"Postcards from Richard Nixon" is the leadoff track on Elton John's new album, The Captain and the Kid, the so-called sequel to Captain Fantastic. Part of Bernie Taupin's lyrics to the Nixon song:

And all around us suntanned teens, beauty like we'd never seen
Our heroes led us by the hand
Through Brian Wilson's promised land
Where Disney's God and he commands
Both mice and men to stay

You can hear the album streaming for free over at AOL's site all week, or it comes out tomorrow in the US, at least.

delaney and daria.

This may have already been noted, but Brian (plus his daughters) sing background vocals on the new SpongeBob SquarePants CD, The Best Day Ever.  It's produced and co-written by Andy Paley, and it's sort of a kids homage to The Who Sells Out, a fake radio broadcast of SpongeBob's band, The Hi-Seas, with mock commercials between the songs. Some of the songs capture the feel of Beach Boy classics, especially "Riding The Hook" and "Tighty Whiteys". You can hear Brian's layered voice singing "Krabby Patty" on the song "Doing The Krabby Patty."  It's a fun album, Paley really captures the feel of garage-rock and surf-era guitar songs and harmonies. Of course, you have to listen to SpongeBob sing, but you can't have everything.

Yeah, but they were cheesy before it was retro. I don't want to beat up on them, but they have never understood the importance of image in marketing their music, and it hurt them, well, i was going to say for years, but I think it essentially continues to this day.

There are songs I admire and songs I passionately love. GV has always fallen in the former category for me. I know  it's a complex piece of music and technically audacious, etc., but it never hit me emotionally. It sounds great in a concert vein and I sort of like the version of BWPS, but overall, I'd take Heroes and Villains any day. The heresy, the heresy, I know...

There's an appreciation of The Flame disc at this site: www.roundheadedboy.blogspot.com

Carl reminds me of ZZ Top's granddad in that Crocodile Rock video. And what's with Al's extensions?? But it again points out how the band just absolutely had no sense of fashion from day one, from the horrendous album covers to the goofy clothes to the refusal to make Mike Love stop his "Elaine Benes" dance moves to the old-guys-acting-like-teenagers videos (although CALIFORNIA DREAMING was pretty decent.) We can all agree that they were geniuses musically, but their refusal to understand the style part of the job has always fascinated me. How can you be so brilliant musically and so tone-deaf on the rest of the package? You'd think a band that had been through the hip wringer as many times as the Beach Boys had could have hired a consultant to help them help themselves by the time videos came along. God, I love them, but still...

I just received it from Amazon. It's the original album and it does sound like a needle drop, and to be honest, the muffled sound is a bit maddening, because it is clear that there is some amazing instrumental interplay in the songs. I had never heard the album before and am having a hard time getting deeply into it because of the sound quality.

Every time I get the inspiration
To go change things around
No one wants to help me look for places
Where new things might be found
Where can I turn when my fair weather friends cop out
What's it all about
Each time things start to happen again
I think I got something good goin' for myself
But what goes wrong

1. Sail on Sailor (naturally)
2. This Whole World
3. It's About Time
4. Busy Doin' Nothing
5. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
6. The Trader
7. Feel Flows
8. Surf's Up
9. Forever
10. Leaving This Town
11. All This Is That
12. We Got Love

Hal Blaine.

While we're on this topic, did any of the Boys hook up with any other celebrities, beyond Dennis and Christine McVie?

By the way, just watched that YouTube live footage of IT'S ABOUT TIME. Mind: totally blown.

I love the part where Carl or Dennis is talking about how they were mischaracterized as a surf/hot rod and 'ol Mike is just sitting over there looking mighty uncomfortable..

Roger, I can't really argue with you. i've been sitting here listening to my Vigatone two-fer and the music is indeed groundbreaking and glorious. I wish I could get more excited by BWPS, I liked it in concert much better than the finished product. I think it's the somewhat pristine qualities of the harmonies as opposed to the warmer blend of Brian's voice on the boots or what the Boys did with/could have done on some of the songs. But, as always, this is splitting hairs.  Of course, I gather that splitting hairs is pretty much what this site is all about.

The only positive thing I'd say about MIU is that I do believe PITTER PATTER is an underrated song. A really good beat, as they used to say on American Bandstand. Mr. Carlin, enjoyed your book. I thought you did a great job on getting a perspective of Brian's mindset from PS to LOVE YOU, and pointing out that pre-Landy he wasn't quite as damaged as advertised and did what he wanted to, somewhat. Oh, and kudos for scoring a blurb kudo from Sarah Vowell. I love her.

Jon, thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. I'll be interested in reading your David Marks book.

Jon, I'm a big Dennis fan and really enjoyed your book. It holds a place of pride on my BB bookshelf. One kinda odd question: Is it difficult to write about somebody like Dennis who had the world at his feet and then it all imploded? Is it difficult to find the balance in celebrating his art while acknowledging the mistakes of his life? I might find it hard to live with that kind of subject as intimately as you did/perhaps still do. As sad as Brian and Carl's stories are, everytime I look at that last picture of Dennis on the boardwalk/beach (?) in your book and he's so bloated and lost and gone, it kills me.

On another point, what were Dennis' exact contributions to "It's About Time." That is one of my favorite, underappreciated BB songs and Dennis compositions, and I've never known what exact parts of it he wrote. (Forgive me if it's in your book, and I've forgotten, or if it's somewhere on this site I'm unaware of.) In Carlin's fine new book, he mentions all the songs on"Sunflower" except for "It's About Time."

Hey, all. I've been reading this site for awhile, but haven't posted until now. I'll step gingerly into this, because with SMILE, it just strikes me that there will be only questions, never answers. I would be interested in your views on one thought I have: Does the never-ending fascination with SMILE in any way diminish PET SOUNDS? Because for all the talk of the "lost masterpiece" of SMILE, my opinion is that even if Brian had completed it, it wouldn't have necessarily been a greater artistic achievement than PS. And I wonder if all of our interest and investment in what SMILE could have been/should have been makes us a little blind to the fact that he DID create a masterpiece without any kind of interference and it's called PET SOUNDS. Yes, yes, I know this is a SMILE site, but it intrigues me that PET SOUNDS, which is a masterpiece of which there should be no dispute, has never engendered the level of fascination/obsession/whatevah that SMILE still does. I guess what you don't have is always more interesting than what you have.

By the way, I've finished reading Peter Carlin's book, and he does add a lot of new textures to the ongoing literature on the Beach Boys.  One thing he said at the beginning of the book really struck me, since it kind of relates to this board: He said the one thing all BW fans want him to do is to look back and that's the one thing Brian wishes to never do. So, there will never be any sense of satisfaction, perhaps, on either side.

   Also, Carlin's book made me realize that we really need a good bio of Mike Love. I'm no fan of Love's actions over the years, but I'd like to hear more from him, whether I agree with it or not. Carlin's book, in its need to cover a lot of ground, didn't have time to look into Love's contributions . I also wish somebody would write a full book on the pre-PS years, and look in-depth into Brian's work with Jan Berry and other outside artists and give a real feel into the studio work of that era. I've never read a book on just the sheer creation of the music that satisfied me (To his credit, Carlin's book made me feel some of Brian's creative process more than previous books have).

OK, I've covered a lot of stuff that's probably off topic to this thread, but it was on my mind....