Sunday, May 11, 2008

The Beach Boys Network

The Beach Boys Network

Re: \ [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 11 May 2008 06:42 AM CDT

Warner had been carrying the Beach Boys load for four whole albums - and no Smile was ever delivered. I think they considered a live offer a chance to recoup the investment first, promote a struggling band second. Thus the oldies.

I do understand why they were there, but again I think it pointed ahead to a future that would never come close to what came before. I stress again I love the old songs but it just a shame they "had" to include them over River Song, I've Got A Friend, Long Promised Road. I would love to hear the You Need A Mess Of Help the was to be on the single LP version.

I actually like We Got Love and think it was a wise choice. It really cooks to me, but I admit the only Blondie and Ricky track I don't like is Hold On Dear Brother.

Re: Joke Of The Day [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 11 May 2008 05:52 AM CDT

I'd always prefer a number of individual top ten lists reflecting personal favorites over one single oh-so-carefully thought-out top 300 of the "greatest" records ever.

Agree completely- it's the ambition of it all- throwing Hank Williams and Miles Davis and Notorious B.I.G. and the Sex Pistols and Frank Sinatra onto the same list- that ends up making it so laughable.

LOL @ rolling stone...

come on now.


Agree with this, too.  The magazine that was giving Sgt. Pepper and Pet Sounds- their numbers one and two- four stars out of five in the seventies and eighties guide books, but giving five stars to The Beatles' Second Album and All Summer Long, neither of which (I think) they currently rank...

I'll never forget their analysis of the genius of "Don't Worry, Baby"...you know why it's a great song?  Because the car is a sexual metaphor.  Now you can impress your friends.

The hypocrisy, the smugness, the biases...removing those from Rolling Stone would be like removing the staples.

Re: Surfer Girl at the University of Michigan [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 11 May 2008 04:40 AM CDT

Worst Surfer Girl bridge.....Wolfgang's Vault has a 79 concert. Al yells "Dennis take it" and he just murders it, screws up the line then Al sings it with him. Not good Sad

well remember, according to stebbins dennis was gonna die anyway...

Re: Joke Of The Day [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 11 May 2008 04:38 AM CDT

LOL @ rolling stone...

come on now.

Re: \ [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 11 May 2008 04:30 AM CDT

While we're at "In cocnert", here are two original reviews from '74:

http://www.superseventies.com/spbeachboys3.html

Re: Joke Of The Day [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 11 May 2008 03:56 AM CDT

I'd always prefer a number of individual top ten lists reflecting personal favorites over one single oh-so-carefully thought-out top 300 of the "greatest" records ever.

Re: Joke Of The Day [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 11 May 2008 02:37 AM CDT

It's funny that this thread begins with something like "I know these lists don't matter," etc., and yet it goes on to take issue with the choices. Make your list: while I don't know your taste, I'm certain I'd mock it. And you could do the same to mine. Are we all so desperate to have our own taste reaffirmed?

Not really funny...I know what you're saying, but a better synopsis of what I was saying would be: I know these lists are silly, but gosh, look how really silly this is...

They list hits compilations and box sets, so that an album like Thriller is rated 33 places ahead of Ray Charles' entire Atlantic Records catalog , i.e. his work from 1952-1959. The anarchic, garage-y semi-competence of Never mind the bollocks here's the Sex Pistols is eight places "greater" than the consummate, on-fire musicianship of the Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East. (How can those two possibly share a category?) Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You comes in at 142, trailing The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready To Die (which he did) at 133, but both are way behind number 64, Spector's  Back To Mono, which contains  number 142 A Christmas Gift For You. And as far as I saw- the first 300- the Good Vibrations box set is not listed (nor is Sunflower, Friends, All Summer Long, Pacific Ocean Blue, Endless Summer, Summer In Paradise, etc.

Most of the selections are excellent, especially within the first hundred, but when you start looking closely it gets curiouser and curiouser.

