almauro

As usual, you don't know what your talking about. The Beach Boys played all their instruments quite well on all their albums up until 1964, when Brian Wilson suffered from his first bout of mental exhaustion. From 63-64, the band released 7 albums, which was unprecedented, and Wilson being the prime songwriter was simply worn down. Capital records and the rest of the band members agreed to let Brian Wilson stay in the studio to write and record tracks with session musicians, while the rest of the Beach Boys toured, with Bruce Johnson as his replacement. The strategy was to have the songs completed and ready for the rest of the Beach Boys to lay their vocal tracks, so they could quickly complete and release the record, hit the road and start touring, keeping the hit machine going. Unlike your statement, the Beach Boys could indeed play their instruments, Carl was just has good has George, Dennis could beat the crap out of Ringo, and Brian was one of the greatest musicians that ever existed on this planet.

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telepicker

you've lost your ever-loving mind if you think Carl and Dennis even slightly compare to George and Ringo.

Bit of advice; when the crackpipe gets hot...set the thing down for awhile...

Cause that last hit must been a doozy.

almauro

With a simple-minded brain condition as yourselves, I think it's in your best interest to lay-off the keystrokes, and try to save as many brain cells as possible because you obviously don't have too many to spare.

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Unknown Soldier

I think he`s used his last brain cell on this site.

Screen13

I'll agree with the George >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Carl bit, though.

almauro

^I was trying to tweek that TPicker for that ridiculus comment that the Beach Boys couldn't play. I will conceed that George was a better guitarist than Carl.

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pawnshopguy

but they did use a buncha studio cats because Brian was writing stuff they couldn't play. that's a documented fact.

almauro

The usage of studio cats peaked on the recording of Pet Sounds, where Wilson used an army of string and woodwind players, and immediately curtailed on Smiley Smile which only used one guitarist and an upright bassist. The complexity of Brian Wilson's writing stemmed from the multi-segmented compositions which consisted of different parts recorded separately, then edited together which resulted in suites like "Villains and Thieve" and "Good Vibrations", which would be difficult for the most seasoned professionals to pull off live. This style of song pre-dated the Beatles 16-minute "Medley" that closed out Abbey Road, which similarly blended shorter songs into a longer suite. In this example, it's interesting to note the Beach Boy influence on McCartney and Martin, which I think is the highlight of that album. The complexity of the music did cause acrimony between some Beach Boy members, particularly Mike Love who felt Wilson was turning the group into a studio band, that had no chance of reproducing these songs live on tour.

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Screen13

I know you're referring to Drumming, which they are seriously solid and sharp equals in my book especially judging from Live recordings '63-'65 (Saving The Beatles' tiredness from touring in '66), but getting to Songwriting, I will say that "Be With Me" or "All I Want to Do" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "Octopus' Garden" and Pacific Ocean Blue (which was songs by Dennis usually with Gregg Jacobson and a few others) > Almost every Ringo solo album that's not called Ringo (Which he had plenty of help from his friends) or a greatest hits. On the Solo Songwriting level, Dennis does Beat the Beatle, but mainly by default - Ringo just does not appear to have been the "Songwriter" type that Dennis occasionally turned into. Dennis' occasional contributions were much-needed Post-Brian.

No argument on Brian.