Beach Boys writeup of mine (Ranking their albums)

[Island Fever]

Hey guys. I'm a 21 year old Beach Boys enthusiast.

[Jon Stebbins]

Nice presentation, but i find the premise flawed in that you are excluding some of Brian's best work (SD Vol. 2, All Summer Long) and your reason is you are focusing on "The classic era Brian centered albums...as the earlier albums were singles based"...makes no sense to me. Many of the LP's you ranked are incredibly singles based, but many of them are absolutely not Brian-centered. Once I got past that i enjoyed reading your opinions.

[slothrop]

"I dare you to smoke some dro and not dig the hell out of the laid back mellow grooves of Friends."  . Some interesting rankings. I say, keep on listening and those are bound to shift around a bit. And welcome.

[Island Fever]

Nice presentation, but i find the premise flawed in that you are excluding some of Brian's best work (SD Vol. 2, All Summer Long) and your reason is you are focusing on "The classic era Brian centered albums...as the earlier albums were singles based"...makes no sense to me. Many of the LP's you ranked are incredibly singles based, but many of them are absolutely not Brian-centered. Once I got past that i enjoyed reading your opinions.

well I don't think anyone would argue the fact that Brian didn't view the album as an art form until Today! or even Pet Sounds. And I didn't mean while Brian was the leader of the band. I meant the albums that had his influence on them. The later, horrible albums didn't. I would just be excessive to write about how much I dislike the s/t and keeping the summer alive. I just meant the classic era.

[PongHit]

"My mother claims that this is his desert island album pick (did I mention my mom is really cool?)."

Apparently she's also a dude.

[Jon Stebbins]

Nice presentation, but i find the premise flawed in that you are excluding some of Brian's best work (SD Vol. 2, All Summer Long) and your reason is you are focusing on "The classic era Brian centered albums...as the earlier albums were singles based"...makes no sense to me. Many of the LP's you ranked are incredibly singles based, but many of them are absolutely not Brian-centered. Once I got past that i enjoyed reading your opinions.

well I don't think anyone would argue the fact that Brian didn't view the album as an art form until Today! or even Pet Sounds. And I didn't mean while Brian was the leader of the band. I meant the albums that had his influence on them. The later, horrible albums didn't. I would just be excessive to write about how much I dislike the s/t and keeping the summer alive. I just meant the classic era.

Where the "classic era" begins and ends is a very subjective thing...so what you have there is YOUR classic era, not THE classic era. MY classic era includes Surfin USA and All Summer Long, both fantastic and groundbreaking LP's as album art form...and  a lot of us feel the classic era ends with Holland. Its all subjective...some would argue the idea that Brian DID view the album as art form prior to Today! Not a mainstream view, but an arguable one for sure. Your list is great, the writing is fine...just soften your parameters, or state they are based on your taste.

[Andrew G. Doe]

One major, major flaw - Smile may not have been released, but to omit even a mention of two key songs from the project, namely "Surf's Up" and the incomparable "Cabin Essence", that were released is to seriously undermine your basic premise.

[Island Fever]

Sorry guys. I didn't mean to be hostile with the "classic era" viewpoint.

I'll clarify a bit: when I'm talking about the "classic era" parameters. I'm referring to the end. I'm stating that in my opinion Love You, the last album Brian controlled is the end of the Brian Wilson Beach Boys in my mind.

And the beginning is just my opinion too. I like the early albums as well. I just take Brian at his word regarding Pet Sounds being a response to the Rubber Soul idea of the album as no filler.

My opinion is the SMiLE songs are superior in the SMiLE context.

So again this is a complete opinion piece. Sorry to ruffle feathers. This was just an attempt to have some fun writing about my favorite band.

[Jon Stebbins]

Sorry guys. I didn't mean to be hostile with the "classic era" viewpoint.

I'll clarify a bit: when I'm talking about the "classic era" parameters. I'm referring to the end. I'm stating that in my opinion Love You, the last album Brian controlled is the end of the Brian Wilson Beach Boys in my mind.

And the beginning is just my opinion too. I like the early albums as well. I just take Brian at his word regarding Pet Sounds being a response to the Rubber Soul idea of the album as no filler.

My opinion is the SMiLE songs are superior in the SMiLE context.

So again this is a complete opinion piece. Sorry to ruffle feathers. This was just an attempt to have some fun writing about my favorite band.

Not ruffled, just feeding back.

[Wirestone]

It's a fascinating subject, and just gets to the heart of how a lot of people see the guys.

I think Brian thought of albums as albums easily from Little Deuce Coupe (all but one track are car songs) onward. But there was a conscious shift around the time of Today, and that carried through into Pet Sounds.

Holland is, as Jon says, an end point for one vision of the boys. But given that Brian helmed the following two studio albums, one could include them in a Brian-centric overview of the band.

I'd actually include MIU after Love You, given Brian's continued songwriting, production and vocal presence. But that's one contested album.

FWIW, I'd collect them like this.

Juvenilia:

Surfin' Safari (1962)
Surfin' USA (1963)

Early classics:

Surfer Girl (1963)
Little Deuce Coupe (1963)
Shut Down Volume 2 (1964)

Pop perfection:

All Summer Long (1964)
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (1964)
Today! (1965)
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) (1965)
Beach Boys' Party! (1965)

On its own:

Pet Sounds (1966)

Starting from scratch

Smiley Smile (1967)
Wild Honey (1967)
Friends (1968)

Brian handing over the reins

20/20 (1969)
Sunflower (1970)

Maturity

Surf's Up (1971)
Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972)
Holland (1973)

Brian's back!

