Why No Love For Kokomo ?

[DonnyL]

Brian's 2 cents on "Kokomo" in 1998:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aL5GnkWqO1k#t=140s

Wait, Brian likes "Kokomo"? That means that he must have produced it!

It actually sounds nice the way BW was playing it ...

The thing is, it's telling that he plays "Kokomo" after mentioning that he sometimes feels like life has been a rip-off.

[Zach95]

But seriously -- it's happening, right now.  Read the reviews from Chicago, from the San Jose Mercury News, from all sorts of stops on the tour.  The highlights they cite put "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Please Let Me Wonder" right alongside "Help Me Rhonda" and "Do You Wanna Dance".  They're talking about Brian the visionary right up there with Mike the showman.  The revolution has happened, folks, we don't need to fight like we're losing...

Every time you call The Beach Boys a surf band, another week gets added on until the day they become as credible as post-1965 Beatles.

That's a new fan's fantasy.
It ain't gonna happen. Ever.

I say just stick to the music and enjoy it. Let us not try to convert anybody into liking a singing group. It's not that relevant, really.

I wholeheartedly disagree.  Among knowledgeable, musical young people, the Beach Boys are right up there with the Beatles.  So what it really comes down to, is the common casual music fans.  Who, by the way, really don't care or know that much more about the Beatles than the Beach Boys barring the Beatles were this super great group in the sixties. 

i.e. Check out this review by Pitchfork, last paragraph.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11667-smiley-smilewild-honey/

[PhilSpectre]

It's a nice song and track, but the production is very much of its time. IMO, if Kokomo had somehow received a full on 1965-66 BW style production, including a little of the 'darkness' that often meant, and had been co-written by BW, it might have been regarded as a minor classic.

And yeah, Carl's lead vocal on it is just incredible and gets me every time  .

[Jonathan Blum]

I remember reading a comment somewhere recently... It said something like, "how awesome would it have been if The Beach Boys got into acid like everyone else in the '60s?"

Ah.  Well, clearly a whole stack of reviews talking about Brian Wilson's melancholy genius are outweighed by a comment on a web posting somewhere.

"Smile" isn't mainstream, but the Beach Boys' artistic side does not equal "Smile".  Now that "Pet Sounds" is up there with "Sgt. Pepper" in best-album polls, it's safe to say they've gone beyond the stereotype.

The artistic tracks don't need to be "as popular" as Surfin' USA to be recognized, any more than "I Am The Walrus" needs to be on the Beatles' "1" to be significant, or any of the tracks on "Exile on Main Street" needed to be as big a hit as "Satisfaction".  These things are still recognized.  We can be secure in that now!

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Awesoman]

What do you mean, "No Love For Kokomo"?  I'm pretty sure Love is the one singing lead.   

[Catbirdman]

"Smile" isn't mainstream, but the Beach Boys' artistic side does not equal "Smile".  Now that "Pet Sounds" is up there with "Sgt. Pepper" in best-album polls, it's safe to say they've gone beyond the stereotype.

The artistic tracks don't need to be "as popular" as Surfin' USA to be recognized, any more than "I Am The Walrus" needs to be on the Beatles' "1" to be significant, or any of the tracks on "Exile on Main Street" needed to be as big a hit as "Satisfaction".  These things are still recognized.  We can be secure in that now!

I'd love nothing more than to believe your thesis, but it doesn't square with my experience with the man on the street at all. I live in Hampden, Baltimore's most hipster-infested neighborhood, and sure, THEY will have heard of Pet Sounds for sure, and possibly Smile, Surf's Up, etc. THEY will know that there is a man named Brian Wilson, and they might treat the body of work seriously. MAYBE one in 5 of them actually like the music, but at least they will respect it.

But I'm telling you, go ANYWHERE else, where square people live (that is, normal people that make up 99% of the population and fuel nearly 100% of the economy), and you'll be lucky if they've heard of Pet Sounds or Brian Wilson. The Beach Boys for them are fun, fun, fun and Kokomo. Period. They WILL have heard of Sgt. Pepper, and they WILL have heard of I Am The Walrus, and they WILL assume that later Beatles' music is considered progressive, world-changing, and flat-out good.

No scientific data to back any of this up at all, so attack away. It's only my experience. I bring up the Beach Boys in conversations fairly often.

[Ron]

Brian's 2 cents on "Kokomo" in 1998:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aL5GnkWqO1k#t=140s

Wait, Brian likes "Kokomo"? That means that he must have produced it!

