do you still like Good Vibrations?

[punkinhead]

Unfortunatly, when this song is included on compilations, it seems it's piled with other hits and doesnt stand out on its own, and the casual listener takes that for granid. but for me, it's that single...on no album, a great great song....and ive heard some say, they've heard GV way too many times...but honestly, i dont like hearing it in concert...the original single is where it's at...where the beach boys are still on top...i still love the song...how do you feel?

[JRauch]

To be honest, I WAS kind of tired of the song...until Brian used it as grand final of SMiLE. It gave it some kind of new context.

[MBE]

I like it but not the post 2003 Brian solo versions that don't use Mike's lyrics. I do like the 66 outtakes with the different lyrics though. I guess to me the used lyrics is THE finished version so hearing Brian do other ones doesn't feel right now.

[The Shift]

It was rereleased in the UK in 1976 and was the first BBs tune I ever heard (or so I thought until I bought 20 Golden Greats and found myself singing along to most of the tunes on there...). It just blew me away to another place... I'm not sure where but it took me there, And it still does. Even though I reckon BW surpassed it with Heroes and Surf's Up among others, I'll never tire of hearing it.

Not a big fan of BW's 2004 remake though. The BBs version will always be definitive – especially the "aaaaah" moment, one of the greatest ever in rock music.

[Vega-Table Man]

Unfortunately, when this song is included on compilations, it seems it's piled with other hits and doesnt stand out on its own, and the casual listener takes that for granted.

I think it is easy to take it for granted ... and there are times when it comes up on the iPod and I just skip past it, looking for something a little less familiar.

But whenever I do give it my full attention and crank it up ... I fall in love with it all over again. Yeah, I still love it.

[donald]

I still love it and always find something new to focus on when it comes up.  I think the "new" versions , live and in studio, released over the years, have added a new demension to the song, given me different perspectives.  For example, the original 45 single version, is the template.  The outakes and alt lyrics show where the song could go or might have gone.  The live performances over the years were stale at times, and that sing along bit "gotta keep those lovin good vibrations happenin with you"  just gets plain tiresome.   Listening to Dennis do some of the drums live versus Hal Blaine doing them in the studio is an interesting contrast.  Sometimes I am especially aware of the strings baseline.  Sometimes I hear the car keys chinking out the rhythm.
And the BWPS live boots I've heard just knock me out.  What a finale!

[shelter]

I agree that it matters in what kind of context you hear the song. Whenever I'm listening to Smiley Smile or a compilation I do sometimes skip GV because I've heard it a million times already, but when they play it on the radio in between crap like Christina Aguilera and Bon Jovi it still sounds magical and I'll even stop working for a couple of minutes to listen to it.

[donald]

If something is good, it will generally remain good.  But one can experience satiation with anything.
Ice cream, back rubs, beer, chocolate, pizza, or favorite movies.

The brain needs variety.  And context is very important.  Location, location, location.

[punkinhead]

i really wished they woulda did a more steller version of GV to match Smiley...like the rehearsal version from the Hawthorne CD. it seems to be a huge production as compared to the other Smiley material. for me, brian using the old lyrics, i dont like as much...and it's kinda funny, maybe he did that to tease bootleggers, because for years they always included the early (Pet Sounds era) version of GV just so it'd be the more rare version that released, even though we all know smile woulda contained the single version

[SG7]

It'll always be a good song. That song is like the peak of Brian's creativity. His Mona Lisa you can say. You can play that song to anyone even if they have no clue who the BB are, they can't help but smile. Its also incredibly catchy.

What I like though from the collecting point of view is all the little parts Brian threw out he was thinking of using for that song. It almost seemed like a pop symphony was going to take place.


I think that song in general will stand the test of time.

[punkinhead]

i was thinkin about test of time and beach boys music...GV came to mind...so did Pet Sounds...perhaps time to get Alone? sail on Sailor?

[L Ransford]

Sunkist tried to ruin it for me.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

I still like it, but I rarely feel a craving to listen to it, probably because I hear it everywhere. Maybe a version of the mono vocals synched up to the newly created stereo backing track will rejuvenate my interest….

[punkinhead]

nice Palpitine quote bubba   

[SG7]

i was thinkin about test of time and beach boys music...GV came to mind...so did Pet Sounds...perhaps time to get Alone? sail on Sailor?

I think sadly a lot of people don't really get what happened to the beach boys after 1966. Curiousity I think will be the only ploy for anyone else to listen to it. As much as the songs are really great after 1966 and everything, no one is going to remember it. I think if anyone that thinks of Brian Wilson's genius is going to look at Pet Sounds, possibly Smile only because it came out now. The idea that it took 37 years to get out always fasinates the public. The myth of it might last longer though.

[sailonsailor]

There are songs I admire and songs I passionately love. GV has always fallen in the former category for me. I know  it's a complex piece of music and technically audacious, etc., but it never hit me emotionally. It sounds great in a concert vein and I sort of like the version of BWPS, but overall, I'd take Heroes and Villains any day. The heresy, the heresy, I know...

[richardsnow]

I still love it, but as other have said I like to listen to alternate takes more to keep it fresh.
The SOT box set of alt takes means you have plent of rotation for different versions :-)

I'll never tire of that bass line, Whenever I pick up a bass, I nearly always play it.

[SMiLEY]

Good Vibrations is like peanut butter -- something I will never tire of!

I think it's always the case wherein a song will be SO influential, that it can be easily underrated by those who are as familiar with what came in it's wake as they are with the original. Does that make sense? I hope so.

I must say I thought it a good idea to use the older lyrics. It sets the two off from each other as unique.

[harveyw]

Bored of Good Vibrations = Bored of life.