Worst Beach Boys' Song?

[PartyPooper]

Sorry, I can't think of a single bad one. Can you? All of their songs were great!

:D

:hi:

[AntiCoup2K4]

1. Anything not written by Brian Wilson

obviously.

[Synnical]

2. Anything not produced by Brian Wilson

Obviously.

[Dr Fate]

9. Wrong-Dennis, Carl & Bruce wrote some good ones.

What about all the great tunes on Sunflower, 20/20, Holland, Surf's Up, etc?

[elperromagico]

10. Even Al's "California Saga" is pretty good.

None of the others were songwriters on a par with Brian, but Dennis and Carl in particular wrote some very good songs.

Guess it ran in the family...

[NightTrain]

3. "Rock and Roll Music."

The group's horrid 1976 remake of the Chuck Berry classic.

Know what else I can't stand? Brian Wilson's pathetic solo album, SMILE! :puke:

[AntiCoup2K4]

4. I was disappointed by Smile as well

Bought a copy after about 20 people or so told me how great it was. And I'd heard various bootleg configurations of the album over the years, so I expected better. I think the time has simply passed. You can't have a 60 year old man return to a project he started in his 20's and expect the same thing. And what the HELL is up with the lyrics to Good Vibrations on that version? They sound like a 12 year old wrote them!

Good Vibrations

I, I love the colorful clothes she wears
And she's already working on my brain
I, I only looked in her eyes
But I think of something I just can't explain.

I'm pickin' up good vibrations
She's giving me excitations
I'm pickin' up good vibrations
(Oom bop bop good vibrations)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)

I bet I know what she's like
And I can feel how right she'd be for me
It's weird, how she comes in so strong
And I wonder what she's pickin up from me?

I'm pickin' up good vibrations
She's giving me excitations
I'm pickin' up good vibrations
(Oom bop bop good vibrations)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)

(Ahhhhhhh)
(Ah my my what elation)
I don't know where but she sends me there
(Ah my my what a sensation)
(Ah my my what elations)
(Ah my my what)

Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin' with her
Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin' with her
Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin'

Ahhhhhhhh
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
(I'm pickin' up good vibrations)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop)
(Excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)

Na na na na na
Na na na
Na na na na na
Na na na

YEEEEEEARRRRRGH! Gimme the old 45 RPM I stole from my brother! it may be all scratched up but at least it has the goddamned proper words to the song!

[NightTrain]

5. To me, SMILE was just childrens' ditties and carnival music.

Wilson desperately needed a bullshit detector, but instead got a bullshit enabler known as Van Dyke Parks. What a shame.

[elperromagico]

6. Those are actually the original lyrics,

written by Terry Asher, who co-wrote most of the songs on Pet Sounds.

Hearing them, it's easy to understand why they were replaced...

[elperromagico]

7. I enjoy parts of the new SMiLE, but the problem is a simple one:

Nobody knows what Brian had in mind back in '66/'67. Not even Brian.

Especially not Brian. I doubt Brian even knew back in '66/'67. That's why he never finished it in the first place.

[CO Liberal]

15. Well, THAT Explains "Heroes and Villains"

See below.

[Dr Fate]

8. I like the old bootlegs of "Smile"

And the show was really great- you may think different if you saw the show.

[no name no slogan]

30. The show was amazing

Especially the 10-part harmonies with the Wondermints. I last caught Brian in 1999 during the "Imagination" comeback tour, and the "Smile" performances were even better than that.

[tjwmason]

11. They're one of the few chinks in my armour.

Pretty much all of the time I'm a classical music type, but they're just infectious.

[Magrittes Pipe]

12. Kokomo

[northzax]

24. second.

[no name no slogan]

31. Glad you said it, or else I would have

Worst. Song. Ever.

[CO Liberal]

13. "Heroes and Villains"

Any song with a line like "Sunny down snuff I'm alright" has GOTTA suck big-time. And that pretty much describes the Beach Boy's 1967 turkey, "Heroes and Villains".

* * * * *

Heroes And Villains by The Beach Boys
words by Van Dyke Parks/Brian Wilson
Year 1967

I`ve been in this town
So long that back in the city
I`ve been taken for lost and gone
And unknown for a long long time

Fell in love years ago with an innocent girl
From the Spanish and Indian home
Home of the heroes and villains

Once at night Catillian squared the fight
And she was right in the rain of the bullets
That eventually brought her down

But she`s still dancing in the night
Unafraid of what a dude`ll do
In a town full of heroes and villains

Heroes and villains
Just see what you`ve done
Heroes and villains
Just see what you`ve done

La la la la.......

Stand or fall, I know
There shall be peace in the valley
And it`s all an affair of my life
With the heroes and villains

Do do do do......

