Tough crowd! This is the album that all Brian's other albums (sans BWPS) collectively want to be. Top knotch arranging from Van. Singing isn't Brian's best, but his first real showing since his '88 LP. I love this album. VDP & BW do it again. This release has a lot of heart. If I feel down this picks me right up. Synths used to effect not as a crutch. Well, well done. I'll take another of this over IJWMFTT or GIOMH... ANYDAY!!

Right on chance! Anybody got any Stone Canyon Band stuff?? I've always been curious, but don't see this shite used.

I used to think Johnston's contributions made this album a bit 'light', but many years ago I realized they help to make it perfect. Then I fell in love with Disney Girls. Luther, I wouldn't change a word of Got To Know The Woman... positively Denny!

I just wanna lay in the grass and be cool, too!
 

Yer both a bit zany! 

Hi fans'o'Nelson.
Ricky's twins (Gunnar & hans or Franz, or something), David Nelson, Tracy and various family members were on Larry King tonight talking about the 20th year of his death. I think they rerun it later? I caught the last 5 minutes and WILL catch the replay. Glen Campbell & James Burton were also on and they also sing Mary Lou at the end w/ Jimmy & Glen on guitars, too! Glen looks weird with long, slicked back hair & James Burton is-a-gettin' old. I wonder if they had anything interesting to say?

This is the one my cousin (not Mike Love) listened to continually and inadvertantly left at my house when he went home from babysitting me fall of '75. Thus began the brainwashing!

Hail Glick & his freeble energizer! I can't live without this album either. The vinyl sounds sooooo goooood!!

Today on Maury Povich: Beach Boys Love You album... What went wrong? Track by track.

Let Us Go On-  "God Please Let Us..." nice harmonies. Carl's vocals sound 'rushed.'
"God Please..." turn down the annoying key bass- it's TOO INTRUSIVE!!!!

Roller Skating Child- man oh man. You're already sunk when you write a song about roller skating. Awful lyrics. Instrumentation almost too barebones for the nice harmonies. Phase thing in right channel is terribly annoying.

Mona- Send out for more booze & smokes for Denny! We haven't reached the desired gravelly effect yet. Nice with bells, but keys bass still annoying.

Johnny Carson- OMG. Could be one of the worst released BB tunes. Did they really turn back to Brian to write some good tunes??? Why didn't he? Brian's voice is shot.

Good Time- Brian's voice sounds decent on this one. How is that possible from one day to the next? HOORAY- More drums than just snare!!

Honkin' Down The Highway- gosh darn highway?? Ugh. Annoying key bass, AGAIN. Brian sounds like he's forcing his falsetto.

Ding Dang- Dirty Ding Dang should have been here instead - Fock her big t!ts!

Solar System- creative tune/nice concept, poor execution. Could have been promising. Bri's voice is still shot. Did he know he sounded like this?

The Night Was So Young- WOW! We're treated to some guitar on this one! Could this be one of the best on the album. Real nice harmonies! Almost doesn't sound like Carl singing lead!

I'll Bet He's Nice- It's so hard to listen to Brian & Dennis' smoke-choked vocals when I know what they sounded like before and Brian even after. Warbling keyboard is yet again, annoying. Some nice harmonies.

Let's Put Our Hearts Together- Likely the best track on the album. Sounds like some thought was put into writing the lyrics. Nice to hear the Mrs! But again, it's hard to get past Brian's glass-gargled voice.

I Wanna Pick You Up- fun & creepy at the same time. No annoying setting on the key bass. Cool tack piano. Brian's cracked voice on 'Feed you 'break- fast' from a little cup' and 'and I'll 'bend' and kiss you on your head' lines make me laugh. The 'I want to pick you up/rock you back & forth and make you smile/I want to hold you close for a while' lines sound weird with everyone singing in unison instead of harmonies. Sounds like a cop-out for the lack of harmonies in that spot THEN Great harmonies to close the song.

Airplane- ho-hum. Lacks inspiration & life. Fuzz guitar sounds out of place. Brian once had imagination on how to put odd instruments together, now it just sounds like he's arranging... rather, almost not arranging. A few nice harmony spots and the song stops abruptly. The 'I can't wait' tag on the end sounds like it should almost be a different song.

Love Is A Woman- Stop with the keyboard jazz, OK! Bri tosses in some sax & flutes for good measure. Again they sound out of place due to lack of a real rhythm track.

Rule of thumb when recording your own album- Words or lyrics to not use: dirty boogie, falsies, Disco-disco-discotheque mama, when guests are boring he fills up the slack, honkin' down the gosh darn highway, pat her on the butt. EEK!

We all know what Brian & the Boys were capable of and hearing this album is a let down from what they'd given us and a handful of recordings yet to come. By the sounds of it, the whole album could have been recorded in a single day. This album is a fine example of using a technology (key bass) that was still relatively new and not knowing quite how to use it. 'Well we have it... gotta use it for something.' In my ears it's almost as if they were doing something they didn't want to do- something they loved to do- record! The youthful exuberance seems to be gone and they're only in their early 30's. The album just sounds like a bunch of demos of what might have been released as the real album several months later. Love You is simply- weak. Uninspired. Amateurish. It lacks the shine & polish that we know the BB's for. I really can't describe it any better than that. It just could have been so much better.
So in summation- if you were to take 15 Big Ones and combine it with Love You, you just might get 1 album's worth of stuff that's at least pleasing to the ear (Brian's good one) and a few knockout tunes to make up for the ones that don't have that high-lustre.

