I really don't mind the concert clips from that video. The talking heads throughout drive me crazy, though. Just feels like random stars paid to shill for Brian Wilson.

I thought Carl's singing was superb on L.A. The only albums where his vocals suffered (a bit) were 15 BIG ONES and LOVE YOU.

It's not good on MIU either. I agree that he sings well again from L.A. on, but of course it didn't have that youthful sound of his teenage years.

Why would we want him to sound like a teenager the rest of his life? Maturity is not a bad thing, even in singing voices.

I really hear a change in Carl's voice on the Surf's Up album. Then after 1981-82 it again got huskier. He still sounded like Carl to me though.

I have a theory that Carl's voice changed during his drug and alchohol phase. Listen to his voice on "Holland", then listen to it on "Keepin' The Summer Alive". Carl's voice is quite a bit better than it was on the "15 Big Ones" through "LA Light Album" albums, but the tone has changed. It's like those two or three years of abuse lowered his voice by an octive or two. If you listen to live recordings from around 1979 and on, he could never again get his voice quite as high on "God Only Knows", for example.

  I thought Carl's singing was superb on L.A. The only albums where his vocals suffered (a bit) were 15 BIG ONES and LOVE YOU.

I agree with that. His voice sounded won-won-wonderful throughout the 80's and 90's.

I will buy this album.

Yes, it'd be nice to see Stig turn up at some kind of reunion.

Yeah, he is the most forgotten Rutle, too. Barry has kept a high profile with his endless All-Womm tours, and of course Dirk still fills stadiums around the globe, playing old Rutles and Punk Floyd songs.

If someone in the Beach Boys HAS to wear shorts on stage, then Mike really needs to have Wendy Wilson or Taylor Mills in his band. Now that I would pay to see!

Back in 1990,  I worked in a record/cd shop. The owner found out I was a Badfinger fan and said "if you like them, you should listen to Big Star", so I put one of their cd's on, one a quiet Sunday afternoon. Didn't do anything for me. Love Stealers Wheel, though.

[but the others are quite good as well]

In my opinion, this is his best solo album.
I've got a "Not for sale - Promotional" Copy of this album on Vinyl!
"Love and Mercy" is my favourite track, but the others are quite good as well.
For what it is, it's much better than most of the Beach Boys stuff that came out around that time.
4 out of 5

For example what (except for "Night Time" which you said was your favorite, if I recall)? I think L&M is more beautiful than MA. Let It Shine is def the worst track here.

I like Let it Shine - stays in my head for hours after listening to the album. Night Time just sounds so 80's - the song, not just the production.

George Harrison's son Dhani revealed today, that in the past few months, that he and engineer Paul Hicks have assembled a CD boxed set of George Harrison's 7 Apple Records albums, for release this fall. It is to be packaged similar to "The Dark Horse Years" box. No info yet on whether there any bonus tracks. The box will contain the first-ever remastering of the albums "Dark Horse" & "Extra Texture". People on the Steve Hoffman forums have assumed that the seven albums will be "Wonderwall Music", "Electronic Sounds", "All Things Must Pass", "The Concert For Bangladesh", "Living in the Material World", "Dark Horse" & "Extra Texture".

I don't need to buy LITMP, Bangladesh and ATMP again. Would be nice if individual cd's of the others come out.

Don't get me wrong, I find it a very enjoyable cd, probably the only one he will ever do, so maybe the remakes are intended to give the uninitiated some context. But people have said Carl was not a prolific writer - compared to Al he was a Brian Wilson, lol.

Brian Wilson Today!

• Some Are Days and Some Are Nights

Thanks for the info, guys. I didn't know the song had been around that long. So how many of the songs on Al's cd are actually "new"?

Title track, San Simeon and Drivin', I believe.

Not exactly a prolific songwriter, is he? 

Thanks for the info, guys. I didn't know the song had been around that long. So how many of the songs on Al's cd are actually "new"?

There is a part of Al's song "Looking Down the Coast" that sure sounds to me like it was lifted from Brian's "Walkin' the Line", anyone else notice this?

However, I do think that McCartney is capable of a great deal of depth:

"Give my regards to Broad Street " reveals who McCartney really is. Talented and vain  but not too deep.

However, I do think that McCartney is capable of a great deal of depth: For No One, She's Leaving Home, Another Day, for examples are really eloquent character portraits.

