I am really amazed at how Dennis gets so much attention on this board and Carl gets so little. Carl was the backbone of the Beach Boys live show for many years. He had a great voice on record and in concert and his guitar work was always tasty and well suited for the material. He made two decent solo albums and by many accounts was the glue that kept everyone together at times. Dennis might show up for a gig or not. He might not be fit to play when he did. I am not saying that he wasn't a big part of the group and I love everything he did up through Sunflower. After that, with the exception of Baby Blue, there isn't much that does it for me. A lot of plodding overly sweetened ballads with lyrics that run the gammut of "I love you" to "I am really sorry that I treated you like garbage but I still love you." If Bruce Johnston had done the same songs, they would be dismissed after one playing.

Carl was reliable, dependable, professional - great qualities to have in a human being, but I guess it's seen as boring, where's the drama? Rock snobs love a tragedy - great talent marred by addiction, depression, etc.

I think there's a tendency to romanticize the lives and art of guys like Dennis and Jim Morrison - we all love the tale of guys who lived fast and hard, and died tragically young because of it. It lends itself to all kinds of "what if?" scenarios, like "what if Dennis had lived, what if he had cleaned up, and created more masterworks?" Carl's life, in comparison, seems rather dull. Yeah, he had a drug period, a divorce, the fight with the draft board, but much of his later years was consumed with taking care of his brothers, particularly Brian. So I think on this board, and among diehard Beach Boys fans, Dennis might be a bit overrated, but not among the general public who barely know the names of the band members, aside from Brian or Mike.

[Dennis peaked with a solo project]

Each of The Wilson Brothers (as well as each Beach Boy) had special gifts the others either didn't have or were not as good at, which of course just makes for a better group with more variety and charisma. So, I don't see any issue or any reason to compare Dennis to Brian.... Dennis peaked with a solo project that really didn't have anything to do with The Beach Boys letalone Brian and with material that was very very unlike anything Brian had and would ever produce. And that album is a singular, distinct work of genius and it's as good or better than anything Brian ever did........ yet so different that there's no reason to compare.... Once again here we go dissing someone else because to praise them somehow threatens poor little Brian! ... I thought we were long past this!

I disagree with the bolded portion, give or take a couple songs and especially 'River Song,' I like Dennis' Beach Boys contributions more than his solo stuff.

I'd say Dennis peaked with 'Forever,' 'Cuddle Up' or 'WIBNTLA.'

I agree with that. Dennis was coming up with great stuff in the Sunflower/Holland era. I like POB, but I don't hear it as the masterpiece described on this board. IMHO, Carl is the most underrated Beach Boy. Wish I could break it down in an analytical way for you all, the way so many of the musicologists here can, but all I can tell you is that if Carl sang it, I have to hear it over and over and it never gets old for me. He wasn't as prolific a writer as his brothers, but I can't think of anything he wrote that I don't like.

This concert deserves a multi-camera angle release, enabling the viewer to choose which band member to focus on during a particular song.

That could be interesting - Brian may have been sleeping during much of it 

I wouldn't have a clue about the Australian version, and yeah, I suppose it's possible there were a couple different cuts released to US theaters...or some of us just have faulty memories. I do remember being disappointed when our local syndication channel aired the film in the summer of 1987, and some key stuff like Brian singing "Surf's Up" was omitted - but not as much was cut as in the 25th Anniversary edition.

[References]

Apparently, there are three versions of AAB:

The original 103 minute version, released in 1985;

The theatrical version which omits all of the Smile, and half of the Pet Sounds;

The 60 minute 25th anniversary version, release in 1987 which removes "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring", "409", "Girls On The Beach", "Here Today", "God Only Knows", "Surf's Up", "Bicycle Rider", "Fire", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", "Third Stone From The Sun", "Time To Be Alone", "Rock and Roll Woman", "Breakaway", "Okie From Muskogee", "Heroes and Villains", "In My Room", "Surfer Girl", "Rock and Roll Music", "River Song", "Hold Me", "Goin' On", and most of the tribute to Dennis.



References

Chan, L. (1988). The Beach Boys: An American Band, Endless Summer Quarterly, 1(3), 15-17.

Lavery, L., McParland, S., Koumarelos, B. (1986). Newz & mediawatch. Beach Boys Australia, (2), 11-12.

New Beach Boy Vibes (1985). Beach Boys Australia, (1), 12-18.

I'm absolutely certain that the version I saw in the theater contained all of the Smile and Pet Sounds footage.

"Good night my baby
Sleep tight my baby"

Actually, eight words, if only six different ones. 

Never heard about this before. So does Mike get a credit on this one now? Are there any other songs that are still in dispute?

With all this talk about the Still Cruisin' album, it occurs to me this is probably the only BB album on which two different songs both have an identical lyrical sentence "still cruisin' after all of these years" (in the songs "Still Cruisin'" + "In My Car").  Maybe this can be a good trivia question for some future mega-nerd BB board game.

Did Brian put that line in his song because he knew it was going on that album?

That's a good question, and if the line itself was lifted from the song "Still Cruisin'", I'm almost surprised that the Lovester hasn't claimed a piece of songwriting credit for "In My Car"... As crazy as it sounds, I'm serious. That would be using similar 6-words logic to his credit claim for "Wouldn't It Be Nice."

What 6 words did he claim credit for on WIBN?

With all this talk about the Still Cruisin' album, it occurs to me this is probably the only BB album on which two different songs both have an identical lyrical sentence "still cruisin' after all of these years" (in the songs "Still Cruisin'" + "In My Car").  Maybe this can be a good trivia question for some future mega-nerd BB board game.

