The Smiley Smile Message Board

Recently, there was a short interview with Brian and Al (it's on Youtube somewhere), and Brian said that 15 Big Ones & Love You were both great albums. Famous rock reviewer Robert Christgau had this to say about 15 Big Ones: This is their best album since Sunflower, which is their best of this decade. Brian is aboard, if not in charge. He gave the album a B grade. Let's take a look a closer look at 15 Big Ones.

Side 1:
"Rock & Roll Music" was the Beach Boys biggest hit of the 70s. "It's OK" was another classic addition to the "fun in the sun" portion of the Beach Boys catalog and was a top 40 hit, which I believe made it the Beach Boys second biggest hit of the 70s. Go figure. The classic chord changes of "Had to Phone Ya" support a classic Brian arrangement, although the song is a tad undercooked at only 1:43 in length. "Chapel of Love" features spirited vocals from Brian and the group, and the swelling synth production is complimented by some curious percussive touches (listen closely). "Everyone's in Love with You" is a lush mellow number that is pleasing enough to be acceptable filler. That bit of "Tallahassee Lassie" cut into "Talk To Me" was probably one of the best musical surprises of '76. Oh, and the synths at the beginning of "Talk To Me" are a treat, too. "That Same Song" is a good soul number, although the televised performance of the song done live with a gospel choir shows that it could've been great. "TM Song" closes side 1 with an argument that sounds like it's from the Smile sessions and a song that displays a new arranging style from Brian that would be used to even greater effect on "Just Once in My Life".

Side 2:
"Palisades Park" cooks, as Dennis himself notes during the song's bridge. Variations on the the descending riff played on the organ during the song's outro popped up on at least a few Beach Boys recordings.  The rollicking harmonies on "Susie Cincinnati" make a joy to listen to, and you can tell the boys had fun on this one.  "A Casual Look" has a classic Brian ending that every fan needs to hear. Don't skip it! The Wrecking Crew returns on "Blueberry Hill". The way the song starts, transitioning from horns, to nothing but Mike and an upright bass, and then to a full-on Spector-like production is brilliant. The rest of the song could have used more of those changes in dynamics, but it's still a solid cover.  "Back Home" is the quintessential mid-70s Brian song. Nothing else needs to be said. "In The Still of the Night" feels a bit too minimalistic, but it's saved by Dennis' heartfelt vocal. Fortunately, it's followed by "Just Once in My Life", which is an amazing cover of the Righteous Brothers. The immaculate Wall of Synth production is a proof that Brian was still with the times. It's a shame he abandoned this style so quickly for Love You. Not that I don't love Love You, but I wish we had more of this kind of music to listen to.

All in all, I give the album 8/10. It's time to reevaluate this album.

JOIML is well worth the price of admission.

When did Brian say this about the album?

I remember on a podcast that promoted a recent greatest hits package, but I believe it was the 'sequel' to Sounds of the Summer, that the remaining Beach Boys were interviewed about the songs and Brian was asked about It's OK. I think I remember Brian not wanting to discuss the song as it brought back hard memories and such.
So for him to say that about 15 Big Ones surprised me.
But I could see Brian saying that in an interview in the 80s or 90s.

Hasn't Brian said that virtually every album he's had a significant hand on was his favourite at one point or another? Nothing much sturdy to go on here, I reckon...

No, Brian said that this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX9xM029d4Y

Check it about 1:52. Brian says that 15 Big Ones and Love You are just as good as Pet Sounds.

I love how Brian's shouting during the last interview.

Vocally, production wise, and copositionally this LP set a new low. That doesn't mean it's horrid but I feel it to be worse then anything they had done to this point. Sadly much worse would come and very little that was better. 15 Big Ones does have...three strong singles, a still fairly healthy Dennis and Carl, the group actually working as a unit on most of the songs, and even a touch of great music. 6/10

Who's this Van Dyke Perks the lady mentions?

I completely agree with the above comment on Just Once In My Life. It represents something that should have been extended into the next couple of years. The Wall Of Synths, with all the minute touches that escape any casual listener, is sheer genius, born out of real pain.

Compared to this, I find CATP and Holland extremely mundane efforts, that could in theory have been done by many other bands (instrumental- and production-wise).

Love You is great. But the Wall has gone. The delicate touches too (save for The Night Was So Young, for instance). LY's pumping synths are funny, sometimes touching, but don't scale the heights that JOIML does.

I have spoken. Anyone who does not agree with me will be shot.

Listening to the isolated tracks, the album sounds better to me now then it did originally. Back Home was the first instance of Brian's "new" voice as it was the first song recorded for the album where Brian is audible. (I say it like that as I don't know when Brian's backup on It's OK was recorded, but it sounds as whiny as it did post-change, like it did on the cover of Help Me Rhonda released in 75). But in any case, Had to Phone Ya and especially Just Once in My Life had excellent backing tracks .

What gets me about 15 BO is what could have been.  It would sound better if it wasn't the first album released after Holland. If they had just finished up songs they already had in the can, the public would've been fooled into thinking Brian's voice wasn't changed. I mean, Good Time was released as is, for goodness sake. As far as the outtakes...Angel Came Home was written and  partially recorded by then. Dennis had some songs, as did Mike.  Brian's stuff could've been entirely from the archives, with the band adding additional muscle, and as mentioned before the public would've bought it as it would seem Brian was all over the place. If they wanted to present Brian as he really was, there would've been better cuts to put in.

Here's my running order (keeping just contemporary Brian pieces) with only stuff in releasable state.Keep the fluff on one side and the serious stuff on the second.

Rock & Roll Music/ It's OK/Had to Phone Ya/Mony Mony/That Same Song/Sea Cruise/Palisades Park/Back Home/River Song/Everyone's in Love with You/Farewell my Friend/Angel Come Home/Shortenin' Bread/Blueberry Hill/Just Once in My Life

I think that would've been much stronger that what was released. I know there was no chance of the Dennis songs being on there, and the album wouldn't flow...but it didn't anyway.

:lol Wee Helper

Eh.

I mean, I do think It's OK is great. Ditto JOIML. And Back Home is fun. Really, the only song I can't listen to is TM Song.

I remember a while back reading a thread pitting It's OK vs. Do It Again. Someone put it nicely: It's OK is a classic 70's Beach Boys song, but Do It Again is a classic, period. That's kind of how I judge 15BO: it's fine for a 70's Beach Boys album. Judged in a broader context? Wouldn't make my top 10 list, not even close.

Great album. Sea Cruise hit me a rather superb when it emerged on 10 Years of Harmony... Like Soulful Old Man Sunshine, can't understand why it didn't come out at the time (Carl's oh-so-minor flub aside), but then these guys have a vault full of similar stories.

15BO is probably a bit to heavy on the chunky sax for my liking.

There are some great moments, but it doesn't hang together well as an album in the way that LY and even MIU did.

And I agree the synths & duet on JOIML are the high point. I would have loved more analogue synthwork from Brian.

15 Big Ones is a poor album.

It's OK is nice and Had to Phone Ya is quite good too. But TM Song is awful, That Same Song is average and badly produced, Susie Cincinnati sounds out of place, Everyone's in Love With You is a bit too wet and Back Home is nothing to write home about.

Of the covers, Just Once in My Life is great but In the Still of the Night is abysmal, Chapel of Love is desperately poor and the opening track is leaden as anything. Most of the other covers are very average and massively inferior to the originals.

If Brian's name wasn't down as producer then I don't think anybody would be looking to reappraise the album

A highly underrated album.  Sunflower and Holland it ain't, but it's their most "fun" album in quite some time.    

I think Chapel Of Love is one of the better cuts on the album. Only Brian could pull off singing a girl song like that. This is one where Brian actually put some work into, especially with the arrangement. The third verse with Mike repeating the verse after Brian, with his cool Mike bass just blows me away. It is a fun sing along.

Yes, if Brian wasn't the producer I doubt that there would be much talk about 15 Big Ones, either. Though, it did very well sales-wise.

Are you joking? Stabbing chords on your ARP string synthesiser does not constitute putting work into the arrangement. It's barely there. And all the backing vocals are ridiculously off-key. The only good thing about it is Brian's vocal, cos you can practically hear his grin.

I like "Chapel of Love" if only because Brian sounds like he's enjoying speak-shouting the lyrics -- he sounds excited! Otherwise, it's pretty forgettable... just like the rest of the album. The only really good songs on the album are "It's OK" and "Had To Phone Ya" and "Back Home", I reckon. I have some affection for Dennis' ashtray-mouthed "In The Still of the Nite" too for whatever reason!

Big fan of "Chapel of Love", mostly because it sounds like pure Brian Wilson. How many songs as convincingly joyful as this one did the BB (or Brian as a solo artist, for that matter) release after 1977? Unfortunately, not too many. (For some reason I think that one or two of the TLOS bonus tracks came pretty close, however.)

Same here. Am I the only one who just loves the odd delay in the synth washes? They reach their apex too late every time, and it works...

Not joking. Not even a little bit. Everything that you dislike about the song I find endearing. I need to check the back of my LP, but I believe there is more going on musically than an ARP string synthesiser. Hey we all have different tastes, but the very first time that I spun that LP on July 3, 1976 was the first time I heard Brian's new singing voice, and on this one one track I actually liked it, warts and all.

I remember anxiously awaiting this album and being profoundly disappointed by it. The key elements of the disappointment were, in general, the change in Brian's voice and the heavy handed arrangements/productions.  Brian's genius in production has always been subtlety, inventiveness and complexity.  The "Wall of Sound" was carpet bombing while Brian was smart bombs.

