does "Leaving This Town" remind anyone of Billy Joel?

The synth solo on the studio version kind of reminds me of early 70's Floyd (Obscured By Clouds in particular). The live version with the organ solo blows me away which is why I prefer that version amongst other reasons. However I cannot make a connection with Billy Joel. My opinion of Billy Joel is that he generally writes using very conventional chord changes (some exceptions apply but not too many) whereas "Leaving This Town" is almost up there with "'Til I Die" in terms of an unusual progression. Maybe it's the slow piano ballad style that makes "Leaving This Town" sound kind of like Billy Joel but I can't see much more in common past that.

well for some reason Ricky's voice (or whoever's singing it) sounds sort of like Billy Joel.

does "Leaving This Town" remind anyone of Billy Joel?

the thing about Dennis was that I've heard a lot of contradicting stories on him. On one hand he seemed to be a chill type of person, almost like the Dude in the Big Lebowski. He seemed like a perfectly nice and generous guy, who was willing to talk to complete strangers in public (and sometimes let them in his house). On the other hand he seemed to have the worst temper in the group and was one who was always prone to outbursts. Whether it was getting in fights with his father or giving profanity laced interviews, he seemed to snap easily. Everything I read on him gives me the impression that he was like a wild animal that couldn't be contained. He probably would have driven anyone insane.

all four of those guys need to be kicked in the balls.

Back on topic...

As others have said, anyone with mental health problems needs to want to help themselves. Dennis unfortunately didn't and so no blame can be apportioned to Carl or the others.

According to Brian, Dennis slept with his wife, one of Mike's wives and Al's wife. Dennis was lucky he was allowed to stay in the band for as long as he was...

I thought that Brian is the only one who claimed Marilyn slept with Dennis. Every other credible source has denied it.

If Mike had said that pre 1980 I'd strongly disagree but by 1980 Dennis had pissed all his talent away.

If people think Mike was harsh, just imagine if the tables had been reversed and Mike had started a sexual relationship with Carnie a few years later.

Now THAT is just a frightening idea...

if he was going to bone one of Brian's two daughters, it would definitely have been Wendy.

Almost as bad as Compton and Watts, which are predominately African American sections of Los Angeles, and not far from where the Rotney King and Watts riots took place.

I thought Compton and Watts aren't predominately black anymore?

anyone know much about the area? I don't live in LA so I don't really know the area. If I recall, its a mile or two inland and just SE of LAX. Economically I'm guessing its sort of a hybrid between the wealthy beach towns and the more poorer areas further inland (like Compton).

Anyone know much about Hawthorne or venture over there regularly?

cool video I found. Is this the first known sighting of Carl with a beard?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uehyh57k2_E

music genre that predominated? I think of something like America, John Denver, Todd Rundgren, JT or even Chicago. It was very soft rock but it wasn't necessarily "square" either as it sounded nothing like the music of the early 60s. I would almost say it was very "new-age" and at times hedonistic in their worship of nature and what not.

I for one sort of saw elements of that on Carl and the Passions, Holland or even Surf's Up. Do you think Carl, Blondie and Ricky could have left the group to from a new group similar to America that would have gotten a lot of FM airplay?

I don't think the issue with Karen Lamm was the age, it was the fact that she had horrible drug problems and was bats*** insane.

I wasn't talking about Karen there since Murry had already died by then. I was talking about Brian and Marilyn who at the time was only fifteen or sixteen. I also suspect that given its Murry we're talking about and the era, he probably had a problem with her ethnic background.

 in-laws? By documented I mean  like in a book or what not. I would assume that their first wives (Marilyn, Carol and Ann) were all well liked by the Wilson brothers and parents. I would assume though that Murry probably had reservations about Brian being in a relationship with someone five or six years younger than he was. I do remember hearing (I think it was in "The Real Beach Boy" documentary) that Dennis' third wife, Karen, was looked at with suspicion by his brothers and mother.

is the picture where Brian is holding up a picture of the group minus him from the same sessions as the Friends single:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beach_Boys_-_Friends_%28single%29.jpg

anyone here know why Mike likes the Reno area so much? It just strikes me as odd that one would live away from the area he wrote about, sung about, produced all his songs and lived for most of his life.

at one point did the beach boys have beards? I find that that can be a good marker as to figure out the date of a picture

Mike - roughly from about 1966 to 1983. Since then he's been mostly without any facial hair but occasionally has a goatee
Brian - roughly from 1974 to about 83-84. I do recall him having sort of a five o clock shadow around the time of Wild Honey.
Al - about 1971 to about 80/81
Dennis - if i recall he had some facial hair around the time of 20/20 or Friends but was mostly cleanshaven until about 1975. He had a beard from then onwards but would occasionally be clean shaven (POB release party in 77, 4th of july concert in 80 and for most of 83)
Carl - pretty much from 1971 on

If you saw a bum on the side of the road with a sign begging for spare change, and when you close and realized it was one of The Beach Boys, which one would you hope it would be?

Dennis maybe. Wasn't he actually a bum for awhile in the early 80s?

I like Maher but why does he have to tie the beach boys in with politics? It doesn't really mix.

liked the most as a son-in-law? Disclaimer: This is not their current 70 year old selves but rather their 20-30 year old selves.

does "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" sort of remind you of the stuff on Pet Sounds. It doesn't have all the background music that the stuff on Pet Sounds does, but the basic theme matches the album.

the song gets played a lot all christmas season. So I finally looked it up to see who it was and it was Bobby Helms. Does anyone know how he got his weird accent from? It sounds like a Texan accent but he actually lived in the Indianapolis area all his life.

here's a question:

where did the band get its "Square" reputation from? Wasn't Dennis seen as sort of countercultural?

its one of my favorites. Here's my question. Does it kind of remind you of what it would be like if Dennis Mike and Brian all lived together in the same place when they were in their 20s? Adam being Dennis; Mike being Anders and Blake being Brian.

even though they're from different groups I for some reason see "Because" by the Beatles going together with "In My Room".

I've been listening to some of their backing tracks and it sort of struck me. Does "In the Back of my Mind" sort of seem like a precursor to the stuff on Pet Sounds?

Smile was one option but another IMO would have been to leave the beach boys and form a group with Jim, Robbie, and Ray.