Toppermost of the Poppermost - UK Number Ones : part 2 - The 1960s

[daf]

255.  The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire

I'm now starting to wonder if the link I posted actually was the original single version after all - or if this version was only intended for the mono LP before Kit Lambert added the brass - and was never officially released at the time. *

I found a video of someone spinning the mono Track Records single - which seems to confirm that the brass overdubs were present on the UK single, as well as the US version.

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* (Does anyone have a copy of the mono LP - so they can check?)

[Keebleman]

I was born on August 10th 1968, and I'm really pleased that I emerged under the reign of Mony Mony rather than of that idiot Arthur Brown. 

And what the hell was he going on about in that Melody Maker interview?  How is "Smash the blacks" a positive message?  (I assume the Wallace he is referring to is George.)

[daf]

Here you go -

"Mony Mony" was written by Bobby Bloom, Ritchie Cordell, Bo Gentry and Tommy James, and recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells.



A No. 3 hit in in the U.S., "Mony Mony" was the only song by the group to reach the top 20 in the United Kingdom - where it reached No. 1 in August 1968

The single spent three non-consecutive weeks at the top - initially for two weeks, and then, following a break, for one further week.

The final day of the first stretch - 10 August 1968 - was a memorable one - as it was on this very day that lovely CaB poster Keebleman was born somewhere on the Planet Earth.

Unfortunatley, the following day, that idiot Arthur Brown took over at the top of the charts - causing Keebleman to do a furious poo in protest.

[Keebleman]

I've spoken with my Mum and she has confirmed that is exactly what happened.

[daf]

Eat my dust, Mark Lewisohn!

[daf]

Just a quick update in case anyone was wondering what the hell was going on.

I've not knocked it on the head, but I had to take a couple of weeks off to hit some insane work deadlines.

That's due to ease off, so I should be able to get back to documenting the entire history of pop again . . . fairly soon.

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In the meantime, here's Jimmy Young with a special message for all the ladies :

[gilbertharding]

Thanks for the update daf poster. Looking forward to the time when you're able to do it again.

[daf]

Zing! ;^)

[daf]

Long Promised Ode, it's . . .

256.  The Beach Boys - Do It Again



From : 25 – 31 August 1968
Weeks : 1
Flip side : Wake the World
Bonus 1 : Beat Club 
Bonus 2 : Ed Sullivan
Bonus 3 : Live on French TV
Bonus 4 : Stack-O-Tracks Instrumental
Bonus 5 : Accapella

The Story So Far : 1968-1975

The Beach Boys were at their lowest popularity in the late 1960s, and their cultural standing was especially worsened by their stripe-shirted clean-cut public image, which remained incongruous with the "heavier" music of their peers.

 

"Do It Again", a Brian Wilson and Mike Love collaboration, was the first track that was worked on after concluding the sessions for their 1968 'Friends' album. It was recorded in May and June 1968, and released as a single two weeks later - topping the UK charts at the end of August.

It was later chosen as the opening track for their final Capitol studio album, '20/20', released the following year. The album mix differed slightly in that it briefly segues into an extract of a 'SMiLE' outtake, "Workshop", which consists of construction noises and sounds from carpentry tools.

   

Brian produced a version of Lead Belly's "Cotton Fields" - the idea was suggested by bandmate Al Jardine, who thought they might be able to replicate the success of "Sloop John B".  "I Went to Sleep" was a waltz written by Brian and Carl with a gentle mood and observational lyrics.  "The Nearest Faraway Place" was an instrumental produced by Bruce Johnston with the string arrangement by Van McCoy.  Dennis wrote and produced two songs : "Be with Me", and "All I Want to Do" which features the delightful sound of him enthusiastically shagging a groupie, the lucky dirty bastard!

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In June 1968, Dennis befriended tedious Hippie nuisance, Charles Manson, who was an aspiring singer-songwriter. Dennis bought him time at Brian's home studio where recording sessions were attempted while Brian stayed in his room. Dennis then proposed that Manson be signed to Brother Records. Brian reportedly disliked Manson, and so a deal was never made.

The Beach Boys recorded one song penned by Manson without his involvement: "Cease to Exist", rewritten as "Never Learn Not to Love", which was included on 20/20, but first released as the B-side of "Bluebirds Over The Mountain" in November 1968 - where it reached #33 in the UK charts.

    

Manson was enthused by the idea of the group recording one of his songs. In exchange for the publishing rights to "Cease to Exist", Manson agreed to a sum of cash and a motorcycle. Dennis deliberately omitted Manson's credit on its release while also altering the song's arrangement and lyrics, which angered Manson. In 1971, when asked why he did not credit Manson, Dennis answered: "He didn't want that. He wanted money instead. I gave him about a hundred thousand dollars' worth of stuff."

As his cult of followers took over Dennis' home, Dennis gradually distanced himself from Manson. In November 1969, three months after the Tate–LaBianca murders, Manson was apprehended by the police, and his connections with the Beach Boys was the subject of media attention. He was later convicted for several counts of murder and conspiracy to murder.

Dennis Wilson : "I don't talk about Manson. I think he's a sick fuck. I think of Roman and all those wonderful people who had a beautiful family and they fucking had their tits cut off. I want to benefit from that?"

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Carl produced a rendition of the Ronettes' 1966 song "I Can Hear Music" for the group. The song, a #10 hit in the UK in April 1969, was the first time Carl was given a sole production credit, and was a turning point in the transition of musical control in the Beach Boys from Brian to Carl.

   

Also recorded, but left off the final album were : "All I Wanna Do"  /  "Well You Know I Knew"  /  "Been Way Too Long"  /  "Walk On By"  /  "We're Together Again"  /  "Sail Plane Song"  /  "Ol' Man River"  /  "Walkin'"  /  plus Dennis' "A Time to Live in Dreams" and "Mona Kana".

The album closed with two songs recorded in 1967 - "Our Prayer" and "Cabinessence" - both rescued from the abandoned SMiLE project.

Despite being an absolutely brilliant album, it's slightly cobbled-together nature, and Brian's retreat from production, cast a shadow over the period for one band member -

Dennis Wilson : "That was the only letdown of the Beach Boys' career that embarrassed me through and through ... we had to find things that Brian worked on and try and piece it together. That's when he had no involvement at all."

     

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Though their star was on the wane in the US, they were still hugely popular in the UK, and the group, minus Brian, flew to London for a tour, and to record a live album.

   

Recorded on 8 December 1968 at the Finsbury Park Astoria - the location of The Beatles Christmas shows in 1963 and 1964 - the concert featured sprightly versions of some of their recent waxings, including "Darlin'", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Bluebirds Over the Mountain", and "Barbara Ann".

 


The album, was released in May 1970 as 'Live in London', but remained gathering dust on the shelf in the US until 1976, when, cashing in on a resurgence in their popularity, it was rushed out under the title 'Beach Boys '69'.

 

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On April 12, the Beach Boys filed suit against Capitol - Brian told the music press that the group's funds were depleted to the point that they were considering filing for bankruptcy at the end of the year. An audit had revealed the band were owed over $2 million for unpaid royalties and production duties.

Their next single, "Break Away" (b/w "Celebrate The News") - possibly a reference to the imminent end of their record contract - was written and produced by Brian and his dad, Murray. It reached #6 in the UK in June 1969 - but only managed a shocking #63 in the US - slim reward for one of the best songs recorded by anyone ever.

 

Their Capitol contract expired on 30 June 1969, after which the label deleted the Beach Boys' catalog from print, effectively cutting off their royalty flow. By the time the Beach Boys tenure ended with Capitol, they had sold 65 million records worldwide, closing the decade as the most commercially successful American group in popular music.

In August 1969, Sea of Tunes, the Beach Boys' song catalogue, was sold by Murray Wilson to Irving Almo Music for $700,000. Brian, according to his wife Marilyn Wilson, was devastated by the sale. Over the years, the catalogue would generate more than $100 million in publishing royalties, none of which the band members ever received. Nice one Dad - worst deal ever!

 

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Following their departure from Capitol, the group met with the Berlin-based company Deutsche Grammophon, who were keen to sign the band, but Brian's remarks in the press thwarted the contract negotiations - he had recently begun using cocaine and was increasingly known for his reclusiveness and eccentric behaviour. Polydor, CBS and MGM also rejected the band.

On 18 November 1969, Warner executive Mo Ostin agreed to sign the band to their subsidiary Reprise Records. Reprise's contract stipulated Brian's proactive involvement with the band in all albums following the minimal involvement he had with 20/20.  Another part of the deal was to revive their Brother Records imprint.

Carl Wilson : "We were used as a reference point as to what was lame about the time. It was nonsense, but people still associated us with cars and surfboards. When the hits stopped coming, we all felt a lot of pressure. It was back to the real world after the fairy tale. That was a scary time for us. We were trying to get free from Capitol, because we didn't think they supported the group anymore. We were really stuck. Mo Ostin had always dug the group, so we finally signed with Warner Brothers. It was called "Mo's folly,' because people at the label thought we were ridiculous. But Mo was incredible, he really supported us when we needed it."

Working titles for their new album included 'Reverberation', and 'The Fading Rock Group Revival' and 'Sun Flower'. The recording sessions began in January 1969, and completed in July 1970. In contrast to the previous album, the new record featured a strong group presence with significant writing contributions from all band members. About four dozen songs were written for the album, but the label rejected the first 14 track running order selected by the band.

[Warner Bros. executive] Dave Berson : "It seemed like an amazing thing to do, to say to the Beach Boys, 'This is not the kind of an album we want to pay for.' Contractually, we didn't have any right to reject albums."

In February 1970, the band submitted a second version of the album, re-titled 'Add Some Music', but were once again rejected. The company felt that the proposed LP was not strong enough, although they decided to issue two of its tracks as a single - "Add Some Music To Your Day" (b/w "Susie Cincinnati") which reached #64 in the US - and asked the band to write and record a new batch of songs.

Songs written but ultimately rejected for the album included "Soulful Old Man Sunshine", a collaboration between Brian and Rick Henn, former leader of the Sunrays   /  "Lady" which was written by Dennis   /  "San Miguel", a collaboration between Dennis and Gregg Jakobson   /   "I Just Got My Pay" which contained a reworked melody from the 1964 outtake "All Dressed Up for School"  /  "I'm Going Your Way" - a Dennis song about shagging picking up hitchhikers  /  "Carnival"   /  "Games Two Can Play"  /  and "Back Home".

In late July their third version was finally accepted, and their first LP for Reprise, now called 'Sunflower', was finally released on August 31, 1970.

 

The opening track, "Slip On Through", was written and sung by Dennis.

Brian Wilson : "It was a really dynamic song. Dennis, I was very proud of, because he really rocked and rolled on that one. Dennis did really interesting energetic things on that."

"This Whole World" was written by Brian. Carl took the lead vocals and Brian's wife Marilyn and her sister Diane Rovell, from the band American Spring, contributed backing vocals. They also featured singing on the raunchy "Got to Know the Woman" by Dennis. "Deirdre" was written by Bruce Johnston with some contribution from Brian. Though Johnston later said that Wilson had very little to do with the song, and he gave him 50% of the credit as a favour. The song was named after the sister of one of Johnston's ex-girlfriends. "Our Sweet Love" was a reworking of the Friends outtake "Our New Home", and the new version of "All I Wanna Do" featured a surprisingly sensitive vocal performance from Mike.

Brian Wilson : "That was one of those songs that had a nice chord pattern, but I think it was a boring song, and I thought it wasn't done right. I thought it should have been softer, with boxed guitars."

"Cool, Cool Water" was first attempted in 1967 during the sessions for the Smiley Smile and Wild Honey albums. Three years later, Lenny Waronker, then an A&R executive at Warner Music, convinced Wilson to finish the track for Sunflower. Featuring new lyrics by Mike Love and an altered arrangement, it was released as a single in February 1971, backed with Dennis' timeless masterpiece "Forever" - which Brian called "the most harmonically beautiful thing I've ever heard. It's a rock and roll prayer."

Brian Wilson : "I'm proud of "Cool, Cool Water" because that was a divinely inspired song. I had just moved into a new house on Bellagio Road in Bel Air, in March of 1967, and the first day I moved in, there was a piano there, and I went to the piano and wrote "Cool, Cool Water". I sat and wrote the gist of it, the basic song. It was finished much later of course."

Despite receiving critical acclaim, the album only reached #151 on US record charts during a four-week stay, becoming the worst selling Beach Boys album at that point. By contrast, in the UK, the band were experiencing a second wind - the album reached #29, and fans regarded the LP as the Beach Boys' finest post-Pet Sounds album.

Carl Wilson : "Sunflower is the truest group effort we'd ever had. Each of us was deeply involved in the creation of almost all the cuts. Someone would come down to the studio early and put down a basic track, and then someone else would arrive and think of a good line or overdub."

That said, though the album did well in the UK, the single, "Tears In The Morning" (b/w "It's About Time") tanked in October 1970 - though it did better in Europe - reaching the Top 5 in the Netherlands, and Top 10 in Belgium.

 

Carl Wilson : "We did Sunflower, which we thought was one of our really good records, but that didn't hit either. It was a great time for Dennis, he was at the very height of his creativity, and it got stifled later. He wrote "Got To Know The Woman" and "Slip On Through"; damn, I wish he would do that again."

In May 1970, their final single on Capitol, "Cottonfields" (b/w "The Nearest Faraway Place") - a new Al Jardine produced version of the 20/20 album cut - stiffed at #105 in the US, but reached the Top 5 in the UK. Such was it's popularity, that this version was added on to the UK edition of Sunflower as the opening track.

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In 1969, Brian Wilson opened a short-lived health food store called the Radiant Radish.  While working there, he met journalist and radio presenter Jack Rieley.

 

The following year, Brian was interviewed by KPFK DJ 'John Frank' - [who was actually Jack Rieley wearing a false moustache] - The subject eventually turned to "Surf's Up", an unreleased song from the band's unfinished 1966–67 album SMiLE. Brian remained wary of revisiting the scene of his recent trauma . . .

