I dream of a day when a chicken can cross a road without being asked for it's motive!
Phil74Camper
Son of Jim - Creator of Good
Head in the Clouds
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Registered: August 28th, 2002
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posted on November 2nd, 2011 at 12:34 PM
Ah the Beach Boys - one of the greatest bands ever and my all-time favourite group. Brian Wilson is a such a genius. He was like Lennon and McCartney
combined.
They did so many great early '60s classic surfin' stuff like Surfin' Safari, Surfin' USA, Fun Fun Fun, Surfer Girl, Don't Back Down, Hawaii,
Surfers Rule, California Girls...and they also did great songs about cars. The 'Little Deuce Coupe' album from 1963 is ALL car songs and has been
reissued on CD. Little Deuce Coupe, 409, Shut Down, Our Car Club, Cherry Cherry Coupe, Spirit of America, the Ballad of Ol Betsy etc etc.
Their later stuff with Capitol Records is more sophisticated (Keep an Eye on Summer, I Get Around, Hushabye, Help Me Rhonda, When I Grow Up To Be A
Man, Please Let Me Wonder), leading up to Pet Sounds of 1966. Often voted one of the greatest albums of all time. Smile was to follow but Brian canned
it - it became the 'greatest unreleased album in rock history'. We only got Good Vibrations, Heroes and Villians and Cabinesscence as remnants. Good
news is that Brian rerecorded and released Smile himself in 2003, and now the original 1966-67 sessions (only heard as bootlegs for years) have just
been released in a $150 5-cd box set.
Their post-Capital (after 1970) stuff is almost unknown but still great. Sunflower is such a beautiful album, while Holland shows Brian's brother
Carl taking over and Dennis' flowering as a songwriter. 'Forever' is stunning in its beauty - spoiled in recent times by John Stamos singing it. 15
Big Ones is sad; Beach Boys Love You is weird but the MIU album is joyous. And of course they powered back in 1988 with the #1 smash Kokomo, even if
Brian wasn't involved.
I could go on for ages. But as a taste of how brilliant the Beach Boys' harmony singing was, listen to these tracks from Pet Sounds with the
instrumentrs removed - that is, just the voices. Put headphones on to get max effect:
