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Post by jk on Oct 25, 2023 17:55:43 GMT
I was just (!) hearing it as a new album. I can't recall any mention of a SMiLE connection at the time. The same holds for "Cabinessence" and "Our Prayer" on 20/20. The two tracks that really stood out for me in '71 were "Feel Flows" and "Surf's Up". I put the ragged accompaniment to the "brother John" part down to a momentary lapse in concentration on the part of the band! I certainly had no idea who was playing what or even who was singing lead, let alone the time span involved. I simply regarded it as a stunning three-movement suite specially written for the album! By the way, I didn't mean "just" in a negative way. I meant it like specifically, precisely in that way, to the exclusion of the baggage of Smile. I realize "just" can also mean something more like "only; no more than" (in which case it would seem I was belittling the album). I'm not sure how you took it, but your parenthetical exclamation point made me wonder, so I thought I'd clarify. I wasn't casting an aspersion on your inclusion of the word "just". I fully understand why you used it. It's just (sorry about that!) that Surf's Up hit me very hard at first hearing -- and at every hearing since. It's my favourite album. It was the first album I played on Spotify (given me by a thoughtful family member) after an unexpectedly difficult operation last year. In fact I played it twice in a row. Anyway, thanks for clarifying, Cap'n. Much appreciated.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 25, 2023 18:18:55 GMT
By the way, I didn't mean "just" in a negative way. I meant it like specifically, precisely in that way, to the exclusion of the baggage of Smile. I realize "just" can also mean something more like "only; no more than" (in which case it would seem I was belittling the album). I'm not sure how you took it, but your parenthetical exclamation point made me wonder, so I thought I'd clarify. I wasn't casting an aspersion on your inclusion of the word "just". I fully understand why you used it. It's just (sorry about that!) that Surf's Up hit me very hard at first hearing -- and at every hearing since. It's my favourite album. It was the first album I played on Spotify (given me by a thoughtful family member) after an unexpectedly difficult operation last year. In fact I played it twice in a row. Anyway, thanks for clarifying, Cap'n. Much appreciated. Surf's Up is probably one of their albums I liked the most at first hearing, too. But I did know some of the mythology by then, and that's indeed a big part of why I bought it very early on in my fandom (in the form of the CD twofer). I liked the majority of those songs right off the bat, though, whether the silly or the serious, the simple or the complex. I think "Disney Girls (1957)" and "Student Demonstration Time" were probably the only two I didn't like pretty quickly, and I came around entirely on the former. I'm not sure why it's accessible, but for me it was. At least in 1999 or whenever I bought it, it was. Hard to say how I'd have reacted in 1971 (not least of which because I was 5 years away from birth, so I can't think of my mindset at the time!).
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 25, 2023 19:45:47 GMT
Time for my "Surf's Up" story! It was the spring of 1975, and our high school baseball team just finished playing an away game, so we (the players) packed into our cars for the long ride home. We were part of a small Catholic high school, had no money to rent a bus or van, so we car-pooled. Hopefully, we could find enough cars that were in good enough shape to make the trip. I was in a buddy's old, souped-up Monte Carlo. Loud, fast, a gas hog.
The AM radio wasn't cutting it on the way to the game, and I noticed a bunch of 8-tracks scattered throughout the car, so I asked my buddy if I could play one. He had this 8-track comp, Superstars Of The 70's, and it was a great one (see below). I noticed that one of the songs was "Surf's Up" by The Beach Boys. At that time, I was a newbie and was getting seriously hooked thanks to Endless Summer and the new Spirit Of America. I wasn't familiar with this "Surf's Up" song and I was curious, so I went right to it. Now, as a green newbie, I thought "Surf's Up" would be a fast surfing song. It never occurred to me that all of those Beach Boys' surf & turf songs were from the early 1960s, and "Surf's Up" probably wouldn't be included on a 70's comp.
