I miss David Letterman so much! Our local TV always broadcast his Late Night Show 1/2 days after it had been done in the US. I found his monologue fabulous. Hear this elderly gentleman, elegant and white haired, say such off the wall things (some good satire, with a lot of pure farce), always made me laugh, and a lot. Ditto the interventions by Paul Shaffer, minus the white hair.
The interview section depended much on the interviewee, of course, but some were fantastic. And the guy with all those strange animals...
All in all, it was my fav TV show.

Fourth of July is a fantastic song, imho one of the best the Beach Boys did.
I'm not a native English speaker, so lyrics are less important for me in appreciating a song.
But the music... so epic (as Dennis could be whenever he wanted), so hymnlike in a good way, and makes you think of great spaces under the Sun. And Carl's voice, absolute perfection.

Is it OK to include Whale Music by Paul Quarrington?  It hasn't yet been mentioned. It's fiction but it is so obviously based on Brian and seems amazingly insightful, funny and ultimately moving.

Did you read it, Ang? I read "Glimpses" by Lewis Shiner and found it good, with a great part about Brian and Smile. His description of the finished 1967 Smile (in an alternate world) is short but very impressive. Didn't know much about "Whale Music."

Lewis Shiner graciously made his book freely available digitally (thanks a lot!), here:
http://www.fictionliberationfront.net/glimpses.pdf

P.S.
A quich search about "Whale Music" revealed (as it often happens) much more than I expected!
In 1989 Paul Quarrington published the book, and the Canadian band "Rheostatics" made an album inspired by the book, with the same title, in 1992.
Then, in 1994, a movie based on the book (of course, again same title) was released, and Paul Quarrington himself chose the Rheostatics as composers and performers of the movie's soundtrack, which was released in 1994 with the title "Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music".
Really intriguing, thanks for bringing it up...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheostatics

[30 Years]

For me, "How Deep is the Ocean?" by the great Paul Williams.

Can you elaborate more on this book? I haven't even heard of it actually.

I agree with Thorgill. I should add that it's not for the casual fan. Williams's ecstatic review of the 30 Years box set will leave you breathless!

https://www.amazon.com/Brian-Wilson-Beach-Boys-Ocean/dp/0711961972

The second customer review is the one you want. These two made me laugh:

"A large part of the book centers around the Smile album years when Brian got away from the music that he wrote that made the Beachboys [sic] so well-liked. Just putting together articles written for music publications over time didn't play well. Narrow focus and repetitive, doesn't work under one cover. Many better choices to read about Brian and the Beachboys, including his own writing, Wouldn't It Be Nice."

"What I thought would be a story about the Beach Boys turned out to be a book of piano music. I have no piano, can't read music, so therefore, it was very disappointing."  

Thanks JK for answering the question much better than I could have done.
Want only to add that there are two reasons I like that "collection of articles" so much: one, it's firmly focused on music, second I love Paul's very passionate, and in imho not so much rambling, style.
Of very little interest, of course, if one is looking mainly for biographical news.  

My favourite vocal-only moment is always the "tag" to Vegetables as in CD1 of the Smile Sessions. Absolutely transcendent.

I'm copying an idea from the Pet Sounds Forum (thanks). Surely already done here, but I don't remember reading it, and however I think it can be interesting to refresh these lists now and then. There are new members, and "old" members may have changed some preferences (I surely did!).
My favs of the moment are:

Surfin' Safari - 409
Surfin' U.S.A. - Lonely Sea
Surfer Girl - In My Room
Little Deuce Coupe - Ballad of Ole Betsy
Shut Down Volume 2 - Fun, Fun, Fun
All Summer Long - Title track
Christmas Album - Little Saint Nick
Today! - In the Back of My Mind
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) - California Girls
Party! - Barbara Ann
Pet Sounds - I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
Smile Sessions - Heroes and Villains
Smiley Smile - Wind Chimes
Wild Honey - Let the Wind Blow
Friends - Meant for You
20/20 - Time to Get Alone
Sunflower - Add Some Music to Your Day
Surf's Up - 'Til I Die
Carl and the Passions, So Tough - Marcella
Holland - California Saga: California
15 Big Ones - Back Home
Love You - Airplane
(Adult Child) - Still I Dream of It
M.I.U. Album - She's Got Rhythm
L.A. (Light Album) - Baby Blue
Keepin' The Summer Alive - Santa Ana Winds
The Beach Boys - It's Gettin' Late
Still Cruisin' - Kokomo
Summer in Paradise - Title track
Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 - Sloop John B
That's Why God Made the Radio - From There to Back Again

