20/20 Redux!

[buddhahat]

I've never really got on with 20/20. I have a chronological playlist of the BB that I listen to but I always skip to Sunflower after Friends. Anyway, I thought this was a shame given that so many great songs were cut during this period, so I thought I'd reshuffle it and create a more Brian-centric version. What I'm loving about this sequence is that it fits so much better with the feel of Wild Honey and Friends. I suspect this is down to the focus on Brian songs.

Also I've tried to sequence it with a kind of narrative and loose concept revolving around a dream but also themes of ageing, lost love, memories and death. Ok it's a much darker, sadder album than its predecessors, but then a lot of the songs at that time seem to be about loneliness and sorrow. Here's the sequence with notes on the story that could accompany it:

Do It Again - a great opener, setting the scene for an album about looking back.
Old Folks/Old Man River - Taking things down a couple of notches: Our narrator in his twighlight years turning his thoughts to the simpler pleasures of childhood: The river, cotton fields etc.
I Went To Sleep - He drifts off into a dream ...
Time To Get Alone - ... of a past love affair.
Sail Plane Song - The dream takes a psychedelic twist, the nightmarish circus organ signalling a turn for the worse ....
Walk On By - Within the dream, a brief flashback of a broken love affair.
Can't Wait Too Long - the pain of longing for the lost love
A Time To Live In Dreams - Dennis creates the heart of the album: a redemptive song where the narrator begins to make sense of the wrong turns in his life
Celebrate The News - His luck is changing
We're Together Again - Reunited with the lover
Breakaway - success in breaking away from the lonely life (maybe the moment of his death - always sounds like a good funeral song to me. Maybe it's just me though). The lyrics fit the story of a dream perfectly:  When I layed down on my bed, I heard voices in my head, Telling me now "Hey it's only a dream"
Old Man River (Vocal Section) - so maybe the narrator has slipped off to a better place, but having finally made peace with painful memories.

Ok so it would certainly be a bit of a downer, and not necessarily Mike Love's cup of tea but I think the old guy theme would've made for a groovy concept in 69 - a bit like Bookends.

Any thoughts, similar 'conceptual' reshufflings of 20/20 or other albums to offer?

Edit: Taking on board some of the suggestions in this thread, I've adjusted the lineup slightly and an really enjoying this 'alternate 20/20' now. As I explained, I'd always written the album off a bit based on what I hear as lack of cohesiveness, but it's interesting to see just how many people really rate this album and why. I'm not saying this is better - just more appealing to me, and an interesting glimpse of what a more Brian directed 20/20 might have sounded like!

Anyway fwiw, here's my revised lineup.

Side A:
Do It Again
Old Folks at Home/Old Man River
I Went To Sleep
Time To Get Alone
Sail Plane Song
Never Learn Not To Love

Side B:
Break Away
Walk On By
Can't Wait Too Long
A Time To Live In Dreams
We're Together Again
Celebrate The News
Old Man River (Vocal Section)

[Jonas]

I've never really got on with 20/20.

Rookie mistake.

[onkster]

Maybe it should be called "Hindsight" instead of "Redux"? Just sayin'.

[buddhahat]

Maybe it should be called "Hindsight" instead of "Redux"? Just sayin'.

yeah I just sought of meant in sort of restoring the album in my own mind but Hindsight is a genius twist on the title!

[buddhahat]

I've never really got on with 20/20.

Rookie mistake.

Ha ha! Every album is sacred to somebody in this place . It's not all bad, but it's a substantial dip in quality to these ears.

[PongHit]

I like it.

[Jeff]

Buddha, I like your sequence, and think it would probably sound far better than the actual album.  I think Be With Me and Never Learn Not to Love could be good in there too, but I certainly wouldn't miss tunes like Nearest Faraway Place or All I Want to Do.

I think this points out how extaordinarily bad the Beach Boys were at selecting tracks for their albums.  Most of us can pretty easily compile "albums" from contemporaneous tracks that are superior to what was released.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Huh...20/20 is my 3rd favorite BB album (right after Friends and Sunflower)....

[buddhahat]

Thanks fellas. Jeff I agree that they did seem to make some pretty poor calls in what they left off albums at that time. Perhpas in the case of songs like been too long they were just assuming brian would piece if together for the next album. Who knows. Can nver figure out why that didn't get finished.

