^^^no
still, Smiley Smile includes stuff that they started tracking at Western, plus a few elements from the Smile sessions, so it wasn't entirely the home studio yet. Also, Smiley Smile is where they stopped using session players
― the wheelie king (wk), Thursday, 18 August 2011 17:57 (twelve years ago) link
right; & I mean this is still true of the BBs catalog; I think it's widely perceived as "lifestyle music" in a way that the other artists you listed, Bowie, the Stones, etc., aren't. The BBs is beach music. This isn't how *musicians* view the band; but musicians don't get you Rolls-Royces.
― Euler, Thursday, 18 August 2011 17:58 (twelve years ago) link
because really, Mike Love is right - most of the time people don't wanna hear new and different shit. they want you to do the same thing over and over again.
I think that's kind of a mischaracterization of the situation though. It's not like they were doing the same thing over and over from '62-'67. A song like Good Vibrations proved that people do want to hear new and different shit. It's just that you're not going to have a big hit with a song about chomping your vegetables which is where I think Mike Love was coming from.
― the wheelie king (wk), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:02 (twelve years ago) link
'62-'67 is a fairly brief timespan, ie, it's the span of a listener's life as a teenager and the evolution was fairly gradual. Lyrically the leap from Surfer Girl to Good Vibrations was incremental and easy to digest. but after that, once they were "adults" and started going off in different tangents...
― that mellow wash of meh (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:07 (twelve years ago) link
I think it's widely perceived as "lifestyle music" in a way that the other artists you listed
hamstrung by their having jumped on several bandwagons earlier (surfing, cars, etc.) audience didn't accept their jumping on other bandwagons (ecology, country rock, disco). audience only allows you one bandwagon!
― that mellow wash of meh (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:08 (twelve years ago) link
Now you sound like Mike Love. The audience didn't abandon them because they didn't stick to their original bandwagon. They abandoned them because they stopped making great songs.
― the wheelie king (wk), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:12 (twelve years ago) link
the problem with Smiley Smile and Wild Honey are not that they jumped on a new bandwagon, it was that the quality was lower (or alternately, the quality was sufficient but didn't live up to the hype). There was a slow, consistent build to Good Vibrations and then the rug was pulled out from under the ran base with, indeed, songs about chomping vegetables. No wonder people abandoned them.
― skip, Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:13 (twelve years ago) link
wk = genius
They abandoned them because they stopped making great songs.
eh this is demonstrably untrue imho
― that mellow wash of meh (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:23 (twelve years ago) link
There was a slow, consistent build to Good Vibrations and then the rug was pulled out from under the ran base with, indeed, songs about chomping vegetables.
seeing as how these songs are on the same album and the album STILL BOMBED I think you are missing some caveats. they were hamstrung by their previous image and made an abrupt shift that was too alarming/too random, I think we can agree on that much...?
― that mellow wash of meh (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:25 (twelve years ago) link
honestly I think Smiley Smile bombed for a variety of reasons - for a lot of the general listening audience their previous image was still stuck to them and was no longer "cool", and for the other portion of their audience that was expecting Smile, it was a total letdown.
― that mellow wash of meh (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:30 (twelve years ago) link
Good Vibrations hit #1 in October 1966 and was then tacked onto Smiley Smile out of sheer desperation in September 1967. GV was old news by that point and the only other track even close to resembling Brian's original intention for Smile is H&V.
― skip, Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:30 (twelve years ago) link
I do kind of think that if Smile had actually been completed and released, it still would have bombed.
xp
― that mellow wash of meh (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:31 (twelve years ago) link
rather, released in October and hit #1 in December. Still almost an entire year, during which every other major pop act was coming out with amazing new stuff. It must have been offensive to listeners to have a year-old track lead off what was supposed to be the most advanced pop album in history.
― skip, Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:32 (twelve years ago) link
>>> this is where they started using the home studio right? smiley smile was still Gold Star & Western.>> Nevertheless, the Beach Boys still needed to complete an album to fulfil their obligations to Capitol Records, so a replacement was hastily recorded, largely at Brian Wilson's new home studio in Bel Air, during June and July.> this is why Smiley Smile has no drums, no echo chamber, etc.
>> Nevertheless, the Beach Boys still needed to complete an album to fulfil their obligations to Capitol Records, so a replacement was hastily recorded, largely at Brian Wilson's new home studio in Bel Air, during June and July.
> this is why Smiley Smile has no drums, no echo chamber, etc.
And yet, not even the best modern electronic revefberation patches are going to make anything recorded in my bedroom sound as if it were made at Gold Star or Western....
― Lee547 (Lee626), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:34 (twelve years ago) link
reverberation
― Lee547 (Lee626), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:35 (twelve years ago) link
OK, so a barrel load of "my" songs have come up since I was last here. Placed "Let the Wind Blow" high, such a weird off-kilter feel to that song, sinister is the wrong word, the strange ascending bassline is what really makes it, I don't know anyone else but Brian Wilson who would have come up with it. And "Break Away", I think the Beach Boys themselves said that song was underproduced or unfinished (and it wasn't Mike Love this time!) but I was listening to it the other day and I don't think it is at all. The lead vocal on it is absolutely gorgeous to boot.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:43 (twelve years ago) link
thinking of weird artist moves in 1967: how did Smiley Smile sell in its immediate era compared with John Wesley Harding?
