The Smiley Smile Message Board

CALLIN' ALL YOU CLOSET SUMMER IN PARADISE FANS OUT THERE! What BB or Beach Boys related stuff do you secretly like which you know you shouldn't? Don't be shy, nobody here will judge you too harshly.  ;) I'll go first. I own and thoroughly enjoy "The Many Moods of Murry Wilson" on CD. I also woke up this morning humming Mike Love's "Cool head, Warm heart". I've confessed - your turn... if you dare!
 

"Roller Skating Child"

"Some of Your Love"

I have an old cassette of one of Mike and Dean's Radio Shack albums that I break out now and then.  It has the alternate lead vocal on California Dreaming.

As much as I am creeped out by the lyrics, I can't get Hey Little Tomboy out of my head once it's there. Where was Jack Rieley when they really needed him to write some better lyrics?


I'm also unashamedly a fan of Lahaina Aloha on SIP. Even Island Fever and the title track wouldn't be bad with some better lyrics.

Tears In The Morning - I know that a lot of people really dislike it and it is somewaht twee but I just really like this song especially the strings.

Guilty secret #2. I have Bruce's "Going Public" CD and have played it in my office at work. I really like "I Write the Songs" on this. It just seems so.... Bruce.... I guess you could take that as a compliment or a put down. Also the disco version of "Pipeline" is groovy!!

"Make it Big" from Still Cruisin'

And I've a soft spot for "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose" and "Cuckoo Clock" from Surfin' Safari.

Matchpoint of Our Love :serenade

That's a great song; one of, if not the best on Love You.

I agree with you; nothing to be ashamed about. "Lahaina Aloha" is one of Carl's last great vocals. "Island Fever" is a catchy little tune, and "Hot Fun In The Summertime" is a good cover.

"Kona Coast"! Top that one for guilty listening pleasure!  ;D

Kona Coast is actually quite awesome. In fact, I've really started to dig MIU, except for the covers and "Winds of Change". If only they had put "Our Team" on there instead...

If you have a guilty listening pleasure with your favorite band, you should probably re-evaluate your favorite bands. :)

Honestly I can't think of any, although I do have a guilty VIEWING pleasure. The bit in Endless Harmony when Brian's talking about the Imagination album.

Brian - You like those knobs? Push the knob! Push it! Push it! That's it!
(Happy Days intro plays and Daria coos)
Brian - This is a little baby music. (Scat sings) For my babyyyyyyyyyy.

And I felt like this long before I was jaded by the Brian Wilson promotional machine, so keep the Lovester comments to yourselves. :)

Yeah, I wish "Our Team" would've been on MIU, too. They went from 15 songs on 15 Big Ones to 14 songs on Love You to just 12 songs on MIU. Although I like "Winds Of Change" a lot, I can hear "Our Team" following it and closing the album.

I think the two covers, "Come Go With Me" and "Peggy Sue", have some merit, basically because they're two of Al's best lead vocals - ever.    

They are good leads but the mixes are awful. The version of "Come Go" from the Greatest Hits vol. 3, the "Brother Years" is far superior. I'm not sure if that's the single mix or the one that came out on the "Ten Years of Harmony" comp but either way, it's actually very good.

I'm probably in the minority, but I prefer the MIU version of "Come Go With Me" over the Ten Years Of Harmony version. Wasn't that mix released by mistake? Also, the early pressings of the MIU Reprise single CD had that alternate mix on it. It also had a different mix of "Peggy Sue" and "Winds Of Change". I was gonna return it but I thought it might be a collector's item. Wanna buy it? :-D

I do agree that "Peggy Sue" is a bad mix. But, Al sings the hell out it nevertheless....

Rather embarrassing, but for some reason I like to listen to "Problem Child," sometimes.

No. Hearing Carl scream, "TIME TO TURN INTO A GIIIIIRRL," is basically a religious experience.

+1 :)

Crocodile Rock is corny but I think they actually did a decent job on it for the era.

