Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

General music discussion.
Flex
User avatar
Mechano-Man of the Future
Posts: 35803
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:50pm
Location: The Information Superhighway!

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by Flex »

WestwayKid wrote:
03 Sep 2021, 1:49pm
As much as I love Sunflower, man, Bruce's tracks are clunky and somewhat cringy. Interestingly, I just read that they wanted to fire him around 1969, but that Billy Hinsche, his suggested replacement, decided against joining.
Ha, I was just saying on twitter that I quite enjoy Bruce's tracks. Tears in the Morning, in particular, has been really doing it for me on this latest dive into this era. Gorgeous vocal on that one. And although it's (also) sappy as shit and politically and socially noxious, but I've always really enjoyed Disney Girls. To me, Dierdre is sort of the weak link in Bruce songs from those two records.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

WestwayKid
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 6704
Joined: 20 Sep 2017, 8:22am
Location: Mill-e-wah-que

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by WestwayKid »

I've gone down a Smile rabbit again. I've been listening to these tracks ever since I picked up a 2 cassette bootleg back in the 90's. I'm now convinced it would have been far more normal than many have suggested. Normal in the sense that it would have been 11-12 tracks spaced out across a single LP. I think there is a lot of extra stuff that people have been trying to cram in, lots of link tracks and other snippets. The version that Brian released was (at least in my opinion) just another homemade mixtape courtesy of Darian Sahanaja. It's too much material and it would not have fit on a single LP (Smile was never going to be a double). The music remains very interesting and often brilliant. I just feel it was going to be individual songs in the traditional sense and not the sprawling, complicate suites that some have suggested (and that appeared on Brian's version of Smile).
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

WestwayKid
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 6704
Joined: 20 Sep 2017, 8:22am
Location: Mill-e-wah-que

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by WestwayKid »

Flex wrote:
03 Sep 2021, 1:53pm
WestwayKid wrote:
03 Sep 2021, 1:49pm
As much as I love Sunflower, man, Bruce's tracks are clunky and somewhat cringy. Interestingly, I just read that they wanted to fire him around 1969, but that Billy Hinsche, his suggested replacement, decided against joining.
Ha, I was just saying on twitter that I quite enjoy Bruce's tracks. Tears in the Morning, in particular, has been really doing it for me on this latest dive into this era. Gorgeous vocal on that one. And although it's (also) sappy as shit and politically and socially noxious, but I've always really enjoyed Disney Girls. To me, Dierdre is sort of the weak link in Bruce songs from those two records.
I like the musical half of Dierdre, just can't handle the lyrics. Disney Girls is fantastic. It's probably the best thing he ever did. Bruce could definitely sing, which is highlighted by the fact that Brian chose to feature his voice on some high profile tracks after he joined, but he's so schmaltzy. It's funny because he was almost a better Beach Boy musically before he joined the band.
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

Flex
User avatar
Mechano-Man of the Future
Posts: 35803
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:50pm
Location: The Information Superhighway!

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by Flex »

WestwayKid wrote:
03 Sep 2021, 2:00pm
I've gone down a Smile rabbit again. I've been listening to these tracks ever since I picked up a 2 cassette bootleg back in the 90's. I'm now convinced it would have been far more normal than many have suggested. Normal in the sense that it would have been 11-12 tracks spaced out across a single LP. I think there is a lot of extra stuff that people have been trying to cram in, lots of link tracks and other snippets. The version that Brian released was (at least in my opinion) just another homemade mixtape courtesy of Darian Sahanaja. It's too much material and it would not have fit on a single LP (Smile was never going to be a double). The music remains very interesting and often brilliant. I just feel it was going to be individual songs in the traditional sense and not the sprawling, complicate suites that some have suggested (and that appeared on Brian's version of Smile).
Yeah, I know there have been quotes saying Smile was like "98% done" or whatever when it was shelved and that doesn't quite jibe. I love the official releases of Smile we've gotten but they're still really archival releases and wouldn't make sense as a contemporary album back then. Either you'd have to do more work to make it a proper double or you'd have to a lot of trimming to make it a single. Not that there wasn't plenty of material there to do either (and, as you say, probably the latter) but it suggests to me that it wasn't quite the ready-to-release record that its been claimed to be in more recent years.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

WestwayKid
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 6704
Joined: 20 Sep 2017, 8:22am
Location: Mill-e-wah-que

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by WestwayKid »

Flex wrote:
03 Sep 2021, 1:53pm
WestwayKid wrote:
03 Sep 2021, 1:49pm
As much as I love Sunflower, man, Bruce's tracks are clunky and somewhat cringy. Interestingly, I just read that they wanted to fire him around 1969, but that Billy Hinsche, his suggested replacement, decided against joining.
Ha, I was just saying on twitter that I quite enjoy Bruce's tracks. Tears in the Morning, in particular, has been really doing it for me on this latest dive into this era. Gorgeous vocal on that one. And although it's (also) sappy as shit and politically and socially noxious, but I've always really enjoyed Disney Girls. To me, Dierdre is sort of the weak link in Bruce songs from those two records.
Didn't Brian have a hand in writing the lyrics to Deirdre? I've personally always hated this couplet: "Tomorrow at ten, I'll wake you and then, We'll take a bath and then I'll laugh again with Deirdre".
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

Flex
User avatar
Mechano-Man of the Future
Posts: 35803
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:50pm
Location: The Information Superhighway!

