The Smiley Smile Message Board

Starting a new topic on this branched off of the "Insignificant Questions" thread, I was wondering how you guys personally divide up the many eras of the band. Of course, we could go by decade, but some decades had more than one era of the band as we all know. I'm personally thinking on more of a music/style based list, but feel free to include other eras you could include as well (Surf and cars, avant garde, progressive, Kokomo/Full House/SIP, post-Landy 90s, reunion, etc.).

My personal list of music eras (by year) has been going like this:

1961-1963
1964-1965
1966: Pet Sounds
1967: SMiLE
1967-1969
1970-1971
1972-1974
1975-1980
1985-1992
1994-1998
1999-20010 (Individual shows/Albums/Compilations)
2011: SMiLE (Official Release)
2012: TWGMTR/Reunion

But everyone's may be different. I know mine is flawed or moreso vague in some spots.

It always feels like the easiest way is to do it by who was leading the band:

1961-1965? The Murray Wilson Years
1965-1967/68 The Brian Wilson Years
1968/69-1973/74 The Carl Wilson Years
1975/76-1977 Brian's Back era?
1977- Mike Love Years

My own very loose approach + drawing on above posts;

61 to 65 - the gold rush
66 - Pet Sounds
66/67 - Smile era
67/70 - communal years
71-74 - Carl Years, as per Fishmonk
75 - 77 - Brian returns
78 onwards - BRI years

Even if there was no seismic shift musically between 1983 and '84, and even if it's argued that he was already 'checked-out' prior, with Dennis' passing, 1983 is absolutely the end of an era for the group for me.

1961 - 1964  Surf & Turf
1965 - 1966  The Wall Of Sound
1967 - 1969  Cooling Off
1970 - 1975  Reprise Era
1976 - 1984  Brian's Back...A Second Chance
1985 - 2011  Changes
2012 - ?        Reuniting

Possibly associated with this theme, I wonder whether the current revived version of the band cloud stand the loss of another member.

For many, Dennis was the soul of the band and it's true creative true when he died (deterioration not withstanding).

Carl was the voice, the leader and the only participating Wilson when he passed, and for many hardcore fans, including many here, the real band died with him.

Are we now on the very last of the aforementioned band eras?

Simply "yes" or "no" would suffice - yes it's the last era or no they could recuperate and continue will do; let's not get into each band member's worth, alive or dead!

1961-1965 - everybody's gone surfin'...
1965-1967 - I dunno where but she sends me there
1967-1970 - we've been together through the good times and the tears
1971-1973 - and all this is that
1974-1977 - gotta get with it (yeah)
1978-1983 - I look in the mirror, it couldn't be clearer, something is gone from my eyes
1984-1993 - we'll take it fast then we'll take it slow
1994-1998 - down, lay me down, lay down burden
1998-2011 - midnight's another day
2012- spreading the love and sunshine to a whole new generation

Well, for me, in many ways the band basically ended when Dennis and then Carl died, the same way there is no Beatles without John and George. I really feel that Denny and Carl was as important to the Beach Boys as John and George were to their band.
I think...no, there's a good chance that the survivors will continue on...

oops I did get into a few members worth, dead. Oh well.

1961-1980 - YEAH!
1981-2011 - HUH?
2012 - YEAH

I made up this list for a friend to get her into The Beach Boys a while (maybe a year or so, before the official Smile Sessions box set) ago. I removed most of contextual narrative since y'all don't need it~ I think it offers a decent breakdown by era so I'm posting it here...


PART ONE (1962-64): SURF/CAR/GIRLS

"The Shift" (Surfin' Safari, 1962)
"Farmer's Daughter" (Surfin' USA, 1963)
"Lonely Sea"
"Lana"
"Catch A Wave"
"The Surfer Moon"
"Hawaii"
"Car Crazy Cutie" (Little Deuce Coupe, 1963)
"No-Go Showboat"
"Pom Pom Play Girl" (Shut Down, Vol. 2, 1964)
"Keep An Eye On Summer"
"Little Honda" (All Summer Long, 1964)
"We'll Run Away"
"Wendy"
"Don't Back Down"
"Merry Christmas Baby" (The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, 1964)
"Christmas Day"
"We Three Kings Of Orient Are"
"Blue Christmas"

PART TWO (1965-67): "TEENAGE SYMPHONIES TO GOD"

