For the Beach Boys, on the other hand, there are DECADES of live concerts to mine for much more interesting video releases. To say nothing of HOURS of studio (and live) audio material that is awaiting release.

I agree... but I'm thinking about this.  I wonder what the atmosphere is around the band, regarding stuff like that being released?

Brian for instance (whom I love) was an early RIAA guy talking out against Napster, and in the statement about that said that he likes to release songs that he feels are finished, and doesn't want people hearing unfinished work or stuff that he feels isn't good enough.  As we all known Brian's work has been extensively bootlegged.  

Now, whatever your opinion is about that, that apparently is Brian's opinion.  I'm not talking about the merit of bootlegs or leaked material, just saying that's Brian's stated opinion.  



So sometimes I wonder if the incredible wealth of material, especially live material, isn't released simply because Brian and others involved, just don't want that stuff released because they feel it's not up to snuff, or would hurt the band, or whatever.  It could even come down to, Brian has that opinion and hired managers or people at the record label who have interpreted that opinion as meaning "Don't even talk to Brian about anything unreleased".  

They release SOME unreleased stuff, but we all known there's hundreds of hours or stuff that nobody's got.  


So my theory is, Brian doesn't want, this, this, or this, released.  He hires Bob, or Bob gets hired, and Brian tells him "No, No, and NO" on those three things... so Bob assumes, Brian doesn't want anything old released... and we end up where we are.   

Not to be Morbid, but it's time to cash in, guys.  Now or never. 

This might make a good deal of money, I'm a fairly big fan and I've never seen the Beach Boys videos of those early songs, I think I've seen the swimming pool video... and I've seen some of the concert footage, and some of the 80's music videos from when I was a kid. 

They've likely got tons of other appearances where a camera was pointed at them and any of those videos would be gold, just to see Mike's hat or Al's t-shirt. 

Good To My Baby is enough to hook anybody on the Beach Boys, really... if you think about it.  How can you not want more of THAT? 

I always thought it was a good song.  I dont' know if he wrote the lyrics, but it has that quirky Brian thing and is very beautiful. 

Who picks the tracks for compilations like this?

Guy's name is Jim McAbernathy.  Lemme know if you need his phone number.

I agree with Eric.  I mainly base it on what I consider a fact: The human mind (mine, yours, Eric's ) isn't capable of understanding large numbers.  We can understand that we only know a few Beach Boys fans, and we can understand that between us, we don't listen to every song, ever day...

But the enormity of civilization is overwhelming to our minds, you can't possibly understand or even quantify the influence the Beach Boys have on the world today.  Just that we're on a message board talking about them is a hint at how big their presence in pop culture is...

So how many people played the Beach Boys in my city today?  Probably dozens.  How many in my STATE?  At least hundreds.  How many songs were played on the radio around here?  Who knows.  How many were played on the east coast?  How many in the U.S.A.?  How many in Cuba?  I don't know, never been to Cuba.  How many in Brazil?

How many people listened to the Beach Boys in Madrid today?  Are their any Moscow girls who like the Beach Boys?

We can't even begin to comprehend a question like that... so yes, I would assume (but not know) that every Beach Boys song is played at least once a day. 

I don't think you can really point to a peak... when I was younger I would have said late 60's too, but over the past 10 years or so I've really become enamored with a lot of the stuff from the 80's.  If you're using a word like "pop", it's hard to ignore the 80's, even over the 60's. 

Favorite Leads!


Al - Then I Kissed Her (sounds amazing, the swag is unstoppable on this)
Carl - God Only Knows (sounds like an angel)
Dennis - I wanna pick you up (I know it's rough, but he really puts everything into it)
Mike - 409 (Something about the "well.... I saved my pennies, and I saved my dimes..." sounds so bad-ass I can barely handle it)
Bruce - Disney Girls - very beautifully sung
Brian - Catch a Wave - so many to choose, but Brian's part before the choruses is just sublime.  He almost sounds alien his voice is so incredible.  It's one of the few songs where not only is his voice high, and clear, and precise, but it's very powerful as well... so it almost sounds like the equivalent of an alto trumpet, or something.  His voice was always great but it was rarely as perfect as it is on this song.   In the third verse when he does the "But donnnn't, you treat it like a toy.... oyyyy......" my head almost explodes.

From Brian's Solo Career, there's so many to choose from and I know everybody has their favorites, but mine is "Someone to Watch Over Me".  First, he doesn't sound overly medicated, and I say that with all respect.  So it allows him to be nuanced, something he has trouble doing in his modern career.  His voice sounds soft and sweet in places, and has that beautiful whine in a couple places.  He sounds really tender and I don't hear anything but him in complete mastery of his voice.  There's nothing especially acrobatic about it, but he sings it competently and it's fan-fucking-tastic to my ears.  It's also melancholy enough that it's relatable to his life experience.  Love Love Love it. 

