Is it true that there is a BB's connection with this song?  heard a story about it so many years ago, but the details are fuzzy now. Was Shannon Carl's dog?

except that Girls On The Beach is one of the greatest songs ever written.

That's one where Brian's chord changes are just out of this word. I mean, nobody but Brian comes up with changes, modulations like that. And then THOSE voices singing it....how could any BB's fan not love this?

To be honest, I actually think that the vocals and the harmony arrangments on the disco version are better than the original version. Carl's voice had matured quite a bit, and he could really belt out a song when the mood struck him.  Those "dit dit dit" parts in the begining are pretty darn catchy, too.  I also really love the "di di di dit" vocals at the end. It kind of reminds me of With Me Tonight.

It works well on the single, but the album just drags it out too long. Too bad the cd version didn't omit the 10 minute version and include the single instead...and that would leave room for another track, maybe It's a Beautiful Day.

It is great that we can still buy 45's in 2012.

"You gotta surge on the power"

I'll buy a physical release, be it a CD, 7" or even a cassette. But I won't pay for a crap mp3 download. If I want an MP3 from an album then I just rip the CD.

What used to make singles interesting was the B-sides....something not from the album. Then when CD singles came out they often included a 3rd track. Downloading an mp3 of a track certainly should count for sales (if done legitimately) but it has zero appeal to me.

Amen!

I still can't wrap my old brain around the idea of downloads being "singles". Give me the little 7 inch kind with the big hole in the center. I'd be happy to have ANY of the new songs in that format.

There's no reason we can't make our own shirts. In fact, I think we should.

One big mistake is delaying the vinyl. All the major record collectors of sixties music would have bought one or two this week myself included. A couple of thousand that potentially would have sold this week on record may not have meant anything 20 years ago but today it can make a HUGE difference.

Right on! And on today's charts, it's all about the first week, unless your name is Adele. Not trying to be pessimistic here (sorry, Mr. Love), but I expect a huge dropoff in second week sales. IIRC, TLOS had a first week debut of 25, and spent a grand total of 3 weeks in the Billboard 200. I hope TWGMTR has a longer chart run.

[commercial]

And for every new 'fan' who is 'only interested in the 1966/67 era' there are a thousand or so people who are only interested in the 1962-65 stuff.

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Beach+Boys/+charts?rangetype=week&subtype=tracks
Wow, you're right. Just compare the plays in the last week for Shut Down and That's Not Me. It's exactly "a thousand or so," like you said. Thank the Radio God that Mike Love is sparing us the non-commercial I Know There's An Answer in favor of crowd favorites like Little Honda.

Which is only any evidence for your statement if all the people playing Pet Sounds were people who were *only* interested in 'the 1966/67 era'.

In fact, the last.fm playlist stats pretty much always reflect the same listening pattern -- people listening to Sounds Of Summer, and people listening to Pet Sounds. Except that a lot of the people listening to Pet Sounds turn it off part-way into the album.

But your whole argument is fundamentally incoherent, anyway. Just because *you* think that the only worthwhile music the band made was in 1966 and 67 doesn't make it true. Nor does it mean that there is a massive audience out there who *only* want to hear that music and nothing else. Nor does it mean that the millions more people who have copies of songs like In My Room and Surfer Girl secretly don't like those songs.  And it definitely doesn't mean that it's a conspiracy by Mike Love to make Brian perform songs you don't like -- of the nine songs you cite as being 'agony', five of them (Catch A Wave, Don't Back Down, Little Deuce Coupe, In My Room and Surfer Girl) have been regulars in Brian's set. Brian's played In My Room and Surfer Girl at *every single show he's done*, bar none.

Remember that outside his Pet Sounds tours, Brian's not played anything other than the hits from Pet Sounds for years, while Mike's band have included Here Today and You Still Believe In Me. After the Smile tours ended in 2005, Brian's not played anything other than Heroes & Villains, which is also a regular in Mike's band's set, from Smile.   No matter *who* was in control of the setlist (and it seems to have been worked out by compromise) you'd never get the kind of setlist you seem to want, because while to a greater or lesser extent all the band members (except presumably David) see Pet Sounds (and to a lesser extent Smile) as their most important album, none of them see it as their *only* important album, or 1966 and early 1967 (because when you speak about 1967 you're clearly not counting either Smiley Smile or Wild Honey, so we're talking about up to March at best) as more important than the other forty-eight years and nine months of their career.

