Beach Boys in the 80s

[Ninten]

Oh Darlin'
Goin' On
Getcha Back
I Do Love You
Chasin' The Sky

[CenturyDeprived]

I was thinking about this topic and managed to find this thread which covered precisely what I was thinking.  It's an interesting period because there seems to be enough to compile a few standout tracks but not enough that the decisions are particularly agonizing (as they would be in the 60's and 70's).  Unlike the 90's, it's not a complete wasteland and you don't need to rely on solo material.

Personally, a top 5 would probably consist of...

1. Where I Belong
2. Somewhere Near Japan
3. Getcha Back
4. Goin' On
5. It's Gettin' Late

That mirrors very closely with the results of this thread, which I couldn't resist running through.  I think I'm most surprised to see a song like Santa Ana Winds be as popular here as it is.  As much as Kokomo takes heat, I think I'd have it higher.  It actually would have narrowly missed my cut alongside the quirky Male Ego and In My Car.

1. Where I Belong: 65/17
2. Somewhere Near Japan: 56/15
3. Goin' On: 53.5/18
4. Getcha Back: 50/14
5. It's Gettin' Late: 31/11
6. Santa Ana Winds: 28.5/10
7. Keepin' the Summer Alive: 22/10
8. Livin' With a Heartache: 16/6
9. Rock and Roll to the Rescue: 12/4
10. Kokomo: 10/4

California Dreamin': 9/3
In My Car: 8/3
Maybe I Don't Know: 8/2
Endless Harmony: 7/3
Male Ego: 7/3
Chasin' the Sky: 7/2
Some of Your Love: 7/2
Island Girl: 4/1
California Calling: 3/1
I Do Love You: 3/1
East Meets West: 2/1
Still Cruisin': 2/1
Crack At Your Love: 2/1
I'm So Lonely: 1/1
Oh Darlin': 1/1
It's Just a Matter of Time: 1/1
She Believes in Love Again: 1/1

No love for Make it Big?
It's not short on cheese, but I still think it's mighty underrated.

[RangeRoverA1]

I think RangeRover is counting the decade as going from 1981 to 1990, and thats why Santa Ana Winds wasn't on their list, as it would've been from 1971-1980.

Right you are, Mr. Corn. Before reading this board, I didn't know there are folks not aware of the decade limits. It's a well-known scientific fact, hence 2001 is the beginning of the new millennium.

[bluesno1fann]

In no particular order:

Getcha Back
Maybe I Don't Know
Keepin' The Summer Alive
Where I Belong
Rock and Roll to the Rescue

Special mention to: Endless Harmony. If not for the ending, it would have made the list

Hmmm.... Had I written this recently, this list would be different.
Here's my revised list, in no particular order:

Maybe I Don't Know
Getcha Back
I Do Love You
She Believes In Love Again
Make It Big

[The Shift]

So the first year of my life wasn't part of my first decade?

[RangeRoverA1]

So the first year of my life wasn't part of my first decade?

Well, if you remember the math scale it goes like this:

-...... -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 ........ Nil is a starting point of your life, I don't know how to describe it rightly, but it doesn't count as a 1st decade. Don't blame me for that, I only give out facts here.

[The Shift]

That's okay… it explains why I don't remember anything from that first 12 months though!

[JK]

I'm only really familiar with Still Cruisin' so my five (which I sincerely like) are from that album:

Title track
Somewhere Near Japan
In My Car
Wipe Out
Make It Big

One day I'll give KTSA and TBB a closer listen----promise! :=)

[The 4th Wilson Bro.]

It surprises me (though it really shouldn't, I guess) how few of you included Kokomo on your lists.  Was the band's biggest seller really that bad?  Personally, I don't think so.  If it had no other redeeming value, Carl's vocal contribution was sufficient to vault that record to the top of the charts.  I still love hearing, "We'll get there fast and then we'll take it slow."  Ah, that voice was sublime!

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

Some of Your Love
Goin' On
Somewhere Near Japan (Single Mix)
Island Girl
In My Car

[runnersdialzero]

It surprises me (though it really shouldn't, I guess) how few of you included Kokomo on your lists.  Was the band's biggest seller really that bad?  Personally, I don't think so.  If it had no other redeeming value, Carl's vocal contribution was sufficient to vault that record to the top of the charts.  I still love hearing, "We'll get there fast and then we'll take it slow."  Ah, that voice was sublime!

