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- [00:03]
Evan
This could be considered a track. Not really, though.
- [00:05]
Ian
We don't want to do that.
- [00:07]
Stephen Haydn
This is a little intro, you know.
- [00:10]
Ian
All right, here we go.
- [00:10]
Stephen Haydn
Countdown time.
- [00:11]
Ian
One, two, three, go. Okay, boys, do it.
- [00:27]
Stephen Haydn
Welcome back to Jokerman, the Beach Boys podcast. And this is a big, big occasion for us. Apologies for my. The way I sound. I'm coming live. This is a. It's a live. It's not live.
- [00:43]
Evan
It's.
- [00:43]
Stephen Haydn
I'm in New York, though. This is the first time that we're having Stephen Haydn on the Beach Boys program. I'm Evan.
- [00:52]
Ian
I'm Ian. And yes, welcome. Steve. I know it's been several years since you were on Jokerman, I believe. I don't know really what you've been up to. In the meantime, I think you've got a couple new podcasts and book projects going. I'm not really sure, but so glad to have you back. Talking about the Beach Boys.
- [01:06]
Evan
Yeah. A little offended, really. I thought maybe I said something last time to offend you guys. You're not inviting me back to the mothership here doesn't mean quite as much to me as Bob Dylan, but I love the Beach Boys. And this record in particular, I'm a big fan of. So it's. I mean, I'm excited to chop it up about the. The boys from Hawthorne.
- [01:29]
Ian
The lads. That's right. Well, why don't we. I mean, why don't we just start right there where we. We've litigated time and time again all of our Bob Dylan journeys on the Neverending Stories program. But I honestly don't really know much. I know bits and pieces about what you dig about the Beach Boys and some interesting conversations you've had, at least with one Beach Boy that hopefully we'll spend a little bit of time talking about. But just. What. What's the overall Bird's eye view, Steven Haydn view on the lads?
- [01:55]
Evan
Well, I'm gonna try to make this brief because I could go on for a long time. I know you don't want that. No one wants that. But Beach Boys were my first concert that I ever went to.
- [02:04]
Ian
Wow.
- [02:05]
Evan
I saw them in 1987 at the Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee. It was. I believe it was the opening of that venue. It was a free concert. I was nine years old, and I knew a lot of the songs already at that age because the Beach Boys were played a lot on oldies radio, which I listened to in the car driving around with my parents. But it was interesting seeing the Beach Boys at that time. I don't remember if Brian Wilson was there, I wouldn't have. That wouldn't have mattered to me. Obviously at that age. I think he was in and out of the band at that point. Eugene Landy was in the picture and I think he made his self titled record around that time. I think it came out the year after the Love and Mercy record. It's called Brian Wilson but Love and Mercy's on it. But yeah, I mean, I don't know if you guys have talked about this on, on the show, but when I encountered the Beach Boys, they were known as the Kokomo Band or like, or the Full House Band.
- [03:04]
Ian
The Stamos.
- [03:06]
Evan
Yeah, the people of my generation. That's how we encountered the Beach Boys. So they had this very uncool reputation going into the 90s. But then in the late 90s something really interesting happened and it reminds me of what happened with Steely Dan in Fleetwood Mac in the last 10 years, where there was a new generation that got into those bands and they reclaimed them and made them cool again. And not just this sort of boomer rock that everyone knows. And that happened to the beach boys in the 90s and there were a bunch of things that happened. I know I was sort of on the front lines of that because I was digging a lot of this stuff. There was a box set that came out in the early 90s called Good Vibrations that was styled to look like a surfboard. And like one of the discs had a bunch of outtakes from Smile on it, right. And this was like 10 years before Brian Wilson re recorded it. So that was pretty cool. And then basically all of the post pet sounds records, the 67 to 77 that became the new focus for the younger generation, the Gen Xers that were getting into the Beach Boys and all those records were reissued on CD in the 90s also. Like you could find those records on vinyl pretty easily. This was still the time when you could go to a Goodwill and buy records. I remember when I was in college, my friend worked at the college radio station and they were just giving vinyl records away because they weren't playing them anymore. So I remember I got this album in particular this in concert record around that time on vinyl. And I love the COVID Dennis Wilson on the COVID And it's this orange, blue, black type shot of the crowd. Dennis Wilson doesn't play on this record. His arm was broken, so he doesn't play drums. I think he sings, he's singing and.
- [04:59]
Ian
He does a little bit of keyboard. Toodle, toodle. But yes, it Is not. This is the Ricky Fitar drumming era of the Beach Boys.
- [05:07]
Evan
And even that was cool to me about this record because Ricky Fatar was involved in this thing called the Ruddles. I don't know if you guys know the Ruddles.
- [05:15]
Stephen Haydn
He had Dean Wareham on and we just did a whole episode on their Rarities record, including Cheese and Onions, where the Ruddles did come up. And the fact that we haven't seen the Ruddles also came up.
- [05:29]
Evan
Ricky Fatar was like the George Harrison of the Ruddles.
- [05:33]
Ian
Wow.
- [05:34]
Evan
So I knew him from that. And then it was like, wow, he was in the Beach Boys. So that was a cool thing about the live record. But yeah, there were all these cool things going on in the 90s that were introducing people to the Beach Boys, people my age. And then there were bands that were influenced by the Beach Boys, all the Elephant Six bands, Neutral Milk Hotel, who didn't really sound like the Beach Boys, but Jeff Mangum had like a Brian Wilson mystique about him.
- [05:58]
Ian
Like a listener rechearst to him.
- [06:00]
Evan
Sure. Reclose to type guy. And then like, you know, people like Flaming Lips, Soft Bulletin, Wilco, Summer Teeth, these bands making very elaborate studio records. So anyway, these, these things all conspired to make me a Beach Boys fan. And then, yeah, as I moved into my newspaper career in the late 90s, early 2000s, I interviewed first Bruce Johnston. Interviewed him when I was like 21. He was playing a county fair in the Appleton, Wisconsin area.
- [06:30]
Ian
Just Bruce. It was a Bruce Johnston solo show.
- [06:33]
Evan
No, no, it was the Beach Boys.
- [06:34]
Ian
Beach Boys. Sure, sure, sure.
- [06:35]
Evan
No, it wasn't the Bruce Johnson Experience or anything like that. No, no, he was playing with the. At the Outagami county fair in 99. And that was around the time a lot of these records were reissued. I actually asked him about this in concert record because I was like, why don't you play cool stuff? Although there's. This is basically a greatest hits record. This. This isn't that different from what the set they were probably playing in 99.
- [07:02]
Ian
Sure.
- [07:02]
Evan
And then a few years after that, I interviewed Mike, Mike Love the Man and Only Himself. And I was. I went into that interview expecting to hate him. And I actually came away with grudging respect. He was the most calm sounding person I think I've ever interviewed. He was extremely Zen. Like he barely talked above a whisper the entire interview. But I asked him all the geek questions. I only had 20 minutes with him, but, you know, I was asked like, why don't you play till I die or surf's up. And he answered it in a pretty pleasant way, but just said, look, people want to hear the hits. That's what we do. Yada, yada, yada. So anyway, that's the short version of my Beach Boys fan. I've also met Brian Wilson, and I interviewed him very briefly once in person 10 years ago in the basement of the Metro Club in Chicago for that John Cusack movie that. You know, the Paul Dano, John Cusack, Brian Wilson movie.
