What if Carl and Dennis had not died?
What if Wild Honey had been embraced by the public as brilliant (and sold well)?
What if the BB's had played Monterey?

When listening to "In The Back Of My Mind" it's obvious where Brian was leaning towards, even before making Pet Sounds. With Mike Love's "Kokomo", it seemed that the master of surfing had done it again, this time with an international smash. A poll at the time in Britain listed the most popular bands in Britain as 1) The Beach Boys 2) Rick Astley 3) Tracy Chapman (as Mike often points out nowadays). It is only now we see the genesis of Mike Loves songwriting, "Goin To The Beach" being the obvious inspiration for later hits to come. We live in a great time when these absolute gems become available to the public, no longer only in the hands of the few and fortunate.

Jac Holzman (head of Elektra records) did a Q&A on Reddit a little while ago. Someone asked about Nuggets, and I thought it was pretty interesting.

Q: Hi Jac, I'm a huge fan of Nuggets. How did you and Lenny Kaye get together and decide to assemble this amazing collection?

A: Pertinent question, thank you, especially since Nonesuch celebrated its 40th anniversary just last year. I used to visit Lenny at the Village record store at which he worked. I was fascinated by the garage bands of the early 60s who would have a single that was memorable over a short lifespan and no meaningful albums to speak of. So I thought, it might be fun to see if we could license all of these odd tracks, provide a frame of reference for them, and put them together in a 2-LP set. And I had a name. Namely, Nuggets -- simple and to the point. Later that same day, I ran into Lenny, mentioned this to him, asked him if he wanted to pull it together. Close friends ever since. It's the only compendium album not by a single artist that Rolling Stone recognized in the 250 best Rock Albums Of All Time. It's at 191. Nuggets was reissued in a special 40th anniversary edition by Rhino on CD and vinyl last year.

Is the Beach Boys "Concert" album the first live album? I can't find a definitive answer online, with most people saying the Stones made the first live album in 1966.

It's telling me I was banned for spam
"You are banned from Foonetic ([#7877] spam)"

My browser crashed, and now I'm unable to reconnect to the channel. Any idea why?

I love http://tomatosalad.net/irc.html !
-Brian Wilson

what do people think would potentially work as a single? 

I was thinking about that too. WIBTLA has some real history, and POB did sell very well when it was reissued. And considering TSS had a few singles, it seems likely this will too.

Why not released WIBNTLA as a single?

I love this so much. I'm buying one and I'm never telling anyone what it means.

Add a mandatory video feature, but no audio. That way we can look at each other.

This is great! Did you work out the whole song on guitar by yourself?

You should probably check out the Past Masters cd's. It's a two volume set that has all of their non album singles. It's actually one of the best compilation albums, of anybody.

I completely agree. Volume 2 is so incredibly good.

You might have been but Rubbersoul13 switched to talking about "from the vault". That's how I read it…

I think it goes without saying though that they aren`t going to perform any songs that have no immediate possibility of release.

So when Mike starts a concert by playing "Mike Love Not War" from start to finish, I think we'll all have reason to get excited 

Lou was rude to me when I met him

Can you share that story?

I'm sure many of you have been following Snowden and his wacky adventures around the world.

Here's a board he used to post on in 2007. He is TheTrueHOOHA

Like what he's doing now or not, he was kind of a dick online. "I hope you're killed by a drunk driver on Halloween."

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=11637280#p11637280

If you could isolate bits of Beach Boys vocals (like the main 'doo, doo doo doo doo' in Gee) and let the user craft them together like a "make a song" thing, each vocal looping.
Impossible, but it would be fun to goof around with BB harmonies 

Your Yule praise is OTM. He really shines on the self titled record. Less so on Loaded - I prefer Lou's vocals on everything, as ragged as they are.

BTW, Lou's vocal on Sweet Jane is absolutely amazing - it sounds like he's blasted on liquor and smokes, he's cracking jokes throughout (JUST WATCH ME NOW), and you can hear the smile on his face.

I hear the reason Yule sang so many songs, and why Lou sounds so ragged, is that they were playing live every night, with Lou singing everything. His voice was too tired to sing in the studio.

For me, it's eventually down to Mr. Speed vs Mr. Cocaine vs Ms. Heroin.

Cale was probably the craziest (http://youtu.be/eXWvIgX_Ojk?t=4m40s), Nico's story is the one that interests me more, but then Lou was just...the man - an incredible, distinctive, all-around song-writer, lyricist, singer, cool personality etc.

Plus, he seems like a nice guy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNxG7JnO1oA

Have you heard about how Cale once chopped the head off of a chicken and threw the carcass into the crowd?

If it's during the Velvets time, I'd say Lou. His stuff on all four albums is so incredibly good. Crazy how consistent he was with the quality of the songs he was writing.
 
