I Love Kokomo

[KDS]

Forever with John Stamos is somewhere beneath it, IMHO

I don't think you can get any worse than Summer of Love.  Well....maybe the disco version of Here Comes the Night.  At least Summer of Love has the decency to go away after 3 minutes.

[JK]

I used to hate "Kokomo" with a vengeance. And pooh-pooh most of the later stuff in general.

But my perspective on the Boys has broadened over the past decade and I find I can warm to many of their more recent things. I even get a warm feeling when I hear "Kokomo" playing in the local supermarket! It's hardly in my BB top ten or even top fifty but I'm perfectly comfortable with it now... 

[petsoundsnola]

I like it.  Summer 1988...I was 16 years old and hanging out with a great group of friends, going out every night, budding romances, etc..

But I digress.  It's a good song.  I don't like the sax solo, but the song was perfect for its time.  I agree that Carl's voice is the best part of the song, but the rest is not terrible.  

Now I am craving a Mai Tai.

[thorgil]

I was already middle age at the time, so, sorry, no Kokomo teen surfin' sunshine nostalgia for me.
Said that, I find Mike's "Aruba Jamaica etc." insanely catchy. I don't love Mike, but love his bass/baritone voice. No voice says "Beach Boys" to me more than Mike's bass/baritone.
On the sax solo, I agree 100% with Billy. On the rest, I'm on a fence (Carl's voice is great as always, of course).
On the whole, a happy, catchy song which deserved to be a #1 hit more than many others.
Great art it isn't, but I like listening to it and even dancing a little to it, once in a while.

[IainLee]

Catchy but super lame presentation. A parody of the Beach Boys sound. West Coast daydream turns into an aging baby boomer fantasy commercial for a Florida cruise. The sickest of all sick things. A career low point that the BB brand has never fully recovered from. Instigator of the Beach Boys' confused cultural paradigm.

I like it. A lot. It's a cracking record.

[IainLee]

Catchy but super lame presentation. A parody of the Beach Boys sound. West Coast daydream turns into an aging baby boomer fantasy commercial for a Florida cruise. The sickest of all sick things. A career low point that the BB brand has never fully recovered from. Instigator of the Beach Boys' confused cultural paradigm.

The self parody thing really started with 15 Big Ones IMO.  

Also, there are lows from 1976-1992 that are much lower than Kokomo.  

15 Big Ones is a golden masterpiece compared to Kokomo. 15 Big Ones is a deranged madman of a record that would never have seen the light of day if it didn't come from the creative universe of Brian Wilson.

Sure, there are lower lows than Kokomo. But there is no more NOTABLE or INFLUENTIAL low.

I like 15 Big Ones as well. Played it way more than Love You.

KTSA is a pretty cool record too. Going' On rocks!

[Moon Dawg]

If Brian had written it and released it on his debut album, everyone would still be raving about what a fantastic return to form it was and how genius it was etc.

Bull. If that were true, nobody would criticize GIOMH or  Imagination, just to name two

  Perhaps not IF either of those albums had gone to Number One.

[18thofMay]

Kokomo is great Ian. My kids really love it. Have you heard the Muppet's versions? That is also an enjoyable listen! I loved the film clip when I was a kid, the youngish lady in a pink bikini was a big draw card! I was a lot more naive then and liked it more than the other top 40 songs of the day. Of course Cocktail helped over here in Australia.

[Lee Marshall]

Kokomo was a welcome relief when it was first released.  There was SO MUCH shyte on the radio that Kokomo shone like a beacon THANKS TO CARL WILSON.  W/O Carl? it's only barely o.k..  There have been really good to GREAT songs on every album from Surfin' Safari to TWGMTR.  The number of great songs per l. p. diminished as the 'bad years' progressed.  Kokomo isn't the finest moment in group history by ANY stretch of the imagination but it was still great compared to many of its contemporaries circa 1988.

The Beach Boys offer more than some give them credit for.  They have a cannon of material which is hard to live up to even for the Boys themselves.  I will not sell out Kokomo just to agree with others that Mike could be a better fella if he ever decided to put his mind to it.  That he hasn't considered that as an option is his loss.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

If Brian had written it and released it on his debut album, everyone would still be raving about what a fantastic return to form it was and how genius it was etc.

Bull. If that were true, nobody would criticize GIOMH or  Imagination, just to name two

  Perhaps not IF either of those albums had gone to Number One.

A world where GIOMH is a number one album isn't a world I'd like to live in!

[bringahorseinhere?]

if Kokomo wasn't the hit it was, Mike Love's interviews would be only 'half' boring.

[thorgil]

If Brian had written it and released it on his debut album, everyone would still be raving about what a fantastic return to form it was and how genius it was etc.

Bull. If that were true, nobody would criticize GIOMH or  Imagination, just to name two

  Perhaps not IF either of those albums had gone to Number One.

A world where GIOMH is a number one album isn't a world I'd like to live in!

Have to agree on that too...

if Kokomo wasn't the hit it was, Mike Love's interviews would be only 'half' boring.

Maybe. Or maybe he'd have found another personal "meme".

[CenturyDeprived]

I praise Mike's contributions to the song (as well as all the contributions of Terry, John, and all the Boys who were on it). Yet most everyone agrees that Carl is the unsung hero of the song. I wonder if Carl may have contributed anything to the song (however small) writing-wise, but uncredited?  Perhaps not a lyric, but more of just some element that he dreamt up. Of course, just Carl's voice took it to another level.

