The Smiley Smile Message Board

Firstly, what was the last BB album that featured nothing but newly recorded material (i.e. nothing from the vaults) ?

Secondly, what was the last BB album that featured entirely new compositions ?

Was pondering this in the shower just now, and am interested to see if my conclusions were correct.

1) Beach Boys '85?

Yeah, originally I thought that too... then it dawned on me it was actually Summer In Paradise.  :o

You're right. I forgot about that one ;D

The answer to the first question should be "Stars & Stripes Vol. 1".

The answer to the second question should be "Beach Boys '85".

"Summer In Paradise" had re-recordings of "Surfin'" and "Forever".

Ummm... OK, give you that on a technicality (i.e it says "Beach Boys" on the CD spine).

If you consider Stars n Stripes (an album of re-recordings) as new material then the re-recordings on SIP would also fall under that category.

The second of your questions Andrew got me pondering on just how few Beach Boys albums contained exclusively 100% brand new recordings of freshly composed songs, ie no holdovers from previous albums or rerecording of older tracks. It's remarkable really, you can literally count them on one hand.

Depends on how one defines "newly recorded material"...I took it to mean "brand new recordings", but not necessarily brand new songs.  Hence the need for Andrew's second question.  :)

'xactly. That's why I made the definition between recordings and material.

Even Pet Sounds had Sloop John B. I wonder if any BBs album had ALL original and newly recorded material.

Carl and the Passions: So Tough?

Edit: Nope. Just remembered Marcella's melody lines being used in the past.

Not to mention Dennis' tracks, recorded for an entirely different project.

I'm sure I'm missing something (recycled riffs could be the kicker), but isn't Friends newly recorded new material ?

Not the Australian pressing, of course.  ;D

The bit of CIFOTM incorporated into "Little Bird"?

Still a new recording, but yes, a recycled riff.

wasn't Holland all newly recorded material?

Didn't Desper claim they had done a version of SOS some months prior to the Holland recording? And Big Sur was recorded earlier too, in a different time signature.

If we allow cover versions then it's All Summer Long, Today!, Friends and BB85.  Pet Sounds would still be disqualified because Sloop John B was a slightly older recording.

If we disallow covers than you are left with Friends and BB85. Amazing really. Consider how many songs the group recycled for later use and yet they STILL have one of the biggest vaults of unreleased material out of any major act of the last 50 years or so.

Friends?

I think you're right. But, wouldn't the recording of SOS qualify as being a recording done for the "new" Beach Boys album/project, regardless of the title of said album/project?

Edit: This thread makes my head hurt.  ;D

Technically, "I Feel So Fine" from the cocaine sessions has the exact same melody of "'It's Just A Matter Of Time". Would IJAMOT still qualify as an "entirely newly composed" song? But that melody is so generic that it's hard to say one way or the other. Actually, wasn't IJAMOT being performed live when Dennis was still living? This could drive us all crazy.  ;D

A short trip for some of us...  ::)

Ehhh - a song recorded before Pet Sounds but after Summer Days counts as a recent recording, to me.

What is the history behind Diamond Head? Brian didn't write it.

I agree. But it is not a BB original.

"SJB" wasn't recorded expressly for Pet Sounds.

As for Friends, true, there's a "CIFTTM" riff in "Little Bird", but the belief is that Brian slipped that in when he gave  Dennis a helping hand, so I can turn a blind eye to that and declare it the most recent album that consisted of entirely newly written material (as far as we know). "It's Just A Matter Of Time" was performed live back in the 1983.

This is confusing - you say Friends is all new despite a recycled section meant for something two albums before it, but "It's Just a Matter of Time" is considered 'older material', despite being written only two years prior to the only album it could have possibly been on - the only prior album coming out in 1980?

I'm not sure what window you have in mind for when material is considered new or old - if you put out an album in 1980, write a song in 1983, and are recording an album in 1985, isn't that still new material given that no album came out in 1983 that said song could have been on?

Not coming after you, just confused by the approach, here.

Yeah, I'm being picky... the general opinion is that "Little Bird" as originally written, had no "CIFTTM" riff.

Likely so, I was posting more about feeling that 85 was the last album to contain all new material, tho.

Desper says that Sail On Sailor was recorded a few months before the Holland version. "A few months" is recent. A five year space between albums is not recent, IMO. I would define a "newly composed song" as a song written three to six months or so before proper recording sessions commence. But that's just me.

SWD told me back in 1985 that, and I quote, "the one released on Holland sounds awfully like the one I recorded with Brian back in 1971". Plus, "Big Sur" was written back in 1970 (unless Mike perfected the knack of recording a song some two years before he wrote it  ;D).

Yes. But what about Diamond Head. Isn't that a cover?

But Brian is credited as one of the writers, right? I thought this track developed out of a jam with the session guys.

As for PET SOUNDS, didn't "I'm Waiting For The Day" date back to '64?

This is an interesting thread idea, Andrew. There has been so much carping about Brian recycling material over the last decade or so when, in fact, it seems that has been his method of working for his entire career (although I fully admit the ratio between new and old has tipped significantly to old during the second half of that career).

If that's the case, then I like this song even more!

OK, I have a question I thought of earlier today that is kind of on this subject. What is the one song from The Beach Boys(I'm talking about the group specificly) that had the longest "creative span"? I'm talking about from their "active" years as a studio band, from 1961 to whenever Summer In Paradise came out(I don't remember the exact year, and don't care enough to find out.  ;D). Stars and Stripes Forever, as I like to effectionately(?) call it doesn't count. The song Loop De Loop doesn't count either, since it's an "archiveal release". My best guess would be Back Home. It was first written and recorded in 1963(I believe), but was not released until 15BigOnes came out in 1976. That's 13 years. Yes, I know that the 15BO's version was recorded in 1975, but the album was not released until 1976.

There's a version from around Sunflower too I think. Isn't it Al singing lead there? But yes, the 63 version rocks pretty good, despite being incomplete (or so it sounds)...15 Big Ones version is pretty awesome too though.

It could be argued that the Sunflower version is technically a totally different song from the 1963 and 1976 versions. The "back home" chorus doesn't happen until the very end of the song. The melody and basic structure are pretty much the same as the released version, but the lyrics make it a totally different song. The only thing that the 1963 and 1970 versions have in common is a middle eight section that didn't even make it to the officially released 1976 album version. Here's a bit of trivia I bet you didn't know: At a 1978 Michigan concert, when Brian sang Back Home, he sang "Well, I'm gonna spend my summer back hoooooooooome", like Al does on the 1970 version.

You guys know way too much.....it's scary .....all the BB info you have should qualify for a special award. Me? I just enjoy the music!

We do get a special reward. It's called a straight jacket.  ;)

I always thought the melody was noticeably different in the 70 version from the other two.

That wouldn't happen to be the Oct. 27th, 1978 concert at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, MI would it? Because I distinctly remember Brian abandoning his lead vocal in "Back Home" in mid-line and walking off stage, causing Mike to scramble for the microphone to finish the lead vocal for the song!

Personally, I prefer the released version to the other two; for some reason, the unreleased versions sound too sterile for me.

What about Sandy/Sherry/She Says She Needs Me?

Remains unreleased by The Beach Boys.

What is the story with the Australian pressing,please.

They included "Good Vibrations" instead of "Diamond Head".