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Discuss, review and rate The Beach Boys: 25 Years Together - A Celebration In Waikiki, released?

(http://www.smileysmile.net/images/albums/bb25thdvd.jpg) (http://play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=694092&p=57&g=72&pa=sr)

I recently acquired the BB 25 years together DVD off Play.com for £6.99. I had no idea this was even officially released because I have never seen it anywhere. The packaging is very poor, and the correct track sequencing isn't even on the back. When you skip to the next song while watching, it sometimes contains 2 or more songs within one track, but as far as i can ascetain, it is the whole show. The show itself is hilarious and is probably a definitive example of why some people have a low opinion of the Beach Boys, it is beyond cheese. Its good to see Brian on stage, though much of the time he is just shouting and doesn't sing that much apart from the excruciating but amusing version of 'Spirit of rock'n'roll' at the finale. I'd like to hear anyone elses opinions on this.

Ray Charles on "God Vibrations" and especially "SOS" is ass-kicking great !  Everly's do a good job. The only poor performance imo is "Rock'n'Roll music", though it's done okay, it sounds incomplete.  I also don't like that some of the BBs vocals were done in studio. The gags in between the songs are.....not funny, to say the least

There's really not much I can add to this. I don't really like this DVD cause it doesn't represent the Beach Boys that I like. This is clearly a DVD for people that know the Beach Boys from Full House and Kokomo. It's embarrassing.

This isn't an official DVD, it's a Japanese "import". I use the term import VERY loosely. It's recorded from the TV broadcast.

Every single word that's spoken in between songs was obviously rehearsed. Most of what you hear isn't even live, once you even see the drummer walking away from his drumkit after a song while you still hear him playing!

I seem to remember that Lauri Klobas, former president of the Brian Wilson fan club, said that she (and possibly her husband) worked on the cue cards for that show. IIRC, she said that every single word -- including song lyrics -- was on cue cards and basically they just read everything, as if we couldn't tell. What's really amusing is that at one point Brian is standing behind Mike and he's actually squinting and reading the cue card, mouthing Mike's words with him! You'd probably think "Brian's got a line coming up or something..." well, he didn't!

Ever notice how far away Brian is positioned from the rest of the group? And how many freakin' keyboards there are among the Beach Boys and the backing musicians?

That DVD made me cringe. I had a hard time watching it.

My favorite part is the scripted and insincere "tribute" to Dennis.

whatd they do for the tribute?

Carl sang Heaven. Every time they sing it they think about it. Dont know why it wasnt a standard song after Dennis died ?

Some cuecarded remarks and a nice Carl performance of Heaven.
Gloria Loring singing I Can Hear Music will make you want to rip your eyes and ears off.

Except that this special predates both Full House and Kokomo...it was taped in late '86 and aired in early '87.  I taped it as it aired, and still have the VHS tape.  Surprisingly, the picture quality hasn't deteriorated much.

I never realized how funny this special is until I watched it with several fellow Brianistas.  In company like that, you tend to notice things...like how Glen Campbell has to keep reaching around to pull out the wedgie caused by his snug, snug Ocean Pacific corduroy short-shorts (the height of beachwear in those days...). 
Or how during one of the times when Mike is reading off the cue cards, Brian is directly behind him mouthing the words as well.
Or during another intro, when a shirtless, glazed-eyed Brian wanders past in the background.

At which point is that?

I know, I was just trying to describe the type of public that the special was aimed at. People that aren't aware that the Beach Boys did anything between Good Vibrations and Kokomo. You know 'em, they're all around you.

The insincere tribute to Dennis that Ian mentioned??

Well, I'm too frightened to dig out our VHS copy, so this is going by memory...

Carl gave a brief spiel about Dennis, and said something like "This next song is about where he is right now." And Carl sang "Heaven," and even though the song itself isn't a song about loss, Carl obviously had a hard time getting through it, but he did. And afterwards Brian said this: "We love you, man, and we want you to know...you'll always be with us wherever you go." Kind of embarrassing, really.

A lot of you might have seen this already, but just found a video of Brian and the Boys performing "The Spirit Of Rock and Roll":

The Spirt Of Rock and Roll (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0VcjrJqgY0&search=Beach%20Boys)

They look so young.  And thin.

Is that Danny Hutton and Glen Campbell on the stage with them?

Cool. I don't actually know that song, so that's good to hear. Brian sings pretty well and he looks comfortable onstage!

Which does lead me to sadly wonder, it's a shame the drugs Dr. Landy had Brian on that made him so coherent and apparently clear headed also caused other damage. 

Yep. It's from the 25th Anniversayr. Also on stage with the Boys were Ray Charles, The Everly Brothers and other co-stars...

