Brian-Al-Dave Tour Wrap-Up

The "BAD" tour seemed to go swimmingly overall. Some fans seemed off-put by some aspects of the expensive "meet and greet" packages, but the topic of the artist-approved "VIP" packages is probably best left for another post.

I can't track down confirmed setlists for the entire remainder of the tour, but it appears nothing else "new" was added to the setlist, just a few things swapped in and out. Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken. Wilson Phillips opened Show #3, and joined Brian for "In My Room" during his set. "Break Away" may not have survived past opening night.

Let's hope this lineup stays together and that more dates are added in and around October as hinted by Al.

Speaking of Al, Goldmine caught up with him before the tour started and got an interview with him which can be found here: http://www.goldminemag.com/article/beach-boys-brian-wilson-al-jardine-and-david-marks-plan-live-shows

The ongoing soap opera that is the aftermath of the 50th tour was again touched on:

GM: Of course, I wanted to talk about this summer. How did the tour with Brian and David come about? I’m guessing it was sparked by the reunion last year.

AJ: Yeah, you’re probably right. Brian’s also recording a new album, so it’s an offspringing of that. Although we won’t be doing the new songs on this particular leg of the tour, it’s still due to the fact that I’m obviously participating on his album, and David as well, and we would naturally want to go out, and continue to perform and finish what we started.

We really enjoyed the reunion tour and we’re greatly disappointed that we couldn’t continue performing with Mike [Love]. That was, to me, the epitome — the best thing we could have done for ourselves, for the fans and for the music. It was a perfect reunion, only to stop abruptly. It’s hard to stop or slow down a jumbo jet once it gets going, you know? (laughs) I was going to use the train analogy but, you know, once inertia sets in, who the hell needs it? We didn’t want to go back to the way it was; I didn’t want to go back to the way it was.

It’s as good as you’re gonna get it when you see Brian and David and Al — it’s the heart and soul of the Beach Boys. [We] may not be able to call ourselves the Beach Boys, but it’s the heart and soul of the music. And I think people will really enjoy hearing some new stuff that we didn’t do on the 50th. Then later this fall, after the album’s finished, we’ll probably add a few of those songs. It feels good. it’s a natural thing to continue to do what you were born to do. So why not?

I guess it’s strange to have two groups of touring Beach Boys on the road. It’s silly. But, we’re not calling ourselves “The Beach Boys,” so it’s a clear distinction between the two bands. One’s implied and one isn’t. One’s overtly — it is, and the other is doing just the opposite, I guess. We’re just doing what we do. And then of course everyone knows who we are. At least I hope everyone knows who we are!

We would love to have Mike and Bruce [Johnston] with us. It’s the most natural thing we could do. It’s the way it should be. I hope they change their minds.

GM: It doesn’t sound like there’s bad blood there.

AJ: No, there’s no bad blood. Those are some really nice people. It’s just unfortunate that we’re making people choose between one [group] or the other, in this economy especially. You can only go to so many concerts every year and there’s other music out there people want to listen to, so you have to make choices. Not just Beach Boy choices, but there are a lot of people touring, a lot of reunions happening.

I can't really continue to add much new to the 50th debacle. It's still a total bummer, and comments like this from Al indicate he really "got it" as most of the fans did. He wasn't thinking about the bottom line, or politics. His crime may well have been too much optimism about the reunion continuing, but in the political world of the Beach Boys, that's not much of a crime. I've seen plenty of "post-reunion" band member interviews from other bands where the person is clearly sour about the whole thing and starts bad-mouthing whoever it is they're on the outs with. But Al's comments mirror precisely what many fans feel, and it isn't often, especially in the history of the Beach Boys, that band member seem to really get it and be on the same page as the fans.



