Hi guys,

Wrote this song many years ago, and was finally able to properly record it, or at least to the extent my one-man band skills allow.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated, and I included an a cappella version, if you're interested.

https://soundcloud.com/the-mm-tune-factory/fly-away

https://soundcloud.com/the-mm-tune-factory/fly-away-a-cappella

Thanks!

Hi guys,

Late last year for Christmas, as a challenge, I took a crack at this a cappella.  Anyways, after recently finally having an opportunity to finish this, I wanted to post this for feedback.

https://soundcloud.com/the-academic-thugs/the-lords-prayer-cover

Enjoy!

Hi guys,

Instead of creating a new thread, thought this would be an appropriate place to ask, given the above discussion: I'm (for some crazy reason) attempting to do a cover of this song for Christmas, and it'd be really helpful if anyone would happen to know the time signature for this song.

Thanks!

Unearthed this cover, last week, that I did about four years ago.  The song is "Caroline, No", originally done by… some band, I forget.  Anyways, hope you guys like it.  Included a little stripped down version of it, after the proper cover.

Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/the-academic-thugs/caroline-no

Almost positive these were released MFiT in 2012 at the same time the physical releases happened for the other titles through Capitol.  I think HOLLAND and SMILEY SMILE were also in that bunch.

It's nice to know iTunes revamped the Beach Boys section, too.  

The way I remember the iTunes page is that, up until this week, the only MFiT releases for The Beach Boys were "That's Why God Made the Radio", "Greatest Hits", "Made in California", "Pet Sounds", and the 2009 remasters of "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up".  The 2012 remasters were available, but those were not MFiT until a few days ago.  Also, the remaining twofers that weren't part of the 2012 program seemed to just get split up (sans the bonus tracks), with the same remastering as the 2000 releases.

So what I'm curious about are where some of the sources are coming from.  For instance:

1.  "Surfin' Safari" is now "Mastered for iTunes" and sounds much quieter (and, frankly, a lot better) than my 2000 issue.  This was not part of the 2012 program.  I'm assuming this is the Kevin Gray/AP release?

2.  The same goes for "Surfin' USA".  There's both a stereo and a mono/stereo version, but unlike the 2012 reissue, the white strip on the left with the Capitol logo is gone on the artwork.  I'm led to believe that this is also another Kevin Gray/AP release?

3.  Finally, this leaves us with the "Wild Honey", "Friends", and "20/20" MFiT releases.  "Wild Honey", as Shady says, does sound quite similar to the 2000 remaster, so it's possible that this is just a quieter version of that.  But "Friends" and "20/20" are definitely markedly different.  To my knowledge, however, neither releases have been part of any recent remastering program, so I'm not sure where these sources are coming from.

4.  One other note: there's also now a mono/stereo, MFiT version of "The Beach Boys' Christmas Album" now up.

Today, the iTunes Store completely revamped The Beach Boys page, introducing a new splash page better organizing their material, and are having a sale on some of their albums for $6.99.  In addition, many of their albums are now labelled as Mastered for iTunes, which basically means that the files are encoded from 24 bit sources, instead of the CDs.  The idea is that by using a better source, in addition to improvements with Apple's encoder, the files that result should avoid some of the common pitfalls of MP3s (distortion), and hopefully sound as close to the source files as possible. 

Anyways, none of that is really a big deal under most circumstances, particularly when I assumed that most of the albums labelled Mastered for iTunes would be the 12 that were remastered in 2012, but I'm noticing some albums, namely "Wild Honey", "Friends", and "20/20" all have 2015 copyrights and, based on the samples I'm hearing, sound remastered, at least the latter two.  Definitely different than the 2000 remasters that I own.  There's also a Capitol Albums Collection now available in the store.

I'm curious if my ears are deceiving me, or if there was some news about this that I missed, or something in-between?

Hmm, i'm not really sure what to think yet. I don't know if its the Vienetta advert style of saxophone or what but something is definitely off about this tune for me at the moment. I guess I was hoping for a more memorable hook or something.

Agreed.  I like the verse Brian sings; that's a good melody, although the hook itself does seem a bit generic.  Overall, the song reminds me of what an updated version of Beach Boys '85 would sound like, today.

Hi Brian,

When writing a song, do the background harmonies come to you in your head as you're writing the main vocal melody, or do you write the harmonies out afterwards?

Thanks for writing such great music.

The author looks eerily like Carl in that picture 

My thoughts exactly - but I did not write it here because I thought I'd be the only one...

Welcome, compadre!

Same here!

Downloaded the 4-track "single" from iTunes but the title track skips. Maybe it's my iPhone… 

Perhaps a corrupted download.  I would delete the track, go to the Purchased section of iTunes, and re-download it.

Does anyone know why, unlike other countries, the U.S. iTunes Store doesn't feature both mono/stereo remasters?  Strange.

