Finding the Light: The Beach Boys Elope to CBS by Peter Reum

Finding the Light: The Beach Boys Elope to CBS by Peter Reum

From their earliest time together, The Beach Boys' relationship with Warner/Reprise Records had had its ups and downs. Sales for 15 Big Ones had given The Beach Boys some breathing room with Reprise, especially with Brian's interest in writing songs returning to a degree, although he was averse to producing.  At that time, the group had Brother Studios as a place to experiment with sounds they heard in their heads, and Brian showed interest in working alone and cutting first versions of songs he had written during and after the first episode with Eugene Landy. Although Brian did not enjoy producing, he found the process of putting his musical ideas on tape rewarding.

The Beach Boys Love You was released in April of 1977, and it was an album that was well received amongst Rock Music critics but left  many long time Beach Boys followers flummoxed. To this day, it is the single Beach Boys album that is most debated among long time fans. The group's contract with Warner/Reprise had one album left to be submitted for release after Love You, and Warner/Reprise were thought to be contenders for a new agreement with the group after the last album on the old contract was released. Brian's songs had dominated The Beach Boys Love You, and in the interim, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue had outsold it. The Beach Boys were approached by CBS/Caribou, with the idea of moving the entire group over to Caribou. The group was asked to play a live concert in 1977 in London after signing with CBS/Caribou, and the group did so.



The new agreement with CBS was not kept confidential, and Reprise was left with no hope of signing the group and being owed one last album.  The Beach Boys retreated to the old Parsons College, which had been renamed Maharishi International University in late 1977, hoping to get the last Reprise album done, so that work could begin on the first CBS/Caribou album, which came to be known as the L.A. Light Album. The last Reprise album, named after the college where it was recorded, was The M.I.U. Album,  and it had some first rate compositions and performances, but was not heavily promoted by Reprise because of their disappointment with the CBS/Caribou signing.

The Beach Boys decided to record part of the L.A. Light Album at Criteria Studios in Miami, amongst many others, where The Bee Gees had cut their best selling albums in the late Seventies. Brian took a shot at producing, but retreated from that responsibility, and asked Bruce Johnston to take over. The group was without many new Brian compositions at the time, and Brian's health had deteriorated after Love You was released. L.A. Light was an album with compositions by every Beach Boy, and while this was wonderful for the group as a whole, CBS/Caribou had hoped for more Brian compositions.



Here Comes the Night was released as the first single in a 7 inch format, timing in at 4'28", backed with Baby Blue. Two years earlier, Bruce Johnston had recorded a disco version of the Chantays' Pipeline, and proposed doing a Beach Boys disco single with Curt Boettcher for L.A. Light. The 12 inch single version was originally issued in an almost 11 minute length, also placed on side 2 of L.A. Light, and issued as a blue vinyl promo record for clubs and FM stations. The initial version of the single was not played as heavily as needed, and a DJ reservice was issued a month after the initial  promotional single, with both the 7 inch and 12 inch versions being shortened. The DJ reservice of the 7 inch single had a 4'28" version backed with a rather well mixed 3'18" version that could have been a hit had it been released first. The 12 inch single was shortened as well, with a 6'43" version and a 9'44" version available for play. The remixed versions were too late to save the single.



Baby Blue was a Dennis Wilson masterpiece that was probably the album's strongest track, with a mournful dirge-like Wagnerian feel that was crystal clear in its meaning. The track was accompanied by a Dennis Wilson lead vocal that dripped with wistfulness. The tasteful Beach Boys backing vocals amplified the song's yearning tone, a story in sound of a relationship loved and lost.



The L.A. Light Album began with a song that Brian and Carl composed in 1974 while the group recorded at Caribou Studios in Nederland, Colorado, Good Timin', backed with Love Surrounds Me as the 'B' side.  Good Timin' was one place where Brian appears on L.A. Light, having cut the track for the song in December 1974 at Colorado's Caribou Studio. The rhythmic keyboard in the background is Brian; although he is also audible in the background vocals with a close listen.  The Surfer Girl introduction is quoted in Good Timin's introduction and on the song's bridge, making the song unmistakeably a Beach Boys tune. Love Surrounds Me is another Dennis Wilson song that shines on L.A. Light.  The track is perhaps a meditation on his relationship with Christine McVie, whose background vocals may be heard on the song's tag, beginning at 2:42 into the song.



In the United Kingdom, a second single was released which became a radio hit, reaching number 6 in the UK singles charts, Lady Lynda b/w Full Sail. Lady Lynda was based on Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire, and featured a contemporary sounding Beach Boys track, with a fine lead vocal from the tune's co-writer, Alan Jardine. The track had a solid midtempo rock beat with a wall of patented Beach Boys' backing vocals behind it. The tag, an almost acapella segment, was a perfect ending to a great 'A' side. The flip side, Full Sail, was a Carl Wilson composition, with lyrics by Geoffrey Cushing Murray, who also did lyrics for Love Surrounds Me and Goin' South. The song seems to signify the end of a phase of Carl's life and his movement toward a new beginning.


 Perhaps hoping to replicate the Lady Lynda/Full Sail single's success in the UK, CBS/Caribou issued the single as a third US single in the late Summer, but it never charted.

Building on the success of Lady Lynda/Full Sail, the UK CBS/Caribou division issued their third single as Sumahama, a Mike Love composition, backed with Angel Come Home. The single, riding the radio success of the Lady Lynda single, was a modest hit in the UK, topping out at number 37, barely breaking the top 40.


Sumahama was also a hit in Japan, and was a nice touch for the Beach Boys fans in Japan, amongst the most loyal in the world.  The Japanese lyrics in Sumahama were warmly received.  Angel Come Home was the second Dennis Wilson composition in the UK to be a 'B' side off of L.A. Light. The song's lyrics again touched upon loneliness and the desolation it brings.  The song's lyrics seem to communicate a lonely Dennis wrestling with the reality of being left and not wanting to face that truth.



The L.A. Light Album was a disappointment for both The Beach Boys and CBS/Caribou sales wise in the United States. It peaked at number 100 on the Billboard Album Chart. In the UK, it reached number 32, a more respectful showing. The UK CBS/Caribou division issued a fourth single, Good Timin' b/w Goin' South in November of 1979. Goin' South, sung by Carl, seemed to reflect a painful experience that he had recently gone through, and showed him contemplating the old geographical relocation approach to removing whatever was so painful to think about.



L.A. Light's only track that didn't appear on a single somewhere was the remade Shortnin' Bread, a tune originally slated for the unreleased Adult Child album. Brian's piano here is awesome, as is Dennis's foghorn bass vocal.  Made famous by Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly), the tune by the late Seventies had taken on a bit of a reputation as a song reflecting times when African-Americans were seen as little more than secondhand citizens in the American South. Brian's arrangement has turned up in several later tunes, and a scalawag on youtube has created the "Shortnin' Bread Suite" piecing together several Brian tunes that have the familiar riff heard on L.A. Light. That "Suite" runs almost 10 minutes long.



For The Beach Boys, the album's US sales numbers were a big disappointment. For CBS/Caribou, the album was also a disappointment. The Beach Boys had created an album that was fairly listenable, but needed a few more Brian Wilson type of tunes that would have fit well on L.A. Light's second side with a shorter version of Here Comes the Night.  The album's strong points were  as great as any Beach Boys music since Endless Summer, but the group was still dealing with the iconic Sixties hits which people purchased on various Capitol reissues which never seemed to stop. As a debut album in a new and lucrative contract, the album fell short of the type of quality the first Reprise contract album, Sunflower, had easily demonstrated. 



Text copyright 2015 by Peter Reum-All Rights Reserved