The Smiley Smile Message Board

Do you have some songs or albums that took a while for you to be able to fully enjoy them? For instance I knew about Pet Sounds for a long time, but I didn't see its greatness. A few years later I listened to it again and I loved it. As far as songs go, I used to think that Be With Me was boring. I'm listening to it right now and I finally can see its greatness.

Holland, for the longest time.

I didn't like BB85 for the longest time (except for Getcha Back which I always loved). My biggest problem with the album was the production. After ignoring it for about 20 years I finally find myself enjoying it (including the synthy production). 'Crack At Your Love' found itself in my regular BB playlists. I'm wondering if Party will ever kick my ass, because it's the only BB album from the 60s I don't particularly care for (except for the awesome packaging...my copy still has the cut-out cards intact).

I gotta admit that Pet Sounds took a long time for me to get into.  It wasn't until I heard the stereo mix that I could fully appreciate the depth of the arrangements, and it's been a favorite of mine ever since.

Love You----and it hasn't finished growing on me yet. So this post is perhaps a trifle premature...

That said, things are now looking really promising, thanks in part to this board. :=) 

Love You and especially Smiley Smile. Love 'em both a lot now.

LA, KTSA, BB85, SIP

As an adult, everything other than Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds through Surf's Up output took me a while to appreciate, because in adulthood I came to the Beach Boys as if there were a secret genius hiding in plain sight amongst the cheesiest band on the planet. That was my mindset. So I read about Pet Sounds, bought, and loved it. I read about Smile, found the various parts of it that were around in the late '90s, and worshipped it. As I did so, I learned more about Wilson's music, his style, and found his other music of that period impressive.

But the rest of it--either his music from earlier and later or the other guys' from anytime--took a lot longer to appreciate and love. For the earlier music, the problem was the aforementioned bias. I was spending far too much time being hipster-cool and far too little listening and just enjoying. For the other guys' stuff, the problem for me was that I was listening to it for Brian Wilson, having not really learned to listen for the good in what I was hearing rather than looking for what I wanted to hear. (This new approach has actually brought me tremendous pleasure from an enormous amount of music: simply listening to music on its terms.)

So from "I Get Around" to "It's OK" to "Surfer Girl" to "Slip On Through," pretty much everything except Brian Wilson in that sliver of time took me a while.

I must admit that it took me a long time to appreciate friends and holland. I still don't appreciate bb85 or ktsa

It took a good long time for me to fall in love with 'Shut Down Vol. 2,' but after repeated listens I finally began to really appreciate it.

Just about every album has at least one song that has grown on me. As albums, Wild Honey, Friends and Love You have grown on me to where I like them even more than Pet Sounds.  Holland and Smiley are up there as well. I don't dislike KTSA or 85 as much as I used to.

Beach Boys: None, I like(d) every song they ever did to some extent.

Non-Beach Boys: Growing up, my parents used to play Frank Sinatra records which I didn't "get". I remember watching one of his TV specials and saying to my Mom and Dad, "What's so great about this guy?" Boy, was I a jerk.

The Beach Boys stuff I love - pretty much everything from '63-73, plus Love You, LA and '85 - I liked on first listen and have liked ever since. I find their music pretty immediate, I haven't had to really let any of it grow on me because I find I've liked it from the first listen. The stuff that hasn't had that effect on me - MIU or KTSA - I still don't particularly rate.

I remember being very disappointed when I first bought the SS/WH 2-fer back in the 90's upon first listen. Within a few days of repeated listenings, it became my most played cd for a while ("duh!" to self). There are still a few songs on WH that I just don't get ("A Thing Or Two", "How She Boogalooed It" and even the title track come to mind).

I really didn't get Love You when I first heard it but it also became one of my favorite albums. Same with Pet Sounds, Surf's Up, Carl & The Passions, etc. This music grows on you and then never goes away.

Friends and Love You

Holland and CATP

One day they both just seemed to click with me

Unlike Friends or Love You, Wild Honey took me a long time to appreciate. It's now one of my favorites.

Can't get into KTSA and don't plan to.

See, it took one listen to the SS/WH two-fer - which I'd bought on a whim, having been taken by the amazing cover art - to convert me to a BB super-fan pretty much overnight. I distinctly remember sitting listening to Vegetables, then Falls Breaks..., then She's Goin' Bald, and loving what I was hearing more and more with every passing minute.

Marcella and a Wild Honey spring to mind

I think the SS/WH twofer suffers from bad liner notes totally downplaying the music's overall brilliance.

Wow, funny you mention that. Couldn't agree more!

I've often thought many of the late 60s/early 70s twofers had substandard liner notes, but Smiley Smile/Wild Honey has to be one of the worst offenders. There are a number of negative asides regarding the songs and production, and how far short they fall of the high standards of Pet Sounds etc. I feel almost like they're apologizing to me for having sold me the music.

