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Post by kds on Apr 25, 2019 13:43:32 GMT
In the meantime, did you guys pick up Brian's solo albums? My first (new) Beach Boys related purchases were BWPS, TLOS, and Disney. I think the first BW solo album I bought was in the fall of 2012, when I found a used copy of BWPS at a local record store. It wasn't until I completed my BB discography in 2014 that I bought the rest of BW's solo catalog.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 25, 2019 13:57:54 GMT
I think I had more or less everything commercially released and many less legitimate recordings by the early-to-mid 00s. It was just that The Beach Boys weren’t releasing anything new in the first 15 years or so of my fandom.
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Post by B.E. on Apr 25, 2019 14:10:21 GMT
Kapitan, I couldn't help but notice that Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 doesn't appear to have been on your radar.
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Post by kds on Apr 25, 2019 14:13:26 GMT
Kapitan, I couldn't help but notice that Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 doesn't appear to have been on your radar. Even the completist in me has no desire to add that album to my collection. Even though it says "The Beach Boys" on the cover, it's really just a tribute album, and not even a good one IMO. And I'm not hating on country music. I've actually grown to appreciate it more in recent years.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 25, 2019 14:34:23 GMT
Kapitan, I couldn't help but notice that Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 doesn't appear to have been on your radar. I wasn’t a fan yet when it was released. While I did get Pet Sounds somewhere in that ‘96-‘98 range, I certainly wasn’t in deep enough to know about that album. And besides, my first few years of fandom we’re almo comically Brianista-ish: I maintained for several years that I loved BW circa 66-68 but disliked (and mocked) The Beach Boys for a while. I actually did eventually get S&S, and the DVD too. But that was 03ish.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 25, 2019 18:58:12 GMT
I like Stars & Stripes, Vol. 1. I wish there would've been a Vol. 2., or a reissue with a couple of extra tracks. There's some good stuff on there. I don't think Brian had much to do with it other than add his voice to the harmonies. It was Joe Thomas' baby. I got a good 6-9 months of solid enjoyment out of the album. I remember making a tape for my car; it's a good car album. And the video was excellent; maybe one of the best of the group's career. It's too bad hardly anybody saw it. It was also fun watching the group on the various TV shows promoting the album, too. I really thought it was some kind of a new beginning for the group, but actually it was just another false start.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 25, 2019 19:28:01 GMT
For me, S&S is just an oddball of a choice. People got upset when Brian trotted out half a dozen or so guest singers for NPP; the Beach Boys—one of the very best vocal harmony groups in pop history—decide their then-most recent comeback album would feature other singers, to say nothing of the fact that it was in a genre that had undergone a bit of pop success several years prior, but in which they had precious little relationship? Umm… In pretty much every technical sense, I think it’s better than the previous few Beach Boys albums: far better songs (obviously), competently performed, etc. But it was just such a wtf moment, totally uninspired and uninspiring for me. That in theory this could have been an album based on the Paley sessions material and various other contemporaneous stuff, but instead became them guest-starring on their own covers album in an odd-fitting genre, is just so Beach Boys.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 25, 2019 20:16:20 GMT
That in theory this could have been an album based on the Paley sessions material and various other contemporaneous stuff, but instead became them guest-starring on their own covers album in an odd-fitting genre, is just so Beach Boys. But that's the kind of theory and revisionist history (not by you specifically) that always bothered me about Stars & Stripes (I can't believe I'm defending this album this much...). I don't think The Beach Boys did Stars & Stripes INSTEAD of "this project" or "that potential album". Realistically, how long do you think it took the guys to lay down their harmonies on the Stars & Stripes tracks? A few days, maybe two weeks at the most? Stars & Stripes didn't prevent the group from doing anything. They didn't CHOOSE IT over any other project either. You have to take each potential album/project on its own. For whatever reason, the Don Was-led album wasn't something they could agree on. I don't how far the Paley sessions ever came to being an album either but obviously that wasn't meant to be. But the band could've easily followed up Stars & Stripes with something else. It wasn't picking and choosing Stars & Stripes over something else.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 25, 2019 20:19:23 GMT
Oh I totally get that and agree. I’m just saying there were ample opportunities to use or create other material around then and do a more Beach Boys-centric Beach Boys album. But they did this.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 25, 2019 20:36:29 GMT
And another thing...
No, really, Stars & Stripes could've potentially helped other projects come to fruition because it successfully got Brian back working with the group again. Remember there were a lot of strained feelings in the early/mid 1990's with the Landy leaving/conservatorship controversy and the Mike Love lyrics lawsuit. Stars & Stripes could've actually served as a stepping stone to something else. OK, I'm done now.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 25, 2019 23:42:21 GMT
Isn't that every bit the counterfactual that the "could've been the Paley sessions album" is? Yes, having Brian back could've helped other projects come to fruition. But the only such project that did come to fruition was Imagination, not any Beach Boys project.
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