Here's my boot: 14 BIG YOUS:
It's OK, Had To Phone Ya, Everyone's In Love With You, Susie Cincinnati, Back Home, In The Still Of The Night, I'll Bet He's Nice, Mona, Good Time, Solar System, The Night Was So Young, Let's Put Our Hearts Together, I Wanna Pick You Up, Love Is A Woman.
Trash the remainder- I'd be content if I never heard a one of them again.

Oh... Friends! I though it said Fiends?!

YEAH! What SHE said & then, what HE said! Guess I'm dumb, too.

Got this at the same record show in '85 with Smiley. I didn't so much care for this album at first- but it took roots and grew fast, like! I'd put it in my top 7 BB LP's. Why 7?
Got these other 6 contenders: Sunflower, Pet Sounds, SMiLEy SMiLE, 20/20, Today, Surf's Up!

OOhhh. Trivia! Me likey! 
It's been about 15 years since I've seen it in it's entirety so I'm at your mercy. Which shot do you refer to Mr. W?
Was it during the acid sequence where everyone is having their trip?

My BIG new question...
Why when it asks you to login- if you select FOREVER you still need to log back in the next time?

Forever... that's your way of giving a nod to the Beach Boys, right Chuck? Yer so clever.  Crazygonuts!

I don't like it atol, but in retrospect, can you imagine who would be on it now?? Toby Keith, Big & Cheesy, Gretchen Wilson, and to throw in the least country dude, but still a complete redneck- Kid Rock. UGH.
Maybe Stars & Stripes IS a masterpiece? Geez...

How Funky Pretty and Then I Kissed Her made it on there and Feel Flows and Farmer's Daughter did not, I'll never know.
But it's still the best box set ever.

Gotta be a marketing standpoint... always leave off a few to keep the cash flowing in from other purchases!
To equate: notice A Little Bit Me & Girl I Knew Somewhere were left off the Monkees Headquarters remaster.
DW Washburn & It's Nice B With You- left off Birds Bees Remaster. Keeps the cash flowing and makes you buy other stuff.

I can't believe they left off essential Denny tracks- River Song, etc. Especially since River Song was on 10 Years Of Harmony.
Glad Punchline made the box set, tho!

Never looked close, but I've been told that the football helmet that Nicholson wears is the same one Ray Nitsche throws at Tork in the War sequence in HEAD. Budget is right guys... Easy Rider was made with profits from the Monkees!

That entire set revolves around the track 'Glass!" The other BB's are awesome, but this track blew me away!

Saw an 80's reunion-type show a few years ago with 4 bands: (missed the first act), The Outfield, The Fixx, Asia.
The Outfield was OK. The Fixx was outstanding (I liked them a lot in the mid 80's!). Asia blew chunks so hard and they headlined !!! There was only one member that had been in the band for a while AND he was not even an original member.
The keyboard DUDE (the following makes him DUDE- not to mention his mullet) had... 9, count 'em, 9 different sets of keys/synths on 3 different 'rack mount' type stands. We only saw him use 2 different keyboards !!! We were so shocked as to how bad they were we stayed through the rest of the show. OUCH! My ears are still bleeding.

Definitely not a bunt. Not a Grandslam. I'd say Homerun, certainly! This is the LP that made me realize the Beach Boys were more that the hit tunes. I like the scaled back production making it beautiful in a different way than SMiLE would have been. It unfortunately has to dwell in the shadows SMiLE and people can't hear it for what it is. I'm with Ian... One of my faves, too! Woody Woodpecker Symphony seals the deal!

It suffers not from content, but from production. These tunes might have been salvaged had they not used, drum machines & crappy synth programming. Not their worst, but real close.

15 BO & LY sound like demos that were never finished. I'll lay a big fat review of Love You down when I get home and give it another spin.

I've got a friend that could care less about the Byrds. I don't understand it. He loves the 60's and everything about the era, but doesn't 'get' the Byrds. He doesn't dislike them, they've never clicked for him. He's a bit puzzled, too.
Crazy man, CRAZY.

Diddy Wah Diddy has simply the most amazing, thick, GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS, bass sound that's ever been put to tape. I don't know how the tape was able to hold those frequencies. The bass must have been 30 feet long with rope for strings. Amazing!

Barry & The Remains - not in the 60's, but rather in 1998 !!! Un-frickin'-believeable !!

I've seen McCartney, Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Monkees (with Nesmith), et al ad nauseum...
Barry & The Remains were far & away the absolute best- it actually made me cry, it was sooo good!!
BW's Smile portion of the show is #2.

I saw an interview with Basil just a few years ago and she doesn't look much different than she did back then. Soul sold? I think she's a major babe, too Ian!

Peter Tork recorded a few tunes and submitted them to Rafelson/Schneider for use in Easy Rider. They LOVED them but ultimately turned them down. Why haven't these turned up??