The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/08/29/216805909/the-beach-boys-perfect-imperfect-box-set

He gets a few things wrong, but the set seems to have opened at least one set of ears ...

Good review. His experience is near identical to mine in how the GV box set brought me irrevocably into Beach Boys fandom.

Nice to see a review that actually contradicts the notion that the box only appeals to diehards!

The Professor started a thread an hour ago for critical reviews of MIC, beginning with this one: will mods combine and please assist?

I don't love the GOK instrumental break either. There, I said it.

Good review. I used to be one of those people who liked, didn't love, the BBs and didn't get all the fuss. Almost everyone I know feels that way. It's interesting to begin to see them in a new way, warts and all.

I'm debating whether to buy the box set. I guess I probably have most of the songs, but I want the rarities.

I always thought the GOK instrumental break/bridge was the highlight of the song. It would at least be incredibly repetitive without it. It's sometimes brought up as proof of Brian's "genius" because of the mentally handicapped person rhythmic bit, though in listening to the session tapes, it sounds like a studio musician's suggestion and not entirely Brian's idea.

I don't think anyone has doubted that if casual fans hear this set that they will find a lot to enjoy. I think the only question is how many are going to be willing to pay for that privilege...

As I recall, it was actually Bruce's idea to make it staccato.

I thought it was Don Randi's suggestion.

I think it was on the Pet Sounds podcast that I heard Bruce mention it... I could be wrong though.

During the GOK session, the bridge section specifically, Don Randi can be heard suggesting "Why don't we do it short?"

Just listened to the PS podcast, no mention by Bruce re: the bridge.

Yeah, IIRC, the voice has a New York accent--"shawt"--so, not Bruce.

I stopped reading right after he criticized 'God Only Knows'.

A revealing technique for evaluating reviewers is to count up the number of times that "I" appears in the text. Or, instead of a strict count, the percentage of paragraphs in which it appears. Pretty sure that this guy is a good bit over the acceptable thresholds....

There were a number of strange perceptions floating around in that review, but the one that produced the most head-scratching was the one where it was claimed that "Sail On Sailor" stood out as a great song because it was surrounded by material that purportedly demonstrated the "drift" of the band. That would be Disc 4, where SOS is sequenced as follows:

Feel Flows
WIBNTLA
Marcella
All This is That
SOS
The Trader
Californ-i-a

That's an eclectic group of songs, but it sure doesn't seem like SOS is head and shoulders over what surrounds it. It's a fine sequence of tunes from a time frame that deserves more respect and admiration for the quality and range that the band achieved.

Perhaps if the reviewer listens a few more times to that portion of Disc 4, he'll "get the drift."

IMO, Marcella and California are overrated and Feel Flows, WIBNTLA, All This Is That and Trader are all the type of songs that just need a little time to grow on you. SOS on the other hand is a very accessible rock song that you can probably hum after the very first time you ever heard it. If you hear all these songs for the first time, I can defintely see how SOS stands out.

That might be stretching things a little. If that were true then it would have been a bigger hit perhaps.

I agree with Don. That particular comment contextualizing SOS in the review was its weakest section, really otiose and inconsistent with the overall praise of the collection. To praise the "warts and all" aspects means to be able to sit there and listen to "Solar System" with mouth agape and to apprehend it as every bit as meaningful as Surfers Rule and TWOTS. I started a thread on published reviews of MIC (beginning with but not restricted to the NPR blog), but out of respect for Wirestone I am happily commenting here as well.

Good to see you here, Prof. I think the reviewer is a solid pro, and that his general point is valid--but I think you did a better job of making it in what you just wrote than he did. Really well stated, and I agree--through I'd rather see it be "Roller Skating Child" instead of "Solar System" (particularly if they're going to dodge the bullet and not put "Hey Little Tomboy" on the set!).  >:D

It's highly unlikely that we'll be able to create the precise "lab conditions" needed to determine if first-time listeners respond most favorably to SOS, so I would expect anyone reviewing the box set to already be familiar with the major portions of the BB's "canon." Aside from WIBNTLA, all of the others are reasonably well-known. And in that context, these are all fine tunes. I love SOS as much as anyone, and I might well agree that it's the "best" track of the ones listed--but I don't see it mopping the floor with the tracks that surround it.