It's About Time: Beach Boys Poll Results

for some reason i didn't vote for cabin essence, but what a great song...

the music truly is evocative of the time and place wilson and van dykes were going for

As more of a sound collage than a song, Cabinessence is one of the few tracks where VDP's lyrics really work. They aren't distracting, they are evocative of the American west on a gut level and the sounds are perfect for both the vocal lines and backing track.

You can imagine Mike Love wanting to strangle Brian every time he was asked to sing "Who ran the iron horse". Maybe I'm just making it up, but the bitterness is oozing from that line.

I think it's the song that benefits most from the context of the 'complete' smile

he just needs to pretend that iron horse is a sportscar

"The Iron Horse" - I'm sure I read a book where there was a ficitonal paper called this. Was it the Illuminatus Trilogy?

I often forget, that during Pet Sounds/Smile-era recordings that anyone other than Brian and Carl actually did any lead vocals.

20/20 Is such a shame of an album - so many great songs rubbing up against each other in such a horrible way.

it really is a train wreck of sequencing.

I don't get what you mean by that?

Yeah I know it's sort of a mish-mash from alot of sources (recent singles, some new album cuts, a Friends outtake, two Smile tracks, and, er, a couple of Dennis songs) but it works for me as an album anyway (especially with the CD bonuses at the end, which is the only way I've ever heard it).

How else would you have sequenced it?

Nothing on 20/20 is as jarring to me as ending Friends with "Transcendental Meditation"

YEah that's such a WTF - I'm thinking of just swapping TM with I Went To Sleep on my HD. But really, Cabinessence on the same album as Bluebirds Over The Mountain is JUST WRONG!

The Nearest Faraway Place is by Bruce Johnston - weird!

"I Went To Sleep on my HD"

For a second, I thought that was the title of the song.

Maybe there's no proper sequence. Never Learn Not to Love to Our Prayer is pretty bad.

> I'm thinking of just swapping TM with I Went To Sleep on my HD

Exactly what I did. (well not on HD)

"The Nearest Faraway Place" is actually one of my favorite BB instrumentals. The piano intro is a bit too shmaltzy, but once the song gets going it's excellent stuff that's up to Brian's level. The section from about 40 seconds in through 1:40 is amazing - reminds me alot of the middle section of "Summer Means New Love" from SD(&SN), but may be even better. Bruce's first songwriting on a BB record.

I went to sleep was a friends outtake anyway iirc?

but yeah in my ideal world that's the friends tracklist

I REALLY LOVE Summer Means New Love for the record, although I don't know if I cut it from my ballot at last min.

> I went to sleep was a friends outtake anyway iirc?

correct.... which is why it's a popular swap. It feels like the perfect album closer for it.

I decided early on to allot once space on my ballot for one of their oft-overlooked instrumentals, and picked "Summer Means New Love" over my other contenders - "Let's Go Away For Awhile", "The Nearest Faraway Place", or a one of the Smile instrumentals.

one space

this is worth tracking down
http://991.com/newGallery/Beach-Boys-Beach-Boys-Instru-479141.jpg
or you could compile it yourself if you've got all the records, i suppose.

#9

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/b3555773ec14254f8911bd8a1593cce1/118152.jpg

Heroes and Villains - Smiley Smile
374 points, 16 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lkk8Cku4p8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RNuoJw0PsM

Anyone else vote for Vegetables in any significance? It was my 5th

not my favorite track but suchhhh a dope single cover

oh and also "Diamond Head" which is pretty cool - so Hawaiian sounding, it's like my mind drifts off to the island just from hearing it.

i would love a beach boys' instrumentals album. I wonder what the tracklisting is?

i voted for Diamond Head - fantastic mixtape fodder.

I'm not too mad about Heroes & Villains. Don't like the descending vocal line at all. I do like the "under arrest/in the canteena" bit on one of the versions though.

Which version of "VegeTables" was Paul McCartney on? And is that celery or carrots?

I like it but not top 20

1. Moon Dawg
2. Misirlou
3. Stoked
4. Honky Tonk
5. Surf Jam
6. Let's Go Trippin'
7. The Roking Surfer
8. Boogie Woodie
9. After The Game
10. Shut Down, Part II
11. Denny's Drums
12. Carl's Big Chance
13. Let's Go Trippin (Live)
14. Summer Means New Love
15. Let's Go Away For Awhile
16. Pet Sounds
17. Fall Breaks Adn Back To Winter (Woody Woodpeckers Symphany)
18. Passing By
19. Diamond Head
20. The Nearest Faraway Place

the rocking surfer rules

yeah, i actually really like all those early surf rock things.

