The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was thinking about what songs are considered filler on albums, of course, the early albums have a lot of instrumental or 'throwaway songs' and of course the studio joke/fillers.
I'd really like to get a list of what everyone feels are album fillers for every (Surfin' Safari - Summer in Paradise) Beach Boy album and/or solo album.
And I'd also be really interested in seeing if anyone recollects any of the Beach Boys ever admitting that some songs were filler or throwaway (much like John did in later interviews in the 70s about his songs with the Beatles).

The Nearest Faraway Place

Chug-A-Lug

OH MAN, NO WAY!  Top Stuff. here mug there a mug everybody chug a lug = classic fun

Wild Honey - "How She Boogalooed It"
Friends - "Transcendental Meditation"
20/20 - "The Nearest Faraway Place"
Sunflower - "Tears in the Morning"
Surf's Up - "Looking At Tomorrow"
CATP - "Here She Comes" & "Hold On Dear Brother"
Holland - "Beaks of Eagles"
15BO - "Everyone's in Love With You"
Love You - "Love is a Woman"

love is a woman is definitely not filler.  Especially not on that album.

Tears in the Morning is fantastic.

Hold On Dear Brother and Here She Comes are both great. I think they get ragged on because they seem like the more conventional songs compared to what the Wilsons were doing. I think they're both totally legitimate attempts.

I'm also going on record saying Beaks of Eagles is great too, it's got a great vibe.

It fills my ears with pain!  :-\

In my mind there is a distinction between "filler" and a song you just dont care for. I dont think "bad" songs are considered filler. Filler would be something that was clearly just thrown together in order to "fill" in time. "Bull Session" "Our Favorite recording sessions" and the medley from "party" come to mind.  it's important to keep in mind how large a role time played in record making back then. putting an album together was kinda like a pie chart. filler was just the stuff that was thrown into the leftover space.   

Scrolling through the Beach Boys in my iTunes library, most of the filler songs appear to be on Hawthorne, CA.

To me, the BB did the best "filler" album of all time in Smiley Smile. As in let's get whatever we can throw together quickly and get some product out or we'll be out of business. It's wonderful filler!

Ditto Love is A Woman and Transcendental Meditation.

I can never get my head around the latter - it seems totally out of place on Friends. All these chilled out songs, and then the one that's actually about meditation is actually the most abrasive to listen to.

Busy Doin' Nothin'

The abrupt wake-up jolt in Wind Chimes = Transcendental Meditation, expanded into a song. Pure genius!

What ones?

The ones that just have people talking.  ^-^

Interesting theory!

Talking of Transcendental Meditation, I really think it's a close relation to Fall Breaks, and subsequently related to Fire, and the Who Ran The Iron Horse section from Cabinessence. All share that up and down the scale thing, but the similarities are most pronounced in the vocals of TM and Fall Breaks. Compare the wordless aahs  from TM (0.43 - 0.56) to Fall Breaks.

In my mind all those fire type songs sound like the darker sound of Brian's writing - almost like he's trying to articulate a sense of mounting catastrophe. That he chose a similar approach in Transcendental Mediation always seems incongruous to the subject matter of the song, but then maybe my interpretation of the fire songs is wrong, and they're all celebratory songs. Kind of sound a bit dark and despairing to me though.

The notion of fillers for any album - not just the Boys, is one that I wonder about...

In order to make it in the commercial context - that single had to be squeezed in between radio ads, and, as between "Brylcreem" and "Bic razors," there is not a lot of time for artful work.  It is a drive-through. In and out.  Take it, leave it, like it, lump it!  

Some of the more introspective and thoughtful, and less commercial work is considered "filler."  It is like ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and those few minutes of fame.  Most hit singles are around 3 minutes...On an LP, there is the luxury of "telling a story" in a more lyrical dynamic. This seemed consistent until singles became longer than three minutes, with the "Ode to Billy Joe" and some others which required one to actually "listen to a story" in that context, rather than dance next to your radio.  And some of those songs "lengthened" the attention span of the listener, to the extent that Good Vibrations had the focus of the listener.  

On the other hand,  the filler(an example might be the non-singles on Pet Sounds, is what helps make a theme stick for artistic and critical acclaim.  

A two-pronged challenge, maybe...

First, does it sustain your attention? (or do you change the radio dial?)

Second, is it thought-provoking, on a deeper level?  

Not so much filler as enlarging the message of the artist, because they are not pressured with airplay and commercials to sell hair cream or razors, with those songs... ;)

Have a great day, everyone!  :grouphug

  

I think in this instance, the definition of filler is much simpler - it's any given track thrown into the mix that gives the strong impression of being included solely to pad out the album in short order, e.g. "Denny's Drums" or "Shut Down Part 2". I'm willing to wager that the amount of thought and preparation devoted to those particular examples was roughly 'running time x 3'.  :)

i need to not read this thread anymore

Andrew - I don't think it is all that simple...I think you have to qualify when the work was released.  Pre or post Pet Sounds, when the "thematic" albums, both in the US and the UK, eg. Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper, etc., were looking at anti-war themes, peace themes, etc., especially when the album became the focus.  A body of work, or corpus, is not the same as filler, even though there were probably contractual obligations to submit a certain number of minutes of material.    

