"All Summer Long: Conversations with the Beach Boys From Surfin' to SMiLE": https://www.amazon.com/All-Summer-Long-Conversations-Surfin/dp/B0FRLHT1X6 1 I live in California because of the Beach Boys. That may be hard to understand if you're under the age of 40, as there has been a multi-decade campaign to vilify the state. But if you grew up in the sixties, California was a dream. The bleeding edge was on the west coast of our country. That's where life was free, trends were started, music and movies were made and there were two girls for every boy. Growing up in the east it's hard to understand Los Angeles, even to this day. What you've got is a city that's really comprised of endless suburbs, which extend all the way to San Diego in the south and Santa Barbara in the north. And not only does it hardly ever rain, schools are built so you walk outside to classes. This is unfathomable if you grew up in the east. In the east you're destined for the best college you can get into, it's a given. In the west, you're going to a state school. Seemingly everybody takes courses at the community college before they retire or fly up to a university. Even Brian Wilson. So what we've got here is a string of Southern California families... Growing up in the fifties and sixties when you played outside instead of inside, when there were no cameras and you could get away with pranks, when safety was not first and society was fluid. You didn't graduate and chase a career, rather you spent time finding yourself, with a series of low-paying jobs while you pursued your dreams, whether they be in business or at the beach or... And we thought we knew what was really going on out here, but we didn't. And at this point, most people still don't. However the landscape has changed. The Wilsons and the Loves got together to sing. I can't tell you the last time I stood around the piano singing tunes. Hell, in the late sixties and early seventies no party was complete without breaking out guitars and singing Beatles songs and other hits of the days. The Wilsons and Loves didn't compose beats, they took lessons, they learned on the fly, they weren't singing and playing to get rich, but because they loved the music. Now if you're not a big fan of the Beach Boys I hesitate to recommend this book, because there are a lot of references to songs that you won't get. But if you are... 2 I have an issue with oral histories, and for that reason the person who e-mailed me about this book was reluctant to send it. But it's the BEACH BOYS! I'm always up for more info on the Beach Boys. And what stunned me was how much I didn't know, how much I learned. We all know the basic story, not only have there been books, but even movies. But these interviews are more ground-level. Not the stories of success, but of everyday life. Sure, they go through the making of the records, but more interesting to me is how people met and connected and hung out... This is what you did back in the day, you went out, it was the only way you could meet people. And there was a community of people you met, all with the same interests. And you made friends and... Brian Wilson met Marilyn Rovell, his teenage bride, at Pandora's Box, a club on a plot of land that no longer even exists. It was where the Sunset Strip riots took place, the ones that Buffalo Springfield sang about in "For What It's Worth." Today, everybody wants to be instantly rich and famous. Actually, they believe wealth comes with fame, but the goals were not that lofty back then. A lot of the gigs the Beach Boys played were puny. At high schools. This was not a cash machine, this was people playing music. Now eventually it all blew up, as a result of the success of the records embodying the California Dream, but before that... They were just living their lives on a minor level. Their first hit, "Surfin'," was on an indie label and made no impact outside of Southern California. Radio was still regional. And before the Beach Boys came Jan & Dean, my first love. And what astounded me in this book about the Beach Boys is it gave me more insight into Jan & Dean than I've ever had, despite knowing Dean Torrence, despite reading his book and so many more. I guess this book is more about feel than details. Of course there are plenty of details, but you get a vibe... Jan & Dean were in college, they made records around their school schedules. Lou Adler was the majordomo and the label was clueless, both acts can't stop bitching about how clueless their labels were. Not only did they not understand the music, but there was no thought put into photos and artwork and... 3 What I took from this book, other than the lifestyle elements above, was incredible insight into the creative process. Let's start with the fact that Brian Wilson produced all kinds of records, and wrote many songs that were never hits too. He's seen as a savant who got in the studio to produce Beach Boys records, but if you were a friend of his, if you made music, he wanted to work with you. What I'm saying here is Brian's success did not come out of thin air, he paid his dues, he learned on the job, and despite all the hits, there was a lot of detritus. As well as people who fell by the wayside, all of whom come alive in this book. But despite all the insight into the earlier albums, all the stories about the people, what made this book so important, that resonated with me, is the question of creativity. How do you keep it interesting to yourself? Now from the start of time, not only the label, but the public has wanted something just like the other thing, the hit. And not only are you competing with yourself, but all your imitators too. But the funny thing is the public says that's what they want, but really they do not. They want something new and different, unique. And it's easy to experiment when you're nowhere, when no one is paying attention, but success can be crippling. And on one wants to fall off the pedestal. But do you have your finger on the pulse, or did you lose this ability or..? So Brian just could not do it anymore. First, go on the road. Second, make the same old music. So he has Al Jardine, then Glen Campbell and then Bruce Johnston replace him and ultimately he just spends his days tinkering, creating. And after meeting Tony Asher, a jinglemeister, a healthy period of time afterward he rings him up and tells him he wants to make an album about love. That's right, there was a concept for "Pet Sounds." Today people start off wanting to make hits. Or, they say they have a concept for an album, but don't forget Brian