The Smiley Smile Message Board

When did the band and its perception hit the absolute nadir of its existence? When you were most embarrassed to be a fan of this band?

Sometime in the 90s? 80s? Other?

The morning of January 22, 1988 was pretty bad. It was the only day of my fandom I can remember people actually asking me, "hey, what the f@*k was that about?"

Yes, Mike's hall of fame speech couldn't have been much more embarrassing.

Anytime AFTER Good Vibrations faded from sight.  It was an entirely great song.  BUT...It did NOT undo the surf/car/striped shirt image.  Smile died.  So did the group.  It was, in some ways, miserable to be a nerd for all of those years...but, to me, it was still worth it.  Until Jack Rieley left.  Then?  There was nothing much to use as an argument on behalf of one's choice other than...well... ... ... I like 'em.

No...by 15 bigguns...cool was over, under, sideways done.  The Beach Boys were pretty much only for the minority who 'got it'.  But w/o Brian?  There wasn't much to 'get'.  Crocodile Rock?  It's a Beautiful Day?  Wipeout?  Yikes!!!  Ya...maybe Brian was around...but...certainly not at his optimal best.

With only the direction of 'the dominant creative force' and spiritual guide...it was lights out over.  A joke.  A failure.  Embarrassing.  So?  Anytime betweem 1967 and now..

I'd say he outdid himself by the time Summer Of Love came around...... i'ts a Luuuuhv thing after all

The big difference was nobody outside of the BB's world ever knew about SIP.  The Hall of Fame speech was all over every media outlet, thus more embarrassing

Did the other Boys get really upset about the speech? There's the looks on their faces, but I'm wondering if repercussions went further than that. I bet Al would have gotten sacked if it had been him who made the speech!

For me 1969 - 1974. I was the only Beach Boys fan among two sets of friends; here in Philly from 69-72 and in Phoenix from 72-74. In many ways it made me uncool because the Beach Boys were viewed as such. I will say that none of that stuff deterred me from continuing to follow their career. They were my badge on honor, my own freak flag flying. I always thought it cool that the fan club in the 70's was the Beach Boys Freaks United. One last thing. Taking those said friends to Beach Boys concerts usually changed their minds, at least a little. :)

Any time from the Uncle Jessie bullshit until about the time of the 70's reissues. God, that Home Improvement embarrassment. Well vocally it sounded ok but image wise it was a wet shame. Brian though was considered  cool in 1995 and for a few years after by my age group  (and most of us ended bitterly disappointed by imagination ), so I'd refer to myself as a BW fan first back then.

Carl was quoted after they left the stage asking industry insiders if their career was over.

Late 1980 'til 1983. 1981 to 1982 was bad. It was really not pretty. No Carl made the shows almost unwatchable. Went to one show in 1982 with no Brian and Carl. They were under-rehearsed and in poor voice. As they went into Be My Baby (from Mike's solo LP), Mike said "We haven't rehearsed this. If you need to take a piss, now would be a good time."

I first got into them as a self directed fan (as opposed to simply hearing their music and liking what I was hearing, which I had from early childhood) circa 1978-1980.  It was a rough time because I knew no one who thought much of them.  They were (it seemed to me) generally disparaged and dismissed at this time (though maybe they'd kind of earned that) and it was lonely, I was a pariah within my peer group - but I never stopped loving the music and knew that all the naysayers were idiots.   :lol
Some people just didn't get it and many still don't.

those made for tv bio pics.   My friends and coworkers knew of my obsession with the band.    after these they asked:  Well, Don, did you get enough of the Beachboys yet?    Felt I had to defend the group for those stupid depictions.   but I didn't.  I could have babbled on like a geeky fanboy but just let it go.

Dude, no, that Home Improvement bit was AWESOME. Full House was wack, but Home Improvement was one of the better crappy 90s sitcoms. And who'da thunk Tim Taylor's neighbor's cousins were THE Wilsons?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6j0Dom1mUM


The only bad things in my opinion are the fact Brian's not there, and Matt's ponytail. But hey, can't blame him, the 90s were crazy times.

