The Worst of the Beach Boys

Only been able to do Mount Vernon and Fairway in it's original form a handful of times. The abridged version on the Good Vibrations box that drops the spoken word and keeps the music is fun though. Out there for sure, but fun none the less.

 

Dear. Lord. No.

Or yes. This counts.

 

I just thought of one of the poorest (IMO) Beach Boys tracks -- it's their draggy version of "Rock and Roll Music".

 

I love the Adult/Child stuff, apart from Hey Little Tomboy which is awful lyrically.
Then again, I really like the M.I.U. album which seems to be rather unpopular with Beach Boys fans.

 

I think this cover is saved by the awesome backing track that Brian came up with.

 

Singing Battle Hymn of the Republic over the California Girls riff probably sounded a lot better on paper.

 

just about every tune they did that wasn't a single is not very good.

lots and lots of fill on beach boys albums, sorry

 

Do you live underneath a chair? Seems like every other post you make uses that cowering emoticon. If you're trolling for controversy, you might as well just own it.

"Please Let Me Wonder", "Let Him Run Wild", "I Know There's An Answer", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", "Wonderful", "Let the Wind Blow", "Busy Doin' Nothin'", "Cabinessence", "Time to Get Alone", "This Whole World", "Forever", "All I Wanna Do", "'Til I Die", "Feel Flow", "All This Is That", "Funky Pretty", "Trader", "I'll Bet He's Nice", "The Night Was So Young". Just a few of the amazing non-single songs that rjp would summarily dismiss. Yeah, there's some filler on their albums, but to suggest that all of their non single material was "not very good" is laughable.

 

Too bad for Manson. I like when artists change things around, like when Roger McGuinn modified "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" to "pack up your money, pick up your tent..."

 

It sounds like something even the Monkees would pass on.

 

What is the EDM crowd?

 

I suspect "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was a joke Brian pulled on Mike. Surely it was never intended for release.

 

I'd never heard this, but the backing track is really fun. I have no idea what this was intended for. But the SMiLE banjo sound mixed with the synth sounds cool - just get rid of all vocals. But I think the same of "Smart Girls" - remove the "vocals" and you have catchy weirdness.

Obviously, The Battle Hymn music was not written by Brian - so it's not a "Beach Boys" song really AND it's unreleased. Does this even count? If so..

My wife likes that totally f-ed up laboratory song that they did write (music was eventually incorporated into Brian's "Happy Days (Are Here Again)" and wants to put in on our Halloween mix.

Funny enough, my wife thinks "Happy Days" from Imagination is scarier. First time she heard it, she heard it in 5.1. Right after "Dark days were plenn-tyyy" there are cacophonic Brian-mind-voices that come loudly from the back corner speakers and she pounced off the couch.

Jeff

 

Jim Fuller the lead guitar player has his own band and the rhythm guitarist leads the The Surfaris now

 

The man is shameless!

 

Electronic Dance Music - it's what my 24 year old daughter is in to.

 

Oh well. Someday they will figure out that there is more to music than dancing.

 

Yesterday we had a session and I had her listening to Pet Sounds/SMiLE. (After I broke down the history of both albums which she found fascinating.) She thought that SMiLE sounded like cartoon/carnival/christmas music. Lol
She thought it was "weird as ****" but she enjoyed how different it was compared to the earlier work. She didn't quite understand why Pet Sounds was so innovative and groundbreaking for it's time.
The song she enjoyed the most was "I'm Waiting for the Day" because of the twist on the outro. She's a sucker for love stories like that.
Her favorite song from SMiLE Sessions is "Good Vibrations". She never heard the song before which was odd because she knew most of their surfing,car,girl hits.
When I told it was a number one hit she was surprised because it was such an oddball of a record.
I asked her which did she enjoy more Pet Sounds or SMiLE Sessions and she said SMiLE because it's more exciting,experimental and not as mellow.

 

Alright. I decided to listen to this one with an open mind and while this one is never gonna rival Good Vibrations as a favorite, it wasn't as bad as I thought. You're right about it sounding like Jonathon Richman and the Modern Lovers.

Not great but maybe with better lyrics it mighta' had a chance.

 

i only hide under the chair when i don't glorify, or when i criticize:

the beach boys/brian wilson

mccartney

or

pete townshend

and i hide under the chair exactly because of people like you.

 

On a cough cough bootleg there is the backing track for In The Back Of My Mind - it is stunning. and then Dennis gives a worse than terrible vocal delivery on the album proper. One of the lowpoints of their 60s catalogue. I urge you to seek out the boot, i think it's called Time To Get Alone. Really, the back track is killer...Totally agree about Guess I'm Dumb.

 

Try the mono single mix - no spooky backwards cymbal (it's a GREAT mix with some cool slapback effects on the lead vocal in places).

See ash1's post above!

 

This is a thread for fans of the Beach Boys to identify some of their less than stellar recordings. It's not a thread for non fans to indiscriminately slam their entire non-single discography, but I think you already knew that. The fact that you so frequently use cowering-under-chair guy suggests that you have some kind of compulsion for making "controversial" statements that you know will rile people up (a.k.a. trolling).

 

Probably just showing my age (or becoming my parents) when I say that for some EDM, calling it music is a stretch.

 

Sounds like a 90s nostalgia scene.