Variations in Production In The Beach Boys History-The Key Albums

Variations in Production In The Beach Boys History-The Key Albums by Peter Reum

Surfer Girl-Capitol T/ST 1981-Released in 1963

The thread that runs through these albums I have analyzed is their transitional role with respect to the role of production of The Beach Boys as a group.  As is well known, Brian Wilson's production credit on the Surfer Girl album as it's producer made him the first major producer outside of the direct supervision of a major record company. This is not to say other artists did not produce themselves, but Brian broke the glass ceiling with respect to a group having autonomy from direct major label supervision. Murry Wilson was helpful in this regard, a point often lost.

What this freedom gave Brian was to craft an album free of record company interference with respect to how much an album cost, who played on such an album, and what songs were chosen from the repertoire available to be recorded. A common criticism of the first two Beach Boy albums is that they tend to have a lack of continuity with respect to songs and their lyrical content. This is particularly true of Surfin' Safari, their first album, and to some degree true of their second, Surfin' USA, due to the large number of instrumentals that are on it. With the guidance of veteran engineers like Chuck Britz and Larry Levine, at Western and Gold Star Studios, a young Brian as producer was allowed to experiment as needed to find the sounds he wanted, and to record the songs he believed were most commercial without interference. The result of this experimentation was the Surfer Girl album.

Surfer Girl is an album which offers the listener for the first time an introspective form of songwriting in the form of showing the inner mindset of Brian as the song's author, a form which would grow throughout Brian Wilson's tenure as lead writer and producer of The Beach Boys. Specifically, Brian began using the introspective ballad as a way of expressing his thoughts and dreams, and sharing them with his listeners. This form was to reach its zenith with Pet Sounds, but it began with the Surfer Girl album, especially with In My Room, Surfer Girl, and Your Summer Dream. Each studio album henceforth was marked by both introverted and extroverted songs to use Carl Jung's terminology. Typically, Brian would sing the introverted, self-examining and inner self-dialogue types of songs, and Mike Love would sing the extroverted, more activity (surfing, racing cars, summer fun) types of songs. It first happened on Surfer Girl, and in this respect, that album was the benchmark for every studio album afterward through Pet Sounds.

In listening to the track order of Surfer Girl, it becomes apparent that Brian alternated a ballad with an uptempo tune on the first side, with the exception of the transition from The Rocking Surfer to Little Deuce Coupe. Yet, the next tune beginning side 2 is a ballad, In My Room. This is followed by the more uptempo Hawaii. The album order then shifts to two mid tempo numbers, Surfers Rule and Our Car Club, followed by another ballad, Your Summer Dream, and an instrumental, Boogie Woodie. The two instrumentals bow to the Surf Music trend of instrumental virtuosity, but present keyboard virtuosity instead of guitar runs.

In one respect, Surfer Girl was quite strong, in that the album tracks were for the most part all potential singles or 'B' sides, excluding the instrumentals, yet in Sweden and Japan, instrumentals were selected as singles, and were hits. Catch a Wave presents a sophisticated use of harp from Maureen Love, and layered production. This "stratification' of the Beach Boys' production sound was something that very few groups could duplicate. Perhaps the only other producer in pop music circles doing this was Jan Berry. Brian and Jan together brought layered production into pop music at a time when perhaps Sinatra records were the only ones that had it. 

Brian had a gift for singing ballads, which became a contrast to the more uptempo numbers that Mike Love and occasionally Dennis would sing. As Carl Jung would say, one needs to address the muscles and the soul in creative artistry.  The Surfer Girl album's repertoire presents a quality not usually seen in 'teen' albums. Songs like In My Room, Your Summer Dream, and The Surfer Moon address a prime need most young people have, a need to belong to someone, to be significant and have a loving relationship. It was these songs that expressed the soul of Brian Wilson. It was him at his most personal. "Do you love me, do you, Surfer Girl?" Perhaps the reason it took so long for Brian to share Surfer Girl with a larger audience was that he did not feel safe enough to share such personal feelings until he was the man in charge of recording his group's sounds. From Surfer Girl on through Pet Sounds, personal ballads were Brian's way of sharing his deepest creative feelings as a musician.

