I never cared for the Beach Boys' christmas album, but I LOVE Brian's christmas album. I even prefer the new versions of Little St. Nick and The Man With All The Toys over the originals. Brian's album just sounds so much warmer and "fuzzier". His current voice works great on those nostalgic christmas songs.

I agree on "The man with ...." (the new "little st Nick" is cool). TMWATT has some great and interesting changes but it always sounded unfinished on the original album. Much better on "What I really...."

I told our guitarplayer to upload our recording to MySpace because I thought we all would be finished by now. Anyway, he uploaded it yesterday and if you'd like to, you can listen to "Wild honey" on our MySpace-site (click "The Orange Whip" in my signature) and also leave a comment if you are on MySpace....

It rocked hard, which in my book is the most important thing when covering this song.  Interesting instrumentation - do I hear a Jew's harp? Frenetic bongoism as well. Nice transition from the extended solo to the part with the original solo (beginning with the Em chord). However, I would've liked the lead vocal to be an octave higher, or at least have a sloppy doubling (as in "You Need a Mess of Help") an octave higher for a more desperate feel.  Nice work (and definitely more competently performed than my submission)!

Thank you very kindly !
Yes, it is a jew's harp. A girlfriend gave it to me earlier this year and I wantedt to use it....
Well, I don't know if I can sing higher but I know what you mean and also agree that it would probably sound better

Rocker, the curiosity is killing me. Why Johnny Cash?

 
It's just that in my mind I always hear very clearly a American Recordings-version by Cash of this song. Really, I can hear it in my head. Unfortunately he never did record it....

Let the Wind Blow -- winter? I associate it with May/June. Late spring, early summer.

I associate it with Johnny Cash

I like the hanging out in a room and talking and playing the piano, maybe strumming on some guitars. Like the Anthology, or even like the hotel tape (or the campfire sessions). Everyone could make fun of everyone else, tell some stories, and maybe have some closure.

They should do it like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_yoEEN0tBQ&feature=player_embedded#at=70


In fact I think it would be a cool ending if you have a documentary with the guys sitting together in a room, having fun and making music and afterwards you'll see them leaving the room, each heading their own way again. No reunion-concert (although that would be nice), just clips from their individual shows. You know what I mean ?

Here's how they play "Surfin'" nowadays. Thanks to Stegibo for the link:

http://dlf.tv/2009/beach-boys-in-concert/


EDIT:
And this is how Al & David sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECtrhP5sCYw

[EDIT]

Dennis was a raging Hetero from all I've read.

I've read somewhere (Gaines' book?) that Dennis said he had been raped by black guys many times. If I remember correctly, the author was saying that he had reasons to believe that Dennis had not been raped, and that it probably was some kind of fantasy.

EDIT Here's what Gaines says about it (mods, feel free to remove the quote if you think it's not appropriate, but I think it's "fair use")

"Dennis later told friends that he was raped by a black man while in jail that night. He also told friends that he had once stopped to help a stranded motorist and was dragged into an alley by three black men and raped. And on another occasion, he claimed he was raped by a black handyman on his boat, the Harmony. He would also later claim to be raped by a black man in the alley behind his first wife Carol's house in 1982. Obviously, this was a recurring fantasy, and whether or not any of these stories is true remains unknown."

Sounds to me like a running-gag, not like a sexua fantasy

[I believe pronounced sexual suggestion and innuendo in pop music began with the British invasion.]

I believe pronounced sexual suggestion and innuendo in pop music began with the British invasion.And not just the Beatles and Stones, either. The Who, Kinks, Animals, Them, ad nauseum were a lot
more blatant. On our side of the pond Pat Boone and Roy Orbison were still scratching out a living.
The Beach Boys were wholesome enough to be typecast in their careers for years to come, while the
Euro's set the trends.

No offense, but that's ridiculous. What about Long Tall Sally? Or Tutti Frutti? Hell, Rock Around The Clock pre=dates both of those songs. Don't forget Good Golly Miss Molly, who sure liked to ball.

You know, I just had a discussion about that on another forum. Short: Fact is that many people try nowadays to make something sexual out of something that hasn't got anything to do with it. "Good golly miss Molly" "Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire" and stuff, were common expressions in the then popular teenage-slang, meaning "Great"or "Cool". There are just a few examples that really have those sexal conncections and they are mostly not in rock'n'roll-songs but in blues-tunes (which often were then recorded by rock'n'roll-artists). Like the famous "one-eyed-cat peepin' in a sea food store". But the rock'n'roll-songs were written for young people and of course with sales in mind. It was alot more innocent than people try to tell you today. It's because in these times you can't sell anything without having some "f*ck"s in the lyrics or a video full of naked women, just because the product isn't good enough. That's one point. I don't want to get into the other. Anyway, back to rock'n'roll, the sexual thing was in the performances, but it's another question if you'd call it sexual or just sensual (like emotional). I'm very well informed about the music of that periode(s) and that point is something that always bothers me. All in all there's much more whitewashing and missing knowledge and understanding for pre-60s music, which is a big, big shame. (I'm not talking about you, Jay. Just in case it looked lke that)

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,8205.0.html

I always believed that the Beach Boys were a group born to sing Christmas music, what with the quality of their vocals.

I know what you mean. They really were able to sing a variety of styles and these kind of songs lend themselves very good to the early Beach Boys.


