Having another burst of obsession with this song after hearing the instrumental track on MIC.

The instrumental track makes the thing sounds even more 'Pet Sounds'. The horns are incredible, yet this was recorded in October 1964. Brian was ahead of everyone at this point.

Reading between the lines it appears none of the Beach Boys wanted to do the lead vocal, and the track was given to Glen Campbell as a thankyou to him in March 1965.

Glen's vocal is absolutely sublime though. Hair raising.

Out of curiosity, am I the only person who thinks that Walls & Bridges is a better Lennon album than Plastic Ono Band?

I prefer Walls and Bridges, musically POB may be better - and there are parts of it I love - but I find the songs on W&B more relatable. I'd rate Imagine as John's best, though - it's got the message he wanted to get across, but it's got the more commercial sheen to it like a great Beatles album. Mind Games is also underrated.

'Walls And Bridges' is hugely under-rated - but to really get how good the songs are you need the second side of 'Menlove Ave' with those wonderful stripped-down rehearsals. John over-egged it in production.

Not sure whether anyone's mentioned REM.

Horrendous long decline after 'Automatic For The People' - almost 20 years before they finally gave up.

Yep...The Lady in My Life is my favorite cut on the album, and one of my favorite Michael Jackson recordings.

I personally like Dark Side the best, but really all of their albums pre-Wall were great pieces of work, possibly aside from Atom Heart Mother.

atom heart mother has fat old sun and summer 68 which are beautiful tracks
i say the weakest from pink has to be ..Soundtrack from the Film More...Ummagumma...The Final Cut..

'More' has some great songs on it - 'Ummagumma' is the nadir, although the live stuff is superb.

'The Final Cut' is a masterpiece IMHO.

all 3 of those are weak albums especially the final cut :/

In your very limited opinion. :/

the final cut seemed so depressing :/..the first side of ummagumma doesnt sit well with me...something from the film more is the best out the three

The first side of 'Ummagumma' has the superb live version of 'Astronomy Domine' on it - Rick's keyboard solo is truly superb.

Yep...The Lady in My Life is my favorite cut on the album, and one of my favorite Michael Jackson recordings.

I personally like Dark Side the best, but really all of their albums pre-Wall were great pieces of work, possibly aside from Atom Heart Mother.

atom heart mother has fat old sun and summer 68 which are beautiful tracks
i say the weakest from pink has to be ..Soundtrack from the Film More...Ummagumma...The Final Cut..

'More' has some great songs on it - 'Ummagumma' is the nadir, although the live stuff is superb.

'The Final Cut' is a masterpiece IMHO.

I will defend latter day Kinks to my dying day, but if someone wants to pick apart the solo careers of the Davies brothers, go right ahead. It's mostly been Ray and Dave offering different ways of remaking the old stuff. Storyteller, Kinks Khoral Kollection, See My Friends duets from Ray,  and endless live discs from Dave. It's like they couldn't stand to be together, but being together is what brought out their creativity.

The Kinks started to go downhill after 'Muswell Hillbillies'....A long, hard, decline IMHO.

The remix of Days of Future Passed is very different than the original LP.

And the mono mix of 'DOFP' is different again - another one of those mid-1960's albums mixed seperately to mono and stereo. The mono mix is much punchier and I have it on vinyl.

The mono mix of 'In Search Of The Lost Chord' is also very different, and again superior, IMHO.

Very nice interview:

http://adrian-peel.suite101.com/mike-kowalski-remembers-nick-drake-a256343

Kowalski's range of credits is remarkable - from "Live In London" and "Still Cruisin'" to "Bryter Layter". Eclectic guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Kowalski#Discography

In terms of sound, the John and Beverley Martyn album 'Road To Ruin' is very much 'Bryter Layter's' twin sister, recorded at Sound Techniques at the same time with most of the same players. Mike is also on that, on drums on the excellent 'Auntie Aviator'. It's nowhere near as good as Nick's album, but still excellent.

Mike's band were called 'The New Nadir' and the only released track from the 1970 sessions is the superb 'I Don't Mind', on the Joe Boyd 'White Bicycles' compilation set from a few years ago. If there was more stuff recorded it's still unreleased.

Cheers
Nick

Preservation 1 is my personal fave!

C'mon: Sweet Lady Genevieve, One Of The Survivors, Where Are They All Now, Sitting In The Midday Sun, Daylight!

Those are all fantastic songs/performances.

Indeed - I did say I lose interest after this album. 

'Sweet Lady Genevieve' is almost certainly about Ray's first wife Rasa, who had left him at this point, so it's poignant as well.

'Sitting In The Mid-Day Sun' is just so effortlessly tuneful and cheery. Seeing as Ray was going through hell at that point, that was quite a feat.

Love the Kinks.  I like the older material as well as anyone but the later stuff has some really great moments.
The Come Dancing comp gets a lot of play here.  Low Budget, Superman etc.

What studio lp contained Wilsden Green?

The 'Percy' soundtrack. Sung by John 'Nobby' Dalton...

