Uncut Ultimate Guide to the Beach Boys

[MikestheGreatest!!]

Here She Comes is a decidedly mediocre tune, two stars in my judgment ...plus the drums are miked way too up in the mix which gets really annoying.  Farmer's Daughter is an easy 4 stars, if not 5.  Apparently Lindsey liked it! 

[KDS]

The vintage articles are great fun to read - especially when Dennis is talking/bragging - and the new reviews are well-written and interesting (if not always accurate), but they also give a star rating (out of 5) to each individual song and, well, here are some examples...

Christmas Day - 4 stars
Only With You - 2 stars
Please Let Me Wonder - 3 stars
The Trader - 3 stars
Here She Comes - 5 stars 
Kiss Me Baby - 3 stars
Farmer's Daughter - 2 stars

On the bright side, I'm glad somebody appreciates the song Christmas Day as much as I do. 

[Joel Goldenberg]

The vintage articles are great fun to read - especially when Dennis is talking/bragging - and the new reviews are well-written and interesting (if not always accurate), but they also give a star rating (out of 5) to each individual song and, well, here are some examples...

Christmas Day - 4 stars
Only With You - 2 stars
Please Let Me Wonder - 3 stars
The Trader - 3 stars
Here She Comes - 5 stars 
Kiss Me Baby - 3 stars
Farmer's Daughter - 2 stars

This must be the same guy who wrote the five-star It's Hard (The Who) album review in Rolling Stone. 

[KDS]

Does anybody know where this might be purchased in the United States?

I tried Barnes and Noble, but they didn't have it.  I'll by flying next week, so this was be a nice thing to have with me. 

[HeyJude]

Barnes & Noble does carry these (they currently have U2 ultimate guide), and I've purchased a McCartney edition there (and someone else I know snagged a guide to "The Cure" as well). I think it just takes them a bit longer, maybe as much as another month cycle, to get these imported titles.

I would guess they'll probably have the BB edition, but it might be a few more weeks. It looks you can buy it direct from Uncut's web store, but the shipping to the USA is almost exactly the same cost as the issue itself.

[KDS]

Barnes & Noble does carry these (they currently have U2 ultimate guide), and I've purchased a McCartney edition there (and someone else I know snagged a guide to "The Cure" as well). I think it just takes them a bit longer, maybe as much as another month cycle, to get these imported titles.

I would guess they'll probably have the BB edition, but it might be a few more weeks. It looks you can buy it direct from Uncut's web store, but the shipping to the USA is almost exactly the same cost as the issue itself.

I did notice they were a month behind on Classic Rock Magazine.  Maybe I'll try again next month.

Thank you

[mabewa]

I bought it here in Japan--have mostly just read the album reviews so far, but it seems like good stuff (even if I disagree with a fair bit!)

One thing I like about it--I have a subscription to Uncut, and I also bought their Byrds Ultimate Guide.  The problem with that one is that it recycles a lot of stuff from past Uncut articles about the Byrds and various members.  So far, I'm not seeing any BB's articles that appeared in any of my earlier Uncut issues, so it's all fresh stuff for a long-term Uncut reader.   

[JK]

I bought it en route to the UK. No revelations to speak of but it made a great holiday read.   

[Mr. Wilson]

at the barnes and noble bookstore redlands ca there was no beach boys music guide there yet.. but i did pick up music guides for the byrds and the who.. the who issue was 2.00 more.. but the who issue was larger than the byrds issue...what was nice was there were lots of pictures ive never seen before and interviews.. well worth it to pick these up when you can..  looking forward to the beach boys issue..

[mabewa]

The part where Brian muses about beating up various BB's members is pretty funny...  especially when the interviewer suggests that Al would be the easilst to beat up, and Brian replies that Al is actually a very nice man, but not a very good singer!

He even seems eager to beat up Carl, and also notes that Carl isn't a very good singer either. 

[HeyJude]

The part where Brian muses about beating up various BB's members is pretty funny...  especially when the interviewer suggests that Al would be the easilst to beat up, and Brian replies that Al is actually a very nice man, but not a very good singer!

He even seems eager to beat up Carl, and also notes that Carl isn't a very good singer either. 

Strange (or actually not really considering how weird their interviews can get), considering there's that 1985 Brian interview with Westwood One which circulates in its raw form where Brian goes on and on about how mean he thinks Al was to producer Steve Levine during some session, allegedly making Levine "cry" at one point.

