I enjoy Holland.
I enjoy Holland.
I bought a 2-CD set containing the albums "Carl and the Passions: So Tough" and "Holland". I wrote a review on Amazon.
Summarising very briefly:
I thought Carl and the Passions was a dreadfully dull album, except for the final two tracks; Track 7, "All This Is That", almost by itself justifies the purchase.
I liked Holland better, though I could have done without the rather ridiculous "Mount Vernon - A Fairytale" bonus thing tacked on at the end. I'm not so keen on "California Saga", but some of the other songs are excellent, notably "Sail On, Sailor" and "The Trader".
The Beachies' final album, "That's Why God Made the Radio", is also surprisingly good. It's not up to the standard of albums like Pet Sounds, but it's not bad at all, and they still sound like the Beach Boys, amazingly for guys in their 60's..
It's a little more complicated than that, of course.When Brian heard Sgt. Pepper his response was a conflicted one, " They did it,it's over now." I believe he was referring to his rivalry with Lennon/McCartney pushing each other further into the musical universe and then he just gave up and crawled into bed for 8 years or so
Not a huge Beach Boys fan , living in Los Angeles like I have from the 70's to now, you couldn't avoid them on the radio and if I never hear Little Deuce Coupe or Fun, Fun, Fun or *shudder* Help Me Rhonda *shudder* ever again it'll still be too soon. However, like any good acidhead, I got in to Pet Sounds > the Good Vibrations single and I do love that period. Brian imploded due to longstanding mental issues combined with massive drug useage, but the reason he never completed SMiLE is simple: in exchange for dropping the album, Capital Records redid the Beach Boys contract with a bigger royalty rate and let them set up their own sub-label, Brother Records. It wasn't because the Hollywood Hills caught fire when he was recording The Elements suite, nice though the story is. Then his ghastly father sold off the publishing rights to the Beach Boys catalog in 1969 for a pittance, what's a guy gonna do but take his bed for a few years?
I saw Brian and his great band at the Disney Hall in 2004 doing SMiLE and it was pretty amazing.
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I have that same double set, and don't think I've got all the way through 'Carl and the Passions.'
The latest one has some very good tracks on it, I seem to recall enjoying the last three or four tracks a lot. I gather since then the Beach Boys now consists of Mike Love and whoever he brings along, though. When I see videos of them playing, Mike Love strikes me as being a bit... creepy.
I've heard people comment that Al Jardine's guitar isn't plugged in, but I saw a video of him singing and playing solo and it sounded very good.
All the albums have at least one amazing track on. So even dog albums like 'MIU' and 'Keepin' The Summer Alive', have some great stuff. 'My Diane' on the former I personally think is one of the most underrated songs they ever released, it's a real heartbreaker of a track. The latter has 'Endless Harmony' which I've been fond of since I first heard it on the documentary of that same name.
Count me as another fan of 'All This Is That', especially Carl Wilson's vocals at the end. And yes, 'That's Why God Made The Radio' exceeded my expectations massively. I had the last three songs on that on repeat play when it came out, amazing stuff. A shame about all the vocal effects on it and there's a couple of dud songs but I thought this would be a turkey, turned out to be the best album under their name since 'Holland' IMHO.
I can't endorse any praise for 'Smiley Smile'. The two singles aside, that's a bad album IMHO- some tracks like 'Wonderful' are on that in very inferior versions, and stuff like 'She's Gone Bald'...words fail me! I'd argue it was probably the most damaging release of their career- surely they could have cobbled together something better out of the 'Smile' sessions even with the concept ditched, as lots of its tracks leaked out on subsequent albums.
Last edited by JJ88; 05-08-2014 at 05:27 AM.
Huh? Where's your source for this?
There was massive advance buzz on Smile and Capitol wanted it badly, especially after the blockbuster GV single and "Surf's Up" getting on Leonard Bernstein's TV show. They went far enough to design an elaborate gatefold cover, booklet and promo strategy. Nobody wanted Brian to abort the album (though granted, some of the other BB's had mixed feelings about it) and nobody wanted a long delay followed by the tossed-off,noncommercial Smiley.
I imagine those "some of the other BB's" would have been Mike Love, and possibly Al Jardine. I am pretty sure the Wilson brothers were all keen to move beyond their surf pop roots - indeed, to even move beyond Pet Sounds.
