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Post by Kapitan on Jan 24, 2022 12:46:13 GMT
The Beach Boys waited rode their modest hit single "Getcha Back" for about two months when, in mid-July 1985, they released the follow-up. The song was a collaboration between Carl Wilson, Myrna Smith Schilling, and Robert White Johnson, with Wilson providing not just the lead vocal, but the only instrumental contribution from a Beach Boy (electric guitar, synthesizer). The rest of the track was performed (or, rather, mostly programmed) by Steve Levine and Julian Lindsay or by the horn players.
The song did not match its predecessor's success, reaching just #82 on the Hot 100. It did perform better on various adult contemporary charts, reaching as high as #12 on the Gavin Report Adult Contemporary chart.
On the B-side was "It' OK," their hit from the mid 70s.
Please discuss and rate "It's Gettin' Late" backed with "It' OK."
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 24, 2022 13:08:26 GMT
The biggest problem with this single isn't necessarily the songs themselves, but the selection of songs used for the single in the first place. Didn't the group/record company see what the people wanted with the success of "Getcha Back"? They wanted the good old Beach Boys. I'm sorry but that's the reality. Music fans, mostly the casual fan (the ones you want to target), want to hear a "certain" Beach Boys on the radio. They had a song - "California Calling" - sitting right there, just waiting to piggyback on "Getcha Back", and they chose "It's Getting Late" instead. Ugh. And, all the momentum was lost. It's not that "It's Getting late" is without merit. It's an average to good song. Carl's vocal is great as usual. The harmonies are impressive. But, the song is so overproduced. Or maybe not overproduced. It's that sound. It's that Steve Levine-influenced sound at its worst. "It's Getting Late" is an album track, not a single. And they found out the hard way.
Were the Beach Boys and their record company clueless? I think so. "It's OK" as the B-side? Why? Just why? If I was Al or Bruce I would've been pissed that one of their songs wasn't chosen as the B-side. Can somebody tell me why they went back almost ten years to cherry-pick a song for the B-side. I'm not going to critique "It's OK". Been there, done that. I love the song. It's an all-timer and a personal favorite. But, you don't pick THAT song - from 15 Big Ones no less; did they want to highlight THAT album for chrissakes - when you have a bunch of NEW Beach Boys songs you could use to promote the new, 1985 album! I have to check but I'm curious if the band was even performing "It's OK" in concert at that time. I guess, er, hope they were...
I didn't like it when they released "It's Getting Late" as the follow-up single to "Getcha Back" in 1985, and I don't like it today. So frustrating. Timing is so important. A 5.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 24, 2022 13:15:38 GMT
I'm curious if the band was even performing "It's OK" in concert at that time. I guess, er, hope they were... I'm looking now, and somewhat surprisingly, while the July 22, 1985, show does not include "It's OK," it does include not just "Getcha Back" (predictable), but "It's Gettin' Late" and "She Believes in Love Again." Ditto July 26 and 28.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 24, 2022 13:30:21 GMT
I have to admit, I hate this song. Yes, there is some good singing, but it's not enough to redeem it. To me, it is a dirge, a sickly dirge, in fact. It is tedious. I do think a different arrangement could have helped, though I don't hear a great song here regardless.
The B-side is a really good one, but in that it was already a hit when it was an A-side a decade earlier, I don't really see the point. It's almost the equivalent of selling Carl & the Passions: So Tough with Pet Sounds, undermining the new product. If the idea here was to have a summer song, why not just choose one as the A-side, like "California Calling?" (I'd criticize that, too, in that it's just so ... well, I won't go down that rabbit hole. But if a summer song were the idea, it would make sense.)
My rating will be pretty low. I can't imagine even a 5. 4, 3...we'll see.
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Post by kds on Jan 24, 2022 13:39:29 GMT
Another extremely questionable B side selection. This one is even more questionable than the dreadful Male Ego. An almost decade old song? Who was minding the store?
I do like the A Side, but I don't hear it as a single. I think it's a decent album track, and really nothing more. I think Maybe I Don't Know or California Calling would've made a lot more sense.
So, I'm going with a five, and my rating isn't so much for the quality of the songs, as I enjoy them both, but more about the selection of songs for singles here.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 24, 2022 14:12:37 GMT
I saw The Beach Boys with John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band in the summer of 1985 in Hershey, PA. It was outdoors and hotter than hell. JC &THBBB played an excellent opening set; they rocked! After his set, John Cafferty came out to talk with the fans for 15-20 minutes. We were in about the fifth row and that's about where John ended up. I was surprised that he wasn't very tall; he sounded taller. But, he could not have been more friendly or more humble. We peppered him with questions about the Beach Boys but he didn't know/say much.
I remember The Beach Boys performing "It's Getting Late" and "She Believes In Love". It was boring and brought the show to a halt. I rarely did this during a Beach Boys' concert (actually, I don't think I ever did it), but I took that opportunity to wade through the crowd and made my way to the concession stand.
I had a friend (who I still go to BB/BW concerts with today) who was working security for the concert and he got us backstage - literally. Just as the group was leaving the stage before coming back for the encores, we were walking to the back of the stage, and literally ran into them. I quickly got my ticket stub and pen out of my pocket and got Mike Love to autograph the ticket stub. He actually stopped walking to sign my ticket stub! Mike was surprisingly calm for just coming off the stage after rocking out. My buddy led us to the back of the stage - we were ON the stage! - and we watched the encore from behind the band, facing the audience. It was an amazing perspective, to see a performance from that vantage point. A lot of smiling faces, a lot of clapping, and a lot of dancing.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 24, 2022 15:33:49 GMT
I've been trying to put my finger on what I dislike about this.
