Love is a Woman

[Wirestone]

So I was driving about, running errands as I do. I was listening to the 15 BO / LY twofer, which I hadn't really listened to all the way through for a year or so. And I grooved along with 15 BO, as you do, sometimes wincing, and enjoyed the heck out of LY, while really appreciating some of Carl's guitar work for the first time.

... But then I came to the closing track. And I have to say ... I have written at length about the worst of the Beach Boys. I've listened to Summer in Paradise multiple times. I've listened to (and enjoyed) Smart Girls. I have written at length defending GIOMH. In all of these albums, you can at least hear people trying, however inartfully, to do something musical.

But Love is a Woman. Wow. Is it just me, or is this most laughably half-assed song of the band's entire career? The arrangement is so bare-bones it practically doesn't exist, Brian sings like a coked-up zombie, and Mike can barely contain his contempt for the material. (Al, as always, is fine.) And every part of the song underwhelms ... including the tag, which could have been thought up by a narcoleptic middle schooler.

And it's one of the real problems for Love You, which has so much good stuff on it, that at certain points on the album, Brian just doesn't seem to give a f***. Like Mona, which is pretty much just one riff over and over and over and over and Phil Spector and fine wine. And that bit in Solar System where he actually rhymes moon and June. And to end with this song ... well, it makes the album seem a lot less classic.

But it's also hard not to love it, in a sense, because Brian is so clearly just wants to get out of the studio and eat some cake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCMC5oDX588
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qse5aelP64o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k4p_gfGJUs

[Jeff]

I'm usually not one for half-assed material, but I'd still take it any day over proficient but overly sanitized tracks like I Can Hear Music or Don't Hurt My Little Sister...

[astroray]

I love all Brian Wilson music but "Love is a Woman" has got to be at the bottom of the list. Something has got to be at the bottom!

[Rocky Raccoon]

Yeah, it's pretty bad.  I think the Love You album is wonderful for the most part but what a lousy song to end on.  I think "Airplane" would have been a much better song to end on, especially with that "can't wait to see her face" tag.

[Wirestone]

I think "Save the Day" has got to be the absolute worst, but I actually like it much better as "Fairy Tale."

[Nicko1234]

Love is a Woman is indeed atrocious. The lyrics to Solar System are dire too (don`t know what they were thinking when they included that on the box).

Fairytale is dismal as well though.

As for the worst... The Waltz is appalling and Just Say No is laughable.

[Gertie J.]

BRIAN!!!! DONT WRITE JUNKS ANYMORE PLEASE!!!!!! thanx.

[DonnyL]

I love it !

[Waspinators]

Oh, but what a perfect song to drunkenly belt out with your buddies after a long night of bar-hopping.

And I love Solar System to death.

[SonicVolcano]

I agree. Terrible song and for sure the weakest on Love You. Side one> Side two for me anyway.

[BergenWhitesMoustache]

Side one> Side two for me anyway.

Yeah, I'd agree with that

But...Love is a Woman is awesome! Sorry guys, denied. It's got a really great, weird vibe to it, there are some good harmonies, the 1 2 3 TWO THREE! bit is ace. And I even like the bit where Brian gets some phlegm stuck in his throat at the end and sounds like Carol Channing for the 'TONIGHT'

There are a billion shitter Brian songs- ie, his entire solo career since 1998. It's all just slick and unlistenable. Love is a woman is ragged, sure, but it's got personality.

[Micha]

It's actually one of the songs on LY that I dislike the least.

[AndrewHickey]

Love is a Woman is indeed atrocious. The lyrics to Solar System are dire too (don`t know what they were thinking when they included that on the box).

I think they were thinking "this is the finest melody Brian Wilson wrote in the 1970s, with a charming, if slightly inept, lyric".

[BergenWhitesMoustache]

So aside from The Beach Boys, what are the majority of people on here into?

From all the moaning about the more out there stuff I'm guessing it's like 'Beach Boys', 'U2', 'Coldplay'


No one else here who grew up on a diet of Skip Spence and Syd Barrett and finds this stuff to be pleasingly quirky, just another fantastic twist of the Beach Boys catalogue?

[AndrewHickey]

So aside from The Beach Boys, what are the majority of people on here into?

From all the moaning about the more out there stuff I'm guessing it's like 'Beach Boys', 'U2', 'Coldplay'


No one else here who grew up on a diet of Skip Spence and Syd Barrett and finds this stuff to be pleasingly quirky, just another fantastic twist of the Beach Boys catalogue?

