The Smiley Smile Message Board

Am I the only one who thinks this is one of The Beach Boys' crowning achievements?

"Feel Flows"

"Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)"

"A Day in the Life of a Tree"

"'Til I Die"

"Surf's Up"

No your not the only one   ;D

replace Surf's up with Carl on Lead with the version with just Brian, and you have a hell of a side 2

I agree-I don't think that Carl was really suited to that song.  You still have the partial Brian vocal from "Dove Nested Towers" on, which is cool.

Love Surf's Up side two.....but it almost seems like Surfs Up the song doesn't belong there. Who cares though, I'll take it- it's better than a having an extended dance club re-mix of SDT.

I totally agree...its right up there with side 2 of "Today!" IMO.

I tend to focus on specific songs more than album sides as best achievements, but it certainly is an awesome side.  I love side 2 of Sunflower as well.  The last 5 are absolutely stunning for me, and even Tears In The Morning has breathtaking backing vocals.

No disrespect to Brian, but I've never heard a BW lead on the first movement of "Surf's Up" that I liked near as much as Carl's. There's something extra in CW's vocal nuances that "makes" that movement for me.




               

Add 'Fourth of July' and it would have been a full Wilson Bros side too.

Except Lookin' At Tomorrow.

And yeah, Side Two is great. In fact, it's more-or-less all I listen to when I throw on Surf's Up.

Switch around Lookin' at Tomorrow and Long Promised Road and then it would be perfect. Also throw 4th of July onto CATP instead of SU and have it segue into Cuddle Up.

I love that song. Definately one of the most underrated BB songs.

That's what happens when you're the greatest singer of all-time

God bless Carl

I don't like Tree too much but the rest is great.

If 2 or 3 of Dennis gems replaced 'Take a Load off Your Feet', and 'Student Demo' then this would be the best album the Beach Boys ever did since PS!

1. Don't Go Near the Water
2. Long Promised Road
3. Sound of Free
4. Disney Girls
5. Fourth of July
6. Feel Flows
7. Lookin at Tommorow
8. A Day in the Life of a Tree
9. Til I Die
10. Surfs Up

Yow! that's a hell of a track-listing there!

I know I'm pretty much an all-around Mike apologist, but I have to admit to always skipping past Student Demo. It's just how loud his freakin voice is mixed that gets me. You have Disney Girls, just a perfect song/recording/just GORGEOUS, then suddenly you have this wailing guitar (pretty good actually, whoever is playing) and then this guy just spitting into your ear about "Berkeley free speech"!!!! I have no problem at all with the lyrics/sentiment and think the song kinda rocks, but it's just those first few seconds which send me hurtling across the room to tear the needle from the record eveytime

If we're talking preferred SURF'S UP line-ups, here's mine:

1. Surf's Up
2. Sound of Free
3. Long Promised Road
4. Disney Girls
5. Fourth of July
6. Feel Flows
7. Lookin at Tomorrow
8. A Day in the Life of a Tree (with a Brian lead vocal)
9. Til I Die
10. Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again

My perfect Surf's Up would actually be LANDLOCKED, because in a perfect world Surf's Up would be on Smile...:D

1. Don't Go Near The Water
2. Long Promised Road
3. Disney Girls (1957)
4. Student Demonstration Time
5. 4th of July
6. Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)

1. Telephone Backgrounds On A Clear Day (intro into)
2. Feel Flows
3. A Day In The Life Of A Tree (Brian or Dennis singing; or maybe even Al)
4. Til I Die
5. Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again


I'm not that big into DGNTW or Student Demo, but we need some Mike stuff to be realistic enough.

Why take anything off?  Just add Fourth of July and WIBNTLA

Looking at Tomorrow is the most shitty Beach Boys song on the Surf's Up LP, up there with Take A Load Off Your Feet (Pete)

Couldn't disagree more. I LOVE those two.

I would do a complete recall of every Surf's Up LP and CD and remove SDT. Then we can all pretend that SDT never ever existed. That song sucks worse than almost anything I can think of. I like the Macarena better than SDT.

...."I do 'em when I'm down in the tub, with avocado cream they'll take a rub.."   :rock

I really dig Take A Load Off Your Feet.

