Customer Reviews

Hawthorne, CA: Birthplace of a Musical Legacy

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The material on this set is very interesting, and much of it is well worth having, but I speak that as a hardcore Beach Boys fan-- to a more casual fan, this is really extraneous.

Of the 57 tracks on here, 17 of them are spoken pieces, interviews mostly, culled from the archives. While they're interesting and usually sentimental, there's nothing really revelatory in this.

Beyond that, there's a bunch of studio recording session excerpts ("Salt Lake City", "Wish That He Could Stay", "Carol K"/"Little Girl", "Barbara Ann", and "Good Vibrations"). These are all interesting, but if you're not intrigued by the construction process, this will seem largely extraneous. The "Carol K" one I particularly enjoyed, but "Little Girl" is one of my favorite Beach Boys tunes, so this is no surprise.

Additionally, there's several tracks that are isolated backing track-- songs without the vocals, Stack-o-Tracks style-- "Surfin' USA", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Good to My Baby", "Be With Me", and "Sail On Sailor"). Again, these are quite interesting, but only to someone more interested in the process of the creation of the songs.

Matching a bunch of backing tracks are a bunch of vocal only tracks-- these might be more exciting to the casual fan as we get to hear those great harmonies without any instruments. On some of them, particularly "Kiss Me Baby" and "Forever", there were vocal parts I had never previously identified that were masked by or doubling instruments. There's also a capella mixes for "Can't Wait too Long" (a brilliant short edit), "I Went to Sleep" and "Add Some Music". And two Party tracks, "Barbara Ann" and "Devoted to You" are presented without overdubs.

With the exception of what I'll discuss below, the rest of the material is alternate/extended versions, much of this ("Little Girl", "Time to Get Alone") is really nice and I'm glad to have them, but again, not anything thats exciting.

The exciting material is the couple of new songs presented here-- "You're With Me Tonight" (mixed from previously unused recordings), "Lonely Days", and a great unreleased Dennis gem called "A Time to Live in Dreams". These three alone make this set worth its weight in gold to any fan, but to the more casual listener, and even to less devoted fans, this is really quite unnecessary.

For me listening to this 2 CD set conjures up a more innocent time, when kids " Horsed around " and the most important part of life was who was picking you up and who's car you'd be using. The girls were all giggles and the boys were happy just to talk to them.On one track Mike Love introduces the groups first song "Surfin' ". In that rehearsal you hear Dennis Wilson introducing himself, and the boys exchanging jabs about " popping each other in the mouth " if one of them starts to laugh. You want innocent times? Listen here. It's gratifying to hear some of the alternate tracks of songs we were used to hearing in onlyone version. Some of the accapella songs simply brought tears to my eyes. If you sit and listen to " Add Some Music " " Forever " and the real little jewel " Old Man River " you'll understand what I mean. The treatment is sensational, especially the enunciation and counterpoint.It's true genius here. There is no one who can harmonize the way the " Boys " did. Though alot of adulation is heaped onto big brother Brian, each Beach Boy should be applauded for their ingenuity and specific talents. Carl could sing like an angel and play the guitar like the devil. Dennis showed immense emotion and pathos in" every word he said " in a song. Mike could nail the low notes, and was a fantastic front man to the band. Al Jardine could sing and bring chills to the back of your neck, and Bruce sings falsetto to " beat the band. " ( Not too shabby of a writer, either.) A great CD from a great band! Buy it, you won't regret it.

i have had this cd since the day it came out, but i just now found the hidden track on disk 2. a casual fan might hear it and think little of this lyric-less a cappella harmony. but the SMile fans should recognize it as an amazing stereo mix of the backing vocals from the "my children were raised" section of, you guessed it, heroes and villains! yet another tease from capitol on the untold treasures of the SMiLE vault. c'mon guys. the 2004 version of SMiLE is great, but we want the real deal. no one cares if it's "finishes" or not. lets hear it already!

I'll start out by agreeing [...] who feel there's enough filler here to comprise almost an entire CD's worth of material. So why didn't Capital simply put out a single CD and entitle it Endless Harmony Part-Two? Even with all the incidental dialog, "Vegatables" Promo and several backing tracks, there is enough substantive material here to satisfy most BB fanatics, (myself included). I was awed by the a'cappella version of Add Some Music To Your Day and Dennis Wilson's classic Forever. The stereo single version of Heroes And Villans and the extended stereo mix of Vegatables have never sounded better.

