The other Beach Boys

From Slate MSN

The Other Beach Boys
A new compilation proves that Brian Wilson needed them, too.
By Bill Barol

Why haven't the Beach Boys gotten their due? I mean the other ones: Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, and Mike Love, whose glorious vocalizing is one of the pillars on which Brian Wilson's reputation as the Mozart of pop music rests. Just the fact that it's necessary to identify them as "the other ones" tells you something: Brian's legend looms so large—hit-maker at 20, recluse at 22, the man who made Pet Sounds—that it has crowded his band-mates into the shadows, where Dennis and Carl Wilson lived and died, and from which Jardine and Love continue to struggle halfheartedly to escape. Three brothers, a cousin, and a guy from the neighborhood—it might seem as if only the ties of family and friendship led young Brian to roll the dice with these four singers. But that sells them short. A new compilation of Brian Wilson's extracurricular production work in the 1960s aims to augment his reputation as songwriter and studio wizard. Pet Projects: The Brian Wilson Productions (Ace Records) has another, unintended result: It makes you appreciate the hell out of the other ones.

Out of ambition or insecurity (he was famously competitive with Phil Spector), Brian Wilson began taking on outside production work as early as 1962, the year of the first Beach Boys LP, Surfin' Safari. The earliest tracks collected on Pet Projects don't promise much. "The Revo-Lution," by Rachel and the Revolvers (actually Los Angeles session singer Betty Willis backed by Brian and Carl Wilson and Brian's songwriting partner Gary Usher) is a pale knockoff of Little Eva's "Loco-Motion." The Honeys' "Surfin' Down the Swanee River" (credited to Capitol A&R man Nick Venet, but really produced by Brian) is flat-out weird, a failed hybrid most notable for its songwriting credit: "Stephen C Foster Arr Brian Wilson." The latter is one of eight Honeys songs collected here, along with two by American Spring, a later incarnation, and generally speaking the tracks are an embarrassing testament to the girl group that occupied most of Brian's extra-Beach Boys time in the 1960s. Wilson may have been overworked in this period—pleading exhaustion, he gave up the road for a time starting in December 1964, though Capitol kept pressing him to produce more Beach Boys records. Or he may have been addled by love for group member Marilyn Rovell, whom he married that same month. Either way, he couldn't figure out how to make the group sound anything but lightweight. The contrast between "Swanee River" and, say, "Fun, Fun, Fun," a Beach Boys production from the same period, is startling. The latter song is every bit as dumb, but it's impossible to resist, and the difference can almost entirely be chalked up to the depth and maturity of the five-part vocals. As much as the airy falsetto, it's the low, muscular gravity of the Boys' tightly massed voices that grabs your attention. Wilson just didn't have the goods to work with when he cut the Honeys. (He did come close once, on the propulsive, Spector-ish "The One You Can't Have" in 1963, which remains one of the great mostly unknown girl group records.)

He didn't do much better with solo singers. Two 1964 recordings featuring Gary Usher are bewilderingly bad; Pet Projects producer Rob Finnis is being kind when he writes that Usher "was not particularly blessed" as a vocalist, and when he doesn't draw the obvious conclusion that the sessions were a favor done by a loyal Brian after father Murry Wilson pushed Usher out of the Beach Boys' inner circle. Of the four tracks Wilson cut with singer Sharon Marie, the only interesting one is the 1964 "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby," which would resurface three years later as the much superior Beach Boys song "Darlin'," featuring a soulful lead by Carl Wilson. (It's worth hearing too for the scalpel work Wilson did on the melody between '64 and '67, cutting and rewriting at precisely the place in the song's chorus where the air went out of the earlier version.) Listen to the Sharon Marie track, and then the same passage in the amended 1967 melody. Paul Petersen's "She Rides With Me," also from 1964, is a forgettable girls-and-cars number from a second-tier teen idol. Only Glen Campbell's "Guess I'm Dumb" holds up today, although that has as much to do with Campbell's appealingly casual vocal as it does with Wilson's unfrilly production, an artifact from the days before "middle-of-the-road" was a dirty word. Campbell was a road-hardened pro by 1965—a top L.A. session player, he'd taken Wilson's place in the Beach Boys' touring band at the end of the previous year—and you can almost hear Wilson's relief at having a real singer to work with.

