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Post by carllove on May 22, 2021 5:53:42 GMT
Before I realized that disc 4 of the Good Vibrations box set included Goin On on disc 4 ( disc 2 and 3 are in my car), I saw the live version of Goin On on You Tube so I wanted to listen to it because I loved it and remembered it from back in the day. Also - one of my favorite Carl Vocals. Damn - so Freddy Mercury - I actually thought it was a Queen song the first time I heard it. Also - Brian’s disinterested “Goin on” - just so great. So I bought a CD of Keepin the Summer Alive on eBay. It wasn’t cheap. I was like - ok - Goin On - not as good as the live version. Why did they “lush it up” so much on the album. Just sort of ruined the song for me. Then I listened to the rest of the CD - it was a hard listen - but now after several trials - I think a lot of the problem is the very treble, tinny, mix, very few “lead” vocals and the horrible instrumental accompaniment. I think there are some very good songs on that CD. Well maybe half of the songs.
If they had dirtied up Keepin The Summer Alive, it could have been a good rocker. Oh Darlin is Beautiful, the later stripped versions are wonderful. Get rid of the damn horns and use guitars on Some of Your Love and add some more lyrics. Livin’ with a Heartache is beyond redemption. School Day - Um Why? Great guitar though. Sunshine - give it a lead vocal instead of a mix of vocals and it might be a good song. When Girl’s Get Together could have been a great song - again - with one lead vocal - less orchestration and a faster tempo. Almost can see it as a folk song. Is there a chorus, or is it all chorus? Santa Ana Winds suffers from that too many voices problem again. Also why the strings? Why couldn’t you just have Al sing this simply with a guitar? I think Endless Harmony is a beautiful song at the start other than the annoying keyboards. Then it just ends. What the heck? So many good ideas gone wrong.
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Post by Kapitan on May 22, 2021 11:11:26 GMT
I've always had similar frustrations about KTSA, carllove. Several of the songs are better than the recordings make them sound. For me, the title song, "Livin With a Heartache," and "Oh Darlin" are the real standouts. "Santa Ana Winds" also could've been better for sure.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on May 22, 2021 12:03:14 GMT
This is something I posted in the Post Your Alternate Albums and Favorite Playlists! thread back in March 2019:
Keepin' The Summer Alive will always be a woulda/coulda/shoulda album for me. Does the Keepin' The Summer Alive album remind anybody of 20/20? Sunflower? Even Surf's Up? Why not? Five Beach Boys contributed songs to Keepin' The Summer Alive, much like the previous albums I mentioned. It could be considered a team effort. Dennis Wilson, who wasn't on the album, should've contributed...something.
Look at the songs on the Keepin' The Summer Alive album. They really aren't THAT bad, but the album could've been much better, and that's what I set out to accomplish with this alternate Keepin' The Summer Alive album.
When you think of the concept of this 1980 album, an album titled Keepin' The Summer Alive, two subjects come to mind - summer and fun. Unfortunately, the album failed on both fronts. Another missing element, Dennis Wilson, was fairly active with live BB performances in 1979 and 1980. His voice and songwriting should've been represented on the album. And, finally, just ten songs? The boys were scrimping again. How about extending the album to twelve songs!
So, keeping all of that in mind, this is what I set out to do. First, I eliminated a non-summer/non-fun song, "When Girls Get Together". It's not that I don't like the song - I actually do - it just doesn't fit on this album and I have no idea why it was resurrected. Second, replace that song with not one, but two summer/fun rockers - "Goin' To The Beach" and "It's A Beautiful Day". I wish Brian and Mike would've finished "Goin' To The Beach", and I wish the group would've sprung financially to get the rights to put "It's A Beautiful Day" on the album. I think it's a good song that was wasted on a bad movie and buried as a single that nobody heard. Finally, the easiest part, choosing a Dennis Wilson song. The album needed another ballad and Dennis had a perfect one in the can with "Love Remember Me". So here ya go:
The Beach Boys - Keepin' The Summer Alive (1980)
Side 1 01 Keepin' The Summer Alive 02 School Days 03 Some Of Your Love 04 Oh Darlin' 05 Goin' To The Beach 06 Sunshine
Side 2 07 It's A Beautiful Day 08 Santa Ana Winds 09 Love Remember Me 10 Livin' With A Heartache 11 Goin' On 12 Endless Harmony
- I think Side 1 really rocks and is a lot of fun. Side 2 has more "relationship" songs and flows nicely. This alternate album is longer by two songs - more music for your buck. It still doesn't capture that "summer feeling" like its predecessors from the 1960's, but it is an improvement over the original Keepin' The Summer Alive album that was released in 1980. I'd like to think it improves by an entire grade.
