Good Vibrations Box Set

Disc 1 begins with the early, innocent years. No innovative instrumentations or acid trips here. Just clean American rock and roll. These songs - "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Surfin' USA", "Don't Worry Baby", "Be True To Your School" and many others - encapsule what America is all about: fun and freedom, a place you can go where you want and do what you want. Nobody was better at this then The Beach Boys. The unreleased stuff is an extra treat: alternative versions of "Surfin'", the great instrumental "Punchline", the pretty "The Things We Did Last Summer" and many more are finally seeing the light of day.

Disc 2 spans from 1965 to 1967. It was during ths time that Brian Wilson took production control of the group and they cut their most exciting records - "California Girls", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B.", "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations". They had time to cut some simple pop songs that launched their career like "Barbara Ann" and "Help Me Rhonda". At the end of the disc comes the treat. In 1993, Brian Wilson let the people who put this collection together include 30 minutes of music from the "Smile" sessions. Here is where you'll find alternate versions of "Heroes And Villians", and "Vegetables" (incuding unreleased sections of the former), the spooky instrumentals "I Love To Say Da Da" and "Do You Like Worms", and Brian's eerie demo of "Surf's Up". Also are two songs released on 1969's "20/20": the chilling a capella "Our Prayer" and the spacey "Cabinessence".

Disc 3 begins with some tracks from 1967's "Wild Honey": the title track, "Darlin'" and the haunting "Let The Wind Blow". Then there's a demo of "Cool Cool Water" (later released on "Sunflower". Then comes a suite of tracks from my two favorite Beach Boys albums: "Friends" and "20/20". These songs are among their best works: "Meant For You", "Friends", "Little Bird", "Busy Doin' Nothin'", "Do It Again", "Bluebirds Over The Mountain", "I Can Hear Music", "Time To Get Alone", and "I Went To Sleep". These songs alone make this my favorite disc. Next comes three unreleased tracks: Dennis' "San Miguel", "Games Two Can Play" and "I Just Got My Pay" (which later became "Marcella"). These lead into another suite of tracks from "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up", including the uplifting "Add Some Music To Your Day", the punchy "This Whole World", and the chilling "'Til I Die".

Disc 4 is the weakest disc. There are a number of setbacks: tracsk from "Carl And The Pasions", "15 Big Ones" and "Love You". But there are some great songs: "Marcella", "Sail On Sailor" and "Trader". There's also Dennis' haunting swan song "Baby Blue", the great cover of "Come Go With Me", the catchy "Getcha Back", and "Kokomo".

Disc 5 has a wealth of goodies, including backing trakcs, demos, vocal - only versions and live recordings. The closer to this disc (and the set) is a heartwrenching version of "Surfer Girl" from 1967. This version, with sparse instrumentation, is one of the most beautiful things ever recorded.

This is a great cd that very music fan will enjoy. It is worth the money. Also, get "Pet Sounds", "Beach Boys Today", "Friends", "20/20", "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up", all excellent albums. And don't forget: "Smile" comes out in September.

I can't listen to this compilation without feeling sadness for the deterioration of Brian Wilson's mental, physical, and creative capacities. "Good Vibrations" documents a band that starts out with vigor and confidence, reaches a creative peak in the mid-sixties, and then slides down a slope for a slippery ride into the seventies and eighties.

"Pet Sounds" is regarded as Brian Wilson's masterpiece. The single, "Good Vibrations," is widely regarded as the greatest single release of all time. I don't argue with either point. I think it's interesting, since I teach English, to compare Brian Wilson's work ("Pet Sounds" and "Smile," the aborted follow-up to "Pet Sounds") with James Joyce's last two novels, "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake." Joyce was fortunate to complete "Finnegan's Wake" before his death, while Brian's misfortune allowed his "Smile" project to be shelved before it was released to the public. "Ulysses," like "Pet Sounds," is regarded as a masterpiece. Unreleased songs from the "Smile" project, which can be found on this compilation, bring to mind Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake." Both "Smile" and "Finnegan's Wake" are follow-ups to works which are regarded as masterpieces (where does an artist go after producing a masterpiece?) "Smile" and "Finnegan's Wake" are much more overtly experimental than the masterpieces which preceded them. The writing of both works oftens veers off into obscurantism. As such, both "Finnegan's Wake" and "Smile," the fragments of which appear on this collection, seem more designed to be respected than enjoyed. Reading "Finnegan's Wake," like listening to the songs from "Smile," is hard work. The works are challenging, difficult to penetrate, and hard to make sense of once penetrated. "Ulysses" and "Pet Sounds" are much easier to digest.

I'm definitely getting off on a tangent. But one wonders what Brian Wilson's work and career would have been like if he had never ingested LSD. Would he have created "Pet Sounds" or "Smile?" Would he have kept producing quality music, and supervising the recording sessions for the Beach Boys, into the seventies and beyond? Interesting questions. I really can't see "Smile" being created without the influence of LSD. It's interesting to see how drugs affect an artist and their work. In Brian's case, as in John Lennon's case, drugs seemed to open up windows which had been closed in their heads. Initially, drugs gave them inspiration by allowing them to experience the world in a different way, and then using music to express that experience to others. At some point, drugs stopped being an aid and became a crutch. Drugs eventually became a weight which crushed spirit and talent. It's scary to realize that the voice croaking out the forlorn lyrics to the demo, "Still I Dream of It," is the same voice that effortlessly graced the melody of "The Warmth of the Sun."

All in all, the best music of the Beach Boys, which can be found on this compilation, is the best music ever created by an American pop group. It is timeless.