Brian Wilson : "It's just that it's too long. Instead of putting it on a record, I would rather just leave it as a song. It rambles. It's too long to make it for me as a record, unless it were an album cut, which I guess it would have to be anyway. It's so far from a singles sound. It could never be a single."

Undeterred, in August 1970, Jack Rieley produced a six-page memo on how to stimulate "increased record sales and popularity for The Beach Boys." Within the next few months, the Beach Boys hired Rieley as their manager. One of his initiatives was to encourage the band to record songs featuring more socially conscious lyrics. He assigned the project the brief working title of 'Landlocked' to represent "a demarcation line, separating striped-shirted bullshit that had become irrelevant, an object of public scorn, from artistry, creativity and great new songs."

Jack Rieley : "It sounds silly, but people in America at this time were afraid to listen to the Beach Boys. 20/20 and Sunflower were real disasters sales-wise. But Sunflower was one of the finest recordings I have ever heard by anybody. So, I changed the group."

"Long Promised Road" and "Feel Flows" were Carl's first significant solo compositions and were recorded almost entirely by himself. "Student Demonstration Time" - a topical reworking of "Riot in Cell Block Number 9" by Mike Love - and the environmental anthem "Don't Go Near the Water" found Love and Jardine embracing the group's new socially conscious direction. Jardine also contributed "Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare song)", co-written with Gary Winfrey. "A Day in the Life of a Tree", written by Brian and Rieley, was about a tree succumbing to the effects of environmental pollution. According to Jardine, Rieley sang the song when "no one else would sing it because it was too depressing."

"Disney Girls (1957)" was was written by Johnston "because I saw so many kids in our audiences being wiped out on drugs and I wanted to capture the feeling of an era in which people were a little naive but a little healthier." Despite protests from Riley, who thought it was shit, further work was also done on the Sunflower outtake "Take a Load Off Your Feet", as, according to Rieley, Al Jardine "demanded the song be included on the album".

"Til I Die" was written while Brian was suffering from an existential crisis, having recently ordered his gardener to dig a grave in his backyard and threatened to drive his car off the Santa Monica pier. The group initially rejected the song.

Bruce Johnston : "one member of the band didn't understand it and put it down, and Brian just decided not to show it to us for a few months. ... He was absolutely crushed."

Following the discussion about including "Surf's Up" on Landlocked, in early June, Brian suddenly gave approval for Carl and Rieley to finish the song. While on a drive to meet Mo Ostin, Brian said to Rieley: "Well, OK, if you're going to force me, I'll ... put 'Surf's Up' on the album." Brian initially refused to participate in the recording of "Surf's Up", and insisted that Carl take the lead vocal. The group attempted to rerecord the song from scratch, but scrapped it and went back to the original backing track dating from November 1966. Brian emerged near the end of the sessions to aid Carl in the completion of the coda, and contributing the song's missing, final lyric.

In May 1971, "Long Promised Road" was issued as lead single, becoming their sixth consecutive US single that failed to chart. That same month, Dennis accidentally punched his hand through a glass window, severing nerves and tendons. In July 1971, the film Two-Lane Blacktop, co-starring Dennis, made its worldwide premier in New York City.

In August 1971, the band released the album 'Surf's Up'. The album was moderately successful, reaching the US top 30, a marked improvement over their recent releases. The LP cover depicts a painting of a weary Native American hanging limp as his horse comes to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The original sculpture, known as "The End of the Trail", was crated by James Earle Fraser in 1928, and is located in Waupun, Wisconsin.

   

In the UK, the album was released a few months later by EMI's Stateside label. Richard Williams of Melody Maker wrote in his review: "Suddenly the Beach Boys are back in fashionable favour, and they've produced an album which fully backs up all that's recently been written and said about them."

Dennis Wilson's songs "4th of July" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice to (Live Again)" were recorded in early 1971 but left off the record. According to Rieley, the absence of any Dennis songs was for two reasons: to quell political infighting within the group concerning the album's share of Wilson-brother songs, and because Dennis wanted to save his songs for a solo album, projected for release in 1971. In December 1970, he released the single "Sound of Free" (b/w "Fallin' in Love") - credited to "Dennis Wilson & Rumbo", but the album project was ultimately shelved.

Other outtakes included the novelty Halloween song "My Solution", and "Barbara", a piano demo by Dennis named after his then-girlfriend.

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In February 1972, as Dennis' recent injury left him unable to play drums for the band, at Carl's suggestion, drummer Ricky Fataar and singer and guitarist Blondie Chaplin were invited to join the band. Blondie and Ricky were discovered by Carl while playing in seminal South African band The Flames during their trip to London in 1969. Dennis continued to make occasional appearances at concerts, singing or playing keyboards.

 

Brian Wilson sporadically contributed to the album's sessions, distracted by the production and promotion of the debut album of his wife's group American Spring. He co-wrote the singles "You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone" which was backed by Dennis' "Cuddle Up in May 1972, and "Marcella" - a Top #110 US single backed with the Fataar/Chaplin song "Hold On Dear Brother" in June 1972.

Not long after the sessions began for their next album, Bruce Johnston had a falling out with manager Jack Rieley and left the band. Conflicting reports state that Johnston either quit or was fired. Johnston's only musical contribution on the released album was as a background vocalist on "Marcella".

Other songs included the gospel flavoured "He Come Down" - co written by Brian, Al and Mike   /  "All This Is That" written and superbly sung by Carl, Al and Mike   /  Blondie and Ricky's "Here She Comes" which featured the drums unusually high up in the mix, and Dennis' dramatic "Make It Good" co-written by Daryl Dragon.

The album 'Carl and the Passions – "So Tough"' was named after Brian Wilson and Mike Love's high school band. This was the first album released under a new deal with Warner Bros. that allowed the company to distribute all future Beach Boys product in foreign as well as domestic markets. The initial American pressings of the album included the band's 1966 studio album Pet Sounds as a bonus record. The album was released as a standalone album in Europe on Reprise Records.



Carl Wilson : "Even without the Pet Sounds reissue, I thought that Carl & The Passions should have been three separate albums. I wish that Brian had been strong enough to produce the record, because it could have been an ass-kicking, great record, but... Brian was starting to get into the drug stuff then, some really bizarre behavior. We didn't know what was going on. It didn't even occur to us that he was strung out on coke. We were really sheltered. We were dumb"



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In the summer of 1972, for their next project, the band, their families, assorted associates and technicians moved to Baambrugge, in the Netherlands. Former Beach Boy Bruce Johnston had suggested that the group record their new album in France, but . . .

Bruce Johnston : ". . . somehow it ended up being recorded in Holland. I had to secretly come down and do vocals. Even though I was out of the band, I still sang on albums."

Carl sang on "The Trader", and shared vocals with Dennis on "Steamboat" - which Dennis had written with Jack Riley. The unusual pairing of Dennis and Mike composed "Only with You" - which featured Carl on lead.

Side 1 concluded with the epic "California Saga" - which comprised of Mike's "Big Sur", "The Beaks of Eagles" and "California" - both penned by Al Jardine.

Al Jardine : "It was rough being in Holland. We were working 24/7 in a small homemade rebuilt piecemeal little studio in a garage next to a cow pasture. Yeah, it was rough. We didn't even have the correct electricity so that kind of affected the sound of our equipment. It was a mixed blessing."

An earlier different version of "Big Sur" had been previously recorded for the proposed Landlocked album, and the version of "California", released as a single, reaching #37 in the UK in March 1973, was a different mix that contained additional vocals from Brian Wilson not heard on the album.

By the end of their sessions, the band felt they had produced one of their strongest efforts yet. Reprise, however, felt that the album required a hit single. This resulted in replacing the Chaplin/Fatarr somg "We Got Love" with "Sail On, Sailor" - a collaboration between Brian Wilson, Tandyn Almer, Ray Kennedy, Jack Rieley and Van Dyke Parks. Featuring a soulful lead vocal by Blondie Chaplin, the single would eventually peak at a disappointing #49 in the US charts.

Now with it's newest crew-member piped aboard, the resulting album, 'Holland' - housed in a cover featuring the reflection of a tugboat in the Kromme Waal canal in central Amsterdam - was released in January 1973, peaking at #37 in the US and #20 in the UK.

 

Aside from the single, Brian's only contribution to the album had been to co-write the closing number "Funky Pretty" - but his musical children story, 'Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale)' was included as a bonus EP packaged with the main album.

Narrated by Jack Riley with Brian as 'The Pied Piper', it consisted of "Mt. Vernon And Fairway (Theme)"  /  "The Pied Piper – Instrumental"  /  "Better Get Back in Bed"  /  "Magic Transistor Radio"  /  "I'm the Pied Piper"  / and "Radio King Dom"

 

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In August 1973, the soundtrack to American Graffiti was released, including the band's early songs "Surfin' Safari" and "All Summer Long". The album was a catalyst in creating a wave of nostalgia that reintroduced the Beach Boys into contemporary American consciousness.

In November 1973, a double album documenting the 1972 and 1973 U.S. tours, 'The Beach Boys in Concert', became the band's first gold record under Reprise. Exclusive to this album was a live version of "We Got Love" - which, as a studio recording, had been originally intended for release on Holland.

 

Jack Rieley, who had remained in the Netherlands, was relieved of his managerial duties in late 1973, and Blondie Chaplin also left in late 1973 after an argument with Mike's brother, Steve Love, the band's business manager.

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In June 1974, Capitol issued Endless Summer. The compilation rose to the top of the Billboard album charts. It remained on the charts for two years, the longest of any Beach Boys release.

Capitol followed with a second compilation, Spirit of America, which also sold well. With these compilations, the Beach Boys became one of the most popular acts in rock, propelling themselves from opening for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to headliners selling out basketball arenas in a matter of weeks. Despite having not released a record that year, Rolling Stone named the Beach Boys the "Band of the Year" for 1974.

Dennis Wilson : "There was a time, long ago, when The Beach Boys were a very big touring group. Then, after a while, there was a time when it was uncool to be into The Beach Boys. Somehow The Beach Boys didn't fit at one period, but now... well, I guess we're just fitting again. It's not uncool to like The Beach Boys any more. Personally I've always liked them."

 

Ricky Fataar remained with the band until 1974, when he was offered a chance to join a new group led by future Eagles member Joe Walsh. Chaplin's replacement, James William Guercio, started offering the group career advice that resulted in his becoming their new manager. The impetus had shifted from recording new material to large venue touring. While their concerts continuously sold out, the stage act slowly changed from a contemporary presentation followed by oldies encores to an entire show made up of mostly pre-1967 music.

Carl Wilson : "We just surrendered to it. We'd gone through so many changes over the idea of oldies over the years, and now it was obvious what the people wanted us to play. Really obvious."

Dennis Wilson : "I have to say, though, that I get tired of playing some of the old tunes, but many of them are timeless to me. As a musician you can let go with them instead of making them sound contrived. You can play them in a new way each time and bring in little variations."

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In the Autumn of 1974, sessions were held at James Guercio's Caribou Ranch studio in Colorado and Brother Studios in Santa Monica for an album set to be released in early 1975. It was reported that Brian was actively involved in the proceedings but no release occurred. Many of the tapes were allegedly destroyed when the Caribou Ranch and its studio burned down

Throughout 1974 and 1975, the group had worked on very few tracks that would eventually see release: "Child of Winter" in December 1974, and a demo of "California Feelin'", and "Good Timin'" which was later polished up in 1979.

Brian had spent the majority of two years secluded in the chauffeur's quarters of his home, abusing alcohol, taking drugs (including delicious heroin), overeating, and exhibiting other self-destructive behavior. Although increasingly reclusive during the day, Wilson spent many nights at singer Danny Hutton's house, fraternizing with colleagues such as Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, and Spud from The Brumbeats.

Brian's wife, Marilyn, persuaded Brian to admit himself under the care of psychotherapist Eugene Landy, who was successful in keeping Brian from indulging in substance abuse and pie-eating with constant supervision.

 

The Single :

"Do It Again" was written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, and performed by The Beach Boys.



It was written as a self-conscious callback to the group's earlier surf-based material, which they had not embraced since 1964. Lead vocals were shared between Love and lead guitarist Carl Wilson.

Carl Wilson : "Yes, I suppose it has got the old Beach Boys surfing sound. It's back to that surfing idea with the voice harmony and the simple, direct melody and lyrics. We didn't plan the record as a return to the surf or anything. We just did it one day round a piano in the studio. Brian had the idea and played it over to us. We improved on that and recorded it very quickly, in about five minutes. It's certainly not an old track of ours; in fact it was recorded only a few weeks before it was released. We liked how it turned out and decided to release it."

Originally titled "Rendezvous", the lyrics to the song were inspired after a day Mike Love had spent at the beach in which he had gone surfing with an old friend named Bill Jackson. Mike then showed the lyrics to Brian, who proceeded to write the music to Mike's lyrics of nostalgia. Brian stated that he believes the song was the best collaboration that he and Mike ever worked on.

Mike Love :  "He remembers it being at my house. I remember it as being at his house. He starts pounding at the piano, I was summoning up the words and we got a chorus together, which was basically a bunch of doo-wop inspired harmonies. We created that whole song in fifteen minutes."

Drums were played by Dennis Wilson and session musician John Guerin who also played tambourine and wood blocks. During the mixdown, engineer Stephen Desper came up with the unusual electronic drum effect heard at the beginning of the track -

Stephen Desper : "I had commissioned Philips, in Holland, to build two tape delay units for use on the road to double live vocals. I moved four of the Philips PB heads very close together so that one drum strike was repeated four times about 10 milliseconds apart, and blended it with the original to give the effect you hear."

A promotional film, directed by Peter Clifton, was shot in Los Angeles. The film, shot in colour, features the group pulling up in a van and visiting a surfing shop. The band then drives to the beach in their van and begins surfing. An alternate promotional film was planned to feature Paul McCartney as a clerk. However the idea was abandoned due to his busy schedule.



Issued on 8 July, 1968, only two weeks after the release of the band's album Friends, it reached number 20 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In the UK, the single peaked at No. 1 at the end of August, becoming the band's second number one hit in the United Kingdom after "Good Vibrations" two years earlier.

