Right; why does Suzy want to be a "lady" director, as opposed to just a director? I realize this was decades ago, but it still seems awkwardly clunky and needlessly vaguely sexist for no particular reason, even for the time. Or is it just me? I didn't live through the time. It just feels a bit cringey.

Here, I evened it out:

"Susie wants to be a lady director, and Eddie wants to drive a hearse; Linda wants to be a doctor or lawyer, and Johnny wants to be a male nurse"

It is truly phenomenal that the guy who said Mick Jagger is too chickensh*t to go on stage with the Beach Boys is the same guy who is too chickensh*t to allow comments on his YouTube videos.

Haha, I was thinking that the guy who said Mick Jagger is too chickenshit to go on stage with the Beach Boys is the same guy who is too chickenshit to go on stage with the Beach Boys. You know, the real Beach Boys like Brian, Alan, David and Blondie.

Oh, and the mere sight of Mark McGrath angers me. I hate his cocky-looking face and his spiked hair that makes him look like he has seen a ghost. Probably the ghost of his career. The sight of him jumping around like an idiot makes me taste bile. Don't get me started on the annoying "Do it, do it" chanting. It must have been difficult to find someone who is that irritating in every facet of their being, but Mike Love found someone. I am sure there were a lot more people who could have done this song with Mike that would have been far less annoying and maybe even pleasant to watch.

John Stamos earned my respect by not being featured too strongly in the video. I am sure he could have been more prominent as he produced it, but he played it smart. It is almost like he is sharing a wink with us, letting us know he is aware of the cacophony surrounding him.

The drum and guitar intro and guitar solo in It's A Beautiful Day. I miss guitar solos in Beach Boys songs.

I think that the background vocals are really strong and catchy for Almost Summer. Cruisin' sounds like a Beach Boys song as well. Never saw the film though, so not sure how either of the songs fit into the context of a movie. I remember Almost Summer being awkwardly rewritten as a jingle to donate money or gifts or something for children around Christmas with alternate lyrics. I am surprised Mike would not remake the song with new, more relevant (and probably still awkward) commercial lyrics - and I am sure he would leave the "Little Deuce Coupe" line in there.

This song always makes my springtime playlist along with It's A Beautiful Day from Americathon. Fun to sing along with. Carl's voice makes the song and both Al and Mike sound great together - their interplay here is similar to California Calling - but some of the lyrics to It's A Beautiful Day are tough to follow if you have not seen the film. Knowing America was out of oil makes lines like 'the cars have disappeared from the scene' and 'cause going to work or to play they use a whole 'nother kind of machine' makes more sense.

This is up there for me. I like the song too, but not like this. I would rather see him behind a keyboard.

https://youtu.be/rgKwVpcKqYw?t=2m23s

I Was Made To Love Her. I always hear the background vocals singing, "Hey, hey... you son of a bitch"

I often wondered if there was more to the album covers that we will every know. We may find out things in interviews about why certain poses and backgrounds were used, but I started to wonder if there is something deeper going on. I thought it would be fun to examine a few album covers and see what we can come up with about what the subliminal message can be.

For example, what if we took a closer look at the Christmas Album.



Dennis is visually the "star" of the band that all the girls were screaming for. He is on top (the epitome of cool) and wearing the flashiest "look at me" sweater. He wants to be noticed.

Brian, clearly the standout, is wearing a sweater that is in stark contrast to all the other guys. Looking at the image, we know he is the leader. His tree decoration skills are like his recording skills. Meticulous and done with extreme care. Everything has to be there the way he sees it in his head. Everything must have a purpose.

Mike is confidently on the opposite side of the tree - mimicking his commercial yin to Brian's creative yang. Interestingly, he has always had a competition with Dennis and here he is looking up at him, admiring Dennis' skills and perhaps subliminally acknowledging Dennis' superiority in some areas?

Carl, the self-conscious, chubby kid seems unsure of himself at this point unaware of what he is to become. He does not quite have Dennis' flashy sweater, but still has a more subdued version that is saying, I am not looking for too much attention but I am not to be overlooked, either.

Al, undeservedly, often gets overlooked and is down in the corner at Brian's feet, learning and emulating his style. He seems like the happiest one to be involved and until further examination, most do not realize what a great job he is doing.

In my opinion, Brian would've gone to a point of no return, so to speak. Think about this for a second, how much farther and deeper than SMiLE could you go? I know Brian certainly was at his peak and capable, but remember, at the time it was definitely more complex than anything ever attempted, even by today's standards.

The idea that this was done by physically splicing tape still astounds me. Modular songs that can be moved around and fit together to create something bigger than the sum of its parts. 

Endless Summer. Just when the boys were continuing to try new things this awesome 'greatest hits' album comes out and pretty much reintroduces the public to what an amazing band the Beach Boys are and forces the band to become an 'oldies' touring act to appease them. Such a double-edged sword, that album.

