The misconceptions of the 1972-post output...

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Again, the quality or lack thereof lies in the opinion of the listener. You may feel like the move from singles to albums was excessive;others may view it as the music ceasing to be disposable. I'm trying like hell  to respect your opinion, but it's hard to do so when you're presenting your opinion as 'fact'.

Its not opinion or fact- the music speaks for itself. There was a timeless golden era of rock n roll and there was what followed that reflected dire times- that music was good for what it was but it was in a different vein or what-have-you.

'Timeless' and 'dire' are both opinions you're presenting as fact, and you keep stating music stopped evolving around 67-68. In your opinion it did; in many other peoples', it didn't. Neither side is necessarily right or wrong (although I sure know where I myself stand on that one); my issue is you are coming across as 'I'm right, and everyone else is wrong', when it should be 'this is how I personally feel' and leave it at that.

Moving on...

There are some nice melodies and chord progressions on that album, but the lyrics are embarrassing, and I'm not into that whole synth-garage sound, and the vocals on Love You leave a lot to be desired. I never appreciated how well written the tunes were until I heard Brian doing them alone on the piano (Brian Loves You).

Personally speaking, I love the lyrics, and happen to love the synth sound. That said, I can certainly see why it is polarizing; a Beach Boys album has never sounded the same, before or since.  With that in mind, though, hearing the piano demos was a revelation for me, and Brian's rough vocals add to the ambiance. As a huge fan of Tom Waits, it resonated with me instantly.

That said, I prefer 'Everybody Wants to Live Just Once' to anything on Love You.

[Micha]

Since I really do respect most peoples' opinions around here, I figure there must be something to all the 'Love You' love.  I just haven't figured it out yet.

When you've figured it out, tell me.

What finally hooked me on the album, after not getting it the first three or four times I listened (I'm slow on the uptake) was trying to play some of the songs myself. If you play an instrument, try just chording through some of those songs. You'll gain a whole new appreciation for them after that.

Oh, I absolutely appreciate the songs! On another thread I wrote: If I imagine "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" on Today, "The Night Was So Young" on Pet Sounds, "Love Is A Woman" on Sunflower... all instant classics. But the way they were recorded and how they sound puts me off to an extent that I'd like to puke out of rage. Unfortunately I haven't heard the piano demos, I'm sure I'd like them better.

[phirnis]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

[Nicko1234]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I felt that those were some of the weaker covers on that comp. But maybe partly because I think I Wanna Pick You and Good Time are weak songs anyway...

[Wild-Honey]

[/quote]
I never said rockNroll evolved in the 70s. It evolved in the 60s and went as far as 67. 68 and so on went in different directions but I wouldn't say it evolved at all. Some may see it differently and that's ok, not everyone wanted to see it for what it was and that's prerogative. 
[/quote]


On one hand you are saying some see it differently and that's okay, but then you turn around and nullify what you have just said stating that these people don't want to see if for what it is.  HUH?   You have had this opinion on a few threads now, well actually an opinion that you say is fact.

[Wild-Honey]

Since I really do respect most peoples' opinions around here, I figure there must be something to all the 'Love You' love.  I just haven't figured it out yet.

When you've figured it out, tell me.

What finally hooked me on the album, after not getting it the first three or four times I listened (I'm slow on the uptake) was trying to play some of the songs myself. If you play an instrument, try just chording through some of those songs. You'll gain a whole new appreciation for them after that.

Oh, I absolutely appreciate the songs! On another thread I wrote: If I imagine "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" on Today, "The Night Was So Young" on Pet Sounds, "Love Is A Woman" on Sunflower... all instant classics. But the way they were recorded and how they sound puts me off to an extent that I'd like to puke out of rage. Unfortunately I haven't heard the piano demos, I'm sure I'd like them better.

Maybe the owls that were puking in AGD's bed had been listening to Love You? 

[Micha]

Since I really do respect most peoples' opinions around here, I figure there must be something to all the 'Love You' love.  I just haven't figured it out yet.

When you've figured it out, tell me.

What finally hooked me on the album, after not getting it the first three or four times I listened (I'm slow on the uptake) was trying to play some of the songs myself. If you play an instrument, try just chording through some of those songs. You'll gain a whole new appreciation for them after that.

