i love this song but it makes me sad because it was on the end of their productive era......when he says he wants to go home...i believe he is talking about home as we refer to it as when we were kids growing up and we had no worries and felt safe...a time of innocence......and being so deeply saddened he wanted to just be a kid again and have no responsibilities or traumas......i love the beach boys because of their harmonies...i feel bad that they were a surf group because what could the progress into?not much it seems..the genre they picked to excel in cut their own throats...

Quoted from pc31

i love this song but it makes me sad because it was on the end of their productive era......

Eh, no, it wasn't. The Beach Boys recorded Sloop John B before any of the other Pet Sounds songs and before Smile... And Smile wasn't even the end of their productive era. The Beach Boys made some excellent albums even after Smile. Some of their best, actually.

Maybe. You don't hear anyone taking about the later albums unless it's on some fanwanky mesage board though do you? Pet Sounds and Smile is what alot of people consider to be 'The Beach Boys' best all-round efforts, Brian was in a bit of a state after January 1967, he was the main artistic driving force behind the group and when that was gone and they reverted to the surf stuff it could never be as good as before. The songs on Pet Sounds and Smile meant more than "I have a Girl, I have a Car, what more could I ask for?" type of thing and although not all of the stuff 68+ was concentrating on that they kinda lost-face.

I don't think they could really rock. That's not to say I don't like them mind you.

i disagree...when brian started changing their direction began to change......but i was wrong picking sloop john out like that but it seems like their first no surf preppy love type song...i do agree smiley smile and pet sounds were great but they were moving away from what spawned them.....musically the holland recorded album are good musically but lyrically they suffered....i don't think brian was the group but he had a lot of the creative drive and it was kind of hard to believe they coulkd record after he left but they did...it was good but not fantastic...i had the carl and the passions sessions and it is very good but lacks a poppy punch like the old stuff...

Sloop John B is the worst song on Pet Sounds.

Quoted from pc31

but i was wrong picking sloop john out like that but it seems like their first no surf preppy love type song...

Actually it's not. The album Today! that came out a year before Pet Sounds had mostly 'serious' love songs and not a word about surfing. Especially side B of that album is surprisingly similar to what the band would later do on Pet Sounds.

Quoted from 366

You don't hear anyone taking about the later albums unless it's on some fanwanky mesage board though do you?

That's not really true either. For as far as I know, the critics and music press have always been very positive about albums like Friends, Sunflower and Surf's Up as well. The mainstream audience mostly ignored these albums (at least in the USA, in Europe they didn't even sell that bad) because they didn't contain the catchy surf & fun hits that it wanted to hear.

it wasn't so much america wanted more surf music,remember we were moving into rock and phsycedlia....the allman brothers were on their way still but the electric guitar became a focal point....even the monkees had rock guitar...

Quoted from tkitna

Sloop John B is the worst song on Pet Sounds.

Have to disagree.

Sloop John B along with That's Not Me, You Still Believe In Me & Wouldn't It Be Nice are my favourites.

The harmonies -

Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home


amazing - plus the bass line kicks arse

I lOVE Sloop John B., but it is actually an old sea shanty. Brian didn't Write it, he just made it his own.

Al Jardine was the one who brought Sloop John B up from his old folksinging days.  Brian's production is nothing short of amazing.  The harmonies, the builds, stops--it's top drawer.  Matches anything George Martin did with the Beatles, IMHO.  The instrumental tracks is amazing by itself.

I love that song too I didn't know it was an old shanty though! And I'm supposed to be the resident folkie. *is ashamed* oh well.

Quoted from adamzero

Al Jardine was the one who brought Sloop John B up from his old folksinging days.

I know it probably gets annoying by now that I keep telling everyone they're wrong, but this is a myth as well. It is reported that the Beach Boys already performed the three chord folk version of Sloop John B in 1961. Al did come with the suggestion of turning it into a Beach Boys song in 1965 (and 24 hours later Brian already had the backing track recorded), but Brian was already familiar with the song.

Joost is the master.  I did look up Wiki, which has a good entry on Sloop John B.  Sounds like Al thought he'd get to sing lead, but Brian chose himself and Love instead.  Didn't know they did it in back in '61.  

I guess however Brian got to the song, the amazing thing is he arranged it in less than 24 hours.  Nice piece of work.  Especially the flute--Jim Horn.

Quoted from adamzero

the amazing thing is he arranged it in less than 24 hours.

Yeah, that really is amazing. Al told Brian he thought it would be a good thing to make a Beach Boys version of Sloop John B and Brian said he'd see what he could do. So when Al wanted to ask Brian the next day if they could start working on the arrangement, Brian already had a finished backing track.