"Shortnin' Bread"  ;D

Bells of Paris
Sunshine
Some of Your Love (live at Knebworth)
One good Reason
Kona Coast
First Love
Let's Visit Heaven Tonight
Susie Cincinnati
Good Time
Games Two Can Play
H.E.L.P. Is on the Way
Bluebirds Over the Mountain
I do Love You
It's Just a Matter of Time
Chasin' the Sky
Louie, Louie
TM Song (not argument, the song Al sings afterwords)

All of these are great without question to me.

I hate When Girls Get Together with a passion. I think it's the worst piece of sh*t that was ever released with any kind of association of the beach boys's name. But for some reason, I love the booted backing track.

I think everyone here probably hates "Bull Sessions With 'Big Daddy'" except for me. :-D  To me it doesn't bring down "Today" at all - it's just kind of a fun, goofy coda to the album.  Anyway, I'd rather hear that kind of jabbering than recitations of poetic verse in songs.

To me, there are no guilty pleasures in the Beach Boys canon...I enjoy what I enjoy with no shameful feelings whatsoever!  I'd say I enjoy about 98% of their released catalog, together and solo.

 I love love LOVE Our Team. There's a few songs on MIU that i know are awful, but i like 'em. I really like that fade at the end of Hey Little Tomboy (or am i just relieved it's ending - i'm not sure?) and i like Pitter Patter, even if it's odd to hear grown men singing about the rain in the style of mentally-challenged infants. I really like that little guitar sound that kicks in at the end.
 

Jay

The booted backing track to When Girls  Get Together is awesome.  So I agree with you.  I was just thinking about and listening to this track a couple of weeks ago and was going to post about it.  Just pretend no one ever heard the final version with lyrics or that it had a nonense or plain song title, say "song1Italianafternoon" lol or something like that and it was found in the vaults.  Now, there is no bias.  Then we heard the track.  We all would be like "what is this? It should be finished! Holy sh*t this is awesome! How come they didn't finish it! etc...etc..I think it is a fine track, very well produced.  Have you ever CRANKED it? It sounds awesome! It has a great melody line, the kettle drums and of course that ascending line just before the track stops and starts up again.  So, even the boys lesser known tracks or songs people don't like...well, they could shXt a better melody than I could ever write!  lol I always found something of merit in the majority of the boys work. So I agree also with Eric about liking just about everything. Just some food for thought.  By the way, I guess the track with lyrics is MY guilty listening pleasure.

Mark

Winds Of Change

Do you think so? I think they're ALL pretty listenable. And that's what I like the most about MIU. It's an easy listen; pretty consistent, nothing cringe-worthy.

Now, I will agree that MIU does lack that great, classic BB/BW song, which, of course, keeps the album from being ranked higher.

I find "Bells of Paris" and "Wontcha Come Out Tonight" cringe-worthy (more the opening of the latter). Frankly, when I listen to M.I.U I get bored really easily.

I'm unique in that the Beach Boys aren't my favorite band (they're probably second and only on a bad day third) so I can sometimes adequately judge that there's a good deal of crap in their catalouge (barely any, I may add, was written by Brian (they don't call him a genius for nothing), Dennis or Alan). I'd say a guilty pleasure would be "California Calling," which I will admit I will sing every now and then despite the cheese factor being high. Cringe-worthy lyrics are found easily, but I think "Hey Little Tomboy," "I Want to Pick You Up" and "Anna Lee the Healer" are strong enoguh to qualify as guilty pleasures. "Match Point" has a horrible set of lyrics, just terrible, but the cool vocal and melody bring it up to that place as well.

I always really enjoyed both "Sumahama" and "He Come Down," wouldn't call either of those a guilty pleasure for a day.

I'm sorry, I really don't want to appear anal, but it is "BELLES Of Paris". Not "BELLS".

Ha! "Belles of Paris" then

I'll repeat the list I said in one of the other threads...

* "Battle Hymn Of The Republic" - not bad, actually.  Mike fluffs a line or two, but it's catchy.
* "She's Goin' Bald" - ever try to sing the 'Get A Job' middle portion, imitating the rising pitch?  Fun!
* "Hey Little Tomboy" - just 'cause it's so WRONG.  Especially the rough mixes with the snorting and the pervy chatter.
* "Rollin' Up To Heaven" (aka Dirty Ding Dang) - I blasted this one day when my mom was around.  She wasn't amused...
* "HELP Is On The Way" - just incredibly catchy!  Love it!

