It's kind of a shame Brian didn't include "Cabinessence" on At My Piano, when you think about it. It might have helped clarify what parts where originally integral to the "Home on the Range" and "Iron Horse" sections vs. what got overdubbed.

The version of "Surf's Up" actually goes some of the way to illustrating what Brian's original (?) vision for the coda might have been before Bruce (apparently) arranged the "Child" vocals.

It's bizarre to me that the Beach Boys fandom is so dysfunctional. On the Hoffman forum there is a Byrds thread that has gone on for hundreds of pages and nearly a decade without a single significant argument that I can recall, even though there is of course a lot of disagreement as to the merits of various musical projects. And there were schmucks in that band's story that at least equal to the schmucks in and around the Beach Boys'. Am I missing something? How did music so joyously beautiful and issues so inconsequential give rise to all this rancor?

In my experience, I've seen two reasons: one, there are people who, while they are BB fans, use BB message boards to create trouble for a variety of reasons, including boosting their egos, putting other people down, getting attention, and so on.  Two, once more and more Smile tracks were officially released, including Brian and the BBs Smile albums, some people found themselves with less musical topics to discuss, and filled their time with reason number one.

Like with most things we discuss, we sometimes trick ourselves into thinking there are only two sides: left/right, liberal/conservative, Brian/Mike.  But the real world is nuanced and layered, like onions and ogres.  Binary Syndrome, some call it.

I'm sure you're right about the reasons, Charles. But if that is really why the Beach Boys fandom always seem to be at one another's throats, that's sad. Frankly I think there's a lot of Beach Boys stuff that is at least as interesting and mysterious to talk about as Smile ever was. The Pet Squares guy on YouTube shows that even things like the Little Deuce Coupe album are ripe for discussion.

But instead the fans just sink into the old Brian/Mike stuff, or worse, meta-Brian/Mike stuff where they're arguing about the Brian/Mike argument (or arguing about the argument about the argument). That's just pathetic.

I don't post here much but I've lurked for a long time. Glad to see it's intact and that conversation will continue.

From my outsider's perspective, the "drama" between this forum and Endless Harmony is quite embarrassing for pretty much everyone, but it really does seem like the MAGA-hat-wearing trolls mostly live there and not here, which is to Smiley's (and our mods') eternal credit.

It's bizarre to me that the Beach Boys fandom is so dysfunctional. On the Hoffman forum there is a Byrds thread that has gone on for hundreds of pages and nearly a decade without a single significant argument that I can recall, even though there is of course a lot of disagreement as to the merits of various musical projects. And there were schmucks in that band's story that at least equal to the schmucks in and around the Beach Boys'. Am I missing something? How did music so joyously beautiful and issues so inconsequential give rise to all this rancor?

What Joshilyn said. I think it's significant that Carl's songs are almost all in easy keys on the guitar -- D, G, and such. Whereas Brian tends to favor flat keys, which are easy on piano. Songwriting tends to come out of noodling and it's natural to noodle in easy keys.

I mentioned capos because there's no sign that (m)any BBs songs were written on a guitar but transposed for vocal purposes. Although the keys sometimes did change over the years.

And of course sometimes a song will start In a familiar key for guitar but quickly modulate. "Don't Worry Baby" starts in E but moves up a tone for the chorus to F#, "Surfer Girl" starts in D but moves up to Eb, and "Warmth of the Sun" starts in C but keeps moving around to various remote keys. None of those qualities are indicative of being composed on guitar, but they're also quite formally explicable, so who knows.

Another consideration early on was that the songs had to be in keys that were workable for Mike's horn. D, G, and E are fiendish for a beginner saxophonist.

Did Brian know how to play guitar in the '60s? If so, did he ever write a song on one? I've never ever seen him play one. I saw what looked like a publicity shot of him holding an acoustic guitar sometime in the '00s.

If he doesn't know how why do you think he never tried to learn? Did he feel being able to write on piano was good enough and was just more interested in writing?

