The Beach Boys Surfin' Safari (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1962) **** The Beach Boys Surfin' USA (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1963) ****
The Beach Boys Surfer Girl (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1963) ****
The Beach Boys Little Deuce Coupe (CD, Capitol Records, 1963) ***
The Beach Boys Shut Down Volume 2 (CD, Capitol Records, 1964) ****
The Beach Boys All Summer Long (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1964) ****
The Beach Boys The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1964) *
The Beach Boys The Beach Boys Today! (CD, Capitol Records, 1965) ****
The Beach Boys Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) (CD, Capitol Records, 1965) ****
The Beach Boys Beach Boys' Party! (CD, Capitol Records, 1965) *****
The Beach Boys Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged (CD, Capitol Records, 2015) *
The Beach Boys Pet Sounds (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1966) *****
The Beach Boys Smiley Smile (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1967) ****
The Beach Boys Wild Honey (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1967) ***
The Beach Boys Friends (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1968) ****
The Beach Boys 20/20 (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1969) ****
Genre: Surf rock music, pop
They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6
Active compensatory factors: It's summer in New Zealand and that's the perfect time to listen to The Beach Boys. That's a good thing because I have a stack-o-wax related to America's band.
Where did my obsession begin with The Beach Boys? With a compilation album (naturally - they must be one of the most heavily compiled artists ever). More specifically it was the cover image that did it - I didn't buy it because I was only 12 and still a bit too young to have any money.
The album was called Bug-In and it was in a spinney wiry record rack thing with other budget albums on the Starline label at The Three Kings Woolworths in 1970.
The red behind The Beach Boys and that girl having fun in the back of a kind of dune buggy gave such a sense of adult freedom that was so impossibly out of reach, made me hyper aware of the band and their music from there on. It was that idealised vision of American life that started me off: the girl with long hair flowing; the beach with the golden glow; the freedom of speeding away into the unknown in a fun car; the endless possibilities - all there in that image.
Of course, I was well aware of their big sixties hits that had been all over the radio but it wasn't until that image on Bug-in that I felt the stirrings of obsession.
Fast forward seven years and I'm working at Marbecks Records during my university holidays. Capitol had repacked most of the early albums into double albums - Surfin' Safari is twinned with Surfin' USA and so on. Coooooool. I took my pay in records at that time, so I earned all of 'em!
Surfin' Safari is an underappreciated debut. It's released on October 1, 1962 fer goodness sake!! [Also my birthday btw - I was 5 and starting school that day]. It's outrageous that The Beach Boys are this good on their debut. Brian Wilson writes 9 of the 12 songs!! It's 1962!!! He's 20 years old. OMG.
Surfin' USA is a leap forward and it was recorded 3 months after the debut. Inconceivable! The vocals are more confident, the harmonies are better, the songs are more memorable, the production slightly better. What's crazy is that there is no filler on these two albums - the surf instrumentals fit right in to the whole album feel.
Surfer Girl, also in 1963, showed the pressure of producing so much music - there is some instrumental filler on this album. A minor issue though, because the harmony vocals throughout the album are immense and it had some killer songs: Surfer Girl; Catch a Wave; Little Deuce Coupe; In My Room; Hawaii.
Little Deuce Coupe was their third album of 1963! It moves from the surf theme to the car world with all the songs centring on the American craze for hot cars. Some of the songs had already appeared (409, Shut Down, Little Deuce Coupe, and Our Car Club) but that didn't matter to Capitol Records - America needed product! The album also had Be True to Your School which was puzzling to NZ youth in 1963 I guess, but it's a great tune.
Shut Down Volume 2 was the follow up to Little Deuce Coupe in 1964 (Volume 1, called Shut Down, also from 1963, was a mixed compilation with only two songs by The Beach Boys). There are three big songs - Fun Fun Fun, Don't Worry Baby, The Warmth of the Sun, but also a few cringe moments - Denny's Drums, a so-so cover of Louie Louie and the attempt at humour that is Love Vs Wilson.
Both aspects are key aspects to the band - Brian's musical genius and the goofy gee-willikers humourous side. Added to this the constant demand for product - this was the first of another three albums in one year. No wonder the quality fluctuates on Little Deuce Coupe and Shut Down Volume 2.
All Summer Long is an almost 5-star classic album. It's chock-a-block with goodness (tough to accept the hokey Our Favorite Recording Sessions though, as it's another endearingly goofy moment).
The cover sets the scene with snapshots of fun and hijinks at the beach with girls. All of the proper songs on All Summer Long lull you into The Beach Boy's idealised world. Highlights include I Get Around, Little Honda (GO!), Wendy and the title track. If they could only rein in the comedy tracks and the instruments, they'd have a stunner, but those comedy tracks are part of their personality, so what the hell - it's the bleedin' Beach Boys right!
