Rock and roll heaven seems to be getting a mass induction this year, with the sad passing of Donna Summer and Doug Dillard. Better news is the Beach Boys association with QVC -they played an hour show for them last night . QVC are also offering a special double package of the new album with a CD of past hits.
It’s 46 years since the greatest album ever was released. The world has gone through a lot since then, but we’ve had this record to see us through the pain and enjoy the pleasures. It’s a good day to link to two pieces of writing that I did, one of the 30th anniversary of the release, and one on the 40th.
There has been quite lot happening in the past day or in respect of the new Beach Boys album. Most tangibly, you can now hear 30 second snippets of each of the tracks at Amazon. While 30 seconds doesn’t make a song, it does sound very promising -just the harmonies and sound of the opening Think About The Days evokes the best things about the group. From There To Back Again seems to be getting the most positive comments from those who have heard the record, and the initial preview confirms the promise of this song.
Composing credits from the entire album are also circulating the internet, and these confirm that all the songs were co-written by at least one Beach Boy, the first time this has happened since Love You! Indeed, with all but one song co-written by Brian, it will easily have the most Brian involvement from a composition perspective (as well as other aspects) on a Beach Boys album since Love You! Joe Thomas also features strongly, and it is likely some of the songs dated from that era. Daybreak Over The Ocean, a solo Mike Love composition, dates from even earlier. A surprising name on the final track’s credit is Jon Bon Jovi- however, the track sounds a lot closer to Caroline, No than Bad Medicine!
An in-depth and positive review of the album can be seen here. There’s still a lot more to hear, but even at this stage, it seems almost miraculous that we are three weeks away from a new Beach Boys album, strongly featuring Brian, but also Mike, Al, Bruce and David Marks, that will at very least be a very good record.
A final thought – Brian will now, as a solo artist and Beach Boy, have released three studio albums in less than two years, and four studio albums in less than four years. While they haven’t all been original songs, this is considerable productivity for any artist at this time, let alone one who may have been written off as a casualty of the 60s.
They are an ocean, a genre and a generation apart, but there are some very interesting parallels between the Beach Boys current revival, and that of Dexy’s Midnight Runners (now called Dexys). Both are currently on tours that have received a fair bit of press acclaim. And both are releasing albums of all-new material in the week beginning 4 June, with some pre-release buzz that these could be rather interesting records. Indeed, if you ignore Stars & Stripes (features other stars), Summer In Paradise (no Brian involvement) and Still Cruisin’ (only two-thirds an album of new material), you could have quite a good case that both groups released their last proper album in 1985. The last Dexy’s album was Don’t Stand Me Down, acclaimed now as something of a classic. The Beach Boys 1985 album is generally not as highly rated, but had some good moments.
1985 was the year I finished high school. Now 27 years later, two groups that I listened to back then are doing it one more time, and in some ways turning back the clock. We’re older, and supposedly wiser, but still looking for that magic in our lives. And maybe, that will come around the fourth of June.
It was a great to see an insightful write-up of the Beach Boys show at the Beacon Theatre in the New York Times, which had a prominent place in the newspaper. With another show tonight at the Beacon, and an intensive tour program in the North-East USA in the next ten days, the reunion tour seems to be gathering momentum.
The Beach Boys were featured guests on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night, performing three songs (In My Room, That’s Why God Made The Radio and Wouldn’t It Be Nice -wonderful choices for this writer) and seeing Mike and Brian being interviewed by Jimmy.I was particularly moved by In My Room, and it was nice to see Mike Love supporting his cousin’s genius throughout the interview. You can see it all at
http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/. Meanwhile speculation on the new album continues, with some positive reports coming out from a few lucky people who have heard the album, especially on the closing tracks. Exciting days indeed!
The Beach Boys are doing it – so we can also. The renowned chat room on our website will be hosting a reunion chat in our renowned chat room. This will take place on May 20th (21st in some places) -you can find the time in your own location here. It’s a reunion for all the chatters in the old Bagism and Cabin websites in the 90s, but we’d also love to have new people chatting about Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, the Beatles and other great music. You can get registration details here.
The Spring 2012 of Endless Summer Quarterly is out, and as you may expect, there is a lot of focus on the reunion shows and new studio album. The centerpiece of the edition is an interview with all five of the current Beach Boys, discussing both the reunion and the new album -with some insight on the titles that will probably be on the album. There are also a number of album reviews, including some records that have been reviewed on this blog. As always, these magazines are a great source of current and historical information- you can get subscription and other information here.
You can see the CBS interview yesterday with the Beach Boys on YouTube here – nice to see them together, and getting this sort of publicity. No new revelations or information, but the discussion on Murray Wilson was somewhat chilling – a reminder why the Wilsons are an incredibly talented, but also damaged family.
It wasn’t very long until some more news -a tracklist for the new album has appeared on Amazon -again, nothing seems officially announced.
From the tracklist below, he Private Life Of Bill And Sue and Shelter have been mentioned as recent Brian Wilson compositions. Beaches In Mind, Spring Vacation and Daybreak Over The Ocean have also been mentioned as songs recorded for the album, all with a possible Mike Love involvement. There seems to be some rumor that the last three songs may be part of a Brian Wilson suite written for the album.
| 1. Think About The Days |
| 2. That’s Why God Made The Radio |
| 3. Isn’t It Time |
| 4. Spring Vacation |
| 5. The Private Life Of Bill And Sue |
| 6. Shelter |
| 7. Daybreak Over The Ocean |
| 8. Beaches In Mind |
| 9. Strange World |
| 10. From There To Back Again |
| 11. Pacific Coast Highway |
| 12. Summer’s Gone |
So it will be an exciting few weeks of speculation until all the songs and composers are known. It certainly looks like no retreads of older songs, although, knowing Brian Wilson, don’t count out some recycled tunes. Early chart action on Amazon also looks promising (#29 as I write).
