MiC up for order on Amazon, August release

[Mendota Heights]

You've just got to love all this bickering going on here.

[Bean Bag]

It's essentially the guy from Swingers who leaves a tongue tied vm on a girl's machine, then calls back to try to explain himself, but keeps making it worse and worse with every message.

Really bud, you're better off just backing away and cutting your losses.

No, it's like the guy who's says...
"man, I don't know.  I've got most of these tracks..."

And then someone, hops the counter and says...
"WTF!!?? You're getting 60-80 tracks!!!??  You're not a fan - you're a jerk!!!"

And then I go...
"back off... it's 145 bux, rock star!!"

 

I have the Top 40 stuff six times over, maybe more between LPs, CDs, Cassettes, and even 8-Tracks. Who out of all us fanatics haven't bought this stuff over and over again? Come on, it is what we do. Why should buying MIC be any different?

I know.  And come August, I might panic and give in.  I think I'm going to hold the line on that price though.  I'm just trying to be honest with myself... a $15 comp is easier to stomach, which is why I gave in.  But it took a year or more.  I didn't give in on 50 big ones, even with the nice mini-box and cool artwork.  The fact that I held on that, might make me break on this.  There is a lot of stuff here I don't have.  If Adult Child was on here... I'd be a cheerleader.

[Wirestone]

As detailed on AGD's site, there are an INSANE amount of unreleased tracks. THAT'S what they should have released, not the same exact songs over and over.  

And the vast majority of those unreleased tracks are unreleased for a reason.

Yeah, but in that case, do you accept the argument that questions the point of view that Goin' To The Beach and Don't Go Near the Water (instrumental) are more releasable than Carry Me Home and We Got Love?

Actually, yes. In the first case, the song is apparently lost -- they couldn't find the tapes. In the second case, the song is a plodding bore with a tenuous link to the main members of the band.

[Jim V.]

This really sucks that nobody wants to talk about the actual previously unreleased material that's gonna be on the box. I thought I brought up some interesting topics and it gets buried by morons whining.

[AndrewHickey]

As detailed on AGD's site, there are an INSANE amount of unreleased tracks. THAT'S what they should have released, not the same exact songs over and over.  

And the vast majority of those unreleased tracks are unreleased for a reason.

Yeah, but in that case, do you accept the argument that questions the point of view that Goin' To The Beach and Don't Go Near the Water (instrumental) are more releasable than Carry Me Home and We Got Love?

*THAT* is the kind of discussion I want us to be having (again, not that I'm trying to impose my will on others and force them *only* to discuss that kind of thing...)

For the record, though, no, I don't. If Goin' To The Beach has been finished, as reported, we don't know what it will sound like (though if it's just the bootlegged instrumental track it probably should remain in the vaults). As for Don't Go Near The Water, I honestly think that the backing track of that is one of the most interesting things the band had done up to that point, and a vital ignored link in their evolution.

Carry Me Home I love, but I've heard both that there's no surviving releasable-quality copy and that Brian doesn't want it released because he doesn't want to hear Dennis singing about dying. Either of those would be a reasonable reason not to put it out, I think. And We Got Love is... just not very good at all. It should probably go on some rarities-roundup release at some point, but not on something that's supposed to present a picture of the band's career, because it's very far from a highlight.

[drbeachboy]

It's essentially the guy from Swingers who leaves a tongue tied vm on a girl's machine, then calls back to try to explain himself, but keeps making it worse and worse with every message.

Really bud, you're better off just backing away and cutting your losses.

No, it's like the guy who's says...
"man, I don't know.  I've got most of these tracks..."

And then someone, hops the counter and says...
"WTF!!?? You're getting 60-80 tracks!!!??  You're not a fan - you're a jerk!!!"

And then I go...
"back off... it's 145 bux, rock star!!"

 

I have the Top 40 stuff six times over, maybe more between LPs, CDs, Cassettes, and even 8-Tracks. Who out of all us fanatics haven't bought this stuff over and over again? Come on, it is what we do. Why should buying MIC be any different?

I know.  And come August, I might panic and give in.  I think I'm going to hold the line on that price though.  I'm just trying to be honest with myself... a $15 comp is easier to stomach, which is why I gave in.  But it took a year or more.  I didn't give in on 50 big ones, even with the nice mini-box and cool artwork.  The fact that I held on that, might make me break on this.  There is a lot of stuff here I don't have.  If Adult Child was on here... I'd be a cheerleader.