It could just be a matter of hearing it a thousand times over. As much as I like the Beach Boys and don't mind "Kokomo", it's hard for me to even mentally associate the two given how often I heard "Kokomo" when I was about 3-4 years old and how I got into the Beach Boys when I was about 22. If I were able to make a list, I don't know if "Kokomo" would even occur to me to include unless I went through album tracklists.

[Bean Bag]

I was thinking about this topic and managed to find this thread which covered precisely what I was thinking.  It's an interesting period because there seems to be enough to compile a few standout tracks but not enough that the decisions are particularly agonizing (as they would be in the 60's and 70's).  Unlike the 90's, it's not a complete wasteland and you don't need to rely on solo material.

Personally, a top 5 would probably consist of...

1. Where I Belong
2. Somewhere Near Japan
3. Getcha Back
4. Goin' On
5. It's Gettin' Late

That mirrors very closely with the results of this thread, which I couldn't resist running through.  I think I'm most surprised to see a song like Santa Ana Winds be as popular here as it is.  As much as Kokomo takes heat, I think I'd have it higher.  It actually would have narrowly missed my cut alongside the quirky Male Ego and In My Car.

1. Where I Belong: 65/17
2. Somewhere Near Japan: 56/15
3. Goin' On: 53.5/18
4. Getcha Back: 50/14
5. It's Gettin' Late: 31/11
6. Santa Ana Winds: 28.5/10
7. Keepin' the Summer Alive: 22/10
8. Livin' With a Heartache: 16/6
9. Rock and Roll to the Rescue: 12/4
10. Kokomo: 10/4

California Dreamin': 9/3
In My Car: 8/3
Maybe I Don't Know: 8/2
Endless Harmony: 7/3
Male Ego: 7/3
Chasin' the Sky: 7/2
Some of Your Love: 7/2
Island Girl: 4/1
California Calling: 3/1
I Do Love You: 3/1
East Meets West: 2/1
Still Cruisin': 2/1
Crack At Your Love: 2/1
I'm So Lonely: 1/1
Oh Darlin': 1/1
It's Just a Matter of Time: 1/1
She Believes in Love Again: 1/1

I'm making a playlist right now.  This is awesome.

Off-topic... but, I'm also wondering about the 90s.  I feel like I don't have a good handle on all the stuff they did in 90s.  Seems like a lot of odds n' ends -- singles (?) and movie trax.  Just stuff.  Obviously not much in the way of albums.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

There's actually a great big whopper of an album they released in the very early 90s!!!!

Shall I send you some links? 

[Bean Bag]

Sorry, yes... I have this one. 

[Bean Bag]

Turns out I don't have these two:  East Meets West, Chasin' The Sky.

I got some learnin' to do. 

[alf wiedersehen]

"East Meets West":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6ce4pff8jY

"Chasin' the Sky":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI-Lway3bdM

[Bean Bag]

right on!  thanks bw!

[jet without wings]

Getcha Back
Kokomo
Santa Ana Winds
Goin On
Make It Big

Jet without wings

[LdC]

In no order because I cant :
getcha Back
still cruisin
kokomo
rock n roll to the rescue
and gulity pleasure... Wipeout!

[stack-o-tracks]

I feel like the Beach Boys would have been so much better in the 1980s if Dennis had beaten his demons and continued to play & write songs for the group. The "what could have beens" for this fuckin' band.... The massive amount of beautiful, timeless music we have and massive amount of missed opportunities by this band have got to be some sort of Guinness World Record.

It's a period I mostly ignore, the last album before the band died for me was Light Album after that I'm not interested. With Brian not on his A game and Dennis a non-factor, the quality just isn't there for me. though Somewhere Near Japan is a nice song. A lot of their music from that decade, including/especially Brian's solo LP, just sounds so 1980s. The production kills it. The timelessness is just lost with that sterile sound. I think the 90s was supposed to be the decade where they came back with the good sh*t but we all know how that turned out. 

[Orange Crate Art]

1. Goin' On
2. Getcha Back
3. Keeping The Summer Alive
4. Somewhere Near Japan
5. In My Car

[chrs_mrgn]

Sumahama
Sumahama
Sumahama

[bluesno1fann]

Sumahama
Sumahama
Sumahama

I get the sense that you're joking, but Sumahama was from the late-70's, not 80's.