And here is how I "hate" Mike:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,24884.msg604637.html#msg604637

And no, I'm not implying that he secretly smokes.

To make a long story as short as possible:

 

For me, "How Deep is the Ocean?" by the great Paul Williams.

I can talk only for myself, but absolutely believe in your sincerity, objectivity and love for the music.
What I said in my previous post was not directed against you or your thread, at all, and am sorry if it sounded like that. It was only a sincere attempt to explain why I was saying nothing about the thread's subject: because I'd have the sensation of walking on uncommonly brittle eggshells.
Though, on second thoughts I have ALWAYS this sensation in the world of BB fandom.

I don't care how much of a dick he can be to Brian or anybody else. the man is a hell of a lot more worthy of respect and credit as a member of a vocal group than he's been given in the past, or right now in this thread. Listen to the vocal only mixes of Breakaway or Cottonfields, and see if you can come up with something half as good.

I agree with you 100%, Jay. It seems there is an unwritten rule on this board against saying anything complimentary about Mike.

Another thing that never fails to frustrate me is this: it should be obvious to everybody that here the opinions about Mike are very nuanced. Then someone comes and bundles together Billy, Craig, Bicycle, Century, Hey Jude, Rab, Add Some, OSD, Smile Brian, ...

By the way, there is a reason I'm not commenting on this thread's true topic. I'm so sick of the arguments (and lawsuits!) about "credits" that I don't want to touch those matters with a pole. They are read-only to me.

Very nice photo, he lacks only a pipe in his mouth to be the perfect picture of a retired (Arctic) sea captain. Beautiful little wolfie he has.

This is my take on it too. Mike had an incredibly distinctive voice, and his bass vocals on 'Cherry Cherry Coupe' for example are some of my favorite vocals these guys ever recorded. His lyrics on 'Warmth of the Sun' or 'Good Vibrations' are simply phenomenal.

Not to get too far off topic, but that's something I admired about Mike's lyrics; Brian was into pocket symphonies - little 2-3 minute Spector like tunes. It's not easy telling a story in that amount of time, considering you'd only have two or three short verses to tell it in. Take 'Warmth of the Sun' - there is story, poetry, and vivid imagery that is damn hard to pull off in the allotted time...that takes a lot of talent, which is why these guys were always in the top part of the charts (regardless of who co-wrote, but Brian certainly did pick the right people for whatever song he was working on in those days, and Mike was certainly one of those right people).

I think we'd all focus on these moments more if we didn't read accusations about Brian supposedly being under Landy-esque control right now (as well as other similar negative comments). I don't think this is something that can be denied. All these guys have flaws, but life goes on. Dennis had flaws, but do we talk about those flaws constantly? No, we talk about how amazing Holy Man is. Carl had his flaws, but most of the comments we see here about him are about how beautiful his voice was. Brian has flaws, but do we focus on them? No, because Brian hasn't a negative thing to say about anything (except for the same old sh*t being on Jeopardy) so why would we focus on the negative?

Mike on the other hand brings up, well, the things that he brings up. If he were to play his shows, talk about the good days and not focus on the negative, talk positively about his cousin, I would bet big money that people here would see it as a redemption and anyone would rightfully look like a total ass if they were to constantly criticize him after such a turnaround. I would also bet that if he did a 180 on how he talks about his cousin the likelihood of them getting together to work on a project would be exponentially better than it currently is.

