The Smiley Smile Message Board

To add to the Happiest and Saddest songs how about the most annoying ?

Little Children is at the top of my list.

I guess it's a fandom thing too, I mean I could happily never hear Fun, Fun, Fun or I Get Around or Surfin' U.S.A. - and naturally, Kokomo - for the rest of my life. Nature of the fan to wish those spots were taken up with lesser-known classics. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that. But I guess that's side-stepping the point a little. Even Hey Little Tomboy, Smart Girls and Wrinkles are weird and idiosyncratic enough to warrant interest, even if it is largely rooted in scorn. What annoys me as a fan are the played out hits that can be easily re-rendered with little feeling or effort. But - of course I know they're there because they're crowd pleasers. And hey, when you're there in the crowd it's easy to get swept up in them.

Did I have a point?

Student demonstration time and most of the SIP cd...as far as how the songs are mixed.. and those strange comedy tracks they had on their early albums...especially the one on "Today" (Bull sessions) that one doesn't even make any sense.. and most of the surfin instrumentals on the "Surfin USA" album...

duh duh duh
Duh Duh
DUH DUH DUH
Duh Duh

duh duh duh
Duh Duh
DUH DUH DUH
Duh Duh

Loo-ee Loo-ee
Duh Duh
DUH DUH DUH
Duh Duh

Mee Gotta Goh.
Duh Duh
DUH DUH DUH
Duh Duh

Looee Looee.. ... ..



It's the 3rd door down the hall...on your right.

GAWD!!! I loathed THAT.  Especially released, as it was, HOT on the heals of the Kingsmen reinventing the song and making it EVER-SO cool. :hat  And it futher, then, 'qualified' as a "Best of" song HOW??? :p.  Damn!!!

[Yet the original Richard Berry version sounds just FINE.]


And then to further FILL the album [SD-V2] with Denny's Drums... :drum  If 'they'da put Keep An Eye On Summer on side one along with Pom Pom Playgirl...and dropped Cassius vs. Sonny onto side 2... :o ...

One of the weakest early albums.  Looee Looee still annoys with a vengence...51 FULL years later. >:(

Me gotta go.

I really, really, really don't get the hate for Student Demonstration Time.

I think listeners feel could be because Mike Love's nasal vocal delivery does not sit well with the filter Desper puts him in (that makes him sound like he is talking through a megaphone).  He sounds so nasally that it annoys people... including me.

Is the remark about Louie Louie a joke?? I take it over the kingsmen ANY DAY, WAAAY more true to richard berrys. And the other calling funFunfun and surfin usa annoying wtf???

It's a low spot for me on the album. Never really liked it. Same goes with Don't Go Near the Water.

I agree SDT is a low point on Surf's Up. DGNTW, on the other hand, has alwys been one of my faves. Great backing track and some wonderful singing, especially on the coda.

It's Not Easy Being Me
It Ain't Necessarily So

Very few annoying songs in the catalog. Those are two that pop into my head (I know that one is unreleased).

For me, Bluebirds Over the Mountain. I always skipt that one! Nothing even remotely interesting about it and the production makes it sound pretty annoying overall.

Also, Belles of Paris. (I do like Bells of Christmas, however!)

Wouldn't It Be Nice is super fuckin' annoying.


It's so well written, catchy, and with such great production that it's constantly overplayed and mentioned any time some plebeian music fan mentions favorite Beach Boys songs.

NOT a joke Kook.  The Beach Boys bothering to record it and release it in early 1964...10 minutes after the Kingsmen took it to the top was a joke.  To go back and try to Richard Berrify it was not a good idea.  It was...as the thread suggests...annoying.  VERY annoying.  And 2 1/2 years later...there it was being annoying all over again. >:(

The ONLY reason they recorded it was Brian did NOT have enough new songs to release another album right then. The Beatles and the British Invasion were just exploding and someone/somewhere felt they needed to rush release some kind of 'line of defence'?  Not good enough.  Fun x3 was all the line they needed THAT day.  It was important to sound cool and ready, willing and able.  You know...move forward with something capable of contending with.  duh duh duh/Duh Duh.  didn't accomplish THAT.

