They sound pretty good to me. Mike is in good voice and in his least goofy mode.  He looks good too, with the baldness concealing cap on he looks like he's still in his 30's.
Not sure what Al was thinking with that outfit but it's a shame he didn't get a lead.

All we need now is Brian to release a few remakes too! As you may recall, apparently it was Brian who was the first to suggest a re-makes album. They could both do new versions of "Our Car Club" which could go head-to head on the "charts.". With heavily auto-tuned  remakes of ""Cassius" Love vs. "Sonny" Wilson" as each of the b-sides.

Let the old boy get his kix, I say. A few of the concert attendees who site Kokomo as their fav BB song will enjoy it and it will otherwise be forgotten. I don't think it's damaging to Mike's or the band's legacy. Ignore and it will swiftly disappear. It's also pretty irrelevant that "Do it Again" was re-recorded in 2012 already because that version has sunk without a trace also.

Help me Rhonda (too repetitive)
Barbara Ann (uninteresting, and not even the beach boys)
The two Carl "Surfs up" tracks (just don't appeal)

My sister is not a beach boys fan per se, but loves this song and insisted I have it as the backing music to my niece's first birthday slide-show a few years back.

Taking the lyrics at face value, it's great just to have more songs around that aren't about romance (or sex, as most modern songs seem to be about)
 *end grump from ancient 32 year old*

And the music very pleasant also, the vocals possessing a pleasant earnestness. It probably would have only worked with Dennis and Brian on vocals, funnily enough. Or maybe Bruce if he was more officially around.

"A Thing or Two" from Wild Honey.

Seconded! I sing the little falsetto responses in the chorus pretty regularly around the house. Looking forward to hearing a stereo version.

I'm a strange man as I love Love You and MIU both, but The Beach Boys love you pips the latter mainly due to the absence of cover songs.

One of the shared attractions are Mike's vocals which are excellent on MIU and even better on Love You ("Airplane" is amazing). It's a real shame what happened with his voice between this and KTSA a few short years later.

"Roller-skating child" and "Let us go on this way" are certainly the two most energetic and "cookin'"  up-tempo beach boys tracks since "It's about time," in my view.

Even "Love is a woman" has grown on me in recent years. A catchy number.

Remember he's a pretty old guy, easy to slip over what you say.

I think it's more likely that he's sitting on tons of great material and for some internal reason we are unaware of, he isn't releasing them. At this point, an album of him singing them might sell about 200 copies if he's lucky. However, he knows EVERYBODY and he's a really great writer. He should do an album of people singing his brand new songs, that would tap into multiple fan bases and move some units...and probably be a pretty great record too!!

Something makes me think this may not be the case. I mean, there should be some stuff lying around. Bruce himself has mentioned several 'periods' where he was supposedly working on material. (Nashville, something about songs on The Young and The Restless) Even as recently as last month he said he was working on songs.  But I just get the feeling there isn't a vault of finished material somewhere.

Maybe living with a songwriting Grammy makes him timid about releasing new stuff? I think he should knock off a 'garage style' album of surf instrumentals, with a ballad or two thrown in. He's got the surf cred. Handled properly, it could stand up nicely.

But, he has a great life..maybe he figures, why bother.

I seem to recall him saying he was at least half-way through a follow-up to Going Public called "Going Private" for the Japanese market that was very electronic and wouldn't sell any copies. He doesn't sound sound like a man that thinks of his songs as his "babies," other then the beloved Disney Girls.

It does seem that Kokomo had the effect of inflating ML's already healthy ego, but a hit is a hit. If they could have kept the momentum of Kokomo going with another top 40 hit, they might have gotten Capitol excited enough to demand a full album of new songs instead of another compilation masquerading as their "new album".

Am I only one who thinks "Still Cruisin' the single was a pretty reasonable follow-up? More light escapism, but with a car theme and a jangly guitar sound rather then then the Caribbean style. It retains the briefly winning recipe of Mike/Carl trading vocals. It was obviously the same band, but not an obvious rehash of Kokomo like the ill-fated "Island girl" a few long years later. But despite the Kokomo surprise, the label still wasn't over-keen to heavily promote the next releases (whilst still anticipating 3 more big singles).

