The Smiley Smile Message Board

Back in the day, when I bought a Beach Boys album, I would bring it home, claw it open and listen to it nearly non-stop until months later when the next album was released. I had to save my allowance for weeks and then walk to King’s Department Store in Methuen, Massachusetts to buy the albums.

Once I got my license, I was able to drive to Rainbow Records in nearby Salem, New Hampshire and pick up some of the ones that I had missed, along with some rarities. The dude running the shop was a Beach Boys fan and he would order some of the older albums for me, and I would wait patiently for them to arrive.  Of course, during that time I was listening to the latest album repeatedly and anxiously awaiting the next release.

Nowadays, listeners can download the entire Beach Boys catalog and listen to snippets to see if they like a song or not.  That is basically where my question stems.

In the current day and age it is so easy to cherry-pick songs and make your own playlists and such that you can skip past songs that do not care for, and they never have to be listened to again. When I was in my early teens and grabbed the Today! album for example, songs like Please Let Me Wonder, Kiss Me Baby, and In The Back of My Mind did not immediately appeal to me as much as Good To My Baby, Help Me Ronda and Dance, Dance, Dance but since it would be the only Beach Boys album I could get my hands on for months, I listened to both sides again and again.

I found that as I grew older, I came to love the songs that I knew by heart but did not appreciate when I was younger. Sometimes for example, you have to grow into the music and experience heartbreak, then a song will click and feel like it was written to describe your personal experiences. Brian did this like no other song writer. Had I skipped past them, I would have skipped past some beautiful songs with such exquisite harmonies that are my favorite Beach Boys songs today.

The only exception for me is Let Him Run Wild. I never cared for that song no matter how many times I played it. Not sure why but I do not like the instrumental track either. Reminds me of department store music.

I'd say its the same. While playlists and that jazz do exist, I completely respect and get engulfed in the running orders constantly and listening to an album made to be played in such a way can really solidify what makes an album so special. It's why everyone I force to listen to pet sounds gets their own CD, and not just the files!

I guess I would be a 'younger' fan having been born in 1977. It seems to me that my generation has a deeper appreciation for albums like Friends and Love You, for example than the past generations did. Not to speak for any individual, because most people in any generation like the hits mainly and maybe Pet Sounds and that's all they know. But I wonder if the 67-73 material got lost in the context in what was considered hip at the time, where later we can look back at them and see their brilliance. Actually, it appears they began to get that respect in 71, but only lasted a few years because of the success of Endless Summer.

I'm one of those older BB fans who can remember each new album as it came out and experienced them that way. I still do that with newer artists that grab my attention -- Alabama Shakes, for a recent example. There is always something special about experiencing new music for the first time.

I think there is a difference in contextual experience between hearing an artist's music for the first time when it is new and discovering the music of an artist with a large catalog of works. Both experiences have immediacy, but there's that pesky history thing with the established artist's work.

When I discovered the BBs, the only info on them was from the backs of album covers and a handful of teen mags.

Having become a fan as a teen in the 1970s, I appreciated every lp as they came along. I never really got into the early surf and car tunes until later. I grew up on the 70s lps and loved them. I loved (and still do) the tune Goin' On. I played it non-stopped when it came out.

So the tunes that MIKE & BRUCE like to focus on are not my faves. Best show I ever saw with the group was a 1993 boxset concert. That was great. Even with people yelling for LITTLE DEUCE COUPE during CAROLINE NO. Only time I EVER shouted to the crowd behind me HEY, SHUT THE **** UP!!!

I agree. I was also born in 1977 and love Friends.
I find I'm not as worried about dissecting he controversial lyrics of songs like little tomboy because who cares. Also, the choppy/unfinished nature of Smile appeals to my sensibilities and helps elevate it to something way more interesting than Pet Sounds.

Yeah, I was 16 in 1964. Growing up while the Band was growing up does put a different perspective on everything. All of my friends were hearing the new stuff at the same time that I was. Shared our feelings and thoughts about the new stuff. Also, without the internet, information about the group was very scarce. Album notes were read over and over. Every TV appearance was anticipated, watched, and reviewed with your buddies. Of course no DVRs, or YouTube, so you made sure you didn't miss it.

I was born in 1980 and grew up in the early 90's listening to punkrock like Bad Religion, NOFX etc. In the early 90's there was no internet and there were no possibilties of burning cds. So we recorded the cds to tapes and listened to either the cds or tapes. So I have always appreciated whole albums rather than single tracks. And I when I listen to The Beach Boys, I do it the same way: complete albums.

This is the part I hate about the Beach Boys twofers. The first album is over and the second one starts immediately. So you don't really get the real listening experience. They should have released them as double-cds.

