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Post by Kapitan on Mar 15, 2019 20:36:14 GMT
What a fucking delight!
Maybe more than any other album, my reaction to Friends has remained basically the same: it's really, really good. The first time I heard it was early on in my fandom as one of my first purchases. At that time, I knew the early hits (and hated them almost universally) and had recently come to know and eventually love Pet Sounds and Smile. I believe this twofer would have been my second purchase after PS (with Smiley/WH first). And it was a pretty big departure from everything else, departing right into my sweet spot.
The low key tunes, the largely inconsequential and unpretentious lyrics, the great, great, great arrangements (which I think are great, btw) ... I thought Brian Wilson's genius shone through really clearly. I couldn't imagine that this hadn't been more popular, if not in 1968 then at least sometime thereafter.
Probably more than anything, it's the breezy little trio of songs on Side One that I love most: "Wake the World," "Be Here in the Morning," and "When a Man Needs a Woman," but "Busy Doin Nothin" is another favorite. I have to say I've always had a bizarre affinity for "a man needs a woman like a woman needs a man / when the two get together aw aw aw aw aw awwwwww." Those, my friends, are lyrics!
I could do without "Transcendental Meditation" or "Anna Lee, the Healer," though in both cases I like something about them (the track and the vocal performance, respectively). I'd have loved some of the similarly styled tunes of the same era in there instead, "Time to Get Alone," for example. But life goes on quite nicely as-is.
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Post by Do You Like Veggies? on Mar 15, 2019 20:54:06 GMT
What's your opinion on the Wake The World set? Personally, it did the impossible and raised my respect for this album even higher than it already was.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 15, 2019 21:05:42 GMT
You know, it didn't do as much for me as the Wild Honey 1967 set did. I enjoyed it, and it was good to hear some subtleties that weren't as easy to hear in the final album, but it didn't really serve as any kind of revelation for me. I do look forward to the 1970/Sunflower one, though...
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Post by sebevedomy on Mar 22, 2019 17:51:59 GMT
Top 3 for me. To me this album is perfect, the only "perfect" album Brian did other than Pet Sounds and maybe Love You. Love You is not in my top 3, but it's in my Top ten, and it's perfect in the sense that it all kind of goes together as an album-length statement. Well, except for "Good Time" but that somehow fits.
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Post by kds on Mar 24, 2019 3:49:42 GMT
I put this album on my player, then I sneezed, and it was over. Dammit. Had to play it again. Enjoyed it. Played it 43 times in the last two hours.
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Post by B.E. on May 23, 2020 17:20:21 GMT
Not a new topic, but I enjoy hearing Brian talk about the humor that he and the boys incorporated into their music. Most fans appreciate it, and clearly Brian does as well.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 18, 2022 13:14:19 GMT
First, following up on an idea B.E. had, here's the Album of the Week thread from Friends, in case anyone wants to revisit that while discussing the album further. I'd made the common complaint that one of my only objections to the album is its brevity. She said, and I replied:
I think the album's brevity is part of its essence -- if it were any longer it would no longer be what it is. And I think it needed to be short because it's what Brian could handle taking on. The latter is quite possibly true. The former ... I don't know. I mean, yes, in some sense, by definition! Change a thing, and it's a different thing. But I think the addition of, say, any two of "Time to Get Alone," "We're Together Again," and a completed "Been Too Long" or "Ol Man River" wouldn't have dramatically changed the character of the album and made it a wholly different thing. (As opposed to, just for argument's sake to demonstrate the opposite, adding "Cabinessence," "Fire," and "All Dressed Up For School" would have indeed made it a very different thing.)
What do others think? I was thinking of doing an "alternate Friends," as we did a few times when discussing other albums in the weekly threads.
How big a complaint (if at all) is its brevity to you, and do you think it could be expanded with existing or reasonably close to complete material and still retain its character?
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Post by carllove on Jan 18, 2022 15:33:17 GMT
I love Friends. It's in my top 5 or 6 Beach Boys albums. I also think it would be even more wonderful if "Time to Get Alone" was on it! I think it fits better on Friends than on 20/20. Nice laid back vibe song - AND a waltz!