A handful of novelties round out the package. "Vegetables," an oddity swiped by Jan and Dean's Dean Torrence from the Beach Boys' Smiley Smile, makes you long for the relative cohesion of the original track, if "cohesion" is the word to use for a song that spouts a collection of half-baked hippie aphorisms about the wonders of green food. By the time you work your way down to "Pamela Jean," featuring Brian and a bunch of his buddies doo-wopping under the unfortunate name the Survivors, you're positively hungry for the complexity and sophistication of a Beach Boys track like "Wouldn't It Be Nice," with Mike Love and Brian sharing the lead, and those soul-grabbing backing vocals. Finnis notes that "Pamela Jean" came out the same week Capitol released "Fun, Fun, Fun." It sank like a stone, offering the singular spectacle of America's greatest pop producer shouldering himself out of the way. The record-buying public made its choice that week, and got it right. There were better things coming.
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I have 17 of these songs on the bonus LP "The Brian Wilson Productions" included in the 1979 U.K. box set, Beach Boys - "The Capitol Years". Most of these songs are definitely not up to par with the Beach Boys, but are non the less interesting in their own right and in one or two cases show Brian on his creative path to Pet Sounds.

Here is the track listing for this new CD.
Track Listings
1. Runaround Lover - Sharon Marie *
2. Thinkin Bout You Baby - Sharon Marie *
3. Pamela Jean - The Survivors *
4. After The Game - The Survivors *
5. Sacramento - Gary Usher *
6. That's The Way I Feel - Gary Usher *
7. The One You Can't Have - The Honeys *
8. Surfin' Down The Swanne River - The Honey *
9. Summertime - Sharon Marie *
10. Hide Go Seek - The Honeys *
11. Shyin Away - American Spring
12. Pray For Surf - The Honeys *
13. Shoot The Curl - The Honeys *
14. Vegetables - The Laughing Gravy
15. The Revo-Lution - Rachel & The Revolvers
16. Number One - Rachel & The Revolvers
17. She Rides With Me - Paul Petersen
18. Guess I'm Dumb - Glen Campbell *
19. Story Of My Life - Sharon Marie *
20. He's A Doll - The Honeys
21. Tonight You Belong To Me - The Honeys *
22. Goodnight My Love - The Honeys *

* Denotes the songs that are on the "Brian Wison Productions" album in the "Capitol Years" box set. There is one song on the LP not on the CD, The Honeys- "From Jimmy With Tears".

The most interesting track for me is the Glen Campbell - 'Guess I'm Dumb" with Brian and The Honeys providing backing vocals. I think there' some real nice production on this tune and Campbell's vocal work on this tshows one of ther reasons why he was probably chosen as Brian's replacement in the touring Beach Boys. You can listen to "Guess I'm Dumb" here. This is ripped from my "Brian Wilson Productions" LP, in glorious mono.

Post Pet Sounds was where the rest of The Beach Boys were finally able to get creative themselves, once Brian retired to his sandbox. Carl Wilson wrote several great songs including Feel Flows and Long Promised Road on "Surf's Up". Dennis Wilson's shining moment was probably "Forever" on Sunflower, although I quite like the two Dennis songs on 20/20 although rumours have been a float for years that these songs were in fact penned by Charlie Manson. Even Bruce Johnson's "Disney Girls" from Surf's Up is a fine tune, although when you listen to that and Johnson's contributions to "Sunflower", it's apparent that Bruce "doesn't have a rock and roll bone in his body". I actually stole that line from a "Sunflower" review I read on the Web in 1997.

So, what do you think?

 

Another view:

One could say the same thing about Lennon-McCartney compositions and outside artists.

There was a trend in the 60s for such songwriters to stretch themselves in this manner. That each were not as successful as they were within the framework of their own group points to various reasons.

If you, as such a composer/artist, understood what was a great song versus your more mediocre work , would you give, for example, "California Girls" to somebody else?

As far as acknowleging the efforts of eveyone involved, if you were a fan and followed The Beach Boys, you knew each member and their involvement early on. By name and what they did. The liner notes pre-Pet Sounds, to some extent, described who was doing what vocally. And fans recognized who was singing what.

Brian has the more interesting story overall. But I think Carl, Al, Dennis and Bruce have gotten their due for what they have done. Mike has alternately gotten his due and presented a, to be kind, negative attitude publicly.

Where exactly is the line of credit to be drawn? For example, most of us know of the great songwriting/producing ability of Carl - "Long Promised Road", "Feel Flows".

That such credit hasn't reached a mass level of acknowledgement shouldn't detract from "the other Beach Boys", but overall, Brian's story and the amount of work speaks volumes.

I understand this is arguable. I realize Brian's legacy will carry on for some decades (at least I think) whereas "the other Beach Boys" will fade sooner.

Only time will tell if there is more to rock music than classical in that context.

 

With respect to the Beach Boys, I tend to think they were the right mix of people in the right place at the right time. I don't mean that in a way as to underestimate Brian Wilson...I definitely think he had immense talent. However, I also think the proper vehicle was necessary for him to realize his talents. Obviously, the "other" Beach Boys were an effective vehicle for him.

