The Smiley Smile Message Board

Every time I listen to this album (probably at least once a week for the last 10 years or so) it just gets better and better. The songs are great. They're effortlessly catchy in the same way that, say, Barnyard from Smile is. Songs like Wild Honey also remind me a bit of the driving energy of Heroes & Villains. Darlin is just phenomenal. And wow, how cool is the baseline to I was Made To Love Her?

Overall I think I love this album because it is BW at the peak of his throwaway pop tune period where he comes up with a melody but can't be bothered to turn it into a fully developed song so you have this gorgeous sort of half developed tune like Country Air (which is possibly my favourite BB song of all time). I think WH succeeds where Smiley Smile fails because it has non of the self consciousness of the latter. It is not overshadowed by Smile. It's just Brian trying to write unpretentious funky R & B type tracks and as a result, it's a really care free and honest album. It doesn't feel like it's trying to be hip which is maybe a fault of some of the 70s output such as Surf's Up.

Also I never hear much love for Here Comes The Night, or How She Boogalooed it - The organ break in the latter is funky beyond reason, ditto the title track - is that Brian playing those organ solos?

Anyway, for me Wild Honey is my favourite Beach Boys album or maybe a tie with Pet Sounds. I love PS but it can be a bit heavy at times whereas Wild Honey seems so much lighter - maybe more in line with what BW was trying to achieve with the more humorous tracks from Smile. I wish we could get a stereo mix of WH.

I know I should probably put this post in the WH review thread but I thought it'd be interesting to hear current opinions on this if anyone wants to share their thoughts. I know it's a favourite of many but that there are lots here who are not so keen if memory serves me ...

I know Bruce did the organ solo on the title track.

Its my favorite record by them too. I figure Bruce did the solo in "Boogaloo" too.

It's nice but I wouldn't even say it's my favorite BB album. I'd put Pet Sounds, Sunflower and maybe even Love You ahead of it.

Heh, it'd do well to scrape my Top Twenty. My disregard for this and Friends are so counter to this board's stance that it's been a dark, dark secret til now.

For the record, I prefer: Today!, Holland, Pet Sounds, Surf's Up, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), Surfer Girl, 20/20, All Summer Long, Love You, Sunflower, Little Deuce Coupe, L.A. Light, Party!, Shut Down Vol. 2, Smiley, Surfin' USA and 15 Big Ones to it. It just seems thin to me. I'm not saying there's not some great stuff on there, like "Darlin'", but most of it - I don't know - I guess I don't think much of the slice of life post-Pet Sounds Brian until the Reiley years. You're all free to call me mental now.

Crap! How could I forget today. I might as well give my list also (Studio albums only):
1. Pet Sounds
2. Today!
3. Sunflower
4. Love You
5. Wild Honey
6. Surf's Up
7. Holland
8. L.A
9. Friends
10. Summer Days (and Summer Nights too!)
11. All Summer Long
12. Party!
13. Surfer Girl
14. 20/20
15. Shut Down Vol. 2
16. Surfin' USA
17. Carl and the Passions: So Tough
18. Smiley Smile
19. Little Deuce Coupe
20. Surfin' Safari
21. Christmas Album
22. Keepin' The Summer Alive
23. 15 Big Ones (This album is growing on me a bit believe it or not.)
24. M.I.U.
25. Still Cruisin'
26. Beach Boys 85'

Summer in Paradise is not on here as I don't own the album and haven't heard the whole thing. It'd probably be last or next to last (Beach Boys 85' is fucking horrible! I haven't been able to listen to the whole thing yet.)

I love that album too. The production is occasionally jarring, but there's some killer songs that are really backed up by the loose, hootenanny feel of it all.

Country Air is perfect, every time I hear it I wonder why I don't play it more often... just about the happiest feel on record...

My current Top 5:

1. Sunflower
2. Holland
3. Friends
4. Wild Honey
5. Pet Sounds

These people also dislike 'Adult/Child'.  These are dire days indeed...

1.  Friends
2.  Wild Honey
3.  Smiley Smile
4.  Pet Sounds
5.  In Concert

I love the version of "Let The Wind Blow" from In Concert!! And the live version of "Wild Honey" with Blondie doing the lead vocal. I think Wild Honey could've been even more awesome than it already is if it had been recorded with bigger, fuller, arrangements and mixed into stereo.

In my top five along with Sunflower, Pet Sounds, Today, and All Summer Long.
I like the raw production and sound. I think it wasn't done out of sloppiness, it was done to give it an authentic rock and roll edge. I don't care about stereo on it because any mix until Friends is only interesting in mono to me. That how Brian cut it and I think he was terrific at mono mixes. Sure you can hear different things in stereo, but to really grasp Brian's total creative pallate the way his mixing talents are important to hear too.

