The most is probably "I'm Waiting For The Day"; a very romantic and wistful sentiment.

Then, in turns "You Still Believe In Me", or basically anything from PS.

"All Summer Long" (very evocative of being a kid in the summer)
"Love Surrounds Me" (if I'm in a downer mood),
"Disney Girls" (though 30 years too old for me)

It would appear as if "John Callahan" was the first tour manager:

From http://www.plsn.com/current-issue/95-designer-watch/8844-an-ld-with-heart-beach-boys-crew-reunion-not-his-first-rodeo-quick-cues-and-more.html


The Beach Boys reunite for a 50th anniversary tour — a 50-date world trek with Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine joining longtime members Bruce Johnston and David Marks. The band invited “Honorary Beach Boy” actor John Stamos to play as well. John Callahan is tour manager. LD, crew and vendors are being sorted out now. (Update: LD Robert Peterson and Touring Lighting Director Chris Stuba have now been confirmed as the design team.)

There are so many gems in the mid-late 70s catalogue, but I would argue that each album has (at least) a few duds. I wonder if anyone has ever put together the perfect playlist of any of the above albums combined.

I think the easiest one for me would be LU + 15BO (take "Had To Phone Ya" + "It's OK" off 15 BO in place of "Love Is A Woman" and "Let's Put Our Hearts Together") but that's just my opinion.

I wouldn't say there's any duds at all on Holland. it's one of their most consistent, perfectly formed albums with quality songs throughout! Don't mess with perfection.

Well, it's definitely a matter of personal taste (and probably blasphemy), but I wouldn't miss "beaks of eagles" or "only with you"...

Carl & The Passions "Holland" :

1 Marcella
2 Steamboat
3 Sail On, Sailor
4 You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone
5 Here She Comes
5 Funky Pretty
7 He Come Down
8 The Trader
9 Only With You
10 Make It Good
11 California Saga: Big Sur
12 California Saga: The Beaks Of Eagles
13 California Saga: Californ-i-a
14 Hold On Dear Brother
15 Cuddle Up
16 Leaving This Town
17 All This Is That


How does that sound?

I like all of the sailing/boat/water songs together.

The Beach Boys - Holland: So Tough

1. Here She Comes
2. Funky Pretty
3. Only With You
4. Marcella
5. Make It Good
6. You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone
7. Hold On Dear Brother
8. Leaving This Town
9. Steamboat
10. Sail On Sailor
11. The Trader
12. California Saga: Big Sur
13. California Saga: The Beaks Of Eagles
14. California Saga: California
15. He Come Down
16. All This Is That
17. Cuddle Up
18. Mt. Vernon And Fairway

I always tried to craft a narrative about a guy who was in love, got disillusioned, went away, then got homesick, but I couldn't quite get it to work . It's much easier to try and put it together musically, but this is what I came up with...


1. Marcella
2. Funky Pretty
3. Here She Comes
4. You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone
5. Leaving This Town
6. Sail on Sailor
7. Steamboat
8. The Trader
9. Hold on, Dear Brother
10. - 12. California Saga
13. All This is That

I actually also combine Sunflower, Carl and the Passions, Holland, and Surf's Up, which is insane, of course. But you end up with a playlist that's just unbelievably strong.

Sounds interesting - do share!

There are so many gems in the mid-late 70s catalogue, but I would argue that each album has (at least) a few duds. I wonder if anyone has ever put together the perfect playlist of any of the above albums combined.

I think the easiest one for me would be LU + 15BO (take "Had To Phone Ya" + "It's OK" off 15 BO in place of "Love Is A Woman" and "Let's Put Our Hearts Together") but that's just my opinion.

Actual Chance of Being Done (in order of possibility, keeping in mind Mike's in charge of this):
1) "Honkin' Down The Highway" - on Al's album, if Al wanted to give up "Cottonfields"
2) "Rollerskating Child" - could see Mike agreeing to do it if they cut a post '67 song (that's not Kokomo)
3) "Let Us Go On This Way" - could be cool to hear Brian singing this. Also, was co-written by Mike, so maybe.