While Mike perhaps couldn't deliver the goods to follow up Kokomo, I didn't see Carl trying to hard to even try and Al came up with "Island girl." Bruce does something minimal with the SNJ single but then he was never a singles man. 

From an industry point of view, the 2012 reunion tour was *not* extensive at all. Howie Edelson has spoken in the past about this at length. Check out some of his posts on the subject.

For a band to reunite for the first time in decades, and to then have a hit #3 album and sell out venues and, just as importantly, garner *rave* reviews, 73 or 74 dates is most definitely cutting it way too short.

The *biggest* tour in decades with the best reviews and press, and they did *fewer* shows than any year since possibly 1977 when they took the first half of the year off.

They *barely* touched on any markets outside of the USA. 23 dates to cover all of Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and Europe? No way, that's not extensive. They could have easily booked MONTHS in Europe alone. Numerous weeks in the UK alone. If Mike alone or Brian alone can spend a month in the UK, the C50 reunion could have.

They could have gone on to book gigs in China and Russia. More Japan dates. Not to mention return visits to popular markets in the US, and additional markets they didn't hit.

Brian's 2016 tour was more extensive than the BB C50 reunion. That's nuts.

The C50 tour was long only in the "they could all blow up and call the whole thing off at any moment" sense.

But from an objective point of view in terms of how the industry works with shows like that, the band rightfully ended up being the laughing stock of the industry in late 2012 for f**king up such an amazing thing. Passing on Madison Square Garden to book Nutty Jerry's. That's how the tour ended.

I see what you're saying, but I reckon most of the people who give much of a toss about it being the "complete" living beach boys all together were able to see a show. Do they care much in Asia? I don't think they care too much here in Australia/NZ.

Apparently Brian and Al loved the whole thing, it would be interesting to know what Bruce or David thought about the whole thing and how much tension filtered down to them.

Mike did get screwed with the 2012 reunion

Debatable, especially if you read sources other than Mike's book. Even with Mike's book as a sole source, I found some of his reasoning rather dubious. I found his financial details rather ambiguous and lacking, and in particular I found it troubling that he didn't reveal how much of an guarantee/advance he got for doing that tour.

Ultimately, nothing he wrote changed my opinion that he hates Melinda and hates not being in charge more than he cares about being with Brian or Al, or having the full band together, to say nothing of what fans want.

Well, I agree that he doesn't think it's worth the trouble. When a relationship is that bad between two people (in that case Mike and Melinda) I don't see why he would think otherwise unless it appears there might be some "healing" in it. The 74 ( ? ) dates were pretty extensive, most of us could get to see one. Naturally we would love to have that opportunity again but there isn't that much for fans to whine about. Plenty around to see/hear and enjoy from the separate bands.

http://www.esquireme.com/content/18835-confessions-of-a-beach-boy

Here's the link.

Alan obviously highly values Bruce and David's presence in terms of band "completeness."
But he is jet-lagged, so we'll forgive him. Mike being "unavailable" is admirably tactful.

Just finished listening to this, an engrossing listen. It's "fun" to have Mike croaking his lyrics into my ears, as most of the time he can't resist singing them when he starts reading them out. It's interesting the few he doesn't, perhaps unsurprisingly "The warmth of the Sun" and more curiously "Summer in Paradise."

Particularly interesting to read in follow-up to "Heroes and Villains: The true story of the beach boys" and read about the same events from Mike's perspective.

Mike did get screwed with the 2012 reunion, but certainly glad it happened and he didn't walk out on it.

1. Only with you
2. River Song
3. Slip on Through
4. It's about time
5. Little bird
6. Forever
7. Got to know the woman (sunflower was definitely the Denny golden age)
8. Wild Situation
9. Baby Blue
10. Wouldn't it be nice (to live again)

No question, but I thought people might enjoy my wife's summation of the members of the beach boys after I praised her at recognising Mike's voice as I gave her one of my earphones (listening to his book).