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 18, 2022 15:44:43 GMT
I love Friends. It's in my top 5 or 6 Beach Boys albums. I also think it would be even more wonderful if "Time to Get Alone" was on it! I think it fits better on Friends than on 20/20. Nice laid back vibe song - AND a waltz! That's the first, most obvious song I'd add. It was at least basically recorded by that time, the track having been recorded in fall 1967. I'm not sure if its final destination was still up in the air? (As in, had it gone from a Redwood to a Beach Boys song yet?)
The Beach Boys returned to it in fall 1968. But it still theoretically works for Friends, in that they certainly could have completed it earlier. I agree that it's just a perfect fit, and (as I had said in that aforementioned thread) it doesn't change the vibe of the album at all, other than expanding it.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 19, 2022 15:33:41 GMT
Here is my Alternate Friends. (Friendly Friends?) I chose not to remove anything from the album, since the goal wasn't necessarily so much as reimagining it as expanding it in the same vein it already exists. Sorry to those of you who dislike "Transcendental Meditation" or anything else!
This new version adds four roughly contemporaneous songs that I feel fit right in. The new album is 16 songs, 34 minutes rather than 12 songs, 25 minutes. I did fiddle with the track order to make it as coherent as possible. What do you think?
Friendly Friends
1. Old Man River (Vocal Section - MiC) 2. Wake the World 3. Be Here in the Morning 4. Little Bird 5. Diamond Head 6. Be Still
7. Busy Doin Nothin 8. Friends
9. Meant For You 10. Time to Get Alone 11. When a Man Needs a Woman 12. Passing By 13. Anna Lee, The Healer 14. Transcendental Meditation 15. We're Together Again 16. Old Folks At Home/Ol' Man River
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Post by carllove on Jan 19, 2022 15:58:21 GMT
And Friendly Friends is still only 34 minutes long! 🤣 Love it though.
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Post by jk on Mar 3, 2022 13:05:36 GMT
I noticed an oldish conversation about "Transcendental Meditation" in the Shoutbox and was reminded of Ghosty and David's podcast devoted to Friends and what they (or rather Mike) have to say about the album closer (at 21:26):
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Post by carllove on Mar 3, 2022 13:29:24 GMT
I noticed an oldish conversation about "Transcendental Meditation" in the Shoutbox and was reminded of Ghosty and David's podcast devoted to Friends and what they (or rather Mike) have to say about the album closer (at 21:26): Interesting take from Mike, that “Transcendental Meditation” ends Friends in order to bring us back to “Outside Activity” after the peaceful meditative state we have have reached listening the rest of the album. I can see and appreciate that. Now can they explain why “Sloop John B” is on Pet Sounds?Funny - I just looked back at the shout box and I kind of said the same thing about TM. I said that it was like a wake up alarm. Guess I was right!
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 3, 2022 13:39:01 GMT
Now can they explain why “Sloop John B” is on Pet Sounds?I think that's one fans have made into a bigger mystery/issue than necessary: Pet Sounds wasn't meant to literally tell a story, and so there's no story to interrupt. "Sloop" is one of the group's greatest recordings, and that was the album they were putting together at the time, so that's where it goes!
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Post by carllove on Mar 3, 2022 13:57:28 GMT
Now can they explain why “Sloop John B” is on Pet Sounds?I think that's one fans have made into a bigger mystery/issue than necessary: Pet Sounds wasn't meant to literally tell a story, and so there's no story to interrupt. "Sloop" is one of the group's greatest recordings, and that was the album they were putting together at the time, so that's where it goes! I think we look at things in the past like Pet Sounds, with current expectations. It was released just prior to Days of Future Passed and thus the beginning of themed albums, so when a majority of songs on an album concern a moody young man’s thoughts about love and his place in the world, it seems like there should be a theme. Then along comes a folk song about getting drunk on a boat.
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