Yeah that's some good ideas... I like some of the rock versions, though.... that version of "Little Deuce Coupe" that's on the Hallmark CD is friekin' awesome.  It's like a wall of sound, even the way Mike counts it in, is just perfect.  He does the car song intro thing, and then you hear "a one, two, three, fou..." and then this entire wall of Beach Boys "LITTLE DEUCE COUPE......" the sound pressure is outstanding.  Zero to Hero in 1 moment, love it!

Also the drums in some of the versions of "Heroes and Villians" were just kick-ass, sometimes when the Beach Boys veered towards Hard Rock I loved it.  Such smooth voices but with the guitars and drums cranked up it really sounded great, imho.  Check out for instance the drums on the In Concert album, about 2:30 into the song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cyA7keBgvk

I know a lot of people don't like the drums on that album though, not sure why  


You mentioned "Barbara Ann", I've never liked that song (the off key singing even as a kid grated on me).. but for whatever reason, I really like how JEFF sings it!  The "whoooaaa BARBARA ANNNN!!!!!" just works for me, I don't know it's something about the way Jeff swoops up into it. 

Generally though I agree with you that on some of this stuff when they turn it into a rock song, it would be even more interesting if they were a little more reserved with it. 

I've done that with several bands.

- The Beatles - was into them huge in High School but really burnt it out, I even learned several of the songs on guitar, etc.  Haven't listened to a Beatles CD in 10 years.

- The Doors - was big into them in College, same story, got burnt out after hearing everything hundreds of times, haven't played a Doors CD in 5 years

- Michael Jackson - I've been a Michael Jackson fan my entire life, I can remember listening to him sing when I was 5 years old.  When he died (after years of child molestation allegations, the drug abuse, the circus his life was) I was basically done, I haven't listened to any of his music purposefully since his death.  For years I defended him but eventually I got to the point where the whole damn story is so sad that I'm tired of even dealing with it.

That's probably the three main ones that I've really burnt out, although there were other 'minor' periods where I listened to the White Stripes for instance... or Oasis!  U2 as well. 

a side note to tempo but can we discuss arrangement as well?  

They did do some kind of strange things with the arrangements over the years.. I was listening to some old live stuff last week, and in the mid 60's when they used to do a medley of the surf songs, they would do Surfin' USA, for some reason they would drop 1 line of the lyrics out.  So it'd go "You'd see them wearin' their baggies... huarachi sandals too... everybody's gone surfin, Surfin' USA" they would delete the line about a "Bushy Bushy Blonde Hairdo" I guess so they didn't have to do the full chorus and could go into the solo or something.

And then for a long time in California Girls, Mike would go "They Make You Feel All Righ.  Ih.  Iht"

I'm sure they had good reasons for all that but it's always strange hearing them consistently do it different than the record...

Heard this for the first time this evening, WOW!  Check this out if you get the time, what a great sound!  What a voice!

LaWanda Lindsey circa 1974 "Hello Out There"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIJqfzXWa80

Here's her beautiful country version of "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8yjWlHBQ6g

What a disrespectful bunch of b.s.!  Who makes up crap like that?

I can't tell if there's supposed to be a joke here or not, but I like Bruce and like that recording too. 

I see it differently.  Personally I used to work with lots of people, some of those people I didn't get along with.  We can't really expect me to work with people I don't get along with for 40 years... and we can't really expect Axl and Slash to be great friends, maybe they just don't get along.  I don't really think it speaks bad about either of them, although I've always heard Axl was the hard one to get along with.

With all that said, though, I also see the scenario where a band just has to stand on stage with each other for 3 hours every few nights, and they make a ton of money and make a ton of fans happy.  Nothing wrong with that either... but it takes professionalism. 

I'm just glad to see the guys acting like pros for a little while at least. 

I'd love to see him do something like "Farther Along", maybe faster with more harmony. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVm9Mh0afr8


If he got up and did the whole bit at the beginning introducing the song like this guy it'd be awesome. 

To be honest I don't know why the Beach Boys didn't do more religious music, everything they ever sang was a spirtual experience.  It would have been incredibly powerful... and there's plenty of ways to do it where you don't offend. 

Missed opportunity if you ask me. 

I'm excited to see Axl getting into the swing of things, I hope it works out for him.  It's a shame to see such talented singers disappear for decades, I'm also looking at you Steve Perry!!!!

No way they'll release her, the governor will override it.  She smothered the woman then helped stab her to death, then spent years minimizing her involvement.  I'm glad she's turned her life around and I believe she has, but sometimes you do things you can't come back from. 

They're also doing a few Chinese Democracy songs, and they sound so much better with Slash.

