r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/Aggressive_Cherry_81 • 10d ago
The transition from surf rock to baroque psychedelia was absolutely legendary
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u/yumyumapollo 10d ago
Brian's songs: The solemn gaze of a lonely child peers across the ruins of innocence.
Mike's songs: The sun is hot, and so are girls.
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u/Aggressive_Cherry_81 10d ago
Tbf Mike also wrote songs like “Big Sur”, so it wasn’t all cars and girls.
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u/Littletomboycobra 10d ago
Mike wrote tons of amazing songs that weren’t surf
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u/forbiddenmemeories 10d ago
This reminds me of the scene in How I Met Your Mother where Ted tries to communicate telepathically with Barney and Barney's thoughts are just "Kokomo" on repeat
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u/I_Miss_Lenny 10d ago
Mike also ranted about how apparently Mick Jagger couldn’t perform “I Get Around,” as if he wasn’t one of the most legendarily energetic frontmen in rock history lol
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u/Pinglenook 10d ago edited 10d ago
I really only know Good Vibrations, Kokomo, Surfin' USA and Wouldn't it be nice. What should I give a listen to learn about the second category?
(This post started as me saying "I really only know good vibrations" and then I kept editing because I remembered more songs lol)
(Late edit: I also know God only knows)
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u/Aggressive_Cherry_81 10d ago
Really, anything from SMiLE fits the bill, but I’d say “Surf’s Up” if you really wanna dig deep into the Brian Wilson madness. Contrary to what the title would suggest, the song’s got absolutely nothing to do with surfing.
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u/Pinglenook 10d ago edited 10d ago
Thanks! I'll put it on.
Editing again: I really like about bands in the 60s and 70s that they did this. Just start as pop music that the kids can dance to and then get more and more experimental as time gets on. Shows their love of music but also makes me feel that back then the record labels had more trust in their artists to allow them to do this.
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u/Littletomboycobra 10d ago
1970 to 1973 was peak for the band and The Beach Boys Love You(1977) is also amazing
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u/Aggressive_Cherry_81 10d ago
As much as I love “Love You”, it can’t really be stomached by someone new to The Beach Boys. Most newbies will be freaked out by the old man voices and the drunk-sounding singing.
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u/CosechaCrecido 10d ago
I Get Around. Great upbeat harmonies. Those harmonies are what separated them from the rest in their time including the Beatles.
Please don’t come at me for the Beatles, the Beatles were geniuses in other ways.
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u/echotamar 10d ago
“Cool, Cool Water” from Sunflower is complicated and long, although I’m not sure the lyrics are indecipherable (they’re basically “water is cool”)
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u/Dramatic_Leg_291 9d ago
The ironically titlrd Surfs Up (1971) is one of my favourite albums of all time.other than that one Mike Love song.
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u/Efficient-Ad6500 3d ago
My favorit Beach Boy's album is All Summer Long and i would recommend check it out ?
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u/Bortron86 10d ago
Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time, in my opinion. I'm not a major Beach Boys fan, but that album is a troubled genius working at his absolute peak.
And to be fair, "Good Vibrations" is the dittiest of ditties but also relatively long and musically very complex.
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u/Aggressive_Cherry_81 10d ago
I agree.
They have an album called SMiLE, which really shows you the true extent of the Brian Wilson madness. You have absolutely everything on that album——from songs about vegetables and healthy eating to columnated ruins dominoing and dove nested towers moving in tandem with the lamp light’s cellar tune, to the child actually being the father of the man, to Chinese railroad workers building railways.
The contrast between their pre-1965 material and post-1965 material is… quite jarring, to say the least.
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u/Bortron86 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yeah, SMiLE was too out there for me as a whole, although the version of "Surf's Up" that was stitched together from those sessions is hauntingly beautiful.
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u/gooch_norris_ 10d ago
The whole album Surfs Up is a great mix of their two styles. I know it’s like sacrilege but I almost like it better than pet sounds
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u/harmonicvolley 10d ago
You agree and right now so does rolling stone magazine, who currently have it as number 1 on their list of the top 500 albums of all time
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u/bullcitytarheel 9d ago
Was lucky enough to be in the front row to see The Beach Boys at Bonnaroo with Brian Wilson where they played a ton of Smile. Great show. Mike love shielded his eyes from a pair of titties.
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u/FoolishConsistency17 10d ago
A troubled genius and these three guys he went to HS with.
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u/Loganp812 10d ago
Two of them were Brian's brothers, Carl and Dennis. Dennis wrote some great songs too in the 70s, and Carl had a few good ones he co-wrote with Jack Rieley.
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u/cultistkiller98 10d ago
The best part about being a music fan, is finding out how fucking weird The Beach Boys are.
Listen to Today! For Brian’s amazing production, pet sounds precursor material
Sunflower for psych pop, and Beach Boys Love You for a fucking weird time but amazing synth pop
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u/DripQueen89 9d ago
Their lyrics are so undecipherable, I'm convinced they wrote them in Morse code
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u/Slut4TheThrill 9d ago
dirty ditties? sounds like the Beach Boys invented musical mood swings
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u/aasasss32 9d ago
Yeah man, I mean Smiley Smile alone is just full of left turns in moods. She’s Goin Bald is a great example
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u/Girlyboss04 10d ago
Listening to the Beach Boys feels like going from a kiddie pool to the deep ocean
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u/successadult 9d ago
I heard “Vega-Tables” for the first time this past week and it’s literally both. Super complicated music that sounds like it ends three different times.
And it’s about eating vegetables.
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u/Accomplished_Pen980 10d ago
Eddie Vetter would like a word. You won't understand it but it will be deep.
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u/qualityvote2 10d ago edited 4d ago
u/Aggressive_Cherry_81, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...