Wow, great show so far in Osaka. 20 songs in the first set.
Nothing new, but they are playing every song that has appeared in the first set in this tour. Brian is animated and happy, and singing great.

I'd love to see Brian do an "all-rarities" set, but why would anyone expect that? He's been touring for 17 years and has always done some of those pre-1966 hits.

Why does he do them? Partly because promoters probably still expect at least *some* of the well-known BB hits.

Also worth keeping in mind is that unlike the other touring BBs, Brian didn't spent 30-40 years touring all year singing those songs. Brian has probably sang "Shut Down" in concert fewer times than *I've* listened to the touring BBs perform the song.

And yeah, he wrote them and I'm cool with him "reclaiming" them a bit in concert, especially in cases where Mike (no dig on him, seriously) has been doing these Brian songs that he (Mike) didn't have a hand in co-writing. I think it's cool for Brian to reclaim in a live setting "In My Room", "Surfer Girl", "Don't Worry Baby", "Shut Down", "Little Deuce Coupe", "God Only Knows", and so on; all songs Brian wrote on his own or with other collaborators, and songs that people have been watching Brian-less bands more times than not do in concert for decades.

All good points.  I just feel that by doing essential early stuff like 'Surfin' USA,' 'Surfer Girl' 'In My Room' 'Fun Fun Fun' 'I Get Around' 'California Girls' 'All Summer Long' and 'Help Me Rhonda,' he's already doing a GREAT job of covering the early stuff.  Not saying that that's ALL the early stuff he should do, but considering the awesome quality of the '67 through '73 period stuff (not to mention 'Love You'), I don't think there is a need to to more early stuff at the expensive of some of the band's other artistic high points. 

That ain't nothing here in Japan!

In fact, the only reason why I even know it happened was that it was in the newpaper here. 

This tour is called Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary tour. I don't understand why Brian should play at all those washed up early 60s hits. The shows are pretty much sold out already, this is promoted as his farewell tour (at least in Europe). He isn't building a career here. If he really wants to play all those hits over his own solo stuff and later Beach Boys songs, I guess it's ok. But personally I just don't understand the reason to sing songs like Little Honda, Barbara Ann, All Summer Long, Dance Dance Dance, Shut Down, Little Deuce Coupe or even Surfin U.S.A, I Get Around and Fun Fun Fun for that matter. They just don't really fit with Brian. I'm glad that Mike does them, but in my opinion Brian should replace those with songs like Rio Grande, Goin' On, Last Song, Going Home, Lay Down Burden, Summer's Gone, I'll Bet His Nice, Mona etc.

I'd say its because Brian likes those songs and they are close to his heart, i'm sure he likes to perform them or he would have never played them again post-1988

I think that he's pretty proud of songs like All Summer Long, Surfin' USA, Fun Fun Fun, and I Get Around, and those are also songs that the casual fans most expect to hear.  Stuff like Shut Down or Little Honda though, I suspect they mean less to him and also to even casual fans.  If you give the casual fans the BIG early hits, you can safely get away with not doing the more minor ones. 

The same goes for Mike and Bruce--yeah, they need to do the big hits, but when I look at BB setlists from '64 or '65, they weren't doing stuff like '409' or 'Surfin' Safari,' so it's a bit hard for me to grasp how those songs have become essential more than 50 years later. 

I hear they're doing double billed shows with The Temptations in the States this summer. 

Unfortunately, this likely means shorter greatest hits only sets. 

The Kennedy Center is just the Beach Boys with the NSO.

I might consider that show if I were in town that week.  I saw it posted in the BW Forum. 

But, I also put out some money for the Guns N Roses C29 tour at Fed Ex Field. 

Yikes...trying your luck with them, eh?

Much like 2012 when I knew I had my only shot to see Mike and Brian on the same stage, I know this is my only chance to see Axl and Slash on the same stage. 

Granted, I'm in the nosebleeds (no way was I going to pay $250 for 3/5 of GNR), but I'll be there.  And I took the next day off from work in case Axl decides to not start on time. 

Plus, it takes about a day and a half to get out of the Fed Ex Field parking lot.

If the reunited GNR manage to play as many shows as the BB's did in 2012, I'll be amazed!   

I'm not taking sides but this is the SSMB in a nutshell. A guy writes a beautiful review of the show and people are arguing over where to place it. Classic SSMB!

LOL, so true. I think Hey Jude has a point, but the beauty and care of the review that started the thread makes up for any redundancy.  I'll think about where to post my own review after I see the Osaka show...

