A Cork on the Ocean: Beach Boys and Wilson Brothers song-by-song

Surfer Girl is a must have IMO!

 

Wyld Honey

Christgau described it well:

It feels weird to call this a great record--it's so slight. But it's perfect and full of pleasure; it does what it sets out to do almost without a bad second (except for "Let the Wind Blow," each of the 11 tunes--total time: 23:54--ends before you wish it would). And what does it set out to do? To convey the troubled innocence of the Beach Boys through a time of attractive but perilous psychedelic sturm und drang. Its method is whimsy, candor, and carefully modulated amateurishness, all of which comes through as humor. Tell me, what other pop seer was inspired enough to cover a Stevie Wonder song in 1967? A+

Lots of variety from rhythm to blues and beyond. Who knew that The Beach Boys had this kind of music in them? The lackluster results of the 1967 Hawaii tapes pushed the band to find a different sound from their Van Dyke era for their new recordings. Yet, they changed style yet again for Friends in the absence of Mike Love. The 1967-71 albums show an amazing breadth of styles, even if the quality sometimes or often dips beneath the peak of the 1963-66 era. The great thing is that they didn't rely too heavily on a Van Dyke or Tony Asher for writing. This period is often a band that writes its own music with good results.

The new Wild Honey music is as idiosyncratic as anything that came before. The main difference is that it often loses the sheen and commerciality of recording at Brian's favorite old Hollywood studios. New locations to record can help a band change focus and think in new ways, though, even if the process loses commerciality, better recording rooms, and better recording equipment. What the Beach Boys lost in Chuck Britz, they gained somewhat in a new approach to recording and creating. Nobody can say that the band stagnated during the late 60's. All of the new albums that they released on Capitol at that time were full of fresh ideas.

5/5

 

I left out Surfin' Safari and Party - at this point we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. If I had to rank them I'd rank Party over Safari.

 

A great early single--I was 13 when it was released and loved it... thanks!

This is one I am really looking forward to getting:

All Summer Long: Regarded as their first artistically unified collection of songs, as well as one of the first true concept albums, it marked the Beach Boys' first LP that was not focused on themes of cars or surfing. Instead, the songs are semi-autobiographical and relate to the experiences of a typical Southern Californian teenager, a theme encapsulated by the title track, "All Summer Long", and the often-imitated front cover, a modernist style photo collage depicting the band members fraternizing with young women on a beach. -wiki

 

3.5 - Great songs- underwhelming production. It is like a Ferrari with a governor that limits the top speed to 70 MPH

The live versions of “Darlin”, “Let the Wind Blow”, “Aren’t You Glad” blow the album versions out of the water. I believe the the “Live in London” version of AYG could have been a hit if released as a single.

 

That's what I get for copying and pasting. Dammit! Put it above Christmas.

 

1967 truly was an INSANE year for music. I noticed this around the age of 16-17 and it quickly became my favourite year in music, though these days I’m just as partial to ‘68 (or ‘91 for that matter).

The two Beatles, Stones, Hendrix and Doors albums are just the beginning. There’s also all those albums you mentioned above (just from the Christmas season?!) plus the bizarre but truly unique Floyd Piper album, classics like Forever Changes, Aretha’s timeless Atlantic debut, and so many others. I’m also a big fan of Van Morrison’s first album, which besides Brown Eyed Girl I don’t hear mentioned much, but it’s a killer album of unhinged sprawling R&B jams.

Plus there are, of course, two very unique and charming albums by our Heroes, that mustn’t be forgotten. So I may as well keep typing…

Wild Honey

While I’m clearly a bit of an outlier on this very spontaneous sounding album (ironically a bit of a grower for me, while many of the more experimental tracks on Smiley Smile charmed me right away) I’m happy to see many people love it, and like Smiley I do feel it was the right move for the band at the time, at least that’s the way it’s always seemed to me.

After retreating from the most-produced project to the “sparsest” one, they needed to keep venturing out of their newly established comfort zone, and did so on this album by having a great time playing as a full “band” again on record. The results (for me) are mixed, but clearly the sense of fun on this album is a highlight for many, myself included, though unfortunately I just don’t connect with about 1/3 of the songs here. That’s already changing with Let the Wind Blow, which may turn out to be the Don’t Talk of this album for me. Though I always liked the bridge, I found the rest a bit on the lugubrious side. However you folks have turned me on to the pleading prayerful quality of that song and its synergy with highlight Country Air on the other side.

That really just leaves three so-so songs for me, so it’s only a matter of time. My score may seem a little low, it’s not a reflection of the quality of the music contained within, but rather meant to quantify (how difficult) my current enjoyment level, stacked against the other albums in the catalog.

I find it hard to get past my expectations and what-ifs on this album for some reason, I still feel that had it been recorded/mixed a bit better, with more appropriate compression on the vocals to make them sound less erratic and demo-like, and a funky lean drum kit playing throughout, it could really have kicked the doors in and blown the roof off. But, hey, that’s just me! The album IS big on charm, and it has been growing on me this week. Good for Brian & co. for continuing to follow their muse wherever it led them, thus penning another unique and celebrated chapter in Beach Boy history.

3.5/5 (for now…)

Beach Boys Today! - 5
[SMiLE (theoretical) - 5]
Pet Sounds - 4.5
Surfer Girl - 4.5
All Summer Long - 4.25
Smiley Smile - 4
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) - 4
Shut Down Vol. 2 - 4
Wild Honey - 3.5
Surfin’ USA - 3.5
Little Deuce Coupe - 3 (for the 8 new songs)
Beach Boys’ Party! - 2.5
Surfin’ Safari - 2.5

And in the spirit of celebrating this album today, I can’t help but digress off-topic (though not entirely so) and post this track, which has an “off-the-cuff” casual and unbridled joyous quality that was sorely needed on the album it’s from (another one I seem to be an outlier on) that reminds me of Wild Honey. Besides that great sense of fun, it also just happens to have a certain synergy with this album in the name department… so… why not highlight that connection?

