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Post by Vale on Sept 19, 2019 14:48:32 GMT -5
Im not a huge fan of the backing track either. I think its an average song that gets a big left from the vocal coda. In real time I liked it because it was timely with the creation of the EPA (which was better then) and a heightened awareness of environmental issues. I was surprised to hear it on MIC - and really do love it. I love this track too, both versions. Thumbs up!
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Hydra
Kahuna
Posts: 222
Likes: 157
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Surf's Up
Apr 24, 2020 12:22:30 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Hydra on Apr 24, 2020 12:22:30 GMT -5
Could have been so much better. For starters this is a good album but missed 2 big things, Fourth Of July which should be in for Take A Load Off Your Feet and Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again which should replace Student Demonstration Time. Now getting to the album it starts off with Don't Go Near The Water which is a pretty song with an amazing outro, Long Promised Road is amazing and probably Carl's second best song, Take A Load is just dumb and belongs on a Sunflower leftovers compilation, Disney Girls is Bruce's best Beach Boys song, it is just fantastic, Student Demonstration Time is laughable, Feel Flows kicks off side two in good style followed by Al's interesting but also kinda boring Looking At Tomorrow, A Day In The Life Of A Tree is OK but should have been sung by anybody else other than Jack Reiley and the rest of the album speaks for itself, it's Til I Die and Surfs Up, enough said, two of the best Beach Boys songs ever recorded.
Track Ratings
1. Don't Go Near The Water 8/10 2. Long Promised Road 10/10 3. Take A Load Off Your Feet 4/10 4. Disney Girls 9/10 5. Student Demonstration Time 4/10 6. Feel Flows 10/10 7. Lookin At Tomorrow 5/10 8. A Day In The Life Of A Tree 6/10 9. Til I Die 10/10 10. Surfs Up 10/10
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Post by drbeachboy (Dirk) on Apr 24, 2020 16:51:44 GMT -5
Could have been so much better. For starters this is a good album but missed 2 big things, Fourth Of July which should be in for Take A Load Off Your Feet and Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again which should replace Student Demonstration Time. Now getting to the album it starts off with Don't Go Near The Water which is a pretty song with an amazing outro, Long Promised Road is amazing and probably Carl's second best song, Take A Load is just dumb and belongs on a Sunflower leftovers compilation, Disney Girls is Bruce's best Beach Boys song, it is just fantastic, Student Demonstration Time is laughable, Feel Flows kicks off side two in good style followed by Al's interesting but also kinda boring Looking At Tomorrow, A Day In The Life Of A Tree is OK but should have been sung by anybody else other than Jack Reiley and the rest of the album speaks for itself, it's Til I Die and Surfs Up, enough said, two of the best Beach Boys songs ever recorded. Track Ratings 1. Don't Go Near The Water 8/10 2. Long Promised Road 10/10 3. Take A Load Off Your Feet 4/10 4. Disney Girls 9/10 5. Student Demonstration Time 4/10 6. Feel Flows 10/10 7. Lookin At Tomorrow 5/10 8. A Day In The Life Of A Tree 6/10 9. Til I Die 10/10 10. Surfs Up 10/10 Blame Dennis.
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Post by Moon Dawg on Aug 22, 2020 10:28:51 GMT -5
It's fairly simple: leave the original ten song lineup of SURF'S UP as is, while adding "(Wouldn't It Be Nice to) Live Again" as a coda for the album proper, giving Dennis a voice on the album and ironically the last word.
"4th of July" is a bit more problematic to fit in...it could place between "DGNTW" and "LPR" or serve as a bridge between the wistful "DG" and the strident "SDT." Being somewhat unfinished, I can leave this one off my custom version of SURF'S UP.
Leave "Feet" and "SDT" alone. The former adds a needed lighter touch to a somewhat dark album for The Beach Boys. Is there truer wisdom than "better take care of your life/cause nobody else will."? The latter is good rock & roll in my view. Carl's guitar is fine, and Mike's message (to paraphrase "There is a lot of weird sh#t going down, but do not get hurt or messed up in a riot") resonates today, right now.
