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http://www.avclub.com/article/beginners-guide-sweet-stinging-nostalgia-beach-boy-210390

It's not too bad. And fun to see.

Pretty good article although I find it kinda odd they ignored KTSA when it does have some nice songs.

I think fans are fooling themselves thinking that anything post-Love You is really any good.

There are neat little songs here and there scattered across MIU, Light Album, KTSA and BB85 for the bigtime Beach Boys fan to discover - like I did. And then there's TWGMTR, which is great.

I think fans are fooling themselves thinking that anything post-Love You is really any good.


Although I like plenty of songs Post-Love you I must say I really do agree with you overall

"From There To Back Again/Pacific Coast Highway/Summer's Gone"

*AGD smokes cigar and pours a fine mixed drink*

Apart from PCH/Summer's Gone, etc.,  I also really like "Baby Blue."

EXACTLY. That's my favorite Dennis song. Plus there's 'Good Timin'', 'Goin' On', 'Where I Belong', 'Kokomo' (yes I've warmed up to it, finally)....

Try reading that article and searching for a mention of Al Jardine among sentences like:

'In the band’s early days, Brian Wilson and his brothers Dennis and Carl—joined by their cousin Mike Love, and pushed by their father Murry—capitalized on the surfing craze in Southern California,'

and

'The other Beach Boys had mixed feelings about the new arrangement. Mike Love saw the publicity upside in having Brian back in the fold, working a new album, striking while The Beach Boys were a hot commodity. Carl and Dennis weren’t as keen on ceding so much of the creative control they’d had in the early ’70s back to Brian—especially given Brian didn’t seem all that interested in making a proper Beach Boys album, preferring instead to record a set of corny, off-the-cuff rock and pop covers.'

And so on.  Readers taking Beach Boys 101 must be wondering who the short blond gatecrasher is in all the video clips.

(He finally get one mention right at the end, when the C50 is discussed.  Ricky and Blondie are referenced more than him.)

We like what we like

I could pick 10-15 post love you songs I would consider to be brilliant, "sunshine being one of them"

Yes, you heard me

Double post

This place is a nightmare on an iPhone

 :-\ Not crazy about 'Sunshine'.

How about 'Livin' With A Heartache' or 'Oh Darlin''?

This article is all over the place. I'd be super confused if this was my first serious introduction to The Beach Boys catalog.

Santa Ana Winds.

Affirmative. If I say "Strange Things Happen" is good, that's because I genuinely like it. It isn't said out of support or pity or simply because I force my ears love everything by my favorite band. It's a daft logic. And yes, "Sunshine" is one of the best late-BBs era songs. Nice taste, Shady!

Exactly - linear it ain't.

...No pre-Pet Sounds album in the "essentials"? Way to ignore what brought them in the spotlight in the first place. I'm tired of these articles that only focus on the 1966-1977 era.

I'd actually suggest that it would be easier to introduce someone to The Beach Boys with the Light Album than with anything halfway connected to Love You. It is a completely messed up album that even with years on years of obsession with the band I can't quite bring myself to suggest that it is not an extremely embarrassing bit of work. It is bordering on severely perverse with I Wanna Pick You Up/Roller Skating Child and is with the exception of The Night Was So Young impossible to show to a non-Beach Boys obsessive without permanently damaging a relationship. I mean, I like the damn thing but I'm not sure if this is because by the time I heard it I had built up a long term love of everything connected with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. I like and am intrigued by Knocked Out Loaded too but I still wouldn't give it to someone over Blonde on Blonde. I have a soft spot for New Power Soul but I wouldn't recommend it over Sign 'O' The Times (or almost any other album he ever did).

I think this is a big problem with people who have been with this music for as long as most of the people here have. There are things worth listening to past the point when the band dropped out of critical favour but damn it I have listened to sessions of complete rubbish because I needed to fill in those last gaps in my knowledge. When you get to that stage almost everything is worth hearing. There are some nice things here and there - or really things that are less disappointing than they could have been - but for a new fan there is nothing at all worthwhile that wasn't done better in the 60s and early to mid 70s. Spending any thought whatsoever on Keeping the Summer Alive when the person hasn't heard Today or Summer Days and Summer Nights is a foolish exercise. Overlooked by the general listening public and overlooked by life long fans is an entirely different thing. Some of the things done by The Beach Boys in later years are so utterly devoid of artistry or credibility that even acknowledging their existence is a block against someone seeing why they were at one time considered one of the best bands in the world.  