Mike Love : "the song's success in Britain was unbelievable. It showed how many fans we had there and how attractive the whole California lifestyle is."

Disc & Music Echo writer Penny Valentine praised the single : "This is a vast improvement on The Beach Boys' last single, and thank goodness for it. It sounds like bees humming on a summer breeze and is so completely solid; there isn't room for a fly to creep in. It goes on very gently and easily and is very, very pleasant. In a way it reminds me of one of the tracks off Pet Sounds, which is nice to say the least, and a hit it will most certainly be. I can imagine a few people will be muttering, "Well, she said they were finished," but I didn't. I said they should get back to their competent, commercial sound and they have. So there."

Other Versions include :   The Chicks (1968)  /  Garry Blake & His Orchestra (1968)  /  Ronnie Aldrich and His Two Pianos (1968)  /  The Tonics (1969)  /  Papa Doo Run Run (1983)  /  Kate (1983)  /  Wall of Voodoo (1987)  /  Brian Wilson featuring Carnie and Wendy Wilson (1995)  /  Red Squares (1998)  /  Rämouns (2009)  /  Danny McEvoy & Jazzy (2011)  /  Wilson Phillips (2012)  /  The Dukes Of Maslow (2017)

On This Day  :

25 August : Arthur Ashe becomes 1st African American to win the US Tennis singles championship.
25 August : Stuart Murdoch, singer (Belle & Sebastian), born Stuart Lee Murdoch in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, Scotland
26 August : Chris Boardman, Olympic Gold Medal winning cyclist, born Christopher Miles Boardman in Hoylake, Merseyside.
28 August : Police & anti-war demonstrators clash at Chicago's Democratic National Convention
28 August : Billy Boyd, actor (Lord of the Rings), born in Glasgow, Scotland
30 August : John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "One on One" benefit for children at Madison Square Garden, New York
31 August : Gary Sobers, set a first-class cricket record by scoring 36 runs in one time at bat during a match against Glamorgan, hitting all six balls for six consecutive sixes.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

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Previously :
The Story So Far : 1961-1965
The Story So Far : 1966-1968
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[McChesney Duntz]

That's all well and good, but you buried the lede: why, for god's sake, did Johnny Nash hate lawnmowers?

[daf]

Here you go - 

[daf]

The Story So Far : 1975-1978

After leaving the Beach Boys in 1972, Bruce Johnston embarked on a career as a songwriter - scoring his greatest success with the Barry Manilow recording of "I write the Songs", which he originally wrote for Captain & Tennille.

Barry Manilow : "The problem with the song was that if you didn't listen carefully to the lyric, you would think that the singer was singing about himself. It could be misinterpreted as a monumental ego trip."

Bruce Johnston : ""I Write the Songs" has been recorded by over two hundred artists. How did I win a Grammy for a song that I wrote in my car and Brian Wilson and Mike Love have not won a well deserved songwriting Grammy? Why is fate being so unfair to two of my pop music songwriting heroes?"

In November 1974, as California Music, Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher released a cover of the Beach Boys "Don't Worry Baby", backed with "Ten Years Harmony" - a tribute to Johnston's former bandmates.

 

Though still under contract to Warner Bros. Records, Brian Wilson signed a sideline production deal with Johnston and Melcher's Equinox Records in early 1975. Together, they attempted to establish the loose-knit music collective with Gary Usher, and Curt Boettcher.

Bruce Johnston : "Brian spent a day and night talking to us about it; he was really desperate for an outlet, because basically the deal at Warners was for the Beach Boys."

Wilson was involved with their covers of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and "Jamaica Farewell", acting as co-producer, instrumentalist, and backing vocalist.

Terry Melcher : "He wouldn't even touch anything in the control booth; he acted like he was afraid to. He'd offer suggestions, but he wouldn't go near the board. He knows his reputation, so he makes a lot of unfinished records; sometimes, I feel that he feels that he's peaked and does not want to put his stamp on records so that peers will have a Brian Wilson track to criticize."

Melcher was reportedly "crushed" upon seeing Wilson in his poor mental and physical state, unable to recognize his former Wrecking Crew associates that Melcher had hired for the project.

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Meanwhile the Beach Boys recent 'Endless Summer' compilation was selling extremely well, and the band—without Brian—was touring non-stop, making them the biggest live draw in the US.



Manager Jim Guercio was then fired by the group and replaced by Mike's brother, Stephen Love, who urged the group to encourage Brian to return to the production helm. Brian, was then legally ousted from California Music in order to focus his undivided attention on the band.

Stephen Love : "Brian wanted to be left alone, but there was too much at stake. If you've got an oil well, you don't want it to wander off and become someone else's oil well. We were under contract with Warner Bros., and we couldn't have him going on a tangent. If he was going to be productive, it's gotta be for the Beach Boys."

At the end of January 1976, the Beach Boys returned to the studio with an apprehensive Brian producing once again.

Brian Wilson : "It was a little scary because the Beach Boys and I weren't as close. We had drifted apart, personality-wise. A lot of the guys had developed new personalities through meditation. ... But we went into the studio with the attitude that we had to get it done."

Group meetings were supervised by Brian's psychotherapist Eugene Landy, and discussions over each song for the record were reported to last for up to eight hours. Brian decided the band should do an album of rock and roll and doo wop standards. Carl and Dennis disagreed, feeling that an album of originals was far more ideal, while Love and Jardine wanted the album out as quickly as possible.

Carl and Dennis intended the cover songs as a warm-up exercise for Brian, and did not expect that they would form part of the album's actual content. Brian's production role was undermined as group members overdubbed and remixed tracks, without his knowledge, to fight against his desire for a rough, unfinished sound. Brian later attributed his hoarse voice on the album to a bout of laryngitis.

Several of the cover songs were tributes to Brian's hero Phil Spector : "Just Once in My Life" and "Chapel of Love" were written by Spector, and "Talk to Me" was produced by Spector in the early 1960s for Jean DuShon.

Other covers included "Palisades Park" sung by Carl  /  Love and Jardine tackled "A Casual Look"  /  "Blueberry Hill" with Mike  /  and "In the Still of the Night" which featured a knackered sounding Dennis. According to Brian, the songs that were covered were chosen on the basis that "since they were acceptable once, we figured they would be acceptable again. . . We figured it was a safe way to go."

Original songs included : "Had to Phone Ya"  /  Mike Love's "Everyone's in Love with You"  /  "That Same Song"  /  and "TM Song" which was written by Brian and sung by Al. Songs recorded but not released on the LP included "Sea Cruise", and the covers : "Running Bear"  and  "Shake, Rattle, and Roll".

Dennis Wilson : "We've been working on and off on the album for about nine months, and the personnel includes the original Beach Boys, including Brian. He has already recorded six cuts with us and the way it looks is that most of the album will be Brian, although there's one song of my own that may get on. Actually, we've put together something like 40 odd tracks over the past few years but never released them. I guess you could call the songs rather like choral religious music that moves into rock and roll later. What we want is an album where every track is great, no low spots, a total concept that we can be proud of."

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Brian and Dennis' album title suggestion of "Group Therapy" was vetoed by the group, and "15 Big Ones" was chosen instead to reflect their fifteen years in the business and the number of tracks on the album. Released on 5 July 1976, the album reached #31 in the UK, and #8 in the US - their best chart result since 1965.

   

The lead single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music", peaked at #5 in the US and #36 in the UK in October 1976.  the second single, "It's O.K.",  flopped in the UK, but reached #29 in the US in September 1976. The highlight of the record was "Back Home" - a new version of an old song written by Brian and Bob Norberg that The Beach Boys previously attempted in both 1963 and 1970.

A media campaign, "Brian's Back", was devised to promote Brian's return as a touring member and active producer for the band.

Brian Wilson : "Ten years ago, I had resolved I wasn't going to tour, that I was much better off, I assumed, at home, in an environment where I could create music. Then, the guys in the group said, "Hey Brian, would you help us? We think your presence on the road would improve the quality of the show and help sell tickets." Another reason was that my psychiatrist wished I would do something to keep me from sitting on my ass, to keep me from going insane."

The Beach Boys were given an NBC TV Special, and Brian appeared in a comedy sketch in which surf cops played by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi pull Brian out of bed and force him to ride the waves outside.

Though "15 Big Ones" was the most commercially successful Beach Boys studio album in over ten years, the critical reaction to the album was not strong, and the album was generally disliked by fans. Brian admitted that "the new album is nothing too deep," but remained optimistic, saying that the next group effort would be on par with "Good Vibrations".

Carl Wilson : "That slogan was simply premature. Brian was almost there, but not quite. Once we had finished a certain batch of songs, Brian said, "That's it; put it out." That's why the album sounds unfinished. Brian just wanted to do one cut and capture the moment rather than working on something."

According to Stephen Love, Carl "dragged his feet" for the record, believing that the group was squandering its potential.

Stephen Love : "The hard truth is you don't have forever to tinker around with this stuff. The pressing demands of business sometimes interfere with artistic indulgence. Business-wise, you want to get the goddamn album out when things are gelling. Commerce and art, man, that's a tough thing."

Dennis Wilson : "People have waited all this time, anticipating a new Beach Boys album, and I hated to give them this. It was a great mistake to put Brian in full control. He was always the absolute producer, but little did he know that in his absence, people grew up, people became as sensitive as the next guy. Why do I relinquish my rights as an artist? The whole process was a little bruising."

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During October and November 1976, Brian demoed songs for a solo project tentatively entitled 'Brian Loves You' or 'Brian's in Love' at Brother Studios. Due to internal struggles with the group, Brian felt unable to pursue a solo career, likening his place in the band "a commodity in a stock market", as a result, the album title was changed to 'The Beach Boys Love You'.

The instrumentation on the album was almost entirely made up of state-of-the-art analog synthesizers such as the Minimoog, with arrangements inspired by Wendy Carlos'.

Producer Earle Mankey served as engineer for the album. According to him, Wilson's studio time was booked by therapist Eugene Landy, who forced him to be productive, which was "the only way he'd get his dinner." Occasionally, Landy rewarded Wilson with a joint of cannabis when performing his duties well. Brother Studios' chief administrator Trish Campo recalls an associate of Landy would stand over Wilson with a baseball bat to further his "creative inspiration".

Earle Mankey : "I would sit in there with Brian for his morning session, which ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nobody else wanted to get up that early. And nobody else wanted to sit around if Brian didn't have anything to do. I worked there. I got paid to do that. I spent a lot of time with him – sometimes productive, sometimes not productive. It was very cool because I was a major Brian Wilson fan and I got to talk to him a lot about the recording aspects of the music that interested me.... Lots about Phil Spector and his techniques and the things that he learned from Phil Spector and the methods that he used. At the foot of it all Brian would say, "There was a fire, and I don't have that fire anymore and I wish I could get it back."... When I would get him up to that point he would be talking about how he wrote the songs and recorded them with lots of live musicians in the room."

Containing 12 songs the Beach Boys had worked on throughout 1976 and 1977, the album also included two tracks from earlier recording sessions. "Good Time" was originally recorded in January 1970, during the Sunflower sessions, and features a lead vocal recorded before the knackering of Brian's pipes from smoking a million fags. The second of the tracks, "Ding Dang", was largely conceived by Wilson with lyrics by Roger McGuinn recorded sometime in 1973.

Roger McGuinn : "Brian parked in the driveway and approached the house. I opened the front door and invited him in. "I just wanted to see you," he said. "Do you have any speed?" "Why yes," I replied. "Are you sure you should be taking it?" He said, "I'm running away from Dr. Landy, so it's OK," with a half smile from the side of his mouth. I gave him two Biphetamine 20s and a glass of water and he gulped them down like someone gasping for fresh air after having been submerged for a long time. We had a beer and played pool for a while and then Brian found his way to the music room. He had seated himself at my upright piano and was playing a tune. "What's that?" I asked. "Oh nothing. Just something I came up with now," he replied. I said, "It sounds great! Do you want to write some words?" "OK," he replied. We played the tune for an hour or so but the only lyrics we had were: "I love a girl and I love her madly / I treat her so fine but she treats me so badly," et cetera. After about five or six hours of this, I got tired and went to bed. When I awoke the next morning, Brian was still at the piano playing the same verse over and over."

Al Jardine : "Brian had an obsession about 'Ding Dang'. He was channeling a certain vibration. He would get hyper-focused on one riff. That might have evolved into 'Shortenin' Bread'. Those songs had that great boogie piano behind them. He had such unique rhythmic expressions, and the voices were like punctuation marks."

On November 27, 1976, eleven days after compiling the first rough mix of the Love You demos, Brian made a solo appearance on Saturday Night Live at the instigation of Landy to promote the upcoming album by performing Beach Boys oldies and the work-in-progress track "Love Is a Woman". A few weeks following this performance, he was released from Landy's "care" after disputes over the quack doctor's hefty monthly fee.

 

The album opened with "Let Us Go On This Way", a rocker written by Brian and Mike Love after they found the album sounded too "deadpan". "Roller Skating Child" was inspired by Brian's daughters when they would go ice skating. "Mona"  was a 1950s-style love ballad that contained references to Phil Spector, "Be My Baby", and "Da Doo Ron Ron" in its lyrics. The next track, "Johnny Carson", has been interpreted as Wilson's frustrations with outside pressures expecting him to be consistently active - leading him to compare himself with the late-night talk show host. Or alternatively . . .

Brian Wilson : "'Johnny Carson' came about when I was sitting at my piano and someone was talking about him. I told them I was gonna write a song about him and they didn't believe me. I had the whole thing done in twenty minutes."

The opening track on side 2, "Solar System", according to Brian, was either written by while driving to his daughters' school, or while he was attending a weekly astrology class at UCLA - one or the other, he's a bit hazy on the details. "The Night Was So Young" and "I'll Bet He's Nice" followed, displaying shades of self-pity, jealousy, and loneliness. "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" was a touching duet between Brian and his wife Marilyn. Sung by Dennis and Brian, "I Wanna Pick You Up, managed to hit the coveted sweet spot between innocently charming and incredibly creepy.

Brian Wilson : "I worked specifically at getting the lyrics right, so that the lyrics would be interesting enough to listen to. Like, "I love to pick you up because you're still a baby to me"—you know, things like that. Interesting."

