Changes/Additions to the Sunflower LP (if any)

[Rotat]

I was reading about Sunflower a little (going through some archives on this board) and I realized how I personally always felt that at least 1 or 2 tracks could have been changed a little since I heard it years ago. At first I didn't even like it much except for Brian's songs. As it is, I love the album but it's one that I don't listen to all the way through. I usually come back to a few songs at a time. Anyway if you could change Sunflower a bit and put in some outtakes, what would you change? I wouldn't change it much except for 2 or 3 songs.

I think I would put "Lady" and/or "Sound Of Free" instead of "Got To Know The Woman". To me that is possibly Dennis's weakest song that he's ever done. It's not bad at all, just inferior than anything else he did at the time. "Tears In The Morning" is good, but I think the album could have used another Brian track, like "Good Time" instead. I actually even prefer the backing track to "Tears" a lot more.

Even though "H E L P" wouldn't fit on the album at all, I love it and it's a shame it wasn't released until 23 years later. Might have even been a decent single? It's catchy, kinda humorous and feel good.. There were other songs like that at the time like "Brand New Key" a year or so later.

[alf wiedersehen]

I really like the album also, but there are a few songs I would definitely get rid of.

The first being "Got to Know the Woman." It's a fun song and enjoyable (and also, to me, very McCartney-esque), but it doesn't quite match up to the quality of the rest of the songs.
The second is "It's About Time." It's just... not good. I think it's really melodramatic and the words Carl sings over the bridge are terrible.
The third being "At My Window." It's just not my favorite. I can see why people would like it, but it's just doesn't really do anything for me.

One song that I think would have been great on Sunflower is "Soulful Old Man Sunshine." I think it fits the mood of the album and it's also just a great tune.
Other outtakes that might have fit well are "Good Time" and "Where is She?" (if it had been finished). Ooh, also the 1970 "Back Home."

[Rotat]

I really like the album also, but there are a few songs I would definitely get rid of.

The first being "Got to Know the Woman." It's a fun song and enjoyable (and also, to me, very McCartney-esque), but it doesn't quite match up to the quality of the rest of the songs.
The second is "It's About Time." It's just... not good. I think it's really melodramatic and the words Carl sings over the bridge are terrible.
The third being "At My Window." It's just not my favorite. I can see why people would like it, but it's just doesn't really do anything for me.

One song that I think would have been great on Sunflower is "Soulful Old Man Sunshine." I think it fits the mood of the album and it's also just a great tune.
Other outtakes that might have been fit well are "Good Time" and "Where is She?" (if it had been finished).

Agreed on adding all those outtakes and your comment. I'm not a big fan of "It's About Time" either, never really was. However I love "At My Window". It's kinda cheesy but these are the type of quaint little songs I would have loved to hear more of. It is one of those tunes that reminds me of what some modern indie type bands are doing these days. I just feel a lot of what Dennis was doing on this album was very un-Beach Boys sounding (except Forever) and I'm not too keen on it. I didn't fully appreciate Slip On Through either, until I heard that vocal only version on MIC..

[Nicko1234]

Got to Know the Woman should definitely have been omitted. Lady is a much better Dennis song.

[Summer_Days]

I love 'Lady', but I think it'd sound better on Surf's Up than Sunflower. That album needs a  Dennis presence anyway. So with 'Lady', maybe 'Sound of Free' or '4th of July' and 'WIBNTLA' instead of 'Take Care of Your Feet', 'Don't Go Near the Water' and SDT, you'd have a pretty solid album.


Personally I love Sunflower as it is.

[retrokid67]

Got to Know the Woman should definitely have been omitted. Lady is a much better Dennis song.

Maybe it's not his best written song, but his vocals on there was awesome  I wonder if it was about any specific girl 

[Aum Bop Diddit]

Love "At My Window".  It also has that lush, adult, "Sunflower" vibe and fits right in on the LP.  A song I'm not totally crazy about, "Tears in the Morning," is redeemed by the rich background vocals and it's soothing, if melancholy, fade.  Again -- the stuff of Sunflower.  Can admit the two cited Denny songs fall outside of that a bit for me, though I can enjoy them.  But it does feel like the album misses absolute greatness by a cut or two.

[Dudd]

I think Sunflower's a lovely solid album as is... if anything I'd swap Add Some Music for Soulful Old Man Sunshine.

[runnersdialzero]

The answer with the Beach Boys, to me, is never removing tracks or changing, just more albums. ^___________^

Well, this is true until about '78 or so when I would definitely be making some different decisions.

[bluesno1fann]

Replace At My Window with Soulful Old Man Sunshine
Replace Our Sweet Love with Lady

Then Sunflower would be a better album.

