The Smiley Smile Message Board

We all know the usual suspects that lead relative new comers to the boys: Elephant 6, High Llamas, Weezer, Paul MacCartney, whatever new stuff from the last few years that Pitchfork and the likes are aggrandizing, etc. etc. I don’t have the mental energy to cite more names. You know them already.

But i’m really curious to know if anyone here got into the Beach Boys the way i did, which was through Mr. Bungle. It was July/August of 1999 and California was just coming out and it was actually being covered by the media and reviewed a lot. Well, relatively a lot. Well, okay, not that much. But compared to Disco Volante, it seemed like a lot (for obvious reasons). I was voraciously going through every single review i could get my hands on, because i was silly like that, and without fail, every single one mentioned the Beach Boys, and specifically, Pet Sounds and Smile. So after many occurrences of this, i decided i had to see what this was all about. So i went to the record shop in town and picked up a copy of Pet Sounds. Remember that? Remember when you’d be curious about an album so you’d just walk into a shop and purchase it, and you had no idea what to expect? And you had to have enough faith in it because you were spending your money on it. And then if it was terrible you were bitter about your purchase for like a whole week, and you ate sh i tty, frozen burritos for the next week to make up the loss.

Anyway...anyone else here arrive at the BB through MB? Or some other unlikely avenue? I’ve been curious about this for years. For no good reason, really.

I arrived at The Beach Boys the old-fasihioned way; AM radio & 45 RPM records.

I came to the Beach Boys right at the end of California Girls as they chant GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS YEAH I DIG THE GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS. I had visual aid.  >:D :smokin

Mine was through watching American graffiti and picking up sunflower and today in a bargain bin at the CD store.

My older sister brought home the Surfin USA LP in '63...I was 5 and instantly addicted.

I watched Full House! lol :D

I drowned myself in Beatles stuff for two years starting in 1987. I decided I needed to expand my horizons. I thought to myself, "Well, I never turn the Beach Boys off when they're on the radio unless it's 'I Get Around,' so I'll give 'em a try." Went to the library, checked out a few Beach Boys albums, and when I got home, I dropped the needle on Best of the Beach Boys Vol. 2 and was instantly hooked from the instant the harmonies of "Don't Worry, Baby" started.

Growing up in Hawthorne, The Beach Boys were gods, but as a punk-ass pre-teen I'd written them off as lame old farts.... Then I saw the Summer Dreams TV movie and have been hooked 24/7 ever since.

20 Golden Greats, motherlovers. My parents had it, and Pet Sounds. After a while, I picked up that because the other CD was so rad, and well, that was it.

I don't see any of these as atypical. 

Stebbins and Drbeachboys seem 'normal' - they just bought the records and fell in love!

I was skydiving and was given headphones and a microphone so that I might connect with the head skydive trainer (Mitch) who was probably still on the plane just in case there were any problems. I was in mid-dive, enjoying the scenery, taking some dives through clouds, doing the pretend swim, and the rest of my usual repertoire, when I realized it was time to flate up the old 'chute (we divers just call them 'chutes). But, as luck would have it, I pulled the string and nothing happened. I snapped into action and immediately called Mitch. I said "come in Mitch, over." Mitch said, "receiving call, do you copy?" I said, "copy that received call, Mitch." And Mitch said, "10-4. All ready to prepare for your message." And I said, "Copy that." And he said, "OK, ready for your message now." And that's when I told Mitch that my 'chute wouldn't open. He started to give me 'structions but the radio abruptly cut out and suddenly I started receiving the transmission from a local radio station that was playing what I now know was "I Get Around". I was first impressed by the remarkable background instrumentation, but what really caught my attention was Brian's high falsetto on the chorus and the way it blended with the other voices. I thought, sure, the song is really just about cars and girls, but it speaks to what was in the 1960s a major cultural trend and more over, the chord structure was pretty advanced. Yep, you sure could say that I was a fan all right. Then I died.

Priceless, beautiful, can't get more Atypical than that. :)

Sorry, drunken misunderstanding.

I actually got that copy of 20 Golden Greats when, after a lengthy legal battle, I divorced Elliot Gould and received one cut price record a month in lieu of alimony. The first was 20 Golden Greats. I have also got Bat Out Of Hell, Rumours, the entire Phil Collins discography and a Throbbing Gristle EP. But none touched me so much as that first Beach Boys best of....