My major complaint is probably unfair.  15 BO just doesn't compare to some of the other albums released that year by the Beach Boys competition:

School Boys in Disgrace (Kinks)
Wings at the Speed of Sound
Silk Degrees
The Royal Scam
Hasten Down the Wind (Linda Ronstadt)
Children of the World (The Bee Gees)
Arrival (aBBa)
The Pretender
Hotel California

In comparison 15BO is not in the same ballpark.   

Rock & Roll Music:
There is so much wrong with this song.  The synth weighs the song down.  It just doesn't rock like it should.

It's OK:
This is my favorite song on the album.  I good Wilson/Love song.  The vocals are more "Beach Boyish" and the tag is great.

Had to Phone Ya:
The composition, lyrics and vibe would be at home on "Friends".  The production does work here.  This is another worthy song.

Chapel of Love:
Never like the lead or backgrounds on this.  Why do a "Wall of Sound" production when Spector already did it.

Everyone's in Love with You:
This is a pretty good Mike Love effort, unfortunately, it sounds out of place on the album.  Was it actually produced by Brian because it sounds more like Ron Altbach.  I am surprised to see that Dennis drummed on it since he would take a powder when it was performed.  Ironic that Toni Tennille is on it since one of ML's complaints against Al's BBF&F is that female vocals were not part of the Beach Boys sound

Talk to Me:
I like Carl's vocal but the arraignment is too clunky and it buries the bvs.

That Same Song:
Marilyn's voice is too prominent.  Brian sounds terrible.

TM Song
I kind of like this.  The argument seems like a nod to the spoken parts in the early albums.  The "Sometimes it goes real fast and sometime it goes real slow . . . " part sounds like something from Smiley Smile.

Palisades Park A Casual Look Blueberry Hill In the Still of the Night
My complaint in these are all the same.  The arrangement/production seems out of time and to dense.  The songs seem interchangeable - why bother?  I think the "Run Run running, the Rides are Running" intro to "Palisades" is cool however. like "Rock & Roll Music" the song should have rocked more.  Al's lead in "A Casual Look" is really good.

Susie Cincinnati:
Sounds out of place in a good way.  Was this actually produced by only Brian?  Too bad the album's oldies did not have this sound.
Back Home:
I like this - Brian's ragged voice seems to fit it well.  The stripped down arraignment (no horns or synths - like "Susie") sounds good.  Only Wilsons play instruments on this.  The early arrangement of this song would have matched up better with the rest of the album  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqV2Xfvzli0 ).

Just One in My Life:
This is the one oldie that works well.  Even though this song has the worst elements of the album (the synth and Brian's ragged voice) it works.  Brian seems to have used a lighter touch on this (the guitars and electric piano seem to weave nicely though the song and the keyboards starting at 2:22 are wonderful (maybe the best moment on the album).

I don't like to compare bands with other bands...or albums to other albums, but in this case consider "15 Big Ones" with all of the hype and everything else, with the selling point of a singular artist and producer-Svengali returning to the producer's chair and getting back in the game - "Brian's Back"!

Then put on any format copy of the debut Boston album next to "15 Big Ones", and have a listen. *The* prototypical 70's rock album that gets slagged off as being "corporate", as sounding too "arena rock" and overproduced...the majority of tracks on that album were cut by Tom Scholz, an electronics engineer working in his basement using Frankenstein-like home-brewed recording gear and processors among found equipment, and the basement had a bad habit of flooding. Yet dig the obvious nods to Brian's production style - the soaring harmonies, the unexpected key-changes and transitions, the radio-friendly sound of the mixes, and the fact that a stand-alone producer and songwriter could "pull a Brian Wilson" and create something like that in his basement, with a crack band of musicians to fill the needed roles, and do it better than the hotshot studio pros in Los Angeles at the time, and eclipse the guy and the band who wrote the book on making that kind of music that way in the 60's...

I guess my point is The Beach Boys stacked an album with covers like Palisades Park, pushed a 2-decades-old cover song which had been beaten to death as the single, and expected the project to do what exactly next to what was appearing in the record bins at the time?

It's enjoyable, some of 15 Big Ones, but overall it's a weak effort in retrospect, and sounds thin compared to what was around it on the charts.

Another note.  The Beatles "Rock and Roll Music" compilatin was released a week or so before 15BO and the Beatles version of "R & R Music" got some airplay in Boston.  The Beach boy's version paled in comparison.

And don't forget Lennon's Rock n' Roll album, which came out in '75.  I don't think that album is that much better than 15BO, personally.

It's mostly enjoyable enough but weak and a tad cheesy in many aspects. Basically by embracing the 'fun' aspect they killed any chance of ever being taken seriously again. And de-emphising the other Wilson's roles in the band was a BIG mistake. It may have been their highest charting record in a decade but in the long run they had shot themselves in the foot with this one.

Who was ever taking them seriously? The record buying public surely wasn't. The last great selling album was what- Beach Boys' Party!? Record reviewers? Even when they were taken seriously by them, it didn't help with record sales. In Concert was the only regular release up to 15 Big Ones that sold well, and barely went gold. Most fans want The Beach Boys music to be fun. Like their touring career, they pretty much bowed to the will of the people, and still, they couldn't sell very many records.

So, am I right in concluding that most of you strongly disagree with Brian's assessment of 15 Big Ones?

I love it!

I have a soft spot for 15BO, I agree with the earlier sentiments that the more 'Wall of sound' pieces are the more successful. JOIML is the best track on here I think, but I also love 'In the still of the night', both of which have the great Arp synth on it. If they had held on a little longer they could have put on Brians excellent 'you've lost that loving feeling' as that would give the album some extra weight. 'Palisades Park' is good too. Another great wall of sound track from this time is Springs 'It's like Heaven' which given some Beach Boys vocals could have sit nicely on here.
That said, I find 'Blueberry hill' and 'Rock and Roll music' quite hideous.

For some reason, Blueberry Hill has grown on me. I always hated that opening vocal with Mike and just the bass, I feel like he played that off too cool. But when the rest of the guys come in for the vocals, that's what does it for me. I love the percussion on this, the drums just carry the tune well. The backing vocals are possibly the best the album has to offer.

Someone else up the thread hit on this point...the only reason 15BO seems better decades down the line is because of the weak BB's releases that came in its wake. The BB's had a nearly pristine history of quality releases until 15BO. In the context of 1976 it was a huge artistic disappointment...and really seemed cheesy and small. The worst part about it (besides the cover and the overall lack of originality and balls)is the fact that rock's greatest vocal group didn't sing well on it. Its shoddy in the vocal dept. Yes it has its charms like every other bad BB's thing(other than Looking Back With Love and SIP)...Its OK in itself is plenty of nostalgia...please lets move on...no need for Happy Days...you ARE the BB's. Had To Phone Ya shows Brian still had good track ideas...but he had no focus, he did not want to be there, and he phoned more than that song in. Love You followed...which just confused EVERYONE. Brian had more weird goodness in the quirk tank no question...but it took a long time for people to get it. POB immediately showed Dennis knew his way around big studio sounds, choirs, strings, giant fat bass sounds, synths and production and arrangements just plain better than the other guys, his stuff sounded current, but still artful and twisted in a Wilson-esque way. Then the career burying string of public pants pooping MIU, KTSA, BB85 with L.A. also ruined by the two H's...HCTN and Heroin. Yes 15BO is better than I thought it was in '76, because at that time I thought the BB's would make another great record...Dennis did...but they did not.

I agree to a point, but I LOVE 15 Big Ones, like MIU a lot and LOVE LA! (I would admit to loving KTSA, but..... uh, OK I do!)

I think 15 Big Ones gets reappraised in a positive way because, to my ears at least, it sounds like the group is having fun! I know they most likely were having anything but fun, but when I put the record on... it SOUNDS like they are, therefore I am too!

The originals are all great and the covers, if not exactly earth shattering are well sung, adventurously arranged (for the most part) and in the case of JOIMY especially, manage to be quite emotional.

And yeah, as someone else mentioned, (the detailed personnel notes help) the groups seemed to be working as a unit pretty much exclusively and it just feels good. It's nice to know exactly what songs Dennis is drumming on, and in fact, he does some damn fine work on this album as a drummer!

I thought about it, and maybe Brian had bad memories about "It's OK" cuz a lot of it was recorded during '74 and maybe those were the bad memories. Or maybe its just Brian being Brian and contradicting himself.

Apparently in like '98 he said 15 Big Ones was a favorite too. So...hmm.


I couldn't stand that song either at first, because of those goofy Mike bass vocals. But now I dig it.


Honestly, he even said Carl and the Passions and Holland were faves of his too at one point, whereas he wasn't really having a significant hand on either. So I guess, Brian really is just like  the rest of us, feeling different things at different times.

Has Brian ever said any of the pre-Today! albums are his favourite? I want to hear him exclaim that, like, Surfin' Safari is a great album and more people need to get into it. :lol

When I said taken seriously again, I meant in a contemporary light. "Endless Summer" had put the spotlight back on the band and given them a second chance to play in the big leagues. And frankly they blew it. You can't pretend you are in your teens in your mid thirties and not look a bit silly. 15BO's is too steeped in nostalgia for it's own good. Considering some of the material Dennis had sitting around, to pass that over in favour of shoddy covers is just baffling. There was NO reason to put Brian back in sole creative position. "Brian's Back" should have just meant Brian returning to a full time contributing member role like in the "Sunflower" era. By putting him back fully in the driver's seat and making a big noise about it, expectations were raised to the point of people expecting another "Pet Sounds" or "Good Vibrations". What they got didn't even begin to come close.