- [08:10]
Ian
That one's called Love and Mercy.
- [08:11]
Evan
Right, that's called Love and Mercy. And I was interviewing them together, and after seven minutes, Brian Wilson got up, shook my hand and walked out. So that was.
- [08:24]
Ian
But I got the Brian Wilson interview experience.
- [08:27]
Evan
Yeah. And I saw Brian Wilson live in the early 2000s. And it was a very depressing concert. One of the worst shows I've ever seen. But anyway, that's either here nor there. Maybe that's for a future episode.
- [08:40]
Ian
We'll have you back for that one.
- [08:41]
Evan
I'm excited to talk about this record. This is one of my favorite Beach Boys records because it is like a greatest hits album, but it's played in the style of the early 70s albums. I love Holland, which I know you guys just did an episode on. That's one of my favorite Beach Boys records. And there's Holland songs on this album. I love Beach Boys live records in general. If you guys want to have me back and talk about Nebworth 1980, I would be thrilled to talk about that. I just think live albums, I think with the Beach Boys, you know, they're known as a studio band and they're celebrated for their studio work. But there is a flip side to them where they're like one of the all time road dog bands in rock history. Just touring all the time every year. So I think the live records give a good taste of that. And I feel like this album strikes the happy medium of them delivering a good time show. But it has the energy and vitality of them during a very creative period. So that's always been an attraction for me to this record.
- [09:45]
Ian
Yeah, absolutely. We're going. We're slightly out of order in the episode that we're releasing. Because this record came out in 1973, I believe. And the Endless Summer episode we. We already taped with our Longstreth Bro boys, that's from 1974. And so everyone out there just be aware of that. Were aware of it. But I do think that this record is interesting compared to Endless Summer, because Endless Summer kind of really relaunches their career in many ways as an oldies act, as a greatest hits band, as a known kind of quantity. The Beach Boys, an American band fixed forever at this moment in time, sort of by their own doing. And really focusing on the year 1962 to 1965. And this show or not. Again, not this show, but this, this tape because. Or this record because it includes performances from a whole series of live shows over the course of a couple months. They're doing that, you know, they're doing that. They're doing a lot of the hits, you know, the classic, you know, fun, fun, fun. Don't worry baby shit. But they're also, like you said, Steve, they're also still like taking pains to present themselves as a contemporary rock act that is doing interesting and great new stuff on their latest records. And playing that in the context of all these greatest hits and stuff. And I do feel like in the years to come they're really going to start to foreground this greatest hits, golden oldies, really nostalgic early era approach to the material for good reason, because they're great at it and everyone likes to hear it. But I do really appreciate this record because I think it captures them at a really interesting point where they're like. They're just about to kind of close the door on this like attempt at being a contemporary, moving forward rock band at this moment in time. And they fuck. They sound great to me. You know, I love the Holland shit on here and some of the other later 60s stuff, but, you know, it's all. It's all good music.
- [11:48]
Stephen Haydn
The COVID I just.
- [11:49]
Evan
I also.
- [11:49]
Stephen Haydn
I also love the COVID And I do think it's funny that it looks like the Beach Boys is just Dennis Wilson standing nonchalantly with like a tucked in shirt looking at like a thousand overexposed, bright red, screaming people. It looks like a live album in a really good way. Like this screams live album. And the actual contents do, in fact, I think sound a lot like the album would have. You guess it would.
- [12:24]
Evan
Yeah, it really. And this is one of the things I love about it, has that early 70s arena rock feel to it.
- [12:32]
Ian
Yes.
- [12:33]
Evan
And this is like a rock and roll record. It is interesting with the Endless Summer album because it does present the hippie Beach Boys on the COVID It's not totally the retro looking because they have that other greatest hits record, Spirit of America, which comes out a little bit after that.
- [12:49]
Stephen Haydn
It's got Mickey Mouse on it.
- [12:50]
Evan
Right. That's where they're really leaning into the Americana of it. It is interesting, too, that this record coincides with American Graffiti, which came out in 73 and that was a big hit that year. There's a lot of Beach Boys songs in that movie. And feels like that movie helped to set the table for Endless Summer because that was. Oh, now it's an opportunity for boomers to be nostalgic for the early 60s. And you got teed up with American Graffiti. And now we're gonna really satisfy that with Endless Summer the year after this. But I think you're right, that point about how this feels like the end of an era. I know you guys talked to Pat Bedemas about the show that the Beach Boys did with the grateful dead in 71. This was that era where they were doing that kind of stuff and engaging with underground rock a little bit more than you would expect the Beach Boys to do. Another thing about this record that I love is that because of this album, you can technically say that the Beach Boys were a multiracial band.
- [14:00]
Stephen Haydn
Finally.
- [14:00]
Evan
You know, because no one ever remembers that there were people that were not just white guys in this band like you would be. You could blow people's minds and say, no, no, technically, the Beach Boys are a multiracial band.
- [14:13]
Ian
The Beach Boys have gone woke by what?
- [14:15]
Stephen Haydn
By not being segregated?
- [14:17]
Evan
Yes, exactly.
- [14:21]
Ian
That is all true. I would be remiss also if I didn't bring up this record. This is a record that we've all talked about endlessly on the Neverending Stories program. But I can't help but.
- [14:31]
Stephen Haydn
Before the Flood.
- [14:31]
Ian
Before the Flood, exactly. Which comes out the year after this record.
- [14:34]
Stephen Haydn
And you gotta wonder if they took cues from the COVID and the presentation and all that from this.
- [14:40]
Ian
Yeah, I mean, there is an echo of this presentation in the before the Flood presentation. I think the before the Flood presentation is maybe a little more artfully done, but kind of going for something similar, I would say. That all said, there's almost something we've spoken endlessly about the 74 Tour and the Bob stuff. So we don't need to get too deep in the weeds on that. But I do really admire, I think, the fact that the Beach Boys at this moment in time, were willing to play so much of their most recent shit. Play so much of their recent shit in the context of all their greatest hits and stuff. Because that is, you know, if I have a knock on the 74 tour, the Bob and the Band before the Flood tour, they were playing some Planet Wave songs here and there. Yes. But really the story of those shows is the 60s material, you know, represented in this rock and roll rodeo. Revved up sound. Sounds amazing. We love it, of course, but, like, it's kind of amazing to me that, like, at this moment in time, the Beach Boys are actually a little more kind of artistically adventurous than Bob Dylan is, at least when it comes to presenting your most recent stuff and trying to act like a current day, this is who we are type of act in a live setting.
