A catalog for the ages

[Waspinators]

I could be exaggerating, but it seems an overwhelming amount of people on this board are overly critical of their favorite band. With so many people calling Surf's Up, CATP, and Holland "forced/pretentious", the first two albums being labeled as cringe-worthy amateur LPs, and the late '70s output (sans Love You) being cast aside as some of the worst music ever put to wax (really now?), you have to wonder why they even bother to collect the records.

Personally, I find the Beach Boys' catalog to be one of the most engrossing, varied and important collection of albums out there (up there with The Beatles, Dylan, Sun Records, etc.) and aside from most of KTSA, half of BB85, SIP and Stars & Stripes, I think every album of theirs is worth listening to all the way through. The first two albums have that snotty, "let's skip class and go surf/drink/make out" quality to them that make them the only records that ever actually fit their name. Some of my finest musical memories involve blasting "Heads You Win" or "Little Miss America" driving around on a hot day with the windows down. Surf's Up and Sunflower were the albums that made the BBs my absolute favorite band of all time vs. the fun band I listened in my childhood. At first, CATP and Holland were 'take it or leave it' for me, but recently have become ingrained in my mind as some REALLY good early '70s sounds.

Hell, I'm not even gonna lie. I love 15 Big Ones for what it is, a very flawed album with questionable production, but some truly nice tunes. I can't get enough of It's OK, Had to Phone Ya, Chapel of Love, Back Home, That Same Song, or the last two cuts. MIU and LA are about as bland as the band got production-wise, but still have some grand moments (especially My Diane, Sweet Sunday Kind of Love, Wontcha Come Out Tonight, Sumahama, Good Timin', so on). I could go on and on. There is just so much more great music to them than just the peak 64-69 era, which I'm sure the majority of the board has known for much longer than me.

I guess I just never understood people berating the Boys for trying too hard to be "current" in the early '70s, and then slapping them on the back of the neck for giving that up in '76. It's like they're hellbent on people looking at the '70s BBs in the same vein as Floyd, Zeppelin, The Who, Wishbone Ash, etc. when they were and always will be The Beach Boys, a band that in my eyes represents life, in all its beautiful highs, miserable lows and all the oddities in between.

Basically, my Beach Boys two-fers and box sets are my desert island albums and I'm giddy as a schoolgirl to see them tomorrow for the first time. 

[stack-o-tracks]

I could be exaggerating, but it seems an overwhelming amount of people on this board are overly critical of their favorite band. With so many people calling Surf's Up, CATP, and Holland "forced/pretentious", the first two albums being labeled as cringe-worthy amateur LPs, and the late '70s output (sans Love You) being cast aside as some of the worst music ever put to wax (really now?), you have to wonder why they even bother to collect the records.

I don't feel like that is at all the consensus around here.

[Nathan Snyder]

I could be exaggerating, but it seems an overwhelming amount of people on this board are overly critical of their favorite band.

I tend to agree with you.  I lurk for the news/updates and sometimes get caught in the muck of opinions that are many times depressing. 

[Jason]

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and there are a lot of them on this board.

[DonnyL]

I agree, and time will likely prove you right.  Records like 15 Big Ones, M.I.U., etc. probably seemed really below par when originally released, but I feel that now they can safely be deemed 'classic 1970s Beach Boys' -- granted, lesser efforts but still indisputably authentic 'Beach Boys'.

[drbeachboy]

I am terribly biased towards The Beach Boys. They have been my favorite band for 48 years, since I was 6 years old. I like everything except Stars & Stripes. I am as much a fan of their vocalizations, as I am about the music as a whole. So, I tend to like filler and even some badly written songs, because there is always that one reedeeming grace; their voices. Personally, it bothers me a lot to read some of the things that are posted here, but I then realize that there are different types of fandom and they are coming from different perspectives. With the two shows conming up on May 19th & June 16th, it will be the 40th & 41st times that I see them in concert. Shoot, I haven't seen some family members that many times.

[Waspinators]

I am terribly biased towards The Beach Boys. They have been my favorite band for 48 years, since I was 6 years old. I like everything except Stars & Stripes. I am as much a fan of their vocalizations, as I am about the music as a whole. So, I tend to like filler and even some badly written songs, because there is always that one reedeeming grace; their voices. Personally, it bothers me a lot to read some of the things that are posted here, but I then realize that there are different types of fandom and they are coming from different perspectives. With the two shows conming up on May 19th & June 16th, it will be the 40th & 41st times that I see them in concert. Shoot, I haven't seen some family members that many times.