It actually sounds nice the way BW was playing it ...

The thing is, it's telling that he plays "Kokomo" after mentioning that he sometimes feels like life has been a rip-off.

I've mentioned this a bunch and this seems like a good of a place as any.  Brian famously didn't perform on Kokomo, BUT, when the Beach Boys appeared on Full House... Brian showed up for the tapings, and there's a scene where they're talking to DJ or something in the house, and they sing a little preview of what they're going to play that night.  Brian sings the falsetto part of it, instead of Carl.  I always thought that was kind of shitty, Brian showed up and stole Carl's thunder!

[runnersdialzero]

The live Full House performance of "Kokomo" is brilliant on Brian's part. He's singing the highest part early on, and then again later. Both parts go something like, "BERMUDA, BAHAMA, COOOOOME ON PRETTY MAMA... DUH DUH, DUH DUH, WAAAA DAH DAH dah... dah..." especially the first one.

[Cabinessenceking]

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11667-smiley-smilewild-honey/

I think the reviewer was narrow minded giving Smile Smile 9.5 and Wild Honey 3.5

I can agree to Smiley being up there for its sheer uniqueness and also I think the score was influenced by the knowledge that there was no SMiLE album to rate higher at the time of writing that review. Wild Honey is not as strong as Smiley Smile imo because of a few filler tracks like 'Mama Says', but should still be over 7.0

[cablegeddon]

Kokomo is on my top 20 or top 30 of best BB-songs.

The second greatest performance of the song was the cover done on the Muppets tv-show.

[Autotune]

Kokomo is on my top 20 or top 30 of best BB-songs.

The second greatest performance of the song was the cover done on the Muppets tv-show.

Not to mention its brilliant Christmas spin-off.

[cablegeddon]

Kokomo is on my top 20 or top 30 of best BB-songs.

The second greatest performance of the song was the cover done on the Muppets tv-show.

Not to mention its brilliant Christmas spin-off.

That's below the belt! 

[Lookit]

I think (certainly at the time of it's release) that Kokomo's success represented the triumph of Mike's vision of The Beach Boys, and the total annihilation of the pioneering, artistic side of the band. It's perhaps wasn't quite as fatal as all that: certainly Brian's efforts in the last 15 years or so have brought the latter back into view for a new generation of fans. But that song and what it represents within the history of this band make it very polarising.

I think as well that because it's so closely associated with yer man on the street's view of the band, it makes a lot of hip people feel a little embarassed about saying the BB's are their absolute favorite band.

[Jcc]

I don't like Kokomo because it represents, to me, yet another chance for the Beach Boys to have their entire career re-evaluated by the public at large...and they blew it.  Just like in 1967, 1976, and 1997.   Yes, it was a #1 song, yes, it made tons of money, and yes it's not a bad tune.  But, it basically gave dismissers of the Beach Boys an enormous stick with which to beat the band.   From Pet Sounds onward, every member of that group, including Mike, desperately wanted to be as "hip" as the Beatles.  Just look at the way Mike dressed in the 1970's and 1980's, like he was trying too hard to be with the times, so much so that any snapshot of him from any year, other than the SMiLE shots from Amsterdam in 1966, makes him look ridiculously dated.  Ironically, Brian is the only one who really never seemed to care about anything but the music.

Kokomo was a huge opportunity.  A hit single which, it it had somehow been stitched to Brian Wilson's solo album, perhaps as the leadoff track, would have made that album possibly the best selling album of the 1980's.    Overnight, that band would have regained a lot of its former prestige and glory.    But no.  They did one single, cemented their perception as being a good-time bubblegum group from the 1960's that got lucky once again, and even worse, they slapped Kokomo onto "Still Cruising" with a couple of new songs and a few oldies.  K-Tel couldn't have done a better job! 

[GhostyTMRS]

"Smile" isn't mainstream, but the Beach Boys' artistic side does not equal "Smile".  Now that "Pet Sounds" is up there with "Sgt. Pepper" in best-album polls, it's safe to say they've gone beyond the stereotype.

The artistic tracks don't need to be "as popular" as Surfin' USA to be recognized, any more than "I Am The Walrus" needs to be on the Beatles' "1" to be significant, or any of the tracks on "Exile on Main Street" needed to be as big a hit as "Satisfaction".  These things are still recognized.  We can be secure in that now!

