It's About Time: Beach Boys Poll Results

yeah another really nice one

This track epitomizes the mature Beach Boys sound

also their extensive use of beards

didn't vote but that would've been pretty high on mine

This was one of my last two or three cut - This Whole World and I Can Hear Music felt like better representations of this era and of course the Boys aren't singing. The lyrics and over-rhyming are really kind of ridiculous...VDP plus roots instrumentation doesn't really work. I love the song overall though. Who would have thought the Beach Boys would be singing about "sewer rats".

I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean
Through restful waters and deep commotion
Often frightened, unenlightened
Sail on, sail on sailor

I wrest the waters, fight Neptune's waters
Sail through the sorrows of life's marauders
Unrepenting, often empty
Sail on, sail on sailor

Caught like a sewer rat alone but I sail
Bought like a crust of bread, but oh do I wail

Seldom stumble, never crumble
Try to tumble, life's a rumble
Feel the stinging I've been given
Never ending, unrelenting
Heartbreak searing, always fearing
Never caring, persevering
Sail on, sail on, sailor

I work the seaways, the gale-swept seaways
Past shipwrecked daughters of wicked waters
Uninspired, drenched and tired
Wail on, wail on, sailor

Always needing, even bleeding
Never feeding all my feelings
Damn the thunder, must I blunder
There's no wonder all I'm under
Stop the crying and the lying
And the sighing and my dying

Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor

who is singing lead on this, Blondie...?

love this song but you nailed why it's not top 20 for me.

yeah it's blondie

iirc carl also recorded the vocal but they prefered blondie's

Brian Wilson was not involved at all with the song's recording sessions, leaving the basic track to be recorded by Brian's brother Carl and ex-Flame and then-Beach Boys members Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin. The lead vocal was first attempted by Dennis Wilson, who sang the vocal once before leaving to go surfing. Carl was the next to attempt a vocal, but he then suggested that Chaplin make an attempt. After two takes, Carl decided that Chaplin's vocal would feature as the lead.

lol

I think Chaplin and Fataar's contributions to the band during this time are generally underrated tbh

#42

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/AllSummerLongCover.jpg

All Summer Long - All Summer Long
114 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upLsOaU9f2g

voted for that one. surprised it placed so low. one of my favorite pop hits.

not a bad tune but not one I would really set apart from the pack ever. something about the marimba/xylophone/whatever that is kind of annoys me.

ever either

love this one, tons of fun.

yeah, great song.

I have always thought this song sounded out of tune, which kind of ruins it for me. Good coda to the pre-drugs sun-surf-cars phase of their career.

#40 (tie)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/LittleDeuceCover.jpg

Little Deuce Coupe - Little Deuce Coupe
116 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXFFLuoaMzM

I don't have a lot of opinions on this song

The lyrics and over-rhyming are really kind of ridiculous...VDP plus roots instrumentation doesn't really work.

invented the concept album y/n

great lyrics on this

LOVE Little Deuce Coupe. I've always gotten a kick out of how the song starts "I'm not bragging babe" and then he goes into this laundry list of reasons why his car kicks ass. It's like the prologue to "Don't Worry Baby". Mike's lead sounds as amateurish as "Luau" but the backing vocals and track have taken a huge leap forward.

is Don't Back Down going to make it?

invented the concept album y/n

definitely N

as for Little Deuce Coupe, I didn't vote for it but it's classic nature is pretty indisputable. Mike Love at his best

Can't believe All Summer Long wasn't top 20 at least.

dunno there's still a ton of major songs coming up

#40 (tie)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/63/Beach_Boys_-_Barbara_Ann.jpg/220px-Beach_Boys_-_Barbara_Ann.jpg

Barbara Ann - Beach Boys' Party!
116 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_9hm5ibXOw

I have never liked this song. Perhaps marred by 4th grade me having to witness some students singing "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to this tune as part of a school "talent show"

you went to school with john mccain?

more like John McCain has the mental capacities of an elementary school student from the early 80s

the dumbest of the Beach Boys' hits on their dumbest album.

yeah, i could go without ever hearing this again.
great b-side, tho!

back in the days when people sang and played guitars to amuse themselves it may have been just the ticket though.

Spotify playlist updated with the list so far: http://open.spotify.com/user/sp10000/playlist/36kXCKE1TDnsvQHiUCtfPt

Songs like Barbara Ann are why I ignored the Beach Boys for the better part of my life.

i think party! can be a good time but i don't love it. i imagine actually partying with the band at the time might've been fun. at least partying with dennis anyway.

ooh and thanks for the spotify playlist. i just got on there. i know, i'm behind. i just wasn't made for these times.

great b-side, tho!

yeah Girl Don't Tell Me is superior in almost every way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy3IkXrgv3I&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfDZn1crMU8

lol at all the barbara ann hate, who voted for it

yeah show yourselves! talk about "slight"!

#39

Little Bird - Friends
122 points, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BLyXRPl1aE

I did not vote for Barbara Ann, but I'll take a shot at defending it. I was just listening to Friends and I thought I would pause it for a minute to listen to Barbara Ann. It's one of those songs that I feel like I pretty much never need to hear again for the rest of my life. But when I started listening to it, you know what, fuck it, this song is a classic. If you can set aside all of the mccain-etc baggage for a moment and actually listen to it, the song is undeniably great. It's a bit pitchy, but it adds to the silly "party" vibe.

At the very least it's hard not to have some kind of reaction to it, even if your reaction is hate and disgust. Which is a pretty sharp contrast to the first 8 songs I just finished listening on Friends which just kind of drifted by in a mellow wash of meh.

that mellow wash of meh kicked barbara ann's ass by 6 points

haha, xpost. case in point.

yeah show yourselves!...

i voted for it!

I didn't vote for Little Bird but it's a solid, strange little tune. Love the "guess I'll go mow the lawn" bit. song strings together a whole bunch of little, simple riffs in an engaging way.