I would definitely jam to a good stereo version of it, but the sound is actually part of the charm to me.

My top five:

Wild Honey
Friends
Pet Sounds
Sunflower
Holland

The album has some occasionally good songwriting on it, but as for me.... I just can't get into Wild Honey.  I think the reason is because production is why I like the Beach Boys.  I love music that has multiple layers to disect.  I love complexity, and I love music where you can just hear how much thought, pre-planning, and work went into it.  On Wild Honey, the production element is nearly gone (with maybe Darlin' being an exception).  Of the 1960's albums, I think its my least favorite.

On the other hand, I do enjoy Friends because I think its a time where we begin to see those production values return.

Wild Honey never really worked for me - yet!
It took me years to get into Today! (which now is among my very favorites), so I'm fairly confident that one day I'll be really appraciating WH as well. Right now, it just seems like such a transitory record to me and it sounds like they didn't really know what they wanted to do (which isn't necessarily a bad thing as far as I'm concerned).

1. Surf's Up
2. Wild Honey
3. Sunflower (plus everything that could have gone on it)
4. Pet Sounds
5. Friends

Well, I LOVE the album, but I can understand being put off by it's sound and stripped down-ness.

We should also, by this time, stop crediting and praising everything as BRIAN BRIAN BRIAN..... By Wild Honey, Carl and Mike were singing  lead on almost everything, you have Bruce doing celebrated organ solos, Mike writing just about all of the lyrics..... I'd say it's fair to praise Wild Honey as a Beach Boys group effort all the way!!!!! This album was created by a BAND!

My only wish is for Wild Honey is that it was less freakin' muddy sounding. I liked that clear version of County Air on All This is That. How about a remaster of the album please??

I still hate Let the Wind blow though.

I'm the exact opposite. I LOVE "Let the Wind Blow" -- what an amazing song, straight from the heart! It's one of the highlights of *Wild Honey* imho.

*Wild Honey* is not only my favorite BB album, it's my favorite album of all time. I love the stripped down production, the singing (leads and harmonies), and the way this whole album lets Brian's songwriting chops shine. It's also where I became a Carl fan.

My top five BB albums are:
1. Wild Honey
2. Sunflower
3. Surf's Up
4. Today
5. All Summer Long

Same here, although All Summer Long occasionally makes room for Carl & The Passions.

it seems like a lot of people here have very similar top albums, mine are:

1 sunflower
2 friends
3 wild honey
4 smiley smile
5 surf's up
6 pet sounds
7 20/20
8 holland
9 love you
10 so tough

i guess that most of us can agree that 65-73 is pretty much where it's at, with LOVE YOU being the shining moment from the later years

i'm glad that WILD HONEY and SMILEY have not been re-mixed, those dense, murky mono mixes are part of the charm for me

Well it takes all kinds to make a world  :)

I just always thought the song sounded too whiny and just pure fluff. I think Games Two Can Play has more thought then that song did. Probably the highlight of WH is Aren't you Glad and Darlin' definately. Thing or Two is also great also. Gotta love that organ!!

I still have to go with:
1.Sunflower
2.Surf's Up
3.In Concert(1973)
4.Holland
5.Pet Sounds

Big Bri

Let the Wind Blow is much better on In Concert. I love that guitar solo.

I love Let the Wind Blow, but my one of my favourites from the album is Aren't You Glad. It's just a great Burt Bacharach kind of tune that is so uplifting. I'd love Just Once To see You is another great one. I agree with the above poster who points out that by this time the band were more involved, by I do think the songwriting is still largely down to Brian at this point and it shows. The production doesn't bother me. I actually like that dodgy buzzing organ sound that bleeds through on some tracks - sounds like bees making honey!!

Wild Honey
Pet Sounds
Friends
Sunflower
Love You

My point though was that I don't care for "slice-of-life" Brian, and it's Brian who wrote all of the slice of life songs during this era - sometimes with Mike, sometimes with Carl, sometimes with Al - I'd Love Just Once To See You, Here Comes The Night (though I actually don't mind that one), Busy Doin' Nothin, When A Man Needs A Woman, Games Two Can Play, I Just Got My Pay, Good Time, Take A Load Off Your Feet etc.

Inconsequential, and aside from ..Got My Pay, Brian not only wrote or co-wrote, he sings lead or partial lead as well.

It's all down to personal taste as the slice of life songs are among my favourite BW compositions. Busy Doin Nothin just epitomises everything I like about that post Pet Sounds period - it's throwaway, yet brilliant at the same time. Seemingly lazy and tossed off, yet the chords are pretty complex, and the whole track is as delicately beautiful as something by A.C. Jobim. Plus, lyrically, it's a snapshot of Brian's life at the time, which is fascinating for many BW fans, me included.

