The Smiley Smile Message Board

Along with The Beach Boys 85 in tower today but I can't comment on that as of yet.

But Keepin' The Summer Alive why does it get such a bad rap, It's a truly great album. I've been holding of getting it for 2 years now because of the reviews I read..

Every song is great apart from School Days (Why Al), and Santa Ana winds is a bit weak, but the Harmony's are good. I'm mady in love with Livin' With A Heartache, how have I gone without this song for so long.

To me this why the Beach Boys are the best band ever, even at their worst, when everything was terrible, they still made really good pop music.

Has anybodies thoughts on this album changed, or am I totally alone  ;D

I like Some of Your Love, Goin' On, and the alternate version of Oh Darlin' with Brian singing lead (on Get the Boot). Santa Ana Winds is the best song, but they put the worst version of it on the album (naturally). Cool cover. Beyond that... :-\

I agree, KTSA really isn't that bad. It hasn't got any major highlights and of course it's not one of their better albums, but it's OK. Way, way better than BB85 in my opinion...

That could've been such a great and beautiful song but the production, arrangement and the bad singing of the released version just ruin it for me. I agree, the alt. is better

It's not among my favorites for sure. I have however started appreciating all of their records in one way or another as they're all part of the story and each of them is totally unique. So while I wouldn't want to play any single song from KTSA to a friend in order to convince them of the BB's outstanding qualities, there's quite a few things to enjoy for the connaisseur even on this one. Still, I prefer some of their other "worst records" over KTSA, most notably the M.I.U. Album, which has really grown on me (in a way).

I like the title track (with Joe Walsh on guitar!) and "Goin' On" the most; with the rest of the tracks ranging from decent to lousy.  Despite the lousy production of the 1985 album, I tend to enjoy that one; mostly due to the Carl Wilson tracks.

I actually dig KTSA a lot! Prefer it over MIU and LA (which I guess isnt saying much...)

Oh, I love this album so much. It's the only Beach Boys album where I really like all songs. It's true, the live versions of KTSA and School Days are way better though. The boys never played something harder live than that. Livin' With A Heartache is a treasure, so is Goin' On, my favourite track on that record. The melody is beautiful and the harmonies are awesome. Some Of Your Love and Sunshine aren't that interesting but fun to sing along with. Oh Darlin' has some beautiful lyrics that let me forget the a little bit boring sounding Carl lead. When Girls Get Together is another interesting piece, but seems a little bit out of place. Santa Ana Winds is cool and Endless Harmony the perfect closing. I love the Ten Years Harmony version too. Cover is cool, I love penguins. =)  The only thing I kinda dislike on that album is Dennis' absence. I love every Beach Boys album, even BB85, SC and SIP. But I can understand when people don't like it, but why KTSA? The last classic Beach Boys album for me.

I think the liner notes for the 2fer are pretty good.  ::)

This is one of the last best BB albums. It's unfortunate that Dennis isn't featured...Sunshine is my favorite cut

I like it too. Not too much, but I like Some Of your Love, School Days, Goin' On and Santa Winds enough that the whole album gets a pass. After a Mike/Al album and a Carl/Denny album, it's nice that this one is a little more integrated.

I agree completely! I've been a Beach Boys obsessive since the 80's and I hadn't heard this album until just a few months ago! It's a fantastic album made during a rough time for the band, and I suspect this rough time and all the stories associated have a lot to do with it's reputation, rather than the music contained within. Sure, it's not Smile or Pet Sounds, or Pacific Ocean Blue (but what is?) but if all the Beach Boys were was Smile and Pet Sounds, I'd hardly be the fan I am.

I wouldn't say it's a good album, I don't think they did an entire good album after Holland,  but it's the last real Beach Boys album to me. It's the last time they did somthing that felt like they were doing their own thing instead of trying to fit in with whatever else was going on. Maybe it's because Brian and Mike were writing together, maybe it's that Carl's songs are solid, I don't know but it feels like the Beach Boys. Dennis would have made this a lot better.