I know he taught himself bass guitar well enough to play live.

As Joshilyn notes, he played guitar on "After the Game" (not sure if rhythm or lead or both). He also played the lead guitar parts on "Where Is She?" apparently.

So he clearly knew the instrument reasonably well.

It is true that he seldom played guitar with the Beach Boys but it was probably because there was no need to. Carl and Dave were much more practiced and confident on the instrument. Mike obviously made the same kind of calculus at the time: I think he was capable of playing some chords on a piano or guitar but there was no need for either in the band, and he was the only one with a saxophone (which in the early '60s was as important an accoutrement for rock and roll as guitar).

Brian was obviously much more confident on piano or organ and when Al rejoined, he didn't play much bass in the studio anymore either.

The keys in which the band's songs were performed would suggest that very few of them were written on guitar (and the band rarely used capos). One possible candidate for being written on guitar is "Girl Don't Tell Me." "All I Wanna Do" was apparently also conceived for guitar, but that doesn't mean it was written on one.

[Love You]

It's revelatory that Brian was so involved in the making of the Holland album. My previous impression was that he was very reluctant participant and channeled most of his focus towards Mt Vernon.

That was my impression as well, nice to hear otherwise. That really is one of my favorite Beach Boys albums - I mean it doesn’t get much better than Steamboat.

That interview was great - a lot of solid questions. Brian’s mix of SOS Funky Pretty sounds fascinating!

You know I've never been one to subscribe to the oh-so-romantic theory that The Beach Boys as an entity stifled a lot of Brian's creativity over the years. At least not at the level where he was truly impeded from making the music that he wanted.

However, I do think some of his music may have been futzed with after he was done with it to make it more "commercial." We definitely know that happened with Carl's work on Love You after Brian was finished with. And now we seem to have the same situation with "Funky Pretty." Perhaps the mix that Blondie describes was honestly ridiculous and would've come off horribly on vinyl. But more likely it probably woulda been awesomely nuts (in a good way). And isn't something like that what we love to hear from Brian?

Now I should clarify that I don't think things were done without Brian's knowledge to his recordings. But that maybe having the second guessing and tinkering going on after he had finished something might've got to be a bit of pain for him.

I wasn't aware that Love You was "futzed with" in the name of being "commercial" -- whatever Carl did in the hopes of making that record more commercial, he very clearly didn't succeed! (Full disclosure: Love You is one of my favorite albums by anyone, not just the BBs)

It's revelatory that Brian was so involved in the making of the Holland album. My previous impression was that he was very reluctant participant and channeled most of his focus towards Mt Vernon.

There is a surprising amount about the Holland album in the I Am Brian Wilson book. It seems evident that he was quite firm with Ben Greenman that he was a major driver of that album and is partial to it -- he keeps returning to it in different contexts.

For those who haven't heard it, here's Rick Henn's demo vocal, which is a lot more proper than the rough Brian/Carl runthrough.  Unfortunately only half the track is here, but you can get the idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0PE-ARIJ70

This Sundazed single comes with an extensive writeup where Henn explains that Murry came up with the melody line and he did everything else.  This conflicts with Brian's claim that he wrote the song.   

I believe that what Brian actually said was something more noncommittal than that, along the lines of "it sounds like something I could have written."

The demo run through clearly sounds like Brian has been handed a sheet of lyrics and is composing a melody for it. Maybe Henn wrote the lyrics, and Murry and Brian collaborated on the chords and melody.