As for the topic at hand, I would love to know more about his contributions to the bass vocal parts. All of these guys contributed in one way or another, and it's not unrealistic by any means that Mike was there adding his own vocal flavor to his parts. Although I still stand by my statement that being cynical about the intentions of the original topic isn't an unfair reaction given the history of these credits.

That aside, I'm wondering if Mike's parts on the intro of 'Dressed Up For School' fall under this umbrella of Mike's contributions.

GREAT post, Rab! (Somehow, I like that sentence...) Couldn't agree more. I would immediately "forgive" Mike for everything if he just LET GO.

We know that Brian did drugs, Mike. Brian himself is on record for saying it's the thing he regrets most.
We know that you were cheated out of your rightful credits for a long period. You were also amply compensated for that, many years ago, no need to keep on harbouring darkly vengeful feelings.
Most importantly, we know you and Melinda aren't best buddies. That does not make her Landy's equivalent.

LET GO, Mike. Please. Let us concentrate on your great leads, on your great bass parts, on your good and sometimes great lyrics, on the good work you are still doing with your band (though even that is somewhat besmirched by that unrelenting license thingy...).

Mike frustrates me to no end. He won't let go. It's like hoping for a live "Rio Grande" by Brian. Not going to happen.

Maybe they wouldn't do the whole album but just the thought of the band doing Rio Grande live would be amazing.

Yes, it would be amazing. Just, won't happen. There is so much music by Brian that simply screams for a live rendition with organic instruments, that it never had. Instead we get Pet Sounds (and Barbara Ann, and Help Me Rhonda etc.) for the billionth time. Rio Grande, or any other of a hundred underrated gems, every one better than AT LEAST Barbara Ann? Not once.   
All that great music out there, confined to a suboptimal album release or not even that. This is killing art in favour of business.

Wow, more than the short'nin' bread riff? Is that even possible?

Sometimes I get the misguided feeling that we here, and especially the Mods, are too hard on "them".Then I "lurk" there and read this gem:
"Perhaps I'm missing out on the big picture here, but are PM's that big of an issue at PSF?  I know they are over at Smiley, but then that whole place is vile; what would one expect?"

Unchallenged, of course.

I fear GIOMH ruined any chance, for me, to be enthusiastic about the Paley sessions.

For me, too, the alternate H & V mix. As great as the rest of the song is, the Cantina section and the "Barnshine*" fade are simply sublime. I wonder what would have happened if THAT had been the 1967 single, though I guess it would have been "understood" even less. The world was not ready for such things. Now it's even less ready.
Close second, "Can't Wait Too Long".

* I'm not really sure if it's the correct name, but I love it... Barnshine, gives so much the idea.

An article on Stephen Miller (https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/stephen-miller-a-key-engineer-for-trumps-america-first-agenda/2017/02/11/a70cb3f0-e809-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html) brought me sudden clarity on a thought that's been bumping around the shadows for a bit that aligns, I think, with CSM's generally expressed opinion: the Democratic and Republican Parties are not really left/right at all anymore, though they have modest leanings those ways. They are cosmopolitan/white parochial.

To add to this, upon further reflection:
There are cosmopolitan people who are economically 'right' and those who are economically 'left.'  The same with white parochial people. In a multi-party system, this wouldn't be a particular challenge. There would be 4+ parties resolving the matrix and issues revolving around social justice would have one set of coalitions and issues revolving around economics would have another. In a two party system, there are competing interests. Right now, the parties are aligned based on social justice issues, not economics. I expect that the powers-that-be are happy with that, and they encourage it in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, as they benefit from it.
It causes rifts that are surprising sometimes, but make sense. The Sanders supporters were unified in their economics positions but not on social justice. There were plenty of 'right' social people supporting Sanders, alienating some Democrats (including me). So while many left people were anti-Clinton because she's too right on economics, the other style of left people had problems with Sanders because his tent left room for followers who dismissed what is of tantamount importance to them. There are similar struggles on the right.
It's unclear to me how this can be resolved with two parties.

