The Smiley Smile Message Board

Here's an MCA soundtrack for the film "Almost Summer" featuring Brian Wilson and Mike Love, a CD reissue is probably unlikely, but we can dream:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41B98d0QH8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Almost Summer [Soundtrack]
Movie Soundtrack (Author) | Format: Vinyl

Product Details
 
Vinyl
Format: Soundtrack
Label: MCA

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Soundtrack Features Brian Wilson And Mike Love - Songs Include : Almost Summer / Sad, Sad Summer / Cruisin' / Lookin' Good / Summer In The City / It's OK / Football / Island Girl / Christine And Bobby / We Are The Future / She Was A Lady

Released in 1978.

When you say it's the soundtrack, do you mean it's the actual music from the movie? or are they  versions  recreated for this LP?

 ::)

I approve of this post.

What the hell is this and who is it? Where are the songs. Where are they?

Okay I hate to say this, but...... I have this on a homemade copy on CD. The songs Mike did aren't all that bad. I never did see the movie though.

Ted

You can do much worse Ted. I have the first AND second (as a twofer) on 1 CD... and I even listen to it regularly. The second Celebration IMO is better than the first one btw.

I coulld say something about the Disco Celebration LP as well, but I'll pass....

Saw the film. Twice. Recorder didn't work properly first time...

Bellagio 10452 - solo albums (http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/albumarchive5.html)

'Almost Summer' and 'Crusin' are on Youtube.

And Sad, Sad, Summer.

One of the highlights of Karen Lamm's career - a food fight scene, stolen straight from Animal House! 
(And husband Dennis had inappropriate 'relations' with cast member Didi Conn on an airplane flight...)

If this board had a "like" button, I'd be clicking it! :hat

The second album is quite decent.

Is it weird that whenever I've heard Celebration's music I imagine that Mike Love was stomping his feet up and down and swinging his arms across his chest during all of the songs, only stopping to do weird finger gestures?

Not in the least bit weird!

I wish they'd put the side 1 material to this soundtrack/album with the first Celebration album and the Disco Celebration album, all on one cd.

Ha! Watched the film shortly before christmas. Taped in 1983 and converted to DVD a few years back. It's not that bad.

The Almost Summer soundtrack is quite forgettable.

as a fan of MIU, Almost Summer is a great companion piece to that record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7SmgdvPpQY

It's a moments like this when you realize what a sex monster Brian is.

Can you record the soundtrack off there? Be cool to hear the different versions

Because of his "moves" or his no undershirted Adidas jumpsuit?

Man that Brian loves his Adidas! Loved the track suits in the mid 70s and still loves the pants to this day.

A little trivia, the cover shot for the Almost Summer soundtrack is of the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.  Somewhere in that time frame, give or take a year, the Eagles had a wildly successful album called Hotel California, which had a very similar cover shot of the Beverly Hills Hotel on the front of it.   

Good call

The Beatles had a white VW on Abbey Road now that you bring up similarities.

I'm amused by all the negative postings regarding Almost Summer, Celebration and MIU.  Back in the day, we all followed the Beach Boys like a favorite sports team.  "Our Team."  Get it?  We'd watched the entire Brian's Back campaign unfold, from it's heady highs in 1976 (my first concert by the band was that summer).   We got new hit records on the radio, the NBC special, countless interviews, that great appearance by Brian and Dennis at the American Music Awards... non stop coverage from Rolling Stone, People and elsewhere, and most of all, the promise of new music.  I can remember watching Brian on SNL that fall, with my girlfriend, both of us watching the show, hoping against hope that he'd do well.  I remember loving Love is a Woman.  In 1977, Brian was on the road - and that was exciting - we all bought the story that he was getting better and the new music was great.  And then Love You came out.  Personally, I loved the album - but I knew it didn't sound right, didn't sound finished.  Parts of it sounded modern but it didn't really sound like anything on the radio at that time Historical hindsight - it wasn't until the early 80s that I realized how influential the album was... when I was a radio DJ and we were playing countless synth pop hits by Brit bands.  But in 1977, it didn't sound polished, like the Eagles, or Chicago or anything else in top 40.  We watched the charts... nothing.  No activity.  And by the end of 1977 the whole Brian's Back thing was crumbling... albums were announced (Adult Child - reviewed in New Musical Express in the fall of 77), then cancelled.  In those days you could call Warner Brothers and get track information... I was still getting the Adult Child track list in early 1978.  And the Beach Boys had been off the charts since early fall 1976.  We wanted radio hits and music that "sounded" like the Beach Boys should in the 70s... polished tracks, polished vocals, great melodies.  Some hits.  Finally, Almost Summer comes out credited to "Mike Love & Celebration" but it sounds like what a Beach Boys single should sound like.  And it was a hit, cracking the top 30.  So, in effect, the Beach Boys had a hit, sort of, on the radio, and were validated.  We got a lot of grief from non-fans for following this band in those days... so a hit record made our point about how great they were.  And it did sound polished.  Ditto MIU.  The songs may have been weak but the record sounded lush, polished amd powerful.  It sounded like a Beach Boys record,  It didn't sound sloppy, like Love You and 15 Big Ones did.  Peggy Sue sounded great on the radio... side one kicked ass (except for Hey Little Tomboy).  Side two sounded innovative (at the time).  Matchpoint of your Love sounded ready for radio as a single; it's very similar to the hit single by Dr. Hook, "When You're In Love with a Beautiful Woman," which came out the next year.  And "Winds of Change" seemed to be a nod to the past and a preview of things to come.  We were all anticipating the new CBS album the next year, with, no doubt, County Pie and Landy Linda as the lead off tracks.  So 36 years hence, Almost Summer and MIU seem a bit tired, a bit weak, a bit formulaic... but at the time, at least for this fan, they were a real gift.  A return to commercial form and a return to a more polished sound.  That entire period, to me, between 1976 and 1980, is fascinating.  And whatever weakness those albums had seemed due more to what was left off than what was included.  But I thought Almost Summer and MIU were nice saves, at the time. 