"Goin' to the Beach" Available For Download

In a slightly odd but not unwelcome move, Capitol is apparently offering a free download of one track off of “Made in California” for those who pre-order the set on Amazon. It’s apparently open only to US orders. The process is a bit convoluted, as the download is not offered directly through Amazon but rather a website set up by Capitol, where you must enter you order number and other information and then receive a download link for the track. You can find it here:  http://www.beachboysrewards.com

The track in question? You guessed it, the epic 1980 “Keepin’ the Summer Alive” outtake “Goin’ to the Beach.” It makes sense in light of Mike Love’s “Beach Boys” having added the song recently to their setlist, presented as a “new” song. This track is probably the closest thing to a “single” being released from the set.

I’ll leave it up to fans to decide if Capitol is taking the attitude of “what’s the least interesting “new” song on the set that we can throw to the fans as a bone?” or if they feel it’s a new “classic-in-the-making” celebrating summer and the beach. The song is not revealed prior to download, so some fans were comically disappointed when they expected something like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Live Again.”

As to the song itself, let’s take a look at the first material to surface from this set. Pictures appeared online a few months ago showing Love and his guitarist Scott Totten in the studio working on a “Mike Love” track, but folks from the Beach Boys archival team could be seen in the pictures. It was later revealed that “Goin’ to the Beach” was “finished” by Love in recent months. It is presumed that these pictures were taken at that session, but we of course don’t know for sure.

Listening to the track, it sounds like it’s largely the original 1979/1980 recording. Comparing it to the circulating backing track, the drums and most of the instrumentation sound the same. Love’s lead and the group backing vocals, not previously booted (apart from bits and pieces heard during the 1980 “Going Platinum” TV special focusing on the KTSA album), also sound like they are of a 1979 vintage. The only thing that sounds a bit out of place is some electric guitar overdubs; these are likely the additions made by Totten. I’m not sure if the track really needed overdubs, but it’s unclear what existed on the original multi-tracks. Love’s lead has too much reverb/echo for my taste, kind of murking the track up. Perhaps they were trying to make the original recording a little less dry and homogenous-sounding, as most of Bruce Johnston’s production works sounded during those sessions.

As for the song itself, that “Going Platinum” special detailed the song well and accurately. It’s about as simple and cliché-ridden as one could make a Beach Boys track. The music is catchy, if repetitive. Love’s vocal is energetic but still uninteresting. The lyrics are simple, even for a Love-penned beach song. The backing vocals are nice to hear; it’s nice to hear Carl in there. The song is ultimately what I always thought; it’s not particularly inspired but is a relatively catchy outtake that I’m glad to see released. It’s certainly not worse than some of the worst stuff the band was actually putting on albums in this era.

I’m also quite glad that the original recording is largely intact from what I can hear. This still sounds like 1979 Beach Boys, not a 2013 Mike Love/Scott Totten remake. 

Brian, Al, and David - Pittsburgh 7/21/13

The setlist from Pittsburgh reveals only a slight alteration. Al on "Little Deuce Coupe" is swapped in place of "Break Away", and "Hawaii" is added.

 

California Girls

Catch A Wave

Dance, Dance, Dance

Girl Don't Tell Me

Little Deuce Coupe (Al)

In My Room

Surfer Girl

Don't Worry Baby

Then I Kissed Her (Al)

Please Let Me Wonder

Darlin' (Darian)

Old Man River

Cotton Fields (Al)

Little Bird (David)

Our Prayer

Heroes and Villains

Do You Wanna Dance

I Get Around

Intermission

Do It Again

Hawaii

Summertime Blues (David)

Let Him Run Wild (Jeffrey)

Your Imagination

Goin' Home

That's Why God Made The Radio

California Saga: California (Al)

Sail On Sailor (Scott)

Marcella

Pet Sounds

Wouldn't It Be Nice

Sloop John B

God Only Knows (Brian)

Good Vibrations

Encore

All Summer Long

Help Me Rhonda (Al)

Barbara Ann

Surfin' USA

Fun, Fun, Fun

Summer's Gone

Recent Interview Round-Up



A few articles and news blurbs have been making the rounds in recent weeks, so I thought a quick recap would be helpful.

