"River Song" as done by The Beach Boys in concert

[MBE]

Well I just think Dennis was doing the most interesting stuff at the time. He could have been give 4 out of say 24 songs to do, his voice was still good enough. I didn't say that they shouldn't do some of those older songs in concert, but on this live album they didn't quite fit. Why? Because their last 9 studio albums were not in that mold. They had worked so hard to shake the old image and then to just launch back into it wasn't the right move at the time. People had Beach Boys Concert, and Live In London and they were full of old hits, In Concert was a chance to show them as a contemporary live band, and it was only half sucessful. The old songs were and are great but they were far too much of a focus on here when they had so much wonderful material from the last six to seven years. Today yes it's fine to reissue whole concerts and the oldies fit in the context of that, but again the album made the most impact in 1973 and I think it was just wrong to regress at that point.  Perhaps a two or three song oldies encore would have been ok for the album.

[Dancing Bear]

Warner had been carrying the Beach Boys load for four whole albums - and no Smile was ever delivered. I think they considered a live offer a chance to recoup the investment first, promote a struggling band second. Thus the oldies.

[TonyW]

Down here in Oz by 73/74 just about every Beach Boys album was out of print and not available at retail, the only Beach Boys product in store were cheapies such as the Pickwick and Axis labels. For a new generation of kids the In Concert album was a revelation, a great mix of new material and oldies - In Concert made the Beach Boys a contemporary band and not some oldies group from 10 years before. The In Concert album was very much the soundtrack to our summers during our latter years at secondary school, hanging at the beach, surfing, girls, getting cars and partying.

For me, via In Concert, I finally understood Heroes & Villians - I never could get into the 67 produced track - still struggle today and its was only through the Cantina vesion and the various boots that I began to understand that I really didn't like the production of H&V 67 single. I also to this day prefer the In Concert version of Don't Worry Baby over the single version, as great as the studio version is the live version just kicks arse!!

That said yes it would have been better if there had been some contemporary Dennis tracks on the album - and what was recorded for the album and today lies in the vaults is for me one of the holy grails of the Beach Boys vaults.  FREE THE LIVE TAPES!!

[tpesky]

I doubt In Concert would have as successful as it was without those oldies..sorry to say! The records weren't selling, why would the new songs have sold live..even if they were done better.  I doubt many people outside of hardcore Beach Boys fans bought the record to here We Got Love or Funky Pretty.  The key is balance, and that album has it. A few oldies, 4 Pet Sounds!! Good Vibes and Heroes 2 off Wild Honey! Plus some of the new stuff. I mean being only 20 songs, they couldn't get everything on there. I would have tinkered with a few things to make it perfect. I would have liked to see a Dennis song instead of We Got Love. That one could have stayed in the can as far as I am concerned, stuff 10 times better certainly did.  I also never cared for Funky Pretty, give me a live California  or Long Promised Road instead and thats a perfect album to me!  Ok I might Leavin This Town off also to get something from 20/20 on there (Do It Again, Hear Music, or Cottonfields  but Blondie and Ricky did need a song on there.

[Rocker]

While we're at "In cocnert", here are two original reviews from '74:

http://www.superseventies.com/spbeachboys3.html

[MBE]

Warner had been carrying the Beach Boys load for four whole albums - and no Smile was ever delivered. I think they considered a live offer a chance to recoup the investment first, promote a struggling band second. Thus the oldies.

I do understand why they were there, but again I think it pointed ahead to a future that would never come close to what came before. I stress again I love the old songs but it just a shame they "had" to include them over River Song, I've Got A Friend, Long Promised Road. I would love to hear the You Need A Mess Of Help the was to be on the single LP version.

I actually like We Got Love and think it was a wise choice. It really cooks to me, but I admit the only Blondie and Ricky track I don't like is Hold On Dear Brother.