Carl Wilson remixed the completed material in January 1977, overdubbing elements such as guitar and extra percussion to complement the idiosyncratic sound of the songs, and was credited as the album's mixdown producer. Jardine, who's sole lead vocal on the album was on excellent "Honkin' Down the Highway", considered Carl and Dennis Wilson's contributions to be crucial.

Al Jardine : "I didn't have that much to do with it... I remember watching the brothers work on it. In a way, Love You was Carl's tribute to Brian. The title of that album is really The Beach Boys Love Brian. Carl wanted Brian to feel appreciated. He had the most to do with that album, him and Dennis, paying tribute to their brother. The Minimoogs are all over the place."

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Released on April 11, 1977, 'Love You' peaked at #53 in the US and #28 in the UK. It was divided between fans and critics. Some saw the album as a work of "eccentric genius" whereas others dismissed it as "childish and trivial". In a review for Circus, Lester Bangs called the Beach Boys "a diseased bunch of motherfuckers if ever there was one ... But the miracle is that the Beach Boys have made that disease sound like the literal babyflesh pink of health."

 

Dennis Wilson : "Brian is like a little kid in the studio, like a kid who's just discovered sex for the first time. He rushes around playing this and that, and telling us to play this and that. The enthusiasm he still has is infectious, really."

Brian later called 'Love You' one of his favorite Beach Boys releases, saying that "That's when it all happened for me. That's where my heart lies."

Carl Wilson : "Brian was just getting back on his feet. He had been with Gene [Landy] for more than a year. He was becoming a lot more productive. It was part of his therapy to make music. But Gene and Stan Love disagreed a lot about what Brian should do. Gene was doing it form a theraputic angle, and Steve had business considerations. So Steve terminated Gene. It was really a shame, because Brian regressed pretty much after that.

Dennis Wilson : "It may sound funny, but I want to concentrate the next ten years on making albums. As a Beach Boy I want to stay with them and stand behind Brian, being a tool for his disposal for the rest of my life no matter whether it's music or mowing his lawn for him. He is a master, musically. I am dumbfounded at him. I am in awe of him. I've grown up with him and watched him go through changes, and he is the most vulnerable human being I know. The depth of that guy... I mean... he changed the world with his influence. When you sing on something like 'In My Room' and then sit back and listen to what he's done, not just with my part, but with the song... then you realise. I'm devoting my life to Brian on a musical level, and the rest of the group all feel the same way. When Brian plays something for us, we just gape. It gets very emotional."

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Dennis Wilson had been considering releasing a solo album as far back as 1970, but it took another seven years until he was confident to finally step into the spotlight with the magnificent 'Pacific Ocean Blue - released in August 1977.

Dennis Wilson : "It's just a little home-made album, that's all. I am also producing it, but it's no huge production. It's simple and fun. I'm really interested to see what happens. You know, it's no big ego flash. I don't know how to put that delicately, but it's not like, "OK, I'm gonna be a big star," or anything. It's just a hobby for me and I love doing it. I am doing it."

Dennis recorded the bulk of 'Pacific Ocean Blue' in the months spanning the autumn of 1976 to the following spring, at the Beach Boys' own Brother Studios.

[biographer] Jon Stebbins : "The sessions for Pacific Ocean Blue were built around four tracks Dennis had recorded prior to that which he was holding for a Beach Boys album. Those were River Song, Pacific Ocean Blues, which he co-wrote with Mike Love, Rainbows, which he co-wrote with Carl and Steve Kalinich, and Holy Man. Those four songs were recorded in '74 or '75 and formed the early basis for the Pacific Ocean Blue sessions. Once he started with the sessions for the album he overdubbed a lot of things onto those tracks, including a choir on River Song. The album sessions officially started in March '76. Throughout '76 and into early '77 he was writing and recording like crazy. The last song he recorded for the album was End Of The Show, and he later added the lyrics to Hawaiian Dream and that became Farewell My Friend."

 

The album opened with the single "River Song" written by Dennis and Carl. Dennis provides a raspy yet soulful lead vocal, and the song features a choir backing, performed by Alexander Hamilton's Double Rock Baptist Choir. Carl is also featured in the mix singing backing vocals with the choir. The opening piano part of the song had origins seven years earlier during recording sessions held in 1970. The piano riff represents the flowing of a river.

Dennis Wilson : "I was in the High Sierras walking by this river that was very small and it kept getting bigger and bigger."

Side 1 continued with "What's Wrong"  /  "Moonshine"  /  "Friday Night"  /  "Dreamer"  /  and "Thoughts of You".

At the time of recording, Dennis' hard living had begun affecting his looks and more importantly his singing voice, which now delivered grainy and rough, yet still deeply soulful, vocals.

Al Jardine : "In a way he was really purging himself with his music. It's a little melancholy and reflects what he was going through at the time. But sometimes you have to hear something that you can tap your foot to. You can be insightful and frank and emotional but you also have to realise you're trying to get some airplay. What I miss on there is some commercial product where you can go to the media and say, "I think people are gonna be able to dance to this or sing this.""

[producer/co-writer] Gregg Jakobson : "This was when he fully accepted himself as an artist. Brian had shown him chords on the piano, but as he'd become more proficient the music that came forth was not derivative of that. Having his own studio helped tremendously. With a little encouragement, and the right tools, Dennis took off."

Brian Wilson : "It surprised me to see so much soul and inspiration in Dennis. I never motivated Dennis to write; he had his own motivation. His writing style was very funky, a rock'n'roll kind of a writer. His roots he learned from The Beach Boys. He watched me produce records and he watched Carl produce and he watched Alan produce, and he just got the knack and started producing records."

Side 2 kicked off with "Time", and was followed by "You and I"  /  "Pacific Ocean Blues" - co-written by Mike Love  /  "Farewell My Friend"  /  "Rainbows" - another song co-written with Carl  /  and concluded, appropriately, with "End of the Show".

[Brother Studios chief administrator] Trisha Campo : "Carl was going through a lot of physical problems during that time. He showed up at the studio as often as he could. I remember once Carl came to the studio and he was in a wheelchair. I think he'd just had back surgery. He was totally white and in more pain than I'd seen anybody going through. Someone propped him up on a step stool and put headphones on him so he could put vocals on one of Dennis' songs. Dennis was unbelievably touched by his support and love."

Released on 16 September 1977, 'Pacific Ocean Blue' elicited effusive praise from the music press, including Rolling Stone magazine, who raved, "Track-by-track this music is as charming and more forceful than anything The Beach Boys have done in years." An artistic and commercial triumph, the album chalked up sales of close to 250,000 copies.

 

Al Jardine : "I was impressed that he finished the album, especially in the midst of all the Beach Boys activity. He really isolated himself and took himself out of The Beach Boys and basically took over the studio. We were ticked off that he'd booked out the studio and we couldn't get in to finish Love You, but somehow we managed to get both projects done. He outsold The Beach Boys with that album. Of course, we weren't selling a lot of records at that time – 40 or 50 thousand records. We were languishing in between careers in a way. But Dennis eclipsed the whole Beach Boy thing, which is really pretty impressive."

[friend] Stan Shapiro : "I don't think Mike Love was overjoyed to see success from that album going to Dennis. He'd grown to accept the fact that Dennis was the sex symbol of the group and he could tolerate that. But then when it came to music, he'd never want you to say, "You know, Dennis was a hell of a great musician."

Mike Love : "He definitely did come up with some good melodies and great moments. But he was not verbally facile. He was kind of in between Brian and myself. He wasn't quite comfortable with words, he's more into feelings. The feelings were his strong suit. Musically, he had a style of writing, which was very emotional and a bit more melancholy. And, of course, me being Mister Optimism, I wouldn't say I could relate to all those things"

Al Jardine : "When I listen to his music now it's like, "God, that's better than anything we've ever done." I think Dennis's work transcended a lot of what we did. But he had that big shadow hanging over him: his big brother Brian with all that talent. No matter how talented you may be, one has to be patient for the right time. And he just didn't have the time to do that."

Brian Wilson : "Dennis had many unique talents. He was creative lyrically, expressive vocally and was melodically talented as well. He was all of those things put together and they are all reflected beautifully in Pacific Ocean Blue."

 

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After the release of 'Love You', the Beach Boys fell into dispute over the direction of the band, and were close to breaking up. Intended as a follow-up to 'Love You', sessions and mixing for a new album entitled 'Adult Child' were completed by the Beach Boys with Brian Wilson acting as producer.

Sessions for the album began in January 1977.  As with the previous album, Brian wrote and sang on most of  the songs, with Carl and Dennis occasionally swapping lead vocals. Dick Reynolds was commissioned for the arrangement of four tracks. The album's lyrics mostly reflect the minutiae of Brian's life during the 1970s, with songs about physical fitness, eating healthy, and ecology.

On 27 June, 1977, 'Adult Child' was mixed and assembled in the following sequence: "Life Is for the Living"  /  "Hey Little Tomboy"  - a leftover from 'Love You', that included a toe-curling spoken word section which has been described as 'the most unsettling moment in the entire recorded history of the Beach Boys".

Brian Wilson : "It's about a little girl who is sort of a rough neck, and this guy convinces her to become a pretty girl, and sure enough she slowly turns into a pretty—she starts shaving her legs and wearing short sticks—puts lipstick on and makeup. So she's a little tomboy. ... We're very happy with it."

The cover of "Deep Purple" was next, followed by the Sunflower outtake  "H.E.L.P. Is On the Way" - which has the distinction of being among the slim body of pop songs to mention enemas. "It's Over Now", featuring Carl, Brian and Marilyn, and "Everybody Wants to Live" closed side 1.

Side 2 opened with Brian's arrangement of the traditional "Shortenin' Bread. This was followed by "Lines"  / a cover of "On Broadway" sung by Al Jardine  / and another Sunflower out-take, "Games Two Can Play. The album closed with "It's Trying to Say" sung by Dennis, and "Still I Dream of It" featuring a solo Brian.

According Stan Love - the band's manager and brother of Mike and Steve - when Mike Love heard the rough demo recordings of Adult/Child replete with big band swing arrangements, he turned to Brian and asked: "What the fuck are you doing?" - Charming!

While projected for release in the Autumn of 1977, the album was rejected by Reprise Records for not being commercially viable.

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Following this period, Brian's concert appearances with the band gradually diminished and their performances were occasionally erratic.

   

The internal wrangling came to a head after a show at Central Park on 1 September, 1977, when the band effectively split into two camps: Dennis and Carl Wilson on one side;  Mike Love and Al Jardine on the other - with Brian the lukewarm water in between.

Carl Wilson : "The group was really fractured at that time. We really went through an explosion. A lot of stuff that hadn't been acknowledged and hadn't been dealt with surfaced."

Following a confrontation on an airport tarmac, Dennis declared to Rolling Stone, on 3 September 1977, that he had left the band.

Dennis Wilson : "It was Al Jardine who really knifed me in the heart when he said they didn't need me. That was the clincher. And all I told him was that he couldn't play more than four chords. They kept telling me I had my solo album now, like I should go off in a corner and leave the Beach Boys to them. The album really bothers them. They don't like to admit it's doing so well; they never even acknowledge it in interviews."

Stan Shapiro : "Dennis was pissed. He told me he got a phone call from Stephen Love, who was the manager of The Beach Boys at the time, and Mike Love's brother, who gave him an ultimatum: "You're either gonna be with The Beach Boys or you're gonna be out on your own. If you do the solo tour you're out of the band." So he didn't do it. Dennis was in a lot of financial trouble at the time and he wasn't gonna quit the band because he needed the income."

Mike Love : "We were in Australia, and the Wilsons were upset that some of us were not trying heroin with them. That was a division."

The band broke up for two and a half weeks, until a meeting on 17 September at Brian's house. In light of a potential new Caribou Records contract with CBS, the parties negotiated a settlement resulting in Love gaining control of Brian's vote in the group, allowing Love and Jardine to outvote Carl and Dennis Wilson on any matter.



Dennis started to withdraw from the group to focus on his second solo album, Bambu.

Dennis Wilson : "Sometimes when I write, I think how I'd like to hear someone else singing it... How I'd like to produce someone else doing the music. It's like every time I see the Joffrey Ballet do Deuce Coupe. I bawl when they start doing my song. What I am, basically, is a hardcore musician who wants to be in every aspect of the notes, the words, the technology, and the voices."

Recorded between 1978 and 1983, songs considered for the album included : "Under the Moonlight"  /  "It's Not Too Late"  /  "School Girl"  /  "Common"   /  "He's a Bum"  / and  "Cocktails"

The album was shelved just as alcoholism and marital problems overcame all three Wilson brothers - Carl appeared intoxicated during concerts (especially during their 1978 Australia tour), and Brian gradually slid back into addiction and an unhealthy lifestyle.

Carl Wilson : "That was a very rough time for all of us. Relations were very strained and icy. Everyone was frightened and it came out as anger. Everything was falling apart in front of us, and we didn't know how to get ahold of it. What we had to do was just let everything fall apart and then realize, "Now, wait a minute. Do I want to fight with my family and friends?" We got a chance to see if we really wanted to be a group or not. We got to choose again. It became clear that we should put it back together."



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Dennis was largely unavailable for the next Beach Boys album, which was initially intended to be their second Christmas album : 'Merry Christmas from the Beach Boys'.

"Child of Winter (Christmas Song)"  /  "Seasons in the Sun"  /  "Santa's On His Way"  /  and "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" - were variously recorded between 1970 and 1976.

The remaining songs were recorded between November and December 1977 and included  "Winter Symphony"  / "Morning Christmas" by Dennis  / Mike Love's  "Alone on Christmas Day"  /  "Go and Get That Girl"  /  "I Saw Santa Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" and "Xmas Carol Medley".

Reprise rejected this scrumptious feast of rotting leftovers, and demanded the band snap out of it and get on with a proper studio album instead. New lyrics were overdubbed on to some of the original Christmas tracks including the songs "Melekalikimaka" and  "Bells of Christmas", which, together with quickly penned new material, formed the basis of a new album called 'M.I.U. Album' - named after some random scrabble pieces the Maharishi International University in Iowa, where they had recorded the album.