In a July 4th article in UK’s “The Guardian”, Mike forwards his theory that there are a number of misconceptions out there about him. The interview mostly strokes his ego, talking about the beach and the band’s background in TM and whatnot. In the midst of the questions, we get rare mentions of little-known facts that Mike has never mentioned, such as the Beach Boys topping the NME chart in 1966, and Mike helping Paul McCartney write “Back in the USSR.” Yes, this is sarcasm….

As for the demise of the 50th anniversary tour, Mike offers the same “it ended because it ended” explanation, using a very slight variation via using the wording “there was a term.” His favorite buzzword now to refer to the defunct tour is apparently now that it was a “term”, presumably meaning a set amount of time and nothing more. He again admits that they extended that “term” but fails to specifically state why he didn’t extend it even more when everybody else wanted to. He also arguably contradicts other reports by stating that the plan was always to go back to the previous status quo. Clearly, not everybody was on that same page. Love himself failed to mention this when specifically asked about it during the reunion tour. The only apparent reasons for this that I can think of is that either Love in fact was open to continuing the reunion (e.g. the plan was not necessarily or definitively to go back to the status quo), or that it was indeed the plan all along and for PR reasons simply left that small tidbit of information out in promoting the ongoing reunion tour at the time.

You usually tour as the Beach Boys with Bruce Johnstone [sic], but last year all the surviving members reunited for a 50th anniversary tour that everyone – not least Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks – didn't want to end. Did you enjoy it yourself?

I had a wonderful experience being in the studio together. Brian has lost none of his ability to structure those melodies and chord progressions, and when we heard us singing together coming back over the speakers it sounded like 1965 again. Touring was more for the fans. Brian has a great band and he does his own thing, and Bruce and I have a fabulous band and we enjoy going places, big and small. But that configuration that happened last year you can only do in so many places and so often. So it was an agreed 50 shows that grew to 73 because of demand. But there was always a term, then we were always going back to what we do. Brian is in the studio again. He loves the studio. It was a great experience, it had a term to it, and now everyone's going on with their ways of doing things.

Will you ever write with Brian again? If you made one more Beach Boys album it would be the 30th …
[Intrigued] It has a ring to it, doesn't it? I was hoping to get together with Brian on [2012's] That's Why God Made the Radio, but a guy who was involved in the production of that album engineered it otherwise. Which was a drag because I have that history of co-writing with Brian, and he and I love each other going back to childhood. Given the opportunity, I would definitely write with Brian.

My favorite bit in the Guardian interview has nothing much to do with the Beach Boys:

You seem very chilled today, Mike. Why have you had such a bad press in recent years?

I think there are a lot of fallacies about me, things that need to be rectified. I'm working on a book that will lay rest to some of them. I know what I did and didn't do. People say the Beatles were John Lennon. What is Paul McCartney? Chopped liver? But everyone has their own favourite members whose creativity they gravitate to. That's normal.

I'm not sure what Mike's getting at here. Sorry Mike, but I don't think much of anybody in the media anymore things McCartney is chopped liver. The whole pro-John/anti-Paul thing had its day. Maybe Jan Wenner still feels that way, but nobody is denigrating McCartney to this degree much anymore. And that's not even getting into whether it's warranted to make a corollary between John/Paul and Brian/Mike. 

In a July 8th piece published by Ultimate Classic Rock, little new information is offered in a rather shoddily-composed article that makes plenty of points I agree with, but undercuts the arguments through crappy writing and information. But one tidbit purported to be from Mike Love completely contradicts all previous reports from everybody including Love himself when Love contends that it was Brian who didn’t want to continue the reunion.

”The anniversary tour was originally 50 dates and got extended to 73,” Love explained. “At that point, Brian said, ‘No more dates for us, please.’ So once we finished those 73 shows, we went back to the lineup of the band before he rejoined.” Love owns the rights to the Beach Boys name and has toured various versions of the group over the years, with the only other member from the classic era being keyboardist Bruce Johnston.