I'm probably the only person in the world who thinks this, but in my opinion Love & Mercy should have received awards for costumes and set design. I'm well aware that those sorts of awards typically go to big-budget sci-fi/fantasy/comic-book extravaganzas or period war movies or period dramas based on Victoria-era literature. But darn it, Hollywood is usually really bad at getting "recent period" (30, 40, 50 years ago) right. It's really hard to do, and I'm a stickler for details (e.g., "I remember 1978, and no one had door knobs like that!").  But I'm not sure I've ever seen a film like Love & Mercy where they went to such lengths to recreate the studio scenes and costumes based an obsessive-compulsive level of attention to detail.  Brian himself noted the realism of the studio scenes and how the film had so amazingly got it right.  And let's face it, to an extent, they were even more accurate than the memories of a few of the principals.  For example, I remember when Carol Kaye, God bless her, was griping that she never wore outfits like the actress who portrayed her, there was photographic evidence that those costumes were dead-on reproductions of her actual in-studio outfits circa 1966.

I love, love, love Love & Mercy. I think it's a triumph. Even if I weren't a Beach Boys fan I would cherish it.

However, you have to remember what things like the Oscars exist for. It is to promote the work that is done by the Hollywood studio system. While the "Academy" has increasingly been honoring "independent" films in recent years, the truth is that things like Nomadland, Green Book, and Spotlight only look like independent films -- they were made with studio backing. There is a reason why the director of Nomadland was almost immediately hired to make a Marvel movie. Studios like Searchlight are not "the indie arm" of a major studio, as is sometimes imagined. They are more like the minor league/farm system for the studios.

Love & Mercy was made largely outside that system and even with the director's considerable Hollywood connections and the presence of stars, it took forever for a distributor (Lionsgate, an indie albeit the biggest of the indies) to pick it up, and it was barely released in a time when theatrical release was still king.

There was zero chance of it receiving any significant awards recognition. The only way that would have happened is if either it had been made by a studio, OR if it had been sold before TIFF and released that autumn (2014). TIFF is the beginning of the North American awards season, which runs roughly until Christmas.  The rule of thumb is that anything that plays at TIFF but doesn't receive a general release until the following year is not to be considered successful (although there are exceptions).

Also, putting the new song from the film on your album first literally killed Brian’s shot at an Oscar nom.

While NPP was released before the full release of Love and Mercy, one could argue that ‘One Kind Of Love’ was recorded for Love and Mercy as the movie was debuted in 2014 at TIFF. That being said I don’t know the details of the rules so you may be correct.

I thought it was due to how low the song was in the mix of the film, and how short of a time it was played on screen (Oscar rules state that at least 60% of the song must be present in the film)...I haven’t seen the film in a while so I’m not sure exactly how long it’s present on screen - but I think it’s a lot less than 60% of the song’s length. And you have to strain to even hear the song. The way they edited the song in it seems like the filmmaker didn’t even want the song in the film - which is a shame because it’s one of Brian’s most beautiful solo songs.

Just to clarify -- "One Kind of Love" was NOT in the version of Love & Mercy that played at TIFF in 2014. Trust me, I was there. The TIFF version had "Good Vibrations" session tapes playing over the end credits. The version that played at TIFF was a slightly rougher edit overall.

The song might have been written for the movie but it was definitely released on NPP first, in advance of the June 2015 general release of the movie.

One of my favorite BB songs in the entire catalog. I don't get the hate-attention it receives. I love the imagery of two elderly ladies talking about a "great love" that had died along with 3 little girls skipping past and giggling about boys. It's beautiful "circle of life" stuff.

Indeed -- the bridge about how "this must have been goin' on pre-history" is corn, but that last verse is almost profound. The fact that the image just sits there without any kind of hackneyed editorial comment pretty much raises it to the level of poetry, and this is a hill I'll die on.

On the demo it really sounds like Brian is humoring Murry by working on the track with him. I don't think there was ever much chance of it coming out as a Beach Boys track during that period.

If you don't care much about lyrics, it's an utterly unique arrangement worth listening to.

Funnily enough, the Feel Flows set is the first time I've encountered this song and I was completely overwhelmed by the beauty of the arrangement. I listened to the box in order and thus I heard the instrumental first.