I'd go for pretty much any deep cut replacing 'Barbara Ann.'  But since it's kinda iconic and Brian seems to like playing it, I'm just hoping that if they HAVE to replace stuff like 'Honkin' or 'Funky Pretty,' they end up replacing them with other deepish cuts like 'California Saga' or 'Leaving This Town.'  

I'd personally vote for cutting out one or two of the early tunes in favor of one or two more late 60's or 70's tunes, but if they can't do that, switching the deep cuts for other deep cuts would be the way to go.  I think that the greatest hits/deep cuts balance is pretty good in the current set, and I think they could lean a bit towards the other deep cuts without cutting out stuff the casual fan really wants to hear. 

Conversely, I wouldn't want to see them go in the other direction (losing deep cuts for greatest hits that probably aren't that essential for casual fans anyway).  I'm glad that, for example 'Little Honda' didn't replace any of the deep cuts, but rather that they just extended the set by one song. 

For Al lead vocals specifically, personally I'm not so hot on either 'And I Kissed Her' or 'Cotton Fields,' as neither were written by Brian or Al, and both are not exactly adventurous song choices.  Seeing that Cotton Fields was a major hit in certain countries, though, I can understand why it might be included in future sets, but I doubt that any casual fan is going to say 'OMG, they didn't play 'And Then I Kissed Her.'  If they have to throw in a popular cover tune with Al on vocals, maybe 'Come Go With Me' or 'California Dreamin' might be good alternatives? 

Tell them that there's a little girl named Hisui in Osaka who saw the BB's in 2012, and really wants to hear Honkin' this time! 

Thanks for the review, and great that you're attending all 3 shows.  I saw the Osaka and Nagoya shows in 2012, and will be at the Osaka show on Friday. 

It would be cool if they changed the setlist up more between shows when they do two night at the same venue. Hopefully maybe "Honkin'" or something new will surface on the second Tokyo show.

Yeah, I really hope they at least exchange 'And I Kissed Her' for Honkin' in Osaka!  I'd really love to hear 'Honkin',' but also they played 'Kissed' in both Japan BB's shows that I saw in 2012, and it didn't seem to get a big response anyway.  In my experience, Japanese Brian fans tend to be really into the deeper cuts. 

This one seemed to slip under the radar...but Mike & Bruce are doing a symphonic show with the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center on July 19th. Found it by accident last night and got myself a pair of second row seats! Still a lot of different seats left!

I'm really looking forward to it...such a luxurious venue and a full orchestra will hopefully ensure some incredible deep cuts for the night!

Maybe they'll do a few more Pet Sounds tracks.

That sounds pretty promising--wish they would do that here in Japan!

Did anybody see the show on the 5th?  Looks like the setlist was the same as the one on the 3rd, for what that's worth. 

And yeah, while I like Funky Pretty, I would be even happier if they did Leaving This Town instead!

We needs to get some holographs for Carl and Dennis...

'Carl and the Passions'!

On this topic--the BB's playing without various key members, there was the incident where Carl missed a show in Ireland due to the draft issue, and fans were pretty unhappy.  I always found it interesting that the band seemed to be accepted as a live unit without Brian, but not without Carl. Also note that the article refers to him as their 'lead singer,' which of course he was a fair amount of the time by then:

http://brandnewretro.ie/2014/05/08/300-fans-demand-money-back-beach-boys-in-ireland-may-1967/

Lately, it's been the vocal interplay between Blondie, Al, Brian and Matt on 'Sail Away.' That's a really lovely tune. I like 'One Kind of Love,' but would gladly trade it for 'Sail Away' in Brian's live set. 

Glad to see "Add", "Wake", and "Honkin'" back. I think it's impossible to know whether they'll all survive months into the tour. Even if they keep the setlist the same length and don't make any effort to drop "deep cuts", the setlist will probably evolve over the course of 80 dates. Even on the much shorter summer 2015 tour, some changes were integrated, including adding "Surf's Up." "Busy Doin' Nothin'" was cut for the fall dates, etc.

I actually wish they'd vary the setlist even more than they do. Even if they want to X number of "classics", it would be cool to see those rotated a little more.

I won't complain if they play 'Surf's Up...'  that's pretty much the ultimate BB's track for me.

Especially if they replace 'Barbara Ann' with it 

wow! oh what a night!  Melbourne was great!  will give a detailed opinion later. 
had the best time and really glad to finally meet Al Smith, Ian Parsons, Mozz and his parents and the American couple
now in Freemantle, Joy and Jay ?  sorry if I've misspelled those names.
It was great to talk about everything we love about Brian right down to his mannerisms. 
no surprises in the setlist, but here it is abbreviated:

prayer
heroes
cal girls
dance dance
get around
shut down
deuce
room
surfer girl
don't worry
wake the world
add some
honkin'
darling
one kind
wild hon
funky
sail on

set 2
pet sounds album - walk off
band intro's by Paul
encore:
good vibes
summer long
Rhonda
Barbara A
S. u.s.a
fun fun
l & m

Awesome to see all the deep cuts back!!!  Hope they survive in the setlist for the Japan dates!