And even all that star power couldn't save it from being an absolutely revolting performance.  The absolute nadir of the Beach Boys (with Brian and Carl), with one   brief moment of redemption-- a full band version of Carl's "Heaven", dedicated to Dennis.

I remember seeing the BBs perform Heaven in Jacksonville in the 80's, after Dennis died.  Great stuff.

Have to respectfully disagree here -- I think Brian looks terrible. He sounds good, yes, but just look at that man's face. It's tortured. Or so it seems to me. The difference between that kind of performance and Brian's recent appearances is night and day. To me, at least, it seems all about being comfortable.

'Course he sounds good - he's lip-synching to a studio track. That or it was post-dubbed. Live it ain't, unless he's mastered the art of singing with himself.

The track was prerecorded, but Brian himself seemed to be singing at least bits of that live. Perhaps I wasn't watching closely enough.

I'm with Andrew -- no question. This is primarily lip synched. That's a lot of Brian-voices I'm hearing on different parts. There might be some live vox in the mix, but not enough to matter. And I don't think he looks or sounds all that great...his intro about Dennis reminded me more of an elementary school play than anything else.

No joke. It was obvious he was reading from a script; it sounded like he was in a deep hypnotic trance or something. And jeez...did it HAVE to rhyme? It sounded liked doped up Seuss.

Shame David Leaf wrote all the lines for it   :(

They oughta call him David Leech.

Yeah, Brian definitely did look a little disturbed during that broadcast. Yet, because he looked so good physically - the cool hair, somewhat flat stomach, STANDING at a piano (probably inaudible), after watching that show, I was optimistic about the future.

That was just weird.

Though I have to say, that version sounds a whole lot better than the Dylan duet version.

 ::)

Per The Wilson Project, the original background voices were Bill Champlin, Jason Scheff, Tom Kelly and Gary Usher.  Just before the concert, Usher added the voices of Glen Campbell, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Brian Wilson and Jeff Foskett.  Al and Carl refused to be recorded.

I wonder if Gary Usher will get songwriting credit when the song is released on the Hallmark CD.

And then Carl comes in RIGHT after... was that just bad editing?

Yeah.. if you listen to the audience cheering there's a skip.

And geeze, did they expect anyone to believe they were playing it live? Like eight people a foot apart each sharing one microphone.

watchin the clip of Spirit of rock and Roll and noticing brian messing some lyrics up....he says something about what i hear as" you know just harry and elvis?"" i thought it was buddy and elvis

Actually "chuck, buddy and elvis" if I'm correct

There are two recorded versions of that bit of the lyric -

"Chuck, Buddy & Elvis"...

and

"Chuck Berry & Elvis".

WERE THE bb'S CAIPTOLIZING ON THE MONKEES RESURGENCE ALSO? CIRCA 86-88?

I was.

Pretty silly, but since we don't have much of the BBs with Brian in the 80's, it's worth having. Brian looks great, but you can't judge a book by the cover. His mouthing of Mikes lines was memorable. Ray Charles did a nice Sailor, but the other guests weren't that great.

Eh.

Carl singing Heaven was the only good part of the entire show.

I bought this dvd a while back but haven´t watched it yet.
I guess now would be a good time  >:D

That was depressing.........must wipe from memory

While there were plenty of cringe-worthy moments, especially surrounding Brian, I was impressed by the quality of the vocals by the guests; they didn't just dial it in. I liked Ray Charles, the Everly Brothers, and Glen Campbell's "In Cars". I also enjoyed that little duet with Gloria Loring and Carl Wilson. But the most impressive performance was by Cory Wells and Danny Hutton; they exhibited some fine voices on "Darlin'".

While "The Spirit Of Rock & Roll" was partially lipsynched and Brian did look a little awkward, that might be my favorite version of the song. I'm not a musician so I don't know the term to describe what I mean, but, near the end of the song, Brian raises his vocal/voice up a notch (a key?); it really took the song to another dimension. I wish he would've done that on the recorded version(s).

I re-read this thread and my previous post (from 2006!), but I'll restate my opinion. I was optimistic after watching that TV show. Brian was looking better anyway, and I thought they would move forward as a group, with Brian contributing good, new rock and roll music a la "The Spirit Of Rock & Roll". Who knew what would happen would happen....

Holy sh*t, that was terrible.

And SJS, I'd say you've got your wish as to that version of Spirit of Rock n Roll being recorded: my guess would be that other than Brian's not very good doubling of his own pre-recorded lead vocal, about 95% of what we heard was pre-recorded in that song.

After a restless night of beach boys scripted stage banter induced dreams, I have decided that the first minute and a half of Ray Charles doing sail on sailor was...........OK.

Ray looks like he thinks that the song is beneath him.

Boy this was when it really tipped over into complete self parody. Things had been heading that way for a long time, but this was the last straw. I am surprised they ever lived this era down. Thank goodness they did.

