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- [00:00]
A
Jokerman podcast is brought to you by Distrokid and their new direct to fan tool. Allowing any artist to sell merch. Distrokid Direct allows artists to create a merch store in minutes without any upfront costs or any technical skills or know how they'll take care of all the logistics and the nitty gritty. And as with distribution through Distrokid, they never take a cut of the proceeds. You, the artist, keep 100% of your earnings. Once again, that's Distrokid Direct. Open a store today@distrokid.com direct.
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B
This could be considered a track. Not really, though.
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A
We don't want to do that.
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B
This is a little intro, you know, Brian. All right, here we go. Countdown time. One, two, three, go.
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A
Okay, boys, do it.
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B
Welcome. One last time. One final time.
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A
Well, yeah, sort of.
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B
What do you mean, sort of?
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A
Well, we're gonna split this one up into two parts, so there will be one additional episode after this, but it is the last mountain to climb during Jokerman 3 Beach Boys.
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B
Yes. Welcome back to Jokerman 3 Beach Boys, part one of the Beginning of the end.
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A
That's right. I'm Ian.
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B
I'm Evan.
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A
Oh, you hear that?
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B
What do you have there?
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A
Going out with a classic.
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B
Is that an Abada or is this a Sprecher?
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A
Sprecher.
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B
Yeah. I don't. I have a regular beer. I have a Labat Blue.
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A
Labatte Blue?
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B
Yeah.
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A
How'd you decide on that? All right. They're pretty mild.
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B
They're normal. It's one of the most normal beers you can drink.
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A
Yeah, it's like a banquet type of thing.
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B
Yeah, it's Canadian, though.
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A
Ooh. All right. I might be coughing during this episode. I'm pushing through. I've been laid low by some sort of illness. But we're here at the very finish of the Beach Boy series. We're about to head down to Texas for. For Bob Dylan live in Abilene and Tyler. So we gotta get our Beach Boys song countdown in the books to determine once and for all what are the 100. That's right. 100 best beach boys songs and maybe a few of the worst as well.
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B
Chuggalug.
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A
Here a mug, there a mug.
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B
Everybody. Chuggalug.
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A
Yeah. Sprecker's good.
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B
Labat Bleu. Crisp, very crisp.
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A
Lager.
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B
It's a pilsner.
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A
Pils. Okay, that's nice.
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B
It's spelled Pilsner.
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A
Pilsner.
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B
Yeah.
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A
P I L S E N E
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B
R. Okay, well, we have a lot to do this is a bit of
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A
a project, big undertaking. That's right.
- [03:11]
B
Each, as we always do, Ian and I respectively make our own list of our ranked 100 favorite songs of a given artist. And then we, using the technology afforded to us by the modern age, we average them together. And then we, we both find out what that looks like. And then we fine tune that using using our minds and hearts.
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A
That's right. It's a, it's a, a double, double edged sword. You've got a little bit of just classic numbers, spreadsheet, average combination, Vlookup type shit. And then you've also got some much needed and much appreciated, hopefully fine tuning,
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B
curation, they call it calls and strikes. And is that, is that the expression calling balls and strikes?
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A
Yeah, sort of. I guess that, that wouldn't be. Not applicable in this case. So yeah, people who have listened before, you'll know the drill here. It's the Jokerman 100. We're gonna count down from 100
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B
for
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A
Best Beach Boys songs. I guess there aren't really a ton of caveats or provisos to deliver. The one thing to be aware of going into it is we decided we would settle on just Beach Boys songs. I know we've been focused obviously on Brian Solo for the last couple months on the program, but there wasn't necessarily a ton of like we couldn't get a hundred Brian Wilson solos. There wasn't a Brian Wilson hundred to really do. So we're probably gonn try to spitball a quick top 10.
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B
The Brian Wilson 100 is just like every, every Brian Wilson song, basically.
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A
Yeah. And so, so yeah, it's just the Beach Boys. It's just the Beach Boys. There's no Dennis Solo, no Mike Solo, no Carl solo. All good. Well, some good music in those discographies. But we're just, we're gonna keep it simple, keep it straightforward. If it says Beach Boys on the box, it can show up on this list. If it doesn't, it cannot.
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B
It can't.
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A
That's right.
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B
And so we are starting with the worst of the best.
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A
That's right. From worst to least worst. Or in other words, best.
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B
From the top here. One or the bottom. 100. 100, 100. What do we got?
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A
County Fair from the very first episode of Jokerman. Beach Boys. It's making an appearance here at the very end of it. County Fair. I love County Fair. I mean, come on. I think, I don't think there's a ton of like early, early Beach Boys, little silly ditties like Cuckoo Clock, you know, is not on this list, unfortunately.
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B
Damn, that is unfortunate. Because that one. That's unfortunate. I shout out to cuckoo clock.
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A
Shout out to cuckoo clock.
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B
But I think that of the ones that laid an egg in our mind, so to speak, that. That we listened to and stuck with us, you and I. County Fair left an impression. I'm just saying. As did the others, like 10 Little Indians, which doesn't appear here either.
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A
We're not gonna have 10 little Indians. You do not need. You do not. Gotta hand it to the Beach Boys on Ten Little Indians.
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B
I think that County Fair is as uniquely representative of the earliest phase of the Beach Boys in a way that is distinct and special.
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A
It's just. Yeah, it's perfect. Beach Boys 1.0. Shit. I'm listening to it right now. It's got the calliope. It's got the little skit.
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B
Stop it right up. Yeah.
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A
Come on, muscles. This is. This is fantastic. And to me, I don't even think I knew. I don't think I even knew County Fair before we started this series. And I think that was what was so much of the most fun on those early couple records is like discovering, I mean, you know, surfing safari, you know, 409. You know, surfing. But, like, discovering songs like County Fair, like Heads you Win, Tales I Lose, or Cuckoo Clock, like we said, like, that was. That was so much of the excitement from those early days. So we wanna honor that. Credit it. County fair, the 100th best Beach Boys
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B
song this time each year.
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A
And Mike doesn't even really have. You're doing the mic voice. He doesn't really even have the mic voice so much.
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B
No, he does, though.
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A
He's got it.
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B
But his voice.
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A
Yeah, it's not nearly as nasally as it's going to be in the future.
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B
I don't know. It's pretty little time each.
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A
Yeah, it's not as bad. It's. It's.
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B
I think it is. I think that it. It actually is. It's just so pure that it doesn't. It's. You know, there's no conflict. There's no friction. It's not like. That's odd that a man is sounding like that. This is just like a boy in shorts.
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A
God. The big strong guy Knocked the bell in the sky Took my girl and my doggy away that's poetry.
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B
Yeah. So there's a. Pour one out for all the times when that's happened.
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A
You know how it goes. 99. Endless harmony from keeping the summer alive
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B
this is one of the Most ridiculous songs in the Beach Boys canon. A song written by Bruce Johnston about the.
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A
The band, about the Beach Boys, as if he himself is not a Beach Boy, which of course, he wasn't for some period of time, but he was when this song came out and was recorded by the Beach Boys. The band he was in.
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B
Yeah, the. Well, he's. You could argue, the only one in the group who has the perspective, the distance from the situation to write a song this beautiful about it.
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A
Yes.
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B
Cousins, friends and brothers.
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A
He's the friend. I mean, I guess Al is also the friend, but friend, it's. It's friends, plural. Mike is cousin, brothers, obviously, we know them. So you need friends. You need two friends, Bruce and Al.
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B
This has the feeling kind of of that last record in a way. Like, it has this. It's like a eulogy and it's like
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A
a that's all folks type. Somber.
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B
And it's. It's especially poignant for good and bad reasons. Almost pungent might be the word appearing on Keeping the Summer Alive. Like, this is the last song on that record, which is such a. A stinker of a record most of the time. But the. The track before this, Santa Ana wins.
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A
Good song.
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B
And then endless harmony. So it's like a last little glimmer, a last little. Little. Little point of sunlight reflecting off of the. The darkening dome, the geodesic dome in the middle of the Arctic just before
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A
the sun sets once and for all over the horizon and you're plunged into endless Arctic night for months and months. You get a moment of tranquility with endless harmony.
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B
It's so funny just that this song is. It just comes out of nowhere. Like, he doesn't. Bruce isn't known for writing, like, really personal songs, and I find it fascinating that this is what happens when he sits down to pen one.
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A
God, the way you get to like two and a half minutes in when Carl picks up and we say God bless America, all of a sudden just like totally shifts the song. Totally different song out of nowhere, two minutes in, and then it just kind of like does one verse of that and then peters away. We talked about this being like, either not long enough or too long, somewhere in between. Sort of a dissatisfying, misshapen object. But.
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B
But it's beautiful. It's like a pearl. You know, pearls are all imperfect and just like a pearl. This is a song that was formed by the gristle and bullshit in Bruce Johnston's mind as he. As he was enclosed inside the. The great scallop shell of The Beach Boys. Well said.
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A
What a beautiful metaphor.
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B
Thank you.
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A
98. Anna Lee the healer. A song that I don't think appeared on either of our lists, but we decided when we were reviewing the results it should be here after all. So here it is.
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B
Yeah. Well, this is the one, as you'll recall, about the woman who touched the boys.
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A
Touched, you know, many, many boys. Not just these boys.
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B
Yeah. Touched many people with her healing hands.
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A
This is such a fucking funny song.
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B
It's. Yeah. Yes, it is. I think that some of these are here not because they're what many would call good, but because they are important. They proved to be important.
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A
We can have a little bit of flexibility and fun down here. Towards the bottom of the list. You know, there's a couple other songs I'm sure that could have appeared here that are maybe a little bit more deserving, but they're just. There are certain crevices and cul de sacs of the Beach Boy discography that need to be remarked on and noted down in the ledger. And the, like, weird, horny masseuse pop song element. It could be this or Marcella.
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B
We chose this because one is more interesting. Annalee the Healer. Healing with her healing hands.
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A
Yeah. Annalee the Healer is sort of like the light side version of this. And Myrcella is like the hangover, bad vibes, like Dennis drinking screwdrivers at the Marina type of thing. Where on Only the Healer, it's got some sort of surface level spirituality type thing to it. And it's got like a nice low key vibe to it. Just sort of like sitting back, the wind blowing through your hair. And then by the time you get to Marcel a couple years later, it's just like demonically horny Brian Wilson, like, traipsing through the Santa Monica Boulevard massage parlor and accidentally walking in on other people getting whacked off.
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B
Yeah. But Honolulu the Healer, this is like what Brian or Dennis at various points, like when other people are starting to look around each other like guy's deal. This is what they think they're. The vibe they think they're on is Anneli the Healer.
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A
That's right. I love. Man. I'm looking at the later skin. When she gets a chance to help someone, she's really happy. That's maybe my favorite line in the entire song.
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B
You mean the. The delivery of that, too? When she gets a chance to help
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A
someone, she's really happy.
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B
Happy.
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A
Oh, man. Anna Lee the Healer. Real person, apparently. I hope she's doing well. Whether she's in this Realm or the next. All right, 97. I'm glad this is here too. On the note of cul de sacs and crevices in the Beach Boys discography. Summer in Paradise
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B
Title track title to
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A
Summer in Paradise by the Beach Boys. An album that of course you were very high on, certainly in terms of the album art and the rest of the album itself. The music of the album maybe not so hot, but I think that this song, this one song, to be honest, is like actually a pretty good song. And so I don't want to say that no late era Beach Boy stuff is worthy or of note. Like there is something that they managed to do sometimes and that I guess that has to be somewhere in paradise.
- [15:32]
B
It's very similar in a way to Endless Harmony. It's one of these Looking Back With Love type numbers. This one, of course, looking Back with Love. Literally it's a mic fronted song, but
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A
the band is basically just Mike at this point.
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B
We were having fun, fun, fun as America's band.
