A home on the range or 101 open topics for newbies and tolerant experts

[Magic Transistor Radio]

My favorite line: A children's song. Won't you listen as they play? Their song is love and the children know the way!

[schiaffino]

Yay! The thread has 2 pages, now 

[schiaffino]

My favorite line: A children's song. Won't you listen as they play? Their song is love and the children know the way!

That's a fine line there! Anything lyrically or musically in Surf's Up is pure perfection

[Magic Transistor Radio]

My favorite line: A children's song. Won't you listen as they play? Their song is love and the children know the way!

That's a fine line there! Anything lyrically or musically in Surf's Up is pure perfection

I think its their very best song! The BBs equal of 'A Day in the Life'.

[Alex]

My favorite line: A children's song. Won't you listen as they play? Their song is love and the children know the way!

That's a fine line there! Anything lyrically or musically in Surf's Up is pure perfection

I think its their very best song! The BBs equal of 'A Day in the Life'.

You must still have yet to hear "Ding Dang"!

[Magic Transistor Radio]

My favorite line: A children's song. Won't you listen as they play? Their song is love and the children know the way!

That's a fine line there! Anything lyrically or musically in Surf's Up is pure perfection

I think its their very best song! The BBs equal of 'A Day in the Life'.

You must still have yet to hear "Ding Dang"!

I have heard that. I like it, but no.

[schiaffino]

My favorite line: A children's song. Won't you listen as they play? Their song is love and the children know the way!

That's a fine line there! Anything lyrically or musically in Surf's Up is pure perfection

I think its their very best song! The BBs equal of 'A Day in the Life'.

It's great to hear you say that, I always thought the same thing!

Could we say "columneted ruins domino" is then the equivalent to "I love to turn you on"? Sweet! 

[schiaffino]

Just to revive the thread a little bit...wanna share with everyone the moment I became hooked on the BBs:

I grew up with grunge, hardcore techno, deep house and U2  nice music uprising...and I remember when I was in college a friend of mine kept saying his dream was to move to a city near the seaside, get a convertible and drive around to Surfin' USA and stuff like that. I thought that was the most hideous idea ever! I found the song stupid compared to stuff I was into back then (ex STP, Nirvana, Alice in Chains...) and had heated arguments with him on whether he was musically challenged or just a plain dork!

Anyways, move forward some years and I'm living in Belgium. I used to dj in bars and discos, both to get some money to live and obviously to have fun. I met a fellow dj who told me once that his top fav album ever was Pet Sounds. I said "Pet...what? What's that?" and he said: The Beach Boys.

I had this friend of mine in really high regard, one of the finest indie djs I've ever heard, so I went to a record shop and bought myself my first BB album. To be really, really honest I was not blown away. Aside from WITBN, which I had already heard before and thought was a great tune, the rest of the album sounded so innocent, so uncool, to the kind of life style I was into back then, that I just shelved it in my cd collection and didnt hear it for months.

Until one day another bar friend of mine told me he was going to see Brian Wilson in a small town south of Brussels. He asked me if I wanted to go, he had free tickets, so I said sure, why not. Went to this small town festival, really strange place, but got really, really impressed by BWs performance. They were doing the BWPS tour and the elements section, with Fire...my God! I thought it was the craziest music ever! And to think this is the same guy who wrote those old dumb surf songs...

So started reading about the band's history and was amazed at all the troubles, the rise and fall of the band...and then got completely hooked on them. So, in my case, it was SMiLE music the one that got me into the band and the myth behind it. And I'm proud to say that their songs are around 60-70% of my iPod's selection, listen to them daily and that I'm really happy to have found this board where I can share my "addiction" with more people 

Cheers to the BBs! What's your story?

[Magic Transistor Radio]

It is interesting to note that most bands have followed the Beatles model more then the BBs. First of all, because they were hipper and probably easier as well. A few obvious BB sound alike  bands are the High Llamas, M Ward, Super Furry Animals and REM (UP). I love it because it hasn't been done as much. For every BB sound alike band there are 100 Beatles sound alikes. Thus the Pet Sounds/Smile model is more rare. Although, I believe with the increase of Smile boots in the early 80s you begin to have more indie hip bands going that way. Like the Wondermints.

