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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jan 7, 2019 20:15:06 GMT -5
The first of three albums released in 1964, Shut Down Volume 2 features hits the Fun Fun Fun and Don't Worry Baby, which charted at #4 and #24 respectively. Also on the album is fan favorite The Warmth of the Sun. Attachments:
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Post by kds on Jan 12, 2019 23:41:07 GMT -5
Yeah, there's some filler - Denny's Drums, a weak Louie Louie, the title track, and a talk track. But the highs are so good with DWB, Warmth of the sun, and the super underrated In the Parkin' Lot.
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Departed
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2019 8:43:19 GMT -5
I agree with pretty much everything kds said. I gave SDV2 an 8/10 for its crown jewels: Fun Fun Fun, Don't Worry Baby, In the Parkin' Lot, The Warmth of the Sun, Why Do Fools Fall in Love and Keep and Eye on Summer. A minor jewel for me is This Car of Mine, which may not be a masterpiece, but it's really adorable. Dennis' vocal on it just kills me.
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Post by Jason (The Real Beach Boy) on Mar 28, 2019 11:25:23 GMT -5
6.5. The first side and Why Do Fools Fall in Love is great, but man, does it ever go off the cliff after that. If not for the remainder of the album, it could have been their greatest album to that point. Still, an album with the opening duo and The Warmth of the Sun will never be a "bad album" by any stretch.
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scorho
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Post by scorho on Feb 16, 2020 20:10:07 GMT -5
The highlights far outweigh the filler. One of my favorites. If all it had were The Warmth of the SUn and DOn't Worry Baby, I'd probably still give it a 7 at least, maybe an 8, but it has so much more. 9/10
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Post by dauber on Jun 16, 2021 15:05:59 GMT -5
Another of my reviews copied over from PSF...
I'm giving this a 7. I think it is an underrated, underappreciated album, really. And by the title, we know it's the Beach Boys' second attempt to stamp out the Capitol Shut Down compilation. Track-by-track:
"Fun, Fun, Fun" -- how can you go wrong with this song as the opener (or even if it had been the closer)?? A song that should have been a #1 hit if it hadn't been for those pesky Beatles! (car song #1)
"Don't Worry, Baby" -- this, folks, is the song that made me a fan in 1989, from that first harmony that burst out of the speakers of the hand-me-down stereo I was using at the time. (car song #2)
"In The Parkin' Lot" -- a bit dippy, but short enough so that it's over before you can dislike it. Great harmonies. (car song #3)
"'Cassius' Love vs. 'Sonny' Wilson" -- Just from the title, you know this is filler. I always say...The Beach Boys just cannot act (except maybe for Mike), and the evidence goes way back, starting here. I have a love-hate relationship with this, and some may have a hate Love relationship with it. Sometimes I find it amusing, sometimes I painfully wonder why amid the back-catalog of tunes Brian already had they couldn't pull from that. It is cool to hear alternate renditions of other songs, although it does make me cringe when they're about to rehearse the ending of "Little Deuce Coupe" but do the beginning. (I guess since this includes bits of "Little Deuce Coupe," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Surfer Girl" [which mentions a woody], and "Shut Down," we can technically tally this as car song #4.)
"The Warmth of the Sun" -- affectionately abbreviated as "TWOTS," an all-time classic. So beautiful in every way. You can hear the sunset over the beach on this.
"This Car of Mine" -- True story: when I was a weekend jock at a modern rock station in the '90s, I got a call from a listener who wanted to hear this song because he was in the midst of rejuvenating his car and wanted an appropriate song. Sadly, we didn't have any Beach Boys stuff at all in the station, so he said, "How about 'Red Barchetta' instead then?" I could fulfill that one. Love this track, though. Gotta love the homage to Dion. Sounds like filler, but hey, it's definitely sincere. (car song #5)
"Why Do Fools Fall In Love" -- Brian does Spector perfectly. I don't like this track, though....because it's so Spector. (I don't like Spector's stuff except for the Christmas album.)
"Pom, Pom Play Girl" -- what was it with semi-early Beach Boys tracks and the weird punctuation?? Oh well...great demonstration of harmonies, but obviously a throwaway track....and sung by Carl, despite the 1990/2001 twofer's liner notes saying it's Brian. And of course, many of us have heard the Butler University recording of Carl singing a verse of this.
