The Smiley Smile Message Board

My favourite is 'It's OK'. Although 'Do It Again' alwas has been praised for it's lovely return to the then (1968) seemingly bygone days of surf and fun, its production does not really appeal to me. It sounds a bit muffled. It is wistful, as if the guys are saying goodbye to their youth in reality.

'It's OK' is so good IMHO because it's made by grown men nearing that age where one inevitably begins to face mortality (in my view); and the result is that it is so sprawling exactly for that reason: what the heck, I am past 30, and I'd better find some joy in that strange thing we call 'life'! It is wonderfully exuberant, and Dennis' hoarse 'Find A Ride' only adds to all the excitement.

So for me: 'It's OK' wins. And you?

"Do It Again" for me. I particularly like of the contrast of the"middle eight" (for want of a better term) which slowly builds to a crescendo ("out of siiiiight" , "been so LONNNNGGGG", "bom, bom, bom, bom, bom") and "Come and do it, baby" sung a half-tone down leading to the fadeout. Really inventive vocal arrangement-wise. The processed drum intro, chugging rhythm and growling sax don't hurt the song's chances either!

Do It Again has the more iconic touches - the killer base/drum beat intro and the "hey now" chant backing vocals.

Appreciate what you say about the production and agree that that muffled element is there. Just crying out for a 2010 remix/remaster, eh!??

In fact, if this hadn't been written and recorded until 2010, it'd probably be regarded as a modern classic and indication that the BBs were, however unlikely it might seem, back on form and full of self-parody.

It's Okay might be a lighter weight product but you're right it's fun too, and that Dennis line is top.

Of the two though, DIA has the iconic timelessness that elevate above IOk, to me.

Nice call. Yup, DIA is more elaborate in its composition, it puts quite a lot of different touches in such a brief time. Not for nothing did Air nick the drum intro for 'Moon Safari' (was that Crazy Boy?).

And why is the 'woodshop' sound effects in the song? I always wondered what the point of adding that was....

Wasn't that in 'All I Want To Do'? Or am I finally getting Korsakov's?

I think Mr Desper answered this in another thread. Sorry can't remember! It was during the time they were going through the smile tapes and they either put it in there for fun, or it was a financial thing - trying to use up stuff they'd paid for studio time. I'm sure someone else can remember the reaosn much better than I can.

What I like about this: the story put this way sounds so utterly off-hand and mundane. Yet, who'd a thunk that thousands of people the world over would discuss that tiny drill-and-hammer bit to death 42 years later? Amazing...

Yeah, because, you know-they couldn't actually put out the album that the woodshop sounds were actually intended for, so they put them on the fade to a song reminiscing about a time when the band had been relevant....

I'm with the Don on this one. It's OK (especially the slightly faster mix) has a lot more energy than DIA plus the Dennis tag really makes it for me. I find DIA kinda sluggish, the chorus just isn't happening and, if not for the bridge, I'd never listen to it.

No contest!  "Do It Again" wins easily — by a landslide!!

Do It Again is easily the best and most interesting composition. But if I were in a car going to the beach, and wanted some really hot track to blast out of my speakers, I may choose It's Ok.

"It's OK"--love the bass vocals, hand claps, and those weird sax lines weaving everywhere. Mike's lyrics are pretty good too.

Right. And where I find Mike's singing on 'Everyone's In Love' too sickly sweet, I just love them in 'It's OK'. The enthusiasm is palpable.

Do It Again - by such a distance it's laughable. Mike and Brian didn't just come up with a nostalgic song for the good old days of youth - albeit probably not theirs - the nostalgic lyrics are undercut by music that emotes a sense of loss.  Deceptively 'simple' but great song.

It's Okay has fairly sh*t lyrics and a fun feel.  Maybe if you compared it to Keepin' the Summer Alive...

You deserve a fatwah issued against you for this obnoxious and sacrilegious post!  :police:

"It's OK" is a 70's BB classic.

"Do It Again" is a BB classic, period.

And that makes all the difference to me.

Nope, that was more like Dennis "wood job"...

(hm, a mod shouldn't write this, but this one was too easy...  ;D  )

I always thought "It's OK" was just too short.  By the time I'm  just into it, it ends.

Agree with AGD - "DIA" is a BB classic.

