Sunflower Is 40 Years Old

[Amy B.]

What's really weird to me is that it seems like only yesterday we were marking the 40th anniversary of Pet Sounds. And so that really underscores how short 4 years is... and yet when you look at how much Brian changed over that period of time... it's more pleasant to think of it as 4 long years. Does that make sense? Weird.

[oldsurferdude]

Yes, for fans, it was a terrific album. Fully acceptable by BB fans everywhere regardless of what was going on with culture at the time. Only try being a fan in those days.  Scornful responses to the music you loved from 1967 to 1971 were the norm. Play Sunflower at a party and you had an instant downer. As great as you thought this music was, it just wasn't relevant or in synch with the times and if you liked it or owned it, people looked at you like your bowles were on the outside instead of inside. You were weird, passe, and had to work hard to find others who actually liked this great music. Face it, At My Window wasn't going to make them more hip-even with beards.

[Aegir]

Perfect album. I like it better than Pet Sounds. ESPECIALLY Tears in the Morning!

[SmileySam]

I remember hearing Sunflower for the first time. It was paired together with Surf's Up, and I borrowed the cd from the local public library. Before hearing it I remember thinking how its probably going to be more-or-less a nostalgic corny pop album(then again, back then I've only ever heard the hits). But when I heard the opening chords of 'Slip On Through' and then Dennis' vocal, I was like "WHOAH!" I was totally stunned and shocked about the record, and then listening to 'Surf's Up' after  made it all the more surprising because of how much they'd grown artistically. Back then, I've only heard everything up to the Pet Sounds album so thats what made it a shock for me. To me, this album is their best TEAM effort.
In my mind, Pet Sounds was Brian's masterpiece, but Sunflower was The Beach Boys' masterpiece as a whole.

[Wrightfan]

By the way, All I Wanna Do is my favorite song on the album. May be one of my top 5 favorite songs by the band.

Forever is great but I'm not as convinced as most of you that it's a classic. I just can't get into most of Denny's work for some reason.

[SG7]

I first heard it on vinyl the day after i saw Brian Wilson do Smile live. I fell immediately in love with it and I'm still a big fan of that album, even with TITM!

[MBE]

My favorite album period. The coda of Tears is a little much but every other moment is special to me. It has a great flow, they all are peaking, the voices sound as good as ever. Sunflower is magnificent.

[Ganz Allein]

One of their very best. To make it even better, I'd replace "Tears in the Morning" with "Fallin' In Love (Lady)" and "Slip On Through" with "Break Away."

[runnersdialzero]

I think Sunflower didn't sell well because the record buying public's taste varies and just because an album is great doesn't mean it'll sell millions of copies, and vice versa.

[Eric Aniversario]

I love Sunflower.  Favorites: It's About Time, At My Window, Slip On Through, Deirdre, Forever, All I Wanna Do.  Least favorite: Tears In The Morning.

[c-man]

One of their very best. To make it even better, I'd replace "Tears in the Morning" with "Fallin' In Love (Lady)" and "Slip On Through" with "Break Away."

"Sunflower" without "Slip On Through"?  NO WAY! 

[tomstuart]

I was thinking about this the other day... what if you made Sunflower a more Brian-centric album? It would look something like this:
This Whole World
Add Some Music
All I Wanna Do
Good Time
Take a Load Off Your Feet
At My Window
Loop De Loop
Our Sweet Love
Soulful Old Man Sunshine
When Girls Get Together
Cool, Cool Water

I didn't put "I Just Got My Pay" or "Games Two Can Play" on the list because the production values were too low compared to the rest of the material. This material makes his Love You persona seem like a natural extension of where he was at in '69/'70. The only difference is that the production values were higher back then.

