Unintentional eeriness in Beach Boys songs

[Waspinators]

Are there any BB tunes that are, for whatever reason, very eerie sounding to you? There are a few scattered tracks that I feel have an inexplicably bizarre vibe to them:

-Chapel of Love (15 Big Ones) - this has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and yet I've always found it so strange. Such an innocent song from the time where the Boys were just starting out sung by a man who's spent the last couple years destroying himself. I can almost hear Brian's forced smile as he hammers this one out in a smoky, wood panelled mid-'70s studio.

-Shortenin' Bread (Light Album) - everyone knows how obsessed Brian was with this tune, but the released version is odd in its own way. It's a rocking track, but something about it feels so weird. I like to imagine a movie scene where a group of kids explore an abandoned/haunted house at night and this song suddenly plays really loudly from a distant room, scaring the living crap out of them.

-County Fair (Surfin' Safari) - hearing this track you can picture the classic American fair: the Ferris wheel, the corny games, kids smoking 30 cent packs of cigarettes in their giant metal cars. Sometimes I imagine this lovely fair ending on a horrible note, with Mike eyeing the big strong man who took his date for the rest of the night, disappearing to his beat-up car for a while, and coming at the burly guy from behind with a knife. Eek, so much for next year's county fair.

[ontor pertawst]

County Fair is definitely a bit eerie. It kind of reminds of The Residents' "Bad Day on the Midway" with a bit of "Freak Show."

[EgoHanger1966]

The majority of the Beach Boys catalog is eerie if you're listening with altered ears.
That's one of the (many) reasons I love them.

[Sheriff John Stone]

A couple that come to mind:

- "Moon Dawg"
- "Amusement Parks U.S.A." (the organ part)
- "Fall Breaks And Back To Winter"
- "She's Goin' Bald"
- "The Water Chant" part of "Dada" - or maybe that IS intentional
- "A note or two of "Our Prayer"
- "Remember (Walking In The Sand)"

[Bicyclerider]

Also I Went to Sleep
Be With Me
Vegetables (Smiley version)
All I Wanna Do
day in Life of a Tree
Cabinessence
Do You Like Worms
You're Welcome

[SamMcK]

Many many songs recorded on SMiLE, Wild Honey, Smiley Smile, Friends and Surfs Up.

[halblaineisgood]

Don't Back Down and Drive-In, on the original All Summer Long LP. They sound pretty eerie to me.

[Waspinators]

- "The Water Chant" part of "Dada" - or maybe that IS intentional

I remember hearing this on Sunflower after eating a certain treat for the first time, freaked me the hell out.

Also Lana, The Lonely Sea and Farmer's Daughter are pretty eerie.

[carolinablonde]

All Alone, especially the opening lyrics, where Dennis almost slurs his words - "If I could life my life again."

[SMiLE Brian]

In my room- Brian predicts his future.

[rab2591]

- "Amusement Parks U.S.A." (the organ part)

I really dislike the album version of this song - but that backing track is one of my favorites from The Beach Boys....only for the organ haha

[Jim V.]

-Chapel of Love (15 Big Ones) - this has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and yet I've always found it so strange. Such an innocent song from the time where the Boys were just starting out sung by a man who's spent the last couple years destroying himself. I can almost hear Brian's forced smile as he hammers this one out in a smoky, wood panelled mid-'70s studio.

I can see where you're coming from with that, but Brian sounds honestly happy to me on this cut. Sounds like he's having a great time. Not in the best of voice, and I couldn't stand the song for a while, but now the whole great vibe of it is contagious to me.

- "The Water Chant" part of "Dada" - or maybe that IS intentional

I remember hearing this on Sunflower after eating a certain treat for the first time, freaked me the hell out.

Also Lana, The Lonely Sea and Farmer's Daughter are pretty eerie.

"Farmer's Daughter"? Really? I don't hear that....it sounds just like a cute song about a guy who worked on a farm. And I feel like "Back Home" is kind of a nice companion to it.

[lee]

Wind Chimes from Smiley.

[Sheriff John Stone]

-Chapel of Love (15 Big Ones) - this has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and yet I've always found it so strange. Such an innocent song from the time where the Boys were just starting out sung by a man who's spent the last couple years destroying himself. I can almost hear Brian's forced smile as he hammers this one out in a smoky, wood panelled mid-'70s studio.

I can see where you're coming from with that, but Brian sounds honestly happy to me on this cut. Sounds like he's having a great time. Not in the best of voice, and I couldn't stand the song for a while, but now the whole great vibe of it is contagious to me.

There is a song/part on 15 Big Ones that isn't eerie per se, but it does jar you a bit if you're not prepared for it, and that's Brian's "Come on, come on and answer the phone, come on, come on..." part on "Had To Phone Ya". Overall, I like the song (the backing track is brilliant), but that LOUD, in-your-face Brian vocal detracts a lot from it.