I think being 5 yrs old and already aware of them as a "current" phenomena is fairly atypical. Having teenage sisters in my house swooning over them gave me an awareness of the fan worship element at a very impressionable stage. I don't really know anybody that was exposed to them quite the same way, although i'm sure there are thousands, although maybe not influenced to the point of writing books and obsessing over minute details of their music.

What i would give to be alive as a fan buying the LPs during the band's heyday ...

No kidding - even though I discovered their music in mostly chronological order anyways, being along for the ride in "real time" would have been quite the trip.

What about the foreground instrumentation?

Also: was this before or after you were an "anarchist?"

I was among the lucky ones to make that "real time" 'chronological trip', before getting super lucky & traveling the country with them!  My cousin popped 409 on his new hi-fi for me, back near the end of '62, and my life hasn't been the same since.  When I heard Shut Down a couple of months later, I thought I'd died & gone to heaven - although I couldn't understand why a gear-head group like this had 'beach' in their name...
Little Deuce Coupe came along right with summer, and a friend tipped me off to the unheard flipsides; my dumb ass finally understood their name!  From that point on, it was almost as if Brian, practically ten years older than me, was growing up hand-in-hand with me.  The day I first asked a girl to go steady we walked past a record store and I eyed Pet Sounds...  Couldn't imagine growing up without them! 

Hey Ed, what is your take on what happened to The Beach Boys success here in the U.S. In the late 60's? Brian seemed to still have the pulse of what was happening musically, yet they were tossed off as being irrelevant. Was it just their name? What really went down in your opinion? Thanks!

listened my greatest hits volume 1 as a kid.  didn't listen to em for real till a couple years post BWPS when i got pet sounds. 

i don't think any other band led me to the Beach Boys.

used to rock out with my pals and play air guitar to choice tracks on 'Endless Summer'... this was like 3rd or 4th grade, early 80s. "Catch A Wave" was probably my favorite. the Sunkist 'Good Vibrations' commercial was popular at the time, and my Dad purchased the Medley 45 around this time too.

"Getcha Back" came out in '84 or so. I liked it a lot.
"Wipeout" came out in '87. It was kinda funny and pretty catchy.
"Kokomo" came out in '88. Didn't do anything for me, but the line about a "tropical contact high" made me chuckle.

I was getting pretty into the Grateful Dead in the late 80s, and came across the Fillmore '71 show with the BBs. pretty cool aside from Bruce's geeky MC work.

aside from the James Watt scandal, that was my entire exposure to the boys until I bought a Pet Sounds CD in 1998. I read 'Heroes & Villains', bought the GV Boxset, and just went all-out from there. It was great timing, as Brian was just coming out with new music again and the Brian Wilson Band was coming into being.

Breaking down the Holland trip and Brian's breakdown real time would have been interesting. Also hearing their singles on the radio would have been awesome instead of never hearing them ever on the radio.

Great question and enjoying everyone's different memories of first hearing them.
For me, it was 1987, aged 9 and brought up with The Beatles, Moody Blues, ELO and War of the Worlds.
My school had a show where each class year would do a different decade and mine got the sixties. Well, there was a medley in the middle where 4 kids where in suits and mop top wigs were followed by some poor kid dressed as a hippie (you probably had to be there!)
Well, right after, 4 kids came out on surfboards (actually ironing boards) and on came this guitar riff.....followed by this line about having an ocean.....and then the other voices came in. To say I was spellbound before the chorus is an understatement.
As soon as I got home, I went through my parents record collection, chucking Neil Diamond over my left shoulder and Herman's Hermits over my right until I found the Greatest Hits of the Beach Boys.
Now, things became a bit confusing.
I could put a name to the face of The Beatles and Moodies, even Dave Clarke 5 and The Animals but looking at these 5 guys in white suits, 3 with beards,  I didn't have a clue who was who.
I know, I'll check the credits.BIG mistake. So, there's a Dyke Parks, a Love, an Asher and this Wilson guy does alot as well so, let's have the short blond one at the front as Wilson (all frontman stand at the front), the guy next to him with the tie can be Dyke Parks, the one at the end looks like an Asher and the cleanshaven one looks like a Love so the other one (Mike!).....well, I'm sure he does something!!

So, now I'd put names to faces (and being quite pleased with myself by doing so!), let's put the record on.....Sloop, Cali Girls, Barbara Ann, I Get Around....hold on, I know all of these from the radio. By the end of Side 2, it was flipped back over again

I then got Endless Summer (as it had Surfin' USA on it) and devoured The Heroes and Villains book in one day as I learnt more and more (including that I was more than a little way off with the names!), I then started saving to buy all the albums-I had Pet Sounds when I was 11, hated it at first, appreciated it at 14, loved it by 16.