[Ron]

Just to revive the thread a little bit...wanna share with everyone the moment I became hooked on the BBs:

I grew up with grunge, hardcore techno, deep house and U2  nice music uprising...and I remember when I was in college a friend of mine kept saying his dream was to move to a city near the seaside, get a convertible and drive around to Surfin' USA and stuff like that. I thought that was the most hideous idea ever! I found the song stupid compared to stuff I was into back then (ex STP, Nirvana, Alice in Chains...) and had heated arguments with him on whether he was musically challenged or just a plain dork!

Anyways, move forward some years and I'm living in Belgium. I used to dj in bars and discos, both to get some money to live and obviously to have fun. I met a fellow dj who told me once that his top fav album ever was Pet Sounds. I said "Pet...what? What's that?" and he said: The Beach Boys.

I had this friend of mine in really high regard, one of the finest indie djs I've ever heard, so I went to a record shop and bought myself my first BB album. To be really, really honest I was not blown away. Aside from WITBN, which I had already heard before and thought was a great tune, the rest of the album sounded so innocent, so uncool, to the kind of life style I was into back then, that I just shelved it in my cd collection and didnt hear it for months.

Until one day another bar friend of mine told me he was going to see Brian Wilson in a small town south of Brussels. He asked me if I wanted to go, he had free tickets, so I said sure, why not. Went to this small town festival, really strange place, but got really, really impressed by BWs performance. They were doing the BWPS tour and the elements section, with Fire...my God! I thought it was the craziest music ever! And to think this is the same guy who wrote those old dumb surf songs...

So started reading about the band's history and was amazed at all the troubles, the rise and fall of the band...and then got completely hooked on them. So, in my case, it was SMiLE music the one that got me into the band and the myth behind it. And I'm proud to say that their songs are around 60-70% of my iPod's selection, listen to them daily and that I'm really happy to have found this board where I can share my "addiction" with more people 

Cheers to the BBs! What's your story?

cool story, clarify for me though: do you still think the surf songs are stupid, or have you grown to appreciate those too?

[schiaffino]

 Don't mind them, but certainly not my cup of tea

What's your story?

[Magic Transistor Radio]

The first time I heard the Beach Boys, I was looking through my dad's cds and found Endless Summer. It was 1991 and I was 13. Since I was already a fan of vocal harmony music I liked them immediately. I was a casual fan until I saw Endless Harmony in 98. At which point I started buying all their albums. I became obsessed with SMiLE and napster became
 handy     At first I never thought anything good would ever happen currently with the BBs. It was all cheese in recent years. Full House, Summer in Paradise, Imaginations, juke box concerts, etc... Then Brian started touring and played a lot of deep cuts. He played the entire Pet Sounds album and revived SMiLE. Somewhere around that time I discovered this board. I didn't know anyone was into the BBs as much as I was until then. Brian's next albums have been of very good quality. The POB/Bambu cd then came out. Two great books about Dennis, one about Dave, several about Brian. A solid album by Al Jardine. Then to top it all off, the release of TSS!!

1998 was a great time to get into the BBs! Some people are worried about how the reunion turns out. Some expecting cheese, others something great. To tell you the truth, I have been over so happy with what has already happened and anything else is a bonus! Really! If they all retired today, I have already gotten more then I could've hoped for!

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Please forgive me. I am not a newbie on this board. But you don't have to worry, nobody will piss me off! And I will try not to piss anyone else off.

[Alex]

My favorite line: A children's song. Won't you listen as they play? Their song is love and the children know the way!

That's a fine line there! Anything lyrically or musically in Surf's Up is pure perfection

I think its their very best song! The BBs equal of 'A Day in the Life'.

You must still have yet to hear "Ding Dang"!

I have heard that. I like it, but no.

Seems like for the last couple of years I've been on some sort of long-term 15 Big Ones/Love You era kick, I think I was a little burned out on PS/Smile for a while (still love that stuff, though.). Funny, the beginning of my Love You kick also coincided with an anti-prog rock kick I was on.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

My favorite line: A children's song. Won't you listen as they play? Their song is love and the children know the way!

