The Smiley Smile Message Board

How come this great ballad never gets a mention anywhere?

Because it's on L.A. (Light Album).

Sometimes I can really dig the track, and sometimes it just bores me to death. What do you like about it?

Because you have to be in a really lazy mood to fully appreciate it. On an average day, this sound just plain lackluster, a bit too laid-back.

I prefer the Dennis songs that salvaged the train wreck that LA could have become. But Carl's vocal on Goin' South is among his best. In all the books and posts etc this song is never mentioned... :violin

It kicks off nicely and has a great mood - the 'snow drifts' interlude is cool.  But it feels longer than it is, and the lounge sax solo + flourishes are cheese city.

It may also suffer from coming up after the spectacle that is Baby Blue.

This was an early LA favourite of mine, esp the snow drifts interlude mentioned by Alholio71, and the line about the "where the swallows go, when they leave Capistano, fly away so gracefully, maybe that's for me".

The spectacle? You don't like Baby Blue?

Every year when "fall breaks into winter" here in the Northeast I'll play Goin South and Full Sail. Seems to be appropriate. You have to be in the right mood for those songs but they both are good.

Goin' South is on my BB non-60s Christmas comp.  When I compiled a CD of tracks (including unreleased stuff) from 78-79, I left it off. The tone is too much like Full Sail, which I included instead.

'Cos frankly, coming from the man who wrote "The Trader" a few years before, it just doesn't cut the mustard.

Oh nooooo - To clarify, spectacle in this context = something of a remarkable and impressive nature (usually a visual performance, but what the hey); as opposed to describing a regrettable public display

Love Baby Blue.  I think it's spectacular.

I think it's an enjoyable, well-done slab of Lite Rock. I bet my parents would have loved it had it been a single in 79.

I don't think Carl ever wrote a bad song. LA was a bit heavy on the ballads, though. Needed It's Beautiful Day (and NOT 10 minutes of HCTN) to vary the pace a bit.

Carl just didn't have Jack Reiley around to write with him in '78-79.

Goin` South sounds to me like a song that was made to be an album closer. If it had been then it certainly wouldn`t have transformed it into a masterpiece but it would at least have made more sense there. Shortnin` Bread being the final song was akin to Transcendental Meditation ending Friends. Lots of slow, soft songs before the inappropriate racket begins.

It's my least favourite of the three Carl-written LA songs but i agree that it's still a nice song. Funnily enough, much as i dislike the saxaphone as an instrument, it's apperance on this song is one of the few occasions where i think it comes off without sounded dated and naff. Perhaps that's due to the songs feel and tone, but i don't cringe when the sax kicks in, whereas i do when it rears it's '80's-sounding brass head on Kokomo, I'm So Lonely, etc.

Because it's boring as hell? The one and only time I tried to play the song all the way though, I actually fell asleep.

That's a good point that It's A Beautiful Day would have added to that (or any from that era) album. Upbeat tempo; might have received some decent radio play also.

True, but like a lot of their fun in the sun stuff it has some shitty lyrics.

I don't dislike sax, but the latter day BB's used it in such a cheesy way. I love McGuinn's 12 string solo on California Dreamin', but they had to cut it short to put that cheesy sax in there :(

I like the song, but only thing that keeps me from appreciating it as a beautiful ballad is that it's name sounds like a porn movie. In fact, I'm almost sure there's a porn flick called Goin' South. Oh well.

Yep - the sax and the drums kill California Dreamin' for me.

Great idea, Ed. If you have a minute, would you mind listing the tracklisting you're using for that Christmas comp. I'd like to steal a few of your ideas for the one I'm working on!  :police:

 :lol Glad there wasn't a porn movie called You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone !

I love the song but I think it's somewhat overshadowed/too similar to Full Sail!