- [15:57]
Stephen Haydn
Wasn't it also that Sail On Sailor was a huge hit? So I wonder if they were just kind of like, hey, we still got the commercial juice and some of these songs, maybe we're going to help them along too. Whereas Bob, I mean, I don't know that anything on Planet Waves was like a hit.
- [16:16]
Evan
Well, and also, like, Bob hadn't toured in eight years, so it's a little bit different because that's true. The last time he played those songs, they were booing him off the stage. And now they love him. And it's totally different context. It does feel like an interesting moment for rock music at this time where, you know, you did have the 50s rockers who were doing the nostalgia tours, you know, like Little Richard or Chuck Berry, like, they would just go into. They would hit your town and they would just play their old hits. But like, the 60s generation, I think this was like, around the time when people maybe started leaning into that where you. Because of things like American Graffiti, you. You could actually make a living just playing your old hits and knowing that that's what people want to hear. I think there was probably still an expectation for a lot of bands that if you want to have a career, you have to keep producing new material and trying to capture people with what you're doing now. But, yeah, this is kind of a period of transition, I think, for a lot of these artists.
- [17:20]
Stephen Haydn
It's tempting when we talk about this stuff, to think about nostalgia as the driving force, as something very regressive and kind of sad. Almost like, oh, people just pining for their glory days. But American Graffiti is very zeitgeisty. It's got hot young stars. And so in a very, like, visceral way, it's revitalizing and even potentially adding some, like, edge to the way that that era was portrayed. That was probably way more authentic than the stuff that was coming out in the early 60s about teen culture. So there's a lot of legwork by new media things and films. It's more dynamic than just, like, people going, oh, yeah, that stuff, that wasn't that neat. It was the soundtrack to, like, sexual and dangerous and potent moments of your youth.
- [18:16]
Ian
You're gonna be revved up here.
- [18:17]
Evan
Yeah, well, I think with that movie, too, in terms of the soundtrack. You know, that was the first soundtrack where you took old hits and you repackaged it and then you sold it and it was a big hit. Before that, it would be. The soundtracks would be film scores or original cast recordings of musicals. Those would be the hits. But before American Graffiti, no one had ever sold a soundtrack where we're gonna take songs from 10 years ago, put them together, and just have a huge hit with it. And I think that really changed a lot of things. I think that helped set the table for Endless Summer. I mean, you also have Happy Days come out of American Graffiti. So there is this, again, renewed interest in the 60s. And, I mean, to compare the Beach Boys to Bob. I mean, Bob. Yeah, he cashed in on that. On that tour of 74. But then he pretty quickly abandons that. I mean, there is an alternate timeline where Bob Dylan just does before the Flood over and over again. And he probably would still be playing arenas if he did that. Absolutely. If he just did his 60s stuff in the style of the 60s, he'd probably be more successful in a way, but he'd be way less interesting.
- [19:32]
Ian
He wouldn't be Bob Dylan at that point. Yeah, and that's why it's instructive. And, you know, to compare the two to me, I think, is because that's Bob Dylan. You know, that's what he's gonna do versus the Beach Boys. Especially these Beach Boys. Right, which is the band is Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, Blondie Chaplin, Ricky Fitar. No, Brian Wilson, Bruce. Also not around at this moment in time. You know, the Capital A artist is not part of this crew at this moment in time. And I think that speaks. Speaks to what they were doing and what they were after at this moment, which is, like you said earlier, Steve, like road dogs. Right. Like, we're just taking this show on the road. As we've litigated previously in many conversations. They had bills to pay because they did not live particularly frugal lifestyles. And they weren't racking up hits on the chart with the new records. And so the way they were making money was just, you know, 100 nights a year, 150 nights a year, just playing these shows again and again and again. Which, you know, there is something kind of crass and commercial about that. Yes. But at the same time, it kind of turns them into just These fucking just, like, badass gunslinger rock performers. I think they sound amazing on this record.
- [20:45]
Evan
Yeah. At this point, I would be. I would argue that it's not that crass. I just think that they're a really great band, and I would probably go later than a lot of people with defending their live stuff. You know, really up until, like, Dennis dying, I would probably find value in live stuff. I think after that, it starts to get a little dicey. But it's just fascinating, though. I mean, if you're a Beach Boys fan and you care about stuff in the 70s. I think part of the appeal is hearing the juxtaposition between these just perfect and upbeat 60s songs and just, like, the ravaged men who are playing them feeling the effects of time and their lifestyles. Another thing I should say, like, that had a big influence on me becoming a Beach Boys fan. I don't know if you guys have talked about this, but there's that book, Heroes and Villains by Stephen Gaines.
- [21:42]
Ian
Oh, yeah, we've been quoting from that frequently in the podcast All Calumnian Lies.
- [21:47]
Evan
Yeah.
- [21:48]
Stephen Haydn
With a shaker of salt next to everything we say.
- [21:52]
Evan
Yeah, I haven't. I haven't read that. I kind of want to reread it again because it reminds me of, like, Hammer of the Gods, the Led Zeppelin book. I put those books together. That's another one where it's just tall tales after tall tale, and it's just really leaning into the tawdriest aspects of the subject. But with the Beach Boys again, they were the Kokomo Band, the full house band. So to read a book like that was like, wow, they're hanging out with Charles Manson and Dennis Wilson slept with Mike loves daughter, was it, or something? Daughter, yeah.
- [22:25]
Ian
Illegitimate daughter.
- [22:26]
Stephen Haydn
Two stories about Dennis being crazy. There's others. Yeah. Where he. It's not just Dennis.
- [22:32]
Ian
There's plenty.
- [22:33]
Evan
So I ate that up as a young man. I just thought, wow, this band is way cooler than I thought they were.
- [22:38]
Ian
It's delicious. Yeah. And that is part of what you gotta love about the Beach Boys, you know, is that tawdry, you know, wild nature is. That's part of the story of, like, a Led Zeppelin. You know, they kind of lean into that image, and it kind of synthesizes with their music and their presentation. And that's part of the whole mythos with the Beach Boys. Like, it's the secret door. Exactly. Like, they do everything they can possible to keep that away. Like, keep that out of the public eye. And in many cases, it's like they Put Led Zeppelin to shame in many cases.
- [23:11]
Stephen Haydn
A mountain of skeletons coming out of the closet. And they're all just, like, playing Barbara Ann.
- [23:17]
Ian
Barbara Ann.
- [23:19]
Evan
And that's what makes them the quintessential LA band. I mean, that's what I've always loved about LA bands is that contrast between the, you know, typically just impeccably crafted, sunny sounding music. And then there's always just like these terrible backstories that. And I love that contrast. I mean, that goes, you know, you could trace that back to film noir, you know, like. You know, like Raymond Chandler novels. You know, like the darkest shit happens in the sunniest places.
- [23:48]
Stephen Haydn
Hollywood, baby.
- [23:49]
Evan
Absolutely. That's always been the attraction for me. And I think a lot of people. It's irresistible.