According to Love, Wilson is welcome to rejoin the group anytime he wants. ”I’d very much like to get in a room, just him and I, to write more songs,” he said. “We’ve always had a special chemistry. I’d like to do that more than anything.”

Given the awkward back and forth via competing LA Times “pieces” from Brian and Mike, it seems unlikely that Brian was the one who said no to more shows. Now, it could be that Brian said no to a specific proposal from Mike. I could envision Mike saying  “Okay, let’s keep it going next year, but I want to do more shows, smaller markets, cut the band down in size, lower overhead costs” and so on, and Brian not agreeing to that. But there’s no evidence even of this, not even from Love. Curious.

Meanwhile, Al has been doing press for his shows with Brian and David, and offered some variations on his previous comments to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

For the summer of 2013, Mr. Love and Mr. Johnston are playing as The Beach Boys competing with the offshoot tour of "Brian Wilson with Al Jardine + David Marks," backed by the stellar band that has been accompanying Mr. Wilson for years and also played the reunion.

"It's a pretty darn good band," Mr. Jardine said in a phone interview. "It will primarily be a Beach Boys' library of songs because that's what we do best when we're together. It's ostensibly a continuation of the reunion tour although we don't call it The Beach Boys for obvious reasons. We would love to have Mike and Bruce with us, but they don't want to work with us. So we can't force them to work with us. We are going to do our very best to carry on with the reunion."
One recent twist to the story is that Mr. Love said in a July 8 interview that he misses his cousin and would love to work with him again.

"Well, what a wonderful thought," Mr. Jardine said. "That's very nice of him. I'd like to work with Mahatma Gandhi, too. Maybe that's the wrong [comparison]. I'd like to work with George Gershwin. Those are the things we wish for, but wishing is one thing and actually doing it is another. So if you really mean it, you come out and you work with us. But put your thoughts into action. That's my response to that."

"We did a follow-up single that never matriculated called 'Isn't It Time,' which I thought was a great follow-up. We even re-recorded it on the road in Europe, so I was thinking 'follow-up single, fall tour, perfect for spring time the following year,' and then Mike pulls the plug on the whole darn thing ... finished."

I for one like the Al that is a bit more "tell it like it is."

 

Brian, Al, and David - Atlantic City 7/20/13

 

 

The first reports are in from the debut "BAD" show. Here's the reported setlist:

 

 

California Girls

Catch A Wave
Dance Dance Dance
Girl Don't Tell Me
In My Room
Surfer Girl
Don't Worry Baby (Jeff)
Then I Kissed Her (Al)
Please Let Me Wonder
Old Man River/Cottonfields (Al)
Little Bird (David)
Our Prayer
Heroes and Villains
Break Away
Marcella
Do You Wanna Dance?
I Get Around

Intermission

Do It Again
Summertime Blues (David)
Your Imagination
Let Him Run Wild (Jeff)
Going Home
That's Why God Made The Radio
California Saga (Al)
Sail on Sailor (Scott)
Darlin' (Darian)
Pet Sounds
Wouldn't It Be Nice (Jeff)
Sloop John B
God Only Knows
Good Vibrations

Encore

All Summer Long
Help Me Rhonda (Al)
Barbara Ann
Surfin' USA
Fun Fun Fun
Summer's Gone

 

I can't offer any particular complaints about the setlist. There aren't a ton of totally new inclusions. David's two lead turns are interesting and new, especially "Little Bird." I had a feeling they might hand him a Dennis tune to sing on this tour.  The "Old Man River" intro should be interesting to hear. Otherwise, the setlist seems to be variations on the 50th Anniversary tour and recent Brian solo shows.

 

My main complaint would be the lack of additional Al leads. His voice is in such good shape, I wish he could feature more prominently. Having the other band members sing a few numbers is cool, but I wish they'd give Al a few more. He is at least a bit more prominent here than on the 2006/2007 shows he did with Brian. I also wish they'd work in a few more Al-centric songs. Other than "California Saga" and "Cottonfields", there aren't any Al-sung tunes that Brian doesn't already do in his own show. "Santa Ana Winds" or even "Honkin' Down the Highway" would be neat.