Nicely stated - and accurate. A few people here need to read this post, it's not like all Brian and his band played was deep tracks, and Mike/Bruce only played surfing/car/Kokomo hits.

If only Mike could've lectured Billie Holiday before recording Strange Fruit, it could use a punchup of positivity.

California trees bear good fruit,
fun on the leaves
   and sun to the root
hard bodies singin' in the Malibu breeze
strange fruit served with red wine and cheese

a happenin' scene never goes south,
pretty eyes and a cutie-pie mouth
scent of jasmine, so sweet and fresh
then the sudden smell of teenage flesh.

there's lots of fruit, the boys are in luck
 the surfers all gather when there's honeys to pluck
for the sun never sets, the waves never drop
life is so strange, a wonderful pop!

Or um, something like that.

(flails around uselessly)

Too bad Mike missed "Gloomy Sunday"

The production on BW88 didn't bother me at the time - everybody was using synths at the time, unless they were a roots/revival act, i.e. Los Lobos. Even rootsy popster Marshall Crenshaw ended up using them on some songs. Now, of course, it just dates those productions, but the songs on BW88 were strong, and Brian was singing better than he had in a long time. I suppose some could call the production on IJWMFTT AC leaning, kind of a preview of what was coming on Imagination, and that doesn't bother me, either, going back to the natural instruments. A friend of mine commented at the time that Brian had lost all his "edginess". My response was that I didn't expect an "edgy" Brian in 1998, he was married, happy, much of the chaos in his life was behind him.

Tried to post a response, but it didn't go through 

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'll find a used copy in a few years for $70 or so, so I'm okay.

I know I'm in the minority but I loved Imagination the moment I heard it and was extremely excited when I heard Joe was on board for the reunion.  I'm so happy my hopes were not misplaced!  Great album.  Great job.

I loved Imagination, too. In fact, I loved every BW solo album up to GIOMH. That one just didn't match up to BW88, OCA, or Imagination. Even IJAWMFTT rates higher to me.

I had planned to go up to my favorite record store tomorrow to pick up TWGMTR, so I checked online to make sure they have it, and the vinyl is not listed. Amazon lists it as being released July something. WTF? I saw the cd on sale at Target the other night for $7.99, is this just a trick to get some of us to buy both the cd and the vinyl?

Being that this is a reunion album, there should have at least been a dedication to Carl, he was still living the last time these guys recorded together. I guess they could say "we already did the dedication to Dennis on the back cover's of BB85 and Made in USA", but I think they should have referenced both.

I got a UK copy of CATP for $7 last weekend. Plays very nice, only serious noise is during Cuddle Up - probably the best song on the album.

I don't like Kokomo because it represents, to me, yet another chance for the Beach Boys to have their entire career re-evaluated by the public at large...and they blew it.  Just like in 1967, 1976, and 1997.   Yes, it was a #1 song, yes, it made tons of money, and yes it's not a bad tune.  But, it basically gave dismissers of the Beach Boys an enormous stick with which to beat the band.   From Pet Sounds onward, every member of that group, including Mike, desperately wanted to be as "hip" as the Beatles.  Just look at the way Mike dressed in the 1970's and 1980's, like he was trying too hard to be with the times, so much so that any snapshot of him from any year, other than the SMiLE shots from Amsterdam in 1966, makes him look ridiculously dated.  Ironically, Brian is the only one who really never seemed to care about anything but the music.

Kokomo was a huge opportunity.  A hit single which, it it had somehow been stitched to Brian Wilson's solo album, perhaps as the leadoff track, would have made that album possibly the best selling album of the 1980's.    Overnight, that band would have regained a lot of its former prestige and glory.    But no.  They did one single, cemented their perception as being a good-time bubblegum group from the 1960's that got lucky once again, and even worse, they slapped Kokomo onto "Still Cruising" with a couple of new songs and a few oldies.  K-Tel couldn't have done a better job! 

I couyldn't have said it better! And I admit I was naive enough in 1988/89 to think that Kokomo's success would spur the guys on to do an album that combined the best of their hit sounds along with the more serious side of the band. They had their chance and they blew it.

I expected a good LP to follow in Kokomo's wake because of their high profile and that time (far more than in 1976) they blew it completely.