 

I've always liked Brian's background vocals as the best part basically of his songs.  He's really.... really..... reeeeeallly good at it. 

My favorite recently is "Strange World" on the BB's album, at the end when it all breaks down and you can just hear him doing his thing, it's amazing. 

He also has this strange way of kind of sounding off key when he does that, like he sounds sharp but I'm not sure if he really is or not.  It works and fits together really well, even if he sounds strained or a little off and adds a TON of texture to his songs. 

I don't necessarily like the wall of Brian's although I can tolerate it, but when there's some other voices mixed in, and a large portion of what's going on Brian is doing, I absolutely love it.  His voice just has a really strong texture to it, and always has.  It gives each song a Wilson sound if he's in the background pads.

Another great recent example is "I'm feeling Sad", especially the middle break, holy cow he sounds amazing.  That whine he has sometimes is just stunning, such an artful, beautiful part of his music. 

There's enough stuff I can't stand but the one song that makes me gag at the very thought of it is Chuck Berry's lone US #1 "My Ding-A-Ling". That song is so wrong on every imaginable level!

You've cat to be kitten me. It's one of his best songs in entire catalog. The fact that he made the audience clap during it makes it cooler in my book.

I've always marveled at that too, that was live in London, I don't know if they tweaked the level of that (i suppose they probably did),... but it sounds like literally everybody in the show is singing along (except that guy in the front row).  There's no other instruments, just Chuck and his guitar, and he's got literally the entire crowd singing along. 

Masterful entertainer....



By the way, in my store I have this one really weird room near the bathrooms, it's kind of like a room you step into, before you go into the bathrooms.  I didn't know what to refer to it as, so I always just refer to it as the "Vestibule"... in nod to this song...

I dunno... I don't really have dog ears for that type of thing so it usually doesn't bother me.  I love Doo Wop, listen to it all the time to be honest.  I was listening to the 50's channel on XM on the way to work for instance; they played "The Boy from new York City" if that counts.

anyways, for whatever reason Barbara Ann has always sounded wayyyyyy off to me.  Little Star sounds great. 

People are pretty unfairly harsh on Mike, so lots of people compensate by making audacious statements in Mike's favor, which balance it out. 

Someone above mentioned that they don't understand why he didn't speak up for himself back then.

I think we have plenty of evidence that mike was kind of a prick then, as he is now, but it was much different.... up until hell the late 80's Mike was still on pretty good terms with Brian.

From Mike's perspective, Brian had helped screw him out of money, and then didn't do his fair share of lifting for years. 

So eventually all the pent up aggression in Mike blew up and he went nuclear, now he's so pissed about everything he won't give Brian the half inch of grace you'd give a bum on the street.

I agree with Van Dyke (as I understand it.... I may be wrong) that the lyrics are up to the listener. 

Music's really like that anyways.  Classical music evokes different moods and feelings in people, depending on the listener, without lyrics.  It's some of the most powerful music.

So Van Dyke I'm sure purposefully made the lyrics a little obtuse so you can make them whatever you want.  lots of good songwriters do that. 



Einstein said that there is no fixed frame of reference in the universe.  Everything is moving relative to everything else, and therefore wherever you're standing you see things differently than someone standing somewhere else. 

Question:


Did Mike getting screwed by Murry, and then Brian not doing anything about it and possibly being complicit beyond that....

Did that help make Mike the litigious, thin skinned, screw me once shame on you screw me twice shame on me type of guy that he is today?

I thought we already had our weekly 'Let's bash Mike thread"?

They've upped the quantity to a bi-weekly thing now.  Is that the one that's twice a week?  Not every two weeks. 

Could Mike ever have been satisfied with any answer that Van gave him? Suppose if Van actually described in detail exactly what the lyrics meant. Even if he described a detailed point-by-point explanation of each word from a literal standpoint, whether Van made-up an explanation on the spot or whether such explanation was truly a heartfelt explanation… would this ever have satisfied Mike?

Essentially, wasn’t Mike’s probing in actuality a thinly-veiled attempt to embarrass/discredit Van no matter what answer Van gave? Does anyone think that Van could have given an answer to Mike about the lyrics that would have made Mike genuinely, non-sarcastically say “ok, now I understand and accept the lyrics”? I certainly don’t think so.

Of course he was making a comment instead of a real question.  Most people do that.  He never would have liked Van Dyke because Van Dyke was taking his JOB

I think Chicks dig it.  Mostly. 

Also the few chicks I've known, that knew about "My Ding A Ling" by Chuck Berry, thought that was his best song. 

Chick logic

Pisces Brothers is just inept; Afternoon Delight is so contrived and calculated it could run for president.

In 2010, Billboard named "Afternoon Delight" the 20th sexiest song of all time.

