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Gary Pig
Gold: October, 2000
MIDDLE-AGED
SYMPHONIES TOWARDS GOD: The Beach Boys’ BROTHER Years
Yes indeed, it goes without saying that Brian Wilson and his familial
band full of brothers, cousins and friends have enjoyed a career quite
unlike any other across the cuckoo annals of show business. Scoring a
local hit in 1961 straight off the mark with their very first little indie
single, then soon after placing a sophomore release into no less than
the hallowed Billboard Hot One Hundred – and all at a time when the majority
of the band still had to be home in time to attend class the next morning
– The Beach Boys, it could be argued, really started their marathon run
at the very tip-top, suicidally crash-dove towards oblivion a few short
years later, and only THEN slowly but surely began their struggle up the
ladder of ever-lasting fame, fortune and, ultimately, all-American glory
…and just in time to score an invite to play the Reagan White House, need
I remind anyone.
Which
just all goes to show, I suppose, that blood surely is thicker than any
critic’s ink, what gets around (from town to town) comes around and that,
most obviously, Brian Wilson near single-in-handedly created a body of
work which can surely withstand the most brutal scourges of both time
and fashion. To prove that point, even Mike Love’s current touring "Beach
Boys" [sic!] can still draw a healthy enough crowd on any given Saturday
night, weather and authorities permitting.
That’s why it’s sometimes hard to fathom that there was indeed a time,
roughly between 1966 and 1975, when The Beach Boys truly hit rock ‘n’
roll bottom and were forced to really, really hustle their sunkist butts
long and hard to keep everyone’s musical and financial heads above water,
proverbially speaking. Bleak, sorry years when this once Beatle-caliber
band were reduced to hauling their act out on the road and into midwestern
VFW halls alongside that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. A pitiful period when
their latest brave creations were routinely being scorned in favor of
those from The Archies and even Grand Funk Railroad. This was, in fact,
a harrowing era when (as no less a numbers man as Bruce Johnston Himself
continues to recall) America’s Band could scarcely draw two hundred paying
patrons to a series of gala performances within the very heart of New
York City.
In a word then? Yikes!
Of course any other combo with half its wits intact would’ve called it
quits right about then – or at least ditched the "Surfin’ Safari" stagewear
for starters. But The Beach Boys were more than just another pop group,
weren’t they? They were a FAMILY, first and foremost, and rather than
remain one-upped by their musical neighbors so to speak, this musical
household doggedly set about getting their affairs back in order, persisting
along this rugged path for year after endless year …even when all around
seemed hapless, hopeless, and far, far from harmonious. On ANY level.
Actually finding themselves without an American recording contract at
the dawn of the Seventies, and with their guiding musical light apparently
more interested in snoozing than writing, arranging, singing and/or producing,
Carl and Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, and even those afore-mentioned Mike
and Bruce guys had no logical choice but to settle down to some good old-fashioned,
decorum-be-damned hard hard work, lest they find themselves forever tossed
upon the scrap-heap of One Hit Wonderdom. So first of all, every Boy still
awake and mobile began by bringing the audio mountain to Mohammed, constructing
a working studio directly beneath Brian’s Bel Air bedroom (not that that
helped motivate their big brother much in the long run: nice try, though).
Then they boldly formed their own record company and, crazier still, set
about writing and recording a string of albums which form not only the
mysterious, mythical candy core of The Beach Boys’ vast sea of tunes,
but in retrospect actually hold much more than their own against such
bally-hoo’ed, Nixon-vintage contemporaries as the Eagles, Doobies, and
even that Buckingham/Nicks-model Big Mac.
Available
once again in an expertly packaged, lovingly annotated and – it’s about
time – sonically up-graded series of twofers from the good folk over at
Capitol, these half-dozen releases compiling the entire output of The
Beach Boys’ "lost years" (off their own Brother Records imprint) are literally
jam-packed with dozens upon dozens of gems you probably haven’t heard
in years – for example, the once mega-maligned SO TOUGH album from ’72
now sounds like no less than Carl and his Passions tackling BIG PINK Band
by way of Paul Buckmaster! -- or, in some cases, gems you might have even
over-looked altogether.
Chronologically speaking, the initial Brother albums SUNFLOWER and SURF’S
UP remain among the most universally cherished records on the planet (just
ask David Bash!), and both contain their fair share of Brian Wilson treasures
for the ages – "This Whole World" and "Til I Die" most particularly –
which rank easily amongst the very best Our Hero has yet to offer us all.
Meaning, must I say, they’re some of the greatest musical works ever created
by man or beast. The two junior Wilsons blossom forth on these albums
as well ("Long Promised Road" and "Feel Flows" prove Carl learned his
lessons fully whilst attending all those PET SOUNDS and SMiLE sessions;
Dennis, conversely – as always – forged his own musical identity within
SUNFLOWER somewhere between the cock-rockin’ "Got To Know The Woman" and
the heart-drenched passion of "Forever"). Meanwhile, that then-new 16-track
technology at work throughout allowed the band to layer on those heavenly,
heavenly harmonies as never before. Or, in truth, since. "Cool, Cool Water,"
to mention just one, contains chorale cascades which will continue to
astound the ear today, three decades (and countless attempts at recreation)
since they were first meticulously piled onto tape.
Suffice
to say, the music The Beach Boys made in the very early Seventies remains
amongst their very, very best, and no listener out there, discriminating
or otherwise, should let these sounds slip past unheard a single minute
longer.
Despite the odd (in more ways than one) moment thereafter however – and
again, I cite such B. Wilson concoctions as HOLLAND’s notorious Fairy
Tale "Mt. Vernon And Fairway" plus the entire proto-punk BEACH BOYS LOVE
YOU album – the band’s post-1972 output is, well, spotted indeed. Still,
works of total wonder are to be found even on such universally poo-poohed
efforts as 15 BIG ONES (just listen to the slap-happy vocal counterpoint
which ends "It’s O.K."), KEEPIN’ THE SUMMER ALIVE (with its B.T.O.-on-the-beach
title track co-written by, you guessed it, none other than Randy Bachman)
and even the lowly M.I.U. ALBUM (…awrite awrite, so I for one believe
"Hey Little Tomboy" to be a hunka hunka fluff of near Jonathan Richman
pedigree). Nevertheless, with a band as diverse and musically all-encompassing
as The Beach Boys, one just has to take the good with the not-quite-so-good:
after all, these characters have always been, if nothing else, totally
fearless in the way they conduct themselves both inside and outside of
the recording studio. Besides, one must also remember that this music
was being created and released back in the glorious days when rock ‘n’
roll bands were not only allowed to be adventurous, but could even get
such fits of fancy released and often promoted to the public at large.
(…um, expecting a Fairy Tale to magically appear upon the next Smashing
Garbage album? Don’t hold my breath!) Proving once again that still waters
do indeed run so, so deep, The Beach Boys’ Brother Years sonically document
a band – and a family – in quite desperate creative and emotional upheaval,
yet producing some of its best if least-known work despite (or is it because?)
of such all-around adversities.
For awhile then at least, without a doubt, the family that Sang together
STAYED together. For awhile.
Listen, listen, listen…
THE BEACH BOYS:
SUNFLOWER/SURF’S
UP
CARL AND THE PASSIONS: SO
TOUGH / HOLLAND
THE
BEACH BOYS IN CONCERT
15 BIG ONES / THE BEACH BOYS LOVE YOU M.I.U. ALBUM / LIGHT ALBUM
KEEPIN’ THE SUMMER ALIVE / THE BEACH BOYS ’85
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Gary Pig
Gold: November, 2000
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