The Beach Boys: DO IT AGAIN

Summary

Jokermen Podcast: The Beach Boys - DO IT AGAIN

Date: April 20, 2026
Episode Theme: Revisiting (Re-DOING) Four Underappreciated Beach Boys Albums

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jokermen returns to the Beach Boys discography for a “do over,” re-examining four albums they initially covered earlier in their Beach Boys journey: All Summer Long (1964), 20/20 (1969), 15 Big Ones (1976), and L.A. (Light Album) (1979). The hosts reflect on how their opinions have (or haven’t) changed after years of deeper listening, recent Beach Boys immersion, and post-series perspective. They dig into what makes these “contested” records unique, why they're worth revisiting, and ruminate on the odd arc of a band whose career is defined as much by restlessness and reinvention as by perfection.

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Concept and Purpose

• Reason for Revisiting: Building on a Jokermen tradition of “revisited” album episodes, the hosts apply a retrospective lens to four Beach Boys albums that sparked confusion, division, and lukewarm responses on first listen.
  • “It's a time on Jokerman tradition, listening to albums and then listening to them later and then saying different things about them.” (Brian, 01:28)
  • The Beach Boys themselves embody the act of endless repetition: “The Beach Boys have spent the last 60 years doing it again and again.” (Brian, 01:35)
• Episode Structure: Each album is tackled in chronological order. They reflect on where opinions have shifted, highlight moments of charm, and dig into what it means to be a long-term, sometimes conflicted, fan.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. All Summer Long (1964)

Timestamps: 06:22 - 13:18

• Initial reaction: Universally beloved, but previously seen by the hosts as “Beach Boys 1.0” – early, innocent, and perhaps lacking depth.
  • “There is a little bit of that certainly in some of the subject matter. But, man, this is like, maybe the most satisfying listen, top to bottom... sometimes it feels like that these days.” (Brian, 07:06)
• Reappraisal of “Girls on the Beach”:
  • Once dismissed as “Surfer Girl 2,” now seen as a mature, lush composition:
  • “Even though it is kind of just Brian plagiarizing himself after a year or two, he's doing it in such a fully featured, self assured style...I've come to see the light on ‘Girls on the Beach.’” (Brian, 08:23)
  • “I'm much more sympathetic to it first off...there is a case to be made that this is a very different song from ‘Surfer Girl.’” (Co-host/Mike, 08:45)
• Changing perspective: Time smooths away criticism and brings appreciation for “throwaways.”
  • “Even these lesser songs...coming back to it now, it's like. It's just like a perfect bronze bust of 1960s pop music.” (Brian, 11:37)
• Album’s context: Seen as a transitional sweet spot—inventive but still plugged into their early charm.
  • “All Summer Long to me feels like a coherent album...in a way that maybe I didn't quite appreciate initially.” (Brian, 12:13)
  • “All Summer Long, the song, is about as high up on my Beach Boys song, personal opinion...the xylophone, man.” (Brian, 12:40)

2. 20/20 (1969)

Timestamps: 13:18 - 25:55

• First take: Criticized for its incoherence and lack of Brian, now appreciated, especially after surviving the later, stranger albums.
  • “I think the issue I had with it was just the lack of cohesiveness...But, man, listening back to it now after ‘Unleash the Love’...2020 sounds like a masterpiece to me now.” (Brian, 13:22)
• Disagreement on tracks remains:
  • “All I want to do.”
  • “I was kind of like, hate it.” (Co-host/Mike, 15:05)
  • “Oh, man, I was into it. I was so into it...” (Brian, 15:09)
• Changing opinions on love/hate tracks:
  • “You still hate Bluebirds Over the Mountain?”
  • “Not at all. It's great.” (16:21–16:27)
  • “Maybe I. I could sense that like this was...just yet to ripen for you.” (Co-host/Mike, 17:22)
• Still “wallpaper music”: Some instrumentals still don’t win over everyone.
  • “‘Nearest Faraway Place’...I always found it to be wallpaper music. You know, it sounds like those napkins in a fancy bathroom...” (Co-host/Mike, 16:34)
• Unique charm in chaos:
  • “There's a way of being charmed by it that isn't just pure bafflement. And then you even start to accept the insanity...” (Co-host/Mike, 18:30)
  • “2020 is...kind of a preview of what the Beach Boys are gonna be for the rest of their career. Way more 2000s type stuff from 1969 on than there is Pet Sounds...” (Brian, 19:47)
• Lesson on appreciating late-period BBs:
  • “The sooner you can get an understanding of the inner turmoil that created this album, the better you can more fully appreciate...the rest of their catalog from that point on.” (Co-host/Mike, 21:14)

3. 15 Big Ones (1976)

Timestamps: 25:55 - 40:39

• The “Candy” record: Seen as unsatisfying and over-sweet, a “plate of cheese puffs”—fun in theory, but unfulfilling as a meal.
  • “I can't just, like, sit here and eat a whole plate of cheese puffs and say, that was a great meal.” (Co-host/Mike, 30:03)
• Covers & Originals: Half covers, half originals; the album's confusion highlighted as an editing and production failure more than a songwriting one.
  • “I think 15 Big Ones is sort of a uniquely poor snapshot of how good the band was at this time...an editing and a, like, directing, producing failure.” (Brian, 39:07)
• Selected track-by-track reactions:
  • “Rock and roll music”—still “indigestible” (Co-host/Mike, 31:02), though weirdly compelling.
  • “Had to Phone Ya”—appreciated for sounding like “Friends.”
  • “Chapel of Love”—formerly reviled, now “off the wall and...shining in my ears. It's an uncanny listening experience.” (Brian, 32:12)
• Charm in the schlock: A place for even the lesser oddities; “Sometimes there's just like an ineffable sense of charm that redeems certain songs, certain recordings from being, like, disagreeable.” (Co-host/Mike, 36:27)
• Comparison to Dylan’s “knocked out loaded/down in the groove” albums: Flawed, but can be a fun listen.
  • “I know this is not these artists at their peak, but sometimes I'm just sitting there in my car and I think, oh, you know what? I'm listening to that record and I have a great time listening to it.” (Brian, 39:44)
• What’s a “big one” anyway?
  • “15 big ones. Some of these aren't even very big, I gotta say. ‘TM Song’, a minute, 38 seconds...questionable advertising there.” (Brian, 41:03)

4. L.A. (Light Album) (1979)

Timestamps: 41:25 - 54:18

• Compared to MIU Album: Both represent the Beach Boys’ sometimes aimless, fractured “late period.”
  • “MIU and the Light Album...are like the dark triad version of Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends.” (Co-host/Mike, 42:06)
  • “They're gruesome too.” (Co-host/Mike, 44:06)
• Sequencing woes:
  • “I think this album's all fucked up sequencing wise.” (Brian, 47:17)
• Track takes:
  • “Lady Linda”—Groovy, based on Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.”
    “That's good. That's such a groovy song. I love it.” (Brian, 48:06)
  • Middle of the album bogs down: too many Dennis tracks in a row.
    • “I was kind of like two Dennis...” (Co-host/Mike, 48:49)
• Dennis Wilson’s “dry-aged” voice:
  • “If you like your Dennis voice kind of like on its way to be. You like it sort of dry, aged...It's kind of funky, but it's. It's not quite sad. It's just seasoned.” (Co-host/Mike, 49:45)
• A “spiritual yacht rock” moment:
  • “It's got a little bit of the yacht rock, light type thing, it's got a little bit of the spiritual banger thing, to use your terminology...” (Brian, 50:43)
  • “Spiritual yacht rock.” (Co-host/Mike, 50:46)
• Appreciating the late ‘70s albums: More nourishment and variety than MIU, but still “flawed,” clunky, and a product of some of the band's darkest times.
  • “Light album...it's got. There's just something there to this album. It's kind of. There's something for me to sink my teeth into in a way that there is not really on miu.” (Brian, 51:38)