DUH!!! ;)

The version of Bluebirds Over The Mountain from the 1983 Rarities album with that loud TICK TOCK TICK TOCK TICK TOCK percussion. Drives me looney tunes! The normal version from 20/20 doesn't bug me in the least, I like it quite fine. I just cannot deal with the Rarities version. Also Everyone's In Love With You annoys me too.

Southbay Surfers

Sumahama.

Neither do I, instead I find both "The Private Life Of Bill And Sue" and "Summer Of Love" unlistenable.

To my ears it starts with Berry's version, moves to The Kingsmen's (my all-time favourite record) and then back to Berry's.

All i can think of right now as being... well, more embarrassing than annoying, is the cringeworthy argument at the start of "The TM Song".     

"Phew... it's time for me to meditate." Classic stuff!

You're So Good to Me and Let's Go Away for Awhile, the two songs from the classic Brian era I find annoying as hell.

I agree.  Also Rock and Roll Music.  Blech.

Another one I forgot to mention... Oh Darlin'. I hate the chorus. "Oh Da-ha-ha-ha-ling". Blah.

Rock and roll music for sure. A big mystery why they play it live.

anything Joe Thomas is involved with.

This thread is annoying.

never did like 'bluebirds over the mountain'....... one song I always skip.

RickB

I don't like Foskett's falsetto in the chorus of Shelter.

Me either, but then I don't get you hating on Fun Fun Fun and I Get Around. Most of the hate for SDT is not understanding the premise of the song which has been discussed here ad-nauseum. Mostly, though it just comes down to taste. Summer of Love and When Girls Get Together are two that I most dislike.

Aww I don't hate them. They're great songs. I've just heard 'em enough.

for me not liking SDT isn't about the actual sing itself, it's the PRODUCTION of the song, the loud annoying voice amplified so loud that it actually hurts my ears and the loud sirens at the same time become grating to me..if the mix were better than I think the song would have been better..

There are a lot of bad songs in the 70s and 80s but I am more annoyed by some of.the overplayed songs that have hurt the Beach Boys credibility long term:

Surfin USA
Little Deuce Coup
Be True to Your School
Babarann
and most recently, That's Why God Made the Radio.

You do realize that the amplified voice is supposed to be so, as the story is told through the use of a megaphone. That and the sirens are done for effect. The mix is exactly as it should be.

Why are the songs annoying from over playing? Shouldn't the annoyance be with yourself for allowing it to happen? It's your fault, you're the one that listened that many times. ;)

If you wrote the same thing about Kokomo I'd be able to see your point (even though personally I like that song too) but the first three songs you mentioned are some of the greatest pop songs by anyone. And how did TWGMTR hurt their 'credibility'? Most people aren't even aware the song exists (in comparison with their bigger hits that is).

I agree.  Ask someone on the street to name a BB song and Surfin USA would be up there, along with Barbarann and LDC (not BTTYS, it's not our kinda thing here in Oz). These songs are how most people identify the BB.  Leave the songs alone in regards to credibility.  It's the actions and antics of some of the band members that have done more damage to that than the songs.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned "Problem Child" but I suppose we'd all like to forget that "Problem Child" ever existed.

Problem Child is a totally guilty pleasure for me. But the "na na na" stuff is SUPER annoying. I wonder whose idea it was to put those on there.

That it reached #38 on the U.S. AC chart is fairly amazing. I like Carl's lead vocal on it, though not so much Mike's. ;)

Catch A Wave
Little Deuce Coupe (And most of the songs from that album)
Fun Fun Fun
Finders Keepers
Heads You Win (Tails I Lose)
Pom Pom Play Girl
Louie Louie
Girls On The Beach
Most of Party!
I Know There's An Answer
With Me Tonight
A Thing Or Two
Do It Again
Our Sweet Love
At My Window
Don't Go Near The Water
Take A Load Off Your Feet
He Come Down
Most of 15 Big Ones
Much of the M.I.U. Album
Sumahama
Most of Keepin' The Summer Alive
Crack At Your Love
California Calling
It's Just A Matter Of Time
Kokomo
Wipe Out
All of SIP
Most of Stars And Stripes, Vol. 1
Isn't It Time
Spring Vacation
Beaches In Mind

