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Post by beachboystalkmatt on Jan 25, 2022 1:14:26 GMT
Hello friends! Join us tomorrow as we discuss The Beach Boys and the 80’s. We will discuss our favorite songs and albums from that era, abs give away an original BB 85 album! Adam Marsland is our special guest host! He will give his thoughts as well as talk about his two new music videos that are taking YouTube by storm! Please join us tomorrow night at 8 EST!
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 25, 2022 1:32:23 GMT
Interesting, we've just been arguing the band's own (likely/possible) feelings about the '80s (and '90s) in the "Questions..." thread.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 25, 2022 12:19:45 GMT
FYI, Adam said the following last night in an email to his mailing list: "We'll be talking about the Beach Boys music of the '80s (and I'm hoping to bring on a special surprise guest)."
So the special guest may bring his own special guest. Considering Adam's connections in the Beach Boys world, it could be really interesting.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 26, 2022 18:02:28 GMT
Gotta say, a few times Greg was saying something like "I don't understand why fans of the Beach Boys don't like the '80s," and I don't understand how anyone wouldn't understand.
But really I do think it's generational, at least in part: those '80s sounds just are a major departure from their classic material, and it's easy to imagine longtime fans not liking them.
Beyond that, you just don't have Brian Wilson contributing high-quality songs or any production. He provided some songs, especially on '85, but does anyone really think his songs were among his best? Now, he wasn't the only songwriter in the group, and of course the others could and sometimes did provide strong material. But by '85 we've got no Dennis. Carl wasn't a prolific writer of good songs, but regardless isn't contributing a lot: 3 on '85, none on Still Cruisin, and while it's '92, none on SIP. Al doesn't have a lot to offer.
Then on production, Brian was in his element (production-wise) with real people playing real instruments, especially in real time (together). Admittedly, he wasn't generally producing much in the '70s, either, but he was doing some, and I think the others were also better with real people and real instruments. Once you get to needing someone like Steve Levine even to make the record happen--somebody to program synthesizers, etc.--it's just a drastically different thing. And in my opinion it's a worse thing.
And we are getting into (as we've been discussing elsewhere here) the nostalgic thing, too. Granted, some fans like nostalgia, but not necessarily dressed up in modern production styles. The younger audience to whom the sound might appeal, conversely, is less likely to be interested in 40-something men in Hawaiian shirts singing about girls and beaches.
It is interesting that people who seem to appreciate this era more tend to be much younger, not having experienced the 80s in real time. I wonder how relevant that is.
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Post by lonelysummer on Jan 27, 2022 20:27:24 GMT
Looking back, I could make a lot of complaints about 80's production styles, but at the time, nearly everything sounded that way - drum machines in place of real drums, synths everywhere, and the drums had to shake your windows and rattle your walls! I guess it didn't bother me as much as some people - and yet I've been called a purist! There were many times, though, doing my home recordings, that I wished I could make the drums sound louder, get the guitars more in your face, boost the bass...but everytime I tried that, I lost something else. "The drums are louder than hell now, but the guitars are buried in the mix". So I try to bring up the guitars more, now the vocal is buried. I don't know how they made everything sound so freaking loud! I guess it involves using a lot of limiters and compressors and other stuff I don't have - and frankly, probably don't have the patience to fool with. I find that fans of bands from the 60's generally do not like what those groups did in the 80's. Kinks fans complain about their 80's albums sounding too much like other stuff out at the time. I suppose Moody Blues fans hate the drum machines and synths on stuff like "Your Wildest Dreams" and "The Other Side of Life". If any of these groups had released stuff that sounded like their old stuff, it wouldn't have had a chance at radio. And that was still the goal - get your songs played on mainstream radio, sell as many copies as possible, play the big venues when you toured. By the 90's, it didn't matter, because radio wasn't going to fit the Moodies or the Kinks or even McCartney into their playlists no matter what it sounded like. They were perceived as being too old to appeal to them all important demographics.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 28, 2022 0:54:31 GMT
To me, it wasn't just the 80's production that was hard to embrace. Kapitan touched on it but I think the songwriting was especially subpar. Just looking at Brian Wilson's songwriting quality, there was a definite decrease in quality from the 60's to the 70's, but then an even more pronounced decrease in quality in the 80's. I find Brian's songs on The Beach Boys 1985 to be weak and just too simplistic. Most fans would probably consider his batch of songs circa the 1988 solo album as his best of the decade, but that's my point. If that was his best of the decade, then...