Some of the unreleased stuff I'd like to see on it are:

Mony Mony (and the other 15 big one out takes like Sea Cruise etc..)
Everyone Wants to Live
Lines
Life is for the Living
Baseball
Stevie
My Solution (original version, not the remake)
Back Home (original and sunflower version)
You've Lost That Loving Feeling
California Feelin' (74 demo and 78 Beach Boys recording)
Big Sur (4/4 original)
WIBNTLA
Soul Searchin' (full Carl lead with BB backing)
You're Still A Mystery
Airplane (if a decent live recording exists)
Love You demos

All great picks.  The one track I'd KILL to see on there, and I notice it's no longer to be found on YouTube, is Brian's "Thank Him".  I doubt that'd make it, but it's one of the most beautiful things I think he's written.  It would be incredible to hear that in the best sound quality possible.

In defense of Cabinessenceking -

he makes a statement about the appreciation of art, and I do not have the slightest fear that he meant to belittle a class of listeners in the process. I will try to explain my own view on things, and then you're free to flame away at your heart's content:

it is a trivial fact that someone without any training in the arts may appreciate both a polka and Beethoven's Fifth. No need to dispute this. So it is also a trivial fact that another, similar person can enjoy 'This Car Of Mine' and 'I Just Wasn't Made For These Times'. Especially in the case of Brian Wilson; his music speaks always on the level of direct feelings, no matter the level of complexity of the music at hand.

Thing is: one can learn to listen, to get more out of music. For me that's the crucial point. In all probability, I would never have entered the field of classical music, had I not encountered a broadcast on Dutch public TV, some twenty years ago, of Leonard Bernstein's educational programme series, in nice b/w, with the famous director smoking to his heart's content and freely talking about Beethoven as well as the Beatles - and conversely, I am certain that one can get more out of the Fab Four's work after having read Ian McDonald's fine book on their stuff.

Analogy: had I not had friends in the fields of the art of painting, I would still think: what do all those skulls do, for heaven's sake, on those mediaeval still life paintings? After hearing that they were meant as a metaphor, standing for vanitas, vanity, and were referring to the fact that all things must pass, including we ourselves, they made eminent sense. Fresh fruit, a bottle of wine, and a skull: wonderful stuff, although making one melancholy at the same time.

Returning to music: Bernstein explained, for instance, the importance of the diabolus in musica, a certain interval that once was prohibited by the Church (it appears in the famous ‘Maria’, from West Side Story). Once you know these things, new worlds open themselves.

I take Cabinessenceking to have meant: one can absolutely enjoy Pet Sounds and Smile without any formal education, and without much listening experience at all. But there is extra value to be gotten from the latter two, when one has formed a habit of paying attention to detail, to the way Brian expresses difficult, often ambivalent emotions through compositional skills. The book of Philip Lambert is hugely instructive here.

It’s a bit like literature: one can get much out of Moby-Dick, without too much reading experience. But the thing is: a lot of the treasures therein will remain hidden, and the upshot is that it’ll be more like seeing the famous movie after that book, with Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab.

So, by way of resumé: Cabinessenceking’s statement, and the criticisms levelled at him, are not mutually exclusive, and therefore we are dealing with a false contradiction, IMHO.

I just want to say that in my own experience, by way of learning about art (which often is painstaking, and requires a certain investment of time), one can ‘dig a bit deeper’ – but the first and most primal enjoyment is always open to everyone.

(Final note: I am not very egalitarian, and I mean by that: I don’t think any dime store novel can compare with the works of your country’s greatest in my vies: Melville, Twain, Hawthorne, and Poe.)

Thank you for reading, sorry for rambling, and I am open to any type of criticism.

Well said, Don!

Thanks, Aaron.  You're much too kind!  Very appreciated.

previews are up for the albums...well at least they are for Sunflower and Smiley Smile...I haven't checked the rest:

http://www.amazon.com/Smiley-Smile-Mono-Stereo-Remasters/dp/B008LA7RI4/ref=pd_bxgy_m_img_z

The European iTunes Stores also have them up.  If you're in the U.S., go into the iTunes Store and click on the circular U.S. flag at the bottom, click on, for example, the U.K. store, then type in the Beach Boys, and they should appear.

Of course, make sure to go back to the U.S. store, when you're done.

Oh look, there's a petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/to-mike-love-we-want-al-brian-and-david-to-stay/

This whole thing is giving  me a headache, which is the last thing I need right now! Carry on now...

Al just linked to it on Twitter.

Great picks throughout the thread, covering the well-known and the obscure.  And even then, there's far more to include.

I'd like to submit the bonus disc from "Memory Almost Full", which, while only three songs ("In Private", "Why So Blue", and "222"), features some of the best work of his solo career.  Highly experimental (though not forced), yet very deep and beautiful, in every way.  He just really nails the mood.  Totally came out of left field when I first heard it, and, while I'm a big fan of the actual album, the bonus disc blows away most of the songs.  It will likely won't happen, but I would love to see Macca do an album like that.  Songs like those are way too good to be regulated to bonus disc/B side territory.

But, of course, the last track on the bonus disc, "Audio Commentary: Paul Talks About The Music Of Memory Almost Full" blows them all away.  It is, unquestionably, the greatest thing he's ever done.

