Looks like Zeppo was the only Beach Boy to not grow a beard. He also aged gracefully.

Here's something I recently unearthed. The ORIGINAL All Summer Long back cover:

That's probably from the part of the 1963 tour when Brian asked Al back to replace him. This is just before David split.

The melody of the bassline is the key between 'Trombone Dixie' and 'Had To Phone Ya', as well as some horn lines.

This may have been already posted but...this is just too awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUh9L9PXslc

Jokey, early version of 'Little Saint Nick' --> 'Drive In'. Or the other way around...

Speaking of, 'Little Deuce Coupe' --> 'Little Saint Nick', I'd say.

'Shortenin' Bread' --> 'Walkin' The Line', parts of 'Goin' Home' and 'Too Much Sugar'

It will always be 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', which is also my #1 favorite song of all time. I have a copy of the original 1966 Capitol swirl 45 single (b/w 'God Only Knows') and someday I want Brian Wilson and Tony Asher to sign it.  

'Let Him Run Wild' is a distant second.

Groovy...and freaky.

I created these a few years ago for a 2-volume Best of the Beach Boys compilations and posted them originally on the Shut Down, volume 2 forum.



The Warmth of the Sun: The Best of the Beach Boys volume 1

Disc 1
1. Surfin'
2. Surfin' Safari
3. 409
4. Surfin' USA
5. Shut Down
6. Surfer Girl
7. Catch A Wave
8. Little Deuce Coupe
9. In My Room
10. Be True To Your School
11. Little Saint Nick
12. Fun, Fun, Fun
13. Don't Worry Baby
14. The Warmth of the Sun
15. Why Do Fools Fall In Love
16. I Get Around
17. All Summer Long
18. Little Honda
19. Hushabye
20. Wendy
21. The Girls On The Beach
22. Don't Back Down

Disc 2
1. Do You Wanna Dance
2. When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
3. Dance, Dance, Dance
4. Please Let Me Wonder
5. Kiss Me, Baby
6. She Knows Me Too Well
7. Help Me, Rhonda
8. Then I Kissed Her
9. Girl Don't Tell Me
10. California Girls
11. Let Him Run Wild
12. You're So Good To Me
13. The Little Girl I Once Knew
14. Barbara Ann
15. Sloop John B.
16. Wouldn't It Be Nice
17. You Still Believe In Me
18. God Only Knows
19. Caroline, No
20. Good Vibrations


The Warmth of the Sun: The Best of the Beach Boys volume 2

Disc 1
1. Heroes and Villains
2. Wild Honey
3. Darlin'
4. Let The Wind Blow
5. Friends
6. Little Bird
7. Busy Doin' Nothin'
8. Do It Again
9. I Can Hear Music
10. Bluebirds Over The Mountain
11. I Went To Sleep
12. Time To Get Alone
13. Break Away
14. Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song)
15. This Whole World
16. Add Some Music To Your Day
17. Forever
18. Our Sweet Love
19. Long Promised Road
20. Disney Girls (1957)
21. 'Til I Die
22. Surf's Up

Disc 2
1. You Need A Mess of Help To Stand Alone
2. Marcella
3. All This Is That
4. Sail On, Sailor
5. California
6. The Trader
7. Funky Pretty
8. Rock And Roll Music
9. It's OK
10. Had To Phone Ya
11. The Night Was So Young
12. I'll Bet He's Nice
13. Come Go With Me
14. Good Timin'
15. Baby Blue
16. Goin' On
17. Getcha Back
18. California Dreamin'
19. Kokomo
20. That's Why God Made The Radio

Brian Wilson - responsible creatively for gems such as Today! Summer Days, Pet Sounds and the SMiLE music.

Mike Love - responsible creatively for stinkers like Summer In Paradise. UGH.

A little too simplistic. It'd be like if I faulted Brian for creating "Smart Girls" and claimed Mike was superior for having written the basis of "All I Wanna Do" or something.

Granted Brian is obviously the better (but then he is Brian frigging Wilson, generally regarded as one of the best pop songwriters ever), but still.