15 Big Ones (1976)
Love You (1977)
M.I.U. Album (1978)

Declining years

L.A. (Light Album) (1979)
Keepin' the Summer Alive (1980)

Synth pop band

The Beach Boys (1985)
Still Cruisin' (1989)
Summer in Paradise (1992)

[Mike's Beard]

Some eras sort of overlap into shades of grey but overall I think you've nailed their career output perfectly Clay.

[Foster's Freeze]

It's a fascinating subject, and just gets to the heart of how a lot of people see the guys.

I think Brian thought of albums as albums easily from Little Deuce Coupe (all but one track are car songs) onward. But there was a conscious shift around the time of Today, and that carried through into Pet Sounds.

Holland is, as Jon says, an end point for one vision of the boys. But given that Brian helmed the following two studio albums, one could include them in a Brian-centric overview of the band.

I'd actually include MIU after Love You, given Brian's continued songwriting, production and vocal presence. But that's one contested album.

FWIW, I'd collect them like this.

Juvenilia:

Surfin' Safari (1962)
Surfin' USA (1963)

Early classics:

Surfer Girl (1963)
Little Deuce Coupe (1963)
Shut Down Volume 2 (1964)

Pop perfection:

All Summer Long (1964)
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (1964)
Today! (1965)
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) (1965)
Beach Boys' Party! (1965)

On its own:

Pet Sounds (1966)

Starting from scratch

Smiley Smile (1967)
Wild Honey (1967)
Friends (1968)

Brian handing over the reins

20/20 (1969)
Sunflower (1970)

Maturity

Surf's Up (1971)
Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972)
Holland (1973)

Brian's back!

15 Big Ones (1976)
Love You (1977)
M.I.U. Album (1978)

Declining years

L.A. (Light Album) (1979)
Keepin' the Summer Alive (1980)

Synth pop band

The Beach Boys (1985)
Still Cruisin' (1989)
Summer in Paradise (1992)

Well done Clay!  The only thing I would change on this list relates to the "Synth" section - to me "The Beach Boys" was at least a better attempt at making a quality (flame on) album whereas "Still Crusin'" and "SIP" just spiral downward with "SIP" representing the plane crashing into the earth.

Great job!

[adamghost]

Some very nice writing here...I like some of your word choices, like "insidious."  Do change the part about your mom being a dude, though.

I like it, and I won't quibble with the album choices, but I'd strongly suggest that rather than parsing out the era and omitting the earlier albums, you just drop the last three entries and make it a top 10.  That way it doesn't sound like you haven't listen to/aren't familiar with the earlier albums, and you don't have to include records you think are inferior on the list.

[Dunderhead]

I always organized the albums by:

Pre-All Summer Long: Early Period
All Summer Long-Pet Sounds: High Exotica, "studio" years,
Post-Pet Sounds-Holland: Collaborative Years, "The Fading Rock Group Revival" era
Post-Holland: "Looking Back with Love" years, Touring Years (Excluding Love You)

[PongHit]

change the part about your mom being a dude

Her favorite tune is, "Dude Looks Like A Lady." 

[Island Fever]

Sorry, I wasn't aware that albums with such classics as "Cassius" Love Vs. "Sonny" Wilson," "Our Favorite Recording Sessions" and "Carl's Big Chance" weren't considered to have filler on it.

The early albums were singles based. End of story. If that doesn't fit your beach boys fanboy outlook, I'm sorry. But Brian didn't get serious about the album as an artform until Today!

[Wirestone]

Now see, this is what we do here. We debate stuff. It's not personal about you. We're having fun taking the group's output apart by era.

And to me, the presence of a filler track at the end of Today doesn't mean it's a singles-based album. If it was, why would Brian put together non-single but meticulously arranged and produced tracks like "Good to My Baby," "She Knows Me Too Well" and "In the Back of My Mind" on there? He was clearly reaching toward the album-length statement of Pet Sounds.

That may well be fanboy -- but then, we are on a BW/BB message board here. Isn't that allowed?

[Island Fever]

I agree with you regarding Today! I wholeheartedly think that was a top to bottom project. I stated as such.

I don't believe albums compiling whatever happened to be the band's hits at the time (songs that were released with the intention to chart and sell singles, not as part as an album framework with non single album tracks as their equal counterparts) with songs written in the studio 10 minutes before recording are top to bottom album projects.

I love the hits on those albums. I love some of the album tracks (Lonely Sea, Farmer's Daughter). You just aren't going to convince me that when Brian wrote "The Warmth of the Sun", he was imagining how it would work in the context of Shut Down Volume 2 and how it would relate to its preceding song "Cassius Love vs. Sonny Wilson" 

[Mike's Beard]

I have to agree with Island Fever on this one. I don't think the phrase "artform" had even entered the mind of even the most foward thinking pop record makers in '62-64.  

HOWEVER : Bear in mind the sheer volume of output a successful group was expected to put out in those days. On average 2-3 albums a year, non album A and B sides, EPs..... The pressure was always on to deliver more product before the bubble burst and 'the kids' moved onto something new. Working to those kind of deadlines meant that Brian was always going to have to let second rate material on records simply to meet obligations.That's not to say I don't love many of the early BB's albums - I do!  It's just a different type of music for a different type of time. I would still consider "Surfer Girl", "All Summer Long" and even "Party!" classics.

[Andrew G. Doe]

The early albums were singles based. End of story.

Hmmm...

Surfin' Safari - 3 singles, two released before the LP was.
Surfin' USA - 1 single, released same time
Surfer Girl - 1 single, released before album
Little Deuce Coupe - 1 single, released same time as album
Shut Down Volume 2 - 1 single, released before LP
All Summer Long - 1 single, released before LP
Today ! - 3 singles all released before LP

You ask me, Today ! was the most singles-based Lp the band ever released.

[adamghost]

change the part about your mom being a dude

Her favorite tune is, "Dude Looks Like A Lady." 

It's mine too!!!!