Do It Again is indeed a classic in every sense of the word. The studio version is taken a bit too slow but that's just nitpicking. When they began playing it in concert again in 1971-72, Carl upped the tempo and put a lot of guitar muscle behind it. Carl was good at doing that with Brian's productions. In the studio they were meticulously constructed. In the live arena, Carl was able to rock them out a bit more. He did it wonderfully with California Girls as well. I take the studio and live versions of Do It Again on their own terms. Either way, it's a gold standard.

It's OK had the bad luck of being the second single taken from 15 Big Ones. Rock And Roll Music, while certainly in tune with the nostalgia thing, was a bit of a backtrack even then. It's OK, if released in the summer of 1976, had the potential to be the hit. Of course, we all know how that went. As far as the band's later attempts at summertime nostalgia, It's OK is head and shoulders above them all except possibly Kokomo, which, like it or not, has attained the status of a classic song. I don't necessarily disagree with its status. It was the right song at the right time by the right band. It's OK should have been a smash by any standard. Still, even a top 30 placing wasn't too shabby. And it's also one of their best concert rockers. It was kind of hesitant when it was done in the late 1970s, but when it came back in 1982 as the opener, it was done much better. Michael and Bruce used it as the opener in 2000 for a while, around the same time they started playing Heroes and Villains for the first time since Carl died. In 2005 it was used in a medley after California Girls during the opening set. It's been in the set on and off since then, and they pull it off well.

"do it again" gets my vote....

Really? I always thought it was one verse and chorus too long for its own good.

As for the question, I really find it tough to answer, basically because of everything that's been said in the thread already.

I agree with most of what Richard Head said...

They are soooo close. I was gonna pick "Do It Again" because it rocks live (the Knebworth track is my favorite on that album), but "It's OK" rocked live, too. Did you ever notice on the 1976 TV Special, they reversed the "gotta go to it, gotta go through it, gotta get with it..." part.

I think the tag on "It's OK" could've been expanded/extended slightly; I like the tag on the Almost Summer soundtrack version. I was never crazy about Mike's lead on "Do It Again"; he sounds half asleep or lazy; but I love how he goes "nasal" on the live versions. I like the lyrics to "Do It Again"; they're a bit too wordy on "It's OK".

The "gotta go to it..." part, along with the handclaps, and, what is it, a little organ riff, is genius; that's Brian's sound, he patented it. It makes you feel good. Marilyn is all over that high part BTW. If "It's OK" would've been released three months earlier, at the beginning of summer, it mighta had a chance.

"Do It Again" is played on oldies radio stations and sounds cool. One of Brian & Mike's best collaborations, the kind I'm sure Mike expected to be sharing for many years to come.

I keep rambling here because I can't decide. OK, "Do It Again" by a hair...

I agree that the production in 'Do It Again' is muddied - I still prefer it to 'It's OK'.

'It's OK' is the best song on 15BO - I have always wondered why they didn't release it first - but there is nothing spectacular or memeorabl;e about it.  It could have just as easy been done by First Class.

I prefer 'Keepin the Summer Alive' to 'It's OK".  It just rocks better.

A fan of "Its OK" here...
but I feel that the Celebration version of the song had slightly catchier backing vocals. (imho)

Do It Again is a classic

so I give the nod to DIA, but no diss to Its OK

"Do It Again" all the way! Just love that intro. Got a groove to it. Despite being about surfing I'd say apart from Brian's pounding old school piano playing it sounds very little like the early stuff. The excursion's into "Pet Sounds", "Good Vibrations", "Smile" etc had changed the band musically so that when they tried a retro thing they got a cool weird hybrid sound. I know what 99% of people would choose but I find it very hard to pick out of "Do it Again", "Good Vibrations" and (believe it or not) "Cottonfields" what my favourite BB's single of all time is. "It's OK" by comparison is just an OK song on an OK (at best) album.

Both of these are big favorites of mine...but I pick "Do it Again." If "Again" lacked (as it often did live) the falsetto line, it would go to "It's OK" all the way. The recordings of both of these songs are tops.

 Exactly!

If I use my playlist over 30 years it is DIA by 1000 - 1.

Intro, vocals, instuments all perfect IMO. Even the intro's background 'chatter' fits.

