The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was recently thumbing through the Back to the Beach interview compilation book, and I read that Nick Kent interview where Kent mentions a song off of KTSA and Brian goes off on how much he hates it. What was that song btw. I think I've seen the answer before, and I'm assuming it was "When Girls Get Together", since the rest we're (then) either recently written by BW or had nothing to do with him (Bruce and Carls songs).

For the record btw, I think that article was a horrible and unfair portrayal of Brian. I'm not a Bloo-type and I'm very skeptical of anything Brian has done since BB85 but this guy seemed to be out to make him just look pathetic.

Nick Kent was a piece of sh*t. He wrote nothing but tabloid garbage....he was Lester Bangs after a lobotomy.

Nick was certainly an interesting case - used stuff from old articles as his own, managed to rub people up the wrong way and yes, some of his writing was cruel.

But...

His 1975 NME 3-parter reignited a small spark of interest in Brian over here and, of course, precipitated my headlong plunge into the Wacky World of Wilson. Jury's still out on whether that's a plus or a minus.  ::)

Eh, don't feel bad... Wouldn't it Be Nice got me into Brian, so... :lol

Andrew, I was looking into getting that back, "The Dark Stuff" which apparently includes the NME article(s). Is it worth it? Also, back to the orignal question, does anybody know that the "hated" song in question was?

The Dark Stuff is classic Kent and therefore highly readable, but what most people get wrong is, the section on Brian isn't the original 1975 article, but rather a somewhat rewritten and updated version. Still readable, but try to find the originals too.

If Brian hates "When Girls Get Together", I want him OUTTA THE BAND!

I can't speak for Brian, but it certainly is my least favorite song.

It really is a horrible song. I cant believe it was written/recorded durin gthe SUnflower era, considering all the other gems Brian has from around that time. It even makes most of KTSA look good.

I like the song, though I think the lyrics are trite. Nice backing track. But why include it on KTSA? It's an obvious filler and it sounds very out of place.

KTSA is a pretty underrated album IMO... There are just three songs on it that I don't like (Oh Darlin', Sunshine, WGGT) but everything else is at least enjoyable.

"When Girls Get Together" sure has an interesting history. I like it in that it was among the batch of great songs up for inclusion on what eventually became Sunflower. However, it is relatively week. It could have used a re-write or two.

The title of the track itself has always sounded like a low budget lesbian porn movie to me.

There was a reviewer at the time (MAYBE in Rolling Stone?) that said WGGT was the only GOOD song on the album.  Another reviewer said it was the only turkey.  One of those love-it or hate-it tracks, I guess.

When the albums were reissued the review in Q magazine also stated that When Girls Get Together was the stand-out track.

I've always though that Brian may have been talking about Endless Harmony as it's a tribute to him and may have been tough to hear at the time.

Should be noted that Bruce mentioned in a 1972 interview that he was working on a song called "Endless Harmony" so that song had a really long gestation period-similar to some of Al's songs (actually it seems to take him twenty to thirty years to complete things)...though of course it took even longer to finish Smile.....nevermind.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that song was actually first released in 1974 - as 'Ten Years Harmony' on a California Music single.

You are correct sir  ^-^

Very basic track - just a piano - was recorded during the CATP sessions, first half of April 1972.

If I am not mistaken, Debbie Keil was on this board about a year ago and she brought some light into the Kent-Stories, which were very interessting.
So I wouldn´t believe too much of what Kent wrote. Altough, I heard from an other source that Brian did not like one Song from the album, but Bruce - who was the producer by this time - decided to cut for the record.

Could be Oh Darlin where Bruce changed the tempo, could be "When girls get together", could be "Endless Harmony" as well. Who knows. Maybe we should ask Bruce about it?

Process of elimination - I can give reasons why I don't think its any of the following KTSA tracks.

School Days - It was Brian's idea to cover this in the first place, in fact he seemed to be more interested in covering 'oldies' than working on new material.

Livin' with a Heartache - Carl was the only BB to have anything to do with this so I doubt Brian had much of an opinion on it either way.

Sunshine & Some of Your Love - Have seen concert footage of this era where Brian is heavily into the performances of these two numbers compared to the chain smoking expressionless zombie that was the norm at this time.

Goin' On - Just personal opinion here but as this is probs the most fully realised song Brian and Mike put together for this album I can't see it being this one.

Debbie Keil was on the board? Do we have any of that still on here. I'd like to see what she had to say about this era.

Debbie is a great person and very bright. She is NOTHING like the way Kent wrote about her.

A quick search on Google reveals that Debbie is an astrologer and that she helped design a stained glass window based on various astrological concepts (I can't say what specifically because the image is gone) for Brian. Funky pretty, indeed.