I agree with you on the Brian's Back part of your statement, but the success of Endless Summer is the reason why we got 15 Big Ones and not something closer to Sunflower or Holland. From all that I read of the times, they were in a creative no-mans land. Different members wanting to go into different directions musically. Dennis once mentioned that there was a plan for two seperate album releases; an oldies album and a second original material album. That may have been the proper way to go in 1976. All I can say though is that all the people I know who liked the pre-1966 Beach Boys, but not the post-1965 music, all to a person liked 15 Big Ones and the return to the type of music that was closer to their old style.

Alan Boyd has repeatedly made the argument, to me and others, that 15BO was sabotaged in the mix and that it's a much better album in raw form than people think.  I was skeptical but he played me a different mix of "Had To Phone Ya" that really was breathtaking, I have to admit.

In the late '70s Brian really was pioneering a sound that didn't really make sense to anyone until about four years later, when bands like the Human League and Ultravox came to the fore.  He really was ahead of his time again, but in the context of '76-'77, those grainy synth textures really were jarring.  Most of the people that were doing that kind of all-keyboard thing had much less aggressive sonic landscape at that time (thinking Gary Wright, Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren, etc.).

I disagree. First, I'm not a big fan of Holland. "Steamboat" has some cool ideas, but it plods. I got tired of the "California Saga" after a few listens. "Californ-i-a", in particular, is just stale countrified remix of "California Girls". And don't get me started on The Flame's song. Some of the other songs are strong, but it's not a great album. The production is more impressive than most of the actual songs, although I think that the production on "Sail on Sailor" was botched somewhat.

I also consider Carl & The Passions to be average. Again, I hate The Flame, and Dennis' songs drench too much syrup on my pancakes. That's half of the album right there. The rest ranks from OK to great. Surf's Up was a stronger release, but "Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)"  and "Student Demonstration Time" were the beginning of the end for me.

I think 15 Big Ones definitely ranks up there with Holland and Carl & The Passions. The strength of Brian and Carl's material on Surf's Up  is the only reason I'd rank it ahead of 15 Big Ones, and I'd say the Sunflower is about the same as Surf's Up.  Sunflower has a little too much Dennis and Bruce for my liking. I liked some of Dennis' songs on Sunflower, but I personally don't think he became a consistently great songwriter until the mid-70s.

I agree with the poster who said it should have had more originals, and they could have done it and fit it into the "get something out now" strategy Warners wanted to capitalize on the Beach Boys revival with the public. I would say keep the originals that were on there as well as "Just Once in My Life" for its quality and "Rock and Roll Music" for its hit potential. Any of the other covers could have been replaced by:

San Miguel - A finished product, a great song, and it fit in with a fun-in-the-sun theme. This should have been a no-brainer to include.

Soulful Old Man Sunshine - "Come on, Carl, we'll just do another take, and you'll sing 'sunshine' instead of 'shunshine.'"

Loop De Loop - If Brian didn't want to finish it, Al could have shepherded the production through.

I'm Going Your Way/California Slide - How has this one never been released?

Adding any or all of these songs at the expense of the weaker covers could have made for a great album and a true, long-lasting comeback.

As an aside, I don't think I've ever hate a love/hate relationship with a song they way I do with "Had to Phone Ya." I love the first half, but I HATE the "you, you, you, you, you, you, you" part. When the song comes up on my iPod, I always listen to the first half but skip through the second.

well the original idea, I believe,  was an LP of oldies and an LP of new stuff.  But they couldn't get Brian to sit for a whole LP of new stuff;
 so since there were a lot more oldies, they picked the ones they liked the best, and mixed them in with the others and this is what we got.
Who knows why they didn't just pull some of the mentioned songs and use them. Maybe WB wouldn't go for a double LP? 

I like 15 Big Ones.  I can't listen to the whole album though, to be honest.  To be painfully honest, I can't even get into Just Once in My Life.  It's alright, I just can't listen to it more than every once in a while. 


Here's the thing, in my opinion.  The Beach Boys, and especially Brian but by default most everyone in the band was extremely talented... and it was an organic, natural talent.  Brian has a ton of natural talent.  As a result, he doesn't have to try to be good.  He's naturally good.  You can see this in interviews and things; just the casual off the cuff things he says, even his expressions are funny.  In the studio, when he messes up... it's good.  He's THAT GOOD.  Very talented.

Where he became great though was when he TRIED.  When you take somebody with natural talent, and then on top of that, they put forth a lot of effort, they become great.  The Beach Boys when they tried, were GREAT.  15 Big Ones sounds to me like they weren't trying to hard.  They had it on cruise control and were just fucking around. 

When they recorded say... Surfer Girl, they were likely ALSO fucking around, but they were afraid Murray was going to punch them or the record company was going to sue them or their girlfriends were going to dump them or whatever.... so they TRIED to work their asses off.  By the time they got to 15 Big Ones, they weren't trying anymore.  They were just being themselves and unfortunately that left them with only their natural talent to rely on, and none of their good old hard-earned work your ass off talent to add on top of it.

Jon, as the guy who brought up what you mention in the first sentence I have to say I agree with you 100 percent.

Ummm... 'in the wake' means following, not preceding.

Good effort AGD, but if you read the next sentence it goes: "The BB's had a nearly pristine history of quality releases until 15BO."

That's what I was arguing, as it was an integral part of the premise of his first argument.

In your post, there is no 'next sentence'. Odd sort of argument that chooses to exclude said sentence when quoting, especially if it was 'integral' to the original premise: may I suggest you have a glowing future in either politics or advertising. Your post, to anyone who can comprehend basic English (and isn't psychic to the degree that they can read a text that isn't actually there) plainly states that you disagree with the opinion that "the only reason 15BO seems better decades down the line is because of the weak BB's releases that came in its wake", then discusses the albums that came before it. You do that in any level of test, your paper would be returned with "fail" across it. I was commenting on what I saw (not on a post from some 24 hours ago) which is, frankly, all I can do.

AAAARGH! I love/hate it when you guys with the inside connection do this to me!

How can I hear the remix of 15BO? In my dreams?

Why was it sabotaged? because it was pretty crap compared to what they could have achieved? Who sabotaged it? Brian?


I agree with you that brian was ahead of his time with those synths. Even now LY still sounds like nothing else, really.

Am I the only who thinks California Slide sounds half-written?

And I love the "you, you" part of HTPY. It sounds like a dial tone, the way they cut-off the end of the syllables.

Hmmmm... it made sense to me.  He quoted that the album seems better because the albums after it were trash, then he explained that to him he disagreed because the albums before it were also trash.  If I were his professor I'd give him a passing grade but what do I know.

You wanna play semantics here? Because it cannot be found in the dictionary, the word "Ummm" does not exist. Neither does "koff". ;)

Love You is awesome. (http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/mad.gif)

Love You IS awesome...I agree. BUT as the follow up to 15BO it did more damage to the BB's reputation than good. It was like this... 15BO seemed juvenile and cheesy...they needed to follow that with something mature, meaty and substantial...but Love You is quirky and twisted...and juvenile. Yes in a good way, but no one really knew that until the '80's. So following 15BO with Love You was like breaking your arm by doing something foolish and then trying to heal it by being a clown at the circus.

Anybody else have an opinion on my alternate 15 BO? :D

well gee, I hate to disagree( not really) but according to the "urban dictionary"  www.urbandictionary.com (Always using definition #1):
"ummm" : >> it means shut up im thinking and i probably wont have a very good answer<<
 "koff":  >>'Koff is short for f*** Off. The origin of the word comes from an immature attempt at censorship. Some feel that removing the first three letters, emulating an FCC strategy to essentially chop the word down to something almost unrecognizable, detracts from the vulgarity of the word. <<

I, of course, can't attest that these are the usages to which AGD alludes, only that they ARE in the dictionary. 
I hope this clears that up.

For a moment I was wondering why Andrew was quoting his own posts, then I realize you jacked his profile pic.

:lol

Oh yeah, I know what you meant and I agree completely. I just sometimes impulsively sail in to defend Love You just in case anyone was actually thinking it's not a good album. :lol I think it's pretty hard to deny, however, that it is not also an album which is in almost every way a perfect compliment to Smley Smile. I would say the former album is at least as contentious as the latter. Both were complete upheavals in the musical world of The Beach Boys -- perhaps not quite revolutions in sound for them, but serious shake-ups compared to everything that came both before and after (Love You and Smiley Smile seem to me to be one-off instances of particular quirks of Brian's musical style). Lyrically though it is much the same subject matter -- girls, romance, sex, women, love, self-doubt, sundry sorts of melancholia from those and other things -- I think the lyrics on each album are particularly simple (in a 'universal sentiment' kind of way, not daft) and effective at their tasks. "The Night Was So Young" may not be as poetic as "The Surfer Moon" and "Gettin' Hungry" may not be as poetic as "Farmer's Daughter" [perhaps 'poetic' is the wrong word...] but it's not as if there is no precedent for such endearingly awkward directness or poetic lyrics are inherent superior comparatively. [Personally, I find more direct, conversational lyrics far more interesting and difficult to write -- almost anyone can find a way to squeeze out a image- or metaphor-laden lyric, even if they're clumsy and bad.]

I don't know if any of that made sense, I'm tired and am not so very interested in writing papers currently -- so you get that above mess instead!

