The Beach Boys - "Wild Honey" (LP Review)

Like most people, my knowledge of The Beach Boys ceases from about 1967 (resulting from the whole "Smile" / "Smiley Smile" debacle) until their emergence in the 1980s as a nostalgia act.  Doing some detailed reading in their discography reveals they continued to release LPs pretty regularly until about 1980.  The reviews of some of those LPs are pretty good (corresponding to the ascendancy of Carl Wilson within the band's hierarchy): Allmusic gives 1967's "Wild Honey" 4/5 stars, 1968's "Friends" also gets 4/5 stars, 3.5/5 stars for 1969's "20/20", 4.5/5 stars for 1970's "Sunflower" (it also made Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest LPs of All Times"), and finally 4/5 stars for 1971's "Surf's Up".  That's a pretty strong showing for five LPs, with only 1969's "Do It Again" as the only song from this period that most people will recognize. 

So it was with some anticipation that I looked forward to hearing "Wild Honey", which in 2001 was appended to "Smiley Smile" and various contemporary outtakes for a bonus CD.  Had I just received a forgotten gem from this unexplored portion of their discography? 

No.  No, I had not.

I can't speak for the other LPs listed above, but "Wild Honey" is a really bad LP and no amount of nostalgic revisionism can change that.  The title track is mildly interesting, sounding like Stevie Wonder with a theremin, but I think it stands out only because the rest of the soul-inspired songs fall flatter than does "Wild Honey".  "Darlin'" pauses the Stevie Wonder theft long enough to steal from the Four Seasons.  The best two tracks are 1) "Country Air" which although written for this LP would sound at home on "Smile" or "Pet Sounds", and 2) "Mama Says", a reworking of the acapella  break from "Vegetables" (left off "Smiley Smile" but present on "Smile"). 

The double CD is worth getting, but adjust your expectations for "Wild Honey".  The Beach Boys excursion to Motown has as much skill and authenticity as Robert Van Winkle brought to rap some 22 years later... 

Standout songs: "Country Air", "Mama Says"

Songs that appear: "Wild Honey" (live 1972), "Darlin'"

Skip 'em songs: the rest.

Final score: 3/10. 

The Beach Boys - "Heroes and Villains" (forgotten song)

For most people, The Beach Boys discography mysteriously ends in 1966 with "Good Vibrations".  Largely forgotten is the single that followed, 1967's "Heroes and Villains", conceived as the center piece of the aborted "SMiLE" project that devolved into the less ambitious "Smiley Smile".  The single failed to duplicate the success of "Good Vibrations" and Brian Wilson's subsequent disappointment brought a messy end to the friendly competition with The Beatles.  It's a good song, but it really only makes sense in the larger context of SMiLE's cryptic theme of "journey across America".

Poking around on YouTube the other day, I was surprised to find the number of different videos for the song that most people don't know exists.  It turns out that Capitol Records held a video contest for 2011's (re-)release of SMiLE, and many of the submissions found their way onto YouTube.

There are many arrangements, demos, outtakes, etc. of this song, but basically they fall into 2 general categories: the simpler, ~3 minute version from Smiley Smile, and the more complex, ~5 minute version from SMiLE.  The latter has the "cantina" break, and is often prepended with two opening acapella tracks "Our Prayer" and "Gee". 

Smiley Smile version:

• studio version with surfing clips from Peter Clifton  ca. 1969
• live version ca. 1972/1973 (Mike Love manages to ruin this version)
• live version ca. 1978
• live version 2012 (not great, but you have to enjoy the reunion performances before Mike Love ruins those too)

SMiLE version:

• Brian Wilson solo live arrangement ca. 2004 (exceptionally good)
• live action contest entry 
• winning contest entry (with obvious "Yellow Submarine" influences)
• a surprisingly violent live action, possible contest entry

The Beach Boys - "Good Vibrations" (the song remains the same)

I just finished reading "The Nearest Far Away Place", the 1996 biography of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys.  I believe it was a thrift-store find from Terry many years ago and I've just now gotten around to reading it.  I moderately enjoyed the book, but there were several features that limited my enjoyment: 1) it was written before the 1998 death of Carl Wilson, 2) there was way too much biography about the Wilson's grandparents and great-grandparents, 3) many of the stories reported in the book now have contradicting stories, and 4) Timothy Whites's "rock-n-roll" writing style was excruciating.  Having recently read Marc Spitz's "Bowie" I can only assume things have reached epidemic status and  Hunter S. Thompson was patient zero. 

Regardless, it was fun to revisit The Beach Boys; I've been busy ripping my old CDs and I've just now gotten around to ordering (and enjoying) the apocryphal "SMiLE".  I'm not quite ambitious enough to rehash the cultural importance of Brian Wilson, "Pet Sounds", "SMiLE"/"Smiley Smile", etc.  -- and really, what could I say that hasn't been said before?

But I will briefly mention the 1966 single "Good Vibrations".  Originally developed during the "Pet Sounds" sessions, it was left off that LP and released as an advance single for "SMiLE".  Nearly a year later "SMiLE" devolved into "Smiley Smile", and that was pretty much it for Brian Wilson.  But the fact that this song was ever a hit is nothing short of amazing.  Sure, the standard song structure is in place, but how many other hit songs that you know of feature an electro-theremin?!  If you could pretend that you haven't heard this song 1000 times before, you realize it is amazing that you ever heard it in the first place.  Before The Beach Boys became a Ronald Reagan-approved nostalgia act, there was the drug-induced breakdown, the TM, and of course Charles Manson (no, really).

And now I would like to draw your attention to Psychic TV's excellent cover of "Good Vibrations", which I believe first appeared on their 1986 EP "Magickal Mystery D Tour".  I'm not going to even try to explain Psychic TV / Genesis P-Orridge... other than credit Terry for my first Psychic TV experience too.  Psychic TV plays the cover pretty close to the original, with only the spoken word part during the break (~2:40), but that little touch makes the cover stand out. 

The Beach Boys: stereo version, mono version, 1976 live version

Psychic TV: 7" version, long version