The Smiley Smile Message Board

I give you:

'I'll Let You Look But Don't Touch My Custom Machine'

Genius.

"Yeah, my fuel injected Stingray and a 4-13... the 4-13 is really diggin' in... now the 4-13's lead is startin' to shrink, he's hot with ram induction... but it's understood I got a fuel injected engine sittin' under my hood..."
From a truncated "Shut Down"

Poetry, really.

Poetry indeed, by one Roger Valentine Christian.

God, I never realized how poetic these lines are... wonderful! Seems that I passed up a lot of these things... makes me wish to hear and read that material all over again. 'Custom Machine' is super-cool melodically too. Understated, slightly threatening, well... very male, and competitive.  :smokin

Take it... one little inch at a time now..
Until we are feeling fine..  now..

While we're at the car topic:

"When I go looking for something to do
She's got enough room now to barely seat two"

Ah, the combination of the bragging about a car and sexual undertones! :)

"The queen in Copenhagee
The dream of Amsterdamee
The cream of gay Parisee
The theme of U Say Asee
The scene in Great Britainyee
The meaning in Los Angees
The heat in Tokyosee 
The treat in Manhattohsee 
Oo,yeah yeah the Funky Pretty"

 That just about sums it up!!  LOL

 Bri

Hey, little tomboy, sit here on my lap
I got things that I gotta tell you

I'm gonna teach you to kiss
You're gonna feel just like this
They're doin' it all over the world


{shudder}  :o  :o :o

If Mars had life on it/ I might find my wife on it...

...immortal. Worthy of a Nobel Prize (a nomination, at least).

Sherry, don't her guts just 'cause she took me away/
and maybe you wanna make friends with her someday

Somewhat awkward.

That is putting it mildly, sir. I can't make any chocolate of it (Dutch expression).

My new one:

Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee
My name is Brian and I'm the man
I write hit songs with a wave of my hand
Songs of surf and sun and sand
I make great music with my band
Songs you dance to and songs of joy
I'm the original Beach Boy

A lobotomized Mike Love could not make up lyrics that bad. Landy should have just stuck to practicing psychotherapy.... no, wait - he was crap at that too!

...which really isn't much to hang in the Christmas tree, either (Swedish expression).

welll... he did give it an ultimate try...  ;D

jeeez.  what the heck.

I've always wondered about Carl's line here. Is it a way of convincing the tomboy that it's alright, everyone else does it too, this is completely normal? Or is it 'just' a celebration of the world wide maturity process of girls and the connected budding interest in kissing? Did I just type that sentence?

There's been songs about celebration
But if you ask me I can't see why
There's too much Pain, too much pain in my heart now
You're gonna have to prove it to me


Only Brian can be so blunt and so honest

I've always thought of Smart Girls as a comedy record. Lines like "Wouldn't it be nice if they gave PHDs for strokin' me with hypotheses" are just so ridiculously overblown and over the top that they crack me up. :lol  On the other hand, Mike's lyrics above just strike me as pure cheesy merda.

"When I was younger
My mother told me Jesus loved the world
And if that's true then
Why hasn't he helped me to find a girl?"

I friggin love this lyric.

Just curious why you use a dash between the 4 and the 13? A Super Stock Dodge had a 413 cubic inch engine, therefore its a 413, like a 409 Chevy is a... 409...not a 4-09. Details are cool.

You make me feel so warm inside
A sense of humor you can't hide
Who taught you darlin' how to move that way?
And when you smile I know the world's okay
And when I see the twinkle in your eye
It sends my heart all the way to the sky
And ya' know I'd like to get a crack at your love

Great call. It's so simple, and so honest... I see a man in my mind, bed-ridden, smoking way too much, obese, all in all very passive, and he's singing this from his heart. Most people will find this ridiculous, perhaps a bit obscene for its seeming total lack of effort... I don't. I find it so touching.

My buddys and me are getting real well known, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone".

"Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat her on her butt, butt."

Ding ding dang woo!

.... and we're just one step away from quoting some lines of Rollin' Up To Heaven ...

No way you're gonna get me to type, "f*** her / Big tits."  Or is it, "f*** her big tits"?

"Sometimes I have a weird way of showing my love, and I always expect her to know what I'm thinking of."

"And when I give her my love it's between her and me."

"It's weird how she comes in so strong, and I wonder what she's picking up from me."

"A cigarette butt when you throw it in the water goes "pssst."

"We always take my car although it's a heap, and we never get turned down by the chicks we pick up on."

