The Beach Boys' 'Sunflower' Commercial and Artistic Flaw: No Mike Love Uptempo Rockers

LOL I think that's actually true

 

The Beach Boys scoring hits with then trendy production values was one thing. "Rock 'n Roll Music" was that type of hit that relied upon a new arrangement and the use of synthesizers, which weren't available for the original Chuck Berry recording. It was quite another thing to score a hit while incorporating elements from newer genres of music and blurring genre lines. Their successes with a rap crossover song, "Wipe Out", and "Kokomo" (which includes a smooth adult contemporary saxophone solo) demonstrated versatility with new genres. Who would ever have predicted that those would be the popular hits that they were? No one saw those hits coming, and certainly no one thought that "Kokomo" would hit number one. Those two tracks showed a versatile vocal group that wasn't bothered by the cultural changes of rap and dreamy, smooth saxophone laden 1988 type of rock 'n roll songs.

Cultural changes in 1970 were never a commercial problem for the band, since Surf's Up was a strong selling album in 1971, just one year later. It hit 29 in the USA. Their next two studio albums were decent selling as well, living in the top 50 albums. Then they had another smash hit on their hands with the 1973 live album, which hit #25 USA and earned a gold record for the band.

The common element to the post-Sunflower Reprise albums was bringing Mike Love back to doing a little more of what makes The Beach Boys special: rocking out to a Coasters track, rocking out while singing about a girl named Marcella and the Maharishi, and rocking out while singing about California and his pisces lady. People dug the 1971-76 group dynamic far more than the one on Sunflower, which was pretty anemic in the Mike Love rocking out department.

 

All it needs is Love

 

I saw them in a college gymnasium in 1973 and it was a fantastic show. Everything -- the hard rock, Al Jardine doing You Still Believe In Me, the classics rocked up loud -- Marcella was just incredible -- like I said, simply fantastic IMO. The same set you hear on the WB "In Concert" from the same year.

 

When they played the NY State Fair in Syracuse last year, I snagged a shot with my telephoto lense of Mike, and I'll swear 'the day I die that not only did he spot me from the stage, but he looked right into the barrel of that lens. It's almost a creepy photo.

 

After those intense decades of stilling the mind with ancient meditative techniques, he sensed you and your camera. He knows how much money you owe him for that photo, but the wisdom lets him know the futility of pursuing you. While the details of your name and address are far harder to pull from spirit ether than simply spotting you, I suggest you put away the camera and never attempt it again.

 

Wow! Incredible goal post move. So we're talking about the problem of The Beach Boys' image '68 ~'73, and the cringe worthy sell out tracks from 15 years later are evidence of their deft stylistic maneuvering and not crass commercial tie ins to movies and pop-rap?

The point was not "a versatile vocal group that wasn't bothered by cultural changes," but rather, huge cultural changes that made the vast majority of the pop buying public dismiss the band (unfairly in my view) as uncool leftovers from a long-gone era.

Nice conflation but I'm ahead of ya. Cultural changes sucked the last gasps out of the band and they were in the press in 1970 or thereabouts talking about how they didn't have any money, or maybe they had some left but weren't sure...Honestly, do you make this stuff up as you go? You've got this "presidente de Kokomo" avatar like you're some kind of big fan, but do you ever like, read anything about The Beach Boys? Your posts make it look like you don't know anything about them or their history. It's pretty strange, if no one has told you. If you want to be a fan and promoter, you have to try to be at least a tad accurate about the realities as they were on the ground. You seem to just be making up stuff as you go.

First -- it was no "smash" hit. None of it was ever on the radio, most people didn't care, and only fans like myself bought it. It was not promoted in the stores, I never saw it written up anywhere (though I'm sure it was somewhere) -- in sum, huge lack of interest by young people, maybe some tepid interest among the 25+ crowd.

And whatever hit it was was hard-earned after years of soldiering every live venue that would have them. Yes, that was a turning point, a huge one, not another in a string of smash hit successes in the late sixties and early seventies as you would have people believe.

I'm confused -- why are you doing this? How does it help promote The Beach Boys' cause by pretending things happened that did not? You were not there -- we know this. Why not check with people first before blathering about a super powerhouse rich hit making band that wasn't having any hits and was kind of a laughing stock among many young people. They were that. These super hits you speak of were not super hits. Surf's Up maybe reached #29 and stayed there for six days before it dropped back to #97 or whatever then disappeared. I'll tell you something: as a fan in 1971 Surf's Up was one of the few albums you could actually, sometimes, get in a store. I had to pay like $20+ to get a still sealed copy of 20/20 from A1 Record Finders in LA back then-- an album that was ONLY 3 YEARS OLD AND SOLD SQUAT. Sound like a super group with no problems to you? 20/20 was already cancelled and gone along with virtually all the rest of their catalog, until some shafty abridged two-fers started dribbling out.