5. On Revisiting and Fan Mindset

Timestamps: 54:18 - End

• Comfort in the odd/old: These flawed, sometimes lazy records, like fading TV procedurals, become comfort food.
  • “Listening to some of these Beach Boys albums...is to me it's a little bit like watching Streets of San Francisco. It's kind of like comfort food. It's not something that is the heights of the medium...but it still charms me and it's enjoyable.” (Brian, 56:08)
• Charm in the small, weird moments:
  • “A lot of this Beach Boys music got out competed for, you know, very clear good reasons in many cases. But it still charms me and it's enjoyable. And it's something that sometimes I just wanna. I just wanna listen to Full Sail. I just wanna listen to Baby Blue.” (Brian, 57:22)
• Existential take on the “pointless” re-listening act:
  • “That's kind of the ultimate truth of this, isn't it? That, like, of course it was pointless in some way to be doing this again. And yet...there is a reason to do these things, which is no reason at all. Always finding new wonders, even in the things that challenge you by having really no reason to be produced.” (Co-host/Mike, 58:26)

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• On Re-Evaluation:
  “We didn't really do this for the Lew and John series, I'm realizing, but we did that with the Bob series...some of our best conversations.” (Brian, 01:26)

• On “Girls on the Beach”:
  “I've come to see the light on ‘Girls on the Beach’, I guess, is what I would say.” (Brian, 08:23)

• On Beating Up “All Summer Long”:
  “Any boredom or indifference I felt about All Summer Long is now like completely neutral to positive.” (Co-host/Mike, 09:08)

• On Later Beach Boys Chaotic Albums:
  “It's like the sooner you can get an understanding of the inner turmoil that created this album, the better you can more fully appreciate the rest of their catalog from that point on.” (Co-host/Mike, 21:14)

• On 15 Big Ones as “Candy”:
  “I can't just, like, sit here and and eat a whole plate of cheese puffs and say, that was a great meal.” (Co-host/Mike, 30:03)

• Evaluating “Chapel of Love”:
  “I'm into it now. It's so off the wall...an uncanny listening experience.” (Brian, 32:12)

• What Makes These Albums Compelling:
  “Just the fact that it's weird doesn't make it good, ipso facto. But...you listen to ‘Rock and Roll Music’ from 15 big ones, you are gonna remember the experience.” (Brian, 34:58)

• Late-period Listening as Comfort Food:
  “Listening to some of these Beach Boys albums...is a little bit like watching Streets of San Francisco. It's kind of like comfort food.” (Brian, 56:08)

• On Pointlessness as a Virtue:
  “Of course it was pointless in some way to be doing this again. And yet...there is a reason to do these things, which is no reason at all. Always finding new wonders, even in the things that challenge you by having really no reason to be produced.” (Co-host/Mike, 58:26)

• On Repetition:
  “Do it again. Doing is not the most inspiring way to live your life...But what's the alternative?” (Brian, 59:19)

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Memorable Moments

• Deep Sincerity for “All Summer Long”: Brian, moved by how the album’s melodies and harmonies stand up, especially “All Summer Long” and “Girls On The Beach.” (12:13–12:40)
• Fondness (and Distaste) for “Weird” Late Material: Comparing “15 Big Ones” to Dylan’s most awkward late-career works—sometimes just for the oddity.
• Wild Honey Redemption:
  • “I've developed enough to now look back at that and see that that was absurd to say...they're very well crafted and good songs. Wild Honey. I will say overall, I think I was not being very fair to.” (Co-host/Mike, 26:38)
• “Cake” and “Candy” metaphors: The hosts run wild comparing weak albums to junk food, jello, even crab mousse.
• The “Initialism” Sidebar: A funny interlude about album titles, acronyms vs. initialisms. (42:50–43:04)
• Cop Show Comfort Zone: Extended analogy about the similarities between listening to weird Beach Boys records and watching forgotten 1970s TV procedurals. (54:18–58:13)

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Final Takeaways

• Revisiting old favorites (and failures) can reveal new depths, or simply more affection—even (especially) when albums are “bad” or confusing.
• Tastes evolve: old gripes about “filler” or “coherence” lessen with perspective. Flaws may gain new charm, or at least offend less.
• Being a deep fan means sometimes defending the indefensible, and loving through the weirdness out of sheer familiarity.
• The Beach Boys’ story, reflected in these albums, is one of endless reinvention, nostalgia, and doing it all again—whether or not the results were “big ones.”

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End Credits:
Memorable outro with a recitation of “Full Sail” — a fitting coda to a nostalgic, self-examining episode.

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Chronological Guide to Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |------------|----------------------------------------| | 01:28 | The concept: revisiting albums | | 06:22–13:18| Deep dive: All Summer Long | | 13:18–25:55| Deep dive: 20/20 | | 25:55–40:39| Deep dive: 15 Big Ones | | 41:25–54:18| Deep dive: L.A. (Light Album) | | 54:18–58:13| “Comfort food” TV/procedural analogy | | 58:13–59:49| Existential wrap-up; “Do it again” |

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For longtime fans and the simply curious: this episode is a heartfelt, irreverent rumination on what it means to live with music—even the messy, strange, and “pointless” kind.

Transcript

[Brian]

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[Guest or Narrator]

This could be considered a track.

[Co-host or Mike]

Not really, though.

[Brian]

We don't want to do that.

[Co-host or Mike]

This is a little intro, you know, Brian. All right, here we go.

[Brian]

Countdown time.

[Guest or Narrator]

1, 2, 3. Woo. Do it. You got it. Let's do it again.

[Co-host or Mike]

Welcome back to Jokerman. What are we calling this?

[Brian]

It's called Do It Again, of course. Come on.

[Co-host or Mike]

I was trying to think if there's any way around that, but I guess no. No, there's not. That is what we're doing. We're doing it again.

[Brian]

Do it again.

[Co-host or Mike]

This was your idea. I feel like spearheaded mostly, though, wanted to go back and do it again.

[Brian]

That's right.

[Co-host or Mike]

Explain yourself.

[Brian]

I mean, listen, it's a time on Jokerman tradition, listening to albums and then listening to them later and then saying different things about them. We actually didn't really do this for the Lew and John series, I'm realizing, but we did that with the Bob series at the beginning. And I feel like those were some of our best conversations, like Street Legal Revisited, Shot of Love revisited with the great Matt Farley, of course. And so I think it's a fun thing to do just on its own accord. And then for this specific set of material, I mean, frankly, it's only appropriate that we do it again. I don't know what else to say. It is the Beach Boys. It's the end of the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys have spent the last 60 years doing it again and again and again, over and over, per Mike Love on Unleash the Love. And so I think that we should honor them in that way by doing it again ourselves. With a look back at four albums that we picked that are from a couple different eras of the Beach Boys career. Nothing later than 1979, but albums that I think could do with a little bit more revisitation on our part, at least coming to them now at the tail end, end of this lengthy journey compared to what we might have thought of them so many months ago. So that's the concept here. The albums that we're going to be looking at all summer long. 1964, 2020, 1969, 15 big ones, 1976 and Light Album, L.A. light Album, 1979. All of which I think we were maybe a little lukewarm on, a little up and down, a little hot and cold on to varying degrees when we initially talked about them. So it'll be interesting to see how those opinions have changed or maybe haven't changed over the course of these several years.