Would be cool to hear live:

1) "The Night Was So Young" - they could kill this one!
2) "Ding Dang" - that would be a crazy song to stick randomly in the middle of the second half of the set
3) "Johnny Carson" - maybe they could change the lyrics to "Jimmy Fallon" if they ever go back on his show
4) "I'll Bet He's Nice" - would be cool to hear this around the "Pet Sounds" songs, done in that style.

A band capable of performing would more likely be:

Mike Love: Vocals, Tamborine, Theremin
Brian Wilson: Vocals, sitting at piano
Jeff Foskett: Vocals, guitar, bass (maybe)
Al Jardine: Vocals, guitar
Bruce Johnston: Keys, Vocals
John Cowsill: Drums, Vocals

Though the problem then becomes that you don't really have a particularly competent pianist (Bruce has never been the lead pianist of any line-up, to my knowledge). Someone would have to teach Mike how to play something on the songs he doesn't sing.

I've always sequenced (in my head) my dream Surf's Up album thus:

1. Dont Go Near The Water
2. Long Promised Road
3. Lady
4. Disney Girls
5. Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again

6. Feel Flows
7. Lookin At Tomorrow
8. A Day In The Life Of A Tree
9. Til I Die
10. 4th Of July
11. Surf's Up

To me this all (feel) flows beautifully... What an album this would've been! As it is, Surf's Up is still in my all time top five.

Just listened to your creatively done sequencing of SU. Now what can I say? It's beautiful! Really perfect flow! However, I agree with you in the last sentence.

Have you guys heard WIBNTLA? Be interested to know how it fits sonically between DG and FF...

I'd bet Brian's keyboard is more in the mix than Bruce's.

Definitely heard Bruce's a little more at the Hollywood bowl, especially during "Disney Girls". Still, you can hear Darian and Scott above everyone else.

Glad to see there are a few people around here who actually enjoy the "Vega-table" esque production of TALOYF. The only track I would replace is "Student Demonstration Time". Since I've never heard WIBNTLA, I can't add it. My listing would be:

SIDE A:
1) Don't Go Near The Water
2) Long Promised Road
3) Take A Load Off Your Feet
4) Disney Girls
5) Big Sur (harmony version)
6) Lady

SIDE B:
1) Feel Flows
2) Lookin' At Tomorrow
3) 4th of July
4) A Day in the Life of a Tree
5) Til I Die
6) Surf's Up

I saw them at the Hollywood Bowl, and Brian was hammering away at some chords during an a cappella section. I couldn't hear the piano at all. Must be buried very deep in the mix, at least at the Bowl (or, not at all).

At the Hollywood Bowl, I believe I got there at 8:05 (the ticket said , and I missed most of "Do It Again". So there you go.

Here's a video of Bruce talking about the SS album. Doesn't really shed light on his involvement, but interesting nonetheless:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUopawsbZIQ&feature=relmfu

The responsibility falls to his bandmates and Fosketts of the world to soften the tension and provide pleasant follow-up comments to jarring answers.

It's quite touching to see it done so masterfully by these guys, really.

To that end, it might be fun to see a Foskett/Brian Wilson one-on-one interview (probably not going to happen, but you'd certainly see Brian at his most relaxed)

Here's a recent interview snippet from Brian:
Interviewer: What's going through your head when you're singing "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"?
Brian: Er, nothing. It comes out of my throat. [band cracks up] It comes up through my throat and outta my mouth, into the audience...
Al: Very touching, Brian.

I mean Al and the guys have known him forever. They wouldn't really openly mock a friend's mental illness, would they? Could Brian just be being ultra-dry?

Possibly, but one moment in the same interview stuck out at me. When Brian is talking about "I Get Around" in terms of commerciality (the question was more about how much does Brian think of commercial appeal vs artistry, but Brian misunderstood) Al looks at the interviewer and says "commercial appeal. Brian was thinking more about dollars and cents. You know". Then points to his head. It's around 19:30.

So, given something like that, maybe it's that they're laughing because it's Brian being Brian more so than they're laughing at his mental illness.

I wonder why Mike said "let's move along" when Bruce was talking about "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow"...@15.15

Pretty sure the vocoder is in Beaches in Mind.