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A
Yeah, it's good. It's got that cool kind of guitar tone and it's. It's a little more upbeat than Endless Harmony. So I think that this, like, they couldn't really do a ton of great songwriting by 1992, obviously, but that's fine.
- [16:08]
B
This was like the first time doing the victory lap and so it has this kind of like almost quaintness, like, wow, this was really like the beginning of the. Of the coast. Tank forever on the success of the Beach Boys for Mike Love. Like he was still kind of like, well, I still want to make some music, but I can't really think of anything besides writing about the fact that we made music before.
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A
And like that was like. That is amazing for a moment.
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B
That was actually. That was enough.
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A
That was enough.
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B
That was okay.
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A
That's a very well trod lyrical avenue for Michael Love to explore, as everyone's aware. I'm sure. And you know, one or two of those perfectly fine summer in paradise. 96. Ooh, I love this one. Cool Cool Water closing track from Sunflower. Of course, A little snatch. A snippet of the Smile project that was rescued and sort of expanded upon and re recorded by Brian and the Boys for a beautiful record with a beautiful cover. Sunflower. Remember, this is the one that I think Lenny Warinker was involved in Sunflower a little bit and he was telling Brian and the boys, like, you should do sort of a New Age type thing, more almost like an ambient type sound album. And this is the one, obviously that is not what Sunflower ended up being, but this is the one kind of glimpse into what that type of sound might have been. I think it's also worth noting that so much of the. Not the Friends, the Smile music that ends up showing up. And there's going to be plenty of Smile songs that show up on this list. So many of those songs are just like. It's just the music from Smile, basically. They just yank out a little clip and plug it in.
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B
Cabin Essence on 2020.
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A
Exactly. Which is great and is going to appear on this list. But this is the one instance where they kind of. They took some Smile music and actually like Brian actually kind of reworked it and re approached it to expand it into a song on its own without just kind of yanking out a little decontextualized snippet. So I think it's cool.
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B
Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
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A
Water, Water, Water.
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B
It is a cool song. It's not one that I have like a really strong attachment to, but it's. It's nice, you know, it's just. It's good. Of course we have to have that on there.
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A
Cool Water is such a gas.95. I was glad to see this. I think this was one of your picks here. Like Cool Huata was one of mine. Wake the worlds from Friends.
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B
Yeah, I think I just see this one as Wake the World, the brand
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A
new sort of a Sesame street sounding type song.
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B
Yeah. But it's also got the one by one.
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A
Yeah, no, it's great. Friends is so great. I was listening to Friends, the two albums I listened to today before sitting down to Pod and go through just to refresh myself with everything were Friends, Friends and the Beach Boys. Today there's gonna be quite a bit from both of those albums throughout this list. And I mean, everything on Friends is so good and it's all so brief. I'm looking at it right now. This song is 90 seconds long. Wake the world.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I love how stoned and barely there this music is. And yet it totally feels. It's totally fulfilling. At the same time, I don't feel like I'm missing anything with how short some of these songs are.
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B
No, this song is like a little like toy mobile over a baby's crib. Like it has a very. A toy like thing. It's toyetic. You can. You can use that word.
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A
Is that a phrase? That a word?
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B
It is. It is. Like. Like I just. I watched Pinocchio, the movie in theaters. I saw it at the Vista on Film and Guillermo del Toro's no and not the one that they like, the remake either. With Tom Hanks? No, the original 1940 Panaccio. And. Yeah, you know, there's. There's all those little cuckoo clocks and all those little. Little. I guess they're mostly clocks. There's a lot of little wooden devices doing little things. And this song is like that. It's just like a little. A little toy that does one little thing, and it's very cute. It's. He's like. This is. You know, I would say that there's sort of like a Brian Geppetto. He has a Geppetto quality sometimes.
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A
He does. He also has a Pinocchio.
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B
Pinocchio quality.
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A
Absolutely, man. That's the duality of man right there. Are you Geppetto or are you Pinocchio? For Brian Wilson, the answer is both.
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B
Both. Yeah.
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A
Great song. Wake the world 94. Be true to your school, sis. Boomba.
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B
What a banger. I mean, this song is so good. I just think it's great. It's one of the minor examples of something that I think we'll keep coming up against and talking about a lot on this episode and the rest of the list. But when a song that is, like, on paper, just pure fluffy somehow acquires this atmosphere of drama and excitement, that puts it slightly and indefinably just beyond, like, being this little nothing. Like, this song is just a pep rally ditty. And it just feels so epic somehow.
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A
Yeah. I think it's one of the earliest examples of the Beach Boys and Brian specifically, of course, discovering, like, oh, there. There's something a little more here than just being the number one surf group in the country or whatever it says on the COVID of Surfing usa.
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B
Yeah. There's just such drama to it, to the way it starts. And then let your colors fly. It's, like, so earnest, real.
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A
This is real peak nasal mic gloves singing this song to your skull.
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B
Yeah. It's great, though.
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A
Oh, yeah. No, it's fantastic. And I love the little, like, whether you're listening to the one version or the other version, because I think there are the two.
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B
The other run is kind of better. Like, the second one, the one that's on Endless Summer, is the one that has, like, the.
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A
Do it again.
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B
Yeah. The cheerleaders. And it's, like a bit more. It's a bit more muscular on rhythm, but yeah. God, I mean, just when the beginning of that song starts, just like the drum roll loud Braggart tries Put Me Down. It's like the song that spongebob sings about ripping his pants it's like spotlight on Mike.
- [23:22]
A
I will take your word for that one.
- [23:24]
B
You don't know about that. That was like one of the classic spongebob episodes.
- [23:27]
A
I wasn't ever a big spongebob guy.
- [23:30]
B
It was a little missing out on one of the early. SpongeBob is one of the great things.
- [23:36]
A
Yeah, no, it's fine. I've watched plenty of it, trust me. But I just. It didn't really. Apparently not.
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B
I was a little about. I ripped my pants.
- [23:45]
A
No, I mean, I'm sure I saw the episode or whatever, but I. It's not something I was. I was more dialed into the previous wave of Nickelodeon stuff which would have been like a real monsters Rugrats.
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B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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A
So. And spongebob is still peak Nickelodeon. But like that was definitely.
- [24:03]
B
Oh yeah, cartoons. Do you remember that? And then.
- [24:05]
A
Oh yeah, cartoon.
- [24:07]
B
That was like just their thing that they had. It was like they just sort of put pilots for prospective cartoons. Anyway, moving on.
- [24:15]
A
All right. Yeah. 90 something. Let's see here. 93.
- [24:20]
B
Action leak now from Kablam. Go on. Moving on.
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A
93. It's okay. Play it's okay by the Beach Boys. To quote Brian Wilson in Long Promise Road.
- [24:32]
B
Yeah. Does he say that it's okay by the Beach Boys?
- [24:37]
A
Yes, he absolutely said that.
- [24:40]
B
Well, him saying that in that movie. In that movie, in that, in that made me think maybe I was too harsh on this song. And I'm glad that we have it here just because I think I was a little too harsh on it. It's. It. It didn't really didn't even register for me until I watched that that Brian liked this song because it's called it's okay.
- [25:02]
A
It's okay. Yeah. Come on.
- [25:04]
B
Saying. It's like saying beep. Just don't worry.
- [25:07]
A
It's okay.
- [25:08]
B
It's like a self soothing thing.
- [25:11]
A
It's almost. It's like the. The Barks motto. It's good.
- [25:15]
B
It's.
- [25:15]
A
It's okay. It's not good, but it is okay. Yeah. This is great. It's. It's definitely do it again Beach Boys mode where they're just trying to.
- [25:27]
B
Fun, isn't it?
- [25:27]
A
From ten years earlier? Yeah, but like it works. It's got that weird like aspartame flavor that so much of the music on fifteen Big Ones has. But like it again, it works on this in a way that it doesn't in many other examples on this record.
- [25:44]
B
But you know what it has that I didn't realize for the longest time is like, it's Got that fiddle, this kind of exuberant fiddle in the background, which is pretty unique. I mean, just at the very beginning, even you can just hear this, like. It's like a barnyard jamboree.
- [26:01]
A
Mm mm. Barnyard jamboree. It's got some actual Beach Boys harmonies too, which they were doing still sometimes in this era, but were beginning to edge away from very clearly. And so I think that you're doing like, you know, fun in the sun type shit. You got this weird, bright, Barney the Dinosaur sounding song. You got some nice harmonies. Like, that's a recipe for success, at least on the 15 Big Ones album play. It's okay by the Beach Boys. 92. Oh, geez. 92. Solar System brings us wisdom.
- [26:38]
B
Yeah, it does.
- [26:39]
A
Need we say more?
- [26:41]
B
No, not really. Solar System is from, of course, from the Beach Boys Love youe.
- [26:47]
A
That's right.
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B
And yeah, it's Brian's song about one of his favorite things, the solar system.
- [26:53]
A
The solar system, exactly. Yeah. There's gonna be a lot of Beach Boys Love youe stuff. There isn't actually a ton of Beach Boys Love youe. Towards the tip, tip top. I think I realize. I think we both maybe realize that, like, the Beach Boys Love youe is definitely like an album more than it is like, you know, a spotlight for one or two great top songs. There are a couple great top songs, but, like, you just. I think towards the bottom of this list, we're just gonna be throwing a lot of love U tracks at you because they're all just so much fun
- [27:19]
B
and the competition just gets impossibly stiff.
- [27:22]
A
Pretty brutal by the end.
- [27:24]
B
Yeah. Once you get to the top and that. That isn't a. A criticism of Beach Boys Love you. I'm sure there's some listeners who are like, turning this off because they. They love Beach Boys Love youe that much. But Beach Boys Love youe is less up peak. It's more a it. It's more how it ought to have been from album to album. Like so many of the. The stuff that makes up the. The brunt of the discography, especially toward the back end in a more just world, something like Beach Boys Love youe would have represented, like. Oh, yeah. That's usually the kind of stuff we get from the Beach Boys.
- [28:08]
A
Yeah, I. I would say. And I'm just.
- [28:10]
B
Brian allowed to be, like, making stuff spontaneously. And then they put it out and. Wow. Shocking. Shocking concept.
- [28:19]
A
Right?
- [28:19]
B
But, like, you know, if that hadn't been, like, kept from being the case, I don't think it would be and not to denigrate it, but I don't think it would be as much of a shining moment as it would be just like, you know. Yeah, that's what Brian does.
- [28:40]
A
Yeah. I was thinking, you know, we. We do the song countdown at the end, but not the album countdown, which I think is the right approach for something like this. But I do, I would tend to say, like, if we were ranking Beach Boys albums instead of Beach Boys songs, Love U would be like, you know, top, top, top, maybe number three or something over like way up there. But when you're just looking at the. Each individual component parts little bit, you know, it doesn't pack quite the same punch as the. It's a greater than the sum of its parts collection, I think is probably the easiest way to say it.
- [29:17]
B
Yes.
- [29:18]
A
91. This is one you wanted to get on here. Your good friend Dennis Wilson be with me 2020.
- [29:26]
B
This is one that surprised me. I guess even that I wanted it
- [29:29]
A
on here surprised me too.
- [29:32]
B
However, I think that we sort of made the reasoning, I reasoned anyway, that having it is sort of a stand in for every overblown, overstuffed, hot air filled Dennis ballad. And I think this is kind of the best one of those. And of course we're not doing, you know, Dennis's songs. We're not making a list of those. Like I. I think this represents something that Dennis brings time and time again to his showcase moments that are like, not. They're flawed. It's not like great, but it's. It's a flavor that if you don't notice it, you're. You're bound to. The deeper you get, you're just gonna keep having it come up. And so here it is. And here is a tip of the cap to the. The ambition of Dennis to make these songs that are like Cuddle up, you know, those type of like songs like that, which I think this is one of the more distinct and memorable ones. This is.