[Co-host or Mike]

At this point, I'm kind of. I'm beginning to. Right off the bat, I don't think we picked the wrong ones to revisit.

[Brian]

You could have suggested as many as you liked.

[Co-host or Mike]

I could have. I. I didn't. Didn't. But part of the reason I didn't is because we're going to have another opportunity to kind of do this when we do our big roundup episode, the

[Brian]

Song at the end.

[Co-host or Mike]

Beach Boys 100.

[Brian]

That's right.

[Co-host or Mike]

So if you're worried that your favorite record, the ones you like, they're not being represented by this particular bunch, just relax. But yeah, I think the ones that we did end up settling on here. Settling on. They do have their defenders, but they are contested albums.

[Brian]

That's the idea.

[Co-host or Mike]

I think now we're just sort of for ourselves, putting ourselves in the hot seat and reconsidering some of these big ones, so to speak.

[Brian]

Four big ones. That's right. Yeah. I mean, we could have. What. What ones are you thinking you would have wanted to. To have done?

[Co-host or Mike]

Maybe Sunflower is one that, like, I could. Wild Honey. Honestly, I. I was really anti Wild Honey.

[Brian]

I figured you were still committed to the ant. I figured Wild Honey was this series's new morning. And you are. You are sticking to the anti position through and through.

[Co-host or Mike]

I don't know. I. I'm not so sure.

[Brian]

All right.

[Co-host or Mike]

But yeah, I mean, maybe we could. Maybe we could let this conversation roam a little bit from the four. But for the first part anyway, let's just. Let's stay focused and I'll be a good boy and try to just do what we came here to do with these particular records.

[Brian]

Well, if there's anything else to talk about, we certainly can. I just think that, I mean, Wild Honey, that's its own thing. And I guess if you are interested in reconsidering your opinion on that, I'd be interested to hear more. Sunflower, I think we were both just, like, universally positive on at the time. It's great to Listen to Sunflower. It's great to talk about Sunflower, but I think we loved listening to Sunflower initially. We said we loved listening to Sunflower at the time. I think we both gave it the old three star Jokerman three star rating. And so, like, sort of same thing with a Pet Sounds or a Beach Boys today or a Surf's up or something. It's like, it's great to listen to this music. It's great to talk about it, but I don't know that there's maybe quite as much to knuckled down on when it comes to potting to. To conversing and. And saying anything else. Unless it's like, oh, now I think Surf's up sucks, or whatever. I don't think either of us are in that boat.

[Co-host or Mike]

No, let's just. Should we go chronologically here?

[Brian]

Yeah, I think that that probably makes sense. Starting with all summer long, 1964, which I think of these four albums. Again, all summer long 20, 2015, big one's not album.

[Co-host or Mike]

It's not contested, actually. Like, it doesn't.

[Brian]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Mike]

Nobody hates this album.

[Brian]

No, no, no. I think this is universally hailed as one of the great Beach Boys albums. I just. I wanted to think about this or, you know, early Beach Boys albums. I think looking back on it, we might have. I might have at least sort of thought of this as a good album at the time, obviously, but sort of still Beach Boys 1.0, you know, early Day Kitty shit to an extent. And. And there is a little bit of that certainly in some of the subject matter. But, man, this is like, maybe the most satisfying listen, top to bottom that I can think of when it comes to Beach Boys albums. It probably is not actually that, but sometimes it feels like that these days.

[Co-host or Mike]

I mean, it does start with I Get Around. It's like that's. You start off with like the. The best possible thing.

[Brian]

I mean, the first, like, four songs on this album are just. It's Gas Straight Through. I Get Around All Summer Long is Good, Hush Hushabye and then Little Honda. Yeah, it's like I'm amazed by it, to be honest. And I remember certainly when we talked to Jake and Dave on the Endless Summer episode, Girls on the beach in particular came under Fire. It was in the barrel. We were giving it a little bit of shit because it was kind of just like Surfer Girl 2.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah.

[Brian]

Doing Surfer Girl again. And I do, you know, stand by that to an extent. It is clearly just like reusing the same melody. But at the time, I remember people calling me out and saying like, you know, you gotta listen to the way that this song kind of comes together. It's so far beyond Surfer Girl. And frankly it just. It's true. It's such a mature, leveled up, fully fleshed out production that even though it is kind of just Brian plagiarizing himself after a year or two, he's doing it in such a fully featured, self assured style that. I don't know, I've come to see the light on Girls on the Beach, I guess, is what I would say.

[Co-host or Mike]

I think I like Girls on the Beach a lot more than I did the first time around. I'm much more sympathetic to it first off, even if we aren't talking about the music and we might have touched upon this at the time, but there is a case to be made that this is a very different song from Surfer Girl. Which is a. You know, it's not. It's not an ode to all as.

[Brian]

As Surfer Girl is just one girl. This is all of the girls on the beach.

[Co-host or Mike]

So think about it. You might might say that doesn't matter, but I say it, it does, I guess. And also it just. It does sound great. There is this thing of going back and maybe not finding that I love this stuff so much when I look back on stuff I was lukewarm or hated, but that I don't have any negative. There's an absence of negative feelings. It's just like gone. If there was any before, which is a diff. It just react configures the experience. I can't say that my exploration of this stuff was so dramatically different. But that was something that I felt was kind of true across the board. Especially for this material. I mean, of course like anything that was boring to me about all summer long is now like completely neutral to positive.

[Brian]

I think when we go through things over time we're maybe a little more inclined to pick nits and be a little harsher on certain things because I mean, look, when you're talking about the Beach Boys from the beginning, you're just. It's an embarrassment of riches for the first however long. Just many, many records, all fantastic. Well, I'll have some fantastic material. Whether or not the records themselves are totally coherent packages. So it can get boring. It could get boring if we're just like, oh, this is great now. This is great now. This is great too. And I think we did do that to an extent because frankly it just all is so great. But yeah, even these lesser songs, I think on an album like All Summer Long, which I feel like gets a little bit lost in the shuffle. Can get a little bit in the shuffle. Coming after Surfin Safari, Surf in usa coming before, obviously, Beach Boys Today and then Pet Sounds. Even these other songs will run away. Do you remember? Don't back down at the very end. These things that I think I initially thought of as just like. Oh, they're a little. Just throwaway. They're not bad songs, but it's just like a couple minutes music to fill this album. Coming back to it now, it's like. It's just like a perfect bronze bust of 1960s pop music.

[Co-host or Mike]

I still think I like Today a lot better than this, though, in terms of an album experience.