Are you thinking of the totally wacko thing that happens at 1:01-1:04? Yeah, sounds like someone singing (sort of) through a vocoder. When I first heard it it was a true adjust-your-speakers moment. There you are, just ambling along with a song, doing its usual thing, and then all of a sudden something WEIRD happens. On a par with the "Cookie!" interjection out of nowhere in John Lennon's song "Hold On." (By the way, Beatles people, WTF is that all about anyway?)

Unrelated note: aside from Kraftwerk's work, my favorite use of the vocoder is probably Neil Young's Trans album.

That's a Talkbox, like Peter Frampton used in "Frampton Comes Alive", I believe.

If they do make a next album, I hope Bruce gets a lead - or at least a few lines. I saw him do Disney Girls at the Hollywood Bowl the other night and he was pitch perfect - even better than Al.

Since it's out of print, and the only way you're going to find it is used (IE, no money to the beach boys, record companies, etc) you might as well try and find a download of it. Unless you want to pay $35 or more for it.

Dave is not credited with any vocals on the album. Given the rumors of his relatively late addition to the reunion, it's certainly plausible that his contributions to the album are limited to a few tracks of nearly inaudible rhythm guitar.

I read in one of the interviews that he and Mike had worked on a few tracks and presented them for inclusion on the album...so I figured he was there from the beginning. But perhaps not?

Is that Dave doing the fills in between the vocals on "Beaches In Mind"?  Whoever it is, the blues licks are mighty distracting and stick out like a sore thumb 

The only two places where guitar is prominent, "Spring Vacation" and "Beaches In Mind", it's being played by Jeff Baxter from the Doobie Brothers. Makes you wonder what, if any, contribution Dave had on the album. Saw him sing Hawaii a few nights ago, and his performance was pretty good.

At the Hollywood Bowl last night, I sat in front of 4 guys in Tommy Bahama shirts, who angrily talked over any song that wasn't a hit, and talked over the verses of the hits (singing off key with the Choruses, of course). They loudly pronounced that "Kiss Me Baby" must be a new song during its performance. In order for the tour to be a commercial success, they need to appeal to people like that, unfortunately.

Ah, my favorite kind of concert-goers. Gotta ruin the show for everyone else around to you have a good time. Arrogant jackoffs with too much money and nothing to do with it who should be kicked out of these shows but never will be.

Yeah, the Bowl is more like a movie theater acoustically, so they were drowning out the music. I politely asked them to keep it down, and they said "hey buddy, we're trying to enjoy this show, just like you". I missed out on so many great moments. Why on earth would anyone blow 200-300 bucks to talk through a concert? Next time I'll spring for the VIP seats!

At the Hollywood Bowl last night, I sat in front of 4 guys in Tommy Bahama shirts, who angrily talked over any song that wasn't a hit, and talked over the verses of the hits (singing off key with the Choruses, of course). They loudly pronounced that "Kiss Me Baby" must be a new song during its performance. In order for the tour to be a commercial success, they need to appeal to people like that, unfortunately.

That said, it would have been nice if they threw out Rock N Roll music, which no one in that audience wanted, and gave us another track from Smile.

The Bad: For whatever reason, the crowd took a while to get into it, and was kinda "meh" about any deep tracks and the california saga family reunions. I'm sure people appreciated it, but they weren't really going off and clapping super loudly for Brian's solos or "Heroes or Villians" or getting up and dancing until the end. Al kept saying "don't sit back down yet!". Brian had a decent night, but there wasnt a whole lot of banter between him and the rest of the band compared to what i've heard from previous shows.

Overall, amazing wonderful experience. I'll try to post some videos if they turn out ok.
Craigster Out.

It was an amazing night! California Saga was great. I agree with all the above statements too - Brian didn't really say anything at all to the crowd. Mike kept saying "call Amazon and order the album" which a lot of the people under the age of 50 found hilarious.

The new songs sounded great. People were really into "isn't it nice". The kids sounded great on "Friends".

Most of the crowd was into it, with the exception of the shmucks in the Hawaiian shirts behind me who talked through every song (unless they knew the chorus, when they screamed it off key) or the dude next to me who was yawning and checking Facebook the whole time.