The Beach Boys - Endless Harmony

[Charles LePage @ ComicList]

Discuss, review and rate The Beach Boys - Endless Harmony, released March 14, 2000.

[Jason]

A fabulous documentary film, covers all the bases (except Smile). 5 all the way.

[Rocker]

I give it a 5, too, although I hate the parts were Mike tells everyone how great he is...
I think the darker days could have been more discussed (Manson and stuff) and the great music they made up until Blondie and Ricky left...

[Don't Back Down]

one of my purchases I never regreted buying. great documentary all the way though the band talking about their experiences and their music, what more could you ask for in a BBoys documentary? I love the live H&V concert footage they showed with the horn section. 5 from me

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

5. Solid. Only minor quibble is that the soundtrack is made up of alot of rejected material, which could confuse the newcomer.

[punkinhead]

great docu! it actually included love you, a 5 in my book.

[MBE]

I love this DVD. I mean the 1963 footage is amazing. The stuff from the 70s knocks me out too. Here are my complaints.  I wish vintage interviews from all of them (Dennis especally) were used (memory lapses are a real thing). I don't like the talking heads like Sean Lennon. I think Dennis' work should have been more fully intergrated. The bonus material could have been a whole second disc of raw interviews and "outakes". Finally except for Sunflower they make Brian seem like he didn't do anything from Smile to 15 Big Ones. I mean one second Brian won't leave his room, next second Desper and Bruce talk about how great he was during Sunflower. Showing a fat Brian during the Til I die montage was not bright either. Yet again I still love this thing. It really leaves out nothing musically essential and does give everyones point of view. For everything I just put it down for, I can say 10 nice things. Watch it for sure.

[Zander]

Excellent documentary! This and along with my greatest hits CD got me hooked on the Beach Boys. One gripe, some of the albums don't even get a mention (Wild Honey, Carl & The Passions, Keepin' The Summer Alive etc)

If I could improve this DVD I would have liked to see additional performances of Brian performing at the piano, additional exteneded interview material and maybe a making of documentary as extras. 10/10, A***** 

[mikeyj]

Excellent documentary! This and along with my greatest hits CD got me hooked on the Beach Boys. One gripe, some of the albums don't even get a mention (Wild Honey, Carl & The Passions, Keepin' The Summer Alive etc)

I agree with you there. But its like most documentaries on bands it only mentions the supposedly 'major' works and songs by the artist which I can understand but it still wouldve been nice to have the band talk about those albums that you mentioned and others. I still give it a 5 though as this is by far my favourite Beach Boys documentary (not that theres too many) but this one covers the story really nicely and its good how its in their own words. I too get a  bit frustrated with Mike Love how he says things such as "Brian was melancholy, I was Mr. positive thinker. That was ME!" Just the way he says "That was ME!" really bugs me, he just sounds so jealous that he doesnt get more attention. Anyway its still nice to have everyone's opinions (I spose your not going to agree with everything that they say)

[pixletwin]

Just watched it a few nights ago. I rated it a 4.

But here is what bugged me. It showed Brian talking about Dennis gift in composing and producing but it never explored that. It never even played any of his songs (that I can think of). I kept expecting it to include live footage of Dennis singing Forever or Be With me... Alas, nope.

Anyway. I feel like this is sort of equivelent to the Beatles Documentary The Complete Beatles (narrated by Malcom McDowell). But there needs to be done on a Beatles Anthology-like scale with the Beach Boys. Alot more could be unearthed and a lot more quality time taken for all the episodes/issues that need to be addressed.

[John 2]

I gave it four. I think I have a nostalgic bias towards "An American Band" though

[Lonely Summer]

I gave it four. I think I have a nostalgic bias towards "An American Band" though

Me, too. I was lucky to see "American Band" in a theater back in 1985. Made a lasting impression. This is a good one, though. Much more in depth interviews from the band members. The post Sunflower/ Surf's Up years sure fly by fast, but this is the best so far at telling the story of the Beach Boys.

[shelter]

Can't get enough of this documentary, yesterday I watched it for probably the 20th time or something like that.

