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Post by Kapitan on May 30, 2023 13:08:11 GMT
With "Summer's Gone," I am pretty sure that's right. Thomas said Brian had told him it was his position that "Summer's Gone" would be the last song on the last Beach Boys record--but that he had told him that when the first part of it was written, when it was just a fragment, back (presumably) in the late '90s. I believe what Thomas then said was that by the time they were into the actual recording of it, Brian was no longer so certain it had to be the final song, he was already thinking follow-up.
I just can't recall whether I read or heard something similar about "The Last Song," but it certainly sounds like an intended closer.
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Post by kds on Jun 1, 2023 15:01:35 GMT
This Long Promised Road is almost at its end.
Speaking of which, here are the votes for the Brian Wilson compilalbum Long Promised Road
Best
Must Be a Miracle - 2 In My Room - 2
Worst
I'm Broke - 2 It's OK - 1 The Night Was So Young - 1
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Post by kds on Jun 1, 2023 15:09:11 GMT
Next up is the great Al Jardine, the last classic / original member of The Beach Boys to release a solo album, nearly 50 years into his career. Al's sole solo album will be up for voting until Monday, June 5 at 11am EDT, and this is the final studio album up for discussion. Since they were not on the original release of the album in 2010, I've decided not to include Waves of Love and Sloop John B, which first appeared on the 2012 reissue.
Al Jardine - A Postcard from California (2010)
Best Worst A Postcard From California California Feelin' Looking Down The Coast Don't Fight The Sea 5 Tidepool Interlude 3 Campfire Scene A California Saga Help Me Rhonda 1 Sam Simeon 1 Drivin' Honkin' Down The Highway 1 California Dreamin' And I Always Will
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jun 1, 2023 16:50:36 GMT
I should probably pull this one out again and give it a spin with some fresh ears. Nah. I know it enough. Al waits, what, decades to do a solo album and 5 out of 11 (actual) songs are covers. A couple were already in the vaults. Two are car songs; where was "PT Cruiser"? The title track sure sounds familiar. And Al had the gall to be critical of Mike Love about some of his decisions during his final days with The Beach Boys? Certainly this solo album raises more questions than answers them.
Al succeeded in a couple of ways. He sounded like his good ol' self which wasn't a given with our solo Beached Boys. He did attract some top flight guest artists, but I wouldn't categorize their contributions as game changers. And, he appealed to (pleased?) many Beach Boys' fans. I was not one of them. Al broke no new ground. This album, while well-performed, isn't exactly exciting. And, as I mentioned above, his choice of songs was not only perplexing (though it shouldn't have been - this is a Beach Boy) but disappointing. Al, with his home studio and decades to work on it, could've done ANYTHING. And, he ended up with this?
BEST SONG: "Don't Fight The Sea". It should've been a Beach Boys' song. I guess it is a Beach Boys' song. I really like it. Well-written, well-produced. It sits nicely among the several other "nautical" Beach Boys' songs. While the song is overrated and not exactly exciting, Al did a decent version of "California Feelin'", maybe the best of the bunch.
WORST SONG: Because Al chose to cover "Honkin' Down The Highway" in the first place, tried to make it significant by dragging Brian along for the ride, and ultimately made an inferior version, this song gets my vote. Don't mess with my Beach Boys Love You. Same with "Rhonda". Just let well enough alone. Just because it's Al's "Little Saint Nick" doesn't mean he has to cover it - and ruin it - like the solo Mike and solo Brian did on their yuletide albums.
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Post by kds on Jun 1, 2023 16:56:40 GMT
I actually think the album is overall a somewhat pleasant surprise. Yeah, it's got too many self covers, a nagging issue with later day BB related albums, but considering Al was never a prolific writer, and not a distinct musician, I think the resulting album is better than I would've expected for a 2010 solo album from Alan Jardine.
On the covers, I'd said this before, but I'd have preferred Al do some non BB covers. Mike and Brian did this. Why not Al?
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 1, 2023 17:28:16 GMT
I'll probably relisten to make my choices, though worst would obviously be a non-song link track for me if I choose to consider them in the running. As for the songs themselves, I have mixed feelings. I'm not nearly as negative on them as Sheriff John Stone, but I do share a similar overall sentiment: all these years, and your debut solo album is almost all (what I'd call unnecessary remakes of) old songs? I do think they all more or less sound good. The production is relatively timeless, which is better than, say, the late '80s or early '90s Beach Boys approach to remakes. I very much appreciate that. Al sings well. The musicians are good. If I didn't have these songs already, occasionally in several versions, I'd be much happier about getting them here. But I also don't really agree with kds about wishing for covers of non-Beach Boys songs. (If he HAD to go that route, I'd have liked to hear a simple folk album. That's supposedly Al's great love. Why not change it up a little and do that?) But otherwise, I wish he'd either done all originals of his own, or of his own co-writing, or even of other material given to him the way non-songwriting singers often did it up into the '70s. Get material from the Jimmy Webbs and Carole Kings (not to mention ideally the Brian Wilsons) of the world. The guest artists added more or less nothing to me, other than the somewhat nice touch of bringing in a Beach Boy here or there. If you're a singer, and it's your solo debut, I really don't need or want to hear Neil Young, Steve Miller, Glen Campbell, or whoever taking you off of your own album.
