I have a semi-related observation and question.  Prior to my becoming a Beach Boys fan, I had some exposure to most of the band's top 40 hits and certainly all of their top 10 hits except for this one, which I didn't even know existed until I bought Sounds of Summer.  Anyone have a similar experience?  Seems that in spite of its high chart rating, its popularity hasn't aged that well.  Rightly so, in my mind.

Best--Big Sur (California Saga version)
Worst--Summer of Love (though I think Bean Bag is right about "Everyone's In Love With You" screwing up its album much more than this does Summer in Paradise)

Not to nitpick, but technically "Sound of Free" was released on a DW solo single; if you include that, why not "Pacific Ocean Blues?"

I included Sound of Free because it was released on MIC.

Ah, touché.

This must be a still from the documentary that Orson Welles was planning to make about the life of Mike Love.

Best--Big Sur (California Saga version)
Worst--Summer of Love (though I think Bean Bag is right about "Everyone's In Love With You" screwing up its album much more than this does Summer in Paradise)

Not to nitpick, but technically "Sound of Free" was released on a DW solo single; if you include that, why not "Pacific Ocean Blues?"

She's Mine

Lookin' Back with Love

Two for "One for the Boys."

Does anyone know the original air date of the episode he was in?  The show ran in the mid to late 80s, which would have been during the Landy era; I suspect he may have been involved in some way.

The name of the episode is "Day Dreamin'".  Original air date May 16, 1988.  Brian plays Mr Hawthorne, the music teacher.

Ah, thanks.  That definitely puts it at the height of the Landy era.

Does anyone know the original air date of the episode he was in?  The show ran in the mid to late 80s, which would have been during the Landy era; I suspect he may have been involved in some way.

This is the kind of thing that makes me wish I had been alive in the 60s to see a Beach Boys concert.  Thanks for the link, Surfer!

"Abandoned"? 

I love the big band tracks to pieces, even "Deep Purple". "It's Over Now" is up with the best of Love You, in my opinion. And as baffling as some of the material they put in is, it's a pleasant listening experience... "Life" is a great opener, "Everybody Wants To Live" you can imagine kicking off side 2, and "Still I Dream Of It" is at least a better way to close an album than "Love Is A Woman", right?

Still, a lot of the other tracks really do sound like demos - I don't know what they were expecting throwing in those versions of "Shortenin' Bread" and "Lines" in the final master. And I can't deny that "H.E.L.P", "On Broadway", and "Hey Little Tomboy" drag the album down quite a bit. (seriously, what were they thinking putting the latter on M.I.U.?)

Flawed as it is, I still love it. A big shame Brian lost interest in the big band tracks; I really do think the four put the album are special.

I love Adult Child too. It's like Love You but with all strange/wonderful aspects that make it Love You AMPED UP. It's a weird album and it comes across as insane in the places that Love You was childish and endearing. The only track I dislike is Tomboy. The music itself is of average quality, but the lyrics make it, to me, unlistenable. I leave it out of all my mixes.

But I love it for those reasons - it's a truly unique piece of work.

To me the album seems much more all over the place than Love You, both in sentiment and production.  Some songs sound like Love You Part II, some are in the big band style, "Life is for the Living" is Love You in the big band style, and some are, I think, quite a bit closer to Friends than Love You.  And on top of all that, the two older tracks stick out quite a bit more than "Good Time" did on Love You.  Even though it has more songs I'm indifferent to than Love You does, I still think it's a pretty strong album, though, partly because I like how all over the place it is and partly because it has some fine Brian songs with lyrics that are either charmingly eccentric or charmingly homespun depending on the song.  It probably wouldn't have sold terribly well, but then again, neither did M.I.U.

The CD release of Pet Sounds with the tracks in mono, and then stereo.  About a month or so later I followed that up with the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey two-fee, expecting Smiley Smile to be an album full of "Good Vibrations"-sounding songs.  I think it was during my second listen to that album that I decided I was going to buy every Beach Boys album I could get my hands on.

