Bass Harmonica featured prominently on many late 60’s cuts.

I'm just jealous you found a trove of Beach Boys 45's! The only post 1969 singles you can find in my neck of the woods are "It's OK" and "Rock and Roll Music."

You could check out http://www.beachboys45.nl/ or http://www.45cat.com/ for info. Both are great sites for this stuff.

I can understand why this one went under the radar. It's not as significant as some of the other music business-deaths this year, but nonetheless, it's sad to hear of Dave Swarbrick's passing. He was a vital component of Fairport Convention and really kept them going through his years in the group. He certainly will be missed.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/03/dave-swarbrick-obituary

Love Fleet Foxes. One of the best bands out there today. The Beach Boys are some of the many artists thanked in the liner notes for their first album. Also has a nice anecdote regarding inspiration from"Feel Flows" and the 'Surf's Up' album as well.

1. Surf's Up - Everything that's to be said about how amazing this song has already been said, and I agree with all of it.
2. A Day In The Life of A Tree - Such beautiful song. The coda never fails to make me tear up, especially when Rieley goes for that shaky falsetto.
3. Disney Girls (1957) - One of Bruce's only song contributions to the band that hasn't stirred up controversy somewhere. Just a beautiful song with beautiful harmonies.
4. Till I Die - Certainly a sad song, but it is wonderfully put together. Beautiful bed of harmonies that moves you along.

5. Long Promised Road - A great rocker from Carl! Shows that he wasn't just a good singer, but a good composer as well. A nice feeling of hope within the album.
6. Feel Flows - Another great Carl Wilson song. Rieley's lyrics are a little more out there on this one, but the atmospheric production is really awesome.
7. Don't Go Near The Water - Pretty weird stuff from Mike and Al, but I've always enjoyed this song. The harmonies are good throughout, and the sentiments are nice. Not bad.

8. Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) - A kind of spooky folk song from Al. Good stuff, but a little too much phasing for my taste.
9. Take A Load Off Your Feet - This song kind of lightens things up, but it's silliness doesn't really fit the mood of the album.
10. Student Demonstration Time - Like Surf's Up, all there is to be said about this one has been said. Fun to hear them rock out, though.

Saw this book at my local Barnes and Noble last week. A real testament to how cool these guys were. Stunning photos from arguably their finest era as a group.

Not as Earth shattering, but original singer for the band Signe Toly Anderson also died on the 28. Everything's going crazy!

My favorite is "It's All Too Much." Had this been on Sgt. Pepper instead of "Within You, Without You," who knows what could have been. Close runner up: "In My Life."

To me, the only way to experience 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" is in the album versions full form. The original 45 mix has some sloppy editing that messes with the flow. Another favorite of mine is Neil Young's "Sample and Hold" 12" which features an extended alternate version of "Sample and Hold" as the a-side and the "Mr. Soul (Dance Mix)" as the b-side. Great stuff that makes the versions on Trans sound tame.

Probably most of us have seen photos from this shoot, which looks like to be from 1966. Two questions:

1. Where's Al? (obviously it's not the first time Al missed a photo shoot)

2. More interestingly, who is the sixth guy?

It's possible that it's just a random person. The Buffalo Springfield did that a couple of times with Bruce Palmer when he was MIA. The cover for their unreleased "Stampede" album features 4 band members plus a man in a hat looking down, obscuring his face, which many people believe to be Palmer, but some say is a stand in.

Still, It looked like the band was all there when in reality they weren't. Perhaps the Boys were trying something similar by making it seem like Al was there when he really wasn't.

EDIT: Forgot to Quote

A Side: Either "Something" or "Let it Be" with Dennis singing lead on either cut. Tough choice. The production of these songs already kind of lend them to the Beach Boys anyway.

B-Side: "Do It Again" in a sort of "Get Back" style may work. Their roots-rock style they were exploring at this time is hard to match to the Beach Boys carefully produced sound.

This is a surprisingly hard task! One of my runner-ups for the A-Side was "Hello, Goodbye," but seeing as how it sounds so good as it is, it would be hard to expand upon. The Beatles could also do a rocking version of "Wild Honey" with a rough John lead, but I don't want to hog everything.

