I’ve discovered that a friend of mine is planning a similar book on Nilsson to the one I was thinking of writing, so I won’t be Kickstarting that next month — I’m waiting to see what he does with that, now, so I don’t tread on his toes. That being said, there was enough interest that I might well still put up a Kickstarter for some other music books — I’ve talked about solo George Harrison, David Bowie and Roy Wood, anyone have any other ideas about musicians they’d like me to write about (enough to pay me)?

Assuming I manage to get some sleep tonight, the Youngblood post will be up tomorrow, and I’ll be resuming the Fifty Stories posts on Friday, and FINALLY getting some book reviews up over the weekend.

The important bit of the description:

Made In California’s previously unreleased and long sought-after recordings include ‘Goin’ To The Beach,’ ‘California Feelin’,’ ‘Soul Searchin’,’ ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,’ and ‘You’re Still A Mystery,’ among others. The set also debuts 17 unreleased live recordings, including ‘Runaway’ (1965), ‘Friends’ and ‘Little Bird’ (1968), ‘Wild Honey’ (1972), ‘It’s About Time’ (1973), ‘Wonderful’ and ‘Vegetables’ from The Beach Boys’ legendary 1993 acoustic tour, and a 1995 rendition of ‘Sail On, Sailor’ featuring a soulful lead vocal by the late Carl Wilson. The greatly missed talents of Carl and Dennis Wilson are also celebrated with rare and previously unreleased recordings including Dennis’ ‘(Wouldn’t It Be Nice To) Live Again,’ ‘Barnyard Blues’ and ‘My Love Lives On,’ Carl’s lead vocals on ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ and ‘Soul Searchin’,’ and Carl’s shared lead with Bruce and Brian on ‘California Feelin’.’

The set also features a special ‘From The Vaults’ disc of rarities selected by the band and the producers with longtime Beach Boys fans in mind. Among the disc’s highlights are a cappella mixes of standout vocal recordings for songs including ‘This Whole World’ and ‘Slip On Through,’ alternate versions of ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ and other Beach Boys classics, session highlights and instrumental tracks, plus newly-discovered BBC Radio live recordings from 1964 of ‘Wendy,’ ‘When I Grow Up (To Be A Man),’ and ‘Hushabye.’

And the full tracklist:

CD 1
—-
1. Home Recordings / “Surfin’” Rehearsal Highlights (2012 Edit – Mono)
2. Surfin’ (with Session Intro – Mono)
3. Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring (Demo – Mono)
4. Surfin’ Safari (Original Mono Long Version)
5. 409 (Original Mono Long Version)
6. Lonely Sea (Original Mono Mix)
7. Surfin’ U.S.A.
8. Shut Down (2003 Stereo Mix)
9. Surfer Girl
10. Little Deuce Coupe
11. Catch A Wave
12. Our Car Club
13. Surfers Rule (with Session Intro)
14. In My Room
15. Back Home
16. Be True To Your School (Mono Single Version)
17. Ballad Of Ole’ Betsy
18. Little Saint Nick (Stereo Single Version)
19. Fun, Fun, Fun (Mono Single Version)
20. Little Honda
21. Don’t Worry Baby (2009 Stereo Mix)
22. Why Do Fools Fall In Love (2009 Stereo Mix)
23. The Warmth Of The Sun
24. I Get Around (with Session Intro – Mono)
25. Wendy (2007 Stereo Mix)
26. All Summer Long (2007 Stereo Mix)
27. Girls On The Beach
28. Don’t Back Down
29. When I Grow Up (To Be A Man) (2012 Stereo Mix)
30. All Dressed Up For School (Mono)
31. Please Let Me Wonder (2007 Stereo Mix)
32. Kiss Me, Baby (2000 Stereo Mix)
33. In The Back of My Mind (2012 Stereo Mix)
34. Dance, Dance, Dance (2003 Stereo Mix)