[Brian]

Yeah, no, I'm with you. I think Today is a more effective album. And I think it is really the beginning of Beach Boys 2 or whatever. Beach Boys 3, even, if you want to. But I think All Summer Long. To me now, I'm reading it as this sweet spot. They're not where they're at in terms of the adult songwriting and the melancholy and the three dimensional kind of real beating heart of the music on Beach Boys Today or Pet Sounds. But they are clearly beyond County Fair and Chuggalug, which we love. County Fair and Chugalug, and we love a lot of the fun kind of trifles on the earliest albums. But All Summer Long to me feels like a coherent album, you know, from top to bottom. I think in a way that maybe I didn't quite appreciate initially. I'll just say All Summer Long the song is about as high up on my Beach Boys song, personal opinion having as you can get. That's gonna be coming in at a very high position on my Jokerman 100 here at the end. So. Wow, that song is just like the xylophone, man. And the way that the harmonies hit on that chorus is. That's perfect music. Anyways, we'll get to that when we get to that. 2020.

[Co-host or Mike]

Do it again, Do It Again.

[Brian]

This album we talked about 2020. I think we've come to it a couple times in the course of the last couple months. Just kind of amazed by it. I remember we were pretty. I certainly, again, was pretty harsh on this album when we talked about it. And I think. I think the issue I had with it was just the. The lack of cohesiveness. You know, it's a very incoherent album and I think that's true. I don't really think there's a way around that. But, man, listening back to it now after release the love. Release the love. Unleash, Unleash the love. Excuse Me And California beach and no Peer Pressure and the Carl solo albums and the landy's just like 2020 sounds like a masterpiece to me now compared to so much of what we've spent the last year listening to.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. That's what I fear is happening, is that we're just tricking ourselves into thinking that this stuff is better than it is.

[Brian]

But I don't think, you know, I think it's maybe the real true thing is somewhere in between. But I think I was certainly too hard on this at the beginning. And so listening to it now with what's in the Rear View Mirror. In the Rear View Mirror, I might be inclined to give it, you know, cut it a little too much slack. But I like, man, this is just. This is great. This is great stuff. Listen, like, All I Want to Do.

[Co-host or Mike]

That's the one you go for first. I still.

[Brian]

I just.

[Co-host or Mike]

Listening back to that one, I was kind of like, hate it.

[Brian]

Oh, man, I was into it. I was so into it. Like the kind of like very brief moment where the Beach Boys seem like they're going to be like a hot hard rock band. And it just. It's so awkward right from the jump. I mean, just look at the picture on the COVID But I think Mike's vocal on All I Wanna do is great. And it's just. It's a really fun, unexpected sound on this album. And then that comes after Be With Me and then right before Nearest Faraway Place, which sounds like a. Just a beautiful. It sounds like let's Go away for a while. To me, at this point, that's sort of the.

[Co-host or Mike]

You were saying it was all just a bunch of bullshit. This Nearest Faraway Place. Honestly, you were saying.

[Brian]

I know now you just. Why? It's. That's why it's worth doing it again.

[Co-host or Mike]

I. I am struggling. I don't know. I was. I almost texted you saying we need to cancel this episode because I have. I don't know that I have any evolved feelings on. On this stuff.

[Brian]

So you're still short on. On 2020.

[Co-host or Mike]

All right, how about. How about. I've got a question for you. You still hate Bluebirds over the Mountain?

[Brian]

Not at all. It's great.

[Co-host or Mike]

Okay, good. Because I was pro Bluebirds over the Mountain and you were like. You hated that song.

[Brian]

I know.

[Co-host or Mike]

Okay, so. Look, I never didn't like Nearest Faraway Place. I always found it to be wallpaper music. You know, it sounds like those napkins, like in Like a fancy bathroom. The things that they can't wash your hands properly.

[Brian]

I know what you're talking about.

[Co-host or Mike]

Those just like over. They must be like.

[Brian]

They're too thick and they're not very absorbent.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. But they have them in like four star hotels.

[Brian]

Right. Because they have some sort of design on them.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. That is what this sounds like.

[Brian]

Sure. It would sound great in an elevator. Near as far as. Near as far.

[Co-host or Mike]

Sure would. Yeah. And then I. I guess we. We skipped over. I can hear music. That's a good one.

[Brian]

I mean, that's a masterpiece.

[Co-host or Mike]

I. Bluebirds over the Mountain. That. That's a good song, that one. I was shocked you didn't like it at the time, honestly. Because I. Maybe I. I could sense that like this was. This was just yet to ripen for you. I just don't know that I have had as dramatic a shift as you have. And I think that I'm realizing that that might just be the case for these particular records.

[Brian]

Well, and that's okay. It's tough to know, I think at the time how this is all gonna shake out on into the future. And I think I probably had more negative stuff to say about 2020 initially than you did because I do clearly remember that you liked Bluebirds and I did not. And I remember I was pretty harsh on Do It Again too. The song, which sounds.

[Co-host or Mike]

I was never that anti. Do It Again.

[Brian]

I know. It sounds so cool. Those drums at the beginning and that weird, like reverby vocal that Mike's got. I will recant some of my positioning on Do It Again.

[Co-host or Mike]

Cotton Fields. The thing I'll say about 2020, and I think that the place that I regard it now is that there's a way of being charmed by it that isn't just pure bafflement. And then you even start to accept the insanity of that it ends with cabanessence and our prayer. And the Manson co write.

[Brian]

God never learn not to love into our Prayer is one of the craziest one too. Just like devil music and Time to

[Co-host or Mike]

get alone before that. Which is like Friends.

[Brian]

Friends, exactly. Brian just doing Friends shit. It's fantastic.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. So it is actually kind of like for the seasoned Beach Boys listening veteran, if not fan, there's definitely sort of a specialness.

[Brian]

Yeah. I mean, I think that at the time when you're going through the Beach Boys discography, this is really the first one where it becomes, you know, if you're going chronological, where it becomes very clear that like Brian is off the map at this point.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah, this is when it starts to just be evident that, like, there isn't someone driving the car.

[Brian]

Something is missing here. Exactly. Like, whatever we were doing before, whether or not any one of those albums was your favorite or your particular style, like, whatever was happening, it's not happening here. And that obviously is something that happens on many other albums in the future to lesser and lesser returns. And so I think I was reacting initially as like, oh, this is not what the Beach Boys were before. And that's true. And I think that's a perfectly fine reaction to have. But really, In a way, 2020 is, like, is kind of a preview of what the Beach Boys are gonna be for the rest of their fucking life or their career. There's, like, way more 2000s type stuff from 1969 on than there is Pet Sounds type stuff today stuff all summer long type stuff. And so I think that initial kind of gut reaction that I had, like, oh, this isn't what it was. Turn it back to the old, you know, flip it back to the old channel. Fine, fair, that's true. But, like, once you kind of get on the wavelength with this, whatever this is, this, this version of the band where it's collaborative and not cohesive and. And sort of in tension with itself, like, this is actually a really compelling version of that, I would say.