I prefer the Clarence White/Gene Parsons era

Me too. I think that lineup blows away the "classic" line up. No disrespect to David Crosby and Gene Clark though. I wish that the three surviving members would reunite with Gene Parsons on drums, perhaps.

I hope so too, but Roger and David still don't like each other a whole lot.

David now owns The Byrds name, and has been trying for a long time to get McGuinn to agree to a tour before they get too old. Roger's not having it. Very sad.

don't forget "Mr. Songbird"

another splendid tune that should have been on the Village Green album.

It's good, but IMHO a bit of a lift from the S&G '59th Street Bridge Song'.

My favourite Kinks song is "Lavender Hill", why Ray didn't put that on Village Green is one of the worst choices in music history.

That song is absolute bliss.

'Lavender Hill' is a 1967 track, I believe it was in competition with 'Autumn Almanac' as the Autumn 1967 UK 45, and didn't win, remaining unreleased until the US only, and swiftly deleted 'The Great Lost Kinks Album' in 1973. Same goes for the unspeakably beautiful 'Rosemary Rose' of the same era.

VGPS could easily have been a superb double album (and Ray did try to get Pye to release it as such, the compromise reached being the single LP 15 track version of VGPS we know and love). There was more stuff in the can of the same quality ('Misty Water', 'Pictures In The Sand', the unbelievably rocking 'Berkeley Mews' etc.)

Well it's pretty obvious if you see what albums were released this year
There wasn't a better year for music then 1967 :]

Jimi Hendrix
Are You Experienced?

The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beach Boys
Smile/Smiley Smile

The Beatles
Magical Mystery Tour

The Who
The Who Sell Out

The Doors
The Doors

Pink Floyd
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

The Kinks
Something Else by The Kinks

The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Rolling Stones
Their Satanic Majesties Request

Cream
Disraeli Gears

Love
Forever Changes

Are we just outright dismissing R&B/Soul music?

R&B/Soul wasn't album-orientated until a little while later - 'Hot Buttered Soul' and 'What's Going On' being pioneering. The first couple of Sly and The Family Stone albums aren't strong either - 'Stand' being the first coherant one.

Listened to TOCCC last night. (First time in quite a while) and it's now my new fave of the classic 7!!!!

So many great songs on it, and I think it has the best flow of any Moodies album!

TOCCC is my favorite too- actually one of my favorite albums by anybody. Funny thing- for years I interpreted the theme of the album as being death and the possible afterlife (which totally works). It was 20 years later that a fellow Moodies fan told me it was all about space travel. Side note: the very first LP I ever bought was Every Good Boy because I loved Story In Your Eyes from the radio.

I think there's a bit of both concepts in it. It's a bit multi-faceted. Great album.

f*ck it I have nothing better to do on a Sunday morning then respond to 6 year old posts from people that don't visit this site anymore. 

The first two Kinks albums are very patchy. They kept their best material from this period for their many singles and EPs.
Kontroversy is much better. Face to Face is my favourite album from 1966. Something Else has many great tracks but some filler (mainly from Dave).
Village Green is their masterpiece.
Arthur is a close second, let down only by Australia.
Lola - Preservation Act 1 are all very good but the overblown concepts are starting to bog the group down.
Preservation Act 2 is rubbish! Only three or four good songs on the whole thing.
Soap Opera is a camp classic.
Schoolboys is most dreck. After that I sorta lose interest.

I lose interest after Preservation Act 1. Sadly. Again certainly a parallel with 'Holland' being the last noteworthy BB's album.

Face To Face is the first real classic Kinks LP. It's almost on a par with 'Revolver' but with 'Pet Sounds' coming from 1966 it can only come in third for that year.

'Something Else' is a classic, not really a lot of filler.

'Village Green' is certainly the one though. A wonderful record. The parallel BB's record is 'Friends' - they're in some ways not that different.

'Arthur' is another five star masterpiece, even including 'Australia' which is wickedly funny IMHO.

All of their 1967-72 albums are pretty much flawless, although I'd give the edge to Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. Procession is probably the best art rock instrumental of all time. The band is firing on all cylinders; every member has some great material to contribute. Justin's The Story In Your Eyes is an absolute classic. John's Emily's Song and One More Time To Live are great, lesser-played tunes. Mike's My Song is the best thing he ever wrote for the Moodies.

I agree! Even though Seventh Sojourn is awesome: Every Good Boy might be their absolute peak. You Can Never Go Home Anymore is my fave Justin song ever, After You Came might be Grahams best, My Song is a stunning album closer, (Though When You're A Free Man Again is Pinder's peak, in my book) One More Time To Live is also Lodge at his best.

Plus, the album jacket alone can't be beat!

EGBDF is certainly beautifully packaged, as all the albums were (although Seventh Sojourn's grey/brown sleeve is a bit bleak, in some ways reflecting the music) - but IMHO it's possibly the weakest of the seven. However it does have 'You Can Never Go Home' on it, which is a magnificent song.

'My Song' and 'After You Came' are overblown, again IMHO.

You're right about 'When You're A Free Man' though. Superb track. Cold War melodramatic rock, one of the few instances of this genre!