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Post by Kapitan on May 22, 2021 12:21:54 GMT
"Constant Companion" is one I think is too good to have been left unused. That and "Under the Moonlight" would be candidates for me to add from the Dennis cache.
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Post by lonelysummer on May 23, 2021 3:51:08 GMT
This is something I posted in the Post Your Alternate Albums and Favorite Playlists! thread back in March 2019:
Keepin' The Summer Alive will always be a woulda/coulda/shoulda album for me. Does the Keepin' The Summer Alive album remind anybody of 20/20? Sunflower? Even Surf's Up? Why not? Five Beach Boys contributed songs to Keepin' The Summer Alive, much like the previous albums I mentioned. It could be considered a team effort. Dennis Wilson, who wasn't on the album, should've contributed...something.
Look at the songs on the Keepin' The Summer Alive album. They really aren't THAT bad, but the album could've been much better, and that's what I set out to accomplish with this alternate Keepin' The Summer Alive album.
When you think of the concept of this 1980 album, an album titled Keepin' The Summer Alive, two subjects come to mind - summer and fun. Unfortunately, the album failed on both fronts. Another missing element, Dennis Wilson, was fairly active with live BB performances in 1979 and 1980. His voice and songwriting should've been represented on the album. And, finally, just ten songs? The boys were scrimping again. How about extending the album to twelve songs!
So, keeping all of that in mind, this is what I set out to do. First, I eliminated a non-summer/non-fun song, "When Girls Get Together". It's not that I don't like the song - I actually do - it just doesn't fit on this album and I have no idea why it was resurrected. Second, replace that song with not one, but two summer/fun rockers - "Goin' To The Beach" and "It's A Beautiful Day". I wish Brian and Mike would've finished "Goin' To The Beach", and I wish the group would've sprung financially to get the rights to put "It's A Beautiful Day" on the album. I think it's a good song that was wasted on a bad movie and buried as a single that nobody heard. Finally, the easiest part, choosing a Dennis Wilson song. The album needed another ballad and Dennis had a perfect one in the can with "Love Remember Me". So here ya go:
The Beach Boys - Keepin' The Summer Alive (1980)
Side 1 01 Keepin' The Summer Alive 02 School Days 03 Some Of Your Love 04 Oh Darlin' 05 Goin' To The Beach 06 Sunshine
Side 2 07 It's A Beautiful Day 08 Santa Ana Winds 09 Love Remember Me 10 Livin' With A Heartache 11 Goin' On 12 Endless Harmony
- I think Side 1 really rocks and is a lot of fun. Side 2 has more "relationship" songs and flows nicely. This alternate album is longer by two songs - more music for your buck. It still doesn't capture that "summer feeling" like its predecessors from the 1960's, but it is an improvement over the original Keepin' The Summer Alive album that was released in 1980. I'd like to think it improves by an entire grade.
This is an album I would buy!
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Post by Moon Dawg on May 23, 2021 16:17:38 GMT
These posts are absolutely spot on. Over the years, I've thought about KTSA with a "California fun" side and a more mature, thoughtful side with expressions of angst over broken relationships and the onset of middle age. Let's get rid of "When Girls Get Together" and "to be determined" while adding the following: "Goin' to the Beach", "It's a Beautiful Day", "Love Remember Me" and "California Feeling". We get 12 songs, beefing up the running time to around 40 minutes.
Despite his estrangement from the band, dropping a Dennis cut or two into the mix (a la CARL & THE PASSIONS) would have made this a much better album. We'd have gotten a record that covered the bases from a marketing standpoint: fun and progressive.
Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and current technology/archival releases will allow each fan to construct his/her perfect LP.
