Lowest point in the BB career?

[NightHider]

Mine call goes to either:

1.  The 1981 Long Beach 1981 show with no Carl and a destitute Brian

or

2.  The Crocodile Rock video.  Man does Carl look embarassed in that video.  Hurts me to watch that one....

[Wrightfan]

Melbourne 1978 has to be high up there.

[TonyW]

Melbourne 1978 has to be high up there.

Actually it was Perth 78, not Melbourne.

My vote for low point is the entire SIP album with MIU not far behind - upon release both were, for the most part, unlistenable - and time has not be kind to either of them. Bad concerts can be forgotten and hidden from public scrutiny - bad recordings cannot.

[MBE]

The 25th TV special was bad, Full House, Happy Endings, Problem Child, Summer In Paradise, Stars and Stripes, Cheerleaders, wearing shorts on stage, the car medley, the long note for Be True To Your School, the Wilson's stoned. Al, Mike, and Bruce phoning it in. The trouble started around 1976 with substandard tracks and vocals, by 1977 it effected the live show. 1978 was a low point, but we still had Lloyd in the band and a good setlist. 1981 was very bad, but the drama of it kept me interested. Frankly I sledom watch or listen to anything past 1983. When Dennis died and Brian was seperated by Landy it got dull.  The 1984-5 shows still had a little bit of youth to them. 1988 tour that summer had a better set then they had since Carl first returned. Of course the 1993 boxset tour was almost back to old standards.

So how does that leave the group? I guess I would have to say that 84-97 was the low point. Image wise things got better after 1993 box set, so I guess their image low point would have been from say 87-92. I don't consider them the real Beach Boys after Carl died. Brian, Al, and even Mike and Bruce, all did better shows after the break up then we could have hoped for on previous evidence. Mike and Bruce and occasionally Brian have also done some bad shows, but their legacy redeemes the group now. I don't think anyone who seriously studies music can write them off.

[the captain]

To someone who came late and only gradually worked his way through their career (beginning with Pet Sounds and going both ways, slowly, simultaneously), it seemed like one new "lowest point" after another. Frankly, starting with Pet Sounds, things like Wild Honey seemed like "lowest points" to me, although in context and retrospect, that isn't anywhere near true. I suppose I'd say anything after '85 is officially tied for lowest point in my opinion. As bad as it had been from the late 70s onward, once Brian is more or less officially gone, it's just a bad fucking joke. (Note: I like "Wipeout," though. That's for real. I really do.)

[John]

Happy Endings.

[Fun Is In]

inSIPid

[Sheriff John Stone]

Lowest point? Right after Carl passed away and Al was relieved of his duties. The setlist was not adventurous, and the performances were lackluster. The songs were performed tooooooo slowwwwww.

Since that time, the setlist has been improved and lengthened, there have been some significant personnel changes(for the better), David Marks has appeared with the group off and on, and the vocals/performances have gotten stronger. The comeback has begun!

[37!ws]

Lowest point? I'd have to say when there was one original member left in the group plus one non-original-but-twice-new member and they had the nerve to call themselves "The Beach Boys."

[BiNNS]

Brian being unable to complete SMiLE.

[shelter]

Lowest point? I'd have to say when there was one original member left in the group plus one non-original-but-twice-new member and they had the nerve to call themselves "The Beach Boys."

I think Mike & Bruce have the right to keep playing as The Beach Boys. It's not like they at one point left the band, started a new one and called it 'The Beach Boys'... They just stayed where they were while the other members left or died one by one.

[Loaf]

Selling out to the majors by signing with Capitol.

They should have stayed on Colpix.

[elnombre]

As a group, basically anything from Summer In Paradise onwards. Post-1998, post Carl's death is just pointless to me.

[kookadams]

Lowest point? Right after Carl passed away and Al was relieved of his duties. The setlist was not adventurous, and the performances were lackluster. The songs were performed tooooooo slowwwwww.

Since that time, the setlist has been improved and lengthened, there have been some significant personnel changes(for the better), David Marks has appeared with the group off and on, and the vocals/performances have gotten stronger. The comeback has begun!

Yeah every time I've seen Mike & Bruce,I kept asking myself "why are they playing the songs so slow?". Maybe it's cuz they're old and it's easier to perform them at a lower tempo I dunno but that always bummed me out. But yeah I guess you could say they had some low points but there isn't a band out there who hasn't so I don't see what the big deal is. I mean even the Beatles had a low point, the last few years of their career but you never hear anyone talk about that. The two low points in the Beach Boys existence I would say was after Dennis died and after Carl died.  After Carl passed there is no Beach Boys as far as I'm concerned. Dennis was the heart, Carl was the soul, and Brian of course is the brains; so when you go to see the "Beach Boys" and only see Mike and Bruce you're pretty much just seeing a shell of something that was. To me I thrive on the spirit of their music and that's something that will keep me a fan for life.

[shelter]

I mean even the Beatles had a low point, the last few years of their career but you never hear anyone talk about that.

 

In their 'last few years' the Beatles made The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be (and Yellow Submarine, but that doesn't really count)... Just where exactly is the low point?

[punkinhead]

"They should have stayed on Colpix"

I think it was Candix? I could be mistaken

[John]

I mean even the Beatles had a low point, the last few years of their career but you never hear anyone talk about that.

 

In their 'last few years' the Beatles made The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be (and Yellow Submarine, but that doesn't really count)... Just where exactly is the low point?

That's what I was thinking. That might be why no-one "talks about it".

[Alex]

Basically everything after Holland and In Concert excluding Love You, POB, parts of LA Light and BB85, and the Box Set tour were low points, and after Carl's death, the Mike and Bruce Endless Summer Kokomo Oldies Revue (aka "The Beach Boys") being the lowest of the low.

[Shady]

Man I have only been a beach boys fan for two years, and to be honest I don't know if I could of been a fan from the late 80's to around Carl's Death.

But from 2000 there has been a somewhat of a rejuvenation in the Beach Boys world, there bigger than ever that can't be denied, things seem to getting more and more exciting.

[brianc]

Lowest point:

--When Brian abandoned Smile in 1967.

Most pathetic:

--"I'm pickin' up Bush vibrations."

Honorable mention:

--Any outfit Mike Love wore in the late '80s. Zooba pants stand out, especially.

[the captain]

Beach Boys ... bigger than ever that can't be denied

Oh, that can quite easily be denied. Bigger than ever?

[Dave in KC]

If you're counting from 2000 on, I guess you could say bigger than ever. But why even say that? It has no relevance to The Beach Boys history as a whole.

[brianc]

Tallied sales of records, CDs are at an all-time low, and I don't know how downloads effect that, but to say the Beach Boys are bigger than ever now doesn't seem about right to me.

I've always understood it that the record industry was at it's biggest during the 1970s. It was at that time that the Beach Boys played stadiums, and had Top 10 albums in "Endless Summer" (#1) and "Spirit of America" (#8). It would seem to me that that was when they might have been at their biggest, sales-wise.

In terms of singles, they'll never be bigger than they were in the '60s.

[Shady]

Wait, I diidn't really mean 'bigger than ever' like bigger than the 60's

I meant that since their terrible slump in the early 80's, and I guess there wasn't much going on in the 90's in the beach boys world.

It just seems thngs are really exciting in The Beach Boys camp at the moment.

Just how I feel

[jeffh]

Bigger than ever? The band that calls themselves The Beach Boys has been reduced in a large degree to playing county fairs and five hundred seat casinos.