The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi all,
the song mentioned on the TimesOnLine article is now available on bw.com

http://www.brianwilson.com/surfergirl/ (http://www.brianwilson.com/surfergirl/)

Not clear if it's part of "That Lucky Old Sun" but I'd imagine so.


What do you think?
My opinion: passable


STE

Certainly not as great as "Midnight's Another Day", but enjoyable... Unlike MAD though, I'm not really "hooked" by the melody and nothing really makes me want to play it over and over again.

And it sounds demo-ish... Maybe a future studio release will be cooler!  :)

BW's voice sounds pretty darned good.

Any chance this recording is a recent one?

Or could it be "one from the vaults"?

To me it sounds like Brian Wilson by Numbers.

Its pretty, but not good. Brian's voice is, as usual, awful, but I guess we don't mind that.

Brian should so get an actual singer to help him out.

Mind you, I'll be there on Monday night!

 :3d

sounds pretty good to me for a demo.... ( I read that all TLOS recorded material is demos)  and that Brian and the band will finish(redo) them if the material is deamed sucessful live this month... ala Smile.. live first , finished recording second...

Vocals bad????  he sounds pretty darn good here to me....  I'd rather have a full band singing backgrounds.. but again  this is just a demo so.... hey... it needs a little editing perhaps and maybe slightly fuller instrumentation.. but all in all  good Brian...   by the numbers... yeah maybe.. but it would have been a key track on GIOMH based on the effort shown here..
 

Its not bad. Kinda formulaic but other than that, I like it Ok.

I guess it's early days for this one.
 
As I understand it, there have been some good solo Brian Wilson songs over the years. On the whole the production has kinda wrecked them.

Too much syrup too many layers.

Can't help but be reminded of Stevie Wonder who came undone with his love of synthesizers. I think Brian uses keyboards to compose stuff. So this demo -it's early days.

Love and Mercy when performed by Brian's band on real instruments is great.  A piano, some strings and brass, acoustic guitar, some echo. Unplugged, in other words.

What this song in its current form says to me, is that If he can manage the same approach as MAD across the 10 new songs, it ain't gonna be half bad.

Not feeling the production, but he does sound really good.

It reminds me of Make It Big.  :o

Well, if you're going to do a throwback, nostalgia song, then this is the way to do it. If it is part of "Lucky Old Sun", then it fits in with the part of California history that Brian help create. I'm really curious now how all of TLOS is going to hang together!

It's not bad.  Not as good as "Midnight's Another Day", but Brian sounds really good, especially during what I guess is the middle-eight (where he's doing the 3 part harmony with a nice high part).  It's a throwback without the cheese, which is never a bad thing.

Boring.

Changed my mind. Okay, so it's not "Midnight's Another Day", but this new song has just hooked me. And Brian sounds pretty darn good!

Yea the more I listen to it, the more I like it.  Indeed Brian does sound good...first time in awhile I actually think stack-o-Brian harmonies sound great.

I agree about the production, it almost sounds like an 80s demo, those string sounds suck and the midi-style piano does too, but underneath it is a nice song - of course it's a bit derivative but will potentially be a lot more enjoyable with the fuller production that it deserves.
Brians singing, though a bit shaky, is enthusiastic and I always like to hear him on the high notes, I don't care if he sounds strained - I still like it!

PS - Intro sounds a bit like 'San Francisco' off OCA

I bet he didn't write it.

I bet he did!

I bet you I'm being a smartass!

For all of you Mike Love critics out there, what'd ya think of these lyrics?

I'm glad to see Brian would never stoop as low as Mike.... ::)

Acutally I didn't think the lyrics were too bad...like I said before, nostalgic without being overly cheesy.  Mike tends to be way more cheesy when he does a "nostaliga" tune (see: "Summer of Love").  I love the line at the end of the bridge, "sweet voices straight from heaven", even though I have no clue what he means by "radio seven".

Sounds like Brian meets the Four Seasons.  Indeed Brian needs a better lyricist.  To really make this song sound like a cliche', there should be a modulation toward the end.

It's good, not great. Sounds undeveloped, a bit. Hopefully it will work in a larger context. Brian has definitely written a subgroup of songs about his songs and the music scene in general -- several of them not officially released. Elbow 63, for instance.

While we all know you're a Mike Love groupie, and you have zero respect for Brian Wilson, remember one thing-without his famous cousin, Mike Love would most likely be an assistant :lol manager (at best) in some fast food chain.

The problem is that the song it references is so much better than the new song!  It really needs a complete new set of lyrics.

Who are you kidding? he would have been beaten up by a bunch of hippes and left for dead by 1968. :p

I was thinking the same thing.  The second part of the chorus has a similar vocal sound to the Four Season's "Who Loves You (Pretty Baby)".

Whatever the song, it's always interesting to hear how Brian arranges the B/R vocals.

Overall, I can only say "Where's Joe Thomas when you need him"!

It sounds too mushy for me right now. Funny it came out on my birthday. Will have to ask if it somehow about me  :lol

I did not enjoy that.  I felt anxious that the player didn't have a time clock so I didn't know how much longer I'd have to listen to it.  Bad lyrics, bad production.  Adult contemporary dreck. 

Indeed - if the intent was to sound like the Four Seasons "Who Loves You", he's nailed it.