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Emdeeh
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 520
Likes: 532
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Post by Emdeeh on Jun 1, 2023 17:55:27 GMT
This is one of my favorite BB solo albums, even with the retreads.
Best: "Don't Fight the Sea" -- "San Simeon" runs a close second
Least: "Tidepool Interlude" -- spoken word stuff, but still an ok listen
Note to Kapitan, I would love to hear Al do a folk album!
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Post by kds on Jun 1, 2023 18:28:03 GMT
I'll probably relisten to make my choices, though worst would obviously be a non-song link track for me if I choose to consider them in the running. As for the songs themselves, I have mixed feelings. I'm not nearly as negative on them as Sheriff John Stone , but I do share a similar overall sentiment: all these years, and your debut solo album is almost all (what I'd call unnecessary remakes of) old songs? I do think they all more or less sound good. The production is relatively timeless, which is better than, say, the late '80s or early '90s Beach Boys approach to remakes. I very much appreciate that. Al sings well. The musicians are good. If I didn't have these songs already, occasionally in several versions, I'd be much happier about getting them here. But I also don't really agree with kds about wishing for covers of non-Beach Boys songs. (If he HAD to go that route, I'd have liked to hear a simple folk album. That's supposedly Al's great love. Why not change it up a little and do that?) But otherwise, I wish he'd either done all originals of his own, or of his own co-writing, or even of other material given to him the way non-songwriting singers often did it up into the '70s. Get material from the Jimmy Webbs and Carole Kings (not to mention ideally the Brian Wilsons) of the world. The guest artists added more or less nothing to me, other than the somewhat nice touch of bringing in a Beach Boy here or there. If you're a singer, and it's your solo debut, I really don't need or want to hear Neil Young, Steve Miller, Glen Campbell, or whoever taking you off of your own album. If given the choice of outside covers or self covers, I'd definitely prefer the former. Having Steve Miller singing Help Me Rhonda or Neil Young singing Cal Saga makes it sound like Al's doing a tribute album to himself.
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Post by kds on Jun 1, 2023 18:32:53 GMT
Best - Don't Fight the Sea - Only in a BB universe would a lost band song find a home on a later day solo album from their least prominent member. But, I really enjoy the song. Just weird that it didn't find a home on a BB release.
Worst - Help Me Rhonda - I could've easily went with Campfire Scene, but I actually think it almost sorta works as an intro to Cal Saga. But, to me, Help Me Rhonda just feels lifeless and unnecessary. In general, I think the self covers are OK, I even prefer Honkin to the Love You original. But, not Help Me Rhonda.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 1, 2023 18:52:29 GMT
Note to Kapitan, I would love to hear Al do a folk album! It's maybe the one Beach Boys-doing-covers thing that jumps out at me as a fun and good idea. Ever since I saw this*, I've thought how cool it could be ... and, relatively speaking, how easy: get an outside producer (so Al can't fiddle with it to death), and grab a dozen or so songs he's known since he was a teenager so there's minimal learning curve. Bring in a couple of backing musicians and a few singers. Record together in the old fashioned way. You could bang out an album in a matter of weeks. (Or less, or, of course, more. But realistically you could rehearse/arrange, record maybe a song or so a day, and do a mix and master relatively quickly.) *OK, the "this" was supposed to be the Al Jardine version of "If I Had A Hammer," I believe with Richard Barone, from probably about 10-12years ago. I swear I saw it even within the past year, but I'm not seeing it on YouTube right now, which is a shame! It sounded great, though, and looked like they were having a blast. Edit - and while at least kds and B.E. know from the Springsteen thread that I am not a big fan of folk music (as noted in his Seeger covers album), I make a big distinction between folk music with harmony singing throughout and folk music without harmony singing throughout. I become a lot more fond of a lot more genres if you add vocal harmonies. And I recall my parents' old Peter, Paul & Mary, Kingston Trio, Chad Mitchell Trio, Smothers Brothers (comedy, but to folk music), etc., albums--not to mention the campfire singalongs when my parents, aunts, and uncles would all chime in with my dad handling the acoustic guitar. Once you're singing harmony, I'm listening...
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 1, 2023 18:59:05 GMT
*OK, the "this" was supposed to be the Al Jardine version of "If I Had A Hammer," I believe with Richard Barone, from probably about 10-12years ago. I swear I saw it even within the past year, but I'm not seeing it on YouTube right now, which is a shame! It sounded great, though, and looked like they were having a blast. Rather than editing an edit into a serious tangent... I did find that video, now on Vimeo. I also saw Barone's description of the session:
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jun 1, 2023 20:04:27 GMT
I hope I didn't mess up the outcome of the voting (which I probably did), but I didn't really consider "Tidepool Interlude" or "Campfire Scene" as songs. I think of them as linking tracks. With the comedy/talk/skit tracks on the early BB albums, they WERE separate songs or tracks - they stood on their own. On this album, those two aforementioned songs are just segments that lead away or lead into real songs - almost outros and intros - IMO of course. But I can see the other side, too.
