The Smiley Smile Message Board

I am 31 years old. When I introduce this era of BBs to people I notice that those who grew up in the 60s and were not big BBs fans, have already decided they will never like them  (I get alot of "I don't like bubblegum music"). People my age tend to respond to it more positively, although not the case ten years ago. Anyone else have that same experience? Now I am sure that in Europe, this era was fairly well known and excepted at the time anyway, but not the case in America.

Nobody really likes them in the part of Europe I'm in, they go for more metal and technocratic guitar and overproduced, synthy sounding drums and, and, and....
. I will be very happy indeed if they are more popular in the US than in the old days. i don't know why that makes me happy. I guess I want people to share my love.

I think that may very well be true.  Brian's artistic stature continues to grow as he ages, and Pet Sounds is being discovered by each new generation of musicians/music fans.

Well I am 32 and have like the Beach boys for 20 years. I never met anyone (at least anyone who is open to music from the sixties and seventies) who didn't like the Pet Sounds through Holland stuff that I played them. Except maybe Smiley.

it can be very easy to turn people on to the BB because they are so eclectic, they tried out many different styles at different points. My experience has always been that i can make a BB appreciator out of just about anyone by selecting the right songs. My room mate loves jazz so i tried him on a helpingof pet sounds, but it didn't take at first. Then i found out he'd never heard rhapsody in blue so i made him listen to that and it blew his mind, then i made him a mix of the backing tracks from pet sounds and it clicked, he loves them now nearly as much as i do and he's constantly discovering the different stages of their sound.

personally i hope and pray that with the proper release of POB and Bambu (which my room mate loved even more than pet sounds) that their will be a dennis wilson awakening in the U.S. it's LONG overdue!   

And I think the discovery of Pet Sounds (as opposed to the old days of Endless Summer etc.. being the "key" album) only leads people to search out the more obscure stuff

Actually it was Sound of Summer that made me want to search out everything, and what a lovely surprise. There is something to be said for the early stuff, though, it has a certain inimicable vibe.

That's why I said "etc.." cause I just meant all of those compilations...but anyway, what's wrong with the early stuff?

'...inimicable...'?

sorry, I am a terrible nerd, I know. But the early stuff is not my enemy...

ok so i don't agree with that description at all, but mikey gets vocab props for the day...nice adjective

The early stuff is great.The early albums don't have the same shock value for people who aren't aware of the Beach Boys catalog, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of depth.

Did I use the wrong word, or is it just pretentious? I almost typed something else, but it definitely wasn't a word. Oh well.

Maybe unique would do better. At any rate, songs like "I Get Around, Fun, fun fun, and especially In My Room really got me curious. They are scrumptious.

What's with Smiley Smile getting so much credit these days?

It's like the 'cool' beach boys album,

Well, even though Brian really wasn't trying anymore with Smiley Smile, he accidentally ended up being revolutionary. Smiley was (purposely) lo-fi decades before the term came into vogue. Smiley is just a wonderfully weird album. I'll bet that pretty soon we'll start seeing more and more musicians singing the praises of Smiley and maybe even Wild Honey and/or Friends along with the already existing worshiping of Pet Sounds and SMiLE.

You're right there, Alex, these albums are great.

Absolutely...Pet Sounds was my jumping off point, leading me to Smile and beyond.  It made me curious to find out how they got there and where they subsequently went.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who has taken that path.

Yeah, I think think Sounds Of Summer helped tremendously. It includes:

- Getcha Back
- Come Go With Mer
- Rock And Roll Music
- Heroes And Villains
- Good Timin'
- Kokomo
- Do It Again
- Wild Honey
- Darlin'
- I Can Hear Music

That's a lot of post-1965 material for a "greatest hits" comp. If new fans get hooked on one or a few of those above songs, they're gonna gravitate toward those Smiley, Wild Honey, Friends, etc. CD's. Also, The Beach Boys (Mike & Bruce are still touring extensively, playing to a lot of people. I've noticed in their setlists that they are working more post-1965 stuff in.