I'm not the type to bash the fill in guys, like the dude in the top hat that played all Slash's solos the last couple years it looked like... he seems very talented and I'm sure he's great, but I concur with you that Slash sounds much better.  He just has a lot of soul that comes out in his playing, he's a natural guitar god.  I saw a video of the other guy doing "Sweet Child 'o Mine" and while he was playing it note for note the soul was completely missing out of it.  Really neutered the song. 

Lots of tributes on the Grand Ol Opry this weekend from several people, including Suzy Bogguss doing "Silver Wings".  They also replayed an old interview with Bill Anderson where Merle claimed his favorite song he ever wrote was "Footlights". 

Here's a clip of George Jones claiming it's also HIS favorite song, and Merle singing it acoustic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGZQaYT3Ngc

There's still a few left, and there's still a few young guys and girls keeping the flame going.  Kacey Musgraves is a good example.   There's some really great guys from the 80's still in their prime too but you never hear about them anymore... John Conlee, Gene Watson, etc.

If you're a fan and in the mood to listen to a Merle interview, check out this great radio interview from about 3 years ago by Eddie Stubbs of WSM650 fame... he had Merle in the studio for a couple hours and they went over a bunch of things, it really gives you a good idea of what kind of person he was and what was important to him.  It's very down to earth, Merle just showed up unannounced and sat down with Eddie for a few hours spinning records and talking.

http://wsmonline.com/archives/eddie-stubbs-show/  

Scroll down to "Interview with Merle Haggard".  


About 65 minutes in he tells this amazing story about being a kid sneaking into a Bob Wills show in Bakersfield which was very formidable in his love of music.

While regarded as legends, it seems to me that country music wasn't really totally accepted by the mainstream until Garth Brooks came around and added some pop-ness to country.  Although his music was country with the tinge of pop.  Now, modern country seems to be pop with a tinge of country. 

Garth was huge for awhile... I remember at the height of his popularity, just before he did that concert in Central Park that they made a cd out of, he was proclaimed the most successful country singer of all time, having sold more records at the time than Eddy Arnold (who had hits in 7 different decades!).  There was even stories in some magazines about how Garth had a desire to be the best selling ACT of all time, and wanted to surpass the Beatles record sales which he was close to at the time... the live CD was a double CD and was a play by him to get more sales # figures to try to make a run for the record.  He fell short and since then the Beatles have sold many more albums than him...

So yeah I guess he kind of kicked it more into mainstream, but of course where I'm from Country was always a big deal. 

Another interesting thing to think about too is, although guys like Willie still tour and do all kinds of stuff and is a household name, compared to super-hot modern acts he's not doing much.  For instance, I saw about 7 or 8 years ago a show locally, probably had 8 or 9000 people there, but it was Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price all in 1 show.  That's arguably as big of a deal as the Highwaymen were, and there were only 8000 or 9000 people there in a huge market in the south nonetheless (it was in Charlotte, NC). 

So part of it may be our opinion of how big Johnny Cash, Waylon, etc. were is over exaggerated... I'm not sure... it's kind of like Brian, he's a household name and to us seems like what the sun revolves around but at the end of the day I wonder how big of a deal he REALLY is to the general public.  Beach boys music has nearly 100% musical recognition in the U.S. but yet Brian's shows are to 2 or 3000 people sometimes.  And he's fairly reclusive and doesn't tour as often as a lot of acts. 

I just think stuff like that is hard to actually understand and conceptualize in your head... the Highwaymen were certainly big, really big, and legends... but were they bigger than  "Brooks N' Dunn" ?  I don't know to be honest. 

Showing up on time would be a measure of his discipline, and the only other thing we have to point to that is his weight.  He looks to have lost a lot of weight which would have taken a lot of discipline... I think he's in a good place right now and about to put on a hell of a tour... at least at first.  To me the real question is how does the band act 2 months into it?

I can confirm that there was no Cash comeback on "Country Radio" they didn't play any of it.  So while he was selling more, was being played on mainstream radio, had music videos out, Country pretty much ignored him. 

It's very much STILL like that, by the way.  They literally play the same 20 songs over and over again, sometimes in order on most country stations.  Then every once in awhile they'll play a few songs from 10 years ago that were also part of the 20 songs they played over and over again back then...  it's very frustrating.  In a way it's even worse than the pop channels because at least those have some chance that a breakout artist makes it through.

in Nashville the machine determines exactly who's going to make it.  Sometimes that's somebody talented, many times it's not   Of course there are exceptions like the excellent WSM 650 out of nashville (AM station) that runs the Opry, they will play anything and everything throughout the day, I've heard "Bro Country", tons of classic 60's and 70's country, live recordings from the 50's and even gospel songs from the 30's played live on the air from that channel.  The Opry will also let new acts that don't even have record deals perform live on the show from time to time. 

