The Smiley Smile Message Board

Dentists have all the fun!

I think Al is my favourite Beach Boy in the long run.  He strikes me as being one of the Beach Boys I could have been, Carl the other.

Al's contributions to the Beach Boys have probably gone more unnoticed than any of the other members.  The way he was able to mesh with Carl on the inner voices of complex vocal arrangments is mind-boggling to me.  He was the most important ingredient.  Without him, I think the vocal mix would have been less cohesive.

As a guitar player, his contributions seem minimal...yet he could hold his own with Campbell and the rest.  And after Brian sort of gave up on bass, Al filled in for a lot of sessions on Bass and Dano bass, and for mine, his tone on Fender bass is magnificent.

His lead singing voice matured so much over the course of his career.  I can't believe how confident he grew, from the tense "Christmas Day" to the tight "Help Me, Rhonda" to the nuanced, empathic driven sound of his Cotton Fields 45 lead.  And what a production on that, too.

Love ya Al.

Along with Bruce, the nicest man in show business.

Props to the man who cowrote Good Time and came up with California. He's got a great voice and a killer smile. He's the Beach Boy that lived up to the clean-cut image of The Beach Boys. He also looked good in those striped shirts, with his t-shirts underneath.

aeijtzsche, do you have the Goldmine (I think) interview Al did seven or eight years ago?  One of the better jobs of interviewing someone other than Brian. 

It amazes me how little there is in terms of quality interviews with Carl, Al, Dennis, Mike, or Bruce...

One of the reasons that Al has been so underappreciated is the widespread perception that all those girls were yelling "Dennis! Dennis!"  In fact, most of them were yelling "Dentist! Dentist!"

 :D

I widely agree with Aijiji's post... I don't know that Al's my favorite, but I think he's been largely overlooked over the years. 

Here, let me commit heresy...

Al's lead vocal of "You Still Believe In Me" from the "In Concert" album rivals Brian's legendary original.

Discuss.

Dude, it's better!

Right now, yeah, I'm thinking I agree with that. 

I love that live version. Al positively shines. It might be my favorite vocal of his. Dig when Al sings Sloop John B.

His voice has aged the best of the surviving members of the group.   A competent songwriter but not exceptional.  But his voice along with Carl's and Mike and Brian in their prime- unbelievable.  Brian's band does a good job of recreating the parts but nothing will ever match that original blend. 

There are tales of unrecorded and unreleased Jardine stuff that, along with Dennis' stuff, would have taken the BB on a more artistically pleasing  tangent in the mid-late 70s - of course, on the other hand, he was one of the prime movers behind the watered down 'fun'  and oldies stuff with his production of MIU... Go figure...    :-[

 NEWS FLASH: Alan Jardine has been abducted by sixteen alien dwarfs demanding he give some free dentistry to the other abductees sleeping peacefully in their captive pods.  I love Al very much and always shall.  He has a beautiful voice.  Lady Linda has a joyful tone however candy disney-esque pop feel ala 1970's album filler it may be.  He coerced Brian and the others into creating new half-finished gems.  His comment how BW undersold the ending of Breakaway is hillarious and to be sure classic.

Al Jardine at home on his Big Sur ranch on a brisk December day.....






(http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stories/2004/dec/10/10rudolph7_12-10-2004_UT38LSC.jpg)

(still wanting to be a dentist)

Anybody know for sure that the little wanna-be-dentist-side-hair-part-elf character wasn't inspired by our very own Al Jardine? That cartoon is from 1964 when the BB's were big in pop culture.

I met him. I thought he was cool in concert. Never really made a bad song while being with the BB's.  ;D

did he do anything musically during his dental schooling? I've always wondered that about Mr. Jardine

I think the final word was that he never really did any dental training.  Just a few weeks at Ferris State (just down the road a piece from me) before he yearned for the LA sun again.

Four words to describe why Al is so great:

Crack.

At.

Your.

Love.

Big forehead, even bigger voice. His lead on Be Here In The Morning may be my favourite Beach Boy vocal, it's completely mind-boggling.

one personal ex. of bb cheese becoming cool;. the final part of ladylynda. ooh lady wontcha laylinda lye with me.

totally hits me like the outro of im so young, cant marry no one ahhhoohhh

I ALSO LIKE SUSIE CREAMCHEESE, SHES GOT A GROOVYLITTLE MOTORCAR

i get a vision of the beachboys in this hot buxom black cab driver lady's vehicle who does un
imaginable things to them as they cruise  off to a gig circa 1969!!!
right on Al jarrrddddddddiiinnnneeeee.

If this continues, I'm leaving this fodain' message board.
QUALITY CONTROL??!!

