The Smiley Smile Message Board

33-53.9N-118-38.8W   Thinking of you today.

Greatly missed. God bless you Dennis.

Dennis Wilson To me is like Rebel always Fightning for Life. For me I am like Dennis Wilson because I was a Swimmer and Dennis was a Surfer and we both are Womanizers I had 8 Girl friends back in High School.  I miss him like everyday. I have a message to Dennis if you are here within Spirit form I want to meet you and ask you questions.  I love Pacific Ocean Blue CD that I love. Dennis Wilson I am very Sad that you are gone. And right now crying right now for real. My favorite song is FOREVER. Dennis I Miss you

I'm sure Dennis is smiling down on you, Surfer.

It's heartbreaking that he's no longer with us when his music is so alive, more now than ever, it seems. A sad day indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr2Gv3mNcxw

I believe that if things had gone differently for Dennis...like if he had never met that Karen 'individual'...and if his cousins had had his back instead of hating and heavy-hitting on it, if he hadn't had to carry the heavy baggage he carried, and if he'd had more time to do the heavy lifting he was doing creatively and in the studio...we might all have been even more pleasantly surprised at how outstandingly talented he truly was.

We was robbed.

Yes Denny.  You had it all...for a short while.  We miss you more than we know.  [a pox on the eternal souls of all those who made his life difficult.]

Popular music has a sad record of far too many premature deaths, and there is no-one there I miss more than Dennis Wilson. Clichés abound, the real surfer, the real Beach Boy, the soul of the band, but they are also very true. He was the Beach Boys, he really cared about the band more than anything else, I think.

I'm with you, Lee.  But I have a soft spot for Karen, too.  Her childhood was as brutal as Denny's and she really did love him in the best way she could, and vice-versa.  Do I wish he had it in him to make his life work with Barbara or Christine?  Of course.  If only.  I think his kids (and grandkids) carry his hopes and dreams - wishing the best to them all. 

He did need a lot more support and a lot less jealousy directed toward him.

+1

A Dennis -Karen remembrance from the mid 70's. I was working at Arrowhead Stadium here in KC, escorting food service people and things like that. Two things happened that day at the sold out venue. When I was walking near the band's dressing room, Dennis comes walking along with a big tostada and I said, "It's the hard working drummer Denny Wilson!" What a return smile. The second was when it was time to go to the stage and I watched Dennis and Karen walking down the tunnel with each others hand in the others back pocket. A very warm memory for me.

Amen to all of this. Buy consider: we almost didn't have any of what Dennis managed to give to us, given his chance encounter with Manson etal. I think Dennis knew he was not going to survive into a graceful old age, and as a result he lived life to the hilt. It was reckless as hell, but it's also possible that we wouldn't have what we do had it not been for that "fuil tilt boogie." Just like his big brother, Dennis had something magical as a songwriter that makes us always want more. Thank God we can always "slip inside, and let (his) song(s) take (us) for a ride."

Us? I definitely didn't hear anything "magical" in Dennis' songwriting. I dislike Pacific Ocean Blue, Bambu even duller. He'd written his best songs during BBs (60s-70s). AND made Charles Manson song better miles away. :3d You see, Dennis did possess talent but his music tends to be too dramatic. It can be tedious to get thru it.

Your opinion is welcome, but there is a time and place.

Perhaps a bit more tact in a thread commemorating his death, eh?

Thanks. Figured if everybody voiced their opinions, I'd chime in as well.

I replied to Don Malcolm to correct the "us" bit. Then said Dennis possessed talent & mentioned liking his 60s-70s material. Which you didn't pay attention to & say "indeed he had talent". Instead, being told about tact, huh?

I think "us" works because many, many people DO love Dennis's work. Perhaps you're not part of that "us," but it is an "us."

Again, I said I like his work but Don Malcolm's specific bit is "Dennis had something magical as a songwriter" with which I disagreed. I like it but it's not magical. For example, "Be With Me". It's really good but hearing it doesn't make me "want more". Hence, I don't belong in *that* specific "us".

If Don Malcolm said "Dennis had gift for music, no doubt", then brought the "us", I wouldn't question that bit in their post. Does this clarify?

RR is entitled to that opinion. I was too enthusiastic. And I note that you guys had as much success in changing that "I gotta be me" behavior that was just manifested as I did when I begged GF to just back off from posting about Mike's "Time to Get Alone" intervention in the middle of a "feel good" thread about Sunshine Tomorrow.