Well, in this case, just listen to the track with headphones and if you have a good enough imagination, you can kind of hear what Alan's talking about and how the other mix sounded.  Everything just kinds of lays there, but listen to the chords, the string progressions, and imagine those brought out in the mix more.

Um, to answer your question about sabotage, that may have been too strong a word.  But keep in mind not everybody that gets the job is the best person for that particular job, and mixers and producers and everyone else have their own opinions about how things should sound.  If that person doesn't have an affinity for what they're working with (and perhaps they're in a difficult working environment that colors their perceptions), then you may get something that isn't as good as it could be...even though there's no conscious intent to do a bad job.  I'm a pretty good sound mixer for example, but if I mixed a Pantera record, I would probably do a pretty craptastic job, because I don't like metal and I don't have a real affinity for it.

After listening to this a bunch and reading this thread, i have to say 15 Big Ones is much better than I remember. In The Still of the Night is like a glam rock song or something, it sounds like T.Rex. That Same Song is great for the vocal alone, you can tell Brian was really enthusiastic about the message and it works because of it. JOIML is very nice, just as good as everyone has been saying.
I think the oldies mostly work, but the album could have used a better song selection. I think a whole album of Brian Wilson recorded oldies would have been excellent and the sound he shows off here should have been embraced, it could have been a classic but the band just couldn't come together long enough to make something happen. Friends was really the last album the band did that was really stylistically and conceptually cohesive, since 20/20 the individual band members were all kind of doing their own things and the albums became a grab bag of different ideas. It worked on Sunflower, but only because every song there is so great, but by this time you can sense that the arrangement was really suffocating everyone's creativity. There are some gems here, but it's a far cry from the band's best.

Welcome to the Dark Side. The cocaine, hamburgers, milkshakes, porno mags, and piano are in the other room.

the longer you like the beach boys the more you'll like even the worst things they recorded. It's just a matter of understanding, learning about each period, getting used to the songs. At the end of the day everything they did was great.

I think you made some good choices Billy.
I  think they should have stuck to the original plan of an all oldies album with maybe It's OK as a closer and then an album of new material.

My "new" album: River Song, Good Timin', That Same Song (w/gospel choir) Had To Phone Ya, Back Home, Everyone's In Love With You, Susie Cincinnati, Shortenin' Bread, Pacific Ocean Blues, Goodtime, San Miguel, Angel Come Home, California Feelin'

Preach it, brother  :)

Right. Eventually, you graduate to a level where you enjoy Beach Boys '85 more than Pet Sounds. And you wonder why Brian lost his mind for awhile?

That might be stretching it a bit, but I can certainly list my top 2 Beach Boys songs as "Getcha Back" and "Goin On" without even a shred of shame.

That might be stretching it a bit, but I can certainly list my top 2 Beach Boys songs as "Getcha Back" and "Goin On" without even a shred of shame.

Ah, 15 Big Ones. Such a great topic. Such an interesting period in the band history. So many things intersect here -- Landy, Mike, Carl, Brian, Dennis -- and so many consequences spiral out of the decisions made during this time.

I think the key to understanding the album -- and the disagreements around it -- is narrative. The Beach Boys have always been prey to it. They as a band told stories, and their fans tell stories. And the stories we tell about the band ultimately have more power than the band or the individuals inside it -- think of how the notion of the band's resident "genius" has warped (and sometimes enriched) Brian's life. Think of how his supposed villainy has affected Mike.

The story of Smile and Brian's genius flying the coop -- and then returning (or not) is the most powerful string of stories that fans tell. But there's another narrative too, and that's the one that has been published by Stebbins and others lately -- that of a band of several talented guys, including (in Dennis) someone who equaled Brian in his own ramshackle way. This story has the benefit of probably being closer to the truth -- or, in these divided times, of seeming more evenhanded.

Each camp has different touchstones. For the Brian camp, Smile is all, followed by Love You and a solo project or two (selections vary, although BW88, TLOS or BWRG are currently favored). For the band fans, Sunflower and Holland and Pacific Ocean Blue (with a stray solo Carl track or two) tell their story.

15 Big Ones hits at a point that's important and divisive for each group. For it is, undeniably, the place where the Beach Boys give up any hope of being a progressive, a modern, or at least a non-embarrassing band.

For those fans of Dennis and Carl, it shows them essentially giving up on the group. For fans of Brian, however, it's a place where a rejuvenation begins. You can hear innovative ideas beginning to percolate. You can hear some unusual original tunes beginning to emerge. It's tentative, and the mix seems intent on making the band sound like cardboard. But it's an album that undoubtedly lays ground for Love You. And for Brian fans, that's almost enough to forgive it any lapses.

Interestingly, I think that each group, each story, has some real truth here. 15BO is in many ways a crude, slapdash effort that shows a band in full artistic retreat. But for Brian, it was the first step toward seizing -- for all of a year or two -- real creative control of a band that was, originally, his baby. No wonder he thinks of it as a favorite album -- the guys were listening to him and depending on him again. And he was soon writing songs again. Weird songs, but interesting ones (he surely knew that LY had some kickass tunes on it).

Does this make the album good, exactly? Not really. There's too much on it that sounds tired and rote. But there are quirky, pleasing moments too.

This is definitely an album where an expanded edition would make a tremendous difference. One disc could contain all of Brian's oldies work (well, with some bad ones excised), with some remixes and stacks-of-tracks. The other disc could contain what the band had been working on, some of the Caribou sessions. etc. Such a release would be easy to assemble, and it would show how fertile and interesting the time surrounding 15BO was -- while still respecting the rest of the band.

What you two said!  ;) It is knowing the "time frames..."

Rock and Roll Music is a home run that they still use in concert....true test of time...That Same Song is awesome on Youtube...and maybe a "retro feel." Its OK is a nice one as well...a Brian-Mike offering...

And, I like 85 and had it on today in the car...it is sort of a "skip around" to favorites...even though "taken as a whole" it is a good listen...Carl's vocals are amazing on this one...

Pet Sounds is great, but, I don't to listen to it every day...it is so "intense" - not "rock out" or "zone out" music...The Pet Sounds Sessions are of greater interest to me...It is less intense in a way because you hear the studio banter...

I recently rediscovered MIU, the good ones are magnificent the great sound just fills your car.  Even Hey Little Tomboy is neat in the sense that it is like one of the early 60's (very early- David Marks era) simplicity and rock style but with the sophistication and style that they learned on the "voyage"...I regard it as a "growth song."

It is nice to listen to an opinion of a professional critic, whose taste is ultimately subjective and bias ridden; but aren't we the best critics of what we like an enjoy?  Do we need someone to tell us what we like is trite, bland or poor work?  I don't think so...

 

Great post. The amount of quality material the band produced over the years is staggering. I think Brian put it best when he said "We started out as little babies and we grew up into men," sums up the band perfectly. So many other acts would have split much earlier, but I like to think that their love for eachother kept them going on. In their 50 years together each of them has had a time to shine, and each of them brought a lot to the table.

OK, gotta' admit to just browsing on this thread, but it's the comment about 'Dennis & Carl ... essentially giving up on the group' that is getting a response out of me... 
Maybe that was true with what 15 Big Ones became, but that's not the way Dennis & Carl started out.  Believe me, they had high hopes that what Brian was doing was just a 'warm-up', and that he was gearing up to doing some amazing work again.  And there was a sense of that in the beginning, with the tracks Brian was cutting with the likes of Steve Douglas.  Dennis & Carl didn't really lose faith until even the 'oldies' tracks that had had balls were drained of any life at all in the released versions...

All I have to say is I'm glad Mike didn't keep up with the 'formula'.
With the fact that 15 Big Ones did well on the charts, you'd think Mike would want something of that nature instead of Brian writing/producing something on his own.
From what I can tell, if Mike wanted to 'stick to the formula' of having another '15 Big Ones,' I'm surprised Mike didn't try another oldies album mixed with mediocre material.
I guess you could come up with a fan mix/tracklist of: 15 Bigger Ones.

If you think about it, Punkinhead, that's what M.I.U. was.

What was the reason for this? Why did the released versions turn out that way?  And why were Dennis and Carl powerless to prevent it from happening?

Enquiring minds want to know!  :)

Brian, Dennis and Carl are all over the musician credits, so it seems as if it was a Wilson-brother led effort as far as laying down the tracks goes. Rallying round to help Brian get back in the game. It seems like they're on LY to a large extent as well. It's with MIU that it seems they gave up on the group. Giving the Mike n' Al faction greater control.

I love the idea of a remixed expanded 73-76 box set. Everything post-Holland up until the LY demos. All the Caribou stuff, all the Lucy Joneses that we read about buy have never heard, etc... I'd buy it.

Yeah, I reckon so.
To be honest, I actually like the production of MIU of 15 Big Ones, except the covers...for some reason, I dont enjoy Come Go with Me on MIU, I prefer (like many do) the earlier version...I think Brian cut that one.

Nope - Alan cut it solo one night when the band had hired a mobile to turn up at Brian's place, and he was the only one to show.

When you refer to Al cutting it solo, are you referencing the MIU song or the earlier version?

I think they're the same basic recording, just different mixes.  The "official" version removes the harpsichord and adds a lot of echo to the drums.   There are probably some other, more minor, differences too.  I seem to recall that it might be a shade faster than the alternate version, as well.

Ed rightly pointed this out for further examination, and I want to clarify. Dennis and Carl were clearly interested in getting Brian back and functioning in the studio. Carl, for instance, did the final mix on the Love You material. Dennis is all over the material as a singer and player. Their hearts were so clearly in the right place that it hurts.