I'd love nothing more than to believe your thesis, but it doesn't square with my experience with the man on the street at all. I live in Hampden, Baltimore's most hipster-infested neighborhood, and sure, THEY will have heard of Pet Sounds for sure, and possibly Smile, Surf's Up, etc. THEY will know that there is a man named Brian Wilson, and they might treat the body of work seriously. MAYBE one in 5 of them actually like the music, but at least they will respect it.

But I'm telling you, go ANYWHERE else, where square people live (that is, normal people that make up 99% of the population and fuel nearly 100% of the economy), and you'll be lucky if they've heard of Pet Sounds or Brian Wilson. The Beach Boys for them are fun, fun, fun and Kokomo. Period. They WILL have heard of Sgt. Pepper, and they WILL have heard of I Am The Walrus, and they WILL assume that later Beatles' music is considered progressive, world-changing, and flat-out good.

No scientific data to back any of this up at all, so attack away. It's only my experience. I bring up the Beach Boys in conversations fairly often.

I can also give some anecdotal evidence regarding how the Beach Boys are perceived. Generally Indie/Rock music fans in their 20's and up know about Pet Sounds/Smile/The Genius Of Brian Wilson. They've been practically spoon fed a steady diet of that since the 90's. The trouble is there's not that many of these people....Hip Hop/dance pop is way more prevalent in our society today than Rock/pop is. The average kid who's into Jay-Z, Kei$ha, Beyonce etc. probably only knows the Beach Boys thru watching reruns of Full House when they were kids (don't feel so bad. They can't name all the Beatles either as evidenced by many humorous YouTube videos). Rock/Pop as a genre doesn't mean that much to them anyway. It's really the Coachella crowd that "gets" The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson.

The real problem for the group has always been the "Woodstock/Rolling Stone magazine" generation...the age group that discovered rock in the late 60's. Not all of them, mind you, but a great deal of them. Even today I was talking to someone about the new Beach Boys album and they dismissed them as "bubblegum" and talked about how they weren't important like Bob Dylan, Creedence, CSN, blah blah blah etc. I knew they'd never listened to Pet Sounds or Smile and I doubt it would make a difference if they did. They're minds are made up. When Mojo magazine in the U.K. got the ball rolling when they called "Pet Sounds" the best album of all time, these people probably had fits. I can't see them changing their opinion at this point but (on the positive side) that generation no longer makes up all the rock critics and magazine editors in the world. Ironically, the group targeted that audience in the early 70's and won some of them over but that now seems to be forgotten. Then a little thing called "Endless Summer" came along...

..and that's where I come in.

I consider the early surf/cars/girls period of the Beach Boys to be every bit the valid artistic statement that Pet Sounds and Smile was (or was supposed to be in Smile's case). Heck, I think "I Get Around" is the greatest pop song of all time. But what do I know?

 

[onkster]

I always kinda felt like Kokomo was the bigger, louder, shinier, happier version of Getcha Back.

I prefer the latter, because of Brian's mournful falsetto, and Mike sounding like an old kid who's apologizing and wanting to make up. It's almost a preview of the middle-aged reflections of the current album, but way back in '85.

So Kokomo felt a little like a retread...but man, the confidence and sound of those vocals and harmonies. I can't argue with that.

And the corny list of places, the call/response/rhyme of it, is just silly fun.

What the hell, it's just fine.

[MBE]

Why no love? Nothing to do with Brian being on it or not to me. They did crappy songs with him at the time and without him as well. I just don't like it and never have. I suppose I felt it was harmless enough the first time I heard it but I wasn't impressed. The drag to me is that it's better known than other so many other more worthy songs. One last thing I should say is that I love Somewhere Near Japan. It's not the era or what it represents at all. I simply either like a song or don't.

[GhostyTMRS]

Oh yeah..as for the song "Kokomo"...it's fine. Carl hits that chorus out of the park. I like it. There are far more embarrassing songs in the catalog than "Kokomo". I may be at an age where it resonates less for me that it does for a lot of other people here. By the late 80's, I had dropped out of paying attention to Top 40 radio and was full on into alternative/postmodern/whatchamacallit so I never felt assaulted by "Kokomo" and I've never watched an episode of Full House despite reading about the Beach Boys popping up on it. I also didn't listen to any radio stations that would've played it back in the day. I only hear it now once in a while on the oldies station mixed in with all the mid-60's Beach Boys singles. It sounds out of place next to them but that's fine. I'm just glad the Beach Boy are played somewhere since classic rock radio totally ignores them (at least in NYC).  