So-sorry for the meandering tale but I think a 9 year old at a school concert watching his classmates on ironing boards counts as an atypical introduction to this great band!

My brother bought me a BB greatest hits comp as a joke for my birthday. At the time I wouldn't listen to anything without distorted guitars and screaming, so I thought it was funny but a waste of money. Later I discovered Faith No More, which lead me to Ween, and then to Mr. Bungle. I loved Air-Conditioned Nightmare and that inspired me to give that BB album a spin. It was pretty cool but still seemed like a novelty to me, the only exception being Heroes and Villains. I wondered if they had more songs like that, and that's when I discovered Smiley Smile and they became my favorite band.

Besides the few hits on oldies radio, and "Kokomo" being a current hit during my childhood, my mom's beat-up old copies of Best of The Beach Boys, Vol. 2 (in glorious Duophonic), Fun, Fun, Fun/Dance, Dance, Dance  and  Wow! Great Concert were the first Beach Boys sounds I heard.

Enter 1993. My 15th birthday, gift money in hand at the local record store. I spot the new Beach Boys set among the box sets on the wall. It's a lot of money, and a lot of songs I've never heard of, but I put down the fifty or so dollars for it and add it to my growing collection.

Instant gratification. The five discs are in constant rotation for weeks. To paraphrase a line from Brian's pseudobiography, "one thought raced through my mind. More. I had to get more" Beach Boys.

I found a royalty check in my bathrobe.....right....My next purchase was Pet Sounds. And then the 1990's 2-fers. A few of the Caribou CD's when I could find them second-hand. Some of those pricey Ocean of Songs discs. And most everything else since then.

So no one else has timed their masturbation to California Girls? Guess I truly AM alone in this world!

This is my umpteenth time saying/writing this since I joined this board, but here goes....

First heard the Beach Boys when I was 6 or 7 (circa 1992) thru my mom's copy of Endless Summer. First song I heard was California Girls. The BBs hovered in the outer reaches of my musical radar right on through my teenage years...I remember seeing the Brian Wilson Imagination concert on TV. I could've sworn at the time that it was Al Jardine and Glenn Frey on stage with Brian (turns out it was Bruce Johnston and Tim Schmidt). Kept on reading/seeing/hearing about how great Pet Sounds was. Got a copy of Sounds of Summer when I was 18...wanted to hear more...read several articles/reviews about BWPS...fall of '05 I finally get Pet Sounds, love it. Then got into BWPS and 66-67 SMiLE recordings...awsomeness...then onto the rest of the catalog...

I'm curious how FNM lead you to Ween. Please, do tell. Also, i never have the chance to talk to people about this because, for some weird reason, not a lot of people are into both Ween and the Beach Boys, but i've always been so intrigued by some of the stylistic similarities. Once the boys moved into the home studio and started making the smaller production records (SS, WH, Friends, as well as some stuff on Sunflower and Surf's Up) there was a certain sound that has a total Ween quality. Aren't You Glad, Be Here In The Morning, Wake The World, Our Sweet Love, At My Window, Take A Load Off Your Feet and much more. And even though i knew that the Gene Ween Band has covered Girl Don't Tell Me, it was really great to have recently read in the 33 1/3 Chocolate and Cheese book, Gener citing the Beach Boys as an influence!

forgot to mention how freaked out I was by the weird hairy dudes on the cover of Endless Summer as I rocked out to 'Surfin USA' and 'Fun Fun Fun' at age 8.

nice to see the brothers Ween getting some mention on this board!
haven't read the C&C book yet... need to pick it up.

Gene's been covering "Girl Don't Tell Me" for quite some time. I'd love to hear him try another BBs song or 3.

Other similarities include an obsession with water and the ocean. 'The Mollusk' is Ween's ocean-themed album, and the one they seem proudest of.

I'd say the "brownest" Beach Boys tune is Fall Breaks. wonder if Brian ever huffed Scotchgard?

ace post

It geban in 1989 with Kokomo on a compilation cassette while driving to our holiday destination. Got me interested. My father then responded with "that can't be the same group I know from the 60s". So he gave me a few cassettes with some greatest hits, two Dutch comps, that pretty much covered all hits. Liked it a lot.