I imagine it is a similar thing to someone giving me a copy of Mike Love Not War and recommending it. Yeah I've done Adult/Child, M.I.U., Summer in Paradise and the rest but even I would have a hard time working up a sufficient fetish sweat to spend time with it . I would also make a note never to pay attention to any recommendation that person gave to me again. The Beach Boys did fifteen albums in the 60s alone, not including live recordings. FIFTEEN. How many regular human beings have heard Friends, or Wild Honey or Smiley Smile or 20/20 or Party, or Today? These are genuinely brilliant, overlooked albums. More people need to hear them. To bring new fans on board and help educate folks, put the strongest, most credible material up front always. Include overlooked (by regular normal people, not hardcore obsessives) classics for sure but please leave the quirky, barely coherent favourites in the closet.

This thread beat me to it, was just going to post this link in the forum.

I think the article is pretty damn spot on for understanding things from a novice standpoint; which is the point of it in the first place.

I'm a Brian Wilson devotee that doesn't really think too much of Mike Love BUT...I'm willing to acknowledge his contribution as Wilson matured as an artist.  I listen to ENDLESS SUMMER regularly and love every track.  I'm not ashamed of those car songs.  Although there are songs deep on those early albums that produce notable douche chills.

My personal journey through Wilson/Beach Boys fandom start at a young age in the late 70's and early 80's.  In the car with my parents, like many of us...listening to the afore mentioned ENDLESS SUMMER.  Later in my late teens and early 20's (during the mid 1990's) discovering that there was much more to the Beach Boys than what I knew.  I had already gone through my Phil Spector phase at that point so learning that Brian Wilson had been influenced by Spector led me to PET SOUNDS and the rest is why I'm here typing this.

Mind. blown.

I agree with all the post "Love You" tracks suggested and would add things like, "Lahina Aloha" and "She Believes in Love Again".

Well...for one thing I agree with Holland being positioned as one gateway into discovering the guys along with Pet Sounds.  It was cutting-edge in its time and had Blondie and Ricky stayed in the group and come up with more material like Leaving This Town, and had Carl been able to follow up the direction pointed in Steamboat and The Trader, had Al been able to puruse the California Saga direction....and if other groups and solo acts had taken up that example....well, maybe that would have made for a musical revolution that would have rendered punk unncessary.  You could write a whole alternate musical history about what would have gone down had Endless Summer never seen release.

Plus, Mt Vernon and Fairway constitutes, in some ways, the blueprint for Love You....in terms of instrumental arrangements anyway.

I'm listening to Beach Boys '85 as I type, and dammit, here's what I LOVE:

Getcha Back
Crack at your Love
California Calling
I'm So Lonely
It's Just a Matter of Time
Male Ego

I genuinely think those songs are all pretty terrific.  Male Ego really is some kind of crazy masterpiece, I think.  It's weird, I used to be turned off by the crazy 80s production values, but now I see that as one of this album's strengths.  If I were making the ultimate Beach Boys mix that spanned their ENTIRE CAREER, I'd be picking at least a handful of songs from each of the post 76 albums. (ok maybe not SiP)  

And yeah, Lahaina Aloha is fan-fucking-tastic.

(cool article!)

For me, Beach Boys '85 has only five songs that I like:

'It's Gettin' Late'
'Maybe I Don't Know'
'I'm So Lonely'
'It's Just a Matter of Time'
'Where I Belong'

Glad we agree on those two Brian songs (apart from 'Male Ego') since so many other people hate them. :)

And yeah, I'm thinking of making a Beach Boys mix that would include a lot of post Love You stuff that I like. I'm gonna call it Underrated Beach Boys or something like that. Goodies that I dig from MIU, Light Album, KTSA, BB85. I still don't like Still Cruisin' or SIP though.

Sorry to get off-topic.

I like your style.  Love You is as good as anything they've done . But, I agree that it shouldn't be pushed on new converts.

This article was all over the place. It probably would've been best to stick chronologically. The author lost me when he dismissed the early records as "simple and shallow". Um....no. More like life-altering greatness for me and millions of others.

....and this article contains what may be the very first public praise for "Looking Back With Love". Seriously. This guy thinks the album is charming!

..although I agree with him on Brian's 1988 album. For my money, it's still Brian's best.

Hey, AGD publicly praised Looking Back With Love in his book! And for the record, there's a few decent songs on there. I'd buy a CD reissue. Along with the Almost Summer soundtrack and the Celebration self-titled album. All Mike's solo-ish, non-promotional tie-in (NASCAR album, Summertime Cruisin', Mike & Dean albums) stuff right there. And it really does at least deserve to be on iTunes and available on CD. But I suppose a lot of the blame lays with Mike there. If he wanted this stuff more widely available, I suspect it would be.

Also agree that the '88 album Brian's best as of yet. However, I really do think there is a chance this new album really could be something special. I don't know why, but I feel it. It's definitely the longest he's worked on an album since his solo debut.