This is my envious face. 

[Cabinessenceking]

I am terribly biased towards The Beach Boys. They have been my favorite band for 48 years, since I was 6 years old. I like everything except Stars & Stripes. I am as much a fan of their vocalizations, as I am about the music as a whole. So, I tend to like filler and even some badly written songs, because there is always that one reedeeming grace; their voices. Personally, it bothers me a lot to read some of the things that are posted here, but I then realize that there are different types of fandom and they are coming from different perspectives. With the two shows conming up on May 19th & June 16th, it will be the 40th & 41st times that I see them in concert. Shoot, I haven't seen some family members that many times.

This is my envious face. 

+1 

I always wanted the life of Richard Attenborough because he has experienced so much wonder, but now I desperatly wished I could've had the opportunity to see just a fraction of as many shows as you did, and in their prime, wow.

[Wirestone]

I find something of interest in every official Beach Boys release. Nearly all of the solo albums, too. And the studio boots.

This includes Stars and Stripes and Summer in Paradise. They aren't my favorites, but there are things I like on each.

I begin to draw the line at some of the SOT stuff -- a bit too much of the sausage making, if you catch my drift -- and much of the live stuff. I love actually attending the shows, but the heart of the Beach Boys is in the studio for me. And while I treasure a number of live BW recordings, the best-sounding BW boots are seldom the best-performed. Again, the studio wins out.

[anazgnos]

Stuff like SOT is like owning an encyclopedia, you don't really want to sit down and read it cover to cover, but when you really want to look something up, you're glad its there.

Also for the purposes of this analogy pretend that the internet did not supplant physical encyclopedias

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I would say that a lot of Beach Boy bands are frustrated. It seemed that every time they were breaking new ground, fate pulled them back to surf/car era. I believe Pet Sounds/Good Vibrations was the closest they ever got. It was a time that they were becoming as respected as the Beatles. Then SMiLE was abandoned. Now they continued making ambitious records like Smiley, Wild Honey and Friends, but they weren't commercial. Personally, this is my favorite era. Then they release Do It Again. When they switched labels, they became progressive again. But just as they started to shake their old image, Endless Summer went Platinum. Although, there are good songs on every album, there are great songs that are unreleased, while some bad songs ended up on an album.

[SBonilla]

I like  nearly everything up to and inlcuding Love You. After that, my interest in their records waned considerably. Sure, I have rooted for them since then, but after a certain point they did not release anything that was sonically appealing to me. 

[JohnMill]

I could be exaggerating, but it seems an overwhelming amount of people on this board are overly critical of their favorite band. With so many people calling Surf's Up, CATP, and Holland "forced/pretentious", the first two albums being labeled as cringe-worthy amateur LPs, and the late '70s output (sans Love You) being cast aside as some of the worst music ever put to wax (really now?), you have to wonder why they even bother to collect the records.

Personally, I find the Beach Boys' catalog to be one of the most engrossing, varied and important collection of albums out there (up there with The Beatles, Dylan, Sun Records, etc.) and aside from most of KTSA, half of BB85, SIP and Stars & Stripes, I think every album of theirs is worth listening to all the way through. The first two albums have that snotty, "let's skip class and go surf/drink/make out" quality to them that make them the only records that ever actually fit their name. Some of my finest musical memories involve blasting "Heads You Win" or "Little Miss America" driving around on a hot day with the windows down. Surf's Up and Sunflower were the albums that made the BBs my absolute favorite band of all time vs. the fun band I listened in my childhood. At first, CATP and Holland were 'take it or leave it' for me, but recently have become ingrained in my mind as some REALLY good early '70s sounds.

Hell, I'm not even gonna lie. I love 15 Big Ones for what it is, a very flawed album with questionable production, but some truly nice tunes. I can't get enough of It's OK, Had to Phone Ya, Chapel of Love, Back Home, That Same Song, or the last two cuts. MIU and LA are about as bland as the band got production-wise, but still have some grand moments (especially My Diane, Sweet Sunday Kind of Love, Wontcha Come Out Tonight, Sumahama, Good Timin', so on). I could go on and on. There is just so much more great music to them than just the peak 64-69 era, which I'm sure the majority of the board has known for much longer than me.

I guess I just never understood people berating the Boys for trying too hard to be "current" in the early '70s, and then slapping them on the back of the neck for giving that up in '76. It's like they're hellbent on people looking at the '70s BBs in the same vein as Floyd, Zeppelin, The Who, Wishbone Ash, etc. when they were and always will be The Beach Boys, a band that in my eyes represents life, in all its beautiful highs, miserable lows and all the oddities in between.