As for the lyrics, they're corny but not terribly so. I'm actually genuinely surprised that people don't enjoy this track, it seems so quintessentially "Brian" to me, absolutely of a piece with "I Went to Sleep" and "I'd Love Just Once to See You" and such. Even in the lyrics department, it's no worse than "Little Children" or something like that (and I'm not aware of anyone who disdains "Little Children").

Hi gang, was wondering if any one knew exactly how Dennis produced the reverse sounding vocal effect on the second half of Thoughts of You from POB. It sounds like he's running the tape in reverse on a track on the left side (ala Twin Peaks), except for the fact that you can hear he's singing the actual lyrics 'all things that live one day must die" so it must not really be in reverse? I can't figure it out and I work in production. Would like to try this for a title sequence I'm doing. Thanks for any input!

Reverse echo, I think. Same effect used on Spiritualized's "Shine a Light." Essentially you take the vocal in isolation, reverse it, add echo/delay, and then reverse it again and put it back in the mix.

You can’t compare record sales from 1996 to sales from 2011.  For one thing, people in 1996 were still buying music.

I agree, I just thought it was funny that Stars & Stripes sold as many (80,000) as it did given its reputation as a disaster. Another funny apples-to-oranges comparison is the 80,000 for Stars & Stripes vs. 50,000 for the 1999/2000 mono/stereo releases of Pet Sounds (the version that has been in print continuously since).

Apples-to-apples comparisons would be the 25,000 copies sold of Summer In Paradise and the 1 million 50 thousand (!!!) sold by Still Cruisin'.

I wonder if Stars & Stripes was ever given away as a bonus on QVC or by the Nashville Network or some other such arrangement to beef up these numbers.

The numbers come from AGD.

I'd wager that much of the thought behind "Stars and Stripes" being a "Beach Boys" album was that they were essentially running it as an "authorized tribute album." Instead of some other company doing it, they'd do it themselves and, if the thing was a hit, they'd get a bigger return. Adding the backing vocals obviously lent even more authenticity/credibility to the project for both artists and (theoretically) fans.

Perhaps learning from the mistake of funding "Summer In Paradise" themselves, they seem to have hooked Thomas's label (and possibly other) to help fund the "Stars and Stripes" project.

What ended up happening is that country music fans didn't care about Beach Boys music or the Beach Boys, Beach Boys fans didn't care about country music or the artists lined up on the album, and it sold *very* poorly.

Believe it or not, it apparently sold 80,000 copies -- a similar number to the Smile Sessions (!!). It's also apparently fairly close to the number of copies of Pet Sounds sold since 2000 and more than either of the 2012 hits compilations.

Clearly it was a commercial disappointment (and no wonder, for the reasons you cite), but not necessarily a disaster on the scale of Summer In Paradise, which it outsold 3-to-1.

Yes, the "Common Thread" album seemed to be the catalyst for a lot of similar country or bluegrass "tributes" that followed, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that the Eagles tribute project sold tons of albums and helped put the Eagles back into a country bag as well, whereas they had pretty much owned the classic rock genre and format in the previous few decades. The fact they did have strong country roots especially with their first lineup where the amazing Bernie Leadon was a member (and Bernie left the group when he wanted to go even more country and the band didn't) seemed to remind listeners of just how "country" they really were, and how modern country at that time sounded a lot like the old Eagles records. Then there were all kinds of bluegrass tribute projects too, I remember seeing a bunch of them in the stores in the early and mid 90's, with titles like "Pickin On The Beatles", "Pickin On The Movies", etc...basically top-flight Nashville players doing bluegrass versions of classic tunes. Those sold too, some much more than others, but the seeds were planted for such crossovers to have a market and listeners.

And here's a deeper background history of Stars & Stripes I wrote 6 years ago:

For those with doubts or questions about Stars & Stripes, this is the background, of course corrections and comments welcome...but this is pretty much the deal.

Those names in the album credits, "Eddie Haddad" and "Dan Wojcik", Haddad is a promoter and Wojcik was a booking agent (he since passed away).