Oh, I absolutely appreciate the songs! On another thread I wrote: If I imagine "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" on Today, "The Night Was So Young" on Pet Sounds, "Love Is A Woman" on Sunflower... all instant classics. But the way they were recorded and how they sound puts me off to an extent that I'd like to puke out of rage. Unfortunately I haven't heard the piano demos, I'm sure I'd like them better.

Maybe the owls that were puking in AGD's bed had been listening to Love You? 

Hehe, you nailed it, it's because of that line that I used the word "puke" here!

[MaxL]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I felt that those were some of the weaker covers on that comp. But maybe partly because I think I Wanna Pick You and Good Time are weak songs anyway...

When I found out Alex Chilton did a cover for that album I thought a song from Love You would really fit his post-Big Star style and he did pull off "I Wanna Pick You Up" in his own "couldn't care less" and punky way which really opened to my eyes to how punky and off-the-wall LY is. I first started to really appreciate LY when I stopped comparing it to other BB albums and what it "could've been" and appreciate it for what it is.

[kookadams]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I felt that those were some of the weaker covers on that comp. But maybe partly because I think I Wanna Pick You and Good Time are weak songs anyway...

When I found out Alex Chilton did a cover for that album I thought a song from Love You would really fit his post-Big Star style and he did pull off "I Wanna Pick You Up" in his own "couldn't care less" and punky way which really opened to my eyes to how punky and off-the-wall LY is. I first started to really appreciate LY when I stopped comparing it to other BB albums and what it "could've been" and appreciate it for what it is.
Exactly- its great for what it is .

[hypehat]

I think that's what they call damning with faint praise...

[oldsurferdude]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I am and to me, they're an incredible improvement over the originals. Not that he will, but would luHv to see Brian and his band redo this album.

[kookadams]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I am and to me, they're an incredible improvement over the originals. Not that he will, but would luHv to see Brian and his band redo this album.

That would be very interesting.

[Lonely Summer]

RE: Love You, I've been listening to this album over and over again for a week and I still have no clue why anybody, anybody likes that album.  I really am trying to keep an open mind about this period and Love You in particular, but I feel like y'all are trying to convince me that a turd is a tootsie roll.

I wrote this in a recent post on another thread:

Love You is truly a paradox: it's a really bad album that's totally brilliant.

Considering the disappointment of 15 Big Ones, Love You was a great followup. The public wanted new Brian Wilson and with Love You they got an entire album of it. And the album reflected his mindset of the time. Brian poured out his soul with Pet Sounds and he did it in an entirely new fashion with Love You and I think that's respectable. And even tho the Beach Boys experimented with disco they never did with punk but I say Love You was as close as it got. There was definitely an edge with the album.

Yup - the public wanted new Brian Wilson...which apparently is why Love You quickly found it's way to the cut out bins - so all BB's fans could buy it at a low price!

[Jim V.]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I am and to me, they're an incredible improvement over the originals. Not that he will, but would luHv to see Brian and his band redo this album.

He did say he wanted to recently. Maybe that's what he was working on the past few weeks (doubt it though).

[SMiLE Brian]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I am and to me, they're an incredible improvement over the originals. Not that he will, but would luHv to see Brian and his band redo this album.

He did say he wanted to recently. Maybe that's what he was working on the past few weeks (doubt it though).

Just name the album "Brian loves you"

[bonnevillemariner]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I am and to me, they're an incredible improvement over the originals. Not that he will, but would luHv to see Brian and his band redo this album.

That would be very interesting.

I could go for that.  His voice sounds much better now and I bet they'd use real instruments this time.  As far as re-do's go, though, I'd love to see the Boys release an "enhanced" version of of "This Whole World" keeping Carl's lead and extending the outtro.  The production on that track does not do it justice.  Then it ends way, way too soon.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

Micha, are you familiar with the handful of Love You cover songs on the "Caroline Now!" compilation album? Maybe you'd enjoy these a bit better than the original renditions.

I am and to me, they're an incredible improvement over the originals. Not that he will, but would luHv to see Brian and his band redo this album.

He did say he wanted to recently. Maybe that's what he was working on the past few weeks (doubt it though).

If they did, I imagine it would be just as good as previous re-recordings of Beach Boys classics, like "Here Comes the Night," "Surfin'," "Forever," or the Imagination versions of "Keep an Eye on Summer" and "Let Him Run Wild."