Though I'm not a fan of reusing old melodies from other songs, Some of Your Love does rock!

BTW, I have two different backing tracks to Goin On, one sounds like the usual, but the other is a little more faster...was that Brian's first version? and then Bruce slowed it down?

I absolutely loathe this LP. This is the sound of a band that didn't care. I don't even think Carl could muster up the nerve to give 10%, let alone his usual 100%. And you know when Dennis boycotts the sessions, it's bad.

Someone made the comment elsewhere that the production sounds thin and overly compressed, especially compared with L.A. (which I personally really like).  I think this is spot-on.

Songs I like:
KTSA
Santa Ana Winds
Goin' On
last half of Endless Harmony

Songs I don't mind:
Some Of Your Love
School Days
Still Crazy After All These Years -- er, the first half of Endless Harmony

Songs that I either dislike or just bore me, and why:
Oh Darlin' - lays there and dies
Sunshine - dum, dum, dum dee dum dee DUMB, never changes, no dynamics.
When Girls Get Together - sounds like someone lurching around the deck, seasick
Livin' With a Heartache -- It's not offensive, the production is just really dull.

I love Sunshine.  Really cool faux-reggae, with Brian singing nice falsetto lines.  The title track is a great BB rocker, IMO.  School Days also rocks.  Goin' On is impressive, Oh Darlin' and Livin' With A Heartache are nice.  But the overall feeling I had when I first listened to it back in March of 1980 was one of a letdown.  It just seemed kind of "plastic", and I had to "make" myself like it.  The last three tracks are so slow, it was hard not to nod off by the end.  And I felt the lyrics on Some Of Your Love were cringe-worthy, despite a boppin' track. 

I believe someone on here or another board mentioned that KTSA was the last album that "sounded like the Beach Boys". Funny, I never thought the Beach Boys were so lifeless or cold on record. The Beach Boys Love You sounds more like them than this LP. The Beach Boys at their best were never lifeless, never cold, and certainly not dull, which they are all three of on KTSA.

I agree with your assessment. But one of my biggest problems with KTSA was the length. Just ten songs; I felt a little cheated. Two songs from Dennis would've gone along way, quantity-wise and quality-wise. The Beach Boys just couldn't put it all together in the mid/late 70's. All of their albums during that period were could've/should've/would've. No Dennis and little Carl on MIU. Then a lot of Dennis and Carl on L.A. but hardly any Brian. Then Brian returns for KTSA and Dennis is gone again....

i think as taken from 1976 its their best album.
list:
1 KTSA
2 MIU
3 15 big ones
4 LA
5 love you

I bet you can give another line up as others also have. Everybody has his favorites.
Production wise i think it sounds very clean and natural. Not to much overdubbs. Also great vocals from Carl Wilson.

To me KTSA is boring, predictable, the production reminds me of those processed cheese slices that come in individual plastic. No magic, no mojo, absolutely no sign of growth. L.A. was hit and miss but it was clearly better than the MIU disaster. Love You and POB stand out as the BB's boldest statements of the late seventies.

God no.  LA's and 15 BO are way better, even if they are only half good.

I like all their stuff. *shrug*

I can listen to it without barfing. I like some of the songs a lot, some of them less so, but there are only one or two that I think are really bad.

Problem, as noted, IMO is the production. There just seems to spark or imagination to it. It is flat, and the arrangements are, well, not that interesting. Some decent songs are ruined by the production. Some songs are good enough to rise above it.

Weirdly it does sort of capture a cheap early eighties wanna-be glossy dive bar feel for me, as does Huey Lewis and the News.

In a way it's weird that Bruce Johnston would allow a Beach Boys album to sound like this, given his favorite record of theirs is Sunflower. Though his very own music had always been saccharine and somewhat corny, he really should have known better when it came to the actual sound and production of the group's music.