 

Let's hope they mix up the setlist even more, and more importantly book more shows!



Review – “The Beach Boys In Concert! - The Complete History of America's Band On Tour and Onstage”

 

 



Easily the most anticipated book among Beach Boys fans in some time, Ian Rusten and Jon Stebbins’ new book is easily a must-own for any serious fan or scholar.

The book essentially covers the band’s tours year by year, with detailed entries through 1998 followed by selected details for each touring faction’s activities post-1998. Each year features a brief text overview, with the main focus turning to entries for each tour date detailing the city, venue, and date. On select tour dates, more details are provided in text form, usually consisting of contemporary reviews from newspapers, journalists, or fans, and sometimes setlists. Also found scattered through the pages are photographs, many if not most of which are rare or never seen. Some chapters also end with a recap of tour dates that never happened, either due to cancellation or false reporting in other publications.

The book’s strengths are obvious; a detailed listing of tour dates alone is invaluable to fans and scholars. The book also more accurately than ever before outlines the comings and goings of band members. For instance, for the first time I know of, the book details that Carl Wilson actually returned to the band in early 1982, and then left again for a few months before returning again full-time. Did you know Brian “filled in” for Al in 1990 for a few shows, or that Mike missed shows in 1983 and 1990? The contemporary reviews that the authors have tracked down are some of the most interesting elements of the book. While contemporary reviewers’ lack of detailed familiarity with the band would sometimes lead to a lack of context, those on-the-spot details about songs, band members, and odd events on stage are invaluable. The general critical view from those reviews also offers an interest in insight into how some reviewers would be drastically at odds, while at other times (circa 1981-82) the reviews seem to accurately and uniformly describe a band on the verge of collapse musically.

The photos are also a great treat. The photos are used somewhat sparingly (easy for us to say too sparingly; they do have to pay to use these photos of course), but in some cases highlight key points in the band’s career. Most interesting (and also a bit tabloid-ish) are very late-era photos of Dennis and Carl. I’ve seen a number of supposed “last” photos of Carl around, but published in this book for presumably the first time is a fan photo taken in concert literally days before Carl’s final show in August of 1997. I’ll leave it up to readers to judge the contents of the photo. Suffice it to say it epitomizes the various ways to interpret Carl’s final touring days, whether one chooses to view it as sad or brave, or somewhere in between.

Because the book is so amazing in an overarching sense, it’s easy to say so in very brief terms while spending more time nitpicking. I’ll try to keep the criticisms brief. I personally would have liked to see more setlists, or at least noteworthy setlist inclusions. The authors correctly reinforce the point that the band’s setlist in the later era became quite stale. But to me, that makes oddball setlists more interesting. I would have liked to see perhaps an entry for each year showing a representation of a “standard” setlist from the year followed by a list of one-off and short-term setlist inclusions. I also would have liked a bit more text overall. Granted, maybe 1995 didn’t host a huge variety of goings-on for the band. But more commentary on setlists and the touring band and whatnot would have been nice.

I can’t argue too much with lesser details concerning Mike’s touring band in the 2000’s for instance, but a full list of tour dates for these years for Mike, Brian, and Al (to the degree those dates are available) rather than “highlights” would have made the book more “completist.”
A major issue that the authors can’t be faulted for is a lack of detail on the 50th anniversary tour. We get a list of tour dates, and some short text discussion, but I imagine a publishing deadline dictated that we couldn’t get detailed reviews of more shows and/or commentary on the tour’s aftermath and demise, which for better or worse, was the most controversy and media attention a Beach Boys tour had received in decades.

I haven’t read the book cover to cover, so I will of course add additional thoughts should they arise. Bottom line: This is an absolute must for all fans and scholars, and is one of the most important books to be published on the group in ages.