I decided to look for more music of them, so I started to look in my dads vinyl collection: found Superstars of the 70ies and another comp, that had (respectively) Surf's Up and The Trader on it. Had high hopes for the first one ("yes, another surf song!!"), but after hearing them all that was left was confusion.

Then I found the BB85 album in a local library... got me even more confused!

Then borrowed a old LP 2fer the Milestones releases of Sunflower/Surf's Up... and by then I didn't understand at all that this was the very same group of which I liked the hits so much!

But apparently I didn't give up: I had read about their masterpiece Pet Sounds, and found a copy in a local CD-shop.... and finally I was hooked ! Also bought the Smiley Smile / Wild Honey 2fer, and strangely enough, I was still hooked. From then the music and collecting addiction started...

Yeah, when talking about Freedom of '76--it being really the first time he attempted harmony vocals--and any harmony stuff that he's done since, he said he'd have the Beach Boys and Beatles in mind. The book is a must read simply because it's the only published account that exists of anything Ween related, but really, it's not a well written book at all. Just so you know.

Good call on the water/ocean obsession. Mickey's always going on about the beach.

I think Bruce definitely did some Scotchguard with Mean at the pod. No doubt.

hilarious.

Gener really is a falsetto king... Freedom of 76, Happy Colored Marbles, Don't Laugh... i know there's lots more.

it's funny how Claude sings a lot of Gener's harmony parts on stage. those two have an eerie blend. hmmm... maybe THEY'RE the ones who are actually related.  ;)

Yeah, very true about Claude.

On the subject of Gener...i find it funny how all these hip bands today, and from the last decade, who are taken so "seriously" as artists, they can't sing for sh*t. Aaron Freeman: best pop singer of the last 15+ years. Seriously, which contemporary singer comes close to him? Versatility, range, technicality, inventiveness (how many different voices has he come up with in the last 21 years?). 

yeah i totally agree. some people just can't get into him though. he's kind of theatrical in that way. like he's doing different characters, channeling multiple personalities... a kind-of vocal schizophrenia?

Roger Daltrey would do this with a lot of Pete's tunes, adapting different voices for various "roles".

but i prefer the genester.

Well, live, which is a totally different entity from the studio incarnation, he gets pretty ridiculous. But on record, there's a lot of subtlety and nuance. In fact, that applies to the entire production and arrangement of all their music. I don't like them at all live. I think they're all about the album, that's where the magic and details come through and shine. Live, they're just a band rockin' out, stripped of all the details and subtlety. Which is cool if that's someone's thing, but i have never liked that. I'm not a "live music" person if you can't tell. These differences in approach to singing live versus the record, now that i think about it, are very similar to Tom Waits. He just growls and barks live, the very same songs which in the studio he delivers with subtlety and variation. But anyway, when Gener is singing "straight" (Joppa Road, What Deaner Was Talkin' About, I Don't Wanna Leave You On The Farm, You Were The Fool, It's Gonna Be Alright, and countless others) even if you just took those, i think what i said in my previous post still applies.   

I must be horribly old and out of it -- I've never heard of  Ween or Mr. Bungle. Are you serious?  Is thre really a group named Mr. Bungle?!?  Also, "Air-Conditioned Nightmare" is a book by Henry Miller, not a band.  WHAT ARE YOU KIDS TALKING ABOUT?

I was led to the Beach Boys by.... wait for it...... .......

Brian Wilson, solo artist.

My wife bought a copy of Imagination when it came out in 1996, and I asked her to tell me who Brian Wilson was.

My whole life I'd been (still am) a fan of The Beatles, Dylan, Neil Young, the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, John Hartford, Biff Rose, Joni Mitchell, The Doors, Mike Nesmith, James Taylor, Judy Collins, Captain Beefheart.  OBVIOUSLY I knew who the Beach Boys were, but I didn't have time for their "cornball surf songs", and had never heard Pet Sounds.

That all changed when I heard some pretty magical and amazing things in Imagination: beautiful back up vocals, lovely wind arrangements, strings, and just some really NICE songs, WOW, I was hooked, this is MUSIC and within a year I'd heard and read everything I could about Brian Wilson and his Beach Boys.  Saw Brian Wilson live at the Wilshire on his first tour.  Saw his SmiLe Tour in 2004.