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Post by Kapitan on May 23, 2021 16:20:49 GMT
Over the years, I've thought about KTSA with a "California fun" side and a more mature, thoughtful side with expressions of angst over broken romance and the (then) onset of middle age the guys were all facing. It's funny because something approaching this general approach could be said to describe Today!, and even a lot of their mid-60s singles (which I hadn't realized until we started going through singles on the board here). Yet it seems like it definitely could have worked here--and beyond. It's a really strong way to balance the classic vibe and fun reputation of the band with, as you say, maturity and more progressive musical and personal ideas.
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Post by carllove on May 23, 2021 20:25:01 GMT
This is something I posted in the Post Your Alternate Albums and Favorite Playlists! thread back in March 2019:
Keepin' The Summer Alive will always be a woulda/coulda/shoulda album for me. Does the Keepin' The Summer Alive album remind anybody of 20/20? Sunflower? Even Surf's Up? Why not? Five Beach Boys contributed songs to Keepin' The Summer Alive, much like the previous albums I mentioned. It could be considered a team effort. Dennis Wilson, who wasn't on the album, should've contributed...something.
Look at the songs on the Keepin' The Summer Alive album. They really aren't THAT bad, but the album could've been much better, and that's what I set out to accomplish with this alternate Keepin' The Summer Alive album.
When you think of the concept of this 1980 album, an album titled Keepin' The Summer Alive, two subjects come to mind - summer and fun. Unfortunately, the album failed on both fronts. Another missing element, Dennis Wilson, was fairly active with live BB performances in 1979 and 1980. His voice and songwriting should've been represented on the album. And, finally, just ten songs? The boys were scrimping again. How about extending the album to twelve songs!
So, keeping all of that in mind, this is what I set out to do. First, I eliminated a non-summer/non-fun song, "When Girls Get Together". It's not that I don't like the song - I actually do - it just doesn't fit on this album and I have no idea why it was resurrected. Second, replace that song with not one, but two summer/fun rockers - "Goin' To The Beach" and "It's A Beautiful Day". I wish Brian and Mike would've finished "Goin' To The Beach", and I wish the group would've sprung financially to get the rights to put "It's A Beautiful Day" on the album. I think it's a good song that was wasted on a bad movie and buried as a single that nobody heard. Finally, the easiest part, choosing a Dennis Wilson song. The album needed another ballad and Dennis had a perfect one in the can with "Love Remember Me". So here ya go:
The Beach Boys - Keepin' The Summer Alive (1980)
Side 1 01 Keepin' The Summer Alive 02 School Days 03 Some Of Your Love 04 Oh Darlin' 05 Goin' To The Beach 06 Sunshine
Side 2 07 It's A Beautiful Day 08 Santa Ana Winds 09 Love Remember Me 10 Livin' With A Heartache 11 Goin' On 12 Endless Harmony
- I think Side 1 really rocks and is a lot of fun. Side 2 has more "relationship" songs and flows nicely. This alternate album is longer by two songs - more music for your buck. It still doesn't capture that "summer feeling" like its predecessors from the 1960's, but it is an improvement over the original Keepin' The Summer Alive album that was released in 1980. I'd like to think it improves by an entire grade.
That looks awesome! Also - the original cuts need a re-mix. The songs are there. The production sucks. Was that an 80’s thing? So mushy.
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Post by lonelysummer on May 23, 2021 20:59:08 GMT
When you look back at the run of albums from 1976 to 1980, it's easy to understand why they took 5 years to make another album. They kept trying, and not quite getting it right. I figure after the failure of KTSA, the guys just threw their hands up in the air, saying "we give up!" So it makes sense that they would just focus on touring for a few years, except that the concerts in 1981 and part of 1982 were pretty bad, too. I couldn't fault anyone who thought the Beach Boys were just about done then. I've always enjoyed the Ten Years of Harmony comp from 1981, because it takes some of the better material from a challenging decade and makes a good album out of it. Of course, the majority of real top notch material comes from the Sunflower thru Holland era. Ten Years of Harmony was one of my first BBs albums, and when I heard stuff like Surf's Up, The Trader, Till I Die and Feel Flows, I was blown away. I knew I had to hear more of that material.
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