Wild Honey: Brother 9003 (unreleased) and Capitol T/ST 2859-Released in 1967

Wild Honey became an album different than perhaps what Brian originally conceived. Brother 9003, the first "Wild Honey,' had some quite personal music of Brian's begun and then left behind. In my travels, I turned several Capitol inhouse memoranda which revealed that 9003, the "great lost Wild Honey album" begun by Brian, had the following track lineup: Wild Honey, Here Comes The Night, Let The Wind Blow, I Was Made To Love Her, The Letter, Darlin', A Thing Or Two, Aren't You Glad, Cool, Cool Water, Game Of Love, Lonely Days, Honey Get Home.

It is apparent that this aborted album, for the most part, was an album about love and being in the cycle of a relationship. Consider that Wild Honey is a discussion of a woman who is viscerally attractive....a woman who turns you on. This feeling is also expressed in A Thing Or Two, Here Comes the Night, and I Was Made to Love Her. The invitation into a true sexual and emotional  relationship may be expressed by The Game of Love. Love in full bloom, perhaps marriage, is addressed in Darlin' and Aren't You Glad. They are both expressions of feelings of beneficence, that is, the rewards of being in a reciprocal loving relationship. While the relationship is in bloom, all is well and balanced. When things begin to crack, perhaps Lonely Days and Honey Get Home are expressions of the feeling of fear of loss of the intimacy, both emotional and sexual, that can be lost in a relationship. The Letter potentially expresses the confrontational moment when one partner in the relationship expresses the feeling that the relationship is broken, and the other person rushes to his partner's side to try to salvage what is lost. Finally, Let the Wind Blow is that moment when the partner who didn't sense his partner's unhappiness pleads with fate to save the relationship. It is no wonder that Cool Cool Water was shelved....it had no topical relationship to the rest of the songs on the original album's theme.

Brian Wilson faced the challenge of the conflicting elements of his own modular production style being mentally and physically exhausting, and also the group's creative need for new music that could be reproduced live by the five touring group members. He also was tired of being the "go to" guy in the group. In a January 2013 interview in Uncut Magazine, Brian shared that... "It was always a challenge for me to live up to my name. It was a really big thing for me. People expected me to come up with great orchestral stuff all the time and it became a burden. I was getting tired of it. It still happens, too, but you just learn to live with it.  So the other guys started getting more into the production side of things. Carl [Wilson] really got into that. And we decided to make a rhythm ’n ’blues record. We consciously made a simpler album. It was just a little R’n’B and soul. It certainly wasn’t like a regular Beach Boys record. It was good to go back to the boogie-woogie piano I’d grown up with. Dear old Dad [Murry Wilson] taught me how to play that stuff when I was young. In its way, it’s very nostalgic. And we used the theremin again for 'Wild Honey'. Carl had fun singing on that."

I have long contended that Carl Wilson stepped into a major production role beginning with Wild Honey that continued through the Holland album. The quote above substantiates that conclusion. This was a Brian who was tired of finding the next 'rabbit' to pull out out of his hat. The Brian the Magician picture had grown tiresome, and Brian wanted to expand beyond the Beach Boys. That was not to be. The group told Brian they felt they had first refusal of new material from Brian, and some tunes discussed for recording with Redwood were redone by The Beach Boys. Carl and Brian both understood the roots of Rhythm and Blues, the basic boogie woogie piano that Brian refers to in the quote above...hence the track 'Boogie Woodie' from the Surfer Girl album. Carl, Brian, Dennis, and Mike had been singing rhythm and blues from the radio airwaves since the days at Mount Vernon and Fairway. The production values in the released Wild Honey album reflected a desire to showcase the new major vocalist in the group...Carl Wilson. His prominence on the released Wild Honey is a bow to the need to let Brian take a rest. It is no coincidence that Beach Boy album tunes began to be jumping off points for killer live arrangements that Carl played a major role in facilitating. Carl the road leader became Carl the studio facilitator. The days of Brian as the authority and final arbiter of what The Beach Boys were supposed to sound like were over until 1976.

In my mind, the greatness of Wild Honey is that although nearly all of the songs were written by Brian and Mike, the change in producers from Brian to Carl was accomplished with a minimum of drama for the band as a whole, given the drama that had taken place over Smile, which nearly broke up The Beach Boys.  When Carl said "Wild Honey was music for Brian to cool out with...." I believe that he was referencing the notion that Brian did not feel the pressure to produce a huge album, and was able to sit in as a group member without being the studio field marshall for the first time in Beach Boys history.  He allowed Carl to finish the album he had started in a manner that allowed the group a more well rounded say in group musical and business decisions. Thus, the transition from Brian as field marshall in the studio to Carl as group music facilitator turned the Beach Boys from a benevolent dictatorship into a democracy if you will. The new music was also very playable live, and the next few albums were easier to reproduce live than the more complex material from the Pet Sounds/Good Vibrations period. This removed a major concern the group had had to deal with when they toured around the Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations period. 

