‘Sail Away’ is flat out my favorite song on OCA. “At perfect coast in harmony, we’ll raise a toast to what’s still left of my memory” is one of my favorite Van Dyke lyrics, I’d take it over even some of his SMiLE lyrics. You heard me. Not ‘Surf’s Up’ though, his best ever work. You’d never know it, but buddy  I’m a kind of poet, and I marvel at his deft hand at wordplay.

@Rocker, about the IJWMFTT soundtrack, I’m sure you’d agree that it’s a shame the CD didn’t include the performance of ‘Orange Crate Art’ with just Van Dyke on piano in the film. Delightful as all hell.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OiykTknz51U

I can’t hear that big of a difference between the two, but that might partially be because I’ve never cared much at all about the band’s version of ‘Rock And Roll Music’, with it’s obnoxious nasally vocal from Mike and the ham fisted arrangement. Now, this is where a lot of Love You haters (probably Lonely Summer...hi Lonely!) come in and point out my apparent hypocrisy because the production aesthetic is essentially the same on both LY and 15 Big Ones (often abbreviated as 15BO, which has led me to nickname it 15 Body Odor, like that’s the level at which the record stinks. On the same scale, SIP would be something like 1000 BO. ANYWAY...). I would argue that Brian as a producer, arranger and writer was more engaged and enthused making Love You, it shows in the music, which is incredibly delightful, or as Brian’s shirt from the period said, Love You is


Sorry, what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, ‘Rock And Roll Music’. It’s forgettable, as my above rant made abundantly clear.

I’m both a massive Beach Boys fan and baseball fan and Mike and Pete are difficult figures in both. Mike deserves to be lauded for some of his good work, but raked over the coals for so many things he’s said and done. Pete is one of the best players the game had ever seen, but his actions damaged his reputation beyond repair. In Beach Boys world, only Landy is more difficult. He saved Brian’s life, then went to work full time 24/7 to destroy it.

Edit: and Murry*. More than anybody.

I agree there. A song like ‘Getcha Back’ (which I hate) does have lyrics that aren’t really all that bad, whereas the things Mike wrote on SIP is beyond juvenile and embarrassingly bad. Wowzers. The missing ingredient: Brian Wilson.

@ SMiLE Brian, I’d bet the song that Mike and OSD would write together would be a hammy ‘Good Vibrations’ retread with Mike growling about pickin’ up bad vibrations from his writing partner and saying a prayer to Gita or something. By crackie, that sounds like a million and two seller.

Tony Asher has said before (the liner notes of the Pet Sounds Sessions box set) that when he and Brian were writing together, the general tone of the song’s theme was largely his, and Tony would put it into words. I suspect it worked in a similar fashion with Mike. I still think that Mike was capable of writing a good lyric on his own, like ‘Big Sur’ for example. When Endless Summer came along and changed the direction of the group for good, I think Mike wanted to attempt to write lyrics that were of a piece with their early output, as in songs like ‘Kona Coast’, which essentially cannibalizes ‘Hawaii’. That’s where he started to go wrong, since often he wasn’t writing closely with Brian as once before. Or, you know, I could be way off.

I don’t mind the reissues of Surfin’ Safari through the Christmas Album being in stereo. Today through Wild Honey just sounds better in mono. I’m glad many like the stereo remixes though.

As for Friends, I would agree about the need for a stereo remix.

Audree talked about Murry’s last days and death in an interview printed somewhere...Rolling Stone 1976? I forget. Despite them being separated, he ended being dependent on her, and she being Audree, that warm family matriarch she always was, couldn’t walk away from his suffering, I suppose.

As for Murry and Dennis becoming close toward the end, I remember reading somewhere (might’ve been from Audree in the same interview) that they would go fishing together.

