Still Cruisin' and Summer In Paradise rerelease?

[joshferrell]

I imagine it going something like this (In fact I'm sure it DID happen this way)  
Brian is in the studio with Carl, Mike and Dennis

Carl: We would like you to take these tapes and finish the "Surfs up" song. ain't that right Denny?
Dennis: Yeah , we already named the album "Surfs up" and had the covers printed and everything!
Brian:I don't wanna, you can suck my balls!!
Carl: Screw you Brian I'm going to kick you square in the nuts!
Denny: respect my authoritah!!!
Brian: You guys can go to hell!!
Mike:God Dammit, Children, why don't you f*** with the formula just this once??
Brian: (farts on Mikes face)
Mike: (Mike farts back on Brians face)
carl and denny (laughs)
Brian: Don't make fun of me you assholes!!! Screw you guys I'm going home!!

Brian leaves the building and Carl Mike and Denny follows him to a park where he is swinging on a swing with the rest of the kids at the school

Brian: I'll teach those sonsofbitches to f*** with me!! I won't write anymore songs for those douche bags and if I do they will be sad and depressing..that'll teach those fudge packers!!!
(They walk up to him)
Dennis: Come on you HAVE to record "Surfs up" for us, you have no choice!! if you don't Phil Spector will come find you and call you a p*ssy until you cry!!
(A branch breaks and squishes Denny)
Carl: Oh my God they killed Denny!!!!
Mike: You Bastards!!!!!
Brian: serves Denny right for fucking with me!!!
Carl: Now Brian, it's important that you come in the studio to finish "Surfs up"
(Phil Spector walks up to them on the school yard)
Phil: Hey what the f*** is going on here!?
Carl: He won't go in the studio and finish "Surfs Up"
Mike: yeah he's being a total dick!!
Phil: What do I have to do pull this gun out and shoot you?
(Denny get's up barely breathing)
phil pulls out his gun
Phil: Shoot you like this (and shoots Denny)
Carl: Oh My God you just rekilled Denny for a second time although he wasn't really complete dead before!!
Mike: You Bastard again!!!
(Rats carry off Denny)
Phil: Don't be a puss and finish "Surfs up" or I will get the ghost of Murry to haunt your ass!!!
Murry's Ghost shows up
Murry's Ghost: Hoowwwdy Ho!!!!!!!!nooooow whaaaats goinnnng oooonnn!
Phil: Your son won't finish "Surfs up"
Murry's Ghost: WHAT!!!! That's it I'll teach him a lesson, check this out!!
(He pulls out his ghost eye and throws it at Brian and it just goes right through him)
Brian: well Dad you can't beat me anymore because you are a ghost and will just go right through me!!
Murry's Ghost:Holy sh*t!!!! He's right!!! (and vanishes)
 Carl:Okay dude what will it take for you to do "Surfs up"? We'll give you anything!! Denny's dead so now we can't put his songs on the album so it's up to you!!

Brian:Okay I will only do it under one condition!!
Carl and Mike: What's that??
Brian: You go to the misty mountains and find Gollum and steal the ring that is in his possession and bring it back to me!!
Carl:Dude that's like a million miles away from here.
Brian:well then I won't do it...
Mike:Sigh I guess we have no choice!!

(will Carl and Mike make it to the misty mountains to get the ring from Gollum?, what happens to Phil Spector? will he ever find a cute blonde actress to marry and live happily ever after? what about Murry's ghost will he ever find a way to punish Brian again? although he's a ghost and can't do anything but walk through walls?)

stay tuned for next weeks episode of "Surf Park"

[Cam Mott]

I thought Mr. Desper has said Brian participated in reworking SU for the album? He both cried and then helped or helped while crying?

[CenturyDeprived]

I thought Mr. Desper has said Brian participated in reworking SU for the album? He both cried and then helped or helped while crying?

Just because Brian eventually (and under circumstances which I've always read was to the band's utter surprise) helped work on the tag, doesn't mean that Brian couldn't have in fact cried and/or had deep reservations/resistance about the song being worked on/released at an earlier point.

