Overrated BB's Related Songs

[adamghost]

I would say overrated would mean people have to rate them in the first place, which probably leaves out most of the '80s and '90s stuff.

The two I can think of are "Only With You" and "Let's Put Our Hearts Together."  I'd add "Steamboat" but I don't know that that many people are into that one in the first place.  It's funny, Dennis is probably my fave in the group, but he's also got the biggest snoozers for me.  "Only With You" and "Steamboat" to my ear just plod.  They sound to me like someone trying to find their way out of a closet full of winter coats, finally losing interest, and going to sleep on an old trunk.

I'll add to the sacrilege and say "Feel Flows." 

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Yeah, Steamboat is an odd song, but lyrically, it is at home on Holland and it's one of my very fave Carl vocals, and then there's that awesome slide guitar break, and the overall production. Just the sound the whole thing achieves is remarkable...... But somehow it just about fails as a song. Can't exactly put my finger on why, but I love it as a production. As a song in general, though, I'd have to give it a solid C at best.

Also, even though I love love love Carl's vocal, I feel that Dennis should have sang it himself. Holland is my absolute favorite Beach Boys album, but I feel robbed in a way that Dennis doesn't sing his own songs! I also feel robbed that Carry Me Home doesn't close the album. But that's another topic in and of itself!

[rogerlancelot]

01) Help Me Rhonda
02) Barbara Ann
03) Wild Honey
04) Cotton Fields
05) I Can Hear Music
06) Add Some Music To Your Day
07) Cool Cool Water
08) Rock And Roll Music
09) It's OK
10) Come Go With Me
11) All of BB85
12) Kokomo

I'll stop there. My point is that almost all of those were singles and in my opinion are overshadowed by album tracks. Take an artist like Paul McCartney. Most of his singles throughout his solo career were rather weak but on every single one of his albums you can find at least one really good song.

[Meade]

Surfin'  
409  
Surfin' USA     (puh-lease!)
Shut Down
Be True to Your School    (spare me)
All Summer Long  (bad lyrics)
Fun Fun Fun
Girls on the Beach  (inane rewrite of Surfer Girl)
Help Me Ronda  (the Summer Days remake)
The Man With All The Toys
Barbara Ann
I'm Bugged at My Old Man
Add Some Music to Your Day  (feh)
The Nearest Faraway Place
Cool Cool Water  (Sunflower version)
Tears in the Morning  
Disney Girls  (not a Bruce fan, if you can tell)
It's OK
Had to Phone Ya
Solar System
Lady Lynda  (nah)
Sumahama  (would have been a better Mike Love solo project)
Here Comes the Night (Disco version, yuk)
Kokomo!   (can't stand it)

[Sheriff John Stone]

All Summer Long  (bad lyrics)

Wow. I always thought they were some of Mike's best. Lots of fun, summer-y images there...

[oldsurferdude]

01) Help Me Rhonda
02) Barbara Ann
03) Wild Honey
04) Cotton Fields
05) I Can Hear Music
06) Add Some Music To Your Day
07) Cool Cool Water
08) Rock And Roll Music
09) It's OK
10) Come Go With Me
11) All of BB85
12) Kokomo

I'll stop there. My point is that almost all of those were singles and in my opinion are overshadowed by album tracks. Take an artist like Paul McCartney. Most of his singles throughout his solo career were rather weak but on every single one of his albums you can find at least one really good song.

good list but I would replace ICHM with Student Demonstration Time . ICHM is probably one Carl's finest leads and a great song .

[TdHabib]

"Let's Put Our Hearts Together." 

Is it due to the vocals or the tune itself?? I'll have much more respect for you if it's the latter 

As for "All Summer Long," I can see, on the surface, why many say it's overrated as I didn't care for it for awhile. However, I saw American Graffiti on the big screen at a revival house and when that song hit at the end, I fell in love with it fully. It's now one of my very faves.