Somebody call Bruce.

theeponymuseudonym, mike827839 and matt1245235 all pistol-whipped by Bruce!  ;D

c'mon man, lighten up...i'm cool
why dont we all just  sit back and you know think about whirled peas...

That's so clever.

I know, I don't like Joe's jokes either.

 ;)

Dude, are you as dumb as your posts are?

im rubber, you're glue

i thought about not replying to your post
i thought i wouldn't grace this intelligent body with a nanny goo goo reply to you, thus
cheapening the discourse any further....

however, you leave me no choice but to challenge you, Dr.
to A DUEL!!!!

thats right a beach boys trivia Duel!!!

You First....i do not mind, i have all the time in the world...

Hahaha, that's funny. You are aware of the fact that the good doctor owns every BB bootleg in existence, plus gazillions of live tapes? My guess is you'll last five minutes in a trivia contest.

Ohhhhhhh boy. I shouldn't feed the troll, but this is too good of an opportunity.

What day was the Beach Boys' rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic recorded and who sang the lead vocal?

Ask questions that aren't in the Badman book!

Ian, if I know this guy well enough, he doesn't even know.

July 4th, 1980 And it was brother Brian on lead along with Mike, Al & Carl.
they sang it at the white house with Ron & Nancy by their side!!!!

booYahh
 

(snicker)

You're right, Jason, not a clue.

This guy actually makes Alex Brennan look like a frickin' brain trust.

November 5, 1974 with Mike on lead. Yeah. That's what I thought.

hello doctor, i am man enough to admit i am wrong when i am. I do know sh*t.

what has embarrasted me the most is my  sloppy inattentiveness to dates...
Ron & Nancy werent even in the White house 7-80!!!!!

eeeekkk!  my goodness, gimme another chance doc, let me redeem myself.

p.s.- what the Badman book??

Can we go back to appreciating Al?

"susie cinncinatti" & "lady lynda" are superb.
i wish Dennis & Al collaborated on what became MIU.

They would have had to be speaking to collaborate, which in 1978 they pretty much weren't doing.  The group was split in two and at odds with each other, thus the MIU fiasco.

dennis had some good words about cottonfields

It's just a shame that Dennis didn't represent the majority of the buying public in America, who in 1970, really could not have cared less.

you think Alan ever fantasized about being raped by a black man?

I think everyone does at least once.

What's that? They don't? Uh, nevermind.. well, that is, uh, I certainly haven't, uh, look-at-the-time-gotta-go!

Poor Al. He gets no respect.

Only Al isn't a commited Republican, thus is therefore even nicer than Bruce.

Keep it clean with Al Jardine!

Yes!!!

I would say that Al is my favorite Beach Boy, most definitely. His voice is so good. He sounds like a grainier version of Brian to me, but with a slightly lower range. To me he could have been the lead singer on a lot of the early hits had Mike not been in the band. I always thought he would sound good singing the lead to California Girls, and indeed he does sound good singing it in his solo band even today.

Al's my favorite too. A nicer guy can not be found.

Maury: A DENTIST...GOOOOOOOOOOOD GRIEF!

I'm no huge fan of Add Some Music To Your Day, probably my second least fave Sunflower song after Tears... HOWEVER, it's always worth a listen for that magical moment (my favourite Al vocal on record in fact) when Al sings, with so much heart and feeling that ya just wanna cry: 'And on every day of the summer time...' Stunning vocal!

Al's voice is an absolute gem, and true he does get repeatedly under-rated, largely i think for his close association with Mike during the late-70's-'80's artistic decline. The idea that he's never written a bad song is obviously false, he's penned several utter stinkers, but he's also written his fair share of beauties. I'd say his top 5 writing credits are:

1. Lookin' At Tomorrow (tremendous track - it tends to get over-looked as it's a) so short (a bit like Al in fact), and b) it falls between a series Carl and Brian masterworks)
2. California
3. Susie Cincinatti (the best track on 15 Big Ones by some distance...)
4. Wake The World
5. At My Window

P.S. Al is credited as a co-writer on It's About Time. Does anyone know what his contribution was? I've always assumed it was that killer riff on the fade. Correct?

Add All This is That to your list.

And the fact he was the one who pushed for the unplugged rarities set in the 93 tour

the strangest thing about people bumping old threads is seeing things I wrote six years ago.

Hey Al!  Love your new album, great work, dig the packaging.  Hope you make us another one!

I'm very appreciative of AL. Behind Mike and Brian he is my 3rd all time fav Beach Boy. Love his voice. "Than I Kissed Her" and "Runaway" are great!

I never noticed he wrote that. That is close to my favorite BB song!

That is all.

...You liberals are so intollerant, so quick to judge people because they have a D or an R in front of their name.  Disgusting.