I found "Surf's Up" - I thought - on the 8-track. I say "I thought" because I was perplexed. This couldn't be "Surf's Up". This was no surfing song. This couldn't be The Beach Boys. This 8-track had to be defective; it had the wrong songs on it. I remember trying the buttons on the 8-track a few times to make sure I was playing the right song. I finally gave up messing with the 8-track player and gave the song a listen. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't like it (that's an understatement), and when the song came to the second movement - Brian singing alone with just the piano backing - I/we had enough and somebody yelled, "Get this off!" I complied and quickly switched tracks.
Maybe a year later I bought the Surf's Up album and listened to "Surf's Up" in the right setting. Hey, this was the song I played on my buddy's car 8-track! Why does it sound so different now? I loved it. Now.
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Post by lonelysummer on Oct 27, 2023 2:19:17 GMT
Time for my "Surf's Up" story! It was the spring of 1975, and our high school baseball team just finished playing an away game, so we (the players) packed into our cars for the long ride home. We were part of a small Catholic high school, had no money to rent a bus or van, so we car-pooled. Hopefully, we could find enough cars that were in good enough shape to make the trip. I was in a buddy's old, souped-up Monte Carlo. Loud, fast, a gas hog.
The AM radio wasn't cutting it on the way to the game, and I noticed a bunch of 8-tracks scattered throughout the car, so I asked my buddy if I could play one. He had this 8-track comp, Superstars Of The 70's, and it was a great one (see below). I noticed that one of the songs was "Surf's Up" by The Beach Boys. At that time, I was a newbie and was getting seriously hooked thanks to Endless Summer and the new Spirit Of America. I wasn't familiar with this "Surf's Up" song and I was curious, so I went right to it. Now, as a green newbie, I thought "Surf's Up" would be a fast surfing song. It never occurred to me that all of those Beach Boys' surf & turf songs were from the early 1960s, and "Surf's Up" probably wouldn't be included on a 70's comp.
I found "Surf's Up" - I thought - on the 8-track. I say "I thought" because I was perplexed. This couldn't be "Surf's Up". This was no surfing song. This couldn't be The Beach Boys. This 8-track had to be defective; it had the wrong songs on it. I remember trying the buttons on the 8-track a few times to make sure I was playing the right song. I finally gave up messing with the 8-track player and gave the song a listen. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't like it (that's an understatement), and when the song came to the second movement - Brian singing alone with just the piano backing - I/we had enough and somebody yelled, "Get this off!" I complied and quickly switched tracks.
Maybe a year later I bought the Surf's Up album and listened to "Surf's Up" in the right setting. Hey, this was the song I played on my buddy's car 8-track! Why does it sound so different now? I loved it. Now.
I think a friend of mine might have had that album, or something similar. All I remember is that it must have been a 3 record set. I liked going to his house, because his older sisters had a lot of cool albums - that was where I first heard "The Beatles" - except I think one of the records was cracked, so I had to skip the first couple songs. And when "Revolution 9" came on, I kept waiting for the song to start. Someone had told me "Revolution" is the fast version, "Revolution 1" is the slow version, and "Revolution 9" is the wild version.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 27, 2023 13:49:41 GMT
1968Music from Pet Sounds, Friends and Wild Honey were well represented on the setlists and that 1968 European Tour Documentary, is my most watched Beach Boys Doc. Those white suits! I literally watch it at least once a month. AND - Carl doesn't have a beard yet. I almost chose 1969, because "Breakaway' was added to the concert setlists, but they had also started to drop songs like "Wake The World", so nope on '69. Also - Friends was released in 1968. To think I was only six at the time. Boy did I miss out. It's fun looking through the possibilities for what might have been at this website (which I assume is by Ian Rusten, because while I don't see his name on it, the site references cowriting The Beach Boys in Concert with Jon Stebbens). So for you, the first chance to see the group that year (without traveling far) was to have been in Kansas City May 15 on the tour with Maharishi (the second show of that day, with the first in Des Moines!) ... but it was among the canceled shows. I'd have been in the same boat, with a show in St. Paul the previous day also canceled. But they returned for a couple of shows in Kansas in July. The snippets from reviews are really fun to read. Some of those shows seem very oldies-heavy to an almost funny degree, with things like "Papa Oom-Mow-Mow" still in the set lists. Some reviews even complained at how few songs were from Pet Sounds and after. In others, band members are quoted as saying how they like to focus on their new material. (There's also one in which Bruce says nobody in the band drinks, smokes, or uses drugs, and how they all eat nothing but healthy, organic foods. Ummmm...I don't think that's quite accurate!) But those contemporaneous stories, plus some of the quotes from participants obtained later, help give an idea of what being a fan at that time might have looked like, and make it easier to imagine how it could have gone with the online aspect added.
