What if the Beach Boys had played Monterey?

I'm referring to the entire history of the band. In the entire history of the band, Brian's role is overrated, especially given Brian's limited live contributions.

 

I think the "technical problems" excuse for not using the live in Hawaii recordings was another one of Brian's 'excuses' (kind of like 'I burned the SMiLE tapes') to cover up a very bad performance in which one or more members of the group was on LSD.....so that is why they tried a month later, with Bruce and in a studio, to simulate the Lei'd In Hawaii experience...but as with most things Beach Boys in 1967, that failed as well.

 

It is interesting that Wild Honey did better on the charts than Smiley Smile, which came out first and had all the SMiLE hype semi-attached to it. Maybe that proves that people would still buy Beach Boys music, but not at substandard level of Smiley Smile. Friends tanked but that album didn't have a hit single on it.

 

Because the Beach Boys were too out of their gourd on hash to put together a quality performance at that particular time. They would have been ramshackle and unprofessional....and not in a cool, ironic way.

 

I don't know. Hendrix was on acid and managed to play the gig of his career like that.....imagine Mike Love tripping on the Monterey Purple and demanding to know where Mick and Paul and John were....

 

Yes, of course...

 

Great Album

 

The "entire history of the band" would, notwithstanding the talents of some of the others, be little more than a footnote without Brian.

 

Great likenesses of all the guys on that cover art.

 

Same goes for Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks, Carl, and Dennis.

 

I like Keepin' The Summer Alive but good, bad or indifferent I don't see how this album relates the The Beach Boys' ability or inability to function without Brian Wilson.

Five of the ten songs on Keepin' The Summer Alive were co-written by Brian and Mike Love, one by Brian and Al Jardine. One track was a Chuck Berry cover. Two of the best songs on the album "Keepin' The Summer Alive" and "Livin' With A Heartache" were cowritten by Carl Wilson and Randy Bachman. Bruce Johnston's "Endless Harmony" is pretty good too.

 

That's true, but is also true of many other bands, as well. There is always one or two guys in every band that carry most of the load. Don't underestimate the importance of their voices and unique blend. Even when the band fractured into three entities, none of them could quite capture the sound of when they sang together. What they had was very special and Brian is the first one to tell you that.

 

All the Beach Boys made great contributions but the band would never have existed without co-founders Brian Wilson and Mike Love.

 

and vice versa

 

I think that is true. Wild Honey had better material, though once you get past the three or four best songs there is a notable dropoff. But if they'd recorded it in a studio and used The Wrecking Crew it might have had a chance to capture the audience that was buying Association albums at the time. By the time they returned to a professional sound on Friends it was probably too late... people had been burned by the two previous albums sounding like records of glorified demos, and were reluctant to give them another chance.

 

I know the cancelled Monterey performance is a really "hot" topic among BB aficionados, but honestly, I think they took the right decision. It's true the Beach Boys were undergoing some kind of resurgence at the time, but that rooted in Derek Taylor's expertly crafted PR, Pet Sounds (to a certain degree) and particularly the Good Vibrations single. All of this was strongly related to the "Genius" of Brian Wilson and the great expectations concering the "upcoming" SMiLE album, which as we know, would have been first and foremost a studio affair.

When SMiLE did not appear, not only Brian was devastated, there simply was no revalatory album to rely on - and even if it had been, it would've been impossible to perform many of SMiLE's key tracks in adequate fashion live. So without SMiLE, without Brian, without the magic of Taylor's brilliant hype - we would've more or less witnessed the good old Beach Boys of yore, hair a little longer, maybe some fancy dress, but... I can't imagine them competing with the force of acts like Hendrix, Otis or even Eric Burdon under these circumstances.

 

Yeah.

Looks like it sounds.

 

They had been touring relatively consistently since 1962 or so. This accepted wisdom that the Beach Boys couldn't play live does them a disservice and avoids the real issues confronting them at Monterey. They didn't need to play SMiLE in its entirety. Look at how much mileage Jimi Hendrix got from playing a 3 chord cover version.