Some things I keep noticing:
- Brian somehow looks an awful lot like Al Bundy during that acoustic performance of Surfin'.
- Brian should make fun of Mike more often. The bit where he asks Al to pinch his nose and than starts singing California Girls is hilarious.
- Was Terry Melcher always that inarticulate?
- When they talk about writing Fun Fun Fun, Mike and Brian both do their best to appear relaxed, but it's very plain to see that they aren't.
- What was Hal Blaine thinking when he dyed his hair black?
- Carl had an incredibly soothing voice when he talked.
- Al should never perform Sloop John B solo on the piano ever again.
- Was Van Dyke always as pretentious as he was in that mid 70s interview? VERY annoying.

[hypehat]

- Was Van Dyke always as pretentious as he was in that mid 70s interview? VERY annoying.

Given his social circle at that time, it's a miracle he could construct a coherent sentence

[Don_Zabu]

I love this movie.

The whole thing is great, but to me, it moves into absolute triumph territory in three key areas:

-(1): The way the individual band member's personalities stand out, especially Brian's oft-forgotten sense of humor, Carl's introspective spirituality, and Dennis's world-weary realness.
-(2): The use of period footage, magazine stills, newspaper clippings, etc. to illustrate the mood of the individual time periods and establish context for music.
-(3): The music. Whether you like the movie or not, you at least owe it for the unreleased material we got out of it. Soulful Old Man Sunshine, Sail Plane Song, Barbara, all that.

[punkinhead]

i owned the soundtrack before the seeing the movie...being that it was called the soundtrack, I expected ALL the songs to be in the movie (this was before I knew about how rarities were released in the BB-world)...It woulda been cool to hear more of the soundtrack in the doc....no complaints though

[Foster's Freeze]

It's a good DVD although for a completest fan it is frustrating because you see and hear things you wish they would release on their own.

[robertgotshall]

Just finished watching and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Never having seen a Beach Boys doc, it was an interesting watch. My only complaint, I think, is that it didn't get a chance to focus on other members of the band as much. I would love to have seen more on Dennis as he seems like such an interesting guy. I'm now tracking down the BBC4 special, Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy to get some more insight.

[Christoph]

A 5 for sure. Love the clips from the late Carl, especially doing his vocal line on Surfer Girl in the rehearsal room.

[Domino]

I like this documentary because Brians answers seems very honest.

[Alex]

Too much glossing over on a lot of the details...Brian interviewed much better in IJWMFTT, and Love comes off as a fodahead...Al seems to be the only living BB that comes across clear headed and doesn`t make me cringe during the interview.

[Rocky Raccoon]

Where's the live footage of Sail On Sailor from?

[Paulos]

Watched this again last night for the first time in ages, a good documentary but certain flaws prevent it from being brilliant so I'm only going to give it 4/5. To me it would have been better if Ricky and Blondie had actually been interviewed, David had been interviewed more and if they hadn't skipped over Smiley Smile, Wild Honey etc like those albums never existed. Like someone else mentioned a series of documentaries Beatles Anthology style would be the only way to do The Beach Boys legacy justice. One thing I hadn't noticed before was the inclusion of a snippet of Al's acoustic rendtion of 'California Saga: California' - it sounded amazing and I want to hear the whole thing but as far as I understand it has only been released on the ESQ 'One In A Million' CD which is now unavailable.

[Craig Boyd]

One thing I hadn't noticed before was the inclusion of a snippet of Al's acoustic rendtion of 'California Saga: California' - it sounded amazing and I want to hear the whole thing but as far as I understand it has only been released on the ESQ 'One In A Million' CD which is now unavailable.

I really want to hear the full song, I wish Al had stuck it on Postcard as a bonus track.

[Lonely Summer]

I liked this one a lot when it came out, but it hasn't aged well for me. Mike is at his most insufferable here, I'm not a Mike basher, but I don't like his attitude here. Timothy White's comments are insightful, but I don't get much out of the comments from John Stamos, Sean Lennon, Glenn Frey, or Jackson Browne.  I like An American Band better because there are more complete music clips.