- [30:43]
A
Yeah, it is a little more, you know, this flavor of Dennis music, whatever, you know, is often very. Yeah, it's a funny line. It's often very shapeless, you know, and sort of just floating vibes based music. And that's great. But this Be With Me has got a little bit more of a spine to it. It's a little more developed. There's like a little more of an actual song structure around it as opposed to like, you know, Cuddle up or. Or better yet, Make It Good from Carl and the Passions, which is just like. You're just like kind of floating in the middle of an empty ocean. There's no land around you for the entire song. So, yeah, I think this is a perfectly reasonable representative of this little nook of the Dennis Wilson Experience.
- [31:37]
B
Yeah.
- [31:38]
A
90. Another friends track. Look at that. Be Here in the Morning. I think that's the one. Is that right after Wake the World on Friends, somewhere towards the top? It is the one right after Wake the World. Yeah. Oh, it's got that little, like. Is that a ukulele there at the top? And Brian's in that, like, super duper high falsetto. He sounds like a little like baby doll singing. This is good.
- [32:03]
B
Yeah.
- [32:03]
A
Be here in the Morning.
- [32:04]
B
This is the one with that out of nowhere, like, choir, full Mount Olympus harmony. Make me feel. Do they say whole?
- [32:18]
A
Yes. Make me feel whole. Yeah, I love that line, too. Also, stay here on the weekend and unplug the phone. No calls from Courthoff, Parks, Van Dyke or Grillo, you know, the homies who were coming around. It's just Brian trying to hang with, I think, Marilyn, I guess, at this point, when he still loved her because she was a great partner for him. Be here in the morning Be here in the evening Be here and make my life. God, this is so good. It's like Patty Cake music.
- [32:51]
B
Yeah.
- [32:53]
A
I love Friends.
- [32:55]
B
It has those little things, too.
- [32:57]
A
And this like. Yeah, the little kind of underwater vocal treatment sounding thing, like a early synthesizer. I don't even know what they're doing to that.
- [33:07]
B
That's crazy. That's Brian's voice.
- [33:09]
A
Yeah, it's all Brian. This. I mean, Friends. Brian said it himself many times like, this is. This is his unofficial second solo album after the unofficial first solo album being Being Pet. Sounds so good. Love, friends. 89. Do it again.
- [33:32]
B
Enough said. We don't need to say anything about do it again.
- [33:35]
A
We have spent so much fucking time talking about do it Again. I've come to terms with it. It's fine.
- [33:41]
B
It insists upon itself
- [33:45]
A
as much on 2020 does.
- [33:47]
B
We have to. There's nothing you can say at a certain point. Do it again is a fact.
- [33:56]
A
That's right. That's right. Just like gravity. As sure as the sun revolves around the earth, the Beach Boys will be asking you to do it again. 88. Ooh, here we go. Beach Boys today. Get ready to see more from this album, folks, please. Let me wonder, this was your pick. That's right. I love Beach Boys today. I love basically every song on Beach Boys today, with one glaring exception that might show up in the worst Beach Boys songs list. That we put together. I think that the second side of Beach Boys today is one of the great sides of music, really. The sort of slow, sad, neurotic side of this album. As opposed to the extroverted, ecstatic, galloping first side, which. Which is also extraordinary. And we're gonna have plenty of representatives from that. But I think that this is the first glimpse of what Pet Sounds is really going to be in many ways. From the production to the interiority. To the self doubt and interpersonal challenges. It's very much not just like we're gonna drive in or Wendy or something from all summer long. As great as those songs are, and as great as those productions, love those type of songs. But this is a real level up moment for them. You could pick almost anything from the second side of this album. And there's I think, gonna be at least one more coming a little ways further up. But like, please let me wonder. Such a incredible Brian production. And it really is a Brian production. Like Brian Wilson is the songwriter. Brian Wilson produced this whole thing. Brian Wilson arranged the music. Brian Wilson. This is a Brian operating at the peak of his powers type of thing. And it's even before you play the
- [35:54]
B
peak of his powers.
- [35:54]
A
I think it is pretty close to the peak of his powers. I mean, maybe not this song specific, although I think this song is huge. But Beach Boys today in general is Brian at the peak of his powers. And it's Brian at the peak of his powers. Before you bring in other collaborators. And you get the Tony Asher flavor, and you get the Van Dyke Parks flavor. And you get the Stephen Kalinich flavor and stuff. We love those as well. And Brian, Lord knows, is at his peak when collaborating with many of them as well. But I kind of dig that. The Beach Boys today is kind of just like it's Brian and Mike, I guess, or whatever. But it really is just the one. So I appreciate it for that. Oh, this song's so good. 87 Their hearts were full of Spring
- [36:46]
B
this is a cover, right?
- [36:47]
A
It is a cover by the Four Freshmen. That's right, yeah. Legendary band music makers in the Beach Boys cosmology, of course, the Four Freshmen are maybe the number one influence on a young Brian Wilson.
- [36:59]
B
There'd be no Beach Boys without them. And yeah, this is important to include just for that point alone, just as a reference point. Because, I don't know, it's just a node along the way that you can sort of look at. And you understand the Beach Boys more by having it here, for sure.
- [37:24]
A
Yes. And I think the vocal arrangements of this performance. This, of course, I think. I don't know that this came out on a formal record or maybe it was on a B side of a single or something, but it's on, like, the 1967 comp. Just. I mean, it's totally acapella and it's post pet Sounds, but the way that everyone still sounds like it's. They are as powerful as they've ever been. Maybe, you know, more powerful in some ways just as singers, as. As a group of harmonizers, as cousins, friends and. And brothers. And I just. I mean, the. The particular je ne sais quoi of the Beach Boys vocal combination is so much part of the Beach Boys, and I. You get a better glimpse of that anywhere earlier, later throughout the entire career than their performance of their hearts were full of spring. So. All right, where were we? 87. 86.
- [38:23]
B
Don't go near the water don't go near the water this seems low, but that's okay.
- [38:27]
A
This seems high.
- [38:29]
B
Really?
- [38:30]
A
Yeah. Well, I mean, so Surf's up is another one where, like, it's interesting to think about Surf's up compared to Love U. Because Surf's up is also like a greater than the well is like. Surf's up might be less than the sum of its parts, but the parts that go into it are like the. Some of them are the very best parts of anything ever, basically. And I've always thought of Don't Go near the Water as like, a really good song, but compared to, I don't know, three or four or five other songs that appear on this album, it's like kind of mid tier. Even though it's a really great song, just because what it's being compared against on the rest of this album is like the towering heights of Beach Boys music.
- [39:16]
B
I just love Surf's Up. I don't know. It's my favorite one. It's my favorite album by the Beach Boys to listen to. And Don't Go near the Water is the way it starts.
- [39:28]
A
That's right. Don't come near the Water.
- [39:33]
B
It's such a weird song. And it's also this forced thing about the. Where they're like, suddenly, like, talking about. They're greenwashing the Beach Boys.
- [39:44]
A
The ecology shit.
- [39:46]
B
Yeah. They feel guilty for making all those. Those chip bags for the tap chips in to promote to Rush party.
- [39:54]
A
Thousands of turtles in the Galapagos island have suffocated, have been drowned because they ingested Mylar bags that the Beach Boys typically flavored potatoes. Beach Boys Party Beach Boys Party chips.
- [40:09]
B
Yeah. There's probably, like, somewhere in the world just an entire warehouse full of Beach Boys party chip bags.
- [40:17]
A
Cap chips in two. Rush party lp. Yeah.
- [40:22]
B
Yeah. They're like, all right, we got to atone for that by writing a song about. Or we say the thing about toothpaste making the ocean a bubble bath. It's like, you couldn't mention all oil.
- [40:34]
A
Well, honestly, like, I bet. Because this is 1970, I bet, like, toothpaste was 50% petroleum back then or something. They had some crazy shit going on back in the lead.
- [40:44]
B
Everything had lead in it. I mean, it was wild. The smog situation in la, like, which today we just totally don't think about
- [40:53]
A
because people were driving around with gas masks on.
- [40:55]
B
If you were riding a bikester as a kid, like, your eyes would water from riding a bike around.
- [41:02]
A
Yeah. There were days where just, like, you weren't supposed to go outside because the air was poison.
- [41:08]
B
Yeah. And right now, I can see from my window here, I can see the Hollywood sign. I can see the Griffith Observatory. I can see the houses in the distance of the Hollywood Hills.
- [41:20]
A
You can go near the water now.
- [41:22]
B
Yeah. Well, actually, recently, you couldn't.
- [41:25]
A
Oh, well. Is it more like fire detritus?
- [41:29]
B
Fire wind. Yeah.
- [41:31]
A
Yeah. All right.
- [41:33]
B
Moving on. Back Home. Back home from 15 big ones.
- [41:37]
A
I love Back Home. I love back home. I love back home. I love 15 big ones. I love 15 big ones. I love. It's okay by the Beach Boys I love Back home.
- [41:48]
B
I love 15 big ones. I love 15 big ones and I love Back Home.
- [41:51]
A
I'm just like. I'm. I still feel like there's more to get at on 15 big ones. I know we tried to do it on the. On the Do It Again episode recently.
- [42:00]
B
You know what you're feeling is like, oh, I just feel like there's more to get out of Chuck E. Cheese. I had such a good time there, you know, as a kid. I just. I don't know. I feel like I gotta go back. And then if you did, though, it wouldn't. But there's that feeling persists.
- [42:19]
A
It's good to have that feeling. Exactly. Whether or not it's legitimate, I'm realizing now, thinking about it, I think 15 big ones for the Beach Boys might be my under the Red sky for Bob.
- [42:29]
B
I think that is true. I think they are. That's what they are.
- [42:33]
A
These albums just, like, are honestly probably not that good. And they have a couple fun or funny moments on them and one or two transcendent Moments of beauty. But the rest of it is just kind of bullshit, but it's just arranged in such a strange and uncanny fashion that I can't help but feel like I'm missing some brilliant inner truth.
- [42:54]
B
You always get the feeling there's some other room you haven't explored, but. But you have.
- [43:00]
A
Yeah. You can only listen to TV talking songs so many times. You can only listen to TM songs so many times.
- [43:05]
B
You go in the attic looking for, like, more goodies. And then when you're in the attic, you're like, you know, the living room is pretty cool. I should go back down there. You go back down there, and you're like, is the kitchen, like, better than this? And it's all not that good, but there's this thing that just keeps you looking around like a maniac.
- [43:25]
A
I'm looking at the track listing of 15 big ones right now. This middle run of Chapel of Love. Everyone's in love with you. The medley of Talk to Me and Tallahassee, Lassie, that same song. The weird thing about.
- [43:40]
B
I almost wanted. I wanted to put that same song on this list, but we can't put
- [43:44]
A
that same song on there.
- [43:45]
B
Gregorian Chance were a real big thing. He does a Marky Smith there.
- [43:52]
A
Or maybe Mark. That's where Markie Smith got his. His Marky Smith shit from a real big thing. Anyways, back Home. Great song. It's a really nice little pep. Pep talk from Brian. So catchy. Oh, and the way Brian would perform this live with the Brian Wilson Band later on is fantastic. I love back home. What's chugalug 84? Ooh. Here a mug, there a mug.
- [44:17]
B
Well, we have so much to Chugalug because of how it got us everyone's
- [44:23]
A
favorite have so much room. Asterisk. Asterisk. Segment of Jokerman Pop. We gotta come up with the next novelty segment. It makes people really pissed for our next main series.
- [44:33]
B
Well, what would it be for the Death Grips series?
- [44:36]
A
Ooh, for Death Grips, we just have
- [44:38]
B
to do a different crime for each episode.
- [44:41]
A
Yeah, I was gonna say, like, to rank.
- [44:44]
B
Yeah. Carjacking or cutting someone's head off or freebasing cocaine.
- [44:53]
A
Just smoking from a skull. Smoking cigarettes in the shower.
- [45:00]
B
Yeah, we just. We just pivot to being, like, that guy who does cigarette reviews. I was smoking cigarettes in the shower. Sure. When they get wet, I just let it. That's a very Brian Wilson lyric. I was smoking cigarettes in the shower. When they get wet. I just.
