Yes, a day late again, but given that I was actually doing something yesterday other than procrastinating or generally being lazy then I have an excuse (I was climbing trees in Kelvingrove Park). I had a more general mixtape made up, with a solitary Beach Boys song in there but then I couldn't stop listening to them and decided to make another list that I've been sitting on for a while: a Beach Boys mixtape, though a pick of my favourite B-sides and album tracks rather than the usual hits.
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I'm Waiting For The Day (Pet Sounds)
Pet Sounds is, without a doubt, the greatest album ever - for me, anyway. No less than a masterclass in pop music, and the main inspiration for Sgt Pepper. Having had the Beach Boys played around me pretty much all my life, this is one I remember as being a major favourite of mine as a young thing, but unlike Agadoo or Yellow Submarine, it's one that's survived as a favourite since then. I would say it's my favourite song on Pet Sounds, but probably not - that most likely still goes to God Only Knows, but it's so bloody generic to say so.
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Slip on Through (Sunflower)
Sunflower was an album that really surprised me. Before I was fully educated on the matter, I had thought that after Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys were in shambles and really, their only good songs were the old Brian ones they found and recycled. But no: Sunflower, while still having a number of Brian songs (and one that features below), is a terrific album with contributions from the others, most prominently, Dennis, who wrote and sang this song. An absolute stormer of a song, it would be my favourite Dennis song if not for the other Dennis song from Sunflower, which also features below.
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You're So Good to Me (Summer Days)
There are any number of classic pop songs from the band's earlier period that I could choose, but this one has especially been lodged in the brain for the past couple of weeks. Before listening to it again though, I had thought it was this song with the naff age-counting, but that's The Little Girl I Once Knew, so that was that to one side. A lot more simple than some of Brian's other songs at the time (I was playing it earlier and it's just C, D7, G and occasionally F - I think) but effective nonetheless.
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Let the Wind Blow (Wild Honey)
A song where I knew the "don't take her out of my life" bit but didn't know what song it was from until I did an album review of Wild Honey for the Brian Wilson website I used to maintain (it's still online if you want some lols, I obviously didn't like this song when I was 15). Its loose, un-busy production does make it sound like some of the dodgy pisstakes of songs that were on Smiley Smile (such as She's Going Bald, and what they did to Wind Chimes was criminal) but while it's a fairly lazy sounding song, the old sense of melody is still there.
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Feel Flows (Surf's Up)
Not having done a review of Surf's Up on the old Brian website, I hadn't fully listened to it until a number of months ago, and oddly had still assumed it was one of the weaker Beach Boys albums in that period, even after my initial rejection of albums like Sunflower and 20/20 was quashed. While it's still not my favourite album, it does have several classic songs, the title track and Til I Die being the obvious ones, and the latter being one of my favourite Beach Boys songs, but I love this too for its smooth, psychedelic textures. Also, it featured in Almost Famous, so extra kudos for that.
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Girl Don't Tell Me (Summer Days)
Listen to this song. Just listen to it. It's fucking Ticket to Ride. It's also quite unashamedly Ticket to Ride, as the story goes that Brian wanted to write a song for the Beatles to record around the time Ticket to Ride came out, and this is what he came up with. That being said, if you can forgive shameless plagiarism (not something Brian dabbled in too often) then it's still a fun song and typical of the growing maturity in Brian's songs at the time. Also notable as one of Carl's first vocals, and the only Beach Boys song apparently to have no backing vocals whatsoever.
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Here Today (Pet Sounds)
As much as I hate Mike Love, he still sang on some of the best pop songs of the 60s. This is not one that usually gets touted, and is one of only two lead parts he gets on Pet Sounds (the "first Brian Wilson solo album in all but name"). Expertly building up the verse and releasing it for the chorus, it was my favourite Pet Sounds song for a good while last year, and is still one of my favourite choruses. The ascending bass line at the end of the instrumental middle section is fantastic, and a great bassline on one of the best bass albums ever. Brian Wilson doesn't get credited enough for composing some truly innovative bass parts, well... except from McCartney, who does say that it showed him the bass could lead a song, and inspired much of his work on Sgt Pepper.... ah, I'll take anything I can get, wont I?
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Our Sweet Love (Sunflower)
Brian could obviously shit melody before breakfast and one after lunch too, and this is another lesser known song that is just, well... so sweet. Another of Sunflower's non-Dennis highlights. Not much else to say about the song except that it's lovely.
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Never Learn Not to Love (20/20)
The Charles Manson song. I used to think it was all his, melody included, but it turns out Dennis just took his old lyrics and changed them slightly (pissing off Manson to no end). Still, beyond that, it's a compelling song, and the "come in, now closer, closer..." is a great euphoric moment. Though slightly creepy when you think the words were written by a jailbird hippy cult leader-turned-mass murderer. Another thing I remember about this song is the rather funny performance of it, with Dennis up front and the band at the back - with Carl doing his best impression of a drummer.
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Forever (Sunflower)
It's a bizarre notion, that I am such a big fan of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, two bands with their much-lauded songwriting geniuses, yet my favourite song by the former is Something, a George Harrison song, and the latter, a Dennis Wilson song. Namely, this Dennis Wilson song. One of the saddest songs ever, in hindsight at least. Only something without a heart doesn't tear up at "so I'm going away.... but not forever". Some may joke about songs they want played at their funeral, but this is seriously it for me. Unless we enter into some techno-apocalypse where funerals are rendered useless because everyone just gets vapourized.
Well, it wouldn't be a blog by myself if I didn't mention the apocalypse at some point, now, would it?
Monday Mixtape #3 - Beach Boys
Ciao for now.
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