I. pre-Pet Sounds (1965)

"Good To My Baby" (The Beach Boys Today!, 1965)
"When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)"
"Please Let Me Wonder"
"Kiss Me Baby"
"She Knows Me Too Well"
"In The Back Of My Mind"
"Girl Don't Tell Me" (Summer Days [And Summer Nights!!], 1965)
"Let Him Run Wild"
"You're So Good To Me"
"Tell Me Why" (Beach Boys' Party!, 1965) [this is a cover of the Beatles song]
"Devoted To You" [this is a cover originally performed by The Everly Brothers]
"There's No Other (Like My Baby)" [originally by The Crystals, a Phil Spctor girl group]
"The Little Girl I Once Knew" [this was a single-only release, their last song before their released magnum opus, Pet Sounds]

II. Pet Sounds (1966)

"You Still Believe In Me"
"I'm Waiting For The Day"
"I Know There's An Answer"
"Here Today"
"I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"

III. The Smile Sessions (1966-67)

"Our Prayer"
"Heroes And Villains" [unreleased-at-the-time Catina version]
"H&V" [misc. unused sections]
"Cabinessence"
"Wonderful"
"Do You Like Worms?"
"Wind Chimes"
"Vegetables"
"I Love To Say Da Da"
"Good Vibrations" [alt. version]
"Surf's Up" [Brian solo piano demo]

PART THREE (1967-69): THE SEMI-ABDICATION OF BRIAN WILSON

"Fall Breaks And Back To Winter (Woody Woodpecker Symphony)" (Smiley Smile, 1967)
"She's Goin' Bald"
"Little Pad"
"With Me Tonight"
"Wind Chimes"
"Gettin' Hungry"
"Wonderful"
"Whistle in"
"Wild Honey" (Wild Honey, 1967)
"Aren't You Glad?"
"Country Air"
"Darlin'"
"Can't Wait Too Long" [incomplete "song" attempted during the WH sessions, remained in vaults 'til 1990]
"I'd Love Just Once To See You"
"Here Comes The Night"
"Let The Wind Blow"
"Friends" (Friends, 1968)
"When A Man Needs A Woman"
"Old Folks At Home (Swanee River)"/"Old Man River" [versions of Stephen Foster songs recorded during the Friends sessions, remained in the vaults until 1990]
"Little Bird"
"Busy Doin' Nothin'"
"Be With Me" (20/20, 1969)
"All I Want To Do"
"I Went To Sleep"
"Time To Get Alone"
"Never Learn Not To Love"
"Breakaway" [single-only release, A-side; their last on Capitol Records]
"Celebrate The News" [B-side to above single]

PART FOUR (1970-73): HOLD ON DEAR BROTHER

"San Miguel" (1969-70 sessions)
"Games Two Can Play"
"I Just Got My Pay"
"H.E.L.P. Is On The Way"
"This Whole World" (Sunflower, 1970)
"Add Some Music To Your Day"
"All I Wanna Do"
"Cool, Cool Water"
"Long Promised Road" (Surf's Up, 1971)
"4th Of July" (Dennis Wilson composition recorded during the Surf's Up sessions, remained in vaults until 2001)
"Feel Flows"
"A Day In The Life Of A Tree"
"'Til I Die"
"You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone" (Carl And The Passions "So Tough", 1972)
"Marcella"
"All This Is That"
"Sail On Sailor" (Holland, 1973)
"Steamboat"
"California Saga: Big Sur"
"The Trader"
"Fairy Tale Music" (the backing track sections from the Mount Vernon & Fairway, A Fairytale EP, a bonus disc included with Holland giving a sense of where Brian was at during this time)
"Leaving This Town" (The Beach Boys In Concert, 1973)
"Child Of Winter" (Christmas 1973 single-only release; the only new Beach Boys music from 1973 until 1976!)

PART FIVE (1976-77): BRIAN'S BACK

"It's OK" (15 Big Ones, 1976)
"Had To Phone Ya"
"Back Home"
"Roller Skating Child" (The Beach Boys Love You, 1977)
"Mona"
"Good Time"
"Honkin' Down The Highway"
"Ding Dang"
"Solar System"
"The Night Was So Young"
"I'll Bet He's Nice"
"I Wanna Pick You Up"
"Airplane"
"Deep Purple" (from the unreleased Adult Child album, 1977)
"It's Over Now"
"It's Trying To Say (aka Baseball)"
"Still I Dream Of It"

Hmm...I guess I'll give this a try:

1961-1964: Surf and cars!
1964-1965: Big productions, super emotional ballads, commercial up-tempo hits
1966-1967: Avant garde, baroque, yet still commercial
1967-1969: Music for Brian to cool out
1969-1971: Baroque; building on the genius of Pet Sounds and SMiLE
1972-1973: New blood; casual, soulful, rockin'
1974-1975: Live renaissance
1976-1978: Brian's back, and wackier than ever; trying to return to the glory days
1978-1983: A last artistic gasp and then a descent in self parody
1984-1998: Grasping at straws; sometimes it works, sometimes it don't
1999-2011: Brian's finally back; but where are The Beach Boys?
2012-???: A new beginning?

