The Smiley Smile Message Board

I know we all like the Beach Boys. But seriously, out of the classic lineup which guy do you not really like?

The classic line-up included Bruce...

and I pick Mike

Fine. I originally had Bruce  on there, but removed him cause I thought it would be easy to say "eh, I like them all, I guess I'll say Bruce, he wasn't around for a few periods."

Can I pick Murry? I never met the guy but I hear he was very pushy. If not, I'll go with Charlie Manson because he was (is) an asshole.

If you go by that then you may as well exclude everyone except Mike  ;) :lol

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Does this mean I can go forward with my "which surviving Beach Boy would you prefer to die first" draft?

Which is why I designated it with the obligatory "Bad Vibrations" categorization.

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Mike and Bruce are the least likable Beach Boys. that is fact, not opinion.

Jesus, when did this place turn into the Bloo ?  ;D

Obviously, it's Brian - he had the genius, he had the vehicle, he had the potential but he gave it all up - and nearly ruined the rest of the band's livelihoods too - because he didn't have the cojones. When the going got tough, he wimped out and ran to his room. My hero.

... and I will guarantee someone, somewhere will swallow this hook, line and sinker.

The best looking?
The most talented?
The one that scored the most babes?
The one that has made the most money?
The one that has/ had the best voice?
The one that has had the best life?
The one that has the best health?

Hell I don't know. I guess I hate them all. :o

Mike.

To quote Kirk Douglas (talking about Stanley Kubrick), 'he's a talented sh*t'.

Someone will say Dennis then we will get 6 pages of rubbish

Il go with Zeppo

Looks like you've missed this thread:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,17884.0.html

All the ones who are alive and not named David.

Richard Milhous Wilson. A little sh*t.

What colour is your favourite Beach Boy's wife's triplicate? We haven't had that one yet…

I haven't a clue on how to answer that one. How about "How many Beach Boys does it take to change a pair of underwear?"? We hadn't tried that one yet.

  Without a doubt, Charles Manson.

I don't have one but at a push I'd have to say the one I care about the least is David because he never got the chance to write material for the band.

John Stamos  :P

Why not just make this a poll with two choices:  Bruce or Mike?  It would save a lot of time.   ::)

If Murry hadn't been so pushy, you'd be posting on a Deltones discussion board now instead of this one.

Probably Mike but just by default of liking the others more.  Not to slight Mike's enormous contributions to the band, especially over some of the others but I just don't like his voice and personality as much as the others.  Ask me tomorrow and it might be someone different tho.  :-\

Hiatus time.

Most likely to succeed?

Are we talking about music, personality, or both? What if each surviving Beach Boy had a solo concert on the same night (assuming that they each did solo concerts)? Which would you go to? Which would you avoid?
Or, for personality, each surviving Beach Boy invites you to dinner on the same night? Which invitation do you accept? Which do you burn?

This board is getting weird.

David.  Not that there's anything wrong with David, he just didn't contribute as much as the others (through no fault of his own). 

Concert?  Hmm, that's an interesting thought.

1. Brian
2. Carl
3. Dennis
4. Mike
5. Al
6. Bruce
7. David


Dinner?  Hmmm, that's an interesting thought.

1. Brian
2. Mike
3. Dennis
4. Al
5. Carl
6. Bruce
7. David

This is pretty much turning into a ranking of your favourite Beach Boys members...

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Patently, you've never had a meal with David.  ;D

A lot of people hate Mike, but  I find him more tolerable than Bruce. At least I know what Mike does in the band - he sings a lot of the leads, and is the MC of the shows, does the corny between songs banter. And of course he wrote lyrics for a lot of Brian's tunes. Bruce? Other than adjusting his mic stand and clapping and wearing shorts, I guess I really don't know what he does onstage. But he did write some good tunes back in the day, and has a very nice singing voice.

Apparently Bruce jumps in the air when on stage sometimes. (There are photographs.)

Concert or dinner, I think my order would be
Brian
Dennis
Carl
David
Al
Mike
Bruce

And of course Brian isn't technically a Beach Boy any more. And neither is Al or presumably David.

With concert, I'd pick:

1. Carl
2. Dennis
3. Al
4. Brian
5. Blondie
6. David
7. Bruce
8. Ricky
9. Mike

As for Dinner, it'll be similar, but instead:

1. Dennis
2. Carl
3. Brian
4. David
5. Blondie
6. Al
7. Bruce
8. Ricky
9. Mike

Let's all settle on Glen Campbell, then exit (this topic), stage left...

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But I have respect for Glen Campbell whereas there are a couple of Beach Boys that I have no respect for at all. No respect bordering on contempt.

I have no contempt for any Beach Boys past or present.  They're all part of the colorful tapestry.

Beat me to it

Glen is my least favourite  ;D

Glen Campbell was such an ass...

Toni Tennille circa 1972, September.

No....just no....

Ricky/Blondie. I don't like the dated blues rock they brought to the band in the early 70s. It may have helped the band stay contemporary but today it is pretty embarrassing.

Steve, Stan, and Rocky

In what way is it embarrassing? Have you listened to the live tracks from this period, as heard on In Concert, MIC, etc? The band were phenomenal! It was all downhill once they quit...