I feel they did waste perhaps their last opportunity to be relevant to the general pop audience by not properly following up Kokomo. Around the same time, the Bee Gees had their commercial/ artistic renaissance with You Win Again and after and if the Boys had followed a similar template, they could have had a credible non-Brian (if admittedly AOR) career revival into the early '90s, as a slick, 'mature' AOR vocal group. Not really to my taste, but a more respectable fate than what actually followed imo.

I doubt they would've gone the AOR route  - in the early 70's, that meant serious songs with long instrumental passages (i.e. Leaving This Town, Feel Flows). By the late 80's, AOR meant generic overproduced arena rock. I think the BB's could've successfully appealed to the AC crowd in the time frame we're talking about, as California Dreamin', Getcha Back and Kokomo all charted high on the AC charts. One thing I have failed to take into account, though, is the band's strained relations with Brian, largely because of Landy IMHO. How much of the new stuff for Still Cruisin' is he actually on? I don't hear him at all on the title track, Somewhere Near Japan or Make it Big (although he was in the video for SIP). He's clearly heard in the intro of Island Girl and of course In My Car. I'm sure the guys would've liked him to be around more, but Landy thought there was more to be gained by keeping Brian at arm's length from the group.

Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan is better than the cover version (shortened cover version) by the Byrds

Probably a controversial opinion, but I agree with you. Too bad the Byrds didn't do a longer version for their first album, as their arrangement is classic, but yeah, I prefer Bob's version simply because he does the complete song.

I don't like Kokomo because it represents, to me, yet another chance for the Beach Boys to have their entire career re-evaluated by the public at large...and they blew it.  Just like in 1967, 1976, and 1997.   Yes, it was a #1 song, yes, it made tons of money, and yes it's not a bad tune.  But, it basically gave dismissers of the Beach Boys an enormous stick with which to beat the band.   From Pet Sounds onward, every member of that group, including Mike, desperately wanted to be as "hip" as the Beatles.  Just look at the way Mike dressed in the 1970's and 1980's, like he was trying too hard to be with the times, so much so that any snapshot of him from any year, other than the SMiLE shots from Amsterdam in 1966, makes him look ridiculously dated.  Ironically, Brian is the only one who really never seemed to care about anything but the music.

Kokomo was a huge opportunity.  A hit single which, it it had somehow been stitched to Brian Wilson's solo album, perhaps as the leadoff track, would have made that album possibly the best selling album of the 1980's.    Overnight, that band would have regained a lot of its former prestige and glory.    But no.  They did one single, cemented their perception as being a good-time bubblegum group from the 1960's that got lucky once again, and even worse, they slapped Kokomo onto "Still Cruising" with a couple of new songs and a few oldies.  K-Tel couldn't have done a better job! 

I couyldn't have said it better! And I admit I was naive enough in 1988/89 to think that Kokomo's success would spur the guys on to do an album that combined the best of their hit sounds along with the more serious side of the band. They had their chance and they blew it.

Maybe it can get to #1 next week - Leno might help.

Not gonna happen. These days, albums debut at their top spot. This is the best it's going to be.

So true. I miss the days when we got to watch the hit albums slowly climb from week to week up to their peak. Much more drama, and you didn't feel as if you'd completely missed out by not buying the first week.

Maybe I could appreciate "crack" in a more basic production; the 80's sound doesn't do it for me. The song itself sounds like nothing special to my ears, but there are some good tunes on BB85. Unfortunately, the best ones weren't Brian's (my guess being that he wanted to save his best stuff for a solo album), although I do like I'm So Lonely and It's Just a Matter of Time quite well. Getcha Back has aged well, and It's Gettin' Late, Where I Belong and I Do Love You are strong songs.

man i don't know how anyone can think he would sound the same as he does now.  Brian currently sounds like a smoother/better version of 1977 brian.  which sounds nooothing...NOTHING like 1960s brian. 

Look at Mike, Bruce, Al, Carl at the end, Paul Mccartney, Mick Jagger...etc.  At their best, they sound exactly like they did in the 60s.  Brian's old voice has been completely gone/changed since the mid-70s.  there's no way he'd sound like he does now. 

Agreed. It sounds like two different people. I don't hear a radical change in his voice from 1977 onwards; on some albums, he sounds better than others, but they all sound like the same guy.