I toyed with Be With Me and Never Learn but let them off as they're just not favourites. They'd certainly fit the mood but I can never get past the Manson connection with the latter. Maybe that could be the dark heart of the album, right after Sail Plane Song! Mmm ... might have to reconsider ...

[Dunderhead]

I'd move Time To Get Alone and I Went to Sleep onto Friends, and I'd turn 20/20 into an ep with Breakaway.

[Jonas]

Time to Get Alone's production is too big for Friends. Went to Sleep would definitely work.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Time to Get Alone's production is too big for Friends. Went to Sleep would definitely work.

...except the vocals weren't recorded and the track wasn't finished until a few months after Friends was released.

[Jeff]

Thanks fellas. Jeff I agree that they did seem to make some pretty poor calls in what they left off albums at that time. Perhpas in the case of songs like been too long they were just assuming brian would piece if together for the next album. Who knows. Can nver figure out why that didn't get finished.

I toyed with Be With Me and Never Learn but let them off as they're just not favourites. They'd certainly fit the mood but I can never get past the Manson connection with the latter. Maybe that could be the dark heart of the album, right after Sail Plane Song! Mmm ... might have to reconsider ...

Well, you certainly wouldn't be the first person to be spooked by the Manson connection, but personally I only hear Dennis, so I've managed to put Manson out of my mind.  I like placing Never Learn right after Be With Me--a long fade out followed by a long fade in.  No doubt a lot of people would be annoyed by the silence, but it sounds good to me.

[Jonas]

Time to Get Alone's production is too big for Friends. Went to Sleep would definitely work.

...except the vocals weren't recorded and the track wasn't finished until a few months after Friends was released.

I don't think we're going by the actual time-line here, Billy...

[drbeachboy]

20/20 is fine just the way it is. No need to be a Brian centric album, mainly because it is a Beach Boys album. Brian is well represented on the album anyway.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

20/20 is fine just the way it is. No need to be a Brian centric album, mainly because it is a Beach Boys album. Brian is well represented on the album anyway.

A-f*cking-men.

Quote from: Love to say DooDoo on Today at 05:43:05 PM
Quote from: Jonas on Today at 05:40:28 PM
Time to Get Alone's production is too big for Friends. Went to Sleep would definitely work.

...except the vocals weren't recorded and the track wasn't finished until a few months after Friends was released.

I don't think we're going by the actual time-line here, Billy...

I know, but there was so little done on IWTS during Friends that there's no way in hell it could have ever been released on that album. It's like saying Sloop John B should've been released on Party.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

In many ways I think 20/20 might be the Beach Boys best and most accessible album. Each Beach Boy gets to shine while Brian still being a dominating presence. It rocks out nicely in places and gets a bit darker there at the end. It's production is loose/unfussy but still sounds great. And on top of all that, it boasts a killer hit single!

It shows the Beach Boys as pretty with their times while still being themselves.

[Dunderhead]

20/20 was the weakest album they did since All Summer Long. Nearest Faraway Place stinks, the smile tracks don't work, Brian's version of Cottonfields is turgid, Bluebirds is passable but Mike was the wrong choice for the lead. All I Want to Do and Never Learn Not To Love are forgettable, and along with Got To Know the Woman betray a clear post-White Album Beatles influence that I don't think he carried very well.
Be With Me and I Can Hear Music are the really good tracks on 20/20.
I think Do It Again should have been kept a single, and Time to Get Alone and I Went To Sleep are too Brian-y and sound more at home on other projects.

20/20 is where the band shoots off on their own, out of Brian's shadow, but it's loaded down with a bunch of random stuff that makes it sound like it was slapped together at the last minute from whatever was available. It's all over the place, full of decent songs that don't really work in tandem for any purpose and the album as a result feels really slipshod and unfocused. In this case I think the Beach Boy's would've been helped by NOT releasing an album, just cooling their jets, taking the time to assemble some better material, and maybe asserting themselves with a few singles and/or an ep.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Hmmmm, guess we're not listening to the same album.

Got To Know The Woman's is on Sunflower and is decidedly non-Beatles and pretty decidedly Dennis if one is to pay attention to the lyrics.

