Speaking of Their Hearts Were Full of Spring... I may have asked this here already, can't remember.

I saw the Mike & Bruce Beach Boys in 2016 and they did a "faster" version of THWFOS. It still sounded amazing IMO but was noticeably brisker than any version I've heard before, including then-recent versions by the BBs & Brian's group, with less stretching out of words. Was this arrangement sped up to e.g. reduce vocal strain for the guys in 2016, or is there a "faster" arrangement from many decades back that this was replicating?

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-beach-boys/2023/jacobs-pavilion-at-nautica-cleveland-oh-3a4698f.html

Whew, Mike's "WHEEEEEEEN" shtick is even worse than I thought. It's now the entire first set!

The Beach Boys never had that. Never. There was never a particularly shared vision, either of the material or the performances or the albums. The members never particularly valued their work, with a few exceptions. They not only didn’t know they were great, they couldn’t agree on what was even good.

Unlike even The Rolling Stones, who have had a few eras but orbit around the Jagger-Richards collaboration, The Beach Boys never even had a constant center of creative gravity. Brian wrote with people outside the had from the start. Various members helmed albums in the 70s and 80s. Outside musicians — even members — came in and out. The entire band and its history is best understood as some sort of loose collective, one that encompasses the Flame and the Honeys and the Wondermints and Billy Hinsche and friends.

This makes for fascinating music to explore and a unique kind of variegated fandom. But consistent or capable of making good or even rational decisions it is not.

Yes to all this, well said. This framing (loose collective, lack of center) goes a long way towards explaining the setlist of any random Mike&Bruce BBs show over the last 25 years... on the one hand, it's a crowd-pleasin'/all-the-greatest-hits set, and on the other it's a somewhat bloated, shapeless set that absorbs and offers up anything remotely related... songs from other groups the BBs came in contact with, Mike solo songs, other random beach-themed songs etc etc. Even Mike's decision to play more 1967-1973 songs for a few years... arguably some of the best music they ever made!... was a market-based decision (the competition, in this case Brian's band, trotted out this material and it was well-received) rather than any kind of organic artistic statement.

... Hmm, a spin on Wiki tells me Sha Na Na was a huge hit at Woodstock too. So I dunno.

I was watching a film not long ago - I think it was something called Festival Express (famous hippies boozing it up on a train) which features Woodstock-ish, "dirty hippie" scenes and rock musicians like the Grateful Dead playing to a counterculture audience around 1970 or so (the crowd is unruly, and angry, and Jerry Garcia assumes the role of responsible adult and tries to talk them down from the stage.) And in this film, the group "Sha Na Na" pops up - Bronx-style greaser doo-wop - and the hippies are digging it. So why is Sha Na Na okay, while the Beach Boys, who excel at that kind of thing, are not accepted? Is it because of the "Be True to Your School" thing?  I throw up my hands at this point

Festival Express was a train ride through Canada, so those are Canadian audiences you're seeing -- kind of apples and oranges when comparing to how American audiences received the BBs circa 1970.

Echoing your great point about the BBs above, the Sha Na Na shtick might have landed better to an audience situated further away from its source.

Those "dark" events of 1977 and 78 absolutely impacted the music you heard (and didn't hear) on subsequent albums, both thematically, and literally logistically in terms of what did or didn't get made or released after that point.

That 'both thematically' comment is quite interesting. I often return to Goin' South on the LA Light album, and find something really poignant in the way Carl's vocal evokes a guy who knows precisely what he needs to do to move forward ("the change of scene... might do me good"), but is seemingly paralyzed and unable to act ("truth is... don't know what I'm waiting for"). Having just reread the articles about the tarmac incident etc, it resonates all the more.

Yes to all this. I've seen Mike's BBs in concert three times in the 2010s, and while I enjoyed each show... the tonal thing re Brian is jarring, even knowing it's coming, and more than a bit eerie.

There's also the issue of stepping on the performance of a classic song like Surfer Girl with this nonsense. Like, Mike is the ambassador of the Beach Boys brand in 2023... he really is. He could preface Surfer Girl with a story about him and Brian writing and arranging the song, memories of their early days of fame... really anything at all with emotional resonance for the fans. Instead he chooses... this.

