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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jan 18, 2023 2:03:58 GMT
Most people have heard my Beach Boys origin story, but here it is again.
My first exposure to the Beach Boys was from the Muppets. They did a music video of Kokomo. I'm not sure when it aired, but I first saw it on a VHS tape around 1998-1999 when I was 3-4 years old. Something about that song and video really caught my attention. I loved watching it over and over.
Aside from that, I was exposed to both ends of the pop music world. My mom mainly listened to the top 40 station, and my dad listened almost exclusively to the oldies station. That left an imprint on my musical tastes that still exist today. I always have both new and old pop music on my current favorites playlist. By the late 2000s, I had begun to buy/download music on my own. Without rambling on about everything I bought, some of the first songs I remember buying were Surfer Girl, I Get Around, and In My Room. I was really more of a top 40 and Beatles fan at this point, though.
For whatever reason, I began to drift more toward liking the Beach Boys around 2011 and often thought about how cool it would be to see them reunited. This thought came with no knowledge of a potential reunion brewing. Somehow this lack of knowledge continued into February 2012 when my mom yelled down to me (I was in the basement) that the Beach Boys were about to play on the Grammy Awards! I was (and still kinda am) a fan of Foster the People and Maroon 5, so that was a bonus seeing them perform with my now favorite band. Seeing Mike and Brian on the same stage for the first time was so exciting, I just couldn't believe it.
Maybe I month or two later I saw on the news that they were coming to Cincinnati, and I knew immediately I was going to go. My friend and I both got lawn seats. I was watching all the videos I could leading up to it and was honestly a little disappointed. They didn't sound to great to my ears. That all went away when the show started and they blew away all my expectations. It was a night I'll never forget and I still regret not making the drive to Cleveland the night next. I was only 16 and didn't have a job (ie no money), so not much I could do. By that point I had quite a few BB songs on my iPod and bought the new album the day it came out. I actually wasn't a huge fan of it at the time aside from From There to Back Again. It grew on me over time and is one of my favorite albums today. I bought 50 Big Ones later that fall and really started to dive in when Made in California came out the following year. Soon after I discovered the Smile Sessions.
I joined Smiley Smile in 2014 and eventually migrated to the Pet Sounds forum like a lot of people in 2016, I think it was. That was probably the best BB forum to date until it was unceremoniously shut down with no option for anyone else to continue it on (believe me, I and a couple others tried). I nearly created a new forum on my own, but a new one had already been created in waiting apparently, so I joined Endless Harmony. The atmosphere there just wasn't the same and after continued drama, I created this place! Only problem is, pretty much everyone I created this forum for left within the first few weeks to post pretty much exclusively on the discord page. Some of them even went back to post on EH. So there's a little sour grapes from me. I nearly shut this place down after 6 months or so because it was so slow. I'm glad I didn't though as traffic slowly picked up and now we're just as active, if not more so sometimes than the other forums. I'm glad this continues to be a place for civil discussion. Oh yeah, and I still love the Beach Boys to this day. According to Spotify, I'm in the top .01% of listeners as of last year.
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Emdeeh
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 520
Likes: 532
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Post by Emdeeh on Jan 18, 2023 3:51:03 GMT
So, your first BB show was a reunion show?
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Post by jk on Jan 18, 2023 9:57:17 GMT
I created this place! Only problem is, pretty much everyone I created this forum for left within the first few weeks to post pretty much exclusively on the discord page. Some of them even went back to post on EH. So there's a little sour grapes from me. I nearly shut this place down after 6 months or so because it was so slow. I'm glad I didn't though as traffic slowly picked up and now we're just as active, if not more so sometimes than the other forums. I'm glad this continues to be a place for civil discussion. That's regrettable. As I see it, the "Discord"-heavy population during the confusing early days of this forum had "bailed out" a former poster at EH (and now a former poster here). I couldn't handle the situation, either there or here, and left both forums for a year. I regret not being a better conversationalist, but I do enjoy it here and I'm glad BBT survived its rocky start. Much respect to you, TCK, and the rest of the faithful group at its core!
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jan 18, 2023 13:29:54 GMT
So, your first BB show was a reunion show? Yes, and it was my first ever concert, not including local festival stuff that I never really paid attention to.
