Al Jardine of The Beach Boys released his solo album A Postcard from California in 2011, but it was released as a physical CD last year. And since then, of course, Al went on to tour with the reunited Beach Boys for a 50th anniversary celebration.
And after the tour was over Jardine, along with Brian Wilson and David Marks, was unceremoniously dumped from the group by Mike Love (or came to the end of their contract, depending on who you believe).
Anyhow, Al’s offering up a new video for the song “Don’t Fight The Sea,” which has an interesting history. Jardine wrote the environmentally conscious song years ago, and had begun recording vocals.
He had recordings of the late Beach Boys guitarist/singer Carl Wilson doing the song, and when he started work on his solo album he solicited the surviving Beach Boys to add their vocals to it as well.
“Don’t Fight The Sea” was released in 2011 as a charity single to help victims of the earthquake in Japan that year. This video has stunning photography and has won the Best Video award at The Blue Ocean Film Festival.
One of us recently had the pleasure of working with Allison Langdon, a host and reporter for “60 Minutes” in Australia. The other one of us wasn’t so lucky. The quote of the year has to be: “You sure don’t look like Morley Safer.”
Nevertheless, when Allison and her crew were in Houston they also met up with the Beach Boys to tape an interview and some of their concert at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Nice report but a few nitpicks: almost no mention of Carl Wilson … “Kokomo” is the Beach Boys’ biggest hit? And that bit with Mike Love at the end … crikey!
Here are a couple videos from the Beach Boys, early 1970s style. Both seem appropriate for now because the Boys are apparently freezin’ their asses off in each video.
The first is the ecologically conscious “Don’t Go Near The Water” from 1971’s Surf’s Up. This lineup of the Beach Boys features, of course, Blondie Chaplin on guitar and vocals (far left when you can see the full band) and Ricky Fataar on drums. The hairiest members are Mike Love (who looks like he’d much rather be someplace else), Carl Wilson (nice hat!) and Al Jardine. Dennis Wilson’s holding down the keyboards in place of Big Bro Brian, who’s probably at home in Calfornia where it’s much warmer.
The second video is “You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone,” with the same lineup except this song is from 1972’s Carl And The Passions – So Tough. Although it was written by Brian Wilson (with Jack Rieley) he’s still not in the video. Carl sings lead and wears the same fuzzy hat in this one, shot on a rooftop someplace a la the Beatles and “Get Back.” Could they be in Holland- they cut an album there in 1972 which became, uh, Holland. Actually, they’re in Brighton, England, south of London in the cold winter of 1972 (see comment below).
Summer’s here and the time is right for some classic rock. Or more accurately, new music from artists that at one time made classic rock and pop music. Cynics might look at these people as once-vital artists who now have to cash in on past glory in order to keep the utilities on. But I prefer to keep a warm spot on my heart for these folks, who are all too happy to remind us why we loved them in the first place.
Al Jardineis the only member of the original Beach Boys who wasn’t a blood relative of Brian Wilson. Even so, Jardine’s new A Postcard from California manages to evoke the spirit of the Beach Boys more successfully than the recent work of even the Sandbox Genius (that would be Brian, who’s about to release an album of George Gershwin covers). And by evoking the spirit of the Boys, I mean not only that sublime surf-and-hot-rods sound but also the goofy social commentary and cracked sense of humor that characterized a lot of the Beach Boys’ later work. At 68 years old, Jardine’s voice is just as perfect as it was when he sang “Help Me Rhonda” in 1965.
Now Jardine isn’t the most prolific songwriter so he covers a handful of old Beach Boys tunes that won’t make you forget the originals – despite the presence of guest performers like Neil Young, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America, Steve Miller and Norton Buffalo, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Brian Wilson his own self. One of those oldies is “Don’t Fight the Sea,” which is actually an unreleased Beach Boys track that features harmonies by the late Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Brian Wilson and Mike Love (Carl and Bruce cut their parts in the 1980s, Brian and Mike recorded their parts more recently). This environmentally conscious song, like the others on this album, take on a new urgency with the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Brian Wilson turns up again on “Drivin’,” a duet that features self-serving vocal backgrounds from America … some of that weird humor here. Another highlight is Jardine’s revisiting of his “California Saga” epic, this time with harmony help from Crosby, Stills and Young and with a spoken-word piece from Alec Baldwin (!).
Listening to A Postcard From California over the Fourth of July weekend, the album managed to grow on me. You have to be in a certain place to enjoy this kind of Grandpa Rock – being an AARP member and qualifying for senior discounts doesn’t hurt – but if Al Jardine can take me back to another time and another place even for a fleeting moment, I’d sign on for that trip any time.
Today we’re going to pull out a record from my own collection – Holland, the 1973 album from the Beach Boys and one of my all-time favorites from the band. By the early 1970s, the days of hit singles (and even hit albums) were behind the Beach Boys, mainly because Brian Wilson’s control of the band had dissipated as he faded into a haze of drugs and mental illness.
The band’s manager (Jack Rieley, who also wrote lyrics for some of the Beach Boys’ music) suggested the group cut an album in Holland in hopes that a change of scenery might help snap Brian back to reality. So in 1972 the Beach Boys, their families and handlers and recording people all flew to Baambrugge, Netherlands, along with truckloads of California recording equipment. After a few false starts and panic attacks, even Brian Wilson got on the plane.
With younger brother Carl Wilson as the ringleader, the rest of the band stepped up to fill in for brother Brian – Dennis Wilson wrote two songs, “Steamboat” and “Only With You” (with lyrics supplied by Rieley and Mike Love, respectively) and Carl wrote “The Trader” (with anti-imperialist lyrics from Rieley). New members Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, who joined the previous year, chipped in with “Leaving This Town” and “We Got Love.”
All of the songs above are a mixed bag, if you’ve never heard any of them before it might be hard to recognize the Beach Boys’ trademark sound as you know it. They’re pleasant and professional, they’re a little edgy and experimental but honestly whenever Holland comes up those are rarely the songs people talk about.
The last time I saw Dennis Wilson was in August 1983 at the Houston Astrodome. The Beach Boys were playing after an Astros game and he looked completely disheveled when he got out of one of the convertibles that brought band members on the field. Dirty jeans, no shoes, no shirt, and probably high as a kite. By this time, he couldn’t keep time and another drummer was also on stage.
Wilson drowned later that year (ironic because he was the only Beach Boy who could surf), however, he left behind one of the better solo albums by any member of the Beach Boys, Pacific Ocean Blue.
Wilson never had the clean, angelic voice of his brothers Brian and Carl. His was rough, grainy (maybe from all the years of drugs and alcohol) soulful and sad. It reflected his life. His voice is best showcased on the excellent “Thoughts of You,” “Time,” “Farewell My Friend,” the eerie “End of the Show,” and the spiritual “River Song,” where the lyrics include the line “got to get away” illustrate his pain of living.
This two-disc collection also features the unfinished album, Bambu, that Wilson was working on shortly after the release of Pacific Ocean Blue. His decline into drug and alcohol abuse took away any inspiration he had to finish, in his words, “a superior follow up.” The Bambu disc also features a version of “Holy Man” sung by Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Out of print for more than 15 years, it’s nice to see Legacy Recordings finally released this gem. Mike Love never had it in him to make an album this good.
30 Days Out 