Well, it was a generalization. Yes, Mike has created some lovely things, Brian some crappy things. It's interesting to note that even on some of Brian's worst solo recordings, there's always something cool and interesting in there. I have no frame of reference for Mike's solo work since I've never heard any, but typically when he was in control musically on things (that I know of) tend to be pretty crappy. I don't know why, but sometime after Holland, Mike stopped writing great songs for the most part, though his tunes on TWGMTR are pretty good. It's strange that he went from something like 'Big Sur' and, with Dennis, 'Only With You', both great, to stuff like 'Everyone's In Love With You' and much of the terrible MIU album.

Hey, isn't 'Brian's Back' a solo recording? I hate that song.

'Do It Again' - simply awesome and one of the best pure rock songs the band ever recorded. 5/5

'I Can Hear Music' - sublime cover. Like many BBs' covers, it surpasses the original. Carl Wilson...what can you say? 5/5

'Bluebirds Over The Mountain' - not bad, but not all that great. Good and solid, if a little uncharacteristic of the boys. 3.5/5

'Be With Me' - darkly wonderful and epic. One of Denny's most complex and deep songs. 5/5

'All I Want to Do' - uh, rockin'. Great Mike vocal. 3/5

'The Nearest Faraway Place' - quite pretty and sweeping, but it's water and sugar compared to Brian's classy '65-'66 instrumentals of aromic wine. 3.5/5

'Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song)' - decent, though completely inferior to the single version, which is exiting and features a strong Al lead vocal. This version, Al seems half-asleep by comparison, there's no awesome pedal steel and the harmonies aren't as strong. Meh. 3/5

'I Went To Sleep' - BEAUTIFUL. Essential Brian Wilson. 5/5

'Time To Get Alone' - one of my top 10 favorite Beach Boys songs. Stunning, sweeping and gorgeous, it's definitely the strongest track on the album. Killer! 5/5

'Never Learn Not To Love' - well, uh...Dennis adds some nice aspects to this song and I do dig the badass intro and the harmonies, sweet yet sour. 3/5

'Our Prayer' - obviously brilliant beyond brilliant. 5/5

'Cabinessence' - this has always been one of my favorite Smile tracks. Astounding is the word. 5/5


Odds n' sods, but very good album.

I like 'Goin' On', 'Oh Darlin'' and 'Livin' With A Heartache'. The title track and 'Endless Harmony' are almost halfway decent. 'Santa Ana Winds' is an alright song, but an awful recording. Everything else belongs in the trash, along with the cover art.

'Battle Hymn of the Republic'. I seriously doubt this.

i can only talk for what i have (which is nothing past Love You), but ignoring the obvious pet sounds, I'd say most is Friends.  That album has a clear style and feel all the way through.  Least is 20/20.  It doesn't even feel like an album to me. 

Same!

I don't own LA or MIU - I feel like those must sound very patched together, but that's just based off of samples I've heard.

Well, MIU isn't cohesive 'cause it's a crappy album. I wouldn't say there's any production or melodic bits that don't mix well with others on that album, though. Not that patchy, IMO.

LA Light Album is better than MIU and more patchy. Disco 'Here Comes The Night', then graceful, astounding 'Baby Blue'? Snore-inducing laid-back sweetness of 'Goin' South' against the bump n' grind rockin' 'Shortenin' Bread'? The album is kind of all over the place, but all in all it's pretty good (long is you forget about 'Sumahama' and 'Here Comes The Night').

Most - Pet Sounds
Least - Still Cruisin'

There are Beach Boys albums that are in cohesive and are crap (like Still Cruisin') and albums that are good (20/20 and Shut Down volume 2). It's kind of a norm for the Beach Boys to put out studio albums with a few miss-mashed songs, often weird, spotty songs out of left field rubbing shoulders with greatness. The one big exception to this is Pet Sounds and maybe Wild Honey (Smile not counted). Surfer Girl has stuff like 'The South Bay Surfer' alongside wonderful stuff like 'In My Room'. All Summer Long is a great album, marred by filler tracks like 'Carl's Big Chance' and 'Our Favorite Recording Sessions', which stick out like sore thumbs amongst the goodies. To a lesser extant, Today and Summer Days have these problems, too.

