The Beach Boys
Postcards from
California
Let’s Do it Again
The Beach
Boys’ 50th Anniversary Concert @ DTE proved to be a commercial and
artistic triumph. After catching half their lackluster performance earlier this
summer @ the Bonnaroo Music Festival, I was not expecting much from these
scraggly long in-tooth septuagenarians. In fact I almost turned around en-route
as I could not bear to see my aging heroes become such sell-out villains
trading off their iconic status for crass commercialism. I hated Mike Love for
suing Brian Wilson (several times) and Al Jardine over the rights to the Beach
Boys name. And I detested the emphasis on the earlier 1963-66 Beach Boys
catalog that focused on surf, hot rods and Mike Love’s wavering baritone. I
wanted the Carl Wilson-led Beach Boys of the seventies when they were still
creating magical musical scores with Carl and Al Jardine taking most of the
vocal leads with help from Blondie Chaplin (Sail on Sailor, Wild Honey) and
Ricky Fataar (We got Love) and Dennis Wilson (Do You Wanna Dance, You Are So
Beautiful and Forever). By the mid-seventies Love was relegated to a secondary
role singing a medley of oldies for the encore. The juxtaposition of progressive
new music and the great surf hits proved irresistible and the band was received
warmly by critics and fans alike. Mike Love proved to be a durable front man
especially when he cracked jokes, honored the absent genius of Brian Wilson or
satirized Merle Haggards anti-drug anthem Okie from Muskogee. This was the
apotheosis, the peak of the Beach Boys powers as a touring band. When Carl
Wilson passed away in 1998, the band imploded, Jardine opted out, Love sued
Brian and gained control of the Beach Boys name for touring. The next 14 years
was the creative nadir for the Beach Boys with a weakened lineup led by Mike
Love and Bruce Johnston. Without the creative spark of Brian and Carl Wilson,
the new millennium Beach Boys lineup could only tour behind the oldies. Some
casual fans didn’t notice but the rock & roll cognoscenti did and they
uniformly lambasted the touring version of the Beach Boys. It was like the
Rolling Stones touring without Mick and Keith. However, help was on the way. By
the late nineties, Brian Wilson returned with a renewed spirit and his creative
juices were flowing with help from Don Was and his old pal Van Dyke Parks.
Wilson toured extensively and recorded great solo records such as Imagination,
Live @ the Roxy and Orange Crate Art. He revisited Pet Sounds and Smile and
toured to support his legendary pop symphonies with a cracker-jack band with
great singers and players. In the meantime
fans got the shaft by a weakened lineup of Beach Boys and the press all but
ignored this once vibrant group of Southern Californian misfits while focusing
on the exploits of the band’s tortured genius. This was the fortunate set of
circumstances that led to this historic reunion of one of the most revered bands
in rock & roll history. The aspects were right – a dialectic of declining
fortunes, creative bursts and the healing old wounds.
They opened
the show with Do it Again – a perfect start that reflected nostalgia and hope.
Love was in great voice and the harmonies were just right. The drums and bass
lines were funky and tight. The fuzz-tone riff motif is simple yet elegant.
This was the last great collaboration between Mike Love and Brian Wilson dating
back to 1969.
Al Jardine
anchored the show with his incredibly soulful Southern California vocals. As
the resident do-wop and folk historian, he performed the ancient street corner
chestnut Come Go with Me and the folk classic Cottonfields. He was in superb
form with a voice that was powerful yet expressive and he never lost pitch. He
also sang, Then I Kissed Her, California Saga (with Mike Love), Wouldn’t it Be
Nice, Help Me Rhonda. Jardine sounded so good that even Mike Love commented –
“Al Jardine, what a voice – can you believe it?”
Brian Wilson
was a little stiff and he relies too much on a teleprompter to remember the
lyrics. He cannot hit the upper registers anymore but his now mid-level tenor
is always on key though his pitch falters at times. The quality of Brian’s
voice and the key in which he sings is now more reminiscent of his brother
Carl. He sang Sail On Sailor, Please Let
Me Wonder (originally sung by Carl), Surfer Girl, I Wasn’t Made for These
Times, Heroes & Villains – the resurrected and expanded Smile version with
different lyrics and spoken asides such as “You’re under arrest! – it was simply glorious
Jeff Foskett,
has been a long term member of Brian Wilson’s touring band and has performed on
many of Brian’s solo projects. Foskett is a great singer and has a soaring
tenor reminiscent of Brian in his prime. He took lead vocals on the Beach Boys
classic hot-rod era ballad Don’t Worry Baby and replicated Brian’s soulful lead
on Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ Why Do Fool Fall in Love. Foskett did a
great job providing these leads as well as switching off vocals with Mike Love
on When I Grow Up to Be a Man, and Good Vibrations.
Mike Love
was simply stunning keeping everything balanced with his supple baritone, great
nasal lead vocals and harmonic fills. Love supplies the vocal bottom that gives
the heavenly harmonies their richness. His
singing was spot on the mark and he carried the lion’s share of lead vocals for
two-thirds the show – I Get Around, Wendy, When I Grow Up (to Be a Man), 409,
Shut Down, Little Deuce Coupe, Catch A Wave, Don’t Back Down, Surfin’ Sufari,
Be True to Your School, Surfin’ USA, California Girls, Good Vibrations and Fun,
Fun, Fun. Incredible stamina; a great vocalist
Brian
Johnston resurrected Disney Girls, one of his greatest compositions. Johnston
hit pay dirt early in his career with such great tunes as I Write the Songs (a
hit for Barry Manilow), Summer Means Fun (with Terry Melcher), and My World
Fell Down (with Gary Usher) He has a thin boyish tenor that is perfect for his
sepia toned music and wistful lyrics that recall simpler times and ageless
values. He even mentioned that he was a graduate of Interlochen Music Camp,
class of ’55 – his Michigan connection!
David Marx
was a Beach Boy from the ages of 13 years old to 17. He did several lead guitar
lines and sang the lead vocals on Getcha Back and Don’t Back Down. He also did
a fantastic job opening the second set with Pet Sounds. The music was brassy
and elegant and Marx displayed some tasty licks on guitar. This was only the
second instrumental the Beach Boys ever released (if you don’t include the
1968 Stack-O-Tracks LP) and it’s a
psychedelic masterpiece.
One of the
highlights of the show was when the other Beach Boys gathered around Brian at
the piano and took turns singing the verses of Add Some Music from the underappreciated
Sunflower LP from 1970. It was exquisite! But it was the tribute to the
memories of Dennis and Carl Wilson that was truly touching. Each had a separate
segment on video with the band providing live instrumental and vocal backing,
Dennis sang Forever (from Sunflower) and
Carl sang God Only Knows (from Pet Sounds). There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
The show was
a well-produced retrospective of the Beach Boys music that included photographs
and videos from each phase of their glorious 50 year career. These extras
created a backdrop for the Technicolor memories associated with our life and
times. As fans of the Beach Boys, we’ve clung to their music as soundtrack to
the stages of our lives. We have grown old with our heroes and we’ve aged like
a fine Bordeaux.
Lift a glass and drink to our health.
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