The Smiley Smile Message Board

So... as mentioned on another thread, Uncut's special edition has ranked each individual Beach Boys song out of five (sometimes accurately, sometimes overly harshly, sometimes way too generously). Anyway, in that spirit, I thought a thread on how we - if asked by Uncut magazine - would personally rate an album's songs?

This could be a series of threads or it could be a one-off clunker. Either way, let's start with Pacific Ocean Blue. Here's mine...

1. River Song - 5
2. What's Wrong - 3
3. Moonshine - 5
4. Friday Night - 4
5. Dreamer - 3
6. Thoughts of You - 5
7. Time - 4
8. You & I - 4
9. Pacific Ocean Blues - 4
10. Farewell My Friend - 5
11. Rainbows - 4
12. End of the Show - 3

I'll give my take on Sunflower...

Slip On Through: 3
This Whole World: 5
Add Some Music: 4
Got To Know The Woman: 2
Deirdre: 5
It's About Time: 5
Tears In The Morning: 4
All I Wanna Do: 5 (fav BBs song of all time)
Forever: 5
Our Sweet Love: 5
At My Window: 3
Cool Cool Water: 5

This is why i thought this could be such an interesting thread! Slip on Through only 3 and Deirdre 5 - what???!!! Haha :) my ratings would be the exact opposite way round.

SIP......(both US and UK)

1. Hot Fun In The Summertime (2) only because of the harmonies

 2. Surfin' (1) this has NO redeeming quality to it,,

3. Summer Of Love (2) because of the harmonies

4. Island Fever (4) This one is pretty good

5. Still Surfin' (1) yuck..

6. Slow Summer Dancin' (One Summer Night) (2) ok but not great

7. Strange Things Happen (3) fun song, fun lyric..kind of goofy but I like that.

 8. Remember 'Walking In The Sand' (1) pretty bad.

9. Lahaina Aloha (5) the best song on here.

10. Under The Boardwalk (1) really bad, with a strange tempo.

11. Summer In Paradise (1) yuck

12. Forever (3) A little higher but not because of Stamos but because it's a great Dennis Wilson song which is a 5 so the SIP version is knocked down by 2 spots.

My ratings for both albums -- bearing in mind that these are two albums I think are overrated by fandom generally...

River Song - 4
What's Wrong - 2
Moonshine - 3
Friday Night - 3
Dreamer - 3
Thoughts of You - 4
Time - 2
You & I - 2
Pacific Ocean Blues - 3
Farewell My Friend - 4
Rainbows - 3
End of the Show - 4

Slip On Through: 4
This Whole World: 5
Add Some Music: 2
Got To Know The Woman: 3
Deirdre: 2
It's About Time: 5
Tears In The Morning: 2
All I Wanna Do: 3
Forever: 5
Our Sweet Love: 2
At My Window: 2
Cool Cool Water: 4

Slip On Through: 4
This Whole World: 4
Add Some Music: 3
Got To Know The Woman: 3
Deirdre: 4
It's About Time: 3
Tears In The Morning: 3
All I Wanna Do: 5
Forever: 5
Our Sweet Love: 3
At My Window: 3
Cool Cool Water: 4

I made a chart that basically does this about a month ago, although it goes up to 10. And yes, I'm bad at averages.
(http://i.imgur.com/ndjY4ie.jpg)

I like how you put Mike at the end of it.  Does he get a rating?

About 4.09

Nice charts indeed, and out of ten makes more sense to me.

Thanks, I can provide the template for it if you want.

SUNFLOWER (1-10)

Slip On Through 8
This Whole World 10
Add Some Music 7
Got to Know the Woman 7
Dierdre 5
It's About Time 9
------------------------
SIDE 1 46/6=7.7

Tears in the Morning 6
All I Wanna Do 10
Forever 9
Our Sweet Love 7
At My Window 6
Cool Cool Water 8
------------------------
SIDE 2 46/6=7.7

Extremely balanced LP quality-wise, despite the style and tempo contrasts that are evidenent (of course, no one is particularly concerned with the "side 1/side 2" thingee any more).

Brian's songs: 42/5=8.4
Dennis' songs: 33/4=8.2
Al's song: 6/1=6
Bruce's songs: 11/2=5.5

This is actually a great thread! I don't have a chart, but I figure I'll do another album...

Today!

1 Do You Wanna Dance: 5
2 Good To My Baby: 5
3 Don't Hurt My Little Sister: 2
4 When I Grow Up: 5
5 Help Me Ronda: 2 (This feels unfinished- the single is a 5 though)
6 Dance Dance Dance: 5
7 Please Let Me Wonder: 5
8 I'm So Young: 5
9 Kiss Me Baby: 5
10: She Knows Me Too Well: 5
11 In The Back Of My Mind: 3
12 Bull Session: 1

Sunflower

Slip on Through  8
This Whole World  9.5
Add Some Music to Your Day  7
Got to Know the Woman  3
Deirdre  9
It's About Thyme  1.5
Tears in the Morning  7
All I Wanna Do  10
Forever  8.5
Our Sweet Love  8
At My Window  7
Cool, Cool Water  8

Thanks. Here's my Today! ratings (1 to 5 just seems neater to me):

1 Do You Wanna Dance: 4
2 Good To My Baby: 4
3 Don't Hurt My Little Sister: 3
4 When I Grow Up: 5
5 Help Me Ronda: 4
6 Dance Dance Dance: 4

7 Please Let Me Wonder: 5
8 I'm So Young: 4
9 Kiss Me Baby: 5
10: She Knows Me Too Well: 5
11 In The Back Of My Mind: 5
12 Bull Session: 1

1. Hot Fun In The Summertime -  2  

It *is* undeniable still moderately catchy despite awful production.