I don't blame you for waiting on price, because it will come down. I think the Smile Sessions dropped over $30 between announcement and release.

[AndrewHickey]

I presume that the track list will be the same all around the world which makes the exclusion of Then I Kissed her pretty bizarre to me. If you are going to sell a career retrospective then surely a song that as a top ten hit and a concert staple should be included.

That goes for Lady Lynda as well. If Al vetoed it then someone should have sat him down and said, 'Dennis doinked her. Deal with it.'

I definitely agree about both of those two. They really should be on there, and I'd be absolutely fascinated to know why they were excluded -- Then I Kissed Her more so than Lady Lynda.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

This really sucks that nobody wants to talk about the actual previously unreleased material that's gonna be on the box. I thought I brought up some interesting topics and it gets buried by morons whining.

Well said. You know people are so busy whining about what's missing they're not paying attention to what's there. I mean, Barnyard Blues? Where Is She? Alternate Meant For You? To name but three that have got me drooling with anticipation.

[KokoNO]

Comparison To Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys:

Disc One - They start out pretty much the same as I imagine the "new" Home Recordings/Surfin' (Highlights) opening track merely mines the first four tracks from the other boxed set. Then we get an in-the-studio look at "Surfin'" and a demo of "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring". Then the new box set goes on to grab the early hit singles and you pretty much realize that Made In California is basically a redux version of the set from twenty years ago, merely swapping out the rarities during the chronological overview in order to entice diehards along with changing the bonus material included as an addendum at the end of each box. As far as running through the years goes, the two sets are rather similar.

Songs Only On Made In California: Lonely Sea, Our Car Club, Surfers Rule, Back Home, Ballad Of Ole' Betsy, Girls On The Beach, All Dressed Up For School, Kiss Me Baby, In The Back Of My Mind,

Songs Only On Good Vibrations: Punchline, The Surfer Moon, Spirit Of America, The Things We Did Last Summer, She Knows Me Too Well, Radio Station Jingles/Concert Promo, Hushabye (Live)

Verdict: "She Knows Me Too Well" is the only track sorely missed from the older box. "Hushabye" is included in a different form on the new box on a later disc.




Disc Two - This was rather surprising. The two sets run from Summer Days to Smile on the second outing and the new release happens to have practically the same Smile songs as the previous one. Obviously, they're more complete this time around with much better sound quality, but still, the two discs look eerily alike (both even featuring a Radio Spot randomly thrown in there).

Songs Only On Made In California: Amusement Parks USA (Early Version), Salt Lake City, Let Him Run Wild, Graduation Day, There's No Other (Like My Baby), Radio Spot "Wonderful KYA", Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, Country Air

Songs Only On Good Vibrations: Then I Kissed Her, And Your Dream Comes True, Ruby Baby, KOMA (Radio Promo Spot), You Still Believe In Me, Hang On To Your Ego, Pet Sounds, Do You Like Worms, I Love To Say DaDa, Surf's Up (Demo), With Me Tonight

Verdict: While the older set had great value at the time by including those Smile tracks, it's now been superseded by The Smile Sessions. I get why the new boxed set had to include so many tracks from Smile and cover virtually the same ground as the old set (after all, it's their career high point), but it makes it a little too identical to the previous release for my taste. As far as song selection goes, "Then I Kissed Her" is woefully missed on the new set along with the extra Pet Sounds tracks. "Let Him Run Wild" seems to be the only major classic to my ears that's on the new set from this era but not the older one. I could give or take the rest (and honestly "Amusement Parks USA"? I get that it's an alternate version, but still...should have been relegated to the last disc and replaced with a classic).




Disc Three - Both discs cover the Wild Honey through Surf's Up eras. It should be noted that both sets include "Break Away", "Meant For You" and "Can't Wait Too Long" albeit in different versions. "Our Sweet Love" is on the last disc of the new set since it's an alternate version whereas the old one has the album track.

Songs Only On Made In California: Sail Plane Song, We're Together Again, Radio Spot "Murray The K", Ol' Man River (Vocal Section), Be With Me, Celebrate The News, Susie Cincinnati, Good Time, Slip On Through, It's About Time, Soulful Old Man Sunshine, Fallin' In Love, Sound Of Free

Songs Only On Good Vibrations: Cool, Cool Water, San Miguel, Games Two Can Play, I Just Got My Pay, H.E.L.P Is On The Way, 4th of July, Long Promised Road

Verdict: Pretty much a draw. They both harvest a different set of early 70s rarities, thus making it very frustrating and resulting in people still needing to have the earlier box. The newer set does Sunflower far more justice in my eyes by including two more of its best songs ("It's About Time" and "Slip On Through") whereas the other boxed set pretty much skipped over the LP since they were including so many rarities from that era instead. I'd say the old set does a better job in rarities (since a lot of the non-album tracks on the new set were previously released) while the new set does a better job at encapsulating the era.