 

"She's Got Rhythm" opened side 1, and proved that, despite years of smoking, Brian hadn't completely lost his upper register  /  "Come Go With Me" featured the pipework of Al Jardine, as did the cover of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" - which was released as a single in October 1978, peaking at #59 in the US. It was backed by a freshly scrubbed mix of Hey Little Tomboy", which wisely removed the creepy spoken word section. The newly de-Christmassed "Kona Coast" and "Wontcha Come Out Tonight" with Brian and Mike rounded off the side.

Side 2 opened with Carl's "Sweet Sunday Kinda Love", followed by "Belles of Paris" - another re-spray of a track from the rejected Christmas album - and "Pitter Patter" featuring the combination of Al and Mike - as did the closing track "Winds of Change". A keen tennis fan, Mike co-wrote "Match Point of Our Love" with Brian. Dennis sole contribution to the album was as the lead vocalist on the superb "My Diane" - written by Brian about his sister-in-law Diane Rovell - the dirty dog! Unsurprisingly, Brian and Marilyn divorced the following year.

Released in October 1978, the album tanked at #151 in the US, and completely missed the chart in the UK.

Rolling Stone gave it a right old coat-down, stating : "M.I.U. Album seems contrived and artificial right from the start. The tracks strive to recapture the dreamy, adolescent innocence of the Beach Boys' earliest hits, and fail not so much because the concepts are dated but because the group can't infuse the new material with the same sense of grandeur that made the old songs such archetypal triumphs. Throughout, the lackluster playing and singing has a melancholy edge, almost as if the Beach Boys are fully aware that they've outgrown this kind of teen fantasy, but can't think of anyplace else to go."

And the surfing thunder-stick wasn't a fan either -

Dennis Wilson : "I hope that the karma will fuck up Mike Love's meditation forever. That album is an embarrassment to my life. It should self-destruct."

Surprisingly, even Mike thought it was a bit shit, though, of course, none of it was his fault  -

Mike Love : "It was too democratic. Everybody coming into it with their song, which is okay. It's like if you have an album and have a hit song on it, and it's very commercially viable. Doesn't it make sense to have another song that would also be commercially viable? And a third and a fourth."

[Satchmo Distel]

'Wake The World' is a gem, much better than the A-side.

[Satchmo Distel]

It was later chosen as the opening track for their final Capitol studio album, '20/20', released the following year. The album mix differed slightly in that it briefly segues into an extract of a 'SMiLE' outtake, "Workshop", which consists of construction noises and sounds from carpentry tools.

This puzzled Radcliffe and Maconie when they played the track, obviously unfamiliar with 'SMiLE minutiae.

[McChesney Duntz]

Here you go - 

I can see clearly now. Cheers.

[Satchmo Distel]

We need two articles on him. A good pair of Nashers.

[daf]

The Story So Far :  1978-1992

In 1978 Mike Love formed a new band called Celebration.

Consisting of Mike Love (vocals), Dave Robinson (vocals, bass), Ron Altbach (keyboards), Charles Lloyd (sax), and Paul Fauerso (vocals, keyboards), the band provided music for the film Almost Summer.

Though Brian Wilson wasn't a member, he made a rare TV appearance with the group - playing a couple of songs on American Bandstand.

Written by Mike Love, Al Jardine and Brian Wilson, the single "Almost Summer" reached #28 in the US in June 1978.  Also released as a single was their cover of "Summer In The City". The album also featured two songs written and sung by Mike Love : "Sad Sad Summer" and "Cruisin'"

 

In February 1979 , the band released their second album - 'Celebration' - which contained the Brian Wilson co-write "How's About A Little Bit".

Though both written by Mike Love, Paul Faureso sings on "Starbaby, and Dave Robinson handles the vocal chores on "I Don't Wanna Know". Mike sings on a new version of the 1967 Smiley Smile track "Gettin' Hungry", as well as "She's Just Out to Get You", and the album closer "Country Pie".

Long out of print, it is estimated that only 5,000 vinyl copies were pressed and released.

 

Also in 1979, nimbly jumping on to the bandwagon, Celebration released "Disco Celebration" - which featured five lengthy dancefloor workouts : "Disco Symphony"  /  "You Can Count On Love"  /  "California Girls"  /  "Party Girl"  /  "First Love".

Despite claiming a co-write on four of the five tracks, Mike Love appears to have had no actual involvement in the recording of the songs - with the lead vocals being shared between Suzanne Wallach and Paul Fauerso.

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After departing Reprise, the Beach Boys signed with CBS Records. Despite the $8 million contract calling for Brian Wilson to write and produce 75% of the songs on each new album, his contributions to their first for CBS were minimal. The first song attempted for the album was "California Feelin'" - which didn't make the final album, and remained unreleased for many years.

Faced with the realization that Brian was unable to contribute, the band recruited Bruce Johnston as producer. The result paid off, as an eleven-minute disco re-make of Wild Honey's "Here Comes the Night" reached #44 in the US, and #37 in the UK, in March 1979. The song was only played live during a few dates at New York City's Radio City Music Hall in March 1979 before being dropped from the live set due to a negative reaction from the disco-hating audience of cloth-eared twats.

 

While Al Jardine's rip-off of be-wigged antique progger J.S. Bach's hit waxing "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring",  "Lady Lynda", backed with Carl's "Full Sail", flopped in the US, it peaked at #6 in the UK in June 1979  /  Mike's exotic smoothie "Sumahama" peaked at #45 in the UK in September 1979  /  and the album's opening track, "Good Timin'", backed with another Carl Corker "Goin' South", reached #40 in the US in November 1979. 

"Baby Blue" and "Love Surrounds Me" were originally ear-marked for Dennis' second solo album, Bambu. A third track from the Bambu sessions, "Constant Companion",  was mixed for the album, but was dropped from the final track listing.

Brian's presence on the album consisted of backing vocals on "Angel Come Home", piano on Good Timin'", and Moog on "Shortenin' Bread".

Released in March 1979, 'L.A. (Light Album)', their strongest collection since Holland, only just managed to tickle the bottom of the Top 100 in the US, but climbed to a chart-busting #32 in the UK - because we are obviously wicked and skill!

 

In September 1979 "It's a Beautiful Day" was released as a non-album single. It had been written by Mike Love and Al Jardine for the comedy film Americathon.

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For their next album, the group wanted Brian to return as their producer, and felt that he would be more comfortable recording at the familiar studio environment of Western Studios.

Carl Wilson : "Brian got hot for about three days in the studio. He was singing like a bird. All the protection that he usually runs just dropped; he came out of himself. He was right there in the room. Michael got so exited that he was singing several notes above his normal range."

In late August 1979, Carl collaborated with Randy Bachman on the writing of four songs, two of which were included on the record : "Keepin' the Summer Alive" and "Livin' with a Heartache". Bachman declined an invitation to co-produce the album because he was struggling with personal issues.

Dennis Wilson, at odds with the rest of the group, abandoned the initial recording sessions, taking no further part in the album. The sessions were also stalled by Brian's desire to record only cover songs of rock n' roll tracks. One of these, Chuck Berry's "School Days", appears on the album's final track listing.

After it all went tits-up with Brian, the band reconvened in September 1979 with Bruce Johnston taking complete control of the album's production. The resulting album was a hotch-potch of new songs, alongside older previously unreleased tracks, like the parping plodder "When Girls Get Together" dating back to 1969  /  Bruce's "Endless Harmony" - a re-recording of 'Ten Years of Harmony' from 1972 - which is the also only track on the album where Dennis can be heard  /  and Al Jardine's lovely "Santa Ana Winds" from 1978. New songs included "Oh Darlin'"  /  "Sunshine"  / and  "Some of Your Love".

'Keepin' the Summer Alive' was released in March 1980, and reached #75 in the US charts, and #54 in the UK.

 

Carl Wilson : "the last two years have been the most important and difficult time of our career. We were at the ultimate crossroads. We had to decide whether what we had been involved in since we were teenagers had lost its meaning. We asked ourselves and each other the difficult questions we'd often avoided in the past."

   

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By the following year, Carl had left the touring group because of unhappiness with the band's nostalgia format and lackluster live performances.

Carl Wilson :"I haven't quit the Beach Boys but I do not plan on touring with them until they decide that 1981 means as much to them as 1961."

He quickly recorded and released his first solo album. 

Carl Wilson : "I was never inclined to do a solo album until three years ago. I got to the point where I wanted to sing and make new music; the guys in the band decided not to record and we were playing the same old songs every night. I got itchy. I remember the last two weeks of the summer tour of '79, I was so bored I couldn't believe it. It was horrible to go on sometimes, because there was nothing in it. It was the first time that had ever happened to me with the group."

The album 'Carl Wilson', featuring the singles "Hold Me", (b/w "Hurry Love"), and "Heaven", (b/w "The Right Lane"), was released in March 1981.

Carl Wilson : "I asked Jerry Schilling  if his wife Myrna might like to write some tunes with me. So I took a cassette player, a guitar and a tiny amp over to their house, and we just started making up tunes. It was very easy and natural. She has a very pure sense - very gentle and yet funky. I didn't want to compromise, and make my stuff sound like the Beach Boys, just as I wouldn't want to compromise the Beach Boys' stuff either. The R&B approach just came naturally. It's the side of me that's always wanted to come out. I have this massive collection of R&B records. When we were doing Pet Sounds, I'd go home and put on my Stax and Aretha stuff. It's always been a big part of my life."

   

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Taking inspiration from Gidea Park's 1978 'Beach Boys Gold' tribute, The Beach Boys joined the medley craze and released their own medley record - the cryptically titled "Beach Boys Medley" - which reached #47 in the UK in August 1981. The band - minus Carl, but with an incredibly wasted Dennis - made an appearance on TV's American Bandstand.

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In 1981 Mike Love also released his own solo album : "Looking Back With Love".

Love's cover of "Be My Baby" originated from July 1980 sessions produced by Brian Wilson. However, the released track features additional overdubs and production completed without Wilson, and Curt Boettcher receives the sole production credit.

Other songs include the covers of ABBA's "On and On and On", and "Calendar Girl" by Neil Sedaka.

The single taken from the album, "Runnin' Around The World" (b/w "One Good Reason"), was released in France.

In November 1983 he would unleash the Christmas single "Jingle Bell Rock" (b/w "Let's Party") - amazingly, this aural abomination, produced by Gidea Park's very own Adrian Baker, somehow failed to Top the Festive charts in the UK.

 

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Carl returned to The Beach Boys in May 1982, after approximately 14 months of being away, on the condition that the group reconsider their rehearsal and touring policies and refrain from "Las Vegas-type" engagements.

Carl Wilson : "Everything was rushed; it was very mechanical. There was resistance to rehearsing out of habit. But it all finally came together at the last minute. I'd like to see the group take another shot at making one more good record. That's the thing we keep trying to do but can never quite pull together all the elements. But I don't think we'll make another Beach Boys album until Brian's healthy enough to produce again. I know we could make a real strong commercial record with an outside producer. So that's possible, but, if you're talking about making a great record, "Good Vibrations" class, you're talking about Brian with us. Anything else it bullshit."

Later that year, Brian overdosed on a combination of alcohol, cocaine, and other psychoactive drugs. His former therapist Eugene Landy was once more employed, and a more radical program was undertaken to try to restore Brian to health. This involved removing him from the group, in November 1982, and putting him on a rigorous diet and health regimen. Coupled with long, extreme counseling sessions, this therapy was successful in bringing Brian back to physical health.

Carl Wilson : "I don't mind if he doesn't make any more music. That's fine with me. I don't care if he makes hits or not. My interest in Brian is that I love him as a human being and as a brother, as I love all my family. I want him to have some joy and satisfaction in life, and he's not getting that. I'm not discouraging him by any means, but the main thing is that he have a nurturing, loving life. That's all that matters anyway."

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In February 1983, Carl released his second solo album, 'Youngblood', on Caribou Records. He decided not to use longtime band associate Jim Guercio this time around, opting for Jeff Baxter as producer - in an attempt at a more commercial sound.

 

Two singles were released : "What You Do To Me"  (b/w "Time" ) in February 1983, and "Givin' You Up" (b/w "Too Early To Tell") in July 1983

As with his first album, Carl co-wrote most of the songs with Myrna Smith, including the opening track "What More Can I Say"  /  "She's Mine" and "If I Could Talk to Love". Covers included the John Fogerty penned "Rockin' All Over the World" and "Young Blood" from classic Rock & Roll writers Leiber, Stoller & Doc Pomus.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In 1983, tensions between Dennis Wilson and Mike Love escalated so high that each obtained a restraining order against the other. With the rest of the band fearing that he would end up like Brian, Dennis was given an ultimatum after his last performance in November 1983 to check into rehab for his alcohol problems or be banned from performing live with them.

He checked into a therapy center in Arizona for two days, and then on 23 December, checked into St. John's Medical Hospital in Santa Monica, where he stayed until the evening of Christmas Day. Following a violent altercation at the Santa Monica Bay Inn, Dennis checked into a different hospital in order to treat his wounds. Several hours later, he discharged himself and reportedly resumed drinking immediately.

On 28 December 1983, three weeks after his 39th birthday, Dennis drowned at Marina Del Rey after drinking all day and then diving in the afternoon to recover his ex-wife's belongings, previously thrown overboard at the marina from his yacht three years earlier amidst their divorce.

 

Dennis's widow Shawn Love reported that Dennis had wanted a burial at sea, and his brothers Carl and Brian did not want Dennis cremated. At the time, only veterans of the Coast Guard and Navy were allowed to be buried in US waters without being first cremated, but Dennis's burial was made possible by the intervention of then-President Ronald Reagan.

 

On 4 January 1984, the U.S. Coast Guard buried Dennis's body at sea, off the California coast. His song "Farewell My Friend" was played at the funeral.

The Beach Boys released a statement shortly thereafter: "We know Dennis would have wanted to continue in the tradition of the Beach Boys. His spirit will remain in our music."