I know that TWGMTR was released some time in early April, and if I remember right, Spring Vacation got leaked some time several weeks before the album came out. I remember hearing it on tumblr some time in May and thinking it was a great song.

Other than the closing trifecta, "Spring Vacation" is my favorite song on TWGMTR. I love the intro, the melody, the flow, and just that "Beach Boyish" sound/feeling. I thought it was a better choice for a single than the title track, and I wish it would've been given a shot...in the SPRING of 2012.  

It might be the most "classic beach boys" sound on the album. Only shame that the lyrics are clunky.

That's my feeling about it--great sound and melody, but the lyrics are a bit questionable...  they sound a bit forced.

Really, though, I like the whole album, except for maybe 'Beaches in Mind.' 

BTW, on this topic, how much of the lyrics of Good Vibrations did Mike write? Sometimes he's said that he wrote all of it...  I'm thinking he means that Brian came up with the title and he wrote the rest.  But on Brian Wilson Presents Smile, the Tony Asher version has some of the same lyrics.  For example, the first verse starts 'I like the colorful clothes she wears,' but then the rest of the verse is different from the BB's version.  Do you think that Tony (or Brian) wrote the first line, and then Mike changed the rest of the verse? 

For what it's worth, I think that Mike's lyrics are much better than Asher's on GV, but I wonder how much of the lyrics he wrote.

Tony's first line was different, but was erased from the master tape - that's why it's absent from the bootlegs and official release of it, and that's why the BWPS version incorporates Mike's first line.

Interesting!  So I'm guessing that no-one remembers what the first line was? 

BTW, on this topic, how much of the lyrics of Good Vibrations did Mike write? Sometimes he's said that he wrote all of it...  I'm thinking he means that Brian came up with the title and he wrote the rest.  But on Brian Wilson Presents Smile, the Tony Asher version has some of the same lyrics.  For example, the first verse starts 'I like the colorful clothes she wears,' but then the rest of the verse is different from the BB's version.  Do you think that Tony (or Brian) wrote the first line, and then Mike changed the rest of the verse? 

For what it's worth, I think that Mike's lyrics are much better than Asher's on GV, but I wonder how much of the lyrics he wrote.

[So Mike Love and I wrote Surfin (USA)]

A note on Surfin USA, Brian says Mike wrote the lyrics with him here.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/love-and-mercy/brian-wilson-interview/

“I never learnt how to surf because I was always afraid to try,” he says. “But my brother Dennis told me surfing was popular and why didn’t I write some songs about it? So Mike Love and I wrote Surfin (USA).’”

I believe David Marks testified that he remembered Mike writing the lyrics to Chug A Lug, hah. Not sure if he mentioned any other songs.

One song Mike give some specifics on is I Get Around, said he wrote the Round, Round Get Around I Get Around bit. Brian had 2 lines & they finished it off together. Read
this in an interview before the lawsuit.

I've seen this interview before, but I'm pretty sure that it's the interviewer's mistake.  Brian is talking about SURFIN', fits perfectly with the story we know (Dennis pestered Brian to write about surfing, so he and Mike wrote 'Surfin'.  The interviewer, who may not be a big BB's fan, put in the (USA) part himself, not knowing that they had an earlier song called 'Surfin.'   

The issue of what constitutes credit for writing a song is so grey and ambiguous. Add to that various legal maneuvering, an apparent/alleged dysfunctional, ill-advised situation in on Brian's legal side (e.g. stories of a pre-trial offer to settle that was apparently much more advantageous to Brian), and there aren't clear answers.

If a lawsuit like this were happening today, I think Brian would be much more well-advised and the outcome would have been somewhat if not quite different. I would guess it would be more of a cash settlement and maybe a few less credits. I could see them fighting on at least stuff like "Wouldn't It Be Nice."

With a more detailed, sharkish defense (and offense), a lot of other things could have been established, such as whether Mike ever had as much *musical* help on his solo writing credits as Brian did *lyrical* help on stuff without Mike's name, and if so, why Mike didn't feel he needed to credit those who helped with that. I've always tended to doubt Mike always *fully* fleshed out all the chord changes to songs like "Big Sur", "Everyone's In Love With You", "Goin' to the Beach", "Alone on Christmas Day", and so on.