Eddie Haddad's company is EJH Entertainment, and they organize, manage, and promote concerts and events among other things. Mike Love was one of Haddad's clients, and EJH not only was a consultant to Mike but also was involved in the NASCAR salute release that was given out at "76" gas stations in the 90's. Hank Williams Jr was a client too.

Dan Wojcik as a booking agent had a lot of Nashville and country music clients with his agency "Entertainment Artists", and booked shows, did promotions, etc working also with Joe Thomas' company River North Records which was in Chicago and Nashville in the 90's. River North was the label for Stars & Stripes. Dan also worked with Hank Jr.

So Haddad who had promoted shows for Hank Jr and the Beach Boys said to Joe Thomas how it would be a good idea if Hank Jr recorded a cover of "Help Me Rhonda". Joe agreed. That explains that credit on the album liners.

Joe Thomas got in touch with Mike Love, according to the liners it involved Dan Wojcik in the process. There is that explanation of that credit in the liners. Wojcik seems to have been the go-between or the facilitator to get Joe in touch with Mike. I'm sure it wasn't that simple, but still...there were the connections that explain the album credits with these names.

Joe mentioned the idea to Mike, and Mike and Joe started planning things out and running ideas for it to happen. So there is Mike's role from the start - he was the point of contact at this time, it's who Joe went to in order to discuss the project and make plans.

In planning the project, again it was originally the thought to have Hank Jr cut a version of Help Me Rhonda, Willie Nelson's name came up. Mike's offer was if they get Willie Nelson, they'll get Brian Wilson too, in return. So Mike got Joe in contact with Brian, and Brian says I'll do it if you get Willie to sing "Warmth Of The Sun".

The band traveled to Texas and cut Warmth Of The Sun at Willie's studio, with Brian's participation and obvious support (it was his 'demand' if you will to have Willie cut that song out of all the choices), and thus began the project. Willie was the first to record with them, and having him involved gave the project some clout in Nashville - If Willie did it, it's legit, all of that political Nashville music biz stuff that goes on. Willie was happy, the band was happy, it rolled on.

Then the guests and song choices started coming in, to the point where eventually they had enough to have two Stars & Stripes albums.

James House was given the lead single, he was the singer i mentioned earlier was on Letterman with the surviving Beach Boys doing backup for him. "Little Deuce Coupe". There were plans to have House be the opening act for Beach Boys live shows as well. There was a TV special too (which I also recorded in the day), and I know Kathy Troccoli was on the Regis and Kathie Lee show with the Beach Boys (minus Brian) to perform and promote "I Can Hear Music".

So that's about it. An idea from a promoter to have Hank Jr cover a BB's song put Joe Thomas in touch with Mike Love, who together outlined plans for the project and got the ball rolling. Brian got involved after Willie Nelson agreed to do Warmth Of The Sun. Everything (and everyone) involved after that initial session at Willie's studio in Texas you'll have to fill in the rest. 

I was quite unaware of the existence of Common Thread, and indeed it does seem like a precursor to Stars & Stripes in some ways. However, there does seem to be a difference in that Stars & Stripes was not promoted as a tribute album -- it was promoted as a Beach Boys album, "featuring" the lead singers.

In that respect it seems quite different than the many country tributes to rock artists that proliferated starting in the 90s. How many bands had sung or played backup on their own tribute albums at that point? Of course, it became a much more common strategy later on (e.g. MC5) as '60s era musicians were dying off.

On your recommendation, I borrowed the eBook and skimmed the relevant chapters.  Yes, it's very dark stuff indeed, alleging that Dennis and particularly Terry were involved much longer and more deeply with "The Family" than had been previously acknowledged.  The author seems to believe that Vince Bugliosi covered for Terry and minimized his involvement.