I was sending some unreleased George Harrison tracks to a friend in the states, one song was in really lame sound quality, so I said something along the lines of "sorry for the sh*tty quality on this one" to which he replied that the sound quality on some of Brian's unreleased recordings made these seem like digital masters. I asked about this Brian guy, I ended up with Sweet Insanity (always have been fascinated by unreleased music, don't know why) and thinking that it was pretty cool, I went out and brought; BWPS, PoB, IJWMFTT, SS/WH, 15BO/LY and SF/SS, these albums are my summer of 2008, I shut myself away from the end of July to when I had to go back to college (Sept, the day TLOS came out, I skipped the afternoon to go and buy it..), I have been hooked ever since.

you've very probably heard Ween's -->>'Ocean Man' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E5m_XtCX3c)<<-- as featured in Honda ads and the Spongebob movie.

but if you've never experienced -->>'Freedom of 76' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_vsJuxYGwg)<<-- you owe it to yourself right this very instant.
the video was directed by Spike Jonze

FNM were my gateway band for good music. They didn't directly lead me to Ween, but I became interested after hearing so much about them from other FNM fans, and a (possibly mislabeled) FNM cover of Goin' Gets Tough From The Getgo.

The Mollusk is my favorite, followed closely by everything else they've done.

I partially agree about their live act. I think it works best when they drastically change the song (Johnny on the Spot) or crank it up to 11 (Learnin' to Love).

I definitely hear the BB similarities. A lot of Ween songs are like Brian's "feels," especially in the 4-track days. Tastesssssssssss good on the bun!

Terry Wogan seemed to play Heroes & Villains about once a month in the mid-90s. I only listened to about 20 minutes of the show a day on the way to school, but i heard it 3 times in three months. I was hooked.

SMiLE vinyl boot #2 was my gateway drug. Bought it to hear "Fire", then...I started listening to Cabinessence, which a friend had played for me once before. Then: Surf's Up (partial). Then: Wonderful. Then: Wind Chimes (though it was the Smiley version on this boot.)

The heavens opened. I spread out to Pet Sounds, then everything else. Limping across the finish line with KTSA and MIU, etc. And here I am.

Ween is one of the best live acts going, but it is a completely different animal than what they do in the studio.

Mickey just posted a bunch of "Caesar" demos, which was the working title for 'Quebec' apparently. killer stuff!!!

part 1: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z4WT180A
part 2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CISVHJPB

Disc 1 (51:49)
Chocolate Town
Pot Luck
Ooh Vah Lah
So Many People in the Neighborhood
Linda (the Sexy Dancer)
That Man (from the Flatland)
Happy Colored Marbles
Hey There Fancypants
If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)
It's Gonna Be a Long Night
Oh My Little Country Cottage
Among His Tribe
Transdermal Celebration
Captain
Tried and True
I Fell in Love Today

Disc 2 (49:05)
I Don't Want It
Ambrosia Parsley
Zoloft
Love Come Down (9-11-01)
Alcan Road
Don't Let the Moon Catch You Cryin'
You Can Go sh*t in Your Hat (Matt)
Someday
She Caught My Fancy
Eulogy for David Anderson
Things You Already Know
Hello Johnny
I'm Wide Open

I came on board in a round about way. In mid 1981 "Dead Man's Curve" was played on TV and I thought the music was outasight!. I even remember being at a teen disco and asking the DJ to play "Surf City" and was quite disappointed when he said he only had "Surfin' USA". Then the medley came out and I thought it was an amazing set of snippets - and I insited to Santa that for Xmas 1981 I got the "Beach Boys Greatist Hits" LP which included both the medley (in its extended format) and the ballads medley. Included in the LP was a printed sheet with all the re-issues along with label number. My first non-compilation LP was Summer Days/Party. The rest is history.

That would include having to wait 37 years for SMiLE. ;D

Though I always liked the Beach Boys (I even requested I Get Around on a radio station during a vacation in LA back in 1989), what really got me deep into them was reading Brian's "autobiography", the German translation back in 1996. One of the most fascinating reads of my life.

Yeah, I know, Brian didn't write any of it, many "facts" are wrong, and lots of stuff is copied and pasted from old magazine articles, but there was no way of me knowing that at the time because it was all news to me, so it was just great. I bought all their LPs in the following months.

Finding your grandma's LP of Endless Summer as a kid ---> LSN on Xmas comp ---> Occasionally hearing the odd #1 hit on the radio ---> Reading about theremins ---> Reading about Good Vibrations ---> Buying Endless Summer with GV ---> Listening to GV on endless repeat for days ---> Learning about SMiLE ---> DL'ing Purple Chick's mix ---> The rest is history

I think I might be the first BB fan to ever listen to SMiLE in it's entirety before Pet Sounds.