From "Judy," one of the earliest B-Boys recordings:

     "Judy, I smell love's perfume in the air"

...& from "Good Vibrations," many years later:
 
     "On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air"

Bicycle rider, see what you have done to the church of the American Indian...

In just a few years, Brian went from:

"Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world"

...to:

"I'm a cork on the ocean."

Great post! Amazing how the ocean as a consistent symbol in his writing can be so revealing about his psychological state. Take the lyrics away and you can still hear the sea in so many of their records.

"For so long I thought about it,
And now I just can't live without it,
This beautiful image I have of you."

Well, I saved my pennies, and I saved my dimes.

Because you would pronounce it "Four One Three" if you wrote it 413, and weren't a gearhead.  So if you write it "4-13" they'll correctly pronounce it "Four Thirteen".

Another immortal lyric is "Will I love my wife, the rest of my life?"

That's pretty damn insightful, right there.  "deep" lyrics are complete bullshit.  Anything worth saying is easy to say, the Beach Boys did it very well.  Clever lyrics are great, pretentious lyrics are too much for me. 

Hell the whole lyric to "Wouldn't it be nice" is genius. 

Great line.

"Can't find nothing I can put my heart and soul into."    

"Oh cuando sere un dia sere."

"At threescore and five I'm very much alive I've still got the jive to survive with the heroes and villains!"

"Surf's Up aboard a tidal wave."

"I was praying to a God who just didn't seem to hear. The blessings we need the most are what we all fear. Love and Mercy is what we need tonight".

Tach it up, tach it up, buddy gonna shut you dowwwn

Really anything from I Get Around is perfect. So Tough.

She seemed so fragile
I really should have cared
And that sent her cryin'

You broke my heart
Broke it in two
How could I have left you alone
Like that to cry

Leave her alone
Leave her alone

----------

When Rover lies near his master
It's unconditional love
That's why they call him man's best friend
Now isn't that just like me and you?

Very small point, but I always thought it was "Can't find the right thing I can put my heart and soul into". One of my faves as well.

Some of mine faves:
"I know so many people who think they can do it alone, they isolate their heads and stay in their safety zone."

"I've never seen the light that people talk about, open up my wallet and dust comes out, so let it be."

"Dove nested towers the hour was strike the street quicksilver moon, carriage across the fog two-Step to lamp lights cellar tune, the laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne"

"Long promised road, trail starts at dawn carries on 'til the season's ending."

You know what, Td? That's what I hear too! Then I looked all over the internet for confirmation and all the lyric sites said, "Can't find nothin'", which doesn't sound right to me. I listened to the acapella version over and over before I posted, and it sounds like it could be "Can't find nothing" or "Can't find a thing", but it still sounds to me like "Can't find the right thing I can put my heart and soul into." I'm gonna go with that! By jove, I think you've got it  ;D

Young and beautiful like a tree that's just been planted, I found life today.

Cookoo, cookoo

(Go away, silly biiiird)

Cookoo, cookoo

(Go away, silly biiiird)

"I don't know where but she sends me there."

"And I wondered, as it got light, we're you still awake like me?"

"I went through al kinds of changes, took a look at myself and said that's not me."

How about "since she put me down I've been all through it in my head.." I've lived that line many times.

Surely this is the coolest BB lyric by a mile!

'Well oh my oh gosh oh gee
She really send chills inside of me'

The lyric is "Since she put me down I've been out doin' in my head".

And prior to that...

And we'll make sweet love when the sun goes down.
We'll even do more when her mama's not around.

Such a disturbing image of the boys at this stage in their lives.  ::)

I remember I was awestruck the first time I saw the group with beards, on Stan Love's web site. I thought it was a joke.

You forgot the best lyric from that song. "we do it holding hands, it's so cold I go burr". So many demented possibilities.  ;D

I watched Pet Sounds Live last night where the backing vocals are considerably clearer and I swear that it is "Can't find the fight thing".

The mind reels trying to figure out what "even more" than "making sweet love" would entail.   

"Those aren't carrots, they're dildos."

I know one thing for sure I want to do
I want to spend this life with you
Only With You

Love in its/his purest form

I've always liked the line "Did I have love, or did love have me?". It's one of those song lyrics that I wish I had written.  ;D

The pine-scented air,
Smells so good in the snow,
In our toboggan we'll go,
Screaming down the mountainside

Superb string of 'dirty lyrics'... was Brian just 'filling in with words no matter what' in a hurry, to complete the album, without realizing the implications of what je just wrote? Anyway, a man aged 34-35 and all this... considerations apart, it's beyond cool.