- [23:58]
Ian
Let's talk about the record. We're gonna treat this like the old Neverending Stories program. And we've got some. We don't. We don't do the Jokerman thing where we just go endlessly one after the other after the other from top to bottom on the record, which is important and is valuable. But, you know, we jump around. We've got some categories to spur a conversation when we're talking about the live shows. And so we don't have a Watchtower check. We typically start this segment of the program off with a Watchtower check to discuss.
- [24:30]
Evan
I wish they played Watchtower.
- [24:31]
Ian
It would sound great.
- [24:33]
Stephen Haydn
Along the Watchtower with. I don't know who would sing it. Mike, I guess.
- [24:37]
Ian
Mike would probably do Watchtower, you know, Carl.
- [24:40]
Stephen Haydn
Carl. Well, I guess, you know, the traitor. It's like the Watchtower place. It's holding that Watchtower slot.
- [24:48]
Ian
Third slot. Yeah, that is true. Yeah. It's like a 95. Watchtower. Totally.
- [24:53]
Evan
Instead of saying pretty good stuff, should we say, like, we.
- [24:56]
Ian
Oh, sure. Okay.
- [24:58]
Stephen Haydn
Oh, Mercy is called.
- [24:59]
Evan
Should it be called. Wouldn't it be nice if.
- [25:02]
Stephen Haydn
If this was better? Yeah.
- [25:04]
Ian
Yes, Perfect. Okay, so we'll talk about the good stuff on the. The album we got. Love. Everyone's favorite segment on this show. Basically all of it. I think almost all of this sounds amazing. There's a couple points to talk about, I think when we get to Wouldn't it be nice? But I think band sounds fucking amazing all the way through. I'll just start with the Holland material because I think that that sounds fantastic. It sounds cutting edge for 1972, for these guys in 1972. And I think it totally stands up for the most part to everything else that it's being played in the context of. Because the other songs that's some of the heaviest hitters of rock music, pop music history. Your California girls, your heroes and villains and so on. And so to be able to do the Traitor and Funky Pretty and Sail On Sailor and have that all. Be that as. Have that all sound as good as it does. They're kicking ass here with that stuff. I love it.
- [26:01]
Stephen Haydn
Well, Sail On Sailor is the first track and it's also, I think, easily one of the best things on here. It feels just right, I don't know how else to say. Kind of has like a. I don't know, like a vanilla fudge kind of thing going on. Like, it. It just has that, like wild, super indulgent, but very hard hitting, post psychedelic rock type of sound. Like really wild organ but like really hard hitting drums and just really tight and together. That song has this special thing about it. Where it, to this day even stands out, I think in their whole catalog as one that just feels like kind of like eternally fresh. Like doesn't really compete with that many songs. Like, there's not another song they do that sounds quite like it.
- [26:58]
Evan
Yeah, that's great. I mean, I love this record, so it's hard for me to single out particular tracks. I would just say as a general statement, I love Ricky Fitar's playing on this record. I think it really separates it from the other Beach Boys live records. If I can make another Bob Dylan reference, He's like the Winston Watson.
- [27:16]
Ian
Ooh, okay.
- [27:17]
Evan
Of the Beach Boys. Just a big beat and a lot of energy to it. And I think it just kicks these songs in the ass in a way that they often aren't live. Even on the other Beach Boys live records that I really like. But it has a kick to it. I think that really stands out to me. That's always the thing that I immediately noticed when I put this album on. One thing I didn't really notice until I was listening to the album for this show was that Mike Love is not on this album a whole lot. You would expect him to be on more for a Beach Boys record, especially with a lot of the hits. And I don't know if we want to get into Mike Love conversations. I'm not a knee jerk Mike Love hater. There are things that he does that I think are essential to the Beach Boys. And his vocal sound is obviously, I think, hugely influential in rock history. I think it's underrated, actually, as an influence. If you listen to like any pop punk band from California, I feel like they are descended from that affected wine.
- [28:27]
Ian
That Mike does, yeah.
- [28:28]
Evan
Where he's trying to sound like a. Like a young man, even as he gets older, but he's not on this record a lot. And I guess I'm gonna say that's a good thing. Because I love Carl Wilson. I love hearing him sing. Al Jardine steps up and sings because they're all trying to sub in for Brian Wilson. I mean, I loved hearing Let the Wind Blow on this record that goes back to Friends, which is. That's a really deep cut, I feel like, on this record, because it's not a recent song and that wasn't really a hit, but it sounds really good. You Still Believe In Me. Another one that is, like, a pretty deep cut. Not from. You know, from Pet Sounds, but not one of the. Not one of the hits. Because the other Pet Sound songs, I guess they do. Wouldn't It Be Nice they don't do God Only Knows.
- [29:21]
Ian
They do Sloop John B. Sloop John B.
- [29:24]
Evan
Then Good Vibrations from that era. Not on Pet Sounds, but same. Same time.
- [29:30]
Ian
Right.
- [29:32]
Evan
And, you know, the 60s hits, the early 60s hits, I think, all sound great. And they're doing justice to the original versions. But they do sound a little more grown up and a little harder rocking than they do in the original versions. So, yeah, they're able to thread that needle of we sound like grown men, but we're also nodding to our past. And I think that's. That's the. That's the. The needle that this record threads very well. There's a moment that we could put in. O Mercy. But, I mean, I kind of love it. But it's like the sleaziest moment on the record. I don't know if you guys know what I'm talking about in.
- [30:18]
Stephen Haydn
In our. Wouldn't it be nice?
- [30:20]
Evan
Yeah, wouldn't it be. I mean, I. Because I don't think it's bad. I like it. But it's the sleaziest moment on the. On the album. And it's where Mike Love is being very Mike Love, which is the end of California Girls.
- [30:34]
Ian
Yeah.
- [30:34]
Evan
Where he's just.
- [30:38]
Stephen Haydn
So good against the resident ladies, man.
- [30:41]
Ian
You know, it's good. This. This record, I think, is really instructive because, you know, the most recent live album that we've done on the show, the Beach Boys show, is that fucking Beach Boys. 68, 70, 69, 76, whatever album that we talked about a few months ago at this point.
- [30:55]
Evan
The one from Lond.
- [30:56]
Ian
The one from London. Exactly. It was released in a bunch of different contexts with different titles and stuff. It Just. It is chock full of Mike Love. Mike Love isms. Just like every single break in between a song.
- [31:09]
Stephen Haydn
It should be called An Evening with Mike Love.
- [31:12]
Ian
It really should.
- [31:13]
Stephen Haydn
Featuring the Beach Boys.
- [31:14]
Ian
Honestly, yes. That would be a more accurate title. And there is, like, from an anthropological standpoint, for me, there's something fascinating about that. Listen, but, like, if I just bought this record and I was wanting to listen to, like, good Beach Boys, like, this is not the shit that I want to listen to on a record. And so I think. I think subtracting almost all of that, still giving you a little, you know, a little thimbleful on this album, but, like, cutting 95% of the rest of it. Like, good choice. Whoever's idea that was, that that goes in the. That goes in the pretty good stuff. Slash, We Got Love section.