But yeah, there are other examples of non-credits that are at least as substantive as WIBN. Some have argued Al should have gotten a little chunk of the arranging credit on "Sloop John B." There's Dennis with YASB.

I've always been surprised that Matthew Fisher's relative success in the infamous "Whiter Shade of Pale" case from several years back hasn't resulted in a lot more "contributors" coming out of the woodwork and claiming their contributions constituted some level of a co-writer credit. There was probably a lot of cross-pollination within the BBs where others might have warranted credits.

There seems to be two schools of thought. Like Roger Waters mostly sole credits on "Animals" despite extenive improvising by Rick Wright. Jagger/Richards is the same deal. If Wyman had a riff, he wasn't getting credit.

Some band give credit all the way around, even arranging is considered songwriting.  I prefer that method as credits can be divided up in pieces equally 50%.

Ah, you brought up Animals!  Nice!!!

Yeah, listen to the first one minute and 40 seconds of Sheep--it's an electric piano piece with a bunch of weird, jazzy chords (the kind that Rick wrote with and Roger didn't).  It's clearly at least somewhat 'composed' as well, as the droning bass part changes as the chords do. That piece has Rick all over it, and doesn't sound like anything that Roger wrote by himself...  yet the songwriting credit is all Roger.  I would lean towards giving Rick a credit there. 

Aww. I thought the thread title was a punny "What songs did Mike love?"
Anyway, I always thought it was strange that writers used the lyrics to "Good to my Baby" and "She Knows me too Well" to analyze Brian. I always thought the machismo in those lyrics were much more Mikish, but I may be projecting a sensibility onto Brian that isn't there.
By the same token, I agree about Back of my Mind - the fact that Brian returns to it reinforces that for me - and You're so Good to Me.

I don't think She Knows Me Too Well is at all machismo-ish, myself. It's talking about a theme that's *very* common in Brian's writing -- the flawed, hurtful man who is redeemed by the love of a woman who's much better than he is, and who's scared of losing her. We see that in everything from Don't Worry Baby to Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel.
Which isn't to say Mike didn't have a hand in writing it. We know that the way their collaborations worked at that time mostly involved Brian coming up with a track and title and Mike writing words to it -- it doesn't seem at all implausible that Mike would be able to finish a half-finished Brian lyric.
As for In The Back of My Mind, I'd bet that's 90% Brian's lyric, yes -- but there are a few bits in there that sound more Mike (notably "I try to rationalise/But some day I might realise" -- that sounds like Mike's too-clever-by-half rhyming to me), and remember that the 1975 version has distinctly different lyrics in places.
My personal guess is that Rocky is exactly as trustworthy as he seems -- not at all. I expect that in almost all the songs Mike won credit for, he made *some* contribution. But I'd also bet that if we knew what that contribution was, in some cases (maybe quite a few) many of us would think it wasn't worth him getting equal credit for it. I'd guess that some of the songs mentioned here, he only added a line or two (like with "good night baby/sleep tight baby), while on others he wrote the whole lyric or very nearly all.

Nice summary--this is pretty much what I believe.

While I know that "a variety of parties" read this board, one never knows how often or how meticulously. So let me just say, if they bounced back with a good show based on critical feedback, then good on them, and if they're listening, please keep the rare, deep cuts in the setlist! And add more!

You've got a pretty learned group of fans in the audience, already waiting to hear PS in full. They'll be fine with and probably prefer "Wake the World" and "Honkin' Down the Highway" instead of "Shut Down."

My weird deep cut pick that I think Brian and the band could do really well: "Goin' On." Mertens is even there to do the 80s sax solo.

One of my things is to just hear something new and different. It's not even like "Honkin' Down the Highway" or "Funky Pretty" are two of *all-time favorites.* I like them, but they wouldn't be my first picks on my own wish list. But I dig it, because it's different.

Just changing it up night to night (and preferably a change more substantive than just *cutting* a song, or swapping the order of existing songs) is exciting, and makes it a bit of a surprise for nerds like me looking at every setlist. 

I just wanted to heartily concur with this post. I was sad to see Honkin', Add Some Music and Wake The World dropped from the show last night, and I'm really hoping they will be played on the Japan dates. If songs have to be dropped, I don't really see the point in 'Then I Kissed Her.'  Sure, it's a good chance for Al to have a lead vocal, but two of the dropped songs give the same chance (as would 'Add Some Music' if Al sang part of it), and since the setlist seems to mostly be avoiding songs that Brian didn't write or co-write, I'd personally be OK with dropping 'Then I Kissed Her,' and also 'Barbara Ann' as well.