Buying Pet Sounds on CD changed all that. And - a bit similar to smilethebeachboysloveyou's story - I bought the SmileySmile/Wild honey 2-fer directly after that. Strangely enough I loved these albums as well! From then on I was definitely hooked.

What I find kinda interesting about these 2 comments is when I first bought Pet Sounds ('83?), it came packaged as a twofer vinyl with Smiley Smile; diving straight into SS right off the back of the Big Green Behemoth, is not such a bad thing then 

Didn't get my hands on Wild Honey for some time after that purchase, tho

I was about to say that it's strange how many other people here got hooked because of Smiley Smile, but then I remembered the name of the message board.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Remember, for a long time the group was churning out 2, sometimes 3, albums a year; the sheer pace of their output probably had as much to do with it as anything.

In addition to the fact that they were touring constantly.  It's no coincidence that Pet Sounds came after Brian had 1) quit touring and 2) seriously slowed down the band's output.  I do like a lot of what others might call filler from all of their albums between Surfer Girl and Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) personally, though I could do without the spoken tracks.

As for their '70s output, since the songwriting was more democratic, I think a lot of the problem was internal politics, of which the issue with Dennis and Carl's fight keeping Dennis' songs from Surf's Up would be one example.

[Night Time]

Night Time is dislike time.

Could those who decry One For The Boys elaborate? Is it hearing a wall of Brians where the other Beach Boys ought to be that grates, or do you just not like the song? It's one of my favourites on the record and I find it a teasing glimpse into what a half-decent '80s Beach Boys album might have been like.

Whenever I hear it, I can't help but think of it as an impoverished relative of "Our Prayer."

Yeah--really displays his roots as a physical comedian before the more ambitious things that came later (not that it isn't obvious there, too, I suppose).  There's a new blu-ray set of his movies coming out soon, and I think that this will be on it.

This is hard.  I love two tracks off of this album ("Givin' You Up" and "Of the Times"), but the rest I find bland and am indifferent to.

I guess "She's Mine" is probably the dullest.

One for the Boys.  Just "no".

This isn't quite as good as First Love, but it's a much better album than most people give it credit for.  There are no great tracks here, but most of them are good fun.  Two exceptionally bad tracks stand out, however: the hilariously bad title track, and "Rockin' the Man in the Boat," which is just plain dull.

I vote for "Rockin' the Man in the Boat."  At least "Lookin' Back with Love" is funny.

there was resistance from within to the big band styled tracks.

Out of all the things for other members of the band (whichever members they may have been) to complain about in the Adult/Child album, I'm surprised that the big band production is the thing they would pick.  I would have guessed they would have been more resistant to the tracks that sound more like Love You in terms of production and sentiment, like "Everybody Wants to Live," because 1) they're weirder and 2) Love You didn't sell terribly well and I would think they'd have been nervous to release anything that sounded like it.  Does anyone know specifically why certain band members were resistant to the big band style production?

I can't say that anything about Brian's behavior particularly surprises me.  The one piece of new information (if it is, in fact, correct) is that Beck will be featured on the new album in the form of guitar parts he had no intention of putting on the final album.  It's always hard to say whether that's accurate or if he's just saying it because he has a bone to pick with Brian and co, but if it is true it's concerning.

The CD release of Pet Sounds with the tracks in mono, and then stereo.  About a month or so later I followed that up with the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey two-fee, expecting Smiley Smile to be an album full of "Good Vibrations"-sounding songs.  I think it was during my second listen to that album that I decided I was going to buy every Beach Boys album I could get my hands on.

Thoughts of You

Time

As I recall, Summer in Paradise did not start out as a Beach Boys album.  It began as a Mike Love/Terry Melcher/Bruce Johnston recording project, with the idea of making the ultimate "summer album."  Gradually, Carl was coerced or persuaded to participate, and then Al made his small contributions.  It sort of stumbled into becoming a Beach Boys album as the others came in.

Say that again, Steve? SIP did not start out as a Beach Boys album?

I did not know that either. Then again, I'm not the biggest BBs historian.

I haven't heard that before either.  I'd be interested to hear about this in more detail.

Time