OH MY GAWD! "People dug..."??!! No they didn't. Believe me, they did not dig nor dug...Not Sunflower, not Surf's Up (except of a tiny few that knew The Beach Boys history) They didn't dig anything Beach Boys for the most part until Endless Summer. The lack of Mike Love's "rockin' presence" meant diddly because no one heard the album. Nobody cared. Like, "not interested." Mike Love could have rocked his brains out, or not and not a squirt of difference either way.

Honestly, you seem like from another planet. Some alternate, parallel universe were things transpired there that did not, repeat, did not here. You have The Beach Boys neck and neck with Led Zeppelin with solid rockin' hits and oodles of solid successes pretty much continuously 1962~1988. Thing is -- none of this is true.

You are having fun with this though, right? It's a kick getting people to believe what's not there.

 

That's exactly what I told myself at the hotel that night.

Oddly enough the people in the next room must have been BB fans, too, because they kept playing ALL I WANT TO DO for an hour or so in the middle of the night.

Oddly enough though they just kept looping the last few seconds of the fade out.

 

Nailed. I hope.

 

Back in 2000 or so I was talking with a musician friend and peer at work about how I loved the Sunflower, Surfs Up albums and 3 guys who were about 20 years old in 1970 turned to us and started to mention tracks from those albums and how great and or fun the songs are. They talked about the Smile tracks and how great that album could of been and so on.
It was such a fun and interesting talk from guys who were hippy cool dudes back then and how they knew and liked so much the Beach Boys output from the hate them years.
I was glowing as if I discovered these albums and they justified my taste. I learned a lesson late in life and never took too seriously the ramblings of anybody contrary when it comes to taste in music or opinions. Those few guys made my day then. I was 40 years old in 2000 but felt like a validated teenager with the cool guys saving my a&s. John M.

 

Unknown to Chip TRG, Mike Love was also taking photos and is busy searching through image databases for the offender. When he finds him he will exact terrible revenge by forced TM sessions and herbal tea.

 

Grew up with the Beach Boys. I'm not a huge fan though the 1st record of theirs that I bought was Sunflower. Truthfully, although I'd be hard-pressed to list individual tunes, I remember it as being a special record. And the ONE tune I'll always remember, listened it to it endlessly via headphones as I thought it was an audio delight, and it somehow felt like the epitome of the band; Cool, Cool Water! Saw them live during the early 70's and they were incredible, Elton John came out during the encore! I bought Surfs Up & Holland when they were released but they were never in heavy rotation. There used to be a time when they were so good there was an honest rivalry being touted between them and the Beatles, although as time passed they were totally dwarfed. Reading about the trouble within the band always saddened me, especially during the time when there was apparently 2 versions of the band touring at the same time.

 

Let Him Run Wild, He Don't Care.

 

You might be talking about a certain period of the band's history, but I have been discussing how the band has been able to weather shifting musical trends up through "Kokomo" since post 93 on page 4 of this thread. Feel free to discuss what you want to discuss, and I'll feel free to discuss what I want to discuss.

With Surf's Up, The Beach Boys turned the page and overcame the lack of cultural appreciation that plagued Sunflower. That's essentially what I'm talking about regarding "culture": the band moving beyond the commercial failure of Sunflower and actually finding an audience that didn't exist for Sunflower. Compare the USA chart for the two albums: #151 for Sunflower and #29 for Surf's Up. Wild Honey was the last album to chart that high. Surf's Up actually had more "cultural mojo", as Wild Honey undoubtedly relied more heavily upon AM radio airplay and two top 40 singles.

It's important that we distinguish between a hit for The Beach Boys and a hit for an artist in general. #29 is a great placement for a band that just had a #151 album, regardless of who that band is. The band achieved that with Surf's Up. If the band had made another Friends or Sunflower in 1971, there would have been another major disappointment for the band. As it happened, they didn't repeat those commercial missteps as Mike Love returned to a role in leading the band through rocking and R&B workouts like a cover of a Coasters oldie tune, "Funky Pretty": a terrific song dripping with Mike Love R&B flavor, and "Marcella". The commercial results were much better than the commercial failures of Friends and Sunflower, which were devoid of those types of R&B flavors from Mike Love. The Beach Boys getting back on track with the public consciousness required a return to the band and Mike Love incorporating their R&B roots on Mike Love led songs.

