The Smiley Smile Message Board

Saw this uploaded on Youtube. FAR better sound quality than what's been circulated before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdi9_6j6R-8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdi9_6j6R-8)

Listening to it again, it's actually better than I had thought it to be.

WHOAH.  Thanks for sharing this. It is indeed a smidge better in higher quality.

Due to the higher quality of this version, I just noticed two dog barks at 1:54.
Woof.

All of those strings give the song a bit of an MIU vibe.

This is obviously a well-intended song, but it's so unintentionally weird and creepy (with the upbeat vibe meshed with a lyrical topic about a dead dog) that it seems it could be used in a movie about a serial killer or something in the poor man's "American Psycho"

That's my channel BTW, thanks to Dylan for finding it! I'm working on uploading the entire album onto YouTube as we speak!

Doing the lord's work

Most 70s artist had substance abuse problems that helped to explain career choices like Country Love.

Enjoy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKSkKBGEagA&feature=youtu.be

First Love ?

As obscure as these unreleased albums of Mike are, I'm surprised nobody (?) has written a detailed essay about the making of these albums.

For example, what possessed Mike to make a full on country album?  It seems pretty out of left field. The BBs did dabble in some country sounds in the early 70s, but even they never went fully into it as he attempted to.  It just feels like he is having an identity crisis here, like Don Cheadle in Boogie Nights.  Did Mike fear the band was evaporating in the late 70s, and he had better try to have a hit solo album ASAP before he became a complete unknown?

Was he legitimately really into country music for a brief moment in time? Or did some record industry person think it would be easy money and talked him into it?  Was this roughly Mike's equivalent of Brian Wilson doing a rap song, but in the form of a full album of a genre with someone from this band making music that they seemingly have no business making?  There are so many questions.

 There's got to be a fascinating backstory to this…

Mike launching not one, but two attempts at a solo album around 1978 would, I'm just guessing, not necessarily be totally unrelated to Dennis, in 1977, not only scoring a solo record deal, but getting some level of critical acclaim for it (and actually selling pretty decently, especially compared to then-contemporary Beach Boys album releases).

I would guess it was especially the *scoring* of the solo record deal (meaning, issues more involving ego and perhaps some advance money) for Dennis that would lead to certain other members theoretically being jealous and wanting the same.

It was to the overall benefit of fans just looking for the band and its members to keep creating (even if the resulting material was hit and miss) that the group collectively and in some cases individually still viewed their careers in the mid-late 70s as *RECORDING ARTISTS* who also toured, whereas by some point in the 80s, they clearly morphed into a touring band that occasionally dabbled in recording.

Look at how prolific the band was in the second half of the 70s, during a time when interpersonal issues were at play, substance abuse was at play, and on and on. They released FIVE albums that were recorded mainly between 1975 and 1979 with 15 Big Ones, Love You, MIU Album, LA Light Album, and Keepin' the Summer Alive. During that same span, they also recorded two nearly fully sequenced *complete albums* with "Adult Child" and the '77 Christmas album. On top of that, they had a TON of other unreleased tracks, enough to fill a few more albums. Then on top of that, Dennis recorded POB and also most of the "Bambu" stuff, and Mike cut *two* unreleased solo albums. Mike also contributed to THREE different "Celebration" albums to varying degrees.

Between roughly 1975 and 1979, they produced at least ELEVEN TO FOURTEEN album's worth of material.

One kinda wishes something off of "Keepin' the Summer Alive" or something in the early 80s would have been a big hit, not even so much because we'd want to see them have a hit, but maybe then we wouldn't have seen a HUGE dropoff in productivity and activity in the studio into the 80s. To be clear, they were more active in the first half of the 80s in the studio than one might think, even beyond the solo albums released. But I'm sure the total amount of studio hours was dropping off by the lead up to the '85 album, and certainly after.

This band was maybe more amazing than even the band members realize today. They could release like a *20 DISC* collection of unreleased material from the 70s and 80s and they still wouldn't be out of material.

Thanks for sharing and taking the time to clean up the lp. 😀

In the comments it has the song writers and shows “My Side Of The Bed” by Mike and Cetara.  Was this really co-written by  Peter Cetera?

Mike has only ever released music he thinks has commercial possibilities. No way is he gonna do a country album just cos he likes the genre.

Dear Christ why on earth did you do this?  :lol

Wrinkles has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Reminds me of the dog I had growing up. Did Mike really write it by himself?

 Time to bump this thread in honor of National Dog Day. Woof.

If you have Mike Love, Not War (the 2003 album, not the song from Unleash the Love) I'd love to hear that on youtube!

Country Love - Brand New Start and Rock and Roll Country Bride are listenable - the rest is pretty awful.  Much better stuff on First Love.