The Smiley Smile Message Board

Now we're picking up the best cut from California Saga from Holland.

Which do you think is the best? Looking forward to your i.

3 songs great - this "Big Sur" is billion times better. "California" is Al's best song. It showed Al as really good songwriter. Still, picked "Beaks of Eagles". The BBs voices there sound very beautiful. & Al's lead is terrific.

I love the whole California Saga. Sure, out of context something like 'The Beaks of Eagles' is oddball and skip-able, but not on this album. Still, my favorite is 'California'.

To me, picking out a best track from "California Saga" is like picking out a best track from BWPS. It can't be done----it's indivisible.

So instead, I'll pick the one I heard first (about 40 years before I heard the other two): "California". 

Agreed! California Saga is very impressive. Listening to it now, I think I've unfairly maligned Big Sur in the past as inextricable from the Saga, but I can definitely hear it now as an enjoyable standalone track. Still, what's the best part? I say California.

I picked "Big Sur," either of whose (which's?) versions I prefer to the other two songs (both of which I also do enjoy, though I could do without the spoken poetry).

The winner is California.

Please hold on for a while for the next one... it'd be DIFFERENT...