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I think (certainly at the time of it's release) that Kokomo's success represented the triumph of Mike's vision of The Beach Boys, and the total annihilation of the pioneering, artistic side of the band. It's perhaps wasn't quite as fatal as all that: certainly Brian's efforts in the last 15 years or so have brought the latter back into view for a new generation of fans. But that song and what it represents within the history of this band make it very polarising.

I think as well that because it's so closely associated with yer man on the street's view of the band, it makes a lot of hip people feel a little embarassed about saying the BB's are their absolute favorite band.

Kokomo is just one more song in a 50 year career. It was not an annihilation of anything other than a dry streak at the top of the charts. The song is no less cheesy (only more catchy) than say Hawaii, or Pom Pom Playgirl, or Sloop John B even! The so called pioneering artistic side of The Beach Boys is steeped in cheese. In fact, I find most of the whole Child Is The Father Of The Man suite to be so silly that I can almost never make it through. Aside from Surf's Up, Fire, Cabinessence, and most of Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys are a goofy band and that is a whole lot of their charm and it needs to be accepted. You're never going to find Zappa level coolness or the dissonance of Sonic Youth in the boys. The cheesy side that Kokomo supposedly represents has always been there with Brian's full participation. It's a simple yin yang and we're all the better for it.

[Lonely Summer]

I don't like Kokomo because it represents, to me, yet another chance for the Beach Boys to have their entire career re-evaluated by the public at large...and they blew it.  Just like in 1967, 1976, and 1997.   Yes, it was a #1 song, yes, it made tons of money, and yes it's not a bad tune.  But, it basically gave dismissers of the Beach Boys an enormous stick with which to beat the band.   From Pet Sounds onward, every member of that group, including Mike, desperately wanted to be as "hip" as the Beatles.  Just look at the way Mike dressed in the 1970's and 1980's, like he was trying too hard to be with the times, so much so that any snapshot of him from any year, other than the SMiLE shots from Amsterdam in 1966, makes him look ridiculously dated.  Ironically, Brian is the only one who really never seemed to care about anything but the music.

Kokomo was a huge opportunity.  A hit single which, it it had somehow been stitched to Brian Wilson's solo album, perhaps as the leadoff track, would have made that album possibly the best selling album of the 1980's.    Overnight, that band would have regained a lot of its former prestige and glory.    But no.  They did one single, cemented their perception as being a good-time bubblegum group from the 1960's that got lucky once again, and even worse, they slapped Kokomo onto "Still Cruising" with a couple of new songs and a few oldies.  K-Tel couldn't have done a better job! 

I couyldn't have said it better! And I admit I was naive enough in 1988/89 to think that Kokomo's success would spur the guys on to do an album that combined the best of their hit sounds along with the more serious side of the band. They had their chance and they blew it.

[MBE]

I don't like Kokomo because it represents, to me, yet another chance for the Beach Boys to have their entire career re-evaluated by the public at large...and they blew it.  Just like in 1967, 1976, and 1997.   Yes, it was a #1 song, yes, it made tons of money, and yes it's not a bad tune.  But, it basically gave dismissers of the Beach Boys an enormous stick with which to beat the band.   From Pet Sounds onward, every member of that group, including Mike, desperately wanted to be as "hip" as the Beatles.  Just look at the way Mike dressed in the 1970's and 1980's, like he was trying too hard to be with the times, so much so that any snapshot of him from any year, other than the SMiLE shots from Amsterdam in 1966, makes him look ridiculously dated.  Ironically, Brian is the only one who really never seemed to care about anything but the music.

Kokomo was a huge opportunity.  A hit single which, it it had somehow been stitched to Brian Wilson's solo album, perhaps as the leadoff track, would have made that album possibly the best selling album of the 1980's.    Overnight, that band would have regained a lot of its former prestige and glory.    But no.  They did one single, cemented their perception as being a good-time bubblegum group from the 1960's that got lucky once again, and even worse, they slapped Kokomo onto "Still Cruising" with a couple of new songs and a few oldies.  K-Tel couldn't have done a better job! 

I couyldn't have said it better! And I admit I was naive enough in 1988/89 to think that Kokomo's success would spur the guys on to do an album that combined the best of their hit sounds along with the more serious side of the band. They had their chance and they blew it.