I can't listen to this compilation without feeling sadness for the deterioration of Brian Wilson's mental, physical, and creative capacities. "Good Vibrations" documents a band that starts out with vigor and confidence, reaches a creative peak in the mid-sixties, and then slides down a slope for a slippery ride into the seventies and eighties.

"Pet Sounds" is regarded as Brian Wilson's masterpiece. The single, "Good Vibrations," is widely regarded as the greatest single release of all time. I don't argue with either point. I think it's interesting, since I teach English, to compare Brian Wilson's work ("Pet Sounds" and "Smile," the aborted follow-up to "Pet Sounds") with James Joyce's last two novels, "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake." Joyce was fortunate to complete "Finnegan's Wake" before his death, while Brian's misfortune allowed his "Smile" project to be shelved before it was released to the public. "Ulysses," like "Pet Sounds," is regarded as a masterpiece. Unreleased songs from the "Smile" project, which can be found on this compilation, bring to mind Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake." Both "Smile" and "Finnegan's Wake" are follow-ups to works which are regarded as masterpieces (where does an artist go after producing a masterpiece?) "Smile" and "Finnegan's Wake" are much more overtly experimental than the masterpieces which preceded them. The writing of both works oftens veers off into obscurantism. As such, both "Finnegan's Wake" and "Smile," the fragments of which appear on this collection, seem more designed to be respected tan enjoyed. Reading "Finnegan's Wake," like listening to the songs from "Smile," is hard work. The works are challenging, difficult to penetrate, and hard to make sense of once penetrated. "Ulysses" and "Pet Sounds" are easier to digest than the works which follow.

I'm definitely getting off on a tangent. But one wonders what Brian Wilson's work and career would have been like if he had never ingested LSD. Would he have created "Pet Sounds" or "Smile?" Would he have kept producing quality music, and supervising the recording sessions for the Beach Boys, into the seventies and beyond? Interesting questions. I really can't see "Smile" being created without the influence of LSD. It's interesting to see how drugs affect an artist and their work. In Brian's case, as in John Lennon's case, drugs seemed to open up windows which had been closed in their heads. Initially, drugs gave them inspiration by allowing them to experience the world in a different way and then using music to express that experience to others. At some point, drugs stopped being an aid and became an enemy. Instead of inspiration, drugs became a crutch. It's scary to realize that the voice croaking out the forlorn lyrics to the demo, "Still I Dream of It," is the same vocalist that effortlessly graced the melody of "The Warmth of the Sun."

All in all, the best music of the Beach Boys, which can be found on this compilation, is the best music ever created by an American pop group. It is timeless.

If you are a casual fan I would better recommend "sounds of summer". If you are a die-hard-fan you might perfer Greatest hits Vol 1, 2 and 3 to this "Good Vibrations" boxed set. But basically it contains everything "sounds of summer" contains plus more obscure hits like 409, punchline, all summer long, in my room and wendy .

BUT it has a lot of filler some of it gets monotnous and drags on forever. You have to dig through 4 discs of 25+ tracks each to find the songs you like.

Even the die-hard-fans would have a hard time appreciating 4 versions of Heroes and Villains. Discs 1 and 2 have 90% of the good stuff. Discs 3 and 4 only have a couple of decent songs on each of them. Disc 5 is mostly a waste, it only has a couple of decent live performances. The rest is demos, instrus and radio spots that only work to annoy you.

Disc 1 leans completely toward the first few years (1961 -1965) when everything seemed right. There are a lot of hits in this collection, including "Fun Fun Fun", "I Get Around" and "Surfin' USA". There are also quite a few rare goodies. There's the lovely Four Freshmen tribute "The Things We Did Last Summer", the brief but insightful demo "Little Surfer Girl" (no relation to "Surfer Girl", which of course is also included), and alternate versions of "Surfin".

Disc 2 focuses on the era from "Party" to "Smile", undoubtedly their most productive period. It features several key tracks from "Pet Sounds" (plus a fiery alternate take of "I Know There's An Answer" entitled "Hang On To Your Ego"). But the real killer is the 30 minutes of "Smile" material. Here is the only place you'll get to hear the different sections of "Heroes And Villians", the version of "Vegetables" with "Mama Says", the demo of Brian singing "Surf's Up" alone at the piano, plus several other goodies.

Disc 3 is my favorite. It kicks of with several tracks from "Wild Honey", then comes the real reason I love it. There's a suite of tracks from my two favorite Beach Boys albums, "Friends" and "20/20", including "Meant For You", "Do It Again", "I Can Hear Music", "Time To Get Alone" and "I Went To Sleep. Closing the album is a mish - mash of unreleased tracks as well as songs from "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up". There's a ton of great music here: the harmonically sweet "Add Some Music To Your Day", the punchy "This Whole World", Bruce Johnston's "Disney Girls" and Brian's masterpiece "Tol I Die".

Disc 4 features tracks from the declining years, and it does falter a bit but does pick up towards the end. Among the low points are several tracks from "Carl And The Pssions", Brian's odd "Fairy Tale Music", and the rediculous "Airplane" and "Our Team". But there are also several highlights. There are two extraordinary demos that Brian recorded during the "Brian Is Back" period. "It's Over Now" and "Still I Dream Of It". There's also Dennis Wilson's swan song "Baby Blue", the luscious "Good Timin'" and "Kokomo" (yes, I like that song).

Disc 5 features live performances, backing tracks, vocal - only versions, and reeharsals. Closing the disc (and the set) is a gorgeous version of "Surfer Girl" from the "Lei'd In Hawaii" rehearsals.

I highly recommend the purchasing of this set. It is the most complete set of Beach Boys material (way more complete than the flood of "greatest hits" albums that are released at least once a year). It also features an excellent 60 - page booklet with insightful liner notes by Beach Boys historian David Leaf. Just brilliant.

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