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Post by kds on Jan 18, 2023 14:07:53 GMT
Most people have heard my Beach Boys origin story, but here it is again. My first exposure to the Beach Boys was from the Muppets. They did a music video of Kokomo. I'm not sure when it aired, but I first saw it on a VHS tape around 1998-1999 when I was 3-4 years old. Something about that song and video really caught my attention. I loved watching it over and over. Aside from that, I was exposed to both ends of the pop music world. My mom mainly listened to the top 40 station, and my dad listened almost exclusively to the oldies station. That left an imprint on my musical tastes that still exist today. I always have both new and old pop music on my current favorites playlist. By the late 2000s, I had begun to buy/download music on my own. Without rambling on about everything I bought, some of the first songs I remember buying were Surfer Girl, I Get Around, and In My Room. I was really more of a top 40 and Beatles fan at this point, though. For whatever reason, I began to drift more toward liking the Beach Boys around 2011 and often thought about how cool it would be to see them reunited. This thought came with no knowledge of a potential reunion brewing. Somehow this lack of knowledge continued into February 2012 when my mom yelled down to me (I was in the basement) that the Beach Boys were about to play on the Grammy Awards! I was (and still kinda am) a fan of Foster the People and Maroon 5, so that was a bonus seeing them perform with my now favorite band. Seeing Mike and Brian on the same stage for the first time was so exciting, I just couldn't believe it. Maybe I month or two later I saw on the news that they were coming to Cincinnati, and I knew immediately I was going to go. My friend and I both got lawn seats. I was watching all the videos I could leading up to it and was honestly a little disappointed. They didn't sound to great to my ears. That all went away when the show started and they blew away all my expectations. It was a night I'll never forget and I still regret not making the drive to Cleveland the night next. I was only 16 and didn't have a job (ie no money), so not much I could do. By that point I had quite a few BB songs on my iPod and bought the new album the day it came out. I actually wasn't a huge fan of it at the time aside from From There to Back Again. It grew on me over time and is one of my favorite albums today. I bought 50 Big Ones later that fall and really started to dive in when Made in California came out the following year. Soon after I discovered the Smile Sessions. I joined Smiley Smile in 2014 and eventually migrated to the Pet Sounds forum like a lot of people in 2016, I think it was. That was probably the best BB forum to date until it was unceremoniously shut down with no option for anyone else to continue it on (believe me, I and a couple others tried). I nearly created a new forum on my own, but a new one had already been created in waiting apparently, so I joined Endless Harmony. The atmosphere there just wasn't the same and after continued drama, I created this place! Only problem is, pretty much everyone I created this forum for left within the first few weeks to post pretty much exclusively on the discord page. Some of them even went back to post on EH. So there's a little sour grapes from me. I nearly shut this place down after 6 months or so because it was so slow. I'm glad I didn't though as traffic slowly picked up and now we're just as active, if not more so sometimes than the other forums. I'm glad this continues to be a place for civil discussion. Oh yeah, and I still love the Beach Boys to this day. According to Spotify, I'm in the top .01% of listeners as of last year. Well, I don't want to speak for our little group, but I'm very grateful for this forum, so I thank you for putting it together and maintaining it over the years.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 18, 2023 14:22:59 GMT
Well, I don't want to speak for our little group, but I'm very grateful for this forum, so I thank you for putting it together and maintaining it over the years. I'll second that. Actually I've also never quite known the machinations of the various board migrations, either, so The Cincinnati Kid 's story was interesting in that respect. I've always known there's some fight, or something's afoot here or there, but never quite been up to speed on who's offended whom behind the scenes with this or that PM (usually) ... and frankly, I don't usually want to know. It used to be every few years there was a migration, though. So-and-so did (or didn't do) this or that, so we're all leaving! The initial population and almost immediate depopulation of the people who seemed at the very core of this board were strange, to be sure. But while I'd rather those people were still here and active (just because a more robust conversation is always nice), I'm glad for the people and environment we've got. So thanks for what you've done, TCK. (Oh, and while I did like Pet Sounds Forum, too, my favorite so far was The Record Room! It wasn't technically a Beach Boys forum, but it was started and run by those familiar names and did have a disproportionate amount of BBs content on it, along with really active and informed other music (and non music) discussion. Some BB forum members' nightmare, I suppose.)
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Barco
Denny's Drums
Posts: 41
Likes: 72
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Post by Barco on Jan 18, 2023 15:58:57 GMT
Great stories, people. As a young man myself, TCK's resonated the most with me. The sheer fact that this music keeps bringing on a vast number of new listeners and fans is fascinating.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 18, 2023 16:07:00 GMT
So, your first BB show was a reunion show? Yes, and it was my first ever concert, not including local festival stuff that I never really paid attention to. I was thinking about this, and depending on how you want to define first concert, mine might have also been a good one (though not THAT good): the Robert Plant & Jimmy Page reunion tour circa 95-96. I grew up in a small town two hours away from the Twin Cities metro, so it wasn't easy to get to concerts (and my parents were relatively strict) during HS. I had seen a lot of bar bands in smaller, closer cities (thanks to knowing people involved, like my guitar teacher or the owner of the music store where I taught, as I was underage), and of course a lot of music at county fairs, prom, and non-rock music in various theaters. But in terms of a major rock show? That was Plant/Page, in Ames, Iowa. I was in college a couple hours away from there, and a couple friends and I made the trek.