Please rank and number the following items:

Brussel Sprouts
Yellow
Hot Dogs
Oil Filters
Julie Newmar
Keys
The White-breasted Nuthatch
Poetry

That's my point.

Incidentally, I wasn't looking at the list for validation of my utterly exquisite taste, which you all could benefit from emulating, but for ideas- I was in the mood to buy a few albums. Sirs and Madams,   Rock! I did so.

 Brian, Dennis, & Carl







NEW Inside the Music of Brian Wilson ... ["brian wilson"]

Posted: 11 May 2008 12:15 AM CDT

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Re: Joke Of The Day [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 11 May 2008 12:07 AM CDT

Rolling Stone, in trying not to piss anyone off, made a list that would piss everyone off. Thus three being three Eminem albums on the list and all of them placing higher than Sunflower.

Re: Shut Down, Volume II [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 11:45 PM CDT

Why didn't they fix the egregious guitar flub during the fade of "Keep an Eye on Summer?"

BRIAN WILSON- SMILES,VIBES AND HARMONY TRIBUTE LP-NICE! ["brian wilson"]

Posted: 10 May 2008 11:02 PM CDT

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Re: Alleged TLOS demos... [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 10:49 PM CDT

Also you can't fire the drummer and the bassist to save money if you have to hire another drummer and bassist to take their place.   

You can if you can pay the new guys less.  Which is why I think Adrian Baker, Mike Meros, Mike Kowalski, and Chris Farmer were all let go from the Mike & Bruce band.  Like I said, if Bob & Jim were the only ones leaving, I wouldn't necessarily doubt it was all their idea.  But two of the top tech guys "leaving" at the same time?   

Re: The 64 dollar hypothetical question... [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 10:11 PM CDT

My apologies for derailing the thread slightly, by the way.

No, John, that was a good post. Think how cool that would've been with Carl Wilson and David Marks on guitars, with Al on bass. That would've rocked! They still could've brought Bruce in on keyboards, if they wanted his voice. 

Brian Wilson Presents Smile - New DVD BRAND NEW ["brian wilson"]

Posted: 10 May 2008 10:01 PM CDT

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Re: Surfer Girl at the University of Michigan [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 09:58 PM CDT

Worst Surfer Girl bridge.....Wolfgang's Vault has a 79 concert. Al yells "Dennis take it" and he just murders it, screws up the line then Al sings it with him. Not good Sad

Jim Fusilli on Pet Sounds? [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 09:41 PM CDT

Re: The 64 dollar hypothetical question... [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 09:25 PM CDT

I'd love to have songwriting abilities...

But to be in his shoes? No way. Couldn't pay be enough to do it.

Re: Alleged TLOS demos... [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 09:19 PM CDT

If the real estate market is down, it doesn't harm somebody's cash if they're not actively selling real estate.  Brian owns several homes because he's incredibly wealthy.  He's not renting them out or anything, they're vacation homes.  It doesn't matter if the homes are worth less now or not, because he's not trying to sell them.  Even if he's borrowed up to his eyeballs on the homes, their relative value to the loans wouldn't matter because again he's not selling them and taking the hit on the loss.  His bills this month are the same as his bills last year when the houses were worth more. 

Also, about the U.S. economy.  They tell me on the news every night that the economy is horrible, yet we haven't had a single month of negative gdp growth, much less the 6 months in a row we need to make it a recession, lines at Disney World are longer than ever, and Movie Ticket sales are through the roof.  If we're in a recession, people sure are spending a lot of money. 

Also you can't fire the drummer and the bassist to save money if you have to hire another drummer and bassist to take their place.  This is all a bunch of drama over nothing.  How big is his band, anyways?  10 or 15 people?  We're supposed to be shocked that after 9 years a couple of them left? 

Lets put this in another perspective: Bob and Jim left the band after 9 years.  Brian Wilson himself stopped touring with the Beach Boys 3 years in. 

Re: The 64 dollar hypothetical question... [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 09:16 PM CDT

My apologies for derailing the thread slightly, by the way.

