A great live-album and it shows what a great rock-band the beach boys were.  Sadly there are no Dennis-songs or Dennis-leads on it. You can hear him right before "SOS" talking to the audience, same before "Surfin USA" and he sings Mike's part in the ending of "Good vibrations". That's all.....
But on the whole, it's a great album and probably the best live-album by the bbs (maybe alongside Knebworth).

BTW, I would love to see the Carl Wilson "guitar player" interview.

I second that....

BTW this sounds more interesting with each new read imo. If a book, and aeijtzsche, I'd be the first one to buy it,  shouldn't happen, it would be great to have a thread or section on this board about this topic.

Wow, that's really a cool thing. Thank you so much for the information!!

James Burton also played Dobro on Cabinessence.

Are you kidding? Why don't I know about those stuff? Are you talking 'bout the Smile-version or was it overdubbed in the 20/20 sessions?

@ aeijtzsche :
Thank you. Very interesting read. James Burton....hmm. As an Elvis-fanatic, it would be cool if he really played on this one while also being Elvis' lead-guitarist.
Thanks again...

Great Brian story and thank you for the answers Mr Desper!
I imagine "Sail on sailor" was done in a similar way....

2) Essential Elvis 5 -- Many of the 1973 Memphis sessions sounded much better stripped of overdubs.  The whole thing made me much more impressed with this period of Elvis' career.

You're so right.  That "Raised on Rock" album could have been a truly great album, but it wasn't done very well (tracklist-wise) and unfortunately Elvis sounded not very interested in some of these songs. But still "Promised Land" is one of his very best albums imho. The titletrack should have been on "Raised on Rock" and "For ol' times sake" on "Promised land", which then, of course, would have had another name....

Mr Desper, I just looked into your great reports about the recordings of "Sunflower" and "Surf's up" from your book. I hope this question hasn't been already asked, but what would you say how much of the instruments (except strings and horns) were played by the Beach Boys themselves? Were there alot of studio musicians? And what about the way the individual BBs worked. I kinda doubt that Dennis had written arrangements for the musicians like Brian had(at least from what Carol Kaye said). How did they tell or show the musicians what to play? Maybe all that is answered in that book, since I'm not through yet, but these question burned so much, that I had to ask. Hope you don't mind....

I don't hate this album.....I don't care what anyone thinks of me either for liking it.

I don't see why you shouldn't like it. If it sounds good to your ears, than it's allright, but from a musical point of view it kinda....erm...sucks. Nothing against personal taste btw

Great topic. I also am very interested in the different instruments they used...

I give it a 4, because I think it's really kind of an group effort. "Here comes the night" doesn't fit and the original is much better (though I like the disco-version), so they should have put on a more fitting song instead, but overall it's a real good album and the singing is good also. Only thing that isn't as good, is the sound, I think ith Stephen Desper for example they would have gotten a better sound. The released one sounds not bright enough imho

Cool and good Best-of disc. Awful Liner Notes. I especially love the "Sights & Sounds of Summer", which comes with a DVD. I'm excited what Vol. 2 will be like, though I don't think it will climb as high in the charts if it happens to be in there at all

Probably the orst thing I've ever heard in my life. Makes M.I.U. sound like a great album....

The first and best solo-Beach-Boy-album.  Unbelievable, heavy stuff.... gets a 5

Like it. The new songs are cool and at times great ( "Somewhere near Japan" ), but they shouldn't have put the three old songs on it, and if they had to do it, they at least should have taken the better sounding version of "WIBN".  3

Great and very well done compilation.   5

That one gets a 1 from me, since I kinda like the version of "Little GTO".
The rest is crap imo. Almost everything sounds terrible and the introduction is one of the dumbest things to ever come out of a  Beach Boy-work.

I give a 3
An album that could have been a great one, which would have replaced an even better one (the unfinished nerw BBs-album from the 90s). There are some great cuts from the session, e.g. Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Lorrie Morgan, Doug Supernaw and also Timothy B. Schmitt and I also like Junior Brown's contribution.
I always dream about what this album could have been. I heard the demo of "California" by Al, which is heard in EH, was a demo for Merle Haggard. I also think that before the release of that album names like Hank Williams Jr. were mentioned. I've said this quite often on many boards, I think "Let the wind blow" would have been THE perfect song for Johnny Cash. Add to the great cuts of the original album, plus Haggard, George Jones doing "God only knows", Jerry Lee Lewis with "Got to know the woman" and let Bobby Bare sing one of the car songs, while Kris Kristofferson might have done "Forever" and it would have been a great album imho
The tracklist seems to show who as responsible for the kind of songs which were recorded. And also the liner notes have that Mike Love-touch with "it sure was fun in the sun". Boy, I can't stand this crap (apologies if they weren't Mike's, but I hate them anyway).

I really enjoy this album and I don't think it's as bad as many people say it is.  "Island fever" is one of my favs from this album and Carl's vocal on "Remember (walkimg in the sand)" is great, as well as almost all his vocals.
From another point, this album and kinda music (at least thematically) would be a good reason to see the Beach Boys not as one of the greatest bands in the world, but as an oldies-act, which they unfortunately have become.
I give that album a 3.
BTW great cover and artwork, though I think the european version had a "normal" jewel case, hadn't it? Anyway the american version (hope I didn't through the two around) has really, really great artwork imo

I really like that album. I'm not through hearing everything, but I'm positively surprised....

I think "Cool head" has some Hit-potential for the summer