Something new-ish with respect to BB history is the author's suggestion that Gregg Jakobson had very limited musical talent and that Denny gave Gregg songwriting credits as a "thank you" for testifying in the Manson trial so Denny didn't have to.  Not sure that I really buy that.  If we were talking just about a few Sunflower-era credits, it might be plausible, but if the Denny-Gregg collaboration was more pretense than reality, why would it have continued into Pacific Ocean Blue 6 or 7 years later?  The Manson thing had surely blown over by that point, so I'm very much inclined to believe that Gregg's songwriting credits were deserved.

To my knowledge neither Gregg nor anyone else has ever claimed that he made musical contributions to Denny's songs, just the lyrics?

So I don't see how musical talent or lack thereof would even enter into it. Denny just had trouble expressing himself in words.

Regarding the "Stars and Stripes" project, I don't think a positive reappraisal from the masses is happening. It was a copycat idea (other bands had done the theme before), with a few folks who may have been A-listers in the country world in the 90s, and otherwise it was b-listers, and often bland at that. I can't think of something exceptionally more bland than those takes on "Sloop John B" or "I Get Around" from that album.

I'm curious about the context for Stars & Stripes -- it seemed to come out of nowhere (other than the unprecedentedly gigantic sales country-pop CDs were enjoying at that time). What were the comparable projects by other bands that you're referring to? These might help me understand what they were trying to achieve a little more clearly.

When I was getting into the Beach Boys in a serious way 20 years ago, it seemed like there was an absolute consensus that Stars & Stripes was the pits -- the most egregious example of the band being out of touch, out of ideas, out of gas, cynically giving themselves over to their management's worst commercial instincts and not even succeeding at that.

It was easy to accept this point of view, since I didn't really know much about contemporary country music (growing up in a big city like Toronto) and what I did hear seemed awful. I have always enjoyed country music -- but to me, the likes of Shania Twain and Garth Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus weren't country, they were something else, something awful.

So I duly steered clear of Stars & Stripes for many years. It was easy to do since I had never seen a physical copy of it anywhere. A while ago, though, I stumbled on some clips from the Nashville video on YouTube. I listened to them and was surprised by how much I enjoyed the music, especially the Kathy Troccoli version of "I Can Hear Music."

One thing I found striking, checking out the videos on YouTube, was how overwhelmingly positive the comments were. It seems like a lot of Beach Boys fans have started to stumble on the Stars and Stripes recordings over the last few years and, like me, are surprised by how much they enjoy what they are hearing.

I finally bought myself a copy this spring and I have to admit, I didn't have a clue who most of these singers were, except for Willie Nelson, Timothy Schmit, Junior Brown, and Toby Keith. (Apparently Sawyer Brown is a group, not a person??) Listening to it from start to finish, I understood some of the criticisms -- the choice of songs is uninspired, the Boys themselves sound quite anonymous, there's way too many "trucker bro" type vocalists. But I feel like Graham Brown's "Help Me Rhonda" is kind of a hidden gem of that sort of thing? And same with Junior Brown's "409"? And the two ladies (particularly Troccoli) both bring something genuinely interesting to the material? And "Caroline, No" is worthy in its own right, with a genuinely interesting new vocal arrangement? And the background playing is solid and energetic throughout? And I seem not to be alone in having arrived at these responses. Going by the YouTube comments (I know, I know, not a great sample to cite) it's like there is a generation of listeners out there who didn't get the memo that they are supposed to hate this stuff.

Maybe the hostile reception of the album had more to do with what it wasn't -- an album of new, valuable Beach Boys/Brian music, or a fitting send-off for Carl -- than what it was (an energetic if largely surprise-free Beach Boys tribute coming from a different place than usual).

So, is there any sense around here of this album being reappraised? Or does the fandom still think it's the absolute nadir of the band's recorded legacy?

As an older teenager (18) I've very recently become interested in the Beach Boys.  Both their music, and their story.  The only thing I've really known about them, is that they were famous for those "surfer songs" in the 1960's.  Also my older uncle has often talked about them.

 I've done some general Internet searches, and there seems to be TON of stuff out there about them.  Knowing how information you find on the Internet about something, can vary enormously in quality and reliability, I found this discussion group.  And was hoping for some advice from "experts" on the BB.

