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Smiley Smile Stuff => General On Topic Discussions => Topic started by: punkinhead on September 15, 2010, 10:22:32 PM



Title: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: punkinhead on September 15, 2010, 10:22:32 PM
This is entirely based on your own theories and opinions. The few I can point out are either referenced in books or through part of my own assumption. Along with the album, you can call the shots on the songs for examples.

Pet Sounds/Good Vibrations with Rubber Soul and parts of Revolver.
Wild Honey and 20/20 with the White album. Mostly WH going with the white album because of its 'back to basics' production approach. I also include 20/20 because it reminds me of the white album because each Beach Boy got a chance to show their skills with their own songs, as the White Album showed with each Beatle. I also like to throw Do it Again and Back in the USSR together, both referencing the early Beach Boy success.

In my own research and listening habits, I've been known to compare the Shut Down Vol. 2 album with the Beatles For Sale album...both came out the same year and in the midst of their growing to be at their highest popularity (I know, oddly worded but I can't say it any other way  :p). To me, this is the album that they both churned out as their more tiring of touring is evident. Both include current hit singles and then filled with a lot of fillers. Both albums reach back to an older song to re-record (Keep an Eye on Summer and I'll Follow the Sun). Both albums also have some really good ballads. A couple of covers recorded, some good, some not so great. I just feel both albums were put out because of Capitol Records' demands.

I'd love to hear about other Beach Boy albums going along with other artists.


Title: Re: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: punkinhead on September 16, 2010, 01:36:54 AM
It'd also be really awesome if someone could point out an album that's up to the standards of say: Smiley Smile or Love You


Title: Re: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: willy on September 16, 2010, 02:38:23 AM
SMiLE with VDP's Song Cycle and Sagittarius' Present Tense?


Title: Re: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: hypehat on September 16, 2010, 03:50:11 AM
It'd also be really awesome if someone could point out an album that's up to the standards of say: Smiley Smile or Love You

Daniel Johnstons records have a similarly homebaked vibe to Smiley, although they are also hella different. Less harmonies, obviously, and they're such a big part of the SS vibe.

And i read somewhere that if Jonathan Richman suddenly recieved the talents of Bach, a Moog synthesiser and two days in a studio he would have written Love You. He's more of a similar lyricist than a musician to Brian though - none of his records 'sound' like Love You, but he's a similarly naive lovesick type that Brian was around that time.

Apart from that, drawing blanks. Someone must have made similar records to them, surely?


Title: Re: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: punkinhead on September 16, 2010, 07:41:56 AM
It'd also be really awesome if someone could point out an album that's up to the standards of say: Smiley Smile or Love You

Daniel Johnstons records have a similarly homebaked vibe to Smiley, although they are also hella different. Less harmonies, obviously, and they're such a big part of the SS vibe.

And i read somewhere that if Jonathan Richman suddenly recieved the talents of Bach, a Moog synthesiser and two days in a studio he would have written Love You. He's more of a similar lyricist than a musician to Brian though - none of his records 'sound' like Love You, but he's a similarly naive lovesick type that Brian was around that time.

Apart from that, drawing blanks. Someone must have made similar records to them, surely?

I just recently downloaded Daniel Johnston's discography, can you point me to a specific album or song that you'd say is Smiley like? I've only really listened to: Hi, How are You?


Title: Re: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: Alex on September 16, 2010, 10:14:35 AM
I'd consider some of the poppier lo-fi indie stuff (Magnetic Fields, Apples In Stereo, etc...maybe some shoegaze stuff) from the 90s as bastard offspring of Smiley Smile and/or Love You.

(And speaking of 90s indie stuff, I have a compilation from 1992 with a song called "Shutdown" by some band called Jane Pow that starts off with the piano line from "Wild Honey"!)


Title: Re: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: punkinhead on September 16, 2010, 11:09:55 AM
I could see Apples in Stereo being Smiley like


Title: Re: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: hypehat on September 16, 2010, 04:40:07 PM
It'd also be really awesome if someone could point out an album that's up to the standards of say: Smiley Smile or Love You

Daniel Johnstons records have a similarly homebaked vibe to Smiley, although they are also hella different. Less harmonies, obviously, and they're such a big part of the SS vibe.

And i read somewhere that if Jonathan Richman suddenly recieved the talents of Bach, a Moog synthesiser and two days in a studio he would have written Love You. He's more of a similar lyricist than a musician to Brian though - none of his records 'sound' like Love You, but he's a similarly naive lovesick type that Brian was around that time.

Apart from that, drawing blanks. Someone must have made similar records to them, surely?

I just recently downloaded Daniel Johnston's discography, can you point me to a specific album or song that you'd say is Smiley like? I've only really listened to: Hi, How are You?

 Yip/Jump Music! is my personal favourite - less 'mental' than Hi, How Are You?, which he apparently recorded whilst going through a nervous breakdown. I can only speak for me, but the first 14 songs (out of 20) of Yip are so blindingly good.
He recorded those early records in his garage (like Brian in his house). The feel is similar - mistakes and oddities abound, but as it's one man with a piano/chord organ as opposed to Brian, the boys, and a Baldwin enjoying $5000 worth of hash the feel is obviously different.
Interesting fact is that in his early years, he routinely lost the master tapes of his records, so sat back down and re-recorded them!
As for a Smiley vibe, you might want to try Artistic Vice, which Daniel got a bunch of his fellow churchgoers to play guitar, bass and drums and record a bunch of songs casually in said church. Or, if you're looking for more 'Wonderful' type vibes, try his album 'It's Spooky' with Jad Fair, although that is so 'spooky' it's a bit of a difficult listen.

Daniel has many more fantastic records, so don't just try looking for a 'Smiley' connection - try listening to 1990, or his more 'produced' later work. And watch The Devil And Daniel Johnston. Knowing the story adds so much more to his music.
The thing is, which the documentary touches on, is that people group Daniel and Brian (and Roky Erickson, for instance) as mentally ill geniuses, when the three have very little in common. You're not going to find complex song structure or fantastic harmony on a Daniel Johnston record, but you're going to find simple, beautiful music.
And if you find listening to his admittedly rough home recordings difficult, try a covers comp - The Late Great Daniel Johnston has several fantastic ones, including the definite version of 'Go'.

[/ramble]

Someone else sees what I mean about Daniel, right?


Title: Re: BB albums that go hand in hand with other artist's albums
Post by: Magic Transistor Radio on September 16, 2010, 09:31:39 PM
The Danielson Familie Alpha/Omega resembles the feeling of Love You to me.

The self titled Tripping Daisy album (1999) sort of reminds me of Surfs Up. Both first tracks have a similar accapella section. The albums are both very trippy and catchy.

Summer in Paradise and any Madonna album, because they both SUCK!