What a bunch of weird guys. Lester Bangs was right.

[KDS]

The part where Brian muses about beating up various BB's members is pretty funny...  especially when the interviewer suggests that Al would be the easilst to beat up, and Brian replies that Al is actually a very nice man, but not a very good singer!

He even seems eager to beat up Carl, and also notes that Carl isn't a very good singer either. 

Strange (or actually not really considering how weird their interviews can get), considering there's that 1985 Brian interview with Westwood One which circulates in its raw form where Brian goes on and on about how mean he thinks Al was to producer Steve Levine during some session, allegedly making Levine "cry" at one point.

What a bunch of weird guys. Lester Bangs was right.

Levine has backed up that story too. 

[Matt H]

The part where Brian muses about beating up various BB's members is pretty funny...  especially when the interviewer suggests that Al would be the easilst to beat up, and Brian replies that Al is actually a very nice man, but not a very good singer!

He even seems eager to beat up Carl, and also notes that Carl isn't a very good singer either. 

Is that a recent interview?  When was it from?

[Emily]

They are weird, but I don't think that this is particularly weird. Who has siblings or people that they've spent multiple days with every week for many years who they haven't at times wanted to beat up and at other times wanted to hug, at times thought they were jerks and other times thought they were the nicest people around?

[JK]

Looking at the stars Uncut awards, I noticed "The Shift" got a paltry two----and no mention at all!

Scandalous, considering the way Brian literally shifts the tonal centre up a whole tone in the third bar of the verse (and the solo) and back down again in the twelfth. How often does that happen? A major pointer to the future, surely...     

[GhostyTMRS]

This was a welcome find at my local Barnes & Noble. Worth it to read and (in many cases) re-read the vintage articles and interviews. I was a little disappointed in how some albums (the first two, for example) were reviewed as a pair...as if Surfing' Safari and Surfing' USA weren't worthy of a full review. Hogwash!

[Eric Aniversario]

A good buy overall. Nice to have individual tracks rated (although I don't agree with many ratings). Kind of odd that they don't give the albums ratings though. (They do give the solo albums and group compilations ratings).

[KDS]

This was a welcome find at my local Barnes & Noble. Worth it to read and (in many cases) re-read the vintage articles and interviews. I was a little disappointed in how some albums (the first two, for example) were reviewed as a pair...as if Surfing' Safari and Surfing' USA weren't worthy of a full review. Hogwash!

Just curious, did you find it recently?

I looked a couple times last month to no avail. 

[Smilin Ed H]

It's a nice read, but some of the ratings are, um, idiosyncratic, to put it mildly.

[8o8o]

Can't believe they printed the artwork of the TWGMTR single instead of the actual album cover! Amateurs! 

[lostbeachboy]

Is it really that hard to get facts straight with this band? This is prolly the 4th or 5th publication that I've come across with sh*t wrong.. Incorrect dates, mirror images. It's not that difficult.

According to this article Al went to pharmacy school...

[Lonely Summer]

I took another look at this magazine today when I was at Hastings. Specifically was reading the chapter on Brian's solo cd's. I thought the writing was very poor, there was one word the writer kept using to describe songs...chugging. Everything was "chugging".

[MikestheGreatest!!]

I took another look at this magazine today when I was at Hastings. Specifically was reading the chapter on Brian's solo cd's. I thought the writing was very poor, there was one word the writer kept using to describe songs...chugging. Everything was "chugging".

mebbe he had just listened to Chug-a-Lug!

[Ian]

If I can blow my own horn what I noticed was that of the photos were accurately dated for a change. I knew a guy at Getty archives and when I told him about three years ago that most of their photos on their site were inaccurately dated and that as a result they were turning up in magazines with those dates, he let me provide him with more accurate dates for a lot of them and corrected the info.  For example the photo of Brian singing with Marilyn and Dianne at a showcase for the flame in July 1970 is finally dated right

[Lonely Summer]

I took another look at this magazine today when I was at Hastings. Specifically was reading the chapter on Brian's solo cd's. I thought the writing was very poor, there was one word the writer kept using to describe songs...chugging. Everything was "chugging".

mebbe he had just listened to Chug-a-Lug!

It reminded me of a concert review (written by a friend) where everything was "certainly"; "Tall Cool One was certainly a highlight"; "Ormsby's vocals were certainly exciting"; "it was certainly nice to hear the band dig up some lesser played gems'; "the crowd certainly got their money's worth".