Well, he's certainly not beneath it.

You know, a lot of this special is just too cheezy, but Ray Charles performance is, I think, the tops. He does "Sail on Sailor" a lot of justice.

I have an audience tape of "Spirit" as actually performed that day. It was awful.

I have always wondered how much of this was actually "live". Almost the entire thing sounds like it was pre-recorded in a studio. Especially the backing vocals on SOS. There is not a single song where the music itself actually sounds live.

On a side note; I absolutely LOVE the part where Brian was obviously supposed to kiss the women on the cheek(who gave him a Lei) but he does a full on kiss instead.  ;D

If you rea the Wilson Project, Gary Usher describes how essentially all of the vocals were indeed pre-recorded in a Hawaii studio in the days before the concert. No doubt dubbing, as well.

A teeny timelime:

1986
December
10 - session: various titles incl Barbara Ann [Commercial Recording, Honolulu HI]
11 - session: Spirit Of Rock & Roll [Commercial Recording, Honolulu HI]
12 - 25th Anniversary Show, Waikiki Beach HI

1987
January
12 - session: Spirit Of Rock & Roll vocals [Evergreen, Burbank CA]

March
13 - The Beach Boys - 25 Years Together ABC TV special aired

will a release of this ever see the light of day?

I remember how canned and crappy all the versions of the songs were, I remember Paul Shaffer always wanting to play the organ solo to Surfin' USA and Joe Piscopo pouring motor oil on his surfboard as a way to describe the beaches in New Jersey.

I was excited when it aired but was grounded quickly by all the cheese.  So staged, so stupid, so stiff.

If I remember correctly Glen Cambell also blows the lyrics to Little Deuce Coupe.

Is this available on dvd?

The cover on page 1 makes me think so...but it could be a "rarity"

I´m just watching this right now.. I´ve had it for 3 years but never bothered to watch it until tonight.. My god how horrible it is...
The crowd..? The medleys.. the songs seems almost  under rehersed.. And my god don´t get me started on Mikes stage outfits during the first 30 minutes..

The only cool thing is that Brian is there and he is not doing anything of value anyway.. The guest line up is horrible apart from Ray Charles..

If you want to see everything that became wrong with the BB after Dennis died then look no further...

Am I too critical??

A dissenting opinion: yes, Ray Charles was good, but so were the Everlys. I mean, that's a dream come true for me, Beach Boys and Evs sharing the same stage. Three Dog was very good, too. i do recall reading an article at the time stating that Carl was disappointed in the way the band played during the special. He said something about a party everyone attended the night before, and ...well....he thought everyone had partied too much. So yeah, there was a lot of overdubbing after the fact. Still, this was probably as good as it was gonna get for a network tv special. If it had been for PBS or cable, we could've got something better. Oh well.

Hmm yeah, seems to be pretty rare. Guess I'll try to sell my copy.  ;D

It'd be nice if this was released for the anniversery this year.


(folks who "look on our message board quite often" and/or "are in the know" and/or have a say in what needs to be released should take this and other great items posted in recent weeks as requests into consideration.)  PLEASE?  ;D

It's not worth it.

They should make a documentary with the BBs today about what went wrong with that show. ;D

I'd buy that. You could make an entire documentary series about similar instances in the BBs history, titled What the surf were they thinking?.

That's a great idea for a dvd. The Beach Boys: What in the World Were They Thinking? (from now on referred to as WITWWTT). Touring with the Maharishi after the Beatles had dumped him; releasing 15 BO as their big comeback album in 1976; capitalizing on the success of Kokomo in 1988 with... Still Cruisin'? Letting Mike put out SIP?

I got my grubby little hands on a VHS copy of this, it was taped off tv, with commercials and all, I actually prefer it that way. You get the see the cheesy Beach Boys jingle commercials for Bud Light and McDonalds. Plus, you get the song "Little GTI" presented by VW.

Another plus is Patrick Duffy, referring that "shouldn't he be on Southfork?"  ;)   AWESOME


The Joe Piscopo segment has got to be the most annoying parts, what was the point? Nobody thought it was funny then, same goes for now.

What non-beach boys songs are played and why?
What's Mr. Campbell's song? I don't know his stuff. And the lady who sang I can hear music with Carl? She looked like cousin Vinton's wife on Mama's Family.

I sold my DVD a couple of months ago for about €30, if I remember correctly. Hadn't watched it in ages, anyway.

When this was aired in 1987 it was a BIG deal.. Jeez what a disappointment .!  Duffy + Piscopo   TERRIBLE !!  NO live music ..!  What a mess.. ! Another train  wreck  + Missed  chance to shine..  and in 1 1/2 years they have a #1 single.. Go  figure..!!!!!!!!!!!