The Smiley Smile Message Board

I never realized it before.  They have a tune on the lp called 'California (There Is No End to Love)'  It starts..."Ba Ba Barbara...Santa Barbara/Ba Ba Barbara...Santa Barbara..."  and I'm thinkin'...THAT sure sounds like a tip of the HAT :hat to *MY* group!!!

So I start to read the liner notes Bono wrote which take us back to 1977 and include these EYE OPENING  :o words.  Oh ya...I was shocked.  In a GOOD way...

and I quote...

"I sang like a girl….that felt uncomfortable until the Ramones happened to me as they must happen to everyone. cos Joey Ramone sang like a girl, he loved all the great sirens…you could hear Motown, Dusty Springfield, Ronnie Spector. You could hear an echo of your pain in his voice.. that's why you believed him, surfing to the future on a sea of noise…. … …LA seemed like the polar opposite of Dublin. We love being somewhere between extremes. I remember Edge, Adam, Larry and me getting off a plane in California and looking at each other like 'this is better than the movies' and that was just the airport! I went on a pilgrimage to find Bob Dylan's house because I gripped his songs tighter than the handle of any suitcase. I also wanted to see Brian Wilson's house, it was supposed to have a sand pit with a piano in it…and I loved the Beach Boys. They brought – rhythm for the body – melody for the mind – harmony for the spirit etc Brian sang like a girl too."

I guess Brian and the Boys had/have a longer [lasting] and further reaching influence than I ever really stop[ped] to consider.

If you're a fan of the new album, I highly recommend that you check out their 'Songs of Innocence +" album - it's got some additional songs, plus some really good acoustic versions of songs from the actual album.

As for the Beach Boys influence, these guys harmonize so well I wish they would do more of it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mo9xg-_sSw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mo9xg-_sSw)

I love U2. Like Kate Bush I was only introduced to their music years after the event.

I've always regarded spirituality as a key component of what makes The Beach Boys so special. The same goes for U2. Both bands take me to a better place.

Despite George and John, The Beatles simply don't have that effect on me. Maybe it's Paul and Ringo pulling in the other direction...   

"Would you get me a Coke?"


 ;D

U2 is my other fav band of all time! So its really gratifying to see how much Bono loves Brian.

I also think there are some parallels in both bands' history. U2's Smile was the Pop album, when they tried to reach for something beyond mainstream but got lost in the process. Unlike the BBs though U2 was able to do a successful comeback with All that can you cant leave behind. But I personally love Pop and where the band was at that time: experimenting, moving away from what they had done before, collaborating with top electronic producers...

There was no mental breakdown on Bono's or Edge's side, but the pressure from the label was too much. They had booked Popmart a year in advance so they had a hard dateline to release the album. In the end its not complete, something akin to Smiley Smile. If you listen to some of the better Popmart shows (Rotterdam, Edmonton, parts of Mexico City) you can hear where those songs were going...

Anyways, I love U2 but  they lost their innovation drive after Pop. They're becoming a nostalgia act like Brian, Al, Mike & Bruce, but I guess thats the normal lifecycle of a rock n roll band, no?

I like to say U2 are aging gracefully----the next three after Pop are all excellent to my ears. I've always loved the mellowness of ATYCLB but for some reason I'm afraid that HTDAAB and NLOTH will disappoint the next time I hear them. But they never do----in fact they sound better with each new hearing. I still have to fully get my head round the latest album. It's just a matter of time...   

Doesnt surprise me. Any and Every substantial group PERIOD is influenced by the Beach Boys.  And every band/artist in the last 40+ yrs makes it known that they wouldnt exist without em. The greatest of the great I.e. the Ramones, Dictators, Dickies, Descendents, Queers, Travoltas, etc have ALL either covered the BBs and/or borrowed from em, very prevalent.

No. Just no.

Don't knock other peoples' tastes.

Books, music, movies, dog breeds, trees. Just cause you don't find them to be the greatest, doesn't mean other people can't.


In regards to this thread, I found that whole " Ba Ba Barbara Santa Barbara " song to be pretty cringeworthy.

I'm not knocking his taste. I didn't say anything about his taste in music. I just don't think every band has been influenced by The Beach Boys.

Didn't U2 do a lot of BBs covers live before they made it big? Thought I read that somewhere a few decades back…

He said "every substantial group", not just "every group." Can't say I agree with him on that (although certainly a lot of my favorite bands happen to be fans, as I later found out), but hey.

As did I.  U2 is also my other favorite band-- in fact the only band I've dumped more money into over the years the The Boys.  I read about the U2 homage in the album's liner notes before hearing the song and jumped about a mile high.  I appreciate the call-out, but I can't stand the song. 

I agree with john k that U2 is aging gracefully.  I love fewer and fewer of their tracks as time goes on, but the ones I love are as enjoyable as ever.  They'll never reach Joshua Tree status again, but there's a lot of good stuff on that new record.

I'm just curious as to what Add Some means by "significant Beach Boys fans." Does that mean folks like us are INSIGNIFICANT Beach Boys fans? :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

He means they are popular & we are just random citizens, obscure, no one has heard of us globally.

He hates us. Bono hates us. Everyone hates us. :'(

I think what I was suggesting is they may well appreciate the Beach Boys almost as much as most of us here do.  And that is, of course, noteworthy.  I'd imagine they own, between them, more than just Best of the Beach Boys Volumes 1 and 2.   [and then there was Keith Moon.]

I FEEL SO INSIGNIFICANT :'(

Not a fan of U2.  Therefore I'm not going to post in this thread.  ::)

THIS THREAD HAS YOUR SHEET SO FOOKED UP YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT YOURE DOING ANYMORE



I hope you get the help you need to get your life back on track.

Im sure not EVERY artist was influenced by the BBs but all the good ones are, what would otherwise be? And I never said I was a fan of u2, ,!bono is very selfabsorbed.

I think there are also many artists  that have been influenced by the Beach Boys and they don't even know it. Sort of a six degrees of separation  situation(say that three times fast)