The Smiley Smile Message Board

Discuss, review and rate Going Public, released 1977.

(http://www.smileysmile.net/images/albums/goingpublic.gif)

Listenable Sunday afternoon stuff. Not as bad as it's made out to be.

Never understood the relation of "Pipeline" to the original.
Produced by Gary Usher!
Had to have a Sagittarius "Present Tense" Lp after listening.
Pete

I have this on LP.  Seems almost like a demo, a little sparse and basic.  Makes me think that Bruce really needed the Beach Boys to flesh out his talent.

Good to hear I Write The Songs by the guy who wrote it. I use this album to spiral slice ham.

My favorite was the headline used for the review in Bomp magazine, "The Fall Of The House Of Gary Usher"!

Monkee.  Does it really stand up as a kitchen gadget?

I must be the only person here who likes this album for what it is - schlock-filled adult contemporary.

I haven´t heard the album yet (and I don´t plan to do it), but it has an amazing cover! Umh...unless it´s meant serious.  :-\

Download Rock And Roll Survivor if you're not gonna buy the album, it's the best song on there.

It's a shot from the Sunflower sessions.

My Uncle got this for Christmas, and I listened to it while my family visited. I enjoy it. It's nothing spectacular, but I enjoy all the songs except (Won't Somebody Dance With Me). There's enough good material on here for a few listens. While I like the original arrangement of "Disney Girls" I like this version a lot. Rock and Roll Survivor is the best one on the album. Thank You Baby is taken from the Bruce & Terry Melcher days and I like this version better than the original. I think my favorite is Rendezvous, a nice up-beat tempo song. I Write The Songs is great too. I rate this a 4. A 5 if it didn't have Won't Somebody Dance With Me.

Brave man.

What can I say, I enjoy writing about music I like, no matter what anyone says.

Yeah I dig Going Public too.

Surfin' Round The World is the one.
That's the one that needs it's oen thread.

I dig that album a lot. Very fun to listen to.

Following some of the comments here, I am moved to get out my vinyl and give it another spin.

To me, that is a worthwhile reason for a thread such as this.

I heard this once, just to give it a chance.

I like bruce alot, i never heard any mike love solo's yet though....

wont someone dance w/me really creeps me out, was he going for a wayne newton/ mike douglas theme here?

hey i affectionally regard it as Going Pubic!!!
Bruce You Can Do Better, maybe YOU need Brian as well a some of the others!

Don't let that ONE Grammy fool u.
btw, anyone have footage of mr. johnston accepting that award

PS..i love mr. manilow, great ballads somewhere down the road, somewhere in the night,for example;
but come off it, isn't he a queer??? Bette Midler, gay bathouses, the 70's???

Hahaha, I absolutely LOVE how one of your pieces of evidence for Barry Manilow being gay is "the 70's".

Hey, isn't Richard Nixon gay? You know.. the 70's? Eh? How could you not see it?

Indeed

upon reflection....

i should've have just left it at Bette midler & the gay bath houses.
 Straight shoooters like Brucey & Berry Man ill low wouldn't be caught dead in a Gay Bath house,
...now would he???

pony asked;

isn't he a queer?   lol!!!!

pop came out of my nose on that one........

sort of like lloyd the bartender in the Shining telling Jack about the n*****........


so inappropriate and out of left field it cracks you up!!

I don't know if this has been discussed elsewhere on this board, but last Saturday I was in Amsterdam and I found a very recently released 2fer-CD with "Surfin Round The World" and "Going Public" on it, plus the three bonus tracks that were on the earlier CD-reissue of SRTW. BGO Records (known for the Jan & Dean and Surfaris 2fers) released it.

I actually loved this record. Put it on for the first time tonight after buying it in the UK for cheap and was impressed!! WAAAY better effort than Looking Back with Love. Considering getting it on CD


4 1/2 stars!!

I haven't heard the rest of the album, but I do like Bruce Johnston's version of "I Write The Songs" loads better than Barry Manilow's version. It sounds more understated.

Worst. BB. Solo. Album.

Ever.


Horrible production, horrible mix, horrible vocals...the absolute drizzling shits.

I hate the reverb on Bruce's vocals with a passion. It seems like around this time all his vocals began to be overly processed (see Harmony, Endless), and there's less energy emanating from this cd than a rest home.

Sucks.

Looking back with love is a classic compared to this. Its the kind of music that may go down well at a tea party in an old folks home. Did Bruce leave his balls outside the studio while he was recording this and pick them up again on the way home?

Best review I have seen of this album.

Ever.

How about that disco remake of "Deirdre"?????

Why?????

I actually kind of liked Bruce before I got this album. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all but I won't be purchasing any more music that openly admits was the responsibility of this wet noodle.

 ::)

My first reaction upon hearing this album all the way through was something akin to this:

(http://www.gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/160909_o.gif)

And I mean it. Insipid lyrics, horrible remakes of his own songs. Schmaltzy stuff that Bruce is known to write. HORRIBLE production. What the hell is going on with Bruce's voice on this album? Little girls randomly popping up in songs singing "Daddy? Why won't somebody dance with me?" Disco remakes? Yuck!

Not bad, though full of schmaltz and fluff. I Write the Songs is pretty good vocally but the production felt lackluster. Imagine how it would sound with the BBs backing him up!  :thewilsons Rock and Roll Survivor is pretty good too. The album is the type that's not for everyone but is good for a casual listen.