He knew how important a song this was, and I'd imagine that if he realized that come hell or high water the song was going to be finished up and released by the Boys, that he'd rather it get done "right" to his specifications, as opposed to the alternative, which could have entailed it turning out differently than he'd wanted it.

[Moon Dawg]

"(WIBNT)LA" wasn't on the album because Dennis pitched a hissyfit after he & Carl butted heads over the track sequencing, and pulled it, along with "4th Of July". Hence, allegedly, the inclusion of "SDT" and, er, one of Alan's songs, I think. Corrections welcome.

  My guess - that's all a guess - is that "Feet" replaced at least one of the Dennis tracks. It had already been bumped from SUNFLOWER.

[Moon Dawg]

I thought Mr. Desper has said Brian participated in reworking SU for the album? He both cried and then helped or helped while crying?

  Cam, you are by and large OK with me, but somehow this post makes me question your respect for Brian Wilson. That's just how it hit me.

[Cam Mott]

I thought Mr. Desper has said Brian participated in reworking SU for the album? He both cried and then helped or helped while crying?

  Cam, you are by and large OK with me, but somehow this post makes me question your respect for Brian Wilson. That's just how it hit me.

No worry, it's both a request for clarification and a joke.  Some how people who revere Brian get tarred as anti-Brian because they don't believe every Mike myth that comes down the pike.

[Moon Dawg]

  Yes, I've been trying to sort it all out. Mike Love is not Satan...

[CenturyDeprived]

  Yes, I've been trying to sort it all out. Mike Love is not Satan...

Nor do I, nor do most other people on this forum who are critical or question a number of his actions.

[Moon Dawg]

  Yes, I've been trying to sort it all out. Mike Love is not Satan...

Nor do I, nor do most other people on this forum who are critical or question a number of his actions.

  Sure, I've been questioning Mike Love's actions and/or taste since witnessing his stage garb on the It's OK television special in 1976.

[Mike's Beard]

The incident I was referencing was the inclusion of "Surf's Up" on the album of the same name. According to several sources, he sat on the swing in his garden weeping while Dennis flatly stated "f*** you, we need that song on the album".

So Dennis reduces Brian to tears insisitng that Surf's Up be included on the album, then ironically watches as Carl chooses to end the album with it over his own song, throws a wobbler and removes both his tunes from the tracklisting and yet according to some posters Dennis was the one who was screwed over by his bandmates? You gotta love the reasoning on this board at times.

[CenturyDeprived]

The incident I was referencing was the inclusion of "Surf's Up" on the album of the same name. According to several sources, he sat on the swing in his garden weeping while Dennis flatly stated "f*** you, we need that song on the album".

So Dennis reduces Brian to tears insisitng that Surf's Up be included on the album, then ironically watches as Carl chooses to end the album with it over his own song, throws a wobbler and removes both his tunes from the tracklisting and yet according to some posters Dennis was the one who was screwed over by his bandmates? You gotta love the reasoning on this board at times.

Both Brian and Dennis were/are special cases… People with serious emotional problems, and both were/are arguably musical geniuses in their own right. Sometimes people with such massive levels of talent and/or who are so fragile or unstable need and deserve exceptional levels of understanding, and more get out of jail free cards then other people.

That said, anyone reducing each other to tears is pretty messed up. I do not believe that all the Boys' actions necessarily constituted locker room behavior, as has  been insinuated on this board by others.  Sometimes they went too far.

[Cam Mott]

People with serious emotional problems, and both were/are arguably musical geniuses in their own right. Sometimes people with such massive levels of talent and/or who are so fragile or unstable need and deserve exceptional levels of understanding, and more get out of jail free cards then other people.

Like Mike in other words.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Brian and Dennis were/are special cases… People with serious emotional problems, and both were/are arguably musical geniuses in their own right. Sometimes people with such massive levels of talent and/or who are so fragile or unstable need and deserve exceptional levels of understanding, and more get out of jail free cards then other people.