Listening to all the unreleased material contained in Hawthorne, CA, Endless Harmony and The Pet Sounds Sessions Box Set, reinfources my opinion of The Beach Boys, as THE premiere American Rock band. Sure there are Dead-Heads out there who savor every bootleg concert tape they can lay their hands on. Dylan fans waited almost thirty years for an offical release of the Royal Albert Hall Concert with The Band. But name one other band with the possible exception of The Beatles who's recorded legacy has garnered as much interest and has been written and chronicled to the degree the Beach Boys have. After fourty years we're still here...the faithful, the keepers of the faith. We still get chills everytime we hear those heatbreaking incredibly beautiful harmonies. Keep on mining the vaults and we'll keep comming back for more.

When I saw that this was released, I admit I was curious. But I wasn't excited about the spoken bits and thought it might just be another retread cash-in from Capitol. But I read some reviews and found out that there were many unreleased and first-time stereo releases. Sooo...thanks to Amazon.com, I finally got it and put it on and was JUST FLOORED!! I'm sure the spoken bits will get old (they precede many of the songs), but it's the music here that matters, and there's plenty of it. Only a few are actually live.

What stands out here are the stereo remixes. The Good Vibrations (stereo track selection) is exactly the same as what appeared as a mono bonus track on the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey two-fer, but the SOUND here is INCREDIBLE. You feel like you're in the studio, that's how close the sound is. The stereo accapella mix of Kiss Me Baby has become my favorite version of that song, it just sounds heavenly, and it is because of the quality of the remix. After this CD,the Endless Harmony CD, and the Pet Sounds stereo remix, I am a BIG advocate of doing the same remix for ALL their albums.

Other highlights: stereo remixs of Dance, Dance, Dance, Salt Lake City, Heroes and Villians, Vegatables and Let The Wind Blow. The latter two, particularly, benefit from the remix. The accapella remix of Add Some Music To Your Day is also stunning. I just wish they would have given us a stereo remix of Good Vibrations.

I can't emphasize enough how heavenly and revelatory these remixes are. They have lifted my admiration for Brian's genius and the Beach Boys' singing up another notch. This will be a prized CD in my collection for as long as I have ears to hear.

A few listeners have noted in their reviews that this is for the hardcore fan only, and I can't argue with that one bit. This is a rather esoteric collection of tracks, more geared to the serious fan and collector of Brian Wilson and Beach Boys material.

Still...with the "Good Vibrations" box, the "Pet Sounds" box, all the 2-fers with bonus material, the "Endless Harmony" set, the "Ultimate Christmas" set and now this, it's incredible to be a Beach Boys fan. So few artists and/or their labels have spent such time on releasing archive material, and in such volume. And it's hardly just filler material, it's illuminating as well as enjoyable stuff. One can hardly even argue with the talk snippets, as they provide a nice documentary fell to the CD, and make for a more enjoyable listening experience.

Yes, it's high time for a "Smile" box (dream on); it's long overdue time for a stereo issue of the classic song "Good Vibrations" (and given the complexity of that recording, one could almost argue for a whole CD devoted to the recording of that masterpiece). But who's to gripe? Capitol and the group have delivered an enormous amount of archive material that seems to have no end in sight. Wonderful...

The formula is simple: Re-release a handful of interesting recordings and surround them with backing-track-only, pre-final-mix, tracks-that-would-have-been-on-"Smile," etc. stuff that only the most die-hard Beach Boys fans would buy, myself included. This is how Capitol milks the Beach Boys and their fans.

So, are these two CDs a complete waste? Mostly, but not quite. The compilers have given us a 1960 multi-tracked home recording of Brian making like the Four Freshmen; a "Barbara Ann" run-through featuring a recently-arrived Dean Torrence, followed by the LP performance sans sound effects; a couple of great demos; and an amazing track of Brian Wilson conducting studio musicians on "Salt Lake City" in a manner not consistent with, say, Eugene Ormandy. But do these justify the double-set price tag? No.