- [31:52]
Evan
There's another live recording from around this time, like Carnegie Hall, 1972, that.
- [31:57]
Ian
I was insane on that one.
- [31:59]
Evan
Yeah, that's where it's like a spoken word Mike Love record. Like, they'll do Help Me Rhonda in two minutes. And then it's five minutes of Mike Love going about TM or, you know, whatever.
- [32:12]
Ian
Like, politics, chastising the audience, like, telling people to, like, shut the fuck up and sit down. Because we're trying to record this for a live record. And we want you to be. You need to be quiet or we're gonna eject you. Like, that's literally what he's saying. Yeah, that's on the Ceylon sailor set, big 72 box set that came out recently. It's an amazing show, an amazing document, but he is really.
- [32:31]
Evan
They sound incredible.
- [32:32]
Ian
They do.
- [32:33]
Evan
They sound so good. They'll do a great performance, and then Mike Love will just. I don't know if they're trying to sandbag my glove with this release, because they could have edited that out, but they're like, no, we're going full Uncut Love on this set. We're going to just let him. You know, I don't know. Again, it's like the. It's like the worst comedy album packaged with these great Beach Boys performances. Like a terrible spoken word Henry Rollins album, But it's my club. And then there's Beach Boys performances.
- [33:07]
Ian
Mark Kozlik popping up randomly just in between all these fantastic Beach Boys performances.
- [33:13]
Stephen Haydn
Mark Kozlik is all just talking, but that's his music.
- [33:19]
Ian
Yeah, that's the Beach Boys records. If the records were exclusively just Mike.
- [33:23]
Stephen Haydn
Love between songbangs, imagine putting Mike Kozilek over here.
- [33:27]
Ian
Just like Mike Goswell.
- [33:29]
Stephen Haydn
And then we went over and got a few root beers and thinking about what I needed to do later in the day. And I was really pissed off and so on and so forth.
- [33:38]
Ian
That's. I think that's quite enough of Mike Causal. I can't wait to bring that character.
- [33:42]
Stephen Haydn
Bring that character back.
- [33:43]
Ian
Yeah. Yeah.
- [33:45]
Evan
Well, I mean. And that reaches the ultimate with Mike Love at the Rock and Roll induction. Rock and Roll hall of Fame induction speech where. Where Dylan chastised him during his speech.
- [33:57]
Ian
Thank you to Mike Love for not mentioning me. We're gonna have to do a whole episode just on that speech alone.
- [34:02]
Stephen Haydn
We've done a lot of Mike Love apologia lately on the show, so I think we can throw in a little bit of this. But for measure, like, that is the key thing about what is repugnant about his personality is that thing where it's like the guy who is being really angry while telling you about how much he's, like, into peace and tranquility.
- [34:27]
Ian
You almost wonder at a certain point, like, did Mike have some sort. Much is always made of Brian's sort of discomfort on stage and unwillingness to get out there and put the spotlight on himself. Does Mike have some of that also? Obviously, he's willing to go out there and put the spotlight on himself, but just that combative, dictatorial presence that he has in many is just like, I can't think of another. For the life of me. I can't think of another lead singer in other rock groups. And I'm sure there are. That I'm just not thinking of. But I just, like, that's not the kind of vibe that you typically get from a performer, particularly these days.
- [35:04]
Stephen Haydn
Well, yeah, it's a thing of defense. You know, it's tough to do this. Like, maybe he is just kind of putting on armor.
- [35:10]
Evan
Yeah. I don't know. I think that's why he got into tm, because he had all of this anger that he had to deal with. And that's what was so wild when I interviewed him in the early 2000s, because he was so mellow. But it's funny, I just remembered this. At the time that I interviewed him, he was in a lawsuit with EL Jardine because Jardine was out of the band and he wanted to tour as maybe like Beach Boys and Friends or some iteration of the Beach Boys. So he was in litigation with Al Jardine. I mean, he's been in and out of litigation with various members of the everyone for 40 years. But. But he was. But he was talking about that lawsuit. And again, like, his voice did not break the sort of, like, yeah, I just talk like this, you know, Maybe Al Jardine's just got to chill out, man. I don't know what his deal. Like. Like, he was furious, but he was still talking in this very quiet voice. It was. It was wild. I mean, again, like, this album, not a lot of Mike Love on it. So in a way, if you're trying to, like, introduce people to, like, a Non Pet Sounds Beach Boys, maybe this is, like, a good entry point. Because other than the big hits at the end of the show, you don't hear him. I mean, he doesn't show up, I guess. He sings on Sloop. John B. A bit. And California Girls is his first big showcase. That's like the fifth song on the record, Michael Love. And then he kind of takes a back seat again. Like, Blondie Chaplin has a lead on Leaving this Town, which I think is only on this record. Like, we got love in Leaving this Town. I don't think those are on any other Beach Boys records.
- [36:58]
Ian
Leaving this Town is on the B side of Holland, the second side of Holland, which I know because we just did two hours on it. And we both said, like, this song is, like, kind of a snoozer on Holland. Holland. But, yes, we got good live.
- [37:11]
Evan
I like the organ solo.
- [37:12]
Ian
It definitely works better live.
- [37:14]
Stephen Haydn
It's not bad live. Yeah. I don't think a lot of the stuff on this record is bad compared to the stuff that's good. It's more just that there's stuff that is solid and then there's stuff that's quite. Quite good. And the stuff like that song and, I don't know some other things that I just don't care for that much.
- [37:38]
Ian
Like, Darlin.
- [37:40]
Stephen Haydn
Yeah. I mean, it's not even that. It's because I don't love the song Darlin, but, like, it just doesn't pop in the same way as some of the other ones do. Like, the most thrilling stuff on this record, to me, is the stuff that is familiar, but given that, like, extra jolt of energy and. And the time being just kind of picked up. Like, it's nice to hear them on record compared to the last one we talked about, the last live album, where my critique of it was that it felt rushed, like they were doing stuff faster in a way that. That felt arbitrary. Whereas here I think it's a matter of things being picked up. Like in Heroes and Villains, for example.
- [38:27]
Ian
Heroes and Villains is fantastic here. Totally.
- [38:29]
Stephen Haydn
Or in Good Vibrations, like, those Those sections that are challenging to keep the pace, keep the momentum, they managed to pull it off by kind of just tightening it up and picking up the rhythm. And it doesn't feel like they're just rushing through. It feels like a focused and honed version.
- [38:51]
Ian
Sure. And that's what makes this record so remarkable to me, I think, is that. Is that like you have that kind of representation of a song like Heroes and Villains or Good Vibrations that work so well here. I've been thinking about this album in relation to the laden Hawaii unreleased live record that they had attempted to Mount in 1967. And just like the train wreck versions of some of those songs, like Good Vibrations, which is barely even able to get up off the ground, it's like a de res version of Good Vibrations. And here it is, it's muscular and loud and fast and they've really figured it out. Same thing with Heroes and Villains. Same thing with California Girls. They just like. And that's only really a 5, 6 year span from 67 to 72, 73, which is when the songs on this record were taped. It's pretty remarkable. Just the transformation I think they've undergone from that catatonic post smile presentation where the band could barely even continue to exist, to a just lean, mean rock showing machine. Yeah, yeah, it's.
