Al:  Ahhhhhhh!!!!!
Mike:  Wait, what?  Ahhhh...

Al:  Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!
Mike:  Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

Yeah.  I'm a good practitioner.

Reporter:  excuse me?
Mike:  It is good.  It's a... good... place.

Reporter:  How do you feel about Brian killing your "FaRTs album" again, Mike?
Mike:  Good place.

Reporter:  And without FaRTs, there's all the more room... in that "good place."  right Mike?
Mike:  ...

Reporter:  Mike?

Well, I hear Let It Be as bringing the Beatles to a close, Yes, I know it was recorded before Abby Road, and yes I know the Beach Boys can't touch the Beatles as a class act, but the song does, in its way, pass the torch.

Cannot understand the bitter denunciations of this album.

While I'm not a fan of the SIP record by any means, one of the big reasons for the hate that this album gets is because Brian Wilson is not on it and had nothing to do with it.  Same reason many hate Kokomo.  Same reason many will not go see the touring version of The Beach Boys.  

1000% agree with everything you just typed.

Very true, Brian's lack of involvement makes it a categorically different product.  I love the Allmusic.com review, which basically says exactly that as its entire review:  "if you ever wondered what a beach boy record would sound like without Brian Wilson..."

 

I enjoy The Beatles' lighter moments too:

Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Yellow Submarine
Why Don't We Do It in the Road
Only a Northern Song
Savoy Truffle
Octapus's Garden
etc

I can't say I hate OBD OBD, but I rate it wayyyyy down on my Beatles song list.  And I definitely prefer Barbara Ann to it. 

Maxwell's Silver Hammer, I love.

Well said KDS.  I think singing Barbara Ann is like singing a nursery rhyme or any other simple song.  It's very unpretentious.  One cannot attach any meaning to it -- or feel as if they have some greater point to make.

Yet someone walking along the street singing Obladi Oblada -- you'd have to wonder.  I would any way.  Why?  What are they singing that for?  To me, it's likely that they're thinking they're original or interesting or God-forbid -- "intelligent."

Eck.

Oh, Bean Bag, I love Oh bla-di, Oh, bla-da! It's goofy, but, with all the Beatles' intensity, it's a place for them, and us, not to take ourselves so seriously. Same with Barbara Ann!

This is "only a movie."  

Nothing wrong with that!  And to further contradict myself -- "silly songs" are often the best!

But I do stumble through the White Album.  Even though I like it, I tend to fight it!  Weird.  I know.  Maybe because there's a war within them?  Just thinking out loud here (and derailing the thread).  But I've always a detected a tinge of intellectualism in much of the Beatles... and mixing in with their dopey sing-along whimsical side -- the White Album is where it kind of gurgles its way to the fore.  Abbey Road -- is where it mixes perfectly.  White Album, however, is a war!  A war!!  

Well said KDS.  I think singing Barbara Ann is like singing a nursery rhyme or any other simple song.  It's very unpretentious.  One cannot attach any meaning to it -- or feel as if they have some greater point to make.

Yet someone walking along the street singing Obladi Oblada -- you'd have to wonder.  I would any way.  Why?  What are they singing that for?  To me, it's likely that they're thinking they're original or interesting or God-forbid -- "intelligent."

Eck.

It's also worth noting, I feel, that pretty much everything recorded in the mid-to-late 80s through the early 90s is riddled with a hi-cheese ratio.  It wasn't until the funk/grunge of the early 90s that rock/pop music returned to its earthy roots.

At this time, anything pop or "popular" was smothered with a thick creamy layer of Velveeta.  Had SIP been recorded earlier or a few years later, it would have fared better.

I find this album compelling now again.  Thank you for the discussion!

It's always been cheesy - but a flower in a desert.  A lame little flower, and that's cool with me.

Yeah!  There's stuff like that on there that is like sunshine!! 

But what if you reach a point in your life where stuff like this is gross?

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

Yeah... for some reason, most of the Beatles White Album is like that for me.

There's some bad ju-ju in that White Album.  Stay away, I tells ya! 

I mean, really...how could it fail when you had shots of Stamos playing electronic drums on the beach? That's TV gold, right there.

 

It's quite a good album, and if it was a Beach Boys album it'd be great.

Yes.  Hopefully in parallel universe, the Love You-era Beach Boys get to perform this gem.

Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Buyer Laughs About Shipping Severed Heads

The latest undercover Planned Parenthood video is an interview with Cate Dyer, CEO of an organization called StemExpress that buys aborted baby body parts from Planned Parenthood and sells them to researchers.

There are no graphic images in the video, but Dyer's comments about shipping the severed intact "calvarium" or skull of an aborted baby are bonechilling.

StemExpress: I know we get requests for neural [tissue]. It's the hardest thing in the world to ship.

Buyer: You do it as the whole calvarium.

StemExpress: That's it, yeah, that's the easiest way. And I mean we've actually had good success with that in the past.

Buyer: Yeah, Make sure the eyes are closed!

StemExpress: [Loud Laughter] Tell the lab it's coming. So they don't open the box and go, "Oh God!" [Laughter] So yeah, whereas so many of the academic labs cannot fly like that. They're just not capable.

Buyer: Why is that? I don't understand that.

StemExpress: It's almost like they don't want to know where it comes from. I can see that. Where they're like, "We need limbs, but no hands and feet need to be attached." [...] They want you to take it all off, like, "Make it so that we don't know what it is."