I always liked "Chapel Of Love". It has that honest, emotional feel which is the trademark of 15 Big Ones for me. That was Brian in 1976, warts and all, and I really felt he was trying, trying to give a good effort on his vocals. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about the condition of his vocal cords at that time...

[Waspinators]

I always liked "Chapel Of Love". It has that honest, emotional feel which is the trademark of 15 Big Ones for me. That was Brian in 1976, warts and all, and I really felt he was trying, trying to give a good effort on his vocals. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about the condition of his vocal cords at that time...

Agreed. That's one of my favorite cuts on that record, and I'm totally with you on the honest/emotional feel of the album. Forget what anyone says, 15 Big Ones is underrated and an important (if a bit dark) chapter in their history.

[mathen_]

Amusement Parks U.S.A. is a underrated pre-psychedelic song. You just need to imagine the backing track with some colorful-distorted circus clowns and some flyin' rollercooster and the magic is all done.

But the most eerie thing in the BB song catalogue for me is not really the song, but this version of "good vibrations" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydj86dfm-zA

[jeffcdo]

Have you ever gone underwater and looked up at the sunlight beaming down through the rippling surface?  When I hear this (the first 50 seconds) I always think of Dennis drowning, hearing echoes of his life and watching the dappled sunlight fade to black...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-loq9sSp_Po

[18thofMay]

Have you ever gone underwater and looked up at the sunlight beaming down through the rippling surface?  When I hear this (the first 50 seconds) I always think of Dennis drowning, hearing echoes of his life and watching the dappled sunlight fade to black...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-loq9sSp_Po

That snippet has an intentioanl eeriness!

[The Heartical Don]

I always liked "Chapel Of Love". It has that honest, emotional feel which is the trademark of 15 Big Ones for me. That was Brian in 1976, warts and all, and I really felt he was trying, trying to give a good effort on his vocals. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about the condition of his vocal cords at that time...

Agreed. That's one of my favorite cuts on that record, and I'm totally with you on the honest/emotional feel of the album. Forget what anyone says, 15 Big Ones is underrated and an important (if a bit dark) chapter in their history.

Totally agree. And in 'Chapel Of Love', for me, there's this phenomenon: the synth lines are lagging, and not a little bit. It is so intentional... and it doesn't create any 'faulty' impression. It lends the song mystery, because the simple 4/4 beat is a bit deconstructed this way, and any automatism is avoided thus.

[Mr. Cohen]

I find "Rock and Roll Music" eerie, just because it's interesting to imagine what kind of mindset you'd have to be to create a song like that.  Seriously, no one else in the world could've come with such a bizzaro interpretation. That crashing cymbal at the start of the chorus, the absolutely manic horns/electric guitar in the chorus, the mad scientist synth, the "rock, roll, rockin' 'n' roll" vocals... what an insane sound!

[Aegir]

all these people pointing out various things from 15 Big Ones that they find "eerie"... those are the awesome/fun/cool things about those songs, in my opinion. not creepy, just funny!

[hypehat]

all these people pointing out various things from 15 Big Ones that they find "eerie"... those are the awesome/fun/cool things about those songs, in my opinion. not creepy, just funny!

Totally, I really enjoy the slapdash nature of the record. I do wonder whether I would actually enjoy it more if the songs were the same, but it wasn't quite so hurried. Probably not.

I guess maybe people are seeing it as direct evidence of Brian's mental freefall at the time, which doesn't quite hold up - I mean, Carl essentially produced/mixed the master.

[BergenWhitesMoustache]

End of my solution, where Brian laughs...play it!

The whole thing is meant to be creepy, obviously, but thats the creepiest bit of the entire song for me, and it's unintentional!

[The Heartical Don]

I find "Rock and Roll Music" eerie, just because it's interesting to imagine what kind of mindset you'd have to be to create a song like that.  Seriously, no one else in the world could've come with such a bizzaro interpretation. That crashing cymbal at the start of the chorus, the absolutely manic horns/electric guitar in the chorus, the mad scientist synth, the "rock, roll, rockin' 'n' roll" vocals... what an insane sound!

Agree. It is entirely rockabilly-free, so to speak. Extruded product from some de-rockalizer machine. An old swinging chune turned redone as a clumsy, pretty leaden thing... but it works! No one else could have succeeded in such an enterprise... only our Boys.

BTW, IMHO this, more than any other track from 15BO, points forward to Love You.

[Kirk]

I've always found "Concert Tonight" inscrutably weird. Maybe his weirdest melody since "My Solution."

I have to say when I was a kid "Johnny Carson" creeped me out, except for the outro, which was fun.