BTW for everyone who hasn't seen this, it's Marvin Gaye singing a song, which then goes over into a acapellaversion of "We three kings..." by the Beach Boys. Very good idea, unfortunately the songs are in different keys so it has some bad tones during the transistion. But the Boys' performance is perfect. One asks himself how they could do this so seemingly effortless

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

I was listening to this yesterday and here are some thoughts:

I was reminded, again, of what a great singer Mike was/is. His leads are really moving and his nasal-best. Then if you listen to his part in the harmonies, like in "We three kings..." for example, you'll hear that he has some pretty difficult stuff to sing compared to Brian who takes the leadmelody.

But not only Mike but everyone puts on a great show singing wise. The groupharmonies sound unbelievable full and are probably among the best in the early year. Brian's leads on "Blue christmas" is breathtaking especially when combined with the great arrangement. Same goes for "White christmas". "I'll be home for chrismas" is probably the closest the BBs ever came to the Four Freshmen (did Dick Reynolds also arrange the vocals for side two?).  A definite highlight is the duett of Mike and Brian on "Santa claus is comin' to town", plus the acapella-intro. All this shows the Beach Boys as a great vocal group who was also capable of singing in other styles than rock.

"Christmas day", although just a filler, has a very nice organ solo (who did play the organ?) and I always imagine that this is the sound that was heard in the Wilson's ome during christmas and the family gatherings at that time. It sounds so corny and square but in a good way.
I wonder why there's no Carl or Dennis-lead (except "Auld lange syne").

I also think it's cool that the album is done with one side for the young people who'd like to rock a little and one side in a more traditional way, which probably also found listeners in the non-teenage league back then. So instead of having that "dirty" image above it, like Elvis' first christmas album, this one really was an album for the whole family.

All in all, this record sounds like the Beach Boys' at their early peak (which would stretch to "Pet sounds"), when all still seemed to be fun and exciting. No bad feelings, no on stage fistfights, stoned and half-hearted appearances or stuff like that. Everybody's just happy to make this great music.

Happy christmas !

So, er..... nothing?

Dutchie is correct. And Shleter: I'd advise you "NOT to listen to the Don at this point..." 

But before this topic has turned into a typical Sandbox topic; can we get back to the original question please?

Is there any projects in the works from the beach boys ?
Been a while since Capitol/BRI did put out some great cd's.
Maybe some live cd/dvd ?
Can mr Boyd tell something about this ?

I really hope for something else than the obvous Best-of. A 50th anniversary should call for something like a boxset. But what will it contain? Smile? I really don't think we'll get a Smilebox (or even a Smile-release) in the near future. Maybe the "Surf's up"audio DVD ? That album has something like a cult-factor and probably would doo good among the indie-charts I think....
And I still hope for a double CD-set with the complete Chicago '65 concert and a whole concert from the early 70s. You know, something by the classic group, who were a great liveband imo, (not to forget the important [sales-]factor that Brian Wilson is part of it) and then something that shows them at their live peak. That really would be the greatest thing for me. I don't necessarily need many unreleased songs....

I like teddy bears

Any idea what that tune is?

Check out the comments on youtube....

Looks great !

I think I've read that it's the "Hawthorne"-version of OMR, right? I totally love both versions. Wish Brian and the boys would have finished the concept

I told our guitarplayer to upload our recording to MySpace because I thought we all would be finished by now. Anyway, he uploaded it yesterday and if you'd like to, you can listen to "Wild honey" on our MySpace-site (click "The Orange Whip" in my signature) and also leave a comment if you are on MySpace....

IIRC Bruce did play on the '84 4th of July concert too. There's been more times he could be seen with a guitar but I can't rememebr exactly which occasion I have in mind....

This one?

Yes, thanks so much !!

I posted a video I made of all of the renditions I have of the Beach Boys doing "Their Hearts were Full of Spring" (released and otherwise) and put it on Youtube. Hope you like it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtKpdLGMKQ8

Incidentally, if someone could post this on Beach Boys Britain, that would be nice. I think Bruce would enjoy it.

Nice job!
Where's that picture at 5:21 from? Could you post it please?

So... who was the tall, dark haired guy standing next to Willie while he was singing, singing along, and who nodded encouragingly when Willie looked over at him ? Hence my writing 'coaching' with the quote marks. As in 'moral support'.

Can't speak for you, but I can tell the visual difference between 1995 Brian and 1995 Mike.  

What Mike was doing, to me is more lilke coaching.

To me it was more like making a fool out of oneselve.
But I agree with AGD, that scene is very cool. Especially if you consider yourself not just a BBs but also a Willie-fan. Would love to see Willie's appearance on Farm Aid (?) with Brian in the background

As far as Michael bashing goes, this is relatively light - I've seen people compare him to Adolf Hitler. Now let's see who the foda up ones are.

Where did you see this? I only heard about that comparison in a Bruce-interview. Never really did read or hear about this from another source.

Rick Rubin?

Ah well, I was thinking: Rubin did great things with Cash. Raw, unadulterated.

Although Rubin has to be given credit, it wasn't that drastically different from what Cash did on Sun (with Sam Phillips and Jack Clement) or in parts of his 60s output. It was more or less just let the machines roll and give that guy a guitar. I think most of Rubin's work was to get songs, guest artists and of course having a label to put the records out. Just my opinion. I think Brian already did that kind of record with the IJWMFTT-soundtrack, although there were no new songs of course. Don't know if Rubin would be a good slection for Brian.

Is that Bruce, wow I dont think I would recognize him with the short hair.

Reminds me of David Hasselhof.