Buyer: Yeah. Bone the chicken for me and then I'll eat it.

StemExpress: That's it. But we know what it is [Laughter]. [...] Their lab techs freak out, and have meltdowns, and so it's just like, yeah.

From Still Crusin, I would include Kokamo, Make it Big and Somewhere Near Japan. Then add several Brian Wilson tunes like Let's Go to Heaven in My Car, and 5 of  the top songs from his solo album. Throw in Al's Don't Fight the Sea. And I would include California Dreamin.
My track order would be something like:


Side A
1. One For the Boys
2. Kokamo
-
-
-
(end of A) California Dreamin

Side B
1. Let's Go to Heaven in My Car
2. Don't Fight the Sea
-
-
-
(closing track). Rio Grande

I like this idea.  I've done a few 80s Beach Boys tracklists -- attempting to salvage something of interest from this period, into a cohesive, satisfying listen -- but it's pretty slim pickins, if one limits oneself to just the Beach Boys meager output .  Adding BW'88 to mix ups the ante -- and creates the illusion of real band effort, with Brian at the helm.

So I trust that you believe that every American who owes their citizenship to the 14th Amendment are "individuals triumphing over regulation and in some cases the tyranny of the state"?

No Hypehat, do not trust yourself. You're not informed enough.  You forgot that illegal aliens are illegal. Not loopholes.

Question: If it were white Canadians sneaking across the border instead of Mexicans, would you still be bitching about "illegal aliens"?

Seriously? The racist charge? Do you guys on the Left act like this at home?

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. 

That's a good point Ron.  Brian Wilson, more than any pop composer, used dynamics as properly as did he.  It's a part of his production genius that goes missing if squashed via compression or heavy limiting.  I've always felt there was Bach in the melodies / Beethoven in the orchestration.

So I trust that you believe that every American who owes their citizenship to the 14th Amendment are "individuals triumphing over regulation and in some cases the tyranny of the state"?

No Hypehat, do not trust yourself. You're not informed enough.  You forgot that illegal aliens are illegal. Not loopholes.

I haven't picked up the Kevin Gray SACDs yet either.  Still waiting on Amazon to get them... and frankly, I have been buying tons of other great stuff until they do.  No hurry/no worry.

Gotta admit... as much as I want to seal the deal and get them -- I'm really not losing any sleep by not re-buying all my Beach Boys albums for the 4th or 5th time at the moment.  I've got plenty of versions to hold me over until I get that lump sum of extra cash to plop down on the whole lot -- whenever they all get released.

Hiss is fine... whatever's on the tape is what we should generally want.  What I don't like is "jacked" EQ, and loud.  Can't do the loud.  Hate compressed loud crap.

The way they do this mastering gimmick is awesome.  They redo the album every couple years (any album) and get the same exact people to buy the same exact music again because some of the levels have been tweaked slightly differently.   


it's kind of like how in the 80's Nintendo released the gameboy... then the gameboy with a different colored case... then the gameboy pocket which was smaller... then the gameboy pocket with a different colored case... then the gameboy color... then the gameboy color with a different colored case... then the gameboy advance... then the gameboy advance with a different colored case... then the gameboy advance SP.... then the gameboy advance SP with a different colored case....


I'm not saying they shouldn't do it... i'm just saying I marvel that it works. 

Agreed.  It's frustrating.  That's why I was excited that Kevin Gray was mastering much of the catalog in hi-res for SACD.  That would have been my "tap out" time.  Clean, not loud, hi-res -- just like the master tape, masters.  Unfortunately it's not all the albums, leaving out many of those great 70s albums.

1. Wipe Out
2. Wipe Out (5 minute extended mix)
3. Wipe Out (12 minute disco mix)
4. Wipe Out (15 minute trance mix)
5. Wipe Out (24 minute Pink Floyd 'Echoes' mix)
6. Wipe Out (instrumental mix)
7. Wipe Out (a cappella mix)
8. Wipe Out (mono mix)

9. Wipe Out (John Stamos vocal mix)

10. Wipe Out (5.1 Surround Mix)
11. Wipe Out (Quad 4.0 mix)

The legendary Quad mix.    Thought it was just a "rumor."

1. Wipe Out
2. Wipe Out (5 minute extended mix)
3. Wipe Out (12 minute disco mix)
4. Wipe Out (15 minute trance mix)
5. Wipe Out (24 minute Pink Floyd 'Echoes' mix)
6. Wipe Out (instrumental mix)
7. Wipe Out (a cappella mix)
8. Wipe Out (mono mix)

9. Wipe Out (John Stamos vocal mix)

Nice catch!  Let's add a "Disc 2" to the Legacy Edition:  A DVD, that includes the video of Wipe Out (Stamos vocal).

I think the post-Dennis programmed-sound, was just a coincidence.  When Denny passed in '83, real drums were still being used.  By the mid-80s, I think, is when things started to get real sterile and programmy.  I think it was just an coincidence that this all happened post Dennis.

Even if he was around in '85 -- this was the trend.  Dennis, SADLY wasn't that integral to their studio sound, unfortunately.  Live, with Dennis on the kit, it was bombastic.

Didn't he go ballistic on a ref?  Misread one of the refs hand signals for "trying to give Brian dope?"  Not sure which one it was...