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The first release following the death of Dennis was the joint-single "East Meets West" with The Four Seasons, released in 1984. Not much in the mood to party, the single had a quick look around the charts before making it's excuses and dropping straight down the dumper.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For their next album, the band hired red hot Culture Club producer Steve Levine, who took them into the nightmare world of drum machines, synthesizers, sampling, and hi-tech recording technology - resulting in a technically perfect but sterile sounding record.

Between 1983 and 1986, therapist Eugene Landy charged Brian about $430,000 annually for his services, forcing Wilson's family members to devote some publishing rights to his fee. Landy received 25% of the copyright to all of Wilson's songs, regardless of whether he contributed to them or not. This arrangement was revoked in 1985, with Landy only receiving rights with a percentage equal to his writing contributions.

Miraculously, Landy suddenly found he had a talent for songwriting, and was credited in co-writing the songs "Crack at Your Love", "I'm So Lonely", and "It's Just a Matter of Time".

Bruce Johnston contributed his traditional soupy ballad with "She Believes in Love Again"  /  "Passing Friend" was written by Culture Club's Boy George & Roy Hay  /  Stevie Wonder guests on harmonica and keyboards on the song "I Do Love You", which he also wrote  /  Ringo Starr also appears on the track "California Calling". Ancient rocker Gary Moore also features in there somewhere, playing both guitar and a "synthaxe" - Welcome to the 80s!

Despite the horrible production, one bright spot was Carl's voice - which managed to shine though on "It's Gettin' Late, "Maybe I Don't Know", and the highlight of the album, "Where I Belong".

Brian Wilson contributed "Oh Lord" written in 1982 during the 'Cocaine Sessions' by himself and Dennis, but the song did not make the final cut. Also cut from the album was a cover of "At the Hop" with lead vocals by Mike Love.

The album, 'The Beach Boys' was released on 10 July 1985. It peaked at #52 in the US, and edged into the Top 60 in the UK. The single Getcha Back", backed with Brian's "Male Ego", another dubious co-write with Landy, was a #26 hit in the US, but tanked at #97 in the UK in July 1985.

   

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Two singles were released to promote their "Made in the USA" Greatest Hits compilation album : "Rock 'N' Roll To The Rescue" reached #86 in the US in August 1986, followed by "California Dreamin'", backed with Jardine's post-divorce re-write "Lady Liberty", which reached #57 in September 1986.

"Wipeout" by Fat Boys And The Beach Boys became their biggest hit in years - reaching #12 in the US, and #2 in the UK in August 1987. But "Happy Endings" by The Beach Boys And Little Richard - which featured in the film The Telephone - flopped in November 1987.

 

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Brian was signed to a multi-album solo recording contract with Sire Records in early 1987 after label president Seymour Stein saw Wilson perform an a cappella version of "On Broadway" while inducting Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[record producer] Lenny Waronker : "Brian's speech was so wonderfully sweet. I remember thinking, "My God, maybe there can be more stuff like he used to do ... maybe he should do a record. It was clear that Brian was on the way back; this wasn't the Brian Wilson of the 'Brian's Back' hype of 1976. I was thinking how wonderful it would be if Brian could do a record, and he could do a bunch of things like "Cool, Cool Water", and we'd get 'em played on all those wave stations, a new age record with Brian Wilson. When I got back to L.A., Seymour called me and said, in passing, that he was thinking of signing Brian. I said, "Great! That's a brilliant idea. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking about the same thing." And I told Seymour what I thought, about how I wanted to make a record filled with "Cool, Cool Water" type of tracks. And Seymour said, "Why don't we do half songs and half," what I call "arts and crafts."

The initial single released in April 1987, "Let's Go To Heaven In My Car" (b/w "Too Much Sugar"), was co-written with Gary Usher, and included in the soundtrack for 'Police Academy 4 : Citizens on Patrol'.

In July 1988, Brian Wilson released his first solo album - the enigmatically titled 'Brian Wilson'.



Wilson's material on the album was gathered from the previous five years of songwriting, which amounted to about a hundred songs.

[co-producer] Andy Paley : "My job was to kick him in the ass and get him going... It was difficult because he was medicated, and that slowed him down a bit. He was also in mid-career and didn't have anything to prove anymore."

Similar to Wilson's previous collaborators Tony Asher or Van Dyke Parks, some of the tracks' rough outlines sprang largely out of conversations about whatever was on their mind at the time.

Brian Wilson : "I like to write for young people, 'cause they understand what I'm saying in my music, understand where I'm coming from. But, I think this album should appeal to people in their twenties, thirties and forties. ... I write more about ideas, now. Before, I wrote about tangible kinds of things; now, I'm writing about ideas, love songs again. I'm back to love songs: 'Melt Away' and 'Love and Mercy' and 'One for the Boys' and 'There's So Many'. There are four or five love songs on the album."

The recording sessions were said to be contentious - Wilson's collaborators reportedly clashed with Eugene Landy and his medical staff.

Andy Paley : "The guy was saying something like, 'Brian, don't you think the lyrics would be better if Alexandra fixed them?' And Brian said, 'No, I like them the way they are.' Then the guy's like, 'Well, what did you tell me last night when I said you could have that milkshake if you switched the lyrics?' And then Brian said, 'Oh, okay. The new lyrics are better than the old ones.'"

Landy made repeated attempts to modify lyrics and arrangements by interrupting sessions, sometimes confiscating master tapes to assert his control.

Andy Paley : "Anything good we got out of those sessions was done totally on stolen time... Landy was always checking in, phoning in directions, basically never wanting to give Brian any breathing room. It was a hassle and many times heartbreaking because we'd do something good, finally, and then Landy would swoop in and dive-bomb it."

[Landy's name was subsequently erased from the credits of this album as well as from 'The Beach Boys 1985 album, after the discovery that the Quack Doctor had suspiciously been named as a chief beneficiary in a 1989 revision of Brian's will. Luckily for Brian, in 1992, Landy was permanently given the boot, before the services of Jessica Fletcher were required!!]

Russ Titelman, who had previously collaborated with Wilson in the 1960s on the songs "Guess I'm Dumb" and "Sherry She Needs Me", was brought on board after Wilson reportedly expressed desire to make the record more modern.

Russ Titelman : "My job was to egg him on, make him do stuff that maybe he wouldn't have done, hope we shared the same taste. In that way, I was helpful, a catalyst. ... I was sensitive to Brian's quirkiness and to his feelings about certain things, but after a point, he knows what's good and he knows what to do. And I know what to do. We're both professionals. So if he was going off track, I would say 'This is no good.' I was very tough about what I thought, made no bones."

Lenny Waronker : "Russ did a real good job of helping Brian realize the beauty of his music, helped it stand up. Brian hasn't done this in a long time, and he needed help with the technology. And where it needed some small fixing, Russ was able to show Brian how to do it in a simple way. ... The idea that Brian was able to do this after so much time away was really shocking, beyond what anybody could expect."

Two singles from the album, "Love and Mercy" (b/w "He Couldn't Get His Poor Old Body to Move") and "Melt Away "(b/w "Being With the One You Love") sold poorly. A third, "Night Time", was released for promotional use only.

 

Certain song ideas harken back to earlier work with the Beach Boys - The song "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long" is a thematic sequel to "Caroline, No"

Brian Wilson : "It is, of course, a sexual song, a song about sexual ideas. At first, when I wrote the melody, I thought maybe it should be a love song. ... Most of the lyrics were romantic, but then I put in a couple of sexual lines. And then I said, 'Wait a minute. Let's get rid of some of the love aspects, the romantic aspects of this song, and put in more sexual lyrics' ... It's like when girls whack their hair off short, and they don't give a shit. Sometimes, if you prompt a girl, prompt someone to hit the road and get on the stick and let your hair grow long and try harder."

"Walkin' the Line"  was co-written with Nick Laird-Clowes of dream pop band the Dream Academy. "Let it Shine" was co-written with Jeff Lynne from Electric Light Orchestra, who had just finished producing George Harrison's album Cloud Nine.

Jeff Lynne : "I hadn't known him at all, but Brian asked me if I wanted to write a song and produce it with him. "Yes, please – I'd love to." I went to his house in Malibu and wrote it with him right by the seashore; his place was only a couple steps from the sea. Him playing piano and me strumming guitar and we came up with the song, 'Let It Shine'. ... Anyway, we got to the session and I played lots of the instruments: bass and rhythm guitar and keyboard, and he did some keyboard, and we co-produced. Despite our production backgrounds, there wasn't a lot on it actually. It's a nice tight-sounding record."

Other songs included :  "Little Children"  /  "One for the Boys"  /  "There's So Many"  / and  "Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight".

At the behest of Titelman, the album's eight-minute-long closing suite, "Rio Grande" was purposely developed as a continuation to the modular recording experiments Wilson used on the aborted 'SMiLE' project.

Andy Paley : "It was a pretty good record, but it wasn't as good as it could have been because there were too many cooks, and Brian wasn't really calling the shots. There were a lot of people helping on the record ... These people aren't bad people. ... and if anyone tried to force anything out of me or Brian, it would have been a failure."

In contemporary reviews, David Fricke wrote for Rolling Stone : "Brian Wilson is a stunning reminder of what pop's been missing all these years. It is also the best Beach Boys long player since 1970's Sunflower, although Wilson is the only Beach Boy on it. The songs are full of sunshine choirboy harmonies and sing-along hooks, while the rich, expansive arrangements echo the orchestral radiance of Wilson's spiritual mentor, Phil Spector."

Sun-Sentinel reviewed : "Wilson's clever, mostly upbeat ideas flow magnificently throughout the record, easily transcending his emotional madness. His introspective poems and barbershop harmonies are framed in a series of bouncy melodies that never take a trite or simple path. ... Just when you think you know where one of his songs may lead, he dips into another spacey progression, and the tune is launched again on a separate plane. In particular, the closing six-part piece, 'Rio Grande', is the kind of immensely fulfilling progressive pop with which art-rock bands such as Yes and Genesis formerly toyed, but rarely brought to satisfying completion."

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Also in the summer of 1988, just as Brian was releasing his album, the Beach Boys unexpectedly claimed their first U.S. number one single in 22 years with "Kokomo".

 

The single peaked at #25 in the UK, and had appeared in the movie Cocktail - which gave Mike Love a brillaint idea for The Beach Boys next album. Over to you, Mike  . . .

Mike Love : "The theme of that album was to have been songs that have been in movies."

As well as 'Kokomo', the album opener "Still Cruisin'" had appeared in a film - Lethal Weapon 2, as did "Make It Big" which was recorded for the film Troop Beverly Hills.

Unfortunately none of the other songs, including the recent single "Wipe Out", "Island Girl", and "In My Car" - a song credited as being co-written by Brian Wilson, Eugene Landy and girlfriend Alexandra Morgan - had appeared in any films.

As a result, three whiskery old Beach Boys chestnuts that had recently appeared in a few films - "I Get Around" (Good Morning, Vietnam)  /  "Wouldn't It Be Nice"  (The Big Chill)   /  and "California Girls" (Soul Man) - were beaten about the private parts with rubber truncheons and herded on to the end of the album.

Mike Love : "It was basically a repackage. But then it got watered down with politics, meaning Brian's Dr. Landy forcing a song called "In My Car," which was never in a movie, and a song by Jardine, which ultimately ended up on the album, called "Island Girl," which was never in a movie either. So to me the concept was a little bit diluted there politically."

Released in August 1989, 'Still Cruisin'', their 26th studio album, was panned by critics for sounding like a professional '60s cover band.

 

The highlight of the album was the superb "Somewhere Near Japan". Released as a single in Australia, it was a co-write between Bruce Johnston, Mike Love, Terry Melcher, and John Phillips. Phillips' daughter, Mackenzie, had a public battle with drug addiction, and the song is loosely based on when she and her husband had run out out of money and drugs while on their honeymoon. They frantically called John from their current location - which was "Somewhere Near Japan".

Sadly missing out by a few months from inclusion on the unsatisfyingly half-baked concept-album was the single, Problem Child" - which had appeared in the film of the same name. It was released only on cassette in July 1990.

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Brian's second solo LP, "Sweet Insanity" was originally planned for release in 1991.

During this stage in Wilson's life, he was under the care of psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy, who was known for his unconventional 24-hour therapy. Landy was micro-managing Wilson's life, including his creative career, and became Wilson's primary collaborator.

Brian Wilson : "Sweet Insanity was never really released. You've got bootlegs, but it was never released. And I thought some of the stuff was pretty good. It wasn't the best album I ever wrote. We just didn't think it was good enough. They were just like demos. We recorded about 10-12 songs, and we decided not to put it because we thought that maybe people wouldn't like it, so we junked it."

"Someone to Love" derived a melody from Dennis Wilson's "San Miguel", "Water Builds Up" features the same verse melody as "Let's Go to Heaven in My Car",  "Love Ya" recorded between 1987–1988 was produced by Brian and Russ Titelman. "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" featured Bob Dylan on co-lead vocals. "Smart Girls" - dedicated to "sexy ladies with High I.Q's" - was an ear-curdling stab at rap and included clunky samples of various old Beach Boys classics.

Initially entitled 'Brian', the finished album was pressed as a promotional cassette, and included two bonus tracks : "Country Feelin'" and  "Hotter" - which were intended to be released as a single and B-side.

   

Several of the songs including "Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel", "Rainbow Eyes" and "Make a Wish" were later re-recorded and included on his 2004 album 'Gettin' in Over My Head'.

In February 1992, California courts issued a restraining order on Wilson's therapist Eugene Landy. The next day, Wilson phoned Andy Paley explaining that they were now free to do whatever they wanted. Without an album or recording contract in mind, the two proceeded to write and record several dozen songs that reflected Wilson's personal interests.

[purlieu]

I don't have anything positive to say about that song other than quite liking the delay effect on drums at the start.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I really like Do It Again. For a song that was a fairly shameless attempt to remind casual listeners of why they liked the Beach Boys in the first place, it's better than it needs to be. I think it does a good job of fusing their 'old' sound with where they were in '68; retrograde yet contemporary.