― Euler, Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:50 (twelve years ago) link
chart performance:
Today! US #4 UK #6Summer Days... US #2 UK #4Pet Sounds US #10 UK #2Smiley Smile US #41 UK #8
Interesting that Smiley Smile didn't "bomb" in the UK at all. Likewise, all of the late '60s albums charted much higher across the pond
― Lee547 (Lee626), Thursday, 18 August 2011 18:53 (twelve years ago) link
#14
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Beach_Boys_-_Dance%2C_Dance%2C_Dance.jpg
The Warmth Of The Sun - Shut Down V2250 points, 12 votes, One #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70psCljGnXM
― iatee, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:02 (twelve years ago) link
I'll say it: this song is overrated
― that mellow wash of meh (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
^crazy
― iatee, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:06 (twelve years ago) link
you monster. i think this is classic, think i put it fairly high on my ballot.
― tylerw, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:06 (twelve years ago) link
like how it fits in with the early beach boys concept w/o being a surfing song.
― tylerw, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
Didn't vote for this *looks at ground, shame-faced*
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
hauntingly beautiful. this is the pinnacle of the development of the Surfer Girl / In My Room idea IMO.
― the wheelie king (wk), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
I also think it's pretty damn psychedelic
― the wheelie king (wk), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
this sounds like it should have been the one hit of some obscure band who then died in a mysterious accident before it was released. only one or two songs in their career are anywhere as dark as this.
― iatee, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:09 (twelve years ago) link
I was just about to write something about Dance x3!
great track, lots of weird Four Freshmen chord changes that border on easy listening. I rank this ahead of Surfer Girl for not aping Disney.
― skip, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
My #1 pick.
Music this gorgeous simply hasn't been made either before or since.
― Lee547 (Lee626), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
Love this song, but the extra percussion on the third verse seems a bit out of place to me.
― fit and working again, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
They abandoned them because they stopped making great songs.eh this is demonstrably untrue imho
What's an example of a post 67 single that you think should have been a big hit?
no, I don't think so. as skip pointed out, it was an album without a real single.
I don't think so. If they had held back Good Vibrations and released it along with the album, I think it would have been a big hit.
― the wheelie king (wk), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
yeah but it did well in the uk, i think the image thing is key, "rock" culture had started in the US and the beach boys were not part of that
― buzza, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:24 (twelve years ago) link
please kip mike love
― iatee, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:26 (twelve years ago) link
Hate to blow the UK's trumpet but they also made "Forever Changes" a Top 30 album, maybe they had just had good taste? I also suspect Brian Wilson was much more respected and taken more seriously in the UK.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:27 (twelve years ago) link
Incidentally, how awesome is your band when "The Warmth Of The Sun", "Don't Worry Baby", or "God Only Knows" have to be relegated to the B sides of your singles?
― Lee547 (Lee626), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:28 (twelve years ago) link
and they were a part of the uk's rock culture? I don't know, I don't think this "uncool, not a part of rock culture anymore" theory quite holds up. The top selling album of '67 in the US was the Monkees! Who I guess were cooler and more rock and roll in a way, but still.
― the wheelie king (wk), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:28 (twelve years ago) link
"Add Some Music to Your Day" "This Whole World" "Cabinessence" "Break Away" "Long Promised Road" "Feel Flows" "Surf's Up" "Sail On, Sailor"
― iatee, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:28 (twelve years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:28 (twelve years ago) link
lotta what ifs for the beach boys in the smile era -- what if they had played monterey? (answer: they probably would've come across as kind of lame?)
― tylerw, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:29 (twelve years ago) link
Don't know, how did the Association go down?
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:30 (twelve years ago) link
the uk had a much more pop as opposed to rock orientation (and i'm using rock as the heavier, self-serious culture that came from rock n roll). the monkees fans were kids and teens. the kids and teens who grew up with the beach boys were listening to heavier stuff and left the beach boys behind by the time of smiley smile (and yes it was also way too weird to ever be much of a pop smash)
association did not go down too well
― buzza, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:33 (twelve years ago) link
The Beach Boys would never have rocked hard enough to stay with the times in 68-70. So it was going to happen at some point. Even at its 40-minute, coherent, primped best, Smile would still be a bit lame compared to say Jimi Hendrix. In the end, maybe it's not surprising that "Good Vibrations" ended up a one-off, 3-minute slice of overworked genius, not a basis for some larger and more important movement that would ripple through the culture.
― skip, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:33 (twelve years ago) link
association! kinda proto Devo here. kinda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOtHPCcH7cc
― tylerw, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:34 (twelve years ago) link
Love that band
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
#13
I Just Wasn't Made For These Times - Pet Sounds274 points, 11 votes, One #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX4py6AdIYQ
― iatee, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:39 (twelve years ago) link
prob my favorite from pet sounds
― iatee, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:40 (twelve years ago) link
think this was my highest pet sounds tune? (kind of forgetting what i actually voted for now)but anyway! so good. the bass line, the percussion, the "sometimes i feel very sad" part, the theremin! perfection.
― tylerw, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:42 (twelve years ago) link
first use of a theremin on a pop record
― Lee547 (Lee626), Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:44 (twelve years ago) link
Since Wouldn't It Be Nice, Caroline No and God Only Knows are pretty much locks for the top ten, it appears that the only song from Pet Sounds not to chart is Pet Sounds.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 18 August 2011 19:50 (twelve years ago) link