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Dick Rising talked on Discord about what if Bruce decided to include all the outtakes that were considered on KTSA. So I gave it a quick attempt.

Here it is:

https://open.spotify.com/user/little_lamb_dragonfly/playlist/3uLQf9W6ujSTmVjOf0r5aP?si=EYlWFcBqSymYkn4gbcFkww (https://open.spotify.com/user/little_lamb_dragonfly/playlist/3uLQf9W6ujSTmVjOf0r5aP?si=EYlWFcBqSymYkn4gbcFkww)

I've been listening to it right now, and it somehow flows better than I expected.

Also, I first put Some of Your Love after Do You Like Worms, and found it extremely noisy and jarring. I like Some of Your Love on its own, but right after a SMiLE outtake the slightness of the production is very evident.

Nice effort, but I don't think anything could've saved KTSA. Really awful album through and through.  ::)

Watamushi, will you show spotify tracklist? It isn't available where I live. Thanks.

Here it is:

1. Do You Like Worms? (SMiLE Sessions Ver.)
2. San Miguel
3. Some of Your Love
4. When Girls Get Together
5. Keepin' the Summer Alive
6. Goin' On
7. Santa Ana Winds
8. The Lord's Prayer
9. Been Way Too Long (Sections)
10. Endless Harmony

Come on, there's some good stuff on there

I think if the production had been better, it'd have been better received. Sonically as well, there were areas of opportunity. Using Endless Harmony as an example, the vocals sound "swimmy" and heavily processed. The  background vocals on School Days are poorly recorded and extremely repetitive.  Just fixing those two examples would be a huge improvement.

Nothing can save Oh Darlin' those, save using Brian's original vocal

If I were doing my own mix, I would totally remove School Days and replace it with either Dah Do Ron Ron, or their version of Shake, Rattle and Roll, to keep with the "oldie" theme. I would add Goin' To The Beach in place of Sunshine, and possibly It's A Beautiful Day in place of When Girls Get Together.

No, I love Sunshine!!!!

(Yeah I know that makes me one of like 3 people)

keep the oldies theme ? Doesn’t get much more oldier than School Days written by Check Berry.

Agreed completely. For these reasons, it feels kind of like Barbara Ann '80.

I always thought the proposed 45 mix that was released on the vinyl version of Ten Years Of Harmony sounded better than the version on KTSA.

Goin' On is very, very underrated in my opinion.

It feels almost like a bridge between big hits of other famous bands of the time... sort of has one toe in the Queen late '70s vibe, and another toe in the Diamond David Lee Roth modern-yet-throwback style that was to come a few short years later.

Maybe Goin' On has some sorta crappy (for The BBs) harmonies that perhaps held it back from being much of a hit. Mike at his most nasal beginning to sound like a parody of himself, plus the general harmonies are just kinda off on that tune (maybe if it had the harmony vibes, even just Carl/Bruce, of just one year earlier on Good Timin' it would've improved Goin' On lots).

But composing-wise, and ESPECIALLY Carl's absolutely KILLER lead vocal parts, it deserved better and should be better known today. It's pretty much miles ahead of most everything else on the record, save for the end of the song Endless Harmony - which friggin' rules.

I haven't heard it, will have to hunt it down. Thanks!

^ Same here

Ta. Disagree with this list & wouldn't agree with any such list when stupid song EH is there (Bruce songs bring typically boredom). The ending track will be cool exuberant positive sunshiney "Sunshine". What's BBs album without positive joyful song? C'mon.

Confession: Endless Harmony might be my least favorite song in the entire catalogue that's not named Cuckoo Clock or Long Tall Texans

I admit it's hokey as f*ck, and I probably should hate it, but I totally love it a ton! I like the sound/tone of the keyboard Bruce is playing.

Plus since it's the last BBs song with Dennis drums released in his lifetime (was it the last recorded studio drum session he did for the BBs I wonder?) it has that extra "feels" factor for me, where the band suddenly sounds like an actual younger band as they did years earlier, with them all actually playing instruments for a brief moment at the end. It's like the last gasp of an actual band called The BBs, before the 1985 album with its cold, distant "not a real band playing real instruments" vibe (despite that I like a lot of that album anyway).

Also I'm not into its overt patriotism lyrics, but they don't really put me off particularly either considering the context of how the band got co-opted into that whole thing, partly by their own doing (oddly enough recorded/released during Carter - and not Reagan's - administration, since it seems very Reagany to me).

PS - I hate Ten Little Indians way more than Cuckoo Clock! (But CC ain't good either, lol)

I can see what you're saying but the vocals sound odd...I don't know what it is exactly, as my hands-on technical expertise generally starts in the late 90s, but it gets on my ever lasting nerves

I think the backing vocals on the KTSA version of Santa Ana Winds are the worst sounding vocals on a Beach Boys album, period.

Excepting the autotune disasters of TWGMTR, I know what you mean and largely agree. That song in particular, plus a bunch of MIU Album (like "Wontcha Come Out Tonight"), have a particular sound where everybody singing backing vox sounds like they're frogs. Not a frog in their throat, but actual Beach Boy frog members.

I don't quite understand it; it's not like the Brian/Denny smoking/coke ravaged voices sound that is also odd (which you hear all over Love You)... but these only slightly later songs have BB backing vocals that are different in another (bad) way that I can't wrap my fingers around. I don't understand it. Like they were trying to go for a specific sound or copying some old fashioned 50s doo wop thing but in a failed way? They just sound almost like BB imposters here.

I'll never be able to hear those songs in the same way again :lol  Not that it was a thrilling experience in the first place. Although it is good that they aren't boring; in fact, one could say hearing them is quite "ribbiting"



.....