And, of course, in the year that followed Mike's speech, the group had a No. 1 single, a gold (platinum?) album, and a syndicated TV show. I guess Carl got his answer.

Home Improvement is a show that, to me, have aged much much better than Full House. 

And I did find that bit entertaining as Tim Taylor thought Little Old Lady from Pasadena was a Beach Boys song, but didn't think Little Deuce Coupe was. 

Never embarrassed, ever.  The sole, very short window that I "wondered" about their future, was the Spring of 1968, with everything that imploded. 

It, however resolved, the second I heard Do It Again on the AM radio dial.   ;)

No, it obviously wasn't over.  Just reporting what Carl  asked in the moments right after Mike's speech.

I have to agree with 'Filled'.  I was never embarrassed to say or to admit that I was a Beach Boys fan.  I had friends tell me 'decades' later that I was "right".  That Hall of Fame speech cames pretty close to being an embarassing moment...truth be told.  But then...I wrote it off by simply consdiering the source.

Musically speaking?  Never.  [although their version of Louie Louie is right on the edge.  It wasn't an improvement on the original at all...and the Kingmen's version argueably WAS.   What were they thinking?!?!?!?]

Truth be told, Add Some, I didn't care what anyone thought.  It was easier to fly under the radar.  At reunions I'm still asked if I see the BB's... :lol  

And, I approached those LP's, as I should have approached math, (and didn't, of course  :lol  ) listening for more steadily advancing work on Brian's part, as well as how Brian ramped up percussion that no one else seemed to be using, and more interesting vocals, and Carl and Dennis doing more leads...

My gut told me they could not lose in the long term, even if stymied for whatever reasons during those "speed bump" years.  

And that HOF sort of cracked me up (I haven't looked at it in a long time.) because Mike didn't really lie about touring. The Stones would probably not have "lowered themselves" to play the college and university circuit to survive.  I wonder if The Stones had been "thrown under the bus" by their record company, if they would have ever survived.  We won't ever know.

The students really got to know that music because they brought it to the campuses.  It was amazing how many people I ran into during C50 who had seen them at the same college shows, when the GH was served alongside Surf's Up, Pet Sounds and Smiley.  And the band never failed to mention Brian as the reason for the music.

The Stones and the BB's both ended up "on top," but the BB's took the road "less traveled" (like Robert Frost.) I thought it was funny.  It is a tempest in a teapot, in my book, and old as my youngest kid, who now has a few gray hairs!  :lol

@filledeplage:
I am thought of by my friends and acquaintances similarly. Even people that I run into who knew me 45 years ago ask "How are you?" and "Do you still listen to the Beach Boys?". They may not always remember what classes we had together, but they remember I was a Beach Boys freak. ;)

This thread makes no sense. Is it a retrospective of when they were and weren't commercially viable? And think about it, during the times they weren't perceived as "hip" the artists that were had a couple hit records and then bailed...the BBs had staying power that NO ONE had.

It makes sense from the perspective that their music was marginalized.  Some radio stations refused in the 1970's to play BB music.  That spills over into not only commerical viability but the exposure to get credible reviewers to assess the music.  Not to mention the political turmoil. 

The SMiLE years were quite challenging.  Bookings were down, sales were down, and reviews were down. It was contemporaneous. But the study of their history isn't "linear."

Anything after 1977.

I dig it all man.  And I don't give two shits what anyone else thinks about the band, their music, or my liking any of it.  So I really haven't found it challenging.

Now the solo stuff...different story.  It has been challenging waiting for a great BW album.  With NPP he finally did it tho...best BB album since the BB.

Couldn't get into Home Improvement. It was funny at first, but two major problems developed.

1). It became so formulaic. Something dangerous happens at Tool Time, Tim fucks up somehow, Jill gets pissed, Tim talks to Wilson, Wilson says some intellectual stuff, Tim apologizes to Jill while butchering Wilson's saying, roll credits.
2)  My God, Jill Taylor had to have been the biggest bitch in sitcom history.