That's a fine line there! Anything lyrically or musically in Surf's Up is pure perfection

I think its their very best song! The BBs equal of 'A Day in the Life'.

You must still have yet to hear "Ding Dang"!

I have heard that. I like it, but no.

Seems like for the last couple of years I've been on some sort of long-term 15 Big Ones/Love You era kick, I think I was a little burned out on PS/Smile for a while (still love that stuff, though.). Funny, the beginning of my Love You kick also coincided with an anti-prog rock kick I was on.

I think Love You is awesome! But I would put Ding Dang as one of the worst (least good) songs on the album.

[tony p]

Ive only recently gotten into The Beach Boys (last 18 months) after having known about them, and their music for quite a while. But its only been the last couple of years that the music actually got to me and ive now grown to love them. Theyre now easily one of my top 5 all time favourite bands.

I started off in the early 90s listening to grunge/metal (Alice In Chains is one of my other all time fav bands) and lots of hip hop and 70s funk (specifically P-Funk). My older brother is a huge BB’s fan but I would never really pay attention when he played their music. I guess I just didn’t get it at the time. As time wore on I was getting into more and more metal bands (stoner, doom & funeral doom) until I stumbled across a French band called AIR. I loved their sound and music. Reading interviews they would say how much The BB’s and BW were an influence on them but still I kept away from the BB’s.

Anyway I loved watching music docos, and I caught ‘Endless Harmony’ in the early 00’s. The story really fascinated me and the ‘Til I Die clip during one of the BW montages stopped me in my tracks – I loved that song (even though it was the alt mix). But again it kinda stopped there. I didn’t really look into more of their music.

Fast forward a few years and I D/L some of my brothers BB’s CD’s onto my iTunes which is where they stayed until one day I had my library on shuffle. I was sitting at home, in the back yard on a warm summer’s afternoon, smoking some green when ‘All I Wanna Do’ came on . Hearing those voices, especially the last minute of the song just did something for me. I cant exactly say what, but when Brian sang ‘My love is burning brightly….’ it made me literally sit up. It sent shivers down my spine. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I had heard. I mustve listened to that one track 10 times in a row that afternoon and to this day i absolutely adore that track.

You know those moments when a bands music has been in front of you all the time and you hardly notice it, yet one day it just clicks? It was like that. So I went and started listening to all the other albums i had. since then ive been hooked.

Now im not really into the early stuff. I understand this era is important to the sound of the BB’s but the whole cars and surf songs didn’t move me as much as the later stuff which to me seems more emotional (which is what i love).

I now love the BB's. i listen to them everyday. One gripe I do have though is that for me, most of the albums are too inconsistent. Youd have 5-6 great songs mixed in with 3-4 songs that I routinely skip. And reading some of the books about the BB’s you see how (for me anyway) disturbing their story actually is. i guess thats part of the charm. The darkness behind the sunny/smiley exterior.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Please forgive me. I am not a newbie on this board. But you don't have to worry, nobody will piss me off! And I will try not to piss anyone else off.

A challenge. I loves me a challenge. 

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Please forgive me. I am not a newbie on this board. But you don't have to worry, nobody will piss me off! And I will try not to piss anyone else off.

A challenge. I loves me a challenge. 

Ok, now I'm pissed off!! 

[LostArt]

 
I was 7 years old when the Beatles hit the American airwaves.  When I saw this group with their guitars and their 'mop-top' haircuts perform the song on The Ed Sullivan Show in January of 1964, I was hooked.  It wasn't long before "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was blasting out of every radio in the country.  Now, I don't know if I had heard the Beach Boys on the radio before that (I likely did), but if I did, I do not remember.  It didn't matter.  I was hooked on the Beatles.  I liked their look, I liked their sound, I liked everything about 'em.  A year or so later, when I was at a friend's house, he showed me his new 45 rpm record.  It was a song called "Help Me Rhonda" by some group called The Beach Boys.  We played it a few times, and it was okay, but the picture on the sleeve seemed odd.  These guys didn't look anything like the Beatles.  They were wearing these matching sweaters, and their hair was short and combed neatly (well, the one guy in the blue sweater had longer hair).  I filed them away as 'just okay'.  Strangely enough, that Christmas I received a new single by that group called "Barbara Ann".  I don't know why I got that particular record as a gift, but I remember not liking it all that much.  I did like the B-side, though ("Girl Don't Tell Me"), because that one sounded more like the Beatles.  The next Beach Boys record that I remember hearing was "Good Vibrations".  When I heard that one on the radio, I thought it was fantastic.  Now this, I thought, was more like it.  Right about this time, The Monkees were gaining momentum, and I became a big fan of theirs.  I don't remember hearing any new Beach Boys after "Good Vibrations".  At all.  I soon became a teenager, music changed, my tastes changed, and The Beach Boys became a distant memory.

