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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Andrew Hickey" <stealthmunchkin@lycos.co.uk> |
| Subject | Re: Buried Pleasures? |
| Date | Wed, 27 Aug 2003 19:34:19 +0100 |
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> I've gotta chime in here with my praise of this album. Other than
> the "big trifecta" of Sunflower, Surf's Up, and Holland, Love You is
> easily my favorite Beach Boys album of the the '70s.
It's my second favourite BB album of all - after Smiley Smile...
BTW your 'big trifecta' comment leads me on to another Buried Pleasure - one
I would submit for that list - Carl & The Passions: So Tough.
*Why* is this album so consistently ignored, to the extent that people
pretend that it never existed? Almost every track on it is beautiful, it
feels like a whole, consistent album (despite the fact that the BBs were
essentially three separate groups at this point) and to my mind is *far*
superior to the two albums either side of it. Yes the Flame tracks are an
acquired taste, though I like them, but Marcella? All This Is That? Cuddle
Up? These are among *the* great tracks of all time...That album is to me
superior to anything any of the BBs were involved in, except Love You, since
its recording...
But back to Love You
> I have never
> heard an album that sounds like that; the guitar, the synth bass,
> everything sounds so clean...even the purposeful distortion just
> shimmers! Jeff Glenn once explained the process to me, something
> about several of the instruments being recorded "direct" rather than
> through amps. I just wish more bands would use this technique when
> recording!
Yeah, I love the sound of direct injection - when Lennon heard how good a
guitar sounded that way he actually asked if there was any way to record an
entire album, vocals and all, that way, but was put off when he found out
that it would involve a mic being implanted in his throat ;)
> Sure, many of the lyrics are trite and silly, but for me the childlike
> themes really work and any cringe factor that might have existed is
> superceded by the wonderful melodies. Plus, "I Wanna Pick You Up" is
> so deliciously lascivious!
Absolutely. And the thing about *these* trite lyrics (as opposed to, say,
the lyrics on Summer In Paradise or MIU Album) is that it's just pure
unfiltered communication, without any thought as to whether "Well, oh my, oh
gosh, oh gee" or "honkin' down the gosh-darn highway" would sound silly to
anyone else.
> In line with Andrew's "rawness and back to basics" interpretation, I
> feel similarly about the Wild Honey album. I mean, think about it:
> right after the angelic, introspective Pet Sounds and the somewhat
> wacky, stoned Smiley Smile comes completely out of left field an
> album of raw R&B which, while not Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett, was
> pretty damn good for a bunch of blue eyed boys from Hawthorne, CA.
>
> I have voted The Hollies' Evolution as the most underrated album of
> all time, but I might put Wild Honey second on my list. I mean, all
> through his career Elvis Costello was constantly praised, and
> deservedly so, for tackling a different style with each album, but
> the Beach Boys should have received similar accolades for Wild Honey,
> which they never did.
ABSOLUTELY... I actually used this album to semi-convert my mother (a long
time BB-loather) the other week - she was amazed that the Beach Boys could
have made tracks like Wild Honey or their cover of I Was Made To Love Her,
which she said sounded exactly like the White Stripes, her favourite band
of the moment (yes, I know, a 24-year-old persuading his 46-year-old mother
to like the Beach Boys because they sound like the White Stripes has
something wrong with it somewhere...)
--
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