Beach Boys fans - what Brian stuff can't you tolerate?

[toomanyhatz]

Listening to the GV box and realizing I find everything he touched at least decent - 15 Big Ones isn't the greatest, but has a few undeniable songs. His voice is pretty ragged on some of it, but has a lot of charm - particularly on Love You. Whatever inspired stuff they did after that all has Wilson content. "Kokomo" is certainly well-produced and performed, but it's an utter bore. 

I don't want to be one of those "Brian is a genius/everything he does is great" people, but I'm just not finding a lot to contradict that. 

There are some solo albums I don't love - can't think of the last time I pulled out Gettin' in Over My Head, for example - but even that's dull rather than terrible, and (imo) is worse than anything under the Beach Boys banner where he's the main producer/writer.

In fact I'll take it a step farther and say that might be true of Dennis Wilson too (and to a lesser degree, maybe even Carl). 

Please - tell me I'm crazy. I might well be.  

[Charlie O.]

I'll cut the Beach Boys a lot of slack - more than I should, in some cases - for everything up through, let's say, L.A. (Light Album) (1979).

When Brian's first solo album came out, I really really wanted it to be great and I tried hard to convince myself that it was. But it wasn't. Some fabulous moments, and a few songs that might have been semi-magical with the right singer and producer/mixer, but... a bunt instead of a grand slam, to coin a phrase.

I modestly enjoyed some of the stripped-down I Just Wasn't Made For These Times remakes, Smile was fascinating but also more than a little anti-climactic, and somehow I still have never heard That Lucky Old Sun, which a lot of people have told me is his best.

But everything else he's done in the last forty years, with and without the Boys, I've found kinda hard to take.

[Charlie O.]

I'll add that I have seen him live three or four times, and generally enjoyed those shows.

[toomanyhatz]

Get thee to That Lucky Old Sun post-haste! It really is great.

Mind you, I like the first solo album a lot (particularly "There's So Many" rather than the more acclaimed "Love and Mercy"), and seem to be the only one who thinks Orange Crate Art is possibly his most underrated work ever.

Even "That's Why God Made the Radio" is a breath of fresh air to my ears. Certainly compared to anything anyone else associated with the band has come up with.

[Sneelock]

man, I just can't get behind any of his solo stuff save "smile".
most fans had an Ultimate Smile cobbled together in their heads so "more than a little anti-climatic" sounds really fair.
still, I get a real sense of beauty from it. it feels like a labor of love which I think takes the sting off some other things.

I'm on board the Beach Boys Album express through "Holland". I like things about some others but not front to back as albums.

[Charlie O.]

Apr 2, 2020 23:13:46 GMT Sneelock said:

most fans had an Ultimate Smile cobbled together in their heads so "more than a little anti-climatic" sounds really fair.
still, I get a real sense of beauty from it. it feels like a labor of love which I think takes the sting off some other things.

Oh, I'll go along with that, pretty much.

[toomanyhatz]

I always thought Smile was a more appropriate work to revisit than Pet Sounds. I went to the PS show at the Bowl and enjoyed it, but it was unavoidably nostalgia. Smile is so much less about being post-adolescent. It feels perfectly appropriate to be coming from two guys in their 60s.

I was glad Brian got that monkey off his back. I guess I just think VDP is his greatest collaborator, because he serves the art and Brian's friendship. He's not a sycophant or a manipulator.

[tg]

I’m a fan but, I guess, not a huge one. For every bit of genius there seems to be something equally unlistenable. I think even their best albums are only half (or so) great. Doesn’t stop me loving the stuff that I love, though.

[daveythefatboy]

I could make a nice playlist of Brian songs that don’t really work. But none of it falls into the “can’t tolerate” category. At worst, tolerate is exactly what I do.

[~ / % ? *]

Brian seems to be able to turn in a quality enough performance/contribution that believers always tend to overvalue it as genius, and and the rest of the world fails to notice. The truth is somewhere in between, I guess...

[Charlie O.]

Apr 2, 2020 23:02:12 GMT toomanyhatz said:

... and seem to be the only one who thinks Orange Crate Art is possibly his most underrated work ever.

You might then be interested to know that an expanded edition is coming out next month.

theseconddisc.com/2020/04/30/what-a-wonderful-world-omnivore-reissues-expands-brian-wilson-and-van-dyke-parks-orange-crate-art-on-cd-lp/

I wish it included the piano and solo vocal version of the title track, from the I Just Wasn't Made For These Times film (and not included on that soundtrack album).

Me, I think I'd like the album a lot if other people were singing. But that's something a lot of solo BW and Van Dyke Parks albums have in common.

[Deleted]

I'm not a fan and this isn't relevant to the thread but it's the best fit and fans may enjoy watching this snippet - George Martin and Brian Wilson

[sloopjohnc]

Dave, as a friend I want to offer a suggestion. . .

[fearlessfreap]

Honkin Down the Highway is as bad as the worst songs McCartney ever wrote.

[Charlie O.]

Jul 14, 2020 13:23:04 GMT fearlessfreap said:

Honkin Down the Highway is as bad as the worst songs McCartney ever wrote.

Oh, I kinda like that one!

He's done way, WAY worse. (As has McCartney.)