Bingo! Now we're finally getting somewhere. There is still hope! You're getting closer. Just because Brian and Dennis wrote good songs and were unstable, why should they be entitled to more "get out of jail FREE cards" than other band members who weren't unstable and didn't write as good songs? Eventually, that leads to a lot of problems, for the entitled individuals, for the band, and on message boards.

[donald]

People with serious emotional problems, and both were/are arguably musical geniuses in their own right. Sometimes people with such massive levels of talent and/or who are so fragile or unstable need and deserve exceptional levels of understanding, and more get out of jail free cards then other people.

Like Mike in other words.

an interesting proposal Cam:    A little compassion for ML.      dig deep y'all.    You can do it!   after all, ML is one of the Beachboys!

[CenturyDeprived]

Brian and Dennis were/are special cases… People with serious emotional problems, and both were/are arguably musical geniuses in their own right. Sometimes people with such massive levels of talent and/or who are so fragile or unstable need and deserve exceptional levels of understanding, and more get out of jail free cards then other people.

Bingo! Now we're finally getting somewhere. There is still hope! You're getting closer. Just because Brian and Dennis wrote good songs and were unstable, why should they be entitled to more "get out of jail FREE cards" than other band members who weren't unstable and didn't write as good songs? Eventually, that leads to a lot of problems, for the entitled individuals, for the band, and on message boards.

I'm not saying that it's quantifiably "fair"; I also do not think bands should necessarily be thought of as democracies. Some are, and some aren't. Some people, especially true artists making groundbreaking music, may need (and should ideally be granted) more support than others around them get to have. They may also act in questionable ways which people will sometimes, for better or worse, be willing to overlook, because their talent is just so unquestionably off the charts good. People who are though of as hacks are gonna garner less empathy and sympathy for their needs and demands from outsiders. I certainly think it's outrageous to apply that term to anyone in this band.

Does that lead to jealousy and make for an unhealthy and toxic band environment? Perhaps sometimes with some people. Not always. Certainly more often when bandmates are present who may have egos which are not necessarily proportional to their talents. That's a *thing*... That does happen. Let's not pretend it doesn't.

People in bands need to know their place sometimes. I think that was and remains a huge problem in this band, which Jack Rieley probably understood very deeply. Not every band has arguably the greatest composer of the 20th century in it. Maybe it's not fair, but then again, as Denny pointed out (and certainly almost always stood by his words), Brian was the band and everyone else were his disciples. I wonder how that comment went over with the other Boys at the time it was said. I'd wager some agreed and some didn't. And I am well aware of how the wilderness years afterwards made things change in some ways.

Well, we could go the same route, where Mike thinks he deserves special treatment for having cowritten hits mostly early in the band's career. He obviously does feel that way, and to a degree I can empathize and understand that desire. I also think that his thinking and desires in that respect go too far, and are incongruous with reality, and I think that many people share my mindset on that. I have empathy for him for having experienced significant familial dysfunction, but I don't think you can look at people's actions in a band the exact same way in a vacuum from person to person. It's gonna differ based on a number of factors. That goes for everyone in the band. Beyond music and talent, sometimes, some of the people in this band seem to have a history of doing "good person" things that tend to counterbalance the same person's shitty actions, more often than other people do so in the same band. IMHO.

Truthfully I think that Denny got somewhat of the short end of the stick by his bandmates, which possibly cost the world great art. Yes he got (and blew) many chances, but much like Brian, he suffered greatly when people around him didn't believe in him quite enough.

Even modern day Al has essentially admitted such; hindsight is 20/20. There's gotta be a reason Al admitted such, perhaps an attack of conscience? Could Mike, even though he seems to act as though he feels similarly underappreciated about his own plight, ever say something similar about Denny in an interview? If Al can, not sure why Mike can't, unless Mike is still possibly bitter over Denny's final marriage or something. I dunno. I would think Mike's own feelings of having experienced the short end of the stick would have made him more empathetic if another bandmate felt it in some way too.

