Discuss & Rate Beach Boys Songs Day by Day

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Wata, Jun 18, 2018.

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  1. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    There's good reason Brian and/or Mike thought it was a good idea -- I'll post the article I linked to above with the link again:

    ...

    Utah's long love affair with the Beach Boys

    Utah's long love affair with the Beach Boys
    By Tom Wharton The Salt Lake Tribune

    · June 29, 2012 11:05 am



    The halcyon days of the 1960s music scene shaped a generation, as British groups such as The Beatles and Rolling Stones produced hit after hit.

    But for many teenagers growing up in Salt Lake City, the Beach Boys bested all those rock invaders. Teens listened to AM rock stations KNAK and, later, KCPX on transistor radios, often debating well into the night about the merits of their favorite band or whether to wear their hair as a "greaser" or a "beta."

    "I always picked the Beach Boys first, the Beatles second and then the Rolling Stones," recalled Lynn Lehman, a popular disc jockey with both stations in the 1960s and '70s. "The Beach Boys embraced surfing and cars. It was a Western United States thing. We may have more of a love affair with cars and surfing because of Salt Lake's close proximity to the West Coast."


    The Beach Boys are bringing their 50th-anniversary tour to the Stadium of Fire on Wednesday at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo. Original members Carl and Dennis Wilson have passed away, but lead singer Mike Love, songwriter Brian Wilson and Al Jardine are scheduled to perform along with David Marks and Bruce Johnston, who have been with the band, on and off, since the 1960s.

    The band's Utah roots run deep. KNAK is believed to have been one of the first stations outside California to play tapes of Beach Boys songs in the early 1960s. The Wilson brothers' father, Murray, was good friends with Bill Hesterman, then the Utah station's program manager.

    And from 1963 until 1973, the band played at Lagoon's Patio Gardens at least a dozen times.

    Lagoon owner Peter Freed remembers that his brother Bob became friendly with the band, hosting the Beach Boys several times at his home. In fact, the group sent him a tree that was planted in his front yard. "We got them at the height of their popularity," Freed said.

    The Beach Boys, with Love as the lead singer and with various lineups of band members, have come to Utah often, playing venues such as Rice-Eccles Stadium, the Huntsman Center, ParkWest, Abravanel Hall and, in 2005, the Sandy Amphitheater, when a warm-up band was led by then-Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.


    After penning "Salt Lake City," a song celebrating Lagoon, Utah's pretty girls and KNAK, the band received keys to the city from the Chamber of Commerce, said Gene Davis, known as Droopy-Eyed Gene because he worked his years on the night shift at KNAK.

    Davis, now a state senator, owns a vintage 45 of that song and remembers being proud hearing a background singer — either Dennis Wilson or Jardine — bellowing out the call letters KNAK.

    Back when the Beatles and Beach Boys had a professional rivalry, song requests at the radio station were received based on whichever group had the most recent hit. "After 'Good Vibrations,' we didn't get many Beach Boys songs," recalled Davis. "They didn't have hit records after that."

    Lehman, the former DJ, remembers when he introduced the group in 1965 at Patio Gardens as a scared 18-year-old who had just graduated from Olympus High.

    Legend has it that one of the group's biggest hits, "Fun, Fun, Fun," traces its roots back to Salt Lake City and may have been written in a limousine after a concert on the way to the airport. KNAK owner Howard Johnson had a teenage daughter named Shirley, who owned a turquoise and white Thunderbird. When Brian Wilson watched the two interact, that's where he supposedly came up with the idea of a girl who "has fun, fun, fun until Daddy takes the T-bird away."

    Davis met Brian Wilson four years ago at a BMI awards dinner saluting the musical genius. "He remembered coming to Salt Lake, but it was not a big deal. When you talk to Mike Love, Salt Lake was big time to them. He loved Salt Lake City. But [Wilson] remembered writing 'Salt Lake City' as one of those fun songs they sat down and did."


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    Last edited: Oct 12, 2018
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  2. Wata

    Wata Poller Thread Starter

    Location:
    Japan
    Your ratings for Salt Lake City:
    1-0 vote
    2-0 vote
    3-3 votes
    4-5 votes
    5-5 votes
     
  3. Wata

    Wata Poller Thread Starter

    Location:
    Japan
    Today's song is Girl Don't Tell Me:
     
  4. Wata

    Wata Poller Thread Starter

    Location:
    Japan
    Girl Don't Tell Me - Decent song, but I miss harmony and somehow I wish there were a cappella break, in the style of I Can Hear Music, after its pretty abrupt end.

    Still, worth 4/5 for first proper lead by Carl.
     
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  5. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    I have to give another 5/5 both for coolness and for uniqueness. Loved it in 1970 when I first heard it and love it every bit as much now. This is unique in the catalog in that it shows how The Beach Boys could have given tough bands a run for the money. It floored me when I first heard it and it still impresses today. Carl Wilson showed himself a fully capable lead singer on this one and really it's one of his best leads ever and the stripped down instro track is just so perfect -- stripped down rock, simple, but even so you get a little magic in the form of those celeste taps, also perfect, as are the drums and the ringing bell of the electric guitar break notes.

    This track sounded so great to me I often wondered why the approach was never really repeated by the band.

