Kokomo vs. Here Comes the Night (DISCO) article - worst ever

[astroray]

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/think_kokomo_is_the_beach_boys_worst_single_think_again

[Wrightfan]

There are MANY singles that are worse than Kokomo. Not with songs like Ten Little Indians, Peggy Sue and others.

[Moon Dawg]

There are MANY singles that are worse than Kokomo. Not with songs like Ten Little Indians, Peggy Sue and others.

  Bluebirds Over the Mountain

[The Cincinnati Kid]

The only reasons some think Kokomo is one of the worst Beach Boys songs are the following:  it is a Mike song and Brian wasn't involved.

[Rocky Raccoon]

The article lost me when he called Wild Honey a "middling" album. 

[rogerlancelot]

The author's name is Ron Kretsch. Is he a SS member?

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Excellent review, however, I disagree on his take with the original HCTN which besides Darlin' is a great Brian song, which is far better than middle ground.

[bossaroo]

the let’s-f*** lyrical content

 


Kokomo isn't actually a Mike song, John Phillips wrote the thing. Mike's contributions were likely similar to those of Wouldn't It Be Nice.

[rogerlancelot]

Actually, I would prefer any BB single from the 1970's over later ones like "Problem Child", "East Meets West" and "Wipe Out" not to mention 1965's "Barbara Ann" or 1967's "Gettin' Hungry".

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

 

The only reasons some think Kokomo is one of the worst Beach Boys songs are the following:  it is a Mike song and Brian wasn't involved.

And it painfully shows. I could see The Starland Vocal Band doing that kind of tasteless ilk, or mike and brucie , but putting the BB name to THAT? 

[bgas]

The only reasons some think Kokomo is one of the worst Beach Boys songs are the following:  it is a Mike song and Brian wasn't involved.

And it painfully shows. I could see The Starland Vocal Band doing that kind of tasteless ilk, or mike and brucie , but putting the BB name to THAT? 

It's got a great CARL vocal >>  It's a GREAT  BBs song

[Lee Marshall]

Kokomo takes way more of a beating than it deserves.  It's a decent little ditty.  There are countless 'hit' songs which are NOWHERE near that good or enjoyable to listen to...and there are plenty of Beach Boys songs which are even better.  The disco version of Here Comes the Night...not being one of them...regardless of the length.

Peeing on Kokomo makes for boring reading...EVERY time.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Kokomo takes way more of a beating than it deserves.  It's a decent little ditty.  There are countless 'hit' songs which are NOWHERE near that good or enjoyable to listen to...and there are plenty of Beach Boys songs which are even better.  The disco version of Here Comes the Night...not being one of them...regardless of the length.

Peeing on Kokomo makes for boring reading...EVERY time.

You're right about peeing on it but I was thinking more along the lines of  taking a huge dump on it would really liven things up. It's so very deserving of that.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

The only reasons some think Kokomo is one of the worst Beach Boys songs are the following:  it is a Mike song and Brian wasn't involved.

And Mike plays it up like the best song ever written and that writing the bridge for it somehow makes him equal to Brian.

[Lee Marshall]

Perhaps Mike is proud of it Mujan?  Why not?  A number 1 song doesn't happen often.  And in spite of OSD adding 'fly attractant' into the mix...and in spite of it NOT being the VERY BEST Beach Boys' song of all time...it's still a good tune.  Man!!!  It includes a great vocal from Carl Wilson .  THAT ALONE works to its great benefit before anything else is factored in or out.  AND strange ol' John [ Phillips ] who I spent some meaningful time with on several occasions in the 2nd half of the 80's managed to write a few decent songs in his time...before the drugs won the battle and before 'the reaper'...'reaped'.

The great unwashed seemed to like it too.  How do I know?  They took the time to go out and, using their very own money, bought a copy.

Either of you fine gentlemen own a copy of the Still Cruisin' album?

[Fall Breaks]

Tell us more about you hanging out with John Phillips, Add Some!

[Lee Marshall]

Well Fall Breaks...It goes something like this...

