Worst Beach Boys Song on Holland - Part 5 in an Ongoing Series

The Beaks of Eagles and the Fairy Tale are both pretty hopeless. Voting for the Fairy Tale.

The end (unfortunately) of the Chapin/Fataar era.

The live album's after this?

Fairy Tale the obvious choice but can it be counted as part of the album proper?

I'll vouch for Beaks Of Eagles - think I've said it on ILM before, but it's all about the connotative backing harmonies that swoop and soar around the monologue.

Wish Mount Vernon wasn't on here, it's not part of the album and it's not even good in a funny way. I've listened to it a few times and it doesn't even make any sense.

Discounting Mount Vernon, I think I'm gonna vote for Funky Pretty as it's the only one I can't remember.

This is a really solid album through and through I reckon though.

"Funky Pretty" is awesome!

Voting Leaving this Town which drags the album down with its length.

You bastards have got me seeking out a copy of this now, crims!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_in_Paradise

yeah the live album after this is really good, features Fataar/Chapin's "We Got Love" (which was bumped from this album, perhaps unfairly, in favor of "Sail on Sailor"). These polls are about the studio album though.

I debated including the fairy tale - I mean it was included with the original LP so it does belong, in a way. I agree its pretty uniformly terrible - its actively annoying to listen to.

also Funky Pretty is great yeah wtf - no voting for that!

Are we not going to do "Keepin the Summer Alive"? That, in my opinion is the last true Beach Boys album before they all died or splintered off and it is actually defensible in many ways.

Sorry about "Funky Pretty", I just don't remember it off the top of my head!

the instrumental version of "fairy tale" is the worst song in the good vibrations box set.

Worst song, I'm not sure. But "Only With You" is def. the best.

Are we not going to do "Keepin the Summer Alive"? That, in my opinion is the last true Beach Boys album before they all died or splintered off and it is actually defensible in many ways.

I wasn't planning on it. Mostly because a) I've never heard it/don't own it, and b) (if we wanna get technical) Dennis isn't on it, so its disqualified on the grounds of not including a key member. But yeah I can see how it can be considered the last legitimate release - everyone was still alive and involved (to varying degrees)

Cover is so totally WTF:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/47/KTSACover.jpg/200px-KTSACover.jpg

anyway I'm downloading it now, will maybe poll it later

"Mount Vernon And Fairway". Good idea, horrible execution.

huh you know I gotta say Keepin the Summer Alive is not as terrible as I was expecting - there's something kind of off about it, the production seems rather tin-eared, but there is tons of great singing on it, even if the songwriting is pretty boring/uninspired (none of the really ridiculous "high concept" stuff that showed up on their late 70s material is present). I'd definitely say its better than MIU

"Goin' On" is pretty great -- and the vocal riff is stolen from Smile...

megalolz

LOOOOOL 80s! I want to go in a zorb ball in the sea!

I'm increasingly falling for this record. My copy is on vinyl, but I love the production on this — all the Moog basses and whirring synth sounds on tunes like "The Trader," "Funky Pretty" (which has a great tag, btw) and "Steamboat," IIRC.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ooh biggest vote-getter yet!

who voted for big sur! gosh

the outtake version is like 100x better, but the holland version is still one of the best things on here

Saturday, June 9, 2012
BRIAN WILSON COMES TO MY HOME
during the making of holland,i became friends with marilyn ,brians wife.one day they both came to my house,i then lent brian my trusty little Uher tapedeck, so he could record stuff at his (rented) house.

when they were finished and left holland, i got my tape deck back, and on the reel that was still on there, was a snippet of a song, that they never recorded.

here is that snippet...

https://rapidshare.com/files/4085215737/WALLOFTAPES.brian_in_holland.mp3

yeahhh, saw that -- i think i'd heard it before, maybe from the same dude? he seems to be slightly crazy, but he's got some amazing tapes! the song is an old folk song, i think, i've heard a jazzy version of it i think?

I hadn't heard this particular outtake before - I've heard plenty of in-studio stuff but this seemed like a rare glimpse into Brian's actual songwriting process, you hear him fumbling around for phrases, trying different stuff out (always with those pounding triplets/8th notes lol)

closest point of comparison I can think of is the Cocaine Sessions actually haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYBoYdc17Tw

just came across this version, never heard of it before. v weird explicit drug refs in the lyrics (which I think are different in the Boys' version...?)

wiki sez :
... failed supergroup called KGB, from the initials of Ray Kennedy (co-writer of "Sail On, Sailor"), Barry Goldberg on keyboards and Bloomfield on guitar. The band had a rhythm section of Rick Grech on bass and Carmine Appice on drums. Grech and Bloomfield immediately quit after its release, stating they never had faith in the project. The album was not well received, but it did contain the standout track "Sail On, Sailor". Its authorship was credited only to "Wilson-Kennedy", and had a bluesy, darker feel, along with Ray Kennedy's original cocaine related lyrics.

this was in '74, so after Holland had already come out. I guess this song has been covered quite a bit, apparently.