I think, just for songwriting quality, I might prefer his Sweet Insanity songs over everything in the decade. Unfortunately, that production was weak, too, and of course, it was never released. What did Brian provide to Still Cruisin', one song? So, really, the quality AND quantity for Brian in the 80's was subpar. I mean, what songs, what great songs are we hanging our hat on in the 80's? Maybe a couple but that's it.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 28, 2022 0:59:54 GMT
Adam Marsland did share that sentiment as well: we're not just lacking good Brian material, but obviously Dennis is gone in terms of contributions, too. You can argue that Carl's vocals were great in the '80s--OK, fair enough!--but some strong vocals and a few good songs can't really make up for that songwriting deficit IMO. (Though Greg especially argued the strength of the material. Different strokes...)
Also, the surprise special guest was Craig Hall, who played guitar on SIP. As usual there were some cool stories.
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Post by B.E. on Jan 28, 2022 1:04:51 GMT
Also, the surprise special guest was Craig Hall, who played guitar on SIP. As usual there were some cool stories.
Hmm, despite having little to no interest in listening to SIP, I actually am interested in learning a bit more of the behind the scenes. I need to find time for this podcast! (It just seems, especially lately, for me, that there's not enough time in the day.)
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Emdeeh
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 520
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Post by Emdeeh on Jan 28, 2022 4:50:08 GMT
I've only listened to half the show so far, hoping to catch the rest of it this weekend. I really appreciated the nod to Billy Hinsche at the beginning. Thank you, guys.
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Post by lonelysummer on Jan 29, 2022 3:21:53 GMT
To me, it wasn't just the 80's production that was hard to embrace. Kapitan touched on it but I think the songwriting was especially subpar. Just looking at Brian Wilson's songwriting quality, there was a definite decrease in quality from the 60's to the 70's, but then an even more pronounced decrease in quality in the 80's. I find Brian's songs on The Beach Boys 1985 to be weak and just too simplistic. Most fans would probably consider his batch of songs circa the 1988 solo album as his best of the decade, but that's my point. If that was his best of the decade, then...
I think, just for songwriting quality, I might prefer his Sweet Insanity songs over everything in the decade. Unfortunately, that production was weak, too, and of course, it was never released. What did Brian provide to Still Cruisin', one song? So, really, the quality AND quantity for Brian in the 80's was subpar. I mean, what songs, what great songs are we hanging our hat on in the 80's? Maybe a couple but that's it.
If we're talking Brian's 80's Beach Boys songs, yeah, not up to the standards he set in the hitmaking era. KTSA has a bunch of subpar Wilson/Love collaborations; his songs on BB85 are okay, but not anywhere near the quality of the songs on BW88. Goin' On is great; I'm So Lonely is simple, but Levine's production makes the most of it, and vocally, Brian hadn't sounded that strong in a long time. It's Just a Matter of Time is a nice This Boy type tune. In My Car is a cool song destroyed by the production. Love and Mercy is one I find a bit overrated - like it was the only great song to come from Brian's solo career. My favorites on the 88 album are Melt Away, There's So Many, Let it Shine, and Rio Grande. Just below those four, I would have Walkin' the Line, Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long, and Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight. And I'm very fond of Being With the One You Love, Let's Go to Heaven In My Car, Daddy's Little Girl. The best songs IMO on the 85 album are Carl's; It's Gettin' Late, Where I Belong, and Maybe I Don't Know. The Stevie Wonder track is a highlight, too, and the two retro tracks.
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