When I first heard Marcella on the Vol 3 of Greatest Hits (best of the Brother Years), I didn't instantly love it...it sounded really odd and weird to me, especially after Til I Die and Surf's Up...but after hearing a live version, and listening to the "one arm over my shoulder" section a few times, I started to love it!

To be continued....

Agreed! David Leaf-penned if I remember rightly? Very annoying. The dismissal of Mt Vernon in the Holland sleeve notes grates on me as well... Imagine buying a Beatles CD and having liner notes which belittle the music.

I'm still not convinced that David Leaf is actually a Beach Boys fan.

I guess I saw it differently.  I thought it was just being honest.

He seems to have a barely-concealed grievance with every single member of the band bar Brian.

That puts it kindly to say the very least. I think his printed bile has done much to ruin the whole experience of the Beach Boys...meaning more than "just Brian's group" or "Brian and the no-talents."

  Friends & Pacific Ocean Blue

Getcha Back grew on me after I finally got over it having an "80's sound".  (I really don't like most 80's music.)

Conversely, I "grew out of" Holland.  It just kind of bores me, and I always find myself wishing I was listening to another BB's album.

There's several, but the one that comes to mind immediately is Steamboat. I first heard it around 1994 or so, didn't "get it" until maybe 2010 or 11.

David Leaf did not write the liner notes for Holland. He was one of the first positive reviewers of Pacific Ocean Blue.

Yeah, I didn't say David wrote the liner notes for Holland. T'was Scott McCaughey.

And don't forget Tom Petty's backhanded "appreciation" in the same booklet.

Grew on me after a while:
Heads You Win, Tales I Lose
Noble Surfer
In The Parking Lot
Finders Keepers
Where Has Love Been
Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long
Transcendental Meditation
Pacific Ocean Blues
Looking Back With Love
First Love
How She Boogled it
Don't Back Down
Steamboat
The Girl From New York City
Blueberry Hill
When Girls Get Together
Talk to Me
At My Window
Hold on Dear Brother
Sunshine
Don't Go Near the Water
Leaving the Town
Summer of Love
Good Time
Take a Load off Your Feet
Rock and Roll to the Rescue
Sumahama
East Meets West
Nothing But Love
It's Trying to Say
Oh Darling
Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight
South America
The whole 1985 album

Agree with these. Deleted the ones that I liked immediately ("At My Window") & others that didn't grow on me at all (e.g. "Talk to Me").

It may well be my favorite AC tune. What's about it you found complex to get into?

For me, it was Baby Blue. I first had to get over the critical slams L.A. got.

The golden age of my BBs obsessiveness was around 1988 to 1991, between the ages of 17 and 20. A couple of years ago I found myself revisiting everything as I went on a mission to collect everything on vinyl both as original pressings and the best quality reissues. I think the one and only song I'd really changed my mind about was Pom Pom Playgirl, which the first time around I thought a terrible song. Now I just think it's got terrible lyrics.

Salt Lake City, that one REALLY grew up on me. Specially after hearing the instrumental version.

Albums: BBs 85. I wonder if it's gonna happen with Party!, I don't like it at all.

You kidding? Mike's lyrics are great!

She doesn't even know why she's waving her hands/
She's just thinking 'bout the boys sitting up in the stands

She's a doll and she knows it and she thinks her face/
Can get her anyone and anything in any place

Brilliant, and they fit the music and melody to perfection!!

Smiley, and nothing else comes close.

First time I heard Pet Sounds, I was in my first year at the Uni. It just resonated with where I was at the time.

I think it was the fact that the rest of Adult Child had either songs id heard on the boxset before (H.E.L.P., Games, Still Dream, It's Over) or the "infamous" big band tunes, early Shortenin Bread, Tomboy, & Everybody Wants to Live....so stuff like Life is for the Living, Deep Purple, and the titles I just mentioned were peaked my interest...before possessing an AC boot, i hadn't heard of It's Trying to Say or Lines...so the songs I had heard of from liner notes, books, bios had really intrigued me and I wanted to hear them asap. You know, you read about Brian's health obsessions and he didn't write too many songs in the late 70s, Life is for the Living really interested me...I'd always heard about Brian's "cigarette song" (everybody wants to live) and I obviously had to hear it!

So since I hadn't heard of It's Trying to Say and so I wasn't as interested....but i never hated the song, I just wasn't as interested. But listening over and over, the lyric is so appropriate for Dennis, I love his and the backing vocals, and I just love the beginning lyric, it's so "everyday Brian," I often think about those lyrics as I do normal average everyday things.
So I guess I'm saying I thought the song was ok from the beginning, but over time, it's made its way to one of my top favorite unreleased BB tunes.   

Smiley Smile, ESPECIALLY after it was released in stereo.

Beach Boys (85) weirdly grew on me the other night while I was filling out college applications.  Something about how memorable some of the songs are and how I can easily sing along with them.  Granted, it's no where near an artistic venture as Love You was, but it still has that enjoyable synthy feeling to it.