And I'm afraid peolpe today who don't spend time listening to whole albums miss a whole lot about music

I was also born in 1980, and unlike many others who were born at the same time, I also prefer to listen to full albums.  I think, to a certain extent, MP3s have transported music back to the singles based world, and the album has become a bit of a lost art. 

As for the 2-fers, I have most of my BB CD's that way.  I think what I wish they'd have done is put the bonus tracks that coincide with that album directly following that album.  ie.  For the Today/SDSN release, the alternate Dance Dance Dance immediately after Bull Session. 

When I listen to the 2fers, I rarely listen to both albums on the same disc, unless I'm on a road trip. 

Here's a new artlcle that discusses the experience of finding the BBs as established artists. Is the writer from around these parts?  :)

http://www.sctimes.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/07/06/writers-help-develop-my-love-beach-boys-music/86362892/

I think it is fun to discover the catalog of an established band or artist. If you are into new groups, you have to wait patiently for each new release, you don't have that tremendous catalog to keep yourself entertained with. The only plus I can see of following new bands is that you get to hear them play a huge chunk of their small catalog live. Concerts by established acts always tend to be "greatest hits" shows. That's interesting; as a recording artist, you are expected to always put out new music; as a live act, you are expected to trot out the greatest hits every night - even if you are breaking out from a group as a solo artist. I took my time building my BB's collection; started with comps like Endless Summer, Good Vibrations - Best of the Beach Boys, Ten Years of Harmony, a couple of Pickwick albums. They I started getting the studio albums. It was a long, enjoyable journey. Had a similar journey with the catalog of the Kinks.

I'm in my mid 30s, so I also discovered the music of The Beach Boys that way.

I'm mostly into music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, so my love of many bands started with compilations which made me want to big deeper.

My love of Queen started with a cassette of the 1992 compilation Classic Queen.

My love of The Beach Boys started when I bought Sounds of Summer in 2006. 

It's a fun journey.  I'm doing it with Genesis now. 

Same here as above. Came to the BBs in my mid-20s. I've always been a "full album" listener, and I think it was probably the Beatles catalog as youngster that trained me that way. When I find a new artist that really grabs me, I usually do a deep dive and sooner or later I have all of their albums. I will live with a particular album, start to finish, for several listens, and I'll run through an artists catalog in consecutive order once or twice after assembling everything. So while I didn't start my Boys listening experience with Surfin' Safari ( it was Endless Summer, Pet Sounds, Smiley/Honey two-fer, POB), I eventually backfilled.

Once I have familiarized myself with the artists' catalog and the context thereof, I usually enjoy just shuffling through all of the music on my iPhone. It gets weird... but it's endlessly entertaining.

I'm not as rigid as I used to be-- while I have everything by the BBs except SiP, I think I'll be more selective from here on out with other artists. I've been obsessing about Harry Nilsson recently, but I won't be buying Sandman and That's the Way it is-- I've heard enough of those albums to know I don't want them on my shuffle!

Ok, original question-- I think I had a different listening experience from an O.G. , and it has nothing to do with the album format. It has to do with living the context of a record, and being surprised by hearing something for the first time that everyone else is also hearing for the first time. I mean, I knew the early hits through osmosis during my childhood, but I don't remember hearing GV for the first time and being like, "Wow! Check out that hot  new sound!" Instead, it was just an "oldie" until I realized how good it really was.

I think I completed the collections of artists I wanted to have everything by a couple years ago. I am a big Elvis fan, but I don't need to own every album in his catalog. I don't need every weak soundtrack from the mid 60's, or some of the tossed together comps from the 70's.

While I am currently in a self-imposed ban on listening to the BBs, I do find with them and other artists that playing their albums in random play order helps to re-contextualize the listening experience and make it seem fresher.  It is interesting how fully self-contained the individual songs seem this way, they seldom fail to impress with their artistry, at least up to but not including MIU.

As an older (no inverted commas necessary) Beach Boys fan, the great thing about hearing their "classic" music at the time was the absence of visual clutter. I still remember the glowing colours I could see in my mind's eye during my first spellbound listen to "Good Vibrations" on UK radio...

COMMENT:  An interesting question.  For me the fanbase is divided into two groups, Those who listen to the Beach Boys in analog, and those who have never really heard the group. The second group only has experienced this band via a computer simulation -- or digital.

Digital offers a completely different listening experience than analog lovers know. Not only is the sound generated by a computer following instructions from a sampled instruction sheet, but it is possible to splice and dice songs, parts of songs, parts of albums, and parts of concerts. It's convenient, fun, yet tragic in what has been done to the original intention of the producers.