Hang on to that sentiment - it will see you through The Beach Boys' Christmas Album. Yes, it gets a play every Christmas in Wozza's World, but it's tricky getting through the album in one go. They are at their best when the songs and music are closer to the rock'n'roll end of the continuum. The schmaltsy strings and orchestral backed tunes are only passable because of those gorgeous harmonies.
The Beach Boys Today! saw them edging towards a five-star album but again Bull Sessions With 'Big Daddy' sees them land just short. Up to that point we're talking classic Beach Boys, 1965 style.
Shame, because every other track is 5-star classic material as those blended vocals swoop around the instrumentation, which is edging towards the grandeur of Pet Sounds.
Help Me, Ronda (sic - album version is without the 'h') and When I Grow Up (To be a Man) are just the most well-known. There aren't any filler songs here (Kiss Me Baby is gorgeous), aside from Bull Sessions...
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) - yes with the daringly suggestive double exclamation marks, is another step onwards towards perfection (i.e. Pet Sounds). Again there is the by now mandatory stoopid comedy track - I'm Bugged at My Old Man.
Bruce Johnston joins The Beach Boys in time for Summer Days...but doesn't get his picture on the cover (nor does Al who was unwell). Bruce was touring cover for Brian and by now appearing in the studio he cements his rightful place with the other striped shirt freedom fighters.
The renamed Help Me, Rhonda appears in its single shape but California Girls dominates this album, along with Then I Kissed Her and Let Him Run Wild.
Pick of the bunch for me is Carl Wilson's first solo vocal on Girl Don't Tell Me. Carl, for me and many others is the soul of the band and his beautiful vocals mirror his personality. Up to this point he'd been the lead guitarist and harmony vocalist. From here on in, his presence and importance would only increase and become indespensible. The Beach Boys without Carl is unthinkable.
Beach Boys' Party! (Capitol loved those exclamation marks) is their third album of 1965 and a whole lotta fun!!! It could have been a disaster - an extended I'm Bugged at My Old Man for instance; full of comedy and Beach Boy kookiness, but it's a revelation instead.
From the introductory acoustic guitar, bongos and ambient party noise, you know it's gonna be good - a fly on the wall look at a beach party with the cool kids. It's mostly cover versions which means instant recognition, and it's expertly edited together from extensive sessions into a coherent one album version that I never get tired of listening to.
There are three Beatle songs, one by Dylan and The Everly Brothers, several doo-wop groups and a couple of their own songs amongst the songs chosen from the sessions, with beach-party atmospherics. All of the six Beach Boys are present, plus a variety of guests (Dean Torrence is a co-lead on Barbara Ann) - making it a special moment in time.
Without those added atmospherics the double CD Uncovered and Unplugged is like the Let It Be sessions in that there is session banter mixed with false starts and other songs that were ultimately discarded for the finished album. That's interesting for the committed fans, but less interesting for everyone else.
Outside of The Beatles and Dylan, I have less interest in the profusion of 'making of' multi-disc sets that have exploded onto the market since The Beatles Anthology arrived in the nineties. So, when it comes to Pet Sounds - I just want the actual album and I'll leave the multi-disc versions for others to collect.
Pet Sounds was the giant breakthrough in 1966; the one that spurred The Beatles to follow Rubber Soul and Revolver with Sgt. Peppers; the one on which Carl sang God Only Knows; the one that Brian excelled on - his pinnacle of achievement (along with Good Vibrations) before flaming out.
The follow up to Pet Sounds was the Good Vibrations single - maybe the greatest single O.A.T. Eventually, Brian and the band abandoned the SMiLE project and worked on what became Smiley Smile in a home studio with The Beach Boys producing their own music again - back to the old days!
The result is a laid-back spacey album aside from Good Vibrations (Brian was out voted on the question of its inclusion). Heroes and Villains leads off the album in atypical fashion and then it's breezy experimentation with Carl taking the lead on many songs. Mike Love may have wondered what was happening to the formula.
The same DIY approach goes with their other album of 1967 - these guys worked hard! Wild Honey is well named - it's a grittier sound for the most part. Darlin', the title song and How She Boogalooed It are wonderful new looks, as the boys embraced R&B and soul. The songs range from good to great and the whole album holds together well with a unified feel.
Friends emerged in 1968 and that formula Mike loved so much (and would eventually do it again) was well and truly in tatters by this stage and the band was the better for it, in my opinion. I love the Friends album. It has some of my favourite BB songs: Wake The World; Anna Lee, the Healer; and the title song.
Their final album of the sixties (15 albums in 8 years!!) was 20/20 and it's a fine set of archetypal BB songs (Do It Again returns to their surf sound) - even more impressive given Brian was largely absent by this time. The album ends with two out of this world performances: Our Prayer is uncanny and Cabinessence is an ethereal relic from the SMiLE sessions.
Where do they all belong? Seventies albums are next.
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