Back to the Highwaymen though, I haven't heard all their stuff but you can see how if the record company was pushing them to be more adult contemporary/cheezy 80's country sounding it would completely destroy their credibility with the audience and nobody would really enjoy that music.  Hence low chart positions even if they did manage to get played on radio stations.

I'm listening right now.  My only question is why Isn't Mr. Desper more involved in the current Beach Boys product?  He strikes me as an incredibly competent engineer who has a unmatched passion for the Beach Boys.  Surely that would be someone they'd want involved in whatever way possible!

"Wendy" sounds incredible!  Just imagine if those early songs had full multitracks available for the vocals. 

I think it had more to do with the way country music works, unfortunately.  It's all based out of the same record labels in Nashville, and "Payola" is REAL in the country radio business.  Next time you watch a country awards show, watch how careful the act is to thank, quote, "country Radio". 

They'll say things like "Thanks to Country Radio for playing this..." or "We sent this out to Country Radio" they talk about it like it's a conglomerate, because it IS.  Even as loved and respected as WayMore Willie Johnny Kris were, if they were doing things their own way they may have had trouble getting their stuff played. 

Late 80's early 90's was a really, really weird place in country music, too.  There was a LOT of pressure to make the country stuff more adult contemporary around that time.  If you look at the hits from 1991, for instance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_in_country_music

It's almost completely slow, strange AC ballads by neutered country singers.  There's a little bit of grit in there but not much.  ALL of those songs were played because "Country Radio" pushed them to the moon.  One "f*** You" from Waylon Jennings and the Highwaymen don't get played as much. 

Hopefully Rocker has more insight. 

I think I've got a fairly unique perspective on this stuff, I was never a big fan back in the day, but over the years have of course heard all their big stuff hundreds of times.  So the 'story' I'd always heard was that basically Axl was crazy, and had lost his voice, and now he's fat, etc.

So with all this info about the reunion, and Axl possibly singing lead for AC/DC (who may actually open for Guns N Roses on tour this year) I thought I"d finally actually go LISTEN to one of their recent shows on youtube.

So I checked out a clip of Axl last year doing "Welcome to the Jungle".  I don't know what everybody's complaining about.  He sounds great.    He's dead on key, he's hitting pretty crazy high notes, he's pretty agressive... it's not exactly like the record but I suspect he was probably never exactly the same live as he was in the studio, as is usual for Rock singers.

So then I checked out last year, him doing "Sweet Child 'o Mine" and while part of it he sang with a kind of over dramatic tone it was obvious it was just a style he wanted to sing it in and his voice sounds as good as it ever did. 

It seems his weight was a bit of a hindrance, in some of the songs he sounds a little winded.

So then I see that he's lost a lot of weight, and watched some videos from their reunion show last night.  He sounds fantastic.

Not really sure why the die-hard fans are so eager to throw Axl under the bus, the guy looks good, sounds good, is working hard, buried the hatchet with at least a couple members of the band and is out trying to make the fans happy. 

Good for him. 

Saturday night they kept talking about it on the Grand ol' Opry, it's in limited release in certain cities, and I think going to most theatres Tommorow...  Also Loretta Lynn performed at the Opry Saturday, she sounded I swear to God exactly like she always has.  I don't know how that's possible...

Saw an interview with Hank Jr., they asked him if he saw the movie, he said "No, I think my Daughter saw it though".  Asked it he was going to see it, he answered "Hell no". 

I think Holly has said she really liked it. 

Didn't see anybody mention Sheryl Crow yet.  She's the definition of a great modern female composer!  Check out "The Difficult Kind"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNwlVExyHiw

Just found this and wanted to share it with you. The great Jerry Reed. Man, what a talent!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4ruLyvBKFM

Thank you for the video.  I was just listening to him the other day, always loved his guitar playing.  When I was a kid we watched "Smokey & the Bandit" all the time so I guess that's where I get my appreciation of him from.  When he was sick at the end he donated all the proceeds from his last album to wounded veterans... every year they have "the Snowman's Run" to Texarcana again to raise funds for Wounded Veterans - http://kkyr.com/snowmans-run-2015-concludes/ .

One of my favorite things he ever did was he had a song on a guy named Tim Wilson's album in 1997 called "I Married a Woman who talks like Jerry Reed"  Lots of good guitar riffs and ridiculous lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMPZz_H4t3M