Fast forward through my high school years (Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jethro Tull), and my college years (Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever), and beyond.  The year was 1988, and I was playing in a band as well as working at a home electronics retailer as a delivery man.  A co-worker and I talked about music a lot as we drove around town delivering TVs and VCRs and stuff.  One day, he started talking about this guy named Brian Wilson.  I remembered the name, and I guess I had heard some stuff about him back in the '70s, but I found that I knew almost nothing about him.  He told me about a new album of his, asked if I would like a copy, and I told hime I would like to hear it.  The next day he gave me a cassette tape with "Brian Wilson" ('88) on one side, and "Smiley Smile" on the other.  Well, let me tell you...I was blown away.  "Love and Mercy" with it's stop/start drumming, "Melt Away" with those harmonies...all those quirky synth parts, and gorgeous harmonies just sucked me in.  I loved it.  My friend had told me a little about Smiley Smile, and the whole Smile saga (as he knew it in '88).  It sounded interesting, but nothing he told me could have prepared me for what I heard when I turned that tape over.  "Heroes and Villains", then "Vegetables", then "Fall Breaks", and on and on.  I was stunned.  Are you kidding me?  This is the Beach Boys?  How did I miss this?  That was the start of my fascination.  I started by looking for any piece of Smile that I could find, and it was tough to find any in those pre-internet days.  Then came Pet Sounds, then the two-fers, then the '93 box, and now, 23 or so years later, I am still fascinated by this weird group with the matching sweaters.       

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I was 7 years old when the Beatles hit the American airwaves.  When I saw this group with their guitars and their 'mop-top' haircuts perform the song on The Ed Sullivan Show in January of 1964, I was hooked.  It wasn't long before "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was blasting out of every radio in the country.  Now, I don't know if I had heard the Beach Boys on the radio before that (I likely did), but if I did, I do not remember.  It didn't matter.  I was hooked on the Beatles.  I liked their look, I liked their sound, I liked everything about 'em.  A year or so later, when I was at a friend's house, he showed me his new 45 rpm record.  It was a song called "Help Me Rhonda" by some group called The Beach Boys.  We played it a few times, and it was okay, but the picture on the sleeve seemed odd.  These guys didn't look anything like the Beatles.  They were wearing these matching sweaters, and their hair was short and combed neatly (well, the one guy in the blue sweater had longer hair).  I filed them away as 'just okay'.  Strangely enough, that Christmas I received a new single by that group called "Barbara Ann".  I don't know why I got that particular record as a gift, but I remember not liking it all that much.  I did like the B-side, though ("Girl Don't Tell Me"), because that one sounded more like the Beatles.  The next Beach Boys record that I remember hearing was "Good Vibrations".  When I heard that one on the radio, I thought it was fantastic.  Now this, I thought, was more like it.  Right about this time, The Monkees were gaining momentum, and I became a big fan of theirs.  I don't remember hearing any new Beach Boys after "Good Vibrations".  At all.  I soon became a teenager, music changed, my tastes changed, and The Beach Boys became a distant memory.