But in as much as Dennis and Carl's songwriting and production were the two strands that made the group seem adventurous and impressive in the early 70s, they basically stopped -- it was out of respect for Brian, I know, but it also meant they never had a big hit album that showcased their songs and their abilities at the highest level. They would eventually return, and contribute highlights to late 70s records (and in Carl's case, BB85), but it was a bit late by that point.

As I said, a lot of decisions were made in a very short time. And those decisions pretty much set the course for the group for the next 10 years.

According to ACJ, all that remains of the original recording are the drums and handclaps. Not done an A/B for many moons, so can't comment on that.

This is just from my impression at the time listening to the two versions, so I could be totally wrong, but my recollection was that they were very similar, but there was a very disjointed piano part on the original that was removed later.

Interesting what Ed says about the "life being drained out" of the final version of the 15BO tracks.  It does go to support Boyd's theory.

BTW, given that he's a personal friend and an awesome engineer, and it might be misconstrued, NOT referring to or slagging Earle Mankey in any way in anything I've posted (nor intending to slag anyone else for that matter...I wasn't there and I don't doubt everyone did what they thought was their best at the time with what they had to work with).

Great post, Wirestone.

OK, did an A/B - well, actually played both versions on my laptop at the same time (and I don't recommend it, really I don't) - and the major differences are:

Handclaps on the MIU version (which of course makes a nonsense of what Alan said)...

'Original' version is 3 seconds longer, or put another way, later version is just over 2% faster.

There's a tack piano missing from #2.

So much for Al's "Great" memory

15BO has grown on me slowly but steadily. I'm by no means saying it's great as an album, but several of the individual tracks sound great to me. Sure, maybe they could have been mixed better, and whoever is right in pointing out the less-than-stellar vocals--but I think the chief problem is the sequencing and the fact that they used inferior songs when better contemporary  songs were in the can.

Really, the only songs I hate on it are Rock and Roll Music and Chapel of Love. Rock and Roll single Mix is supposedly better--is that the one that's on 10 Years of Harmony? Because that one sounds much better to me, but I don't know if it's just the mastering or if it's actually a different mix. But that one sounds like a Love You outtake, it's really pretty good.

Mike's vocal on A Casual Look is a bit too nasal for me, but the rest of the track and Al sound great.

Blueberry Hill bugged me at first listen, but now I actually think it's one of the best backing tracks, it just shimmers and bounces. The way the Horns and guitars blend sound like molten gold to me.

CArl's songs great, backing track and vocal.

OK and Phone ya great.

Back Home and Same Song a bit flat  and underproduced.

Dennis track and Once in my Life both good to great.

Actually all of the tracks are great except for the two I mention, it's just some of the vocals are a little off.

I think they should have used the original mix and put something in Chapel of Love's place. Of the outtakes I've heard Sea Cruise, Ruby Baby, Shake Rattle and Roll and Mony Mony, and Michael Row Your Boat are all great(I know that some don't like the last two, and that maybe one of those was recorded after 15 BO's release.)

This is the best performance of "Back Home" because it makes me laugh every single time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JjiGnd-hk4

Why is it the best? The fight that Brian and Mike have, Brian's seemingly deliberately shitty singing because he doesn't want to be doing it and wants to piss of Mike or whatever, and Brian's anger at the other mike ((http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-haw.gif)) towards the beginning of the clip. Good times in 1977 with The Beard Boys!

To be honest, I find that more disturbing than funny. It doesn't seem like he's mad at Mike specifically. It seems more like he's hearing voices coming out of the microphone or that he's imagining that it's possessed. Or something. I don't know, but it's creepy.

It's also worth noting that Brian wrote next to no new stuff for the record. "Everyone's in Love with You" was Mike's. "Suzie C" was a six year old Al tune. "It's OK" was a finishing up of a tune abandoned two years earlier. "Had to Phone Ya" was from the Spring sessions in '72 and "Back Home" was one of the first songs he ever wrote! That only leaves "TM Song" and "That Same Song", which are both pretty bad.

Carl and Dennis seemed to notice the elephant in the room if no one else did, that Brian was in no way ready to lead the band to former glories.

The single mix of RnR Music, also featured on Best of the Brother Years 3, is 2% faster. There might be other differences, but it sounds so much better. I CAN stand the single mix. The album mix is dreadfully limp.

An even better mix, IMO, is the original mix Brian did (with heavier drums and clashing guitar licks) that was aired on that syndicated radio show (National Album Countdown) in April of '76.  If the whole album had come off sounding like that, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.  It was a very "Brian-y" mix, if you know what I mean.

Yeah but the (Double Rock Baptist Choir) version of That Same Song has balls!

I agree with the Stebster.  15 Big Ones, while not bad, is hardly remarkable enough for re-evaluation.  We fans must be getting pretty bored.  How 'bout we take a 19th look at Pet Sounds again???  Oh no!   :o

15 big ones is terrible IMO. No need to even re-listen.

I find the failures just as much fun to discuss as the triumphs.

Totally agree with Smilin' Ed on that one. They shoulda released that on 15 Big Ones. They also should have released the alternate "hot mix" version of Rock & Roll Music complete with the original last verse. Why they didn't is beyond me. Always liked Palisade Park though. Carl done that one good. "It's OK" wasn't too bad either - at least it rocked but it was a little dated. Good Summer song for the new fans coming off of the Endless Summer album. "In The Still Of The Night was passable, and one of the best was "Just Once In My Life", albeit the shiity lead vocal. Brian shoulda coulda done a cover of that when he had a good voice. That song could have been replaced with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin", which was pretty much all Brian and a great cover version that remains unreleased.

Always loved "Back Home" I always found myself coming back to that one. Even with the disgraceful lead vocal. The rest of the songs are pretty much an embarassment and I always skipped over them.

Only problem with that is it was recorded after the album was released.

Should've been released on the next one. Great, great vocal from Brian.

totally.  if it had been mixed to mono with a huge amount of echo chamber, it would sound closer to what we expect from the group.  instead, it has that dry '70s sound.

Just found this revealing quote from Dennis regarding "15 Big Ones", while cleaning out my basement yesterday (from the August 13, 1977 issue of the UK mag SOUNDS):  "'15 Big Ones'?  I had a lot of fights over it, becasue I thought that Brian should be making original music.  You really want to know?  '15 Big Ones' is a piece of merda.  That's the truth.  I didn't enjoy making it, and that's the only one...". 

However, he goes on to say "I think Mo Ostin (US Warner Bros biggie) murdered Brian Wilson on that album.  Purposely.  Upfront.  He did not promote that record, and told me he wasn't going to.  He said he didn't like it...that's tragic.  I felt so bad for Brian". 

Now, considering that "15 Big Ones" WAS promoted heavily, so much so that it made it to the U.S. Top 10 and went gold, and considering that there is a "..." between Dennis' two sets of comments above, I tend to think that Dennis was actually talking in the second case about "Love You", which we know WASN'T promoted at all by Warners.  THAT would make much more sense.  I'll bet Dennis' comments were edited (indicated by the "...") and that little part was removed.  This is especially believeable when you consider that the same article shows a picture of Brian with the caption "BRIAN WILSON:  '15 Big Ones was a step forward'", yet in the actual article, the quote comes out a bit differently:  "Where do you think 'Love You' stands in relation to '15 Big Ones'?  Brian 'Very good.  I think it was a step forward, a very big one.'"  Sloppy editing, at its worst!

Thought of that after I hit the "Save" button. The song was really a "Love You" outtake. But two Righteous Bros. covers in a row I guess wasn't desirable, and Love You was all originals.

Anyway........."Sea Cruise" and "On Broadway" before "TM Song" and "Casual Look" anyone?

I don't think Mo Ostin sabatoged anything. Can understand that he didn't like "Love You", but considering the amount of promo material (large posters) and large adds in Billboard and Rolling Stone, I'm not sure "Love You" was promoted much less than "15 Big Ones".

Except maybe it just wasn't pushed to radio as hard...'course, it's not the most radio-friendly album, certainly not by 1977 AM and FM standards!  :)

Plus, just before it was released the news broke that the band had signed with Caribou.

I think THAT would be the main reason...!  Mo loved the band, and Brian in particular, but why invest much promo money in a lame duck?

That also explains why MIU wasn't promoted as heavily as the preceding Warners albums.

Not radio friendly, and for the great majority of people, not listener friendly.

From my recollection, I don't think Warner Bros could be blamed for not pressing enough copies.  I can't recall any BBs album that hit the cut out bins as fast and in such large quantities as Love You.

Agreed.  Complete with punch-out holes or cuts in the corners of the covers. But maybe it didn't deserve it.  Lesee, off of "15 Big Ones" we had the singles "Rock & Roll Music" "It's OK", and "Everyone's In Love With You" (a throw-away if it weren't for the flip side). The first two garnered pretty good airplay in 1976. From "Love You", we had the single "Honkin' Down The Highway". Dead in the water when it came to radio airplay. C'moooonnnn! I think "Let Us Go On This Way" might have been a better choice. Or "The Night Was So Young".

I can't think of a single song on LOVE YOU that would have sounded like it belonged on the radio in 1977.  "Honkin'" was as good a choice as any...maybe with better promotion it might have charted, but hard to imagine it having been a huge hit.  LOVE YOU was always destined to be what it became:  an arty cult semi-classic.  MIU, for all its faults, was much closer to what sounded good on (A/C) radio in '78, as was proved a few years later with "Come Go With Me."