From somebody who's been watching and listening very closely since the mid-60's, there wasn't a more challenging time than 69-70-early 71 when I'd get kicked out of a dorm room for attempting to play BB music. That all changed when Surf's Up appeared.  But for me personally, when 20/20 came out, I was completely sucked in. Different strokes.

Bigger then Debra off Everybody Loves Raymond?

I attended audience tapings of both Home Improvement, as well as Full House... but alas, neither of the episodes I was at were the BBs eps. I wonder if anyone who attended any of those BB in-studio tapings has ever been on a messageboard to relay their experiences. Sitcom tapings are sometimes pretty boring and brutal for the audience, especially when "special guests" are on the show (who aren't proper actors and thus necessitate many retakes).

I imagine Landy was hanging out just off camera, trading jokes (and girls' phone numbers) with Dave Coulier, and fending off leg humps from Comet the Dog between Full House takes. At the Home Improvement set, I hope Tim the Toolman Taylor got Mike to try making the "whaaa"-sounding Home Improvement grunt. Maybe Tim Allen could be a special guest at a future M&B show, and do an extended "whaaa" sound in unison with Mike's long "wheeeenn"...

What I dont get is what was "cool" when the BBs supposedly weren't? Look at how awful MOST mainstream rock pop was in the late 60s/early 70s...pretty bad w the exception of CCR, the shondells, 3dog night and very few others; when the BBs were big commercially GOOD rock music was as well, not just irony,,they spearheaded it.

For me, the roughest time had to be the mid-90s, say 1993 through the beginning of 1998. The Good Vibrations box set had just been released, and reignited my passion for the band (that started in 1989 and eventually started to wane).

What happened? The albums I hadn't heard yet but was excited to hear after some of the tracks that were included in the box set....out of print. The Capitol twofers went away in 1994 and were replaced by single-album versions with no David Leaf liner notes or bonus tracks, with no real explanation.

Numerous reissues and archival releases were announced and cancelled. Pet Sounds Sessions was delayed fifteen months.

The songwriting credits lawsuit.

Carl dying.

Hell, even after Endless Harmony and Ultimate Christmas there were still some duds...like how a stereo mix of "All Summer Long" was to be released on the new hits compilations. The Brother rarities set that didn't happen. Really, it was so bad that when the 1970-1985 albums were announced, a friend of mine asked Brad Elliott how we can be 100% sure that these reissues were actually going to happen this time and not be cancelled. (Brad's response was to send my friend a copy of Brad's paycheck from Capitol for doing the liner notes....liner notes that ended up not being used, of course.)

It is often more a function of teen peer pressure.  When your 15 year old friends yak on about how "out" your favorite band is, it is tough. During that age bracket, a teen might be more susceptible to that type of peer pressure.

That is the time when it might be difficult unless you're strong and grounded enough about your preferences to ignore the prevailing opinions, and take social pressure in stride.

Adults don't often become confronted with that kind of pressure and have developed enough independent skill sets to just do their own thing.  "Cool," not unlike "beauty," is in the eye (ear) of the beholder... ;)

Half a century later, can't think of one. Some low points, yes. A challenge to being a fan?  Never.

Right now is the most challenging time to be a fan.

Please forgive me if this was a joke reply.  If it is, it went over my head. 

But I just wanted to see if you want to provide some details as to why since I think this is a great time to be a fan of The Beach Boys. 

-Brian Wilson just put out a new album. 

-Brian Wilson is about to go on tour with Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin in his band.

-Love and Mercy is set for a limited release in just over two weeks.

-Mike Love and Bruce Johnston are still touring with their version of The Beach Boys

-Mike Love and Brian Wilson each have autobiographies due out in the near future. 

This. Enjoy it while the guys are still around to give us this stuff.

That's just it - the Beach Boys, the real Beach Boys, as a band, are over. I still have a hard time accepting the splintered BB's we have today.

The real Beach Boys ended 20 odd years ago, plenty of time to get used to it.

I will never get over the death of Carl Wilson.