However, I think John Cale had a stronger solo career. He never sold out, and has some real gems of albums. Paris 1919 is one of my favorites ever. Not that Lou had a bad solo career, there's just some real crap he put out. I do love Transformer though.

My biggest problem with Transformer is, what if Bowie and Mick Ronson weren't part of the production? Some of the best parts of the album (like the string break in Perfect Day) were written by Ronson, or sung by Bowie (Satellite harmonies). Doesn't change my opinion of how great the album is, just that it wasn't all Lou.

I've often seen Bruce or Mike invite people onto the stage towards the end of the show to sing with them (usualy kids or young ladies), but rushing onto the stage without invitation is a pretty serious matter.  I would think the guy got into a bit of trouble for it.

Macau security is pretty tight. I jumped on stage after the band left the stage to grab the setlist, and had a guy pretty much tackle me.
(got a setlist though )

I wish they played Wild Honey at my show!!! I saw them in Macau, and it was 90 minutes of bliss. I soaked in every note of every song. I was in the front, touching the stage, in the very middle.

Good Vibrations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZUKkZ633A

Audio is great, ok video. A guy actually runs on stage and start singing with Bruce during the church organ section. You can't see it in the video, but Bruce didn't look very pleased when the guy got up there. But they shook hands, Bruce whispered something in his ear, and the guy was taken off stage.

Great show, great night. I just wish it had been longer (and with more deep cuts).

I made that exact point in another thread when people kept throwing the "Mike met his set amount of dates" excuse at me.

Well if the whole thing was just some cash grab to milk the 50 years milestone well I guess Mike was right, do the dates and return to seaworld,  but if it meant more.. which it did to the rest of the band then Mike lived up to his reputation. There is is no way to spin it. Mike's actions were upsetting to anyone who wanted this tour to be from the heart, sadly for Mike it was all business.

Sad as it is, I can understand Mike's path. Touring with 15 band members (and all their baggage) is more strenuous, in pretty much every regard, than the current 6 piece touring unit.

I've seen Mike and Bruce since the split, and they were excellent. They were, however, not the life changing show the C50 shows were.

You think there's a chance there will ever be another reunion? It seems like now it's impossible. For another reunion, Mike will have to back down to put the Beach Boys back together.

Everybody knows Mike and Bruce we're going to return to their incarnation of The Beach Boys eventually. The issue on our part..or at least mine is how Mike went about his business.

Booking M&B shows a week or two into the C50 tour, turning extra dates, the ridiculous press release. Wouldn't it be nice (no pun intended) if the tour ended in a gracious manor and the door was left open for possible shows down the line, ten to 15 shows from the original Beach Boys every summer, a nice easy schedule for Brian. Nah, never when Mike Love is involved. The man is a genuine psycho.

As a stand alone act, I like what Mike does. He tours fantastic songs and does them justice. But considering how much better they could be, and the fact that the writer of those fantastic songs would like to be involved, I don't think anyone can make a really compelling arguement to justify the Lovesters actions.
I'm excited for Mike's response to Al.

I made that exact point in another thread when people kept throwing the "Mike met his set amount of dates" excuse at me.

Well if the whole thing was just some cash grab to milk the 50 years milestone well I guess Mike was right, do the dates and return to seaworld,  but if it meant more.. which it did to the rest of the band then Mike lived up to his reputation. There is is no way to spin it. Mike's actions were upsetting to anyone who wanted this tour to be from the heart, sadly for Mike it was all business.

Sad as it is, I can understand Mike's path. Touring with 15 band members (and all their baggage) is more strenuous, in pretty much every regard, than the current 6 piece touring unit.

I've seen Mike and Bruce since the split, and they were excellent. They were, however, not the life changing show the C50 shows were.

You think there's a chance there will ever be another reunion? It seems like now it's impossible. For another reunion, Mike will have to back down to put the Beach Boys back together.

I have a jazz band that I started for some musical experience, and we're pretty popular in our community, playing parties and other functions.

I want to arrange a some Beach Boys songs to start playing. The band is: Saxophone, drums, vibraphone, bass, and one person playing either playing guitar/piano/trumpet.

Any suggestions on songs to arrange? I was thinking of starting with Don't Worry Baby. The call and response melody/harmonies are just so great.

That's wonderful. Tim's the one member of either touring band I've never had the pleasure of meeting. Sounds like he's one of the nicer ones, too. But all of them are, really -- Bruce is the only one I've ever heard anyone have any problems with, and my experiences have been closer to yours. And Cowsill and Probyn, especially, are two of the nicest people I've ever met.

I found it pretty amazing that he did it in such an offhand way, like it was what anyone would do.

What experiences have you had? There should be a thread for everyones personal Beach Boys story. Like the guy who you can hear yell on the live CD, or TimmyC.
Or does that already exist?