Spirit of America (Craig Breedlove deserved something more upbeat)
Transcendental Meditation (maybe the vocals were made annoying on purpose)
Lookin' At Tomorrow (by virtue of the sonic distortion)
Rock 'n Roll Music (it would be ok if Chuck Berry and the Beatles hadn't done it so much better)
Everyone's In Love With You (no, not everyone)
Spring Vacation (by virtue of its lyrics)

I think the production on Student Demonstration Time is outstanding. It's the dumb lyrics that are annoying (the Bachelor of Bullets?).

it goes withou saying that Party, So Tough, 15B.O, MIU, Light album, Keepin the summer alive, Still Cruisin etc are weak, but being that ALL those albums were soley made for contractual obligation it explains it..

The problem with SDT is not the mix -- it's everything. Consider that "Ohio" had addressed the subject and, with considerable strength, became the final word on the topic over a year before The Beach Boys waded in to the mix. Yet while Neil Young's version was cutting and stark ("What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?"), The Beach Boys foray appears to send a message as crafted by a concerned parents brigade ("Stay away when there's a riot going on" - but if you do, don't forget to wear your mitts). The lyrics are appalling - "learned not to say nasty things about Southern policemen's mothers," "the Bachelor of Bullets" - and this is amplified by the fact that they are so clearly crow-barred into a melody for another song. Here, let's turn another classic into a protest song:

You shake the classroom and you rattle the halls
And lots of people making frantic phone calls
This ain't no crime
It's riot time
Goodness gracious great balls of fire!

May I ask, when was the first time that you listened to this song? Back in 1971 no one was saying that the subject was beaten to the punch by some other band. In Philly, in 1971, SDT was played on the radio more than any other track off of the album. My friends, who previously thought the band as uncool, liked this track more than the others on the album. While the song and topic may not hold up well 43 years down the line, it was relevant upon its release.

And may I ask, did you really speak to everyone who listened to the song in 1971?

Don't answer. I don't give a flying f**k if you don't care to have a conversation about it or not. When you answer my questions, I will happily answer yours. No need to be a smartass because I questioned what you wrote. This is a place to converse about such things. Actually, this is more annoying than any song the Beach Boys sang.

If you read what I wrote, I relayed my experience only. I never claimed to "speak to everyone" as you suggest.

This is what you said: "Back in 1971 no one was saying that the subject was beaten to the punch by some other band."

Who did you mean by no one?

Turn of phrase. Did you happen to read the other sentences that I wrote after that one, where I go into more detail?

Also, is there reason why you would rather argue my phrasing than to just be sociable and answer the question that I asked you?

In 1971 the beach boys were trying to reach a wider audience. They were I think trying to reach the counter culture generation, or college age. Trying to get beyond the "surfin" stereotype they unfairly were still carrying. Songs like Don't go near the water, long promised road and Student demonstration time are examples. Adding Blondie and Ricky on their next album as well as the excellent Holland are further examples. Some songs don't stand the test of time 40 years later, student Demonstration time is probably one of those but I would not call it annoying. But I agree this thread is annoying

Jet without wings

Anti-war music was its' own genre. 

Amen!

Good God...


I never argued your phrasing.

Let's end this right here. Let us both use that pretend "Ignore" button. You and I cannot seem to have a conversation. I want to know when you first listened to SDT and you are doing your God-damnedest not to answer it.

Student Demonstration Time is an anti-war song?

Where on earth do you get your facts from?

What were students mainly demonstrating about in the late 60's and early 70's?

The "demonstrations" were anti-war demonstrations.

The song (Ohio) was a great song, but one among many.  

It wasn't a competition among these many songs.  It was a manner of strengthening the fabric of anti-war activism with many voices joining together to turn the tide.  Two years later the war was wound down, in no small part due to the music, media attention, activism and protest.  

A harsh song for a harsh time. Please read what Mr. Desper says in the thread I just bumped on "harsher sound."

Yes, but that doesn't mean the song itself is anti-war. The lyric suggests that demonstrations lead to riots and this is a bad thing.


How many other songs besides Ohio and SDT were about the violence that break out at protests, and specifically centered on the Kent State affair?

x
Wiki classifies it as an "anti-war" song.  It might be a good place to start your research on anti-war songs. 