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Post by carllove on Oct 28, 2023 13:34:20 GMT
1968Music from Pet Sounds, Friends and Wild Honey were well represented on the setlists and that 1968 European Tour Documentary, is my most watched Beach Boys Doc. Those white suits! I literally watch it at least once a month. AND - Carl doesn't have a beard yet. I almost chose 1969, because "Breakaway' was added to the concert setlists, but they had also started to drop songs like "Wake The World", so nope on '69. Also - Friends was released in 1968. To think I was only six at the time. Boy did I miss out. It's fun looking through the possibilities for what might have been at this website (which I assume is by Ian Rusten, because while I don't see his name on it, the site references cowriting The Beach Boys in Concert with Jon Stebbens). So for you, the first chance to see the group that year (without traveling far) was to have been in Kansas City May 15 on the tour with Maharishi (the second show of that day, with the first in Des Moines!) ... but it was among the canceled shows. I'd have been in the same boat, with a show in St. Paul the previous day also canceled. But they returned for a couple of shows in Kansas in July. The snippets from reviews are really fun to read. Some of those shows seem very oldies-heavy to an almost funny degree, with things like "Papa Oom-Mow-Mow" still in the set lists. Some reviews even complained at how few songs were from Pet Sounds and after. In others, band members are quoted as saying how they like to focus on their new material. (There's also one in which Bruce says nobody in the band drinks, smokes, or uses drugs, and how they all eat nothing but healthy, organic foods. Ummmm...I don't think that's quite accurate!) But those contemporaneous stories, plus some of the quotes from participants obtained later, help give an idea of what being a fan at that time might have looked like, and make it easier to imagine how it could have gone with the online aspect Here are some examples of setlists from 1968, including one the day before Kansas City. I wish I had a Time Machine!
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Post by lonelysummer on Nov 2, 2023 1:44:35 GMT
I think a good time to have been a fan - with social media as part of the picture would have been - anytime all 5 or 6 Beach Boys were alive! We've reached a point now where there's not much to talk about, just Mike and Bruce doing their shows, and rumours of various projects. It would have been interesting to live through the early 80's, with the group mostly NOT recording, but Carl and Mike doing their solo projects, just to see the reaction of fans to those albums. It might have put a different spin on Dennis' early death, too; at the time, I knew next to nothing about his lifestyle and how it was affecting his health. All I knew was that Brian was back with Landy and looking a thousand times better than he had just a year before.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 2, 2023 11:20:09 GMT
I agree, that would have been interesting. Even without much new Beach Boys music, there was some new music from Beach Boys, and rumors of more.
Also, your mention of not much going on has been on my mind lately. It's a real bummer not having more to discuss.
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Post by lonelysummer on Nov 3, 2023 2:16:45 GMT
I agree, that would have been interesting. Even without much new Beach Boys music, there was some new music from Beach Boys, and rumors of more. Also, your mention of not much going on has been on my mind lately. It's a real bummer not having more to discuss. I thought we might get a 50th anniversary box of The Beach Boys In Concert. I would think there would be a lot of tracks they could add to that from tours in 1972-73. Feel Flows Long Promised Road Only With You California Saga (did they ever perform the entire suite live?) Surf's Up
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Post by jk on Nov 4, 2023 20:01:46 GMT
I agree, that would have been interesting. Even without much new Beach Boys music, there was some new music from Beach Boys, and rumors of more. Also, your mention of not much going on has been on my mind lately. It's a real bummer not having more to discuss.Know the feeling. I've been wracking my brains for new topics and new angles on old topics, so far to no avail. Most recently I'd been toying with the idea of a poll featuring instrumental breaks in BB songs but had great trouble finding a satisfactory format. To continue my thoughts at the time: The problem with BB instrumental breaks in general is that they are often an integral part of the song -- and not always purely instrumental either (think of "God Only Knows"). The single-instrument format neatly sidesteps such complications, particularly when narrowed down to guitar and keyboard solos. These could include breaks where one solo instrument takes over from another (as in "Surfin' U.S.A."), where two solos play out simultaneously (as in "Fun, Fun, Fun") and even the one (?) occasion where the solo is doubled ("Lana"). I even assembled a list of tracks, stopping at Holland, after which my interest in BB music takes something of a nosedive. I'd left out Christmas, Concert and Party, basically to keep things simple. After some soul-searching I withdrew a few tracks from the list whose breaks struck me as being more rhythm (e.g. "Drive-In") or riff (e.g. "Good To My Baby") than solo. And then I called the whole gosh darn thing off as contrived and ultimately meaningless.