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by Flex »

WestwayKid wrote:
03 Sep 2021, 2:06pm
Didn't Brian have a hand in writing the lyrics to Deirdre? I've personally always hated this couplet: "Tomorrow at ten, I'll wake you and then, We'll take a bath and then I'll laugh again with Deirdre".
Bruce says Brian wrote a few lines although I'm not familiar with whether anyone has identified which ones. It's sort of odd to think about Bruce and Brian working on the lyrics of a Bruce song together at this time.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

WestwayKid
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 6704
Joined: 20 Sep 2017, 8:22am
Location: Mill-e-wah-que

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by WestwayKid »

This might only interest my fellow IMCT BB fanatic Flex, but as I continue to re-explore Smile, I've been kicking around thoughts on why the album was never finished and I'm wondering how much Heroes and Villains had an impact on the record grinding to a halt.

There were phases to the Smile sessions. The first phase was prior to Van Dyke Parks coming on board. Brian was working through ideas and sounds and concepts. Then Van Dyke joins up and the album sessions take off in earnest and a lot of work is done, with several tracks being completed (or nearly completed).

At some point, Heroes and Villains was slated to become the group's next single. It would be the follow up to Good Vibrations and the first single on their new Brothers Records label. I would imagine there was a lot of pressure on Brian to deliver the goods. He essentially stops work on Smile to commit all of his creative energy to the single, and in the process begins poaching bits from other Smile tracks. It's like he started punching holes in the album to complete the single. He worked on it throughout early 1967, before scrapping everything in June. He then remade the track in June/July 1967 for eventual release.

For whatever reason, it seems Smile stalled out while Brian was trying to complete Heroes and Villains in spring 1967.
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

Wolter
User avatar
Half Foghorn Leghorn, Half Albert Brooks
Posts: 55432
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 7:59pm
Location: ¡HOLIDAY RO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OAD!

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by Wolter »

I resent being left out of this as someone who was a Neach Boys fan before Flex was born, damn it.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson

"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"

Wolter
User avatar
Half Foghorn Leghorn, Half Albert Brooks
Posts: 55432
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 7:59pm
Location: ¡HOLIDAY RO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OAD!

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by Wolter »

Nah, I’m just kidding.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson

"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by matedog »

Don't forget, I'm the Still Cruisin'/Summer in Paradise expert.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

WestwayKid
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 6704
Joined: 20 Sep 2017, 8:22am
Location: Mill-e-wah-que

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by WestwayKid »

matedog wrote:
07 Sep 2021, 11:54am
Don't forget, I'm the Still Cruisin'/Summer in Paradise expert.
You do have Mike Love as your avatar ;).
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

WestwayKid
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 6704
Joined: 20 Sep 2017, 8:22am
Location: Mill-e-wah-que

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by WestwayKid »

Speaking of Mike Love, I saw a vinyl copy of Looking Back with Love at a used record shop last weekend. I did not pick it up.
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by matedog »

WestwayKid wrote:
07 Sep 2021, 12:13pm
Speaking of Mike Love, I saw a vinyl copy of Looking Back with Love at a used record shop last weekend. I did not pick it up.
It's not on Spotify, so i've never listened. Is it entertainingly bad?
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

WestwayKid
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 6704
Joined: 20 Sep 2017, 8:22am
Location: Mill-e-wah-que

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by WestwayKid »

matedog wrote:
07 Sep 2021, 12:21pm
WestwayKid wrote:
07 Sep 2021, 12:13pm
Speaking of Mike Love, I saw a vinyl copy of Looking Back with Love at a used record shop last weekend. I did not pick it up.
It's not on Spotify, so i've never listened. Is it entertainingly bad?
It's actually not terrible (not that it's great, either). The backing music is pretty schlocky: early 80's soft rock, but Mike's in fine voice. It is not at all brilliant and at times it's slightly embarrassing, but all things considered, it could have been far, far worse.

That said, the lyrics to this track: https://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/mike ... _boat.html are really, really bad.
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

Flex
User avatar
Mechano-Man of the Future
Posts: 35803
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:50pm
Location: The Information Superhighway!

Re: Flex's Takes: The Beach Boys

Post by Flex »

The real heads stan for his unreleased country album
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

Post Reply