The Beach Boys |
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RoyFairbank
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Posted: May 07 2012 at 10:16 |
To those who aren't familiar with the Beach Boys, you may just think of Kokomo and Surfing USA. In 1966 they released the art rock album Pet Sounds, and in 1967 began constructing the proto prog album SMiLE, before mastermind Brian Wilson collapsed mentally. They became a borderline art-rock group for several years before becoming an oldies style rock group in the late 70s. In the late 80s, they came under the leadership of Mike Love, whose pop tastes are quite blatant. They stopped recording albums in the 90s, after a string of gutter quality records. Brian Wilson came out of his mentally disturbed haze and in 2004 completed SMiLE and released it under his own name. His albums of new material have been a mixed bag, although his 1988 album was quite good, despite him being controlled by an infamous pop psychologist at the time (Eugene Landy) [The beach boys got a court-ordered separation arranged, and Landy was kicked out of even the lower-levels of the profession he was in]. The Beach Boys reunited just a few months ago and are coming out with a new album in June, headed by Brian Wilson for the first time since the Beach Boys' last borderline art rock album The Beach Boys Love You in 1977.
Surf's Up, Their Greatest Song One of the Progish linking parts of Smile |
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Slartibartfast
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Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
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RoyFairbank
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^
LOL. That video makes my day. That is a take on the old Charles Atlas or whatever thing. Great! 10cc has a funny song along those lines too. 10cc was influenced by the Beach Boys Edited by RoyFairbank - May 07 2012 at 11:09 |
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HolyMoly
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Check out the Bonzo Dog Band's "Mr Apollo" for further variations on this topic
As for the Beach Boys, I've tried off and on to get into their music, but for the most part I just feel like it's missing something, "balls" I suppose. (beach balls?) I recently got the new "SMiLE" 2 disc set in an effort to dive into the deep end. It's quite impressive, but I don't find myself going back to it very often, not yet anyway. "Pet Sounds" is undeniably a landmark album in terms of studio creativity, but most of the songs just don't do much for me. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is lovely though. The "Surf's Up" song you posted in the OP is one of the best songs I've heard by them - I'd never heard it prior to getting the SMiLE set. I recently bought the "Endless Summer" best-of album, just because I thought it'd be nice to have those old hits, and my daughter would like it. It's fun, but some of those songs are really a bit lightweight for my tastes. |
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Icarium
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Beach Boys is one of the most significant bands in rock, adn Pet Sounds sat a certain standard in art pop, which never have been betterd after it, and Smiles is not far behind
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OT Räihälä
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I've listened to The Smile Sessions for umpteen times recently, and all I can say is that it would be considered a brilliant proto-prog album, were it A) not compiled in 2011 when it can't be proto-prog anymore and B) a Beach Boys album.
It is a fantastic, progressive compilation with a few fine musical themes running through a big part of the album. Had it been released when it was supposed to (summer 1967), it would have been much more ground-breaking than the musically rather average Sgt. Pepper.
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RoyFairbank
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Agreed, but Srg. Peppers is much more direct and brutal.... I think Wilson was overwhelmed by how confident and together it was when his sessions were going chaotic..... |
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KingCrInuYasha
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Got The Smile Sessions last Christmas, (along with Selling England By The Pound and Death Walks Behind You). It's one of the most adorable things I've ever listened to, particularly "Heroes And Villains", "Do You Like Worms?", 'Cabin Essence", "Wonderful", "Surf's Up", "Vega-Tables", "Fire", and, of course, "Good Vibrations" (In the latter case, never knew there was a version with an extended vocal chant near the end). Call me crazy, but I hear a lot of what Brian Eno did in the mid-70s in this work.
A shame this didn't get released when it should have. Oh well, better late than never. |
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He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!
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Atavachron
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The first true progressive rock band, and proved that rock could be more than what it was.
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Blacksword
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Yep! Pet Sounds and Smile are the two BB offerings I have in my collection. Good albums. I don't hate their blatent pop stuff either. Simple feel good music, which I sometimes need.
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Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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Snow Dog
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God Only Knows is one of my new favourite songs.
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dreadpirateroberts
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^ wonderful song indeed.
On a related note - any fans of Dennis Wilson's only released solo album Pacific Ocean Blue? I know it has the 'lost album' vibe, but I do think it's wonderful, with or without the hype. He has sound a wonderful voice, such an opposite to the rest of the boys. Quite a sombre album at times - this song always surprises me when it changes |
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DamoXt7942
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^ I've got pretty immersed in this album long before getting to be a progressive rock freak.
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dreadpirateroberts
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^ isn't it amazing! I was so happy when I heard it - and almost outraged that it took so long to be issued on CD a second time (after the early 90s edition was deleted)
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ClemofNazareth
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As best I can remember that was the very first album I ever bought with my own (paper route) money almost 40 years ago. I bought it at a Macy's and remember how awesome it felt to heft that bulky two-disc vinyl with thick gatefold in my hands. That experience was probably the trigger for a lifelong love of music. Prog is great but as this thread suggests there's a lot more great music out there, and as a kid growing up in Montana I absolutely loved the Beach Boys! I just assumed everyone in California spent all day shirtless on the beach or cruising around in a dune buggy. BTW check out Pugwash sometime for a more modern version of the same sort of music. Edited by ClemofNazareth - May 10 2012 at 11:27 |
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"Peace is the only battle worth waging."
Albert Camus |
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RoyFairbank
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Pacific Ocean Blue is fantastic and sometimes almost proggy. There is a sax part that reminds me of Van Der Graaf...
....you killed the man but you couldn't kill the dream..... something His voice is almost benefited by drug use, unlike his brother Brian's, whose voice was ruined. His vocals are rough but full of emotion and pain. |
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dwill123
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Horizons
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Simply amazing. |
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Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.
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dreadpirateroberts
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Yes, absolutely! And that hard living certainly helped his voice achieve that wonderful roughness as you say, definitely |
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We are men of action. Lies do not become us.
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ReactioninG
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Why Aren't the Beach Boys on Prog Archives? Smile is a progressive rock album from 1967 that was released first in 2004 as Brian Wilson presents Smile and then the originals from 1967 were released in 2011. It's undeniable that Smile is a progressive rock album, and though it wasn't released, it was well known for being an unreleased progressive rock album for decades, with nearly all of the songs appearing on various releases and bootlegs within a half decade of the shelved Smile album, for instance, Surf's Up in 1971. Fans had bootleg and composite versions they mixed themselves for decades before Brian Wilson released the current arrangement in 2004 which they stuck in 2011. Someone wrote here that they shouldn't be proto-prog because, simply, they are the beach boys. Yes, it's a band with one completely prog album and dozens of mainly (but not entirely!) pop and AOR albums. If most get 1 star, who cares? A lot of people would take Smile over some of the best early prog works.
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