 Thank God they didn't go with a more Brian-centric approach, if that line-up is anything to go by! Ditching Slip On Through and It's About Time in favour of Loop de Loop and Take a Load...? Bad move. Dennis's Lady and San Miguel were considered for inclusion on the album and i think they'd have notched the quality up a peg or two if they had.
 I love this album a lot! It's not perfect - the aforementioned Dennis tracks would've fitted in better than Bruce's songs (I don't hate Tears quite as much as some fans do, but it's certainly not a favourite and, to me, it really jars on the album - it just doesn't fit, it sounds out of place. (Nice accordion though).
 I like songs like Deidre and At my Window, but at a time when the band were struggling for hipness these kinda tracks didn't help. I've always thought it would've been nice if Sunflower had been a double album, with the band consentrating on Brian's better quality recent songs and Dennis's songs, as he was really coming into his own at this time. Songs like Sound of Free and celebrate the News deserved a bigger audience than they achieved.
 How's this? (I know, i know, it'd never ever have happened, but hey, good lineup...)

SIDE ONE
1. Slip on through
2. This whole world
3. Add some music...
4. Got to Know the Woman
5. San miguel
6. I'm going your way
 
SIDE TWO
1. The lord's prayer
2. Soulful old man sunshine
3. Mona Kanua
4. Susie cincinatti
5. Deidre
6. It's about Time

SIDE THREE
1. Celebrate the news
2. Breakaway
3. All i wanna do
4. Forever
5. Our sweet love

SIDE FOUR
1. Games two can play
2. Sound of Free
3. Over the waves
4. Lady
5. At my window
6. Cool, cool water

[sockittome]

That's a great lineup, but in reality, a double album at that time would have been pretty intimidating to folks who were already trying to follow what the BBs were up to.  That might have ended their career right then and there.

My "what if" would be along the lines of releasing SUNFLOWER as is, and then saving a few of the stronger tracks mentioned in the above post to bump off a few of the clunkers on SURF'S UP, like "Don't Go Near the Water", "Take a Load Off", etc.  It may not have changed the sales figures any, but at least you'd have 2 super strong BB albums and maybe they would have been able to generate some momentum over the next couple of years.

[Dancing Bear]

God bless Warner for being a pain in the ass. We'll never agree on an ideal line-up, but the one that got released is very acceptable, and we know that the more tracks teh boy shad available for a master, the more chances of screwing up. :-)

IMO The Brian songs that were included were the good ones he had at the time. 'At My Window' (is it an Al song?) is borderline.

[shadownoze]

All you Tears-In-The-Morning-haters should at least be glad that Bruce changed his original lyrics, which were even more cringe-worthy. As I recall, he originally had one line that said, "And I don't need no nepenthe..." I was gonna say there's probably a good reason you can't name another song which contains the word "nepenthe," but a quick look at Wikipedia shows that it HAS been used a couple of times. Still, I have to wonder how the other BBs felt about that one.

[slothrop]

Would've cut "Tears" and "Got to Know" and added "Breakaway/Celebrate the News," "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" and maybe "Lady"

Also, some interesting (and positive!) contemporaneous reviews/blurbs. Even a full page ad couldn't sell it. Such a shame what so many people missed out on.

http://www.superseventies.com/spbeachboys4.html

[Foster's Freeze]

It seems I hear something new with every listen.

[runnersdialzero]

All you Tears-In-The-Morning-haters should at least be glad that Bruce changed his original lyrics, which were even more cringe-worthy. As I recall, he originally had one line that said, "And I don't need no nepenthe..." I was gonna say there's probably a good reason you can't name another song which contains the word "nepenthe," but a quick look at Wikipedia shows that it HAS been used a couple of times. Still, I have to wonder how the other BBs felt about that one.

Meh, at least you can't accuse his lyrics (and that line) of being overly generic or anything.

[Mike's Beard]

Does anybody think "Cool Cool Water" is slightly overrated?

No ... I think (among the sort of serious fans who grace this board with their presence) it's significantly overrated. It's nice. Pretty. Ranks among the band's top 75 tunes or so for me, I suppose.

I also make myself overlook the fact that out of the songs 3 movements, the final part comprised of fresh material is easily the weakest. Oh well at least it has Brian singing some lead on it and not just passing it over to Carl.

