The Smiley Smile Message Board

On my iTunes, I rearranged the second side of Sunflower. Personally, I thought that Dennis Wilson's "Forever" was too beautiful and epic not to close the album, so I put the second half into three 'movements' ala the Smile Sessions, consisting of two songs each.  Here's how it went:

      (the string-backed ballads)
7. Tears in the morning
8. Our Sweet love
     (the experimental tracks)
9. At My Window
10. Cool, Cool Water
    (The epic romantic songs)
11. All I Wanna Do
12. Forever

I personally think this order makes for a more cohesive listen. With this arrangement, Dennis' magnificent voice opens and closes what is possibly the most beautiful record of 1970.

R.I.P. Dennis Wilson

Yeah, sometimes I rearrange the track order. I also swap certain songs over to different albums. I like having I Went To Sleep and I'd Love Just Once To See You on my Friends LP Playlist, and A Thing Or Two and Sail Plane Song on my Smiley Smile LP Playlist, and Good Vibrations as my Pet Sounds closer.

Yeah, every time I listen to an album. ;D :police:

I never rearrange them or anything... usually when I'm listening to music I get more wrapped up in what the song meant to whoever's singing it or performing it.  So I'd never rearrange the album, since that's how they wanted it released.  Must be a reason, however trivial!

Frequently

This topic (rearranging tracks) comes up once in a while...Sometimes there is a song or two that really sticks out (of place) and I'll perseverate over it!

The two main ones for me are on my two favorite and most played Beach Boys' albums - Pet Sounds and Love You. On Pet Sounds, I always felt "You Still Believe In Me" and "That's Not Me" belonged as "later" songs. With lyrics like "and AFTER all I've done to you", "I WENT through all kinds of changes", and "I'm a little bit scared cause I HAVEN'T BEEN HOME in a long time", well, they sound like Side 2 songs.

On Love You, "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" is the perfect FIRST slow song, maybe fitting as Song 3 or 4 on Side 1. And, after all these years, it still bothers me that "Mona" (enough enough enough of going steady; could we could we could we get married...) comes BEFORE "Honkin' Down The Highway" (her folks told me that she's lonely; takin' one little inch at a time...) :o ??? ;D 

Welcome to this forum, DrZombi!
Looks like you came in with a bang! Great thread, and that track-listing is something I can probably agree with.

Looking forward to your future contributions, and am quite impressed by this one.

And it's always great to see Dennis fans around here, he was a true legend, one in a million!

NO......

I never rearrange the tracklisting to an album...

to me, the work of art is presented 'as is'.....

I mean, I could not imagine listening to 'pet sounds' or 'pepper' any other way.....or 'sunflower' or whatever great album..

it would take away the enjoyment for me.....  I do love the old 'album' format.... over the 'singles' era of today......

RickB

Yes, of course, why not? Though my rearranging doesn't depend on the lyrics like Sheriff John said, nor I do it based on the musical content. I just get the tracks in chaotic order, Winamp is a good help. That said, you can't beat classic song line-up.

The only album I've ever altered is "Summer In Paradise". I discovered that by replacing each track with one from "Sunflower", the album has a much better flow.

'summer in paradise' is not THAT bad........

yeah 'sunflower' kicks ass, but 'SIP' is OK.....

some good tunes there, strange things happen, lahaina aloha, summer in paradise....

I'm tired of hearing how 'sh*t' this album is....

I think it's a great listen........... the artwork alone....

give it a break

RickB

On a postcard from California, I always switch honkin down the highway and drivin.

And another thing!!!! :-D

"Slip On Through" (My love is growing, our love is growing...) two songs BEFORE "Got To Know The Woman" (I just met a woman on way home she just blew my mind; got to know the woman...)  ;D :police:

EDIT: After further thought, forget about this one. I mean, this is Dennis Wilson we're talking about.

Last millennium, using two tape decks I revised the track order of Pet Sounds to form a coherent(ish) storyline. Had to excise "SJB", of course.

What was it, you ask ? Fine question - can't recall in full, but one sequence that sticks was "WIBN/LGAFAW/DT(PYHOMS)". I believe the first track was "IWFTD" and the coda was "IJWMFTT". Might try to do it again, now I think on it.  :)

 :lol :lol :lol


You're right... about the artwork. It really is quite beautiful. Not to mention the obvious (Sunflower kicks arse!)

Unfortunately, that's where my agreement with you ends.

I tried this, too, mainly to include "Good Vibrations", but I also wanted to go with a storyline. While I like the sequence, I was/am never really comfortable with it because the original sequence is so ingrained in my mind after so many years. For what it's worth, this is the sequence:

01  Good Vibrations
02  Here Today
03  Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
04  Wouldn't It Be Nice
05  Let's Go Away For Awhile
06  God Only Knows
07  I'm Waiting For The Day
08  I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
09  That's Not Me
10  You Still Believe In Me
11  I Know There's An Answer
12  Sloop John B
13  Pet Sounds
14  Caroline, No

 

i could not agree with you more. There are some albums I'd like to pare down to an EP or even a 45, but rearrange the tracklisting? Never!

Someday I want to try ripping out chapters of my favorite books and pasting them into a notebook in a new sequence just to see what it's like.

I rearrange all track orders post-Today and pre-CATP. And SIP and TWGMTR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunates)

Bad analogy. You could rearrange the story order of any book that contains a collection of independent shorter stories. Like "The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes", which IIRC has the story order in the order the stories were published in a magazine.

Shuffling the chapters of a novel makes as much sense as making a book of, say, the best chapters from all Balzac novels.

You couldn't shuffle the track order of BWPS - just the order of the movements, if you'd want to.

Does playing an album backward in search of Satanic messages count as rearranging or reordering an albums track list? (I'm kidding. I never actually did such a thing. Not with The Beach Boys anyway. :lol)

In the past I've used Nearest Faraway Place as a transition song on comps between the more complex songs of PetSounds and Smile and a segue to lighter stuff beginning with Do it Again.

As for rearranging a single lp, I've done this most often with 20-20.  Leaving out Bluebirds and smile stuff and adding favorites from Sunflower.

It's really endless fun mixing up beachboys output and related material.  It's fun to mix Am Spring withBeachboys versions of some of the same tunes, for example.

Exactly, it's FUN. That's the key. It's not something to get serious and bent out of shape over. It's something diehards do to "break up things" after listening to some albums for 50+ years. It's actually a harmless hobby, especially in the age we are living in when one can easily (re)arrange anything with the simple click of a mouse.

hahaha!!!  Yes! Exactly!!  it's the same difference!

Good One.

RickB

It's a very awkward analogy. Let me explain: books have plot, main & 2ndary characters, fabula & such. If you change the sequence, it won't make any sense. Long players, on the contrary, are just a mixture of songs glued together regardless of what the song's about, whether track 5 is a logical follower of events in track 4 or not, so they already have no specific order. Yes, there's a thing called "the concept album" but we're talking here about the general idea of LP. Like Sheriff John & donald, I also think rearranging is fun & nothing to be strict about. Doesn't mean I can't play the album in its original sorted way sometime.

At the end of the day, though, I think you are just being nostalgic & feel like the album loses its authentic sound & charm. That's fine & perfectly understandable.