So, I haven't written anything brand new in a while, and thus I was challenged to write and finish one by a certain time frame, so I wrote the tune pretty quickly (about 10-15 minutes) and spent a week off and on recording it and fiddling with words.  Everything you hear is me. It's not too polished (and it's not really supposed to be), but, nonetheless...

http://soundcloud.com/the-academic-thugs/these-are-my-words

Enjoy!

From Kokomo To Back Again (Wilson/Love/Thomas)

Why don’t we run away
And catch the surfin' scene?
Down in Montego Bay
We'll forget all our interstescenes
Why don’t we cruise the way
We used to anymore?
Take my Woodie along the way
Where the California Girls stay
We'll Catch A Wave and surf along the shore

You’ve been thinking 'bout some things
But keep it cool
Levitate the gravity in front of you
The beach is where we belong, All Summer Long
Won’t you listen?

Don’t you understand the words
Are singing in the wind
I wish that we could get from Kokomo to back again

The surfing guys and gals are storming the U.S.A.
From the Florida Keys to wonderful Califor-ni-a
Girls in bikinis, could I just find a way
For them to just fall, just fall, just fall
Into the Love...

In our Summer In Paradise
Where we go to get away from it all
As America's Band, we stood tall
From Rhonda to Barbara Ann, we gave it all
And Marcella, oh, she's still so fine
I think it's surfing time

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun...

So, as Mike stated in the "Rolling Stone" article, he enjoys putting a positive slant on things and, had he taken part in the suite at the end, would have added a more hopeful ending.  He is Mr. Positivity, after all.  So, continuing on some of the great Lovesian revisions people have done to the suite in the "Rolling Stone" thread, let's reimagine the catalog (and other great songs) and finally do justice to these songs in a way only Michael can.

I'll come back with some of my own later, but there's been a few great ones already.  So let's keep it going!

I don't get Mike's gesture of putting the gun to his head after hearing the end suite, nor do I get his comments about clouds.

Is he saying it was depressing and it's suicide music??? 

I think that the clouds comment refers to the fact that had he written the lyrics, there would be a touch of hope or positivity to those songs.

Summer's On! (lyrics by M. Love)


Summer's On!
Summer's here to stay
Here today
Just like yesterday

Old friends have gone
They've gone to surf some bitchin' waves
Our dreams hold on
You know we still have more to say

That's brilliant.  I'd love to see a "Mike Love Reimagines Your Favorite Songs" type of thread.

Looks Promising !!!! 

http://www.billboard.com/news/the-beach-boys-set-for-highest-charting-1007279152.story#/news/the-beach-boys-set-for-highest-charting-1007279152.story

Very interesting.  Based on this information, I'm predicting a #3 debut, behind Adele and Alan Jackson.

As of now:

1.  From There To Back Again
2.  Summer's Gone
3.  Pacific Coast Highway
4.  Think About The Days
5.  Isn't It Time
6.  That's Why God Made The Radio
7.  Shelter
8.  Strange World
9.  Daybreak Over The Ocean
10.  Spring Vacation
11.  The Private Life Of Bill And Sue
12.  Beaches In Mind

Leno tonight ought to really help. I just want to beat Alan Jackson. How can America's Band lose to this guy. That ain't right.

Not that I am defending him, but here are where his 7 studio albums have charted since 2000:

Year - US Country - US Billboard 200
2000 - 1 - 15
2002 - 1 - 1
2004 - 1 - 1
2006 - 1 - 4
2006 - 1 - 4
2008 - 1 - 1
2010 - 2 - 7

Yeah, he's actually the 15th highest selling artist of the last decade.  He sells a lot, so it's going to be tough.  But it's possible.

I'll have a full review later on, but I just want to say how impressive "From There To Back Again" is, at least, compositionally.  Of course, there's many great Brian songs, but it's been a long time since I've heard so many vintage Wilson tricks packed into a song, like this.  From the quirky chord progressions, key changes, modular sections in the song, tempo changes... and doing it all within 3:30.  It's deeply impressive and it's a side of Brian I wasn't sure was still there.  Brilliant.

I was feeling it, the first time I heard it.  I thought "Whoa, this is really deep, beautiful like Brian sometimes does".  Then they did the Jazz thing with Mike at the end and I couldn't believe it.  So f*cking creative, it's like the Genius Brian has returned. 

Yes!  That's it!  That last bit, in particular, put such a big smile on my face.  The song itself just goes in so many places, but yet it works.  I can't think of another songwriter who can pull off stuff like that as effortlessly as Brian.  1966 Brian definitely came back for that.

What's spectacular about From There to Back Again is that it doesn't sound pretentious, whatsoever.  It's a la Pet Sounds without trying too hard.  It stands on its own as a mark of beauty and will forever be considered a stunning, introspective Brian Wilson composition. 

That's the other thing I wanted to mention.  While there are elements of "From There To Back Again" that actually remind me of late '70s Brian (i.e., "The Night Was So Young"), this is probably the closest I've seen anyone get to the "Pet Sounds" style and nail it, maybe since "Pet Sounds" itself.  Of course Brian would be the one to do it, but I think even some his attempts at times over the years felt a bit forced.  But this suite just nails it in so many ways.  If I didn't know better, I'd think these were old Wilson/Asher songs.  For once, the "Pet Sounds" comparisons were actually apt.