'Its OK' is just that! ;D

For some reason I imagined this post sung to the tune of "All This is That".  Damn I'm a BB geek...:lol

Whoa - It's only 2 mins 15 secs as is.  Pull out a verse and chorus and you've got an itunes sample.

"It's OK" overall is only forgivable due to the fact that it is indeed BB. Mike is atrocious on it.

Do It Again for sure.  a stereo remix would do wonders for it i think.

It's OK is a fun song, by their mid seventies standards it's amazing. I like Mike's vocals and the way the song chugs along. As much as I do like it I can't put in the same catagory as Do It Again.

Do It Again has it all. It's a look back at the old days but with a very sharp 1968 feel to it. The Beach Boys were still in their prime when Do It Again was cut and this really makes a difference especally in the harmonies.

Some songs can be two minutes but be too long, and some songs can be ten minutes and seem to fly by, know what I mean?

That'd only make it maybe 1:45 or so, really - not too short, to me.

Do It Again vs It's OK?? Why not start a thread God Only Knows vs Winds of Change?

Don't get me wrong, i quite like It's OK. Compared to most of the other 15 BO material it's great, it's pretty catchy but not insanely so, and the fade is nice. But Do It Again is infinitely better - amazing production, wildly inventive (that fantastic pounding opening, the constant changes in tone throughout, the SMiLE fx at the fade), much better lyrics; just an all round far superior song.

Well, I see similarities. Simple 4/4 (2/4) beats, summery feelings, melancholia (OK I nicked this from allmusic.com) and so on. And I like both of them a lot.

Next: God Only Knows vs. Winds of Change. (I must confess that I like WOC a whole lot. It has a fantastic melody. Sadly, it's under/overproduced, depending on the way one sees it; and it has undeservedly gotten a trashcan status thanks to the writings of people like Dave Marsh. Nonsense. With different lyrics and better arranging, it would have been awesome.

+1

Love them both but with "It's O.K." I want more. 

I' refer to this feeling as the "Ding Dang" syndrome.

...a.k.a. the 'Meant For You' trauma.

I've never liked 'Do it again' and i've always liked 'It's OK'!

Isn't that the same as the "I Went To Sleep" disorder?  ;D

Never thought of the songs' shortness as much of a problem. I've even particularly enjoyed the shorter pieces because they made me want to listen all over again, which is great. I'd rather listen to such an achingly short BB/BW tune ten times in a row instead of immersing myself in a 20-minutes piece of progressive rock and being a nervous wreck afterwards. There's more substance to "Meant for You" than to the whole of "Tales from Topographic Oceans" I believe.

Do It Again is in my top 3 BB tunes of all time!

It's OK is probably in my top 20, if not top 10! 

I love them both!  The studio versions, and they are 2 of my favorite songs to hear live...

I also like Keepin The Summer Alive in the same way that I like these 2 songs...it probably makes my top 50.

I think you hit on a point - a very underrated point - as to one of the reasons (there are several, of course) for the success and timelessness of BW/BB music, which are the relatively short lengths of the songs.

I'm going with....

It's Ok


Great Dennis fade out.  I actually did a mix, where it came out twice as long.  That song is so flunkin' good.  I've played it back-to-back-to-back-to-back, cranked...in total, head-banging bliss many times.  "Lookin' down the hood of a    funky-ride!"

I'm hopelessly nostalgic about 1976.  It's the year I met my beloved wife of now almost 32 years.  So it's very hard for me to be objective about this.  And anyway, I think both songs are fabulous summer-rockers. 

But trying to be as objective as possible, I'll give a slight edge to "Do It Again"...mainly for that amazing, Pet Sounds-esque middle section.

"Do It Again" is the better song of the two in my opinion.

Although "It's OK" is a fine song in and of itself.

Do it Again is easily the best.      I especially like the early rough cut with the choppy surf-rock guitar sound.

On first hearing back in the day, Its OK served as a nice retro number as a follow up to ES, but it seemed a little forced or contrived.  DIA always seemed a natural.  Right up there with  I can hear music from the same release.

But to be fair, it is really a cup of tea thing   :whatever

I have to go with Do It Again. I say this especially due to Mike's vocals. He is just too nasal on It's OK, and if you listen to the slightly sped up 45 version, it makes him even more nasally. I do enjoy the fade by Dennis, though. Nice touch!

