Cheers Ziggy. I can't help feeling this is an appeasement to the Brianistas and/or the specialist album tour.
That said, if Mike 'n Bruce do a Beach Boys Love You tour, I'll buy front row tickets.

As long as he does I'd Love Just Once To See You with him singing alone, and him & Bruce solo do You're Welcome. 
Aren't You Glad is one of my favourite BB songs & he sung the verses well.  Apart from that I've got no interest  in seeing him him attempt to vocally mount any other song off this beloved album like some aged prize bull...
I'll go if Bruce rocks his bowler hat & Sgt Peppers moustache combo off the back cover. Is it easy to get a Nike bowler hat or one with 'Trump 2016' on it?

I'll be forever greatful that he decided that his franchise wouldn't play the Trump inauguration. Otherwise this seems like a management approved soft-soap job. Nothing to see that's new here. It's not a criticism, but when stating Carl got out of drugs in the late 60s, was he not aware of the issues in the mid-to-late 70s?

With love from the 'United' Kingdom of Great Britain, I literally don't know who John Mayer is. Love the idea of anyone giving Al his props. Was there any born person ever suited to belting out the first line of Heroes & Villains? Not fussed about some niche guitar player but chuffed if anyone gives Al for his dues for the songs that really matter.

FWIW & I expect & deserve no credence to anything I ever opine, I used to only visit the website to view the views & opinions of HimSelf, I later became to view his posts as equal parts revelatory and as a put down. Had no idea about the PMs and other accusations of abuse. His public input is largely a miss to this website, however, the other accusations of wrongdoing seem horribly genuine and tragically sad & nothing rightly should be tolerated in this regard. Well done the mods who took this difficult decision.
Props to those who took what cannot have been an easy decision to block him. I still & will forever miss you AGD, silly sod.

There's moments that I will forever remember as melting my brain. One: the water chant from Cool Cool Water. That had never been done before or since. And the tag on Smiley Smile version of Wind Chimes still sounds otherworldly and always sought me to find a holy grail of BB harmonies which I've never found.
Also as a guilty pleasure for a song I normally can't stand & offending my Brianista sensibilities, the vocal breakdown in I Can See Music is draw dropping and sets the sense for all the other cliched BB 'sounds' in the future

Didn't I hear on a previous thread that most - if not all - of the bass on this album was by Bruce?? Props to him if it was - epic & near as dammit to James Jamerson!

Consensus has been that it's their touring bassist Ron Brown, who actually was a motown guy.

Cheers, that makes sense! Still like to cling to some sense that it was Bruce given that his only other recorded contributions (besides vocals) appear to be on piano. Maybe he did sirens on Student Demonstration Time.....

MIC had to be daring, given the almost barrel-scraping exercise that it seemed destined to be. The only major revelation was (Wouldn't It Be Nice To) Live Again. Missing out Carry Me Home was a massive failure in judgement.
Whilst the live cuts were amazing, they need their own releases & don't justify being a selling point.
FWIW in my mind the GV box set is still the best, serving as BB primer and having a mass of unreleased stuff to keep the fans happy. I still find it strangely hard to regard the Smile box set as a box set - it felt more like getting an authority to finally release some official secrets.......

I was wondering how this was recorded? The piano seems to play a single note through the lines of the verses but then hits a big chord, joined by the organ. It's very addictive (especially the backing track in isolation) and an example of Brian's keep-it-simple approach post-Smile. The vocal is obviously gorgeous and probably in the top 5 leads on a BB single.

The retuned piano creates it's own flanged effect with harmonics creating extra tonal nuances. This makes it sound fuller & you could be forgiven in thinking an extra instrument was at play. Plus the brilliantly undermined brass also blends in at times to add to this.
Didn't I hear on a previous thread that most - if not all - of the bass on this album was by Bruce?? Props to him if it was - epic & near as dammit to James Jamerson!

Century Deprived - I empathise. And I hope to Dawkins that it doesn't happen, however, it's hardly going to be a major shock in terms of a band with all the spiritual and elemental members suddenly making a bad decision? Cos it wouldn't ever be. Playing a Trump inauguration would only ever be a franchise of lesser elements agreeing to a celebration of populist misguided hysteria. History should record it thus.

Dammit, Mike doesn't explain why the organ sounded like it did. I can only guess it was a fault with the speaker used for the organ priming over and the studio mic picking this up. Only SWD can save us.....on the other hand, I'd perhaps not know how this magic occurred and just enjoy it.