- [40:03]
Evan
I mean, I think it's the Hired Guns that certainly has something to do Guns make. I mean, again, Ricky Fitar, I think, his drumming, I think, and then Blondie Chaplin, those guys, I think, definitely have a lot to do with that more muscular sound on this record.
- [40:19]
Stephen Haydn
If we want to talk about some things we didn't love, it's a nitpick here, but Don't Worry Baby, I think is pretty flaccid here.
- [40:28]
Ian
Yeah, that's. Yeah, it doesn't sound as good as it should.
- [40:31]
Stephen Haydn
That. I don't love that. That thing that he does. It's Carl, right, singing. And instead of. It's always don't Worry Baby, and it's like. No, like the thing about that song that like the emotional intensity of it kind of does depend on it having that really dramatic higher reach.
- [40:55]
Ian
Well, he's doing the best he can, you know, because this is like. This record, I think, really is the Carl show in many ways. This era of the Beach Boys is like. It kind of is Carl and the Passions. I know we've ridiculed that album title many times, but like, he is. He's the star of the show for a couple years here. No question. The Carl is singing Carl songs on this record. But he's also singing all the Brian songs, basically. And so he is like, you know, pulling double duty in many cases. And, you know, Don't Worry Baby, I think, is an example of a Brian song that doesn't come off quite as well under Carl's interpretation as it might have under Brian Wilson, you know, in 1964 or whatever when the song was recorded. But it sounds better than it would have if Brian had sung this song at this moment in time. I will promise you that I will say.
- [41:44]
Stephen Haydn
I don't even think that it's like a Carl problem of, like, being not able to do it. It seems like it's a. I don't know, it seems like a weird choice. Like, it. It feels like, of course he would be able to do it a little bit more like that, the version in the recording. And I mean, I sound like, regressive on this maybe, but. But I don't know, like, that song is so by the book, like, of the doo wop, like the high drama doo wop song tradition that, like, something about that choice just doesn't work for me. But elsewhere, Carl really just, like, you can't criticize him. He sounds great.
- [42:26]
Evan
Yeah. I don't know if they were doing God Only Knows in this era, but that's a Carl song. You could have just subbed in God Only Knows for Don't Worry Baby and you would have had head.
- [42:36]
Stephen Haydn
Yeah.
- [42:36]
Evan
Because I. I'm with you guys. I think that song, that's one of the songs where you really miss that Brian Wilson high voice that. That's so perfect sounding. I will say, too. I mean, we've. We've already made fun of this song a little bit, but, like, We Got Love is, I think, easily the weakest song on the record.
- [42:58]
Ian
What a Dog.
- [42:58]
Evan
I'm not going to say what a dog. I don't hate it. But, you know, it's sandwiched between Wouldn't it Be nice And Don't Worry Baby. So that is not. That's not doing We Got Love because I actually like leaving this town on the record. It's not. Again, it's not up there with the great Beach Boy songs that are on this album, but it is interesting. Like, We Got Love. When I was listening to the record for this podcast, it reminded me of Chicago the Man. Chicago, that was very popular at this time and in Chicago and the Beach Boys, actually, they did a joint together.
- [43:35]
Ian
Exactly. Chris Gao wrote, I think, a few years after this about that show at the Madison at Madison Square Garden. Where he. Yeah, it's good. Good Chris Cow column.
- [43:44]
Evan
And it kind of. It feels like a Chicago song. Like. Like them trying to write, like, early 70s, you know, softer rock.
- [43:53]
Ian
Yeah.
- [43:55]
Evan
And I don't hate it. I mean, because to me, it's like a time capsule of the era. So I appreciate it on that level. And I think they play it well. But I think there's a reason why I think it only exists on this album. Did this end up on any other Beach Boys record?
- [44:12]
Ian
I don't think they taped it for the Holland sessions. And then it didn't end up making the record. So I think they even knew when they had cut it initially. Like, yeah, you know, we got better material than this one. It's just. It's anonymous. There's an anonymous kind of quality to this song. And even the more recent songs. Without Leaving this Town, Leaving this Town feels there's something more interesting to Leaving this Town. I think that big crazy synth solo towards the end that marks it out here, but we Got Love is really just like. You know, this could be procedurally generated music in any other circumstances. It doesn't sound bad. It's just like, whatever, man.
- [44:50]
Stephen Haydn
Marcella is also like. You could easily say that about it, but somehow, I don't know. It's like Marcella just feels. Of the Beach Boys.
- [44:58]
Ian
Marcella's too Beach Boys. Y. Exactly. Yeah.
- [45:00]
Stephen Haydn
Funky Pretty, for that matter. I just want to. I gotta maybe conclude. I don. Care for it. I don't think it's that good.
- [45:07]
Ian
I love Funky Pretty.
- [45:08]
Stephen Haydn
I don't think it's. I think it is actually one of the more anonymous sounding songs that Brian is, like, the sole writer of. Like, he. You can tell it's Brian, but I feel like sometimes he gets in this, like. I. I don't love everything Brian has ever done as much as everything else like this. This is a mode that I don't. I don't necessarily just personally think is, like. I'm not reaching to listen to Funky Pretty here or elsewhere.
- [45:41]
Ian
Particularly not really an astrology type of fellow, is the thing. Got it out for all the Pisces out there.
- [45:47]
Stephen Haydn
That's exactly why I don't like it.
- [45:49]
Evan
Yeah, that's a song I like more on this album than on Holland. I think, because it's live and it has a little extra oomph. I think on the record with you, Evan, it feels a little forgettable. I'm gonna just defend Darlin a little bit. I know you guys were.
- [46:05]
Ian
Oh, I am a Darlin. Like, like, dyed in the wool Darlin head I like that is one of the greatest songs ever recorded as far as I'm concerned. It's, that's, that's okay.
- [46:17]
Evan
I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go that far. But I, I, I, I like it. And I like Carl. I like Carl's vocal on it a lot. I think that's what always sells it for me. And they played that song for a long time. I think it's also on Nebworth 1980. Not to drop a reference to that again, but they do it at that show. And it always brings out the best in Carl. I think so. I like it.
- [46:42]
Ian
I fucking love Darlin. They're playing it right up in Evan and I saw them last year. They're playing it up until today. Their big butt kicking drummer sings. Darlin, I have no idea who the guy is, but that part was fun.
- [46:57]
Stephen Haydn
It was great because that part was like a deep cut. He was stoked to be able to slot into the show.
- [47:02]
Ian
Here's a competent musician playing this music instead of Crypt keeper Mike Love.
- [47:08]
Stephen Haydn
Well, I mean, there's also something to it that's like the undeniable energy of it. Especially like a big dude bashing the drums while singing. It was like, it's pretty undeniable.