Here's a better list of my overrated:
Surfin' Safari (never stuck out to me at all as a great tune)
409 (recording and song)
Spirit Of America (bores me)
Ballad Of Ole Betsy (just never really connected to me)
In The Parkin' Lot (same)
any pre-1965 instrumental except maybe Surf Jam or Boogie Woodie
Don't Hurt My Little Sister
Most of Smiley Smile
Tears in the Morning (how this was a single I will never know. Not generall well known or rated highly, but it WAS a single!)
Here She Comes (anything good said about it is overrated to me. Funny that I love the Flame but they put two weak songs on CATP)
Only With You (great song, hate the Holland version), The Beaks Of Eagles, Big Sur (3/4 version), Leaving this Town
Any Beach Boys song aside from "Getcha Back," "Where I Belong," "Male Ego," "R+R to the Rescue," "Somewhere Near Japan" "Soul Searchin'" or "You're Still a Mystery" after Dennis died. Just a buncha crap and to call any of it good is stretching in my book.

[TdHabib]

They sound to me like someone trying to find their way out of a closet full of winter coats, finally losing interest, and going to sleep on an old trunk.

Well that made me laugh quite a bit. 

[SG7]

I'm actually quite a fan of Steamboat. Probably one of the few Holland songs I actually like!

[Sheriff John Stone]

I put "Steamboat" in the same boat (pun intended ) as "Marcella", "Wild Honey", and a couple of the other late 60's/early 70's songs, meaning it's slightly TOO SLOW. If it was just speeded up a little bit....

[Nicko]

I would say overrated would mean people have to rate them in the first place, which probably leaves out most of the '80s and '90s stuff.

Indeed. Which is why I would say the likes of Rock and Roll Music, Kokomo, Student Demonstration Time etc. don't belong in this thread. Just because a couple of them were singles, doesn't mean that they are rated highly now.

The Spring album has been overrated by many imo as some, when they believed it was mostly Brian's work, called it a homespun masterpiece. It's quite a nice covers album but the Rovell girls don't come close to matching the originals of songs like Superstar and Forever.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Good point!

I honestly don't think anything post Pet Sounds can be accused of being overrated! Not even Smile! The Smile legend might be overrated, but not the content itself.

Perhaps us nerds here overrate some stuff, but where the  "rock n roll/pop fan - music critic" public, by and large is concerned: The Beach Boys still have along way to go until they can even be considered honestly-rated!

[MBE]

I agree with Sheriff on "Meant for You" being a closer.  "Lonely Days" would have been another good snippet closer.

1. Roller Skating Child--makes me want to hurl
2. Honkin' Down the Highway--embarrassing
3. A Day in the Life of a Tree--dreadful
4. Solar System--childish, and not in a good way
5. Disney Girls--way out of place
6. Amusement Parks USA--has its moments but the time for this music had passed
7. I Wanna Pick You Up--disturbing
8. Hey Little Tomboy--equally disturbing
9. Johnny Carson--what the?
10. Tears in the Morning--annoying vocals


I hit Love You pretty hard.  Outside of a few tracks, it just plain stinks!

 

I like Disney Girls and Amusment Parks, and can tolerate Tears in the context of the album, but otherwise your list is spot on.

[Myk Luhv]

If anyone actually thinks anything else the Beach Boys have done even comes close to approaching Pet Sounds in its entirety, there is something wrong with that person. That album is nigh-perfect and there will never again be a time when every messy variable of life might line up again to produce such an album. No one is going to mention Sunflower or Wild Honey -- or even The Beach Boys Today! for that matter -- in the same breath as their masterpiece simply because there is not, it seems to me, a larger sense of unity among the album in terms of both music and lyrics to hold anything else they've done together in the same way. Pet Sounds was the product of a time and place and state of mind in the best possible senses of these terms and one that is not able to be replicated easily, if at all. It is telling, I think, that The Beatles's response to this album was one of technical prowess, but is lacking in that mercurial sense of emotional honesty imbued in the best Beach Boys songs (the exception would be "She's Going Home," I think, which is still not saying all that much). I do like The Beach Boys very much, but it's silly to think that they have more than one album that could be considered 'perfect.' I don't mean for this to sound as irate as it does, I'm putting off writing an essay that really must get done...

[The Heartical Don]

There are no overrated BBs songs.

[adamghost]

"Let's Put Our Hearts Together." 

