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Post by Kapitan on Mar 8, 2021 12:47:54 GMT
In August 1964, the Beach Boys released their follow-up single to "I Get Around," "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)." The song was neither a surf, car, nor a simple boy-girl romance song. Instead, Mike Love's lyrics narrate an adolescent thinking ahead about his future. The song was also musically complex. It peaked at #9 in the US and #27 in the UK.
The B-side was "She Knows Me Too Well," a ballad that reached #101 in the US Billboard charts (but, as an A-side in Canada, hit #7 there).
Both songs were not included on an album until seven months later, when they were both included on the Beach Boys' Today! album. The band's stellar All Summer Long album, released in July 1964, was thus almost entirely skipped with respect to singles. Only "I Get Around" was released from it.
Please rate and discuss "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)" and "She Knows Me Too Well."
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Post by kds on Mar 8, 2021 13:30:05 GMT
At this point, the album thread is giving me the stink eye. "Where were all these tens when it was our turn?" Yeah, sorry Beach Boys Albums, try less talk tracks and quirky stuff.
Anyway....it's a tall order to follow up that double sided gem from last week, but they kinda pulled it off.
It's interesting that you can actually hear the Beach Boys growing up on a song that's about growing up. With each passing year, that coda "Won't last forever, it's kinda sad" rings a little more true.
It actually look me a long time to come around on She Knows Me Too Well.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 8, 2021 14:08:44 GMT
I can't go 10 here, but I am leaning strong 9 at the moment. These are both really good songs.
It really surprised me to see the timing of this one, these songs released so far in advance of the album they'd appear on. Look at their release schedule:
July 1964 - All Summer Long Aug 1964 - "When I Grow Up" bw "She Knows Me Too Well" Sept 1964 - Four By the Beach Boys (EP) Oct 1964 - Concert Oct 1964 - "Dance Dance Dance" bw "Warmth of the Sun" Nov 1964 - "The Man With All The Toys" bw "Blue Christmas"
Nov 1964 - Christmas Album Feb 1965 - "Do You Want to Dance" bw "Please Let Me Wonder" March 1965 - Today!
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Post by kds on Mar 8, 2021 14:21:48 GMT
It's hard to believe that the title track to ASL wasn't released as a single.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 8, 2021 14:29:13 GMT
And (not to get ahead of ourselves) that Party! had five of its songs released in advance of the album!
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Post by jk on Mar 8, 2021 14:57:45 GMT
I'm not writing my review a third time...
Ten.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 8, 2021 15:37:43 GMT
I'm not writing my review a third time... Well now you've piqued my interest!
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 8, 2021 18:43:57 GMT
"When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)" deserves some attention.
It has been mentioned already that it was one of the earliest songs from the band for which the lyrics don't just deal with the typical topics. True. (According to wiki, it also might be the first tune to use "turn on" in its modern sense. "...that turned me on as a kid.")
But the music is also really great. It's an example of some small arrangement decisions making a huge difference. Much of the track is pretty basic: piano, electric guitar, electric bass, drums just chugging right along. But Brian plays a lick on electric harpsichord that, along with the augmented chord in the refrain, is the signature for the song. The only other instrument added to the mix is a very noticeable and effective harmonica. (The harmonica is also the only instrument not played by a Beach Boy on this recording.)
It's also a great, relatively early example of Brian writing vocal parts that weren't just block harmonies, but different, unique parts playing between the lead(s) and backgrounds. It packs a lot of music into just over two minutes. Fantastic.
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Post by kds on Mar 8, 2021 19:12:45 GMT
I'm a little surprised When I Grow Up isn't a mainstay in Brian's setlists. I could be wrong, but I don't think he's ever performed it as a solo artist.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 8, 2021 19:25:58 GMT
I was trying to remember whether I'd ever heard it live and in checking the setlists for those shows, I didn't see it. However, it does seem they had been doing it just before the TLOS show I saw in fall '08. Definitely not commonly included, though.
