W i l d H o n e y

[bossaroo]

how any Beach Boy fan cannot LOVE "A Thing Or Two" is beyond me. it's whiteboy R&B at its finest, and so damn funky for the Boys at that time. that bassline is the flipping shiz!!!


anything can be psychedelic when you're high maaaaaan, and it WAS 1967 after all.
the album certainly has some psychedelic influence. The title track's theremin and organ solo are trippy as f*ck.
Country Air and Let The Wind Blow have what could be called a psychedelic element.

but mostly, this is the Beach Boys getting back to the garage and their roots. Stripping things down, playing sounds they dig, and sounding like they're having a hell of a lot of fun doing it. Being a "group" again. Guitars, organs, and heaps of Wilson soul.

It's the premiere of Carl 'Mad Dog' Wilson's "scream, bark, and growl" vocal stylings. who knew he could belt it out like THAT?!!! sure, he's straining at times... but what a killer performance overall. The album is kind of like 'Carl & The Passions, vol. 1'. There weren't too many white dudes singing like this at the time, and how many had the balls to cover something like "I Was Made To Love Her"??!!! I guarantee you that NOBODY was expecting the freakin' BEACH BOYS to pull it off.

"I'd Love Just Once To See You" is the first in a number of Brian tunes that are just so quirky and so BRIAN. Totally un-self conscious and uncommercial, but catchy and funny (like Busy Doin Nothin, Games Two Can Play, I Went To Sleep, etc). These songs also reveal Brian's increasing tendency to withdraw and stay at home, but the fact that he stopped caring so much about writing hits and just wrote whatever the hell he felt like shows real growth and freedom as an artist. There's a cozy contentment in those tunes.

I am crazy about this album... especially Aren't You Glad, A Thing or Two, ILJOTSY, and Here Comes The Night.

I agree that Can't Wait Too Long would have made a much better album closer. Mama Says should have been on Smiley Smile (or SMiLE) where it belonged... as part of Vegetables.

[oldsurferdude]

And Wild Honey charted higher than Smiley Smile.

Back in the, um, day, uh, Wild Honey, the single, survived airplay for about 3 weeks. Darlin, on the other hand, lived a more fruitful life on the airwaves. It was encouraging to see them "back".

[Peter Reum]

Wild Honey is my all time all place BB lp. I can listen to it in all moods and circumstances. There are just so many Brian/Mike tunes that exceed the norm, even for The Beach Boys. Every band should have one album where the just wail like the BBs do on this Album....another album with subtleties that you don`t hear until you deconstruct them.

[ghost]

It's the premiere of Carl 'Mad Dog' Wilson's "scream, bark, and growl" vocal stylings. who knew he could belt it out like THAT?!!! sure, he's straining at times... but what a killer performance overall. The album is kind of like 'Carl & The Passions, vol. 1'. There weren't too many white dudes singing like this at the time, and how many had the balls to cover something like "I Was Made To Love Her"??!!! I guarantee you that NOBODY was expecting the freakin' BEACH BOYS to pull it off.

Yeahh!!!

I prefer their version. Especially since it's practically impossible to hear Stevie's version in mono anymore... who wants to hear that piece of sh*t stereo mix at ANY time? Give me the psychedelic Beach Boys version any day.

[Paulos]

how any Beach Boy fan cannot LOVE "A Thing Or Two" is beyond me. it's whiteboy R&B at its finest, and so damn funky for the Boys at that time. that bassline is the flipping shiz!!!


anything can be psychedelic when you're high maaaaaan, and it WAS 1967 after all.
the album certainly has some psychedelic influence. The title track's theremin and organ solo are trippy as f*ck.
Country Air and Let The Wind Blow have what could be called a psychedelic element.

but mostly, this is the Beach Boys getting back to the garage and their roots. Stripping things down, playing sounds they dig, and sounding like they're having a hell of a lot of fun doing it. Being a "group" again. Guitars, organs, and heaps of Wilson soul.

It's the premiere of Carl 'Mad Dog' Wilson's "scream, bark, and growl" vocal stylings. who knew he could belt it out like THAT?!!! sure, he's straining at times... but what a killer performance overall. The album is kind of like 'Carl & The Passions, vol. 1'. There weren't too many white dudes singing like this at the time, and how many had the balls to cover something like "I Was Made To Love Her"??!!! I guarantee you that NOBODY was expecting the freakin' BEACH BOYS to pull it off.