It's important that we understand the rejuvenating that occurs when a band gets back to their roots after years of experimentation and forsaking their bread and butter. As great as the results of the Sunflower recording sessions, there isn't anything close to the genius of, "I'm picking up good vibrations," "she's real fine, my 409", or "round, round, get around, I get around." The band began to incorporate those types of R&B flavors and Mike Love R&B vocals again with "Student Demonstration Time", and kept the ball rolling with Mike Love lead vocals on the R&B or gospel workouts: "Marcella", "He Come Down", "Funky Pretty", and "Rock 'n Roll Music".

Despite your rejection of this period as commercially unfertile, the band was improving their reception with the public dramatically, so that in 1973 they built their cultural reputation to the level that they achieved their first gold album since a 1966 hits compilation. That was quite an achievement for a 1973 Beach Boys album. Six out of the twenty tracks were songs that the band had introduced to the public in 1972 or later. The band spread out those six songs throughout the four sides to complement their older material that people were more familiar with. It worked. People were hopeful about a live album that contained new stuff interspersed with the old hits.

 

I don’t see why it really matters these days. Both Sunflower and Surf’s Up have solid stature as classics.

 

As I have mentioned several times in various threads I am not a Mike Love super fan or a Mike Love hater, so I don't want to get drawn into that argument . Love him or hate him he made his contributions to the band and sang lead on a bunch of hits .

I do not go along with the argument that cultural changes had no effect on the Beach Boys though .

Mike himself was aware of it and clearly admits it a few times in his book.

If Mike himself readily admits the band was falling behind the times and out of fashion with the public I'll have to agree with him .

 

Yeah, when you really think about it , Sunflower doesn't have a "Mike Love uptempo rocker ", and never will.
It's ancient history and just spinning our wheels regarding what an uptempo rocker would have done or not done for the album.

What if they had gotten Jimmy Page to lay in some guitar solos and Paul McCartney to play bass?

It didn't happen so why lose any sleep over it?

 

I kind of don't get the heated feelings about him. Say what you will about his personal life, but he was/is an integral part of the mix, whether as lead voice or bass background.

I don't know exactly how much the band was falling behind the times. I like their late sixties and early seventies output and it can hold its own when compared to the competition. I do believe there was the perception they were 'uncool' (despite the brand coming from who didn't hear their records from that era at the time). In one of the books I've read it was even suggested they shorten the band name to "Beach" ... while The Beach Boys may have been at times a hard name to live with (as hairy bearded men in their thirties), changing their name to simply "Beach" would have smacked of real pompousness. Glad they didn't listen.

 

I'm a Mike Love fan. And like normal people, I'm a fan of the other Beach Boys as well.
I think Mike's less rocking vocals here are superb, and it showcases him well. After all, most are familiar with Michael's earlier street poetry and nasally proto-punk vocals. But on Sunflower you get the mellow richness. All I Wanna Do just may be my favorite vocals from anyone. Mmmnnn, that man's honey gold voice.

 

Yes, I think for some reason a few people here hate Mike so much they want to somehow deny anything that Mike achieved with the band , which weakens their position. It's not logical.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that it isn't a fantasy that the Beach Boys were perceived as uncool, unhip, un...
whatever in that early 70's era and Mike mentioned it more than once in his book, which I give him credit for.
I always perceived him as the band cheerleader so I was surprised he didn't gloss over the bands rough times .

 

Yeah, it’s pretty simple. No one has to love Love, but accepting that he’s an integral part (as they were/are) in The Beach Boys shouldn’t be that difficult. But some people simply get off on it, which should be their own business, but unfortunately we all have to witness it

 

Mike's an integral part of the Beach Boys, which is why it's such an honour to have him start this thread and continue posting on it.

 

Ha! You uncovered his AKA?!! Good job, Vangro! They wouldn't be the Beach Boys without his nasal-ness.

 

Because someone has an agenda - pushing the idea that Mike Love was the essential commercial and creative force in the Beach Boys. Crazy, right?
Dennis's rockers on Sunflower were far superior musically to any Mike has ever done, and did nothing for the commercial success of the album. I agree it was a cultural change that left the Beach Boys behind and the public wasn't interested. the fans like myself who bought the album were blown away, but no one else cared.

 

Nope.