"He's the guy who likes the beach that wears the hat. Then there's the dead drummer guy, the chubby guy, the guy who took over from the leader, the guy who got really fat and the short guy with the blonde hair."

Needless to say, after training her up to love and know the beach boys during our 8 years of marriage I've helped her to hit on the most important aspects of each of them! 

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,46140.msg2973711.html#msg2973711 (thread nsfw for language)

Nice version,  many thanks!  Now I'd love to hear the other ones!

Very romantic, and well sung. I regretted the fact that the CATP/ holland was the last "proper" twofer I bought, as I didn't know "Only with you" until after my wedding (in 2008).

However, we did sing "I do" together on that day, me the first verse/ chorus and then her the second verse and repeat of the chorus. Our bridal party sounded great with their background harmonising after some rehearsal but reverted to vaguely embarrassed murmurs on the actual occassion.

I thought it was a pleasant view, Stamos is charming enough and their camaraderie shines through.  I liked it when Mike takes a dig at Stamos, mentioning how one of the latter's assistants said "Mr Stamos does not fly economy!"

If the audio quality is good, could be a worthwhile pick-up for those 80's tracks. Particularly if it is the single version of Somewhere near Japan, but I don't suppose it will be.

"Only one World."  Tend to get a bit teary on that one.

Here's an "exclusive", which is an interesting read:

http://www.udiscovermusic.com/exclusive-bruce-johnston-on-the-making-of-pet-sounds?lf=19f67df78a7a4de5651649274f961ad1


EXCLUSIVE – BRUCE JOHNSTON ON THE MAKING OF PET SOUNDS

With the 50th anniversary reissue of Pet Sounds set for release in June, it’s the perfect opportunity to talk to Bruce Johnston about his involvement with a record that in most people’s opinion is the greatest pop album of all time. In 1966, as the ‘newest’ Beach Boy, it gave him a unique perspective on the making of Pet Sounds, as well as a fresh insight into the whole business of how The Beach Boys, and Brian Wilson in particular, set about making records.

Pet sounds 1"I joined The Beach Boys 9 April, 1965, when I was 22 years old. I played my first concert with the band in New Orleans and the following day, ‘Do You Wanna To Dance’ climbed to No.12 on the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 chart thus continuing the momentum of radio play and record sales. A week later the re-recorded single version of ‘Help Me Rhonda’ entered the Billboard charts and quickly climbs all the way to No.1. Talk about momentum, before the summer is over ‘California Girls’ reaches No.3 in Billboard. ‘California Girls’ was written and recorded for the Summer Days (And Summer Nights) album and it was the first time I sang on a Beach Boys recording. As a little insight into how these songs sometimes came together, Mike Love was really very fast at writing his lyrics for Beach Boy songs; I watched him write the lyrics for ‘California Girls’ in the hallway of Western Recorders, literally two hours before we recorded our vocals.”

Brian Wilson had opted to quit the road in order to concentrate on songwriting and producing for the band and to replace him at live shows, session guitarist Glen Campbell was recruited. Campbell played his first concert in late December 1964, but he called the band by phone just before their New Orleans gig, in April 1965, to say he was too busy with his own touring commitments as a solo artist, supporting The Righteous Brothers; this was the catalyst for Bruce becoming a Beach Boy. Prior to joining the band Bruce was a successful staff producer along with Terry Melcher at Columbia Records in Hollywood.