Not sure that was the intent. 

Much more obviously a demo than M.A.D.  We'll have to hear it in final form in the context of the whole piece to make a final judgment.

Interesting idea: Brian maybe should only do the backing vocals, he doesn't seem to strain as much on those, even the high notes.  Be the angelic choir in back and let someone else do the leads. 

Like most of Brian's recent stuff the lyrics are kind of sappy, but I absolutely love the tone his voice gets with this.  You can clearly hear him singing the falsetto stuff and it's dead on, although a little whispy like his voice always is now.  I love the vibe of the vocals, heavenly almost!

For some reason, I wanna listen to ORANCE CRATE ART now, especially "San Francisco".

Ron: I'm totally with you on the vocal quality. The best part of this song. I honestly know what people expect Brian to sound like -- he's had his current pipes since the mid-80s, more or less. And he seems to have learned in these demos not to be as shouty as he sometimes is. A plus.

More than anything,Brian is singing with *passion*. Also, brand new Brian Wilson songs, NEWLY WRITTEN, with nary a sight of the Shortenin Bread riff. Amazing.

Brian is singing better than he has in a long time.  He sounds pretty darn smooth on the verses, and those chorus falsettos really shine! a sweet tune all around.

that ascending/descending piano riff on the intro/turnaround is reminiscent of "All Dressed Up for School".  i like this synth-heavy sound, a la 'Love You'.

is Radio 7 a BBC reference?

That intro riff sounds as if it's segueing in from another track so must be part of TLOS I'd think. Must admit I don't love this personally whereas MAD I think is spectacular. Still, it is only a demo. I'm hoping for some flat out Brian weird tracks a la Love You, in TLOS!

Who's written the lyrics? Doesn't sound like VDP to me.

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds almost...commercial? I mean, once the production is finished, of course.

The song has some nice chord-changes and the "hook"-line really gets into my head. The sound is quite good but Brian's voice isn't as great as on MAD imo. The lyrics are cheesy and wouldn't be a misfit on a Mike Love-album imo. Don't like them, like all that nostalgia-crap.
I hear "San Francisco" and "Goin' on" in the intro and some "Ding Dang"-riffs during the song.
Overall I like this song, but it's not great. Hope that it won't be part of TLOS.


@SurferGirl7: Happy birthday !

It's not working for me, is it working for anyone else? I really want to hear it!!

It's got a little of "Let Him Run Wild" before going to the bridge :smokin

Yeah, the more I hear it the more I realise how good his voice is sounding. Between this and MAD it really seems like Brian actually CARES about the music. Has anyone heard him try to sing this expressively since Pre-74? I haven't.

This is very true, and an interesting pointer to where BW's head is really at. We all kind of want more Smile/Sunflower...but this has at least two 'spots' that are perfect 1965! I bet it IS part of TLOS...

OK, it may be a part of That Lucky Old Sun.
I'm hoping, it will be a small part (a jingle, maybe?).
Basically I think the South Bank Centre and the audience are banking on something a bit better than this.
Don't mean this to sound too harsh, but after the first couple of verses I lose interest.

I listened again, and I still find little redeeming value in this particular track.  I realize no one puts out a perfect album, in terms of all the songs being good, but I'm not sure why this was deemed worthy of taking an advanced look.  I just don't hear anything that reminds me of good things in this.  It's closer to something off of GIOMH than something off of Beach Boys Today.  I don't think a different production sound would help.

That's my thought too -- it sounds like a demo. Then again, I prefer hearing Brian singing with other voices in the mix.

My thoughts--  The Casio-sounding keyboard bothers me, so I think my main objection is the production, but this is just a demo. The acoustic piano definitely sounds like Brian playing this time.

Brian's voice sounds great. He's singing with enthusiasm, and the tone of his voice is about as good as you can expect. He's never going to sound 24, but he sounds sweet, and I think his voice is still very pretty.

The lyrics aren't so bad if you think of it as a part of TLOS. It sounds like TLOS is going to be autobiographical, and this song is about Brian's discovery of music and his up-and-down love affair with it since he started making records in 1961. The "surfer girl" in the song sounds to me like a metaphor for music.

I don't love the song yet, but I think it has potential. And it sounds better each time I listen.

Oh, and on the bridge, I can already hear the band doing the tight harmonies while Brian answers back with "so sweet, so sweet..."

Well, I think we have to realize why it's beeing floated on his webpage: They're admittedly demos, and there's no plans yet for an album release... and he's only going to perform the stuff live... so the only reason that he's released THIS song on the webpage is because on a whim he or somebody wanted to just give the fans something neat, a demo that will likely remain unreleased.  I don't think it's intended to be a big finished song or anything, just a demo of part of this song suite he's going to do in England.  Pretty f'in cool!

Hmmmm....    Brian Wilson is 65+ and making new music. Should I be just be glad to hear it and move on?

OK...I will...

Soon enough he'll be too old to make anything new except doodles in his drawers.

The tune sounds kinda fun...I'll be happy to hear it as part of the new LOS 'round' and hopefully on an album that I'm sure I'll purchase whether my best judgement says so or not.

And I hope Mike Love's Beach Boys Endless Summer of Fun band plays somewhere around here soon!