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Barco
Denny's Drums
Posts: 41
Likes: 72
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Post by Barco on Jan 18, 2023 16:17:10 GMT
Yes, and it was my first ever concert, not including local festival stuff that I never really paid attention to. I was thinking about this, and depending on how you want to define first concert, mine might have also been a good one (though not THAT good): the Robert Plant & Jimmy Page reunion tour circa 95-96. I grew up in a small town two hours away from the Twin Cities metro, so it wasn't easy to get to concerts (and my parents were relatively strict) during HS. I had seen a lot of bar bands in smaller, closer cities (thanks to knowing people involved, like my guitar teacher or the owner of the music store where I taught, as I was underage), and of course a lot of music at county fairs, prom, and non-rock music in various theaters. But in terms of a major rock show? That was Plant/Page, in Ames, Iowa. I was in college a couple hours away from there, and a couple friends and I made the trek. Not a bad start! Why do you say 'not that good', though? Do you remember what the setlist looked like?
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Post by kds on Jan 18, 2023 16:22:42 GMT
Yes, and it was my first ever concert, not including local festival stuff that I never really paid attention to. I was thinking about this, and depending on how you want to define first concert, mine might have also been a good one (though not THAT good): the Robert Plant & Jimmy Page reunion tour circa 95-96. I grew up in a small town two hours away from the Twin Cities metro, so it wasn't easy to get to concerts (and my parents were relatively strict) during HS. I had seen a lot of bar bands in smaller, closer cities (thanks to knowing people involved, like my guitar teacher or the owner of the music store where I taught, as I was underage), and of course a lot of music at county fairs, prom, and non-rock music in various theaters. But in terms of a major rock show? That was Plant/Page, in Ames, Iowa. I was in college a couple hours away from there, and a couple friends and I made the trek. That's a tour I really wished I'd have checked out. But, pesky things like money and transportation kept me from doing so at the time. My first show wound up being Aerosmith in late December 1998 in Washington, DC. I was 18 years old, had just finished my first semester in college. My friend and I were looking to get tickets to the show. I can't recall how this all went down, but it turned into a family affair with my parents and little sister (14 at the time) joining us. It was probably for the best as I was pretty green with driving, and DC's not the easiest city in the world to navigate. While not a proper concert, I also saw Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw play a short acoustic set after an Orioles game in July 1993. It was billed as "Damn Yankees Post Game Concert," but it was only Jack and Tommy.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 18, 2023 16:44:48 GMT
I was thinking about this, and depending on how you want to define first concert, mine might have also been a good one (though not THAT good): the Robert Plant & Jimmy Page reunion tour circa 95-96. I grew up in a small town two hours away from the Twin Cities metro, so it wasn't easy to get to concerts (and my parents were relatively strict) during HS. I had seen a lot of bar bands in smaller, closer cities (thanks to knowing people involved, like my guitar teacher or the owner of the music store where I taught, as I was underage), and of course a lot of music at county fairs, prom, and non-rock music in various theaters. But in terms of a major rock show? That was Plant/Page, in Ames, Iowa. I was in college a couple hours away from there, and a couple friends and I made the trek. Not a bad start! Why do you say 'not that good', though? Do you remember what the setlist looked like? I just meant not as good as a Beach Boys reunion, but really just in comparison to that. It was VERY good, though. (Now, if it could have been a full reunion, or even the three still-living principals plus Jason Bonham, that would have been very competitive with a Beach Boys reunion, for me. At the time, much, much better as I wasn't a BBs fan yet.) Here is what setlist.fm says was the set list, though I have to admit I don't remember the Donovan or Doors covers at all. (That said, it was almost 30 years ago...which reminds me I am getting very old.) The show was great. Plant was in very fine voice, and Page played really well throughout. They had a large ensemble backing them, with Indian and folk instrumentation added to the core rock band at times, along the lines of their MTV/VH1 special that kicked off that reunion. I recall thinking Page looked quite thin compared to how I'd seen him recently, and wondered if he was ill. (He also put his arm over his eyes whenever spotlights went on him.) Two things really stand out: 1. Plant at one point addressed the crowd, "It's great to be back in Ames," and then a pause. "Although, I don't think we've ever been." It was extremely funny, and with that pronunciation of "been" like "bean" (as opposed to the more American pronunciation of "bin"), it was very charming. 2. They famously didn't play "Stairway to Heaven" as solo artists, and it was always a question: might they do it here!? At the end of one of the songs, Page picked the arpeggios of those first two or three chords, and the crowd went nuts. Of course, that was it: he did it just to tease at the end of another song, and that was that.