Also in key

I think most bands have a 'BA' in their catalog. Whenever I hear the Beatles 'Obladi Oblada' its like fingernails on a blackboard.

Completely In Key

I think most bands have a 'BA' in their catalog. Whenever I hear the Beatles 'Obladi Oblada' its like fingernails on a blackboard.

Or Dont Stop Believing by Journey. Good song, but after hearing it at EVERY school dance, wedding, club...I can't stand it anymore

Fantastically in key song

I think most bands have a 'BA' in their catalog. Whenever I hear the Beatles 'Obladi Oblada' its like fingernails on a blackboard.

For me, it's Yellow Submarine.

Even John's in key

There's enough stuff I can't stand but the one song that makes me gag at the very thought of it is Chuck Berry's lone US #1 "My Ding-A-Ling". That song is so wrong on every imaginable level!

It's also in key...

"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver is another song I hope to never hear again.

It's in key.

I've always loved this joyous racket. Why on earth anyone should dislike it is beyond me.

So do tell.

It's off key. 


The original is also off key. 

The whole thing's sung in a weak falsetto instead of Brian's strong falsetto.  Nothing worse than a weak, thin falsetto, it sounds like an amplified whisper.

The original is even weaker. 

Lest it should be forgotten, The Beach Boys played for the Donald's 50th Birthday Party bash, June 1st 1996; the invitation:

It needs to be forgotten...

maybe so, maybe so. But the fold-open invite was special. Ya wanna see the shirt and glasses?

Uh.... YEAH, we want to see the shirt and glasses....

I've never been able to understand lists like this.... I guess ultimately you just have to conclude that they're completely useless.  It's the only way I can make any logical sense of it.


Just a couple throwaway thoughts about it.... I basically agree with a lot of the top 10, but like a poster above said, I've had many other songwriters move me much more than several of the top ten, so what is this even based on?  I love Carol King but in my world she's not even in the same league as Merle Haggard, and I'm not sure she even sold more records than Merle. 

Or guys like Woodie Guthrie, hell he started the foundation of what guys like Dylan did, yet Dylan's #1 (maybe deservedly so) but Guthrie's #28?  How?

Also we're giving props to Tom T. Hall but completely ignore the completely superior Roger Miller?  Tom T. Hall still wishes he was as talented as Roger Miller.  Where's Marty Robbins?  Where's Bill Monroe?  We give Johnny Cash #43, and yeah he was of course great, but there's 100 songwriters in Nashville who wrote better songs than Johnny ever dreamed of, and he'd be the first to tell you that if he was still alive.  Hell you could make a bigger case for Ira Louvin being on the list than Johnny Cash!  Waylon Jennings was 5X the songwriter Johnny Cash was, you could argue that Waylon was more talented and did more than even Kristoferson... but he's not one of L.A.'s favorites so we leave Waylon off. 

Whole list is pointless. 

Well, I can't think of many songs better than I Walk the Line, I Still Miss Someone, or Man in Black. That's the freakin' Bible in my music book.

Great songs... and he had others.... but if you listen through Waylon's catalog he was far superior.  Probably 100 songwriters in Nashville better than Johnny, he was more cool than all of them though so of course he gets on the list.

Just my opinion...

The reason the Beach Boys fans fight so much stems back to Brian's illness.

Brian was the sh*t, I mean, he was the MAN, an unbelievably gifted, articulate, beautiful, talented, genius-level musician making stuff the world had never seen before.  

From where we sit now, we can all see that.... and then in the mid 60's, his illness took over, and ruined the entire thing.  Drugs and family problems were part of it, but generally it was the illness, and mental illness is very unfair.  

It's f***ed up , and unfair that mental illness took Brian from us at his peak and left us with a damaged Brian who still had flashes of his brilliance, but for most of the time appears to be unhappy, withdrawn, and even in pain at times.

There's nothing fair about that, we all hate it, and so people lash out and do crazy sh*t and say crazy sh*t because of the emotion involved in all of that, which is at the very core of the band.  To understand and love the band, you ultimately have to realize that Brian stopped being full-on, bad-ass, genius son-of-God Brian in the 60's and the whole thing pisses us all off.


In the bible, there's this section where they're talking about what burning in hell is going to be like, and it makes sure to mention that from Hell, you can see Heaven.... which permanently reminds you of what you're missing out on.... which is what makes Hell Hell.  



So people that really love the band, and really get into it, are living, in that regard, in a personal hell on one level, because we can all see what Brian once was, and we all see him from time to time do that 'thing' that he was so good at... but we have to accept that he'll never be the same.  

I personally think that's the reason there's so much turmoil between the fans.  Just my opinion.  

I'm not much of an audiophile, most of the stuff people complain about I poo poo.  However, even I hear the compression crap in modern mastering.


It's particularly strange to do that to a Brian Wilson song because he was always so into dynamics.