bgas, I'll see what I can do. While Betamax had better image quality than VHS (film still looks quite good), but as the machine was pre-hifi audio, the audio track is fairly sub-par. Alot of hiss and quality worse than an audio cassette. Also, are you in the US or Europe?

Great post, Steve. I remember those days well, and your description is spot on. On one hand, things didn't look/sound quite right, but you were still optimistic. So much was happening, so much was coming out. It is hard for newer and younger fans to realize, but M.I.U. and "Almost Summer" were very, very enjoyable at that particular time. The American Bandstand appearance of Celebration with Mike & Brian lipsynching to "Almost Summer" IS STILL one of the most exciting moments I've had as a BB/BW fan. I guess you had to be there.

I still say that M.I.U. is underrated to this day. Too much hate for that album, IMO sorta like the kind of frustrated dislike heaped upon Smiley Smile (for more of deflated expectations of the album in its day). Not trying to compare the two albums, just saying that I think the perception of both albums is probably colored by a general thinking that better albums were possible than the ones that actually came out.

As a lover of Smiley Smile and a "non-appreciator" of MIU, I can assure you my perceptions are coloured only by what was actually presented.

Almost Summer ost - great title song, rest of the tracks are a challenge.

Here's a thought re: the Almost Summer soundtrack.  Check out the falsetto on the Dave Robinson cover of It's OK.  The cover ain't so hot but that rising falsetto over the "find a ride" and "sum-sum-summertime" bits is great.  I heard Al sing that falsetto during It's OK in concert, 1976.  With that falsetto tag, It's OK might have cracked the top ten.

I think 'Sad, Sad Summer" is a seriously good song. Up there with 'Big Sur'.

Here's a screen grab of the infamous food fight. The audio is actually OK. Similar to a cassette tape. Better than I thought. Excuse the color errors, thats me goofing with the settings and not the tape.

(http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq306/Dstevenb/vlcsnap-2014-04-09-03h44m39s41_zps43045978.jpg) (http://s458.photobucket.com/user/Dstevenb/media/vlcsnap-2014-04-09-03h44m39s41_zps43045978.jpg.html)

and our heroes:

(http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq306/Dstevenb/vlcsnap-2014-04-09-03h58m35s214_zpsef1a0e30.jpg) (http://s458.photobucket.com/user/Dstevenb/media/vlcsnap-2014-04-09-03h58m35s214_zpsef1a0e30.jpg.html)

and Karen:

(http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq306/Dstevenb/vlcsnap-2014-04-09-03h58m08s198_zpsc13b01ab.jpg) (http://s458.photobucket.com/user/Dstevenb/media/vlcsnap-2014-04-09-03h58m08s198_zpsc13b01ab.jpg.html)

(http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq306/Dstevenb/c5fb7652-01d7-40fb-bf60-e44e97cab1b0_zps61a27940.jpg) (http://s458.photobucket.com/user/Dstevenb/media/c5fb7652-01d7-40fb-bf60-e44e97cab1b0_zps61a27940.jpg.html)

Just checked her out.

Too each their own I guess. ;D

I think I'm with Dennis on this one:
(http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/12/06/32/2647680/6/628x471.jpg)

Something no-one's mentioned here - the movie versions of "AS" and "SSS" not only segue into each other, they're completely different recordings. The title song has different lyrics, too.