[Co-host or Mike]

It's like the sooner you can get an understanding of the inner turmoil that created this album, the better you can more fully appreciate the. The rest of their catalog from that point on. Because the lows are going to be similar lows in the sense that they. They are exemplars of that feeling of, like, what is going on here? Who's in charge? What are these decisions? Why is it this way? And if you can handle and then start to actually appreciate something like 2020 for what it is, everything else becomes easy to see the good in. That's a very difficult thing to not have sorted for yourself as a listener approaching this discography. If you keep listening to these albums after having first fallen in love with, like, the classic stuff and Pet Sounds and maybe even some of the later ones that have been able, like, Surf's up, like, have this reputation well earned, of course. But if you don't know the extent to which the band is a mess as a. As a creative entity, then you might not really be able to see clearly what's even happening on these other records. Like, what are the Beach Boys fans? There's people who know the classic stuff and put it on, like, the highest level for themselves, like, revere it beyond all else. Then there's people who are deeper heads, and then there's like a subset of records that they also hold in extremely high regard. And then there's people on a deeper level who know the records that are these contested ones and hate them. And then there's people who know them, know they're bad, and know that there's a creative, worthwhile spark somewhere within.

[Brian]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's. There's a spirit, there's a force, a life force to those albums.

[Co-host or Mike]

It's just like you have to have a mother's love almost to recognize it.

[Brian]

Yeah, you gotta really work at it and be willing to shepherd it along in a way that I don't think you need to so much with some of the other. Some of the other people that we've talked about.

[Co-host or Mike]

That's why I think having All Summer Long is a good way to start this grouping, whether it was intentional or not. Because it isn't that different from something like light album or Miu or 15 big ones in the sense that it's just like these are just smatterings of songs put together. And it is just a crazy thing that. The Beach Boys is a group who is well known for one of the most singular, cohesive album statements of all time. But that's not very common within their body of work. Like, there's more in common between 15 big ones and all summer long than there is 15 big ones and Pet Sounds.

[Brian]

Yes. Yeah, I would tend to agree. Or 2020 for that matter.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. And so many. Like, a lot of. Even Holland is like, more similar to maybe like Today than it is to Pet Sounds.

[Brian]

Yeah, Holland's an interesting one. I think we were both pretty pro Holland at the time, and I think I remain pretty pro Holland. I think it's, It's. It's a weird collection of songs, but, I mean, several of the pieces of music on that album are just some of my all time favorite shit from the beach boys and the 2020s of the world. Carl and the Passions. Carl and the Passions is another one that I thought could have been a good candidate for this. But I do feel like we kind of got what we can get out of Carl and the Passions on the initial one. I don't want to subject you to too much more early Dennis Wilson material to torture you into liking that.

[Co-host or Mike]

Where do we go next? I mean, we have. The next album that we're gonna talk about here would be.

[Brian]

Well, the next one would be 15 big ones but I guess before we get there, I mean, do you have any further statements to lodge about Wild Honey at this point? Cause I would love for you to join me on the right side of history with that. I don't want to browbeat you into it.

[Co-host or Mike]

No.

[Brian]

At least force you to feel that way.

[Co-host or Mike]

I had the experience of when I was listening to one of those goddamn Mike Love albums where they cover. Someone is on there covering Wild Honey. I don't even know.

[Brian]

Someone does Darlin. And someone does Wild Honey. The song. Yeah. Not Mike. When listening to some other person.

[Co-host or Mike]

My hand to God, this is the Emmas. Darlin and Wild Honey. When I was listening to that, I was like, oh, those songs aren't. Aren't bad.

[Brian]

Those songs are great.

[Co-host or Mike]

I was like, maybe I was harsh on those songs because pretty good songs. And at the time I was like so spoiled and haughty and I was like, oh, I don't really like Darlin, it's corny. And I was like, Wild Honey. It's just like whatever. But I am. I've. I've developed enough to now look back at that and see that that was absurd to say basically that they're. They're very well crafted and good songs. Wild Honey. I will say overall, I think I was not being very fair to. And that doesn't mean it's like my preference, but I think it's good.

[Brian]

I'll take it. That's. That's. That's good enough for me. I mean that is such a. The immediate post pet sound stuff that comes out. Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, friends, you know, 1967 and then 1968. That is such a brilliant, I think, trilogy of like post peak, you know, Burnout. Brian. I think those albums are so dissimilar. You know, they're just doing totally different things on all three. And they're also short and compact and they almost feel like they don't like fully bloom.

[Co-host or Mike]

You mean like Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends.

[Brian]

Yes.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah.

[Brian]

There's a world in which like each one of those albums marks the beginning of a new five year journey for Brian and the Beach Boys or whatever as like this is the way the band sounds now. We're gonna do this album and then another ver. But he just reels them off.

[Co-host or Mike]

They're just detours.

[Brian]

Yeah, they're like little exercises or something almost. And I think that, I mean, I think all of these albums are pretty beloved at this point, but it really is. Just looking at it now with the full scope of things in mind, it Just kind of boggles the mind how creative and powerful he was even after his entire world had been fucking shattered. You know, post Pet Sounds, post Smile and stuff. I'm not saying anything revolutionary or contrarian or anything here, but, like, I would put that three Run album again, Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends, up against basically any other three Run album in the Beach Boys catalog and maybe, you know, any three Run album in almost any other discography. Not all of them, certainly, but, like, that is such a just successful and thrilling and adventurous and fun period for the Beach Boys. Even as, you know, as Brian is hearing voices that are telling him, like, I'm the devil, I'm coming to kill you. For the first time in his life, it probably was not fun to be in Brian Wilson's shoes on anyone on any given day. But despite it all, he just. He can't help but have music in his soul, as he told us, and that's a testament to it. Anyways, 15 big ones.

[Co-host or Mike]

Now that you said all that.

[Brian]

Yeah, I'm getting that you're not coming around quite so much on this one.

[Co-host or Mike]

I don't. I can't just, like, sit here and. And eat a whole plate of cheese puffs and say, that was a great meal. I feel full and I feel nourished. Like, I. You can't, like, make a. The steak and asparagus out of cake.

[Brian]

Yeah, it's one of those YouTube videos where, like, everything.

[Co-host or Mike]

It's all cake.

[Brian]

It's all cake.

[Co-host or Mike]

Exactly. That's how I feel. When I was, like, revisiting this, I was like, all right, I want to listen to a record of music. And then I put it on. It's like rock and roll music. And then I'm like, all right, okay, well, that's the next song. And it's.

[Brian]

Okay song, good song.

[Co-host or Mike]

And then had to Phonia is. I will say, had the phone. Yeah. Is more like. It's like Friends. It's. It has that Friends feeling.

[Brian]

Had the phonia.

[Co-host or Mike]

But then it's. Then it's Chapel of. Chapel of Love.

[Brian]

Sure is Chapel of Love, I think.

[Co-host or Mike]

All right. The first two tracks of this are indigestible to me. Rock and roll music. And it's. Okay. It's like, I could lie to you and say that I find them actually pleasurable to listen to now, but it's not like, it's horrible. It's just like, you know, I don't eat a lot of cake. I don't eat a lot of candy when I'm just around. I don't I don't go to the store and buy a pint of ice cream and then go home and eat it. Like, I just don't. I don't do that. And that's what those music. Those. For those songs are. Obviously. The end of this record features a piece of real great greatness with just once in my life. I'll point out the things that I can appreciate here, I guess, begin with Hadaphonia. Chapel of Love has some of that. Some of that, like, charming, guttural, like Brian like this. There's something about it. It's like when you see a mascot having a smoke break.