    Here's the UK band Tony Rivers and The Castaways covering -- in 1966 -- what they knew was a striking, single-release worthy tune (Andrew Loog Oldman produced and Glyn Johns engineered):

     
  6. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Girl Don't Tell Me
    Oh, I love 'Girl Don't Tell Me.' This is a real personal favorite of mine. Like 'Girls on the Beach' and a couple of others, I first heard it on my dad's vinyl copy of Endless Summer. I loved it immediately and it was one of the first Beach Boys songs I downloaded when I finally got iTunes (quite late to that game). I think it sounds like a folk-rock song in the style of some of the other songs and artists going on in 1965...Help era Beatles, a little Byrds, a little Eve of Destruction... It has a more stripped back sound without the harmonies but Carl's lead vocal is perfect, charismatic and just right for the song. And we will continue to see him grow and flourish as a lead singer. Even if I was in love with the arrangement, and I am, the real selling point for me is the melody. "Girl don't tell me your ri-hi-hight..." I love it. Beautiful, sweet and sensitive. I love the jangly guitars too.

    5/5
     
  7. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    :righton:

    Same page.
     
  8. Rock66

    Rock66 Forum Resident

    Once again another great Beach Boys song. 5/5. I agree with the comments so far that this shows great development and is somewhat different than what the group has done up to this point.
     
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  9. Vagabone

    Vagabone Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    "Girl don't tell me you'll wri-hi-hite..."
     
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  10. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Haha, yep. Posting when barely awake! :p
     
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  11. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    3/5 pretty basic style all around - kind of thing they could throw together in an hour.
     
  12. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    This is the Beach Boys not the Wrecking Crew playing, which makes me like it more for some reason. It also makes it all sound much more stripped down and minimalist compared to the usual over-the-top Wilson production of 1965. I'm not disparaging it for that -- I give it a 5/5. It's just another glimpse into what the band actually sounded like -- these glimpses, like this one and "You're So Good To Me" and so on are kind of rare in 1965/1966 Beach Boys stuff. Somehow I wish we had more of them.

    When I first heard it it really grabbed me -- it's such a pretty melody and yet such an odd one, in a way. I was sort of obsessed with that song when I first heard it back in 2007. The innocence of the lyric spoke to me and I really felt and related to it, even though I can tell you as a teenager I never had any summer romance with anybody but myself. And that ended badly. What a mess. Anyway.

    It's also one of the few times that you hear a Beatles influence on a Brian Wilson song -- usually I find the influence flowed the other way. The "Ticket To Ride" references are both cute and integral to the song: and yet, it's not a rip off or even a pastiche: just a sly wink and nod at Wilson's greatest peers, meant to be noticed.

    I'm sure y'all have heard that French cover of the song that was on Caroline, Now! compilation a few years back. Great cover. Really appreciate the flow of the music. Can't find it on YouTube. Just imagine it.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2018

  13. "She's got a ticket to ri-hi-hide"
     
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  14. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    Girl Don't Tell Me - A pretty unique track from The Beach Boys. Carl sings all by his lonesome. Jangle acoustics with some kind of effect placed on them to make them sound particularly cavernous. Clearly inspired by "Ticket To Ride", as others have said, specifically the "iy-iy-iy"s and the 'ting-ting-ting-ting-ting/drum fill' break. Some folk-rock creeping in. Inspired, yes, but yet an entirely unique song. Them shorts...mmmmm. But girl didn't answer his letters, so to hell with her. No fade, either, ends with the strike of a chord. It's a wonderful track, so charming and different. I don't know what else to say about it. It's another one of those Beach Boys songs that make you feel great! Rejuvenation! 5/5
     
  15. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    I don’t buy the ticket to ride thing
     
  16. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Girl Don't Tell Me. 5/5. Best song on the first side imo. The first really different song on Summer Days. Carl's vocal is awesome here. I have always loved the Boys for how they have not only great harmonies but an unparalleled number of lead singers, meaning all of them. This is one of Carl's best early efforts. I love the guitar work, too. Excellent.
     
  17. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Since I won't be back til Monday...

    Help Me, Rhonda. 5/5. Ftr I don't think this is any better than the version on Today!, unlike apparently many who do. On a ten scale I would give it a nine, and so it's not a big 5 here for me. But I love Al's lead vocals, so I end up with a 5.

    California Girls. 5/5. Iconic, of course. But on one level another one of their geography songs, which is kind of a funny thing about how often they went there. Still the opening is spectacular.
     
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  18. Mr. D

    Mr. D Forum Resident

    Yeah, I never got the connection but dumangl’s post on the stretching of the chorus makes sense.
     
  19. Mr. D

    Mr. D Forum Resident

    Girl Don’t Tell. Others have already articulated how wonderful this song is. One of my favourites.

    A strong 5/5
     
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  20. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    There’s also the 12 string guitar break which kind of sounds like ticket to ride, as well as the tiny little drum fill that follows that.

    The song is overall different, with a different melody and a different feel -/it’s just like a playful kind of shout out I think.
     
  21. The words are different. The melodies are different. The song structures are way too similar to be a coincidence.
     
  22. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    Not it’s not:D
     
  23. caio vaz

    caio vaz Senior Member

    Location:
    Brasil
    Girl dont tell me, wonderful song, sounds like the folky Beatles from 64-65 albums!
     
  24. Larce

    Larce Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Don't mean to go back but I just noticed Al does the falsetto on 'All Dressed Up for School."
     
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  25. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    I did not know that.
     
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