An absolutely great post, Steve!  Your recollections really connected since I was there at the time as a fan as well.  So I've gotta add some comments, and in any cases where our opinions differ I'm in no way suggesting that my opinion is more valid than yours - I'm just taking this opportunity to add some historical counterpoint as to how I saw it back then.  For me it was a time of incredible hope coupled with great disappointment.

 

15 Big Ones and the Brian's Back campaign were real eye openers for me, as I had naively thought that BW had been spending the years prior to the release of 15 BO out of the public eye writing incredible stuff and just waiting for the right time for it to be released.  I'd talked to Brian and Marilyn backstage after a concert in April 73 and BW (and Marilyn) seemed totally upbeat and friendly - I detected noting out of the ordinary.  At the next concert I attended in November 73 I ran into Marilyn backstage after the concert and when I asked about Brian she said he hadn't attended the concert because he was working with Danny Hutton on new material.  I totally bought that explanation, although the reality turned out to be that he was hanging out with Danny Hutton, but doing drugs rather than writing new material.

Then one day in June '74 I walked into Tower Records and was absolutely dumbfounded - there was a huge display, with cardboard palm trees, of a double record set of Beach Boys oldies called Endless Summer, with tons of albums stacked on the floor!  I couldn't believe it - I had never seen so many Beach Boys albums in a record store, and this was a brand new release with no track-record of sales.  I was amazed that Tower Records apparently expected to sell so many copies of of a Beach Boys album of any type in 1974.  But the fact that the BBs were depicted in drawings on the cover with modern day long hair definitely helped the cause, coupled with the fact that it was a double album priced as a single album.  (Back then double albums were typically a dollar more than single albums, so Endless Summer was $4.98 instead of $5.98, or thereabouts, and that dollar difference would be more like a six dollar difference today.)  Double album rereleases of Wild Honey & 20/20 and Friends & Smiley Smile followed later in 1974, then another double album of oldies, Spirit of America, and Good Vibrations - Best of the Beach Boys arrived in 1975.  I was going crazy waiting for new Beach Boys stuff, but figured Brian must be waiting for the oldies reissues to play out before laying his incredible new genius stuff on the public - after all, I thought, he's an eccentric guy.

So in 1976 15 Big Ones Hit - and it was great to finally have a new Beach Boys album but depressing as hell to find out that not only had Brian Wilson supposedly been laying in bed for most of the past few years without writing any new music, but he had a irritatingly raspy new voice to boot.

On to Brian's appearance on SNL - I was really embarrassed for Brain - he seemed so uncomfortable, and I was pissed that his psychiatrist forced him to do the show.


To say that I was disappointed when Love You came out would be a major understatement.  For the great majority of the stuff on the album, like you say it seemed unfinished, and definitely unpolished, like a bunch of demos that needed a whole lot more work.  And Brian's gruff vocals only made it worse, especially when compared to Good Time from seven years earlier.  And then the inner sleeve contained a disclaimer from Beach Boys themselves, "To Brian Wilson we love with all our hearts.  We wish to express our appreciation, and acknowledge your willingness to create and support totally the completing of these songs.  We thank you for sharing yourself and your music with us, and all those who love you as well.  An unspeakable joy being with you in your expression of the music you put other there for everyone.  Brian, we feel honored and grateful and we love you."  I read that as really saying, "For those of you wondering why this BB album sounds so raw and unfinished, and Brian's vocals sound like hell, it was the best we could get out of him at this time, but we are still encouraging him to keep writing and producing and hopefully do better in the future!"

And if you weren't around at the time, I can tell you this, Love You reached the cut-out bins faster and in far greater quantity than any previous BB release, and there were far more used copes available at used record stores than any other BB release before or since.  Was there genius in a lot of the stuff in Love You?  Absolutely, and I recognized some of it at the time, but overall I wanted more polish, and it took a number of years for me to realize that this was Brian Wilson in his pure and raw 1977 form, something to be enjoyed and accepted for what it was, rather than for what it might have been.  (And to prove that I'm still out of sync with most Love You aficionados, my favorite Love You song, by far, is Mona, with raw but wonderful vocals from Dennis and Brian.)

1977 was also the year of the worst Beach Boys concert I have ever attended, in late December of that year.  Members of the band were listless and seemed to be at war with each other, with Brian trapped behind the front end of a 57 (or maybe 55) Chevy (with keyboards built in), presumably so it would be difficult for him to get up and walk off stage.  And they included Long Tall Texan in the setlist - ugh!


This is very impressive, Steve.  I would call Warner Bros to ask about forthcoming releases, but it never occurred to me to ask about track lists.  And I never called Capitol, hence I was totally surprised by the release of Endless Summer.


