Thursday, April 4, 2013

Beach Boys: Wow! Great Concert! Beach Boys Concert



















Beach Boys: Wow! Great Concert! Beach Boys Concert

1964

Pickwick Records

Track Listing: 1. Fun, Fun, Fun  2. Little Deuce Coupe   3. Long, Tall Texan  4. In My Room   5. The Monster Mash  6. Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow  7. The Little Old Lady From Pasedena  8. Graduation Day   9. I Get Around

A truncated version of the Beach Boys live record "Concert."  Man, I have a lot of edited down Beach Boys records...Do I even own a full Beach Boys album? Is "Pet Sounds" really only supposed to have 6 songs on it?! Anyway, this was issued by budget label Pickwick, who specialized in re-recorded rip-offs and edited and repackaged dollar bin  records...

This was the orginal cover...

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Which is much nicer but I really like  the title "Wow! Great Concert!" It comes with its own review...

Someday I should check out the full record beacuse even this edited version is pretty awesome and a lot more fun than I was expecting...I wasn't aware they were so loose in concert...They come across as a fun party band tossing off goofy covers like "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" and "The Monster Mash."

I know some people aren't too keen on live records, but I'm not one of those people...I love live records...Especially old ones...I don't know what it is...I think they were always presented as such a big deal back then; with kickass live shots of the band and gatfold covers and the music was usually spread out over multiple discs...This however doesn't have all those attributes...It's just a single album...and my version doesn't even have any kickass live photos...

There's the usual criticism that live records are routinely doctored and "not actually live,"  but you know...I don't care...as long as the album catches the exciting "live" vibe, that's all I really care about...And I think this one does a nice job of that... Besides think of all the iconic moments in rock history that live albums (doctored or not) have given us...

File:MC5 - Kick Out the Jams.jpg

MC5's  live proto-punk masterwork "Kick Out the Jams..."

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"Alive" is responsible for launching Kiss into the stratosphere...

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Thin Lizzy's double-live "Live and Dangerous" showed that sometimes the studio cannot capture the true artistry of a band...

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...and "Extremely Live" by Vanilla Ice" showed us that listening to pre-recorded backing tracks pumped out on a P.A. in front of a live audience really brings out their subtle character and nuance...

So let's celebrate the rich heritage of the live album by checking out "Monster Mash/Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" by the Beach Boys...Holy shit, this video is great...

4 comments:

  1. I need to check that Thin Lizzy album out. They are seriously in my top 5 favorite bands of the 70's! I frequent the local consignment shop in town because they usually have 1 or 2 decent records and a couple of years ago I came across a copy of Thin Lizzy Bad Reputation. I put it on when I got home and was blown away! People don't realize that you have to listen past the radio hits to hear the awesomeness of this band and every other band on classic rock radio. My Thin Lizzy collection is growing now. I picked up a copy of Fighting a couple weeks ago.

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  2. Bad Reputation's is their best one, I think...That and "Live and Dangerous." I haven't hared "Fighting." The only one's I have are the live album, "Johnny the Fox" and "Black "Rose" on vinyl and I have "Jailbreak" and "Bad Reutation" and some greatest hits album on cd. I always see a 2 disc cd copy of "Fighting" at the record store but it's so damn expensive. Is it a good one?

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  3. 'Fighting' is a real good one but i'd wait for a cheaper one. I picked up the original vinyl copy up at a record store for around 10 bucks. I have 'Johnny the Fox' and I really like that one and totally agree on 'Bad Reputation'. How is 'Black Rose'? The same day I picked up 'Fighting' I found 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' on vinyl for like 12 bucks! This has grown to be my favorite album by The Clash!

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  4. I really like "Black Rose." It would probably be one of my favorite ones if it wasn't for the song "S&M" which is the worst Thin Lizzy song ever..."Give Em Enough Rope" is a good one. I almoswt bought a vinyl copy of that a couple weeks ago but went w/a few other things instead...

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