It's underpinned with a kind of desperate nostalgia too, like Limmy's Millport sketch set to music. Why can't we go back there? We didn't have a care in the world, not like now. We're all hairy and druggy, the hits have dried up at home. Wha' happened? Also, the slow bridge is beautiful - "With a girl the lonely sea looks good..." - and those climactic "Hey now" backing vocals are inspired. Such a catchy hook.

And, as purlieu says, the drum sound at the start is great.

[daf]

By the way, that last pic of Dennis is with Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie (rather than Shawn Love - as the text might suggest). Probably taken a couple of years earlier - as I think they split up in 1981.

[The Culture Bunker]

I like the Beach Boys well enough without being a fan as such (only got the Endless Summer compilation) - the story is pretty great, though. Sort of a battle between the more muse-led Wilson brothers against the breadhead Mike Love and assorted moneymen.

[Satchmo Distel]

By the way, that last pic of Dennis is with Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie (rather than Shawn Love - as the text might suggest). Probably taken a couple of years earlier - as I think they split up in 1981.

I think it was 1979, when their relationship started. I've seen Dennis in that t-shirt in other 1979 photos.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I like the Beach Boys well enough without being a fan as such (only got the Endless Summer compilation) - the story is pretty great, though. Sort of a battle between the more muse-led Wilson brothers against the breadhead Mike Love and assorted moneymen.

[daf]

Hang on - is that old matey from the Village People? ^

[The Culture Bunker]

Alas, no, it's Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, former Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers ax-worrier turned designer of other kinds of instruments - OF DEATH!

And to complete the odd cast of the picture, that's Sam Moore almost totally hidden behind Mike Love.

[daf]

Oh that's a relief - I was worried our dear old leatherman* had gone over to the dark side!

Trump and Mike Love in the same room, though - talk about the axis of evil!

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*

[famethrowa]

Enjoyed reading the Beach Boys saga, a lot I didn't know. I still think of them as a gimmick joke band a bit though, the idea of comparing their early 60s stuff to the Beatles from the same time seems laughable. And then they milked the surf thing from the 70s on. Shut up about surfing already. But, can they really be a joke band when they can claim 2 or 3 of the greatest pop songs ever? I'm conflicted.

[daf]

The Story So Far & Further : 1992-2012

In 1991 The Beach Boys returned to the studio with Terry Melcher to record a new album. All of the surviving band members contributed to the project, except Brian Wilson - who was absent due to troubles with his therapist Eugene Landy, and Al Jardine, who had allegedly been suspended from the band prior to the album's recording.

Mike Love : "We had a rough time the last couple of years communicating. He's definitely been on a bummer for many years based on some things that have happened to him historically. We got to the point where we didn't want to be in the same room or on stage with him because he was so negative about things. He was negative about certain things and once we were able to get into a forum, an area where he was able to unload some of that, we could empathize with some of it, not all of it, and air our points of view and it resolved all that stuff."

Having patched things up, Jardine returned at the end of the sessions to sing lead vocals on two of the album's songs.

Mike Love : "He came in and I told Al he made a good song great. It's not that we couldn't do an album and do it well without Al Jardine around. Or the same goes for anybody. You're talking the Beach Boys, you're going to get someone to listen anyway. But on several songs it went from good to great. And Carl, God, he's a monster on the album. I think he sounds phenomenal, the most commercial he's ever sounded."

Produced entirely on a Macintosh Quadra computer, 'Summer in Paradise' was recorded using a Beta version of Pro Tools. The only band member (and possibly the only human!) to actually play on the record was Bruce Johnston : the entire rhythm section was electronic, and most of the bass parts were also synthesized - resulting in a horribly thin biscuit-tin sound.

The album opened with a cover of Sly & the Family Stone's "Hot Fun in the Summertime", and was followed by a re-recording of the Beach Boys first ever single "Surfin'".

Other covers included "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" by The Shangri-Las; "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters;  and "One Summer Night" by The Danleers, which was used in the chorus of Bruce Johnston's song "Slow Summer Dancin' (One Summer Night)".

The original numbers, with the exception of the Transcendental Meditation-influenced "Strange Things Happen", contained references to either summer or surfing. The quasi-rap number "Summer of Love" was originally intended to be a duet with Bart Simpson for a planned Simpsons movie, but the Simpsons producers turned down the offer. It later featured in a 1995 edition of Baywatch.

The album closed with a shit updated version of the Dennis Wilson classic "Forever", featuring actor Jon Stamos . . . for some reason . . . singing lead. Stamos performed the song on at least three episodes of his toe-curling TV "sitcom" Full House.

'Summer in Paradise' reportedly sold fewer than 1000 copies on its release in August 1992, tying with 1978's M.I.U. Album for the Beach Boys album with by far the poorest commercial sales performance. It has been out of print since its initial release and has since become a collectors' item.

Due to the poor reception, five of the tracks were tinkered with for the UK release in 1993 : Carl Wilson's vocals on "Island Fever" (US) were replaced with vocals by Al Jardine - "Island Fever" (UK)  /  "Summer in Paradise" (UK) featured new lead vocals from The Byrds' Roger McGuinn. "Strange Things Happen" (UK), "Under the Boardwalk" (UK), and "Forever" (UK) were remixed and shortened.

 

The 1992 album was released in an elaborate fold-out card covered CD case, featuring artwork painted by Californian artist Robert Lyn Nelson. The original US front sleeve featured the gorgeous (whale) painting "Elements of the Universe", while the album UK version sports the slightly less gorgeous (flag) painting "Ring of Life" - which featured on the inner cover of the US version.

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In August 1995, Brian Wilson released the album "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times". Co-produced by Don Was, it was a soundtrack album for the documentary Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, which was also directed by Was. The album featured new versions of his classic songs.

Brian Wilson : "At first, I thought 'This is gonna be contrived, the songs were all old hat. But then I understood the context of it all, so I felt free to talk without worrying about what I was saying. I got a sense of my self — a sense of worth."

A single "Do It Again" / (b/w "'Til I Die") was released, and the album also included superior re-workings of two songs from his 1988 solo album  - "Love and Mercy" and "Melt Away". As well as the new recordings, a 1976 demo of the previously unreleased song "Still I Dream of It" was also included.

'I Just Wasn't Made for These Times' reached No. 59 on the UK Albums Charts. It did not chart in the U.S.

 

Released in October 1995 'Orange Crate Art' was a collaboration with his old SMiLE lyricist Van Dyke Parks.

Sometime in 1992, Parks approached a then-reclusive Wilson with the invitation to record an album together.

Van Dyke Parks : "The reason why I asked him was to take care of this unfinished business, and to try to escape from the tyranny of the sense of history that's been placed on our own aborted effort [Smile]. When I found him, he was alone in a room staring at a television. It was off."

Though billed and anticipated as a full collaboration, the album is devoted to Parks' compositions, and features his typical dense wordplay and orchestrations. Wilson for his part contributes only the vocals and vocal arrangements. Parks also reported that despite his invitation, Wilson had declined to contribute any music to the project. Despite this, he was keen to record the album for Parks, determined to make something that he "could live with" ten years from then.

Van Dyke Parks : "It was a beautiful song, and I was determined to put some lyrics to it. The first thing that came to mind was the word "orange." "Orange," of course being impossible to rhyme—is problematic in many other ways—but is also a totemic of the California dream, and I thought if there was anybody I wanted to have sing that, it would be Brian Wilson....Probably my first impression of California was an orange. At Christmastime or something once upon a time, that was a very special thing to have—an orange—because it came by train....It was to extol the propagandist art that brought California a sense of realty; it made real estate salable with the idea that California offered a Garden of Eden, a perpetual bread basket, and a virtual cornicop. It pretends to be somnambulistic, but it really is an urging to think about California on those terms of lost love, of things that are disappearing, and the potential of the human spirit."

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Following his freedom from Landy in 1992, the songs Brian Wilson and Andy Paley wrote together ranged from full-blown rockers to delicate ballads. Their writing process involved one or the other convening at each other's house to sketch ideas on a boombox and contribute musical or lyrical ideas until the song was ready to be recorded in a professional studio with session musicians paid for by Wilson.

Andy Paley : "We've just been doing what he likes to do — the kind of records he's always liked; I don't try to change anything in any way — his vision of what he wants."

Brian Wilson : "He's the most frighteningly talented person that I've met, and the most serious about music."

At some point in 1995, plans were afoot for another Beach Boys album. Producer Don Was expressed excitement after sifting through the pile of demo tapes Brian and Paley had provided : "The group were a little cynical, but they didn't hesitate. ... Everybody got along and it was a lovely couple of days. There wasn't a tense moment and the results were pretty good."

Andy Paley : "We had meetings and everything was getting rolling. ... Everyone was so happy to be there ... First I thought: 'Wow, this could really happen.' And when Carl sang 'Soul Searchin',' it was like ... wow this really is going to happen!"

Unfortunately things didn't go smoothly - friction between Brian and the Beach Boys was reported, and Paley claimed that Love attempted to rewrite some of the material. The magazine Request reported: "When Brian played some of the new tracks for the Beach Boys ... the members were politely supportive, but ultimately declined his invitation."

Brian blamed Carl, saying that Carl disliked the song "Soul Searchin'", and didn't want it released. Brian's wife and soon-to-be manager Melinda Ledbetter also blamed Carl, saying that he did not believe the music was commercial enough.

During a background vocals session for "Dancin' the Night Away", Carl walked out. Camera crews were present for the song's recording, which was intended to be used for Baywatch Nights. Some vocals for the song's bridge were recorded by Carl, but others including Brian failed to get Love to sing. Shortly after, Andy Paley said that the album was unlikely to become a Beach Boys record : "Brian and I had a meeting with Mike Love and he listened to everything and Brian really stuck up for these songs and told him he didn't want them changed in any way. I know he's so anxious for this music to come out, and I know I am too."

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Having previously found some chart success by teaming up with other acts, in April 1989, The Everly Brothers With The Beach Boys released "Don't Worry Baby" - which reached #41 in Germany.

 

In February 1996, Status Quo With The Beach Boys released "Fun Fun Fun". The Beach Boys sang mainly backing vocals, with Status Quo's Francis Rossi performing the lead vocal for the entire song, except the newly written verse, which was sung by Mike Love. 

Status Quo became involved in an acrimonious dispute with Radio 1 after the station refused to include the single on the radio station's playlist - on the reasonable grounds that it was "too dull". Despite this, the single reaching #25 in the UK charts - no doubt thanks to the publicity generated by the barmy court case.

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In early 1997, Carl was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer after years of heavy smoking. Despite his terminal condition, Carl continued to perform with the band on its 1997 summer tour while undergoing chemotherapy. During performances, he sat on a stool and needed oxygen after every song. Carl Wilson died on February 6, 1998, at the age of 51, two months after the death of the Wilsons' mother, Audree.

 

Following Carl's death, the remaining members splintered : Mike Love and Bruce Johnston continued to tour together, initially as "America's Band", but following several cancelled bookings under that name, reverted to "The Beach Boys".

Al Jardine began to tour regularly with his band "Beach Boys: Family & Friends" until he ran into legal issues for using the Beach Boys name without permission.

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Sessions for Brian next album were produced by Joe Thomas, who steered Brian towards a more mainstream sound than had been heard on his recent work with Andy Paley.

Joe Thomas : "I think that Andy more comes from that historical perspective than I do. I mean he knows a lot more about the way Brian recorded stuff back in the '60s. ... I've got my guys that I really like. And the fact is that right now, I also don't like to record with a lot of people in the room at the same time. My reasoning is that I just can't keep track of what's going on. I think it's a different way of recording that Brian likes this time around."

"She Says That She Needs Me" was a new version of the unreleased 1965 Beach Boys song "Sherry She Needs Me"  /  "Cry" and "Happy Days" were written by Brian alone, and "Where Has Love Been?" was the only song on the album taken from the 'Andy Paley sessions'.

Andy Paley : "I think that the music is very, very different. Let's put it this way... what he and I did is not an album. First of all, it's way more stuff than you can put on an album, it's probably more like four albums. It was something we enjoyed doing."

'Imagination' was released in June 1998. It reached #88 in the US, and peaked at #30 in the UK.

 

The album included the singles "Your Imagination", and "South American", co-written by Jimmy Buffett, and the song "Lay Down Burden" which was dedicated to his brother Carl who had died a few months earlier.

Brian Wilson : "I wasn't having that much fun at the time. ... I just thought people were out to kill me. I had a fantasy in my head that people were out to murder me. I just couldn't deal with it. I just sort of flipped out."

John Mulvey of NME opined of the record : "if there is one character flaw that has blighted his music over the past 25-odd years, it has been his capacity to be easily led, his need to work with others resulting in a touching but misplaced faith in a host of lesser musical talents who frequently aren't fit to wipe his arse, let alone collaborate with him."

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Many of the songs for Brian's 2004 solo album, were reworked versions of tracks originally recorded for the scrapped 1978 album Sweet Insanity and the Andy Paley sessions from the 1990s.

The album also features an assortment of celebrity guests including Elton John on "How Could We Still Be Dancin?",  Eric Clapton on "City Blues", and Paul McCartney on "A Friend Like You".

With a cover designed by Pop Artist Peter Blake, 'Gettin' in Over My Head', was released on 22 June 2004 on Rhino Records, and reached number 100 in the US, and number 53 in the UK.

 

Carl Wilson appeared posthumously on "Soul Searchin'", a rejected Beach Boys song from the Andy Paley sessions.

Andy Paley : "Brian came up with the first line and we worked on it from there. Brian contributed heavily with lyrics on that one. ... The original mix was really good; the way I wanted to sound in my head was like a Philly soul record."

Other Paley songs included "Gettin in Over My Head", "Desert Drive" and "Saturday Morning In The City".

Side 2 of the album consisted re-recordings of the Sweet Insanity songs, including : "Make a Wish"  /  "Rainbow Eyes"   /   "Fairy Tale"  /  "Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel" and "The Waltz" written with SMiLE lyricist Van Dyke Parks.

[sorry about the wonky youtube links - for some reason most of the songs from this album are missing]

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He toured regularly with his backing band consisting of LA/Chicago musicians including members of The Wondermints, spawning the albums 'Live at the Roxy Theatre' in 2000, and 'Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live' - recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in 2004.