Get the 2001 remastered version - its an improvement on the 1990 one...


Let the Wind Blow must be a matter of taste, as its one of my top BB tracks. I guess its like liking Holland, which has Sail on Sailor and Leaving this Town, but all the rest is sh|t.

Woah!  How did I miss this thread?  I gotta get in on this.

First of all I don't like listing favorites in a numbered order.  I like Wild Honey, Pet Sounds, and Sunflower the most, but not particularly in that order.

Wild Honey, to me, is an incredible album.  It came out at an incredible time in rock history, which is a year or two before my earliest memories.  Maybe that's part of the charm for me personally, I don't know.  Anyone who thinks the songs on WH lack production values or depth, think again.  Maybe it doesn't have that full wall of sound like Pet Sounds, but it's a different style of music recorded in a different setting.  Many bands at the time were stripping down their music and recording in more intimate settings.  Look at what the Beatles did with the white album and Let it Be.

I do think Wild Honey would benefit greatly with a stereo facelift and a few bonus tracks of alternate takes (I've heard a few good bootleg outtakes).  I absolutely love the remix of Let the Wind Blow and I could get into the whole album sounding like that.  

And for anyone who's not hip on the stereo idea, you can always hold on to your current twofer cd or vintage vinyl (I've got both).

Um, yeah. The Trader, what were they thinking?

I could hardly disagree more. Also, quoting...when your new text is within the quotes (i.e. before the [/quote]), it can become difficult to tell what is new, especially in multi-part quotes. The idea is New text. See? PS, I'm not being a jackass here. Just trying to help those in need.

My top 15 favorite Albums
1. Pet Sounds
2. Surfer Girl
3. Today!
4. Summer Days and Summer Nights!
5. All Summer Long
6. Stack-O-Tracks ( I love listening to the backing tracks!)
7. Sunflower
8. Smiley Smile
9. Wild Honey
10. Surf's Up
11. Friends
12. Love You
13. 20/20
14. Shut Down Vol. 2

Even though I'm sure I've done this before and almost certainly in some different order, my favorites are probably Pet Sounds, Today!, Friends, Surf's Up, Love You, Holland, SD(&SN!), Holland, All Summer Long, Sunflower.

It took awhile for Wild Honey to grow on me.  It was one of those things where I would only listen to a few tracks at first ("Darlin" and "Mama Says"), and gradually I would listen to another and let that one sink in, and so on.

Even now I only really enjoy maybe 75% of the album (not crazy about the title track, "Aren't You Glad" or "Thing or Two", but I'm sure someday I'll come around), but I don't know how I went so long without stuff like "Let the Wind Blow", "Country Air" or "I'd Love Just Once to See You").  It's a pretty jarring album to listen to when you put it next to Pet Sounds or Smile, but I still like it a lot.  The messy production is a part of the charm...a lot of the songs wouldn't sound quite right with Brian's more "polished" sound.

No, but they might have sounded really good with Carl's more polished sound, meaning that early '70s sound they later nailed.

Yeah now that you mention it, I could picture that. 

See, I have to disagree here.  I think the rough production works fine for Smiley, mainly because that album is a head trip all the way around.  But Wild Honey deserves much more in the way of post production.  Up to that point WH was pretty much the most modern and hip sounding material from The Boys, and with stereo quickly becoming the norm, it would have been a good album to present in that format...and I think it would stand up a little better these days, not sounding quite so dated.

My nickel's worth.  Anybody got change?  8)

I love the unpolished production - it gives it the vitality of a live recording. I'm not sure if you could improve the production whilst maintaining that vital sound but I suspect if it had a more polished Sunflower type treatment the character of the album would be lost. I guess we will never know, but I do love the low-fi production - gives it a sweaty, groovy quality that sets the scene perfectly for those buzzing organ solos. It all feels very immediate, uncomplicated and unselfconscious which is its major appeal for me.

It's worth getting a turntable just to hear Wild Honey on vinyl...the CD doesn't do it justice!  Amazing "airy" rich sound!!!

That album grew a lot on me too. First I hated it, mainly because of the cover art.  :p  Now I even like that a bit.  ;)

I think all tracks are cool, even HSBI. Just something different but harmless and rocking. I don't mind Mama Says because I didn't hear the other Vegetables versions back then. My favourite songs might be I'd Love Just Once To See You and Country Air. Darlin' is good but I heard better live versions (Knebworth, Endless Summer '89 - rocks!).

BTW My top 5 albums at the moment might just be:

1. Wild Honey
2. 20/20
3. KTSA
4. Sunflower
4. Pet Sounds

I just DL'd a boot with stereo versions of Smiley Smile and Wild Honey, and I think I love those 2 albums more than ever now, after hearing the stereo versions! (though some of the songs are in "fake" stereo, I still like it better than in mono)