The Smiley Smile Message Board

Discuss, review and rate Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and David Marks Salute NASCAR, released February 1998.

(http://www.smileysmile.net/images/albums/nascar.gif)

Boooooooooooooooooooo!

I didn't know this existed, and have never heard it. But it sure is funny to think about!

You are a lucky, lucky man, Luther.

Terrible. Just terrible.

Never heard it.  But I heard OF IT.   I cringe to think about it.

Mike Love exploiting his precious "formula" and the BeachBoys name yet again.

The scary thing about this album is that there was a VERY rare album of material put together from these sessions called "Catch A Wave". The Mike/Adrian Baker sessions are dire to say the very least, I only like one of the tunes.

Someone needs to tell Adrian Baker that imitation isn't innovation.

Someone needs to tell Brian, Melinda, Jeffrey Foskett and Darian Sahanaja that too.

Jeff and Darian would benefit from being told that their respective work outside of Brian's camp is imitation at its finest.

True, I guess, but they don't DO anything with the influence in a progressive way, the way that, say, Elvis Costello did with The Other Side Of Summer.

Agree totally.

It should be:

Mike Love, Bruce Johnston (who quit in '72 and came back in '79), and David Marks (who quit/was fired in 1963) of the Beach Boys salute NASCAR!

Indeed.  Notice how the phrase "Beach Boys" is larger than the surrounding text.  Wonder if Mike got permission to use the trademark on an album like that.  It is guilty of the exact flaw that Brian is being sued over (and more blatantly so).

That one gets a 1 from me, since I kinda like the version of "Little GTO".
The rest is crap imo. Almost everything sounds terrible and the introduction is one of the dumbest things to ever come out of a  Beach Boy-work.

I am vaguely familiar that they did some NASCAr thing and from what I read hear, it's what I expected


  Great song!  As is REM's "At my most beautiful"

Two things:

1. Adrian Baker's voice is ass.
2. Bruce appears nowhere on the album (besides the cover). Blatant false advertisement.

I think he plays keyboard on Don't Worry Baby.  Wonder why he agreed to do this?

I would agree with your asessment of Foskett's work, but I strongly, strongly disagree with your assessment of Darian's work.

I think this record is okay. Not horrible. And Ballad of Ole Betsy is a big plus. I gave it a three. Quite listenable, actually. Nice to see David on the cover too.

I finally found a used copy of this yesterday (fortunately only paid $5 for it).  Oh, man, is this bad.  People who complain about the digital keyboards on Smile would have a field day on this.  Someone needs to teach Adrian Baker how to make synths sound good, not like a child's toy.  And Mike's voice sounds totally shot on this one.

It's not bad, but it's just completey unneccesary. And I'm sure it would've sold better if it were just another compilation. What was the problem here - legal rights?

And "Shut Down" and "Little GTO" one after another makes Al's plagirism of the two for "PT Cruiser" extremely obvious .

One thought--Bruce's "introduction" alone is worth the price of admission..."I'm Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. Beach lover, NASCAR lover." Priceless.

2 but just for the kinda cool "I Get Around" cover.

A low point for the Mike and Bruce (plus Dave) show. They've vastly improved since this.

Kill me now.

Oh dear lord, please let this have escaped from whatever dank, miserable pit it was buried in during the last 7 years. I need a new bad Beach Boys fix.

Just found a lossless copy of this. I wasted ratio on this flaming pile of trash, but I'm laughing at the badness just skimming through, so it's not without merit. I'm not sure if I can sit through this in its entirety.

Never heard any of the material, but it makes me want to vomit.

Are these the same songs that appear on the Adrian Baker "California Girls" album that's on Spotify?  Mike Love sings lead on most of the tracks and I think Bruce is on a couple too.  I listened to that out of curiosity, it's not absolutely terrible but it's completely unnecessary.

No, it's all car songs.

also, I am listening to that Adrian Baker album now, and Mike and Bruce aren't on it at all. That's Adrian doing all the voices.

actually, I changed my mind. that's definitely Mike on Catch a Wave. and I just relistened to California Girls and I guess that's Mike too. the production on the vocals just makes everyone sound like Adrian Baker.

Part lol, part hit me up. SO CONFUSED.


Holy sh*t, never mind. Found a cassette rip. The only way to do this album justice, imo.

How could somebody possibly give this a 5? This is below a 1 to me so you know how I rounded it down.

Little GTO and Betsy are not half bad....

Yeah...they're ALL bad :lol

I bet at least 12 of the 17 people who rated this a 0 never listened to it. not even once.

