Customer Reviews

Rarities & Beach Boys Medley

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first 13 tracks on this album were orginally released in 1983 on LP and rapidly withdrawn because it was put out without the Beach Boys' approval. The CD was only released in Japan and is also very difficult to find. The album is full of good music,

but only a real Beach Boys completist should fork out the dough, because over half of these songs are now available on the boxed set and/or bonus tracks on their re-released albums. On those that are not:

"With a Little Help from My Friends" -- an outtake from the "Wild Honey" album, this has a very uncharacteristic lead vocal from Bruce Johnston.

"The Letter" -- a cool cover of the Box Tops hit. Although the liner notes state that it's another "Wild Honey" outtake, this studio track was actually intended for an aborted live album (that's a long story!).

"I Was Made to Love Her" -- this longer version of the "Wild Honey" track has a great doo-wopping tag that was stupidly lopped off of the final version. Really good.

"Bluebirds over the Mountain" -- the Dutch stereo single mix with an overdub track oddly emphasized by mistake. Not a great song in the first place, this is just a curiosity.

"Good Vibrations" -- an incomplete, preliminary version. Although this edit is only found here, the various pieces that went into it are on the "Smiley Smile/Wild Honey" CD and the boxed set.

"All I Want to Do" -- a fun, rowdy live version, from the same tour that produced the "Live in London" CD.

On the CD, three bonus tracks are also included -- medleys which include snippets of classic Beach Boys songs. One of these was released as a single in 1981 to capitalize on the "Stars on 45" craze -- again, without the consent of the band. Very irritating, actually.

So, there are some interesting finds here, but whether they are worth the effort of tracking down "Rarities" is debatable. Unless you're a Beach Boys nut who just can't get enough, there are many better -- and cheaper -- ways of getting your fix!      

   

There really aren't 42 song's on this album. There are 16 tracks. The first 13 tracks that they listed are correct. Then here's how the rest go... #14 "Medley:Up Tempo" (Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, I Get Around, Little Deuce Coupe, Little Honda, Hawaii, 409, Noble Surfer, Dance, Dance, Dance, Shut Down, Surfin Safari, Barbara Ann, Surfin U.S.A., Fun Fun Fun.) Track #15 "Medly:Ballad" (Surfer Girl, Girls On The Beach, Ballad Of Ole' Betsy, We'll Run Away, Caroline No, The Surfer Moon, In My Room) and Track # 16 "The Beach Boys Medley" (Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, I Get Around, Shut Down, Surfin Safari, Barbara Ann, Surfin U.S.A., Fun Fun Fun). Even though this album doesn't have 42 tracks it is still a great album. Some great track's are "The Letter", "I Was Made To Love Her", "Bluebirds Over The Mountains", "Cotton Fields" and "All I Wanna Do". I hadnt heard of alot of the songs on the album before I got it but I ended up loving them. The version of "In My Room" on the album is the German Version. Good Vibration's isnt the actual single's version of the song. It starts off instrumental and then goes into the singing but is still pretty cool. This is over all a great album and would do alot of good in the hand's of any true Beach Boys fan much like my self. The Medley's are great. My personal favorite Medley is the Ballad Medley because the songs fade into each other so perfectly. Like Surfer Girl starts the ballad Medley just as you getting into the song you will forget its a medley and then out of no where it will fade into Girls On The Beach and I was fooled at first when I first heard it because it faded in so perfectly I thought it was still Surfer Girl then I was like What The Heck? haha. The best part of the ballad Medley is how Caroline No comes in from We'll Run Away. So yeah this album is definetly worth getting.

R. Josef has done a good job explaining how this came about so I won't rehash it. This really only has about 5 songs that aren't available elsewhere and the value of having them is somewhat debatable, even for a diehard. (I'm a completist so I bought it, but had it been over $100 at the time I would have done without it.)

Here are the ones you can't get elsewhere:

"With a Little Help from My Friends": Bruce handles the lead vocals on this one. His diction is so precise that it's an odd juxtaposition to the whole idea of the lyric. Part of the reason the original works is that Ringo is NOT a great singer (he tends to mumble for one thing) and it's somewhat endearing when he says he'll TRY not to sing out of key. But you would expect more vocally from the Beach Boys than that...

"The Letter", a cover of the Box Tops hit, SOUNDS "Wild Honey"ish..in that it's fairly spare, features a lot of drony organ, and is more "rocky" than the band usually was (However, the vocals aren't anywhere as impassioned as most of the "Wild Honey" vocals are...)

"I Was Made to Love Her" wasn't one of the better "Wild Honey" tunes because Carl just sounded scratchy and out of his element on the song. This track suffers from the same problems but does add an accappella section that's rather choppily edited in.

Oddity is truly a good way to explain the alternate mix of "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" that's found here. It really does sound like a mistake....or an idea that's only "good" when you're tripping on hash. Vocals are mixed hard left, with overdubs of heavily reverbed tambourine and guitar in the right channel, along with someone saying "Ow!"..etc etc. It sounds like a reference dub that was screwed up and probably never intended to be released.

"All I Wanna Do" IS a really high-charged live version of the "Wild Honey" song. It's probably one you'd want if you love the song.

The Beach Boys medleys are something you can do yourself if you have a good audio editor on your computer...there's no reason to pay Capitol for it again...

