It's About Time: Beach Boys Poll Results

sorry for the spoiler I guess

Wow they were pretty tight live. I've played live, group vocals are the hardest thing to get right. You can't hear each other well to know what to harmonize with often especially if you don't have those little triangular floor monitors down at your feet, you have to get your pitch right on your own.

Should have had a longer fade out.

#6

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/Beach_Boys_-_I_Get_Around.jpg

Don't Worry Baby - All Summer Long
531 points, 19 votes, one #1 vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KK3RmG87HI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkeJ4OdwVM8

lol good one iatee
xp it is interesting -- i get around in the studio is all session players, right? obviously the beach boys weren't as accomplished as those dudes, but they *could've* pulled some of those songs off. just weird to imagine, say, the beatles, suddenly not playing any of the instruments, circa hard day's night.

man they have nooo idea what to do with their hands in that video

omg that is the most awkward thing i have ever seen

fuckin white ppl lol

there are like 20 songs that should be top 5

― iatee, Friday, August 19, 2011 10:22 AM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark

Top 10 maybe, top 5 no. "I Get Around" should be there too. There better be at least one pre-'66 song, anyway. Nitpicking? Not with the cars-and-girls stuff far more of a pop universal than anything between "Good Vibrations" and "Kokomo". Mind you, I don't really think anyone's suggesting otherwise.

man they were stiff weirdos

Wrote that last post before "Don't Worry Baby" placed at #6. Uh-oh...

did mike or al ever look like teenagers

my #2, others have talked about this already but what a great summation of their early days. beautiful harmonies, great story.

Although wasn't the switch to session musicians really driven more by allowing the band (minus Brian) to play concerts while Brian could spend more time in the studio making records, rather than the band not being good enough to play on the recordings (or wanting to add instruments other than guitar/bass/keyboards/drums)?

haha al jardine was born w/ a 40 year old's face, it's true

I think brian wilson is actually the least awkward person in that video, which is an amazing statement

xp, yeah i don't know exactly what led to the reliance on session musicians -- probably a mix of both the band sans brian being out on the road and the increasing complexity of the songs. i mean, i can only imagine with some of the songs brian was writing, the rest of the band hearing them for the first time and thinking "how the fuck are we going to do that onstage?"

I think brian wilson is actually the least awkward person in that video, which is an amazing statement

― iatee, Friday, August 19, 2011 1:19 PM (2 minutes ago)

lol the looking around nervously at least conveys a sort of self-awareness the others lack

oh that don't worry baby+interview is just fantastic

Meanwhile, my hope of finding "Somewhere Near Japan" somewhere near this countdown is gradually diminishing...

I've read that Dean Torrence tried to convince Brian that nobody cares who's playing the instruments on their records, that people listen to the Beach Boys for the vocals and the songs.

omg the interview too

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...

I've been making a spotify playlist with all of the instrumental backing tracks I can find on there. It's like a master class in arrangement.

mike love was already an annoying hippie at that point it seems

"who determines, brian, where you will go next?"
"well i guess i do [laughs]; i write the songs and produce them so i have a lot to say about it"

Meanwhile, my hope of finding "Somewhere Near Japan" somewhere near this countdown is gradually diminishing...

I really should have voted in this poll. I would have given that song some love...

I've read that Dean Torrence tried to convince Brian that nobody cares who's playing the instruments on their records, that people listen to the Beach Boys for the vocals and the songs.

speaking of Dean, anyone hear that "Save for a Rainy Day" record he did? Some good songs on there but it needed mad vocal harmonies. Jan was recovering from the car accident so it's solo.

I wonder how many people voted for any tracks from 1980 or later. I had 2.

I rep for the first side of "Still Cruisin'," but only because we had the cassette around growing up, for weekends spent paddling around eating weenies and drinking cream soda. "Somewhere Near Japan" is pretty solid though.

I almost put in a vote for "Cry" off of Imagination. 1990 or later! Like that song. But ultimately decided to vote mostly for stuff that might stand at least a sliver of a chance to make the top 69.

getcha back is catchy

It's a fuck of a lot better than "Kokomo," too.

'love and mercy' also totally voteable

I heard a bootleg of the Andy Paley seesions from the mid-'90s (sorry can't remember exact dates) and thought a few of the songs, esp. "Gettin' In Over My Head" were pretty good. That project was shelved, the slickly-produced Imagination substituted with new songs. GIOMH (much) later a title track for a BW solo album in either a remixed or rerecorded version, but this is one time where the simple production (as I heard on the boot) worked better.

Yeah, Love & Mercy that was his closing song at the live show I saw (Smile tour)

Despite the synthesized everything typical of mid-80s pop, I think "Getcha Back" is more of a dead-on Spector rip than many of Brian's mid-60s BB productions. Not to say it's as good.

paley sessions have some great stuff. soul searchin and you're still a mystery esp.

a cool 1990s era brian wilson track (w/the beach boys too!) is "still a mystery" from the andy paley sessions. in fact, that whole group of tracks is pretty strong, at least as good as most of BW's solo stuff, and also kinda cool for the retro/lo-fi production.

xp!!

yeah they brushed off some of the tunes for one of his recent solo albums, but they didn't use 'you're still a mystery' for some reason. astounds me cause it's such a solid song.

it's in the rarities comp I made btw

and even received a vote in the poll

I like a lot of stuff from that first BW solo album and think Rio Grande almost made my list...? can't remember. that song is an amazing Smile-style suite though.

I didn't think Getcha Back was all that bad, not all that different in concept from "Do It Again" although the vocals were much better on DIA. Beach Boys '85 last BB album that wasn't a total waste.

Still LOL out loud at the flimsy rationale for including a few golden oldies on Still Cruisin' - they were used in some long-forgotten movies from 1988-89. I'm pretty sure hearing "California Girls" reminds them of the scene from Soul Man

yeah I like "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long" too xp

OTM about Rio Grande - very Smilesque. (I just made that word up)

I'll admit (or should I brag?) that I've never heard anything (except the hit) from Still Cruisin', Summer in Paradise, or Stars and Stripes. Or most of Keepin' the Summer Alive.

Well I often associate "I Get Around" with the opening scene to "Look Who's Talking". Though it's inclusion on Still Cruisin' says its because of "Good Morning Vietnam", since "Look Who's Talking" came out a few months after "Still Cruisin".

I heard the Beach Boys cover of "California Dreamin'" made circa '87 IIRC once and recall it sounded pretty decent

any beach boys fan needs to hear Summer in Paradise at least once. Total train wreck, the distillation of the Mike Love aesthetic into creepy beach sex tracks, late 80s production touches and some grungy guitars. The "Surfin" cover is almost sacrilegious.

Spotify lists that cover of "California Dreamin'" as their 5th most popular song. wtf

Oh no there's a "Surfin'" cover on it!!!! yikes

At least Good Morning Vietnam isn't a crap movie, but I don't think most of us think of "I Get Around" as that song from Good Morning Vietnam in the manner that, say, "Mrs. Robinson" evokes The Graduate

xp lol really? i can see some clueless people being like "i love the beach boys! california dreamin'!"