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scorho
Grommet
Posts: 26
Likes: 32
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Post by scorho on May 28, 2022 17:29:26 GMT -5
Coming back to this one way late because this has been on my mind lately.
I'm really surprised Disney Girls made this album. It's a nice enough song, but its message is pretty much exactly opposite of the message Rieley and the boys were supposedly trying to send with this record. As a result, it sounds way out of place to me. If we could warp time a bit and drop DG on Sunflower instead of Tears----one of my least favorite songs in the entire canon--I'd possibly like it better. It fits better on Sunflower.
I used to like Bruce's performance of DG live back in the day and I haven't objected to it on comp albums, so it's not really the song itself that makes me want to skip it on SU. It's the wrong song for that album.
As for Feet, I love the playful production, even if the song is dorky but not dorky enough to be a comedic classic. No, I wouldn't put it in a playlist (is that we call mix tapes these days?) to try to convert my non-believing friends by showing them that the Beach Boys aren't always the band they think it is. But it fits the hippie aesthetic of the album. It's the weird kind of song nobody but the Beach Boys would have done.
SDT: OK, it does sound pretty cool cranked up with my mind cranked down. Not a favorite, and if I ever actually made a list of all BB songs in order of preference, this would easily end up in the bottom 20% or so. But I will say this. Back in high school, we had a class that was essentially the history of rock 'n' roll. I used to be the teacher's aid while I was in school, so I was in that class at least three times, and at least twice I did week-long presentations of the Beach Boys myself. I remember playing SDT at least once, and the burnouts who took the class for fairly easy credits perked up. This one guy practically jumped out of his seat, digging the song. Considering that he was usually pretty, um, "mellow," getting any kind of reaction out of him was kind of a big deal. He dug SDT and I Want You (She's So Heavy) by that other band.
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Surf's Up
May 29, 2022 12:34:47 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Awesoman on May 29, 2022 12:34:47 GMT -5
Still one of the group's best albums post 1960's. It has an uneven track listing but the good stuff is really good. This album along with 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 best depicts the band behaving as a band and not just depending on Brian Wilson to do all the heavy lifting. With the notable exception of Dennis, everyone else gets their own moment in the spotlight and (usually) gets to shine. Carl in particular gets to put out some of his best material he ever wrote. But it's unfortunate that Dennis refused his material for this album as his songs would have strengthened it considerably.
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Post by filledeplage on May 29, 2022 12:52:12 GMT -5
It's fairly simple: leave the original ten song lineup of SURF'S UP as is, while adding "(Wouldn't It Be Nice to) Live Again" as a coda for the album proper, giving Dennis a voice on the album and ironically the last word. "4th of July" is a bit more problematic to fit in...it could place between "DGNTW" and "LPR" or serve as a bridge between the wistful "DG" and the strident "SDT." Being somewhat unfinished, I can leave this one off my custom version of SURF'S UP.
Leave "Feet" and "SDT" alone. The former adds a needed lighter touch to a somewhat dark album for The Beach Boys. Is there truer wisdom than "better take care of your life/cause nobody else will."? The latter is good rock & roll in my view. Carl's guitar is fine, and Mike's message (to paraphrase "There is a lot of weird sh#t going down, but do not get hurt or messed up in a riot") resonates today, right now. Easy for us to say...and I include myself. It was risky after Sunflower’s non-US promotion. Fred Vail told the tale. The UK seems to filter out what is good from not; smarter than the US. There are what appear to be UK promos for Sunflower on Feel Flows. Retrospectively, a double album is what should have been with room for everyone to expand their marks on the album and would have caused far less controversy and discord. It should have been their room-to-grow, especially for Dennis album. Feet is kind of a metaphor for personal responsibility. I always sang “wrinkled like a raisin if you stay too long” in the tub to my kids. It’s still cute. SDT was a necessary anthem for the college students who were buyers. Finally, they knew the BBs heard them and it resonated with the college audiences. Sometimes they were overpowered by the factory narrative that they had not moved on from the early 60s stereotype. And sweet-and-gentle DG was the contrast to harsh SDT.