I have been really intrigued by how many songs use end tags to close. I am sure I have the wrong words for that but I mean a section of the song that does not really follow the melody of the rest of the song that is used to end the song rather than a fade-out ending. Of course, the end tags could be used to fade out the song, but you know what I mean. If not here are a few examples, and I just listened to The Beach Boys Love You so it is a bit heavy in examples from that album:


The "I can't wait (can't wait) to see (her face)" section of Airplane from The Beach Boys Love You.
The "Who's the man that we admire? Johnny Carson is a real live wire" section of Johnny Carson from The Beach Boys Love You
The "Pat, pat, pat, pat pat her on her butt, butt" section of I Wanna Pick You Up from The Beach Boys Love You
The "1-2-3 She's falling in love with me" section of Love Is A Woman from The Beach Boys Love You
The "The Whispering winds send my wind chimes a tinklin' " section of Wind Chimes from Smiley Smile
The "I know that you'll feel better...." section of Vegetables from Smiley Smile
The "background 'noise' at the fade" section of All I Want to Do from 20/20 (I figured someone was going to bring it up if I did not... )

These little snippets of music really add interest to a song, and sound like they often could be melodies for stand-alone songs.

Soulful Old Man Sunshine

Our Sweet Love is awesome. Really great vocals only too.

As much as I love the background vocals in Cotton Fields, it has to be the one to go this round.

Mike Love:

"When we were learning an arrangement of a song - first of all, Brian would live with it for a while. He'd sit at the piano and he would deal all the different parts. He would teach me a bass part - he would sing the melody... or else the high falsetto part... but he would have all the parts in his mind. I mean, intricate parts too. Like when we learned Their Hearts Were Full of Spring by The Four Freshmen, that was their arrangement. And he had all the parts in his head... and they were hard parts - they were moving all over the place. It was all you could do to learn your one part, but he'd have four of them in his head. That always blew my mind that Brian had that capacity - that ability to hear all those parts simultaneously and be able to deal them out to the different individuals who could handle that range. He was quite gifted in that way. Still is, actually..."

From the Hawthorne, CA compact disk. Disk 1 track 4

No, it is a track on one of the CD releases. It might be Hawthorne - I cannot find my CD's right now. Maybe I left them in the Jeep. It was a brief track where Mike discussed Brian's abilities. I think I hit most of the major ideas in the first post, but I am going crazy trying to find it. I wanted to add it to the Mike Love quote thread to bring some positivity    I think it is a great quote from Mike.

Edit: Found it. It was track 4 on CD1 from the Hawthorne, CA CD

I believe it was on one of the relatively new releases where there is audio of Mike saying (heavily paraphrased) how Brian could hear all the parts in his head. It was all they could do to learn their one part. These parts were hard parts - they were all over the place too. He was very gifted that way. Still is.

Every other BB has displayed, albeit in a limited number of situations, that they're truly awful, awful actors.

Agreed. Whenever they appeared in shows that featuring less than stellar acting to begin with (like Full House and Home Improvement) they really stood out as bad actors. Enthusiastic maybe, but still embarrassingly bad for the most part.

Barry Manilow is alright in my book. He had a huge string of hits and many songs that people sing along to without realizing who it is. You cannot deny his string of hits: Copacabana, Weekend in New England, Even Now, Can’t Smile Without You, I Write The Songs, Ready To Take a Chance Again, Looks Like We Made It, Mandy, It’s a Miracle, Could It Be Magic... His grandiose music style with building crescendos fits in with Bruce's music quite well, I think. Surprised they did not do more together, actually.

Mr. Desper,
A person with your insight and talent would have done well no matter where you ended up, and although I miss your work with the Beach Boys, you clearly made lemonade from Mike's lemons.

Do you remember how much different Carl's vocal sounded? I think that Blondie sounds a lot like Carl on this song - in fact, for years I thought it was Carl singing. Once I learned it was not, I assumed that Blondie was imitating Carl's already recorded vocal.

You're right. Suppose I just don't like TM.

As an agnostic, I have no problem any time any religion is used to in a positive manner to guide ones actions while the follower of said religion maintains control and responsibility for their actions. It is when religion dictates your actions that it tends to get out of hand. TM is great if it did not dominate Mike's life, but there are very few interviews where it came up where it was necessary to discuss. That is when I find it annoying.

I Just Got My Pay
Good Time

Good Time has lyrics that do not fit the theme of Sunflower and it is a bit too bouncy for the album as well.

Wow, I am surprised at the amount of votes for Where Is She. I love what I have heard of this song. Is it the song itself, or that it is not a complete and polished song?

Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) and I Just Got My Pay.

Lookin' At Tomorrow used to get skipped all the time, but I will listen to it now. It is dark, but with different lyrics I would probably enjoy it as a whole a lot more.

I Just Got My Pay - I liked All Dressed Up For School and Marcella better.

I think Mike's voice sounds fine here. I like the softer voice he uses on some songs like this. The ending call and return vocals are great. Is that Carl & Brian?

Carl gives a great vocal, it has great backing vocals, and it's a pretty joyous type of tune.

I like the song, but do not find much joyous about it unless you remove the lyrics.

I can't stand the line in the song, "high up on a hill, making love again."

You have a fear of heights?

Haha, I love the song and could care less if the lyrics were "in a ditch behind a dumpster, making love again".

Seasons In The Sun