I just finished watching that documentary on the making of Smile. Very moving, especially at the end during that standing ovation and you see the look (of joy? relief? pride?) on Brian's face. Perfection.

I think some people just can't get past the band name "The Beach Boys"

There's a Muppets version where they take a line and change it.

i think it's partially the time he grew up. 80's, early 90s? brian wilson is pretty much a recluse still, mentally and creatively awful. Their coolness factor/edgyness is gone when dennis wilson died in the early 80s. the band is pretty much in mike love's hands and they're just a joke in that time.

Barbara Ann was one of my first favourite songs when I was six or seven

Pet Sounds - amazing album, and remember that it was released one year before SPLHCB. It will be nice to hear Smile, had no idea it was coming out before reading this thread!

Beach boys gone power metal! ;D
Barbara Ann is not a Beach boys song btw, its originally by The Regents

See Noel's sarcastic comment about the Beach Boys today? Such a shame, man. I'm sure that if he'd sit down and listen to Pet Sounds and Smile uninterrupted, he'd walk away a different man. You'd think that the testimony of Lennon, McCartney, Jim Morrison and the rest of who's who of rock and roll would be enough... As much as I love and respect Noel, maybe he's a bit jealous that he will never have a legacy like Brian Wilson?

I mean come on, I thought a guy of Noel's talent would be able to appreciate those pop masterpieces by The Beach Boys. Perhaps he's too much into stuffy old British dad rock or maybe it's because their music is distinctively American. Too 'sunny' with their music? I have no idea, but what I can say is that Pet Sounds is arguably the greatest album of all time. Everything that followed was a chain reaction of that album. Listening to the Smile sessions recently and the complex recordings and sessions for tunes like Good Vibrations is astonishing, while their vocal harmonies blow my head off everytime. Unrivalled in the harmonies department. A great great band.

On Be Here Now Noel is at his peak of including classic rock references in his lyrics: Blood on the Tracks, The Fool on the Hill, I Feel Fine, Dead End Street, Let it Be etc etc. Liam singing God only knows after one of Stand By Me's many, many choruses is my favourite. So for a long time I thought/hoped Noel was a fan. the structure and epic feel of the song always reminded me of God Only Knows, even if the two songs sound nothing alike.

One of the things I love about the beach boys is that I thought that song (God Only Knows) was genius when I was six. I still do. (And I'm now more than six)

I think he just hasn't listened to them properly.
I'm sometimes guilty of this, there's been bands that I hadn't properly listened to but I'd love a handful of their songs, and Noel did say he hates the Beach Boys apart from a few great songs.
With bands like that, I always ended up listening to them more through curiosity until I considered myself a proper fan, I don't think Noel's ever bothered to do this.

How did you guess?

I'm afraid it's part of the Geneva Convention - Section 25: "Liking the Right Music" - Article 13 for instance:

"Any so-called music fan who does not own any of the following; a Nirvana T-Shirt, a healthy respect for jazz, a post-modern Radiohead tattoo or a Dark Side of the Moon poster is to be immediately and publicly denounced. Futhermore, any hopeful music aficionado found in non-ironic possession of a Coldplay CD is to be shot on sight."

Tough love sure, but someone's gotta make the rules.