2. Surfin'  - 0

Nice try getting Brian's name on the album....

3. Summer Of Love - 1

Gets one point for comedic value, and for the "trivia" value of the (hopefully not apocryphal) story that it was nearly a Bart Simpson duet.

4. Island Fever - 1.5

Catchy if cloying. Gave it a 2, then remembered how much this is an obvious hack "Kokomo" clone.

5. Still Surfin' - 0

Nope.

6. Slow Summer Dancin' (One Summer Night) - 1

Good Al vocals. That's it.

7. Strange Things Happen - 3.5

Solid composition with good Al vocals. With better production, I might have given this a 4.

8. Remember 'Walking In The Sand' - 1

I only give it one point because it elicited my favorite AGD comment of all time in his "Complete Guide" book.

9. Lahaina Aloha - 4

Solid composition with good Carl vocals.

10. Under The Boardwalk - 2

Serviceable (for the 90s) cover, especially with Al's added bridge.

11. Summer In Paradise - 1.5

Both studio versions of this song are kind of sketchy and kind of limp. Live versions usually fared better. I'd give a good live recording a 2.5.

12. Forever - 1

It's still a good song, and Stamos indeed, paraphrasing AGD and Tobler, shows the material a bit more respect than other stuff on the album (e.g. "Surfin'").

This would probably be my exact rating.  Nicely done!

I'll do Summer Days and Summer Nights!!! One of all time favorite albums!

1. The Girl From New York City: 3 It seems too plain, it could have used more instruments
2. Amusement Parks USA: 3 Not a bad song! The bizarre drum beat is awesome as well as that organ riff.
3. Then I Kissed Her: 5 A great Crystals cover played almost completely by the boys, except tambourine.
4. Salt Lake City: 4  I love that simple yet catch horn and guitar riff. even the drum pattern rocks! The lyrics are ok, sorry Mike!
5. Girl Don't Tell Me: 5 Another great underrated song, played entirely by the boys. This including Celeste!
6. Help Me, Rhonda (Single Version): 5 What can be said about this song? It has catchy lyrics, great melodies or hooks. All time favorite in my book! It shows that even though the lower 12 String Guitar part was played by Billy Strange, Carl added to it by playing it an octave higher.
7. California Girls: 5 Another classic I love! The Vibes, Horns, Organ and Guitars just make up this amazing musical pallet. Oh and can't forget Hal Blaine's amazing shuffle drumming! The lyrics are awesome to boot!
8. Let Him Run Wild: 5 Once again another one of my favorite underrated songs. That Electric piano played with the Vibes just creates this awesome tingling sound, as well as the cool chords played by the horns. The lyrics are very Pet Sounds, which works for me!
9. You're So Good To Me: 4 A very simple, yet catchy melody. The lyrics are cool. The track, just the boys again!
10. Summer Means New Love: 4 A great instrumental that bounces between a Rock ballad but transitions into a Pet Sounds sounding feel that I love!
11. I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man: 2 Yes Brian, was mad at his father and this was his revenge. It's fun to listen to every once in a while. The part that surprises me, is that even though it's a throw away song it was recorded directly to 8-Track.
12. And Your Dreams Come True: 4 BaBa Black Sheep Have You Any Wool? This melodically rearranged version of the old nursery rhyme is very complex sounding when given to a person like Brian Wilson. He just some how makes it work!

This is so awesome.  I am an engineer, so charts about my favorite band send a tingle up my leg  :-D

I like the chart in theory but what's with the insanely low scores for the early albums?? Am I wrong or do Lonely Sea and In My Room barely register as average???

Surfin' Safari & U.S.A. aren't anything special to me, just fairly average surf rock, and I do like In My Room, just not as much as most others do. Little Deuce Coupe is all filler, no killer, and SDV2 is a mixed bag.

Stars for Sunflower (out of 5, to be clear!):

Slip On Through: 5
This Whole World: 4
Add Some Music: 4
Got To Know The Woman: 1
Deirdre: 4
It's About Time: 4
Tears In The Morning: 3
All I Wanna Do: 3
Forever: 5
Our Sweet Love: 3
At My Window: 4
Cool Cool Water: 3

Annnnnd Today! (also out of 5):

Do You Wanna Dance: 2
Good To My Baby: 3
Don't Hurt My Little Sister: 3
When I Grow Up: 5
Help Me Ronda: 3
Dance Dance Dance: 4
Please Let Me Wonder: 4
I'm So Young: 5
Kiss Me Baby: 5
She Knows Me Too Well: 4
In The Back Of My Mind: 5
Bull Session: 1

I'd love to have the template!

Here it is, sorry for taking so long!

(http://i.imgur.com/OMuZE6X.png)