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Post by Kapitan on Jul 20, 2020 12:36:06 GMT
Surf's Up
That said, I have messed with the track list over the years. I'll give it a little thought today and post my results.
Yesterday I did indeed play around with alternate versions. I haven't settled on a favorite yet, but one very surprising turn of events is that I'll probably omit "A Day in the Life of a Tree," which I truly love. But especially once I'm adding at least WIBNTLA and quite likely Falling In Love/Lady, it just doesn't work.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 19, 2020 18:58:32 GMT
I have embarked on a fool's errand. More to come...
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 19, 2020 22:01:04 GMT
If necessity is the mother of invention, the Beach Boys ought to have been the most inventive band on the planet in 1981. They were in deep, deep need.
Dennis Wilson was well into his slow suicide, and Brian wasn’t exactly living a great life, either. Carl had left the group to do a solo album, while Mike had done a solo album without leaving. Keepin’ the Summer Alive had been a failure in 1980. While it had navigated the coming and going of the surfing craze, the British Invasion, psychedelia, roots rock, the era of singer-songwriters, and more, it seemed that the band that had always managed to reinvent itself over the years was incapable of doing it again.
In the real world, they failed to navigate this awful time in any way that could be considered successful. They continued touring sometimes without any Wilsons at all, other times with a bloated and unwell Brian in a way that’s ethically questionable looking back. Some of them released music on the side. Nobody seems to have cared all that much.
However, I’d argue that not only could 1981 have been a better year for the band, it could have seen one of their best albums in years—just using material that was done or very nearly done by that time, nothing hypothetical required. Another Pet Sounds? Ha! Hardly. Not even another 20/20 … but 20/20 might be as apt a comparison as you’ll find, because like it, this album would be the result of some creative marketing, some smoke and mirrors, showcasing the harmonies of an entirely disharmonious group who were barely speaking to one another and, in some cases, barely speaking coherently at all.
Thankfully, as was always the case with the Beach Boys, there was some good unused material available. Combined with some of the new material intended for—and of course in reality, used on—solo albums, this material could have been something of a comeback album that married the band’s Californiacentric appeal and even nostalgia with its funkier and more progressive approach. In short, even while nobody was happy, one can imagine almost making everyone happy. Or happy enough.
What it would require was Mike and Carl to iron out their assorted differences to work together on their own material as well as pulling in Al to finish some of his material, and of course representing Brian and Dennis in absentia. And of course, it would require someone to convince Mike not to allow “Looking Back With Love” or “Brian’s Back” onto the album. None of that explicitly self-referential stuff here.
I give you the Beach Boys fictional 1981 comeback album. I’d argue it’s pretty damn good.
The Beach Boys, A Beautiful Day (Under the Moonlight) (1981)
Side One (24 minutes) 1. It’s a Beautiful Day (Love/Jardine) (released as a single in September 1979) 2. Bright Lights (C. Wilson/Smith) (released on Carl Wilson in 1981) 3. Constant Companion (Munoz/Baker) (unreleased until 2008, intended for Bambu) 4. Heaven (C. Wilson/Smith/Sun) (Carl Wilson) 5. Goin’ to the Beach (Love) (unreleased until 2012, intended for KTSA) 6. California Feelin’ (B. Wilson/Kalinich) (unreleased until 2012, LA) 7. Looking Down the Coast/Monterey (Jardine/B. Wilson?) (unreleased, LA)
Side Two (26 minutes) 8. Under the Moonlight (Munoz) (unreleased until 2008, Bambu 9. Stevie (B. Wilson) (unreleased, 1981) 10. Hold Me (C. Wilson) (Carl Wilson) 11. Rockin’ the Man in the Boat (Studer/Arnold/Brady) (released on Looking Back With Love in 1981) 12. He’s a Bum (D. Wilson/Jakobson) (Bambu) 13. What You Gonna Do About Me? (C. Wilson/Smith) (Carl Wilson) 14. Paradise Found (Love/Studer) (LBWL)
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Nov 20, 2020 13:00:05 GMT
The Beach Boys, A Beautiful Day (Under the Moonlight) (1981)Side One (24 minutes) 1. It’s a Beautiful Day (Love/Jardine) (released as a single in September 1979) 2. Bright Lights (C. Wilson/Smith) (released on Carl Wilson in 1981) 3. Constant Companion (Munoz/Baker) (unreleased until 2008, intended for Bambu) 4. Heaven (C. Wilson/Smith/Sun) ( Carl Wilson) 5. Goin’ to the Beach (Love) (unreleased until 2012, intended for KTSA) 6. California Feelin’ (B. Wilson/Kalinich) (unreleased until 2012, LA) 7. Looking Down the Coast/Monterey (Jardine/B. Wilson?) (unreleased, LA) Side Two (26 minutes) 8. Under the Moonlight (Munoz) (unreleased until 2008, Bambu9. Stevie (B. Wilson) (unreleased, 1981) 10. Hold Me (C. Wilson) ( Carl Wilson) 11. Rockin’ the Man in the Boat (Studer/Arnold/Brady) (released on Looking Back With Love in 1981) 12. He’s a Bum (D. Wilson/Jakobson) ( Bambu) 13. What You Gonna Do About Me? (C. Wilson/Smith) ( Carl Wilson) 14. Paradise Found (Love/Studer) ( LBWL) A very nice album! Everybody gets fairly represented with some of their better material around that time. My only qualm is with your Bambu choices; I think there were stronger songs from that project. But, it shows, again, how much better the group was as a sum of the parts, pooling their assets. They learned the hard way.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 20, 2020 13:20:14 GMT
For me "Constant Companion" and "Under the Moonlight" were obvious choices. "He's a Bum" was more questionable, but I liked the boozy, loose tune as an oddball in a mostly highly produced, tight album.