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Post by AGD on May 30, 2022 12:33:07 GMT -5
STD ?? 🤔😳😂
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Post by E on May 30, 2022 12:53:41 GMT -5
I think the sense of past innocence that Disney Girls conveys fits that feeling of loss that some of the others songs have
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Post by filledeplage on May 30, 2022 20:37:54 GMT -5
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Post by lonelysummer on Jun 6, 2022 12:33:10 GMT -5
The only song here I would remove is the stupid feet song. It's only a 10 track album, though, so no reason we can't add a couple of Dennis songs.
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Post by boogieboarder on Jun 7, 2022 13:56:46 GMT -5
This album showed what The Beach Boys could do with each member contributing songs instead of relying on only Brian as a songwriter. However, there seems to be some sort of thing where Dennis is missing from certain Beach Boys albums, and those albums suffer because of it. Then he comes back again. Whatever is going on in the band, include Dennis, please.
"Surf's Up" is a great song, another preview of how great Smile could have been, during a time when so much of it was still unheard and unavailable.
"A Day in the Life of a Tree" is a nice Brian song, but became a WTF moment, because of Reiley's vocal. One of the Beach Boys should have sung it.
Two of Carl Wilson's greatest songs are here - a great debut.
Al's songs are good.
I've read where Mike Love didn't even like one of Brian's greatest songs "When I Die," because it was a downer song, but don't you think "Student Demonstration Time" is a downer song, too? Besides being poorly re-written, they should have just recorded the original lyrics! And wouldn't you say "Don't Go Near the Water" is a downer song?
I've posted previously that I don't like "Disney Girls," and I got roasted for it. No reason to re-iterate my reasons here.
So, a mixed bag, but seven of the 10 songs are really quite good, if not fabulous, and one other great song could have had a better lead vocal. How many albums by other groups have 7 or 8 out of 10 really good songs? I'll rate the album an 8.
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Post by filledeplage on Jun 7, 2022 15:48:37 GMT -5
This album showed what The Beach Boys could do with each member contributing songs instead of relying on only Brian as a songwriter. However, there seems to be some sort of thing where Dennis is missing from certain Beach Boys albums, and those albums suffer because of it. Then he comes back again. Whatever is going on in the band, include Dennis, please. "Surf's Up" is a great song, another preview of how great Smile could have been, during a time when so much of it was still unheard and unavailable. "A Day in the Life of a Tree" is a nice Brian song, but became a WTF moment, because of Reiley's vocal. One of the Beach Boys should have sung it. Two of Carl Wilson's greatest songs are here - a great debut. Al's songs are good. I've read where Mike Love didn't even like one of Brian's greatest songs "When I Die," because it was a downer song, but don't you think "Student Demonstration Time" is a downer song, too? Besides being poorly re-written, they should have just recorded the original lyrics! And wouldn't you say "Don't Go Near the Water" is a downer song? I've posted previously that I don't like "Disney Girls," and I got roasted for it. No reason to re-iterate my reasons here. So, a mixed bag, but seven of the 10 songs are really quite good, if not fabulous, and one other great song could have had a better lead vocal. How many albums by other groups have 7 or 8 out of 10 really good songs? I'll rate the album an 8. Art and music strike different people differently and we come away with different impressions and concepts. I happened to have just finished a lit (kiddy lit) for early childhood and we read a lot of great stuff and a lot of the stories and folk tales had a theme of 3, so when I heard the cork, leaf, and the rock and the way that Brian analogized that theme of 3, along with the haunting melody I loved it instantly. But I looked at it more from a philosophical standpoint. And, still do. It seemed that in terms of the world, we are all just a tiny part of the cosmos. I love Feet, always did, and sang it to my kids...wrinkled like a raisin. If their feet were wrinkled like a raisin their bath was over. The test for me, in the LP/record player inconvenient days was that I did not take the time to skip over the tracks, and listened to it all. Some parts harsh, others delicious and almost funny, but grounded in reality and I mean both Student Demonstration Time which I lived through and nostalgic, Disney Girls which I also was part of, watching that Mickey Mouse club in Black and White in the late 50s. They wrote for their audience who had all kinds of experiences by that time. It was no longer the fun and games of SUSA. They were psychologically very heavy and intense times. I think it struck a great balance. It should have been a double LP, with more of Dennis’ stuff but I can now see that that was way too risky, given the way Sunflower was not promoted. Don’t Go Near the Water is sort of prophetic. Some who are or were in denial about pollution would never want to talk about it because they would rather party. If you don’t even have the conversation, which doesn't have to be a crusade, does a song from a rocker, help wake you up?