- [45:16]
A
I bet. Honestly, I bet Brian has smoked cigarettes in the shower and has they've gotten wet and he has just lit. That sounds exactly.
- [45:23]
B
Isn't that exactly like a lyric? And that's just like. Yeah, there's. All right. Easy segue from Beach Boys to track on the sixth Death Grips album.
- [45:39]
A
I totally forgot even someone commented when we announced the Death Grips thing, the first thing you hear in any Death Grips song at the very beginning of the first Death Grips or something. Exactly. Is the fucking homie of the Beach Boys.
- [45:52]
B
Friend of Dennis.
- [45:53]
A
Friend.
- [45:53]
B
Friend.
- [45:54]
A
Friend of the band. It's too perfect. All right, 84. Yeah. Chug luck. I mean, come on. It's chug.
- [46:01]
B
Look.
- [46:01]
A
83. Good to my baby what a great day.
- [46:09]
B
That riff is so good.
- [46:10]
A
It's infectious.
- [46:12]
B
It's so cool. It's actually. It's a cooler you could ever expected from them at that. They kind of don't do a riff that cool again. But I think this one is as good as. As the Beatles. Like, you listen to this and you can really. It's not even a stretch to be like at this point in 65. It was completely a toss up about who was the better group for that type of music. Like the Beach Boys and the Beatles were really neck and neck.
- [46:45]
A
I mean, it was kind of inevitable because if you put the music aside, which like, sure, the Beach Boys could tie the Beatles for some period of time at least. Like the SWAG gap is kind of unclosable.
- [46:57]
B
Yeah.
- [46:57]
A
I think you're just not going to be able to put Roly Poly Carl Wilson up against like John Lennon and George Harrison and Paul Beetle.
- [47:07]
B
It wasn't Paul Beetle. It wasn't quite understood about SWAG yet. People were like just listening to songs and being like this song I like. I don't know who made it necessarily, but I like this one.
- [47:21]
A
I think the Beatles were in the. I think between the Beatles and Bob, the concept of SWAG was beginning to solidify because like you think about some of the. It happened like, think about Hard Day's Night.
- [47:30]
B
Like once that was out of the bag, of course they were doomed. Like from the SWAG arms race perspective.
- [47:36]
A
But purely on a musical level, absolutely. This is, you know, as good as anything on Rubber Soldiers.
- [47:43]
B
Yeah.
- [47:45]
A
Better than a lot of what's on Rebber Soul, to be honest. Drive My Car Baby Good to my. Yeah, just listen to those harmonies, man. Oh, I love this. The Beach Boys Today was the one. I remember when Brian passed last year, the first album I wanted to listen to just to talk about wax rapsotic on today more was Today it's just such a thrilling innervating. Not innervating. The opposite of innovating. Thrilling, exciting, fulfilling. Listen all the way through.
- [48:15]
B
I wouldn't say all the way through.
- [48:17]
A
Well, there's one moment.
- [48:19]
B
Is it Don't Hurt My Little Sister?
- [48:22]
A
No, it's Bull Session with Big Daddy.
- [48:24]
B
Oh, come on.
- [48:26]
A
Yeah, the whole thing is only like 27 minutes long or something like that. I love how short these early Beach Boys albums are. All right, 82. Airplane. Airplane.
- [48:42]
B
Just Airplane.
- [48:43]
A
Yeah, but, you know, they say airplane, Airplane in.
- [48:47]
B
In the song Airplane from Beach Boys. Love you. It's a great song. It's a great little. Little diorama of a. Of a song. I just love how personal the These songs are, how small scale in concept they are. Everything that's been said about this album, like, I'm not gonna add anything to it at this point, but I think that this is one of the. It's an underrated song from this record. I think that maybe it's like the third or fourth one people point to as being a highlight, but I guess that's what we're doing too.
- [49:28]
A
But I would say it's even like the six or the seventh one that maybe.
- [49:31]
B
Yeah, that's probably true. I'm gonna say if it's the fifth for you, it's the third for me.
- [49:38]
A
Fair enough. It's really great. And of course, I mean, the whole song leads up to that fantastic little 15 second boogie woogie tag at the end, which, like, completely makes it for me.
- [49:49]
B
Can't wait. Can't wait to see her face.
- [49:52]
A
To see her face. Exactly. Cause it sounds just like, you know, Mario, like stage selection, menu music for most of it. And then they turn into this, like, ripping little rock band all of a sudden at the end. I love Airplane.
- [50:06]
B
Still. My favorite part is the beginning of it. Just describing what it's like to be on an airplane.
- [50:11]
A
Or it sounds more like. Like Wii. The Wii store a little bit.
- [50:18]
B
But we'll talk about. Sound like the Wii story. That's another
- [50:23]
A
album.
- [50:24]
B
No, on that album. On Friends.
- [50:26]
A
I'm thinking of on friends. Yeah, yeah. 81. Deirdre. Deirdre. How do you pronounce that word?
- [50:34]
B
Deerdry.
- [50:34]
A
Deirdre. You give it an E at the end.
- [50:37]
B
You sort of don't.
- [50:38]
A
Deer. Deer. Deirdre.
- [50:41]
B
Deirdre.
- [50:42]
A
Yeah. All right.
- [50:43]
B
It's like Martin. How do you pronounce the T in Martin? You know, Martin.
- [50:47]
A
Martin. Martin. It's like M A R apostrophe I.
- [50:50]
B
You could go, Deirdre. Or he could Go, Deirdre. I think it's deer tree. And in like normal person's English, 2026 in California.
- [50:59]
A
I mean, they do. They do. In the song, they pronounce it Deirdre.
- [51:02]
B
Dear, dear, dear Deirdre.
- [51:03]
A
Deirdre. Yeah, I love Deirdre. Deirdre. It's a ridiculous name for a song. Beautiful name for a girl. We got to get a little bit of this.
- [51:14]
B
Bruce, I'm glad you saved your ass there in case anyone named Deirdre was listening.
- [51:18]
A
It's just the song is just called Deirdre.
- [51:20]
B
I mean, it's like the male equivalent of that name is like Searle.
- [51:25]
A
That's a little. That's even weirder. I would say Dierdre's like.
- [51:29]
B
I think they're about the same. They're exactly as British as each other. Cyril and Dierdre.
- [51:35]
A
You associate Dierdre with British? Interesting. Yeah, I was thinking that it's like sort of like Midwestern, like Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa type thing. Well, anyway, same difference. Whatever. It's a great song. It's Bruce doing his little, you know, namby pamby type shit. But it's a fantastic production. I just love the way that sunflower sounds and feels. It's such like a cool. It's like just pulling on a nice pair of lived in jeans. Perfect fit, you know, nothing spectacular or, you know, totally out of left field, I should say. But like, everything totally works. And I think Bruce is one of the stars of the show on this album.
- [52:19]
B
Yeah, it's got that weird little like, sound. Doo doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
- [52:26]
A
One, two, three. And you're back with me, Deirdre. Easy as that. Number 80. Traitor.
- [52:34]
B
Traitor is fine. I don't really love this song.
- [52:37]
A
You had the traitor on your list, too. We both had at about the same place.
- [52:40]
B
But there's certain choices I made that were because I knew other people care about them and I. I wanted to.
- [52:45]
A
Oh, you can't bow to the crowd, to the pressure from the baying masses.
- [52:51]
B
Well, it's not masses, let me tell you. And also, it's mostly just I'm thinking about Carl and I want to throw Carl a bit of shine. And every time he earns it. And I do think that this is one of the better Carl showcase moments and I don't want to take that away from him. It's not a bad song at all.
- [53:12]
A
It's so groovy. I'm listening to it again right now. It's fantastic.
- [53:16]
B
It's good, but. So that's why I'm saying I'm here to say it's good.
- [53:21]
A
Traitor sailed he's got. He's doing the jeweled scepter bullshit again. Traitor sailed Jeweled Crowned Humanity rode the way Exploring to command more land Scheming how to rule the waves I love the weird, you know, anti colonialist critique coming from. They've graduated from ecology concerns to colonialism, Third Worldism here on Holland. And man, that chorus is huge. It's that big, bounding kind of synthesizer. Holland is just a good album. I don't know what to say.
- [53:53]
B
I agree. It's also just a good album.
- [53:57]
A
We loved. Both of us loved Holland when we talked about it. And there's gonna be a couple other Holland songs that appear quite high on this list. So. Hope you're not shading the great Holland.
- [54:07]
B
It's good. It's good.
- [54:08]
A
It's very good. 79 hour prayer from 2020.
- [54:15]
B
What do you want? It's pure music, you know, it's pure cinema. This is pure music. It's great. I can't say anything. And frankly, we shouldn't say anything about it because this is something that has no words. You just have to listen to it.
- [54:29]
A
Yeah. The only thing I would say about it is like, it almost like it's hard to even think about it as just like a song, you know, especially. Cause it's just so in. Artfully placed on the second side of 2020 after the Charles Manson song before Cabinescence. But it is just perfect ecstatic sound. Never learn not to love into our prayer Evil. One of those evil sequencing decisions I've ever seen.
- [54:59]
B
Ridiculous. Never learn not to love. That's not on the list, is it?
- [55:04]
A
It isn't, but I had it on mine.
- [55:05]
B
I saw. Okay. It was on your list. I'm glad it's not.
- [55:08]
A
It's good. It's good song. Charles Manson, he's a talent. He's someone to watch.
- [55:13]
B
Right, Right. He's not in fact one to watch, man.
- [55:17]
A
Did you see that Michael movie is making like a hundred million dollars or something.
- [55:22]
B
Was it. Was that to do with anything?
- [55:24]
A
Just like, you know, your problematic faves.
- [55:27]
B
Oh, yeah. Well, I. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Charles Manson. Well, actually, this is too. Too much to get into. Who's worse? I. I think, you know, that's one was found guilty officially. Anyway.
- [55:46]
A
Listen, they both have some skeletons in their closet. I think we can acknowledge that Michael himself, of course.
- [55:53]
B
That Michael movie is making like a lot of money.
- [55:56]
A
It's just crazy to me that people are like, all right, yeah, I'm gonna go see this movie about known pedophile rapist Michael Jackson.
- [56:03]
B
Because as you know, you're voting with your dollar, you're saying, I love pedophilia. When you go see a movie. They cut out all of that, by the way.
- [56:10]
A
I know.
- [56:11]
B
That made it so that you couldn't. They couldn't even tell any kind of semblance of the real narrative, apparently.
- [56:17]
A
It's just, it's. It's. I'm. I'm curious about the movie because it just seems, like, awful. It probably stinks seeing the trailers, that it looks laughable on his face. But, you know, whatever.
- [56:33]
B
We'll get to it when we do the Michael Jackson.
- [56:35]
A
When we do the Michael series, which
- [56:37]
B
I think we will. I mean, eventually. Like, why? Why not?
- [56:40]
A
We've got some other things we should hit before we do the Michael series.
- [56:44]
B
Yeah. But hey, you know, it's like, what are you gonna say? Oh, he's not famous enough. It's not important enough. You can't say any of those things.
- [56:53]
A
You can't. You can't. That's right. You can say other things, but you can't say those things.
- [56:59]
B
Yeah.
- [56:59]
A
Let's skedaddle here. Let's move, move along. What's next? Seven. Ooh, I like this. Seven. Eight. Match Point of Our Love from the Miu album. I think it's the only Miu song that appears here. You know, I was shocked. I was shocked to not see either Sumahama or Belles of Paris on your list.
- [57:18]
B
They were both on my list, but I had to put them away from the list.
- [57:23]
A
Okay. Because you. Only because you had to actually put good songs on your list.
- [57:26]
B
Yeah. I just kept realizing there were other songs that should be on there and.
- [57:30]
A
Yeah, so I was expecting. I was expecting Belles of Paris, to be honest. I know how you love Mike's little. What is he saying that? Croissant.