Plus it adds references to doggystyle sex to compete with Mike's masturbation song and Brian's weird obsession with Stevie Nicks. Not your father's Beach Boys album. Poor Al.
But in all honesty, I feel like the album does a kind of LA thing in combining diverse styles and something modern-looking (for the time). And I like it more than I do LA, to be honest. Once I'd assembled it, I listened several times!
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 16, 2022 14:57:38 GMT
It's been a long time for this thread, but listening to Today got me thinking about the Beach Boys' more guitar-driven rock 'n' roll, and how good some of it was in the mid-60s. So I put together such an album, highlighting that kind of music (plus a ballad and a half-ballad, just to make it a little more diverse and let everybody slow dance a time or two).
The Beach Boys, Dance Dance Dance 1. I Get Around 2. Dance, Dance, Dance 3. Wendy 4. Don't Worry Baby 5. Little Honda 6. Don't Hurt My Little Sister 7. Do You Wanna Dance
8. The Girl From NYC 9. Good To My Baby 10. Help Me, Rhonda 11. When I Grow Up (to Be a Man) 12. The Warmth of the Sun 13. Don't Back Down 14. Fun, Fun, Fun
I'm not 100% sold on the tracks or running order, but this is in the ballpark of what I'd be after for this kind of thing.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 25, 2022 20:06:49 GMT
Carl Wilson - Hold Me
01 Hold Me
02 Bright Lights 03 Heaven 04 Rockin' All Over The World
05 What You Do To Me 06 If I Could Talk To Love 07 Of The Times 08 She's Mine 09 Givin' You Up 10 I Wish For You 11 Like A Brother 12 Long Promised Road (Live At The Bottom Line) 13 The Right Lane (Live At The Bottom Line)
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Post by mikeiw8jsj28 on Oct 30, 2022 4:34:06 GMT
The Beach Boys' failed 1995 reunion album is something that has fascinated me for a long time. Brian was very active and there is a lot of strong material to come from this time period. Here's my attempt at what it could have looked like: Malibu Nights 1. Gettin' In Over My Head 2. Don't Fight the Sea 3. Chain Reaction of Love 4. All the Love In Paris 5. They're Only Words 6. Waves of Love 7. Soul Searchin' 8. You're Still A Mystery 9. Dancin' the Night Away 10. This Song Wants to Sleep With You If I remember correctly, the boys were back in touch with David and in 1997/98 it was decided that once Carl had fully recovered from cancer the 6 boys would reunite and make albums again, like before, but Carl died.
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Post by mikeiw8jsj28 on Oct 30, 2022 4:37:11 GMT
Mine will always be my version of "Reverberation" it's kinda my baby and the only published version on youtube.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 30, 2022 12:33:12 GMT
If I remember correctly, the boys were back in touch with David and in 1997/98 it was decided that once Carl had fully recovered from cancer the 6 boys would reunite and make albums again, like before, but Carl died. Where had you heard that? I only ask because they had just tried to get together (though not with David) a couple years before and it fell apart, as usual, resulting in the Stars & Stripes album. And part of that was them not liking (including Carl, if I'm not mistaken) Brian's new music.
