If there really were a Beach Boys museum, it would probably end up in London or in Fairfield, Iowa.

...while Dennis' package hits the streets on time.

I hope you all get the humor in that last part...

No kidding. Maybe when planned, the BBs assumed POB would be out when it was originally--or even revised to be--scheduled for release, and their months-later comp could ride a wave of renewed interest.

I have posted to myspace a song I wrote and recorded in late November, "Dance So Well." It's just an acoustic guitar, double-tracked vocal and single-tracked harmony vocal, a simple waltz with a little hiccup of 2/4 every now and again. No click track, no punch-ins, nothing fancy. I slightly remixed and posted it this morning (someone actually requested it...can you believe that?).

Feel free to stop by there and listen.

myspace.com/thebeaumondes

Here is a true compilation I made a while back. I wrote the below on a different board, but it gets the idea across.
.............................

Belle & Sebastian.

1. Step Into My Office, Baby
2. Dear Catastrophe Waitress
3. Sukie In The Graveyard
4. Wrapped Up In Books
5. The Blues Are Still Blue
6. Roy Walker
7. Piazza, New York Catcher

8. Your Cover's Blown
9. I'm a Cuckoo
10. Lord Anthony
11. If You Find Yourself Caught In Love
12. You Don't Send Me
13. Dress Up In You
14. White Collar Boy
15. Another Snny Day
16. Funny Little Frog

The careful observer will note that this is not a true, career-spanning greatest hits at all, but simply a combination of songs from the most two recent albums plus one non-album single. This, for a band with a solid 10 years behind them? This, for a band whose early work is most beloved by fans?

Yep. f*** those fans.

The funny thing about Belle & Sebastian is that everyone seems to have disregarded them for one reason or another now, just as they're doing the best work they've ever done by far.

Those people who were on the bandwagon early sneer at the past few albums as being too well-polished, too produced. "I like The Boy With the Arab Strap, and everything since then sucks," those pretentious dicks are wont to say. And the people who don't like them most often seem actually not to like what they think Belle & Sebastian are--that or the aforementioned early fans (who are, admittedly, pricks).

And yet through it all, Belle & Sebastian have become a very good, tight pop band. The melodies are among the best anyone is making these days. The arrangements are meticulous, but not lifeless. The lyrics are intelligent, if sometimes a bit too clever for some tastes. And if those early albums sounded like a mess, well, the producers hired to do the past few albums (Trevor Horn and Tony Hoffer, respectively) have done a great job tightening things up.

I'd be glad to share this greatest hits album with anyone willing to give them a chance. I actually made this for my own use on a vacation a couple of years ago, right after The Life Pursuit was released, so this isn't theoretical: it's a real album to me, and a damn good one.

When quoting, I recommend use of the "quote" button. It beats asterisks. That is all.

This thread has a lot of exclamation points for just two pages.

unnecessary "bonus" material just to make people think they're getting some kind of value.

But Luther, surely you would love the original demo tapes (pretending that they existed) of just Brian and a piano demoing all of the Pet Sounds material?

I sure would. And still I can recognize the difference between such tapes and some Jardine demos of run-of-the-mill tunes. There is a difference between wanting to hear the origins of classics and wanting to hear everybody's work tapes.

My preview copy of Puerto Muerto's I Was a Swallow. And I love it. Love it. Its out in the UK already, I believe, and is out (Fire Records) in early June in the U.S. Creepy but romantic, sort of like a guy-girl duet of Tom Waits. Been listening for months, and it's growing on me.

That is a great, great story.

And you know, it confirms an impression I've always gotten from interviews with OTHER people. It seems that every time I see an interview with some producer, or ex-The Band member, etc., they always talk glowingly about Levon. In fact, it's almost like a joke among my friends that if one of us is complimenting pretty much anyone, someone will chime in "I love Levon." But it's funny that there is apparently no exaggeration in the way I've understood him.

By the way, I have his latest album, Dirt Farmer. It's really good music from a guy who's really comfortable with his sound. I love that from old pros--do what you do, not what you think "they" are doing, or want you to do, or what you used to do. Just do what you want to do and it works out for the best.

But I wonder if Brian's reaction to Mike's second-guessing wasn't a part of what led to the "substances" of which you speak--in part.

I know you're not stating it as a fact, but I think this is unfair. Debating Mike's role in Smile, ok. He DID protest about the crow line, after all. But whatever path Brian chose to take in his private life, whatever distance he chose to have from things more important  than pop albums, like his daughters, have nothing to do with the Beach Boys.

I mean, how often do we excuse Mike's alledged prickly behaviour in the seventies saying that he had a majority of co-workers with substance problems? I don't.