I despise SDT and I couldn't care less about Lookin' At Tomorrow. 

I'd replace them with a couple of Dennis songs -- and one of them would most definitely be San Miguel.

Lookin' At Tomorrow fits the general mood of the album, IMO. I really like that tune.

San Miguel is incredible...would've been a killer opening track...although the opening lyric sounds like, "Started off the day with a drug...", instead of "drive", to my big ears.

"Started off the day with a drug..." probably would have been the truth, considering Dennis wrote the song!   :)


But actually, the opening lyric is "Started off the day with a THOUGHT..."

Lookin' At Tomorrow is great, but Take A Load Off is, indeed, awful.

I dislike much of Mike's later stuff, SDT rocks. Dennis' drumming is terrific and the production is very life like. It even ran my dad off the road once, he thought there were cops behind us.

I agree with you. Whoever mastered the Sunflower/Surf's Up 2-fer CD goofed up big time. The song it too lllloooouuuudddd.

I also agree with Smilin Ed H's post. Why take anything off? Just add Dennis's songs. If he would've let them....

EVERY SINGLE TIME I listen to SDT in the car I think I'm being pulled over. It puts me in a state of anxiety and unease which I guess is what the song wants you to feel.

TaLoyF is AWFUL. If they needed some filler after Dennis pulled off his tracks, they could have taken HELP, Games People Play or I Just Got My Pay. They're little homemade ditties as well, but at least something happens in them.

I really liked Looking at Tomorrow, til I listened to that Kingston Trio track. Oh Al, Mike rewrote Room Cell #9 but at least gave credits to Leiber and Stoller.  ::)

SDT is a nice change of pace in the album, like "Got to Know the Woman" in Sunflower. I like it.

You guys are drinking the Kool- Aid. :ohyeah


Take a Load off Your Feet is great, way better than SDT. (which isn't saying much, but still...)

I just had a vision (maybe this belongs in the Monterey hypotheticals thread)...

Smile is released on time and becomes the Beach Boys' most famous album. Brian still has a terrible nervous breakdown and loses control of the band. The rest of their career is spent trying to capture the glory days of Smile with Smile-esque compositions. Instead of releasing things like "Some of Your Love" and "Kona Coast", they release things like "Take a Load Off Your Feet".

"Take a Load..." is so Al-does-Smile I can't see how you guys don't like it.

It's Al does HELP

Perfect analogy! "Take A Load" woulda fit perfectly on Smile and people would be gushing over it if it had.

I wouldn't, I assure you.

We'd be all here posting about "Smile Side Two" and omitting it from that instead.

Probably so, but it's still a wonderful song and no more goofy than lots of other BBs stuff.... I  give that award to Brian and Mike for Matchpoint!

I think of "Take A Load Off Your Feet" as being in the same category as "Vegetables"--a goofy, funny, catchy little ditty not meant to change the world or the face of music.  Certainly not the best thing in the Beach Boys' catalog, but far from the worst.

My feeling is that if you like "Vegetables," there's no reason why should despise "Take A Load Off Your Feet."

Hmm. I don't despise it, I'm just bleh on it. I like Vegetables though.

Take a Load (huhuh) is a fun song and its kinda catchy...but I mean its not -AS- catchy as Vegetables...and it definitely doesnt have that 'sing a long' feel to it...I think the reason is because they invested way too much into its production, maybe if they kept it simpler...

I like both SDT and TALOYF. My only problem is they don't fit with the rest of the songs well. SDT is too loud for the album (I would have perferred it on CATP over He Come Down), and TALOYF is too cheesy (would've fit well on Smile or Friends).

But hey, as far as "message" songs are concerned, I've been told to eat my vegetables all my life, but how many times have I been told to really take care of my feet?

Al has a good point.

Indeed, that's part of the charm...what other band has sang about the subject? I was talking with a fellow BB fan and we concurred that the BB's sang songs about almost everything imaginable in their career. I really love this tune.


What do you think Al's feet smell like, anyway?.... Onions? Corn chips?

probably horse manure considering he lives on a ranch