Stobgopper’s ‘I Made a Playlist:’

Late Career Beach Boys, Vol. II

‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’

-Nick C., paddling unsuccessfully upstream.

I’m lazy.

We’re deep into the decline.

Nobody’s asking for more from The Beach Boys, not this iteration.

The battle between art and commerce is long over. All is curdled and they finally steer Brian onstage in a wheelchair.

‘Good Vibrations,’ no matter how gamely performed, sounds funereal. The audience is queasy, uneasy, feels complicit. It’s sunny, a Beach Boys kind of day. Doesn’t matter. Here’s how they got there:

Brian’s back, part 2.

Probably because this one started as a solo album. Plenty of, how should I put it? Unconventionality? Whimsy? Studio frippery? ‘Johnny Carson’ ups the oddity factor and is better for it, although a lyric like ‘the network makes him break his back’ while the titular host pulls in $4 mil per is fatuous at best.

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Recorded to fulfill a record contract, a hallmark of this era.

Love’s in the midst of his TM era, which does nothing to curb his receding hairline or money-grubbing instincts. Still, an intoxicating wistfulness powers ‘Kona Coast’ and before you know it, you’re singing along with chorus. That counts for something, right?

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If you know ’79, you know.

I can’t fault artists chasing a trend, and disco’s a forgiving style. Put a 4/4 beat behind it, and a song from 1967 becomes danceable (‘Here Comes the Night’), though if you try to foist the 11-minute version on me, I will strenuously object and request an 802 conference. 

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‘Santa Ana Winds’ is hardly Didionesque.

In fact, it’s pleasant, even dreamy. I don’t know if a hymn to an ominous and potentially disastrous weather pattern works. Like surfing, it’s a SoCal phenomenon, sure, but so are traffic fatalities and police brutality, subjects the Boys never tried to tackle. 

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A five-year hiatus, writing collabs with Randy Bachman and George O’Dowd (yes, that one) and that one good single can’t lift this release from the muck.

Neither do guest turns from Ringo and Stevie (W, not N). Meanwhile, the band plays on in front of huge crowds with John Stamos on skins. ‘It’s Gettin’ Late,’ a fine Carl composition, feels prescient.

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– ‘Kokomo.’
– ‘Wipe Out’ with the Fat Boys.

Both speak for themselves.

Originally a collection of songs that featured in contemporary movies, Still Cruisin’’ became an unholy mélange of originals and standards. ‘Somewhere in Japan’ is the only track where they sound like they’re trying.

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Along with the previous album, never rereleased by Columbia and unavailable for streaming.

Believe me, it makes sense. If you have a strong stomach, seek it out on YouTube.

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Have I ever wanted to listen to The Beach Boys back up various country stars on remakes of some of their classics?

No.

Have I a morbid curiosity in wanting to hear Willie Nelson take the lead on ‘The Warmth of the Sun?’  Of course. Or Toby Keith- No, scratch that. Volumes 2, 3, ad infinitum, never see the light of day. 

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Pacific Coast Highway serves as a fitting capstone to The Boys’ career:

Rendering the last song on the album, ‘Summer’s Gone,’ a too-obvious closer. ‘The Private Life of Bill and Sue’ is a welcome bit of eccentricity. There’s no escaping the suffocating nostalgia, but at least it’s Brian’s hand on the tiller.

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And that’s it.

If we grade on a curve that follows the unavoidable drop of relevance and creative vigor all performers inevitably suffer, the Beach Boys, through misfortune, infighting, questionable collaborators, and inertia, still don’t fare well.

There were nuggets among the weeds across the years, dropped at random, hinting at what could have been: art pop taken to its highest form, buttressed by one of the great vocal instruments of our time.

Even so:

The Wilson Brothers and Co. remain in the running as America’s greatest band.

Listening to one of their two dozen or so greatest hits compilations proves that.

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The Playlist (continued):

Love You

M.I.U.

L.A. (Light Album)

Keepin’ The Summer Alive

Still Cruisin’

Summer in Paradise

Stars and Stripes Vol. 1

That’s Why God Made the Radio

Coming soon and next: 

A quixotic meandering through late middle age and beyond with a restless soul…

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