[Bean Bag]

I feel like the Beach Boys would have been so much better in the 1980s if Dennis had beaten his demons and continued to play & write songs for the group. The "what could have beens" for this fuckin' band.... The massive amount of beautiful, timeless music we have and massive amount of missed opportunities by this band have got to be some sort of Guinness World Record.

It's a period I mostly ignore, the last album before the band died for me was Light Album after that I'm not interested. With Brian not on his A game and Dennis a non-factor, the quality just isn't there for me. though Somewhere Near Japan is a nice song. A lot of their music from that decade, including/especially Brian's solo LP, just sounds so 1980s. The production kills it. The timelessness is just lost with that sterile sound. I think the 90s was supposed to be the decade where they came back with the good sh*t but we all know how that turned out. 

Not too far off from how I feel either, Stack.  The Beach Boys definitely hold the record for wasted years/lost opportunities.  Personally, I extend it back to the 70s.  Their sound was so "in" in the 70s.  Groups like Chicago utilizing the sweet, sophisticated harmonies -- while the Beach Boys just sat on the sidelines.  Wasting the best years of their lives.

1970s
Pop music was developing and growing in the 70s, becoming more intelligent and sophisticated and layered.  I feel a lot of that was rooted in what the Beach Boys first created and pioneered.  The era could have really fit them well, had they been able to contribute.  Sail On, Sailor for example.  That's the song where I can really imagine how great they could have been in the 1970s.  (I do prefer Brian's lead from the 2012 Live album.  Better sense of the lost potential).

It coulda, shoulda, woulda been their best decade.  I do love what we have, mind you.  But much of it only shows signs of the greatness.  Creeping in was this odd sense that they were becoming stuck in eternal puberty or something.  A condition that was fully cemented in the 1980s.

1980s
Especially from '83 on.  They were so lean and limp, it makes the 70s look epic.  After Dennis died, the group (with some exceptions) was available only to damage their image.  The band took on an opportunistic sheen.  Appearing to shamelessly harvest the exterior surface from their past and youth.  Adding nothing new.

Coupled with the synthetic sound of mid/late-80s pop -- it made for one of the lamest and shallowest musics ever to exist.  Like layers of embarrassingly bad plastic surgery, in hopes of reclaiming their youth.  Or wearing a "Best Party Ever" t-shirt to a quiet, boring party -- without any sense of irony.  The Beach Boys became weak.  Even though I like what we have from the 80s and 90s -- it's only because I'm a hopeless fan.  Otherwise, it's tough stuff.

[Jim V.]

I feel like the Beach Boys would have been so much better in the 1980s if Dennis had beaten his demons and continued to play & write songs for the group. The "what could have beens" for this fuckin' band.... The massive amount of beautiful, timeless music we have and massive amount of missed opportunities by this band have got to be some sort of Guinness World Record.

It's a period I mostly ignore, the last album before the band died for me was Light Album after that I'm not interested. With Brian not on his A game and Dennis a non-factor, the quality just isn't there for me. though Somewhere Near Japan is a nice song. A lot of their music from that decade, including/especially Brian's solo LP, just sounds so 1980s. The production kills it. The timelessness is just lost with that sterile sound. I think the 90s was supposed to be the decade where they came back with the good sh*t but we all know how that turned out. 

Can we be honest about Dennis? Let's say he did clean up and contributed to the band in the '80s. No, I don't think he'd rock the cheesy "TV dad" look of Al or try to act like the cheeseball that Mike Love was. But I do think, judging by his work in the '60s and '70s, that he would have made super '80s material that woulda fit in perfectly on the 1985 album. Probably stuff like Carl's mid '80s material. I'm sure Dennis woulda been into the Steve Winwood, Genesis, whatever super produced sound. sh*t, I wouldn't doubt he woulda liked stuff like "Kokomo" and "Still Cruisin'." He definitely was a guy who dug the "adult contemporary" thing, and he also loved "keeping up with the times", and while I think it woulda been great if he lived and started producing material again, I have my reservations that it woulda been been anything more than Carl's contributions to the 1985 album, which though nice, are incredibly guilty pleasures.