[Brian]

It's so crazy that anyone listened, heard Chapel of Love and was like, yep, this sounds good. This is good. This is the way it should sound. With the screaming synthesizers and Brian's like, bark. I think it's good. I will say, just for the record, I think I was pretty anti Chapel of Love initially. I think we both were for good reason, to be honest, because it is a crazy piece of music. But, like, I'm into it now. It's so off the wall and just. Just what? Listening to it right now, it's just, like, shining in my ears. It's an uncanny listening experience.

[Co-host or Mike]

It's good. It's good.

[Brian]

It's pure Beach Boys. Exactly.

[Co-host or Mike]

I'm back to saying it's good.

[Brian]

It's good.

[Co-host or Mike]

Everyone's in love with you.

[Brian]

Terrible. Terrible.

[Co-host or Mike]

This begins like this other thing which exists maybe most in, like, LA Light Album and miu. There's this, like, this schlock that it's not quite the same as rock and roll music. And it's okay. Which are like candy and everyone's in love with you. This is like, you know, you look through an old cookbook. They were making stuff like Crab Moose.

[Brian]

Sure.

[Co-host or Mike]

And it's in, like, a martini glass. That's what this is like. And that begins and that doesn't really end for. I don't know, it may. Parts of it never end. But in the 70s, it is really the. The peak of that. Like this kind of adult contemporary that. That ages like milk that just curdles. That just is, like, instantly out of date. It is like jello recipes, you know?

[Brian]

Yeah. I think. I mean, I think all three of these later albums that we're talking about, 20, 2015, big ones and LA Light Album are united in the sense that they find all of the boys doing their own thing, kind of regardless of whatever anyone else is doing. And so that lack of cohesence, lack of cohesiveness lack of coherence that we talked about on 2020, that I had a hard time with on 2020. Like, I've gotten. I've kind of gotten the hang of that now, I would say, as a listener and as an appreciator of the Beach Boys. And so you're still. You're gonna get. You're gonna get stuff like everyone's in love with you. You know, something that's just. Just pure. Just shit from Mike. I'm not coming around on this one.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah.

[Brian]

Ever. But I think what surrounds it. And even, like. Even rock and roll music, which I remember we both fucking hated at the time. And it is still a tough listen, I gotta be honest. But, like, there's something just. There's something weird about it, you know, and that doesn't. Like. Just the fact that it's weird doesn't make it good, ipso facto. But I do wanna give it a little more credit because it's not the Carl albums in the 80s. I would say the right lane, the. The passing lane, whatever those nonsense songs are, where it's just like, so boring that you can't even be bothered to remember it. Like, you listen to rock and roll music from 15 big ones, you are gonna remember the experience of listening to rock and roll music. And you know. You know, next time you turn this album on, you know exactly what you're in for on track one. And again, that doesn't make it good, but it's. It's. It's compelling to me, I guess I would say, you know. Cause I can recognize it. Fantastic music. I kind of think of this album a little bit along the lines of like a knocked out, loaded or a down.

[Co-host or Mike]

It is like that. Yeah.

[Brian]

At this point, you know, like, we know this is not.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. We're not gonna.

[Brian]

The artists come out in here and

[Co-host or Mike]

say, what's that for a song on. You wanna ramble?

[Brian]

Yeah, you wanna ramble? How about how to dream about your baby down in the grid?

[Co-host or Mike]

On the other hand, something like Precious Memories I like. And that is like. That's kind of like Chapel of Love or something like that. To me, like, Precious Memories is one of those songs that is. It's so close to being like, in the category of just like that we're consigning these certain things to. But that's the thing about this. Sometimes there's just like an ineffable sense of charm that redeems certain songs, certain recordings from being, like, disagreeable. And they get spared.

[Brian]

I mean, some things you Just want to listen to again. And, like, that's sort of the logic that I used when I was trying to nail down ones to talk about here. Because, like, I don't know that I ever need to listen to Keeping the Summer Alive Again. Like, I don't. I don't. I could go from till the day I die without ever hearing what are even the songs on that. I can only remember Santa Ana Winds because I kind of like that song. You know, something like that is just unnecessary to listen to. Still Cruisin'. Although, again, I kind of like some of the songs on Still Cruisin'. Summer in Paradise. Let's pick that one. Like, these are things that just, like, I don't think I'm ever gonna have a day where I wake up and say, you know what? It's time to drop the needle on that one. But, like, 15 big ones I've gone back to a couple times, particularly in the context of the new box set, you know, that we talked to the guys about a couple months ago, because there's so much other material that they recorded, you know, during these sessions, during the 15 big one sessions. This album, of course, is like half. Like, rock standard covers and then half original songs. And they couldn't figure out which direction to go. They couldn't figure out if it was a double lp. They kind of just smashed it down into one. And it is an unfulfilling collection of songs, ultimately, I would say. But there's some really great music that they recorded during this era that didn't even make it onto this album. I'm thinking, like, Mony Mony from the box set. Running Bear, I think is great. Al's on Broadway, which shows up on some of the adult child bootlegs, but comes from this.

[Co-host or Mike]

I forgot that existed.

[Brian]

Like, Sea Cruise. I fucking love Sea Cruise. Dennis Sea Cruise.

[Co-host or Mike]

I don't know from these.

[Brian]

You should have spent some more time listening to disc three of We Got a Groove.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah, there's still treasures that await me.

[Brian]

That's right. Anyways, I think 15 big ones is sort of a uniquely poor snapshot of how good the band was at this time. And it's. I mean, it's a different band, and it's not the band that everyone always wants the Beach Boys to be. And it isn't even what the Beach Boys wanted the Beach Boys to be for the most part. But, like, they were able to really kind of do some quality work. And I think, if anything, it was like, an editing and a, like, directing, producing failure. This album, as opposed to the literal actual music of it being the reason that it fails. Because I don't think that. I don't think it fails based on that. And we know, you know, with a song like just Once in my life, like, how powerful Brian could be, even with just like existing cover material, it occupies the same place, I think, in my cosmology, like I said, as a knocked out loaded or as a down in the groove, where, like, again, I know this is not. This is not these artists at their peak, but sometimes I'm just sitting there in my car and I think, oh, you know what? I'm listening to that record and I have a great time listening to it. And that's like. That is a valuable experience, I think, and a valuable relationship to have with some of this music coming out of it. So. 15 big ones. What a. What a weird. It's just called 15 big ones. What is that even supposed to mean?

[Co-host or Mike]

Big songs?

[Brian]

Yeah, okay, big tracks.

[Co-host or Mike]

15 big tracks. What did you think that was about this whole time?

[Brian]

Well, of course that's what it means. But like, is that supposed to be like an attractive way to sell an album? Especially with this weird, like, Olympic themed album cover?

[Co-host or Mike]

The 15 big ones, it's like something that you'd see like on the side of a tub of meat sticks or something.

[Brian]

15 big ones. Some of these aren't even very big, I gotta say. TM song a minute, 38 seconds. I would not qualify that as a big one. So questionable advertising there and then. All right, well, let's get along to Light album. This is another one that I think it sounds like you maybe are not quite so digging it.

[Co-host or Mike]

I like that we didn't pick Miu as one to go back to.

[Brian]

Do you? Well, so we can bring Miu into this. Cause I was thinking it has to be one of these albums. And to me, it's an easy choice as being Light album, being a more interesting, a more fulfilling, a more nurturing, nourishing collection of songs. But maybe you. I know you're. I guess. Who am I to. What am I thinking? You're Mr. Belles of Paris over there?