What I love about The Beach Boys Love You is its strikingly direct presentation of Brian's mental state from the time he wrote and recorded it.  There was a thread awhile back when Jon Stebbins said that asking Dennis' voice to sound less hoarse on "My Diane" (not a Love You song, but very much in the same spirit in my view) was like demanding a Monet painting to look more like a photograph.  That's more or less how I feel about trying to record Love You with the more cautious, streamlined, and smooth production style that we have been hearing on "Brian Wilson Productions" of late: the melodies would still be good, but the art is as much about the way we see the artist's brushstrokes (or in this case, hoarse vocals and crazed synthesizer-driven productions that sound like they originated in an alternate universe) as it is about the thing it shows.

[Myk Luhv]

Brian's current band doing Love You would be horrible precisely because they'd sing it professionally and use "real instruments" (whatever the f*** that means, since I'm pretty sure synthesizers are real instruments). That album, like Smiley Smile, is a disarming lo-fi achievement.

[phirnis]

I don't mean to offend but someday someone's got to explain to me why an electric guitar is widely considered a "real instrument" among rock music listeners while a synthesizer is not.

Anyway, not entirely sure what to think about the prospect of BW and band revisiting Love You. I think I'd much rather like him to do another entirely new record in that vein. Still the original LY is probably my favorite album so in any case I'm glad it's getting some much-deserved attention.

[hypehat]

I don't mean to offend but someday someone's got to explain to me why an electric guitar is widely considered a "real instrument" among rock music listeners while a synthesizer is not.

Because people who deny the synthesiser are twats.

[bonnevillemariner]

What I love about The Beach Boys Love You is its strikingly direct presentation of Brian's mental state from the time he wrote and recorded it. 

And right there's the distinction between those who like this album and those who don't.  It's how we individually define what's "good."  If the primary criterion for liking Love You is how directly it presents Brian's mental state at the time, I suppose It's a masterpiece.

My primary criterion is more basic, I guess.  It's how a piece of music sounds to me, which is obviously a matter of taste.  Does it hit the right buttons in my brain? In the case of Love You, quite the opposite for me.

Brian's current band doing Love You would be horrible precisely because they'd sing it professionally and use "real instruments" (whatever the f*** that means, since I'm pretty sure synthesizers are real instruments).

Synthesizers are a real instrument like a vitamin is real food.  Real? Sure.  But unless I'm listening to electronica, I'll take an analog instrument over digital any day.  Not a huge fan of electric guitar either.

[Myk Luhv]

There are analogue synths, you know. They're all over Love You, even! I think you're conflating 'analogue' with 'acoustic' or 'non-amplified'?

[bonnevillemariner]

There are analogue synths, you know. They're all over Love You, even! I think you're conflating 'analogue' with 'acoustic' or 'non-amplified'?

I'm not a musician, but generally I'm talking about sounds that would be right at home on the Tron soundtrack.  Or sounds that mimic another instrument, but that are not generated by that instrument.  Or just electronic sounds in general-- something created by pushing a button rather than picking a string.  Nothing wrong with synths, but I personally prefer an instrument to an electronic sound.  The synths on Love You make it even less appealing.  That's not the primary factor, though.  I think I'd like that album much better if Brian didn't sound like death warmed over-- heck, if I could even recognize without too much effort that it's actually him.  Ah, but I suppose changing any one of those factors would moot the album's authenticity.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Brian's current band doing Love You would be horrible precisely because they'd sing it professionally and use "real instruments" (whatever the f*** that means, since I'm pretty sure synthesizers are real instruments). That album, like Smiley Smile, is a disarming lo-fi achievement.

Absolutely! David Byrne once made a rare compliment of his Talking Head's former bandmates by saying that the great thing about that band was that they were never above playing the simplest little parts possible and that it's a rare thing to find: competent musicians who can see beyond the need to demonstrate what they CAN do and are as interested in the what is necessary (even if it's next to nothing) to make the whole complete..... I can't see Brian's drummer willingly just sitting there striking his floor tom on every other up beat for Love You performance. I'm sure he'd do it, but the whole thing would be a bit uncomfortable.... Besides, do we really want to have to witness Foskette murdering Love Is A Woman???

[Myk Luhv]

Brian should've just joined Can in the '70s. Think about how much that could've ruled.