CD 2
—-
1. Do You Wanna Dance (2012 Stereo Mix)
2. Help Me, Rhonda (Mono Single Version)
3. California Girls (2002 Stereo Mix)
4. Amusement Parks USA (Early Version)
5. Salt Lake City (2001 Stereo Mix)
6. Let Him Run Wild (2007 Stereo Mix)
7. Graduation Day (Session Excerpt and Master Take, 2012 Mix)
8. The Little Girl I Once Knew (Mono)
9. There’s No Other (Like My Baby) (2012 “Unplugged” Mix with Party Session Intro)
10. Barbara Ann (2012 Stereo Mix)
11. Radio Spot “Wonderful KYA” (Mono)
12. Sloop John B (1996 Stereo Mix)
13. Wouldn’t It Be Nice (2001 Stereo Mix)
14. God Only Knows (1996 Stereo Mix)
15. I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times (1996 Stereo Mix)
16. Caroline No (1996 Stereo Mix)
17. Good Vibrations (Mono)
18. Our Prayer (2012 “Smile Sessions” Stereo Mix)
19. Heroes And Villains: Part 1 (“Smile Sessions” Mix – Mono)
20. Heroes And Villains: Part 2 (“Smile Sessions” Mix – Mono)
21. Vega-Tables (“Smile Sessions” Stereo Mix)
22. Wind Chimes (“Smile Sessions” Stereo Mix)
23. The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow) (“Smile Sessions” Mix – Mono)
24. Cabin Essence (“Smile Sessions” Mix – Mono)
25. Heroes And Villains (2012 Stereo Mix)
26. Wonderful (2012 Stereo Mix)
27. Country Air (2012 Stereo Mix)
28. Wild Honey (2012 Stereo Mix)

CD 3
—-
1. Darlin’ (2012 Stereo Mix)
2. Let The Wind Blow (2001 Stereo Mix)
3. Meant For You (Alternate Version)
4. Friends
5. Little Bird
6. Busy Doin’ Nothin’
7. Sail Plane Song (2012 Stereo Mix)
8. We’re Together Again (2012 Stereo Mix)
9. Radio Spot “Murray The K” (Mono)
10. Do It Again (2012 Stereo Mix)
11. Old Man River (Vocal Section)
12. Be With Me
13. I Can Hear Music
14. Time To Get Alone
15. I Went To Sleep
16. Can’t Wait Too Long (A Cappella)
17. Break Away (Alternate Version)
18. Celebrate The News
19. Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song) (Single Version, 2001 Stereo Mix)
20. Susie Cincinnati (2012 Mix)
21. Good Time
22. Slip On Through
23. Add Some Music To Your Day
24. This Whole World
25. Forever
26. It’s About Time
27. Soulful Old Man Sunshine
28. Fallin’ In Love (2009 Stereo Mix)
29. Sound Of Free (Mono Single Version)
30. ‘Til I Die
31. Surf’s Up

CD 4
—-
1. Don’t Go Near The Water
2. Disney Girls (1957)
3. Feel Flows
4. (Wouldn’t It Be Nice To) Live Again
5. Marcella
6. All This Is That
7. Sail On Sailor
8. The Trader
9. California Saga (On My Way To Sunny Californ-I-A)
10. Rock And Roll Music (2012 Mix w/Extra Verse)
11. It’s OK (Alternate Mix)
12. Had To Phone Ya
13. Let Us Go On This Way
14. I’ll Bet He’s Nice
15. Solar System
16. The Night Was So Young
17. It’s Over Now (Alternate Mix)
18. Come Go With Me
19. California Feelin’
20. Brian’s Back (Alternate Mix)
21. Good Timin’
22. Angel Come Home
23. Baby Blue
24. It’s A Beautiful Day (Single Edit) (2012 Mix)
25. Goin’ To The Beach

