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[Cool]

Seriously, people don't realize how great this band was. I've been listening to stuff from their 1967 Wild Honey album. So good.

The stuff I really enjoy by them is like Pet Sounds, Wild Honey, Smiley Smile/SMiLE, Friends, Surfs Up, and Sunflower, the albums they did in the late 60's and early 70's.

I know they can easily be forgotten with their songs like "Surfin' USA" and "California Girls" stuff, which is all good, but they really did some legendary stuff that no one really took notice to.

Wild Honey, for instance, is a great R&B influenced album that has a really bitchin' cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her".

Oh man, I don't even know what I'm getting at. Anyway, I'm just saying, if you've never checked out atleast just Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, you really should.

 

[demon]

Beach Boys - Linkin Park

 

[Cool]

Beach Boys - Linkin Park

OH NOES, I'M BEING ATTACKED BY DEMONS!

 

[demon]

Ok fine, I'll bite. Recently I had a weird, random urge to get a Beach Boys CD, so I went out and got the Sounds of Summer compilation CD. I've listened to it quite a bit. Never thought I would have actually bought a Beach Boys CD.

 

[Cool]

That's a pretty solid best of compilation (Sounds of Summer), but some of their actual albums that would have no material on that compilation are just damn great. I can't stress it anymore, their late 60's and 70's material was great, but undiscovered by the public. I will warn that some of the stuff they put out in the late 60's and 70's along with the really good stuff was down right bad, but there's a lot of good stuff to overshadow it.

 

[Substance]

" I know they can easily be forgotten with their songs like "Surfin' USA" and "California Girls" stuff, which is all good, but they really did some legendary stuff that no one really took notice to. "

That's an odd thing to say, since its precisely that 'fun in the sun' heyday which elevates the Beach Boys to my Top Five Groups of all time. Not much was expected in forms of album statments at this time of 1963-1965, so all those classic singles were being pushed on uneven albums. That is why it is necessary for a fan to pick up a Greatest Hits collection of the Beach Boys.
Pet Sounds has been praised endlessly, and while I don't honestly think its better than anything the Beatles did, 'Blonde on Blonde' or 'Forever Changes' I'll note the idiosyncratic style of music is particularly different, and it has my immense respect, and not only for its otherworldly influence on popular music. 'Here Today' is one of my favourite songs, and all of the Pet Sounds material is admirably arranged and perfected. A stunning listen no doubt.

I don't think I'll bother too much with 'Brian Wilson-less' 1970's. I've heard good things about 'Sunflower'... but uh.... 'Student Demostation Time'??
Oh, and I also must note I'll be attending the Sydney Opera House Evening with Brian Wilson on November 30, so he can sing out that album that almost was. I cannot wait.

 

[AniHawk]

I loved listening to the Beach Boys when I was younger when CDs of their albums were being released. Good Vibrations is still one of my favorite songs.

 

[demon]

I loved listening to the Beach Boys when I was younger when CDs of their albums were being released. Good Vibrations is still one of my favorite songs.

Yeah that is an awesome song.

Exactly what is the big deal behind the history of this song, though? Is it like the most expensive song ever produced or something?

 

[Cool]

" I know they can easily be forgotten with their songs like "Surfin' USA" and "California Girls" stuff, which is all good, but they really did some legendary stuff that no one really took notice to. "

That's an odd thing to say, since its precisely that 'fun in the sun' heyday which elevates the Beach Boys to my Top Five Groups of all time. Not much was expected in forms of album statments at this time of 1963-1965, so all those classic singles were being pushed on uneven albums. That is why it is necessary for a fan to pick up a Greatest Hits collection of the Beach Boys. Pet Sounds has been praised endlessly, and though I don't honestly think its better than anything the Beatles did, 'Blonde on Blonde' or 'Forever Changes' I'll notw the idiosyncratic style of music is particularly different, and it has my immense respect, and not only for its otherworldly influence on popular music. 'Here Today' is one of my favourite songs, and all of the Pet Sounds material is admirably arranged and perfected. A stunning listen no doubt.

I don't think I'll bother too much with 'Brian Wilson-less' 1970's. I've heard good things about 'Sunflower'... but uh.... 'Student Demostation Time'??
Oh, and I also must note I'll be attending the Sydney Opera House Evening with Brian Wilson on November 30, so he can sing out that album that almost was. I cannot wait.

The fun in the sun stuff is great too, don't get me wrong, but some people who think that stuff is too corny and prefer stuff that is more profound shouldn't write off the Beach Boys is pretty much what I was saying. As one of my favorite albums by the Beach Boys is the 1964 classic All Summer Long.

Most of the late 60's stuff had Brian playing a major role in writing it, like the Wild Honey album.

And it's wrong to say he wrote nothing in the 70's becuase in the late 70's they put out an album that some consider Brian's first "solo" album, but under the name of the Beach Boys, the album titled Love You.

I never heard it yet, but I plan on getting it, as I hear it is really good.

 

[Cool]

Yeah that is an awesome song.

