The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey, so admittedly I don't know much about "When Girls Get Together." I know Brian and Mike co-wrote it. I know that it was recorded during the Sunflower sessions I know that Bruce was the person who pushed to have it on Keepin' The Summer Alive. And that according to that one Nick Kent interview, Brian wasn't exactly pleased by this decision.

I know this isn't a popular track around.....well, anywhere. In my opinion it's near the bottom of the Wilson/Love team's work. But nonetheless, it's our favorite group and so we obsess about goofy stuff like this.

Anyways, I figured when I saw that the song was getting a "2020 mix" for. Feel Flows I assumed we'd probably get an approximation of what the guys were going for when they originally recorded this. On the new mix, the filter or whatever is taken off of Mike's voice and it also seems like Mike's voice is reduced in the mix. You know ol' Brucie loves him some Mike, and seemingly raised his buddy's voice in the mix! I kid, I kid).

One thing though that seems odd to me is that the loud kick drum that Scott Matthews added to the track during the Keepin' The Summer Alive sessions still seems to be there. I woulda thought for historical accuracy they woulda lost that on this mix. Somewhat incongruous with the idea of this collection in my opinion.

Anyways, anybody have any opinion on any of the above? Or has anybody's opinion of this track been raised since the release of Feel Flows? Let's hear what you have to say!

Not so much a comment or opinion on the new mix, but rather an anecdote that in one 1980 KTSA review that I remember, the writer's opinion was that THIS track was the ONLY good one on the album! Another writer in another 1980 review was of the exact opposite opinion, and wrote that this was the only real "turkey" on the album! Just goes to show how subjective opinions can be.

Isn't the instrumental track the original one from the Sunflower sessions and the 2020 mix is just a 2020 mix of the 1980 version? I honestly don't know why this song gets the hate it does. Lyrically, it's nowhere near as cringe as Hey Little Tomboy and I Wanna Pick You Up. I prefer it to about half of the songs on KTSA; including Endless Harmony (but, like a lot of Bruce songs, does have a cool ending in addition to the cringe).

The drums were already there by 1976. Unless he played another overdub that wasn't used, Scott Mathews didn't add that part during the sessions for KTSA. It being absent from the 1970 mix doesn't necessarily mean that it didn't exist at the time either, as it wasn't uncommon for parts on the multitrack to be ducked or muted in contemporary mixes, like in Good Time, At My Window, Tears, Cool Water, etc. Comparing the handwriting on the console strip would really be the only way to check.

Best song off that album?!  Yikes.  I can't recall if I've ever even sat through this song in its entirety before skipping it. 

If you don't care much about lyrics, it's an utterly unique arrangement worth listening to.

The only reason I assume that Matthews added the kick drum during the KTSA sessions was that he said as much in a recent issue of ESQ. So maybe he’s wrong and added it to another song. Who knows?

Funnily enough, the Feel Flows set is the first time I've encountered this song and I was completely overwhelmed by the beauty of the arrangement. I listened to the box in order and thus I heard the instrumental first.

As for the lyrics, they're corny but not terribly so. I'm actually genuinely surprised that people don't enjoy this track, it seems so quintessentially "Brian" to me, absolutely of a piece with "I Went to Sleep" and "I'd Love Just Once to See You" and such. Even in the lyrics department, it's no worse than "Little Children" or something like that (and I'm not aware of anyone who disdains "Little Children").

Yeah I don't quite get it either.

But what other band triple tracks a mandolin/marxophone duet with trombone bass lines, weird strings effects, and slidey guitars?

One of my favorite BB songs in the entire catalog. I don't get the hate-attention it receives. I love the imagery of two elderly ladies talking about a "great love" that had died along with 3 little girls skipping past and giggling about boys. It's beautiful "circle of life" stuff.

One of my favorite songs, this gets stuck in my head occasionally. “Three lit-tle girls came skip-ping through the park, talk-ing bout little boys and getting home before it’s dark”!  Pure bliss!

Indeed -- the bridge about how "this must have been goin' on pre-history" is corn, but that last verse is almost profound. The fact that the image just sits there without any kind of hackneyed editorial comment pretty much raises it to the level of poetry, and this is a hill I'll die on.