Greetings from Great Britain. We don't need to be great again, hence the name !(despite going to hell in a hand kart at the moment...). Surely the BBs playing this inauguration would be in keeping with their history of piss-poor terrible touring decisions?  Stage suits in the late 60s, Raegan concert, playing apartheid South Africa etc.
I do not support any decision to play this by any means, but it would be perversely understandable.
PS. Punk rock was never about endorsing sexist or racist views apart from some quickly discredited bands with subhuman followings.

God....wish I had SD's book. And his life and expertise......
 Anyhow, my impression of Friends is that it was one inclusion off from being an absolute classic - Diamond Head. This unnecessary pile of childish kitsch prevents this god like album from being 5*. A good album has to represent an ace experience through every track, and this has always killed it stone dead. Still, its vastly superior to 20/20....






 I've always deleted this childish piece of Americana to stop the rest of the album being ruined. With this off the album becomes one of the great experinces of  its time.

When I first heard it, I thought clearance would've been gained already from the Gaye estate. On hearing the arguments back and forth I can appreciate that Blurred Lines only "paid tribute to" the arrangement of Gayes song and didn't crib the tune. Important difference. George Harrison was sued for My Sweet Lord as the tune was the same. Pharrell was seemingly sued as only the arrangement was the same.
We are through the f*****g mirror here.
For instance: how many songs by many major artists have used similar arrangements to Brian Wilson and should similarly be sued? Eg. At My Most Beautiful by REM?
I'm not one to defend improperly behaving miilionaires, but this has gone too far.
And I hate Blurred Lines, but admire and like most of what Pharrell has done elsewhere.

ANYTHING by New Order they released in the 80s.

Remain In Light by Talking Heads

The Stone Roses first album

Shoot Out The Lights - Richard & Linda Thompson

Hounds Of Love by Kate Bush

Spinal Tap (original soundtrack)

You've got me solely on the notion of moving Gettin  Hungry off, but I don't seem to be able to hear your version poss due to USA site being mute to Us Britishers. However, its an intriguing idea, and I totally agree that She's Goin Bald has to stay - a quintessential Smiley Smile over Smile sketch song.

Monkees are not comparable. Who By Numbers is a brave,  abrasive album, well superior to Who Are You. I can only co spider the Who, Kinks and Rolling Stones as comparable to BBs given the time they started and finished, thus Dirty Work by the Stones stands as a wretched product equal to the worst of the BBs.

Reading some of Crosby's other tweets, it looks like he calls it as he sees it-- meaning, that if he believes something to be true, he will just say it without sugar-coating. He also said he loves Joni Mitchell's music but called her "crazy." He said Kanye has no talent and that Phish doesn't "groove." (I think that was the word he used.)  So...he has his opinions. I wonder if there was a particular incident that he experienced caused him to form his opinion of Mike, or if he's just going by stories of Mike that we've all heard. Saying Mike is not a good person is stronger than just saying, "He's not very likable." 

Crosby ain't no saint, or hero of mine but I must confess he's composed some of the most awe inspiring and beautiful music I've ever heard. I feel he is uncompromising and driven in the same way ML is, and I respect he was giving an off the cuff answer to an off the cuff question. Being around the LA scene so long, I respect he's had plenty of opportunities to formulate an opinion of ML, and I agree that Phish have no groove (eg compare their version of Talikng Heads' Crosseyed And Painless...)

All I Want To Do - great rocking vocal , Mr Peace and Sex
All I Wanna Do - majestic and spiritual
California Girls - so well phrased and taken, hard to imagine anyone else surpassing it
All This Is That - Ok not all his vocals, but like many others (eg Cabinessence) his singing adds the well measured earth to this

Cheers everyone, especially AGD, & C Man - honoured responses for me first post. I agree with Rocker that the drums on this sound unlike any drummer used by the Boys before, not Dragon, Blaine, Jim Gordon et al. It'd just be interesting to know who it was given - to my ears- the funky instinctive nature of it that I have not really heard in other BB songs.
And if AGD doesn't know, then this query is doomed!

Carry Me Home - especially the utterly haunted cover by Primal Scream - one of the best BB covers.......

Where Is My Mind by The Pixies.......Totally unlikely but an ace leftfield choice for our Mozart. Plus I'd love to hear what melodies he or Darian could cook up for this.

First post, feel like an amoeba amongst dinosaurs after reading this malignant poison full of pricks for so many years! PS I do not take the stance of this message board being full of pricks, or any for what it's worth. Or containing poison . My first foray into sniper alley is simply to ask who played the brilliantly funky drums on Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again, as I regretfully cannot rectify this with the style of Dennis.