The song relays that the police cause the riots, not the demonstrators. Peaceful demonstrations being interfered with by the police. That words are answered by police violence.

Which means that we can safely conclude from this that Wiki is wrong.


Good God. This is appalling.

The first verse doesn't suggest that:

"Down to Isla Vista where police felt so harassed/ They called the special riot squad of the L. A. County Sheriff"

But even if the song were against police brutality, it does not follow that it is against the war in Vietnam.

Good God, I just realized who you are. No wonder this thread is going nowhere.

You argue to argue. We have done this dance in the past and this dance is done. :)

I wouldn't say either So Tough or Light Album are weak. Light Album is better than any album after that - except maybe TWGMTR, and So Tough has only one weak song IMO. Of course if you don't care for it, that's fine. But it certainly wasn't a contractual obligation album.

Be True to Your School

Seconded.

All this negativity!  THIS THREAD IS ANNOYING!  >:(

Album version yes.  It was merely an unrealized 'idea'.   Hit Single version.  Absolutely not.  That's a postcard of North America...and an anthem.

If it was new and released this week.  Yes. 

1963?  It was perfection.

Always preferred the album version of Be True to Your School by far. To me, the single version sounds a bit like a novelty song.

+1

The single version is way overrated! Album version all the way.

Student Demonstration Time contains some of music's absolute worst lyrics. just extremely poor taste, judgment and execution.

"bachelor of bullets" Mike? really???
no doubt he was very proud of himself and some of those lines, but it seriously never should have been released or performed, at least without a lyric rewrite. it's a blight on the band's history


funny that Mike was so offended or opposed to the lyrics for Hang On To Your Ego, yet wrote and recorded something as indelicate and insensitive as this sh!t

Pretty much everything on disc 2 of The Smile Sessions. It sounds like a really bad fever dream to me.

Don't get me wrong, I love Heroes & Villains, but those outtakes are just way, way too much.

No agreement, bossaroo.  These lyrics embodied what was going on with student protest in the 60's and 70's, contemporaneous to Carl's CO (Conscientious Objector) military draft status.  The most naive freshman entering college to be, for example, an English major or Education major, got a big slap of reality about the Vietnam War, and that their " education"  would not just come from a book and a lecture.  It was a sort of "Bachelor of Bullets" scenario.  Dramatic, yes, but to drive home a point.  

And, with bomb threats and massive class cancellations, as an almost daily occurrence, one might ask oneself what was the learning curve?  Was it Education for teaching, English, Biology or was it overridden by a building evacuation for a fire or bomb threat or students locking themselves in an administrative building? Personal experience on my end, and likely many others as well.

Comparing the lyrics to Brian's is not fair as Mike's BB experience was a different one with the band, while on the road, with his very outspoken cousin, Carl, risking it all by being a Conscientious Objector.  

They were doing different things and for different purposes, both to be respected.  If you look at it from all perspectives, such as translating the music to the "road and concert delivery, the lyrics did matter." That is where the proverbial "rubber meets the road." If an audience is throwing eggs, because they can't "get" a performance or lyrics, guess who gets them?

And, it disrespects those of us who were part of that experience was educationally formative for us, (whether we marched or just left after class was cancelled and reflected on what they were fighting for and started to become more aware of the news and government) and places the music in the "context of those times" which differs little in scope from the protest that is going on with right now, with regard the reformation of law enforcement policy in the States.

That message is not lost on the baby boomers.  The Beach Boys took the lead from those student activists (those 60's and 70's who did change the world) and created at least that song, accordingly appropriate.  I so respect Mike for hearing those voices. ;)

Remember (Walking in the Sand)

Those odd pitch-shifted (?) "remember" lyrics are so awful. So, so, so annoyingly bad. Are they supposed to remind the listener of anything but The Chipmunks?

You know, I'm to the point now where with more & more people misunderstanding the lyrics, it has me questioning how it was written. I never had an issue with it, because I lived through the time written about. I remember the civil rights and anti-war protests. I understood that the government/police incited the riots, which started out as peaceful demonstrations. I understand how the words of protesters were answered by a hail of bullets and tear gas canisters. A thoughtful reading of the lyric tells you this, but a nonchalant listening may cause a misinterpretation, and apparently it has. ;)

On a lighter note, this is similar to how the meaning of the California Girls lyrics were sometimes misunderstood by listeners.