"I'd Love Just Once To See You" is the first in a number of Brian tunes that are just so quirky and so BRIAN. Totally un-self conscious and uncommercial, but catchy and funny (like Busy Doin Nothin, Games Two Can Play, I Went To Sleep, etc). These songs also reveal Brian's increasing tendency to withdraw and stay at home, but the fact that he stopped caring so much about writing hits and just wrote whatever the hell he felt like shows real growth and freedom as an artist. There's a cozy contentment in those tunes.

I am crazy about this album... especially Aren't You Glad, A Thing or Two, ILJOTSY, and Here Comes The Night.

I agree that Can't Wait Too Long would have made a much better album closer. Mama Says should have been on Smiley Smile (or SMiLE) where it belonged... as part of Vegetables.

I just can't get into it dude, I have tried and tried but the album, and the highlighted song in particular, just annoy me. Also, what I am going to term the 'all pervading, clanging kinda-out-of-tune piano sound' really gets to me! I'm not trying to be different or controversial here, this is just my opinion.

[MBE]

Wild Honey is my all time all place BB lp. I can listen to it in all moods and circumstances. There are just so many Brian/Mike tunes that exceed the norm, even for The Beach Boys. Every band should have one album where the just wail like the BBs do on this Album....another album with subtleties that you don`t hear until you deconstruct them.

Wow Peter that really was spot on!

[Micha]

Surf's Up has such abominations as Student Demonstration Time and Lookin' At Tomorrow

Just so it happens those are my favorite tunes on that album along with A Day In The Life Of A Tree...

Back to WH: The start of How She Boogalooed It sounds weird, like the tape started slow during mixdown. Anyone know anything about that?

And a grand piano would have been better for the overall sound, IMHO too.

[homeontherange]

Surf's Up has such abominations as Student Demonstration Time and Lookin' At Tomorrow

Just so it happens those are my favorite tunes on that album along with A Day In The Life Of A Tree...

Back to WH: The start of How She Boogalooed It sounds weird, like the tape started slow during mixdown. Anyone know anything about that?

And a grand piano would have been better for the overall sound, IMHO too.

You... like... Student Demonstration Time? 

[Micha]

Surf's Up has such abominations as Student Demonstration Time and Lookin' At Tomorrow

Just so it happens those are my favorite tunes on that album along with A Day In The Life Of A Tree...

Back to WH: The start of How She Boogalooed It sounds weird, like the tape started slow during mixdown. Anyone know anything about that?

And a grand piano would have been better for the overall sound, IMHO too.

You... like... Student Demonstration Time? 

Well... let's say I dislike it less than the rest of the album. After the schmaltzy Disney Girls it sounds pleasantly edgy. I know a lot of people hate it, but maybe you can teach me why I should dislike it?

[MBE]

I like Sdt too. The lyrics are bad, but Mike sings them with a lot of real fire. Add Dennis' hardest playing ever, and for me it's fine as it was of its era.

[puni puni]

I might like Wild Honey better if it were in stereo

[Mike's Beard]

Question: does anyone know what in the world is going on in the first four bars of the organ solo on the title track? How was this sound achieved? It sounds as if the organ is threatening to self destruct itself by implosion. Then Bruce just casually knocks off the best solo of his life.

Wild Honey is glorious.

Oh, that's just Bruce blowing your mind sky high. Rumor has it he had a J dangling from his lips while playing that trippy little number.

Bruce didn't take drugs. This has been firmly established.

I like Sdt too. The lyrics are bad, but Mike sings them with a lot of real fire. Add Dennis' hardest playing ever, and for me it's fine as it was of its era.

To Hell with the lyrics, STD rocks!

[The Heartical Don]

I might like Wild Honey better if it were in stereo

...agree. WH is, to put it mildly, under-produced. It is in poor mono and the sound is out of balance all the way through. Mono in itself can be awesome, think old Motown; pure, punchy pop. But WH doesn't come near that by a couple of lightyears. In WH's title track, it is as if Carl and that, um, geriatric organ are striving way too hard to claim the forefront, without really succeeding. The bongos sound even more out of breath, and telephoned from Mars or something like that.

But there's fine material on it. All in all, a missed opportunity.