Mike could tell a story about Brian and him writing and arranging Surfer Girl but it was entirely a Brian Wilson creation words and melody

Sure. I was intentionally being a bit generous/Mike-friendly in that phrasing. But I still feel certain he could tell a story about the song's creation if he wished. Maybe about the harmony stack they created in the studio?

Or, no story at all -- that's fine too. Just sing the damn song and give it some respect.

There's also the issue of stepping on the performance of a classic song like Surfer Girl with this nonsense. Like, Mike is the ambassador of the Beach Boys brand in 2023... he really is. He could preface Surfer Girl with a story about him and Brian writing and arranging the song, memories of their early days of fame... really anything at all with emotional resonance for the fans. Instead he chooses... this.

https://consequence.net/2023/07/mike-love-surfer-girl-gender-specific/

Sigh, here we are again. Another round of press like this, and yet another "win" for the Beach Boys brand. 🤦‍♂️ Really painful.

It was on Facebook originally.

https://twitter.com/returningk/status/1675227015916531712

What a nice photo. He looks great!

Wow, crazy!

Really, really nice! Thanks for posting!

This reminds me too that Brian (and Al etc) added Old Man River to their live show for a random year or so. I had forgotten all about that.

Yeah, that statement by Cowsill is a bit painful. Ouch.

So, finally got enough time to finish up 1972 on my site-Beachboysgigs.com . Feel free to check it out! Has lots of reviews, ads, photos (I try when ever possible to use a photo from the show-but it is not always easy to find one for every concert (though I am sure they exist somewhere...) but all the photos are 1972.  You can also look at 1962-1971 gigs-which I have tweaked occasionally-when something new appears or a photo pops up.  I also have an updates blog-which is up to 1972 right now-that is updates to my book with Jon-such as shows we did not know about when we wrote it-or perish the thought-corrections to mistakes....

https://www.beachboysgigs.com/1972-2/

Fascinating stuff. Thank you Ian!

watching now for better or worse 
it's currently streaming at cbs.com
https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/Xn3CwiS3o_LdViEd6IQ6tOGMDjjdnwco/

Thanks for this!

The Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston Speaks On "A GRAMMY Salute To The Beach Boys"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3m7WdM75s

Team Striped Shirt representing!

Sorry, one more F&F show ... July 21 in Ojai, CA.
Al's tour page is probably a better source than these scattered Facebook posts I'm seeing... https://www.aljardine.com/shows

Hoping for some East Coast dates!🤞

Another Al Family & Friends date: July 23, 2023, The Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA.

https://wheremusicmeetsthesoul.com/events/al-jardine-friends-with-the-wilson-sisters-beverly-hills-july-2023/

I'm never going to be a scholar of this album, but when I eventually got around to listening to Uncovered and Unplugged I was struck by how good a lot of the outtakes were and what a missed opportunity the album was as a result. If they'd dropped guff like Papa Oom Mow Mow in favour of slightly more polished versions of things like Satisfaction and She Belongs To Me, the album could have fit in with the 1965 folk rock boom and helped them pivot to a more hip image going forward. Instead they got a big hit out of the retrograde Barbara Ann right when they needed it least.

Damn, that's a great point. Ah well!

I'm seeing Facebook ads for a new Al Jardine show in Montclair, CA on July 22nd --

https://www.axs.com/events/473587/al-jardine-friends-with-the-wilson-sisters-tickets?fbclid=IwAR2Fwk2h8kfF5z0-VSrGYyLG9zo8NuPztqp52HMR5L5wNhlCcDKGL0OEbyY

HeyJude: just wanted to thank you for keeping this thread going all these years!

It was fun to scroll back and read the 2018 posts and reviews... I can't believe the amazing NYC City Winery show I saw was almost 5 years ago. Sadly some family issues prevented me from attending the Sony Hall show last year. I'd really love to see Al in a NY-area appearance sometime this year... with Brian seemingly retired from touring, it would be great if Al and Matt can step things up a bit more. 🤞

Just like the infamous "striped shirts" debate on the SiriusXM thing from 2018...

Oh man! I forgot all about Shirtgate. Too funny. 

Pentatonix on Heroes and Villains -- pretty cool to my ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ddcHu4hfQ

John Legend doing Sail on Sailor. Nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCOAHG5Njnc