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Barco
Denny's Drums
Posts: 41
Likes: 72
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Post by Barco on Jan 18, 2023 20:59:46 GMT
Not a bad start! Why do you say 'not that good', though? Do you remember what the setlist looked like? I just meant not as good as a Beach Boys reunion, but really just in comparison to that. It was VERY good, though. (Now, if it could have been a full reunion, or even the three still-living principals plus Jason Bonham, that would have been very competitive with a Beach Boys reunion, for me. At the time, much, much better as I wasn't a BBs fan yet.) Here is what setlist.fm says was the set list, though I have to admit I don't remember the Donovan or Doors covers at all. (That said, it was almost 30 years ago...which reminds me I am getting very old.) The show was great. Plant was in very fine voice, and Page played really well throughout. They had a large ensemble backing them, with Indian and folk instrumentation added to the core rock band at times, along the lines of their MTV/VH1 special that kicked off that reunion. I recall thinking Page looked quite thin compared to how I'd seen him recently, and wondered if he was ill. (He also put his arm over his eyes whenever spotlights went on him.) Two things really stand out: 1. Plant at one point addressed the crowd, "It's great to be back in Ames," and then a pause. "Although, I don't think we've ever been." It was extremely funny, and with that pronunciation of "been" like "bean" (as opposed to the more American pronunciation of "bin"), it was very charming. 2. They famously didn't play "Stairway to Heaven" as solo artists, and it was always a question: might they do it here!? At the end of one of the songs, Page picked the arpeggios of those first two or three chords, and the crowd went nuts. Of course, that was it: he did it just to tease at the end of another song, and that was that. Now that's a nice story. Little moments like these are at times responsible for some of the best memories one can create at a concert. And what a set, wow! I especially like the slower or more acoustic numbers: Thank You, That's The Way, Going To California... They even played In The Evening, which I absolutely adore. I didn't know any of them gave attention to ITTOD's tracks besides All My Love* at all. "Hurdy Gurdy Solo" was probably a good oportunity to get up and get a beer or take a restroom break, I suppose.
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Emdeeh
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 520
Likes: 532
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Post by Emdeeh on Jan 18, 2023 21:06:18 GMT
My first concert (not counting shows my parents took me to) was the Beach Boys in 1965, Bruce's second show with the band.
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Barco
Denny's Drums
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Likes: 72
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Post by Barco on Jan 18, 2023 21:22:14 GMT
Regarding Smiley Smile, I think it's a pretty mixed bag of opinions here. I know carllove loves it, for example. I used to, until I heard more of the Smile recordings that came first. Then I pretty swiftly changed my mind toward the originals. (Not that I hate Smiley, either.) It's funny Kapitan, that your story is the opposite of mine with Smiley Smile. I hated it for years because so many of the songs were so different than the versions on the GV Boxset - then I heard it on Vinyl and was just like... WOAH - I get it! I love it! This is some chill Sh*t! May I ask you what exactly about this specific vinyl listen made you change your mind? From the moment I first played Smiley Smile I knew I liked it. The really sparse instrumentation, catchy melodies and homemade feel of it really please me. I think getting to know this album before I listened to the original Smile material was an important factor to determine my liking of it, though. One thing I noticed is that the discovery of Smile seems to be in one way or another present in most of you guys' stories about how you became fans of the band. This got me remembering how exciting it was, in the beginning, learning about the history behind that album, listening to the different mixes and recordings, the pure mystique of it. This process was essential for me to become a big fan. It's a bit of a bummer, however, that nowadays I find Smile to be a somewhat disappointing experience.
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Post by kds on Jan 18, 2023 21:30:17 GMT
Smile never really held a great deal of mystique for me, and I think that's because I got into the band relatively late.
I do remember reading a lot about the 2004 Brian Wilson release, about this lost masterpiece finally being released, but I really didn't pay it much mind until around 2013 or 2014. And, by then, both Brian's version and The Beach Boys Smile Sessions were available.
Granted, I acknowledge that I really don't think we'll ever actually hear Smile as it was originally intended back in 1967, but I also found both TSS and BWPS to be a bit underwhelming when I first heard them, mainly because I think the best parts of the album (Our Prayer, Heroes and Villains, GV, Cabinessence, Surf's Up) had already been released on various BB albums. I think I appreciate it more now for what it is.
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