"Friends" discussion thread

[ghost]

Defend Brian's patriarchal primeval ignorance then if you must but I see it for what it is - Brian giving unfortunate continuity to the culturally imposed self-shame of being the father or mother of a daughter rather than son. This goes way back into pre-history. Some find the Beach Boys shockingly stuck in an old trip when it comes to things like that. Brian should have sang When a man needs a woman or a woman needs a man or a gay couple make arrangements for adoption They make things like you my son or daughter or mixed gendered Lynch baby...

[Shady]

Recording for Friends began in February and Carnie was born on April 29th, so Brian may not have known what the sex of the baby was going to be when he wrote and recorded the song.

FWIW, I absolutely love Friends, it goes right after Pet Sounds for me. I love the vibe and there isn't one song I want to skip, which is why I rank it above Sunflower.

Even "Transcendental Meditation"

[Runaways]

i looove busy doin nothing and meant for you.  I'd place those in my top 10-15 beach boys i think.  The rest is good stuff too.  I'd have loved another similar album to this breezy beachy vibe over 20/20.  or maybe it's just the cover of 20/20 i hate. 

and seriously, meant for you, i love that thing. 

[Amanda Hart]

FWIW, I absolutely love Friends, it goes right after Pet Sounds for me. I love the vibe and there isn't one song I want to skip, which is why I rank it above Sunflower.

Even "Transcendental Meditation"

Yep, I like "Transcendental Meditation," for some reason. I can't tell you why exactly, I just like it. On the other hand, I can tell you exactly why I don't like Tears in the Morning. Not that I skip that all the time, but sometimes it's just too much.

[Shady]

FWIW, I absolutely love Friends, it goes right after Pet Sounds for me. I love the vibe and there isn't one song I want to skip, which is why I rank it above Sunflower.

Even "Transcendental Meditation"

Yep, I like "Transcendental Meditation," for some reason. I can't tell you why exactly, I just like it. On the other hand, I can tell you exactly why I don't like Tears in the Morning. Not that I skip that all the time, but sometimes it's just too much.

I respect anybody who can get through "Tears In The Morning" in full

[Nicko1234]

I'm confused how any Beach Boy fan could not consider songs like "Friends", "Little Bird", and "Busy Doin Nothin" absolutely great, but to each their own.

I think Little Bird is one of the most overrated songs that the Beach Boys have ever recorded. Forever is and was a great Dennis song, Little Bird isn't in the same league. If Al, for example, had written it then nobody would be creaming their pants over it.

Friends is a really nice song but I wouldn't class it as a great alongside Good Vibrations, God Only Knows and many, many others. The lyrics also let it down.

I like Busy Doin' Nothing as well but it's not a 'great' song imo. 

And if any of the great unwashed were forced to listen to the album that any song would leap out at them and announce its greatness.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

I'm confused how any Beach Boy fan could not consider songs like "Friends", "Little Bird", and "Busy Doin Nothin" absolutely great, but to each their own.

I think Little Bird is one of the most overrated songs that the Beach Boys have ever recorded. Forever is and was a great Dennis song, Little Bird isn't in the same league. If Al, for example, had written it then nobody would be creaming their pants over it.

Friends is a really nice song but I wouldn't class it as a great alongside Good Vibrations, God Only Knows and many, many others. The lyrics also let it down.

I like Busy Doin' Nothing as well but it's not a 'great' song imo. 

And if any of the great unwashed were forced to listen to the album that any song would leap out at them and announce its greatness.

Little bird is my favorite song by dennis, and maybe even the best on the album.
CIFOTM = Awesome in any song.

[rab2591]

Can someone pinpoint for me the exact time in 'Little Bird' that 'CIFOTM' riff comes in?

I've listened to that song many times trying to find that part, but haven't found it.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Can someone pinpoint for me the exact time in 'Little Bird' that 'CIFOTM' riff comes in?

I've listened to that song many times trying to find that part, but haven't found it.

It's kind of a vague description so I can understand how it would be difficult to spot - though once you hear it you'll never be able to not hear it.

It's the wah-wah whining horn from CIFOTM that begins soon after the first "Child" in the chorus (I guess more precisely after the first echo "Child"). The same whining horn sound can be heard in Little Bird the second time that the lyrics "Little Bird up in the tree looked down and sang a song to me" are sung around the 1:25 mark.

[rab2591]

Thanks!

[grillo]

Can someone pinpoint for me the exact time in 'Little Bird' that 'CIFOTM' riff comes in?

I've listened to that song many times trying to find that part, but haven't found it.

It's actually the whole end of the song. Sing CITFOTM instead of 'little bird up in a tree' and you'll notice it's the exact same thing, drums and all.

[runnersdialzero]

"Transcendental Meditation" rules. 395032532 Brians layered atop one another over a chaotic rock song with blaring horns? Yes please. Ending an album like Friends with that was trolling at its finest.

[runnersdialzero]

It's hard to imagine why the author of "The Nearest Faraway Place" would hate friends.  It's a bit like Brett Michaels calling Whitesnake tasteless.

Ahahaha, perfect!

[Dunderhead]

FWIW, I absolutely love Friends, it goes right after Pet Sounds for me. I love the vibe and there isn't one song I want to skip, which is why I rank it above Sunflower.

Even "Transcendental Meditation"

Yep, I like "Transcendental Meditation," for some reason. I can't tell you why exactly, I just like it. On the other hand, I can tell you exactly why I don't like Tears in the Morning. Not that I skip that all the time, but sometimes it's just too much.

