The Smiley Smile Message Board

In my opinion, The Beach Boys wasn't that good at deciding the song order on their albums. And why did they shelve so much great material?..
My question to all of you is how do you listen to the albums? Do you listen to the original or do you rearrange them?

As an example, here's my version of Holland:

1. Steamboat
2. Mt. Vernon And Fairway
3. Only With You
4. I’m The Pied Piper
5. Sail On, Sailor
6. Better Get Back In Bed
7. Big Sur
8. The Beaks Of Eagles
9. California
10. I’m The Pied Piper
11. Funky Pretty
12. Leaving This Town
13. Radio King Dom
14. The Trader

It's an amazing album nevertheless. But the flow of this version makes the album even better imo.

I listen to the songs that they are on the record - laziness in my instance. Note that in the days of 'Holland' you were limited to say 23 minutes per side which dictated what songs went on which side (A or B). Peter Gabriel on one of his albums ('So'?) reoerdered the songs on CD reissue the way he wanted them originally (but could not because of the time limitations of vinyl) - he spoke about this in an interview.

Holland is one of my favoritwe albums. I have an early German version with 'We got love' on it. They issued 300 or so before they realised their mistake.  I have also got some sleeves with 'We got love' on, although the song is not on the enclosed vinyl. WEA really made a pig's breakfast of the release.

PS Although I have lurked for years on this site, this is my first posting here. All the best to all!

Interesting.. Yeah it’s one of my favorites as well! Did you give my version a chance? If so what did you think?

Why isn’t We Got Love on the album? It’s pretty weird, the didn’t release it, but they did include it on the live album.. That’s weird, I love that son though, too bad it’s not on Spotify, it would have been included on my Holland version in a heartbeat..

I always hear it in order as intended. If I don’t like something I skip it

With my ears?

Oh jokester you..!

Lol I’d been resisting making the same joke

Welcome Jules...nice to have you with us. And I hope the original poster will not be taken aback by the humor applied to the question in several of the responses: that's the SS hallmark. (While other boards may attempt to imitate it, they can't capture that edgy-but-silly tonality that wafts through the place the way cannabis suffuses the air these days in Carpinteria...)

Warners definitely had a contentious relationship with the band per their releases, but I think most of their concerns about specific songs were pretty reasonable. SUNFLOWER was certainly improved by the back-and-forth, even though it proved to be of no avail WRT the LP's performance on the charts.

If anything, Warners seemed to have no idea how to promote the group once it had product from them. If we take VDP at his word, he had to strong-arm executives to get behind the push to give SURF'S UP its title, which was one of the few canny marketing decisions that emanated out of Burbank during those times.

As for the initial question at hand: I listen to HOLLAND in several ways. Most often in a sequence of songs that permits me to recapture my nineteen-year-old state of mind (which includes tracks from adjacent LPs); then as a selection of favorites culled from the LP which leaves out a portion of it; and, more occasionally (or should that be less frequently?) in the LP/CD track order, as originally decreed and, as others noted, mandated by the original format in which the material was first encountered (two-sided vinyl LP).

I wonder if another way of asking such a question is to see which LPs seem to be least-optimally sequenced. People might list LPs that they most often rearrange upon listening. That might produce an interesting survey...

I didn't think any of these albums were for listening to. I thought they were just for talking about.

From beginning to end, as a whole, not skipping anything. Preferably without distractions.

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