- [57:41]
B
Yeah, croissant.
- [57:43]
A
Anyways, match point. Fantastic song on miu. Beach boys, yacht rock type thing. I don't know why Brian is writing this, like, tennis themed love song all of a sudden. He probably doesn't know why either. No one knew what was going on there in Fairfield, Iowa, in the frigid winter of 1977. But they got at least one good song out of it, and it's.
- [58:05]
B
Brian wrote that one, huh?
- [58:06]
A
Yeah, that's a Brian. His voice sounds great. It's very smooth. It's kind of lower down in the register. It's been a long, long time. Oh, it's so groovy. Match Point. I love. I love playing this song.
- [58:20]
B
Tennis.
- [58:21]
A
Yeah, you know tennis. They should put this one in Match Point.
- [58:25]
B
This should have been in the movie. Match Point.
- [58:27]
A
I was gonna say it should have been in Match Point is not about tennis. Right?
- [58:30]
B
It is.
- [58:31]
A
Is it?
- [58:32]
B
Yeah, he's a tennis instructor.
- [58:34]
A
I've never seen it. It should have been Challengers, everyone's other favorite tennis themed movie.
- [58:40]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [58:40]
A
Well, that would actually. Would have made sense. Cause, you know, it's got that sort of menage a trois. The Match Point of our love.
- [58:46]
B
That's true. Match Point. That movie should have been called Match of Our Love.
- [58:50]
A
Exactly. Damn. Left some. Left some ideas on the cutting room floor there, Luca.
- [58:58]
B
That man has made some really good movies and a lot of stinking.
- [59:03]
A
Wasn't he the guy that was going to do the Tangled up in Blue movie that the.
- [59:07]
B
Well, yeah, he was going to do the. Yeah, the movie based on probably good blood on the tracks.
- [59:13]
A
Probably good that. Oh, yeah. It was the whole album. It wasn't just Tangled up and blew the song.
- [59:17]
B
Yeah, it was based upon that. And yeah, I.
- [59:20]
A
Probably good. That one didn't get made.
- [59:23]
B
Sometimes he's really good. Sometimes he's really not.
- [59:25]
A
Yeah.
- [59:27]
B
Here's to his next one being good because the last couple have been pu.
- [59:33]
A
Challengers is good.
- [59:34]
B
Challengers is fine. But then he made two movies since then.
- [59:38]
A
He made Challengers just came out, like, last year. There's no two more movies.
- [59:42]
B
He made the one about William Burroughs that was really bad. And then he made the one called after the Hunt, which was like, supposed to be like a Woody Allen drama, but was like, really turgid and boring.
- [59:55]
A
I never even heard of that.
- [59:56]
B
Yeah, well, you don't need to watch it. It's pretty bad.
- [60:01]
A
77 Time to Get Alone 2020, a song that you had extraordinarily high on your list and then decided to work its way down.
- [60:10]
B
I just put it too high by mistake.
- [60:12]
A
All right. It is a fantastic song. It is sort of the moment that 2020 becomes friends again and does friends as well as just about anything on Friends. Just about anything on Friends. I love that jump scare weird kind of like levels up moment halfway through when just everything gets loud all of a sudden out of nowhere. And I think it's a valuable window, a valuable peek into Brian Wilson's psyche circa 1969. This song and I went to sleep kind of sitting next to one another on this album. I almost think of them as the same song. They're not, of course, but it's four minutes of Brian being about as honest and forthright on recorded music as he's going to be for many, many years after this point. Do, do, do 76. Ooh, Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii.
- [61:17]
B
If this series taught you nothing else, it's. It's about the. The way to pronounce that.
- [61:24]
A
It's. It certainly taught me that you are a stickler for pronunciation on certain words.
- [61:29]
B
Well, it's just that that's like the one thing about the. The language of. Of Hawaii that it. I don't know what it's called. What is that? It's just Hawaiian, right?
- [61:40]
A
Yeah, I think so.
- [61:42]
B
That they. There's all kinds of lessons.
- [61:43]
A
They're saying Hawaii on the song, so they are not. The backing vocal is clearly Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii. That's the lead. I think Brian is doing Hawaii, but the backing vocals are clearly just Hawaii, Hawaii.
- [62:00]
B
But as you know, the stylized backing vocals are how you model the way you pronounce anything. If there's any kind of a model for pronunciation, it's what is the backing vocals in a song from 1964.
- [62:15]
A
What a great song. Hawaii. Early Beach Boys classic. Yeah. Oh, that's so good. I love this. I love so many of these early Beach Boys songs. You know, you could pick 912 different songs from this era of them, and it would, you know, almost all be worthwhile. But I think this is one of the catchiest, most exciting and really feels like they've got something here. Even though it's only on the, like, the third album or something they put out here.
- [62:48]
B
It's super catchy.
- [62:50]
A
Yeah. Just like undeniable to Hawaii.
- [62:55]
B
And sometimes that's the only reason to put it on the list. It's just really catchy.
- [63:00]
A
What's new to the song? Exactly? I mean, it's. It's kind of undeniable. Same thing with the next one. A song that is a cover, but is just about as associated with the Beach Boys as anything else that the Beach Boys ever did. It's Barbara Ann. I mean, Barbara Ann,
- [63:20]
B
you're more of a fan than I am of Barbara Anne.
- [63:21]
A
I can't believe you're not a Barbara Ann fan. A Barbara fan.
- [63:25]
B
It's fine.
- [63:26]
A
It's so just. I guess I'm maybe a little colored because both times I've seen Al Jardine in the Pet Sounds Band, my opinions are colored. Both times I've seen Al Jardine in the Pet Sounds Band, Barbara Ann is one of the show closers, and they bring everyone up, and it's just like, 12 people on stage. They got the guests out there doing the whole thing. It's just a real rock and roll party. It's so much fun. Barbara Ann. I'm not gonna sit here and intellectualize Barbara Ann.
- [63:59]
B
And neither am I. Next song is.
- [64:03]
A
Okay, first Pet Sounds is this. This is the first Pet Sounds appearance on this list.
- [64:08]
B
Yeah. You know, I think that when we talked about Pet Sounds and we got to this song, you did sort of give a little bit of criticism. I think we kind of painted it as, like, sort of minor. But that's, like, so delusional. I mean, just. That's, like, what you have to do when you're talking about only Pet Sounds. You gotta start, like, thinking about, like, what the highs and lows are.
- [64:31]
A
And I think if there has to be a minor song on Pet Sound, I think here today probably is the minor song.
- [64:38]
B
But on the other hand. And the reason I kind of fought for putting it on here was that it represents. And I think we maybe said this on the episode itself, but there's something extremely special about it because it plays perfectly into Mike's strengths and interests while also not being compromised. Brian, song or composition, like the bridge on that is just as legendary as anything on the record. And do.
- [65:13]
A
Yeah. I mean, that's like.
- [65:15]
B
Mike is the right one to sing this song, though.
- [65:19]
A
Yeah. I would. I would tend to agree.
- [65:22]
B
He's. It's. It's correct, like. And. And the subject matter is. Is all Mike. And yet, I don't know, it offers, like, an interesting kind of glimpse into a world which was not to be in which, like, they found some kind of happy medium for everyone. And that includes the listening public who are interested in more adventurous Brian compositions. Because this song has it all. The only thing it lacks in relation to the other songs on Pet Sounds is, frankly, something which you can't take out of the. Once it's out of the bag, it's out of the bag. Like a more sophisticated subject matter. And this is still sort of like elevated, teeny bopper subject matter. But it's. It's great.
- [66:21]
A
It is great. Yeah. This is probably about as far outside of his comfort zone as Mike was willing to go as well.
- [66:28]
B
Credit to him. He's saying plenty on other songs that were totally out of his comfort zone.
- [66:33]
A
Yeah.
- [66:34]
B
But this one is, like, it's him. It's. It's. You know, it's for. It's basically for him. It's. I think it was Brian writing with the. With Mike in mind on some level. At least just in terms of, like, the kind of stuff they have been writing.
- [66:50]
A
It's a nice. It's a nice moment for him on this album. And I think that it is just a really effective composition. It's like definitely the 12th song that I think about when I think about Pet Sounds. But that says more about just how insane Pet Sounds is than it does about the quality of the song, which is very, very high.
- [67:16]
B
Yeah.
- [67:18]
A
73. Little Deuce Coupe. She's my little deuce coupe. How about that?
- [67:26]
B
I wouldn't have.
- [67:27]
A
You're not a little. You don't like the car songs, I'm realizing.
- [67:30]
B
Not really.
- [67:31]
A
What? Come on. You drive more cars than you surf and yet you like a lot of the surfing songs.
- [67:39]
B
I'm too close to the situation.
- [67:40]
A
Interesting. All right. I mean, Little Deuce Coupe is just undeniable. It's like a song that exists beyond the Beach Boys, beyond even recorded music. It's little deuce coup. You don't know what I got. What's next? 72. Okay, I'm clearing out. This is all you looking at Tomorrow. A welfare song. A song that I totally forgot even existed, but is, in fact. What, track seven on Surf's Up.
- [68:11]
B
Yeah, this is a load bearing pillar on Surf's up, actually.
- [68:16]
A
Interesting.
- [68:17]
B
I mean that in the sense that it's not something that you see, but it holds the thing up. Like, this is so necessary on that record. And it's an owl moment. Am I right about that?
- [68:29]
A
I think that's. It's either Al or Mike. Honestly, I have a hard time even remembering it.
- [68:35]
B
I just want to give proper credit to whoever it is because I think this song is. It's just really good filler. Like, this is the kind of thing that doesn't call too much attention to itself, but is also something that, like.
- [68:52]
A
Yeah, it's Al. It's Al.
- [68:53]
B
I thought it was Al. Like, it. I don't know. I think of. This is just like. It's. It's like Cotton Fields Al.
- [69:01]
A
No, I like Cotton Fields.
- [69:02]
B
It. This is Al in Cotton Fields mode. But it's an original, right? I think. And so, yeah, I just think it's great. Like, I love the atmosphere of it. Like, when I think of Surf's up, you, of course, immediately think of, like, the big moments, like the. The high drama and the surreal landscapes of the title track and Till I Die. But I think this song is like the one that sounds the most like the album cover. Actually. This song about, like, sort of making your way through the desolate wilderness as, like, a lonely sharecropper or whatever. Like the Dust bowl, you know, it has a little bit of a Grapes of Wrath theme to it.
- [69:55]
A
It's definitely got an interesting flavor and feeling and sound. And I think it fits nicely in on this album. To me, I think it's always been more just like, you know, like an innings eater on Surf's Up. Just something that is.
- [70:10]
B
Sometimes you gotta have a break to, like, eat your hot dog.
- [70:13]
A
No, you're right. And I appreciate the concept of spotlighting a song that, like, sort of seems designed not to be spotlit in some ways. I think so. Sure. Why not? 70 something. 71. 71.
- [70:36]
B
Yeah.
- [70:37]
A
I just don't have this list in front of me on the screen. The Night Was so Young. The Beach Boys Love youe. Oh. One of my very favorites on this album. I know I'm higher on this than you are, but I just think this is such an incredible concoction, musically speaking. Yeah. That guitar riff from Carl the Moog that Brian is doing here with the organ. I pour some milk and I start to think, you know, I just. Some perfect Brian Wilson lines there.
- [71:07]
B
Did you say milk?
- [71:09]
A
I said what? Did I say milk? You said, Mel, Boy, you're really. You're really on my ass about pronunciation tonight. I can barely even. I think that one barely even talk and get these words out without coughing into the microphone.