I respect anybody who can get through "Tears In The Morning" in full

Shady don't be silly. Tears is a great song, I love it, it's one of my favorites on Sunflower.

[bossaroo]

'Tears' is a horrible song. Just absolutely wretched.

I'm confused how any Beach Boy fan could not consider songs like "Friends", "Little Bird", and "Busy Doin Nothin" absolutely great, but to each their own.

I think Little Bird is one of the most overrated songs that the Beach Boys have ever recorded. Forever is and was a great Dennis song, Little Bird isn't in the same league. If Al, for example, had written it then nobody would be creaming their pants over it.

Friends is a really nice song but I wouldn't class it as a great alongside Good Vibrations, God Only Knows and many, many others. The lyrics also let it down.

I like Busy Doin' Nothing as well but it's not a 'great' song imo.  

And if any of the great unwashed were forced to listen to the album that any song would leap out at them and announce its greatness.

Little bird is my favorite song by dennis, and maybe even the best on the album.
CIFOTM = Awesome in any song.

Agreed. I definitely prefer Little Bird over Forever.

Speaking of lyrics letting down a song, the opening line "If every word I said could make you laugh, I'd talk forever" is pretty ridiculous. It does make me laugh.
A great song, don't get me wrong... but it's no Little Bird.

I love the lyrics to the song Friends. LOVE them!

Busy Doin Nothin is totally great. And totally Brian.

color me confused. still.

[Dunderhead]

"the trout in the shiny brook gave the worm another look and told me not to worry about my life" always always makes me smile.

[ghost]

'The Trout' was another name for Manson like 'The Wizard'. Manson as we all know lived like a desert prophet and so one day Dennis drove into Death Valley looking for him because he needed some new songs and he found Manson in the shiny brook and he gave the worm another look and told him not to worry about his life.

La la  la la la la  la la la  la la la la  la  la la la

[sockittome]

As I stated awhile back in the ALBUMS section (ahem, ahem)    FRIENDS has a cool vibe, and is recorded beautifully, but I find most of the songs after Wake the World pretty uninteresting, lyric-wise.  A little too personal and a little too weird for me.  Meant for You is beautiful, but it's quick fade makes it sound like an outtake at the beginning of the album.  They should have resolved it into a sustained chord that would set us up for the truly amazing Friends.  I give big props for the cover, which is my favorite BBs cover.  It is sooooo 1968!  Much more interesting than the ones for 20/20 and SUNFLOWER (albums I like way better than FRIENDS.

20/20 has stronger, more interesting songs, but has no continuity whatsoever, while SUNFLOWER is classic all the way thru with tons of energy.  That's what makes SUNFLOWER my favorite of all time!

[Chris Moise]

I would venture that Our Happy Home is When a Man Needs a Woman.

I don't think it is. If I remember correctly Our Happy Song is a backing track for an unheard song.

[brother john]

I disagree. Sunflower? What about that?

Though I think Sunflower is a great album, to me it sounds like it lacks Brian's presence. His production style from previous albums is missing on this one - everything sounds too crisp and clean...it's not the muddy/Wall-of-Sound/experimental type of album that we are all used to hearing come from Brian.

That's probably because Steve Desper was a more gifted engineer than Chuck Britz, and also because it had a decent mastering job on it, unlike many early BB records, Pet Sounds included.

[Nicko1234]

Agreed. I definitely prefer Little Bird over Forever.

color me confused. still.

I think this is the point that I am making, if we just take these two songs as an example...

I can completely understand you preferring Little Bird and that's a perfectly valid personal opinion to have. But I presume that you wouldn't disagree that the general opinion is that Forever is the superior song and is considered to be Dennis's finest song with the group. That's why it was included on Warmth of the Sun and has been part of setlists for decades. Critics also seem to be of that opinion.

When I am rating the albums I try to separate my own personal opinion with general opinion. Now with Friends I don't think there are any songs that are generally ranked as being genuinely great. If the top 50 BB songs were being nominated by non-hardcore fans then Friends and Busy Doin' Nothing might scrape in at the bottom (might not). Little Bird wouldn't though whereas I think it's fair to say that a song like Forever certainly would...

[ghost]

Hold on a second - Steve Desper is a more gifted engineer than Chuck Britz? Who says? Steve himself? "I am so great I make Chuck Britz stink" - from the Desper pamphlet.

Maybe I'm crazy but Pet Sounds sounds a hell of a lot better to me than Sunflower. Sure the Flower sounds sparkling clear but it also sounds lifeless and robotic artificial. Mechanical, too good. Pet Sounds is real. Listen to how the organ is like a presence of light in the chorus to I Know There's An Answer. It soars across the rest of the mix in mono illuminating the lyric. I know there's an ANSWER [the realization waiting for you always, all-pervading, the organ sound...]. I just have to find it by myself [Brian said, I can't teach you what I learned on LSD, you have to find out by yourself]. You have to get to the realization yourself, others can kind of help you leap frog over a few mental hurdles but you have to "do it all by yourself". Baby let your hair grow LONG.

[Sam_BFC]

It is not something I notice as much these days, but when I first heard Sunflower I did pick up on a certain shrillness to the sound - check out This Whole World for instance.

But there's such a sonic difference between Pet Sounds in 66 and Sunflower in 69-70 for so many reasons.

[ghost]

Didn't someone say Desper had 'acid humor' or something like that? Maybe he and Brian should've taken a tab or two and finished Smile one night...

[Jason]

Didn't someone say Desper had 'acid humor' or something like that? Maybe he and Brian should've taken a tab or two and finished Smile one night...

"Acid humor" refers to a sense of humor that is very biting; nothing to do with any kind of drug use.