There are a LOT of us on here who like the quirkier stuff -- including some of the people who've commented on this thread who just happen to not like that particular song (though I for one love it)...

[Cabinessenceking]

So aside from The Beach Boys, what are the majority of people on here into?

From all the moaning about the more out there stuff I'm guessing it's like 'Beach Boys', 'U2', 'Coldplay'


No one else here who grew up on a diet of Skip Spence and Syd Barrett and finds this stuff to be pleasingly quirky, just another fantastic twist of the Beach Boys catalogue?

LY is one of my personal favourites. Love Is A Woman is Brian making fun of Mike and he probably didn't want to sing on the day they recorded, which is why his vocs are shite. LY has got some true gems though.

[pixletwin]

Love is a Woman is my favorite song on LY.

[Heteronym]

Oh, but what a perfect song to drunkenly belt out with your buddies after a long night of bar-hopping.

And I love Solar System to death.

True. Love is a Woman screams drunkness, that's why I enjoy it - I know Brian wasn't that serious about it.

"1, 2, 3, she's falling in love with me" is awesome!!

Solar System is so creative and also funny that I can't imagine someone not liking it.

[BergenWhitesMoustache]

LY is one of my personal favourites. Love Is A Woman is Brian making fun of Mike and he probably didn't want to sing on the day they recorded, which is why his vocs are shite. LY has got some true gems though.

Yeah...I know not everyone on here is a big miseryguts. I just think it's funny how easy it would be to put together a comp of what I consider prime era BB (61-79) that loads of die hard fans would absolutely LOATHE. So much hatred for what I consider to  be 'all good' to varying extents.

[Wirestone]

I love Love You. And am a huge fan of quirky stuff -- bought several of the two-disc Roky Erickson reissues recently, own all the latter-day Tom Waits albums, and have an extensive collection of 12-tone classical CDs.

But I am, I will admit, a sucker for craft. That is, I like to feel like a songwriter has at least put something together with some real thought. I don't mind atonal classical music if it has some discernable structure and emotional point. And that's why I find Love is a Woman so funny -- it's just kind of shoddy. (And I've turned around on a song like Let's Put Our Hearts Together, which has amazing, out of nowhere chords. There's real craft there. Ditto for the music and arrangement -- if not some of the lyrics -- on Solar System.)

I think a good counterbalance (to me) is Johnny Carson. Clearly the song is kind of a put-on. But it has an amazing amount of things going on -- from the instrumentation to the back-and-forth vocals, to the way that Mike kind of speaks for Johnny. And in that context, the non-existent instrumental break is fabulously funny. Yes, Brian's taking the piss, but it's in such an out-there song, that he so clearly enjoyed putting together, that I dig it.

Edit: For the record, here are some recent CD purchases.

Curtis Mayfield -- Superfly soundtrack
Plant and Krauss -- Raising Sand
The Zombies -- Breathe Out, Breathe In (new 2011 album, not bad)
Scissor Sisters -- Night Work
McCartney II
TMBG -- Nanobots
The Flaming Lips -- And Heady Fwends
Wilco -- The Whole Love
CSN -- Daylight Again
Of Monsters and Men -- My Head is an Animal
Randy Newman -- 12 Songs

[DonnyL]

So aside from The Beach Boys, what are the majority of people on here into?

From all the moaning about the more out there stuff I'm guessing it's like 'Beach Boys', 'U2', 'Coldplay'


No one else here who grew up on a diet of Skip Spence and Syd Barrett and finds this stuff to be pleasingly quirky, just another fantastic twist of the Beach Boys catalogue?

This board can be divided into two camps: those who like Manson and dislike BW's solo career, and those who dislike Manson and like BW's solo career.

[TMinthePM]

Elmer Fudd.

[Mikie]

Love is a Woman is my favorite song on LY.

I can't believe you said that with a straight face.

[alf wiedersehen]

The first time I listened to Love You was coming back from L.A. in a car with a few friends. As the CD was playing, I was defending the music. Then, it got to the last song, and I hung my head in shame.

It's kind of grown on me since, though.

[Smile4ever]

I'm kind of shocked by this. I think Love is a Woman is a great closer for the album. I really like the song. Yes, it is a little bit sloppy in its arrangement and delivery, but the tune itself is great.