[quote author=Sheriff John Stone link=topic=6486.msg104478#msg104478 date=1228777227
 If new fans get hooked on one or a few of those above songs, they're gonna gravitate toward those Smiley, Wild Honey, Friends, etc. CD's. Also, The Beach Boys (Mike & Bruce are still touring extensively, playing to a lot of people. I've noticed in their setlists that they are working more post-1965 stuff in.
[/quote]

That's exactly how I got into it.  I'm 22 and have been aware of the music all my life but I bought Sounds of Summer after seeing VH1 rerun An American Family and was hooked on, especially on Wild Honey and Darlin.  Within two months I also got Pet Sounds, the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey 2-fer and the Carlin book and that was that.

I think Smiley through to Friends are already name dropped by tons of musicians. The Beta Band springs to mind - the guy sings a whole lyric about how he's listening to Wild Honey and he thinks it's pretty good but not as good as Pet Sounds, and that's something to do with it not being produced by Brian Wilson - it's a really funny line. I read something where Paul Weller was singing the praises of Friends, which seemed kind of odd to me considering he's the Modfather and all - I think it was in mojo. What's most amusing is that you frequently see music journalists describing albums as having a 'sunflower' or 'surf's up' vibe, as if merely describing bands as sounding like The Beach Boys is now too vague! More power to that I say. I want to see a band described as having a 'Hey Little Tomboy' vibe!

R. Kelly?

Absolutely true about the later BBs albums being in the standard musician lexicon...so much so that if musicians aren't aware of the stuff on those albums, they almost feel the need to apologize.  It could not be more different than when I was 14 and first started talking up the Beach Boys as artists.  You would get this kind of pitying stare.  It's a complete turnaround.

On the above note, I've always wondered if the line "I love a sunflower" on Tears For Fears' glorious single "Sowing The Seeds of Love" referred to the Beach Boys album.  Orzobal makes obscure references elsewhere (e.g. "kick out the Style, bring back the Jam") in the song, and otherwise, the lyric really doesn't make any sense.  Thoughts?

Didn't Tears for Fears do a song called Brian Wilson Said?

Indeed they did.

Frequently? I've never seen anything like this.

:lol :lol (They should have a smiley for slightly uncomfortable laughter)

Well 'frequently' might be a slight exaggeration but I've seen Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam described as having Sunflower style keyboards, and I remember reading a review of a Super Furry Animals album that likened it to Surf's Up, although this may just be in Mojo, where it's a safe bet that the average reader is at least aware of the names of BB albums. I'm sure I've seen Smiley Smiley and Wild Honey also used in a similar way in reviews.

But is it just the British rags that are mentioning 70s BB stuff a lot? I'll occasionally see Wild Honey or Friends in Rolling Stone, and Pet Sounds and SMiLE are mentioned a lot these days, but I still have yet to see anything from Sunflower through Holland mentioned in record reviews.

This is all very interesting. I was a big fan of only the Endless Summer era BB until I saw the Endless Harmony doc in 1998. I became curious, especially with the Smile stuff. Nothing has blown me away like Smile. Except for the Music Tapes 'Imaginary Symphony for Nomad'.

I would also like to mention the movies that have included more obscure BB songs in soundtracks. Almost Famous shocked me when I heard Feel Flows on the closing credits. Orange County featured several of BW solo tunes.

Are you as big a fan of Julian Koster's other music (such as Chocolate USA and his other E6 stuff), or just Music Tapes?

I haven't been able to find Chocolate USA. But I recently got the Singing Handsaws Christmas album which is pretty cool.

What about the new Music Tapes album? Did you like that? As for Chocolate USA ... we'll be in touch.

I really liked the new Music Tapes album. Although it didn't knock me out the way Imaginary Symphony did.

If you haven't, check your PMs