All the other rare versions have since been released: "You're Welcome","Land Ahoy","In My Room (German version)", and "Celebrate the News" are on the Capitol twofers, "Lord's Prayer" and "Auld Lang Syne" on the "Ultimate Christmas", the alternate "Good Vibrations" parts are in the 'sections" on the box set..which is where you'll also find the 45RPM version of "Cotton Fields" and "You're Welcome".

BOTTOM LINE:

Save the $100 and go see Brian live next time he's in concert near you instead.

2 1/2 stars

This album came out in 1983, and I've never heard that album until I bought the import CD from Japan and heard it. "Rarities" is a collection of outtakes, alternate versions, and some unreleased songs. Some tracks on this collection showed up on 60s Capitol "two-fers" right after the album went out of print. (It was later released in Japan on CD in 1997.)

My four favorite tracks are:

"I Was Made To Love Her": This is a different version of the song, even longer than the one on "Wild Honey". The ending (containing an acapella vocal tag and an instrumental fade) has never appeared on the album, but when I heard it, I was suprised to hear it.

"All I Want To Do": Now that's what I call a great live version (although it faded out at the end, partly because the tape machine ran out of tape)--that's all I can say about it.

* "The Beach Boys Medley" (uptempo and ballads versions): This came out in 1981; the single version (also on the album) went to #12 on the charts. I heard both medleys and I liked them.

"Rarities" came out in 1983 on Capitol and never charted, but this is an excellent collection for hardcore Beach Boys fans (including me, especially). I've enjoyed listening to the album very much, and you might enjoy listening to it, too.

Buy this CD now. Don't be fooled by the amount of songs. The first 13 are from the original album Rarities with the remaining being 3 medleys. In my opinion, the medleys are throwaway unless you like to hear a lot of little snipplets of songs. The original Rarities album is fabulous. With a Little Help From My Friends and The Letter are great. So is the extended version of I Was Made To Love Her. Some songs have appeared on the twofer Capitol released, but since those are discontinued it doesn't matter.

Warning: All of these songs except the medleys will probably be put out when the reissues of all the 60's through 80's albums are finally released. You might want to wait on this if you don't have money to burn.

I've been looking for some rare tracks and also the Barbara Ann recording for a while when I settled on this compilation; figured the import was a little pricey, but with so many tracks, it was worth it. There are 13 tracks and 3 medleys--all the remaining 25 or so tracks are snippets of the originals.

Very nice rarities cd,combining unreleased and out of print songs from 62-69."The Lord's Prayer" is breathtakingly gorgeous,a must have for all bB's fan(and considered the best BB recording ever by Beach Boys Mike Love and Bruce Johnston).Also is a megacool early mix of Good Vibrations,as well as outtakes from Wild Honey,and rare B-sides.Although much of these tracks are available other places,The Beach Boys Medley is only to be found here.Worth the money indeed,even if for the Good Vibrations outtake!!

Here's the good news: this CD has fantastic sound quality. Here's the wanted to program an album that would appeal to everybody, so tracks range from an outtake from the "Surfin' Safari" LP ("Land Ahoy") to a botched, Dutch-only single mix for one of the band's final Capitol singles of the sixties that was also included on their final Capitol LP, "20/20" ("Bluebirds Over The Mountain"). Mixed in with these are B-sides, a live track, two more outtakes, and two alternate mixes, one of which--"Good Vibrations"--is worth the album's price on its own, but mostly for diehard fans and Brian Wilson scholars. Highlights include not only "Good Vibrations" but also "The Lord's Prayer," "You're Welcome," and Al Jardine's spirited and wonky rewrite of Leadbelly's "Cotton Fields" in the superior, hard-to-find single take. Still, this album doesn't hold together the way it ought to--because the sequencing isn't chronological, there's a distinctive schizophrenic feel to the proceedings. Too, seven of the album's songs have since appeared on various US releases, making this album somewhat superfluous. And while completists may be pleased at the inclusion of the three "Beach Boys Medleys" as bonus tracks, most won't listen to them more than once (the sound quality also drops drastically on these selections, but that's no big loss). Overall, the question is, "Is it worth it?" For the serious fan, yes; casual fans who want the hits would be better off sticking to "Endless Summer" and "Pet Sounds."

This album came out in 1983, and I've never heard that album until I bought the import CD from Japan and heard it. "Rarities" is a collection of outtakes, alternate versions, and some unreleased songs. Some tracks on this collection showed up on 60s Capitol "two-fers" right after the album went out of print. (It was later released in Japan on CD in 1997.)

My four favorite tracks are:

* "I Was Made To Love Her": This is a different version of the song, even longer than the one on "Wild Honey". The ending (containing an acapella vocal tag and an instrumental fade) has never appeared on the album, but when I heard it, I was surprised to hear it.

* "All I Want To Do": Now that's what I call a great live version (although it faded out at the end, partly because the tape machine ran out of tape)--that's all I can say about it.

* "The Beach Boys Medley" (uptempo and ballads versions): This came out in 1981; the single version (also on the album) went to #12 on the charts. I heard both medleys and I liked them.

"Rarities" came out in 1983 on Capitol and never charted, but this is an excellent collection for hardcore Beach Boys fans (including me, especially). I've enjoyed listening to the album very much, and you might enjoy listening to it, too.

Finally back in print, this remarkable collection includes tracks appearing never before or since. Discography-genius Brad Elliott's liner notes are typically awesome. We can only hope it remains available long enough for those who missed out on the original issue to take advantage of this second chance.