To Mike Love is attributed the call "Don't fuck with the formula." Whether he actually said that or not, it sums up pretty well the state of affairs at the time, and the schism in the band. The Wilsons were keen to do something new and different, to push the envelope. Mike Love and co wanted to shift units.
If I had met the Wilsons at the time, I would have given them this advice: "Split off, form your own group. Let Mike Love keep the name Beach Boys if he wants it, and keep churning out clones of Help me Rhonda and Little Deuce Coupe year after year - if they can find someone to write the songs. Make a clean break, pick a new name ("Sunflower" would have worked), and make the music YOU want to make." A lot of nastiness might have been avoided.
Pretty much true, though the Wilsons' take was influenced by the strain Brian was under, and what the drugs were doing to him-- There are interviews where Carl talks about the overall difficulty of that time, and how relieved he felt when they moved on. Plus, it didn't sound like the sessions were that much fun the group members. To some extent Brian was flying without a net, recording all those pieces that fit together only in his head, and even the BB's didn't know what the overall picture was going to be.
I also think Mike Love's conflict with the group's progressive direction is overplayed-- A large part of that was that he and Van Dyke Parks didn't (and don't) like each other. He didn't necessarily think it all needed to be "Surfin USA" (after all, most of what he was writing then was about TM), but he thought Parks' lyrics were too far out-- his take was dead wrong, but somewhat understandable.
A fascinating story all around.
A magazine article from a few years ago. I don't have it with me here at work, I'll transcribe the bit I mentioned when I get home tonight.Huh? Where's your source for this?
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PS I think Pacific Ocean Blue by Dennis Wilson is the best Beach Boys related solo album bar none.
I'm only really familiar with the radio hits, which I never liked at all, even as a youngster (before my teen years). I heard Wilson's Smile album 10 years or so ago and thought it was incredible. Yes, I thought it sounded very "prog". Still, I never picked up my own copy.......just didn't seem like something I would listen to regularly.
I can't endorse any non-praise for Smiley Smile, I love that freaked out little album.
Yea - it was Smiley Smile that got me into The Beach Boys. It was the 'Fall Breaks And Back To Winter' tune that made me really pay attention. Lovely stuff.
Although I don't really mind the radio hits, they were never really something I found myself wanting to go listen to. But in October 2004 (shortly after it came out) I picked up SMiLE on a lark one night while in Wal-Mart, having just a passing familiarity with Wilson and the Beach Boys. Listened to it all in one sitting and I was completely floored by that album, and am so very glad that I got it. Never thought I would end up loving it as much as I did. That version of Surf's Up is simply wonderful, and so is Blue Hawaii.
Always meant to get into more Beach Boys stuff but never progressed beyond Pet Sounds, which is a lovely pop album and very ambitious for its time. Their latest one was quite good as well.
Here we go, it's from the official Capitol Records press release that was issued when the revamped SMiLE was released in 2011:I'll transcribe the bit I mentioned when I get home tonight.
http://www.examiner.com/article/offi...ol-emi-records
The reason SMiLE did not see a release in early 1967 had more to do with back room business that obscured the creative side of the program than anything else. In late 1966, The Beach Boys formed Brother Records, initially to produce outside artists. Soon, however, The Beach Boys would become embroiled in a court action with Capitol Records with the goal to become the top-selling artists on their self-owned, independent label. The group withheld “Heroes and Villains” and announced they would instead release “Vegetables” – recorded with the band’s own money in April of '67 – on Brother Records. By July of 1967, Capitol Records and The Beach Boys had come to terms, with Capitol agreeing to distribute the band’s Brother Records, and it was agreed that SMiLE was no longer to be the band’s next album.
So basically, Brian and the band nixed SMiLE for business reasons, by July of 1967 Brian was well in to his breakdown phase. To be honest, I don't like the album all that much apart from Good Vibrations, Surf's Up and Cabin Essence, the kind of rootsy Americana they were dealing in leaves me cold.
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The organ solo on 'Surfin' USA' is awesome.
The music was hot, but my baby was not.
That's really interesting, thanks. Still, I don't get from it that Smile was shelved to please the Capitol folks. Rather, it seems that the negotiations happened while Smile was breaking down, and they probably provided Brian one more reason to drag things out. The BB's were certainly offering a different album by the time things were finalized, but that seems to be the group's decision rather than the label's. I never knew that "Vegetables" was proposed as a single but if they meant the original Smile version, it wouldn't have been that bad a choice.
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