While Randy Newman is amazing in his own right, there's just something about the way Nilsson interprets these songs. His vocals are so complex and lovely, which is a great juxtaposition against the sparsity of the instrumentation.

Very sad to hear of legendary Columbia producer Bob Johnston's passing. He did some great work over the years.

From Rolling Stone's website:

"Bob Johnston, a staff producer at Columbia Records who worked on legendary LPs like Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison and Simon & Garfunkel's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, passed away Friday at a Nashville hospice. He was 83.

A friend of Johnston's confirmed the producer's death to the Austin Chronicle, saying, "For several days before, swinging, swaying, and waving around his hands, telling stories out loud, entertaining and consuming all those that saw and heard him. Once he was confined to [a] bed and connected to machines, hospice only gave him a few days to live. He was on morphine to help any pain he was experiencing. Bob's wife told me he pass[ed] away peacefully. The grand master waved his magical wand for the last time, then disappeared off into the night."

Anything from these albums (with the exception of "Boomerang" on The Children of a Lesser God Soundtrack)

   

"Grown Ocean" from the album "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes is a spectacular album closer. The band has been on hiatus for about 4 years now, and chances of a reunion seem slim. However, this track makes for a beautiful and satisfying album closer and potential career cap if this indeed proves to be their final release.

Sorry if some of these have been posted before. If they have, enjoy them again!

I think "Do It Again" and "I Can Hear Music" were the correct choices for singles; "Bluebirds Over The Mountain" not as much. "Time To Get Alone" is a great song, but I think Friends and Sunflower shows that the general listening public just wasn't into mellow Beach Boys at that time. I think "Time To Get Alone might've stiffed as a single.

I agree. Still, It was released as the B-side to "Cottonfields" in some countries. This is a sleeve from Germany I believe, courtesy of http://www.beachboys45.nl/

It's been an interesting mix of '67-'72 Hollies and Vampire Weekend. Heard a Father John Misty song a minute ago and I feel he might be next.

Change Is Now, always.

Late 60's Hollies

"Gasoline Alley Bred"            http://youtu.be/ft0joF9IicQ
               Vs.
"Too Young to Be Married"    http://youtu.be/WtIiL7Tj_HI

Has any one been listening to this? I think this may be one of my new favorite Dylan albums. I'm a sucker for pedal steel, so I knew I would at least like the music. But man, the vocals are so captivating! He sounds great! Way better than he sounded on Tempest. He really shines on "Stay With Me." Now, there isn't a lot of variety in the arrangements, but the consistent mood really works. Great album and worth the wait, I'd say.

"All I Wanna Do" is one of my favorite song's from the "Sunflower" album, and I've always thought of it as one of your best arrangements post- "Pet Sounds."  The synths and the vocals are just sublime. My question is, what was the inspiration for this song/arrangement? It just floors me every time I hear it. Thanks for the great music!

I'm a huge Monty Python fan. I love the Flying Circus, and love the movies (especially The Holy Grail). My favorite Flying Circus skit is probably the one with the Zeppelin where everybody is getting tossed out because they're referring to the Zeppelin as a 'balloon'. I also love the "Confuse-A-Cat" and "Silly Job Interview". Damn, John Cleese was just so hilarious! They all were, Chapman, Idle, Jones, Gilliam, Palin... Another favorite of mine is "How To Recognize Different Types Of Trees From Quite A Long Way Away". 

The episode with the Zeppelin Sketch was my favorite for a long time. Now it's probably "Michael Ellis" which is one of the better season 4 episodes. I also like The Cannibalism Sketches from "Royal Episode 13." Gotta love that dark humor.

I've been watching this show since I was in 7th grade, and my interest in it has recently been piqued for some unknown reason. I absolutely love this show! Just about every episode is great (the exceptions being a few post-Cleese clunkers) and the writing specifically has had a huge influence on my own sketch writing. Being an actor, the show Is a wonderful study in characters. It's just great.

So are there any other Python fans around here? If so, feel free to discuss the show here!

You know, another musical trend that's been gaining momentum has been the kick drum/tambourine combo that has been plaguing rhythm sections for a couple of years now. While I think it's effective, I also believe that it's being overused (which is a shame, as I'm a sucker for it every time).