You may be correct (and probably are, about production time for certain work, and probably earlier work,) but it gave the fan, a chance to see, as in Denny's Drums, an individual talent. Or a different genre, for example, Pet Sounds (the instrumental) or The Nearest Faraway Place.  The later filler gave the listener a chance to see a different artistic side, as opposed to the car-girlie-surf context into which they were stereotyped.  The guys did not go to Holland just to write singles.  JMHO  ;)  

By that premise, surely not every album has to contain filler?

----

Interesting point about Smiley Smile,  I love it and all, but I guess it could almost be described as a 'career' filler than an album full of 'fillers'...if that makes sense!

One listener's "filler" is another listener's "essential deep tracks" and vice-versa. It's really down to opinion, although I have to think that things like "Bull Session With Big Daddy" would qualify as useless filler for just about any Beach Boys fan.

All of the albums until PET SOUNDS feature fairly blatant filler tracks where you can easily tell not much time was spent on conception or production (some of these, like "I'm Bugged At My Old Man", are great fun nonetheless). Even though they are excellent works (and Brian loved/loves them), both "Let's Go Away For Awhile" and "Pet Sounds" would probably qualify as filler although I think the album is stronger for their inclusion. Put in the context of SMILEY SMILE, everything but "Heroes & Villains" and "Good Vibrations" feels like filler, although I like a lot of this material. WILD HONEY and FRIENDS both feel like they were conceived as albums, but "Mama Says", despite its SMiLE pedigree, is pure filler and I feel the same way about "Passing By" and "Diamond Head" even though I like the tracks. 20/20 was not recorded as a complete album but a collection of bits-and-pieces and it's easy to dismiss quite a bit of it as filler.

I don't really see any attempt at creating filler on the first four Warner albums - regardless of whether I agree with the choices or not, all of the album tracks from '70 - '73 were the result of somebody in the band really caring about doing the best possible job. One could call all of the oldies on 15 BIG ONES filler - the original double album plan of having one album new songs and one oldies would have worked, but the mixing of the two just seems desperate. No question that using outtakes from 1970 on LOVE YOU and KEEPING THE SUMMER ALIVE is pure filler as is the disco redo of "Here Comes The Night" on LA.

Again, this isn't objective as many will find these "filler" tracks to be worthwhile and important album inclusions.

I understand that what you say is opinion, but I don't understand how you figure Here Comes The Night as filler on L.A.? The edited version was the lead single. Whether you like disco or not, a lot of work was put into the making of that track. I'm sure when the Boys' recorded it, they didn't consider it filler.

I see your point here. The practice of doing extended edits of songs didn't really take off until the 80s, but normally a band would issue a short version on the album and reserve an extended version for a 12" single. New Order's "Perfect Kiss" is a good example in that it was conceived of as a longer song (in fact, the song's title comes from a verse edited out of the album version), but truncated on the LOWLIFE album to make room for the other songs. I agree that Curt Boettcher and Bruce put a ton of effort into the "Here Comes The Night" redo, so it's not like the track was thrown together. But as important as this track was to the band, and I think it was primarily a commercial strategy to give the band a presence in discos, re-recording an existing Beach Boys song and extending it to 10 minutes still feels like filler to me.

I see your point with it being a re-do, but (and a big but, as I am not a fan of disco) the singing on this track is as good as anything that they'd done up to that point. For me, Chasin' The Sky was the last pinnacle in that area.

An April Fools joke 46 days early,  right?

I'm not sure the Boys' thought of it as filler, but When Girls Get Together is just gawd-awful. It is my least favorite track of anything that they recorded.

I would list the following songs as filler:

Wouldn't It Be Nice
California Girls
I Get Around

...on the STILL CRUISIN' album!  ;D

There really is no filler between Pet Sounds and Holland. Party and 15 Big Ones are mostly fillers.

"Filler" is in the eyes of the beholder!


Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Big Chill
California Girls - Soul Man
I Get Around - Good Morning Vietnam

Perhaps inclusion of these classics were a "teaser" for prospective new fans who purchased the tape/CD to have Kokomo from the Cocktail movie or Wipe Out with the Fat Boys!  The new generation of the later 1980's.

And, I look at the concept of filler a little differently...and, in terms of the artist being able submit something creative without the constraints and pressure of having to break into the Top 40 hits...and, get the listeners' response to that work...

Filler is a pejorative (negative) term.  

It is all in the eyes of the beholder.  ;)

Plus, those three tracks were included because they were used in movies released around that time. With that concept in mind, I'd rather they included It's A Beautilul Day & Chasin' The Sky and maybe kept I Get Around, as Good Morning Viet Nam was the most recent movie released.

hell, why not add Let's go to heaven in my car & Daddy's Little Girl?

Weren't they released as Brian solos?

Bull Session with big daddy...
totally filler!
//RD

It ain't filler if you like it!   

Not if we separate our subjective opinions from the likely intentions of those involved with the creation of the relevant albums...(?)

Rockin' Response...(It ain't filler if you like it!) 

Yeah, baby!  :lol

And, all opinions are subjective! ;)