This run:

14. Summer Means New Love
15. Let's Go Away For Awhile
16. Pet Sounds
17. Fall Breaks And Back To Winter (Woody Woodpeckers Symphony)
18. Passing By
19. Diamond Head
20. The Nearest Faraway Place

is all time! Might make this comp and splice in a few Stack-O-Tracks too. You must hear Here Today and Let Him Run Wild in instrumental form if you haven't already...

every time that dadblamed HEEEEROES AND VIIIILLAINS theme comes up on one of the Smile tracks it sorta bugs me.

Cabinessence on the same album as Bluebirds Over The Mountain is JUST WRONG!

"Let Him Run Wild" on the same album as "Amusement Parks U.S.A." is even wronger!

(even if they were recorded around the same time....)

Actually "'Cassius' Love vs. 'Sonny' Wilson" leading into "The Warmth of the Sun" is the worst sequencing WTF ever on a Beach Boys record

i always thought the sequencing on Endless Summer was terrible - upbeat song/ballad/upbeat song/ballad etc.

xpost Yeah, but I can parse those for some reason. I dunno - early Beach Boys stuff, this was before albums had come to represent artistic statements as opposed to just a jumble of songs. 20/20's sound is all over the board - psych symphonies next to country-rock and it just doesn't work.

20/20 sounds like a rarities album

Surf's Up, those old times are over now

this seems to come up a lot for some reason but uh, that is not what the term "surf's up" connotes. Surf's up means "time to go surfing, the waves have reached a good size"

just FYI

it's a double-entendre

If "A Day in the Life" could get substantial radio play, I don't see any reason why "Surf's Up" couldn't have been a successful followup single.

Yeah, "A Day in the Life" never got substantial radio play, it was way to long, and besides it was banned because of the 'drug reference'. Also "ADITL" is an awesome ensemble performance and "Surf's Up" is pretty much a solo spot. Really too minimal to be a pop single.

love Carl's Big Chance.

Despite my comment about liking the 10-minute versions of H&V I didn't vote for it - Good Vibrations, Surf's Up and Cabinessence are a better summary of that period with better ideas and tighter execution. There's a kernel of greatness in H&V but the best explanation for why that session spun out of control may be that the hooks just aren't that good.

xp Shakey Mo - with dog latin in that I thought they were trying to have it both ways.

alright so I have 18 albums ballots that I still need to tally

if anyone wants to send me one asap they can still be included

still have no idea what the best way to distribute points would be

Mannnnnn, do I wish I'd been reading this thread day by day, LOVE all the discussion here about the individual songs and the Spotify playlist is blowing my mind. Great stuff, y'all.

Lee547, are you new to ILX? I don't recall seeing your name around before but I've been enjoying your posts on this thread!

I really, really like "Heroes and Villains," one of the strongest lyrics of that period IMO and a really catchy melody. And the strange, haunted-Western vibe rubs up against the beachy vocals of the verses so interestingly. I mean, this is some sort of ghost story, right? And also a meditation on growing up... or something? I wish it were more "finished" - the abrupt transitions don't work as well as they could, they seem like mistakes rather than intentionally crafted surprises. And there's just something muddy/dirty about the sound of some sections - if it punched harder it'd be quite a monster. But boy is it cool.

5/4/3/2/1 seems a bit extreme ratio-wise, otoh is pretty straight-forward

if it punched harder it'd be quite a monster
actually some of the live versions might do the trick for you -- i've heard a few where they really lean into the song. i think it became a bit of a crowd pleaser as time went on.

Did A Day in the Life not get played on the radio? I was under the impression that quite a few album tracks from Pepper were staples on AM radio. That could easily be wrong though.

RE "Cabinessence" (I'm late commenting as usual):

I think it's the song that benefits most from the context of the 'complete' smile

― iatee, Friday, August 19, 2011 8:17 AM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark

^^This. I voted for "Cabinessence," but until I heard the finished "SMiLE" in 2004 I enjoyed it more as a curiosity than as a great song. It's one of the highlights of the record, but it doesn't hit you anywhere near the same way out of context. Which is why the following comments are also OTM:

20/20 Is such a shame of an album - so many great songs rubbing up against each other in such a horrible way.

― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Friday, August 19, 2011 8:25 AM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it really is a train wreck of sequencing.

― skip, Friday, August 19, 2011 8:29 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark

I've never liked 20/20 anywhere near as much as Friends, even though the songs on 20/20 are by and large stronger. They just don't fit together at all the way they're presented on the record. Including two of the worst pieces of shit Bruce Johnston ever inflicted on the group wasn't the wisest move, either.

haha otm