3/2/2024 0 Comments Beach boys surfs up![]() ![]() Even if Carl and Dennis were coming into their own-Carl’s dreamy “Feel Flows” stands proudly alongside his older brother’s mind-expanding psychedelia-Brian remained the marketable star, so much so that Reprise required a certain number of his compositions on the tracklist. These breezes from bygone days forecast how the Beach Boys would struggle to shake their past and move forward. “Student Demonstration Time” isn't the only indication of a conservative streak: Johnston’s wistful remembrance “Disney Girls (1957)” offers a bit of honeyed nostalgia. With assistance from Jardine, Love wrote the pro-ecology “Don't Go Near the Water,” and he reworked Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller’s R&B chestnut “Riot in Cell Black 9” as “Student Demonstration Time,” a protest song against protesters. It helped that Rieley encouraged the group to write topical material. By the time they released Surf’s Up in 1971, the audience was primed to accept that the Beach Boys were making relevant music again where Sunflower peaked at 151 on Billboard’s Top 200, Surf’s Up went all the way to 29. ![]() Rieley got the Beach Boys to ditch their old-fashioned stage clothes and perform for hip audiences at the 1970 Big Sur Folk Festival and the Fillmore East, prestigious gigs that helped change the band’s public perception. Enter Jack Rieley, a radio DJ who frequented the Radiant Radish, a health food store owned by Brian Wilson. Audiences couldn’t be bothered paying attention to an oldies act, so the Beach Boys decided to revamp their image. Dennis adds some grit to “Slip on Through” and “Got to Know the Woman,” and the band matches his urgency on “It’s About Time.” Dennis also contributes the gorgeous, shimmering “Forever,” a song that finds a counterpart in “Our Sweet Love,” a collaboration between Brian, Carl, and Jardine, graced by a soaring lead vocal from Carl.Īs good as it was, Sunflower flopped. A highlight in their discography, it also showcases the band’s evolution from AM pop to FM rock. Much of this progression was evident on 1970’s Sunflower, an album whose cover pointedly depicted the Beach Boys as “Beach Men” surrounded by children they’d fathered. Sequenced within the unreleased material are songs that would become highlights on subsequent albums, fascinating variations on familiar songs, and oddities and castaways that highlight in particular the growth of Dennis Wilson as a songwriter and Carl Wilson as a bandleader. When it came time to record their first album for Reprise, they had a surplus of material ready to go-more than could possibly fit on a single album.įeel Flows illustrates just how fruitful this period was for the Beach Boys as a collective. While the labels and press were focused on their primary songwriter, his brothers Carl and Dennis, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston kept themselves busy on the road and in the studio, figuring out how to be a band without Brian. Embroiled in an ugly divorce from Capitol, the Beach Boys searched for a new label home and discovered that most companies were reluctant to sign them due to concerns about Brian’s health. This music traces the group’s long road back to the spotlight. Documenting this complicated era, Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 is a five-disc box set featuring augmented remasters of the band's first two albums for their new label Reprise alongside unreleased songs, alternate versions, live tracks, session highlights, and a cappella tracks.
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