When members of Wilson's band suggested performing the majority of SMiLE in concert as a follow up to his 'Pet Sounds Live', they were shocked to find Wilson approved the idea.

 

Starting in 2003, he proceeded to complete the album's unfinished structure with help from his band and original Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks. Darian Sahanaja of Wilson's band acted as a secretary and facilitator for Wilson's and Parks' ideas, and helped test ideas for the duo by sequencing individual song sections .

Darian Sahanaja : "I gave him everything we could find as multitrack Pro Tools files, so that Parks and Brian could listen to the tracks as isolated as possible, learn and teach parts to the band, and work on sounds. With Brian's stuff of that period, if you try to dissect it from the finished product, especially where you have vocals on top of the instruments, you're never going to get it all."

To relieve Wilson from the burden of deconstructing and reconstructing his own music, Sahanaja handled the task for him by transcribing the recordings as much as he possibly could, then presenting the resultant work back to him for necessary adjustments.

Parks was not initially involved in the project. It was reported that during rehearsals between Wilson and Sahanaja for the unfinished song "Do You Like Worms?", Wilson was able to recall the track's original melody, but not the lyrics. Confronted with this dilemma, he telephoned Parks for help. Parks soon showed up at Wilson's doorstep, and the two extended their collaborations on several other tracks' arrangements and lyrics. For these new versions, Wilson, Parks, Sahanaja, and woodwind player/string arranger Paul Mertens based their arrangements on the original, unreleased Beach Boys tapes to give it an updated yet non-anachronistic sound.

On 22 May, 2003, it was formally announced that Wilson and his band were to perform a live reinterpretation of Smile at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Smile was presented in the form of three movements, with a half-hour intermission between movements two and three.



Upon completion, Wilson received a lengthy standing ovation and invited a tearful Parks onstage. Before the performance, Wilson was so anxious of the album's premiere that he admitted himself into a hospital, and after the show, Sahanaja reported that Wilson rocked back and forth backstage — out of relief that he had finally conquered his fear of Smile — exclaiming "Darian! Darian! We did it! We did it!". The performance was then repeated at the Royal Festival Hall five more times for the next five nights.

Motivated by the positive reception, a studio version was released in September 2004. Recorded from scratch, 'Brian Wilson Presents Smile' eschews [bless you!] the Beach Boys' Smile sessions by containing all-new instrumental and vocal performances.

 

The first movement represented "Americana", and begins with the Wilson composition "Our Prayer" coupled with the 1950s doo-wop song "Gee". This segues into "an expanded version of Heroes and Villains" followed by "Roll Plymouth Rock" [a.k.a. "Do You Like Worms?"], "Barnyard", a medley of "You Are My Sunshine" / "The Old Master Painter", and finally "Cabinessence".

Some of the themes of the second movement - "The Cycle of Life" were childhood and fatherhood, and included : "Wonderful", "Song for Children", "Child Is Father of the Man", and "Surf's Up".

The third movement refers to "The Elements", or alternatively, "Spiritual Rebirth", and includes the slightly scrappy trio of "I'm in Great Shape / I Wanna Be Around / Workshop"  /  "Vega-Tables" [Earth], "On a Holiday", "Wind Chimes" [air], "Mrs O'Leary's Cow" [fire], and "In Blue Hawaii" [water].

Smile's final track, "Good Vibrations", replaces most of Mike Love's lyrics with the earlier original lines penned by Pet Sounds lyricist Tony Asher.

 

While his other 2004 album, 'Gettin' in Over My Head' released a few months earlier, failed to dent the charts, the new version of 'Brian Wilson Presents Smile' debuted at #13 in the US, and reached #7 in the UK.

Praised by the critics, it also won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow". Needless to say, the other Beach boys were delighted with Brian's magnificent triumph -

Mike Love : "I guess it's a good thing for Brian to do. A friend sent me a copy, but I haven't had time to hear it yet because we've been on tour."

Al Jardine : "Honestly, I didn't give it a whole lot of thought; I didn't want to go there at that time. They were good enough to send me a copy. So I dropped the needle, as they used to say, and listened to a few cuts, and it was very nice. But there's nothin' like the real thing. And remember the production value was quite unique to that period of time in the recording process. We used great outboard gear at the time – the tube gear, echo chambers and acoustical chambers and that made everything sound really great. That's what I like about the vintage stuff."

Bruce Johnston : "I think as an exercise in keeping him occupied, it's interesting. ... I talk to him every once in a while. But I'm never going to tell him that I'll take Pet Sounds over what he's doing now. Fate is very uncool. Fate says to Brian and Mike, "I'm going to mess with your head, and I'm not going to give you a Grammy for anything while you're hot. ... Brian and Mike and the band deserved a Grammy in prime time, and it never happened."

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Released by Arista Records in October 2005 Brian's 'What I Really Want for Christmas' featured many traditional Christmas songs, as well some of Wilson's originals, including remakes of the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick" and "The Man with All the Toys". "Joy to the World" was originally recorded in 1997, and "On Christmas Day" and "Silent Night"  had previously appeared on Brian's website in 2000 and 2001.

 

The album featured two high-profile collaborations : "What I Really Want for Christmas" - written Elton John's regular lyricist Bernie Taupin, and "Christmasey" with Witchita Lineman scribbler Jimmy Webb.

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Having reconnected with Van Dyke Parks during the 'Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE' project in 2004, in 2008, they collaborated on Brian's 2008 album - 'That Lucky Old Sun'. Its main theme is celebration of life in Southern California, harking back to the themes of Wilson's earlier work with The Beach Boys.

With music co-written with Scott Bennett from his touring band, Wilson describes the album as "consisting of five 'rounds', with interspersed spoken word". The 1940s' song "That Lucky Old Sun" originally made famous by Frankie Laine provides a recurring motif for the album.



The album opens with "That Lucky Old Sun" and "Morning Beat", followed by "Room With a View" - which is the first of the spoken word interludes.

"Good Kind of Love"  and "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" are next with the narrative section "Venice Beach" leading into "Live Let Live" and "Mexican Girl". "Cinco De Mayo" and "California Role / That Lucky Old Sun (Reprise)" close out side 1.

Following the final narrative section, "Between Pictures", "Oxygen to the Brain" and "Can't Wait Too Long" - a short section of a song originally written during the Wild Honey sessions in 1967 -  lead into "Midnight's Another Day", and "Going Home" - which addresses Wilson's personal struggles.

"That Lucky Old Sun" entered the UK Album Chart at #37 and the US chart at #21, selling 65,000 copies in the US.



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In the summer of 2009, Walt Disney Records approached Wilson about recording his own arrangements of songs from Disney films; however, Wilson first wanted to record an album of Gershwin covers, which the label agreed to support. He and band member Paul Mertens picked the songs to record based on Wilson's vocal range, and which ones he thought he could sing "appropriately."

'Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin'  was released on in August 2010 The album consists of covers of ten George and Ira Gershwin songs, bookended by passages from Rhapsody in Blue, along with two new songs completed from unfinished Gershwin fragments by Wilson and band member Scott Bennett.

The cover artwork is an homage to the album cover for the 1958 jazz LP Sonny Clark Trio by Sonny Clark.

 

Recording of the album began at the start of 2010. Wilson served as producer, with Mertens writing out the arrangements as well as the linking pieces between tracks. The instrumental tracks were produced using his backing band, who also supplied backing vocals; however, the 'Rhapsody in Blue' harmonies that bookend the album were done entirely by Wilson. According to Mertens, Wilson would spend eight hours a day in the studio perfecting vocal tracks.

Paul Mertens : "I tried to prepare the band as much as possible for the songs by writing skeletal arrangements from my meetings with Brian. The band tracks were cut live in the studio. So the band would start playing and get the song up and walking around. Then Brian would start to do his thing. He'd hear what people were doing and say, "Can you play that up an octave?" Bass drop out here...That's how he works best. Or he has it completely done in his mind. He's done that too, where he has come to a sound check and goes, "Here's your vocal part, you play this." Since the Gershwin music was new material it was helpful to have the song in front of him so he could manipulate and move things around the way he wanted."

The album included four songs from Gershwin's 1935 opera 'Porgy and Bess' : "Summertime"  /  "I Loves You, Porgy"  /  "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'"  and  "It Ain't Necessarily So".

Other songs included  : "'S Wonderful" (from the 1927 musical 'Funny Face')
"They Can't Take That Away from Me" (from the 1937 Fred Astaire film 'Shall We Dance')
"Love Is Here to Stay" - which was the last musical composition George Gershwin completed before his death in July 1937 (first heard in the 1938 film 'The Goldwyn Follies')
"I've Got a Crush on You" (introduced in their 1928 flop musical 'Treasure Girl' + the second version of 'Strike Up The Band' from 1930)
"I Got Rhythm" (another song written for 'Treasure Girl' + later relocated to their hit 'Girl Crazy' musical from 1930)
"Someone to Watch Over Me" (from the 1926 the musical 'Oh, Kay!')

In addition to the covers, the Gershwin estate granted Wilson access to over 100 unfinished Gershwin songs and fragments for the project to use for new material. Two songs were completed by Wilson and Scott Bennett (who provided lyrics) mainly based on two fragments: "Will You Remember Me", which was originally written in 1924 for the musical Lady, Be Good, was completed as "The Like in I Love You", while "Say My Say", which was unfinished by the Gershwin brothers in 1929, was completed as "Nothing But Love".

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In February 2011, the Beach Boys released "Don't Fight the Sea", a charity single to aid the victims of the 2011 Japan earthquake. The single, released on Jardine's 2011 album 'A Postcard from California', featured Jardine, Wilson, Love and Johnston, with additional vocals from Carl Wilson sourced from an earlier recording.

Later that year Capitol released a box set dedicated to Smile in the form of The Smile Sessions. The album garnered universal critical acclaim and charting in both the Billboard US and UK Top 30.

 

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'In the Key of Disney' was released on in October 2011, and included : "You've Got a Friend in Me" (from Toy Story)  /  "The Bare Necessities" (The Jungle Book)  /  "Baby Mine" (from Dumbo) and "We Belong Together" (from Toy Story 3).

Brian Wilson : "The Beach Boys sound and the Disney people make a fantastic collaboration. I tried to do justice to all their songs."

 

In December 2011, it was announced that the surviving members of the Beach Boys - Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks - would reunite for a 50th Anniversary Reunion Tour, and a new album.

[producer] Joe Thomas: "Brian called up and said I've got some ideas for some new Beach Boys songs, and I said, That's great, and I pointed out to him that when we worked together several years ago he had the genesis of some other Beach Boys songs that he had never really wanted to put on any of his solo records. That he had isolated specifically for the Beach Boys. So he asked me to compile those and it was more than a few."

The studio reunion was kicked off by a remake of the band's 1968 single, "Do It Again", recorded earlier that May. The next day, the group recorded the album's opening track, "Think About the Days".

"Shelter" and "The Private Life of Bill and Sue" were new songs co-written by Brian and Joe Thomas for the album -

Joe Thomas : "Sometimes he'll have a great chorus and I'll just add a couple lines in a verse. Or a lot of times we'll just play. What Brian likes is chords. So I'll play the piano and I'll play maybe five or six or seven chord progressions, and we'll just sit there. And sometimes he won't say anything, and then all of sudden he'll come up with this brilliant melody while I'm playing the chords."

Mike Love also contributed to "Isn't It Time" and "Beaches in Mind". The song "Daybreak Over the Ocean" was originally recorded in 1978 by Love for his unreleased solo album, 'First Love'.

Released in June 2012, 'That's Why God Made the Radio' debuted at number 3 on U.S. charts, which expanding the group's span of Billboard 200 top ten albums across 49 years and one week, passing the Beatles with 47 years of top ten albums. Though much better than any of their albums since the 70's, certain members felt frustrated by the experience -

Mike Love : "I was hoping to get together with Brian on That's Why God Made the Radio, but a guy who was involved in the production of that album engineered it otherwise. I talked to Brian about a year before we even started doing any of the recording. He and I talked about doing a project and he was excited about doing it, but it never came to fruition at all. It was given another direction—not by me and not by Brian but by others. We were supposed to be allowed to get together to write songs from scratch like we did in the '60s, but that was never to be."

Critics generally regarded the album as an uneven collection, with most of the praise centered on its closing musical suite -

Joe Thomas : "He really wanted to do like a kind of reflection of California from the standpoint of a, you know, a guy who's almost 70 years old. So it's driving down Pacific Coast Highway and thinking about his life in retrospect. So this suite was a series of maybe one or two minute vignettes that he had like 15 of them that he would start and never finish. When I put them together on ProTools, it was eerie to me that they all fit together. It was like, wow. This song was written a year before the song that followed it, but yet they fit completely perfectly: modulation, key move, the whole thing."

Originally six tracks, the suite consisted of : "Strange World", "From There to Back Again", "Pacific Coast Highway", and "Summer's Gone".

 

In late September 2012, news outlets began reporting that Mike Love had dismissed Wilson from the Beach Boys. On 5 October, Love responded in a press release to the LA Times stating he "did not fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys ... I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys."

Four days later, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine submitted a written response, stating : "I was completely blindsided by his press release ... We hadn't even discussed as a band what we were going to do with all the offers that were coming in for more 50th shows."

Mike Love : "I had a wonderful experience being in the studio together. Brian has lost none of his ability to structure those melodies and chord progressions ... Touring was more for the fans. ... It was a great experience, it had a term to it, and now everyone's going on with their ways of doing things."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[kalowski]

Enjoyed reading the Beach Boys saga, a lot I didn't know. I still think of them as a gimmick joke band a bit though, the idea of comparing their early 60s stuff to the Beatles from the same time seems laughable. And then they milked the surf thing from the 70s on. Shut up about surfing already. But, can they really be a joke band when they can claim 2 or 3 of the greatest pop songs ever? I'm conflicted.

Don't be conflicted. The stuff Wilson producer 65-70 was fucking amazing.

[daf]

Can't believe I missed this classic from 2010 :

"Mike Love of the Beach Boys" - Santa's Gone To Kokomo