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The Beach Boys, When I Grow Up To Be A Man
It’s my birthday today and its kind of funny that this cheesy (genius) Beach Boys song has been in my head for weeks. This song accomplishes an incredible goal, merging the corny Mike Love teenage introspection with Brian Wilson’s soaring human introspection. Its a beautiful tune with wonderful harmonies and creeping mature Beatle arrangement methods.…
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The Beach Boys, Good Vibrations
“Good Vibrations” was never my favorite Beach Boys song. Its taken me years of casual indifference before I really warmed up to it, and it was only when I found the song’s proverbial sunny side. For years I was turned off by the songs aggressive psychedelic atmosphere. I was always slightly afraid of the dark…
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The Beach Boys, God Only Knows
After accidentally realizing that he was a musical genius, Brian Wilson stepped up his efforts by the mid 60s. Looking for a more serious direction, he began collaborating with lyricist Tony Asher, who helped interpret Brian’s musical ideas into focused lyrical concepts. The increased level of lyrical and musical sophistication also stretched the limits of…
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The Beach Boys, Surfer Girl
It’s hard to imagine that summer is almost over. I’m actually on my third summer in a row. Just when summer ended in 2011, I jetted for Sydney, and spent 5 months there just as Australia’s summer dawned, fully missing America’s cold months. I returned home in March 2012, just in time for Spring, hence…
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The Beach Boys, In My Room
Followers of this site know I have about one billion tributes, breakdowns, and videos of my favorite group ever, the Beatles. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think I am some sort of pasty, Union Jack waving, North Englander filled with way too much national pride. The reality is, that while I am pasty,…
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The Making of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The best discoveries are the ones you make by accident. Just yesterday, my roommate keyed me into letmewatchthis.ch, one of those movie streaming websites of dubious legality. It’s a pretty cool site with a lot of variety of stuff, but new and old. On a lark, I typed in “Beatles” in the search box, and…
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The Beach Boys, The Ramones, Do You Wanna Dance?
Part 95 is a double dose of glorious rock and roll. I’ve got the Beach Boys and the Ramones rocking the Bobby Freeman classic, “Do You Wanna Dance?.” In the Beach Boys version, drummer Dennis Wilson takes the lead vocals, and man is he good. Dennis was the only Beach Boy that actually surfed, and…