Fast forward through my high school years (Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jethro Tull), and my college years (Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever), and beyond.  The year was 1988, and I was playing in a band as well as working at a home electronics retailer as a delivery man.  A co-worker and I talked about music a lot as we drove around town delivering TVs and VCRs and stuff.  One day, he started talking about this guy named Brian Wilson.  I remembered the name, and I guess I had heard some stuff about him back in the '70s, but I found that I knew almost nothing about him.  He told me about a new album of his, asked if I would like a copy, and I told hime I would like to hear it.  The next day he gave me a cassette tape with "Brian Wilson" ('88) on one side, and "Smiley Smile" on the other.  Well, let me tell you...I was blown away.  "Love and Mercy" with it's stop/start drumming, "Melt Away" with those harmonies...all those quirky synth parts, and gorgeous harmonies just sucked me in.  I loved it.  My friend had told me a little about Smiley Smile, and the whole Smile saga (as he knew it in '88).  It sounded interesting, but nothing he told me could have prepared me for what I heard when I turned that tape over.  "Heroes and Villains", then "Vegetables", then "Fall Breaks", and on and on.  I was stunned.  Are you kidding me?  This is the Beach Boys?  How did I miss this?  That was the start of my fascination.  I started by looking for any piece of Smile that I could find, and it was tough to find any in those pre-internet days.  Then came Pet Sounds, then the two-fers, then the '93 box, and now, 23 or so years later, I am still fascinated by this weird group with the matching sweaters.       

I like your story. Its funny how people my age (40 and under) are more open to the Beach Boys then many that grew up in the late 60s. I guess, in their mind, a band that wore matching striped shirts and short hair couldn't be cool. Although Good Vibrations was a big hit, maybe it was too doo woppy or something. But even still, most people never give post Good Vibrations a chance. If they don't like what came before it, why would they like what came after? Then some of them hear it and are blown away!

[Alan Smith]

It's late Summer, 1982, and I get home early from cub camp as the humidity bakes another Brisbane, Australia Sunday afternoon.

I've been away for a couple of days, so everyone's happy to see each other.  My 13 year old big sister takes me straight to the Sanyo cassette deck in the kitchen.  With the deft authority of a sibbling with 2 years more experience than I, she flicks the setting from AM to tape, then hits play.  

Good Vibrations blows me away then merges quickly into Help me Rhonda and then ticktacks across the gold of the Capitol years.  

"You got it!!", I say, excited.  Earlier that week, we conspire to get our music situation organised in order to do battle with the noisy Bogan (Australian Yobbo) elements across the road.  I'd chip in $4, almost half the purchase price, to replace the well worn "Disco Fever", which was sadly holding back our musical arsenal.  The Beach Boys Greatest Hits (including Beach Boys Medley and Beach Boys Ballads Medley) seemed our best sonic strategic move.

Something unexpected happens at the end of Side 1 - I fall in love with Sloop John B at the tender age of 11.  It's a fairly primal and unconditional response.  But that's it.
I need more.

My next purchase is the Vinyl Surfin' Safari/USA twofer + some of the various compilations doin' the rounds in the early '80s.  Original Albums are hard to get, not to mention good info, and I nail the Ten Years of Harmony and Beach Boys Rarities comps before I hear many of the classic albums.

I want to join the Beach Boys Fan Club, but Mum says I'll be unlikely to see my money again - in reality, she's unsure how to go about getting a money order.  I'm not resourceful enough to go it alone, so miss some good opportunities to go hardcore.  But that's okay, it's cool to gradually piece together the sequence of songs and history via "new" tracks that slowly appear on various comps.

At 14, I buy a book of guitar chords called "The Beach Boys Complete" - as a bonus, it contains a reprint (with pics - including Bruce with a mustache) of Tom Nolan's Rolling Stone article.  It seals the deal for me, and I spend every cent I muster tracking down Beach Boys discs, gradually unraveling the mystery; but never completely.

I do some dumb things, including passing on an original mint of POB  , and not going to Dreamworld (a Gold Coast theme park) to see Mike Love with Celebration, who are providing the free lunchtime entertainment  

I keep the flag flying (somehow) through 1985 - the only other person at school vaguely interested is the resident Boy George fanatic (also the school weightlifting champion) - but as I move towards university and the lure of Morrisey, the Smith's, They Might Be Giants, the Pixies, Blue Note Jazz - it gets hard to keep cool about our boys - so I take my leave; until the release of the twofers, in '91 (don't think I missed much); when I come running back to tie up the loose ends.

The Beach Boys are a constant to me, and I know I will never change. l don't go to Mike and Bruce shows, and I didn't go to Brian's last tour down here.  But I am totally pumped about the reunion, and will be there with bells on.  And I hope they include a new Brother records Belt buckle in ther merch!