Yes...

NO

Were you drunk when you wrote this? Simply "yes" or "no" or "fuk yeh alwayz drunk" would suffice.

Any particular band is sort of an institution in of itself. There are bands very different from The Beach Boys, where the band still made original music with almost completely different lineups than when they first started. The Byrds are a good example, there was a time in the late 60s when Roger Mcguinn was the only founding member still in the group. It either has to be officially dissolved by mutual consent of the band's voting members, or it continues to go on in another form. Some bands might even try and pass the name down to future generations. Financially these bands are really corporations presided over by board of presidents. Legally they could go on forever.

The Beach Boys existed through the 80s, and 90s, past the deaths of Dennis and Carl. A group was given legal permission to tour under that name by the corporation. For all intents and purposes, if there are albums being released under a band's official name, and a band is touring under that name, that band is active. That's just my take however...I love both Carl and Dennis, and I think they were an essential part of what made the music good, but just because the music may suck, a band is still a band until the name is retired, it would be unfair to the music I think to say otherwise.

It's like jersey numbers in baseball or something, it'd be like arguing that so-and-so was the best 56 of all time, and the other losers who had the number don't count. Until the team formally retires a number, you can't discount the careers of other players simply because one guy with that number 50 years ago was better. (I'm sorry if this analogy is ignorant, I don't know how that stuff works in baseball at all, I was just trying to find a way to demonstrate my point.

Play it cool man
 :smokin

I have three Beach Boys playlists:
1) "Summer Days And Summer Nights"- Surfin Safari thru Pet Sounds- the classic period of great success and Brian Wilson's burgeoning genius (75 songs)
2) "Fall Breaks And Back To Winter"- Smile thru Holland- a period of little commercial success but great  artistic growth within the group when the Boys increasingly distanced themselves from their classic period (74 songs)
3) "Endless Summer"- 15 Big Ones to present- in the shadow of the Endless Summer anthology, the Boys become trapped by their own amazing 60s success, lose their artistic ambition and decline into a nostalgia act
(65 songs)

1961-1966 Brian Wilson is in control
1967-1975 The Beach Boys take over control, transformation to a serious 'rock band' but suddenly turning into an 'oldies act'
1976-2003 more or less lost without Brian (but they pretend all is OK), music is hit and miss
2004-...  Brian SMiLEs again, legacy restored, new respect and appreciation for his music
The 2012 reunion band plays very well, and the concerts are also a lubricated SHOW

1961-1963: Surf/Car era
1964-1965: Singles/Pop era
1966-1967: Pet Sounds/SMiLE era
1967-1971: Democratic Beach Boys era
1972-1974: Blondie Chaplin/Ricky Fataar era
1975-Present: Mike Love-led Decline era

I'll try a little bit different approach:

1961-1964: The practicing years
1965-1968: Brian's experiments
1969-1973: The "rock years"
1974-1983: Last times as the "real" Beach Boys
1984-today: Riding the dying wave

.

1961-4 - Fun in the sun
1965-7 - Mature genius
1967-1973 - The group years
1976- 2014 - The wilderness years

Three periods are enough for me:

The drive to Pet Sounds
The uneven road to Surf's Up!
Downhill (with a last peak at Holland) to Carl's passing
   
Oh, and a fourth: TWGMTR----if reunion albums count

1961-1962 era - Surfin Safari
1962-1964 era - Surfin USA to All Summer Long
1964-1965 era - Today to Summer Days
1965-1966 era - Pet Sounds
1966-1967 era - SMiLE
1967-1968 era - Smiley Smile to Friends
1968-1971 era - 20/20 to Surf's Up
1972-1973 era - So Tough to Holland
1974-1976 era - 15 Big Ones
1976-1977 era - Love You
1977-1983 era - MIU to Keeping The Summer Alive
1984-1998 era - The Beach Boys to Summer In Paradise
1998-1999 era - Mike Love, Bruce Johnston & David Marks Salutes NASCAR
1999-2011 era - Mike Love & Bruce Johnston Salutes NASCAR
2012 era - That's Why God Made The Radio
2013-present era - Mike Love & Bruce Johnston Salutes NASCAR again to 50 years of Fun Fun Fun

I see their eras as plausible points of progression with a starting and a finishing rather than as a thematic grouping.

I. Surfin' Safari -  SMiLE
II. Smiley Smile - Holland
III. 15 Big Ones - Keeping The Summer Alive
IV. The Beach Boys (85) - Summer in Paradise
V. That's Why God Made The Radio