did this before "Sgt. Pepper" and "Tommy," it was just a feeling. So he and Tony explored, they wanted to get the vibe right and... "Pet Sounds" was ahead of its audience. Some works resonate thereafter, like Nick Drake's, but the songs off "Pet Sounds" became ubiquitous. Despite all the hype in the seventies, I think the truly breakthrough moment was the use of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" in "Shampoo," there was truly synergy with the images, you got that Southern California vibe. And it's well-known that Capitol buried that album with a greatest hits LP right thereafter when "Pet Sounds" didn't burn up the charts, but then... Brian went even deeper, with "Smile." All we hear about "Smile" is Brian abandoning it when he heard fire engines and... That's not even discussed here. Although it is said that Brian gave up on the project after realizing it was too advanced for the listener. But before that... Van Dyke Parks came up with the concept of a journey from east to west, encompassing the entire breadth of the United States. You might say they were out there. I guess that's the point. The Beach Boys were the biggest act in America, and Brian wasn't even thinking about hits. Now you've got Mike Love talking about writing relatable lyrics for "Good Vibrations," but... This was of no concern to Wilson and Parks. They were pushing the envelope, to make it interesting to themselves. And after the failure of this project, Brian Wilson could never do it again. 4 So reading this book I realized the early to-mid-sixties in Southern California was a unique time. The vibes, the tentacles extended for decades, right up to this very point. But the truth was the musical movement was very brief, basically from 1962-1966. The blink of an eye today. But unlike today the Beach Boys would not only put out multiple albums per year, they'd have multiple hits. They'd rise to the top of the chart and then fall off and be replaced, all in a matter of months. Nothing moves that fast anymore, never mind the lack of ubiquity. But did time move on from Brian Wilson? Did the scene just change? The scene always changes, and very few can adjust, no matter how big and successful they've been in their heyday. And then they either grasp at straws, following trends, or give up making music all together. Or did something change for Brian, such that he couldn't do it anymore? Let's be clear, unlike most creators, Brian wasn't repeating himself. But despite having the royalty money to execute his wildest fantasies...(bad word, let's just say support his vision)...he was out on a limb, nobody was supporting him. And then there was LSD. Now if you ever hung with Brian Wilson, you knew something was off, something was wrong. As for it being schizophrenia, that tends to manifest itself in your mid to late twenties, when Wilson fell off the edge. But is that what was truly going on? Maybe he was just spent. Or maybe...without the support and success, he lost something. 5 Now I could tell you to support your artists' vision, but that's really putting it backward. The truth is, usually only the creator can understand their vision. And there was so much money in music in the sixties and seventies and then eighties that labels stood aside and let the acts follow their paths. But then it changed. The business was no longer cottage industry, the labels were looking for moonshots, they're still looking for moonshots, and in that case you're risk averse. But the nature of being an artist is to take risks. Let's be clear, most major acts today are taking no risks, maybe it's because they're performers, not artists. And then there are people who keep telling us they're artists who complain no one is paying attention. But the truth is Brian Wilson was not considered a genius until Derek Taylor started a publicity campaign saying that. The public bought it, but what exactly is a genius? Who exactly was Brian Wilson? How could he create and make this music? That's the mystery. It was in his head, and he wanted to get it down on tape. In most cases, there's nothing in someone's head other than a business construct. Which might be marketed to success, but... Of course "Bohemian Rhapsody" was like nothing heard previously, however it built upon a decade of rock innovation. But the intro to "California Girls"? Where did that come from? In a world where radio chopped off most instrumental intros. And then there's the theremin in "Good Vibrations"... It's not like everybody was doing this, NO ONE was doing it! And then commercial success separated from Brian's efforts and... 6 We are all looking for the new and different, but finding someone who provides it... Hell, we get cartoon movies because people want to escape from scary reality. But not in the heyday of the Beach Boys. That's when you had to turn on the radio to find out what was going on, to be hip. The records informed us. And everybody knew them. 7 So what is your life about? I guess if you're a civilian with a straight job it's about getting married, buying a house, having children and getting a gig that will pay for all this, that will move you up the lifestyle ladder. But an artist... It's a journey into the wilderness. You never know what will resonate, what will work. As for those people e-mailing me complaining that their music can't pay for their house and family...who told you to have a house and family? And let's be clear, it was all much cheaper back then, but... The art always came first. Which is one of the reasons that relationships didn't tend to last, the creators were married to their music, their vision, their projects. All of this is clear in this book in a way that I have not seen previously. Most acts blink, give us more of what we're looking for, they're afraid to fall off the pedestal. But Brian not only did not see himself as being on a pedestal, he actually got freaked out by people, public access. In many ways he was a child who never left the streets of Hawthorne, with its sports and good times and... He was always trying to get this down on wax when everybody else was busy growing up. It's hard to be out of step with society. Some complained. Brian just retreated. And although they trotted him out for decades thereafter, it was different. Because in the sixties, in his heyday, people were waiting with bated breath for Brian's next work. But the people were just a couple of years and a couple of changes behind Brian. Everybody told him he was on the wrong path, but he wasn't. 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