The Beach Boys - Today/ Summer Days (and Summer Nights)
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Free Music Notes for Today/ Summer Days (and Summer Nights)
Free Music Review: Recognition That's Long Overdue.
Hit: 5 Stars
I'm ecstatic that TODAY is finally getting some of the attention it deserves. It's not merely one of the Beach Boys' best albums -- it's one of the best albums of the 60s. No filler here. Just straight-up, well-produced rock n' roll, chock-full of those trademark Wilson pop hooks that make you smile -- not to mention the ghostly angelic harmonies courtesy of Carl, Mike, Brian and Al. As a vocal arranger, there's really no one better on the planet than Brian Wilson. Pick out just one of the harmony parts on any of these tunes and try to sing along with it. It's very difficult, because each part swirls in and around each other, even on the familiar top 40 classics. That's just one facet of Brian Wilson's genius, and you can especially hear it in classics such as "Please Let Me Wonder", "Kiss Me Baby" and "She Knows Me Too Well".
It's impossible to predict what course the Beach Boys' career might have taken had SMILE come fully to fruition. The Beatles were able to make the leap from Boy Band to Serious Artists, and the Beach Boys, quite unfairly, could not. As a result, critical attention toward superior albums such as TODAY has been slow in coming. But TODAY, in my opinion, is every bit as strong a work as REVOLVER or RUBBER SOUL.
Unfortunately, SUMMER DAYS was a step backward for Brian and the boys. But any album that contains "California Girls", "Let Him Run Wild" and "Girl Don't Tell Me" is still pretty darn great. In these two albums, you can see Brian Wilson formulating the ideas that would later become PET SOUNDS and SMILE. Five stars here is a no-brainer. If you're a Beach Boys fan without this two-fer, correct that omission. Immediately.
Free Music Review: My Personal Favorite BeachBoys going Way Back!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
my two old lp's disappeared maybe 30 years ago, and from time to time I'd check the local CD/Record store,no luck! When AMAZON recommended them (2 vinyls on 1 CD, plus extras), I immediately bot it via AMAZON, and played it (today that is). The up-tempo tunes are so good that I'd occasionally hum them to myself,even though I hadn't heard them in decades! So you can imagine this post-Christmas self-treat, for a guy pushing 50. GOOD TO MY BABY is still incredible. If there is a better,guitar -based anthem of pure joy, I' don't know it (maybe another BBOY tune!). Maybe DANCE DANCE DANCE ,but I had heard that over the years,or WHEN I GROW UP.. These were "hit" radio releases. SHE KNOWS ME TOO WELL also, another less known BBoy,and PLEASE LET ME A WONDER (should it be "wander"). All great songs, plus AMUSEMENT PARKS USA, a great tune with a slight touch of the bizarre even (unusual for this super-cleancut quintet). And the great alternates, esp. DANCE DANCE DANCE with new lyrics no less!! And the original album version of RONDA, my preferred version...BTW, notice the cover of BBTODAY!! All dressed in preppy looking sweaters as timeless as their tunes. Shortly thereafter, with the "British Invasion" still blazing, and "Psychodelia" on the horizen,protesting, you know the story...the BOYS seemed "Square" to many, and succumbed somewhat to the new thing.Even so,it would be tough for any later group to top these great tunes, harmonies, licks, you name it!!! Give this one a try!! If you're a youngster, tell your parents you read this review from a late-40's guy,who knows a little bit about popular music! Then maybe they'll treat you to it...PS They may like it too.Free Music Review: A required Purchase alongside "Pet Sounds"....
Hit: 5 Stars
Although it not easy to categorise what make the Beach Boys such a highly regarded band, when there are so many elements to shouldn't appeal to a British audience...(a throwback for the early 60's/ American boy band whimsy / singing about sunshine grooves)...their music has that undeniable catchy elements that, is hard to mistaken (or to ignore), and yet having produced so many albums (and compilations cd's) the idea initially doesn't sound that appealing. But it's a credit to their exceptional singing/songwriting capabilities that such concerns are negligible at best. And coupled with their unparalleled ability to belt out a monstrous rock & roll song or two....the Beach boys, even if you have one of their many albums, require closer investigation. Listed here is a release that combines two of their albums on one disc (along with several bonus tracks), that bring the running order of the list of tracks up to a whopping 29 tracks...so you'd be forgive for thinking that there are a lot of dud tracks amongst those 29 songs. But the two albums are actually among two of their best albums combined on the one disc, so its actually a quite fantastic retrospective of some of their popular & lesser known tracks, that firmly rubs shoulders with their best ever album "Pet Sounds". And with Tracks such as "Dance Dance Dance, California Girls, Then I Kissed Her, Do You Wanna Dance, Help Me, Rhonda", all making part of the running order, it blend of infectious sunshine grooves make this as essential a purchase as their "Pet Sounds" album.Free Music Review: Light and shade, magic and marvel.
Hit: 5 Stars
'Today!' is considered a key album in the Beach Boys' oeuvre, a stepping stone from the populist thrills of their earlier work to the brave new soundworld of 'Pet Sounds'. this change is marked in the schizophrenic nature of the album. The first half is straight ahead sublime guitar pop, the backing vocals reinforcing the lead in 'Do you wanna dance' like an aerial bombardment; the beautiful chord changes ringing melancholy in 'Good to my baby'. Even in this section, with the intricate yet comic arrangment of 'When i Grow up to be a man', questing adventurousness is signalled, fully developed on side two, and a series of ballads - 'Please let me wonder', 'I'm so young', 'Kiss me baby', 'she knows me too well' and 'in the back of my mind' still unparalelled for their depth of feeling epressed in a rich emotional musical texture. The final 'track', snippets from an interview with Earl Leaf, is funny, but in hindsight highly revealing ('Brian, we're still waiting for you to make a mistake'...).
'Summer Days' is seen as a bit of a backsliding with its 'simple' pop excitements, but even awesome singalongs like 'California girls' bear brilliantly inventive musical touches, while 'Amusements Parks USA' takes the 'wholesome' testosterone of early Beach Boys into the realm of the grotesque or Gothic. 'Let him run wild' and 'You're so good to me' are gorgeous and moving in their complex simplicity, while 'I'm bugged at my old man' is surely the funniest song ever written, Oedipus Rex restaged by Elvis.
Free Music Review: The Gateway to Pet Sounds and other genius
Hit: 5 Stars
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) is an incredible album, and it's where we really start to see the genius of Brian Wilson. Today! is worth the purchase if merely to have "She Knows Me Too Well", a beautiful song not found on other Beach Boys "hits" collections. On Today!, there are songs like "Please Let Me Wonder" and "Kiss Me Baby" that indicate a new direction for the Beach Boys. Brian is doing more and more producing and experimenting, and we can hear this on songs from Summer Days like "Let Him Run Wild" and the bonus single "The Little Girl I Once Knew". Other greats are Carl Wilson's "Girl Don't Tell Me" and Al Jardine's "Help Me, Rhonda". One of my favorites is "You're So Good To Me", recently covered by Brian's daughters with Chynna Phillips as Wilson Phillips reunited at the Brian Wilson tribute...look for that version as it is so beautifully done. And most of all, Summer Days includes "California Girls", which is probably Brian Wilson's favorite Beach Boys tune. Here's a song to listen to over and over and over...you'll be listening to it for the hundredth time and you'll still hear something new in it. From this point, Brian started the "Pet Sounds" project. We're lucky to have the option of hindsight--we can see and hear the birth of "Pet Sounds" on these 2 albums.Brian Lives.