Tallahassee Lassie

[mikeyj]

The disc itself credits: B. Wilson - M. Love - J. Rieley.  The enclosed booklet says: Composer/Brian Wilson;
Lyrics/Mike Love; Additional lyrics by Mike Love.

No Jack Rieley in the booklet.

Thanks for the info. I always find it so confusing when there are so many mistakes like this. I can't remember where I've seen all of these but for example I have seen the following people credited for songs:

Had To Phone Ya - either Brian Wilson/Mike Love or Brian Wilson/Mike Love/Diane Rovell
Hang On To Your Ego - Brian Wilson/Tony Asher instead of Brian Wilson/Terry Sachen
Pom Pom Play Girl - Brian Wilson/Mike Love instead of Brian Wilson/Gary Usher
Shut Down - Brian Wilson/Gary Usher instead of Brian Wilson/Roger Christian

I'm sure there are plenty more but it gets very confusing when I have to go and check the credits from other sources just to be sure.

[The Heartical Don]

While on the subject of 15BO, is it just me or does Carl sound a bit....ehem....wasted/half asleep on all of his vocals on the album?

Hm. You do have a point, for some tracks at least. 'Talk To Me/TL' is a case in point. Might be painful, but: I find it not very credible that someone, during what must have been a couple of weeks at least, permanently sounded tired.
'Wasted' could be the operative word. If rumours are true that Carl was partial to both alcohol and benzodiazepines (sedating medication), then that could be the answer. Because if a normally awake person 'has a few' in the morning, and uses some Valium, the net result is exactly what you hear in this track. A doctor friend of mine recently told me that he could make out in the streets in daylight which people were on much Valium. Delayed reaction times and woozy speach give it away.
Contrariwise: someone just having woken up sounds sleepy for just a couple of minutes. Not longer, in fact, than, um, a song like 'Ding Dang' is...

I'm not that keen on sensationalism. But perhaps this is an honest answer.

I myself always wondered a bit about Carl's singing on 'The Night Was So Young'. He has to work on it, and does not pronounce that well. But it could well be that Brian thought the first take (intended demo) was the best of all.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Carl was having some serious personal problems (as well as his chronic back condition) 1976-78, which he elected to alleviate by self-medicating.

[lance]

I dont know but I always thought that part of the Night Was So Young featured a "slowed down" vocal. Not all of it...But the verses sound slowed down to me. The part in the choruses(she's passing it by, she don't even try) sound normal.

[Jay]

Carl was having some serious personal problems (as well as his chronic back condition) 1976-78, which he elected to alleviate by self-medicating.

What, exactly, happened to his back? I've read about him having chronic pain, but I haven't been able to find a specific cause. Somebody on this message board also mentioned something about him having gout. What's the story on that?

By the way, it can be VERY difficult to NOT "self medicate" during the course of one's day to day activity, when said person is having severe, chronic pain. Take it from somebody who knows. 

[The Heartical Don]

Carl was having some serious personal problems (as well as his chronic back condition) 1976-78, which he elected to alleviate by self-medicating.

What, exactly, happened to his back? I've read about him having chronic pain, but I haven't been able to find a specific cause. Somebody on this message board also mentioned something about him having gout. What's the story on that?

By the way, it can be VERY difficult to NOT "self medicate" during the course of one's day to day activity, when said person is having severe, chronic pain. Take it from somebody who knows. 

Good points, well made. We tend to put the habits of our beloved stars under the microscope. And we tend to smooth and gloss over our own behaviour, or that of those near to us, in the process. I could come up with a list of addictions to prescription sedatives and alcohol problems in my own extended family. And it is certainly not an exception. In fact, I'd say 'totally clean' extended families form a rare species.

[Mr. Cohen]

wrong topic

[37!ws]

The disc itself credits: B. Wilson - M. Love - J. Rieley.  The enclosed booklet says: Composer/Brian Wilson;
Lyrics/Mike Love; Additional lyrics by Mike Love.

No Jack Rieley in the booklet.

Does the booklet credits make a lick of sense?  If Mike wrote the lyrics, why would he be credited again for "additional lyrics?"  It might as well read Composer/Brian Wilson; additional music by Brian Wilson!

Because he threatened to sue if he didn't get more credit?

[Aegir]

I'm sure it was nothing more than an honest, non-malicious mistake.

[Mr. Cohen]

I love 15 Big Ones. Seriously. Catchy oldies with carnivalesque arrangements by Brian Wilson? I'm there. Just listen to "Talk To Me". I love that weird synth line that comes in during the "the many ways she speaks of love..." part. And then the song mysteriously switches to a vintage Brian take on "Tallahassee Lassie" (it kind of reminds me of the retro tag to the long version of "Can't Wait Too Long"), just to go back to "Talk to Me". Awesome.