Is it due to the vocals or the tune itself?? I'll have much more respect for you if it's the latter 

You know, I honestly don't know!  The vocals are a factor for sure.  But it all just merges into a nightmare to me.  Though the chord progressions aren't horrible.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I used to hate "The Night was so Young" because of Carl's abysmal vocal performance (I once said something about him sounding like Peter Cetera gargling battery acid, or something equally as harsh!) , and I still hate it vocally, but the song itself grew on me ever since the day I did an instrumental hip-hop style cover of it...the melody itself is cool. Shame about the vocals, though.

I think Today is overrated. I bet that's gonna get me some hate. Well, hell...the songs generally accepted as being good are indeed very good. Except...I don't care for "In the Back of my Mind" much at all. I have always really hated it. Hearing it in stereo made me like it a little bit more, but to me it sounds like Brian was trying too hard. I don't like Don't Hurt my Little Sister one bit. To me, All Summer Long (the album)was much better.

Also overrated...

Don't Back Down - the "show 'em now who got GUTS~!" part was annoying to me. Brian's always been my favorite BB vocally, but I freaking despise his vocal part there. GUUUUUUUUUUTS~!

Little Deuce Coupe album- It's a "deuce" all right.

[Mike's Beard]

If anyone actually thinks anything else the Beach Boys have done even comes close to approaching Pet Sounds in its entirety, there is something wrong with that person.

I actually rate "Surf's Up", "Holland", "Sunflower" and "Today!" all ahead of "Pet Sounds"   Does that mean there is something wrong with me then? While "Pet Sounds" may have more of a unity and overall flow that any other album they made has, it is for that same reason I think it loses a point or two in that many of their other releases had much more variation. I understand what you mean by it being a moment defining album both of the group and of the era. And it certainly was the water mark in the production skills of BW. It also has without a doubt been the one record from the group that has had the most impact over time for a number of reasons.  I just find I cannot play it over and over again without getting a little bored with it unlike many of the above mentioned albums which I never seem to tire from.  It's called personal preference.  Somewhere out there I'm sure there is somebody who would rather listen to "Summer in Paradise" than "Pet Sounds".

[The Heartical Don]

If anyone actually thinks anything else the Beach Boys have done even comes close to approaching Pet Sounds in its entirety, there is something wrong with that person.

I actually rate "Surf's Up", "Holland", "Sunflower" and "Today!" all ahead of "Pet Sounds"   Does that mean there is something wrong with me then? While "Pet Sounds" may have more of a unity and overall flow that no other album they made has, it is for that same reason I think it loses a point or two in that many of their other releases had much more variation. I understand what you mean by it being a moment defining album both of the group and of the era. And it certainly was the water mark in the production skills of BW. It also has without a doubt been the one record from the group that has had the most impact over time for a number of reasons.  I just find I cannot play it over and over again without getting a little bored with it unlike many of the above mentioned albums which I never seem to tire from.  It's called personal preference.  Somewhere out there I'm sure there is somebody who would rather listen to "Summer in Paradise" than "Pet Sounds".

No. That person is not 'out there'. He/she's 'in there'. As in: a mental institution.

[Mike's Beard]

Its true!!  I think his initials are M.L. or something............

[rogerlancelot]

Not to mention this guy's top ten:
http://members.tripod.com/~fun_fun_fun/faves.html
I'm not making this up.

[Mike's Beard]

Each to their own I guess.  For what it's worth my top 10 would consist of

1) Surf's Up
2) Holland
3) Sunflower
4) Today!
5) Pet Sounds
6) Surfer Girl
7) 20/20
So Tough
9) Keepin' The Summer Alive
10) Wild Honey


Have to admit I had to think long and hard on the last 2.  May have killed my cred stone cold with choice number #9 but what the hell, I'll stand by my decision!!

[smile-holland]

Not to mention this guy's top ten:
http://members.tripod.com/~fun_fun_fun/faves.html
I'm not making this up.

Somehow I expect one of our members on this board to respond to this... 

[hypehat]

There are no overrated BBs songs.

You contrarian, you. 

[TdHabib]

A number of M.I.U. songs seem overrated by the fans...sure "Matchpoint" or "Woncha" may have decent Brian vocals, but they still bore me to tears. Just sayin...