- [47:18]
Ian
It's cool.
- [47:18]
Evan
I realized, getting ready for this show that I haven't seen the Beach Boys since I saw them when I was nine years old.
- [47:24]
Ian
Wow.
- [47:27]
Evan
That'S probably a good thing at this point. I think I've missed my window.
- [47:31]
Stephen Haydn
No, no, they're still playing, Steven. Yeah, you can still see it.
- [47:34]
Evan
And like I said, I saw Brian Wilson in, I think, 2002 and it was really depressing. He just sat behind a keyboard and didn't play it and just looked like he didn't really want to be there. And I think the shows he did later on were better.
- [47:52]
Ian
You saw him Pre Smile was 2004.
- [47:55]
Evan
Yeah, this was like right before that. It was like 01 02. It was like early 2000. I was like, right up front.
- [48:00]
Stephen Haydn
They didn't put the sticker on his keyboard that said, good job, Ryan, everyone loves you. They hadn't done that yet.
- [48:07]
Evan
And it was so sad because the band was very supportive. You could tell that everyone wanted it to be great. And I don't know, maybe it was just an off night, but it felt. I just felt like he was being exploited. Yeah, that was my feeling that. Oh, man. Like, does he really want to perform? Like, he's never been a guy that wants to Perform. Right. I mean, maybe that changed later on in life, but that night I saw him, he looked pretty miserable on stage and, you know, his voice was shot. I mean, I don't know. It wasn't good. I was very bummed.
- [48:43]
Ian
Did he have like Al or Blondie or anyone with him in the band or was it just Brian and. Yeah, because I think Evan and I both saw him on like the 2015, like pet sounds thing where I think it was Al and Blondie were playing with him and that, you know, he definitely. I mean, it wasn't the most amazing show I've ever seen, but he's very good. He had some pep in his step. Exactly. He seemed into it. It was a very supportive environment. I think the other folks in the band were really kind of helping him along. I think it turned into a better vibe, a better situation in the following years.
- [49:13]
Stephen Haydn
Yeah. I think now, from what I hear recent shows with him are. It's an act of just the audience holding everything up. But, but the. The one we saw, the one we were at the Hollywood Bowl, I remember being. It was. It was a good vibe and actually he was like talking a little bit in between songs. He like ad libbed a couple things. It didn't feel like he was there at gunpoint. And the crowd was like, so, so supportive that it was like. Like a genuinely very touching environment. It was nice.
- [49:55]
Evan
That's cool.
- [49:55]
Stephen Haydn
So after you did see that atrocious show, even many years after, there was actually a lot of. And even the next year, like, or in the Smile show, the preview, the.
- [50:08]
Evan
It's like, oh, four. I think that was.
- [50:10]
Stephen Haydn
Yeah, I mean, that's a triumph. Like the video of it. We'll get there as like the final bit of this whole journey. But it's. It's up and down, just like Bob. Like somebody could have easily told me. Oh yeah, I saw Bob Dylan in 2002. He just sat behind a keyboard and it was awful. And then, you know, the next day, who knows?
- [50:32]
Evan
But I always feel with Bob, even if it's not good, that he's trying and it's. And he's engaged.
- [50:38]
Stephen Haydn
Yeah.
- [50:39]
Evan
I've never seen Bob and felt like, oh, he doesn't want to be performing. You know, there's been shows, he's not that great, but he's trying new stuff. And I just felt like he didn't want to. Like a bad show is one thing, but if you feel like they don't want to be there and maybe they're being forced to be there, maybe I was projecting onto it, but it just bummed me out.
- [50:58]
Ian
No, I know what you mean. Honestly, frankly, at this point, I would say that the closest person to Bob Dylan in the Beach Boys orbit is actually Mike Love. Not because of his preternatural poetic ability to tap into the subconscious of the human race, but because of just this undying compulsion to be on the road and perform these fucking songs for people night in, night out. Whether it's a good show or a bad show, there is a quandity has equality all its own. To quote Joseph Stalin, the fact that they're able to just do this to the extent that they are. And we see that even today. Bob, like we were talking about on Neverending Stories recently, he's got 100 dates lined up for this year. I think Mike has something close to that, too. With the Beach Boys, it's like, God bless them for staying that active into their fucking 80s. It's mind boggling at a certain point.
- [51:53]
Stephen Haydn
Why did Joseph Stalin say that? In what context?
- [51:57]
Ian
I think he was talking about the Red army. Because there's so many people that composed the Soviet army at that time. So even though the Wehrmacht had a more talented and professionally equipped fighting force, you know, if you had five guys to throw at every one of them. Quantity has a quality all its own.
- [52:17]
Stephen Haydn
Smart.
- [52:18]
Evan
What album by the Beach Boys you think Stalin would have liked the most?
- [52:21]
Ian
Oh, which one is the one that has the most songs on it?
- [52:27]
Evan
This would be up there.
- [52:29]
Ian
Yeah, this would be up there, exactly.
- [52:31]
Evan
Unless you're counting box sets, but proper albums. I mean, this is. This was a double lp, so this might be Stalin's favorite Beach Boys record.
- [52:39]
Ian
That's a great point.
- [52:40]
Stephen Haydn
The COVID does look like it could be some kind of a Communist rally.
- [52:45]
Evan
It's pretty red.
- [52:46]
Ian
That's right. I'll also just. I know we've kind of jumped all around shouting out favorites and stuff. I do just want to take a moment to recognize California Girls here. The extraordinary orchestral bit of music that Brian pads that song out with, you know, on the studio recording is, to me, is the best part of that song. And the representation of it here, which is like. It doesn't have any of the delicacy that the studio recording does, but it is just like big and loud and fucking, you know, puts you on your ass, I think. I love that every single time like that is a great example of how they figured out, you know, we're not going to be able to reproduce what Brian Wilson was doing in the studio with the wrecking crew in 1965 in a live circumstance. But we can go about that in another way. And the intro, specifically to California Girls, I think, is the perfect example of that completely working.
- [53:40]
Evan
It's no we got love, but it's pretty good.
- [53:42]
Stephen Haydn
On the other live album, I remember that it was just like, not only did they kind of breeze through it, rush through it, they also, like, cut it in half like it was. They weren't even using what they had where as here. It's like, yeah, we're doing the big intro to California Girls and there's a buzz of anticipation in the air.
- [54:06]
Ian
If you're. Yeah, if you're the Beach Boys and you get to play California Girls, Milk it. Come on.
- [54:11]
Evan
Well, like we said, Mike Love milks it at the end of the song, too. So it's a thorough milking from beginning to end.
- [54:18]
Stephen Haydn
Milk Love.
- [54:20]
Ian
Milking Mike.
- [54:22]
Evan
Yeah, he's got love, that's for sure.
- [54:24]
Ian
He's got plenty he's got too much.
- [54:26]
Stephen Haydn
Too much milk this town. Yeah, we. Are we gonna do a bootleg title for this?