I don't know ANY political parties any more, and anywhere, which I'd consider "left", even according to my minimalistic definition of "left": caring about the working class (including much of what was once the "middle class") enough to not simply let them lie down (after they have been exploited to the marrow) and die.
"Right" is of course the opposite: not giving a damn about people, and working exclusively for the profits of corporations, both economical (e.g. big banks) and political (e.g. the European Union).
In this sense, I agree 100% that there is no traditional "left" or "right" any more, but not because they'd have somehow found a middle ground. On the contrary, everybody now is "right" (in the wrong way): US republicans, US democrats, all parties anywhere else, and all the media.
The rest is smoke and mirrors.

As an outsider (not knowing anyone involved in these disputes personally) BOTH forums seem completely batshit crazy to me at the moment.

Neither of the two forums seems to me anything like "batshit crazy". They both sound quite tame and reasonable, especially if compared to Internet standards.

Well, I did a fast tour there and couldn't help noticing two things. Several posters there seem to be convinced that joining "there" means to be banned "here".
Er... Captain? Cincinnati Kid? KDS? Jay? Bringahorseinhere? Bubbly Waves?
Worse, there I have read, several times, sentences like "people are better here" or even less flattering (for us) variations on that. Really folks? People are "better" on PSF? Do you think life is so easy?

Thanks, great threas! My ranking is:

1) Good Vibrations.
No contest. I had forgotten the Beach Boys, once my fav group. But, for all I knew in my backwood woods, they were lost and gone and unknown for a long long time. At the time, I had practically forgotten pop/rock music. I was listening to classic, folk, jazz.
Then, while loitering in my old fav music shop, I hear an unmistakable bass voice. Mike Love. Don't remember which song it was. I tell the owner, bless him: "The Beach Boys! What's this?" "The Good Vibrations box set."
Deal done, back home, almost two discs of bliss... and then, SMILE. I didn't know it had ever existed, even as a failed project. When Heroes and Villains Part 2 fills the air, my eyes are raining tears. That goes beyond bliss. Many have betrayed SMILE (how fickle you are, folks), not me. Pet Sounds may be the best album ever. SMILE is the best music ever.
And then, that third disc. Oh my.

2) Smile Sessions.
What can I say. An infinite treasure trove. There is nothing like it, anywhere.

3) Made in California.
Fantastic. Not at all redundant, far from a copy of the GV set. Highlights the fabulous songs by Dennis. Way better live selections. Different sonic palette. Exhilarating.

4) Pet Sounds.
Great, of course, but the songs were released in 1966 in a practically perfect state. In all its gorgeousness, a melancholy reminder of what we lost thanks to Murry, Mike, mental illness, drugs, Capitol, Landy, and Brian simply not being made for these times (any times?). On the other hand, Brian has still given us a wealth of uniquely good music all these fifty years. Who can say what would have happened, instead, without the factors I listed before?

It's not that PS is overrated. It's that too many (ab)use the excellency of PS as a hammer to beat down whatever else the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson have done. I have read far too many variations on "nice, but it's not Pet Sounds". Saying such a thing is boring, is trite, is lazy, and most importantly is unfair.

Just try to figure how you'd like it people treated that way everything you do in life. Nice, but...

Though I like NPP a lot, if Brian is doing another album, whatever it is, I hope for no "special guests" apart from Mark Isham (he'll always have a free pass). Only the Band, of course augmented by Al, Matt and Blondie.
And call it "Sensitive Music for Sensitive People", but brimming with the most raucous of Rock 'n' Rolls.

Agreed, OSD can do the backing vocals!

Three guesses who I sound like when I sing and hold my nose.  

Then you have fit right in if Mike had walked out on the reunion rehearsals. 😆

I'm surprised Mike doesn't click on the red "angry face" (aka the "dislike button") on that Facebook image that Brian posted. I wonder if he is even happy that Brian is still fortunately recording music, being that Mike isn't cowriting it. I hope that Mike is at least privately happy that Brian is still recording, even if he doesn't give Brian any sort of positive shout out publicly.

Privately happy? Mike? We all know that he's never publicly happy about Brian doing something good, and I'd bet all my music collection that he is never privately happy, either.