Disc Four vs. Four/Five - The old set got us up to speed through "Kokomo" on the 4th disc whereas the new one doesn't make it past L.A. by that point thanks to an extra smattering of rarities. Both have "It's Over Now" oddly enough, but in different versions.

Songs Only On Made In California: Funky Pretty, Fairy Tale Music, You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone, That Same Song, Still I Dream Of It, Airplane, Our Team

Songs Only On Good Vibrations: Don't Go Near The Water, Feel Flows, Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again, Solar System, California Feelin', Brian's Back, Angel Come Home, It's A Beautiful Day, Goin' To The Beach, Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love, Da Doo Ron Ron, California Dreamin', Soul Searchin', You're Still A Mystery, That's Why God Made The Radio, Isn't It Time

Verdict: "Still I Dream Of It" is the only major loss for the new set. Otherwise, it's better with its late period choices and benefits nicely from the extra half disc to work with.




Final Thoughts: The new boxed set does a much better job at telling the band's chronological story although some of those rarities on the previous set were fantastic and are annoyingly missing from Made In California. I feel like they should have found a way to work in all of the stuff that's specific to the old boxed set (aside from Smile era stuff) onto this set, even if it meant adding another disc. I mean, like why include some tracks from Endless Harmony but forego including a lot of specific rarities from the previous boxed set?

The intention of this new set was clearly to update the old one, but they should have found a way to make the previous release meaningless. The way it stands, you're probably better off having both on your shelf (especially because of the Mono/Stereo divide between them).

[Bean Bag]

This really sucks that nobody wants to talk about the actual previously unreleased material that's gonna be on the box. I thought I brought up some interesting topics and it gets buried by morons whining.

Hey I never called anyone a moron for cheerleading!  

[AndrewHickey]

This really sucks that nobody wants to talk about the actual previously unreleased material that's gonna be on the box. I thought I brought up some interesting topics and it gets buried by morons whining.

Well said. You know people are so busy whining about what's missing they're not paying attention to what's there. I mean, Barnyard Blues? Where Is She? Alternate Meant For You? To name but three that have got me drooling with anticipation.

Absolutely -- though I can see why people aren't talking about those as much because we don't know anything at all about them.

But then, we don't know anything much about Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again, either, and that's not stopped there being a 46-page thread devoted to it

[drbeachboy]

This really sucks that nobody wants to talk about the actual previously unreleased material that's gonna be on the box. I thought I brought up some interesting topics and it gets buried by morons whining.

Well said. You know people are so busy whining about what's missing they're not paying attention to what's there. I mean, Barnyard Blues? Where Is She? Alternate Meant For You? To name but three that have got me drooling with anticipation.

How could I possibly comment on those songs when I have never heard them? I guess I could swoon over them like a school girl, but if it turns out that I don't like them come release time, boy will I be embarrassed.

[Andrew G. Doe]

But then, we don't know anything much about Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again, either, and that's not stopped there being a 46-page thread devoted to it

Er... some of we do. 

[drbeachboy]

But then, we don't know anything much about Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again, either, and that's not stopped there being a 46-page thread devoted to it

Er... some of we do. 

Enlighten us, oh great one!

[KokoNO]

I genuinely think that the cries of 'rip-off' from one or two board members are fair enough if that's how people feel.

Not, though, when it's coming from people who'd been saying for months how much they were looking forward to the box set. We've known for a long time what kind of thing this would be, and complaining when it was first announced would make reasonable sense -- I quite possibly did myself (I can't be bothered to look back and check, but I'm not exactly keen on rebuying stuff I've already got either).

Complaining now -- loudly and repeatedly, so that any discussion of the box becomes dominated by people shrieking about how ripped-off they feel about something they're not buying anyway -- is just annoying.

Why can't you just let us all complain about what is OBVIOUSLY patently absurd - i.e. the constant repetition of the same songs over and over again that Capitol knows a large majority of the fans will buy no matter what just to get the few morsels they've thrown out? I don't care if that's what they said they were delivering all along. It's still WHACK. As detailed on AGD's site, there are an INSANE amount of unreleased tracks. THAT'S what they should have released, not the same exact songs over and over.  