But I dig what you're saying. I think that first time you listen to an album is where it really locks itself in and my first time hearing 20/20 was pretty special. I've heard/read all sorts of people slamming it and can agree with most of their points in theory, but if I'm ever stupid enough to toss on the album itself: I'm always hooked and smiling.

[sockittome]

I've never really got on with 20/20. I have a chronological playlist of the BB that I listen to but I always skip to Sunflower after Friends. Anyway, I thought this was a shame given that so many great songs were cut during this period, so I thought I'd reshuffle it and create a more Brian-centric version. What I'm loving about this sequence is that it fits so much better with the feel of Wild Honey and Friends. I suspect this is down to the focus on Brian songs.

Also I've tried to sequence it with a kind of narrative and loose concept revolving around a dream but also themes of ageing, lost love, memories and death. Ok it's a much darker, sadder album than its predecessors, but then a lot of the songs at that time seem to be about loneliness and sorrow. Here's the sequence with notes on the story that could accompany it:

Do It Again - a great opener, setting the scene for an album about looking back.
Old Folks/Old Man River - Taking things down a couple of notches: Our narrator in his twighlight years turning his thoughts to the simpler pleasures of childhood: The river, cotton fields etc.
I Went To Sleep - He drifts off into a dream ...
Time To Get Alone - ... of a past love affair.
Sail Plane Song - The dream takes a psychedelic twist, the nightmarish circus organ signalling a turn for the worse ....
Walk On By - Within the dream, a brief flashback of a broken love affair.
Can't Wait Too Long - the pain of longing for the lost love
A Time To Live In Dreams - Dennis creates the heart of the album: a redemptive song where the narrator begins to make sense of the wrong turns in his life
Celebrate The News - His luck is changing
We're Together Again - Reunited with the lover
Breakaway - success in breaking away from the lonely life (maybe the moment of his death - always sounds like a good funeral song to me. Maybe it's just me though). The lyrics fit the story of a dream perfectly:  When I layed down on my bed, I heard voices in my head, Telling me now "Hey it's only a dream"
Old Man River (Vocal Section) - so maybe the narrator has slipped off to a better place, but having finally made peace with painful memories.

Ok so it would certainly be a bit of a downer, and not necessarily Mike Love's cup of tea but I think the old guy theme would've made for a groovy concept in 69 - a bit like Bookends.

Any thoughts, similar 'conceptual' reshufflings of 20/20 or other albums to offer?

I like this lineup, but with one exception.  I would bump Sail Plane down to where you have Breakaway, and put Breakaway right after Can't Wait Too Long, putting it in the #7 slot, which would be the leadoff song to side two.  This would jazz things up a bit after a few somber songs, AND keep that "single leading off a side" thing that Capitol liked to do.  Make sense?

[Jon Stebbins]

Change 20/20? Why? Its one of the best Beach Boys albums. Leave off "Be With Me"? What is this an April Fools thing? Must be.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Yeah, how about we remove God Only Knows off Pet Sounds and replace it with Smart Girls?

This does get silly.

[sockittome]

Easy now!  It's just for fun.  Nobody's writing letters to Capitol.

[drbeachboy]

@Fishmonk
Some albums are just collections of songs with no other statement other than to just enjoy it for what it is. And what is wrong with All Summer Long? Seriously, are you really a fan of this band?

[18thofMay]

20/20 was the weakest album they did since All Summer Long. Nearest Faraway Place stinks, the smile tracks don't work, Brian's version of Cottonfields is turgid, Bluebirds is passable but Mike was the wrong choice for the lead. All I Want to Do and Never Learn Not To Love are forgettable, and along with Got To Know the Woman betray a clear post-White Album Beatles influence that I don't think he carried very well.
Be With Me and I Can Hear Music are the really good tracks on 20/20.
I think Do It Again should have been kept a single, and Time to Get Alone and I Went To Sleep are too Brian-y and sound more at home on other projects.

20/20 is where the band shoots off on their own, out of Brian's shadow, but it's loaded down with a bunch of random stuff that makes it sound like it was slapped together at the last minute from whatever was available. It's all over the place, full of decent songs that don't really work in tandem for any purpose and the album as a result feels really slipshod and unfocused. In this case I think the Beach Boy's would've been helped by NOT releasing an album, just cooling their jets, taking the time to assemble some better material, and maybe asserting themselves with a few singles and/or an ep.

Living, breating proof the negative effects of drugs!!