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Author Topic: Pet Squares #8 Beach Boys Concert Pt. 1 is up!  (Read 1356 times)
adamghost
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« on: February 26, 2022, 06:21:58 AM »

Hi y'all!

The new PET SQUARES: A GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE BEACH BOYS is up. This is a two-parter that takes a deep, deep dive into the 1964 BEACH BOYS CONCERT album, with lots of discussion of the Beach Boys' musicianship, side excursions into some of the bands and songs covered on the album, and the usual mixture of wonky commentary and irreverent humour. PET SQUARES #8 encompasses Part One....PET SQUARES #9 will conclude the look into the CONCERT album and will follow in just a few days. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/EZcQk1l5Fyg

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c-man
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« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2022, 02:52:27 PM »

ESSENTIAL viewing for any beyond-casual Beach Boys fan - or for that matter, any beyond-casual fan of rock 'n' roll.
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« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2022, 11:29:38 AM »

Thanks for the heads-up! I'm looking forward to watching this. The BBs as a live group during the striped shirt years are very interesting to me and I'm always astonished how well their live renditions stand up to the studio recordings.
Hope to get around watching this soon, but right now I'm too focused on wht is happening in Ukraine, so I probably won't be watching a lot of other things.
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a diseased bunch of mo'fos if there ever was one… their beauty is so awesome that listening to them at their best is like being in some vast dream cathedral decorated with a thousand gleaming American pop culture icons.

- Lester Bangs on The Beach Boys


PRO SHOT BEACH BOYS CONCERTS - LIST


To sum it up, they blew it, they blew it consistently, they continue to blow it, it is tragic and this pathological problem caused The Beach Boys' greatest music to be so underrated by the general public.

- Jack Rieley
adamghost
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« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2022, 05:59:03 PM »

Thanks for the heads-up! I'm looking forward to watching this. The BBs as a live group during the striped shirt years are very interesting to me and I'm always astonished how well their live renditions stand up to the studio recordings.
Hope to get around watching this soon, but right now I'm too focused on what is happening in Ukraine, so I probably won't be watching a lot of other things.

Very understandable. Well, it's there when you need a break from geopolitics.
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« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2022, 04:08:04 AM »

I finall got around to watching both parts and - as expected - enjoyed it very much. It's always nice to hear someone who knows about this stuff put into words what you yourself can't (especially not in english).
I have a couple of thoughts and hope it is ok that I post them here instead of dividing them between the two threads.
Now, I love the Beach Boys as a live act during these years, as I mentioned before. I always thought they were much better as a live band than people give them credit for. How they were able to play these songs with just four instruments and nail those harmonies at the same time is impressive. Especially considering that none of them was a pro on his instrument. Carl came probably the closest and he wasn't even of full age!
I have my problems with the album though. It is to be expected for live recordings to be cleaned up, maybe even partially re-recorded in the studio, as Adam points out in the video. That's ok. My two biggest problems though are the use of the studio-recordings backing tracks on "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "I get around". This really takes out some of the excitement because of the definite change in sound compared to the not-as-polished backing tracks on the rest of the album. Second, the sound on the whole is what I could only describe as "too thin" without being able to explain what I mean with that. But only "Let's go trippin'" sounds really good to my ears. Maybe it is the definite separation between the live music and the studio vocals, I don't know and I really can't even explain what exactly I mean.
On the other hand I don't know if so much of the vocals were re-done in the studio or if closer listening and comparing would show that there's more "live"-vocals than we think. Unfortunately I'm not in the position to check that, because I don't have the ear for that.

My go-to are always the undoctored live recordings of the two Sacramento shows. Sure, there are mistakes and all, but that is what a live show is about: playing your songs without a chance to re-do them. The Chicago '65 shows are great as well with Carl playing his Rickenbacher (at least that's what it sounds like to me). I would also love if there is more footage like this which then could be used for a new documentary, I hope.

Nayway, their need for Brian is obvious if you compare these shows to the ones with Bruce in Michigan in 1966. The band lacks fire and excitement, just listen to "I get around" (which actually never sounded as good again live as in '64 imo). This is not to put Bruce down. His job was nearly impossible. He had to learn to play an instrument he never played before in a couple of days and at the same time sing those tough harmonies and most importantly nail them. Other people would have failed lousy.

I also don't know if Dennis didn't contribute some backing vocals during the live shows. You can obviously see him singing along with the guys on stuff like "Surfer Girl" on footage but I don't know f there were mics picking him up or if he was just doing it for the love of it. In the 70s and 80s I believe he did sing on "In my room" while drumming as C-Man or Ian pointed out IIRC.

I love that you talk about Al's contributions. The man gets so overlooked that it's a shame. He certainly was no "star" and not one who stands in the limeight. But his work as part of the group's sound (and I'm not even talking about his success as singer, producer and arranger) is very important as he is one of the guys who lay the foundation for the others to shine. You can actually hear his guitar parts very well during at least one of the Michigan shows, as Carl's guitar was nearly inaudible during the "Surfin' USA" solo on the Medley that was released on the Endless Harmony soundtrack.

BTW I don't recall seeing that shot of Mike doing "Monster Mash" before. Were there different cover versions of this album? My LP ony has the front and back cover. The latter looking like this:




I probably need to relisten to the "Beach Boys Concert" album and see if anything has changed in my view. Thanks for the reminder and for sharing these videos with us.
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a diseased bunch of mo'fos if there ever was one… their beauty is so awesome that listening to them at their best is like being in some vast dream cathedral decorated with a thousand gleaming American pop culture icons.

- Lester Bangs on The Beach Boys


PRO SHOT BEACH BOYS CONCERTS - LIST


To sum it up, they blew it, they blew it consistently, they continue to blow it, it is tragic and this pathological problem caused The Beach Boys' greatest music to be so underrated by the general public.

- Jack Rieley
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« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2022, 07:25:49 AM »

I forgot this to mention. Re: Brian's bass playing in later years. I was surprised when I realized that Brian was the only bass player on this performance of "Rock and Roll Music" on the Midnight Special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgFKN1sOuas

His playing is very solid. I must admit that I tend to have the same bias as many have of Brian being not together enough to deliver something like this during that time.



And something else, that I just saw online. Looks like there was a gatefold version of the Concert album. Mine is just a regular version. The gatefold does indeed have more pictures etc.




https://www.discogs.com/release/1535230-The-Beach-Boys-Concert


Among them a shot of all of the guys singing together in the front. So no one is sitting at the drums. Do we know or have an idea what song they performed that way?



And while we're at "pictures", I wished this would've been the cover for the LP. They look so boring on the one that was used, but this one looks exciting to me, mainly because of Mike's move:

« Last Edit: March 12, 2022, 07:33:27 AM by Rocker » Logged

a diseased bunch of mo'fos if there ever was one… their beauty is so awesome that listening to them at their best is like being in some vast dream cathedral decorated with a thousand gleaming American pop culture icons.

- Lester Bangs on The Beach Boys


PRO SHOT BEACH BOYS CONCERTS - LIST


To sum it up, they blew it, they blew it consistently, they continue to blow it, it is tragic and this pathological problem caused The Beach Boys' greatest music to be so underrated by the general public.

- Jack Rieley
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