[schiaffino]

I was 7 years old when the Beatles hit the American airwaves.  When I saw this group with their guitars and their 'mop-top' haircuts perform the song on The Ed Sullivan Show in January of 1964, I was hooked.  It wasn't long before "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was blasting out of every radio in the country.  Now, I don't know if I had heard the Beach Boys on the radio before that (I likely did), but if I did, I do not remember.  It didn't matter.  I was hooked on the Beatles.  I liked their look, I liked their sound, I liked everything about 'em.  A year or so later, when I was at a friend's house, he showed me his new 45 rpm record.  It was a song called "Help Me Rhonda" by some group called The Beach Boys.  We played it a few times, and it was okay, but the picture on the sleeve seemed odd.  These guys didn't look anything like the Beatles.  They were wearing these matching sweaters, and their hair was short and combed neatly (well, the one guy in the blue sweater had longer hair).  I filed them away as 'just okay'.  Strangely enough, that Christmas I received a new single by that group called "Barbara Ann".  I don't know why I got that particular record as a gift, but I remember not liking it all that much.  I did like the B-side, though ("Girl Don't Tell Me"), because that one sounded more like the Beatles.  The next Beach Boys record that I remember hearing was "Good Vibrations".  When I heard that one on the radio, I thought it was fantastic.  Now this, I thought, was more like it.  Right about this time, The Monkees were gaining momentum, and I became a big fan of theirs.  I don't remember hearing any new Beach Boys after "Good Vibrations".  At all.  I soon became a teenager, music changed, my tastes changed, and The Beach Boys became a distant memory.

Fast forward through my high school years (Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jethro Tull), and my college years (Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever), and beyond.  The year was 1988, and I was playing in a band as well as working at a home electronics retailer as a delivery man.  A co-worker and I talked about music a lot as we drove around town delivering TVs and VCRs and stuff.  One day, he started talking about this guy named Brian Wilson.  I remembered the name, and I guess I had heard some stuff about him back in the '70s, but I found that I knew almost nothing about him.  He told me about a new album of his, asked if I would like a copy, and I told hime I would like to hear it.  The next day he gave me a cassette tape with "Brian Wilson" ('88) on one side, and "Smiley Smile" on the other.  Well, let me tell you...I was blown away.  "Love and Mercy" with it's stop/start drumming, "Melt Away" with those harmonies...all those quirky synth parts, and gorgeous harmonies just sucked me in.  I loved it.  My friend had told me a little about Smiley Smile, and the whole Smile saga (as he knew it in '88).  It sounded interesting, but nothing he told me could have prepared me for what I heard when I turned that tape over.  "Heroes and Villains", then "Vegetables", then "Fall Breaks", and on and on.  I was stunned.  Are you kidding me?  This is the Beach Boys?  How did I miss this?  That was the start of my fascination.  I started by looking for any piece of Smile that I could find, and it was tough to find any in those pre-internet days.  Then came Pet Sounds, then the two-fers, then the '93 box, and now, 23 or so years later, I am still fascinated by this weird group with the matching sweaters.       

Thank you so much guys! These are the stories about the BBs that I love reading: First person accounts, explaining how you got into their music, what was your "fan" evolution and how you see them today.

I encourage everyone, both newbies and "old"bies, to share their story. It makes me really, really proud that your very own personal stories are here, in this thread 

[GuyOnTheBeach]

I encourage everyone, both newbies and "old"bies, to share their story. It makes me really, really proud that your very own personal stories are here, in this thread 

You asked for it :-P.
A few years back (2008) I used to upload videos (crude picture montages) to Beatles bootlegs, I was a VERY big Beatles fan and honestly didn't think anyone would top them. About March time I got talking to this guy (who I now consider a VERY good friend!) who said that there were one band who were better than The Beatles, the reaction my 16 year old mind had to this was along the lines of "What is this blasphemy!?!?!?!", anyway we got talking about the demos that John Lennon cut between 1975 and 1980, now and then he would keep dropping The Beach Boys into the discussion.

