"Jack the Idiot Dunce" - The "Ducks on the Wall" on the album for me. I shouldn't like this, but it was fun enough to win me over, though not enough for a standalone playlister. Not yet sure if it will age well for me. Rather than an RCA vs. Arista comparison, once we are finished with Schoolboys I personally want to collect my thoughts and reflect back on the RCA albums before I move forward. The Beach Boys are my favorite group and I share your opinion on their high quality during that period, as well as on their underrated/generally unheard material from that era. To newbies I will offer the caveat that if consistently strong lyrics are among your highest criteria in quality rock/pop music, one must be prepared to make some allowances. There are certainly some exceptions in their catalog, but they are nothing like The Kinks with regard to general standard of lyrics, or worldview. Having said that, I'll also add that Ray's critical and even jaundiced observations can get a bit much for me at times, and I am a recovering cynic.
I ended up buying a lot of their albums about 2 years ago. A lot of excellent stuff. I really like Surfs up, Holland and Sunflower.... I did used to like the early stuff when i was a kid, but around then Kokomo came out ..... I enjoy the early stuff, even though a little patchy.... i pretend Kokomo never happened
yes! there were some truly strange albums in there that, somewhat like Preservation/Soap Opera/Schoolboys, just didn't fit anyone's idea of what the band was supposed to be, but that have moments of stunning creativity.
I'll chime in on The Beach Boys! I'm a big fan of most of the albums up until The Beach Boys Love You. That would make an interesting song by song, especially the late 60s and early 70s albums. I find them fascinating. "Heroes and Villains", "Good Vibrations", and "Don't Worry Baby", are just a few of their many songs that would make my list of greatest songs ever. They can have their cheesy side, but so many songs are stunning.
Here's another vote for the Beach Boys. Despite the dysfunction, there's a solid core of great music. AsI previously said here, " The Warmth Of The Sun" is as moving as "Waterloo Sunset ".
Jack is a great fun track! As for the Beach Boys, they're a favourite of mine, especially Today through to Love You, and then the album released for their 50th anniversary was surprisingly strong.
Ditto but it was a bit weird when the male students used to climb in his window when sometimes only his hot young wife was there, it had my young mind wondering if they would Kot-her!
An amazing track! I like most of the Smile stuff. But let's avoid turning this into a Beach Boys thread!!
We had Gabe Kaplan on our radio show in the mid nineties, (My co-host owned a comedy club) and he had NOTHING nice to say about Marcia. Loved Travolta and the other sweathogs though
The Kinks/Beach Boys comparison is interesting to me, because I discovered both bands at around the same time, I guess, and I love them both. Both, as has been stated, released a string of unsuccessful albums that in the long run proved to be their best output. But then, so many differences ! If I had to sum those up, I'd say that to some extent, the Kinks' brilliance is deliberate, while the Beach Boys' is somewhat incidental. I mean, those California guys are mostly dull morons, with the exception of Brian whose dullness is mingled with madness, which makes him more interesting. They have litterally nothing of interest to say, most of their topics are borrowed fashionable ideas or unintelligible pseudo poetry... but out of all this garbage rises such unearthly beauty ! And not just beauty : an unexpected depth, an unspeakable sadness can be felt bellow the thin crust of cheap advertisement for California sunshine. Listening to the Beach Boys is much like talking to a very beautiful but very shallow girl, (or guy if that's your romantic leaning). Great beauty in your interlocutor makes you feel like you belong to some inferior species (and anyone who tried to reproduce Beach Boys harmonies must acknowledge there is some kind of magic at work there) and as a superior one at the same time (how can they/she talk such rubbish). You're trying hard to focus on the beauty, you don't want to let the silly babble mar the musical/visual harmony that God (or whoever else, or the Great Nothing) intended, and suddenly, a sentence, a look in the eye, a turn of the conversation gives you a glimpse of your shared humanity, of a personal history that goes deeper than you thought. When you listen to Surf's up, you go through all those incredible textures, and you forgive the light ecological ditties and the ramblings of that other guy who wrote them some lyrics at the time, much like you would accept more silliness from a beautiful person than you should ; and then comes "Til' I Die", in all its direct, almost moronic simplicity, sung over layers of incredible music, and you realise that all this cheerful surfer stuff is mostly make-believe, a desperate and half-conscious effort at self-delusion to hide the cracks of despair that originate in family history and which are probably widened even further by that very shallowness that is used as an antidote. There is no such thing with the Kinks. The greatness of their songs is duly designed, through Ray's (and Dave's) songwriting and through their playing. The Beach Boys' sonic identity lies in their vocals, usually you hardly know who's playing the instruments on the records. The Kinks have a distinct instrumental identity, even if some members changed over time. But most of all, Ray is talking to you, directly, with intellect and poetry ; while the Beach Boys don't really know what they're saying, they're just rambling with their eyes staring into space, producing a beauty that goes far beyond them. People of both sexes sometime dream they could have two partners, a good-looking shallow one and a smart one for conversations and friendship... Well, the Kinks and the Beach Boys can be those two. Damn, I was supposed to work.
Not half! A very creepy man That's okay, I don't get the love for Pet Sounds or most of the earlier stuff. But when Brian went insane and the more talented brothers took over (!), they made a lot of great records. Well, this isn't entirely true but I prefer the 1968-73 records. And THOSE are indeed as underrated as the Kinks by the *Beatlers of this world *Disclaimer: a 'Beatler' is a person who thinks the band which I refuse to name was and still is the be-all end-all of every genre of music. Not a healthy POV.
When you are King I will be first against the wall... I wouldn't exactly call S'up shallow. The ocean is deep, man. The only really superficial song on that album (hey, even "Disney Gurls (1969)" is sorta deep and sweetly nostalgic and this is coming from a person that usually despises nostalgia) is Mike Love's take on "Riot in Cell Block #9" and as much as I dislike that song and the man, I do love the horribly überfuzzed guitar riffs. Of course the Beachies ain't got nothing on the Kinks. They needed about 10 people to write enough songs to fill out an album with about three gems and two gooduns with enough filler to actually get it released. They are, as you noted, perhaps inherently superficial because of how they started out as teenybopper music to be played while roasting hot dogs at the beach while being dreamy in a swimsuit for the fellas/gals. Their sense of humour is also much sillier and 'American' than Ray's. But from time to time I do like to look at the pretty flowers instead of reading Freud or watching the local news about unemployment and various mental illnesses. I do get what you are saying about idealized beauty vs reality/realness. My one caveat here is this: just because something is beautiful to look at or listen to, doesn't mean that it doesn't contain deeper meaning or that it is shallow by nature and that 'keeping it real' is not often anything more than empty posturing. Heck, the Kinks were so 'real' that they dressed up as other people for half of the '70's. All this to say that the Kinks rewl my schewl, of course