Drbeachboy - I think you nailed it! We didn't need an explanation because we were living it!  Someone who wasn't around to see the era, would naturally wonder what it all meant! And, why context as to contemporaneous events going on, is so necessary. 

I certainly sympathize with the anti-war protesters and anyone brutalized by the police.
as I said, Mike's lyrics were indelicate and insensitive. and insincere

sometimes he really should have just stuck to writing about girls and cars.

Personally, I don't find "Student Demonstration Time" hard to understand in terms of what it's going for - I just find it to be clumsily, awkwardly written.  (It's not particular to this song - I also find a lot of the other songs from this era, like "Don't Go Near The Water," "Take A Load Off Your Feet," "A Day In The Life Of A Tree," "Long Promised Road," etc. to be on the clumsy, awkward, "trying too hard"/forced side of things, lyrically-speaking.)

That's just coming at it from a writing perspective, not a "you had to be there" perspective.

Twice. Exactly twice I have listened to the second Smile Sessions disc since 2011.  As an aural document to Brian's working methods in 66/67 it's great. As entertaining music it's beyond annoying.

I completely 100% disagree with your assessment. I mean you are welcome to think however you want, but we all don't see it that way. You know, Mike really did stick to writing about what he knows best. No room for growth for Mike. I know, let's keep him pigeon-holed just like the general public has with the him and the band over the years, huh?

Harsh times call for harsh language and harsh sonority.

Read Mr. Desper, above, please.  In the harsher sound thread...on page 3.

The line on good time about falsies with the bad "falsetto" is cringeworthy.     Yech!

I'm with you, Add Some. WHO cares about cheerleaders? JUST ignore it & concentrate on THE arrangement, which I hope NO ONE will argue it's superior to ALBUM version. Not too slow either.

Sorry, could not resist. I like your writing style & random CAPS-LOCK'ation of the words. :3d

you missed my point which is, if "growth" and attempts at being relevant and taken seriously resulted in lyrics as cringeworthy and clumsy as SDT, then yes Mike should have "stuck with the formula".

Mike can write about any number of subjects, but he should really leave the protest songs to Dylan, Ochs, and the like.

Mike was quoted in the 60s as saying he disliked beatniks, yet I believe Dave Marks said he was very interested in the lingo and hip phrases they used. that's how SDT and Mike's whole "hippie" phase strikes me. pandering for critical appeal and acceptance, trying desperately to look and sound the part... while apparently despising the whole scene.

He wrote one, I repeat, one Protest song. Thou dost protest too much, me thinks. ;)

An anthem...it is all of that, for just about all of us! I loved the way they've been tailoring it to each vicinity where they
perform it... :love

I don't think I can name a single "annoying" song, there are just some moments in a few of them that I find they seem out-of-place or annoying sound bits. F.ex., "well, I CAAN'T understand a single wooord". That "CAAN'T" in "Papa-Oom" is too shrill. Another is Van Dyke vocal at the tag of "...Tree". Never liked his voice.

Listening to just one disconnected fragment after the other, yes. But on their own, I think each piece is beautiful and they're great "toys" to play around with making your own version of that song. The really annoying disc is 5. Ive listened to it once and even then I felt it was a waste of my time.

I agree, SDT and Be True to Your School are annoying. So is TM on the Friends album

Most of my negative reactions to BB material would be classed as embarrassing rather than annoying. That would include some of Brian's late-70s songs. 'Annoying' would be hearing Dennis having a shag at the end of All I Want To Do.

As far as SDT is concerned, I was one of the many BB fans who would have far preferred another BW or a DW song there instead (WIBNTLA etc, blah blah). However, firstly I agree with the poster who said it's good that Mike was at least aware enough of what was happening in the wider world (oh all right, wider US) to write that song, and some of the Holland era stuff; second, some of my friends too took it seriously and were more interested in that track than, say, Long Promised Road; and third, I recently listened to the 180g pressing of SU and actually rather liked it. I think it was important at the time.

All I can say about Vietnam is, thank God we here in the UK didn't get involved in that one. Probably why we had Traffic and Syd Barrett rather than Jim Morrison and Country Joe.