- [54:32]
Ian
Well, I was just gonna say a Budokan moment on this record. So Buddha, you know. You know, listeners of the program will know our appreciation for the Bob Dylan Budokan record on Neverending Stories. Every time we talk about the Budokan moment of a concert where it is the most like the Budokan presentation of the Bob Dylan songs in that it is so radically reworked.
- [54:53]
Stephen Haydn
Different.
- [54:54]
Ian
Yeah, so radically different. Exactly. We've already kind of talked about this, but to me, the Heroes and Villains is a Budokan moment. Just the fact that they're able to turn that into sort of a toe tapping rave up number here, as kind of orchestral and disjointed as the original single is fantastic song. Obviously, it just, like, doesn't really make a whole lot of sense in a live context, but they rearrange the parts and really make it sing here live. Fantastic work, boys.
- [55:20]
Stephen Haydn
That's the most respectable thing on here, I think, is just that they really commit to putting Heroes and Villains into a kind of arena rock show. And unapologetically, and. And I think that the biggest critics of Mike Love and Mike Love's Beach Boys, it kind of comes down to just like a wish that they would. Mike or the group, collectively, whoever makes them up at the time, would just concede that, like, it's a good thing to unapologetically include songs like Heroes and Villains and do what they can clearly do here, which is just make them into something that's palatable As a big rock performance, even. Yeah, it has weird lyrics, whatever. It's still great melody. People love to hear it. And why not do that?
- [56:15]
Evan
Yeah, it just feels like, again, we've talked about this at the beginning of the episode, that it's capturing a moment in time, I think, for the Beach Boys in rock music in general, where they're still sort of searching, trying to be a relevant band, and they're about to discover that they don't really need to do that anymore. Yeah, they're still going to continue to put out interesting studio records for a while after this. Of course, 16 big ones being the masterpiece of the catalog. But, you know, Beach Boys love you. You know, the. I don't want to spoil the journey here that you guys are going on, but. But, yeah, there's some interesting records ahead. But, yeah, it feels like. Oh, this is kind of feels like the end in a way, or at least it's foreshadowing the end of this resurgence that they had post Pet Sounds, where they weren't as commercially successful, but they were putting out the music that, like, people afterward, younger generations would really embrace.
- [57:18]
Ian
I think this record really does sort of patron that period of time, Post Pet Sounds, you know, where they're making some of the most interesting, you know, artistically adventurous music of their career. Like that is. That's the period of time that really turns the Beach Boys into the Beach Boys, I think, in many ways, because if they had just stopped there and it had just been the early 60s stuff leading up to Pet Sounds and then Pet Sounds and that's it. As fantastic and incredible as that music is, it's only part of the story and what follows in the following six, seven years. That music is responsible in many ways for people like me and Evan being interested in the Beach Boys and doing something like this. And this record does a great job of kind of paying tribute to both ends of that spectrum. The towering heights of pop music with this weird outsider wilderness period, and the kind of ability for them to shift back and forth between those modes on the same record in many cases is. That is. That's what the Beach Boys is to me. And this record does a great job of kind of paying tribute to both ends of that spectrum.
- [58:28]
Stephen Haydn
This is an optimistic vision from the band about itself, about what they are and can be. To a paying live audience, it feels like a rare moment of balance where they're able to include various elements that really, it is something for everyone, like the people who maybe came to their records because they. Who, I mean, Some people I'm sure in this crowd know the Beach Boys because they bought Smiley Smile and they're like coming from that end of things and then there's everyone else. And then this record I think does kind of achieve some kind of equilibrium between those two things and. And it's bittersweet in that it doesn't last. It's like a really hard balance to achieve. But this record seems to give this forward looking and hopeful and inclusive vision of the group.
- [59:31]
Evan
I've sometimes called this my favorite Beach Boys album, which might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's definitely one of my most listened to Beach Boys records because it is like a greatest hits album played in the style of the early 70s that also has more recent songs. So if I just want a Beach Boys album to throw on, I will throw this one on ahead of any other record because I feel like I'm kind of getting everything I want in one package. So I would just say like, yeah, this doesn't apply to anyone listening to the show because you're obviously invested in the Beach Boys. But if there's someone in your life who's like Beach Boys, I don't care about that. Or Pet Sounds is kind of slow and boring. Give them Beach Boys in concert. I think this is actually a pretty good hook people in type record and it gives a different view of the band where they rock. You're getting the hits, but it's just getting some stuff that you don't get if you are just have a casual knowledge of the band. So I think it's a great record.
- [60:34]
Stephen Haydn
I love the idea of somebody getting really into this record as the only Beach Boys record that they really know and really thinking highly of stuff like Marcella and We've Got Love.
- [60:46]
Ian
Listen, I think highly of Marcella. Let's not, let's not cast any aspersions on the.
- [60:50]
Evan
Just being like, where's, where's Ricky Fatar on Pet Sounds? You know, why didn't he play on that record? And it's like, no, he. He joined the Ruddles after this record. If Ricky Fitar is in the band, it's a good band.
- [61:04]
Ian
Easy as that, folks. Three stars for the Beach Boys in concert. I think this is probably, you know, actually I think this the best Beach Boys live album. And you know, just fire set list from top to bottom. I think it's everything I'm looking for and more out of the Boys in live context.
- [61:20]
Stephen Haydn
Yeah, it's three stars.
- [61:22]
Evan
Three stars for me. Obviously I've already made that clear how much I love this record.
- [61:27]
Ian
Beautiful.
- [61:29]
Evan
Listen to it. Ricky Fatar forever.
- [61:30]
Ian
Salute to Ricky. Early Roman King Ricky Fatar.
- [61:33]
Stephen Haydn
Bootleg titles.
- [61:34]
Ian
Do you have a bootleg title?
- [61:36]
Stephen Haydn
Yeah. California Men.
- [61:38]
Ian
California Men.
- [61:39]
Stephen Haydn
That's a good one.
- [61:40]
Ian
One.
- [61:40]
Stephen Haydn
How about that?
- [61:42]
Ian
Surfer Men.
- [61:44]
Stephen Haydn
Yeah. Surfer Ben.
- [61:47]
Evan
How about. How about Help Me Ricky?
- [61:49]
Ian
Help Me Ricky? There we go.
- [61:51]
Stephen Haydn
Perfect. Perfect.
- [61:54]
Ian
Listen to Neverending Stories, folks. This is just but a brief example of all the fun delight that awaits you over there. And you know, it's not only the Bob Dylan live material. We've just launched our Do Look Back series this year as well, which features some quality deep dives into the original Bob Dylan material from 1962 to 1966. As we speak, we're about to be recording our freewheeling Bob Dylan episode with corresponding live tape from the Gaslight. It's a lot of, lot of goods over there, so if you're not already a subscriber, come on over. It's great. It's good. Podcasts.
- [62:34]
Stephen Haydn
Say Jokerman Steven.
- [62:38]
Evan
Jokerman Steven. Sorry I had to do that dad joke.
- [62:54]
Ian
We got love we got love we got love.
- [63:01]
Stephen Haydn
I.