My issue with "When Girls Get Together" was always more the music than the lyrics. It isn't A-game lyrics either.

I think stripping the thing back allows more appreciation of the arrangement and performance on the backing track. I feel those elements kind of trump the actual composition. I dunno how to describe the issue. I guess the melody is a bit sing-song-ish?

I really enjoy its iterations on the "Feel Flows" set.

I guess the biggest criticism might be, who thought this song and recording was like a smokin' hot track to include on a 1980 album? Whether one likes the song or not, I can't fathom any successful, working producer in 1979/80 going along with putting that song on a 1980 album release. That's all Bruce.

It's just a bland tune that plods on repetitively until it mercifully ends.  Nothing remarkable about it. 

You’re raining on my parade! Lol!

The best part of the song is the little brief break/bridge ascending melodic part. Somehow that section has always remind me of an old TV station jingle, like something you'd hear while the announcer says "you're watching NBC", or something to that effect.

Definitely one of my least favorite songs by the band, but it's much better in instrumental form, comparatively speaking. Oddly, it feels somehow cut from a similar cloth as "tears in the morning", with a vaguely European type of vibe. I do appreciate that Brian was trying to do something different, is definitely different than most of the other songs he ever recorded.

Lyrically, was Mike trying to write some sort of proto feminist anthem? It almost feels like maybe this was a conscious effort to conceptually distance the band from songs like "California girls", with lyrics that just talk about women being cool in a non physical or non romantic way...or something like that.

I can't quite even understand what the point of the song is lyrically, other than some random outsider observations of women as though they are some sort of species onto themselves. Very odd. I guess it paved the way for "smart girls", which also seems to be Brian atoning for his past sins of thinking about women primarily for reasons other than their brains.  But yes lyrically this song is extraordinarily embarrassing IMHO

Totally. If the rest of the verses were at the same level, and you dumped the "whoa-lee-oh"-ing for length, I think it'd be a minor classic. For a moment there it all clicks and the music/arrangement feels purposeful.

And it seems like fans aren't the only ones who liked the arrangement better than the lyrics, because on the "Last Capital Album" master tape the band prepared in 1970, they included it as an instrumental!

But I think HeyJude hit it on the head, so far as I'm concerned. As one of Brian's late 60s slice-of-life tracks it's something of a highlight; what in god's name would make anyone think it was the right early-70s outtake to include on an official album in 1980, on the other hand...

(One last comment - I don't doubt that Mike was heavily involved in the lyrics, and I'm not trying to argue otherwise, but it definitely *feels* like a Brian song to me thematically, with that kind of naive "the world is strange" attitude that some of his songs have taken right up to Strange World a few years ago.)

Yep! This exactly. I find the lyrics mostly cringe-y, but it's still well worth listening to. The mood it generates is lovely.

Agreed with other posters that it's a weird fit on a 1980 album.

The song may not be "exciting" but I think the lyrics are well written, no matte what you think about the content, and the whole recording has great atmosphere.

One of my favorites, and one of the more unique Brian-Mike collaborations. Who'd have thought they had a gondola song in them?

Definitely a standout of Feel Flows for me. The backing tracks on that set blow my mind more than anything else; Brian (and his trusty band of merry folks) could do any sort of popular music and arrange it in a way that somehow feels unique and indelible to the man himself in a totally non Pet Sounds (i.e. the "archetypical" way). That is, this doesn't have sleighbells, bass harmonica, yadda yadda yadda (all the stuff used in parodies and tributes) but it feels totally Brian. And like Joshilyn said upthread, you look at the actual composition of instruments here and it's just mind boggling. Truly a cool creation.

That said, yeah, I agree and sympathize with all the folks going WTF about this song on KTSA.

So what compelled the band to dust this one off for KTSA?  Were they running short on material?

They considered a couple of other tracks from the vaults as well..."San Miguel" and "Been Way To Long". I think the former would have fit in just as well as "WGGT", and maybe with the inclusion of that, "WGGT" wouldn't stick out quite so much. "Been Way Too Long", on the other hand, would likely have sounded unfinished...unless, of course, they finished it. In the end, it was Bruce who pushed for the inclusion of "WGGT", and being the official de facto producer, I guess he had final say. Obviously, the record label was OK with it, as well.