the first time. 

I like the song.

I liked most of the stuff recorded for "Mike Love Not War" and was surprised when the album didn't get released.

It's too bad "Cool Head Warm Heart" got used on the Hallmark CD. It too could have made a nice addition to this album (or the next one). 

Same with "Walkin' Down The Path Of Life". Sounded neat in concert....ended up dying a cruel death, recorded with a shell of the band for a fund raising single. Deserved better. Could have been a nice segue somewhere. Guess it don't matter, BW has material to spare.

If I didn't know "Daybreak" was recorded for something else I would notice no difference between it and the other cuts on the album. They all sound like they belong together.

Looks like he was more impressed but the new chorus (well i guess that chorus was on the 2005 version, but not on the original one i mean) and i agree, it has to be one of my fav part of the album tbh.

The version recorded in 2005-ish is musically identical to the original 1978 version.

I think it's rather a low point on the new album - whatever is making those sounds during the opening section, horrible! Very unpleasant production. But i'm not just choosing to pick on Mike. As i said at the start of the post, he's got some really great songs in the vaults that he could've picked. Wish he'd chosen a stronger cut.

I don't know man, i havn't heard it.

Anyway i was talking about the "Bring back my baby" chorus part, with all the harmonies/voices added.

I don't think it's godawful but I do wish they had just re-recorded it under Brian's supervision.  With outside production, it sounds so awkwardly out of place.

But it could have been worse.  He could have chosen "Brian's Back" instead.  :o

While we're talking unreleased tracks, and while we've got AGD's attention: what are the chances of Rollin' Up To Heaven ever getting an official release? It really is such a fantastic track! Great riff, great singing - far superior to Ding Dang, of which it's clearly a distant relative. I know a lot of the surviving members like to empthasise the squeaky clean fun-in-the-sun image - is this likely to prevent the songs release?

Considering that the song has rather liberal use of the term "big tits", I highly doubt it. I'm not AGD, but I'm sure that he'd say the same.

Brian picked it.

True, although if you didn't know that's what they were singing you probably wouldn't be able to tell... Nor that they were chanting 'F**k her'. What a song though... Pity it's lyrics are always going to overshadow it. To those who've yet to hear it, seek it out!

Interesting....

Ok, I wish Brian had picked a stronger cut.

"Daybreak Over The Ocean" is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It's a tad long, but I like Mike's vocal, the Kokomo-like production, and the excellent ending chorus/tag - one of the highlights of the album for me. Is that Adrian Baker on there? If "Daybreak" had a BW writing credit, the song would be viewed entirely different.

I'm a little confused. I thought I read somewhere that Capitol Records chose the tracks for the album. Of course, that was from an interview with somebody, so take that with a grain of salt.

'If Daybreak had a BW credit it'd be viewed differently'. Not true for me. Spring Vacation, ...Bill & Sue, Shelter and Beaches In Mind all have Brian credits and i don't remotely rate those either. (The rest of the album however is pretty great).

Sounds to me like maybe you just don't like the album in general.

Kind of surprised Daybreak wasn't on Summer In Paradise, fits the theme he was going for on the album and it would have been one of the strongest cuts, especially with Carl on there.

I'm assuming it wasn't because Mike had it in his pocket for his "future solo release?"

YES!

My thoughts exactly. A bit long, but beautiful nonetheless. Those harmonies are killer.

Are Wirestone and I the only ones to be bothered by the sped-up "chipmunk" Mike in one of this song's last choruses? It's just a copy-paste of one of the previous choruses, but the pitch has been digitally altered. AWFUL. The worst part of the album as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not a Mike lover, but I enjoyed his contributions to the other tracks on the album, even the cheesier ones.  it just wouldn't be the BBs without it, to me.  This track, though, I can't get behind.  It does sound particularly bad (it sounds like it was recorded in a so-so way originally and then subjected to the same murky whammy that the rest of the album has detracting from it, so it's a double dose of audio suck) and the song just goes nowhere to me, even though it's not particularly objectionable on the merits, just dull.  For those reasons, I just can't listen to it.