You know, all of the stuff said about how the band hit a wall with To Our Children's Children's Children is kind of misleading. The songs weren't so much unable to be played live but it's hard to separate those songs from the whole. It's easily their most unified of concepts.

I heard there was some disappointment with the band about the failure of 'Watching And Waiting' as a single. It was thought by the band that this one would actually top 'Nights In White Satin' as a hit record. It flopped. Maybe that put a shadow on the album, of which the second side, in particular, is the most unified thing they did. Wonderful stuff.

I only recently got hold of the Mort Garson 'Cosmic Sounds' LP, which various Moodies have always given as a key influence on them. It's not just the silly narration on that LP that was co-opted at times, it's the sound of the record, elegant, atmospheric. Very evident in songs like the wonderful 'Eternity Road'.

This is the best discussion on the Moodies I've ever seen, and it's on Smiley Smile, carry on - lots I didn't know.

I've seen them live twice in recent years on UK tours and they are great entertainment. Nothing serious, just a great night out.

IMHO 'Seventh Sojourn' is the last great Moodies LP (and it is a real classic), I've never been able to get into 'Octave' or after, although some of the songs come off well enough live.

Best record of them all - 'To Our Children's Children's Children'. Wonderful.

The 2 CD remasters from a couple of years are exemplary.

Sandy Denny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLv5kR4jrTo

David Crosby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn-HxtyaB18

Carl Wilson, and I don't need on this forum to provide examples, but here's one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qmrf103iQA&feature=related

Cheers
Nick

Playing this now - it's superb. Thankyou.

I mentioned this in another post but: This Could Be The Night by The Modern Folk Quartet. For anyone unfamiliar with it, it's basically Phil Spector's attempt to produce a Beach Boys style record and it's fabulous. Whether the boys could've topped the original is questionable as Spector's production is incredibe, but vocally I'd have loved to have heard them give it a try.

Conversely I would give my right arm to hear some of Spector's girl groups singing tracks (or the whole of) Pet Sounds, plus Spector producing it.

Lovely call. TCBTN was done by Brian Wilson (I have it on '21 Little Ones', or rather, I don't have it on that one that I don't have either); but that is too thin, soundwise. The Boys could have done it in a gorgeous way. However, Spector's steel guitar trickery can't be surpassed, IMHO. BTW, I have a cover of TCBTN on a Spector tribute album, 'Bionic Gold', produced by Jon Tiven, on some super-rare indie label. It's a great, great album, and one Vince Whirlwind, aged 17 then, does TCBTN. I fell in love with it when I was 19 myself, and it never left me since. The rhythm is changed considerably (slowed down), and all kinds of spanish guitar and mandolin sounds adorn this thing of beauty. It realizes the lyrical content of the song in full: the musings of a boy/man who's expecting his first sexual encounter with a girl he's been dating for some time. As far as I know, the LP never reached CD status.

Hmmm... imagine the Ronettes doing 'That's Not Me'.... my current fave is 'When I Saw You' by them. Stunning. Uplifting. The lot.

I've got the thought of Ronnie Spector singing 'You Still Believe In Me' here. Sexiest voice in rock and roll. Bless her.

I'm still imagining the Beach Boys doing Paul McCartney's 'Back Seat Of My Car', I can just hear Dennis on the 'But listen to her daddy's song' bit. Wonderful.

The actual track 'Ram On' is the one where it could literally be a BB's offcut with Paul singing, it's SO late 1960's BB's.

A Beach Boys recording of 'Back Seat Of My Car' would have been something to behold.

I first bought 'Pet Sounds' new, aged about 14 on a budget EMI pressing in about 1980 for £2.99. Traded it then a year or so later for a decent original 1966 mono pressing. My friend got the Japanese CD (unavailable anywhere else) in about 1988 to my great jealousy. I got the UK CD in 1990, when it appeared (it was very keenly anticipated here).

Sold the vinyl.

Got the box set in 1996. And sadly I can say I've not heard the mono mix since, in fact I feel the need to re-aquant myself with it again. I LOVE that stereo mix, it's so fitting and stunningly beautiful.

You have to be a certain age to really 'get' Pet Sounds. I was about 22 before it really hit me during a short lived relationship with a beautiful, but out-of-my-league lady.

Most of the albums I've just had on original vinyl (I had a mock-stereo UK 'Smiley Smile') and then straight to the twofers, which were revelatory when they came out in 1990.

I was generous in giving this a 3. Just Once In My Life is absolutely outstanding. It's OK and Had to Phone Ya are good and Blueberry Hill is pretty good. I don't mind the likes of Palisades Park, Chapel of Love, and In the Still of the Night. The rest...sigh...is really bad. I put Susie Cincinnati in its 1970 B side slot on my playlists, so it doesn't count on this album to me.

'Just Once In My Life' was a pretty inspired cover to attempt as the original Righteous Brothers version of the song is majorly flawed. The song itself is a stone classic - I'm not sure anyone has recorded a definitive version of it, even up to now.

Best version IMHO is by London band The Action from 1966, which is only a run through:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrdcgS7EQdo