P.S. we seem to have two Sunflower threads running simultaneously here! 

[buddhahat]

For some reason Sunflower didn't click with me at first. I really think ti has a lot to do with the cd, where the vocals sounded quite shrill. It was when I heard a needledrop that I really began to get into it - t just sounded so much warmer than the cd.

For me, Sunflower just feels quintessentially 70s. It's like the musical equivalent of orange & brown flower-print wallpaper, or a yellowed photograph of your childhood. In this respect, the cheesier Bruce tracks, and at my window kind of back up the kitsch-ness and strengthen the feel of the album for me. The only track I could do without is Gotta Know The Woman. I'd swap that for Celebrate The News and it would be perfect. (Actually if Breakaway were in the lineup, it would be a seriously great BB album).

[MZ6]

I just thought I'd add my own recollection on hearing Sunflower.

The time must've been either mid or late 70s. I was about eleven years old (I think) and I'd bought the album during lunchtime at school. I don't remember what else I'd heard of  by the band by that time, but I was aware of their music beyond the surfing and car stuff.
I got home and went to my bedroom, put the album on the turntable and plugged in the headphones. Slip on Through was first up - and right away I noticed that this recording sounded different.  At the time I'd been recording my own music in a very primitive way (pre Portastudio days - anyone who's tried to do sound on sound with two el cheapo cassette players will know what I mean...) and so I was already open to the idea that engineering could go a huge way to determining the sound of a recording. My next thought was to stop listening and go down to eat, as I wanted to devote some real time to what I'd just heard.

Afterwards I settled down on top of my bed, headphones once again in place and listened. This Whole World changed a lot of my thinking about recorded music. The first time I heard it (and got over the chord changes) I found that again the sound was captivating and challenging. If there were signposts in my musical life then that track was the biggest. Even now it's something I alway focus on amongst the other gems on that album.

And now many years later and I'm more aware of music, recording, and also my own personal tastes. But when I think of Sunflower I try not to dissect it or examine it too closely anymore. I much rather prefer to allow details in those recordings make themselves known in the wonderful manner that they do.
To my mind Sunflower is the product of everyone involved in it (of course) but at the right time for them. From the writing to the engineering, the arrangements, the production and the performances - everything came together and combined into something much more than its parts. I can't even compare it with Pet Sounds, as I believe that Sunflower is the finest group effort I've ever had the pleasure to hear.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I found a sealed copy at Go-Boy Records in Redonco Beach CA in 1990. I took it home and thought it was lightweight Partridge Family pap, so I filed it away and continued to listen to my triple vinyl Smile Boot 24/7.... Then in 97, I saw the Neil Young/Crazy Horse movie "Year Of The Horse"... There's a part in it where Neil and the guys are practicing the vocal harmonies for "Cortez The Killer" in their tour RV. They all lock into the "she came dancing across the water" part and go over the word "water" a few times until their voices gel. David Briggs is there and he goes "Sounds like Cool Cool Water"! A light bulb went on over my head and I ran to my room and put side 2 or Sunflower on and let Cool Cool Water play! My mind was blown and suddenly the whole record made sense to me and each and every note was heavenly! It's been my second fave BBs album (Holland being # 1) ever since!

[GLarson432]

Great post, Erik.  That was from the heart and it shows.  Thank you.

[buddhahat]

yeah I enjoyed that post too. You know I really think it's one of those albums that just clicks. I was listening on headphones tonight and there's something about the way it's produced - it just sounds amazing - very warm, and with quite a bit of space. Plus the vocals sound great. It really is a very special album I think. Definitely becoming one of the more rewarding BB albums for me at the moment.

[mtaber]

To me, Sunflower is the true "group" album.  Not a "Brian album that the other guys sang on" and not "tracks from what could be 4 or 5 solo albums moshed together to make a Beach Boys album".  Sunflower is like the whole group being equals, and that helps make it great...