The Smiley Smile Message Board

In that issue of Mojo from a couple of months ago, where they gave away the free cd of Beach Boys inspired music, Brian talked about how excited he was when Good Vibrations first became a big hit because he felt he was at the forefront of the new sound UNTIL he heard 'My Obsession' by the Rolling Stones. He doesn't explain more but the journalist goes on to laugh about how GV is landmark recording and no one remembers 'My Obsession' or 'Between the Buttons.' So, is that one of Brian's favorite records or a favorite of his back in 1967?

Brian attended the recording session for "My Obsession" and claims to have been so high he couldn't find the studio door! He has claimed repeatedly through the years that the song is his favorite Rolling Stones number and I imagine it's simply because he has a vivid (if chemically altered) memory of attending the session. I have a feeling that Brian's favorite Stones album would be whichever one featured "My Obsession" so "Between The Buttons" it is! All the same, Brian mentions in the Mojo article that he was envious of the Stones because their tracks always rocked harder than those Brian wrote and produced. Brian has introduced "Marcella" as his "Rolling Stones-type" song during recent concert performances and I'm sure the reason is it rocks harder than almost anything else he's written.

According to his "book" he got up on a pool table and said Fool To Cry was saving his life! BTB is great and like all of the Brian Jones era work is to me much more interesting then their more commonly acclaimed LP's.

On the Brian Wilson On Tour DVD he says it's his favorite Stones song. That was about 5-6 years ago. Even though his opinions about his own songs and albums pretty much change from day to day, it seems that his list of favorite songs by others hardly changed in the last 30-40 years...

Though on the Party outtakes the group do a pretty good cover of Satisfaction. In fact, I wish that was on there instead of a few others.  BBs used to end concerts in the 70s with Jumpin Jack Flash.

For real?! I've never heard it. Is Mike the lead?

I've always felt that the bass parts in "My Obsession" were the inspiration for Brian's "Shortenin' Bread" riff.  Anyone else hear this?  Or are there some pre-1967 appearances of the riff that I'm forgetting about?

Satisfaction is sung as a group number- though Brian is the loudest and seems to be the main lead on the song, Al can also be heard.  Similar to  Hully Gully in feel.

I would have figured "Connection" would have been Brian's fave
from BTB, given the paranoid angle.  ;D

Concur w/ the previous post,  Jones- era Stones albums have the
magic,  post "Let it Bleed", not so much.

Glad you agree about Jones, I like the 70's albums ok but they don't have anything as uinque about them. They are simply good hard rock.

Count me in too. Some of the songs from Sticky Fingers and even Exile are offcuts or written during the Jones' era [not that he wrote them or even contributed, but there's a definite downturn after he left/died] so I think they have the magic - particularly Sticky - but after that, diminishing returns. Buttons is one of the Jonesiest albums; he's all over that: guitar, piano, recorder, accordion, brass, banjulele, mallets etc.