I expected a good LP to follow in Kokomo's wake because of their high profile and that time (far more than in 1976) they blew it completely.

[Cabinessenceking]

But seriously -- it's happening, right now.  Read the reviews from Chicago, from the San Jose Mercury News, from all sorts of stops on the tour.  The highlights they cite put "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Please Let Me Wonder" right alongside "Help Me Rhonda" and "Do You Wanna Dance".  They're talking about Brian the visionary right up there with Mike the showman.  The revolution has happened, folks, we don't need to fight like we're losing...

Every time you call The Beach Boys a surf band, another week gets added on until the day they become as credible as post-1965 Beatles.

That's a new fan's fantasy.
It ain't gonna happen. Ever.

I say just stick to the music and enjoy it. Let us not try to convert anybody into liking a singing group. It's not that relevant, really.

I wholeheartedly disagree.  Among knowledgeable, musical young people, the Beach Boys are right up there with the Beatles.  So what it really comes down to, is the common casual music fans.  Who, by the way, really don't care or know that much more about the Beatles than the Beach Boys barring the Beatles were this super great group in the sixties. 

i.e. Check out this review by Pitchfork, last paragraph.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11667-smiley-smilewild-honey/

The Pitchfork guy doesnt really know what he said there. Paul McCartney visited LA in april 1967 when Brian had just given up on H&V and was doing the Smile version of Vegetables. That version was not the scaled down version. The Smiley Smile version was recorded in July 1967 and Sgt Pepper was already out and at #1 by that time. But hearing A Day In The Life would've affected him given that his masterpiece was falling apart and he was not managing to stay focused.

[PhilSpectre]

I don't like Kokomo because it represents, to me, yet another chance for the Beach Boys to have their entire career re-evaluated by the public at large...and they blew it.  Just like in 1967, 1976, and 1997.   Yes, it was a #1 song, yes, it made tons of money, and yes it's not a bad tune.  But, it basically gave dismissers of the Beach Boys an enormous stick with which to beat the band.   From Pet Sounds onward, every member of that group, including Mike, desperately wanted to be as "hip" as the Beatles.  Just look at the way Mike dressed in the 1970's and 1980's, like he was trying too hard to be with the times, so much so that any snapshot of him from any year, other than the SMiLE shots from Amsterdam in 1966, makes him look ridiculously dated.  Ironically, Brian is the only one who really never seemed to care about anything but the music.

Kokomo was a huge opportunity.  A hit single which, it it had somehow been stitched to Brian Wilson's solo album, perhaps as the leadoff track, would have made that album possibly the best selling album of the 1980's.    Overnight, that band would have regained a lot of its former prestige and glory.    But no.  They did one single, cemented their perception as being a good-time bubblegum group from the 1960's that got lucky once again, and even worse, they slapped Kokomo onto "Still Cruising" with a couple of new songs and a few oldies.  K-Tel couldn't have done a better job! 

I couyldn't have said it better! And I admit I was naive enough in 1988/89 to think that Kokomo's success would spur the guys on to do an album that combined the best of their hit sounds along with the more serious side of the band. They had their chance and they blew it.

I expected a good LP to follow in Kokomo's wake because of their high profile and that time (far more than in 1976) they blew it completely.

I feel they did waste perhaps their last opportunity to be relevant to the general pop audience by not properly following up Kokomo. Around the same time, the Bee Gees had their commercial/ artistic renaissance with You Win Again and after and if the Boys had followed a similar template, they could have had a credible non-Brian (if admittedly AOR) career revival into the early '90s, as a slick, 'mature' AOR vocal group. Not really to my taste, but a more respectable fate than what actually followed imo.

[Lonely Summer]

I don't like Kokomo because it represents, to me, yet another chance for the Beach Boys to have their entire career re-evaluated by the public at large...and they blew it.  Just like in 1967, 1976, and 1997.   Yes, it was a #1 song, yes, it made tons of money, and yes it's not a bad tune.  But, it basically gave dismissers of the Beach Boys an enormous stick with which to beat the band.   From Pet Sounds onward, every member of that group, including Mike, desperately wanted to be as "hip" as the Beatles.  Just look at the way Mike dressed in the 1970's and 1980's, like he was trying too hard to be with the times, so much so that any snapshot of him from any year, other than the SMiLE shots from Amsterdam in 1966, makes him look ridiculously dated.  Ironically, Brian is the only one who really never seemed to care about anything but the music.