Exactly what is the big deal behind the history of this song, though? Is it like the most expensive song ever produced or something?

Yeah, I think it's in the Guiness Book of World Records ("Good Vibrations"). Brian Wilson was a genius and he added so much stuff to his music, obescure instruments, signature vocal arrangements, and anything he could. Like one song on Pet Sounds randomly has one pluck of a chord on a banjo just at one part, he was strange like that, but it all sounded really good.

 

[snaildog]

Don't Worry Baby is probably my favourite. That and Something (Beatles) are my two embarassing soppy love songs that I listen to all the time. Others I really like: Wild Honey, Fun Fun Fun, I Get Around, God Only Knows, California Girls, Barbara Ann.

Just a question: I only have the "Very Best of the Beach Boys" album and love nearly all of it. Is it worth starting to pick up the individual albums, or do I already have the majority of their good stuff?

 

[Substance]

Just a question: I only have the "Very Best of the Beach Boys" album and love nearly all of it. Is it worth starting to pick up the individual albums, or do I already have the majority of their good stuff?

Did my post just fly right by you? The Beach Boys landed down with excellent singles from 1962-1965 but there was not much concern with album efforts during that time and resulting albums like 'Surfin' Safari', Shut Down', 'Surfer Girl', and 'Little Deuce Coupe' were inconsistent and quickly compiled, uneven albums. It was only at the point of 'Today!' and yeah, fine Cool, 'All Summer Long' where Beach Boys attempted the sophisticated album statement. And successfully with 'Today!' so you may consider picking that up.
So ignore these first seven or so albums released from 1963-1964, as all the great material on those efforts is smartly compiled in the GH collection. Pick yourself up a copy of 'Pet Sounds' (1966) as it represents Wilson's peak in music recording and is enlightened by many as one of the greatest albums of all time.
That should be basically it. Your Greatest Hits Collection would most likely have some of the better moments of the post-1966 work, about the time where Brian Wilson frustrated himself with the 'Smile' Sessions. 'Sunflower' (1970) and 'Surf's Up' (1971) I suppose are recommended. There is some good material definitely in the post Pet Sounds era. Anyway, just look here http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:t95j8qmtbtn4

The recently released 'SMiLE' is Brian Wilson's perfection of his lost album which was supposed to be the ultimate pop/progressive record in 1967. I haven't heard it but it's, too, recommended.

 

[Cool]

Just a question: I only have the "Very Best of the Beach Boys" album and love nearly all of it. Is it worth starting to pick up the individual albums, or do I already have the majority of their good stuff?

Did my post just fly right by you? The Beach Boys landed down with excellent singles from 1962-1965 but there was not much concern with album efforts during that time and resulting albums like 'Surfin' Safari', Shut Down', 'Surfer Girl', and 'Little Deuce Coupe' were inconsistent and quickly compiled, uneven albums. It was only at the point of 'Today!' and yeah, fine Cool, 'All Summer Long' where Beach Boys attempted the sophisticated album statement. And successfully with 'Today!' so you may consider picking that up.
So ignore these first seven or so albums released from 1963-1964, as all the great material on those efforts is smartly compiled in the GH collection. Pick yourself up a copy of 'Pet Sounds' (1966) as it represents Wilson's peak in music recording and is enlightened by many as one of the greatest albums of all time.
That should be basically it. Your Greatest Hits Collection would most likely have some of the better moments of the post-1966 work, about the time where Brian Wilson frustrated himself with the 'Smile' Sessions. 'Sunflower' (1970) and 'Surf's Up' (1971) I suppose are recommended. There is some good material definitely in the post Pet Sounds era. Anyway, just look here http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:t95j8qmtbtn4

The recently released 'SMiLE' is Brian Wilson's perfection of his lost album which was supposed to be the ultimate pop/progressive record in 1967. I haven't heard it but it's, too, recommended.

I have Today! , and I love that album. Also, I really encourage checking out Wild Honey.

 

[Axsider]

Beach Boys = TEH AWESOME!!!!

 

[AniHawk]

Yeah that is an awesome song.

Exactly what is the big deal behind the history of this song, though? Is it like the most expensive song ever produced or something?

Relaying from what I read, I think the song cost $1 million and 6 months to make. Brian Wilson would have different people in the band (orchestral and Beach Boys band) play something (like the cello really, really fast, or just car keys clanging), and spliced all the pieces together, which is why it sounds kinda pasted together (it seems to stop at parts and continue).

The odder instruments used were car keys, organ, cello, and theramin. The theramin is the thing that plays in the background of the song, and at the very end. It sounds like sound effects for a radio background noise, or one of those 1950s movies with UFOs. The way I understand it, it plays off of radio waves to get that sound.

 

[Cool]

The theramin is used in the chorus too.

That ooo wooo oooh oooh oooh sound.

 

[AniHawk]

The theramin is used in the chorus too.

That ooo wooo oooh oooh oooh sound.

That's the best way to describe the sound it makes (no sarcasm there).

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Today!/Summer Days is the best thing ever.