Do It Again is one the Beach Boys last great songs, and has poignancy and beauty and involves genuine creativity.  It's OK is just moronic juvenillia. Kokomo is better. Surely no-one on the board seriously thinks there is any comparison between these two songs?

Melodically and harmonically, "Do It Again" isn't really more creative or dynamic than "It's OK."  Maybe the middle section of "Do It Again" scores it some more points as a composition... But ultimately, yeah, I'd say there is a comparison between the two songs.  And I enjoy "It's OK" equally, if not more, because I think the production is interesting too.

Better yet, how do these two songs compare to "Child of Winter"? I'd say negatively.

I agree.

Its partly about art. DIA is a piece of art, and Its OK and CoW  are just product. Did anyone involved in Its OK and CoW really care about how either song turned out? Certainly they lack the spirit of creativity and joy that DIA is full of. Come on guys...

What? Brother John, are you crazy? Brian loves, loves, loves, Christmas (Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for You is his favorite album of all-time), and you can hear his exuberance for the holiday on "Child of Winter". That song was not just product! Have you ever really listened to that song's arrangement? It's out of this world! He even takes the time to throw in part of "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)", which was already a Christmas standard by that point.

Kokomo is better than It's O.K.?

If we're talking moronic juvenillia then Kokomo shares the blue ribbon.

Yeah, I love Christmas too, and I've just re-listened to CoW again and its still a crock. Take away the sleigh bells and what have you got? Its like a Love You reject.

I don't really understand how anyone could not distinguish the enormous difference in quality in output between the BB's early career (to 70, 72) and the drek they produced (with a few notable exceptions) from the mid seventies to the end of their career. Don't get me wrong, there are things I love on every album they produced, but this is often for fond reasons of nostalgia. I know there are many who disagree with me, but LA Light Album was a high point in an otherwise sparse and unforgiving half of the decade, and the last thing they produced that wasn't basically cringeworthy.

You cannot usefully compare Its OK or CoW with anything from '65 to 70. Certainly by 1972 it was all over.

Hey, I can understand the viewpoint that a lot of what was done after '72 doesn't compare to what was done before, but don't you touch my "Child of Winter"! If you take away the sleigh bells, I'll tell you what you'd hear: more of the intricate arrangement that is buried beneath the sleigh bells. Don't underestimate the song because of the weird synthesizers, which is Brian doing his own Switched on Bach. It's just like how people get fooled by the easygoing instrumentation of Friends, calling it a simpler album musically, or minimalist. Even at it's most minimalist, the songs on Friends were still at least as complex as almost any song on Rubber Soul. I'm of the persuasion that Brian couldn't really make a bad song when actually tried... well... at least until the 80s.

Just check out the chords during the "here comes Santa Claus" bit. Safe to say, it's a little more complex than what Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman originally envisioned.

Seriously, look at this:

Eb..................Eb6...............Ebmaj7.........Eb6................Bb7
Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane
..........................................................................Eb.......Eb6......Eb7
Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer are pulling on the reins
Ab............Bb...........Gm7.......C7.........Fm7....Bb7...........Eb.....Eb7
Bells are ringing, children singing, all is merry and bright
Ab.................Bb....................Gm7.........C7.....................Fm7...............Bb7..........Eb....F6
Hang your stockings and say your prayers 'cause Santa Claus comes tonight

I just about had to change my diapers after that.

I love Child of Winter. It is utterly baffling to me; and I've never heard anything that sounds as inventive and demented at the same time. Strange how it's hardly ever mentioned but (I think) this was Brian's first solo production since "Add Some Music"...what a change in such a short time.

Yeah, but its not really, its just

Eb......................................................................,................................Bb7
Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane
..................................................................Eb..........................
Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer are pulling on the reins



and all the rest of the section is just completely standard too:

Ab............Bb...........Gm7.......C7.........Fm7....Bb7...........Eb.....Eb7
Bells are ringing, children singing, all is merry and bright
Ab.................Bb....................Gm7.........C7.....................Fm7...............Bb7..........Eb....F6
Hang your stockings and say your prayers 'cause Santa Claus comes tonight


This is Landy-quality songwriting and the chord progs are straight off the shelf.

I have no issue with anyone liking it at all, I just maintain that its banal when compared to what BW and the BBs were writing before it all went bad.