I'm not sure of what I'm being blamed for here, but I think you might have misunderstood me. I am not actually blaming Mike for anything. What I'm saying is that when someone has mental problems of the sort Brian had at the time, any number of things (real or perceived) can trigger a reaction. And as a pure hypothetical, I noted that if Brian were to perceive Mike's attitude toward smile as negative, he could react negatively, either with deeper depression or increased drug use or whatever. I don't mean any of that happened, or that Mike himself actually DID anything. I'm just saying that mental illness is a motherfucker.

But I wonder if Brian's reaction to Mike's second-guessing wasn't a part of what led to the "substances" of which you speak--in part. And don't misunderstand, I don't think it's something we can really explain (due to it being a 40-year-old mystery with key participants who either aren't speaking, are speaking for their own motivations or have no idea anymore) or that was even necessarily anywhere near as IMPORTANT as we make it now that it's some kind of great lost cause. All I'm saying is, when you're unstable, things like that can lead to more instability. The things don't even have to be real--Mike could have loved Smile (even though we know he didn't), but Brian could have just misunderstood. That's enough for someone struggling with the sorts of things Brian was struggling with at the time.

I'm good about that sort of nit-picking when it suits my purposes!

I wonder what i might have thought about MIU coming off its predecessors if I were hearing it all in-time. Of course, I've never heard any of it in real time except GIOMH and Smile and maybe Imagination, so it's hard to even guess. But I know that as of now, I like Love You far more than MIU and rank 15BO as about the same, which is mediocre.

As far as emotional BW vocals, there have been several keepers since that "won't last forever" line.

I don't think Mike had very much to do with SMiLE not being finished, regardless of what Brian says in the documentary.

On the first half, I think you're right and wrong. And in that, I mean that I don't think Mike specifically, deviously worked to prevent Smile's release--but I do think Brian's impression of Mike's reaction probably was instrumental in the album not being released.

On the second ... are you saying the Leaf-produced doc might not be 100% gospel? For shame! Next thing you know, you'll claim the staged bits weren't staged!

Brian sings out in a strong, clear falsetto "Won't last forever", well, I almost lost it. This was no pro-tooled, robot-like, just hitting the notes vocal. Where did THAT come from?

Maybe I'm of little faith, but I'd love to hear Brian's raw vocal track.

If Brian had used his band to sing backgrounds and had tried to, you know, sing on tune occasionally, this album wouldn't have been too bad. That's my (oft-stated) opinion, anyway.

Disorderlies?  Didn't someone say no?

I'm with you on all the rest, but don't knock Disorderlies. That movie kicked ass. And so does Wipeout. Yes, I said it. I meant it.

It would suck if Jim Morrison were alive, because then I'd have to go kill him for sucking so horribly. And then I'd go to jail. And frankly, I'm too damn delicate for jail. I can be affectionate, sure, but I'd prefer not to be someone's abused girlfriend. And a sharpened plastic kitchen utensil in the side would just be a bitch.

No, it's better that ol' Jim is dead and gone. We're all better off. Especially me.

VDP as tour guide. Not only would it guarantee him regular work, but I can't think of anything better than spending an hour or two following him around, listening to him talk.

I don't even care if he talked about the Beach Boys, or if he did, whether he told the truth. It's just fun to listen to him talk.

If you're comfortable judging the spiritual compasses of people that you don't know, 40 years after the fact, that's fine.  I'm not.  Am also not comfortable projecting my personal taste onto the spectrum of morality, which most people are all to ready to do.  The person whose music they like the best becomes the best person.  I think that's unfair.  And to me, it's much more interesting--fun even--to explore somebody who I don't necessarily think highly of and find reasons to like them.  And the more people I like, the less dislike I feel, and the less dislike I feel, the better I feel in general.

This is one of my favorite paragraphs on this board in a while. Since we're using words like "spiritual," can I say amen?

Rich - a request.  Next time you talk to Al, can you pass on the we'd all like some bonus tracks?  Demos, whatever???  A CD under 40 minutes would be disappointing ( though I will buy it in any event).

I'd like to go on record diametrically opposed to that--at least the last sentence. Too many musicians put out albums loaded up either with too-long songs, too many songs (some of which suck) or unnecessary "bonus" material just to make people think they're getting some kind of value. But you know what I think is good value? The best music possible. Check the running times of Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper. That's value.

I'd say doing psychedelia better is nothing to be proud of anyway. Both made great music that spanned genres.

I think it's one of the worst songs the Beach Boys released up to that time. Granted, they continued to surpass those heights pretty regularly on the subsequent efforts, but it gets points for its place in the Awful Hall of Fame. Stinky, slippery cheese.

Well, he could also do what a lot of the "vanity" film composers do and just dash off a few themes and then have their uncredited arranger/orchestrator fill everything out.

The cynical me says "like Darian? or Andy Paley?"

Many greater composers could only wish they were given as much time to compose a full film score as Brian was given to write and record a 3 and a half minute single. 

A-fucking-men.

You'd better sleep with one hand on your balls.

doesn't everybody?