Worth the price of admission for 'Guess I'm Dumb', but there are quite a few other gems here. 'After the Game' is just amazing, particularly for such an early era; 'Thinking About You Baby' is inferior to 'Darlin'', but still is groovy and very Phil Spector-y. Speaking of, The Honeys I think were supposed to be Brian's very own Ronettes. 'He's A Doll' sounds like a mixture of many classic Spector productions such as 'Then He Kissed Me' and 'Uptown'. Oh, 'Shyin' Away' and 'Fallin' In Love' (prefer the Denny version but hey) are just awesome.
Essential collection if you wanna dig what Bri was all about.

I've seen a copy of the brown PS lp on eBay w/o CATP. This copy is MS 2197.
The CATP/white cover PS catalog number is 2MS 2083.

I feel the sound quality adds to the whole feel, the whole...petina of the album. Kind of like that organ bleeding through the channels on 'Country Air'. Groovy outta-sight trip. I'll never understand so many fans' wish to hear Wild Honey in stereo. A big part of what makes the album sound so rockin' and raw (well, raw for the usually slick Beach Boys) is the mono, baby.

Wow, didn't know that (or I forgot) they played on 'The Girl From New York City'. Huh.

It could be that Al was playing the same riff as Carl on the earlier albums, so you might not here him right away, particularly in mono. Like a double-tracked voice. I'm just speaking out of my ass, so I dunno. I have a feeling that as producer, leader and arranger, Brian prized Al's vocal talents far over his guitar talents.
What about later, post-SMiLE albums? Can he be heard on guitar then?

I dislike 'Student Demonstration Time' not for the lyrics (which aren't too bad, Mike, really!) but for it being just so obnoxious-sounding. Especially being nestled with nice, cooling little things like 'Disney Girls' and 'Feel Flows'. It's like relaxing to smooth, melodic chamber music and then some idiot comes storming in blasting Molly Hatchet.

And I don't hate Mike Love, not really. I hate what he sometimes has said and some of the "creative" decisions he's made for the band...

Brian Wilson - responsible creatively for gems such as Today! Summer Days, Pet Sounds and the SMiLE music.

Mike Love - responsible creatively for stinkers like Summer In Paradise. UGH.

It's like different eras of Mike I like over others. I'd much prefer to hang out with epic beard and stupid hats 1971 Mike than 1976 gold lame, rings and a frickin' turbin Mike Love.

Maybe a few more nuggets from Adult Child and Landlocked; more delicious backing tracks and vocals-only mixes...maybe some sessions here and there.

Oh and - if it's gonna be another career retrospective of hits and such, like the 1993 box set, please include 'Let Him Run Wild'. Thank you.

Side 1
1. Sound of Free
2. Long Promised Road
3. San Miguel
4. Feel Flows
5. 4th of July
6. Fallin' In Love

Side 2
1. Big Sur
2. Disney Girls (1957)
3. Wouldn't It Be Nice (To Live Again)
4. A Day In The Life of a Tree (sung instead by Brian would be better)
5. Til I Die
6. Surf's Up

Ricky, Blondie and Bruce.

I like them. But there's gold in them there 5 Beach Boys...

Dennis' boat, The Harmony, became the property of Zeppo's after it was repossessed. Before steering the boat to his own slip, Zeppo angrily tossed a lot of Dennis' personal belongings from The Harmony into the water. It's thought that Zeppo's claiming of Dennis' prized boat and throwing his stuff into the ocean was out of revenge for Dennis hooking up with Shawn Wilson, Mike Love's daughter. Zeppo had proposed to her in 1979 and even bought her the Bellagio house that Brian had lived in up until recently. She stole his XKE, made off with $5,237,006 in cash and left him for Dennis.

To this day, Zeppo feels guilty about Dennis' death. "Dammit, if I'd never tossed all his stuff overboard, he would've never gone down there to look for them..." Whenever the band plays 'Forever', complete with the video of Dennis behind them, Zeppo cries. Al Jardine always tells him to "cool it, Zep."

I just can't get into 'Male Ego'. I like it a bit better than the dreadful 'California Calling' and the pitiful 'Getcha Back', but I still don't like it very much.