[Co-host or Mike]

Well, I like Belles of Paris. I mean, this is. This is like 15 big ones and Miu and Light Album, they are like the dark triad version of the other three that we had.

[Brian]

Just right. Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends.

[Co-host or Mike]

I do think they're kind of interchangeable. Like you could take songs from this one and put them on the other. Like they're made within a year of each other.

[Brian]

What, this and miu.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah, MIU And.

[Brian]

And the Light Album.

[Co-host or Mike]

The. Yeah, the. The. What's the word for it? Not an acronym, but a. At. You know, the. They have. It's LA and miu.

[Brian]

Aren't those acronyms like the.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah.

[Brian]

Letters that stand for words?

[Co-host or Mike]

I saw a correction that the actual term would be that they are. It's a initialism.

[Brian]

Okay, sure.

[Co-host or Mike]

But anyway. Yeah, that's right. An abbreviation consisting of initial letters. So great. The initial. Yeah. LA Light Album is exactly as deep as MIU Album. And they're both album. Like, it's. Look at that. I mean, LA Light Album. MIU Album.

[Brian]

MIU Album.

[Co-host or Mike]

They both have album. As if it's like, you know, just to be clear that this is an album and these songs are meant to be together. And this was done on purpose.

[Brian]

I'd love to hear like a British rock doc, you know, talking head guy.

[Co-host or Mike]

The MIU album.

[Brian]

Album, exactly. The MIU album. Record.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. Ah, the LA Light album. Record Album.

[Brian]

You know, I think that they are sort of a. Like a, you know, double trouble.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. They're gruesome too. I will say that MIU album doesn't have. Have Here Comes the Night on it.

[Brian]

I. I was boogie into that yesterday, I gotta say. And Sue. Such a great list. You like? Come on. You like Suma?

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah. But at this point, maybe it's like having listened to more Mike, like all the mic. I should say some of the mic stuff is like. I'm just like, shut up.

[Brian]

We've had a little like, storm system coming through the Bay Area recently, the last couple days. And, you know, it was. It's really been going the last 24 hours or so. But I was listening to this on Friday when I was walking the dog. It was like sort of five o' clock after work. Feeling good going into the weekend. And the first, like kind of light, you know. You know, when the rain just barely starts falling and it's like if you don't have an umbrella, it's kind of fine.

[Co-host or Mike]

Mist. Yes.

[Brian]

Yeah. But it's more than a mist. It's like. It's raindrops. Yeah, it's drizzle. Exactly. And so, you know, it was Friday afternoon, I was feeling good. I'm listening to Light Album. I've got this nice little, you know, refreshing drizzle hitting my face. And I'm as this is happening. I'm getting to the point in Sumahama where Mike begins doing his Japanese chitter. Chatter, whatever he's fucking saying there. I'm sure Complete just bastardization of the language. And I was just walking, looking around at the world thinking, you know, it's. It's not so bad. It's pretty good. I can. I can see what's happening here. I can dig it. And I think that goes for a lot of the rest of this album. This is, you know, MIU is mostly like a Mike Al, you know, effort. Because I don't think Dennis and Carl were really even present at the old Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. It was just Mike and Al and then Brian was chained up to a radiator.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah, well, that's how he talks about just like the playing ping pong and like the out of session school for transcendental meditation studies in the middle of nowhere.

[Brian]

There's like not even a place for him to get a hamburger and a milkshake. And Light album is. There is Mike and there is Al on it, but it's much more of a. It's much more of a Carl, Dennis, you know, effort, you know, you got full sail, you got angel come home, you got Love surrounds me, you got baby blue, you got going south.

[Co-host or Mike]

Maybe we should just call this episode Worst of the Beach Boys.

[Brian]

No, come on, this is not. Because listen, there's a lot that's worse than what we're talking about here all summer long. 20, 20. That's good news.

[Co-host or Mike]

Maybe we should do a Worst of the Beach Boys section anyway on our countdown. We can do.

[Brian]

Yeah, when we do the countdown. Yeah, we can do a special evil playlist. The hundred best songs and then the. Well, we could do the hundred worst songs. But there are a. Look, there are a lot of Beach Boys songs. I think there are probably as many Beach Boys songs as there are Bob Dylan songs. Certainly if you're including like the, the like bootleg material or the like rarity, you know, non album tracks type stuff. Anyways, we'll figure it out when we get there. Light Album. I will just say like, I think the sequencing. I think this album's all fucked up sequencing wise. I think good timing in Lady Linda is a great way to kick this record off.

[Co-host or Mike]

Lady Linda.

[Brian]

Lady Linda.

[Co-host or Mike]

Co written by who's. What is the actual piece? Is it. Is it Brahms or Mozart?

[Brian]

Oh, indeed. Oh, right, yeah, it's. Let's see. Bach.

[Co-host or Mike]

Bach, yeah.

[Brian]

Melody is based on jesu. Joy of man's desire.

[Co-host or Mike]

Joy of man's desiring by old johan sebastian.

[Brian]

That's good. That's such a groovy song. I love it.

[Co-host or Mike]

Joy of Man's Desire. Yeah. That's a good one,

[Brian]

I think. Full Sail, Angel Come Home and Love Surrounds. I think you, like, you kind of grind to a halt a little bit in the middle of this album. Full Sail, Angel Come Home Love Surrounds Me. Sue Muhammad. Like, you need a. You need a little bit more of a banger somewhere in there because you lose a little bit of the momentum you get from the first two songs. And I think especially having Angel Come Home and Love Surround, I mean, these two Dennis songs right back one another, you know, back to back, one into the other. Like, I love Dennis songs, give me Dennis songs, but like on a Beach Boys album, give Me a Dennis that was.

[Co-host or Mike]

I was kind of like two Dennis. I was listening to this on. Just in. On a drive in the car and Ruby was with me and I was just like, let's listen to this. And then we were listening to it and then kind of after Lady Linda, I started to just be like, ugh, nevermind.

[Brian]

It loses some momentum, I think there's no question. It's a little bit, you know, it's a little bit like Carl and the Passions, where at the end you've got Make It Good and then all this is that. And then Cuddle up and you just have like these two kind of formless, shapeless Dennis songs, like, really weighing things down at the end. And like, like, I like Make It Good and I like Cuddle up.

[Co-host or Mike]

Both.

[Brian]

I really like Cuddle up, but it's just. You got to distribute that a little bit better, you know, across the. Across the collection, man. Angel Come home Angel Come Home oh, that's so good.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah, it's one of the. The best examples of that that exists in the catalog of like the. I guess you could call it a sweet spot. It's like if you like your, your Dennis voice kind of like on its way to be. You like it sort of dry, aged. You like it sort of. It's kind of funky, but it's. It's not quite sad. It's just seasoned. It's got a. It's got some complexity to it.

[Brian]

Yeah, I think it's a sweet spot. Like it, it sounds good, you know, and. And I think that obviously Shortening Bread at the end of this, I still will ride for the original version of Shortening Bread, but like, it's shortening Bread. It's an all timer. Like, I can see what they were going for with Light album at this point, I guess, is what I would say. And you know, it's got a little bit of the yacht rock, light type Thing, it's got a little bit of the spiritual banger thing, to use your

[Co-host or Mike]

terminology, spiritual yacht rock.