CD 5
—-
1. Goin’ On
2. Why Don’t They Let Us Fall In Love
3. Da Doo Ron Ron
4. Getcha Back
5. California Dreamin’
6. Kokomo
7. Soul Searchin’
8. You’re Still A Mystery
9. That’s Why God Made The Radio
10. Isn’t It Time (Single Version)
THE BEACH BOYS LIVE:
————————————————————-
11. Runaway (Chicago 1965 — w/Concert Promo Intro – Mono)
12. You’re So Good To Me (Paris 1966 – Mono)
13. The Letter (Hawaii Rehearsal 1967)
14. Friends (Chicago 1968 – Mono)
15. Little Bird (Chicago 1968 – Mono)
16. All I Want To Do (London 1968)
17. Help Me, Rhonda (New Jersey 1972)
18. Wild Honey (New Jersey 1972)
19. Only With You (New York 1972)
20. It’s About Time (Chicago 1973)
21. I Can Hear Music (Maryland 1975)
22. Vegetables (New York 1993)
23. Wonderful (New York 1993)
24. Sail On Sailor (Louisville 1995)
25. Summer In Paradise (Wembley 1993)

CD 6
—-
FROM THE VAULTS:
—————————————————————————
1. Radio Spot (1966 — Mono)
2. Slip On Through (A Cappella Mix)
3. Don’t Worry Baby (Stereo Session Outtake w/ Alternate Lead Vocal)
4. Pom Pom Play Girl (Vocal Session Highlight)
5. Guess I’m Dumb (Instrumental Track w/Background Vocals)
6. Sherry She Needs Me (1965 Track w/1976 Vocal)
7. Mona Kana (Instrumental Track)
8. This Whole World (A Cappella)
9. Where Is She?
10. Had To Phone Ya (Instrumental Track)
11. SMiLE Backing Vocals Montage (from “The Smile Sessions”)
12. Good Vibrations (Stereo Track Sections)
13. Be With Me (Demo)
14. I Believe In Miracles (Vocal Section)
15. Why (Instrumental Track)
16. Barnyard Blues
17. Don’t Go Near The Water (Instrumental Track)
18. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling
19. Transcendental Meditation (Instrumental Track)
20. Our Sweet Love (Vocals w/Strings)
21. Back Home (1970 Version)
22. California Feelin’ (Original Demo)
23. California Girls (“Lei’d In Hawaii” Studio Version)
24. Help You, Rhonda (“Lei’d In Hawaii” Studio Version)
25. Surf’s Up (1967 Version) (2012 Mix)
26. My Love Lives On
27. Radio Spot (1964 – Mono)
28. Wendy (BBC — Live in the Studio 1964 – Mono)
29. When I Grow Up (To Be A Man) (BBC — Live in the Studio 1964 – Mono)
30. Hushabye (BBC — Live in the Studio 1964 – Mono)
31. Carl Wilson: Coda (2013 Edit)

This looks almost perfect. There are niggles, but the only thing I’d have *definitely* done differently is add in a few tracks from Adult Child. Other than that, this looks exquisite.

I’m so very, very old…

Texas law does NOT allow you to shoot a prostitute who refuses sex. You know that thing you’ve all been sharing? It’s not true. That probably goes for any other thing you’ve all been sharing, like the one about what “blood is thicker than water” means.

I’m grumpy because I’m tired.

Teatime Brutality on another thing being shared around Tumblr, and the way Tumblr sharing works. Absolutely fascinating piece of writing.

Charles Stross on Iain Banks

Alex Wilcock on the best scenes with the Master in Doctor Who

Was the communications data bill a cover for PRISM?

And Millennium reviews Lawrence Burton’s wonderful novel Against Nature, which I’ve been promising to review for weeks now but haven’t yet, because it’s a good enough book that I need to pay attention to the review. But I agree with pretty much everything in this review.

First, More Tales Of The City, the new City Of The Saved short story anthology, is out from Obverse Books (ebook, paperback). I’ll have a review up in a few days — Obverse are putting out so much good stuff I barely have time to read it all, let alone formulate a coherent critical response.

Would PR Spell The End Of The Liberal Democrats?. Yes. And of the other parties too. I’ve been saying for years that I’m a Lib Dem because I want to see all the current parties smashed, and a decent electoral system will do that (if and when that happens I’ll remain in one of the splinters of the Lib Dems, because I’m a liberal as well as a democrat).