How about "I'll Bet He's Nice" as a single?  That might've worked. 

I think "Airplane" is an excellent song and would have made a fantastic single. I mean, if we're going for something that will actually get played on the radio, that song is not as weird as the rest of the album, I think.

The high point of 15 BO IMO, is the background harmony on the middle section of  JOIML.

To these ears, it has the best overall sound on the album. 

There are a couple of good originals on the lp that have sounded better on subsequent boots or other  releases.

This album was poorly planned and executed.  Listening to it and knowing it's history, it seems a product of a bad committee decision. 

I think a lot of really bad music, from a number of acts,  came from that period.  Even the good stuff wasn't that great.

Too much coke and too much change for the worse in the direction of pop music at the time.

Not as weird as the rest of the album is a long drive to getting played on the radio.  I mean, the farting synths and halting drums, in '77, just sounded bizarre to someone weaned on pop radio.  Remember, the Human League and techno rock hadn't happened yet, and punk hadn't broken through commercially (the Ramones did manage to make the charts but even then, you're talking about a basic rock sound people were at least passingly familiar with).  '77 was the height of busy, precise production....disco, Saturday Night Fever, stuff like that.  The only song on LOVE YOU that had a "pro" sounding commercial production was "Good Time" and that was way too retro-sounding for that period.

I think "Honkin'" was about the best shot they had for a single.  As I said before, I think if they'd promoted it harder it might have done as well as "Peggy Sue," but I don't think it would have done any better.  I'd buy "The Night Was So Young" as a second single...but even then, you're dealing with some synth textures that in the context of the time would have sounded weird.

Here's what might have worked for them:  if they'd done a single remix or two, perhaps replaced some of the bass and drums with real instruments, spruced up the vocals a bit.  This probably wasn't feasible because (a) it would have hurt Brian's feelings (Carl already had to mix the whole thing) and (b) if Ostin wasn't going to promote it anyway, why bother?

LOVE YOU has always been a puzzler second only to SMILEY SMILE -- once again, at a pivotal period in the band's history, they released a record that was guaranteed to polarize reactions and puzzle a large portion of their audience.  One story that's circulating is that the album was always intended to be demos, but the band's promotion schedule forced it to be released as was (which was somewhat the case with 15 BIG ONES too, I believe).  Now, I've also heard a number of other things that would make hash of that theory.  But it does make sense to me, and is also consistent of what we know of the band's management's MO at the time.  David Leaf contemporaneously (1978) wrote of those two albums as sounding "unfinished" which is a pretty good assessment of how those albums came across to a listener of the time, even a Brianista as hardcore as Leaf.

I think it was an extremely brave album to make and release.  I think it enhanced the band's long-term reputation and reconnected them with critics to some extent, but its release, couple with the increasingly shoddy live shows at the time, probably cost the band some hard-won commercial ground after 15BO, which for all its faults managed to squeeze out two hit singles.

Love You just gets better with time.  What was once heard as OTL weirdness has become a delightful offering of creative genius.  The melodies and tunes  alone should have made headlines back in the day when compared with a most of the gawdawful sludge found on record shelves.

Well, Patti Smith wrote a glowing review of it, and someone else (in Rolling Stone?) said it might be their best album ever...so it did make headlines!  :)

I vehemently disagree with the guy who said that "Honkin' Down The Highway" was their best shot as a single. Even the earlier version that Hinsche sang wasn't any better. Even the remake by Al last year (WHY?) wasn't any better than the original. He sang it 50 feet in front of me live last month and that didn't do anything for me. The song was very sophmoric and embarrassing, and I couldn't see myself justifying it to friends and relatives if I played it for them. Radio airplay? I never heard it on the radio. Ever. Bought the single when it came out just to complete the collection - I've never played it. I skip over it when I play the album (very seldom). The single didn't chart. Plus, it was backed with Solar System. Gaaaaawwwwwd! Are you shiitin' me? Only way you're gonna get that on the radio, especially in 1977, is to front some big time payola under the table to the DJ. If I were a DJ, I wouldn't play it, even though I'm one of the hugest Beach Boys fans on the West Coast!

You want to know what I really think about "Honkin' Down The Gosh Darn Highway"?

Well, I actually DID hear "Honkin' Down The Highway" on the radio once...in 2004...immediately before an hour-long special on "BWPS"...

While on the subject of what song from Love You would've been the best single to release: one thing that's always puzzled me about the Beach Boys and singles is why on earth it (pretty much) always had to just be two songs snagged from the current album (or whatever new song and an older song as the b-side) .... You'd think a band with such a wealth of unreleased material would maybe see how slapping on an interesting unreleased B-side would make their hardcore fans lap up their 45s as well as the fun in the sun summer 45 at the beach playing "regular" folks who couldn't be bothered shilling for their whole new album.

You mean you're not a fan of the three different B-side instances of "Susie Cincinnati"?!

That is a good point though, they should have done that kind of thing more. Off the top of my head I can think of only three single-only releases of tracks that did not appear on a proper studio album during the respective era: "You're Welcome" (A-side: "Heroes & Villains"), 1967; "Child of Winter" [was there a B-side to this one?], 1974; and "Celebrate the News" (A-side: "Breakaway"), 1969.

Oh, well, I guess there's a whole bunch of singles-only stuff from 1980 onwards but who cares about that crap!

Also... (* B side)

"Luau"* - 1961
"The Lord's Prayer"* - 1963
"The Little Girl I Once Knew" - 1965
"Break Away" - 1969
"Its' A Beautiful Day" - 1979
"California Dreamin' (version 2)" - 1986
"Rock & Roll To The Rescue" - 1986
"Happy Endings" -1987
"Problem Child" - 1990

I coulda sworn Breakaway was an A side..... Either way, those aren't a lot of B sides considering all the material at the BBS disposal and the double albums worth of B
sides some other bands have ammased. Though, perhaps the rare B side thing was more of a 80s n 90s thing.

It was... the phrase I was responding to was "Off the top of my head I can think of only three single-only releases of tracks that did not appear on a proper studio album during the respective era"

Off the top of my head, I wanna say the b-side to Child of Winter was either Good Vibrations or Susie Cincinnati...how appropriate for a Christmas single, yeah?

Susie Cincinnati was the B.

... in the U.S.
In several European countries it was Good Vibrations.

Would 15 BO have fared better with a better sleeve? I don't like the Olympic Games concept. 5 rings for Montreal? What's that got to do with the album itself?

15 songs, 15th anniversary, along with it being an Olympic year. I have no problem with that at all. It was also the United States Bicentennial year too. My problem with the cover is the awful pictures used on the front cover. Dennis' pic is the only decent one of the five. Brian's was the worst with his greasy hair. Maybe, the front shot should have them as U.S. patriots such as Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, with Brian & Mike as the Adams cousins; John and Samuel.

great idea!
Obviously, not a lot of thought was put into the cover.
But at least it included some liner notes about who played on what track...that's a treat in itself

AH HAH!
So I'm right on both accounts!
 ;D

I'm that guy.  I get that you hate "Honkin'" but that's not really the point.  I hate "You Light Up My Life" but that was one of the biggest singles in 1977 IIRC.  What song would have made a better single from LOVE YOU?  (Not what song do you like better...it's not the same thing)

Mind, my overall point was that there were no real viable potential singles on LOVE YOU, without at least a remix and partial rerecording, period.  What I was saying was of the limited options, I think that was the best one in terms of getting some radio airplay.  But I'm not at all surprised it tanked, with or without Warners' support.

Come to think of it, the best argument to support that statement is that "Peggy Sue", from the even more lame-duck MIU ALBUM, managed to get up into the 50s on Billboard.  If bad promotion were the only factor in "Honkin's" failure, you could expect "Peggy Sue" to have met the same fate.

Honkin would have been a great single with the drum intro and it being a pretty infectious tune all-around.

Maybe they could've mixed it differently, I dunno to make it more "hit" like, but overall it was prime stuff for at least a shot at it!

For some reason I think Mona would've been a great single too! It's produced rather well and to my ears seems like a fully fleshed out track. I mean, we're talking good catchy songs when it comes to the LOVE YOU album.

Mona would also be my choice as the best potential single from Love You.  Infectious tune and great lead vocal from Dennis.

As far as promotion is concerned, I still have the poster that Warner Bros sent out to record stores advertising the album.  But picture a WB promo guy walking into a radio station attempting to get airplay.  In addition to his job of promoting specific singles or album tracks, he's gotta think very seriously about his credibility down the road.  In 1977 (or any other year, for that matter), if he walks into a radio station raving about something like Honkin Down the (Gosh Darn) Highway most radio station music directors and/or program directors would have not only passed on the song, but would also have made a mental note not to trust the guy's credibility in the future. 

And, as far as the Love You album is concerned, in the album inner sleeve, the other BBs basically apologized for the album by saying they support and love Brian in his attempt to create new material.  It's like they were saying, "Yeah, we know this album contains a lot of hoarse vocals and quirky lyrics, but we are supporting Brian in his endeavor to get back into producing new material." 

Back to Honkin Down the Highway.  Yes, it's basically a rather lame song, but I've always loved the lines, "Taking one little inch at a time now, 'Til we're feelin' fine now, I guess I've got a way with girls."

Astute post from Custom Machine, I'd say.

OK, I'd buy "Mona" as a single.  It's too bad it never changes, though.  If it had a "B" section it'd make more sense to me.  But I could imagine it on the radio...once or twice.

