Dano is a great actor; I'm excited.

Problem is Beach Boy music in general tends to be slanted in favor of Brian. I would say Dennis is a BIT under-represented on the GV boxset. The rest, not so much. I mean, I like 'looking for tomorrow' a lot, but if I've only got 4 or 5 songs to include of Surf's UP, it's just not going to be one of them.

Thing is the Beach Boys themselves seem to have hazy memories about it all...

It is so frustrating. I honestly think it's a lost cause. Too many classic rock drones would be forced to really listen to the music if they accepted that as fact. Nevertheless I applaud the tireless efforts of you all(especially Jon Stebbins) for continuing to fight the good fight.

That would satisfy me!

You think Brian Wilson is a horiible(or not so great) artist?

Has anyone else noticed that the chorus of That's Why God Made the Radio (song) and the verse of All Summer Long (song) are kinda similar?

Yes, it is very similar.

Love them!

Alex Chilton and Captain Beefheart, I believe.

12/49

well, I think Don is right but for me it's not 'melancholic' but it is spooky; and I think slightly sinister; the sound of an inhuman technology overunning a simple, bucolic existence; juxtaposed with an dispassionate alien point of view at the end.

So what is an important factor? Whether or not the youth of a particular nation respond positively to it? I mean, I see what you're saying and it's a good case. It's just that I'm not really interested in 'movements' and 'trends' as a means to judge music-- we are just coming at it from different points of view, I think.
Also, I would guess that it is nearly impossible for a musical trend to be as culturally significant in the States as it could be in the UK, anyway The culture in the States was just too fractured back then. Within their various subcultures the music of the US was relevant, but yeah, didn't mean much in the vast scheme of things.
 

Too many folks judge the Brit scene by Oasis. The real deals were Pulp, Spiritualized, Suede, Blur, etc.

With the exception of Spiritualized, don't you think they are kind of backwards looking?

 In the end, I'm just not very moved by a lot of that stuff,  though Spiritualized and Blur are great. I guess it's just personal taste(as always.)

90s American music is much better than 90s British music, I think.

Well, 90s American music had one major achievement which was to remove every rebellious element of the genre.

There is some truth to that I think but I hardly think that Brit-Pop was breaking much new ground, either. Some of them did have some bratty snottiness, but so did Billy Corgan or whoever. As far as the music goes, I thought that there was a little more originality in the American scene than the British one, although I'll admit it was maybe not the best decade for music overall anywhere.  It was really interesting how fast the underground thing got commodified and started sucking.

My two-year-old is not a big fan. He likes the ABC song, though.

90s American music is much better than 90s British music, I think. I do love Blur and like Radiohead alot. Pearl Jam always strikes me a great band with mediocre songs.

I think it would have worked better with 4th of July and Wouldn't have been nice to live again.

Actually, this kind of revisionism gets old, I know,  but I think that there could have been a good double album at that time: a sort of silly or rather light-hearted disc and a heavier, serious disc. A Lot of people think that about Sunflower too, but I would prefer to wait until Surf's Up. Either that or sandwich in an album between 'em.

I don't think it's true that Brian was gone, at least I don't look at it that way. I think the truth is he had had writer's block and he was coming out of that and so his songs were naturally going to be less than stellar for a while...I think that a similar thing happened with 15 Big Ones, he was rusty and working that out. Same with BB88 only this time the rest of them let Carl put his songs in, which are professional and well-crafted if a bit on the adult contemporary side. And then rounded it all out with Stevie Wonder and Boy George, but I think both of those songs are ok 'lite' 80s style songs.

I think it's a bit underrated. Mostly, I look at it as a learning experience for Brian, a chance to learn how to record with this new technology; especially, an experiment whose outcome wasn't great but it taught him the ropes and allowed him to make his first solo album.

I think Brian's productions for The Honeys in 1963 and 1964 are better than those he did for The Beach Boys in that same era. They might not be as great RECORDS, all told, or compositions, but he was clearly progressing in terms of arranging and combining instruments, in a way he may have been shy to exhibit in the more basic BB framework of the time. He's A Doll and The One You Can't Have are actually two of my favorite records of all time.

I agree and I think there are plenty of other good songs at that time: Story of My Life, Thinking About My Baby, Pray for Surf, Surfin' Down the Swanee River...

I'm voting classic too. I used to hear that once a week on oldies radio in the mid-nineties.

Straight ! He said "straight" !!  

Quick, call the Thought Nazis !!  Man's a rampant homophobe !!!!

You guys are going to have to explain this one to me. When did the proper, civil and politically correct AGD become a gay basher? Inquiring minds want to know!

He said 'I prefer my something-or-other straight' and some poster misunderstood and thought he was being homophobic; said poster  apologized for the misunderstanding, but people around here still find it hilariously funny to reference it.

I love the album; it hits a spot no other album hits. I prefer it to Pet Sounds, which is too vast and imperiously above me.

auto-tune, what auto-tune, I don't hear any auto-tune. Can you show me a graph with a little jaggedy line on it?

I have yet to hear SUSA, SG, LDC, S or SU. But I"m loving all of the ones I have heard.