- [71:24]
B
One, one. One was fixed. And then. Then you. You, like, put down Hawaii. And that one's gone for. For good. And now. Now it's gone into milk. Forgive me. I'm being too. I'm being too harsh. The Night Was so Young. This is just one of them. One of them songs like Wind Chimes. One of them songs like. It's that thing that Brian does so well and which no one necessarily asks for of him, like, doing these, like, odd little croony numbers. This one's kind of like Be Here in the Morning. Like, I don't know. I think of certain. Certain Brian modes, like, roughly as being related. And. And this one's. This one's like. What's that other one? The one about, like, the Purple. Purple. There's another song about, like, Purple.
- [72:18]
A
I mean, there is Deep Purple, but that's a cover.
- [72:22]
B
Yeah, but it's still. It's kind of like, got some of that feeling of, like, the night was so young.
- [72:29]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's got a little sort of a torch ballad type sound.
- [72:32]
B
Outsider, Big band adjacent.
- [72:35]
A
Yeah, exactly. And, I mean, we don't actually have a big band on this song?
- [72:39]
B
No, but outsider, like crooner stuff.
- [72:42]
A
But yeah. I mean, you could have a big band on this song. I think it's Brian writing in that manner. But obviously love you is just with the synthesizers and the organ and then the brothers, basically. I think it's just such an interesting moment of real grown up kind of songwriting. And the way that the harmonies come in on the choruses. I think Carl's vocals are really nice and understood. I don't know. It really works for me. And I think when I said earlier, love you is maybe it's greater than the sum of its parts collection because it's hard to spotlight individual songs. This is one of the songs that I spotlight because it's just such a magical kind of admixture, musically speaking. 70. Lonely sea. Ooh. Surfing USA. Number one surf group in the country.
- [73:34]
B
Yeah. I thought this one had to be in there just because it's. It's kind of the first time that they made a song that was kind of like dipping back in to the. The well of just surfing. But it became clear that, like, they weren't. It wasn't just the same shit. It was still like. It wasn't totally lateral as a move. Like there's. They're finding new colors in something that seems kind of like hard to find new. New ones.
- [74:11]
A
Yes. Yeah. And it's. It is. It is literally just a surfing song. It's about the ocean, but sad. But. But let's make it sad. Exactly. And that. I mean, surfing music. But make it sad is going to be a very important. Just sort of insight or thematic direction for years and years of Beach Boys music. So as one of the earliest examples of that. One of the most successful examples of that. Lonely City. Absolutely makes sense. I love how spare this song sounds. There's like barely anything even to this. It's like just a very gentle backbeat from Dennis and then I think a bass guitar, basically, and then Brian singing. It's a really beautiful composition. Just so quiet and classic.
- [74:59]
B
Like classic surf music sounds. But you can just tell there's a little bit more under the hood.
- [75:05]
A
Yeah. They're not just the number one surfing group in the country. They are that, but they're more than that as well.
- [75:10]
B
Well.
- [75:11]
A
And Lonely Sea is an example of why that is. 69. Love is a woman.
- [75:18]
B
69.
- [75:19]
A
That's kind of appropriate, that Love is a woman. We didn't do that on purpose, but I'm glad it worked out that way. I think this is one of your picks from Love U.
- [75:28]
B
There's a. I was listening to this autobiography or a biography of. Of Groucho Marx by this guy who is his assistant. And he's talking about the time where Groucho was getting interviewed. And they were like, how does it feel to be 85? And he's like, I like 69 better.
- [75:53]
A
All right. Love Is A Woman.
- [75:58]
B
What a ridiculous song.
- [76:00]
A
It's very good. I love the way the song starts just with that drum beat. The. Just most annoying nails on a blackboard percussion you've ever heard.
- [76:16]
B
I was listening to this earlier.
- [76:18]
A
I love this.
- [76:20]
B
Love Is A Woman Love Is A Woman lyrics, please. Love is a woman so treat her tenderly tonight Then Love is a woman
- [76:29]
A
so give her all your love so give her all your love tonight A woman is love. There's an interesting inversion.
- [76:36]
B
It's like you had, like, a word limit. Like. All right, you can only use the words love, woman. And you can pick three more words if you want.
- [76:44]
A
Tell her she smells good tonight.
- [76:46]
B
Good advice.
- [76:47]
A
Yeah. You know this song? I Love this Ridiculous. 68. Meant for your. This is crazy. That Meant for your is on here. But I like that it is. This was one of the ones that you picked. I think this might be the shape.
- [77:04]
B
Should I pick that?
- [77:05]
A
Yes.
- [77:05]
B
Yeah.
- [77:06]
A
This might be the. This was in your, like, top. I think this was in, like, the 30s for you, which might have been one that you were accidentally overrating there. It is, of course, 39 seconds long.
- [77:17]
B
I'm not mad, though, that I like it.
- [77:18]
A
No, I think this is great. I'm glad that this is here again. We're still in the cul de sac and crevice section of this list. And so this. This, like, just song sketch type music here is very much part of what the Beach Boys do. And yet again, as I've said, with some of the Friends music, it feels fully realized, even though there's barely anything to it in the first. I don't need this to be any longer than it is. It's positioned perfectly. It leads into the Friends album just in an ideal fashion. And it's beautiful. Beautiful sounds.
- [77:58]
B
Yeah. In a way, this song is. I think of it in the same kind of vein as Our Prayer. It's like this intro, like an overture to the album.
- [78:12]
A
Yeah. Yeah, I think. Yeah. It is kind of like an Our Prayer, just with lyrics. And I do love the kind of sentiment that Brian is delivering here. As I sit and close my eyes there's peace in my mind and I'm hoping that you'll find it too and these feelings in my heart I know Are meant for you.
- [78:29]
B
Yeah. What a great way to begin an album.
- [78:31]
A
Really beautiful.
- [78:32]
B
Come on.
- [78:32]
A
Yeah. Friends. What a great album. 60 something. 67. Ooh. Fun, fun, fun. Shut down volume two. I had this one on my. I don't think you even had this on your list.
- [78:46]
B
No, I was counting on you having it. I just thought. You don't have it.
- [78:50]
A
Come on.
- [78:51]
B
Yeah.
- [78:51]
A
I've been taking the T Bird away. This is. This is like, there's certain things that are, you know, it's like the bingo board with the free square deuce coupe has got to be on here. Fun, fun, fun has got to be on here. They don't need to be super high up, but they got to be on there somewhere. And so I think it. It sort of lends credence to this type of exercise because there is a world in which, you know, we deliberately try to forsake some of these hot Beach Boys Top 10 Classic Type Things. And I think it's more interesting when we can find other corners of the discography to spotlight and lift up. But, like, if you're counting down the best beach boys, certainly 100 best beach boys songs, Fun, fun, fun is one of them. And so here it is. You walk like an ace. You walk like an ace. Oh, what a great song. Speaking of just free squares on the bingo board. 66. Surfin USA everybody's got.
- [79:50]
B
You don't need to hear me sing that. Yes, of course. I mean, fun, fun, fun. And surfing USA ought to be. Right now.
- [79:55]
A
We're not going to make a best Beach Boys playlist and not include fun, fun, fun and surf us.
- [80:00]
B
Are we idiots?
- [80:01]
A
I saw someone when someone left us seemingly a good natured ribbing comment on Patreon, talking about, like, I can't wait to see you guys do the 100 and decide to leave off either wouldn't it be nice? Or God only knows.
- [80:18]
B
Not happening.
- [80:19]
A
Not happening.
- [80:19]
B
Sor.
- [80:21]
A
But I appreciate that you think we might do something like that, but we're, you know, we take this stuff seriously these days.
- [80:30]
B
Yeah.
- [80:31]
A
65. Another pet sounds track. I know there's an answer.
- [80:39]
B
This is a hot take. Perhaps, but another one of your picks
- [80:43]
A
here from the Pet Sounds. Read the Pet Sounds album.
- [80:46]
B
The hot take is the. That I know there's an answer is better than Hang on to your ego as a title. Hang on to your ego doesn't make sense.
- [80:53]
A
Is that. Is that. Is that a hot take?
- [80:55]
B
I don't know. Maybe it isn't. But Mike was right. Is what I'm saying. I mean, hang on your ego. This just doesn't. What a weird. It's not as good.
- [81:07]
A
I like the ego, but I know there's an answer.
- [81:10]
B
So odd. Like, hang on to your ego.
- [81:13]
A
Hang on to your ego. Yeah, it's like some 60s. It's like very like, mid-60s, like, like counterculture, like jibe talk.
- [81:20]
B
But it's like, weirdly, not counterculture. It's not like, get rid of your ego. It's hang on to your ego, which
- [81:26]
A
is appropriate for these guys who are, like, not very countercultural.
- [81:31]
B
That's the ironic thing is you'd think, like, Mike didn't get that. It was kind of a. I don't know. He was just like, ego. It's like drugs.
- [81:41]
A
Well. And then, of course, he's going to make up for it 20 years later with the great male ego. A song that you said you hated or you said. No, you said. That song sucks. Before we started recording, I wanted to get male on here. I think it's.
- [81:56]
B
It's got a good title and I want to like it, but it's not male ego. Well, hang on to your ego. It's just an iconic song from Pet Sound. So it's like one of the songs that. I mean, I know there's an answer. Yes, it's. Both versions are good. I don't care. Like, I like both. I enjoyed listening to both. I've always thought that they were just one of the more crucial songs on Pet Sounds. And by that I mean one of the more crucial songs in the Beach Boys discography. Like, the thing of. They waste all their. Or they. They trip through the day and waste all their thoughts at night and.
- [82:38]
A
Yeah, that. Like, that. That kind of blends with hang on to your ego right there. To me. Tr. You know, tripping through the day Wasting your thoughts at night. Hang on to your ego.
- [82:49]
B
I still don't. I just don't really get what. Hang on. I think I know there's an answer. Just makes more sense.
- [82:53]
A
Yeah, I mean, I think it does. And that's why they change.
- [82:56]
B
I don't know. Something about it just confuses me. It's like, are you saying, like, I don't know. Whatever.
- [83:02]
A
All right. You know, like, think about the concept of, like, ego death. It's sort of like the opposite of that. Well, you know, whatever. They probably didn't think it out too.
- [83:12]
B
Seriously. Seriously. I don't think they did. That's the thing. I think it's a little bit confused.
- [83:16]
A
It's Brian Wilson and a commercial jingle writer putting these songs together, don't forget. So it's not. You don't have Van Dyke Parks coming in with the heavy hitter concepts. Some of these lyrics certainly don't. Anyways, fantastic song, the bass harmonica in the. I mean, you know, just. You just hear that sound and you just think, Brian Wilson, Pet Sounds, 1966. And it's all across the record, obviously. But it's like. Like, this is maybe the. The bass harmonica song of all of them. It's just got this little, like, kind of jewel box music box quality to it. Like, you wind this thing up and just let it go. It's fantastic. I know there's an answer. 64. Ooh, one of mine. I love this. Fall Breaks and Back to Winter from the Smiley Smile. Have we had Smiley Smile? Has that shown up yet?
- [84:12]
B
No, I don't think so.
- [84:14]
A
Yeah, this is the first appearance, certainly not the last. Man. Just the more I listen to Smiley Smile, the more I'm just kind of amazed by it, obviously. Wordless song on the Smiley Smile album. Fall Breaks and Back to Winter. An adaptation of the, I think the Fire Suite from Smile. Just like. I'm amazed by this every time I listen to, like, especially listening to, like, the Brian Wilson presents Smile, which is the flavor of Smile that I'm maybe most familiar with. Just because I've listened to that a lot very recently since we did an episode on it. But listening to that and then this and just seeing how one became the other and then the other became what it did 30 years down the line when it's Brian, it's just like. It's amazing that these same kind of component parts could stretch and be boiled down and blown up and reassembled in so many different, just wildly dissimilar fashions. I love Smiley Smile, and I think this is like one of the keystone Smiley Smile sections.
- [85:27]
B
Yeah, this is like the Welfare song. What's that song called?
- [85:35]
A
You even remember it? Looking for Tomorrow. Looking at Tomorrow. A welfare song.