I'm going to ask you politely now, back away from "Child of Winter", put both hands behind your head. Now, I'm going to read you your rights.

But in all seriousness, except for the bridge, "Do It Again" is just a three chord rock song. "Child of Winter", from a chord perspective, is Mozart compared to that. Now, granted, "Do It Again" has a great arrangement (some of Brian's best arrangements, in my mind, happened when he was forced to work with simpler chords, like on "Sloop John B"), but in my mind so does "Child of Winter".  While "Do It Again" has a more complex vocal arrangement, I'd say that "Child of Winter" has a more complex instrumental arrangement.

Brian's instrumental arrangements at the time were bonkers.  While I don't think "Battle Hymn of the Republic" works as a pop song, I have to give it points as an instrumental. What's crazy is that those two tracks give one the indication that Brian must have spent a significant amount of time figuring out how to arrange with those weird synthesizers. He couldn't have just pulled that off out of nowhere, right (or could he?)? You heard him experiment with synthesizers on Holland, but it was nothing in comparison to his '74 style in terms of sheer inventive weirdness. It's a shame we only got two songs out of that style, maybe three if you want to count "It's OK" (which was started in '74 but wasn't finished; while it has those synthesizer sounds, it doesn't have the complex craziness on top that Brian would've probably added in '74).

Ha ha, ok Dada, point taken - I don't want to get too up close and personal about a favourite of yours (well done for retaining your good humour...) - for my part I'm very attached to Just Once in My Life, which everyone else seems to hate and which, apart from Had to Phona Ya, is the only track worth listening to on 15BO.

I've now listened to CoW more times than I ever would have if it wasn't for your insistence on its greatness. OK, it has a busy arrangement, but its not that great in my view, and the chords are simplistic in the extreme. Don't be fooled by the chord charts, all the 6s and M7s are just artistic license on the part of the chart maker (F Green, I presume?) and really just an interpretation of the ascending line in the background, and the rest of that section (Bells are ringing etc.) is just a standard progression that's been used in literally hundreds, if not thousands, of songs, as has the autistic Bb > Gm progression that dominates the rest of the song.

I guess there's no right and wrong here: you love it and I think its a piece of wank. I'll concede it has a certain joie de vivre, and yes Brian was having fun with those synthesizers, but...

Happy listening  :)

Actually I am a HUGE fan of Just Once In My Life and from memory so is The Heartical Don and maybe one or two others.

Count me in, though I also love It's Ok, making 15 Big Ones a three-good-songs kinda album, not just two. Frankly, I usually just add these songs to Love You (minus Good Time) with half a dozen from Adult Child and call it the best BB album(s) since PS.

grillo, you're a crazy guy.  ;D

Hey, I like "Just Once In My Life", too. The instrumental version is amazing (and is on Youtube if you look for it). You can't really hear some of the brilliant little touches Brian put into the instrumental on the released version. I also really, really love that little snippet of "Tallahassee Lassie" that Brian slips into to "Talk to Me". "Had to Phone Ya" has some nice moments but it doesn't sound like Brian had thought the track all of the way through. It sounds unfinished.  I have a soft spot for "Rock and Roll Music" (especially that mix on The Brother Years/Greatest Hits Vol. 3) and "Back Home". And, hell, while I'm at, I think that their cover of "Palisades Park" is better than the original IMO. So, that's about half an album right there. I guess I'm turning into a real fanboy.

15 Big Ones is a misunderstood album, let down by its (lack of) concept. Individually, most of the tracks have something to commend them. Well, except for "A Casual Look."

And as for the choice offered by the subject --

"Do It Again" is, like it or not, a classic BB tune (let down by a cruddy mix). "It's Okay" is more interesting to me musically, but it seems lyrically forced.

Me, me !!

"Just Once in My Life" -- with that killer Carl vocal?! Oh yeah, count me in as a fan, as well.  8)

I prefer Do It Again, though I do like It's OK.

Do It Again.  It's Okay, with those awful lyrics, isn't even in the same league.

I don't mind It's Ok but I agree that Do It Again is in another league, especially that floaty middle eight - that is peak Brian Wilson genius. I think this is the last really great Mike/Brian collaboration inasmuch as it ticks all the boxes both creatively and commercially.

Do It Again...no contest

Count me in for Just Once in My Life