Did Brian put that line in his song because he knew it was going on that album?

I like their second album the best, followed by Northern Lights-Southern Cross. I never cared much for jam bands, although I know plenty of people that eat up that stuff. IMHO the jammers brought out the worst excesses in music, and hundreds of second and third rate musicians look up to them as icons. Better I say to model yourself after The Band - not a note was played that didn't need to be there. It all served the song.

The Weight is one of my all time favorite songs of all time and I"ve been  playin that song Off + on for 30 yrs..  I love the band GREAT songs..!  Another fave is  It makes No Difference.. When I  got a  divorce I would put that on + cry in my beer + jam along with it.. Very touching song + vocal.. You can hear the pain in his voice when he sings it. { Rick } He knows all too well the pain inside.. The Band gets a 10..

I'm always reading that their first and second albums were great, and everything that followed was worthless, so it's nice to know that I'm not alone in enjoying their later stuff. It Makes No Difference had the same effect on me after a very painful breakup. I was in a record store in the winter of 2000 when that song came on, and it just tore me to pieces.

I wish the tracks on disc 6 and the live stuff on disc 5 had been integrated into the set as a whole. The book is nothing special. And what happened to the 80's Beach Boys? They should've included Where I Belong and Somewhere Near Japan, if nothing else. What really made this set for me was the Dennis stuff.

The concert scenes sound won-won-wonderful, but not much of a picture to go with them. And again, the talking heads appear, to tell us all what a genius Brian was, and still is.

Well, working with Brian in those days meant working with Landy and his goons, so I can understand the band not exactly doing backflips over it. If it was as simple as just getting some great songs from Brian, then I'm sure the guys - especially Carl - would have been "stoked".

What is your ideal Surfin Safari Track Order? I will post my track order tomorrow

You go first.

The film came out a few months before the 85 album, so nothing from that. I honestly don't recall any additional footage that wasn't in the VHS. But remember, there were 2 versions of the film on video - the full length theatrical release, and a shorter cut released a few years later, that omitted some good stuff, like Brian singing "Surf's Up".

I got MIC from a local library - best price ever. My tax dollars hard at work!

I don't know how Kenny's voice is these days, but assuming he sounds the same as he did in his glory days,  I think he'd do well with one of Dennis' tender ballads.

a great update, but 'American band' stills wins hands down......


perhaps I don't give a crapper what the other interviewee's think about Brian and the band....

I would rather watch 'the band' and 'brian'.....

a wonderful doco still, 4 out of 5.......

more of Brian at the console explaining/listening to his stuff would have been a better inclusion...

kiss a litte bit..... fight a little bit......

etc etc

Rb

I agree, I find the talking heads in this doc particularly wearying upon repeat viewings.

I don't have it, but I do have Billy's Carl tribute dvd. Love that one, worthy of the man it honors.

I saw it in a theater, too, but don't remember about the extra footage. It was probably 2 or 3 years before I saw the VHS version, and then later a local channel showed a heavily edited version. Glad I got to see the theatrical version, nothing beats seeing your favorite group on the big screen. Also got a poster for the film that they were giving away at the theater.

I have read stories about where certain Beatles would go somewhere and be relatively unnoticed. Such as the story about John Lennon (in 1969 I think) who went to a flower stand at an outdoor market in Paris to buy flowers for Yoko, and the woman selling him flowers had no idea he was John Lennon (for all we know, she didn't even know who John Lennon was). But there were other people in the market who knew him (including someone who took a photo), it's just that they decided to leave him alone.

But let's face it, even when the Beatles went places as plainly dressed as they could, and tried their hardest to be/act anonymous, there would always be at least a couple people around who would recognize them. They might just decide to leave them alone. The BB's, on the other hand, were so completely ordinary-looking, with so few people really aware of who they are and what they looked like, that they could go out into the public anonymously much easier than the Beatles. It's all relative.

And I'm sure that's true today,too. If Mike went out in public without his baseball cap, no one would recognize him.

They were a great singles group, don't have any of their studio albums. My favorites are Easy to Be Hard (great vocal from Chuck), Liar, Let Me Serenade You (a forgotten hit), and Out in the Country. Saw them live a couple times in the 80's when Chuck was still with them, although it was Cory who stole the show.

There is no such nickname for a heroin specifically called "Chinese Junk" other than it being a general reference to heroin made in a specific place. Like heroin from the UK called 'British Junk' or heroin from Canada 'Canadian Junk'.

Called Junk, yes. Called Smack, yes. There is a  variety called 'China White'. There are opiums called Chinese Tobacco, Chinese Molasses.

More info: http://thecyn.com/heroin-rehab/street-names/

But 'Chinese Junk', no specific street drug by that name. Certainly is a clever pun, drug reference. No positive drug references in the song in my opinion.

But if you google 'Chinese Junk', you'll just get a bunch of boat refernces.

I'd not heard the phrase 'Chinese Junk' before, although I had heard about "some Indonesian junk that's goin' 'round"

My favorite version of "In My Car" is the one Brian "performed" on the 1989 Endless Summer TV series. It always reminded me a late 1970's Sparks arrangement, something Ron Mael would come up with.

When it first came out, I liked the Still Cruisin' version, but it's kinda worn off a little bit; I don't care for the shoutiness and the production.

Yeah, well it sounded nothing like that at the actual concert...

That live version by Brian isn't nearly as overproduced as the album version. This was back when everyone wanted those Phil Collins Exedrin Headache Number 9 drums on their records. The drums were so loud, made it hard to me to tell who was singing lead on what part.