15 Big Ones: Brother/Reprise MS 2251-Released in 1976

The group continued with Brian occasionally showing moments of beautiful inspiration in songs such as Til I Die, Friends, Busy Doin' Nothin', This Whole World, Marcella, and Sail On Sailor. Carl stepped into the production void left by Brian, serving more as a facilitator than working in Brian's more authoritarian style. For a group that had transitioned from a benevolent autocracy into a democracy, Carl was the right man at the right time. As many people who have played on the road with The Beach Boys have observed, it was 'unthinkable" to give less than your best and disappoint Carl. Carl essentially led by example. His production values were to facilitate what each group member was hearing and to creatively draw that out onto recording tape as well as live performance.

It worked for a long time. Beach Boy landmark albums like Friends, Sunflower, Surf Up and Holland gained new fans, both live and in record sales. The Beach Boys went from being "Surfing Doris Days' as Bruce once put it, to regaining critical respect from peers, journalists, and new followers. The group was increasingly more dependent upon live shows for revenue, and less dependent on record sales. By 1974, the group had retreated with Brian to Caribou Ranch some 50 miles by air from my old Colorado home to try to figure out a new creative direction. Brian was not in any shape to lead, despite record company demands for more Brian "product."

1975 brought more demand for a new album, and the period from Holland to 15 Big Ones saw only one studio record, a Christmas single produced by Brian called Child of Winter. The public flocked to Beach Boys concerts after Endless Summer, desirous of hearing Brian's music from the pre Smile period. Brian was therapeutically entrusted to Eugene Landy, who promptly introduced milieu therapy, essentially moving psychiatric aides into 10452 Bellagio Road. Brother Studio and the home piano became "work stations' that were part of Brian's daily milieu therapy. The group was persuaded to allow Brian to again assume the role of producer of the Beach Boys.

What followed was a mixture of inspiration and music from the milieu therapy work stations. Somehow, it was conceived that Brian would find the new recording technology frightening, and a session was held at Western where the old equipment was brought out for Brian to use. He did Palisades Park in one take and left. The best of the new material, tunes such as It's Ok, tracked in 1974, Had to Phone Ya, done in 1973 by American Spring, and That Same Song, were inspired. Back Home, a tune from 1963, was resurrected to some success. Brian seemed to enjoy cutting oldies, and several of them were recorded. They were to surface in one form or another on albums in the future, as well as 15 Big Ones. An oldie, Rock and Roll Music, was released as a single during the Brian's Back campaign, and went to Number 5 on Billboard's Singles Chart. 15 Big Ones itself, buoyed by the publicity and the hit singles, won RIAA Gold Record and Platinum record awards. Brian's productions innovatively used Moog Bass in a manner that influenced several 70s and 80s recording artists. On Just Once In My Life it was majestic.

In my mind, the group's extended break from recording as a group from 1972 to 1976 made the demand for a new Beach Boys album that would piggy back the sales achievements of Endless Summer and Spirit of America all the more difficult. It was almost as if the group was suffering from analysis paralysis. When they had to face recording new material, the pressure of what would be sufficiently commercial was a real pressure factor. The oldies were a release, in that, they could get back into recording in a manner that hopefully would loosen them up and provide a launching point for an album of new material. The wild card was Brian, as it had been since 1967. If he were willing to record and be the benevolent dictator, they would follow him. They knew that the public was now well aware of Brian's role in their early success because of Endless Summer and Spirit of America. This was all good in theory, but in practice, Brian's more directive style caused some  bruised feelings with other group members, who had come to enjoy Carl Wilson's more group facilitation type of style. It is no coincidence that in the Time Magazine article from 1976 about the recording of 15 Big Ones, a few group members were quoted as saying that the process of going back to recording with Brian producing was "a little bruising." As far as group influences, it appeared that the group went in and record a few dozen oldies before focusing on new material, and for Brian, the process of recording those was enough of a trial for him to postpone recording new group written material. The group seemed to realize this and let him work on the Adult Child and Brian Loves You material mostly by himself. 

