There is hope for the Beach Boys future archive releases. Upon transfer from Capitol to MCA/Universal, it would have been easy to discontinue plans for archive releases, and to focus elsewhere. To everyone's credit, MCA/Universal decided to continue archival releases planned by Capitol before the transfer. The first of these planned releases is the Made In California boxed set, which has a release date of August 27 of this year at the time of this note. People working on the project say that the track lineup is all set. This is encouraging as well.
What would a future release program at MCA/Universal look like? Well, they don't need my advice, but here it is anyhow. The first suggestion is to continue the reissue mono/stereo release program for the remaining Capitol albums from the Sixties. There is room for a stereo Wild Honey, Surfin' Safari, with stereo 20/20 and Friends as well. We need both shows from London in 1969, both shows from Sacramento in 1964, and from the Seventies, Carl and the Passions with bonus tracks, In Concert as a double cd with the first proposed track line up, Holland with bonus tracks, 15 Big Ones with bonus tracks, Love You with bonus tracks, MIU, LA Light with bonus tracks, Keepin' the Summer Alive with bonus tracks, Beach Boys 85 with bonus tracks, Carl Wilson's two albums released perhaps similar to Dennis's Pacific Ocean Blue, plus perhaps a collection of orphaned Seventies tracks such as the 1976 Adult Child tracks Brian cut. This will sound strange but an unfinished tracks cd for some of Dennis and Carl's Seventies work, plus some of Brian's Seventies stuff that turned a few years ago such as Just An Imitation would be enlightening. Rooftop Harry and My Solution would also be nice. It might be time to finally buy the Hite Morgan stuff and do a sympathetic package there as well.
The Beach Boys have not mined their treasure trove of live concerts dating back to the early Sixties. We know from unauthorized releases that there are first rate board tapes from 1966 forward. There is a cool 1964 live show from Sweden that deserves official release, as does the Fillmore show with The Dead, and the 1966 Michigan State show, and shows from 1967-Hawaii, and much better tapes from later in 1967. From the Seventies, there are any number of shows, the Fillmore Closing, Good Vibrations from London and Central Park, the Syracuse 1971 show, The various Carnegie Shows, The radio Luxembourg Show, the shows from the recording void (1974-76), and the 15th and 16th Anniversary Shows recorded at the Forum. There is the Largo, Maryland 1977 show, and the CBS Convention Show the same year. There are a number of concerts that were cut with Brian from 1978-80,although many of them may not be very good. From then on, probably the next worthwhile shows would be the 1993 Tour promoting the Good Vibrations Boxed Set.
There is a big need for a collection of Brian's demos from 1962 on through to the present. The ones that exist and have been heard are amazing. There is most likely enough for a double or triple cd set. Does any of this pique your interest? If not, it would be surprising. When do we begin?
Copyright 2013 by Peter Reum-All Rights Reserved
Hey Peter, I've been a big fan of you for a while now, and I stumbled upon your blog.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I agree that it would be a good idea to continue the reissue program from last year for at least the rest of the sixties albums. However, I think it would be probably be better if the rest of their albums were issued in the same way, as single packages. I hear what you're saying about expanded editions of the albums from the '70s and on, but won't the best stuff from the '70s and '80s already be issued on Made in California? I think it would be best to have the entire catalog straightened out, with Surfin' Safari through Still Cruisin' reissued as they were (except for both mono and stereo albums through Wild Honey obviously).
Also, about Carl's solo material, note that Youngblood has already been reissued. It would be nice to have his first album reissued as that has the better material as far as I'm concerned.
I also remember hearing that Jimmy Guercio was planning on putting out another album of Denny's music entitled Tornado. Whether that was scrapped or not, I'm not sure, but hopefully we'll get some more Dennis material. His early '70s stuff (judging from what I've heard) definitely deserves release, but I'm not even sure who owns it. Brother I assuming. Or maybe Dennis' trust? Who knows.
Also, I saw you mentioned "Just an Imitation" in this post. I thought that one was never recorded? Was a recording of it found? And if it was, why isn't it making it onto Made in California if it's a good as people have being saying?
Anyways, keep up the great writing Mr. Reum. Also, I'm friends with you and Facebook, and I LOVE your political postings. Always right on the mark!
-Jim
Thanks for your post, Jim. My hope is that they would release both of Carl's albums as a double set, similar to Dennis's. If they don't, a release of his first album would be very helpful...
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