Personally I do think that was a time--the reunion-crazed mid and later '90s, a post-grunge return to some more natural sounding music that suited them, Brian writing a lot of solid music, their voices all still reasonably good--to have really had some lasting success again. Instead we had to wait another 15 years for one album and tour.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 30, 2022 12:39:42 GMT
Mine will always be my version of "Reverberation" it's kinda my baby and the only published version on youtube. It's amazing how many good, basically finished songs they created in those couple of years. I personally do think the leftovers albums can be almost, but not quite, as good as the released ones. (They had poor judgment, but not a total lack of judgment!) Still, it's got "Break Away," "Soulful Old Man Sunshine," "Lady," "Susie Cincinnati," "Cotton Fields" ... pretty strong leftovers album! (Could be some label wrangling to get "Break Away" and "Celebrate the News," and "Cottonfields," since those were released on Capitol. But obviously we're putting together songs for fun, not actually getting the rights!)
I like your Reverberation, though personally I'd leave off both "When Girls Get Together" and (probably, depending on sequencing) "Carnival."
If you were going to do a single Sunflower album using these and the actual Sunflower songs, what would that look like?
EDIT - Here was my alternative Sunflower, btw, which I put together back when we were doing album-by-album ratings.
1. This Whole World 2. Susie Cincinnati 3. Add Some Music 4. Forever 5. All I Wanna Do 6. Loop de Loop
7. Soulful Old Man Sunshine 8. Slip On Through 9. Good Time 10. Deirdre 11. Cool, Cool Water (single edit, if not edited even more)
12. Break Away
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Post by mikeiw8jsj28 on Oct 30, 2022 20:33:29 GMT
Mine will always be my version of "Reverberation" it's kinda my baby and the only published version on youtube. It's amazing how many good, basically finished songs they created in those couple of years. I personally do think the leftovers albums can be almost, but not quite, as good as the released ones. (They had poor judgment, but not a total lack of judgment!) Still, it's got "Break Away," "Soulful Old Man Sunshine," "Lady," "Susie Cincinnati," "Cotton Fields" ... pretty strong leftovers album! (Could be some label wrangling to get "Break Away" and "Celebrate the News," and "Cottonfields," since those were released on Capitol. But obviously we're putting together songs for fun, not actually getting the rights!)
I like your Reverberation, though personally I'd leave off both "When Girls Get Together" and (probably, depending on sequencing) "Carnival."
If you were going to do a single Sunflower album using these and the actual Sunflower songs, what would that look like?
EDIT - Here was my alternative Sunflower, btw, which I put together back when we were doing album-by-album ratings.
1. This Whole World 2. Susie Cincinnati 3. Add Some Music 4. Forever 5. All I Wanna Do 6. Loop de Loop
7. Soulful Old Man Sunshine 8. Slip On Through 9. Good Time 10. Deirdre 11. Cool, Cool Water (single edit, if not edited even more)
12. Break Away
Thank you, if I were to mix the two together I would probably have 1 I'm Going Your Way 2 Add Some Music To Your Day 3 Slip On Through 4 Cotton Fields 5 Soulful Old Man Sunshine 6 San Miguel 7 Forever 8 Where Is She 9 Deirdre 10 Tears In The Morning 11 Sound Of Free 12 Lady
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 30, 2022 20:47:47 GMT
Your inclusion of "Where is She" spurs me to comment: the unfinished stuff is excruciating for me. I can imagine "Where is She" as being really good. But unfortunately it's one of those tunes that requires imagination. And believe me, I've got the imagination to make it a great Brian Wilson production. But me, personally, I struggle including things like that on my alternate albums, etc., just because they don't actually exist (in truly finished form).
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Post by mikeiw8jsj28 on Oct 31, 2022 4:13:18 GMT
Your inclusion of "Where is She" spurs me to comment: the unfinished stuff is excruciating for me. I can imagine "Where is She" as being really good. But unfortunately it's one of those tunes that requires imagination. And believe me, I've got the imagination to make it a great Brian Wilson production. But me, personally, I struggle including things like that on my alternate albums, etc., just because they don't actually exist (in truly finished form). Fair, fair, I suppose I would sub it for "All I Wanna Do" then.
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Post by mikeiw8jsj28 on Oct 31, 2022 4:13:55 GMT
If I remember correctly, the boys were back in touch with David and in 1997/98 it was decided that once Carl had fully recovered from cancer the 6 boys would reunite and make albums again, like before, but Carl died. Where had you heard that? I only ask because they had just tried to get together (though not with David) a couple years before and it fell apart, as usual, resulting in the Stars & Stripes album. And part of that was them not liking (including Carl, if I'm not mistaken) Brian's new music.
Personally I do think that was a time--the reunion-crazed mid and later '90s, a post-grunge return to some more natural sounding music that suited them, Brian writing a lot of solid music, their voices all still reasonably good--to have really had some lasting success again. Instead we had to wait another 15 years for one album and tour.
Honestly I cannot remember where I heard it.
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