P.S. It's About Time is the best song from the whole album, enough with the hate on that song

[retrokid67]

Replace At My Window with Soulful Old Man Sunshine
Replace Our Sweet Love with Lady

Then Sunflower would be a better album.

P.S. It's About Time is the best song from the whole album, enough with the hate on that song

 

[Rotat]

As a Brian song, I never loved "Our Sweet Love" either. His songs usually have a magical quality to it (even on Sunflower itself) but that one is a song Brian would have written in his sleep. However I really like the instrumental with Brian bg vocals version or the other vocals only version. It seems like I enjoy the alternate mixes of most of these songs more than the actual thing for some reason.

[Niko]

P.S. It's About Time is the best song from the whole album, enough with the hate on that song

The lyrics are

[bluesno1fann]

P.S. It's About Time is the best song from the whole album, enough with the hate on that song

The lyrics are

The lyrics are great! Cheesy it is not.

Even if it is:

[retrokid67]

P.S. It's About Time is the best song from the whole album, enough with the hate on that song

The lyrics are

  I believe that's the song where it started out as a poem and then he, Carl, and Al made a few changes to it

[retrokid67]

P.S. It's About Time is the best song from the whole album, enough with the hate on that song

The lyrics are

  I believe that's the song where it started out as a poem and then he, Carl, and Al made a few changes to it

Would you rather listen to this or "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" 

[Moon Dawg]

  I'd keep everything on, as is, while adding "Susie Cincinnati", "Cotton Fields", "Lady", and "Break Away" as bonus tracks.  Al Jardine got somewhat screwed on the finished tracklist, and I find "Cotton Fields" to be somehow right following "Cool Cool Water." "Break Away" isn't quite as sonically sophisticated as most of SUNFLOWER but it was recorded (March 69) when several SUNFLOWER tracks were getting started. "Lady" is more SUNFLOWER than SURF'S UP imo.

[Niko]

Would you rather listen to this or "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" 

A bit of an odd song to mention (they were made a bunch of years apart from each other)
I love them both but I'll take It's About Time thx

[retrokid67]

Would you rather listen to this or "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" 

A bit of an odd song to mention (they were made a bunch of years apart from each other)
I love them both but I'll take It's About Time thx

I mentioned it because you said "It's About Time" was xtra cheesy  , but this song is probably the cheesiest song they ever recorded. 

[Niko]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBFsJk6PWu0

[coco1997]

01. Slip On Through
02. This Whole World
03. Add Some Music
04. Deirdre
05. Where Is She?
06. Soulful Old Man Sunshine
07. It's About Time
08. Break Away
09. Tears In the Morning
10. All I Wanna Do
11. Forever
12. Our Sweet Love
13. At My Window

[shelter]

I love every song on Sunflower so I wouldn’t take anything off. But there are a lot of songs that didn’t make the album but should or at least could have. So if I could go back in time and change anything about that album, I’d just make it a double LP. The Beatles had one too, so why not?

So that would be the original Sunflower album, plus:

San Miguel
Break Away
Celebrate The News
Loop De Loop
Cotton Fields (single version)
Soulful Old Man Sunshine
When Girls Get Together
Games Two Can Play
Where Is She
Susie Sincinnati
Back Home
Lady
Sound Of Free
I Just Got My Pay

[The Shift]

I love every song on Sunflower so I wouldn’t take anything off. But there are a lot of songs that didn’t make the album but should or at least could have. So if I could go back in time and change anything about that album, I’d just make it a double LP. The Beatles had one too, so why not?

So that would be the original Sunflower album, plus:

San Miguel
Break Away
Celebrate The News
Loop De Loop
Cotton Fields (single version)
Soulful Old Man Sunshine
When Girls Get Together
Games Two Can Play
Where Is She
Susie Sincinnati
Back Home
Lady
Sound Of Free
I Just Got My Pay

Best post in this thread so far.

There've been so many "alternative Sunflower" threads in recent years though that one can only hope the record company gets he hint and puts out a Deluxe two or three version packed with all these additional songs and alternative takes etc, and maybe rounds up all the vox-only and instrumentals that we've heard down the years.

Don't think there's anyone here who wouldn't shell out for that.

[Niko]

What I want more than anything is more stuff from All I Wanna Do.
Acapella, backing track, sessions, alternate vocals, etc.

Sunflower box needs to happen. Call it Sunflower Seeds and release it so we can all be happy.

[alf wiedersehen]

What I want more than anything is more stuff from All I Wanna Do.
Acapella, backing track, sessions, alternate vocals, etc.

I agree.

Even on the many "bootlegs" that I've been hearing so many great things about, this track is surprisingly absent.