I get it but still, this was THE BEACH BOYS! They'd always been goofy and had enough goofy hits for no one to be shocked!

Look at what other songs were big hits in 1977:

Car Wash!

Aint Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)

I'm Your Boogie Man!

I mean, wasn't Kung Fu Fighting a big hit too?

Plenty of silliness to go around.

It's not the stupid factor alone...it's the production values plus being in sync with what was going on at the time.  All of those songs were disco-related to greater or lesser degrees.  Which begs an interesting question...if "Here Comes The Night" came out in 1977, would it have been a bigger hit?

I think it would have been a bigger hit if not a BIG hit!

People were herding into football stadiums and burning disco records by the time HCTN 79 was released, right?

Yeah...that "treat" is what sent my poor 14-year old mind over the edge, and precipitated a lifetime of minutae revelling.  So thanks, guys, thanks a lot.

Hey, be thankful they only did it for that ONE album!!!!  :p

i have no idea what that means

He means the detailed liner notes in 15 BIG ONES lead him to this very message board!!!!!!!!

gotcha

As for hit singles: I think neither Honkin' nor Mona were fit to rise to the top. The main problem with Honkin' is that the chorus sounds so... gasping for breath, tired even. Is it the massive cigarette consumption at the time? Don't know.

Mona is too simple. Really. Only we diehards adore it for its essence. Other people may even laugh at the silly lyrics with all that repetition. True, the very same people will like rhyming like 'Disco In Frisco' or 'Action And Satisfaction'. But: combined with the samey melody line and the lack of a bridge... no.

Brian wanted "Roller Skating Child" to be the single at the time, and I have to say, it would've been their best choice. That song is fun, fun, fun!

...and oh, so much more than that...it's become my lifetime's obsession to find out as much detail about the personnel on every record they ever made and every concert tour they ever played as is humanly possible...they started it, and I feel like I have to finish it...

Don't worry. Scientists recently discovered a method to reverse the physical ageing process in mice.

That one always seemed to be the obvious choice to me too. Roller skating was really in vogue at that time. I skated at least once a week and Roller Skating Child was always in rotation at every rink I visited.

Edit: It is also Mike's best lead vocal from that period. Not overly nasal.

Amen! To those that say that Love You sounds like a collection of demos, I point them to "Roller Skating Child". It has tons of interesting touches in terms of production. There's those hand claps going through the whole song; the tack piano low in the mix; the forward-thinking, club ready use of the snare drum; plus, some great interplay between the synth bass and Carl's electric guitar. 

The album is full of things like that. Take, for example, the second verse of "I Wanna Pick You Up". Out of nowhere, Brian starts playing a brilliant counter-melody under Dennis' lines on a synth, which continues through Brian's lines. And you know he probably did that on the spot! Just amazing. But then there's some people who think Brian had lost a lot of his talent at this point. Even some die hard Beach Boys fans (I think one poster here compared Love You to someone recovering from a traumatic brain injury).

On songs like "Airplane" and "I'll Bet He's Nice", the way he puts together all of of those little instrumental elements together is pretty impressive.  Like, on "Airplane", you have those prominent synth chords, which are matched with all these different 2-4 notes drum patterns and brought together with a couple of cool snyth bass parts. It's like watching a child put together a puzzle, and I mean that in the best way possible. Subtly, low in the mix, you'll hear a guitar peek in and out of the mix. On top off all that, there's a yearning vocal, a few harmonies, and we would remiss to ignore the structural greatness of some of the chord changes.

Love You... I love you.

Dada, couldn't agree more on the musical merits of Love You! That beautiful synth line in the second verse of "I Wanna Pick You Up" is so good it can make a grown man weep. Also, it sounds just like it was lifted straight off Switched-On Bach. Very impressive.

It's still unfortunate he chose Denny to sing "I Wanna Pick You Up" though. It just sounds so creepy...

I think Love You was just a couple years too early...had it been released in 79/80, the BBs could've beat the Buggles, the Human League, Depeche Mode, Flock of Seagulls, etc. at their own game.

Though I don't think it sounds creepy at all, could anybody else except Dennis or Brian get away with singing a tune like that? It needed that husky, manly voice singing as a contrast to the lyric. And Love You was definitely a few years ahead of its time. I fell in love with it on first listen back in 1977. It's in my top 5 Beach Boys albums, for sure.

I agree. I think Dennis has the charm to pull it off whereas with Mike or Brian singing it would've been even more creepy.

Also, with Love You, they'd already reached their creepy high water mark earlier in the album with Roller Skating Child, so Dennis being mildly creepy later goes down a whole lot easier.

How is this song creepy? Because a 35 year old Brian wrote a teenage love song?

I'm going to go out on a limb and figure the reason "Roller Skating Child" is creepy is because Brian, a 35-year-old man, is singing about fucking a teenager. I don't think The Beach Boys do the whole "unreliable narrator" thing either...

Also, what makes Denny singing "I Wanna Pick You Up" creepy is the fact that he sounds like he just ate two fistfuls of ashes beforehand. At the same time, however, I'm not sure who could sing it and make it sound less creepy. It's obviously not meant to be a creepy song and the lyrics and music are quite cute. Maybe Bruce? He sings inoffensive pablum so this song would be right up his alley! (http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-haw.gif)

It's creepy because you have a 35 year old man talking about making sweet love till the sun goes down with a teenage roller skating child and then doing EVEN MORE when her parents aren't around!!!!!

Just think about it!

and to top it off you have Mike singing it!

So, am I creepy for singing along with it since its release? I turned 20 in 1977. ;)

I wouldn't think so!

It's such a catchy song (my fave on the album)! How can you NOT sing along?

It's just when you stop to think about it that the creepy factor sets in!

So, just don't think about it and continue singing along!  :p

Saying "RSC" is creepy is liking saying all of those Disney movies where balding adults write romances for 14-year-olds is creepy. It's just taking on a character.

Good point.

Maybe I just have a hard time separating the (very balding) guy singing it from the character in the song!

Oh, "Rolling Skating Child" isn't so bad.  Three words:  "Summer Of Love."

People all around the world in every nation
Like to get together for some excitations
If you’re a girl appreciates her recreation
Why don’t you let me take you on a love vacation

Yeah I’ll take you to the movies
But I’m no fool (wah wah oooo)
First I’ll get you on the beach
Or in a swimming pool
Doing unto others is the golden rule
But doing it with you would be so
Very cool

Girls are always ready for a summer of love
Goin’ out and lookin’ for love (girls are always ready)
Girls are always ready for a summer of love (sum sum summer summer of love)
Goin’ out and lookin’ for love (sum sum summer summer of love)

I can’t wait til summer (yeah)
Cause it’s gonna be a summer of love
Hey now (well it’s a love thing)

Everytime the weather starts to gettin’ hotter
Don’t worry about it toos your clothes and hit the water
We’ll be california dreaminin’ bay watchin’ everyday
Just off the malibu surfin’ u. s. a.

Now no girl ever wants to leave their
Love back home (wah wah oooo)
So if you miss him baby
Call him on the phone
But make it quick
We’re almost in a party zone

Cause summer days and nights
Aren’t meant to spend alone

Girls are always ready for a summer of love
Goin’ out and lookin’ for love (girls are always ready)
Girls are always ready for a summer of love (sum sum summer summer of love)
Goin’ out and lookin’ for love (sum sum summer summer of love)

I can’t wait til summer (yeah)
Cause it’s gonna be a summer of love
Hey now (well it’s a love thing)

Now summer is a time when there’re no strings attached
But we could get together if you com on back
I’d like to tell you if it’s any satisfaction
You’ll always be my summer seasons main attraction

I never found their lyrics creepy. I would reserve this word for artists who write offensive texts in a self-conscious manner, really knowing what they are doing, to create some very naughty effect and generate money by working on the edge of what is acceptable.

I think our Boys are unique in the 'child-like' factor quotient. RSC no doubt was sung in earnest by Brian, a good love song like he wrote 'em so many in his younger years. He never thought: hey, I'm 35 now, I'm going to write a song about how difficult it is to find a decent job in modern society, or how the Japanese economy is quickly becoming the leader in the world.

IRCC, the Boys never got attacked by anyone in the media for the lyrical content in Love You, or Hey Little Tomboy for that matter.

The Knack got vilified in 1978 or so, because they weren't 18 anymore and sang about little girls. Now, I don't know their lyrics, but somehow I think that most people have a pretty good instinct when it comes to separating the well-intentioned from the perverse.

...which I think would still be fair game because we're talking about art (if I would personally enjoy such art is another question, I guess it depends). For some reason people working in the field of literature seem to get away with a lot more in terms of creepiness or overall transgression. Maybe we tend to connect a pop lyric writer's imagination to their own personal lives because pop music is meant to be direct and personal, whereas literature (or filmmaking, for that matter) is seen more as a means of intellectual exploration.

Re: "Roller Skating Child", this comes from a bunch of men slowly approaching middle age who still used to call themselves "The Beach Boys" at the time. Come to think of it, in concert these guys (including Brian) are still singing about going to school to this very day ("Girl Don't Tell", "Dance Dance Dance"). That's not creepy, but maybe it's a bit unfortunate. I don't mind it, though, and personally I think "Roller Skating Child" is a brilliant song, one of my personal favourites even.

Well put. As a fan, I tend to be very lenient towards the Beach, so to speak... but that aside, I see them as quite a naïve group of musicians, more naïve than most of their colleagues. Take Chuck Berry, I'd have more trouble hearing him sing the praises of girls aged 16; because in his personal life he pulled quite a few dirty stunts.