Slapstick In Action

Why There Should Be A Science Museum In Manchester

The Dangerous Urban-Rural Divide In English Politics

Millennium on Matt Smith

They did this, because “they saw I’d linked to a competitor site” — in fact the link was in a comment, four years ago, and not an entirely complimentary one. Annoyingly, they had time to run a whois on my site and scrape the email address I used to register it (not the one I give to people in comments, or that is associated with this wordpress account, so I know that’s how they got it) but not enough time to bother checking the context of the link.

But they asked if I’d give their clients a mention and a link, and so I have.

As a great aardvark once said “you can get what you want and still not be happy”.

This may not be the most widely-read blog on the internet, but I am proud of the readership I do have. Proud enough that when I review things by people I know I always declare the interest. Proud enough that I pay money *not* to have advertising on this blog, so my readers don’t have to put up with it. Proud enough not to sell my opinions and their eyeballs.

If you want me to link to, and endorse, your business, there’s a simple way to do so — provide a good product or service that I buy and use. Now as it happens I do, quite often, buy nutritional supplements online. I can guarantee that I won’t be using supplements.co.uk to do so, ever. But I can definitely recommend biovea.net, one of their competitors, who have always been very reliable and who, crucially, have not only never tried to pay me for my opinions, but have also only very rarely emailed me at all, and only about products it is reasonable to think I might wish to buy given what I’ve purchased from them in the past. They also have a 10% offer on this week. Why not buy something from them?

NOTE: There are varying definitions of spam. Here I am using the word to mean “unsolicited commercial email”. I do not imply that the message was sent in bulk, which appears in some definitions.

I have tried, in these essays, to be as objective as I can. Yes, some of the reviews have been harsh, but I have tried wherever possible to find something positive to say. The Beach Boys put out some material that was subpar, but never usually less than interesting.

But Mike Love’s only released solo album (he recorded two in 1978 and one in 2004 that remain unreleased) is terrible. Despite the involvement of Curt Becher as producer, and of Brian Wilson on one track, this is easily the worst album ever to involve any of the Beach Boys, if not the worst album ever released.

And the problem is, by saying this I know it will encourage people to listen to it. Don’t.

There is a whole field of study designed to creating warnings to stop future archaeologists from investigating nuclear waste dumps. The problem is to come up with something that warns them off without inviting curiosity, and the more you protect something and warn people off, the more they want to see it. The message they attempt to communicate is [FOOTNOTE According to http://www.damninteresting.com/this-place-is-not-a-place-of-honor/ ]in part:

This place is not a place of honor…no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here.

What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The idea is to warn off the curious. Some things are best left undisturbed.

The album was produced by Curt Becher, and the band backing most of the album was Scott Blair on drums, Michael Brady on bass, Jim Studer on keyboards and George Doering on guitar.

Looking Back With Love
Songwriters: Jim Studer, Craig Thomas, Dan Parker

Because his surname is Love, do you see?

The thesis of this song is that the 1960s were an age of contradictions, thus “It was the best of times, the worst of times/An age of reason with a rage for rhymes”. Unfortunately, that line is the best in the song, seriously, and it hits a low in the second verse with the line “Good vibrations/Assassinations”

As an exercise in nostalgia it fails horribly, partly because Dan Parker, the lyricist, has the same writing style as Love himself, cramming in as many lyrics to older, better songs as he can (“Soulful sounds from the motor city, California girls now are sure looking pretty/Two girls for every boy”), succeeding only in reminding you of the better records you could be listening to; but also because it seems to epitomise the saying “If you can remember the 60s, you weren’t there”. Lines like “mod rockers dancing in a Liverpool street” suggest that Parker definitely doesn’t remember the 60s.

Combine this with a synth-pop arrangement, faux-Beach Boys harmonies (featuring a guest vocal from Bruce Johnston) and Love at his most nasal, and what you have is unpleasant.

The album goes downhill from here.

On And On And On
Songwriters: Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus

It makes a sort of sense for Mike to cover this track, since the original, by ABBA, had a backing vocal arrangement clearly influenced by that on Do It Again. That backing vocal is made the intro here, but the problem is the song itself.