I used to host a radio show called 'The Legendary Lunch' on Toronto's initial oldies station 590 CKEY  [1050 CHUM would follow us down that programming path a couple of years later]...  All kinds of guests would drop by for a chat...and lunch...live on the radio.  USUALLY it was in conjunction with our 'presenting' the artist [ s ] at some venue in the Toronto area.  I've got many of those shows saved on cassette [and also loaded into a computer]...'cause that's when it happened...in the mid to late 80s.

I was in Vegas when John put the Ms and Ps back together for their very first reunion show.  Of course there was no Cass Elliott and Michelle was replaced by MacKenzie Phillips.  Spanky McFarlane took Cass' spot and did a bang-up job.   Excellent show.  I saw Gary Puckett and the Union Gap too...Was it the same night?  The memory blurrrrrs.   I think so.  Fast forward a few years.

John, Denny, Spanky and MacKenzie show up in Toronto for The Legendary Lunch.  Our radio station is presenting them for a few nights at the Imperial Room at the Royal York Hotel.  [And I get to MC the shows too]  Everyone is VERY upfront about all manner of issues, stories and rumours...including Denny in regard to his 'writing credits' for 'I Saw Her Again'...["and I did"...Denny.  "and he did!"...John]

John explained his whole drug 'thing' in detail and how he finally over-came it.  No glossing over anything.  He was SO down to earth, SO smooth, SO pleasant that I had no idea that he was still pretty much conning himself.  Was it a year...or maybe two later that they returned for more of the same...this time with Scott MacKenzie instead of Denny?  More of the same.  Genuinely nice people with John as the nicest, coolest most accomplished BS artist I've ever met.  Impossible not to like him.  But, in retropect, I suspect that he didn't much like himself.  His book would come out a few years later echoing almost exactly what he'd told us on The Legendary Lunch.

Sincere, committed, earnest, down to earth, real, friendly, warm, kind, clear-headed.  Those are all words I'd use to describe my ... all together and added up ... dozen or so hours in the immediate company of John Phillips.  The guy had me fooled every inch of the way.  But then I've never spent a whole heap of time hangin' with supposedly reformed or currently participating addicts.  I'd imagine that some become accomplished at pulling the wool over people's eyes.

By the way...to keep this ON topic...at least to a futher degree...We did NOT talk about Kokomo.  It hadn't yet 'happened'.

[Coincidence?  Friday evening...you know...2 days ago...UPS dropped off a package from Amazon which included, among other items, the Deluxe Expanded Edition of 'People Like Us'...their last album with the original "Fantastic Four".  I spent part of yesterday listening to the whole album...which I used to play on CAMPUS radio back when it came out in 1971.  And then there's today and we're talking about 'The Wolfking of L A'.]

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Perhaps Mike is proud of it Mujan?  Why not?  A number 1 song doesn't happen often.  And in spite of OSD adding 'fly attractant' into the mix...and in spite of it NOT being the VERY BEST Beach Boys' song of all time...it's still a good tune.  Man!!!  It includes a great vocal from Carl Wilson .  THAT ALONE works to its great benefit before anything else is factored in or out.  AND strange ol' John [ Phillips ] who I spent some meaningful time with on several occasions in the 2nd half of the 80's managed to write a few decent songs in his time...before the drugs won the battle and before 'the reaper'...'reaped'.

The great unwashed seemed to like it too.  How do I know?  They took the time to go out and, using their very own money, bought a copy.

Either of you fine gentlemen own a copy of the Still Cruisin' album?

Of course! Don't most of us own that thang? Haven't played it for over a decade and don't intend to anytime soon, either. Question: What color hazmat suit were you wearing when you were hanging out with JP?

[Lee Marshall]

Some people call me a space cowboy...but I'd guess it was jeans and the usual 80s casual thing at work...and something dressier without going corporate at the Imperial Room.  Gino Empry would have wanted the MCs to at least wear a jacket...if not a tie.  The hazmat 'look' would have come in handy during those needle sessions I would think...just to stay clean...and also for the spacey trips taken.  That was not a part of my time spent in the man's company.  [thankfully]

And you own Still Crusin'...which you bought in order to have a copy of???  I Get Around?