Can anyone advise on a sort of "Beach Boys 101" syllabus.  Something essential for anyone new to get introduced to their music?

They seem to have a huge volume of musical work out there.  Both as a band, and as individuals.  Can someone recommend a list of their "must listen to" songs and albums?

There are also numerous books on Amazon about the group and its members.  Which of them would be on a list for "essential reading"?

I've noticed there have been several TV movies made about them.  Knowing how TV movies can vary in quality and historical accuracy, are there any recommended ones to view?

Youtube has many videos about them.  Are there any especially good ones that a Beach Boys novice should view?  Links would be appreciated!

I know that I'm probably a generation or two younger than many of their fans on this board.  So I hope I'm not asking a ridiculous or obvious question(s) here.  I've tied to find this information doing searches, but without success.

Thanks for any advice!

Welcome! I think the advice given by Joshilyn in this thread is excellent. In fact, I would say there are few people in the Beach Boys fandom who even approach the level of knowledge of the music that Joshilyn has.

Anyway, just speaking for myself, I got seriously into the Beach Boys about 20 years ago, when I was around 17. My story was as follows:

1> At the time I was getting into them, the band was best known for two things: Brian Wilson's compositional/arranging/production "genius", best exemplified by albums like Pet Sounds, and their early "sun and surf" hits. I was less interested in the latter at first, but over the years I have ended up in a place where I probably love the early "sun and surf" stuff more than almost anything else (although I love it all).

2> Brian's "genius" is indeed best displayed on certain Beach Boys albums, especially those of the mid '60s, including but not limited to Pet Sounds (1966) and The Beach Boys Today (1965). Many people would also class 1970's Sunflower with these, although it is much more collaborative among the band members and less strictly Brian's than the pre-1968 music. There are also the Smile Sessions to wade into, the body of music that produced "Good Vibrations" and a lot of other fascinating stuff along the same lines. This was the stuff of legend 20 years ago (at the time, most of it had not been officially released), but I am a bit cool on it.

3> At first I was probably most interested in the band's quirkiest and most whimsical music, a series of albums with very low-key and idiosyncratic production and varying degrees of "homemade" feel. They were made after the collapse of the Smile sessions and sort of represent Brian's regrouping after that. These albums include Smiley Smile, Wild Honey (both 1967) and the more elegantly produced Friends. The synthesizer-driven Love You from 1977 is of a piece with this music in some respects, although its sometimes harsh and unsettling sound is more characteristic of where Brian was in the late '70s than in the "homemade" period. This material vies with the "sun and surf" stuff for my favorite Beach Boys, but it's quite a different experience overall.

4> Many people will point to the singles as capturing the "sun and surf" era better than the albums, but I think the Surfer Girl (1963) and All Summer Long (1964) albums are excellent in themselves (albeit with some charming filler that's typical of the era).

5> Many fans give up on the band after the Love You album (or even before!). I wouldn't go that far, but it's probably fair to say that 90%+ of the band's musical legacy is captured on the albums and singles they released between 1962 and 1977. Everything after that is basically of scholarly interest (I happen to think the 2012 "reunion" album, That's Why God Made the Radio, is really good -- and, of course, there's the famous 1988 single "Kokomo").

6> There are a lot of solo albums by all of the band members, but (with one exception) I wouldn't sweat them just yet. Drummer Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue (1977) is the one Beach Boys solo project that is generally regarded as a masterwork in itself and that has a certain following of its own outside the Beach Boys fandom. It is probably closest in tone and sound to Love You of the Beach Boys' work, and it was made around the same time. And indeed, those two albums may be the most divisive in the whole Beach Boys discography. Many (most?) fans appreciate their starkly emotional qualities and the rough-hewn voices that deliver them, but many fans have no patience for either. All of the other solo albums (including Brian's) have stuff that's worth hearing, and I like many of them, but they're marginal to the story.