If I did consider them songs, "Tidepool Interlude" would probably get my vote for WORST SONG because it features Alec Baldwin!
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jun 1, 2023 20:22:37 GMT
I'll probably relisten to make my choices, though worst would obviously be a non-song link track for me if I choose to consider them in the running. As for the songs themselves, I have mixed feelings. I'm not nearly as negative on them as Sheriff John Stone , but I do share a similar overall sentiment: all these years, and your debut solo album is almost all (what I'd call unnecessary remakes of) old songs? I do think they all more or less sound good. The production is relatively timeless, which is better than, say, the late '80s or early '90s Beach Boys approach to remakes. I very much appreciate that. Al sings well. The musicians are good. If I didn't have these songs already, occasionally in several versions, I'd be much happier about getting them here. But I also don't really agree with kds about wishing for covers of non-Beach Boys songs. (If he HAD to go that route, I'd have liked to hear a simple folk album. That's supposedly Al's great love. Why not change it up a little and do that?) But otherwise, I wish he'd either done all originals of his own, or of his own co-writing, or even of other material given to him the way non-songwriting singers often did it up into the '70s. Get material from the Jimmy Webbs and Carole Kings (not to mention ideally the Brian Wilsons) of the world. The guest artists added more or less nothing to me, other than the somewhat nice touch of bringing in a Beach Boy here or there. If you're a singer, and it's your solo debut, I really don't need or want to hear Neil Young, Steve Miller, Glen Campbell, or whoever taking you off of your own album. I'm curious which part(s) of my above post you found too negative, or not as negative as you feel?
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Post by kds on Jun 1, 2023 20:25:27 GMT
I hope I didn't mess up the outcome of the voting (which I probably did), but I didn't really consider "Tidepool Interlude" or "Campfire Scene" as songs. I think of them as linking tracks. With the comedy/talk/skit tracks on the early BB albums, they WERE separate songs or tracks - they stood on their own. On this album, those two aforementioned songs are just segments that lead away or lead into real songs - almost outros and intros - IMO of course. But I can see the other side, too.
If I did consider them songs, "Tidepool Interlude" would probably get my vote for WORST SONG because it features Alec Baldwin!
The guy still starred in Beetlejuice. Yeah, I was actually considering removing these like I did with the talk tracks on TLOS, but since it's only two, I decided to leave them as I did for the BB 1960s talk tracks.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 1, 2023 21:27:44 GMT
I should probably pull this one out again and give it a spin with some fresh ears. Nah. I know it enough. Al waits, what, decades to do a solo album and 5 out of 11 (actual) songs are covers. A couple were already in the vaults. Two are car songs; where was "PT Cruiser"? The title track sure sounds familiar. And Al had the gall to be critical of Mike Love about some of his decisions during his final days with The Beach Boys? Certainly this solo album raises more questions than answers them.
... And, as I mentioned above, his choice of songs was not only perplexing (though it shouldn't have been - this is a Beach Boy) but disappointing. Al, with his home studio and decades to work on it, could've done ANYTHING. And, he ended up with this?
...
WORST SONG: Because Al chose to cover "Honkin' Down The Highway" in the first place, tried to make it significant by dragging Brian along for the ride, and ultimately made an inferior version, this song gets my vote. Don't mess with my Beach Boys Love You. Same with "Rhonda". Just let well enough alone. Just because it's Al's "Little Saint Nick" doesn't mean he has to cover it - and ruin it - like the solo Mike and solo Brian did on their yuletide albums.
Sheriff John Stone, in answer to your question, these parts all are along the lines of what I meant. But again, I more or less am of the same opinion. I just think less so. For example, I don't see where "PT Cruiser" would help anything, car song or not. "Honkin" isn't that bad, I don't think. In some ways it's better than the original. (In others, not. It's such a different sound, but it's clearly more palatable to Joe Average than the bizarre Love You sound that some of us (including both you and I!) love. "Rhonda" is another one I think is more or less fine, I don't think it's so bad. And then the more general comments, like the perplexing choices of songs...I don't know. I guess while I don't like the decisions, in some ways it's not perplexing because it's Al. Al, who doesn't write many songs and is known to take decades on them. Al, who wants to release music that he's already released because he's tweaked it. Al, who for reasons I don't understand, included the "2022 Saga Trilogy" on Sail On Sailor despite it being not anything particularly new or different, as I recall (though I have to admit I'm not there beside my physical copy...I just recall reading his little blurb on it, and listening, and thinking, "yeah, these are those songs...and?"). It's Al! Frustrating, yes. I just read your post as being more frustrated than where I am. That's all. But I think it's more a difference of degree than a difference of kind.
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