Yeah, which is even better, imho.  I guess he's saying "In my head" is walking around in a daze, and since she left tha'ts what he's been doing.  Or doin. 

Maybe he's saying, if her mom's around, they'll make a little bit of sweet love.  and we'll DO MORE IF SHE LEAVES!

I like to think "doin' in" is meant as the slang term for killing, in this case, brain cells. I've been drowning my sorrows.

For the I just wasn't made for these times bit, I never read the lyrics anywhere but always clearly heard it as "Can't Find Nothin', To Put My Heart and Soul Into" .

You've got to realize too there's 3 or 4 people singing right there, it may be that one of them is saying something different, so it makes it a little cloudy.  It would be really easy to have one guy go "Can't find the right thing" and one guy go "Can't find Nothin'" and one guy go "Can't find anything" .  

Yes, that makes sense.  I never noticed it that way.... yeah, that makes a great lyric now, thanks! LOL

No. When her mom's around, he has to divide his lust between the two of them.

i've always liked "and you can bet that we'll have our jackets on wherever we cruise".

could be that that's one of the cooler melodies of that era.

Feel the wind burn through my skin, the pain, the air is killing me...

Five long days and I'm tired of working
I'm going to see my boss today
In fifteen minutes I'll be on the train
'Cause I just got my pay

She do the shake down at Bumble's, she do the Chicano rumble...

ahh ahhh (end of All I Want To Do)

Cease to exist, come and say you love me/give up your world/c'mon and be with me...

When I'm thirsty and too hot to move/keep on dreamin' 'bout a swimmin' pool...

I always thought that one was very nicely done. 

Transcendeeeeeeeeen-
-tal meditation caaaaaaaaaaan
Emancipate the maaaaaaaaaan
And get you feelin' graaaaaaaaand

Ewwwww!!!!!  :lol

"My friend Bob, he has a job." Should have made it on....

To pick the not-goofy lines:

-"When I look at other girls, it must kill her inside/but it'd be another story if she looked at the guys"

-"I built all my goals around you/That someday my love would surround you"

-"Let's not think about tomorrow"

In my opinion, Surf's Up is one of the greatest examples of lyric composition ever, in the history of the 1960's, or any point in the history of song writing. It's second only to Dylan.

I gotta say I find Van Dyke Parks lyrics to be a little much...BUT to me Heroes and Villains as well as all the Wonderful/Child/Father lyrics are flawless.

Second to Dylan? Hell no!! Surf's Up is a better song than Bob Dylan ever wrote! Brian oughta donate his ear to the Smithsonian!

From the mountains on down to the sea, cool cool water keeps on coolin' me.

So, SU would win against....Desolation Row, for example?

Oh, hell yeah! You kiddin' me?? Desolation Row, Blowing in the Wind, Times They Are a Changing, Knockin' On Heaven's Door, It Ain't Me Babe, Tamborine Man, Like A Rollin' Stone, Rainy Day Women, All Along The Watchtower, all of 'em can't hold a candle to Surf's Up!

"Its automatic when I talk with old friends..."

i've always heard "can't find the right thing", and listening again now, that's all i hear, it doesn't sound muddled to me at all. 

I agree, although I won't compare it with Dylan. The poetry of SU is of a different kind. About innocence, loss of innocence, innocence reinstated, found again in children... and that's half of the story. The other half is decadence, fall of civilization, towers crumbling... and hope that a renaissance is possible. The two mingle of course: every individual experiences the loss of youth, and the hard fact that mortality is there for all of us, no one excepted. For me the song means that our children carry the personalities of their creators into the future in some way; but we ourselves may through our beliefs be immortal in a spiritual way.

I wouldn't know what atheists, or agnostics, make of the above.

And this is why The Don is my favorite poster on this messageboard.  :) VDP himself could not have said it better.

I am blushing... really. You just made my day, Jay. Often, in the middle of the night, when I can't really sleep, I try to make sense of my favourite pieces of art, and to find the right words why I love them so dearly. Thanks for the sweet words.

"Could I ever find in you again,
things that made me love you so much then?"

"Oh what she does to me
when she makes love to me."

"I feel so high and so far within yooooooou"

Don, you forced me to put on Smart Girls again. Now I just need to be held for a while... (shudder)

What song is that from again?

Soulful Old Man Sunshine!

