This is the thread where we talk about great Beach Boys+BW unreleased/demo/semi-released songs

15 big ones - this album never happens

lol

I really like this so far iatee
If there are other songs I want to add, like like extra tracks from re-released albums or tracks from landlocked and adult child stuff I can easily do that myself

Soooo am I the only one hearing "big tits" in the song 'Hard Time'

Soooo am I the only one hearing "big tits" in the song 'Hard Time'

^^^NO! me and my wife were listening to this and both did a double-take. the wife also thought that "Stevie" was Brian's ode to his television lol

I'm pretty sure they actually are saying 'big tits' (was then undirtified and turned into 'ding dang')

also megalolz at Our Prayer studio banter ("you guys feelin that acid yet?" "Denny I know you got some more of those hash joints")

the wife also thought that "Stevie" was Brian's ode to his television lol

I don't think anyone knows much about this track...who knows, it could be about his tv. (saint etienne do a good cover version tho)

yeah that's the thing, given Brian's songwriting habits writing an ode to his TV isn't really all that much of a stretch. Maybe the song's title really IS "TV" lolz

According to the (heavily Landy-doctored) autobiography "Wouldn't It Be Nice", Brian wrote and recorded a huge number of demos as part of his therapy called things like "Bring Your Comb", "Stop Carnie From Eating So Many Peanut Butter Sandwiches Around Me" and "Quit Using My Toothpaste". So no it wouldn't surprise me either.

"Stop Carnie From Eating So Many Peanut Butter Sandwiches Around Me"

this sounds like the best brian wilson song ever

"Stop Carnie From Eating So Many Peanut Butter Sandwiches Around Me"

...later a hit for belinda carlisle!

i have a hard time thinking that WILD HONEY could be improved. and i seem to like FRIENDS way more than most, even those who like "later" (post-67) BB a lot.

xpost

frieds is my favorite bb album!

err with 'friends' as a close second

LOL "frieds" brian wilson's concept album about fatty foods

he's certainly had a love/hate relationship with them

but yeah, friends is awesome. absolutely beautiful...and yeah, usually gets less attention than wild honey / sunflower / surf's up, which is weird cause it's (imo) easily the most consistent.

yeah, on most of the LPs from that era there are one or two atrocious songs that you'd prefer to skip (the archetypal one being "student demonstration time"), but i'm not sure that's true of "friends." even "transcendental meditation" is off-kilter in an appealing way. i mean, none of the songs is going to knock your socks off in the way that, i dunno, "heroes and villains" will, but there's something to be said for it all being of a piece.

actually, "friends" is oddly reminiscent of "nashville skyline." both were tranquil/low-key albums released at a time when most were making Major Statements, and both are extremely short and sweet ("friends" is like 25 minutes long, right?). and both are very coherent.

I love Friends and the only thing wrong with TM is that it ruins the mellow vibe of the rest of the record.

wild honey was their nashville skyline really. their back-to-basics record.

I don't think it ruins it. it's not a good song by any means, but I agree w/ amateurist about 'off-kilter in an appealing way'...also it's less than 2 minutes long and is over before you know it.

also nashville skyline comparison is otm

how is country back-to-basics for dylan! (or r&b for the beach boys!)

nashville skyline/friends works better as a comparison -- both celebrate the joys of domesticity / joys of doin' nothin'.

ruin was a strong word to use... it's not a bad song for the reasons mentioned. just that it leaps out after everything that went before.

xpost yeah i can see that

back to basics in the sense of recording as a band in brian's front room

it is interesting though - the "non major statement" aspect of those post Smile records ... I mean, what if the Beach Boys, instead of releasing three records, had released Friends/2020/Sunflower as one double album a la the White Album? Would the late 60s be seen as more triumphant for the band then?

^^^ VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS BEING ASKED HERE

people had basically stopped caring (regardless of how good/bad the music was) - so I imagine it woulda been more or less ignored

yeah probably ...

and I mean 'would the late 60s be seen as more triumphant'

among critics / ilm-y types, I think late period beach boys are already seen as among the most interesting act of the era

so would they be more famous-successful w/ an triple album like that? eh I really doubt it. I doubt that even had smile been finished their commercial success would be much different. I mean, even pet sounds was something of a commercial failure.

acts*

Why do I still see 20/20 as "not a proper album" in my head?

fwiw smiley smile through surf's up is by far my favourite period in bb history, but i'm sure this is no longer a challops. I've said it before, but smiley smile is one of the best records of all time in my opinion.

listening to rarities now - thanks so much for this iatee, once again...

xpost oh yeah, i know late 60s Beach Boys is beloved by critics/fans, just thinking out loud that maybe an ambitious triple album would've given them a little more hype at the time ... rather than "here's another Beach Boys album" which I gather is how they were received at the time. Maybe "Surf's Up" was kinda their attempt at being taken more seriously.

heheh, never noticed before, but the section in Can't Wait Too Long 4:20, does a wicked white-funk thing that ABBA also used on Name Of The Game that I've always wanted to recreate with a band.

Why do I still see 20/20 as "not a proper album" in my head?

cause it sorta wasn't one, I mean 'do it again' single from earlier in the year + smile outtakes + a friends outtake + bruce / al / dennis all doing their own things = pretty weird album that sorta sounds like compilation

just thinking out loud that maybe an ambitious triple album would've given them a little more hype at the time

I think it really would have depended on the record company selling it right. but, even then, friends/2020/sunflower = a total of two radio-friendly songs imo (do it again, add some music) one of which was a radio-friendly hit song, one of which failed to be. I guess the problem comes down to a lack of 'singles'...they basically became an album band, for better or worse.

(I guess if 'break away' were included, it would also count as a radio-friendly song, but as with 'add some music', was basically a failure irl so I'm not sure if it would have been any different were the situation different.)

i sort of trust that whatever they put out, the record company and the zeitgeist would have conspired to bury it. honestly i can totally understand that. i probably would have waved them off at the time. i know these albums had their cults (small ones) at the time, but i think in general the decades have helped these records.

what do people think of holland and carl/passions? i find that these albums are slightly more than the sum of their parts. often in isolation even the big songs are underwhelming, but i enjoy listening to them as records.

though sometimes i wonder, if those albums didn't have the "beach boys" tag, and were just some anonymous, journeyman-like early-70s light-rock LPs, would i give them the time of day?

I love about 5/8th's of Holland and like the rest of it. Carl and the Passions I never got on too well with, not even the supposedly beautiful Dennis songs which just sound painful to my ears. I do like that funky one ("Here She Comes") quite a bit off that album, although casual listeners would never tell it was the Boys playing.

wait is "cuddle up" on carl/passions? i go back and forth on those. they are obv quite overwrought, but there's some kind of scuzzy integrity to them.

i admit i find the d. wilson solo album very overrated since its reissue.

I'm yet to really "get" Dennis's songs in general. That solo album that gets paid a lot of dues just sounds exactly like amateurist said about journeyman/literock stuff. It bores me senseless.

haha xpost

"Little Bird" is nice though.

how in the heck do you come up with "total of two radio-friendly singles imo" in a combination that includes "this whole world" and "it's about time"

let's put it this way, dennis was no melodist.

xpost