The rest of the group were supportive of Brian, as they understood his therapeutic goals to exist. Carl and Dennis had tunes that were inspired and beautiful, but deferred them to make room for Brian's work. The eventual release of many songs that were recorded during those years in the desert, with no new music from Brian, while Dennis was continuously recording, led to Pacific Ocean Blue, Dennis's solo album. Late that summer of 1976, It's Ok was released to modest commercial success, reaching number 30 on Billboard's Singles Chart. There is some conjecture that it might have gone higher had it not been released so late that Summer. It was an incredible instrumental track, somewhat derived from the same melodic idea as the 1974 Christmas single, and had an inspired lead vocal. Brian continued to record into the the fall of 1976 and early 1977, with Landy departing that fall. What Brian did in some of those fall sessions showed he still had production chops when inspired. Songs such as Still I Dream of It, It's Over Now, It's Trying to Say, Everybody Wants to Live, and You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' showed Brian pouring his heart onto recording tape.

They say that hindsight is 20/20. It is easy to look back from 2013 and say what could have or should have been done. That is immaterial. What happened was Brian recorded his most personal album of the 70s, Beach Boys Love You, and we might not have that jewel had we not mined for gold on 15 Big Ones.

Appendix: Brian's Favorite Productions from The Beach Boy Years


Beach Boys Classics Selected by Brian Wilson: Capitol 7234 5 40087 2 6-Released in 2002
It is an often spoken truism that if you ask Brian Wilson a question about what his favorite song is that he wrote and recorded, he will tell you the truth that day. The next day could be a different answer. This was the challenge facing EMI Toshiba when they asked Brian to compile a list of his favorite Beach Boys tracks. What they got back was fascinating, from the standpoint that he also offered them a newly recorded solo version of California Feelin'. When you are offered a new Brian Wilson tune, you jump at the chance to put it out. California Feelin' is especially legendary, having been lauded by the late Timothy White in a 1976 article about Brian's music. The Beach Boys have taken stabs at at it a few times, but it never sounded quite like the 1974 demo that Timothy White heard in 1975. The version Brian recorded is a latter day recording, done with his marvelous band. It showcases the song gently, and allows it to showcase it's intrinsic optimism, courtesy of Brian and Stephen Kalinich. It is a celebration of California, perhaps a foreshadowing of his Lucky Old Sun album.

The list of tunes Brian chose, probably with input from friends and family, represents a who's who of Beach Boys lyricists, including Brian himself. Brian's most popular lyricists were Mike Love, Van Dyke Parks, and himself! Second most selected were Tandyn Almer, Tony Asher, and Jack Rieley. Also named were Gary Usher, Roger Christian, Carl Wilson, Stephen Kalinich, and Ray Kennedy. Why is this illuminating? Perhaps because Brian named some of the songs that most personally represented not only the best of his songwriting and studio craft, but also touched him personally. As many songwriters say, songs are like children to their creators. The fact that Busy Doin' Nothin', In My Room, Til I Die, and Surfer Girl join this list is that they represent major parts of Brian...his love of home, feeling safe, feeling at sea with life, and the innocence of young love.

It is also interesting that Brian chose to mix album tracks and singles. Although some of the later songs he selected were placed on singles, it is important to note that the first 10 tunes he selected were major singles, and the last 10 were album tracks. The only enigma is We're Together Again, a tune written by Ron Wilson, with whom Brian did a 1968 single for Columbia which did not chart. Perhaps the sentiment expressed by the song's lyrics touched Brian. It is from around the Friends period roughly. It is also very interesting to note that Brian chose the Smiley Smile version of Wonderful, rather than the Smile version, probably because he considers it to be the finished version of that song. As far as albums represented, Smile/Smiley Smile wins hands down with 4 songs chosen. There are beautiful tunes that are left out, most notably Wouldn't It Be Nice, something from the 'slow side' of Beach Boys Today, and tunes from 15 Big Ones and Beach Boys Love You being ignored. Smile could easily have contributed Cabin Essence or Our Prayer. In the end, our list will differ from Brian's, but isn't that apropos? In the end, Brian's instincts for his best work remain fairly steadfast in interviews through the years. In his solo career, there are another half dozen tunes which could easily make the list, if not more. Art is always an interplay between its creator and the subjective experiences the observer or listener brings to the union. In this case, Brian and whoever worked with him to select this repertoire of his work were inspired. This is a most listenable compilation.