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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Favorite Beach Boys songs
Posted by Anthony Salveggi on Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 8:59 PM
In honor of the recent release of the Beach Boys box set, Political Whore Wayne Garcia and yours truly, humble copy editor Anthony Salveggi, have put together our individual Top 10 lists of our favorite Beach Boys songs.
Anthony's list
10. Our Sweet Love — Carl Wilson’s high vocals sell this gorgeous affirmation of romantic love: “I thought about a summer day/ And how the time just floats away”
9. Disney Girls — Penned by Brian Wilson’s tour replacement, Bruce Johnston: “Oh reality, it’s not for me/ And it makes me laugh”
8. This Whole World — Clocking in at under two minutes, but packed with Brian's genius for melody and orchestration: “You are there like everywhere/ Like everyone you see”
7. 'Til I Die — Try listening to this without your blood running cold: “I’m a leaf on a windy day/ Pretty soon I’ll be blown away”
6. Warmth of the Sun — “I loved like the warmth of the sun/ It won’t ever die”
5. I’m Waiting for the Day — Like nearly everything else on Pet Sounds, pure magic: “He hurt you then, but that’s all gone/ I guess I’m saying you’re the only one”
4. I Can Hear Music — A soaring cut off 1969’s 20/20: “This is the way I always dreamed it would be/ The way that it is, when you are holding me”
3. Please Let Me Wonder — A honey-drenched, hook-filled gem with melancholy lyrics that sound as if they must have been written on a California beach at sunset: “If I’m the one you’re dreaming of/ Please let me wonder, love”
2. Don’t Worry Baby — Sonically stunning layering of vocals and instrumentation: “But she looks in my eyes/ And makes me realize when she says “don’t worry baby.”
1. Caroline, No — See Wayne's description below. This is the track off of Pet Sounds that sent shivers down my spine the first time I heard it: “Break my heart/ I want to go and cry/ It’s so sad to watch a sweet thing die)
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Wayne's List
10. Wouldn’t It Be Nice — “Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true/ run run weee-oooooo”
9. All This Is That — The most obscure cut here, a Mike Love TM effort that is hypnotic, from Carl and the Passions
8. Long Promised Road — A great Carl Wilson composition.
7. Don’t Worry Baby — A simple heartfelt love song. Nothing better than that.
6. Surfer Girl — Cuz it’s all about the sun and sand and boys and girls.
5. Surf's Up — An orchestral tour de force that Van Dyke Parks’ baroque lyrics lift to another level. Leonard Bernstein thought this song was the future of pop music. Unfortunately, he was wrong.
4. 'Til I Die — Yes, zen buddhism makes a wonderfully sad vehicle for Brian accepting the fact that he will be mentally confused and in emotional pain until the day he dies.
3. Friends — The sonic bed here is tremendous, with simple keyboard figures augmented by bass harmonica over waltz time. “I talked your/ folks out of/ making you/ cut off your hair.”
2. Caroline, No — Brian’s whine on “No” is an indication of the pain that he poured into his music. I remember seeing an interview with his ex-wife, who says that part of the song always runs right through her, it was such a personal statement about their relationship at the time.
1. Warmth of the Sun — Written the evening that JFK was assassinated, Wilson’s simple inverted chord structure and Love’s heartfelt lyrics perfectly capture the start of one era at the end of another, and the trademark layered vocals and soaring falsetto continue to stun the listener.
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Comments (15)
Showing 1-15 of 15
"god only knows" it's perfect. plus petra haden does a glorious a cappella rendition in which she sings all the instruments... http://petrahadenmusic.com/God_Only_Knows.mp3 perfect as well.
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That is a brilliant rendition. It was tough leaving that song off my list (and Wayne's, I imagine).
"Feel Flows" was one of the 15 or so Wayne mentioned when compiling his list, so it definitely received consideration.
This goes back a ways " The Lonely Sea" also Shes not the Lttle Girl I once Knew" since it contains the begings of Brians stretch to genius that followed
Nice post, fellas. Think I'd have to go with "Wouldn't It be Nice" as my No. 1 with "God Only Knows," "Good Vibrations" (love that theremin) and "Caroline, No" def in my Top 5.
Wade, it's actually not a theremin in 'good vibrations', it's a ribbon controller, which is a ribbon of conductive metal that you run your finger over to change the pitch of the wave form.
Gabe, You better submit a correction then to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Vibrations#Recording
Gabe, wade is mostly correct, you're talking semantics. And, if you're going to get down to the nitty gritty of it, and try to drop knowledge, at least make it CORRECT knowledge. Although a ribbon controller is used in today's machines to get the distinctive sound you hear, it is not the actually source in the Beach Boys recording... "The next time you hear the original recording of "Good Vibrations", instead of just saying “that's not a Theremin” also mention "it's not a Tannerin", an instrument that came later to be used as a substitute on Beach Boy recordings. What you do hear in the original "Good Vibrations" is called "The Box" a design that came about by Paul Tanner's observation of Thereminist Samuel Hoffman in Hollywood having difficulty in setting up his theremin. The internet is full of myth and misinformation, why not give credit to the fine work of one musician, Dr. Paul Tanner who captured the voice of the theremin and put it in his box. This has brought more worldwide awareness to the theremin instrument than anything had before. Every good performer has his own set of onstage illusions. Dr. Paul Tanner is a true theremin success story! "The Box" used tube/valves as its active component for oscillation & amplification and a potentiometer for pitch control with a cable & pulley configuration. This cable setup was similar to what antique radios use to move the tuning pointer in a straight line across the dial face. Much later "The Box" as Paul still calls it today would be referred to as the electro-Theremin by Hollywood executives while today's "simulations" are called a Tannerin. The Tannerin uses a resistive ribbon contact strip for the pitch control and solid state components for oscillation and amplification. After Good Vibrations was recorded with the "Beach Boys" using "The Box" they needed a way to duplicate the sound on the road. This is where Robert Moog was called upon with the first Tannerin and later on the "Beach Boys" used a design constructed by the talented David Miller. Dr. Paul Tanner is more importantly recognized for his many years of trombone playing in the Glenn Miller Band and his teaching of music. He has taught over 75,000 students music and jazz in his 23 year career at UCLA. Dr. Tanner today lectures on Cruise Ships about jazz and the big band era." http://www.oldtemecula.com/theremin/tanner/index.htm The more you know... The whole Universe is a large joke. Everything in the Universe are just subdivisions of this joke. So why take anything too serious. -- Frank Zappa
I feel like I’m often looking for interesting things to read about a variety of subjects, but I manage to include your blog among my reads every day because you have interesting entries that I look forward to. Here’s hoping there’s a lot more great material coming!
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