[Fall Breaks]

Thanks for sharing, Add Some. :-)

[Ron]

The only reasons some think Kokomo is one of the worst Beach Boys songs are the following:  it is a Mike song and Brian wasn't involved.

Yup... and it really just BURNS THEIR ASS when you play them a version with Brian singing it... or find an interview where Brian talks about how he wishes he recorded that song... or you play them "Full House" and Brian shows up to the taping and sings Carl's line...

Kokomo is actually a pretty good song, in my opinion.  I definitely would consider it one of their best songs, of course there's plenty that are better but I wouldnt' say it's one of their worst.

I don't mind here comes the night either, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

[Jim Rockford]

I have never understood the hate for Kokomo. It can be a bit cheesy, but in a good way like cheese dip. .  I like it and you can't stop me. Haha.  As for Here Comes the Night, I like it also. Well, only the single version.  The album version goes on too long. Still a good song though.

[Lee Marshall]

I REALLY like Here Comes the Night... ... ...on Wild Honey.  The other one?  Not as much.  Do I play it at home?  Sure.  Since the album came out?  At least twice.  Maybe 3 times.  Good tune.  Bad idea.

[Rocky Raccoon]

I wonder if the writer of the article has ever heard some of the Beach Boys' post-Kokomo songs.  Problem Child, Summer of Love, Still Cruisin'...  Here Comes the Night is like God Only Knows compared to any of those.

[Matt Bielewicz]

To give a different perspective (partly because I'm bored of reading that we all know and instinctively accept that the LA Album's HCTN is a turkey of the first water): it all depends where you're coming from. If you grew up with the Beach Boys, and your first pop music was the rock and roll of the late 50s and/or the guitar-led pop of the early 60s, or if you became a Beach Boys fan a bit later, say in the late 60s (it took until then for a lot of UK fans to clue into them, for example) or off the back of the live act or Endless Summer in the early to mid 70s, I can see that the synth-heavy, disco-ish Here Comes The Night might be a bit much for you to swallow. Pop and rock music fans of that era tend to (yes, I'm generalising, but bear with me) be the ones that still, to this day, feel strongly about disco. Some of them still feel 'disco sucks' and perhaps they're never going to feel differently.

I came from a different place. Not a better one, I'd never say that - just a *different* one. I heard, and grew to love my first pop music in the late 70s and early 80s: the time of UK punk and new wave, then mid-80s pop and later still house and techno. Synthesizers aren't weird to me. They're just another part of the musical landscape. 12-inch remixes seem a standard idea, as does disco. When I first heard the late 70s rearrangement of Here Comes The Night, I was thrilled that in amongst all the other styles they had attempted over the years, the Beach Boys had also got a disco-like, synth-heavy anthem in their back catalogue. As is being discussed on another thread, the Beach Boys are so different throughout their career anyway — the band of Surfin' Safari is totally different from that of Today!, that of Pet Sounds, SMiLE, Friends, Surf's Up, and Holland as they all are from each other — that a synth-heavy disco track isn't that much of a reach for me (and off the back of some of Brian's synth-heavy pop on Love You, even less so). But then, as I say, I came to know of the LA Album's HCTN years after the late 70s 'disco wars', and it didn't have any of that baggage to me.

I still love it now — the vocals (whoever they are…) are great, and the production is cool with lots of interesting effects. Most importantly of all, it's still a good song underneath all of that. OK, perhaps the LA album version goes on a little bit, but the single edit still grabs me as well-executed, slickly produced disco pop. And yeah, I know there aren't many Beach Boys on it, and Brian has nothing to do with it, but does it grab me, irrespective of all of that? Yes. Do I like the Wild Honey original? Yes, I love that too, albeit in a different way, because it's a different kind of thing.

Kokomo, on the other hand, is irredeemable cheese to me, and ever will be…! And again, the fact that it's Mike-heavy and the Beach Boys didn't write it, etc etc, isn't really the decisive factor in my not liking it. That doesn't damn it, but by the same token, nor do Carl's lovely vocals redeem it for me. It's just 80s schlock to me. And I guess that's just my taste, in the same way that I think HCTN (79) is alright and others can't abide it…