I Went to Sleep

Horrible and syrupy bland songs, half of them are several years old and worse than the originals

Awarded:1

Also I don't like Blow Jobson at all, his personality stinks and I resent his opinions and his destruction of anything cool about the Beach Boys. Come to think of it he tarnishes their name more than bad Hollywood comedies using their songs, Mike Luvester or SIP could ever do. He failed hard then came back to destroy what little potential LA Light had and is now getting money for it all, f*** him. I'm pretty sure Brian is of the same opinion. Dennis probably hated him more than anyone else.

EDIT:
Because of aforementioned I remarked this disgusting mess of an album to: 0

  Odd they used the 1970 SUNFLOWER shot for the cover of a 1977 album. Woudn't the label pony up the $ for a photo session?

Oh, you don't wanna see Bruce from that time era!  :lol

1988:

The Beach Boys are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and I as am happy as could be. I'm sittin' on top of the world.

Then, I come to find out that Bruce isn't mentioned anywhere on their award. This was my Bataan death march, my Hurricane Katrina....

I was a crushed, young soul. This record was the only place I could find solace.
I would sit in my room, tears in my lap, record sleeve in my hand. I can still hear "Pipeline" ringing in my ears.

Point is, Bruce was there for me. It's almost as if his clapping-worn hands were holding me, sheltering me, whispering to me "It's okay. We'll make it together. We're always together." My record was so water logged, by 1990, I had to buy a new one.

I still have yet to find a copy.

5/5

That pretty much sums up how I feel about this album. Not my type of music, but at the same time, not a bad album at all.
I'll give this a fair 2.5 out of 5.

Sounds like a songwriter"s demo to me. I will NEVER understand why Bruce settles for 2nd best.. Not a very good LP at all.. His ONE chance to record a solo lp with his name on it in his hey day and  this is the best he could do..?  The only reason to own this is for : I write the songs .. And we need a disco remake of PIPELINE.? Are you kidding me..I was hoping for a progressive pop lp . He had already done that with Disney girls . You mean to tell me Bruce hasn't got anymore tunes like DG + IWTS..  He just has this. ?? Very disturbing ..

I just found a copy for $2 at a record store. I had it in my hands, put it back, thinking..."why am I buying this when I know it's going to be sh*t?". And I almost walked out of the shop without it - but I had this nagging thing in the back of my head saying, "you're OBLIGATED to buy this". This Beach Boys thing, it's an illness I tell you!

Though I know Bruce is perhaps the least rocking person on Earth to have such a lengthy career in rock and roll, I've always enjoyed his songwriting. Heck, I even like Tears In The Morning. A lot.

So, looking for something new to hear, I decided to check out a couple of Going Public tracks that grabbed my interest. Pipeline was lined up first - I'm a big Johnny Thunders fan and he used to open with it, kinda made it his signature song. I knew Bruce's version certainly wouldn't be as rollicking but given his surf music origins..... :o

Consider me speechless.

Oh well, I've always liked Deidre.... *click*

 :o :o :o

One of the commenters on the YouTube video I was watching on declares Bruce's disco Deidre to be, and I quote 'far superior to the beach boys version'. which just goes to prove once more that there's no accounting for taste. Then again someone probably prefers Bruce's Pipeline to Johnny's. I am not he, Jack.

It's so bloody 'nice' isn't it? And this is coming from someone who digs the Carpenters.

The reverb on the vocals is intensely annoying, but I think was commonplace for the era. It has the disconcerting quality of making Bruce's duet partner on 'Won't Somebody Dance With Me' sound like a haunted doll peering back through the veil of time. A veil best left closed.

Disney Girls. A great song killed stone dead here. Just to think that Bruce must have thought the original needed toning down a bit blows my mind a little.

Perhaps I should check out some Bruce & Terry instead. Any suggestions for a starting point?

Elnombre, get yourself a copy of The Best Of Bruce & Terry on the Sundazed label. And if you want to hear Bruce actually 'rockin' like for real find a copy of Bruce's Surfers' Pajama Party. From one Johnny Thunders fan to another I think you'd like the latter.

This.

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

SIP
Going Public

These two turkeys sum up what M & B are all about-pure schlock to put it rather politely. Gave 'em both zeros.

Damn straight, oldsurferdude ! 8)

Thanks Mike, will do when I can. Loved Sundazed's Karen Dalton & Betty Davis reissues. Incredible label.

People generally consider Goin' Public by Bruce Johnston, a horrible record. Most would agree, it needs a mess of help to stand alone. This album isn't fun fun fun.

Okay, I'm done with the BBs puns.  :p

So, I am a strong believer that EVERY BBs release has AT LEAST ONE gem. (Even the Nascar album...  :o)

What gems can be found on here?

Well, the new version of Disney Girls, is very pretty, albeit sappy, but this a Bruce Johnston record we're talking about here. I also really like Rendezvous. It's a guilty pleasure; it's so Gosh Darn catchy!!!!!!!!! I also enjoy Pipeline, which in a weird Bruce Johnston kinda way- rocks.

So out of the 9 tracks, I consider 3 of them gems- is it worth your money? Well you decide.... But you'd be better off buying a classic like

Today!, Holland, or hell even MIU is better than Goin' Public!

To be honest though, no BBs related record IS THAT BAD.

I Write the Songs. 4/5
Deidre 3/5
Thank You Baby 3/5
Rendezvous 2/5
Won't Somebody Dance With Me 0/5
Disney Girls 3/5
Rock and Roll Survivor 2/5
Don't Be Scared 3/5
Pipeline 4/5

It may be schmaltzy but you don't buy Bruce stuff expecting it to sound like Slayer now do you? Very good opening and closing songs, his Beach Boys remakes are nice but not a patch on the originals. The less said about Why Won't Someone Dance With Me, the better...
Overall 3/5

The Bruce Johnston Going Public Tribute to Slayer album MUST happen.