"Keep An Eye On Summer" -- Ehh, I could take or leave this track. I...wouldn't go so far as to call it filler, as it sounds like there was too much effort in this recording, but...I never knew what to make of it.
"Shut Down, Part II" -- I have a feeling I'm in the minority, but I love this one! Very catchy riff throughout, and you can't say that Carl doesn't play the hell out of it. I also like the unusual chord change in which instead of going from the V7 chord (E7 in this case) to the IV (D) chord, they go to the VI chord (F)...who does that?!! Was Carl trying to emulate his older brother or something??? And I looooooooooove me the double-tracked drums. (Even though it's not technically a "song," I'm going to count this as car song #6.)
"Louie, Louie" -- again, I think I'm in the minority here, but I love the Beach Boys' rendition of this. (For those of you who don't know....for most of the song, the arrangement -- both instrumental and vocal -- is based on Richard Berry's original, and the guitar solo came from the more well-known version by The Kingsmen.) Great harmonies, great Carl vocal. (Two leads for Carl on an album this early!) You want to hear something fun? Take the stereo version and phase out (remember how we would OOPS a recording by crossing speaker wires?) the center channel.
"Denny's Drums" -- I don't remember if it was in AGD's book, but I remember reading somewhere that this might be the first drums-only track on a rock'n'roll album. Well, it might be, but it isn't: "Nothing But Drums, Part 1" and "Nothing But Drums, Part 2" by Adrian and the Sunsets, from their Breakthrough album, pre-dates it by a year, give or take. And in fact...the second half of "Denny's Drums" sounds like it was actually a cover of one of these tracks. (Don't remember which one off the top of my head; haven't listened in a while.) I don't know what to make of "Denny's Drums." If they were trying to show off Dennis's drum capabilities, I'd hope they would have had him do more takes, as there are some obvious mistakes and lapses in tempo.
But I gave this album a lot of spins in 1990, as Surfer Girl/Shut Down Volume 2 was the first "twofer" CD I bought, shortly after getting a CD player for Christmas. I was already familiar with Surfer Girl, thanks to the cassette copy at the public library (where I worked at the time), so I couldn't wait to hear the other album. I actually liked it, and liked the album cover as well.
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Post by Maci Eascra on Nov 12, 2022 18:45:43 GMT -5
Yeah, there's some filler - Denny's Drums, a weak Louie Louie, the title track, and a talk track. But the highs are so good with DWB, Warmth of the sun, and the super underrated In the Parkin' Lot. 9 I agree, would go 7/10 instead, while acknowledging the highs are truly impressive here. Don't Worry Baby and In the Warmth of the Sun hint at a coming maturation, and Fun, Fun, Fun is a classic that they still use to close concerts. That tells you something about where that song stands in their catalog. Like a lot of their earlier work, there is a lot of filler. But the sheer amount of production early (10 albums between 1962 and 1965) tells you the reason. |
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Post by boogieboarder on Nov 12, 2022 19:24:31 GMT -5
Seven of the songs are absolute Brian Wilson classics. That alone makes this album a ten. Add the cover “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” and throw out the rest of the LP, it’s still a ten.
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Post by Awesoman on Feb 27, 2023 8:19:07 GMT -5
At least half the album ranges from good to excellent while the other half is mostly the kind of filler you would inevitably expect from the band. "Fun, Fun, Fun" of course is as iconic a Beach Boys song as you can get; however it's one of those songs I've heard so many times in my life that (like the Eagles' "Hotel California") I don't really need to listen to it any further unless it's a cover or a live version. "Don't Worry Baby" still holds up much better for me though with a classic lead vocal from Brian and a memorable vocal arrangement. Their cover of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" is fantastic as well. Perhaps the unsuspecting highlight of this album for me though would be "The Warmth Of The Sun" which contains some of the best lyrics Mike Love ever contributed. "Keep An Eye On Summer" and "In The Parkin' Lot" are both underrated gems that tend to get overshadowed by the hits from this album.
On the downside you have their oft-criticized cover of "Louie, Louie", which successfully strips the song of its drunken frat boy charm. I never was interested in "Pom Pom Play Girl" and the rest of the album does little for me either. But the good stuff on here is really, really good.
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