What I always feel they should have done is do two new boxed sets. One should have just been wall-to-wall rarities (including cuts from the Good Vibrations box) and the other should have been a five disc chronological overview of their career. The way this box works (and Good Vibrations for that matter), is that it wastes the time and money of hardcore fans by mostly including the same songs they've heard thousands of times over and it also annoys casual fans who are forced to suffer through weaker tracks and alternate versions when they really want a career overview. I honestly think combining both approaches in a boxed set is always a recipe for disaster. Diehards will flip around to the meat of the new package and casuals will simply opt out for a Greatest Hits disc.

[Nicko1234]

What I always feel they should have done is do two new boxed sets. One should have just been wall-to-wall rarities (including cuts from the Good Vibrations box) and the other should have been a five disc chronological overview of their career. The way this box works (and Good Vibrations for that matter), is that it wastes the time and money of hardcore fans by mostly including the same songs they've heard thousands of times over and it also annoys casual fans who are forced to suffer through weaker tracks and alternate versions when they really want a career overview. I honestly think combining both approaches in a boxed set is always a recipe for disaster. Diehards will flip around to the meat of the new package and casuals will simply opt out for a Greatest Hits disc.

That makes a lot of sense.

[TV Forces]

This really sucks that nobody wants to talk about the actual previously unreleased material that's gonna be on the box. I thought I brought up some interesting topics and it gets buried by morons whining.

I know.  I'd rather hear you whining about how nobody replied to your post.

[Micha]

Count me in as a fan of Susie.  Another big fan of the track was John Belushi!  I would have liked the mono single version but maybe this new mix will duplicate the mono version mix (with different placement of the sound effects) but in stereo.

Hope it doesn't! I'm not a fan of the single version. Still glad it's on there at all. Had I had a front row seat last year, Susie would have been one of the songs I would have loudly demanded.

I actually like "Cool Head, Warm Heart", but it's a Mike Love solo song.

Who arranged the vocal intro for that? Sounds very Brianish to me, though it obviously isn't.

The thirteen songs performed by Mike, Bruce and David in 2008 but not performed at Wembley were:
Surf City, Good Timin',  Good To My Baby, The Warmth Of The Sun, Let Him Run Wild, I Can Hear Music, Still Cruisin', You Still Believe In Me, Here Today, Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring, Cool Head, Warm Heart, Everyone's In Love With You, and 'Til I Die

Good To My Baby and Here Today??? They would have made my day!!!

Me too. I love SG and find FTTBA unlistenable. I'll give you that it's ambitious and interesting, but it does nothing for me, on top of being unpleasant to listen to.
Opinions 

"Unlistenable" is a bit harsh, I think... There's one unlistenable song though on TWGMTR, I tried it again today, I just can't stand that other one...

[Andrew G. Doe]

But then, we don't know anything much about Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again, either, and that's not stopped there being a 46-page thread devoted to it

Er... some of we do. 

Enlighten us, oh great one!

It's rather good. 

[KokoNO]

Andrew, Da Doo Ron Ron and Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love are also completely previously unreleased. But they WERE booted at one point!

Pretty sure they've never seen the light of day until now, hence why Andrew's post specifically highlighted songs that were "entirely previously unreleased"...

My bootleg collection disagrees with your analysis.

I read your earlier post wrong (worked night shfit last night), sorry for the confusion.

[KokoNO]

We get The Smile Sessions version of "Wonderful" instead of the Smiley Smile version included on this CD.

Actually, it's the Smiley Smile version on the box, too.

Sweet! Thanks for the info.

[AndrewHickey]

But then, we don't know anything much about Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again, either, and that's not stopped there being a 46-page thread devoted to it

Er... some of we do. 

True. But you're not doing most of the talking about it...

[Mendota Heights]

Paul Fauerso arranged the Cool Head, Warm Heart intro I believe.

[Nicko1234]

Paul Fauerso arranged the Cool Head, Warm Heart intro I believe.

Not Adrian Baker?

[Mendota Heights]

Paul Fauerso arranged the Cool Head, Warm Heart intro I believe.

Not Adrian Baker?

"Produced and Arranged by Paul Fauerso
Additional Vocal Arrangements by Adrian Baker"

I think I read somewhere Fauerso arranged the intro, but I could be wrong.