There's something about the nature of Internet chat groups that compels some folks to have to do that. It is what it is. My bad for not qualifying my assertions more carefully so that I would not flip the switch in one of those folks who apparently (see? I'm qualifying my statement!!!) just don't have the discipline to keep from flipping it themselves.

Happy New Year to all, even to those who are not part of "us."  :3d

It wasn't big deal & I meant to post here about my views of Dennis' music anyway. Since, you know, it's Dennis thread. If it's feel good thread, so what? Must I agree blindly that Dennis' music is great thru & thru?

& it's not like some fans don't share the same view either - I know for the fact there's posters disliking Dennis' music or not subscribing to notion Pacific Ocean Blue is great album. It's just the way it is. Why get worked up about it? You start this thing, not me. I just chimed in to comment, for Pete's sake. If you disagree, do it without petty digs.

I said nothing offensive about Dennis as human being. Just that I dislike some music AND like the other. But Hickory Violet, Amy & Don Malcolm - you 3 chime in to shut me up? I didn't disrespect your high opinions of Dennis' work. Nobody of you. Respect mine as well without telling me about tact or that I ruin well-intentioned thread as if I said truly abysmal thing.

There isn't one composer who's ever recorded their own songs where I can honestly say that I like...let alone love...ALL of their songs...not Dennis...not Brian...not Bob Marley...not ANYBODY.  I will join Don, though, in wishing EVERYBODY here a happy 2018.  Talk to ya next year.  [although for some...not ALL OF US...2018 has already arrived.  ;) ]

Thanks, that's what truly is fair & respectful reply, without shutting posters.

Ha, love a bit of irony to start the new year.

 ;D

To make you even happier, I shan't post here again. I said what was intended to be said & stand by it. Done deal.

This practice of posting tactless and inappropriate stuff online then getting all offended when called out about it seems to be spreading.

I ackowledge and welcome your resignation from this board.

If only getting Trump off Twitter were this easy...........

Nothing was said in this thread that merits anyone "resigning", and I really feel that encouraging people to get off this board (because you don't share the same opinion) borders on bullying. Come on, can we please be a little nicer?

My 'take' on it is that RRA1 won't be posting in this thread again...and why should she?  She made her point...perhaps not as delicately as some here might have preferred but hey!!!  Her point was a POINT which I, as a significant 'fan' of Dennis Wilson both 'get' and agree with.  And after 3 thousand and some-odd posts I doubt 'MUCHLY' that Range Rover is bound for anywhere other than the next thread of interest.  So gang-bangin' on her is a distasteful waste of time.

On the other hand IF we could get rid of Trump that easily...I'd stand with you.  But as of 6:19:35 PM EST on this the 2nd day of the 18th year of the 21st century... ... ...I don't.
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I am, though, willing to continue looking for legit ways to send Trump packing...just to be clear.  Like if his laundering Russian money...as he has for such a long time...isn't enough to sink his wobbly little raft... ... ...

Genuinely sorry if anyone thought I was being ditasteful or a bully.

I found RR coming in on a thread commemorating someone's death with criticisms and arguments extremely rude. And my initial response was polite and measured.

Perhaps it's cultural. This is the danger of an international board eh?

And it's not the first time RR has had this effect on me. So there's history there. This didn't  come out of nowhere.

So my new years resolution can be to ignore said person's threads in future. Vice Versa can apply.

Happy new year guys  :)

The bottom line is that if you go on a Beach Boys forum, whether on a DW commemorative thread, or any other thread for that matter, and say Dennis's entire solo catalog sucks (I'm obviously loosely paraphrasing), then you should absolutely be allowed to do so, but you should also be prepared for the vast majority of people to disagree with you.

Based on RangeRover's stated preferences in other threads regarding other music  (BBs and others), RangeRover seems to have a pretty offbeat set of standards/preferences. In particular, disliking slow songs. In past threads, RangeRover has mentioned varying amounts of dislike for songs like "Don't Talk", "Pacific Coast Highway", "Summer's Gone", and in particular referencing many songs specifically using the terms "slow" and "boring."

That's all fine, but a stated and proudly advertised preference that relegates a huge hunk of the catalog of the band that is the subject of this forum to "boring" status, is going to be regularly met with befuddlement.