[ghost]

I just can't get into it dude, I have tried and tried but the album, and the highlighted song in particular, just annoy me. Also, what I am going to term the 'all pervading, clanging kinda-out-of-tune piano sound'really gets to me! I'm not trying to be different or controversial here, this is just my opinion.

The piano MAKES the album, man!!!

And what is with all the hate on Carl? Doesn't anyone hear these songs and feel joy? Why do we have to put everything down? Oh Carl's vocal on Wild Honey, totally strained. What a loser. What was he, 15? Trying to outdo those black guys? Yeah right. Carl you chubby little bastard, should've stayed home that day.

[puni puni]

I just can't get into it dude, I have tried and tried but the album, and the highlighted song in particular, just annoy me. Also, what I am going to term the 'all pervading, clanging kinda-out-of-tune piano sound' really gets to me! I'm not trying to be different or controversial here, this is just my opinion.

I'd like to know how to get the Smile/Wild Honey sound on a piano. It's pretty much the best instrument the Boy Beaches have second to their own voices.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I guarantee you that NOBODY was expecting the freakin' BEACH BOYS to pull it off.

Umm....he is no longer with us.

[ghost]

The Little Girl I Once Knew about 1:35mins in - foreshadowing Darlin a few years later. Dig it? When the song gets REALLY cool - it peaks into Wild Honey psychedelia. Dig? Jon, you out there?

[aerolls]

It's the premiere of Carl 'Mad Dog' Wilson's "scream, bark, and growl" vocal stylings. who knew he could belt it out like THAT?!!! sure, he's straining at times... but what a killer performance overall. [...]how many had the balls to cover something like "I Was Made To Love Her"??!!! I guarantee you that NOBODY was expecting the freakin' BEACH BOYS to pull it off.

I so agree. Although, I have to say love the extended version from Rarities with the extra harmony acapella, a Lil something extra for an extraordinary cover such as this one!

[ghost]

Brian Wilson said he was going for the white spiritual sound. By the way, have you noticed how we all strangely refer to him like this many times? We all know who "Brian" usually stands for round here yet continue to say Wilson. Anyway - Brian wanted to start a race war after hearing Helter Skelter so he released I Wasn't Made To Love Her to show the blacks who's best.

[drbeachboy]

ghost. you are a little off your rocker, but you are one funny motherfucker!

[Shady]

I was watching High Fidelity last night, great Movie with John Cusack and Jack Black..

In one scene the Wild Honey album cover makes an appearance, along with Endless Summer I think..

Nice to see Wild Honey getting some love in a major movie 

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Brian Wilson said he was going for the white spiritual sound. By the way, have you noticed how we all strangely refer to him like this many times? We all know who "Brian" usually stands for round here yet continue to say Wilson. Anyway - Brian wanted to start a race war after hearing Helter Skelter so he released I Wasn't Made To Love Her to show the blacks who's best.

Nice theory, but I believe that I Wasn't Made to Love Her came out before Helter Skelter.

[ghost]

Brian Wilson said he was going for the white spiritual sound. By the way, have you noticed how we all strangely refer to him like this many times? We all know who "Brian" usually stands for round here yet continue to say Wilson. Anyway - Brian wanted to start a race war after hearing Helter Skelter so he released I Wasn't Made To Love Her to show the blacks who's best.

Nice theory, but I believe that I Wasn't Made to Love Her came out before Helter Skelter.

Nice theory, but time does not exist.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Brian Wilson said he was going for the white spiritual sound. By the way, have you noticed how we all strangely refer to him like this many times? We all know who "Brian" usually stands for round here yet continue to say Wilson. Anyway - Brian wanted to start a race war after hearing Helter Skelter so he released I Wasn't Made To Love Her to show the blacks who's best.

Nice theory, but I believe that I Wasn't Made to Love Her came out before Helter Skelter.

Nice theory, but time does not exist.

Hmmm....thus the song Cease to Exist?

[Micha]

And what is with all the hate on Carl? Doesn't anyone hear these songs and feel joy? Why do we have to put everything down? Oh Carl's vocal on Wild Honey, totally strained. What a loser. What was he, 15? Trying to outdo those black guys? Yeah right. Carl you chubby little bastard, should've stayed home that day.

I didn't read that much negativity towards Carl on this thread. They all sing as good as always. Well, better if you count in the period from 1976 on!