One day he sent me quite a few Beach Boys and Brian tracks over MSN (back in the days when it has a "sharing folder" and you could store stuff there). Reluctantly I gave them a listen, I mean I liked serious music, why would I want to listen to this surfing cr@p?!, first track "Country Air", I was impressed, VERY impressed, loved the eerie vibe to it, next track "This Whole World" again, wow, those key changes, this band knew their sh!t. "Spirit of Rock 'n' Roll", thought it was a fun track, loved Dylan's vocals, seemed like an unusual decision to have him in there, and to sing a mater of like 3 lines. I went out to a second hand media store we have, brought the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey 2-fer, again loved the creepy vibe to it, for some reason reminded me of old silent horror movies (still haven't worked that one out).

This takes us up to about Sept 2008, found a few bootlegs here and there (along with the Sweet Insanity stuff which I enjoyed in that first batch), brought some more albums. In October I had started to have a few troubles with the start of depression, I brought "Pacific Ocean Blue" around the same time, something in the sadness and pain in that music I could relate too, and fell in love with that. Gradually I started locating the albums on vinyl where I could and had really, really fallen in love with this music.

The Beach Boys music has been with me in some form for nearly the last 4 years, it has helped me through the lowest points of my life and has been there in some of the happiest; I used to wind my ex up by scaring him with the Fire track (I saw him a couple of weeks ago, he said that still gives him the creeps  ), I lent a very good friend of mine the Sunflower/Surf's Up 2-fer, I thought his reaction to it was rather cold, a few months later I discovered he had a good 70% of the album on his iPod. I have some wonderful memories attached to this music now, it's more than just music, it's become something that I cherish too.

Sorry for the ramble there 

[schiaffino]

I encourage everyone, both newbies and "old"bies, to share their story. It makes me really, really proud that your very own personal stories are here, in this thread 

You asked for it :-P.
A few years back (2008) I used to upload videos (crude picture montages) to Beatles bootlegs, I was a VERY big Beatles fan and honestly didn't think anyone would top them. About March time I got talking to this guy (who I now consider a VERY good friend!) who said that there were one band who were better than The Beatles, the reaction my 16 year old mind had to this was along the lines of "What is this blasphemy!?!?!?!", anyway we got talking about the demos that John Lennon cut between 1975 and 1980, now and then he would keep dropping The Beach Boys into the discussion.

One day he sent me quite a few Beach Boys and Brian tracks over MSN (back in the days when it has a "sharing folder" and you could store stuff there). Reluctantly I gave them a listen, I mean I liked serious music, why would I want to listen to this surfing cr@p?!, first track "Country Air", I was impressed, VERY impressed, loved the eerie vibe to it, next track "This Whole World" again, wow, those key changes, this band knew their sh!t. "Spirit of Rock 'n' Roll", thought it was a fun track, loved Dylan's vocals, seemed like an unusual decision to have him in there, and to sing a mater of like 3 lines. I went out to a second hand media store we have, brought the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey 2-fer, again loved the creepy vibe to it, for some reason reminded me of old silent horror movies (still haven't worked that one out).

This takes us up to about Sept 2008, found a few bootlegs here and there (along with the Sweet Insanity stuff which I enjoyed in that first batch), brought some more albums. In October I had started to have a few troubles with the start of depression, I brought "Pacific Ocean Blue" around the same time, something in the sadness and pain in that music I could relate too, and fell in love with that. Gradually I started locating the albums on vinyl where I could and had really, really fallen in love with this music.

The Beach Boys music has been with me in some form for nearly the last 4 years, it has helped me through the lowest points of my life and has been there in some of the happiest; I used to wind my ex up by scaring him with the Fire track (I saw him a couple of weeks ago, he said that still gives him the creeps  ), I lent a very good friend of mine the Sunflower/Surf's Up 2-fer, I thought his reaction to it was rather cold, a few months later I discovered he had a good 70% of the album on his iPod. I have some wonderful memories attached to this music now, it's more than just music, it's become something that I cherish too.

Sorry for the ramble there 

Cool story thanks!

[schiaffino]

Mmm thinking of changing the title of this thread, maybe to something like "A home on the range or 101 open topics for newbies and tolerant experts"... 

Anyone knows how can I do this? I mean, really, though I wanna keep the thread newbie-friendly, I wanna change the title to sth less exclusive

Thanks!