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Post by jk on Mar 8, 2021 22:33:13 GMT
I'm not writing my review a third time... Well now you've piqued my interest! Well, the first time I got halfway and then lost it while trying to organize a video. The second time I got one of those blue "Sorry" pages with a bear on it when I tried to "create post" and lost the whole thing. This time (once the steam had stopped coming out of my ears) I did what I should have done in the first place and wrote it out in a Word document and saved it there first. Anyway... I remember watching the Boys perform "WIGU(TBAM)" live (meaning in real time) on the UK TV music show Ready, Steady, Go! on 6 November 1964 (thanks be to AGD), when they flubbed the opening vocal harmonies and had to start again. Not surprising really -- I think any other pop group at that time would have balked at the idea of recording the song at all, let along performing it live with no safety net. I first heard "SKMTW" in 2002 during my initial twofer-buying spree. Brian's soaring falsetto is heart-warming and heartbreaking in equal measure. One can only hazard a guess at the impact it must have had on those who bought the single at the time and then flipped it out of curiosity.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 8, 2021 23:15:36 GMT
That post was well worth waiting for. I'd think being in the UK and seeing the Beach Boys' first appearance was a little bit like the Bizarro version of being here and seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. (Heck, both bands had even had different--and in the Beach Boys' case, almost nonexistent?--releases across the ocean.)
You're right that it took some nerve to attempt "When I Grow Up" live. That little false start is nothing, as far as I'm concerned! I'd take 1,000 of them if it meant more bands would go back to more live music on television. The energy in both songs is palpable even now, almost 60 years later and captured on that old video and audio. This would be a worthwhile watch for people who might still be under the misunderstanding that this band was "soft," not a real rock and roll group.
Although turning the sentiment almost 180 degrees ... Mike's part in the tag of "When I Grow Up" is really lovely here. His voice is quite sweet in a way it wasn't always. "Won't last forever..."
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 9, 2021 18:29:46 GMT
I love--LOVE--"She Knows Me Too Well." In fact, I think it's one of Brian's best vocals.
But I also want to call out Brian's ballads generally in these golden years, let's say 1963-66. (Skipping live, xmas, and party albums.)
"Lonely Sea" 1963 "Surfer Girl" 1963 "The Surfer Moon" 1963 "In My Room" 1963 "Ballad of Ol Betsy" 1963 "Don't Worry Baby" 1964 "The Warmth of the Sun" 1964 "Keep An Eye on Summer" 1964 "Hushabye" 1964 (cover) "We'll Run Away" 1964 "Girls on the Beach" 1964 "Please Let Me Wonder" 1965 "I'm So Young" 1965 (cover) "Kiss Me, Baby" 1965 "She Knows Me Too Well" 1965 "In the Back of My Mind" 1965 "You Still Believe In Me" 1966 "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" 1966 "God Only Knows" 1966 "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" 1966
"Caroline No" 1966
That is an astounding run of ballads, especially for just a four-year period! Something that jumped out at me, though: it's well known that Today! is chock full of ballads; but it had never really occurred to me that SDSN really lacks them. There's the instrumental "Summer Means New Love," there's the more traditional vocal "And Your Dream Comes True." But that's really it, unless you count the soft-folk-rock of "Girl Don't Tell Me" (which I wouldn't). Interesting contrast between those two fantastic albums.
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Post by kds on Mar 9, 2021 18:46:33 GMT
As much as I love I Get Around, Fun Fun Fun, Good to My Baby, etc, the ballads are what drew me to The Beach Boys, and they're still typically the songs I most gravitate towards.
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Post by jk on Mar 9, 2021 20:46:28 GMT
I was trying to remember whether I'd ever heard it live and in checking the setlists for those shows, I didn't see it. However, it does seem they had been doing it just before the TLOS show I saw in fall '08. Definitely not commonly included, though. I've seen Brian just once, in the gardens of Kenwood House (London) on 28 June, 2008. Looking at the setlist, lo and behold there was "WIGU(TBAM)" as the eighth song in! www.setlist.fm/setlist/brian-wilson/2008/kenwood-house-london-england-73db8e85.html
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