7> The Peter Ames Carlin book, Catch a Wave, gives a good (if not flawless) overview of the story. It's short and very readable, and most of its oversights are of basically academic interest. The 2014 biopic Love and Mercy is, in its way, a good introduction to Brian's world. There is a lot more to the Beach Boys than Brian Wilson, but I think Love and Mercy tells a moving story with a lot of good music, and without egregiously bending the truth.

409

Capitol did promote "409" over "Surfin' Safari" in the heartland of the US. It charted at #76, so it did similar business nationally to "Surfin'".

This seeming *partial* ignorance/incredulous aspect might indicate that Mike's stated chosen presidential candidate of recent years is something that he doesn't think or know is *quite* as polarizing as it actually is. I don't cut him *a lot* of slack in this regard. But it's a possibly partial explanation.

I don't cut Mike any slack concerning his recent preferred presidential candidate. Mike is not ignorant. He knows how polarizing his candidate of choice is. And as for being old as an excuse, Brian and Al are almost as old as Mike is, and they wisely disavowed themselves from Mike's venue choices as quickly as they could. Or at least they wisely listened to their PR people.

I probably have less insight into what makes Mike Love tick than anyone here. I think HeyJude's read of the situation perhaps spins out of what Mike wrote (or dictated, or approved being said on his behalf) in his own book. The part of his book where he discusses politics is fascinating. It is deliberately quite vague about Mike's own actual convictions on economic and social issues and even as regards particular political contests. It claims that Mike's associations with the Reagans and the Bushes reflected entirely personal, rather than political, loyalties. Maybe I misread the book, or maybe the effect was deliberate, but I came away with the impression that Mike was at least trying to give the impression to his readers that he was basically liberal in outlook, without actually coming out and saying so.

Of course, his activities on behalf of Trump, especially in 2020, completely belie this. After all, if he was truly personally loyal to the Bushes, he would have never done anything to benefit Trump. The Bushes and the Trumps despise one another.

So even on the off chance that one doesn't have a moral problem with Mike campaigning for Trump (at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, no less), it's impossible to credit the naively unideological framing that Mike gives to his political activities.

As an avowed never-use-Amazon-er, I've always found SpeedyHen to be super-reliable, and almost as cheap. Looks as if they pay their tax bill too! They have the set available for pre-order at under £85 right now, with free UK shipping. Though I'm making no promises.

Ironically, the vast majority of Speedy Hen's business is actually conducted through Amazon, where they are one of the larger-volume third-party media sellers -- alongside behemoths like Chalky's, Rarewaves, MovieMars, ImportCDs, and Dodax/Nagiry. (Dodax and Nagiry appear to be the same company as they always have the identical prices and inventory, and ship out of the same address in Bern, Switzerland.)

In my very humble opinion, it is foolhardy to conflate artistic innovation with progressive politics, or artistic conservatism with regressive politics for that matter.

For the first half of the century, you can point to a laundry list of extremely innovative artists (from Stravinsky to Ezra Pound to Wallace Stevens to Picasso) who were conservative to the point of fascism.

I'm not saying that the connection between artistic innovation and progressive social/political attitudes is completely imaginary: undoubtedly a lot of avant-garde jazz musicians of the '60s were (and remain) genuine social progressives, but there are plenty of artists who were staunchly conservative about their art while also being very progressive politically and socially -- and vice versa.

For rock and roll in particular, you'd be surprised how many '60s "radicals" became Regan-worshippers and such. In fact, the whole "neoconservative" contingent that came into the ascendancy during the Bush era largely started as Summer of Love types.

It goes without saying that the Beach Boys were musically innovative and I think it also goes without saying that they were (and are) mostly politically and socially conservative, regardless of how they vote. Certainly Bruce and Mike make no secret of where their allegiances lie. Brian and Al, I tend to think of as more "centrist" in politics while being generally conservative in the way they live their lives and their world view, and I have no idea about Carl and Dennis.