Happy Tuesday all you fine people! Anyone else have that new Charli XCX song on loop? I think it's 100% her best single from the new album, and it's got me excited about the album in a new way.
I'd make a joke about a Charli XCX DDD, but that already exists. Remember that one? I painted my face green for it! What a hilarious farce. Anyway...
WHERE WE'RE AT NOW
The Beach Boys! They sure are Beach Boys! I've covered them for many weeks now, so if you want a full rundown of their history or highlights from any specific time, feel free to go back through the past few weeks of update posts. They're fun!
ANOTHER LIL PEEK AT THE SCRIPT
Last week, I shared the current draft of the prologue section. This week, let's skip ahead a bit to Surfin' USA. (Like before, this section and any other section I show is subject to change between now and when the video comes out.)
ALBUMS I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO
THE FIRST FOUR ALBUMS (Again): Going back to the first four albums after finishing the full discography is a strange experience. On one level, these records are so breezy and uncomplicated on the surface - cars, girls, surfing, yadda and yadda, so on and so forth. Knowing now the full story of the band makes these albums simple to the point of surreality.
What also stood out is the place Brian Wilson was starting from as a producer. Brian was already operating at a 6 or 7 (is that still a thing?) out of 10 here, and I wonder if, had he been held back from producing a la Stevie Wonder, the band's trajectory would've changed in any meaningful way. Maybe they'd stay under Captiol's creative thumb for a lot longer?
What also fascinates me about these albums is that, all the songs that most people know from the band? Most of the songs the band plays live to this day? They come from these albums. There's a version of history where the Beach Boys effectively ended after the 60s, and they could've still toured with all those songs. What does that say about the albums and songs after?
BRIAN WILSON: Brian's first proper solo album came out in 1988, right in the thick of the Eugene Landy era (which I covered last week), and that context is impossible to separate from the listening experience. The album is slick in a very late-80s way and it has its moments. Melt Away in particular is gorgeous and Love and Mercy (which I shouted out last week) is a favorite Brian song of mine. It's certainly aged the best out of any album from any Beach Boy around this time. And on the total opposite end:
LOOKING BACK WITH LOVE: Did you know Mike Love put out solo music? He put out this album in the early 80s, and then three in rapid succession in the late 2010s. This album isn't great! INSANELY dated, like Mike was testing out different Kokomos way before Kokomo even Kokomo-d. It didn't chart in any meaningful way and has largely been forgotten, which is probably the right fate for it.
FIRST LOVE: Y'all ever heard this??? It's an unreleased bootleg of a Mike Love album from 1977. And honestly... pretty good! Specifically the title track, even if it's the only song not written by Mike.
CHARLES MANSON
Okay. So.
In summer 1968, Dennis Wilson befriended an ex-convict turned songwriter. The two became quick friends and even made music together. After some time, this new friend moved into Dennis' home for a time, and he even brought in some Family. How sweet!
Dennis even paid for this new friend to get studio time. And in fact, one song this new friend wrote, Cease To Exist, would end up being adapted into a Beach Boys song, Never Learn Not To Love. (This friend was never credited - apparently Dennis paid him with roughly $100k worth of goods including a motorcycle.) Sadly, this friend stopped living with Dennis after he pulled out a knife during a session with Brian. What a shame.
The friend was Charles Manson. THAT Charles Manson. The one who led the murders of nine people in LA in August 1969. hooooooooooooooooly shit.
Suffice it to say, this connection hounded the band for a good while. Dennis specifically was tight-lipped about it, I imagine due to how disturbing it would feel to let THAT guy stay at your house.
If you'd like to learn more, check out this four (FOUR) part podcast from The History of Rock Music in 500 Songs.
SONGS TO CHECK OUT
In My Room: A classic for good reason. I'm such a sucker for good vocal harmonies.
One For The Boys: And another on the board for good vocal harmonies!
Looking Back With Love: Only here for the absolute jaw-dropper of a lyric, "Good vibrations / Assassinations / Losing leaders, never knowing why." JeSUS.
First Love: Imagining a timeline when the Beach Boys did smooth danceable jazz a la Steely Dan and Chicago, and shedding a single tear for what could've been.
WHEN'S THIS THING COMING OUT?
I'm sure some of you have been wondering these days, when is this thing coming out? Am I just gonna write about Mike Love for the rest of my days on here? Y̶e̶s̶!̶ No!
My goal is to have the script by the end of next week, which would then give me a whole two weeks to edit this mammajamma down.
All that's to say - if everything goes perfectly from here on out, the Beach Boys DDD will release on July 24th. If things go wrong, then it'll come out either the 30th or, in the worst case scenario, August 7th.
(Even then, that plan could change if something truly massive and wtf comes up that derails the whole schedule. If that happens, I'll let you all know.)
A QUESTION FOR YOU ALL
Next month, both Mike Love and Al Jardine's bands will be coming to an area approximately close to me. I'm tempted to go see them as a nice lil capstone to this whole project, but I have reservations. Chief among them, the shows don't seem to be great! At least that's what I've seen about Mike Love and The Beach Boys, from clips online and this Slate article.
So the question is - have you seen them live? If so, when did you see them? And if it was recent, would you recommend it?
That's all for today, keep an eye out later this week for a new main-channel vid!