Kokomo was a huge opportunity.  A hit single which, it it had somehow been stitched to Brian Wilson's solo album, perhaps as the leadoff track, would have made that album possibly the best selling album of the 1980's.    Overnight, that band would have regained a lot of its former prestige and glory.    But no.  They did one single, cemented their perception as being a good-time bubblegum group from the 1960's that got lucky once again, and even worse, they slapped Kokomo onto "Still Cruising" with a couple of new songs and a few oldies.  K-Tel couldn't have done a better job! 

I couyldn't have said it better! And I admit I was naive enough in 1988/89 to think that Kokomo's success would spur the guys on to do an album that combined the best of their hit sounds along with the more serious side of the band. They had their chance and they blew it.

I expected a good LP to follow in Kokomo's wake because of their high profile and that time (far more than in 1976) they blew it completely.

I feel they did waste perhaps their last opportunity to be relevant to the general pop audience by not properly following up Kokomo. Around the same time, the Bee Gees had their commercial/ artistic renaissance with You Win Again and after and if the Boys had followed a similar template, they could have had a credible non-Brian (if admittedly AOR) career revival into the early '90s, as a slick, 'mature' AOR vocal group. Not really to my taste, but a more respectable fate than what actually followed imo.

I doubt they would've gone the AOR route  - in the early 70's, that meant serious songs with long instrumental passages (i.e. Leaving This Town, Feel Flows). By the late 80's, AOR meant generic overproduced arena rock. I think the BB's could've successfully appealed to the AC crowd in the time frame we're talking about, as California Dreamin', Getcha Back and Kokomo all charted high on the AC charts. One thing I have failed to take into account, though, is the band's strained relations with Brian, largely because of Landy IMHO. How much of the new stuff for Still Cruisin' is he actually on? I don't hear him at all on the title track, Somewhere Near Japan or Make it Big (although he was in the video for SIP). He's clearly heard in the intro of Island Girl and of course In My Car. I'm sure the guys would've liked him to be around more, but Landy thought there was more to be gained by keeping Brian at arm's length from the group.

[DonnyL]

I don't like Kokomo because it represents, to me, yet another chance for the Beach Boys to have their entire career re-evaluated by the public at large...and they blew it.  Just like in 1967, 1976, and 1997.   Yes, it was a #1 song, yes, it made tons of money, and yes it's not a bad tune.  But, it basically gave dismissers of the Beach Boys an enormous stick with which to beat the band.   From Pet Sounds onward, every member of that group, including Mike, desperately wanted to be as "hip" as the Beatles.  Just look at the way Mike dressed in the 1970's and 1980's, like he was trying too hard to be with the times, so much so that any snapshot of him from any year, other than the SMiLE shots from Amsterdam in 1966, makes him look ridiculously dated.  Ironically, Brian is the only one who really never seemed to care about anything but the music.

Kokomo was a huge opportunity.  A hit single which, it it had somehow been stitched to Brian Wilson's solo album, perhaps as the leadoff track, would have made that album possibly the best selling album of the 1980's.    Overnight, that band would have regained a lot of its former prestige and glory.    But no.  They did one single, cemented their perception as being a good-time bubblegum group from the 1960's that got lucky once again, and even worse, they slapped Kokomo onto "Still Cruising" with a couple of new songs and a few oldies.  K-Tel couldn't have done a better job!  

I couyldn't have said it better! And I admit I was naive enough in 1988/89 to think that Kokomo's success would spur the guys on to do an album that combined the best of their hit sounds along with the more serious side of the band. They had their chance and they blew it.

I expected a good LP to follow in Kokomo's wake because of their high profile and that time (far more than in 1976) they blew it completely.

I feel they did waste perhaps their last opportunity to be relevant to the general pop audience by not properly following up Kokomo. Around the same time, the Bee Gees had their commercial/ artistic renaissance with You Win Again and after and if the Boys had followed a similar template, they could have had a credible non-Brian (if admittedly AOR) career revival into the early '90s, as a slick, 'mature' AOR vocal group. Not really to my taste, but a more respectable fate than what actually followed imo.

How did they waste it? They sure as hell tried; they just failed, over and over again. The thing is, "Kokomo" was truly a fluke. It was a weird combination of elements that came together in just the right way to make it a hit. Practically every piece of trash they put out in the late '80s and early '90s was a "Kokomo" retread.