Pet sounds 2In the first week of July 1965 the Summer Days (And Summer Nights) album was released and the following week Brian was back in Western Recorders in Hollywood to begin work on a new song; Bruce takes up the story. “During the recording of the Summer Days album Brian shows up in the studio with a recorded track of 'Sloop John B' and it is a hundred and fifty per cent totally brilliant! ‘Sloop John B’ could easily have been included on Summer Days (And Summer Nights) – the only problem being that the vocals had not been recorded yet. Alan Jardine is the reason the track for ‘Sloop' even exists. Al was a folk music fanatic and he loved The Kingston Trio version of ’Sloop John B’. He convinced Brian to record 'Sloop John B’ and it would eventually become one of our most successful international hits. So now we have this great track just waiting for us to sing our vocal parts but we set it aside for a few months and then finally record our voices for ‘Sloop’ at the end of 1965 as Brian began bringing Pet Sounds to life. In many ways, ‘Sloop John B’ was never destined to be on the Summer Days album, but as common sense, maybe over the artistic value of the album, Capital Records wanted hits on the Pet Sounds, which is why the track is included.”

Despite recording the original backing track for ‘Sloop John B’ in July, the first vocal sessions for the track did not take place until three days before Christmas, and were finished off on 29 December, 1965. In between this time The Beach Boys set about recording yet another album; one that includes three Beatles’ covers.

“Somehow we made an accidental unplugged album in September 1965, with the accidental hit ‘Barbara Ann' coming from the Beach Boys Party! album that was released in November 1965. Between recording and releasing the album, we recorded a stand alone single called ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’, a song that could so easily have been on Pet Sounds.”

beachboys-littlOn the same day that Brian recorded the backing track for ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’, The Beach Boys recorded their initial vocals for the song. Brian also started work on ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)' during this time. ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’ was a definite departure from The Beach Boys formula and it performed somewhat disappointingly on the Billboard Hot 100, only reaching No. 20 on 1 January, 1966. However, with the release of ‘Barbara Ann’ from the Beach Boys Party! album, which features Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean and Brian sharing the lead vocals, things were restored to their natural chart balance, as it peaked at No.2 at the end of January 1966.

“Meanwhile we were busy touring, spending most of January 1966 on a two week concert tour of Japan. During my first seven months as one of The Beach Boys I recorded two albums and somewhere along the way Brian Wilson's music dramatically advanced and he’s starting to conjure up what will become Pet Sounds. I was not privy to Brian’s mind set, but Brian’s best friend in the whole world is Carl Wilson, his brother, and I do remember Carl telling me that while we were on tour in Japan, Brian was busy working on new songs. While all this is going on, I’m just being a 22 year old guy with a new Jaguar XKE, going on tour, recording, surfing, and chasing girls. I had no idea about the masterpiece album that Brian is creating. At Christmas time 1965, just before we went to Japan, I was with Terry Melcher and his mother (Doris Day) at her house listening to the Beatles’ new album, Rubber Soul. Also at the house with us were Brian, Mike, and John Phillips (of The Mamas and The Papas). Brian said he thought that Rubber Soul was a great thematic pop album and this played a big part in getting his head into creating Pet Sounds.”

With Brian staying at home working on the songs that would be included on Pet Sounds he used the cream of Los Angeles session musicians (the Wrecking Crew) for all the tracking. The meticulous musical tracks Brian arranged and produced are so far ahead of anything that mere pop groups were doing at the time.

“On day, Carl said to me, ‘You better come by the studio, Brian’s doing something really fantastic from anything we’ve ever done.’ I just assumed when I started hearing the tracks that Mike was writing the words and it did not occur to me Tony Asher was writing many of the lyrics for the songs in Pet Sounds; sometimes Tony would be at the studio and he was a very nice guy to talk with.”

Pet sounds pic smVocal sessions for Pet Sounds began in February with, ‘Hang On To Your Ego’ that would become ‘I Know There’s An Answer’, it is followed by ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)’. Four days later after shooting the cover shots for Pet Sounds at the San Diego Zoo (it does not include Bruce because he was under contract to Columbia Records as a recording artist though he was included on the album back cover black amd white photos), all the Beach Boys participated in the vocals on ‘That’s Not Me’.

