Foda Me!! Wild Honey is the best album ever!!!!

[buddhahat]

I love Let the Wind Blow, but my one of my favourites from the album is Aren't You Glad. It's just a great Burt Bacharach kind of tune that is so uplifting. I'd love Just Once To see You is another great one. I agree with the above poster who points out that by this time the band were more involved, by I do think the songwriting is still largely down to Brian at this point and it shows. The production doesn't bother me. I actually like that dodgy buzzing organ sound that bleeds through on some tracks - sounds like bees making honey!!

Wild Honey
Pet Sounds
Friends
Sunflower
Love You

[John]

We should also, by this time, stop crediting and praising everything as BRIAN BRIAN BRIAN.....

My point though was that I don't care for "slice-of-life" Brian, and it's Brian who wrote all of the slice of life songs during this era - sometimes with Mike, sometimes with Carl, sometimes with Al - I'd Love Just Once To See You, Here Comes The Night (though I actually don't mind that one), Busy Doin' Nothin, When A Man Needs A Woman, Games Two Can Play, I Just Got My Pay, Good Time, Take A Load Off Your Feet etc.

Inconsequential, and aside from ..Got My Pay, Brian not only wrote or co-wrote, he sings lead or partial lead as well.

[buddhahat]

It's all down to personal taste as the slice of life songs are among my favourite BW compositions. Busy Doin Nothin just epitomises everything I like about that post Pet Sounds period - it's throwaway, yet brilliant at the same time. Seemingly lazy and tossed off, yet the chords are pretty complex, and the whole track is as delicately beautiful as something by A.C. Jobim. Plus, lyrically, it's a snapshot of Brian's life at the time, which is fascinating for many BW fans, me included.

[brother john]

My only wish is for Wild Honey is that it was less freakin' muddy sounding. I liked that clear version of County Air on All This is That. How about a remaster of the album please??

I still hate Let the Wind blow though.

Get the 2001 remastered version - its an improvement on the 1990 one...


Let the Wind Blow must be a matter of taste, as its one of my top BB tracks. I guess its like liking Holland, which has Sail on Sailor and Leaving this Town, but all the rest is sh|t.

[sockittome]

Woah!  How did I miss this thread?  I gotta get in on this.

First of all I don't like listing favorites in a numbered order.  I like Wild Honey, Pet Sounds, and Sunflower the most, but not particularly in that order.

Wild Honey, to me, is an incredible album.  It came out at an incredible time in rock history, which is a year or two before my earliest memories.  Maybe that's part of the charm for me personally, I don't know.  Anyone who thinks the songs on WH lack production values or depth, think again.  Maybe it doesn't have that full wall of sound like Pet Sounds, but it's a different style of music recorded in a different setting.  Many bands at the time were stripping down their music and recording in more intimate settings.  Look at what the Beatles did with the white album and Let it Be.

I do think Wild Honey would benefit greatly with a stereo facelift and a few bonus tracks of alternate takes (I've heard a few good bootleg outtakes).  I absolutely love the remix of Let the Wind Blow and I could get into the whole album sounding like that.  

And for anyone who's not hip on the stereo idea, you can always hold on to your current twofer cd or vintage vinyl (I've got both).

[John]

Let the Wind Blow must be a matter of taste, as its one of my top BB tracks. I guess its like liking Holland, which has Sail on Sailor and Leaving this Town, but all the rest is sh|t.

Um, yeah. The Trader, what were they thinking?

[JB Wilojarston]

"I do think Wild Honey would benefit greatly with a stereo facelift and a few bonus tracks of alternate takes (I've heard a few good bootleg outtakes).  I absolutely love the remix of Let the Wind Blow and I could get into the whole album sounding like that. "

While I appreciate the various stereo mixes such as Heroes and Villians, Kiss Me Baby & Let The Wind Blow, I don't prefer them to the original monaurals. It's nice to hear more of what was going on in the rhythm section or the intricacies of the vocal parts, but something is missing in all of those remixes:  the urgency of the originals. 

Making stereo of a Brian Wilson mono is like adding more definition to a Monet.