I like watching the video for PROBLEM CHILD.  Bruce looks like he's going to take a poke at the little kid all the way through it. 

"Transcendental Meditation"- I get the feeling Brian's taking the piss out of Mike and Al!

Rolling Up to Heaven isn't a guilty pleasure because it is AWESOME   :smokin

I don't get the love for Hey Little Tomboy at all. It scares the hell out of me, but I Wanna Pick You Up/Roller Skating Child don't for some reason. It is a huge trainwreck, which is probably the only level i can appreciate it on.

I have to say i really love Come Go With Me, cheap, synthetic and washed out though it is.

I love Pitter Patter, Matchpoint.. Let's put out hearts together, Our Team - the list is endless!

Why do you get that feeling? Brian was into TM himself, and I didn't think that Brian was vindictive in 1968. That would come later. Not all TM songs have to be mellow do they? ;D

I love that song! When I first bought Friends and saw that title I was expecting a George Harrison sitar cliche fest sorta song. Instead we get a deranged sax jazz workout! Who here honestly thought they were going to get that?

I think Brian is definitely taking the piss on Transcendental Meditation;  maybe it's not directly aimed at Mike per se, thought I think it is--also 'taking the piss' doesn't have to be vicious or vindictive, sometimes it's just a...joke.

 But that song is definitely a joke from the jarring off-key horns, to the swami-salami chanting. It's a pretty fucking good joke if you ask me.

I think that's debatable in several spots, much of them lyrical. Just me.

I'm with Sheriff John Stone on this one; although the song's title and "sound" don't necessarily seem to go together, I doubt Brian was being "vindictive," but rather inventive. "Don't Worry, Baby" is about a car race, albeit one filled with doubt, but definitely avoids a typical "car song" sound; or "Wind Chimes" (Smile version) which, far from being peaceful, has a drum section that sounds more like a hurricane.

Not to mention Brian's own interest in TM. For instance: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ijen_brian-wilson-talks-drugs-meditation

"Love You" and "ADULT CHILD"... for some reason, I find both of these very pleasuring listening experiences despite their numerous flaws (particularly with the second, the first is actually not a bad album). This includes songs like "Johnny Carson"  "Solar System" (which I often get stuck in my head), and the original versions of "Hey Little Tomboy" and "Shortenin' Bread" (if they were ever going to release a version of Shortenin' Bread, this would be the one... it's just cool. All these are cringeworthy, but simply irresistible.

I like a few of the songs on "Keeping the Summer Alive"... maybe it's because I went into it with such low expectations and was pleasantly surprised with maybe three or four of them. "Goin' On"  "Oh Darlin'" even "Santa Ana Winds" are all good songs despite some of the cheesiness. "Endless Harmony" even with it's stupid little "god bless america" coda is a great song if just for Carl's absolutely breathtaking falsetto at the very end.

I guess my guilty pleasure index goes a little further for Brian Wilson's solo stuff than for the Beach Boys material, because I just expect that since Brian's got nobody tethering some of his more puzzling ideas to the ground that's he's just going to be more quirky:

Half of the material for "Sweet Insanity" isn't all that bad. I love the songs  "Thank You" "I Do" ...even "Make a Wish" is fine to listen to.  The same with "Let's Go to Heaven in My Car"  and "Living Doll" ...and "Metal Beach" I've even begun warming up to despite the cheese factor and the lame production. The funny thing is, I certainly find these pieces a lot more tolerable than some of his released material... most of "Imagination" I find unlistenable, and only like a couple tracks from "GIOMH." I also like most of the material for "Landylocked" ...  even songs like "I'm Broke" and "Saturday Morning in the City"

Skatetown USA
Almost Summer
The Shift
County Fair
Make It Big

Cuckoo Clock

She's Going Bald (I love the gradually speeding up 'Oh what a blow' bit and the whole thing could've been on the Mothers' We're Only in it for the Money and it wouldn't have been that out of place)

When Girls Get Together (I even don't mind some of the lyrics, I like it better than Disney Girls)