Brian Wilson probably could've done any number of great things in music under the right circumstances. I'm thrilled with what he and the Beach Boys accomplished. Maybe he could've done better along some other musical avenue, or, maybe his work with the Beach Boys represents the full realization of his talents. Who knows? I do know this, the Beach Boys music always remains fresh to me, and I don't think that's going to change. How can I complain?


__________
AC

 

I'm not sure you can lump the Beatles labelmates with these songs that Brian Wilson produced. If you take the hits by Peter and Gordon, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, Gerry & The Pacemakers and even Cilla Black, they are probably much better than any of the songs in the Pet Projects collection.

 

Anthology123,

I don't disagree with the end results of each artist's work. I do believe that The Beatles' outside compositions were better, in many ways, but especially from a universal appeal point of view. Brian's early work consisted of a lot of surf and car themed songs that probably were topical overkill.

But I believe each artist benefitted from this without knowing what the end result would be when they were doing this outside work.

 

I remember in the mid/late 1970s EMI U.K. put out an LP with all of the EMI artists that had covered Beatles tunes or tunes specifically written for them by Lennon/McCartney, probably Paul. It was an impressive lineup featuring most of the above artists and IIRC, The Foremost. These artists all had songs on the pop charts in the U.K. and in some cases over here too. The only artist on the Pet Projects to make it big was Glen Campbell and that was long after he worked with Brian and subbed as a Beach Boy.

Steve said it nicely. "Nice numbers, but nothing outstanding...".

 

Well, for me (and many others) this is one of Brian's great productions!
Is "unfrilly" meant to be a compliment? It seems to do the track an injustice to me

I was under the impression that this World Records Box was "electronically re-processed for stereo".

I was going to get the Japanese CD edition of the "Capitol Years" set (complete with a nice wooden box) which was the only CD version to include the "Productions" material but turned it down based on this assumption!

Of course, we can now get the material on the ACE disc (minus "From Jimmy With Tears") and I assume that the tracks are in better sound quality as they definitely are not "re-processed". In fact the ACE compilation claims (as do all ACE CDs I own!!) that the tracks were "transferred from the original analogue master tapes". Does the original master of "Thinkin' 'bout You Baby" really sound that bad? I must admit I've never heard a good sounding version of the finished mix....

If you really want the mother lode of Brian Wilson productions you should check out the Dumb Angel/Sea Of Tunes releases "Rarities Vol. 16, 17 & 18". These include tracks Brian produced or was involved with in some way (sometimes only as composer):



Tracklisting:
--------------
"Production, Participation or Presence
Part 1 (1962-1963)"
Rarities Vol. 16
Dumb Angel (DA017)

Rachel & The Revolvers
1. The Revo-Lution (B. Wilson/G. Usher)
2. Number One (B. Wilson/G. Usher)
Bob & Sheri
3. The Surfer Moon (B. Wilson)
4. Humpty Dumpty (B. Norberg/S. Pomeroy)
Tri 5
5. Come And Get It (M. Borchetta/G. Usher)
6. Like Chop (M. Borchetta/G. Usher)
The Four Speeds
7. R.P.M. (M. Borchetta/G. Usher)
8. My Sting Ray (M. Borchetta/G. Usher)
Jan & Dean
9. Gonna Hustle You (J. Berry/B. Wilson)
10. Get A Chance With You [track] (J. Berry/B. Wilson)
11. The New Girl In School (J. Berry/B. Wilson/G. Christian)
The Honeys
12. Surfin' Down The Swanee River [track] (S. Foster)
13. Shoot The Curl (S. Glantz/D. Rovell)
14. Surfin' Down The Swanee River (S. Foster/B. Wilson)
Jan & Dean
15. Surfin' (B.Wilson/M. Love)
16. Surfin' Safari (B. Wilson/M.Love)
17. Surf City [no lead vocals] (J. Berry/B. Wilson)
18. She's My Summer Girl (D. Altfield/J. Berry/B.Wilson)
19. Surf City (J. Berry/B. Wilson)
The Honeys
20. Rabbit's Foot [no lead vocals] (B. Wilson/M. Love)
21. Pray For Surf (S. Glantz/D. Rovell)
22. Hide, Go Seek (B. Wilson)
The Sunsets
23. My Little Surfin' Woodie (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)


"Production, Participation or Presence
Part 2 (1963-1964)"
Rarities Vol. 17
Dumb Angel (DA018)