While Andersson and Ulvaeus are not the pop geniuses their reputation these days suggests, they were capable of coming up with good songs. This isn’t one of them. The song sounds like an ELO cast-off, and not in a good way, and is hamstrung further by terrible lyrics like “He said, ‘I’m a minister, a big shot in the States’/I said, ‘I just can’t believe it, but I think it’s great/Brother can you tell me what is right and what is wrong?’/He said, ‘Keep on rocking baby, ’til the night is gone’”

Of course, Andersson and Ulvaeus can be forgiven for these lyrics, because they’re not native English speakers. Mike Love has no excuse for singing them.

The backing track is actually a relatively competent example of disco-influenced synth-pop, making the most of the song’s three-chord simplicity, but the combination of the terrible song, Mike’s nasal delivery, and the addition of a vocoder makes it an embarrassment.

Running Around The World
Songwriters: James Haymer and Blair Aaronson

Possibly the least unpleasant track on the album, this features co-composer Blair Aaronson on synthesiser, and other than the poor 80s production and nasal vocals would be an inoffensive enough track. For the most part it’s just based on a I-vi verse and a ii-V chorus, and the only point of interest is a backing vocal quote from This Whole World.

Over And Over
Songwriter: Robert James Byrd

This is just strange. Over And Over was originally recorded by the R&B singer Bobby Day (who wrote it under his real name), the writer of Little Bitty Pretty One, but was a number one hit in the US for the Dave Clark Five (whose version is roughly patterned on the old Little Richard song Money Honey) and is quite a catchy example of late-50s R&B.

For Mike to have done a straight cover of either version of the song would have made some kind of sense, especially given that the album seems very loosely themed around nostalgia for the late 50s and early 60s. It wouldn’t have made a lot of sense, because Day’s version, especially, has a very strong vocal performance and Love was at his most nasal at this time, but it could have been a competent, fun cover version.

Instead, it’s done as an ersatz-Carribean track– actually quite similar in production style to Blondie’s version of Tide Is High, which is presumably the influence here (although Becher had been producing similar-sounding records with California Music for years), which fits neither the song nor Love’s voice, and to make matters worse they introduce a totally unnecessary truck-driver’s key change up a semitone before the last verse.

Rockin’ The Man In The Boat
Songwriters: Jim Studer, Jim Arnold, Michael Brady

If you have ever, in your life, wanted to hear Mike Love singing in his most nasal voice, over a Status Quo style chugging boogie (but with a bridge in the style of Chicago) about watching through a telescope while a female friend masturbates (and close analysis of the lyrics suggests that she has forewarned him of this), then this is the song for you.

If, on the other hand, you are someone whose tastes have not been totally corrupted beyond all human decency, you will stop the track as quickly as possible, and spend the rest of the week showering in the hope that you can someday feel clean again.

The lowpoint (in a track that is already the lowest point in an album made up of lowpoints) comes when Mike once again feels the compulsion to reference an old song lyric — “You know I’d love to lend a helping hand, you’re such a good singer let me join in your band…She don’t need it, got a good vibration”.

This is quite possibly the most monumentally misjudged recording of all time.

Calendar Girl
Songwriters: Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield

The worst’s over now. Mike Love has punished us, has shown us what horrors he is capable of committing, and now we can relax slightly.

Not that this is good — Calendar Girl is a terrible song — but this is actually better than the version of the song the Beach Boys had recorded (and left unreleased) during the LA sessions. The track’s got some energy to it, it suits Love’s voice, and the sax solo is quite nice.

It’s possible Stockholm Syndrome is sinking in, but this sounds like a relief after the last track. But then, anything would.

Be My Baby
Songwriters: Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector

This track dates from earlier sessions, and features Brian Wilson on keyboards and inaudible backing vocals. Were it not for the layers of 80s synth overdubs, this could have fit on 15 Big Ones, but would have been one of the less successful covers on there. It has none of the dynamics, passion, or majesty of the original, just Mike Love singing lines like “you know I will adore you til eternity”, which should be a howl of emotion wrenched from the gut, with about as much passion as the shipping forecast.