Fairy Tale Music (I wish something more was done with some of the feels/ fragments)

Johnny Carson (It reminds me a bit of the Smile sessions version of Vegetables)

Pitter Patter

Livin' with a Heartache

Goin' On

Chasin' the Sky (I wish they'd done a whole album of similar stuff instead of BB '85)

Make it Big

Lahaina Aloha (The only SIP song I can get into)

yeah, i thought it was gonna be that too...which actually, i wouldnt mind a sitar in a BB song...the only one I know of that has one is Cabinessence

After a few listens I have really come to like Mike's "Cool Head, Warm Heart". Seriously everytime I go on the ESQ site I have to listen to that song and after every listen I find myself digging it even more. Who are his backing singers on this, 'cos they sound much more "Beach Boy" like than Brian's band who at times sound like bad N*Sync (oxymoron I know!!) when they harmonise. To anybody who has visited the site and skipped the home page when they saw the dreaded M.L. initials I urge you to give it a try - you may be pleasantly surprised.

P.S. Any rumors that I have taken a bribe, payoff or backhander from Mr.Love for the above comments will be met with by my lawyer!    :lol

Brian's backing band not sounding like completely different people is a good reason to fault them and their abilities.

I believe I was faulting them for sounding like a bad boyband as opposed to not being Carl Wilson reincarnated.  :p

OH FINE

Cool Head, Warm Heart obviously has Michael in there, Adrian Baker does some vocals (and the production), Christian Love is there, Chris Farmer...

The album it was supposed to be on (Unleash the Love/Mike Love, Not War) is nothing to shake a stick at, either. Lots of good stuff on there. The title track and Love Foundation are certainly worth their weight in gold turbans as far as cringing goes, but the other tracks are of a uniformly high standard, and the remake of Everyone's In Love With You is great. A lot of the other tracks are reworked versions of stuff that was supposed to be on his unreleased 1978 LP First Love (Daybreak, Too Cruel, I Don't Wanna Know, Brian's Back; an outtake from the sessions, Glow Crescent Glow as well). The "new songs" are Cool Head, Warm Heart, Unleash The Love, Anything For You, Pisces Brothers, Love Foundation, and Only One Word. The major curiosity on there is the version of 10,000 Years, which Michael wrote with Dennis back in 1975-76. There was never a "finished version" done under Dennis' watch, although parts of some of the sessions were absorbed into bits of Pacific Ocean Blue and the Bambu material. Michael apparently did a version sometime in 1980, using Dennis' melody. I don't know how much of the lyric is indeed Michael's, but it's certainly interesting to hear.

Now, the "new song" that Michael wrote and performed with the Beach Boys on Don Imus' show back in 2006, aptly called Make Love Not War, is truly, truly awful. Get this lyric -

Back in the 60s
It was during Vietnam
I remember brother Marvin
Singing What's Going On

War is not the answer
I distinctly heard him say
But the same old, same old's
Happening today

Very, very bad stuff. Frightening. I don't believe it even went into the band's setlist after that TV show. Look for it on YouTube, if the authorities (or people with good taste) haven't taken it down.

I think the biggest insult on "Mike Love, Not War" was stealing the Beatles' "Spiritual Regeneration" song.... not only that, but cheap-ass Mike didn't even bother getting the actual recording!  It's the same version with a jump in the middle (cutting the narration) from a White Album boot I own!

My favorite from Mike's unreleased album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf6AkVJYK48
Great stuff.

Cheers for the info, may have to try track it down.

On a totally serious note I do wonder how many more album titles Mike can possably get out of making puns on his surname. Thankfully he hasn't wrote a full on sex song called "Let the Love in" or something to that effect yet!!

Tunnel of Love?

Tunnel for Love?

 :lol

I've said it before and I'll say it again: a cover of AC/DC:s "Let Me Put My Love Into You".

No need to feel guilty. Those are some fine songs there. It actually makes a fun comp...

Aw man that is the best (or should that be worst?) one yet! I hadn't considered the endless possibilities of covers with the word "love" in it that he could do.

How about "My Love Ran Down Your Leg And Now You're Gone"? An album of Supremes covers done by the Lovester himself. :)

+1 for the Carlin reference.