Summer. Fun. Sun. Feel Good Times. These are just a couple of words that first come to mind when you think of the Beach Boys. They will always be remembered as a surf rock band. Some people may find them corny and dated, while others... like me... find their music to be some of the best pop music ever recorded.
I've been a Beach Boys fan since I was really little. I had a Beach Boys greatest hits tape that I would listen to all the time. It was mostly their standard classics... "Surfer Girl" "I Get Around" ect. I remember being able to sing the high falsetto part at the end of "Fun Fun Fun", and being totally psyched about it! At the prepubescent age of 8 this is totally possible.
Id also always listen to records. I didn't have a CD player yet, but I had a record player. Id mostly just listen to The Beatles or Wings, but every now and then my Dad would pick up a few albums from up the street at Enterprise Records. He knew I liked the Beach Boys so one day he brought home The Beach Boys album "Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!!)". This album is classic Beach Boys. I loved songs like "Girl Don’t Tell Me" and "California Girls". But then one day my Dad brought home another Beach Boys album, and it threw me for a loop! To start, the album cover looked drastically different than any Beach Boys album I'd ever seen before. There was so sun, no fun or even a picture of them on it! It was an odd looking cover that was colorful yet confusing to me at the time. This was probably my first encounter with Psychedelic art. I turned the album over and saw 5 guys with long hair, beards and mustaches. "What!?" They looked drastically different the clean cut guys I knew from the cover of "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!!)"! But then I took the record out of the sleeve, placed it on the turn table and put the needle down....I was hooked.
Released in the fall of 1967, "Wild Honey" is one of my favorite Beach Boys albums, while many causal Beach Boys fans may have never even heard of it! Recorded after the disbanded and unreleased "Smile" album, an album that was to be the Beach Boys "Sgt. Peppers” but was trashed by Brian Wilson due in part to his shrinking confidence and ever growing drug use, The Beach Boys were in their dark ages. As an apology for not releasing "Smile" they put out a rushed half ass album called "Smiley Smile". They were pretty much viewed as a joke in the US. They had spent so much time and effort trying to make the "Smile" album and after it never came to be, the band was musically drained and exhausted. Regardless of their dwindling success, Capitol records still needed a new album out. The band decided to scale it back and start from scratch. To record "Wild Honey" they moved their recording studio to Brian's house, and for the first time since their early days, each member would play their own instruments on the record. No excess amount of studio musicians on this record. This scaled back approach really gives the record an honest feel which makes the music shine.
When I first heard "Wild Honey", I didn't hear the trademark polished Beach Boys sound, but rather I heard simple, rough around the edges R&B flavored pop music. Pop music that never was devoid of beautiful melodies and catchy hooks. Listening to "Wild Honey" was and is defiantly a different experience than listening to other Beach Boys albums, but I found myself putting "Wild Honey" on more often and anything else.
Unlike all the previous Beach Boys albums, "Wild Honey" has no filler tracks. Nothing that I would ever skip over. Every song is amazing. This album highlights Brian Wilson at his up right piano. The honky tonk sound of the keys are present throughout each song, while the distinct voices of each Beach Boy can be heard in perfect harmony. The title track and "Darlin'" became only minor chart hits, but tracks like the catchy "Aren’t You Glad" and the rockin' "A Thing Or Two" are strong contenders as well. Tracks like "Country Air" and "Let the Wind Blow" are some of the most hauntingly beautiful songs I've ever heard, and let's not forget "Here Comes the Night" which was later remade into a full on 10 minute Disco version in 1979!
Regardless of the mishaps, bad fortunes and awful albums that would come down the road during the Beach Boys career, "Wild Honey" stands on it's own as a wonderful collection of songs and will always be one of my favorite albums.
1 comment:
Kurt, I share your passion for the Beach Boys, although I have to admit that my favorite album is Pet Sounds, although for the same reasons you list why you love Wild Honey. I don't think I've ever heard it from start to finish (i.e. all the songs on the record), but plan on going out and grabbing it so I can do so based on your ringing endorsement. Later days and better lays, Bulltit
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