The liner notes contain more cliches per square inch than most such scribblings, though the microscopic font size might have something to do with it. I wish someone would lay to rest for all time the myth that the Beach Boys employed complex harmonies in their early material, which they mostly did not--unless one considers the most rudimentary Barbershop voicings or inverted-triad surf "wah-ooing" to be cutting-edge choralizing. Someone hold me back when another one of these comes out. Hide my wallet. Do something.

If you loved the Endless Harmony Soundtrack that was released in 1998, you are going to love this CD. Not only is it filled with many never-before-released songs - but this was also released in connection to the band's fortieth aniversery: that is right, the only band in the whole world who have stood that long so they must be doing something right and you can tell that they are on this wonderful CD.

It has got something for everyone on this CD. If you have been tired of buying Beach Boys CDs and finding out that they are only in Mono, then you will love this because there are many tracks that have been put here in stereo - including Salt Lake City which has had a piano in the bridge. Let the Wind Blow (which happens to be one of my favourite songs from the era of the ill-fated Smile album) has also been added in stereo. A true classic.

They have also taken out all the music and had the boys just sing to some of their best work including Add Some Music To Your Day, Forever and Old Man River (and the boys have never sounded better.) And if you are a big fan of Stcak 'O' Tracks, then have Capitol done a good job for you. They have taken off some of the vocals and put on some of the music tosome of their funkiest tunes including Fun, Fun, Fun, Good To My Baby, Sail On Sailor and my favourite backing track of all time, The Little Girl I Once Knew (which comes under the title Carol K Sessions - a tribute to Brian's favourite mussician.)

But don't just go on what I have reviewed it as. If you are a big fan of the Beach Boys or wondering why so many people have thought of Brian as a genius then this is the album for you. It is songs from our favourite American band, the fabulous Beach Boys.

I normally dont chalk up anything as a "must own", but if you are a true fan of Brian's production techniques, you really must own this cd. It's about 2 hours of almost exclusively unreleased material, which is what engineer Mark Linnett calls a "different" take on familiar songs. Some of this stuff will literally give you chills to listen to. The a capella tracks are nothing less than breathtaking...you get a better appreciation of the way these guys harmonize, and how each voice plays a role in the whole picture. The sound is so great that it's like having them right in your living room in front of a mic, singing just for you. "I Went To Sleep" is my favorite of the a capella bunch, as the counter melodies are just fantastic. "Kiss Me Baby" in a capella form is nothing less than beautiful. There's also a bunch of unreleased alternate takes and stereo re-mixes. Personally, I'd rather see the stereo mixes left off in favor of stuff we havent heard before, but it's still cool to hear a new spin of the old stuff! Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of stuff from Smile on here- the stuff that is, like "Cant Wait Too Long" and "Youre with me Tonight" are only 45 second clips from the Smile sessions. The rest is remix of Smiley Smile stuff...but there is a 3 minute stereo "Good Vibrations" session track collection which is interesting. What is frustrating, is that the snippets from Smile are so fantistically remastered, and sound so great, that it just makes you wish that Mark Linnett would prepare a Smile box set and release it tommorrow! There are also a bunch of instrumental tracks which are cool too. I really dont see how if you like the Beach Boys you wouldnt like this 2 CD set. It's really a fantastic glimpse into the studio work of Brian and the Boys. Again, I dont say often, but this really is a must-own, essential addition to your Beach Boys collection.

Capitol Records and the Beach Boys have made a cottage industry out of the CD reissue - or more specifically, the inclusion of previously unreleased material on CD reissues. It is a testament to the group's vocal talent and Brian Wilson's unique creativity that through multiple album reissues and boxed sets, right up through 1999's "Endless Harmony", they never ran out of worthy material. Consider the bottom of the barrel to have now been struck. Honestly, how many versions of "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Surfin' USA" do I really need to own? It's unlikely that even the most diehard Beach Boys fan will find themselves listening to this more than once or twice. The only thing of real interest here is the "Vegetables" section. Methinks Beach Boys fans should save their dollars for the long promised, patiently awaited _Smile_ box (which, according to EMI A&R man Ron Furmanek, has been finished and in the can for four-plus years now...).