[Brian]

Well, it's got. Yeah, a little bit of both. It's got the, you know, the Bee Gees disco thing. Whether or not you dig it, like that's definitely, definitely a thing that's here. It's got some really nice, just like AM soft rock type stuff. Lady Linda and good timing. I think again, this was another one that I, at least at the first listening, had a hard time kind of seeing what was even happening here. And it was a disaster. When they were recording this album. Remember this was the album that they made after Brian ran away down to Tijuana and was on a multi day bender and got rescued out of a gutter in San Diego and got sent to detox in a hospital for two months and then they just shipped him directly from the hospital to Miami. To make this album. It's like just, you know, as dark as it gets. And again, like, I think it still kind of runs out of steam. A little bit baby blue and going south at the end. You know, we could have come up with something a little bit better there. But this one, again, and this is what I like about this album more than Miu is like. It's got. There's just something there to this album. It's kind of. There's something for me to sink my teeth into in a way that there is not really on miu. I like the last couple songs on miu, but a lot of that is just really, you know, gritting your teeth and getting through it.

[Co-host or Mike]

So you still hate Belles of Paris?

[Brian]

Still. Still not a. I'm assuming. Hama man, man, when I'm. When I'm listening to Mike talk about, you know, far flung destinations, I'd like to hear about his experiences in the forest in the Orient, as opposed to the West. That's right.

[Co-host or Mike]

Match point of our love.

[Brian]

Match One of our love is good. I

[Co-host or Mike]

don't know if I said this on the episodes that we've done before, but La Light album, Miu album. These are like records that like Colombo villains. Listen to. You see their horrible shag carpet mansion. This is like what's on the turntable. If it's not classical music, it's this. You've never watched Columbo?

[Brian]

No. I mean, I'm familiar with it. I've seen it certainly, but I've been aware of it, but I haven't really gotten to it. I've been watching the streets of San Francisco recently. That's my kind of like just completely generic network television production.

[Co-host or Mike]

Columbo's not generic. Let's not be criticizing.

[Brian]

Well, I guess not generic. Formulaic is what I mean to say.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yes, it is that.

[Brian]

Streets of San Francisco is Michael Douglas first big role. It's a just completely by the book police procedural that ran from 1972 to 1976, I think. And it's Michael Douglas as the young hotshot studio investigator. And then he's paired up with Carl Malden, who's like a 1940s, 1950s, like kind of tertiary actor in a lot of just like, you know, studio system pictures. And he got like punched in the face a bunch of his nose is just like a big old. Like he's got the craziest nose you've ever seen. But they're. They're just driving around San Francisco solving crimes and the whole thing is shot on location, which is what's great about it. So like I watch it just as this kind of documentary, this accidental documentary of what it was like in San Francisco in 1973.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah, I love that stuff.

[Brian]

Yeah, that's like. It's fantastic. And you know, it's completely just like what. It's just completely nonsense half the time in terms of the crimes they solve or the cases or whatever. But like that's what television should be, to be honest.

[Co-host or Mike]

If you watch like, you know, there's all. Whatever television is now, it's kind of like a mess. It's like a bunch of garbage. Like in the way that it's structured, you know, you go on whatever streaming thing you have and then there's like a live TV option and then there's all these like fake seeming channels that like only play one or two shows. And that is kind of what a lot of them play. And I. I'm actually happy about that. Like there's a channel on like Plex, on live TV on Plex that's just like only stuff like Rockford Files and like some other, you know, like there'll be one that plays like Only Walker, Texas Ranger and like only Bonanza. And then other just forgotten random things that were like, I guess cheap to license like movies that you're just like.

[Brian]

This is. What you're describing is basically like the new version of Nick at Night.

[Co-host or Mike]

Yeah.

[Brian]

Which I think we've talked about Nick at night before. In fact, I know we've talked about Nick at Knight before, but like Nick at Knight.

[Co-host or Mike]

If we looked at today like a block of that programming, it'd be like, this is a Masterpiece. Like the bumper is like made by actual human beings. Whereas like today they're all AI Like I was watching one of these channels and there was like some bumper. It was like some classic movies channel and it was talking about a movie that had Frank Sinatra in it. And it's. It was an AI voice. And what tipped me to that as the announcer is that it was like. And old Blue eyes. Anyway, where were I digressing?

[Brian]

Anyway, you know, look, listen, let's tie it up here in a bow. Listening to some of these Beach Boys albums, light album, 15 big ones, 2020 is to me it's a little bit like watching Streets of San Francisco. It's kind of like comfort food. It's not something that is the heights of the medium. It's not something that's gonna change my life. It's not something that I would even recommend to many people. I've tried some of these episodes of Streets of San Francisco with Grace and she just like. She just like. Brain just turns off after about five minutes. Exactly. For completely understandable reasons. Like the grammar of the show is like so baffling. I don't know how much of this you mean.

[Co-host or Mike]

Like the pacing, it's just like slow and a lot of silence.

[Brian]

A car will drive up to a building and park on the side of the road. And then Michael Douglas will get out of the car, close the door, walk around the back of it and then walk into the front door of the building and it'll be 20 seconds. And that's the whole. There's no sound, there's no dialogue, there's no music over it. It's just 20 seconds of this meaningless action.

[Co-host or Mike]

That's cuz back then people were just like, wow. It's like Michael Douglas is walking out of the car right in our living room.

[Brian]

But like I kind of. I like that about it. It's charming to me. Me, it's an example. It's a specimen of a different era of a kind of a. It's a little bit like, you know, Neanderthals, you know, like a format of the human tree or the tree of life or whatever that kind of died out and didn't. And got out competed evolutionarily like that. Television style, I think. Got out competed for whatever reason. And you don't really get that today in modern television viewing experience. A lot of this Beach Boys music got out competed for, you know, very clear good reasons in many cases. But it still charms me and it's enjoyable. And it's something that sometimes I just wanna. I just wanna listen to Full Sail. I just wanna listen to Baby Blue.

[Co-host or Mike]

Baby Blue, one of the great songs of all time.

[Brian]

That's right. Baby Blue crying like a fire in the sun. All right, well, I don't know that we had any re.

[Co-host or Mike]

But that's kind of the ultimate truth of this, isn't it? That, like, of course it was pointless in some way to be doing this again. And yet I hope, again, that the people listening to the program, if you made it this far into this episode, that you got something out of just listening to this program, just listening to this podcast, in the way that we have enjoyment from just watching these damn old, old police procedurals or just listening to Match Point of our Love, there is a reason to do these things, which is no reason at all. Always finding new wonders, even in the things that challenge you by having really no reason to be produced.

[Brian]

Do it again. Doing is not the most inspiring way to live your life. Not the most inspiring words to live by, necessarily. But what's the alternative to doing again?

[Co-host or Mike]

Not doing it again.

[Brian]

Not doing it at all. Exactly. And to have done it even if you're doing it again is better than to have not done it.

[Co-host or Mike]

To do it again and then do it again is better than not having done it again at all.

[Brian]

Jokerman.

[Guest or Narrator]

Full sail. Full sail. Steady as you go the wind will blow. Set sail at Frisco Bay In a fog cold and gray Clear sailing day after day. Now the air is still we lay a glass Come upon a sea of trouble Till the winds of change shift My course is set there's no turning back but there's no going anywhere yet.