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Post by AGD on Jun 8, 2022 0:50:47 GMT -5
I've read where Mike Love didn't even like one of Brian's greatest songs "When I Die," because it was a downer song... Can't say I've ever heard this one - how does it go ?
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Post by boogieboarder on Jun 8, 2022 4:44:37 GMT -5
I've read where Mike Love didn't even like one of Brian's greatest songs "When I Die," because it was a downer song... Can't say I've ever heard this one - how does it go ? It’s quite similar to “‘Til I die.”
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Post by Maci Eascra on Nov 12, 2022 15:24:47 GMT -5
It's one of their best and really captures a maturing band, a Carl Wilson led Beach Boys, that is pushing themselves to work at the top of their creative abilities. Jack Rieley is such a fascinating character in the Beach Boys story, and while he inflated his resume, he clearly understood what they were trying to do with Sunflower and it launches them into another period of tremendous creativity. Brian fades post-Pet Sounds as Smile collapses. The band tries to get what they can out of the remnants, but this era is something more, something different, and truly special. Surf's Up isn't some big selling breakthrough album. But the critical regard is well deserved, and the legacy of the band, and not just Brian, is elevated as result. Brian contributes in many ways, even if he seems to be retreating a bit after Sunflower does poorly. Surf's Up is damn good, explores textures, both lyrically and sonic, and I can't think of 3 better songs that ever ended an album. It's one of my favorite albums and not just one of my favorite from the Beach Boys.
This praise said, it's not a perfect album, and perhaps that is what makes it great. Long Promised Road is just Carl at his absolute best, the usual schmaltz of Bruce actually works really well on Disney Girls (1957) , Feel Flows is an impressive prog-rock turn for the band, Til I Die is special, goofy songs like Take A Load Off Your Feet and A Day in the Life of a Tree somehow work here. And Surf's Up is an absolute masterpiece, and the production and vocal work here is not only special, but gives everyone in 1971 a glimpse into what could've been with Smile. It's Brian's magnum opus and only a brother could bring that to completion. And so much hate for Student Demonstration Time. OK. In and of itself, it's an obvious re-working of Riot in Cell Block Number 9, it's a bit heavy handed, but it's far from the worse the band did. It just doesn't fit with the album, so in this sense it's a bit jarring and distracts from the themes explored. But it's a group project, truly, and Mike got his moment. What that reveals about Mike Love is why he's the villain in a story that also features an abusive father, a controlling psychiatrist, and Charles Manson. But Jesus doesn't get to where he is without Judas. Just sayin'.
9/10 in my view. And like so many Beach Boys products, even better was there for the taking. 4th of July belonged on this record thematically, in my view, and they even had Sound of Free also in reserve. Take the weakest tracks off (SDT, Feet), add these two, or even just one, and while I get their concern about the darkness of tone, sometimes you just need to go for it. But imperfections aside, it's a special album, and worthy of the revisiting and reassessment that it is receiving.
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