"Spring Vacation" and "Beaches In Mind" are just fun.  Even the parts that sound totally inappropriate work for me for some reason.  So I ain't hatin' on Mike.  I just don't like this song very much.

They recorded some 30 tracks (including stuff like Bruce's remake of SBiLA), and then Brian and Joe submitted around 17 tracks to Capitol. The company then made the final selection. I also think it's safe to say that if BW really wanted something on the album, it would have been included.

I like the song.  Every Beach Boys album has to have at least one Mike Love track.  It sort of slithers at the start but finishes with nicely with sweet harmonies.  

I don't have the vinyl version of this album (yet!) but I would assume it would open side 2?  It sits right in the middle of the album and gives the listener a little break from Brian just as his musical journey draws closer to it's conclusion. It's a downer of a song and Beaches in Mind is its manic partner in crime. But what follows is just beautiful and well worth the winding musical road that lead you there.    

Mike Love Not War is, for me, the SIP that never was. The writing is much stronger, the harmonies fuller, the production more listenable.

Wrinkles was already re-done as "Still Surfin'," from SIP!

Really? Because it sounds to me like I don't like those five songs but I think all the rest of the album is great. So that's more than half the album i think is great. Is that 'not liking something in general'?

I think it's funny how many people haven't heard Mike's solo album. I listened to that all the time when it first "came out".

What's really annoying to me is that Mike's version ends with the accordion holding out for a little while longer and then it hits the last chord one more time... and I'll never get used to the TWGMTR version not ending that way.

I thought someone said it was Christian Love? dont care much for the song as a whole but the end tag is really beautiful.

It's floating about the interwebs. Not hard at all to locate.

The 2005 Too Cruel is great. Dave could have replaced Christian easy.

I like "Daybreak" very much (would love to hear the 70s version !) and I'm happy it got on TWGMTR instead of a new "Brian's back" or something along those lines. But I'd be even happier if they would've recorded it from scratch. Al's new vocal is killer. It takes the song to a whole new level, fantastic.



I agree. After having heard David singing "Getcha back" it's obvious that his and Christian's voices are very similar in style. And that's why I would've opted for a re-recording by the Beach Boys of "Daybreak" as mentioned above. It's nothing against Christian or the original recording (that was used) but I'd rather hear only the Beach Boys, plus Foskett.
The song shows Mike's strong side. I came to the conclusion that it's not Mike's lyrical abilities that made his contributions to the band so important. It's much more his hooks. And this song has a great one.

That said, I still don't know if David sings on the album at all.

Yeah he should have had one lead at least.

I like the song pretty well.  It's got pretty much a whole harmony choir going on it, what with Mike and three other singers, plus the 3 other BBs and Foskett.  The production does clash with the rest of the album, but overall it's pretty nice.  Not one of the better songs on the album, but not one of the weakest ones, either. 

It would have been less lazy to re-use a 70s recording than applying overdubs to a recording that dates back a few years? Weren't some parts of the rest of the album recorded in 1998, anyway?

Also, asjifhasufhsa edut neverind d000d0d0d00d0

I don't think they were actually recorded but demoed in the late 90s

Ah, I wasn't certain. I had thought some had been started in 1998 in terms of recordings.

Still, I don't see Mike bringing an older song/recording on board as lazy, especially if a lot of other songs date back to 1998, recorded or not. Same would've gone for Al's "Waves Of Love", etc.

I think, again like always this is just my impression of it.... I think when they started talking about make an album, one of the things going on was none of them knew if they would get along, so they were looking for ways to make things easy for Brian.  So Mike lets it be known that he's got all kinds of songs in the can, they could just overdub lyrics, etc....

Eventually Brian and co. wrote enough new stuff to make almost everything original, but for one reason or another Brian either liked "Daybreak" a lot, or liked the idea of releasing a song Mike had already pretty much finished, so Mike would have more stuff on the album. 

i'm not an expert on unreleased Love songs, but I'm sure he would have wrote some more stuff if asked, and I'm sure he has better unreleased stuff.  Maybe it was on the first draft of the album back when they only had three or four songs recorded, and for whatever reason just hung around because Brian likes the "Bring Back.... Bring Back, my BABBBYYYY" part which is very Brianlike even though he had nothing to do with it.