Think about how much rock history would have turned out differently if they had played Monterey and everybody got loaded first but unlike Hawaii, everything would have gone right and Mike did some kind of John Coltrane-inspired saxophone freakout during "Good Vibrations" and Carl smashed and burned his guitar at the end of "Mrs. Leary's Cow"*, their final number? Nothing would have ever been the same again.


*Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine sit in to bolster the ranks.

 

A few thoughts come to mind on the original question.

First, although the Monterey Pop festival was a fairly local event (a lot of the San Francisco groups and even The Who were not especially well-known yet in America), its legend nonetheless ultimately looms very large, thanks to the movie, which continues to expose people to the music and musicians. Maybe that number dwindles every year, but a significant number of people still discover a lot of artists via the film. It also gets played on the radio in specials from time to time, and is referenced in a lot of books and media. So had the Beach Boys appeared, I think that it would have elevated their level of interest among younger people from then to today. Not to a huge degree, but it would have indeed given them more of a hip allure than they were enjoying at the time. I had referenced the Association in an earlier post; a higher proportion of longhairs listened to the Association after the festival than before; their prior image was only one notch "hipper" than the Four Freshmen or the Sandpipers, thanks to the electric backing, mainly. Monterey made them two notches hipper. Those whose 60's pantheon largely resembles the Monterey Pop performer lineup, give or take a couple, would be more inclined to include the frequently excluded Beach Boys.

So as far as marginally greater fame but significantly more street cred among hippies and stoners, the Beach Boys would come out ahead.

However, I don't think it would have mattered to Monterey, the concert, movie, and legend much. Even if the Beach Boys had put on the show of their lives, they would have been tremendously overshadowed. Janis Joplin still would have left Mama Cass gasping "wow", The Who and Jimi Hendrix would still duel to outdo each other with spectacle, and Jimi would still be the enduring icon of the festival. Grace Slick would still have been so mesmerizing that filmmaker Pennebaker would still have let the camera feature only her playing keyboards during Marty Balin's entire song (leaving poor Marty out altogether). Simon and Garfunkel would still have enchanted. The Byrds would still have a snarly, angry set and disintegrate onstage. Otis Redding would still command attention. Ravi Shankar would still get his standing ovation. Brian Jones would still have wandered around stoned and grinning. Laura Nyro still would have been booed off the stage (if that's what really happened; the audio evidence suggests that it did not) Michelle Phillips would still have been the ceremonial flower child. So, no matter what the Beach Boys had done, I don't think they would have been the stars of the show, any more than the Association were. They would have been overshadowed and probably seemed anachronistic, unless they did a psychedelic-flavored set (which saved the equally anachronistic Eric Burdon's performance), but they were up against some psychedelic major leaguers.

So I doubt the Beach Boys would have been one of the things the film and concert are remembered for, unless Brian cracked up onstage or they managed to create something so far out, it would have blown Jimi Hendrix' mind. Maybe Smile in its entirety would have done it, but a six song set would probably not. They would have been well-received by the attendees, who were warm to everyone (even Laura Nyro, it seems) They would have gained a few more hippie sales than they otherwise had, both in the 60's and subsequently. They would have gained from the exposure, although I don't think it matters that much really, considering how famous they remain. Monterey Pop as a concert and film wouldn't have really been much different, one way or the other.

 

Great post, Seederman. I think that an appearance at Monterey would have had the same impact on the Beach Boys' reputation as that enjoyed by Johnny Rivers.

 

There was a collective magic in the brothers singing, but if these statements are implicitly equating the talents of the other members of the group with Brian's, as they appear to be doing, that is ridiculous.

 

Flame on, thrivingonariff! Brian was just another Beach Boy, except that he didn't have to tour!

 

Nope, just that they also helped Brian achieve his goals, doubt he would have made it close to as big on his own.

 

I doubt there is a person here who does not recognize Brian's importance in shaping the sound of the Beach Boys and music in general. Brian wrote music for those voices. That was what he heard in his head. It is how he wrote. Imagine if those sounds never existed for him to hear?

Edit: Just to add, in a recent interview with Joe Thomas he mentions that to this day Brian still hears Carl's voice in his head when he writes a song. Part of how he figures out who will eventually sing it when recorded.