 I am speaking relatively about Paul. Sure, Paul had some depth, but,  no way is he as deep as John or George. Heck. George was probably the deepest Beatle of all.  At least when George got involved in movies he decided to give financial backing to " The Life of Brian " as opposed to a vanity piece like Paul's rubbish of a movie.
 I already stated that Paul was very talented....... the best musician in the Beatles........ but he still came in third place in the depth department.

George said he financed "Life of Brian" because he wanted to see the movie. Nice. I think George was always more into promoting the work of his friends than his own stuff. He'd gladly go on VH1 and promote Ravi Shankar's work, or come out of retirement to do a Carl Perkins show. Just one of many things I love about that man.

I really do like all of the songs on this album, but Hurry Love and The Grammy are my least favorites. I just love this album's sparse production. Someone needs to find some live tapes of Carl and his band, though - live, these songs just smoked!

Thanks for sharing this, going to watch it a little later tonight.

I sometimes like sterile.

I'm trying to decide why I am not digging Mind Games. Is it the bland melodies? Silly lyrics? Muddy production?

Mind Games never rises to the level of Imagine, but it's a fine album. Gotta love Tight A$, Bring on the Lucie, and the title song. I think Walls and Bridges is the best of those mid-70's albums, though. I know I should love Rock 'N' Roll, but I'm not sure that the Spector approach was right for those songs. The best cuts on that album didn't even have Phil involved.

Hurry Love

John was supposed to be the rocker, right?

Personally, I hear more of Lennon's early music influences on songs like Starting Over and Woman than just about any other song he made during the solo years (apart from the whole Rock and Roll album, of course, and a few particular others).

I've always thought that too.  Very solid traditional stuff, I think the future for him would have had more music like that. 

The songs are great, I just think the production is a bit sterile.

[That's Why God Made The Radio]

I'd say Holland is by some considerable distance their most mature album.

Really ?  There's this album called That's Why God Made The Radio you should listen to. You might revise your opinion.

I wouldn't call it their most mature album, even though it is, of course, the one made by the oldest group of Beach Boys.

They shouldn't reunite. Dave's stroke ruined his voice, and Ray's voice is very raspy from smoking. t would sound awful. We have their amazing recorded music to enjoy. They should just reissue all their Pye music in the US with a great publicity campaign.

I think it's sadly ironic when geriatric rock stars go on tour and their younger sidemen have to do all the heavy lifting. Age doesn't need to stop anyone from making art, but there's a point when someone just loses the vitality necessary to be a charismatic performer.

I didn't know Ray was a smoker, but last time I heard him he sounded fine. Dave doesn't sound as good as he did before the stroke, but I still want to see/hear them together. Both have toured doing essentially a Kinks greatest hits show, so why not do those songs together?

John was definitely the dominant Beatle up to 65, although a lot of the "John" songs had Paul's help. Starting with Revolver, Paul is more prolific, but even when Paul dominates an album - Pepper, for example - I find it is John's songs I like the best (Lucy in the Sky, A Day in the Life, A Little Help from My Friends). Solo, sometimes he was more about the message he was trying to get across (Sometime in NYC) than the music; but when focused on making an accessible, commercial album (Imagine), it was as good as the best stuff Paul or George came up with. I'm not a huge fan of Double Fantasy, though. The whole thing just seems so super polished, no rough edges. John was supposed to be the rocker, right? I like Milk and Honey a lot better, it feels more real.

Ricky/Blondie. I don't like the dated blues rock they brought to the band in the early 70s. It may have helped the band stay contemporary but today it is pretty embarrassing.

In what way is it embarrassing? Have you listened to the live tracks from this period, as heard on In Concert, MIC, etc? The band were phenomenal! It was all downhill once they quit...

They sound like any other early 70s "dad-rock" band during that period. I don't like that style at all. They didn't go in a mature direction circa Holland, just a more generic one. I'm more criticizing the songs and vocals they brought to the band on the studio albums. The songs suck, and the vocals don't belong on Beach Boys records.

Next in my list of least favorite members is Dave, just because he was in the band for only a year as a teenager and has never really had a detectable role.

David had a very detectable role - rhythm guitar.

A lot of people hate Mike, but  I find him more tolerable than Bruce. At least I know what Mike does in the band - he sings a lot of the leads, and is the MC of the shows, does the corny between songs banter. And of course he wrote lyrics for a lot of Brian's tunes. Bruce? Other than adjusting his mic stand and clapping and wearing shorts, I guess I really don't know what he does onstage. But he did write some good tunes back in the day, and has a very nice singing voice.