I partially agree with OSD. Only Brian is the genius. People like to throw that word around too much. There’s talented, which Mike once was. Even Dennis, whose music was outstanding, I wouldn’t label as genius. They only come around rarely within a generation.
Now, Mike was pretty damn good at writing lyrics, once upon a time. He sure as sh*t hasn’t been a good lyricist since at least ‘Brian’s Back’ up until today with this odious new offering. Once, he wrote the words to one of my all-time favorite Beach Boys songs, ‘The Warmth of the Sun’. Damn good words too, an essential part of the immense beauty of the band’s best early tune. I wanna know what happened to that guy.

Every album that was originally put out in mono, I prefer in mono, meaning everything up until Friends. Brian’s more complex arrangements on Today, Summer Days, Pet Sounds, ‘Good Vibrations’ and Smile in particular are  a must in mono to me. So too with the pared down, home made goodness of Smiley Smile and Wild Honey. I really don’t like the clean feel of the stereo remix of Wild Honey. Take some of the soul away.

Said it before, will always say it:

The Beach Boys Love You is Brian at his most honest and straightforward. If there's ever one single source that will tell you all you need to know about him, it's that album.

Yeah it's certainly his most convoluted and polarizing album.  The production is horrible, yet at the same time perfectly fits and enhances the material on that album.   

What exactly makes the production “horrible?”
Its synthesizers, gated reverb and keyboards.
Compared to some other albums in the 70s and 80s, its produced and mixed very well.
All the vocals come through clear unlike parts of surfs up, it’s not mixed horribly like So Tough, it doesn’t sound cheap like KTSA, and it’s extremely warm unlike parts of BB85 and SIP

Actually, the gated reverb on the drums presaged the pop music of the ‘80s.

I’m betting that Dylan is a closet Beach Boys fan, going all the way back to digging their Fillmore set in ‘71.

Having just read through all these replies I am saddened that all the ML and Trump haters can't get past their biases and support someone who has given us so much wonderful music for almost 60 years has done something good for the hungry in this troubled time. I bought his single on I-tunes to support this charity. Bash away!

I’m hating on the terrible song, which I just listened to finally (well, more accurately I got as far as I could without my ears bleeding). I did say that I was glad that Mike’s heart was in the right place and others have said similar things to that effect. But bad music is bad music. I’m not gonna bash you for supporting this, why would I? More power to you and to Mike. Shame he couldn’t deliver a decent tune.

Meanwhile, I loved watching the Honeys (well, Marylin and Ginger, I guess Diane is retired or something..?) sing California Feeling. They still got it!

"It's like a viral super bowl".......

Is that seriously a lyric? Seriously?? UGH. I’m glad I decided to refrain from listening to this. Talk about a virus I’d do anything not to catch. Listen Mike, I’m glad your heart was in the right place, really. But where your head is at, who the hell knows where.

I’m looking forward to Brian and Van Dyke’s liner notes, particularly Van Dyke’s, ever the wordsmith. Non-native Californians have a different, interesting view of the place than natives, even Brian, to whom the state owes so much to for painting a warm, desirable picture of through his music to us elsewhere in the country/world. Van Dyke does so as well much the same way through hid words on OCA.

Anyway, I’m wondering about the other two outtakes from the album. Anybody know anything about them?

It'll be interesting to read Brian's new liner notes. I remember when "That lucky old sun" came out, I played both albums (TLOS and OCA, since both albums feature Brian and Van Dyke but in different roles) to compare the approaches of each songwriter's vision of California. Van Dyke's classy and elegant way and Brian's pop-y rock and roll version. Beautiful stuff, each completely different yet similar in Brian's vocal arrangements. Speaking of vocal arrangements, I seem to remember that AGD said, Brian did all the arrangements while Brian once mentioned he just did what Van Dyke told him to do. IIRC there is no credit in the booklet for the vocal arrangements. That's why I'm interested in hearing Van Dyke's and Brian's new statements about the album. As mentioned before, imo OCA features some of Brian's best and most soulful vocals in later years.