Although "Rock and Roll Music" comes up a little short on the album, the single version available on iTunes has that catchy synth bass sound that's all over Love You on songs like "Honkin' Down the Highway". It makes it a very enjoyable song. "Palisades Park" is a rocking song with a nice lead by Carl, and the introduction vocal chant ("run, run, run, runnin', yeah the ride's are runnin'") is great, so great that Brian wound up reusing it in quite a few of his other songs. "Chapel of Love" has another weird synth part that works great, and his wailing 'soul' vocals in the background are fun and are probably the closest we get to Brian's old voice on the whole album. "TM Song" would probably be much better received if it had been "Vegetable Song" and had reused some of the famous 'vegetable arguments' instead of the meditation argument. It's not that bad, people. It's like if a song has TM in it somewhere, it automatically gets docked a couple of points. I can think of far cheesier things the Beach Boys have sung about than TM, so who cares?

And how about "Blueberry Hill"? That standalone bass introduction is classic and the Spectoresque production works. "Had to Phone Ya" would be a great song, too, if it wasn't for that insipid 'you... you... you..." part in the middle. If Brain would have used some creative echo effect on the word "you" to fill up the space (and made it a little shorter) it would have been amazing, instead of having Mike say the word dryly over and over again until it sounds ridiculous. "Susie Cincinnati"  and "Back Home" are classic-style Beach Boys songs that would have fit in well on their earliest albums and definitely have their catchy moments. We don't even have to get into the cover of "Just Once in My Life", do we?

Could it be that, for once, Rolling Stone magazine likes a Beach Boys album more than Beach Boys fans do? What's wrong with that picture? Don't buy the burnout crap. If you get past the flat mastering it's clear Brian was 'into something good'.

Someone had to defend 15 Big Ones. Am I right?

[Sheriff John Stone]

I'm with you, Dada. For as flawed as 15 Big Ones is, and for as easily as it could've been improved (the easiest being better track selection), I still enjoy listening to it. I always find something(s) that I like or that impresses me. And I will always defend Brian's production of the album; I really like the "sound" of the songs. I still consider it in some ways to be his Phil Spector/rock and roll album. The 15 Big Ones/Love You 2fer CD is one of my most played.

[The Heartical Don]

I'm with you, Dada. For as flawed as 15 Big Ones is, and for as easily as it could've been improved (the easiest being better track selection), I still enjoy listening to it. I always find something(s) that I like or that impresses me. And I will always defend Brian's production of the album; I really like the "sound" of the songs. I still consider it in some ways to be his Phil Spector/rock and roll album. The 15 Big Ones/Love You 2fer CD is one of my most played.

Same here. It's not even a 'guilty pleasure'. It's brilliant and somehow is a very honest reflection of a group of men not too far from their forties who rose to fame with a brilliant catalogue and refuse to tread solely on past glories. For, one can absolutely say that 15BO/LY is NOT an attempt to endlessly repeat said glories. 15BO is, as I pointed out, lovely, silly, odd, embarrassing, surprising... but not dishonest. And Love You is even more so on all counts.

[donald]

The BeachBoys  recordings from that era are all interesting and all suffer/benefit from a melding of the different directions the band had taken over recent years.  Not  to mention the different incarnations and styles of pop music that emerged during the same era.

[lance]

Was just listening to 15 BO, LOVE YOU and assorted unreleased songs from 76-77.  I was thinking that you could make three awesome, thematically coherent albums from all of them:

1 album of oldies
1 album of feel good, party "beach boys" songs(It's OK, Wontcha Come Out Tonight and so on)
1 Album of heartbreaking, serious songs(My Diane and I'll Bet He's Nice and so on.


Why do we Beach Boys constantly feel the need to rewrite history? Because, in fact, all three albums were at least OK as is.
I guess it's just because I think that if they did it just a tiny bit different, they would have more respect.

[donald]

and as the late great Rodney Dangerfield often said............

[MBE]

15 Big Ones is really the last album all the Beach Boys worked on. Mike and Al did little on Love You. Dennis and Carl weren't on MIU much, Brian was gone from LA Light, KTSA and all albums afterwards no Dennis. So if it is flawed (which it is) it's the last album where the Beach Boys were a group. I think Jon Stebbins pointed out that 1976 was the last real group year. I agree as far as being a functioning group 1976 was the end.