I'll see myself out

I added Endless Harmony, just because Dick brought it up. I wouldn't include it in my usual alt. album. I think it is decent, but underdeveloped.

Personally I'm not a fan of Sunshine. If I had to include a positive joyful song, I'd go with Goin' To The Beach, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

I'm sure letting someone other than Bruce produce the album would have done wonders. I respect Bruce as the guy who (co-)wrote Deirdre and Disney Girls, but by 1979 it seems he had forgotten his chop.

On KTSA, the songs are mostly okay to occasionally great, but the production is utterly mediocre, in my opinion.

Definitely agree.

 :lol :lol :lol

I'm one of those 3 as well.  ;D  I love the song. I'm honestly surprised people tend to be lukewarm on it when discussing KTSA. It's so sweet and joyful and a little zany.

If I was to improve this album I would have to add some Dennis songs. So this would be my track listing

1. Some Of Your Love
2. Keepin’ The Summer Alive
3. Livin’ With A Heartache
4. School Day(Ring Ring Goes The Bell)
5. Goin’ To The Beach
6. Wild Situation

7. Goin’ On
8. Oh Darlin’
9. Sunshine
10. Santa Ana Winds
11. It’s Not Too Late
12. Endless Harmony

Replace # 4 with Its a Beautiful Day and that’s actually a damn good album.

Actually yeah o agree with you

.

Keepin the Summer Alive was such a misfire, it would have to be re-recorded to have any chance to make it on a good album; School Days, should not be a Beach Boys' album; Goin To The Beach, how did this not make it onto the album, it's the liveliest and most pleasing track, perfect for summer; It's A Beautiful Day is ruined by Mike Love's odd vocal style on this song.

Agreed. Much material around this time (I'd say starting as early as the "sun ocean spray" lyric on "It's OK" and continuing into songs on KTSA and BB85) are to some degree ruined by Mike's vocals becoming almost a caricature.

It's odd because I don't think it was any sort of vocal deterioration, but more of an exaggerated attempt at overcompensating to resemble his vocal delivery from the early '60s. It's like somebody doing a bad Mike vocal impression as a joke, but it's Mike doing it to himself. I'm glad Mike eventually started singing more in the hushed Kokomo tone which resembles his Meant For You tone, both of which IMO suit his range MUCH better, especially as he got older.

He also sang in the same style on Santa Ana Winds, which I like, but it could have been much better without his vocal.

What I’ve never understood about that was the fact that he was doing the very best vocals of his career right before then!

I think it's because it was a very intentional (forced) attempt to "recapture" something for the past, coinciding with the band's massive post-Holland artistic decay. A very conscious attempt to make things sound "like they used to" usually spells death for art, and not just with Mike - for many musicians in general. Whereas Mike's vox on the early 70s BBs stuff was really - seemingly - an attempt to artistically mature. In these mid to late 70s and KTSA songs, Mike's voice often sounds like the scene from a documentary where Brian has Al pinch his nose at the piano.

To go off on a tangent from this for a second...what would be the track order for a BBs compilation where they decided to move away from their "established style" and swim in the currents of other dominant genres? Are there enough of those to make an LP? And on a scale of 1-10 just how excruciating etc. would it be? Start with "Louie Louie" and work your way up (or down, depending on your perspective) to the present day....

That’s a great idea for another thread. I think there would’ve been enough

"....the band's massive post-Holland artistic decay...."

I like it when a phrase turns up every now and then that really hits the nail on the head

I've told people, even those only half-interested, that there's no greater consecutive (studio) album release difference in approach, style, and performance to be found anywhere than Beach Boys HOLLAND vs.  15 BIG ONES

WTF's echoing for an eternity

The band, individually and collectively, continued to write and in many cases record excellent material post-Holland. It's a matter of whether they released that material or not.

Dennis had tons of top notch stuff in the can while the band released "15 Big Ones" and "MIU", etc.

One of the best BB-related, certainly *commercial* items they did in the late 70s was "Almost Summer", which was relegated to a (relatively) obscure release through a side-band.

I think the tenor of the times by the late 70s and early 80s, especially in light of how the band presented themselves on stage, was such that I don't think even if they had released in 1980 an album culled from the absolute *best* unreleased material from the 70s, it still probably wouldn't have been a massive hit on the album charts.

In any event, there are DOZENS of top-notch post-Holland tracks. DISCS worth of material that bests what they put out, where you wouldn't have to approach it the way one does with something like "KTSA" where it's like picking the celery out of macaroni salad to make a "presentable" album.

There are late 70s and early 80s tracks we don't even *know* about.

Oh man that's a great analogy  :lol :lol
I've also heard someone refer to the diamonds in the rough for this band as being picking out gold nuggets amongst a sea of lard, or something like that. It really baffles, the disparity between the good and bad stuff - even in the context of songs on individual albums.

My "alternate" KTSU for what it's worth:

01. Keepin' the Summer Alive
02. Goin' On
03. Heaven
04. Going to the Beach
05. Oh Darlin'
06. Stevie
07. It's A Beautiful Day
08. Don't Fight the Sea
09. Santa Ana Winds
10. When Girls Get Together
11. All Alone
12. Endless Harmony

I'm sure we'll be talking about the greatness of KTSA sessions, if there would indeed be a 1979/1980 set in 2029/2030.

Friends/20-20 set-like treatment would do any album of BB's a lot of favor.

There are 4 of us now. I'd go as far as to say it's my second favorite song off of the album, after Goin' On.

Me too...IMO, there is nothing, NOTHING wrong with "Sunshine"!  Love it. :)

Speaking of Sunshine, was there ever a more complete version of "Little Girl"(the song that morphed into "Sunshine") recorded, beyond the brief part that circulates?