I was in my sophomore year of high school and I was doing a project on Bob Dylan.  My English teacher was a big Dylan fan and I asked him if I can borrow some of his music for help because I only had a few Dylan albums.  He gave me his flash drive which had his entire music library on it, not just Dylan.  Through that, I was able to get all this music that I had always wanted to hear but didn't actually own.  One was Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys.  I knew how influential it was but I had never actually heard it, I was only familiar with a few of the songs (Sloop John B, God Only Knows, Wouldn't It Be Nice) and the only Beach Boys CDs my family owned were Endless Summer and Spirit of America.  I quickly became enamored with Pet Sounds and soon I bought Brian Wilson's Smile which I ended up loving even more.  Since then, I've never become tired with either one and have continued to dig deeper into the catalog and my love only continues to grow.

Mine isn't that atypical, but I grew up on oldies radio in the 90s (born in '87) and my first two cassettes by "real" bands were Elvis's Golden Records and The Beach Boys Concert Days. I enjoyed those but was just exposed to radio hits outside of that. I started listening to alternative rock around the age of 10 and metal around 14, then became obsessed with Sufjan Stevens' album Michigan my senior year of high school, which opened me up to listening to pop again. I'm not sure when, but I checked out Pet Sounds because I saw it make so many best-of the 60s lists. I wasn't overly impressed at first, but it planted the seed and my obsession grew as I slowly began working my way through their later era albums.

About a year ago I came home with a vinyl copy of Love You and my dad noticed and looked puzzled. I tried to justify my purchase, expecting him to harass me about buying a terrible album (by most non-fan standards), but he interrupted me and told me how he used to have that album when he was younger and used to love some songs off of it.

Eight years ago I was heavily into The Beatles. I played guitar in a hardcore punk band at the time, with a drummer called Jeroen who was a big Beach Boys fan. We sometimes had discussions about which band was better. Back then I already owned a Beach Boys greatest hits CD, but although I liked songs like 'I Get Around', 'Surfin' USA' and 'Fun, Fun, Fun' (who doesn't?) I thought it was just silly to think that this band could be better than the band that gave us 'Let It Be', 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'A Day in the Life'. So Jeroen told me to look beyond the Beach Boys' hits and check out albums like 'Pet Sounds' and 'Sunflower', which I did. I didn't really "get" 'Pet Sounds' at first, but I loved 'Sunflower' from the first time I heard it. A few weeks later I admitted to Jeroen that he'd been right, The Beach Boys were indeed better than The Beatles. I've been a fairly obsessed fan ever since. And coincidentally, tonight Jeroen, my girlfriend and me are going to see The Beach Boys live for the first time.

About 9 years ago, I was about 13 or 14, and I saw an episode of the 60s Batman TV show and became obsessed with the 60s. So I downloaded Pet Sounds which was a popular album from a band I recognized from the 60s. Also downloaded Revolver. I was way more into the Beatles for a few years, but the Beach Boys were my second favorite and then I got really burned out on the Beatles.

Not that far leftfield, but I got into the Beach Boys back in 1995 as a result of a conversation I had with some free-jazz far-out crazy-ass musicians I used to hang out with. One of the guys mentioned listening to Smiley Smile and how whacked out it was and I said "no way." The rest of us at the table started to make fun of him. Then I checked it out and here I am 17 years later.

Bob Dylan brought me the Boys.

Began for me the same way. Heard 409, SS on my plug in AM radio in my bedroom between homework and staring into my aquarium. Was fond of those two tunes but then one day or night I heard Surfer Girl and it all clicked. Who were these guys and where did they come from?

Was grounded for getting bad grades in school, with TV privileges revoked, so turned to a heretofore unexplored medium--the radio.

Heard "Dance Dance Dance" and the rest is history...

Dad played in a covers band and recorded hits of the day to be picked apart then gigged the next event days later. This meant the radio was on almost 24/7 with a tape to tape on standby.