Re: The 64 dollar hypothetical question... [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 09:15 PM CDT

I think that things would have continued the way they did to August 1963 - Al comes back in on bass, replaces Brian on tour. Brian is mainly keys in the studio. If Dave doesn't leave, he'd've started writing his own stuff, and Brian would've had no need to play live during late 1963-late 1964 - unless of course he wanted to and played organ or piano live. He'd have more time to devote to those albums, possibly resulting in at least a better Shut Down Vol. 2 - I still think he'd've cracked up sooner or later though, like on the plane.

Dave starts contributing songs to the albums here and there (a Harrisonesque one or two to start with) and because they already have the full two guitars-bass-drums thing going on, there's no real need to recruit Bruce, thereby removing his songs (plus Bluebirds) from the equation. Yes, Pet Sounds wouldn't have been "promoted" over in the UK with no Bruce but then again, Andrew Oldham was boosting it up, maybe the expectations wouldn't have been piled so high on SMiLE.

SMiLE might well have gone ahead, because Dave would've backed up Denny, judging by a) their obvious friendship and b) Dave's stated taste for progression - if not, well, the Beach Boys have another "rocker" image at least, and the harder-edged music a Carl-Denny-Dave axis might have made would perhaps make a big difference in the late 60s; as Dave came into his own and perhaps a lead guitarist (freed from Murry, why not?) maybe there'd be more instrumental virtuosity when it's most needed, and the new Little Bird-meets-the-Moon sound maybe might have kept the BBs at the top.

Ricky Fataar would still have joined at least, because of Denny's accident, and maybe Blondie too, as a sometime guitarist-bassist-singer during the early Seventies Beach Boys musical chairs thing; perhaps Carl would've played more keyboards and Al switched to rhythm more, who knows? Maybe they'd've just added Blondie anyway. And of course, Dave may've helped fight the Endless Summer oldies-set Carl and Denny were against (and 15 Big Ones). Dave reckons he might have died from drug abuse, but who knows? Who woulda thought Brian would still be alive? Denny might not have even died if he had more say in the band, again, who knows?

I see a lot of advantages in a Wilson-axis supporting rocker / snotty punk being the "sixth" Beach Boy over Mr. Going Public.
I agree that losing Disney Girls is a shame, but who knows what might have taken it's place?

Re: Inside the Music of Brian Wilson - Phillip Lambert [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 08:51 PM CDT

I liked it. But what I didn't like was how dry the theoretical presentation was. What I mean is, the musical breakdowns were more quantitative than qualitative. Lambert lays out chord progressions, and sometimes compares the chord progressions of Song A to Song B. But he doesn't get into those chord progressions in the way I'd like; in the way that a good music appreciation or music history course does. But I do like that he's at least musically knowledgeable, as opposed to something like Gaines' book of musical illiteracy.

Re: Just Confirmed [Smiley Smile Message Board]

Posted: 10 May 2008 08:47 PM CDT

Honestly, the multi-thread drama over a bassist and drummer leaving what amounts to a cover band has me baffled. Jim and Bob are great--I loved the music they played. I don't doubt that they are, as many people have said, great people, very nice. But for whatever reason, they moved on. Until I read quotes from them saying they were abused or mistreated or something, frankly, it isn't a big deal at all. People join and quit bands constantly for a lot of reasons. Who cares? And if you care because of the quality of music, keep in mind that this band plays almost all old music, music that the current players are trying to recreate more than anything else. We know Mike D'Amico can do the same, and so can some huge number of other professional musicians. It isn't Lennon leaving McCartney.

4 NEW CD'S MODERN ROCK (BEACH BOYS, BRIAN WILSON, DA) ["brian wilson"]

Posted: 10 May 2008 07:04 PM CDT

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CALIFORNIA MUSIC Beach Boys Brian Wilson Obscure '75 45 ["brian wilson"]

Posted: 10 May 2008 03:40 PM CDT

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