This.

Bruce - by a mile

Dont have a least favorite.

My favorite Beach Boy is Glen Campbell though.  ;D

My least favorite beach boy?  I never knew his name, but he outweighed me by about 100 pounds and he used to kick sand into my 14-year-old face.

They sound like any other early 70s "dad-rock" band during that period. I don't like that style at all. They didn't go in a mature direction circa Holland, just a more generic one. I'm more criticizing the songs and vocals they brought to the band on the studio albums. The songs suck, and the vocals don't belong on Beach Boys records.

Next in my list of least favorite members is Dave, just because he was in the band for only a year as a teenager and has never really had a detectable role.

I'd say Holland is by some considerable distance their most mature album. Not their best (although it's certainly up there) but certainly their most mature. Regardless, I still fail to see how not liking a style automatically makes said style 'embarrassing'. You might not think it's very good, but that's another story... 

I'd have to say Brian is both my most favorite and my least favorite at the same time.

David had a very detectable role - rhythm guitar.

It could have been played by any other person and wouldn't have made a difference. That's what I meant.

Really ?  There's this album called That's Why God Made The Radio you should listen to. You might revise your opinion.

(Cough) Beaches in Mind (Cough)

I wouldn't call it their most mature album, even though it is, of course, the one made by the oldest group of Beach Boys.

Well I was referring to album content, not the age of the group. I think Trader, California saga, Only With You, etc somewhat trumps Bill & Sue, Beaches In Mind, Spring Vacation, etc.

I think some tracks from TWGMTR (the mini suite for example) trump some tracks from Holland (Big Sur, The Trader)  and vice versa (Sail on Sailor, Funky Pretty, Only with You and more as opposed to Beaches in Mind, Spring Vacation, Bill and Sue, Daybreak...). Some of the Beach Boys' albums reflect the problem of the band itself - the songs, like the band members, show varying levels of talent.

I was also referring to album content (and not album quality): Holland is a group of people in their late 20s/early30s looking back at their homeland from a remove of some 5000 miles and thinking "y'know, it's really not that bad". TWGMTR is a group of people in their late 60s/early 70s looking back at their lives from a remove of several decades and thinking "y'know, it was pretty good, but now isn't too shabby either". They know what they've been and they accept what they are. That's maturity. Maybe faux-maturity, but once you've faked that, you've got it made.  :)

I've been pondering this couple days now. As much as I hate to say this, but I wouldn't mind if somehow Mike would've quit in the early 70's. After that he's done so much damage to the image of the band and so much pure crap (musicaly), that the choice is pretty easy. Bruce would've been the easy choice, but I don't mind him. If he wants to sing Disney Girls and clap, that's fine by me. He just kinda is there, so I can't say I hate him in any level. And I'm not a Mike-hater. I appreciate most of the stuff he's done, and I would go to see he's group. But if I'd have to pick one that's my least favorite, it's gonna be Mike.

They (the Blondie/Ricky songs) are not embarrassing, but....other than some Beach Boys singing background vocals on them, they have very little to do with The Beach Boys. I occasionally listen to them and I guess I get some enjoyment from them, but, honestly, if those CATP and Holland Blondie/Ricky tracks weren't on Beach Boys' albums, I probably would never listen to them.

easily pick, the Bruceter

My least favorite Beach Boy is the premise of this thread

I know this isn't the point of the thread and I'm not going to pick a least favorite Beach Boy--I just don't think it matters one way or the other, to say nothing of the distastefulness of ranking people in the same way we might rank songs--but I wanted to chime in that I think I see where Gabo is coming from, even if I don't quite agree completely.

The Beach Boys needed a change in the early '70s if they were going to continue to exist, to sell records, etc. They were floundering commercially, I think that much is clear. And to some extent, the direction they went did work. They played hipper gigs, had a hipper look and sound, and had Holland, which was something of a relative success. (The real commercial success came with Endless Summer, but that's not the point of my post.) However, the way they pushed forward was by becoming imitators of the times and of their surroundings. They took on, somewhat artificially feeling to my eyes and ears, the trappings of what was happening in the scene. (It's not unlike 85 in that respect.)

And even their "maturity" sounds silly to me, mostly because it wasn't silly (if that makes sense). When they do "Take Good Care of Your Feet," I believe them. When they do "HELP Is on the Way," I believe them. When I hear "Beaks of Eagles," I cringe a little. This band is for the most part not great with deep sentiments, and they are least successful with them when they reach for them. Their greatest depths come when they're just sticking to what they know without trying to sound important. The seriousness of (most of) Holland is its undoing, along with its musical trend-hopping.

I'm not saying the guys weren't interested in doing what they did, or that they were faking it. I'm just saying it isn't necessarily what they did naturally, or what they did best.

(If memory serves, I've written and felt almost the exact opposite of this post before, so take it for what it's worth. By my accounting, it's worth about $15. Give me $15. Thank you.)

I agree 100%, 15 big ones is a way more honest album than holland will ever be. The BBs were working class guys from California who grew up in the 1950s, not hippies of the 1960s.