The word that comes to mind is "rigid." I think the (almost) entirely synthesized instrumentation makes it feel very rigid, very stiff to me. And especially at the relatively slow tempo, it just feels like a plodding machine, a punch by a gigantic drum every few seconds. The synth line that comes in around 1:20 feel so artificial, so mechanized. I really hate the track.
Then Carl's repeated "ahh ah ah ahh ahh" throughout sounds seasick to me. On the plus side, it's some of the only organic sounding bits of the record, even compared to the other (background group) vocals.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 24, 2022 15:58:58 GMT
I've been trying to put my finger on what I dislike about this.
The word that comes to mind is "rigid." I think the (almost) entirely synthesized instrumentation makes it feel very rigid, very stiff to me. And especially at the relatively slow tempo, it just feels like a plodding machine, a punch by a gigantic drum every few seconds. The synth line that comes in around 1:20 feel so artificial, so mechanized. I really hate the track.
Then Carl's repeated "ahh ah ah ahh ahh" throughout sounds seasick to me. On the plus side, it's some of the only organic sounding bits of the record, even compared to the other (background group) vocals.
I agree with you. Question...I'm pretty sure the things you mentioned bothered most Beach Boys' long-time fans/diehards - it did me - but I wonder how many younger fans who were just discovering the band were put off by it?
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 24, 2022 16:19:28 GMT
That's a good question. In one sense, I should be that young fan discovering them at the time, but I was probably a little too young: I was 9 when this album was released! However, I don't remember ever hearing any of these songs back then. If I had, I don't think I would have said anything about the arrangement/production choices, either. (I do remember hearing "Kokomo" when it was released a few years later, but all things in due time...)
So by the time I went back to hear this album, my taste had solidified preferring different eras' sounds.
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Post by lonelysummer on Jan 24, 2022 21:20:54 GMT
So here's the problem: if they put out another retro sounding song as a single, it will get criticized as "the Beach Boys just cranking out the same old surf, sun and sand junk". If they try something new, they get criticized as "not sounding like the Beach Boys, trying too hard to be contemporary, etc". Personally, I love this track. It sounds like something Carl would have done on his solo albums; love the laid back tempo, Carl's vocals. My only criticism is too much synth. I always liked to imagine Jeff Baxter producing this, with more prominent guitars, real drums. I would love to find a good live recording of this song. "It's OK" being the b-side didn't bother me back in 1985, because I had never heard the song before. One other note: I thought this single was going to be a hit. I remember hearing "It's Gettin' Late" on the radio quite a bit; was hanging out with my brother one night, and this song came on; a little later, we changed stations, and heard it again. The video didn't do it any favors, though; the group wasn't even in it. Whoever got that assignment blew it. So I rate this one an 8.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 25, 2022 12:50:21 GMT
Thought I'd post the videos for "Getcha Back" and "It's Getting Late". It was very exciting to see The Beach Boys in the rotation on MTV in 1985.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 25, 2022 12:52:24 GMT
So here's the problem: if they put out another retro sounding song as a single, it will get criticized as "the Beach Boys just cranking out the same old surf, sun and sand junk". If they try something new, they get criticized as "not sounding like the Beach Boys, trying too hard to be contemporary, etc". That's the problem faced by every legacy act, really. I mean, except the Beach Boys-specific parts.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 25, 2022 13:08:10 GMT
So here's the problem: if they put out another retro sounding song as a single, it will get criticized as "the Beach Boys just cranking out the same old surf, sun and sand junk". If they try something new, they get criticized as "not sounding like the Beach Boys, trying too hard to be contemporary, etc". That's the problem faced by every legacy act, really. I mean, except the Beach Boys-specific parts. Yes, and The Beach Boys were facing that "problem" since Pet Sounds in 1966!
Granted, I have 20/20 hindsight and 37 years to re-evaluate the situation, but I think I would've gone with the, as lonelysummer puts it, "surf, sun, and sand junk" formula and followed up "Getcha Back" with "California calling". They had sufficient space on the album - and CD - to put the contemporary stuff.
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Post by kds on Jan 25, 2022 13:12:21 GMT
So here's the problem: if they put out another retro sounding song as a single, it will get criticized as "the Beach Boys just cranking out the same old surf, sun and sand junk". If they try something new, they get criticized as "not sounding like the Beach Boys, trying too hard to be contemporary, etc". That's the problem faced by every legacy act, really. I mean, except the Beach Boys-specific parts. I agree with that. But on the criticism for doing surf and sun songs. I'm not sure why the band would be bothered with that. They were playing huge shows at the time with setlists filled with their surfing songs. When they finally scored a big hit in 1988, it was a song about a fictional tropical (ie beach and sun) paradise. Yeah, they'll get some flack, but if its what they do, who cares?
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 25, 2022 13:31:15 GMT
I think there is a way to do it that's a little sad, and a way to "get away with it."
Some of it is in the lyrics. I think something like "Isn't It Time" managed to nail it--I mean the album version. It felt fun without pretending to be a bunch of 20-year-olds singing. On the other hand, the worst of Love can be pretty embarrassing, all self-referential or with a creepy leering vibe.
And then musically, you can incorporate modernity into your style, or you can dive all-in. The latter seems more desperate to me.
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