Sharon Marie
1. Bobby Left Men [track] (B. Wilson)
2. Run-Around Lover [track] (B. Wilson/M.Love)
3. Summertime (G. Gershwin/D. Heyward)
4. Run-Around Lover [stereo mix] (B. Wilson/M.Love)
The Timers
5. No-Go Showboat (B. Wilson/R. Christian)
Jan & Dean
6. Drag City (J. Berry/B. Wilson/R. Christian)
The Honeys
7. The One You Can't Have [track] (B. Wilson)
8. From Jimmy With Tears (B. Kaye/L.Glover)
9. The One You Can't Have [stereo mix] (B. Wilson)
10. (I Can See Right Through You) Go Away Boy (B. Wilson)
Jan & Dean
11. Dead Man's Curve [album version] (J. Berry/B. Wilson/R. Christian/A. Kornfeld)
12. Surf Route 101 (J. Berry/B. Wilson/R. Christian)
13. Little Deuce Coupe (B. Wilson/R. Christian)
The Survivors
14. Pamela Jean [track] (B. Wilson)
15. After The Game (B. Wilson)
16. Pamela Jean (B. Wilson)
Larry Denton
17. Endless Sleep [track] (J. Reynolds/D. Nance)
18. Endless Sleep (J. Reynolds/D. Nance)
The Castells
19. I Do [stereo mix] (B. Wilson/R. Christian)
Paul Peteresen
20. She Rides With Me (B. Wilson/R. Christian)
Donna Loren
21. Muscle Bustle (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)
Annette
22. Muscle Beach Party (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)
23. Surfer's Holiday (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)
24. Muscle Bustle (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)
Frankie Avalon
25. Runnin' Wild (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)


"Production, Participation or Presence
Part 3 (1964-1965)"
Rarities Vol. 18
Dumb Angel (DA019)

The Super Stocks
1. My First Love (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)
2. Muscle Beach Party (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)
3. Surfer's Holiday (B. Wilson/R. Christian/G. Usher)
The Honeys
4. He's A Doll [track] (B. Wilson)
5. The Love Of A Boy And A Girl (B. WIlson)
6. He's A Doll (B. WIlson)
Sharon Marie
7. Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby (B. Wilson/M. Love)
8. Story Of My LIfe (B. Wilson/M. Love)
The Rally Packs
9. Move Out, Little Mustang (J. Berry/B. Wilson/R. Christian)
Hale & The Hushabyes
10. Yes Sir, That's My Baby (W. Donaldson/G. Kahn)
Gary Usher
11. Sacramento [track] (B. Wilson/G. Usher)
12. Just The Way I Feel (G. Usher)
13. Sacramento (B. Wilson/G. Usher)
Annette
14. The Monkey's Uncle (R. Sherman/R. Sherman)
Jan & Dean
15. Ride The Wild Surf (J. Berry/B. Wilson/R. Christian)
16. Sidewalk Surfin' (B. Wilson/R. Christian)
17. Surfin' Wild (B. Wilson/R. Christian)
The Hondells
18. Little Honda (B. Wilson)
19. My Buddy Seat (B. Wilson/G.Usher)
The Blossoms
20. Things Are Changing (P. Spector/J. Riopell/B.WIlson)
Basil Swift & The Seegrams
21. Farmer's Daughter (B. Wilson)
Glenn Campbell
22. Guess I'm Dumb [track] (B.Wilson/R.Titleman)
22. Guess I'm Dumb (B.Wilson/R.Titleman)

 

Re: Re: The other Beach Boys

You are correct sir! This box set has several faux stereo songs. Yet there are many mono tracks here, straight no gimmicks.

"Record 2" has 3 "Electonically reprocessed for stereo reproduction" songs: "When I Grow Up To Be A Man", "Little Saint Nick" (which sounds like an AM radio), and "Please Let Me Wonder".

"Record 3" has 5: "Dance, Dance, Dance", "Good To My Baby", "Don't Hurt My Little Sister", "Do You Wanna Dance", "She Knows Me To Well".

"Record 4" has only 1: "I'm So Young".

"Record 5" has 4: "Wild Honey", "Darlin'", "Country Air", "I'd Love Just Once To See You"

"Record 6" has 2: "Let The Wind Blow", and "Busy Doin' Nothin'"

"Record 7" the Brian Wilson Productions has 6: all the Honeys tunes. The rest of the songs on this LP are mono.

It appears that the producers of this set, did not have access to original master tapes. They may have used U.K. saftery masters or copies, particulalry on those faux stereo songs, and even a couple of the early mono songs don't sound that great.

The rest of the songs in the box set are mono or true stereo. Well if you can call the early Beach Boys material true stereo. What exactly is that? Stereo vocals and mono instrumentation on almost every stereo song pre Pet Sounds. Those songs must have been recorded on 3 track machines or something, where Brian was bumping all the instruments to one channel and using the other two for vocals.

It would be interesting to hear those Brian Wilson discs sometime.