I also wonder what would have happened if hypothetically, Carl had in fact been one of the primary cowriters on Kokomo? I don't know if at that point in time, a BB hit cowritten by Mike PLUS a Wilson would have been quite as much of an ego boost (worthy of bragging about for decades to come) for Mike, as opposed to what actually happened, with the song finally proving that he could write a hit without Wilson cowriting involvement.

 

[bringahorseinhere?]

like how he wrote the words to California Girls, or how he came up with the 'im pickin up' to go over Cousin Bri's bass part,
or maybe the 'goodnight baby, sleep tight baby' lyric.  He would have to tell us again how he is mr positive thinker, and
how the boy / girl attraction works in every song.... perhaps he could tell us more about when the warmth of the sun was written.

[Gerry]

Hey, guess what? IanLee really, really likes Kokomo! A lot,really.

[DonnyL]

Catchy but super lame presentation. A parody of the Beach Boys sound. West Coast daydream turns into an aging baby boomer fantasy commercial for a Florida cruise. The sickest of all sick things. A career low point that the BB brand has never fully recovered from. Instigator of the Beach Boys' confused cultural paradigm.

The self parody thing really started with 15 Big Ones IMO.  

Also, there are lows from 1976-1992 that are much lower than Kokomo.  

15 Big Ones is a golden masterpiece compared to Kokomo. 15 Big Ones is a deranged madman of a record that would never have seen the light of day if it didn't come from the creative universe of Brian Wilson.

Sure, there are lower lows than Kokomo. But there is no more NOTABLE or INFLUENTIAL low.

I like 15 Big Ones as well. Played it way more than Love You.

KTSA is a pretty cool record too. Going' On rocks!

My description of 15 Big Ones was meant as a compliment. I like that record (love Love you more), also MIU, LA and Keepin' the Summer Alive. The boys lose me as they get into the '80s however.

[Pretty Funky]

Hey, guess what? IanLee really, really likes Kokomo! A lot,really.

 

[IainLee]

If Brian had written it and released it on his debut album, everyone would still be raving about what a fantastic return to form it was and how genius it was etc.

Untrue.

HeyJude is right; the reaction that a good number of fans have to the song (tending to dislike it, or at least be put off by too much praise for the song) has everything to do with Mike excessively praising the song, and excessively bringing it up as an example of why he is such a great songwriter sans Brian.

If Brian had written Kokomo, and kept going on and on and on about what a kick-ass songwriter he is for writing Kokomo, people would similarly tire of hearing about that at a certain point.

I "get" why Mike does it, I "get" how someone's psychological craving for praise and recognition could lead them to repeatedly boast about a song like this... but in the context of the band's catalog, it does become more than a bit "much" for many people to handle. If one is to cut Mike some slack for repeatedly boasting about Kokomo, one should also understand why many people are put off *specifically* by that boasting.

It's a very good song. No doubt. But Good Vibrations it ain't. Yet if one hadn't yet heard a note of either song, but just heard interviews of Mike talking about both songs, they'd probably come away with the impression that GV + Kokomo are both relative equals in terms of kick-ass-ness. Just because they both hit #1, they are not equals in the slightest.

And I say all this as a fan of Kokomo. I dig it a lot.

In your opinion.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

And you like it, which is also your opinion.

[IainLee]

Hey, guess what? IanLee really, really likes Kokomo! A lot,really.

Yeah. I love it!

[IainLee]

And you like it, which is also your opinion.

Correct. I am speaking for myself. I'm not over generalising about the reaction 'a good number of fans' have or why they have it. He doesn't know. So. Yeah. It's obviously my opinion.

Thanks

Aruba, Jamaica...

[Pretty Funky]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GbxFLA62Bc

[IainLee]

Catchy but super lame presentation. A parody of the Beach Boys sound. West Coast daydream turns into an aging baby boomer fantasy commercial for a Florida cruise. The sickest of all sick things. A career low point that the BB brand has never fully recovered from. Instigator of the Beach Boys' confused cultural paradigm.

The self parody thing really started with 15 Big Ones IMO.  

Also, there are lows from 1976-1992 that are much lower than Kokomo.  

15 Big Ones is a golden masterpiece compared to Kokomo. 15 Big Ones is a deranged madman of a record that would never have seen the light of day if it didn't come from the creative universe of Brian Wilson.

Sure, there are lower lows than Kokomo. But there is no more NOTABLE or INFLUENTIAL low.

I like 15 Big Ones as well. Played it way more than Love You.

KTSA is a pretty cool record too. Going' On rocks!

My description of 15 Big Ones was meant as a compliment. I like that record (love Love you more), also MIU, LA and Keepin' the Summer Alive. The boys lose me as they get into the '80s however.

MIU I struggle with. But KTSA I really dig. I quite like a lot of the 85 album. Not the best songs and the drums are awful, in my opinion, but I do like to dig it out from Time to time.

[Lonely Summer]

If it was true that Mike was such an incredibly gifted writer of hit songs, how come he couldn't follow up Kokomo? I do like the song, was always happy for the Boys to get another hit, but in a way, it was an unfortunate hit, because it gave Mike and Terry the idea to follow it up with a bunch of sound-alikes. Eventually, we got a full album of sound-alikes - Summer in Paradise. Even as recently as C50, Mike was trying to clone Kokomo - Daybreak Over the Ocean.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

in all fairness, daybreak was written about a decade before Kokomo was released.