Episode 1423 - Todd Levin

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Walking down the hill with Todd Levin.

[HotSaucerman 2051]

I agree. Beach Boys basically suck.

[AllThisPaperwork 80]

I love The Beach Boys, but "Little Deuce Coup can suck my dick" needs to be in the intro next year.

[qrter 79]

If you like music, I can't imagine saying that the Beach Boys suck. That's just nuts.

 

I certainly don't like every song of theirs, but I still can hear that the songs I personally don't like, are well crafted songs.

[Todd Mason 21]

Some Beach Boys songs are pretty weak, others are impressive...they did personally flame out and only mostly recovered, those that did, and all sympathies. But to pretend that they are awful when one is willing to sit, or stand enthusiastically, through Journey and KISS is pretty bizarre. I was amused by how many BB songs each of the panel kept finding that they lived or even loved...

 

Now, Aaron Sorkin, at least after SPORTS NIGHT, really has sucked. Sorkin knows television. He thinks he knows politics...wow he didn't and still doesn't, even if the politicians who worked with him enjoyed the weak fictions about politics he was perpetrating. (And, of course, Gilbert and Sullivan are not the best model for SNL...nor STUDIO 60 the show within the show...for a relatively uptight college comedy troupe, maybe...)

[JohnP.Noonan 0]

A topic of debate which I have spent mulling over for valuable minutes of my life has been Brian Wilson's true intentions in the song "California Girls". Does the song insinuate that, although girls around the country are great, Wilson would like to see women, which represent other states in our nation, displaying characteristics similar to those of "California Girls", or is Wilson presenting a scenario where women across the country migrate west which results in every girl becoming "California Girls".

 

Jimmy, I could use your sage wisdom on this.

[Waldo Jeffers 25]

Good Vibrations is the finest pop song ever recorded.

[qrter 79]

Good Vibrations is the finest pop song ever recorded.

An excellent song. Also, Heroes And Villains, which they all went "huh, don't know that one" at, one of their most un-Da Doo Ron Ron-like songs.

[HotSaucerman 2051]

Well, I think some people elevate The Beach Boys like they're on par with The Beatles. And the Beach Boys were good at what they did--doo wop surf music, but come on.... its doo wop surf music. Its not something that I can listen to again and again. And one thing I whole-heartedly disagree with Jimmy on is "Kokomo"--that is the WORST song they ever did! I'd rather listen to "Barbara Ann" on repeat for 20 minutes than listen to "Kokomo" once.

 

And yeah, there's a handful of Beach Boy tunes that aren't bad, but there's a lot more that are just the same songs with slightly different lyrics. And you can say that about a lot of early Blues music too. Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters are two prime examples.

[HipGuide 196]

Good Vibrations is the finest pop song ever recorded.

 

 

No, God Only Knows is the perfect pop song.

[HipGuide 196]

Beach Boys were the innovative ones, not The Beatles.

[EliotHHochberg 3]

Depends on how you look at it. Good Vibrations definitely had a lot of tech in it. But The Beatles were innovative even when they were just starting out. They preplanned all of their recordings to maximize their studio time.

 

Then, later, and granted after The Beach Boys did their early innovations, The Beatles were all over the place as far as what they would try in studio, and took many more risks than The Beach Boys.

 

In total, I think The Beatles did more individual things to change how music was recorded, but The Beach Boys made greater individual leaps that may have had more of a long reaching effect on other artists.

 

At least, that's my interpretation of the facts.