The more I think about it, I went for the music they did not cover! 8)

Beach Boys 20 Good Vibrations was one of the first CDs I bought as a child (it was one of my six free for signing up through Columbia House.
Other than the best known hits, I'd never really listened to any of the BB's other music. I gave Pet Sounds a listen in high school once, and I remember not caring for it. Finally gave it another listen two years ago (I'm 28 now) and was blown away. I couldn't believe I had gone this long without appreciating the album. PS was basically all I listened to for the next 9 months. Still, I guess I believed what I had heard about the BB post-PS work being less than stellar and didn't give their later works much attention. I was actually under the impression that after Pet Sounds, most of the members left the group and it was basically Mike Love and a bunch of other guys. When I was out record shopping, I'd routinely pass over albums like Wild Honey, Sunflower, Surf's Up, etc.

So fast-forward to this past Memorial Day Weekend. Took a car trip up to Chicago and had the 60's on 6 playing the whole way there and back. I'm hearing Beach Boys songs I hadn't ever heard before. A song comes on which I don't recognize as the Beach Boys, but I'm loving it. I pull my phone out and pull up my Shazam app. It was "Long Promised Road." Surprised to find out it was Carl singing lead (wait a minute, he doesn't sound anything like he did on God Only Knows...)

So I've been spending the summer catching up on all the great music I was missing out on all these years. And while they seemed to be in abundance in the dollar bins before, it's almost impossible to find a used vinyl copy of any of their later material now! Go figure. Did find a copy of Holland the other day, which I'm enjoying. Looking forward to finding a copy of Pacific Ocean Blue as well.

I came on here ready to tell the ol' skydiving story but noticed I had already done so.

Really? I thought they took it, and were usin' it in their own room. Did they let you call up your chick too?

Bought the SMiLE #2 vinyl boot after reading something about "Fire" in a Beatles book--I was (and am still, to a degree) a hardcore Beatleite--and got hooked from there. Cabinessence, Wonderful, and that little scrap of Surf's Up blew my mind. Then I got Pet Sounds, then expanded out into the BB catalogue like a nuclear explosion.

SMiLE is still my favorite. Prolly my favorite of anything, by anyone, of all time.

Surfin' USA brought me to the BB fandom. Simple as that.

yes, my math is off. I was 15, almost 16.

At the time I had heard some select songs from their catalogue either through custom CDs I was given (Sloop John B, Kokomo, Little Deuce Coupe, Fun Fun Fun), choir in elementary school (Surfin' Safari, Surfin' USA), or general pop culture exposure (Wouldn't It Be Nice, All Summer Long).  I had also listened to Pet Sounds and while I appreciated it I wasn't particularly affected, probably due to a combination of the songs not being instantly catchy like I was  expecting and not giving a fully attentive listen.  I liked other bands of the time like the Beatles and Rolling Stones, but the classic rock that played those songs never ventured into the Beach Boys up here.

It's ironic then that one of their more backwards moments in their career at a not-so-special time for the band was what did it for me and led me to see a new side to the band.  I was young and caught the end of a Full House episode where a live rendition of Barbara Ann was playing.  Since my exposure had been very limited, I didn't even know this song.  The recording was muddled and for some reason I thought it to be a later song in their catalogue.  I opted to look up on Amazon the latest greatest hits compilation (Sounds of Summer).  Funny enough I still thought of it as a later song given where I found it on the tracklisting.  At any rate since I didn't know the title I was running through samples of the songs in the back half of the compilation.  I came upon Wild Honey and, more importantly, Darlin' which I thought sounded kind of cool and had a different sound.  It doesn't hurt that I was always interested in what bands sounded like beyond their most well-known years.

So the sample of Darlin' became an earworm for me and I checked it out the full version of the song, which was of all things an early 80's live version.  The hooks of the verses got me and I really liked Carl's voice.  I thought maybe the singer of this song might have been part of a different sound for the band, so I looked up songs sung by Carl.  Next was I Can Hear Music, in which the vocals also really impressed.  Then came This Whole World, Long Promised Road, Friends, and Girl Don't Tell Me.  At some point I just started checking out song after song from their late 60's and early 70's in particular, and somewhere down the line I was hooked.

So there you go.  Full House and Barbara Ann first led me to discover the Beach Boys as a different band than I first thought. :lol

Also was a big Ween and Bungle fan before liking the Beach Boys, though I was more interested in trying them because they were a band I hadn't investigated, not for any influence or connections.  I'd already gone through enough punk and indie stuff, so was dipping more into 60s rock and some hip hop at that point.

