Beach Boys 2024 Documentary

Brian Wilson = musical genius
Mike Love = hack who wanted to just keep making songs about cars and surfing

It tracks!

 

One guy made Pet Sounds and Smile, the other guy wrote "Student Demonstration Time" - the worst BB track ever.

 

Serious question about this - is there anything here for hardcore fans, or is it pretty general? The only review I read wasnt bad, it just said it didnt have much for people already steeped in Beach Boys lore. So I didnt go out of my way to try to watch it.

 

Let me guess, you like the car songs the most and think they got too weird in the late 60s / 70s and Kokomo was a return to form

 

You watch Disney+?? You woke DeSantis hating RINO! I always knew you were a closeted libbie!

 

I saw Brian Wilson a couple years back. I'm glad I did, but he doesn't really have it anymore, vocally. He would also just kind of wonder around on stage at times too. Fortunately they had a lot of great musicians that did the heavy lifting and put on a great show, and they played the songs for the Brian Wilson obsessives, so that helped too.

 

Sunflower is prob my fav BB alb. Never seemed to get the attention it deserved.

Kokomo has IMO a perfect & perfectly lovely chord prog.

 

Dennis sings the hell out of Forever, its beautiful

 

Pet Sounds brings instant calm to the brain...and it's a masterpiece. Man I love that album.

 

it's worth the watch I think.

 

Ok, you talked me into it. Did you ever see Love & Mercy? Where Paul Dano/John Cusack play young/old Brian? I thought that was probably the best Beach Boy movie. Though the bar is very low.

 

I quite enjoyed the doc. It was rushed starting after 1966 because they glossed over the rest of their career even though they made some of their best music up until about 1973. It does pretty correctly discuss and layout the timeline of the band's early days. The best part was the closing with all the band members at the original Surfin' Safari LP photoshoot spot.

As for Mike, he has the license to tour as "The Beach Boys" because after Carl Wilson's passing in 1998, Brian and Carl's sons (who had control of his estate) voted to allow him to use the name for touring. Al Jardine voted against it and Mike abstained, so Mike gained the touring name by a 2-1 vote. They get royalties when Mike tours. Brian voted for him to use the name because he had been touring for years as a solo artist.

Also, Mike doesn't tour alone. He tours with Bruce Johnston who was brought into the group in 1965.

 

There's not too much there that most hardcore fans wouldn't know really, but it does a good job of packaging the 1961-1966 timeline and other stuff that happened at their earlier stages. I think you should watch it regardless.

 

I saw him in 2022 in Tampa while he was touring with Chicago. He hasn't toured since that one wrapped up and he most likely never will again. As someone who has seen Brian many multiple times, Brian & Al, Mike & Bruce, and the 50th anniversary Beach Boys reunion tour, that 2022 show was the most emotional because you could see he was at the end of touring. I wish he would have gotten a true farewell tour but his physical health declined pretty quickly.