Ocean blues
A compact guide to the Beach Boys in the '70s
Adult Child
(1976-77) For all the talk about the unreleased Smile, there
is relatively little mentioned about this kooky but lovable mid-'70s
album, which was submitted to (and rejected by) Warner Bros. after
15 Big Ones and before Love You. I spent months tracking
this down, finally landing a mediocre-sounding vinyl bootleg with
horrible cover art for $30, and it's worth every penny. Emotionally,
this runs the gamut, juxtaposing positive, physical fitness-themed
songs such as "Life Is for the Living" and the jaw-dropping
"H.E.L.P. Is on the Way" (actually a leftover from the
Sunflower era) with some of the saddest, loneliest tunes
Brian Wilson ever wrote, the Frank Sinatra-styled big-band ballads
"It's Over Now" and "Still I Dream of It." There's
even a song about baseball ("It's Trying to Say"). Carl
and Dennis Wilson pitch in with vocals on a few of the songs, and
there are a few covers – "Deep Purple," "On
Broadway," and "Shortenin' Bread" – but like
Love You (and Pet Sounds), this is essentially pure
Brian. Someone, please release this.
Pacific Ocean Blue
(1977) The hardest-living Beach Boy, drummer Dennis Wilson was the
one responsible for their hardest-rocking songs as well as their
most sensitive, glacially paced ballads. Those extremes are on hand
here on his lone solo album, along with plenty of in-between material
– like "Pacific Ocean Blues," a funky, environmentally
conscious song with lyrics by Mike Love, his nemesis in the band.
Listen to "River Song," the laid-back California soul-rock
masterpiece that opens this album, then compare it to some of the
infantile crapola that was coming out of the Beach Boys camp on
albums like 15 Big Ones and M.I.U., and it should
be easy to see why Dennis was so bitter and resentful toward the
oldies-minded Love during that time. Unlike Brian's albums from
this era, Pacific Ocean Blue doesn't have the mark of a "tormented
genius," but rather that of a really honest, emotionally vulnerable
guy who you'd still want to sit down and have a beer with (only
Dennis probably would have had more than just beer in mind). The
album sold more than 100,000 copies but is currently near impossible
to find. When will it be rereleased?
Landlocked
This one isn't really an album, although there are several bootlegs
under the name. Landlocked was the early working title for
Surf's Up – another telling sign of how the band felt
about their place in the music industry at the time – and while
only a few of the songs made it onto that album, most of them trickled
out onto later '70s albums (15 Big Ones, Love You) and, much
later, the Good Vibrations box set. Two of them, though,
are absolute musts: "When Girls Get Together," a loving,
slightly more grown-up ode to women than "California Girls"
that was later released on 1980's Keepin' the Summer Alive;
and "Soulful Old Man Sunshine," a jazzy, incredibly upbeat
number that you can find in a legit version on the Endless Harmony
soundtrack. They're both worth it.
• • •
Don't sit around on
your ass, smoking grass / That stuff went out a long time ago.
"Life Is for
the Living," Adult Child
Transcendental Meditation
should be part of your time / It's simple, as easy as makin' this
rhyme.
"TM Song,"
15 Big Ones
Trees like me weren't
meant to live / When all this Earth can give / Is pollution and
slow death.
"A Day in the
Life of a Tree," Surf's Up
I'm convinced of it
/ The hypnosis of our minds can take us far away.
"Still I Dream
of It," Adult Child
Doughy lumps, stomach
pumps, enemas too / That's what you get when you eat that way.
"H.E.L.P. Is
on the Way," Adult Child
Pat, pat, pat, pat,
pat her on her butt, butt / She's going to sleep, be quiet.
"I Wanna Pick
You Up," Love You
Ed McMahon comes on
and says, 'Here's Johnny!' / Every night at eleven thirty, he's
so funny.
"Johnny Carson,"
Love You
W.Y.
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