Thursday, July 02, 2009

SUN STROKE OF GENIUS: THE BEACH BOYS’ ENDLESS SUMMER

A From the Capitol Vaults blog by Roy Trakin

“Drive your car down to the sea… Make it real, your summer dream”

God only knows how many Beach Boys compilations have been issued by the band’s original label Capitol Records over the years… I probably own four separate re-releases of Pet Sounds alone in my collection. Over the past six years alone, there’s been Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys, The Warmth of the Sun and now, Summer Love Songs, a 20-track offering that covers the years from 1963’s “Surfer Girl” through 1970’s Sunflower, featuring “Fallin’ In Love,” a previously unreleased Dennis Wilson outtake from that era. There have also been a series of 180-gram audiophile discs as part of the From the Capitol Vaults vinyl reissue program, including Pet Sounds, Endless Summer, Sunflower and Surf’s Up.

The historic significance of the new release lies in its six new stereo remixes, two of them created from long lost, newly recovered analog multi-track masters, including the masterful “Don’t Worry Baby” and a brand-new version of the Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers smash, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” which includes a previously lost 30-second keyboard intro. Both songs come from the Beach Boys’ underrated 1964 album Shut Down, Vol. 2, one of three they released that calendar year, followed by All Summer Long and a Christmas record.

Also part of the vast Capitol Beach Boys catalog, Shut Down, Vol. 2 is primarily known for the gorgeous “Don’t Worry Baby,” a Brian Wilson production with lyrics by Roger Christian that was one of the first signs of the artistic flowering that would lead to Pet Sounds just two years later, but it also features such overlooked gems, also included on Summer Love Songs, such as “In the Parkin’ Lot” and “Keep An Eye on Summer.” The stereo mixes of “Don’t Worry Baby” and “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” bring new depth and separation, which allows us to hear how Brian constructed his homage to both Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound and the intricately layered harmonies of street corner doo-wop, a blend that would lead him to continue to break pop music ground.

Summer Love Songs also includes its share of standards, such as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” “Surfer Girl,” “California Girls” and “Help Me Rhonda,” but they are interspersed with some hidden chestnuts like “Please Let Me Wonder,” a shimmering love song from 1965’s The Beach Boys Today! with a mid-song break that passes around a Brill Building uptown Latin beat from keyboard to percussion, and “Good to my Baby,” off the same album, in a new stereo mix that accentuates the subliminal sax bed underneath. New stereo mixes of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman’s “Hushabye” and the Students’ doowop classic “I’m So Young” (also covered by the Ronettes) reveal Brian’s brilliance in arranging complex vocal harmonies around a deceptively simple bass-note.

The other rarity here is Dennis Wilson’s “Fallin’ in Love,” also known as “Lady,” a to-date unreleased outtake originally intended for 1970’s Sunflower, an underrated Beach Boys album now available as part of Capitol’s ongoing vinyl program. This psychedelic art-rocker starts off with ethereal strings, anchored by an elemental rhythm machine beat, as the younger Wilson evokes the other-worldly drama of a Nick Drake or Scott Walker over the ominous orchestral backdrop. It just goes to show Dennis could be every bit as profound as his older bro, but in an entirely different way.

There’s also a new stereo remix of “Time to Get Alone,” which comes off 1968’s 20/20, where you can hear the first glimmers of the dense tone poems Brian favored, from “Surf’s Up” the following year (from the album of the same name, now available on vinyl) to “Rio Grande” on his self-titled debut solo album in 1988.

“On the beach/You’ll find them there/In the sun and salty air/The girls on the beach/Are all within reach/If you know what to do” “Girls on the Beach”

Brian Wilson certainly knew what to do, at least in the recording studio. In the end, there is no better soundtrack to a SoCal summer—or anyplace there’s a waterfront, a pool or even an open fire hydrant, for that matter—than the Beach Boys’ timeless catalog. Along with the rest of Capitol’s collection of the band’s oeuvre, Summer Love Songs shuffles the deck, reveals a few new cards and places the spotlight on what made Brian Wilson arguably the greatest ever American pop auteur by unearthing even more proof of his magical touch.

Click here to purchase Summer Love Songs
Click here to purchase Sounds Of Summer