Most people do not care about (creative) melodies or clever music--they want to be part of what is fashionable, and thus already moving into the past.  Hence the lack of interest you see others having for a band like Ween.  Unfortunately, a super creative band like the High Llamas who still get decent praise without having the "comedy" stigma of Ween still have to suffer with endless Brian Wilson comparisons (Which says what?  You've heard some of their albums once?).  That would be like saying the Beatles only liked Chuck Berry.  Beach Boys comparisons end up being more misguided than when other bands are in their place, though it's cool to see musicians who acknowledge the influence.

The problem with The High Llamas is that Sean O'Hagan is a fantastic arranger and has a great understanding for music, but he's a boring songwriter. Gideon Gaye is a good album, but  he makes so much more sense when he arranges Stereolab or Super Furry Animals albums rather than his own stuff. His arrangements on his own records aren't so hot, because there's that something missing in the songs.

Just to take this off topic....

Yep.

I disagree there.  I love all their albums and think that his method of songwriting is just currently out of style.  The melodies are gorgeous and they are there, just spread across instruments, instead of having one main instrumental focus (guitar or piano) with counterpoints and accents on other instruments, like most bands do.  People have been trained to listen to one instrument with some accompaniment, which he doesn't really do.  They also use repetition in a way many bands don't.  They are influenced by pop music, but this is not pop as defined by radio--that is one many difference between what they do and what Brian Wilson does.  You should not listen to this like you might the Beatles, Beach Boys, etc.

Many songs from their later albums, such as "New Broadway," "Winters Day," "Bach Ze," "Leaf and Lime," and "High on the Chalk" are at least as gorgeous as the Beach Boys' best, if not more so.  Their music just asks you to get rid of your radio and 45-based expectations/preconceptions.  Their biggest connection to the Beach Boys, after all, is structure their music like Smile bootlegs, as opposed to copying Brian's writing style.

It all begun in 2009. I was 15 and I had been obsessed by Roy Orbison's You Got It (my iTunes states I have played it a whopping 7,823 times), so naturally I wanted to know about Roy and his life, searching his Wikipedia was the first step. This lead me (from Roy Orbison's time in the Travelling Wilbury's) to George Harrison. Now, I had like The Beatles, but I was a casual and knew about Yesterday, Yellow Submarine, She Loves You and other various popular songs which are overplayed, everywhere. But I didn't know George. I found my father's orignal 1967-1970 compilation album and played a song Wikipedia suggested. Something. Needless to say I was blown away. This love spilled unto the rest of the Beatles catalog and I bought every single shred of music on their discography which was readily available (from iTunes, or CD shops). I became a Beatles fanatic, an obnoxious one. Always stating how the "BEATLES WERE THE BEST EVER, EVERYTHING ELSE IS UTTER CRAP!".

One day, I was reading Rolling Stone's list of the top 500 albums of all time (as RangeRoverA1 had stated she had). I saw Sgt. Peppers at number #1 and smirked with confident grin, nodding in delight. Revolver at number #3 and I was licking my lips in pretentious joy. But at number #2... "THE BEACH BOYS?! HOW CAN THIS BE?!" I laughed it off.

A few weeks later, I was out with friends (this is mid-2010) and we were browsing in a CD store and on one of the shelves stood that number #2, Pet Sounds. I bought it out of curiosity. I still remember taking it up to the counter and the guy asking me if this was "for fathers day?". I shamefully said "no". I got home and ripped it to my iPod. Stuck in some headphones and bam. The harmonies, the arrangements, the brilliance was woven into each and every sense. I was given the feeling that, all along, I had known this music. Pet Sounds, an album I had never heard before seemed oh so familiar, as if the sounds Brian created were always in the recesses of my mind, familiar, he had just unlocked them for me and allowed them to run wild within myself.

Apart for that pretentiousness, I bought the Today/Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!!) twofer, followed by Smiley Smile/Wild Honey and Sunflower/Surf's Up... followed by their entire discography. I was hooked. Non-stop. Still can't stop at 18. It's funny to see people's reactions when they get in the car with me and I have A Day In The Life Of A Tree playing.

And that's my long-winded story to fandom. Can't wait to see them this August 30th, should be geriatric!

To make it somewhat relevant, my Beach Boys fandom lead me to checking out The High Llamas - found Gideon Gaye in a thrift store for less than two bucks - also bought Hawaii. These are really nice albums, but I agree that his songwriting style lacks focus. He finds really nice grooves, and throws in a couple of cool, (often meaningless, but good sounding) lyrics, but his songs have the longest-ass fades I've ever heard and they meander. And then there's all the little, short gappy tracks that don't do much. There are some gems to be found, Nomads and The Dutchman amongst others.....