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Post by lonelysummer on Nov 5, 2023 6:09:47 GMT
I agree, that would have been interesting. Even without much new Beach Boys music, there was some new music from Beach Boys, and rumors of more. Also, your mention of not much going on has been on my mind lately. It's a real bummer not having more to discuss.Know the feeling. I've been wracking my brains for new topics and new angles on old topics, so far to no avail. Most recently I'd been toying with the idea of a poll featuring instrumental breaks in BB songs but had great trouble finding a satisfactory format. To continue my thoughts at the time: The problem with BB instrumental breaks in general is that they are often an integral part of the song -- and not always purely instrumental either (think of "God Only Knows"). The single-instrument format neatly sidesteps such complications, particularly when narrowed down to guitar and keyboard solos. These could include breaks where one solo instrument takes over from another (as in "Surfin' U.S.A."), where two solos play out simultaneously (as in "Fun, Fun, Fun") and even the one (?) occasion where the solo is doubled ("Lana"). I even assembled a list of tracks, stopping at Holland, after which my interest in BB music takes something of a nosedive. I'd left out Christmas, Concert and Party, basically to keep things simple. After some soul-searching I withdrew a few tracks from the list whose breaks struck me as being more rhythm (e.g. "Drive-In") or riff (e.g. "Good To My Baby") than solo. And then I called the whole gosh darn thing off as contrived and ultimately meaningless. Gary Moore does a cool guitar solo on "Maybe I Don't Know" from the 85 album; there's also Roger McGuinn's 12 string solo on "California Dreamin", I just wish it was longer, but they had to get that goshdarned sax in there (sneak preview of "Kokomo"?).
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Post by jk on Nov 5, 2023 10:55:46 GMT
Know the feeling. I've been wracking my brains for new topics and new angles on old topics, so far to no avail. Most recently I'd been toying with the idea of a poll featuring instrumental breaks in BB songs but had great trouble finding a satisfactory format. To continue my thoughts at the time: The problem with BB instrumental breaks in general is that they are often an integral part of the song -- and not always purely instrumental either (think of "God Only Knows"). The single-instrument format neatly sidesteps such complications, particularly when narrowed down to guitar and keyboard solos. These could include breaks where one solo instrument takes over from another (as in "Surfin' U.S.A."), where two solos play out simultaneously (as in "Fun, Fun, Fun") and even the one (?) occasion where the solo is doubled ("Lana"). I even assembled a list of tracks, stopping at Holland, after which my interest in BB music takes something of a nosedive. I'd left out Christmas, Concert and Party, basically to keep things simple. After some soul-searching I withdrew a few tracks from the list whose breaks struck me as being more rhythm (e.g. "Drive-In") or riff (e.g. "Good To My Baby") than solo. And then I called the whole gosh darn thing off as contrived and ultimately meaningless. Gary Moore does a cool guitar solo on "Maybe I Don't Know" from the 85 album; there's also Roger McGuinn's 12 string solo on "California Dreamin", I just wish it was longer, but they had to get that goshdarned sax in there (sneak preview of "Kokomo"?). Thanks for this, LS. It tells me that a thread (not a poll) on instrumental breaks in BB songs might make sense after all. There are enough aspects to consider, solos by non-band members being one. I'll see if I can organize an opening post, unless someone else does it first.
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