[the captain]

Making stereo of a Brian Wilson mono is like adding more definition to a Monet.

I could hardly disagree more. Also, quoting...when your new text is within the quotes (i.e. before the [/quote]), it can become difficult to tell what is new, especially in multi-part quotes. The idea is

Other person's text.

New text. See? PS, I'm not being a jackass here. Just trying to help those in need.

[Brian65]

My top 15 favorite Albums
1. Pet Sounds
2. Surfer Girl
3. Today!
4. Summer Days and Summer Nights!
5. All Summer Long
6. Stack-O-Tracks ( I love listening to the backing tracks!)
7. Sunflower
8. Smiley Smile
9. Wild Honey
10. Surf's Up
11. Friends
12. Love You
13. 20/20
14. Shut Down Vol. 2

[the captain]

Even though I'm sure I've done this before and almost certainly in some different order, my favorites are probably Pet Sounds, Today!, Friends, Surf's Up, Love You, Holland, SD(&SN!), Holland, All Summer Long, Sunflower.

[Chris Brown]

It took awhile for Wild Honey to grow on me.  It was one of those things where I would only listen to a few tracks at first ("Darlin" and "Mama Says"), and gradually I would listen to another and let that one sink in, and so on.

Even now I only really enjoy maybe 75% of the album (not crazy about the title track, "Aren't You Glad" or "Thing or Two", but I'm sure someday I'll come around), but I don't know how I went so long without stuff like "Let the Wind Blow", "Country Air" or "I'd Love Just Once to See You").  It's a pretty jarring album to listen to when you put it next to Pet Sounds or Smile, but I still like it a lot.  The messy production is a part of the charm...a lot of the songs wouldn't sound quite right with Brian's more "polished" sound.

[the captain]

a lot of the songs wouldn't sound quite right with Brian's more "polished" sound.

No, but they might have sounded really good with Carl's more polished sound, meaning that early '70s sound they later nailed.

[Chris Brown]

a lot of the songs wouldn't sound quite right with Brian's more "polished" sound.

No, but they might have sounded really good with Carl's more polished sound, meaning that early '70s sound they later nailed.

Yeah now that you mention it, I could picture that. 

[sockittome]

The messy production is a part of the charm...a lot of the songs wouldn't sound quite right with Brian's more "polished" sound.

See, I have to disagree here.  I think the rough production works fine for Smiley, mainly because that album is a head trip all the way around.  But Wild Honey deserves much more in the way of post production.  Up to that point WH was pretty much the most modern and hip sounding material from The Boys, and with stereo quickly becoming the norm, it would have been a good album to present in that format...and I think it would stand up a little better these days, not sounding quite so dated.

My nickel's worth.  Anybody got change? 

[buddhahat]

I love the unpolished production - it gives it the vitality of a live recording. I'm not sure if you could improve the production whilst maintaining that vital sound but I suspect if it had a more polished Sunflower type treatment the character of the album would be lost. I guess we will never know, but I do love the low-fi production - gives it a sweaty, groovy quality that sets the scene perfectly for those buzzing organ solos. It all feels very immediate, uncomplicated and unselfconscious which is its major appeal for me.

[Leo K]

It's worth getting a turntable just to hear Wild Honey on vinyl...the CD doesn't do it justice!  Amazing "airy" rich sound!!!

[Beach Boy]

That album grew a lot on me too. First I hated it, mainly because of the cover art.    Now I even like that a bit. 

I think all tracks are cool, even HSBI. Just something different but harmless and rocking. I don't mind Mama Says because I didn't hear the other Vegetables versions back then. My favourite songs might be I'd Love Just Once To See You and Country Air. Darlin' is good but I heard better live versions (Knebworth, Endless Summer '89 - rocks!).

BTW My top 5 albums at the moment might just be:

1. Wild Honey
2. 20/20
3. KTSA
4. Sunflower
4. Pet Sounds

[Alex]

I just DL'd a boot with stereo versions of Smiley Smile and Wild Honey, and I think I love those 2 albums more than ever now, after hearing the stereo versions! (though some of the songs are in "fake" stereo, I still like it better than in mono)