BB opinions on each other's solo albums

[punkinhead]

Has any of the guys said much about the others solo albums? I know Brian has said that he's never heard POB, which I find a little hard to believe, especially since he was around when some of the songs were being recorded, whether it was officially a POB album session, i don't know. I'd really dig hearing what the guys have said about Carl's albums, or what they think of Celebration or Looking Back with Love. Honestly, the only thing I've heard Mike say about Brian's solo stuff is (and this is me ablibbing) that he was triumphant with Kokomo over Brian's first album and the other is some comment about Mike dissing Sweet Insanity (it's title mostly). I wonder what Mike thinks of Al's live album. Or what Brian and Mike think of Al's Postcard from California....I'm sure Brian heard some of the material when recording Drivin' and Honkin' down the Highway. Has anyone said anything about Goin' Public or Bruce's early album material?

[BergenWhitesMoustache]

Bruce doesn't like POB

I mean, obviously it pales next to Going Public, but even so that's a bit rich

[punkinhead]

this also made me think about what solo songs have been played live as the Beach Boys. I know Rockin all Over the World was included on some setlists in the mid80s. I also feel like What you Do to Me was also played live. And I knew they played Love and Mercy, Melt Away, and Walkin the Line as well: http://members.tripod.com/~fun_fun_fun/1-24-89.html . was it all the Beach Boys playing those songs of Brian's or was it just Brian and a backing band? We all know that I Write the Songs was played live, quite a bit actually. Kinda wish Bruce would perform it now and not be so embarrassed of it whenever they make fun of it during concerts. Also, I know the River Song was also played back in the 70s as well. Any others I'm missing? Was Almost Summer played WITH the beach boys (not celebration/Endless Summer Band)? Or anything from Looking Back With Love? Oh yeah, Country Pie was played live (that was on a Mike album, I think, right?)

[punkinhead]

Bruce doesn't like POB

I mean, obviously it pales next to Going Public, but even so that's a bit rich

No kidding, didn't he sing on it (POB) for crying out loud? I know he's on End of Show (which is highly underrated in my opinion.)

[SMiLE Brian]

Brian has heard and likes POB. He just says he hasn't heard it to avoid talking about it in interviews.

[punkinhead]

Brian has heard and likes POB. He just says he hasn't heard it to avoid talking about it in interviews.

That's strange, is he jealous of it? Being the most Brian Wilson sounding (of yester-years) of the 70s?

POB's is what a Brian Wilson product was back in the 60s. It's pretty amazing, if you think about it, that a Beach Boy could take what Brian did and make something superior sounding, in my opinion.

[EgoHanger1966]

Brian said he liked POB and River Song in a recent-ish Canadian interview around the time of the Gershwin release. It's up on Youtube somewhere I think.

[Jon Stebbins]

There is another recent interview with Brian conducted by Howie Edelson where Brian says he likes Dennis solo album, and doesn't like Carl's. That's from maybe a year or two ago.

[HeyJude]

During the fiesty interview Mike gave to Goldmine in Sept. 1992, he was asked about Brian's first solo album. Here's the exchange (dunno if he direct transcript incluidng swearing will make it in this post):


Q Did you like his first solo album?

A: No.

Q: You didn't like it?

A: f*** no.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: First of all the lyrics. Second of all the arrangements weren't commercial enough. Third of all it sounded like sh*t compared to what he could sound like.

[Wah Wah Wah Ooooo]

During the fiesty interview Mike gave to Goldmine in Sept. 1992, he was asked about Brian's first solo album. Here's the exchange (dunno if he direct transcript incluidng swearing will make it in this post):


Q Did you like his first solo album?

A: No.

Q: You didn't like it?

A: f*** no.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: First of all the lyrics. Second of all the arrangements weren't commercial enough. Third of all it sounded like sh*t compared to what he could sound like.

Sometimes I like to defend Mike Love. Other times I think he's a total D-Bag.

[BergenWhitesMoustache]

That's strange, is he jealous of it? Being the most Brian Wilson sounding (of yester-years) of the 70s?

I don't think it sounds like his material, beyond a few vocal arranging reference points, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was a bit jealous of it. No disrespect to the guy, but imo the last time he turned out a song as good as say, 'thoughts of you' was 'Til I die' in '71, and that wasn't amidst a whole album of self written classics.

 Not that the stuff he's done since then hasn't had it's moments, but to hear Dennis come out with a brilliant album full of original material when he hadn't done that himself since Pet Sounds must have been a bit of a reality check. And no disrespect to Love You- which is one of my favourite albums, but that's more lovably odd than an accomplished masterpiece.

[Mike's Beard]

During the fiesty interview Mike gave to Goldmine in Sept. 1992, he was asked about Brian's first solo album. Here's the exchange (dunno if he direct transcript incluidng swearing will make it in this post):


Q Did you like his first solo album?

A: No.

Q: You didn't like it?

A: f*** no.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: First of all the lyrics. Second of all the arrangements weren't commercial enough. Third of all it sounded like sh*t compared to what he could sound like.

This coming from the mastermind behind Looking Back With Love and Summer In Paradise.

[BergenWhitesMoustache]

I actually made it as far as putting 'looking back with Love' in a pile of lps I was going to listen to the other day, but ended up going out instead. What the hell was I thinking?!

[SMiLE Brian]

During the fiesty interview Mike gave to Goldmine in Sept. 1992, he was asked about Brian's first solo album. Here's the exchange (dunno if he direct transcript incluidng swearing will make it in this post):


Q Did you like his first solo album?

A: No.

Q: You didn't like it?

A: f*** no.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: First of all the lyrics. Second of all the arrangements weren't commercial enough. Third of all it sounded like sh*t compared to what he could sound like.