My children were raised
You know they suddenly rise
They started slow long ago
Head to toe healthy weathy and wise

I`ve been in this town so long
So long to the city
I`m fit with the stuff
To ride in the rough
And sunny down snuff I`m alright
By the heroes and

Heroes and villains
Just see what you`ve done
Heroes and villains
Just see what you`ve done

http://www.top40db.org/Songs/ID_67098.shtml

[DelawareValleyDem]

14. The one they stole from Charles Manson

[sffreeways]

19. Cease to Resist

that was the title but I can't recall which album it was on. And I don't think they stole it he traded it to Dennis for drugs and a promise to produce an album for him. I believe he gets credit on that album for writing the song. As the legend goes that's how Dennis died, Manson put a curse on him for going back on his promise.


~~~~~creepy Manson lore~~~

[DelawareValleyDem]

21. Cease to EXIST

it's the flip side of the single Bluebirds over the Mountain. It also appears on the album 20/20, in both cases under the name Never Learn Not To Love. He's listed a co-songwriter on the single but not the album

On edit: You are correct that the lyrics on the Beach Boys version are 'cease to resist' - they made a few changes to the lyrics.

[XNASA]

32. "Johnny Carson"

--Who’s a man that we admire?
Johnny carson is a real live wire.
Who’s a man that we admire?
Johnny carson is a real live wire.--

[Modem Butterfly]

16. In My Room

It sounds like they're on quaaludes or something.

Maybe they were...

[johnnie]

18. Ouch

That's one of my favorites. Oh well..lol.

[MissMillie]

23. I agree

"There's a place where I can go to tell my troubles to"


?????????

Nasty stuff.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. Every @#*%&# one of 'em

:puke:

[ProfessorGAC]

20. What He Said

The appeal of those guys COMPLETELY escapes me, especially among astute listeners and players.
The Professor

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. Thanks, Professor!

Sure, they had tight harmonies. Sure, they sang in tune. But they were boring, uninteresting, non-compelling harmonies, melodies, tunes, songs, and content.

I can't take them for more than one, maybe two songs, before I need a seriously heavy dosage of Fripp or Zappa or Schoenberg antidote.

[johnnie]

25. It took me up until about 5-6 years ago to appreciate them

I always thought about them the way you do, but then I started looking into them more. I was impressed with Brian's productions and his ability in the studio. His harmony arrangements were very cool and some of the song structures were also very cool.
I don't dig everything they do, but I have come to like them a lot more than I used to. In my opinion they could have done without Mike Love, he seemed to put in the stuff I still don't like about the Beach Boys.
On some of the CDs they put some studio outtakes and listening to Brian run the sessions is pretty interesting.

[Squeech]

26. Disagree

Even Zappa said nice things about them. In his book, he cites "Little Deuce Coupe" as a great advance in (white) pop harmony.

And SMILE is brilliant, goddammit! I especially love the whole suite that starts with "Wonderful" and concludes with "Surf's Up." Yeah, I agree that there were ideas that Wilson and Parks had that never got adequately expressed, and can no longer be realized-- "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" was supposed to be the "fire" part of a suite about the four elements, for example-- but for what it is, and for what remains of the psychedelic impulse that spawned it, it's terrific.

What I want to do when I grow up is compose music that starts where Smile is, and pushes that rhythmic vocal counterpoint thing in more Zappa or Charles Ives directions. That kind of music would make me very happy, and if nobody else can write it, I'm gonna have to.

My unfavorite Beach Boys song, considering both cheesiness and how often we hear it, is probably "Do It Again." There are worse songs (heck, the entire 15 Big Ones album is worse) but this is the song where Mike Love signed his blood oath to retro mediocrity.

[bobthedrummer]

27. It was an awful Christmas song from the 1960's

memorable only for how terrible it was.:puke:

[Hand]

28. Whichever one is being played... nt

[ConcernedCanuk]

29. "WENDY" - hasta be the whiniest song they ever did

.
.
.

Beach Boys - Wendy Lyrics

Wendy, Wendy what went wrong
Oh so wrong
We went together for so long

I never thought a guy could cry
'Til you made it with another guy
Oh Wendy, Wendy left me alone
Hurt so bad

Wendy, Wendy don't lose your head
Lose your head
Wendy don't believe a word he says

I can't picture you with him
His future looks awful dim
Oh Wendy, Wendy left me alone
Hurt so bad

Wendy I wouldn't hurt you like that
No no no
I thought we had our love down pat
Guess I was wrong

The farthest thing from my mind
Was the day that I'd wake up to find
My Wendy
Wendy left me alone

Wendy, Wendy left me alone
Hurts so bad
Wendy, Wendy left me alone
Hurts so bad
Wendy, Wendy left me alone
Hurts so bad
Wendy, Wendy...

:shrug:

http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Beach-Boys/Wendy.html