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Post by jk on Jun 19, 2021 20:25:21 GMT
Matt of Beach Boys Talk began a thread on this topic at EH. I agree with his initial assertion -- once you've released what are arguably the greatest pop album and 45 of all time, the only way is down. This is not to denigrate everything that followed -- or, indeed, anything that preceded those years. Needless to say, our assertion was not shared by too many others. I still stick with it though.
What do you regard as the BB's Golden Age, folks?
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Post by carllove on Jun 19, 2021 21:51:30 GMT
In my opinion it is 1963-1971. Most folks will draw it out to 1973 to include Holland, but I think it ends at Surf's Up. I like Holland, but never find myself listening to it. I did have Sail On Sailor as my phone ring tone for about a year and I learned not to do that again with a sing I like, because it sort of ruined it for me! The albums from 1966 to 1971 (if you can forget most of Smiley Smile) contain some of the most creative, enjoyable music I have ever heard in one five year stretch from any band. I still like the early stuff though. The Lonely Sea and Girl Don't Tell me are two of my favorite Beach Boys songs of any era. I love the progression of the band. I never tire of their music, because it changes, often for the better from the early years through the early 70's. There is always something to discover. Not sure what happened around Carl and The Passions. I feel like they hit a wall, started to climb out with Holland and then landed back down again with a thud.
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Post by jk on Jun 19, 2021 22:14:22 GMT
In my opinion it is 1963-1971. Most folks will draw it out to 1973 to include Holland, but I think it ends at Surf's Up. Interesting -- I used to regard Surf's Up as the last decent Beach Boys album! On the other hand, I feel the road leading there after "GV" is too patchy to constitute part of a Golden Age. It's all mightily subjective, of course.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 19, 2021 22:36:46 GMT
I'd say 1964-'66 is really the golden age, the years that combined commercial success with artistic achievement. Not that there weren't both before that, or both after that. But the most consistent run was those three years: '64-'66.
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Post by carllove on Jun 19, 2021 23:12:34 GMT
In my opinion it is 1963-1971. Most folks will draw it out to 1973 to include Holland, but I think it ends at Surf's Up. Interesting -- I used to regard Surf's Up as the last decent Beach Boys album! On the other hand, I feel the road leading there after "GV" is too patchy to constitute part of a Golden Age. It's all mightily subjective, of course. I consider Smiley Smile a small "blip", but I happen to love Friends and 20/20.
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Post by Moon Dawg on Jun 20, 2021 0:04:55 GMT
The Golden Age of The Beach Boys began with the June 1962 release of "Surfin' Safari"/"409" and ended five years later with the July 1967 release of "Heroes and Villains"/"You're Welcome". It was an era when art and commerce meshed seamlessly for the group - two factors that would never quite be in sync again.
The timeframe of SMILEY SMILE thru HOLLAND certainly extended the band's creativity along more democratic lines. It was a period to be proud of, perhaps even more so retrospectively, but I could not exactly call it a "Golden Age", even as The Beach Boys continued to make highly competent and idiosyncratic pop music.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 20, 2021 0:09:25 GMT
The timeframe of SMILEY SMILE thru HOLLAND certainly extended the band's creativity along more democratic lines. It was a period to proud of, perhaps even more so retrospectively, but I could not exactly call it a "Golden Age", even as The Beach Boys continued to make highly competent and idiosyncratic pop music. That's how I feel almost exactly.
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Post by kds on Jun 20, 2021 0:13:06 GMT
I tend to go with 1963-66 as the Golden Age. As much as I like 1967-73, to paraphrase Spinal Tap, their appeal became more selective.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 20, 2021 0:22:55 GMT
I struggle going as early as 1963, even though there were absolutely moments then that belong (just as there would be moments after '66 that would belong). But that's just my taste. I certainly can't argue it on commercial results, considering the three (!) albums released in 1963 charted in the U.S. at #2, #7, and #4, respectively. Not too shabby...
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Post by kds on Jun 20, 2021 0:28:14 GMT
I think the Surfer Girl album is their first really good, nearly great, album. That's really the main reason I include 1963.
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Post by beachboystalkmatt on Jun 20, 2021 4:33:06 GMT
Something happened after SMiLE. Brian was still there producinf and writing. But it seems to me he definitely took a step back. To me, the results are obvious. Though the music is still marvelous, it is not what they had in what I cal the golden era. I don’t know why, but I tend to believe it’s because Brian stopped taking the lead.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2021 4:59:00 GMT
The official Golden Age? Yes, 1963-1966. My personal Golden Age: 1966-1970.
'66-'70 contains my favorite music by the Boys. But commercially the true classic years are the '63-'66 period.
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Post by jk on Jun 20, 2021 9:52:46 GMT
I think the Surfer Girl album is their first really good, nearly great, album. That's really the main reason I include 1963. !00% with you there, kds. They had arrived -- and Brian had arrived as a producer.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jun 20, 2021 13:25:23 GMT
In my opinion, the Golden Age would be 1962-66...easily. Actually, I would start at 1962 to include "Surfin'" and "Surfin' Safari"; I think they're essential to the era and the legacy. There's just a special, magical quality about that early music that isn't found post-early 1967. Oh, there are exceptions of course - Dennis Wilson's 70's music and a few selected BW songs - but I don't think the group ever again reached those early heights - consistently anyway. And, that's not being critical of any later period. It's more of a compliment to the incomparable, Brian Wilson-led/composed/arranged/produced classics of the early/mid 1960's.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2021 15:37:07 GMT
After thinking about it some more I'm leaning toward including 1962 in my above answer. I, like many other fans, tend to disqualify 1962 based on the Surfin' Safari album. Let's face it; it wasn't a great album. But it paved the way for a string of great albums. And the machine ran consistently until 1966.
In '62 the Boys took off with a pretty big double sided single, apparently making Capitol very happy. I feel like they didn't quite know what they were doing yet while making the album, and it is quite amateurish. But it certainly didn't hurt them. They were on their way up in full force.
So I'm going to conclude that 1962-1966 would be their Golden Age. They launched in '62, blasted right through Beatlemania and the British Invasion, and had a nice even run until "Good Vibrations". After that, there was some faltering, some brilliance, but never a smooth consistent output ever again.
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