One Good Reason
Songwriters: Jim Studer and Michael Brady

This is merely tedious, a vaguely doo-wop flavoured 6/8 ballad that doesn’t even rise to the level of truly bad. The second half of the album is definitely better than the first (if better is the right word…less awful, certainly), but it still only rises to the level of “bad”, and the cumulative effect of the album is much, much worse than any individual song.

Teach Me Tonight
Songwriters: Sammy Cahn and Gene DePaul

Teach Me Tonight is a standard, recorded by, amongst many others, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Earl Grant, and some performers who didn’t have any noble titles in their name at all. It’s one of the songs that people talk about when they talk about the “great American songbook”, though it also fits one of the recurring themes of this album in that it has a metaphor overextended to the point of absurdity.

The track here is in the same late-70s soft-pop style as LA (Light Album) , but with the addition of a Stevie Wonder style harmonica part (played by Tommy Morgan, who played on many of the Beach Boys’ 60s recordings).

Love’s singing is much better here, but the production style still handicaps the track and… it’s only a personal reaction, and others may differ, but for me Mike Love attempting to be coquettishly seductive starts me shuddering and sends me back to that shower again.

Paradise Found
Songwriters: Mike Love and Jim Studer

Mike Love’s only songwriting contribution on the album is to this, the (thankfully) last song, a duet with Joannie Sommers. Another track that sounds very like Chicago, this one once again falls victim to Love’s compulsion to cram the titles of Beach Boys songs into everything, meaning the main chorus line is “let’s go away for a while”, once again reminding us of something we could be listening to instead of this.

Overall, when listening to any individual track on this album (except Rockin’ The Man In The Boat), it can feel like my introduction was too harsh — one can find tracks throughout the Beach Boys’ career that are worse than any individual song here (except Rockin’ The Man In The Boat). It’s the cumulative effect of the album — the sheer deadening joylessness, the crassness, and, perhaps worst of all, the impression that at least some of those involved actually thought they were doing something of artistic value.

There are moments here that, in isolation, could almost qualify as competent. But they’re few and far between, and overall one is left feeling slightly soiled for having listened to this. But I feel even worse for having written this review — it’s like kicking a puppy. The makers of this album were clearly trying to do something worthwhile, something that would make people happy, and to do it to the best of their ability. To attack them for that seems cruel, but so would letting anyone listen to this album without adequate warning.

In a way, this is one of the most successful works of art that I’ve ever come across, in that it helps me understand myself better — my first instinct, when writing this piece, is to go all-out with vicious, hyperbolic, mockery. Believe it or not, I toned a lot of that down before publication. But I revelled in the cruelty — this album had hurt me with its awfulness, now I was going to hurt its creators. This album showed me a side of myself I’d rather not have seen, and in that way it might be a much more effective work of art than many better albums.

But that doesn’t mean it’s actually any good.

At the start of next month, the book version of the Beach Boys essays will come out, and I’ll also put up the Kickstarter for the music books. The blog will then go quiet (apart from live reviews of Blondie and Mike Love’s Beach Boys and linkblogs) for a couple of weeks while I do the second draft of my novel. What appears after that will depend on the Kickstarter. If the Kickstarter is successful, it’ll be an album-by-album look at the work of Harry Nilsson. If not, it’ll probably be the first of a series on Liberalism I’m planning (that will get written anyway, but will wait if the Kickstarter is successful).

Once the novel is completely finished with, I’ll be serialising a new fiction project on here, as well. And once the Who posts are finished, I’ll be starting the Promethea book I’m writing with Holly.

So that’s the plan for the next couple of months. Links now:

Labour and Tory MPs have a new twist on an old game. Block democratic reform. Then criticise lack of democratic reform

A short vampire story by Peter Watts

A list of those Lib Dem MPs that voted against the government and for the party policy on decarbonisation

A statistical analysis of the uses of the words ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’, which proves my contention that I am not a geek.

Harry Nilsson’s final album, Flash Harry, is being reissued in August, a month after the box set of all his RCA works.

Calamity Jon on Secret Wars II

Alex Wilcock on CD releases of Doctor Who

Andrew Rilstone on The Name Of The Doctor

And Greg Egan lets you know how quickly you have to respond if your friend ever falls towards a black hole.

So it was unsurprising that when Carl Wilson’s eponymous solo album, recorded the previous December, was released, he announced that he wouldn’t be touring and recording with them, “until they decide 1981 means as much to them as 1961”, in a press release that also stated that there had “hardly been a full Beach Boys rehearsal in more than a year” and that he didn’t want to play “multi-night engagements in Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas and places like that”.

What was surprising, however, was the album. Where Dennis’ solo recordings had shown the untapped potential in an overlooked talent, Carl’s showed the opposite. While the vocal performances are never less than excellent, the music is dull, plodding AOR, the type of thing that might easily have been recorded by Bryan Adams or Huey Lewis.

Carl’s main collaborator on the album was Myrna Smith (later Myrna Smith-Schilling), the partner of the band’s manager Jerry Schilling. She was a great singer (she was a member of the Sweet Inspirations, who as well as their own hits also sang back-up for Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley, and performed on Van Morrison’s Brown-Eyed Girl) and carried her weight as a backing vocalist, but seemed not to bring out the best in Carl.

The album was recorded by a very small core band — Wilson and Smith, along with John Daly on guitar, James Guercio on bass and guitar, James Stroud on drums, with additional musicians limited for the most part to the odd tambourine or saxophone overdub — and produced by James Guercio. It only charted in the US at number 175, for the very good reason that it wasn’t actually any good. It’s not as bad as MIU or Keepin’ The Summer Alive, but it’s not something that has any reason to exist, either.

(All songs are written by Carl Wilson and Myrna Smith, except where noted).

Hold Me

The album’s first single was this plodding rocker, a duet between Wilson and Smith. There is next to nothing interesting to say about it. The production is straightforwardly dull, with a clomping drum part dominated by hi-hat and cowbell, and a strangely swimmy guitar sound. And the song itself is as basic as it’s possible to get — a dull I-V riff for the verse (sung by Wilson), a brief bridge sung by Smith (chord sequence vi-I-vi-V), then a chorus sung by both, over the same dull riff as the verse. Repeat. That’s it.

There’s not even a middle eight or a solo to break the monotony, just a near-endless repetition of the chorus (actually lasting only eighty-five seconds, but feeling like much more). Tedious in the extreme.

Nice vocals though.

Bright Lights

With its semi-disco beat under standard doo-wop changes for the verse, this beats the previous track in that the chorus is made of different musical material than the verse is. In fact there’s even a key change between the verse and the chorus, though only a change to the subdominant, about as banal a change as it gets.

But we don’t need Carl Wilson singing in an over-reverbed voice over a synth bass “Take a number in my black book/And promise to call”.

And again there’s a stunning lack of craft here — the structure is just verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-verse-repeat chorus to fade. Nothing at all to disrupt the monotony.

Nice vocals though.

What You Gonna Do About Me?

This track seems to be recorded to the same click track as the last one. There does seem, however, to have been some actual thought put into the track. There’s a verse, a bridge, and a key change into the chorus (and it’s a key change down a tone, which is more interesting). There’s even a rudimentary instrumental break, some changes in the dynamics, and an overdub of what sounds like a jew’s harp on the chorus to make it stand out.

However, to make sure that nobody accidentally gets a feeling stronger than a mild sense of ennui from the album, the last two minutes and nine seconds of the track’s four minute twenty-nine running time are (apart from a quick drop down to just the drums) a repeat of the chorus musical material, over and over, with no new ideas. And the lyrics are the worst so far, being the whinging of a Nice Guy complaining he’s in the “friend zone” (“I’m the one you keep on running to after they’ve walked all over you/I’m the one who dries your lonely tears, so what you gonna do about me?”)

Nice vocals though.

The Right Lane

Another song at approximately the same tempo, but this one’s definitely the ‘rock’ one, because the guitars are crunchier and the drums are being hit harder.

This is another one with a straight A-B-A-B structure, this time alternating between a two-chord (charitably — the two chords are E7 and E7sus4) verse and a four-chord bridge. Once again we have the last two minutes and forty-four seconds of the song being an extended repetition of the two-chord riff.