“I just was so shocked at the depth of Brian’s tracks and then with the amazing harmonies he would conjure up for us to sing. On the earlier songs the Beach Boys backing tracks were simplistic, it had jumped from the surfing songs to ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)’ or ‘I’m Waiting For The Day’ or ‘Here Today’ or ‘Caroline No’. All those tracks came roaring melodically out of Brian. Brian has the ears for the complicated voicing and of course this spills right into his tracking ability and then his superbly written backing vocals that we sing. I realized that Brian had more in his mind than just hit, hit, hits. What struck me even then was the seriousness of Pet Sounds, the beautiful seriousness of it.”

For Bruce, one of the highlights of Pet Sounds, like for all of us, is ‘God Only Knows’. Work began on the backing track for the song on 8 March 1966, the day after Capitol released, ‘Caroline No’ which was simply credited to Brian Wilson rather than the Beach Boys.

Pet sounds 3“Before I joined The Beach Boys I never sang harmony live on stage before. Within the first several months of joining the band I was on tour and recording. In early 1966 I am now recording my third Beach Boys album (Pet Sounds) and I walk into the studio after a couple hours of the ‘God Only Knows’ tracking session – lucky me! There’s Don Randi and Brian working on the sound of the piano and several musicians from the Wrecking Crew, who are all amazing jazz players. As I walked into the studio Brian is literally taping the strings of the small grand piano to get the tight sound he wanted. These days you have a synthesizer and you just close the filter down to get that real dink dink staccato sound. I was thinking, what’s going on, but I was cool, and I didn’t say anything. I just watched (and learned). The masking tape of the piano strings on ‘God Only Knows’ is the perfect abrupt and staccato sound and then there are a couple of French Horns plus a smaller than small string section– it was all very different and wonderful. I had been a staff producer at Columbia Records so I’d seen many studio sessions with the full orchestra in a big studio and I’m thinking, how are they going to make this work at tiny Western Studio 3, there’s hardly any place to sit? I sat listening to ‘God Only Knows’ being made and I listened to a few playbacks and you hear everything leaking into the drum mics, but it sounded so cool.”

“’God Only Knows’ is a perfectly written song and a great recording (plus only ten lines of lyric) and it really works! Brian mixed Pet Sounds in mono because he’s hearing impaired and does not hear stereo, he’s certainly not talent impaired. We’d recorded ‘God Only Knows’ two or three times vocally and at one session we had Marilyn (Brian’s wife), and her sister, Diane, along with the whole band plus Terry Melcher singing the end section backing vocals. It was like making clay pots, you throw the clay into a shape and it looks great, but for some reason you know it’s not right and you take it back down to wet clay and that’s what Brian did with ‘God Only Knows’. Finally we make a recording of ‘God Only Knows’ with just Carl singing the lead and then a trio of Carl, Brian and me on the bridge and ending section. Late in the vocal session, Carl began to sing the ending section but his voice is sounding a bit tired and so Brian said to Carl, ‘Why don’t you go home and I will sing your ending section vocal part, my own top part, and Bruce can sing his answer part’. In later years when a stereo version of Pet Sounds was created and released, Carl’s original rejected recorded ending vocals replace Brian’s voice from the original mono release. Why would anyone second guess the original producer, Brian Wilson? To me it’s like colorizing Citizen Kane…don’t mess with perfection.”

Man, where was Bruce? I missed him.

He's very high in the mix on parts of "Spring Vacation," I enjoy hearing him singing "wish that it could go on forever - long as we can, all stay together," but yes, no real lead.
Enjoyed your positive reviews again, like you I tend to enjoy just about everything to varying degrees.
I have been singing "Some of you love" and "kiss me baby" in my head just now though and I can't really see a similarity. I can certainly hear KMB in
"That's why God made the radio" however, which I had not noticed previously.

The early albums were churned out at such a fast rate, Brian didn't have (or prioritise) the time to give Al the heavy guidance/training he needed to be able to lay down a quality lead vocal. Lead's by Mike or Brian himself could be recorded comparatively quickly due to their confidence and experience.
 
Al has said before that he needed to be taught step-by-step by Brian when recording the "Rhonda" lead, and that was the time when Brian was able/keen to take that extra time.

Re-up?
Only got around to getting the first part, enjoyable reading.