Almost Summer does sound polished, and it's a song I enjoy to this day, but honestly in 1978 it seemed a little bizarre to me that Mike, a guy in his mid-30's, was singing a song about "So it back to class ..."  In a way it was another huge let down after the some of the more mature stuff the guys had done in the mid to late sixties thru early seventies, but still a fun song.


Gotta agree completely about MIU.  Sorely lacking in Dennis songs, and led off by She's Got Rhythm, which is in my opinion an extremely irritating song with one of the worst BW vocals ever, plus the embarrassing Hey Little Tomboy, but overall MIU was like a sorely needed breath of fresh air.  Finally, the guys were singing really well, everything was nicely produced, and the album featured an amazing Brian vocal in Match Point of Our Love, causing me to wonder, "Why couldn't he sing like that on 15 Big Ones and Love You?"

Thanks to Steve and Custom Machine for their great posts in this thread.

Really? Having been a younger fan, I've never seen it. Is that part of the movie posted online anywhere?
Anyone know where I could read those different lyrics?

Movie version:

Alan wants to be a football player
And Brian wants to start a group
Carl's gonna be the geetar player
And Dennis wants a little deuce coupe

[Chorus - same]

[2nd verse - same]

Christine & Bobby, you know they were lovers
Butt then they went their separate ways
It wound up when they ran for student body president
They both won on election day*

(* this verse make no sense at all unless you know the plot of the movie)

Right on!!  Well said... nice perspective!
 :listening

I'll add -- I was just a wee lad during this time.  So, it was in the 80s in which I was becoming a serious fan.  And the outlook was less bright then ...and by the mid-to-late 80s, honestly... the outlook was flat-out DREADFUL.  As was pop-music in general.

So I look back on the 76-80 (I extend it to 83) period as glorious.  Still to this day.  No, they weren't really able to "deliver" the big bang... but from my perspective that period was full of excitement.  The 50s/60s revival.  It was gooooooooood stuff to me.  That's my favorite era of the band -- because of the nostalgia and the BIG sound they had at that time.

For a young fan, trying to get through the truly awful mid-to-late 80s -- believe me, it was soooo much better to look back to this 76-83 period, than the garbage I had to deal with and look forward to.

This line looks like it doesn`t scan at all. Does it sound like it was crammed in awkwardly on the recording?  :)

So I look back on the 76-80 (I extend it to 83) period as glorious. >

1982-83 was interesting, too, from a fan's perspective in terms of possible new material.  After seeing the rejuvenated live show in May and June of 1982, with Carl back and the amazing, revised set list (so many new/old songs in the mix), things were looking up, at least from the outside. At thos early shows the band was pushing Al's live version of Runaway as the next single, which seemed a natural in the wake of Come Go With Me.  They talked on stage about an exciting new version of California Dreamin' in the works.  And through my circle of fans, there was a brand new studio album in the works for CBS, to be released in 1983.  Individual tracks would be produced by various big names in the business, including Lindsay Buckingham.  Of course, by the end of the year, CBS had cancelled the Runaway single and apparently the album fell apart because Buckingham wanted to produce the entire thing - or not participate.  And California Dreamin' snuck out on Mike & Dean's Radio Shack cassette the next year.

Is the licenseplate 616 LBX another clue for the 'Brian is Dead' rumors?
Abbey Road's being LMW-Linda McCartney Weeps.

Other clues on BB covers-
- The people looking into the water on the dock on th Holland album (Brian drowned?)
- A Young Man is Gone is about Brian
- Brian was not able to being on the back of the Smile album cover, his stand-in was sick that day.
- Brian and Bruce don't appear on album covers together in the 60s-Brian's stand-in appears on Pet Sounds cover while Bruce is show on the back with the rest of th guys, separate photos on Wild Honey, the group is illustrated "together" on the Friends LP, Bruce appears on the cover, no Brian except he appears by himself in the gatefold. Sunflower album had a stand in for Brian, notice he was looking down.

It's fun making this garbage up.  ;D

Yup.

Is the full movie version available anywhere?

And then there were the radio station versions.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQN7NZ1Tw_8

Anybody know how many were recorded?

A great write-up by Steve Latshaw concerning his favorite Beach Boys summer - 1976 (and all the way up to TWGMTR 36 years later).

http://robinchapmannews.blogspot.com/2012/06/endless-summers-with-beach-boys.html

I've heard up to 20. I used to have the versions for LA (KRTH and the only one pressed on vinyl), Cleveland (WMMS) and San Francisco (KFRC). I know a Detroit one was confirmed. All custom lyrics: Cleveland mentioned Metro Park and Cedar Point.