I can only wonder what would've happened if they had continued making music in the 'hippy' vein past Holland

Considering the hippie thing was a passing fad, I guess they'd have gotten just as passe as they did with surfing and car music. (At least their nostalgia thing got popular again by the mid- to late 70s.) Hippies grew up, got jobs, voted Reagan, and listened to shitty, shiny cheese. (OK, dramatic judgmental over-generalization ends here.)

Meh. Fair enough. Still, TWGMTR is only half a good album, whereas Holland is a whole great one.

Not only was the hippie thing becoming passe, but by 1974 and definitely through 1976 and 15 Big Ones, the Beach Boys were at a stage and even an age where they could still be cool. Yeah, the "they're no longer Beach Boys, they're now Beach Men ha ha ha" jokes were out there. But, you had the success of the American Graffiti movie/music, popular TV shows like Happy Days and Laverne And Shirley, AM radio that was still pop-oriented, and most importantly The U.S. Bicentennial. Long hair and beards were fashionable, not to mention the occasional Hawaiian shirt surfacing. Seriously, "Fun is in, it's no sin" was cool. If some of the early 1970's subject matter might've been artificial or even forced, the 1974-1976 subjects were right up The Beach Boys' alley.

Exactly, the BBs were always part of American mainstream culture.

I'm going to now say the hired hands in Mikes licensed Beach Boys only because he made it such a priority to emphasize them over the original group members in that latest radio interview.

Payback is such a bitch sometimes!

No other reason. Sorry to the guys though.

Everybody has their own favourite Beach Boys and choices sometimes defy logic. I don't see the early 70s period springing out of nowhere, nor do I see Smile or Dennis' stuff doing the same. They were still an artistic unit, though a fraught one, at the time and were evolving, trading ideas and themes off each other, changing with the times and artistic growth (might not be the artistic growth you wanted, but that's tough), though with less Brian input. I don't think they ever became artistically bankrupt, but things do reach something of a nadir at several points later in the career.

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See?

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If you get that hung up on it, take two and call me in the morning. But I respect your opinion etc etc  8)

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Mmmmmmm Beer.

+1

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Light Beer? Nay, Laddie, that's just wrong!

Re the maturity or otherwise of Holland - firstly I think that the naivety of the more hippie tracks was something that was by no means confined to the Beach Boys. Secondly, it wasn't the whole album - nothing particularly phoney about Sail on Sailor, Only with You or Funky Pretty or, for that matter, Leaving this Town. Steamboat - the lyrics are vivid, though some would doubtless consider them pretentious.

My favourite part of Holland is the Mount Vernon Fairy Tale. I suppose this hardly qualifies as mature in the usual sense of the word but some beautiful music.

Some cite Holland as being an example of the group chasing fads but I think Funky Pretty and Mt. Vernon & Fairway is some of Brian's most experimental, out on a limb music he ever made.

I think you're spot on, but I don't know why you expect anything else from them.  They were smoking drugs and it was the 70's.  Par for the course.  I appreciate it... part of the appeal of the Beach Boys is just all of the batshit crazy stuff they did and decisions they made.  In all of it, you can find little pieces of the beauty and perfection that they had in their music.  I like the Holland album.  I don't expect everything they do to be perfect, they had something to say and said it.... beautifully like usual :)  A joyous noise, if you will.

This ENTIRE MESSAGE BOARD basically strikes me the same way... lots of pretentiousness, I'm just as guilty of it, you're pointing out the Beach boys are guilty of it, maybe you're even guilty of it.  It's human nature to be full of sh*t every once in awhile.

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Seems like it's kinda yourself you can't quite get over rather than the album. Mature, immature, whatever: it's full of superb songwriting and musical inventiveness, and it's got a real satisfying coherent flow from start to finish in a way few BB albums do. Personally, I think Trader, California, Funky Pretty, Only With You, Big Sur - these are just brilliant songs, period. If you can't appreciate them because, you know, the photo on the cover is upside down or there's one song with poetry on or whatever the reasons were you mentioned earlier than that's too bad.

I like the music I like and don't give a sh*t what 'patsies' or anyone else thinks. Try doing likewise and don't let the thoughts of others influence your opinions so much. 

A lot of times, I see "mature" being used as a synonym for bland.
Bland with an earthy sound - now that's a mature album.

I'll take mature over a bunch of 40 something year olds pretending they're teenagers again anyday.

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I played Holland on a road trip last year with my wife and son in the car and couldn't believe how boring it sounded compared to the other cds we brought with us. The "have you ever been to a festival" verse in "California" was particularly embarrassing. When "Big Sur" played, my wife pointed out the striking similarity to "Mr. Bojangles". It was a disaster and that is why I'm content with Carl & The Passions: So Tough as a representation of this lineup. At least there are a few real rockers on there ("Mess Of Help", "Here She Comes" and well..."Marcella"...kind of...).

By the way, the next day (same 1400+ mile drive), SMiLE Sessions disc 1 was a winner especially since we were driving west (from Louisiana to Nevada). It was far from boring!

This. This. Thrice this.

I also say Murray who is a Bum Rap He is also Under Arrest  :police: