(I originally planned on highlighting multiple bands with 1 post, however, that got lengthy, so I am breaking it down into a multi part series. Enjoy)
(Also, I should note that this one really got away from me. I found my old writing style, which, well, fuck it, this has taken far too long, and almost ended up as my own personal Smile.)
Is a band measured as the sum of its whole, or are the parts more interchangeable than we
realize? Does one man change a band? What about two, or three? When is a band no longer what it once was and
just a shell of itself? What if someone
leaves, do you fill in their parts, or just not do those songs anymore? Is it
up to the fans, or the bands, who really gets to decide what makes a band? I guess if ticket and album sales go down,
you might say its up to the fans, but if a band continues on, regardless, are
they really that band anymore? How many
more ambiguous questions can I ask and still have your attention?
So what am I getting at?
When bands change out members, does it matter? More importantly should bands be able to use
their name in any capacity regardless of the members?
The Beach Boys
Where do I start, where do I end. This one gets confusing, and odd at times,
It’s also weird because there is a lot of family involved. But, whatever. I hope you know about The Beach Boys already,
otherwise I have a feeling this will be hard to follow.
The Beach Boys got started in 1961 and were known at the
beginning as The Pendletones. The band consisted of brothers Carl, Dennis, and
Brian Wilson. Along with their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. They were managed by The Wilson’s father
Murry Wilson. Murry was instrumental in
getting them gigs and even getting their earliest recordings to record
labels. When their first 2 song record
came out, they discovered that the label had renamed them The Beach Boys, in an
attempt to associate them with the California surf culture that their early
recordings focused on.
In early 1962 Al Jardine left the group and was replaced by
David Marks. The band released Surfin
Safari as a single and signed their first major label contract with a Capitol
Records, and released their first album also called Surfin Safari. They
released another album, Surfin USA in 63. And in April of 1963 Jardine rejoined
the group. Brian Wilson took a break
from touring to write and record Beach Boys music, and to work as a producer
for Jan and Dean, who took the Wilson penned Surf City to the top of the
Billboard charts. As a 6 man group they
released two albums Surfer Girl and Little Deuce Coupe. Marks left as a result of Murry insisting
that Brian should be touring with the band.
With the British Invasion begun, the band put out another
album and started really progressing their sound, In April of 64 Murry was
fired of his management duties, The band
also reached number one on the charts for the first time with I get Around.
Now Here’s where things start to go awry. Wilson began
spending all of his time recording and writing, I mean obsessively, but in a
good way. In January of 1965 Brian
withdrew from touring completely. He was replaced by Glen Campbell, who then
left the group to start his own career. Bruce Johnston then became the road
replacement for Brian, and eventually wound up recording with the group. The band then released the album Today!
This cemented The Beach Boys as album artists, which was
becoming the new trend. Brian’s recording ideas got further and further from
the simple beach rock and became more experimental. The band’s most experimental single, The Little
Girl I Once Knew only reached number 20 on the charts.
The band then released the Beach Boys Party! album to please
Capitol executives that wanted a new Beach Boys album. It was mainly cover songs and weird versions
of their earlier hits.
Ok, all you music snobs here it is, we’ve arrived at Pet
Sounds. Keep in mind, I didn’t mention
the hipsters, their vote doesn’t count.
(go drink your PBR and wear a cardigan sweater elsewhere.)
You know what, here
you go…
(I always mention
listening to things through headphones, This time I am fucking serious, do not
let this come out of the shitty speaker on your phone, I don’t care if it’s an
iPhone 8000 Galaxy S85, Brian took so much time making this thing, you owe it
to him and yourself to get a nice pair of headphones to listen to this)
There.
So, initially the album was a bigger hit in the UK than it
was in the US. Shit, you could argue that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
was a direct reflection of Pet Sounds.
The Beatles had to step their game up just to compete. Ok, but this is about the members and not so
much about the albums. However you could
argue that this album was a catalyst of the groups lineup changes.
Also, some people have called this a Brian Wilson solo
album. The other members had vocal
duties, but Brian sat at a piano and taught them exactly how he wanted them to
sing it.
That’s not a joke.
So, because Pet Sounds wasn’t received well in America
Capitol put out a Best of The Beach Boys album. The Beach Boys later released Good Vibrations
as a single. The song was originally
intended for the Pet Sounds album, but Brian wanted to tinker with it which he
did for several months in at least 4 different studios. Good Vibrations is The Beach Boys biggest hit
of all time.
And that was it. The
story of the Beach Boys could have and for all intents and purposes should have
stopped there. Brian had bigger hopes
with another album, Smile, which never saw daylight. Parts of the album ended up on the following
releases Smiley Smile and Wild Honey.
Brian started to pull away, leaving Mike Love to write more of the
songs.
In 1968 Brian entered the hospital and the rest of the band took up writing and
producing duties to put out the 1969 album 20/20. Dennis began hanging out with
Charles Manson.
Yes, that Charles Manson.
I know, right, The Beach Boys even recorded and released a
single written by Manson:
The band then put out albums, Sunflower and Surf’s Up. Carl then was becoming the band leader as
evidenced by the 1972 album Carl and the Passions– “So Tough”. Carl and the
Passions also marked the departure of Johnston from the band and added new
members Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar.
The new touring line
up then went to Holland, without Wilson, to make the album, Holland. I know, very original. Meanwhile Brian made a
fairy tale EP. That’s not a joke either.
Then they released a
few nostalgic albums, and were popular again, playing all their music at sold
out concerts, Brian tried to work on a
dide project but was kicked out of that so that he could focus on Beach Boys projects
which led to 1976’s 15 Big Ones the bands 20th studio album. It was the first Beach Boys album produced by
Wilson since Pet Sounds. There was even
a media campaign announcing Brian’s return to playing with the band.
Of course nobody really liked the album, hell, the band
didn’t like it either. The band then put
out Love You, which Brian once claimed as his favorite Beach Boys album. It takes more than one listen to like the album, and if you didn’t know it
was The Beach Boys, you would barely know it was them. Wilson then worked on the unreleased
Adult/Child.
Finally we are near the parts that are the reason the band is
on the list.
In 1977 after a show in Central Park, the band essentially
broke up. Brothers Carl and Dennis
Wilson went in one direction, while Mike Love and Al Jardine went in the
other. Brian remained the lone Beach
Boy/Switzerland. This lasted for 2
weeks when Brian gave his vote in the
group to Love and Jardine, which meant that in any further proceedings Love and
Jardine would always have 3 votes.
The band then put out
some crappy albums. Carl left and came back, The band played the National Mall
for Independence day celebrations for a few years.
1983 Dennis left the group after he and Love had restraining
orders against each other. In December
of that year he drowned while diving from a friend’s boat.
In 1985 the band had
a bit of a resurgence, and in1987 released Wipe Out with rap group The Fat
Boys. Brian, pretty much didn’t have anything to do with the band, who released
Kokomo in 1988 which was their first
number one hit in 22 years. Brian then
sued for unpaid royalties due to his father giving away the band’s music. After
Brian won that case, Mike Love sued Brian for unpaid royalties.
Then they did some country shit.
In 1997 Carl was diagnosed with lung cancer, he later died
in Februray of 1998. That’s when things
got crazy
So the group split into factions again. Love and Johnston and Marks toured as The
Beach Boys, while Al Jardine toured as Beach Boys: Family and Friends. Brian didn’t do much. Then there were a shit ton of lawsuits,
everyone suing everybody for making money without them. In the end Mike Love was allowed to call his
group the Beach Boys, and Al Jardine couldn’t even say Bitch with a Mexican accent
without having to owe someone money.
In 2006 all of the living Beach Boys were given plaques for
the double platinum album “Sounds of the Summer” They
could have gotten back together, but instead, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine went
on tour for the 40th anniversary of Pet Sounds.
And then that was it.
If I could fade to black here I would, but I can’t, so just close your eyes and
count to 17.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Then out of nowhere in 2011 The Beach Boys started releasing
new/old material. The Smile Sessions
were released even though they weren’t complete. There was a song to honor the victims of a
Japanese earthquake.
And then the 50th anniversary tour was announced
for 2012 A 73
show tour spanning 6 months through 4 continents. It was a grand special time, the band played
almost 50 songs every night. They had
guests, they used a projection screen to include Dennis and Carl Wilson. But somewhere in there something went wrong
and before the tour had even ended, Mike Love had already begun booking shows
that would just include him and Johnston.
What a dick, am I right?
So what did the other guys do? First they called Love out on his bullshit
then they embarked on their own tour.
So there were 2 Beach Boys at that time. Love and Johnston. And Wilson, Jardine and Marks as a trio. And that was how things have gone on
since.
As for now, Wilson has no interest in working with Love ever
again. meanwhile Love won’t even think of
performing with Wilson.(most people would argue that he wants total control and
is fearful of Brian’s popularity.
This summer marked the 50th anniversary of Pet
Sounds.
What comes next?
God Only Knows.
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