The Smiley Smile Message Board

One of the sweetest and saddest songs the beach boys ever recorded. Other than the fact it features a heart rendering duet from the departed wilson brothers, but I close my eyes and that song takes me away to the beaches of Southern California as the sun sets.  :(

I agree. I'm definitely in the minority here, but I love L.A. I think it's the last great album they ever did until That's Why God Made the Radio.

Absolutely agree.  Dennis' part of the song gets to me every time.  A real stand out on L.A., and I love that album (well, most of it anyway).

That whole album rules for the most part.
Makes M.I.U. look really bad.

i really liked all the session tapes of that song....more so than the completed song on l.a.

I've always liked "Love Surrounds Me" way more but "Baby Blue" is a good song too.

Ya I don't really understand why fans don't like the M.I.U. Album or L.A. (Light Album). My favorites are: Good Timin, the 1980 knebworth live version of Lady Lynda, Love Surrounds Me, Baby Blue & Shortenin' Bread.
And from M.I.U: She's Got Rhythm, Come Go With Me, Peggy Sue, My Diane & Match Point of Our Love. How could anybody who loves the beach boys not love these songs? They are prolly for the more hardcore fans..

Baby Blue is amazing. In fact I clicked this prepared to be all angry at u as I thought you were gonna say Baby Blue was in fact shite. Which no right thinking person ever said, ever.

If you listen to the whole of LA, it's a nice experience. However, outside of the Dennis tunes, there's really nothing you would pick out individually to listen to imo.

I think Baby Blue is....not anything special. I hope one day to "get it". Let me get a running head start before the rocks start coming towards my skull....

L.A. is an underrated thing, sure nuff yes it is, like the Poll Tax.

Baby Blue is probably my favorite song ever. It's the last song I want to hear right before I die. So much beauty...

One of the songs that makes me want to scream about how much I love The Beach Boys..

Does that make sense? Not really

I feel like LA (and this song in particular) get the shaft undeservedley....but MIU is probably amongst the worst 3 albums of their career.

One of the main reasons for L.A. (Light Album)'s criticism, for me anyway, is that Brian Wilson isn't on the album. Yes, I know he wrote "Good Timin". I don't share the criticism of M.I.U. I think it is a very "Brian" album. Granted, there is a shortage of great songs on there, but I think the vocals (especially Brian's) are strong and I like the VARIETY of different songs, especially on Side B. Also while not a great song, I wish "Our Team" would've made the cut.

EDIT: I forgot why I originally posted. I always wondered why Dennis didn't somehow work "Baby Blue" into Pacific Ocean Blue. Maybe he needed Carl's part to complete the song but didn't want it (Carl's part/voice) on the solo album?

Maybe it's just because it's unreleased, but I've always preferred the version with the whistling in the middle to the one with Dennis' vocal part.

As for L.A., while I think it falls significantly short of being a great album, it is certainly part of a whole different class than M.I.U. or Keepin' The Summer Alive.  It's nowhere near as good as Love You or even That's Why God Made The Radio to my mind, though.

I love Baby Blue and I love LA (Light Album). It's not perfect, it's not a classic but even the junk on it is good junk.

Probably my favorite Dennis Wilson song.

To me it's easily their last great album, even though I agree with SJS it could've used a lot more input from BW. They probably should've added "California Feelin'" and even "Calendar Girl". Seems weird to me that Bruce Johnston didn't press for more BW material. Or did Brian himself veto his songs off the album? Anyway, as a whole it may not be quite as good as Love You but personally I think it's a much better album than anything that came afterwards, including TWGMTR (which I enjoyed, mind you!).

It's the Carl songs and HCTN that let LA down. And shortenin bread actually

Should qualify I'm not including Angel Come Home in that, fantastic song

Baby Blue is better than any other song than any other member of the group (yup, including Brian) produced in the late '70's. I hope we get the lovely demo version with the whistling on MIC (especially as we were denied it on Bambu).

Have to say I really don't think the whistling worked...in this case the released version is utterly perfect. First time I heard the boot I was like. "never gonna need to listen to that again". The whistling is kind of out of tune. Makes the song less of a blissful experience.

Ditto.

Love 'Baby Blue', one of Dennis's finest ballads.

If they had cut out the dross and put in some of the better outtakes (Go and Get the Girl, It's a Beautiful Day, California Feelin') they might have made 2 excellent albums out of those 3 -- KTSA, MIU, and LA.

"Baby blue" is a great song! Although if you look at it theoretically there's nothing about it, no highlights, no hooks, no nothing. In fact you might call it not only "simpel" but "unfiinished". But for some strange reason it works. My only complaint is - as with the whole L.A. album - that the sound is so flat or sterile or whatever the right description is

I'm with you on the last two (though "Day" was cut after L.A. came out) but "Go and Get That Girl" -- really?  Catchy, but it's '70s cheese at its cheesiest.  L.A., for all its faults (I love it, personally) was a much classier effort than that.

I love Baby Blue - Carl's vocal makes the song so complete.  Dennis at his best!

The song that made me fall in love with the whole Dennis Wilson thing...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

THAT version is most definitely unfinished...a rough mix with a very rough Carl lead, no backup vocals and no Dennis vocal at all!  Glad we have it on boots, but don't expect an official release ever...if there ever is another Caribou release of Dennis material, I'm sure Hanlon would remix "Baby Blue" from scratch. 

Baby Blue - one of my all time favorite Dennis songs. When LA. Light came out, that's the song I kept lifting the needle and going back to. The part where it goes, "Late at night when the whoooole world's sleeping, I think of you" still kills me every time. Just a great, emotional song. That one and "Love Surrounds Me" were the last ones Dennis contributed before he died.

Too great for being on such an inconsistent album. Also the mixing of the song took away many vocal harmonies and the harp part. Really disappointed with that decision.

.....sick bitchin'!!

 :thumbsup

baby blue is-sublime

One could say "Baby Blue" saved my marriage.

Several years ago, when my wife and I had just been dating a few months, we were lying in bed, about to go to sleep when the phone rang. It was my ex-girlfriend. "Hi-iiiiiiiii!! Just thought I'd........". It wasn't the first time the psycho-hose-beast had pulled this particular desperate maneuver, and now it was really getting old. My girlfriend/(future)wife had had enough at this point and grew very silent. I knew my pleading and persuasion were getting me nowhere, so I just got up and walked to the next room and sat down at my keyboard. Without thinking very much, I just started playing "Baby Blue". Needless to say, that song that clearly came straight from Dennis Wilson's heart, touched my wife's heart, and she didn't break up with me that night. She later told me that she was very close to calling it quits after that phone call.

 We are about to celebrate our 7th anniversary and we have been blessed with a beautiful little girl that is about to turn three and has gorgeous blue eyes just like her mother.

So, thank you, Dennis.

Gregg, I'm sure Dennis would be honored.

Congrats, Gregg!   :)