Oh yeah!  Geez, what was I thinkin'!  ::)

Vege-Red-table-tomatoe

I've always loved this verse, too.  Some nice picturesque and romantic lines in TTGA. It's one of those songs that proves Brian can (or could) write a good lyric when he really tries. I wonder if he was trying to go for the complete opposite of the surf thing here with a lyric about winter sports.  I'll bet the "Bob got a job" type of lines that people often throw out as an example of Brian's poor lyric writing are really more of him being asked to help but just not giving a foda.

I always thought Brian was a fine lyricist. He writes pop music, and he is just a direct and more or less unvarnished fellow. Consider much of side two of Today! for examples of what are, I think, the most consistent example of Brian's lyric-writing abilities. "Please Let Me Wonder", "Kiss Me Baby", "She Knows Me Too Well", and "In The Back Of My Mind" are not poetic to be sure; these songs are, however, sentiments that most everyone has felt at some point and have, accordingly, expressed themselves with simple-but-direct lyrics -- the unmediated awkwardness, insecurity, and jealously of Brian Wilson.

Huh?  ???

Everything is chrome, man, even my jack

"As the sun dips out of sight
couples on the beach at night"

So... Brian was inspired to write this song of course after he heard the Ronnettes "Be My Baby", and by Ronnie herself; and then played it for Phil, who ended up marrying Ronnie. 

No wonder Phil didn't like the song, lol. 

Wasn't Mike responsible for much of these?

That said, I agree he has done some great lyrics...course we need not look any further than the immortal lyrics of Til I Die

"Please Let Me Wonder" - Brian Wilson/Mike Love
"Kiss Me Baby" - Brian Wilson/Mike Love
"She Knows Me Too Well" - Brian Wilson/Mike Love
"In The Back Of My Mind" - Brian Wilson/Mike Love (credited to Mike after the '94 lawsuit)

So yeah, Mike did write very good lyrics for the "Today" album.  :)

Oh, I guess the surfer moon site didn't update its listings then. Those were awarded during the '94 lawsuit? Well, okay, Mike was a good lyricist at that time then if he did actually write 'em!

The "Surfer Moon" web site is not a good source for correct information.  They haven't updated it in years.

They have updated the album archive slightly to include That Lucky Old Sun, Pacific Ocean Blue: Legacy Edition and Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin but not A Postcard From California, poor Al! The track archive is also woefully incomplete as it's missing tracks from Endless Harmony, Hawthorne, Lost & Found (also missing from the album archive) and doesn't have separate entries for the SMiLE tracks released on the Good Vibrations Box. This has inspired me to do my own Super Ultra Complete And Comprehensive Beach Boys And Beach Boys Related Track Archive which is an ongoing project and somewhat a labour of love.

...and which can be viewed online at http://www...?  :)

Fall Breaks, as far as Beach Boys albums and song credits go, what more do you need than this?

http://www.pipeline-operaglass.moonfruit.com/#

And of course you can always fall back (or fall break) on Mr. Doe's site........

Ha, not available online I'm afraid but when it's looking a bit more complete I'll email it to you if you like?

Hey there's a stoned party dancin' with the police
Don't have to worry about disturbing the peace
Met a fine chick that really got to me
Good Lord how she boogalooed to me
Oh my how she boogalooed it to me
Come on sock it sock it to me

S-O-C-K I-T to me

We do the dirty boogie
And that's when I go up in smoke

"I love the colorful clothes she wears, and the way the sunlight plays upon her hair."

Poetry, and a pretty cool opening line. Mike Love's lyric magic right here.

Alley oop, wooh!
f*** her!
A Big Tit!

 ;D

But seriously:

I had to prove that I could make it alone now but that's not me
I wanted to show how independent I'd grown now, but that's not me

Yeah, Alex! Damn but I want to hear those original lyrics set against the "Mess of Help" track! I don't think they ever revisited the original lines that were in the middle-8/tag, so that the "She don't know a thing..." line is actually from the "Beatrice" lyrics...

How about:

"I used to be a famous artist and proud as I could be/Struggling to express myself for the whole world to see"

In The Back Of My Mind had some freaking awesome lyrics.

"I know It's so hard to find. A girl who really understands your mind"

Hey there's a stoned fox dancing with the police
Don't have to worry about disturbing the peace

You told me when my girl was untrue,
I loaned you money when the funds weren't too cool.

In the cantina margaritas keep the spirits high
There I watched her
She spun around and wound in the warmth
her body fanned the flame of the dance
Dance, Margarita
don't you know that I�m in love with you?


I was an English major and I've scarcely read poetry as beautiful, clever, and illustrative as this.

"I threw way my candy bar and i ate the wrapper / And when they told me what i did i burst into laughter!"

Genius!