Post by Kapitan on Nov 29, 2023 15:34:30 GMT
I think you're also reaching for "Sloop John B" and "Surfer Girl," other than the limited parts they aways gave him in the late 70s/early 80s. The first verse of the former; the bridge of the latter. (Honestly those parts always struck me as almost insulting. No, "insulting" isn't quite the word, but I'm struggling here. It's just that it felt like he'd be mostly there for show, then trotted out to sing for 20 seconds to great applause, as if he'd just hit the high notes of "Surf's Up" or something. All for show, "look at the dancing bear!")
But I do think there are other tunes he could have taken the lead on circa 2012-15, just as he did in those years on C50 and the subsequent BW tours.
When I think of what might've been through those years, it's not just the added voices of Al and Brian, but the added material. I, as usual, can't help but imagine the group staying together after Stars & Stripes. Even just making the Brian Wilson albums into Beach Boys albums--or at least the originals albums, not necessarily the more gimmicky things like another Christmas album, Disney, etc.--that's quite a bit of new material the group could have been using in set lists. I'm not saying that material uniformly stands up to their best stuff, that would be ridiculous. But plenty of it was at least as good as the sorts of things they were doing through the '70s and '80s, and certainly could have been added to tours when new albums came out, and occasionally inserted here and there thereafter. Not to mention, some of this stuff would've almost certainly been better (both on the albums and live) just by having been done by the Beach Boys rather than BW.
Consider these as possible set list additions through the years.
- Your Imagination
- She Says That She Needs Me
- South American
- Lay Down Burden
- How Could We Still Be Dancin
- Gettin In Over My Head
- Desert Drive
- City Blues
- the new Christmas songs on Christmas themed tours
- A full TLOS tour, but also then:
- Good Kind of Love
- Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl
- Midnight's Another Day
- Goin Home
- Sail Away
- Saturday Night on Hollywood Boulevard
And I'm sure there are others that would have been worth tossing in there here and there, either when new or just to change it up a little. This doesn't even consider anything of Mike's and Al's that would likely have been better with Brian's participation/tweaking, or for that matter, of Brian's that might have been better with Mike's, Al's, or Bruce's participation/tweaking.
Instead we had decades with no new Beach Boys material. Instead, we had new additions to the set list being things like "Pisces Brothers" and "Rockaway Beach."
So of course the live shows couldn't help but get stale, even when very well done. I totally get that some people are fine with that: the hits are hits for a reason, and believe me, I'm not knocking them. But I'm sure there are also those fans who are fine seeing the band once, twice, three times (a lady...), but at some point feel like they've experienced all they need, knowing there aren't enough change-ups to keep it interesting.
But I do think there are other tunes he could have taken the lead on circa 2012-15, just as he did in those years on C50 and the subsequent BW tours.
When I think of what might've been through those years, it's not just the added voices of Al and Brian, but the added material. I, as usual, can't help but imagine the group staying together after Stars & Stripes. Even just making the Brian Wilson albums into Beach Boys albums--or at least the originals albums, not necessarily the more gimmicky things like another Christmas album, Disney, etc.--that's quite a bit of new material the group could have been using in set lists. I'm not saying that material uniformly stands up to their best stuff, that would be ridiculous. But plenty of it was at least as good as the sorts of things they were doing through the '70s and '80s, and certainly could have been added to tours when new albums came out, and occasionally inserted here and there thereafter. Not to mention, some of this stuff would've almost certainly been better (both on the albums and live) just by having been done by the Beach Boys rather than BW.
Consider these as possible set list additions through the years.
- Your Imagination
- She Says That She Needs Me
- South American
- Lay Down Burden
- How Could We Still Be Dancin
- Gettin In Over My Head
- Desert Drive
- City Blues
- the new Christmas songs on Christmas themed tours
- A full TLOS tour, but also then:
- Good Kind of Love
- Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl
- Midnight's Another Day
- Goin Home
- Sail Away
- Saturday Night on Hollywood Boulevard
And I'm sure there are others that would have been worth tossing in there here and there, either when new or just to change it up a little. This doesn't even consider anything of Mike's and Al's that would likely have been better with Brian's participation/tweaking, or for that matter, of Brian's that might have been better with Mike's, Al's, or Bruce's participation/tweaking.
Instead we had decades with no new Beach Boys material. Instead, we had new additions to the set list being things like "Pisces Brothers" and "Rockaway Beach."
So of course the live shows couldn't help but get stale, even when very well done. I totally get that some people are fine with that: the hits are hits for a reason, and believe me, I'm not knocking them. But I'm sure there are also those fans who are fine seeing the band once, twice, three times (a lady...), but at some point feel like they've experienced all they need, knowing there aren't enough change-ups to keep it interesting.