- [85:40]
B
This kind of like. Like the Looking at Tomorrow of Smiley Smile. It's like. It's like one of these things that, like, is in there and you're just wallets happening. Like, you're like, huh, okay. But it's so important to the overall vibe.
- [85:55]
A
Yes. This is a real illustration, you know, vibe illustration.
- [86:00]
B
It fleshes it out. Like, there's a. There's a way of thinking about songs as filler, and then there's like, the. The optimist way of being like, it's not filler it fleshes it out. Like it adds body, it adds actual depth. Yes. Not my. Not by being like the most profound thing, but by being more stuff that is like, that is. That is giving some of what the, the vibe promises.
- [86:29]
A
Like, you know, this is what makes smiley smile. Smiley smile. If all breaks back to win winter.
- [86:34]
B
Yeah. You need like a little bit of extra stuff to feel like you can kind of get lost in. And that's. That's provided by this number.
- [86:42]
A
God, what a weird album. Brilliant music. 63. Oh, this is good. I'm glad this is here. Get your back from the Beach Boys, 1985.
- [86:53]
B
I'm glad it's this high.
- [86:54]
A
Me too. This is a good song. It's just a good song.
- [86:57]
B
We can't lie. I mean and we can't just be like, well that's a bad album. This. And. And also we're not going to lie and say that other things on that album are good. But we're. We're right where we need to be. By adding get you back from the self titled album the Beach Boys from 1985. It's good, it's just. It actually, actually feels like the Beach Boys from any of the points in their career that we've I think rightfully pointed to as being like, this is catchy, this is fun. This is the Beach Boys music. And they did succeed in doing that, in replicating that. That feeling one time in 1985 on this album.
- [87:44]
A
Yes, there. And there are other good moments on this album. I think this is the only song that appears on this list from this album as it should.
- [87:50]
B
And it's the only one that is good enough in that way in the top 100. But it absolutely is good enough.
- [87:58]
A
I know that a lot of people would. Would ride for oh, what's the one? It's now this is probably the one.
- [88:08]
B
So I think that's the one ass
- [88:09]
A
crack of your love.
- [88:12]
B
Yeah, get taking a crack at Crack it or Love.
- [88:16]
A
It's good song. It's good music. I like what Mike is doing here. I think between this and Summer in Paradise and one other late era Beach Boys number that's going to appear quite high on this list. Just you wait. I think we've done credit to like the beach boys in the 80s and God forbid the 90s. Mostly just a hellish landscape of wreckage. But there were a couple nice songs and get yout Back is one of them. 62. A song that you said you didn't like. But I'm glad that it's here because I love it all. This. Is that from Carl and the Passions?
- [89:01]
B
This is a. You mean so Tough by Carl and the Passions by the Beach Boys.
- [89:06]
A
No, I mean Carl and the Passions so Tough by the Beach Boys. If it were so Tough by Carl and the Passions by the Beach Boys, the title of the album would be so Tough by Carl and the Passions. But the title of the album is, in fact, Carl and the Passions Dash quotation mark. So Tough. Close quotation by the Beach. Stupid.
- [89:26]
B
Fucking dumbest.
- [89:27]
A
It just gets worse and worse the more we talk about it.
- [89:30]
B
And I think that it's impacted my feelings about the album overall. I'm just like, fuck this.
- [89:35]
A
It's such a weird album. This is just like. This is another one that just kind of drives. I'm looking at. It's eight songs. It's called Carl and the Passion so Tough. Two of the songs are by Blondie and Ricky Fitar. Two of them are these Dennis numbers, one of them is Marcella. And then the seventh song is this beautiful moment of sort of like spiritual wholesomeness. All this is that Carl and the
- [89:59]
B
Passion so Tough was a commercial disappointment upon release. It's just like. It was a health disappointment. When I shot myself in the fucking head with a gun. It was. Actually. I suffered. My health suffered after I decided to do that.
- [90:22]
A
I mean, I can almost even give it to them a little bit if, like. Cause Carl and the Passions, of course, was like the apocryphal supposed name.
- [90:31]
B
What, like the fucking, like sergeant Pepper?
- [90:35]
A
Well, no, they claimed at one point that, like, the Proto Beach Boys, they performed at like a school talent show or something and their name was Carl and the Passions.
- [90:49]
B
So.
- [90:50]
A
Well, so, like. So if you're going to.
- [90:53]
B
Well, it's like you're coming up with your.
- [90:55]
A
It still doesn't make any sense, but like, if you're gonna do it and you're gonna use this, like, throwback, like, 1959 era album title, like, sure, it's the 70s, you're doing 50s nostalgia. Let's have a bunch of, like, sock hop type, you know, rock around the clock songs. But that is absolutely not what this album is. This is maybe the least like that sound that you can. You can imagine. I just. It doesn't. It does not work on any level. But all this is. That is a beautiful piece of music that totally works. I still think it's kind of like a dumb song. I am that that works. This is that.
- [91:38]
B
I think it's kind of been folded into my, like, feeling so far. Maybe I'm having post Mike love Release the Dove. Symptoms of, like, listening to what was that goddamn song? The, the stuff he did about, like, like Pisces Brothers.
- [91:55]
A
Pisces Brothers.
- [91:56]
B
The other one.
- [91:57]
A
Ram Raj.
- [91:58]
B
Ram Raj. I, I kind of am just like, in retrospect, just being like, anything that's like, Ram Raj stuff for Mike. I'm kind of like stuff that I
- [92:08]
A
think they get away with with some of the lines here there. Because there are some really nice ones. Dusk time. The shadows fall into the timeless time of all to Waves and I both travel by. I think that it works. But yeah, if you have Ram Raj on the brain, especially because the end of this song, I forgot they do that. They do that, that Ram Raj. Jai Guru Dev Jaiguru. I'm sure that means something in Hindi, but, you know, I like the song. I like the way it sounds. 61. 61. I'll bet he's nice from the Beach Boys. Love. This is one of your favorites from the Beach Boys. Love youe. You like that throaty sandpaper Dennis vocal.
- [92:58]
B
Of course. That's.
- [92:59]
A
I bet he's nice.
- [93:01]
B
I bet he's nice.
- [93:03]
A
Oh, man. I'm, like, tearing at my throat.
- [93:06]
B
I bet he's nice twice. Yeah, of course I like that. I'm a connoisseur of that.
- [93:12]
A
I'm glad you've come around on Dennis because there was some time when it was tough sledding.
- [93:19]
B
Yes. But, you know, I, I also think this is one of the ones on Beach Boys Love you that I, I, I think is earns it its reputation as being, like, so unique. Like, this one is so.
- [93:36]
A
Yes, it is very bloopy. Bloopy.
- [93:39]
B
And it's, it's so Brian in its composition, but it's also just so specific to this, the sound of this record and then having it be a Dennis song. I don't know. It's got so much going for it. It's so good.
- [93:52]
A
Yeah. Oh, it's a little bit like my Diane from miu, which is also, I think, sung by Dennis. But Brian is singing about falling in love with Diane Ravel, Marilyn's sister. He's, like, laundering his own personal feelings through Dennis by just giving Dennis the song to sing, even though he wrote it and it's about himself. This is basically the same thing. I'll bet he's nice. Remember, this is during the Rocky Pamplin era. Marilyn is just getting piped down by their, like, bodyguard, like, studio recording, like, wants to be a studio recording star. And Brian isn't even Brian's just like playing basketball with him during the days. And then he goes to sleep in his, like, giant bed in his empty bedroom, and Marilyn and he get down to business out in the. The pool house after. After dusk falls. What a time in. In the Wilson family.
- [94:56]
B
Twice.
- [94:57]
A
Do, do, do. 50, 60. No, 60, 60. 50, 60, 60. I'm waiting for the Day Another Pet Sound song.
- [95:09]
B
This one's. I think we've ranked them properly so far.
- [95:14]
A
I think so, yeah. And I'll say this, and we talked about this a little bit bit off mic before we finalize the placement on things. There's an argument to be made that just the top 12 or 13 songs on this list should have been 13 songs from Pet Sounds. Exactly. And so no one needs us to sit here and be like, oh, Pet Sounds is the best album ever made. It is the best album ever made.
- [95:42]
B
Yeah. In fact, they need us to put Love Is a Woman on a list like this.
- [95:46]
A
That's right.
- [95:48]
B
Match point of our love and.
- [95:49]
A
Match point of our love and get you back. Exactly. And so when.
- [95:53]
B
What was this all for? What was it for? If we don't come up with a list that includes stuff like that, what would have been the point?
- [96:00]
A
Well, yeah, I mean, where appropriate. When I could, I just tried to sort of hew in the direction of, like, what are some weirder, more interesting picks versus just, like, yet another song from Pet Sounds. But I think you did throw just basically every Pet Sound song on here in some order. And so I think the combination of those approaches has probably worked out pretty nicely in that, like, we're crediting Pet Sounds quite a bit, but at the same time, maybe not quite as much as we could or as one could. And so, you know, you're just gonna get a lot of Pet Sound songs on here. I'm Waiting for the Day. What a great song from Pet Sounds.
- [96:38]
B
Well, this has got that great ending. You didn't think that I considered.
- [96:45]
A
No.
- [96:45]
B
This might be a record for times we've sung. I mean, on a podcast. But come on, we're Talking about the
- [96:51]
A
100 Best Beach Boys songs. They just. You can't help but sing them when you're talking about them.
- [96:56]
B
I love that ending. That ending.
- [96:58]
A
Oh, the flute on. I'm Waiting for the Day I just. Those drums. Yeah, this is fantastic. Also fantastic. 59. Honking down the Gosh Darn highway say no More, say No more easy 58. Surfin Safari where it All began.
- [97:20]
B
I mean, of course, say no More. I mean, we can move through the no But I don't have anything to say about surf and safari. Sorry. Let's go. Come on. Like, it can't even be good.
- [97:32]
A
Come on.
- [97:32]
B
I could sing the whole song for you.
- [97:34]
A
Sing it for a couple minutes. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. I mean, come on. It's Servant Safari 57 in the little
- [97:43]
B
Girl I once Knew. So this is one that I think is interesting because I don't think the actual song is that good. Like, the meat of the song. It's fine. It's not bad. However, the intro to this song is one of the most amazing. It's so amazing. Like when that. On the. The Brian Live at the Roxy disc, where he opens with this. It's just like, oh, wow. It's one of these things where it's like 15 to 25 seconds of music that is just, like, so complex and deep and intense. And it's just the opening for this, like, kind of teeny bopper trifle. But it. It's kind of. Thematically, the song is like a proto Caroline. No.
- [98:39]
A
Yeah. It's a little bit more like puppy brain version of that. But it is trending in that direction. You can see how you get from one to the other.
- [98:50]
B
The opening bars are just so. It's so strange because it's a song that you could imagine other people having written the main part of the song. I mean, it's still quite good and distinctive as Brian music, but, man, just. That first section is like pure Brian Wilson.
- [99:09]
A
Absolutely.
- [99:09]
B
It's like Gershwin. It's like. It has this, like, really. It just knocks you back with how. Just what's going on there.
- [99:19]
A
Musically, that's perfect music.
- [99:21]
B
Way more than you could ever expect.
- [99:23]
A
And I think that's an interesting way to think about it. And maybe colors some of the rankings that we've done of something like, meant for you right from the beginning of Friends, which, like, the whole song is just the intro, basically. And I tend to agree. I think the Little Girl I once Knew is a great song, but for me, it really does exist. Like, stand up on that intro and then it comes back again, I think, kind of as a bridge about two thirds of the way through the song. I feel, honestly, similarly to California Girls, which is going to appear higher on this list and is just, you know, an iconic totemic pop creation. But the intro to California Girls is what makes California Girls California Girls. And so when Brian decides to just. Let's just do that, like, perfect, ecstatic little, like, you know, little.
- [100:17]
B
Just an interesting thing.
- [100:20]
A
Instead of turning the whole Thing into a big giant cake. Like, I can kind of get with it and I can dig that. It's a great song.
