The Beach Boys

What is their best album and why is it 'Surf's Up?'

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Because it's a melancholic album about maturity and death and that type of stuff appeals to me

pretty much hit the nail on the head. i didn't realize it existed until today. fucking great. do you prefer it so SMiLE?

>So surf's up
>Cut him up
>Don't look down
>Shove it in your mouth

Yeah it's my favourite Beach Boys album, and one of my favourite albums of all time. A lot of people criticise the inclusion of Student Demonstration Time as sticking out and being inappropriate, but I think it kind of works as an instance of youth and the past. It is based on a song from the 50s and is therefore different to the rest of the album. What do you think of it?

the entire purpose of the album was to create an appeal of them to the counter culture, so it pretty much exists for that reason, in my mind. i can see why people see that it sticks out, and it's definitely not one of my favorites, but seeing its intent and execution of the album's purpose, it needed to be on there. i can imagine so many hippies flocking to them after that track. it also kinda captures the times in which it was recorded, so from a historical view i can appreciate it.

i shouldn't say this is the entire purpose of the album but, marketing wise, that was the intent

Sorry, but I hate Student Demonstration Time. Almost ruins the rest of an amazing album to me.

Thanks, Mike Love.

*blocks your path*

yeah, i get that. it was meant to be their Beatles' 'Revolution' type track. i wasn't alive to know if it had any traction, but i hate Mike Love with passion. still, idk, it doesn't ruin the album for me. it's fine. breaks up the melancholy a bit.

Can we just talk for a moment about how Surf's Up is the most perfect fucking song title?

agreed, but can you elaborate?

It was more perfect in 1967 though

It's just such a fun, simple title which sounds like something they'd put out in the early 60s. But instead of a song about girls and cars you end up getting this abstract existential melancholic ballad. Instead of meaning 'surf's here', it means 'surf's gone', or an end to that phase of their lives. It's a metaphor for maturity and transition. I can't help but feel Brian called it that to fuck with Mike.

Agreed, it would've worked much better on SMiLE.

it does* work better on SMiLE.
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>tfw made my own mix of smile for its 50th birthday
>nobody downloaded it

the dude that made that one is obsessive and gets shit as accurate as they could possibly be. explanation here: albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-beach-boys-smile-1967.html

This mix of Smile is my favourite album of all time.

do you prefer the more authentic mono version, or the stereo?

>taking out the best part out of Heroes and Villains

"A thorough track-by-track examination of my 1967 SMiLE reconstruction opens with “Our Prayer” which is followed closely by what is known as the ‘Cantina’ version of “Heroes and Villains”, what I believe would have been the version of the song released on the SMiLE album in 1967. It is most certainly not what I call 'The Kitchen Sink' version that appeared on BWPS and TSS and we need to accept that many, many song fragments will be left on the cutting room floor. It is of relevance however that many extra sections—including “Gee” and it’s variations, the experimental ‘Swedish Frog’ segment’ and the ‘Prelude to Fade’ segment—constitute what I believe is the theoretical “Heroes and Villains part 2” track, what many believe would have been the b-side to the single. These specific segments were all recorded after the ‘Cantina’ version was prepared, yet before the album was abandoned and “Heroes and Villains” got a complete facelift. They theory is that Brian Wilson recorded these parts specifically for the b-side rather than for “Heroes and Villains” proper. Regardless, “Heroes and Villains part 2” is not included in this album reconstruction, as it would not have been on the album in 1967. My stereo mix of “Heroes and Villains” is 75% in stereo, as the verse sections in this ‘Cantina version’—which contained the superior vocal performances—are not available in stereo, existing only in a mono master."

go listen to it on its own, it wouldn't have been on the real album

I don't believe there is a "real" structure to SMiLE. It's merely a collection of sections, fragments, and ideas that are not to be assembled in any specific way. I believe that this album was always just a collection of tiles that could be assembled into a mosaic in millions of ways, none of them more valid than any other, and I don't think Brian Wilson at the time thought of it in any different way, and that's one of the reasons why he was hesitant to release it - because how do you release a set of musical fragments to assemble in a single LP, analog era?

Carl was killing it on Surf's Up. And of course Brucey too.