I first picked up KTSA about 10 years ago on cassette (before the reissues had come out) and was massively underwhelmed - AGDs book might have influenced my thinking on it having read that before. However I do like 'Sunshine' for some reason though its kind of pointless, Santa Ana winds is nice (apart from the horrid spoken intro) and I like 'When girls get together' (though obviously its an earlier track).
To me MIU is the best post-Love you album by far, I dig the sort of raw-with-strings sound of the production and the songs - though cheesy - are just more enjoyable.

I really like KTSA and always have. To me, it's the last progressive sounding album they did, and Carl really steals the show. But I also like all of the previous albums as well.

Agree with that... KTSA (with the exception of When Girls... which is the worst kind of camembert) is a fine album that achieved what I think they might have set out to do with SIP, and several years earlier -  a rocking look back on former glories. Title track is superb and I remember thinking Some of Your Love was just about the best track played live at Knebworth in 1980, where I fist saw the band.

What does sound progressive in your ears on this record? Jus curious....

I think Jon Stebbins comments were right on the mark.  Was Endless Harmony on this album?

Who sang My Diane or co-wrote Matchpoint of Our Love then?

I dont think he co-wrote Matchpoint.

Mike Love co-wrote "Matchpoint Of Our Love". When I wrote "no Dennis" on MIU, I was referring to compositions. And, yes, I'm aware that Dennis sang "My Diane".

I agree 100% with the statement above.

I don't mind the production, the problem this time is that most of the material sucks, to different degrees.

Interesting comments, funny to see how the general consensus is that KTSA really sucks, or is really great, with a few 'OK's' thrown in.

I've also been listening to Beach Boys 85, it's not as great, but a few of the songs are fantastic, It's gettin late and Where I belong stand out.

But MY GOD, California Calling is just painfull, my ears have been destroyed.

I actually do like (but not love) KTSA. Sunshine is my favorite track on the album. I actually do love Santa Anna Winds and the second half of Endless Harmony. The rest is ok except for School Days. Although, I would rank this album near the bottom, it's a giant step above the embarrasing list (15 B0, BB85, SC, SIP). Half of MIU is embarrasing, but the rest is very good IMO.

I actually...kinda like this alubm. It has a good three song run at the end (When Girls get Together, Santa Ana Winds which is my personal favorite on the album, and Endless Harmony.)

Yes, I think WGGT is decent. You heard me.

I like KTSA. Last time the BB tried. Really tried.

Bob

I bought it the day it was released.  I feel now about the same as I did then, the title track and Goin' On are good....everything else is filler to worse.  I think Brian was in pretty good voice around this time and I think Oh Darlin would have been way better with his vocal.  A couple of Dennis songs would have made this a stronger effort.  I don't think Bruce Johnston should have produced any of their stuff.  LA is generally better.  Take the best of LA and the best of KTSA combined and you'd have a pretty decent album.

Everybody sing along now... "If everybody in the USA, could come with us to California..."
Just kidding!


I actually like BB85 better than KTSA. I do like the live version of the title track and the alternate version of Santa Ana Winds, but the rest of it is pure dreck. Carl and Jim Guercio should have been helping Bruce run the show much like they did on LA. The boys had a lot of good material in the vaults to draw from, but instead they decided to put out some of the worst songs they've ever written. Just listen to it and you can tell that Brian didn't really give a merda about his songs. A lack of presence from Dennis didn't really help either. BB85 was an improvement over KTSA. Plus, Still Cruisin' at least had Somewhere Near Japan, and SIP had a couple tolerable covers and good Carl Wilson vocals. And I pretty much agree with what Stebbins and The Real Beach Boy said.

Amen!

Terrible record. I've owned it since it came out and listened to the whole thing maybe 6 times, including right now. Plastic crap, listless and artless. Worst ever cover to boot!

I really think KTSA is all that bad; "Goin On" is ace, "Santa Ana" I like a good deal except for the spoken intro or one of Love's worst vocals and I think that the last part of "Endless Harmony" is real good (the rest of the song just stinks until Carl comes in and saves the day!). The title track was 10x better life and I prefer the original "Oh Darlin'" even though it's still not a perfect song...never could be.

  :rock That is one of my all- time favorite Beach Boy moments. I wish I had that segment isolated.