 

Of the albums so far, my top 5 would be:

1 Smile
2 Pet Sounds
3 Today
4 Summer Days
5 All Summer Long

 

Wild Honey

So many people love this album, that it's easy to swayed in that direction.
The Beach Boys set out to make an R & B styled album.
On this they succeeded, dispite most critics and fans thinking they would be bad or embarassing, at the attempt.
Your enjoyment level is whether you like this sidestep endevour.
This is simple music for Brian to make, coming after Smile.
But on reflection from him and the Group it was what was needed. It helped them be a group again.
So, in the end it all comes to the songs, as it always does.
There is less harmony singing and more Carl, and less Brian
Singing lead. Basic instrumentation, and some songs are fragments. Not a great album, but one where we come to expect different music from the band we'ved known all these years. Darlin', Aren't You Glad, Country Air, Let The Wind Blow, I'd Love Just Once To See You, are memorable melodies and fine additions to the canon.
The rest is just ordinary for me, a bit of a letdown. Songs you would only play in the context of the album.
So glad it came out, just cause I'm greedy I wanted more from them.
The Rolling Stones said it best, sometimes "you can't always get what you want....."
But the Beach Boys got what they needed. In the end, that was more important.

3.75/5

 

+1

I think people find it “uneven” (not me). But either way the highs are gorgeous.

 

One of my favourite all-time B.B. songs. 5/5

Wild Honey 3/5

 

Well said, Lou. After the debacle that was Smiley Smile, I experienced a HUGE sigh of relief as I feared that their career was over and done with. I couldn't see them recovering in any way, shape or form. Wild Honey, despite a couple of duds, brought them back with somewhat positive results. I think had the production been a little brighter and less covered up, it would have been better received. Regardless, they were back on track. 4.5/5

 

"Love Is A Woman" I think is a great album closer, Brian with his hoarse voice is charming and funny and I think it's a great album send-off

 

Wild Honey (album)

I agree with @S. P. Honeybunch that Christgau nailed it: "It feels weird to call this a great record--it's so slight. But it's perfect and full of pleasure."

Ultimately what comes out of any record's grooves is ENERGY. The energy on this album is immediate, fully present, full of humor—expressing love, devotion and delight.

It is also the album where the other members step up to the plate. In '67 Brian pulled back from the wild studio experiments and hit "reset" on the band's focus and trajectory. The m.o. for the next few years is in place.

It's said in the first track on the album, "Wild Honey," and it's the very last line of the "last" track, "How She Boogalooed It:"

Sock it to me, Wild Honey!

5/5

 

In addition to Lance's wonderful guidance through the discography, your enthusiasm for these last two albums in particular has been a welcome feature of this thread.

 

Top five thus far?

Pet Sounds
Smile Sessions
Smiley Smile
Today
Wild Honey

 

Wild Honey

4.5/5 This is a GREAT album. Unexpectedly so. Almost underproduced in a few moments. Sadly, but how many people were listening to new material by the Beach Boys at this point in the 60s?

 

350,000 in the US.

 

Plus it was a hit in the UK.

 

Wild Honey - This is one of my favorite Beach Boys' albums. It's got so much spontaneous energy. No, not all of the songs are great, but many of them are, and it's a short blast of joy that always makes me feel better - maybe Brian wanted to make something like that, too. There isn't really any filler here - "How She Boogalooed It" and "Mama Says" are just short messages to ease you out of the record. In the context of this thread, it's also a welcome relief after all the baroque weirdness and alienation in Smile and Smiley Smile. And it shows what the band can do on their own (and mostly without Dennis), completely stripped down. Sweet and wild, it does what it says on the tin. 5/5

 

It's the BB's 'warts n all' album. Even the underdeveloped arrangements, basic production, lack of actual drums, buzzing organ and the odd strained vocal can't kill the songs for me. It's certainly not the album the guys should have made in the aftermath of the whole Smiley sham, but I'm glad that they did anyway.
4.5 out of 5.

 

This album is like a psychedelic music demonstration record:
Mellotron? Check!
Sitar? Check!
Nice harmonies? Check!
Indian-sounding scales? Check!
Backwards tracks? Check!
Fuzz guitar and fuzz bass? Check!
Harpsichord? Check!
String arrangements? Check!
"Esoteric" and whimsical and self-serious lyrics? Check!

I like it.

 

Single me out??

Single-handed take me alive?

Can you dig I'm gonna spend my life eatin' up the Wild Honey?

 

Sorry I missed this discussion. I'm starting in on my next Murry album in a few weeks. Should take me about a year to complete, but it will have some very deep 'lost' Murry vocal compositions on it and will likely be the last time I do one of these albums. My plan is to find a label interested in the entire collection, and I'm sure the label will want to release all of these recording - old and new - digitally. The original 7" single, the LP, and the EP (I've done 16 recordings so far, and plan on an additional 12 if everything falls in place). I'll be sure to check in here when it all happens.

BTW, physical sales of the three releases have been put on hold for a few months, so the boltrecords.net site links out to Bandcamp have been shuttered. But I don't have many singles and LPs left, but I still have about 100 of the EP CD. The Bandcamp merch page listings will be back in July.

 

Thanks for the plug, Ed!