Mike Love was a huge prick in 1992. Saying songs like "L&M" having crappy lyrics, Mike's idea of "commerical" was SIP with songs like "summer of love"

[EgoHanger1966]

Well, when Mike's last two albums (at the time of that writing) are Still Cruisin' and Summer In Paradise, he really shouldn't be talking sh*t about what's good and what isn't. Not commercial enough? There are more commercial 'should be hits' gems on that album than the whole of Mike's solo catalog. The lyrics on BW88 are pretty consistently good. Maybe he didn't like them because there wasn't a song about driving to the malt shop in his woody.

[Jonathan Blum]

Back on topic -- Bruce has said that he's not keen on Brian's recorded Smile (to him the *real* Smile is Smiley Smile), but that he loved the live/DVD version...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Nicko1234]

Not commercial enough? There are more commercial 'should be hits' gems on that album than the whole of Mike's solo catalog.

Are there any `should be hits` on either BW88 or Mike`s solo stuff?

Love and Mercy isn`t because of the synthesized productions (hence it wasn`t a hit) and that goes for most of the album.

I don`t hear any potential hits in Mike`s stuff either. I suppose that if Running Around the World had been included in that advertising campaign then it might have done ok and arguably Country Pie ought to have been released by the BBs instead of Peggy Sue.

[runnersdialzero]

Mike was correct, though, in BW88 not only sounding like total sh*t, but sounding like total sh*t compared to what Brian was capable of. Forget the always limp "lol i'd like 2 see u do better" argument against Mike's recent work in 1992, he was right in his opinion that it did not sound good or near-close to what Brian was capable of. BW88 is so, so bad, production-wise.

The other two comments about the lyrics and non-commercial arrangements, well, I'll agree that we can chalk those up to jealousy and/or not "getting" Brian beyond a small fraction of his work.

[MBE]

He had no problem talking about Dennis' work and POB with me. I have a very funny quote from him in the book actually.

[Cabinessenceking]

Back on topic -- Bruce has said that he's not keen on Brian's recorded Smile (to him the *real* Smile is Smiley Smile), but that he loved the live/DVD version...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

I would actually agree with him there. The live version sounds way better than the studio one. It's not like Brian went back to the techniques he used during the original Smile. When recording BWPS he just took a few takes from what I heard of the whole songs, so no modular approach. I think much of the genius of the album disappeared due to that, but I fully understand why he did it...

[Wirestone]

Back on topic -- Bruce has said that he's not keen on Brian's recorded Smile (to him the *real* Smile is Smiley Smile), but that he loved the live/DVD version...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

I would actually agree with him there. The live version sounds way better than the studio one. It's not like Brian went back to the techniques he used during the original Smile. When recording BWPS he just took a few takes from what I heard of the whole songs, so no modular approach. I think much of the genius of the album disappeared due to that, but I fully understand why he did it...

This isn't true, actually. BWPS was recorded in modular fashion, just like the original sessions.

The one exception was Good Vibes, which was played straight through.

[runnersdialzero]

Never understood why they didn't do "Good Vibrations" in sections like the original and the rest of the album. Were they trying to be cute or something?

Oh well, I really dislike the BWPS version of this song and it's probably the only track on there that I really don't care for. Aside from Jeff's lead being way too prominent (and being there at all, really), I just keep expecting someone to scream "STAY IN SCHOOL, KIDS" near the end and everyone's wearing sunglasses and eating Go-Gurt and Jeff waves the Smile guitar around in that "OH YEAH, SMILE, BABY" way he does at the end of David Leaf's grand work of fiction andan9giegjiwraej

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Bruce doesn't like POB

I mean, obviously it pales next to Going Public, but even so that's a bit rich

I'd imagine it's less Bruce doesn't like POB and more Bruce says he doesn't like POB because Mike and Dennis didn't get on and Bruce has his head permanently wedged up Mike's backside. I seem to recall Bruce also being dismissive of Little Bird as well. Seems to still be a lot of contempt towards Dennis amongst certain members of the band, despite his having been dead now for three decades, which you would assume was punishment enough for whatever it was he did that annoyed them all those years ago... It's hard not to picture Dennis songs being endlessly voted down for inclusion on the forthcoming boxset because of certain band members ancient grudges.

[hypehat]

Mike was correct, though, in BW88 not only sounding like total sh*t, but sounding like total sh*t compared to what Brian was capable of. Forget the always limp "lol i'd like 2 see u do better" argument against Mike's recent work in 1992, he was right in his opinion that it did not sound good or near-close to what Brian was capable of. BW88 is so, so bad, production-wise.

The other two comments about the lyrics and non-commercial arrangements, well, I'll agree that we can chalk those up to jealousy and/or not "getting" Brian beyond a small fraction of his work.

Word.

[Nicko1234]

I'd imagine it's less Bruce doesn't like POB and more Bruce says he doesn't like POB because Mike and Dennis didn't get on and Bruce has his head permanently wedged up Mike's backside. I seem to recall Bruce also being dismissive of Little Bird as well. Seems to still be a lot of contempt towards Dennis amongst certain members of the band, despite his having been dead now for three decades, which you would assume was punishment enough for whatever it was he did that annoyed them all those years ago... It's hard not to picture Dennis songs being endlessly voted down for inclusion on the forthcoming boxset because of certain band members ancient grudges.

I don`t think Bruce is quite that easy a person to read though...

He has expressed his strong dislike for Friends and MIU for example which can`t be anything to do with the people involved.

Similarly his most hated Beach Boys recordings of all are Make it Big and Problem Child. One co-written by Mike and both written by Terry Melcher.