Analog in its day, was complete. You listened to entire albums or even songs. The sound was the actual energy generated by the artists, creating a connection between the performer and the listener -- now lost.

So yes, older fans such as myself, do have listening memories that I would say are more real and genuine. Sorry younger digital listeners -- you have no idea.  ~swd 

Considering Brian's music saved my life (and I actually mean that literally), I would say my memories are  pretty damned real and genuine.

I know what you meant, but still take umbrage with it. No biggie, though.

to have bought and listened to a brand new analogue 45  rpm copy of Fun,Fun, Fun while it was in the top 40 and to hear it on your parents new and huge  console record player  was a thrilling experience.    I recall the compelling sound of the organ on that song as it sounded then.    whenI hear the song now on digital I don' t hear that organ stand out the way it did then.    but maybe I'm just getting old........chocolate ice cream and potato chips don't taste as good as they did then.

Who says you can't hear the music in the same analog way like back in the days? I'm 23 years old and started my hardcore BB fandom in 2011. I began collecting all their albums a year later in vinyl. I do confess that I mostly listen the music in digital format, just because I hardly ever have time to sit back and listen to the vinyl records in the only place that it's possible for me (home). For me the music is the most important part, not the format. I love original vinyl, but I do love as well the easiness of listening to your favorite music in a car or with your telephone in a train or while walking.

I agree with Stephen I think but we mainly experience a lot of it  differently because it was the soundtrack to our lives.  I didn't appreciate the surf songs the same way as the car songs and teen life songs I was living in Kansas in real time.

Stephen - how about the younger fans among us that have seen the music performed in concert.
The 2012 reunion was thrill to be sure (despite the absence of C and D).
Is the modern concert experience also less real because, presumably, the shows are all mixed through a digital console these days?

A difference too is that we older folks grew with the band as it grew with us.  We went from playing at and away from the beach, to going to school, to getting our driver's license and toolin' around in cars or mini motorcycles [my first one was a Honda 90]...to dating, to goin' steady, to gettin' married... ... ...and having kids.  We jumped from being under the thumb of parents to being parents and handling adult issues of our own.

We've had family squabbles, and lost relatives, and we've suffered set backs and disappointments as well as celebrating achievements and goals accomplished.  For the older listeners the Beach Boys were like part of the family.  Each new album was like receiving a letter from a distant cousin...except it came in audio...and eventually stereo.  That can't be done in retrospect or retroactively.  For us old farts...the Beach Boys were all about NOW.

[p.s...I have NEVER enjoyed listening to best of/greatest hits releases.  There are WAY too many great sounds missing.  The Beach Boys were ALSO an albums act right from the get-go...at least for the first decade or so.  Just the hits is way too shallow to wade in properly.]

COMMENT to Sam:   Funny you should ask about that.  I wrote a rather long rant to Professor Conner after he and myself attended the last Mike & Bruce Beach Boy concert here where I live. Couldn’t find the email to quote, but here is the basics of what I wrote.

We had good seats, but about one-third way into the show I turned to Conner and said I didn’t like the sound. I told him I could not put my finger on what was wrong, but I thought the sound was off. The more I sat there listening, the worse it seemed to get. Again I turned to him saying, this is not right – it’s not them – this is not how Bruce or Mike sounded when I mixed them. It’s off base; it sounded artificial to me. Mike Conner, being much younger then myself thought it all sounded OK to him. Finally at half time I decided to vacate my seat (as I wasn’t enjoying the concert anyway) and go back to the console to see if I could figure out what was causing this weird sound.

It didn’t take me long to realize the entire console was digital. Not only was I hearing a computer representation of a live performance, the house engineer was missing cues as his head was buried in a maze of digital plug-in’s, tweaking one little thing after another, with this graph and that readout displayed on the computer screen. For all I know, there was pitch correction going on too, but for certain it was really over EQed and processed.

I stood behind the console for the rest of the show, watching cue after cue being late. The engineer hardly ever looked at the stage-action, but kept playing with the controls. It was all about the technology, not the music. And, of course it was. It was digital. 

When I mixed shows, of course it was all analog. What the audience heard was an amplified version of the actual energy being produced by the voices and instruments on stage. I used very little EQ, no limiting, and I watched the performers. Mixing was in real-time, no presets. The sound was real. There was a direct connection between the artist and the observer; organic, not synthetic. However, if you have grown up only hearing digital sound in reproduction and now so-called live performance, you have no idea what real sound is. This entire discussion will be theoretical. Most younger folks will have no idea what I’m talking about with no direct experience to fall back on.