You bastards have got me seeking out a copy of this now, crims!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_in_Paradise

also omg at this

The rest are original numbers, all containing both titular and lyrical references to summer and/or surfing, with the exception of the Transcendental Meditation-influenced "Strange Things Happen". The quasi-rap number "Summer of Love" was originally intended to be a duet with Bart Simpson for a planned Simpsons movie.The song was instead used in an episode of Baywatch.

fucking incredible Mike Love o-face at 0:14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50U_07i5z0Y

Is that even the same song? Other than the melody and chord changes, it's almost completely different.

This album is so great and the California Saga is top tier BBs.

very surprised and sad that Beaks of Eagles and Big Sur got voted here. I love them. I love this whole "let's grow beards and read Steinbeck, Jeffers and Thoreau and get into ecology and man's place in nature" phase of the Beach Boys. Anyone know what or who made this happen? I'm guessing Jardine

The Maharishi.

Love The Trader

Yes, Jardine was and still is active for environmental causes.
It's bewildering that the original version of the record (before they had "Sail On Sailor") opened with "Steamboat"! A fine song, but very slow and murky for a first track.
I'd have voted for "Only With You" as the worst, and it's passable.

Brian Wilson purportedly loves Steamboat

It's my favourite Dennis Wilson song (never having heard Pacific Ocean Blue), though he doesn't sing it.

Not into "Only With You". Not really into any of those throaty Dennis Wilson cuddle blubbers

"Only With You" is awesome, a Mike+Dennis co-write! What are the chances?

Sung by Carl not Dennis?

but yeah, Steamboat would have been a weird opener. Could have worked, just drifting in like it does.

huh, I could have sworn it was a Dennis song (Only With You), but you're right - he has a writers credit but it's Dennis.

Carl. I meant Carl. Fuck.

Yes, Carl sings both Dennis songs on this.

Leaving This Town is so great but it's more of a Fataar/Chaplin joint. Always found it odd that they recruited these two musicians who don't really sound anything like the Beach Boys

I'd love to have heard a Stevie Wonder cover of Leaving This Town.

"Leaving This Town" is great, what really puts it over is the fade-out vocal tag in the last 30 seconds or so.

(xxp) Their band were signed to Brother Records, so I suppose they were around. Notwithstanding the fact that Fataar was an excellent drummer and Chaplin had a good voice.

oh sure, great musicians, but it was an interesting decision, if only commercially, to do this at that stage. i guess it was a choice between that and splitting up or just becoming the oldies act they'd turn into with 15 Big Ones

The Beach Boys have made a lot of off-the-wall decisions over the years. Like moving en masse to the Netherlands, I mean...

holy shit bad takes itt 12 years ago... the instrumental of mount vernon is incredible! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uio_cnWZMsM brian discovers the miniomoog! beaks of eagles is a friggan nightmare! leaving this town is ok but too much of an elton rip.

haha, that music is pretty cool actually. never heard it on its own before

first part of 'The Trader' is kind of painful. Carl sounds like he's straining, the drums are lumpen and the piano/moog/guitar/harmonies/brass is overbearing. But once it goes into the "Making it softly / Like the evening sea" section it becomes one of my favourite songs of that era.

huh, I could have sworn it was a Dennis song (Only With You), but you're right - he has a writers credit but it's Dennis.

Yes, that track has such a gorgeous sound and feel.

talk about bad takes this album is amazing

Popping in to say that I was OTM in June 2021. This is apropos of finding a s/h copy over the weekend. California Saga is still S-tier BBs

Picking just 19 Beach Boys favorites is one of the hardest things I ever had to do. If you asked me tomorrow I would probably want to include "Kiss Me, Baby", "Salt Lake City", "Girl Don't Tell Me", "The Little Girl I Once Knew", "At My Window" and, from Holland, "Funky Pretty" & "Mount Vernon and Fairway". Blondie Chaplin's vocal on the fadeout to "Funky Pretty" is sensational. But here's my list as of today... Brian Wilson's 19 favorites on February 11, 2002.

from the linear notes of the "Classics Selected by Brian Wilson" comp, which is pretty great and would make a fun poll, but was also my introduction to Holland and The Flame, so thanks Brian

was cool to see Wilson/Chaplin/Jardine touring for a minute, which was totally not the Beach Boys but Love/Johnston was ffs

Making it softly
Like the evening sea, trying to be
Making it go
Creating it gently
Like a morning breeze, a life of ease
Eyes that see
Beyond tomorrow, through to the time without hours
Passing the Eden of Flowers
Reason to live

Need to do a deep dive

Has ilm done a track by track of the B Boys or is Tom Petty more worthy

Tom Petty wrote the liner notes to the reissue of Holland, maybe that will convince them. He hates "Mount Vernon & Fairway".

Weird I was listening to this tonight…Who voted for ‘Leavin This Town’???

Best bit of "The Trader":

Ears to hear...
(two extra beats not in the previous verses)
Beyond the showers...

Bear song ever

BEST

(two extra beats not in the previous verses)

No, just one extra beat! A perfect bar of 5/4 out of nowhere.

an old roommate of mine was really nuts about “trader”

Man, this album is just so good

And truly, The Trader has to be one of the band's most underrated songs