Basically, my Beach Boys two-fers and box sets are my desert island albums and I'm giddy as a schoolgirl to see them tomorrow for the first time. 

As someone mentioned on The Beatles forum that is in the same vein as this one, this isn't a fanboy/fangirl forum.  There are those types of boards around dedicated to The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson where the majority of visitors gush on how great the band was on a daily basis and few ever have a word of dissent.  This forum isn't like that.  Many of us are the definition of "hardcore fans" who analyze and fuss over ever nuance of the band and pick it apart until we are beating the proverbial dead horse.  At times it comes off like some of the members are prickly or even flat out rude but that really isn't the case. 

[drbeachboy]

Sounds like an excuse. If at times it comes off at as such, then it is. We're human, we disagree. We are all guilty of it at times. Sitting behind a keyboard can bring out the full bravado. I guarantee we wouldn't act like that if we were discussing face to face.  Oh, by the way, is it bad to have a different type fandom than another person? You make it sound like you cannot be hardcore and still like most of their music. Just being called a fanboy/fan girl says to me that you must be pretty hardcore to have a term thrust upon you. It amazes me that we even make fandom complicated.

[JohnMill]

Sounds like an excuse. If at times it comes off at as such, then it is. We're human, we disagree. We are all guilty of it at times. Sitting behind a keyboard can bring out the full bravado. I guarantee we wouldn't act like that if we were discussing face to face.  Oh, by the way, is it bad to have a different type fandom than another person? You make it sound like you cannot be hardcore and still like most of their music. Just being called a fanboy/fan girl says to me that you must be pretty hardcore to have a term thrust upon you. It amazes me that we even make fandom complicated.

It is what it is *shrug*

[Wirestone]

Many people here, including me, can get caught up in defending ourselves or our points. This band has made such wonderful -- and such terrible -- music that it really inflames the passions. What's more, you have 50 years of poorly reported, myth-ridden history, and a band whose leader is (improbably) still quite active musically. There's a lot of sorting between truth and fiction to be done, and a lot of critical history to be appraised and re-assessed.

But I've kept coming back because the dialogue is unmatched in its integrity, critical acumen, humor and brazen striving for accuracy. I'm a journalist in my day-to-day life, and this board has performed more and better original reporting on the band than any writer or music critic I know of. Folks like AGD and Cam Mott and everyone else have contributed to an incredible richness of understanding of this most quirky and irksome of bands. Yes, a lot of people are hard on a lot of the group's albums. But folks here will find things to like in nearly every album as well.

[Lonely Summer]

They made a lot more good than bad music. I became a fan in the early 80's - well, I was aware of them before that, liked the songs I heard, but 80's is when I read the books about them, and started buying the albums. I was a pretty die-hard fan until SIP. That was the first group or solo release during those years that I passed on. Looked at the cd in the store, and when I saw it was all Mike Love/Terry Melcher tunes, I got kinda pissed. No songs from Carl or Al, no Brian at all (but not really surprised at that), couldn't bring myself to even listen to it for several years. I didn't want the Beach Boys to turn into the Mike Love Band, although they'd been heading in that direction for a long time anyway. So I like most of what they did until SIP, and even parts of that I can tolerate now. I can understand how albums like 15 Big Ones, MIU and ...yes....even Love You were disappointed at the time they were released, but they all have their moments.

[The Shift]

To answer the initial point, it's unconditional love. I guess as a fan you get to know the Beach Boys and their voices like family. Only (and this will go down well, not) you can envelope yourself, immerse yourself in their world without all the responsibilities that go along with enveloping yourself in family. You can buy their albums, criticise them, listen to them for hours on your own terms, spend your income on them. But they never answer back, never argue, never fall out with you, never demand more love… you can lavish your money and affection on them unconditionally cos they never respond and you don't have to be wary of any response. The berating and criticising is the same you'd give to your partner or child who you love deeply, and they're not gonna sulk or fight back, cos they're only notional, not actual, parts of your life. Bigger than life. Apart from life. You can love them more than your family cos they're, in a way, not real, so it costs your soul nought. Any minute now I'm gonna wake from this dream that I'm at my keyboard with no clothes on and everyone's gaping at me, to find I'm still in my own bed.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

And for me, I'd rather listen to three disks of "Help Me Rhonda" sessions, than one second of Summer In Paradise, but as many on this thread have succinctly said, there are many types of fan.