I cannot believe there is basically a Beach Boys studio version of "Don't Worry Baby" with an Adrien Baker vocal. I just cannot process it.

I listened to it twice. If I could rate in negative numbers, it would still be too kind. sh*t, let's try letters..

I rate this f*cker a U.

My iTunes playcounts for this album:

1. I Get Around - 6
2. Little Deuce Coupe - 5
3. The Little Old Lady From Pasadena - 6
4. 409 - 7
5. Shut Down - 6
6. Little GTO - 8
7. Ballad of Ole Betsy - 16
8. Little Honda - 10
9. Fun, Fun, Fun - 5
10. Don't Worry Baby - 11

does this make me the biggest Beach Boys fan, ever?

wait what

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds0dFbM2rZc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds0dFbM2rZc)

Somebody said it already in this thread but, kill me now.

 :shrug I enjoy throwing this one on every now and then.  I really like Mike's lead on Betsy.

This is nowhere near as bad as some have said.

Betsy is actually a very interesting cover and Mike does a good job on the lead. Much better than I expected.

Little GTO is a good cover imo and has a bit of life to it.

The other songs are a bit redundant but they are fairly professionally done. Too many drum machines and keyboards but Mike's voice sounds pretty good.

OK if you listen with an open mind.

‍

The spoken intro to this album is a gem.

"As you've probably figured out by now, cool cars and hawt fun at the beach have always been close to my heart." - Mike  :lol

Thanks for the you tube link.

It's not that bad! I like the slightly sped up I get around an mike sounds pretty good.

Don't get me wrong - it's obviously pathetic - they should have been in the studio making imagination with Brian (or the follow up), but all things considered, it's really not that bad.

Is this even an actual Beach Boys album?

No, it's an album by "Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and David Marks of The Beach Boys", not "The Beach Boys".

Okay, but how come it's in the 90's Beach Boys Albums section?

Probably, because Beach Boys' sing and play on it, but it is not part of their canonical releases.

The only things worth listening to on here are Betsy.. Honda..  GTO .. I dislike any musicians that go in a STUDIO and re record stuff.. Not cool.. Live is fine and many times welcomed but studio not cool...$$$  2/5

The vast majority of BB compilation albums are nothing but cheap, shoddily-assembled cash-ins that have no real reason to exist and lessen the prestige of the band for the sake of money.

But this one takes it to a whole new level. Just absolutely disgusting. Yes, the intro is funny. But only as a "Wow, these guys have no shame" type of thing.

The cover art doesn't even look real. It looks like a fake album cover someone on this thread or something would make in photoshop in 5 minutes as a joke. But nope. They were just THAT careless that this is what they released under the profitable Beach Boys name.

It's not even something you can grin and say "Oh, those nutty guys!" about. This album makes me angry. It's things like this that are why very few people I know take this band seriously. Why very few people I know will ever listen to Pet Sounds or SMiLE or Sunflower. It's a damn shame how Mike exploits the name like he does. And can we talk--yet again--about his hypocrisy here? The guy sues Brian in his well deserved moment of glory, finally finishing his masterpiece, for cheapening the bands name. Well Mike...what do you call this? Seriously, what the hell is this?

This doesn't deserve a 0 rating, much less the time I've just spent venting about it.

Exactly, Mujan. It's the Lovester doing what he does best in cheapening the name of the group with crap like this which cements the fact that he is indeed a greedy, no talent hack who was given the Beach Boys name and turned it into his own, sad, pathetic carnival/circus side show. And people wonder why I say what I do about him...

I think you are giving the Lovester too much credit here. I mean, how many people have even seen this thing? It's far easier to walk into a cd store - if you can find one in 2015- and find a copy of Sounds of Summer, Pet Sounds or SMiLE than this thing.

As someone who has never heard this album and doesn't intend to, mind filling me in on said intro?

Thanks. And also, dear me.

Well, I skimmed through the remakes a little. Competent if pointless. Mike sounded good.

If I'm not mistaken, David Marks is on guitar on a handful of cuts.  Except for the spoken intro, Bruce isn't on this at all. 

The introduction is both hilarious and cringeworthy.

The production kinda sucks, but it's not AWFUL. The quality of the songs still shine through, although I'd much rather listen to the originals.

I like "The Little Old Lady" and "Little GTO" a lot actually... And "Ballad Of Ole Betsy" is umm... interesting... It's a heartfelt lead vocal.


I've been really easy on this album, but I'll be honest--- "Don't Worry Baby" SUCKS on this album!! Adrian's lead vocal just hurts my ears.