What constitutes an 'adult song'? I played Bruce Springsteen's 'Reno' yesterday, and it struck me how daring it actually is; it paints a Carver-esque picture of melancholy adulthood. I think few major stars ever did something like this. Compared to it, the Rolling Stones' running gag/obsession with dirty, dirt and sex, nightlife, decadence, decay, and drugs is mere sensationalism to me, and very boring sensationalism at that.

Jesus Christ that's sh*t. It sounds bad to listen to but reading it is even worse. I guess he used 'girl' because 'mature woman' didn't scan.

I can't believe that came from the same guy who wrote the zen poetry of the Wild Honey LP. If Mike had died after the Sunflower LP came out, his reputation would be much greater.

I read it in full for the first time just now. Shameful, really. Embarrassing to the n-th degree.

no, Heartical, this is naïve at most, but not shameful, embarrassing, or creepy...




 ;D

 :-[ you got me there, I guess. Caught in the web of my own words...

NO, I think Shameful is the word; at least as to Mike's lyrics.
I hear all this crap about HLT and how it's so bad coming from an "old" Brian;
well,  here's an even older Mike writing about young girls come take your clothes off and have sex with me, and this is Naive? 

Wow.   :(

I don't see how Mike's lyrics are creepy. Terrible? Yes. But creepy? No. Just because he uses the word "girl", that doesn't make it pedophiliac. He never explicitly sings about younger girls in the song. I think he was just trying to make something different age groups could appreciate. Which he failed at because he's lame, not because he's a creep. Mike has always been a youthful, attractive stud.

How old was Mike when he wrote that?  I wonder if you'll still be getting the horn for young women at that age.

How come Randy Newman, Eminem and Fagen and Becker (Cousin Dupree, anyone?) write in character and everyone gets it, but you make the assumption that 30-odd year-old Brian still lusts after 15 year-olds?

It's a fair point, but I think if you watch the video for "Summer Of Love" you'll come away with the impression that Mike isn't acting.

BTW, it is possible for middle-aged musicians to pull in the young ones.  Just ask Steven Tyler!

@ bgas: Maybe I should have used even more smileys to emphasize the fact that I was just kidding.....  just quoting a word ("naïve") that the Heartical Don used earlier in this discussion.

I think Mike lives and has lived such lyrics..... Lyrical lameness or not.

I have a friend who lives in Santa Barbara and says Mike can be seen often cruising around town with young(er) ladies in his convertible!

We're all just jealous  :p

Really ? His main residence is Incline Village, Nevada. The Mesa Lane property was sold years ago.

This was a couple of years ago at least that he told me this!

To be fair to Randy Newman, most people don't understand he's writing in character. Remember the controversy over "Short People"? That song wasn't even one of his more subtle satires.... The reason people assume The Beach Boys do not write in character is because, quite simply, they do not. There is no precedent to think that this is something any of them do either -- that is, they've never said or even implied as much. Plus, I mean, Brian did start going out with Marilyn when she was, what, 14 and he 20-something? Creepy.

And he DID pretty much live with her at her parents house, right?

Perhaps the lyrics to Roller Skating Child really are autobiographical!!!!

There's no getting around the creepiness of RSC because the TITLE has the word CHILD. The whole song is about how hot she is, and what he's gonna do when her "mom's not around"...and she's a CHILD according to the song's TITLE. Absolutely creepy. BTW I do think its the best potential single on the LP because of the great beat and the great chorus...but with those lyrics and that title...no chance. I mean I like the song, i really do...but its f'n embarrassing and pedophile lyric material, no doubt. Such is the case with much of the late '70's Beach Boys material...as you are cringing, or blushing, or vomiting...you are also often tapping your foot and singing along. Weird times.

Not to mention the fact that he already made sweet love to her when her Mom WAS around!!!!!

Great song though! Mike sounds great (if creepy) on lead and I absolutely LOVE the last verse where the other BBs come in on harmony!! So great!

I think RSC as a track would maybe go down easier with the general public if there was a real bass on the track to give it more of a bottom end.

The Beach Boys could've easily re-recorded it (ala Roxy Music: Angel Eyes) as a single and worked it up a bit more "traditionally" for the masses and it may have been a hit...... IF...... radio would even play the damn thing.

You are right, a real bass makes a big difference. I have a live video from the L.A. Forum in 1977 where they absolutely kick butt on RSC with Ed Carter on bass, Dennis on drums, Carl doing the guitar fills...it sounds way better to my ears than the track on the LP.

He played in the grass when mom was around and played in the mud when mom wasn't around.

Nicely put  :p

You, Mike, and Brian might wanna collaborate on some tunes!

I don't know if our European friends will get the joke...

Why Prince hasn't covered something from that period is a humourous wonder to me. He should!

If we're lucky maybe Kayla will do a Prince-style version of Roller Skating Child!!!   ::)

Imagine a mashup of When Doves Cry with Roller Skating Child...the first single from BLACK SOUNDS, a mashup of Prince and the Beach Boys.

Oh, no need to worry about that. You filthy git  :lol

How about this version from a few months later, where Brian plays the bass...not necessarily BETTER, but definitely FACINATING...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1EPXBQV3yM

Did anyone ever think that RSC was written and sung from the point of view of a teenage boy?  How about the Beatles "Little Child"? Is that considered creepy too? I guess we read into things whatever we want to. I try not to over analyze lyrics of rock and roll music. From everything I've ever heard it has always been, anything goes, and everything is fair game.

And what about this "writing in character" stuff? Of course the Boys' write in character. Brian was neither a surfer or dragger, yet he wrote many a song about each. How about "Don't Back Down" for example. He surely wasn't writing about himself in a real way.

Something I keep forgetting to ask: what's the deal with all of those a cappella songs supposedly recorded/written around the 15 Big Ones that Dennis said sounded like the Vienna Boys Choir? What happened to those? Or was Dennis just making stuff up?

That's a legendary clip.  I've seen footage from a tour in '77 or '78 where Brian is on bass for the entire show, not singing much but essentially fully integrated as a member of the backup band.  His bass lines are a little dumbed down but pretty solid...and the most striking thing is how animated he is, running around the stage in full rock star mode all through the show.  Compared to the images we're used to of Brian sitting stolidly behind a usually inaudible piano, it's a bit of a shock to see.

Peter Ames Carlin implies that Brian wanted to be more active in the stage show in the late '70s, but Carl wouldn't let him out of fears that the overall performance would suffer.  There's some evidence that that was indeed the case based on footage in '77 and '78.  Whether that was the right decision or not, it's easy to imagine Brian's boredom with the situation...and worth noting that when Carl left in '81, Brian briefly returned to a more active role in the stage band (with mixed, but often disastrous, results)

I think that's a good point...LOVE YOU actually does come across as largely being written as Brian's idea of what a teenager would think, the problem being Brian was so far away from that mindset that it just seems bizarre.  I would argue that's the essential problem with the group's efforts to recapture its past...the guys were trying to write about something they were no longer in tune with, so it all sounds like a reach in the dark.  Lyrically, I vastly prefer the later songs where they stuck to more adult or age-neutral themes.  It sounds waaay less forced.

Anyways, I think it's fair to say that Brian was writing in character for a lot of LOVE YOU, but nonetheless it tells us a lot about where Brian's head was at at the time.

I've always considered The Beatles' "Run For Your Life" more than a mere tad creepy!

and quite mean spirited too. That is one jealous boyfriend in that lyric.

It's the kind of song OJ might very well have had on a tape-loop in his Bronco's cassette deck!

Good question...I was wondering the same thing, but always assumed the latter.

I found it amusing that the first Lennon song on Rubber Soul ("Norwegian Wood") was about an affair and the last Lennon song was about suspecting your mate of being unfaithful.  Creepy, mean spirited and hypocritical.

What was Ed Carter doing while Brian played bass at this time?

I don't remember what Ed was doing, or if he was even there.  I assume (and believe) he was playing lead guitar.

Yes, that is correct.  There were a few songs in those shows where Brian would leave the stage (i.e. Lady Lynda, Everyone's In Love With You, Feel Flows, All This Is That), and Ed would take over the bass for those.

Craig, how many tours was Brian, in effect, the full-time bass player?  I was shocked watching this video seeing that Brian was not just participating in the band, but being an integral part of it.

Basically, from what I can tell, Brian played bass almost exclusively on the tours he was on throughout 1978.  In 1979, he was back on piano.  David Leaf wrote in his book that Brian played bass throughout one show in December '77, so I guess that's where it started.

I saw the Beach Boys in Dec. of 1976 and Brian played bass on several songs, so the transition to Brian as bass player was already underway then.

I'm wondering now if there was a precipitating incident or incidents that benched Brian (literally and figuratively) in '78-'79.  The indicators are that it was Carl that instigated it.  '79 was the year he got clean, right?  I wonder if that was part of it, or Brian's commitment to Brotman, or maybe he just declined (or got bored) to the point where he was screwing up the show.

Interesting to think about.  I don't know if the timing pencils out, but I could imagine a scenario where Brian goes off to Brotman, Carl's been looking for an excuse to get him off the bass, and so when he gets back, bam, Ed Carter's on the P-bass, there's your piano, Brian.  Interestingly, Barry Gibb pulled the same thing on his brother at almost exactly the same time, moving Maurice from bass to a usually inaudible rhythm guitar (the ostensible excuse was Maurice's back problems, but it apparently had more to do with his drinking becoming a liability to his playing, and secondarily Barry's desire to use a session-grade player).