This song’s distinguishing feature (all the songs so far seem to have precisely one) is that it has an actual solo, quite early in the track. There’s even an amusing little ‘pew’ noise repeated during the solo and fade.

What’s most ridiculous is that the lyrics to this song are all about breaking the mould, doing something different, breaking away, and yet this is the fourth song in a row to be, to all intents and purposes, interchangeable.

Nice vocals, though.

Hurry Love

Old habits die hard. In the 60s, the Beach Boys’ albums had, on occasion, been sequenced into an uptempo side A and a slower side B, a legacy of the early rock era when there would be a side ‘for the kids’ and a side ‘for the grown-ups’. Whether deliberately or not, Wilson emulates that on this album, so while side one had four rockers, three of the four tracks on this side are ballads.

Immediately the album starts feeling slightly better, because for a ballad you have to have an actual song, and just not having the same bludgeoning drums and crunchy guitars makes this song seem like a relief. This one even has a middle eight.

The track is, overall, quite pleasant. Nothing special, but Carl Wilson singing even a mediocre song, over a backing of acoustic guitars and hand percussion, is always going to be at least listenable. This is up to the standards of such Beach Boys filler tracks as Sweet Sunday Kind Of Love or Full Sail, and was the B-side to both singles from the album.

Nice vocals.

Heaven

Songwriters: Carl Wilson, Myrna Smith, Michael Sun

The second single from the album was this ballad, the only song to involve a songwriter other than Wilson and Smith. On this evidence they should have had Michael Sun work with them more.

That’s not to say this song is as good as its reputation — since Carl Wilson’s untimely death in 1998, this song has, at least among Beach Boys fans, taken on something like the status of Forever and God Only Knows, but it’s very inferior to those songs. But it is a good song — something that has been lacking up until this point.

In fact it seems far more like a Beach Boys track than a solo track, right down to the lyrics about “The gentle waves of love in motion, and the warmth of summer sun”, and this gives Carl the chance to show that he could be a whole Beach Boys by himself, performing some absolutely lovely multitracked harmony parts, and singing what may be the highest falsetto part he ever sang on the line “Heaven could be here on Earth” — so high he’s clearly straining for the notes.

As a single, this flopped, but it was performed off and on in Beach Boys shows for several years later, and Brian Wilson recorded a solo version in 2007.

Very nice vocals.

The Grammy

This is probably the best of the uptempo songs, mostly because of the dropped beats in the chorus, but also because it bothers to have a middle eight (and the high vocals on the middle eight are by far the most interesting thing on any of the rockers here, sounding almost like Queen or Sparks).

But it’s a petulant whine of a song. Apparently inspired by Billy Joel, it casts Wilson as a rock star snubbing the Grammy awards (“You invite me to pick up my award, after all the time I’ve been out here/My music is still the same, why is it just now getting there?”) and being more interested in art than awards, while the multitracked Greek chorus backing vocals sing “We thought you wanted to be a star?/Who the hell do you think you are?”

Of course, this principled renunciation of the Grammies and all that they stand for would have had nothing to do with the fact that the Beach Boys themselves had never actually won a Grammy award.

(For the record, when the Nobel committee come calling about giving me the prize for literature for this book, I shall definitely turn it down.)

Nice vocals, though.

Seems So Long Ago

And we get another ballad, and so another actual song. Unfortunately it’s a banal, plodding song, with a hugely overextended lounge sax solo (not that there’s such a thing as a lounge sax solo that doesn’t outstay its welcome, but if there was, this wouldn’t be it). The lyrics are doggerel that wouldn’t even measure up for a Hallmark card (“I can see Mom and Dad and the house we had/The trees in the yard and how Dad worked so hard/The good times we shared and how much they cared”) and once again a hugely overextended fade nearly doubles the length of the song.

So at the end of the album (while it only has eight songs, it’s actually a respectable length — it’s just all the songs are at least two minutes too long), the feeling one gets after listening is… “well, that was certainly a recording of some musicians playing some songs.” That’s about as much of a strong opinion as it’s possible to muster about this album.

Nice vocals, though.