I would often play OCA followed by TLOS together too. So sweetly, warmly, nostalgically Californian, both of them. Listening to 'Southern California' has reduced me to tears before, listening to 'What a Wonderful World' just now has done the same. The common uncommon element in both: Brian Wilson, his voice, agape in wonder at the beauty of the world, life itself. And so we listeners are agape in wonder at his own beautiful wonder.

Great news, I've always loved OCA. One of the, of not THE most underrated Beach Boys-related releases.

Bitchin’! Anybody know what the exact notes are for Good Vibrations, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times and Wild Honey?

I think as soon as things got as ugly as they did, with Mike sitting idly by while Don Jr publicly humiliated his cousin without saying a word to pushback, it polluted the waters in ways that can't be quantified.

When did Trump the Lesser (which is saying something as Trump Sr. is —- oh, nevermind) publicly humiliate Brian? I must’ve missed that.

This is (at least part of) it.  https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/481350-beach-boys-brian-wilson-asks-fans-to-boycott-concert-at-hunting

😂 Calling Brian a part of the “Hollywood liberal elite” is hilarious. It’s pretty hard to get more apolitical than him. Melinda maybe, not Brian. At most he probably sees a lot of Murry or Landy in Trump.

As for hopes of reunion: on one hand, you never really know with this band family, on the other hand, after all this, I sincerely doubt Brian and Al want anything to do with Mike and Bruce again, professionally.

I think as soon as things got as ugly as they did, with Mike sitting idly by while Don Jr publicly humiliated his cousin without saying a word to pushback, it polluted the waters in ways that can't be quantified.

When did Trump the Lesser (which is saying something as Trump Sr. is —- oh, nevermind) publicly humiliate Brian? I must’ve missed that.

That’s been the biggest stumbling blocks with me appreciating Mike in the past - how often he has gone out of his way to tarnish the legacy and reputation of the band, which I think is precious. Their music will far outlive them, but how the band is viewed by the general public will always get in the way of making new, serious, adoring fans of that wonderful music. I’m not about to stand here and tell you Mike is alone in doing this. The Beach Boys themselves as a unit generally have stomped on their legacy and rep in the past. But Mike’s efforts go a far more than a step beyond. When this darkness ceases, assuming he isn’t too damn old to even get onstage, Mike will find other ways to make us fans and even his own former bandmates cringe. He’s not done yet.

I googled the whole Mike and Trump trophy hunting thing to get more info on it and as expected, everything I read (except Brian and Al condemning him publicly, right on) infuriated me to no end. Especially Mike’s statement about how “Trump has been good to us”, which I responded by screaming with fury and disgust at my iPad screen. I’ll not repeat it here, because this is not the place to talk politics. This is a place to talk about my favorite band, The Beach Boys. Each member added something indispensable to this band we all adore. Each one. I’ve had a laugh or two at Mike’s expense in the past (particularly in the hilarious Weirdest Mike Love Photo You Can Find thread, which I really miss, by the way) but I’ve tried to have a cool head about his antics. No more. I’m done with his bull$#!%. DONE.

I’m sorry. Carry on.

I wish I looked like Dennis Wilson. That I could conduct the ecstatic screams of women with the wave of my hair.

I’m going to be 41 in July and I’m happy to say I still have it all, unlike some of my fellow Gen X/Y/whatever peeps. ‘Course it doesn’t help that I look 25. I hope I have a full head of hair like Bri when I reach his age, I wouldn’t care if it’s all silver or white. Baldness is hereditary through your mother’s side I think so that would make sense that Glee’s boys are losing it while Brian still has it, and if they were still alive, so would Denny and Carl.

Anyway.

Great stuff. Brian took these building blocks and made a vast, beautiful city out of them.

Great analysis! Thanks for sharing. Also, thanks to the admins for approving me. This is my first post. I love this board. I have already learned so much!

Welcome. Prepare to learn a whole lot more. If you have any questions on anything, don’t hesitate to ask.