[mikeddonn]

"(WIBNT)LA" wasn't on the album because Dennis pitched a hissyfit after he & Carl butted heads over the track sequencing, and pulled it, along with "4th Of July". Hence, allegedly, the inclusion of "SDT" and, er, one of Alan's songs, I think. Corrections welcome.

The problem with the sequencing was because Carl wanted Surf's Up to be the last song and Dennis wanted WIBNTLA.  No Surf's Up probably = no problem and both Dennis' songs would have been on there.  Who here would have preferred that scenario?

[Mike's Beard]

Surf's Up or Dennis' two songs? I'd rather have all 3 but if forced to choose, I'd pick Surf's Up in a heartbeat.

[The Shift]

I could leave 4th of July off SU any time. If SU the track was to have been omitted in 71 then the band might not have bothered to finish it at the time, just five or six years after it was originally shelved.

Then it would have lain in the can until who knows when… maybe they'd finished it for SiP, with Stamos singing Carl's parts.

I like things the way they turned out.

[joshferrell]

well if "Surfs Up" wasn't on it I wonder what it would have been called? as it is maybe "The Beach Boys-Student Demonstration Time." or if "4th of july" being added to it then "The Beach Boys-4th of July."

[mikeddonn]

Yeah I'd go for Surf's Up over the 2 of Dennis' songs brilliant though they are.  It would be hard to imagine Surf's Up never being finished.  20 years later it wouldn't be the same.

Funny how we're now discussing this considering the thread title!

[CenturyDeprived]

Yeah I'd go for Surf's Up over the 2 of Dennis' songs brilliant though they are.  It would be hard to imagine Surf's Up never being finished.  20 years later it wouldn't be the same.

Funny how we're now discussing this considering the thread title!

What would've happened if Mike did a early 1990s – style cover of Surf's Up (song) on SIP? I do think that could've caused the apocalypse or something.

[Nicko1234]

Apologies for posting on topic but it is a shame looking back that Don`t Fight the Sea was rejected for the Tequila Sunrise movie. That would have improved the Still Cruisin` album no end and if Carl could have completed the song that he was working on (was it Run Don`t Walk?) then you would have almost had enough originals right there without using the oldies...

[bonnevillemariner]

Is there really no way to purchase this album digitally?  I'm dying to hear these old tracks in decent (non-YouTube quality) in the car, and I might have to install a tape deck to do it. Can somebody please explain to me why something physically out of print must also be completely unavailable online?  Like it costs Capitol anything to sell it to me on iTunes.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Is there really no way to purchase this album digitally?  I'm dying to hear these old tracks in decent (non-YouTube quality) in the car, and I might have to install a tape deck to do it. Can somebody please explain to me why something physically out of print must also be completely unavailable online?  Like it costs Capitol anything to sell it to me on iTunes.

Under the radar interest in both of these disasters took a powder within minutes of the original release. 

[bluerincon1]

 
I think Still Cruisin' isn't bad, but rushed.  They wanted something out to keep the "Kokomo" ball rolling and with "Still Cruisin'" being used in Lethal Weapon 2, they wanted to strike while the iron was hot.  If they wanted to use more recent movie songs, these were also available:

"Happy Endings" from The Telephone (a nice song, but a little slow - maybe they chose not to use it since it didn;t flow with the rest of the songs)

"Don't Worry Baby from Tequila Sunrise (likewise with the Everly Brothers)

I think they just wanted some product out.

I recently purchased a "Still Cruisin" CD-single with "Lady Liberty"  and the 12-inch mix of "Rock 'N' Roll To The Rescue." If you take the seven new Still Cruisin' songs with the 3 new songs from "Made In The USA" you have a pretty decent 10 track album (11 with "Don't Worry..." from Tequila Sunrise).  It's much more listenable than 1985's Beach Boys record, and available on CD.

Maybe the group doesn't think of it as a new album, but as a compilation record with some new songs to entice fans to buy it.