When I first heard Endless Summer I thought "The Warmth of the Sun" and "In My Room" sounded like dirges compared to the ballads on Pet Sounds. Didn't take long to change my mind though. 

The only other example I can think of is "Break Away" which I initially thought was a nothing song. Now one of my favourites.

I have to say after listening obsessively to these guys for decades, that that nearly every album has eventually grown on me.  It seems I'm constantly rediscovering and hearing nuances, hearing layers of sound I missed along the way.  Especially on albums I had neglected having prematurely decided were of inferior quality.    currently?  I'm finding audio gems,albeit semi precious, on albums such as 15 big ones, KTSA, LA, and such.   Increased Access to backing tracks and vocals only tracks over the past couple of decades has sharpened my appreciation of tunes I hadn't fully appreciated.   go back and listen to the intro to Blueberry hill and then listen again for the sax duets in the background later in the song....
.......that is a nice but easily missed detail that highlights Brian's production and arrangement talent of  a particular era..
Also, just today, I noticed a striking similarity between guitar progressions on Little Girl IOK and Trombone Dixie....
Constant new stuff to be appreciated and rediscovered for the first time.   this music is a well that does not go dry.

The only song that grew on me is Long Promised Road. That is, I disliked "When Girls Get Together" on KTSA, but really liked it in the context of the so-called "Landlocked" boot.

Pet Sounds and Sunflower did grow a little bit, but only from a high niveau to a slightly higher one. SD/SN grew when I found me a track sequence that works better with me.

Despite endless tries, the Reilly era albums and Love You never grew on me. Just can't connect with those.

Micha, I recommend you grow a really thick beard and walk around in a bathrobe for a couple of weeks. Picking up a smoking habit might be helpful as well.

All in the name of getting in the right mood for Love You.

Not to be keen on LY isn't a big loss. Don't listen to these advices, Micha, I'm sure you'll eventually grow on liking it.

Some of Your Love is going round in my head.  I didn't care for it before.  Now, suddenly, I guess I do, or did already subconsciously.

I still have trouble with BB85.   I stall at the strong 80s production.  It sounds more generically '80s than it does Beach Boys.  The first time I listened to it, which was in this century, it felt like a trip down memory lane, despite the fact I hadn't heard any of the tracks before (barring Getcha Back).

After many years, Santa Ana Winds hit me big time, inexplicably.  A 'road to Damascus' type thing.

Several songs on BB85 - 'It's Gettin' Late', 'Maybe I Don't Know', 'Where I Belong', 'I'm So Lonely' and 'It's Just A Matter of Time' - saved the album from never getting listened to for me. When I first got the album in 2000, I retched at the bad production and cheesy songs, but I really started to like these songs - and only these 5 songs. I still think the rest of the album belongs in the trash.

I used to ignore 'Love Surrounds Me' and 'Angel Come Home' on LA because I though they were dull as hell. Now I think they're pretty damn good.
 

Love You was oddly enough the album that really got me intrigued to hear more Beach Boys. My friends and I would listen to Pet Sounds in high school, but I wasn't captured by it for a long time, aside from God Only Knows, which I couldn't listen to because it would send me into hysterics, as much as I adored it. It took me til last year to really wrap my head around the depth of that album. It took a long time for me to understand it, emotionally and musically.

There are honestly quite a few Beach Boys albums I've yet to hear... I guess I'm kind of savoring them.

"Pet Sounds".

I was 14 the first time I heard it and I could appreciate the musical sophistication but I just could not relate to the lyrical themes. At all.

Fast forward a year (in which a lot can -and did- happen) to the next time I listened to it -and it was the difference between night and day. It all made perfect sense to me.

Also took me a while to warm up to the albums "Wild Honey" and "Friends" but now I regard them as fantastic components of my favorite BB era (1965-1973).

Yeah BB85 weirdly grew on me last week as I was listening while I read.  It actually began to distract me from my reading.

'Kokomo' is growing on me big time as we speak. It's such a lame, catchy, cliché of a song. I'm starting to really, really like it in spite or maybe because of that. Dammit. :)

Well, I did like 'Kokomo' a lot when it came out, back when I was like 8 or 9 years old. I wasn't a fan of the group yet, really; 'Kokomo' was hot more than a decade before I discovered Pet Sounds and became a hardcore lifelong Beach Boys fan. I've had trouble with that song since getting into the lesser know high quality side of the band from the late '60s through the '70s. But you know, if I like stuff like 'It's Gettin' Late' and 'It's Just A Matter of Time', then I should like 'Kokomo'. And now I do. A part of me is screaming, why? It's so stupid!! But screw it. I really like 'Kokomo' (particularly Carl's parts on the chorus...just wonderful).

Funny, to me it was the other way 'round. I was incredibly disenchanted by GOK - "so this is a song lotta musicians cited their favorite, the most beautiful ballad? Wow." Now I get what they talked about.