- [100:28]
B
This one happens to have a whole other song attached to it, but really, it's just like the beginning of that.
- [100:32]
A
Do do, do, do, do oh, man. Yeah. 56. Ooh, wouldn't you know it. More Pet Sounds. That's Not Me.
- [100:43]
B
That's Not Me is. I think it's so. It's so important to Pet Sounds because it gives this feeling of, like, being a young person away from your home and having your own life for the first time. And that is like, if. If this record didn't have that, it. It would be so lacking an important ingredient. And the song really does set that up. Like, the. The whole thing about I wanted to show how independent I'd grown and. And my life was not very pretty. And, like, so much of what people think about this record in terms of the text of it and, like, the narrative of it is actually located in this song. Yes, to say nothing of the music, which, of course is great, but it's just like a huge leap and a huge achievement when you think about just the. The level, the depth, the. The weight of what is being done here thematically compared to everything else we've had before. Like, it's only hinted at this. Not to say this is like, the most profound writing, but it is serious writing, and it's serious in terms of what it's trying to get at and what it's trying to break away from and start to investigate in earnest.
- [102:12]
A
Man, the way this song sounds. Just like you Pet Sound stuff. Yes, the singing is incredible. The lyrics are fantastic and perfect, but you can just like, listen to the music on some of these. That organ that Brian's playing all the way throughout this, that's, like, barely even moving. It's kind of just there, one or two notes, but, like, so sort of. Of sort of unsettling in. In its own way. And then the guitar work between Carl and Glen Campbell, the drums, that just kind of like deep, rhythmic kind of beat from Dennis. It's such a. Like, it's deceptively. There's not a ton going on to the music on this song. Certainly less going on in the music here than on many other Pet Sounds Pet Sounds songs. And yet it feels just so. Feels huge. I'm just floored all over again listening to some of these songs, just purely based on the music alone. Pet Sounds pretty good album by the Beach Boys. 55, another good beach Boys album. I feel like we're just trading off back and forth at this point. Beach Boys Love youe Johnny Carson. Of course it's gotta be here. Yeah, it's Johnny Carson. I honestly don't like love Johnny Carson's song that much.
- [103:32]
B
I love that.
- [103:33]
A
It is exactly like the song. Like the. The song itself.
- [103:39]
B
It really is like when you. You can talk until you're blue in the face. And we do. And we have about like the Beach Boys can write songs about anything and make it great, but until they wrote this song that was always sort of something that you said. And you would have to convince someone. And then at a certain point you can just point to Johnny Car. They wrote a song about Johnny Carson. And then you start to be like, okay, I get it. I. I see what you mean. And on the same record, there's being on an airplane, the song and the solar system, this song and what. Here's directions to my house from another album. Like, you start to be like, all right, wind chimes. Like these things are. It's. It's actually not just like some. Some bit that people do about like the Beach Boys made a lot of weird songs about all kinds of stuff. Stuff. At a certain point you realize like when they made the song about Johnny Carson, it's like, no, this is. They are. They're able to point the song gun at something and then turn it into a song.
- [104:48]
A
Brian is. At least this is the song, of course. Remember where he just woke up one morning and said, God damn it, there isn't a song about Johnny Carson. And 15 minutes later there was he.
- [105:00]
B
You know who else does that? Matt Farley.
- [105:02]
A
Matt, that's right. Yeah. This. There's a whole.
- [105:05]
B
There's a song about you and me.
- [105:07]
A
There's a whole playlist. Beach Boys songs. Moturn Media Proto Moturn Protern. Beach Boys music between Johnny Carson Amusement parks usa, Salt Lake City.
- [105:23]
B
A young man is gone.
- [105:25]
A
Yeah.
- [105:26]
B
I want. I challenged Matt Farley to. To make an album about Brian Wilson doing stuff. He could do it about Brian Wilson writing a song about Johnny Carson.
- [105:38]
A
About Johnny Carson.
- [105:39]
B
Write that song, please, Matt.
- [105:41]
A
I know you're listening. You know, let us know when it's in the can.
- [105:47]
B
Speak. I feel like this is perfectly segueing from Johnny Carson to 54.
- [105:52]
A
54.
- [105:53]
B
A song which was only recently officially released, but which I have to say I prefer the shitty audio quality quality blown out version that you can find on YouTube. From the the forbidden to be released album Adult Child. Life is for the.
- [106:13]
A
Life is for the Living.
- [106:15]
B
Sounds like the the music from the Incredibles, like that, like, big band music that, like. It's so good. But this song is like. It's one of my very favorite things Brian ever did. The outsider big band genre was never the same. And by that I mean it didn't
- [106:34]
A
exist before this, and I don't think it existed after.
- [106:38]
B
But it. But for a brief moment, it existed and then was forbidden from being born.
- [106:44]
A
It was too powerful.
- [106:45]
B
Yeah.
- [106:46]
A
It could not be unleashed from the laboratory.
- [106:49]
B
Just do yourself a favor. And as I. We, of course, we respect and love the fine people who put together the. We got a groove box set. But there was one fatal crime on that, which is that the mix of this song on that is so, so quiet.
- [107:09]
A
Like, the vocal. The vocals are maybe just a little bit high. I would have just brought.
- [107:12]
B
The vocals are high, but the music, the. The actual big band is so quiet.
- [107:16]
A
Bring the music up. Exactly. But like, honestly, I bet, like that they weren't working with the cleanest of tastes.
- [107:23]
B
Probably not. But in this particular case, I want to hear it just. Just like blown out if. If we can't get it high fidelity. I just want this song to be punchy because it deserves it. It's like, so. It's such a great idea. And it's not just an idea. It's actually executed this thing of, like, Brian Wilson as. Like, like fat Brian Wilson as Frank Sinatra at the Sands, like, with like, four cigarettes in his hands and mouth.
- [107:55]
A
Just listening to it again at the very end when he does, like, the Cookie Monster voice for the last life.
- [108:03]
B
Life is for the living.
- [108:08]
A
Sit ups and push ups do take energy and so you run and you swim at some gym and then you will agree that life is for the living. Well said, Brian.
- [108:19]
B
Beautiful song. I love this poetry tree.
- [108:23]
A
All right, 53 song I love. I know you never did.
- [108:27]
B
Keep dreaming up dark. Keep dreaming of darling. Keep dreaming.
- [108:30]
A
That's right. It's not.
- [108:32]
B
It almost sounds like it. And that's why I was wrong early. Early on when I thought it was darling.
- [108:41]
A
But it's, you know, it might as well be. It doesn't really.
- [108:43]
B
It's actually not. That was foolish. It's actually. Keep trimming up.
- [108:50]
A
I love Darlin. I love Darlin. I love Wild Honey. I love most of the songs on this. I love basically all the songs on this album. Darlin is its own unique thing. I think it's a little bit catchier, a little bit punchier, a lot bit catcher, frankly, than most of the other music that surrounds it. On Wild Honey it's maybe not the best example of what is even going on on Wild Honey that you could pick, but it's. It's just. To me, it's undeniable pop perfection. Beautiful vocal from Carl. I think the band is in. In full. Full form here. Hopefully you'll dig Darling one day. What can I say?
- [109:33]
B
It's good. It's good. You know, it's good.
- [109:34]
A
It's darlin. It's literally darlin. 52, cabanessence. Boy, a lot of 2020 on this list. I like that.
- [109:44]
B
That's so funny that you're like cabanessence from 20.
- [109:47]
A
From 2020.
- [109:48]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That album for which this was written. 2020. Yeah, a lot of 2020. I don't even know why we put it as from 2020.
- [110:01]
A
I mean, it is. It is from 20. Like I said at the beginning, if it says Beach Boys on the table 10, it's on this list. And for cabanessence, it says 2020 on the box. So I'm saying it's from 2020. It's funny, though, because I almost incepted myself into thinking that Cabin Essence was a 2020 song.
- [110:19]
B
It's kind of bizarre that it didn't end up on Smiley Smile, though.
- [110:25]
A
Yeah, well, I mean, it is kind of bizarre. I guess what I would say is
- [110:31]
B
Smiley Smile has a damn cabin on.
- [110:33]
A
On does. On the COVID It. This kind of. The COVID of Smiley Smile looks like Cabinet.
- [110:42]
B
Cabinet. And it's. It's filled with weird. That is exactly like this. But that's why we love 2020. Or can't help but respect it, whatever it is. It's. It's a. It's the record where the Beach Boys decided to put Cabin Essence out and show the world what had been done.
- [111:03]
A
Cabinescence, the hit song from 2020. Yeah. I mean, it's Cabinet. It's fantastic. I guess what I would say. Why didn't it appear on Smiley Smile? You know, a lot of the songs on Smiley Smile. I mean, all the songs besides Heroes and Good Vibrations are like demakes of the Smile song. So it's not just taking the Smile music and then putting it out there, although it is with Heroes and Good Vibrations. It's taking those song concepts and then making them in an empty pool or sitting on the toilet with a mini mog on your lap or whatever. And so that kind of stoned vacant sound to that album, that is so much of what I love about it. It's kind of hard to do that with Cabanessence. To me, especially when you get to the big whirling, who ran the iron horse section. You know, I'm sure there's a way Brian could have done that. But it's so big and loud and kind of overwhelming. I don't know that it would have lent itself to the smiley smile kind of stripped down feel quite as well. And that's why it is a great song from the great album 2020 and 51. I think the last one we're gonna hit on this list for this episode at least. Oh, this is great. This is nice. The song Friends.
- [112:34]
B
What a good place to end from the Friends album. The Friends album.
- [112:38]
A
Let's be friends.
- [112:39]
B
Let's be friends some of the time. And especially on Friends, there's this thing that happens when you listen to the Beach Boys and you know, their story, where it's like, there was a concept of what it would be like. Like, wouldn't it be nice? Is such a In a state of mind for the Beach Boys and I. And Friends is of the wouldn't it be nice? Frame. In a way. It's like, what if things were just good? It's, like, meant for you. Like, there's these songs that are aspirational about the idea of everyone getting along. And at their best, those songs also feel like what that would be like in a convincing way. And Friends just feel so happy and so true and sincere, and it's because it is and that somehow exists despite all of the deep pain.
- [113:50]
A
Let's be friends let's be friends what a great song and a great place to end it for this first. God, we've already done two hours just getting through the first half of this. I'm glad that we're splitting this up over two nights, because I don't know that I would make another two hours. No, we couldn't do another two hours tonight here, man. It's crazy that we've only done 100 through 51 here because, like, I feel like every song we've talked about, we
- [114:19]
B
haven't even gotten to, like.
- [114:21]
A
We haven't gotten to the good stuff yet. Exactly. Like, we've been just talking about banger after banger after banger, and this is all the bottom half of this list.
- [114:28]
B
So it makes me feel good about our list, and I'm looking forward to the next one. I think it'll be a worthy finisher.
- [114:35]
A
It's just gonna, you know, by the time you get to the top of that, it's just gonna be like, oh, that one.
- [114:39]
B
Oh, gee.
- [114:42]
A
One after the other.
- [114:42]
B
We're just gon, like, speaking in tongues by the time we get to number one.
- [114:46]
A
That's right. And hopefully singing every every single at the same time, but, like, two seconds off because the zoom audio isn't perfectly synced over the computer. All right, good work. Great start, Jokerman.
- [115:02]
B
Favorite Beach Boys album. The Beach Boys love you. Favorite song you've ever written. California Girls. Favorite songs by the Beatles. Let it be. Favorite song by the Rolling Stones. My obsession. Really? Yeah. Well, that's an obscure song. Favorite Jan and Dean song? Little Olay for Pasadena. Favorite turtle song? Eleanor. Favorite bird song. Tune. Turn, Turn. Favorite rock Bonettes. Be my baby. Favorite Charles Happy birthday, baby. Favorite Carole King. Hey, girl. Favorite James Taylor.