If I had bought my tickets (they were comp from Bruce) I would have demanded a refund. When I go to a concert it is to hear the performers, not a computer recreation of the performers. I can play a CD at home to hear that. I remember discussing this in another thread where we said that in the future, holograms of The Beach Boys with computer generated sounds will be how our children will see these guys in concert. With one foot already in computer re-generation (sound) it’s only a matter of time before the visual aspect is computer re-generated. It’s already happening with Michael Jackson. I guess you must die before you become a performance hologram.

So to answer your question, it is LESS real. I doubt I’ll attend any more of these computer contrivances called concerts. It’s much more convenient to play a CD and it’s much more real to play a record.  ~swd

Stephen, I've read this "rant" of yours before, possibly on Smiley. I sympathize. Progress, they call it...

Ah yes thanks Stephen...I do remember now that you told a similar story previously...to have attended a concert that you mixed would have been a treat for sure.

Anybody yelling for Little Deuce Coupe while Carl Wilson is singing Caroline No should be escorted out of the concert.. LOL..

When I first started reading Beach Boy album reviews back in the 90s, or even books about the band, it seemed there is as little respect for Smiley Smile, Friends and Love You. It seems the appreciation for these 3 albums have significantly improved in the last 20 years. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

COMMENT to Magic:  FYI check out the re-mastering of Friends at http://swdstudyvideos.com. I think you will be quite pleased at the rendition. ~swd

Thanks Stephen. I have always loved these albums. But love to hear different mixes and remastering so.

deleted - see msg below.

Edited to include the post I was referencing - sorry.

Stephen.  One of my thrills in life was to watch you working the board in the studio and live.  We heard real, beautiful voices.  This is truly sad.

I guess i can be considered a young fan too, being born in 2002. I agree with everything you said, pretty much everyone around me hates the album experience. They only like the hits. I always get slightly ticked off when an album cut is skipped.

It could also be an age thing. That younger fans like the hits and as we get older we start to appreciate deeper cuts. But it's cool that you are already listening to the game the songs at 13 or 14!

I think all "new" listeners have a different experience simply because all of the music already exists. I can only imagine what it was like to go from Surfin' Safari to Surfer Girl to All Summer Long...Today...Pet Sounds...the anticipation of Smile...Friends...and on and on.  The anticipation of the next great leap forward.

I'm 39. I got into the group through an interest in Brian Wilson and my first love was his "golden period" where he was fully in control and creating these magical pop gems. Once I wade in, however, I began to explore their other periods and each album was a revelation the first time I heard it.

I do tend to jump around when listening today...but looking back...maybe I did have something similar to what a fan would have experienced when the music was just released. I just had the luxury of moving from one period to the next and then being able to listen to everything from that period all at once.

I agree. When I first started hearing about the Beach Boys as a serious band beyond the Full House and soundtrack to Sunkist soda commercials, it was always only about Pet Sounds.
I was so happy to discover Smile, then Friends, then Love You.  Funny, later I tracked back to Wild Honey

Thanks for this post. I read it when you posted but wanted to think about it for awhile and see how others responded. We have a similar experience getting one LP at a time, digesting it whole, not skipping cuts, and being blown away by some odd track, or banter, while wondering what it was all about when taken as-a-whole work.  I would not trade that experience, albeit on a record player and not a big stereo.  Yes, the allowance or the baby-sitting dough.  Guess that small amount of disposable income was spent wisely for vinyl that served to enrich your life.  That small amount of money, could just as easily, have gone towards something different.  

And, I can get the whole download thing.  The first one I ever downloaded was Al's Postcard in the dead of a wicked-bad winter.  Hearing Carl's voice on Don't Fight the Sea still stopped my heart.  Maybe the voice of Carl, more than whether it was analog or digital.  Mr. Desper's words are not lost on me, having seen The Boys in the analog sound era, it was amazing.  Those big speakers with that bass, could almost make your heart pound or even restart your heart, were it to stop.  

It was a more interactive experience, having to get up, after 15 minutes for another 15 or so, to flip that LP over.  I do admit that my zunes, and iPhones are loaded with scrunched-up audio files for the car.  So I guess, you can't play LP's in the car and this is the next best alternative.  Having dealt with both, and having had to learn a new skillset to use a computer to add these files on a portable device, I can see the benefits of both worlds, but even now, just the sight of an LP with the larger-than-life artwork and liner notes, is still a heart-melter.  

Add Some really gets this whole linkage between the voyage and the music. And Emdeeh, thanks for those posts, as well.   ;)

But, ultimately I see the 60's/70's longtime fans are less likely to think of The Beach Boys as anything less than one dynamic.  And I like it that way. Almost like e pluribus unum.  "Out of many - one."  :love