TANGERINi E BOX T O iliBiMiniPiiiiJîîilîiii'jiiJiliy ,11:.! mm BROTHERLY LOVE IN T H E '70s he 24th of February 1971, Carnegie Hall, and The Beach Boys are about to play the longest gig of their career to a fuU house. A lot is riding on this set - a deep dive into their catalogue spanning their 10-year history. It's a new dawn for "America's Band". After four years of chaos dogged by declining record sales, lawsuits, mental breakdowns and worst of ail - irrelevance, this is their moment. Kicking off their two hour set with a Tdriving, kinetic 'Heroes And Villains' the hairy, funky-looking group are pretty much unrecognisable as the "Surfîng Doris Days" left behind by the counterculture back in '67. Leader Brian Wilson is absent, barely seen in public since he abandoned his opus SMiLE and abdicated his post as genius-in- residence. His brothers Cari and Dennis are here to avenge him, leading the charge of their formidable live assault. Even the lanky, balding figure of Mr 'California Girls' himself Mike Love has the bearing of a hip guru in his robes and beads. The gig is a triumph. With a new, hipper label behind them and a united front surely it was time for "America's Band" to shine, with or without their leader. This is the story of how, out of adversity The Beach Boys made their last great albums. " I dont see why I should lie and say the time the grab-bag 20/20 came out in wife Suzanne. Dennis at least succeeded in everything is rosy when it's not." February '69, it was clear that Brian was suppressing the tapes of the recordings Twenty-Seventh May 1969, and Brian barely involved, beyond chastising Cari made with Manson and his entourage he'd Wilson is talking to NME. He's meant to and Dennis for overdubbing SMiLE tracks produced at Brian's studio. "We've got be plugging forthcoming single 'Break 'Cabinessence' and 'Our Prayer' in a several 8-track tapes of Charlie and the Away' and the European tour that the desperate attempt to pad out the brief girls that Dennis eut... just chanting, touring line-up of The Beach Boys - his album. fucking, sucking, barking," sneered Love brothers Dennis and Cari, cousin Mike Two weeks after 'Break Away' came t o RoUing Stone in '71. "Maybe we'U put it and friends Al Ja r d i n e and Bruce Johnston out, Brian's ominous prédiction came out in the fall. Call it Death Row." are about to undertake. However, Brian's true. The Beach Boys' contract with There was a light at the end of the here as prophet of doom. "We owe Capitol expired on 30th June after two tunnel amidst ail this chaos and everyone money, and if we don't pick fractions years of lawsuits and disputes. dysfunction. Since January '69, The Beach ourselves off our backsides and have a hit Never the cosiest of band-label Boys had been plugging away at a vast record soon we will be in worse trouble." relationships, things had been frosty ever portfolio of new material that they hoped Brian 's gloomy pronouncements dogged since the costly and much-hyped SMiLE would jump-start their flagging career. the band across Europe, forcing an failed to matérialise. W i t h the contract up There was so much that the band were exasperated Bruce Johnston to make a and an album in arrears, Capitol still recycling songs well into the late '70s. terse statement on behalf of the others. buUdozed the band's income by deleting Some songs were pegged for a contractual "W e're not broke at ail," he protested. their en t i r e catalogue in the US. A few obligation album for Capitol, with "It's very upsetting to have spent the months later a further blow was dealt working titles Réverbération and The Fading whole tour denying this." According to when the Wilson brothers' father Murry, Rock Band Revival. Others were for the Beach Boys biographer Steven Gaines co- the co-author of 'Break Away' sold the bulletproof début album they planned to managers Nick Grillo and Fred Vail kept band's publishing company Sea Of Tunes shop around prospective new labels. The the band afloat that summer through to Irving Almo music for $700,000. most promising contender was Warner- maxing out their crédit cards. Brian , already mired in dépression and a Reprise, after a helping hand from A&R newfound cocaine habit, became even man and Brian's SMiLE lyricist Van Dyke For some time, The Beach Boys and more withdrawn. H i s brothers weren't in Parks. "The Beach Boys were at a very Brian Wilson had largely occupied two great shape either. Cari, a conscientious low point of their career," Parks told separate, unhappy worlds. Since Brian's objector had spent two years fighting a Scott Keller in '73. "I personally begged early '67 cancellation of the SMiLE draft board determined to post him to M o Ostin to sign them." sessions things had gone from bad to Vietnam. Meanwhile, the volatile Dennis worse. Brian had a breakdown, his long- The Beach Boys signed with Warners in found out that his charismatic former standing mental health issues chipped December, taking their dormant Brother buddy "The Wizard", AKA Charles away at by drugs and the pressure the 24- Records imprint with them. Brian's Manson, wasn't just a freeloader with an year old had placed on himself. Brian shut absence on 20/20 had been noted by entourage of nubile young women, but u p shop, only surfacing for lo-fi sessions Warners - who made his active the psychotic ringleader of Hollywood's i n the home studio the band moved into involvement a condition of the deal. This most notorious murder. The press his Bel Air mansion. SMiLE would prove was easier said than done. Brian was more condemned his association with Manson, t o be an albatross for The Beach Boys. interested in ventures like an odd spoken whose shadow would follow Dennis for The albums that foUowed, the stoned Word album he was recording with the rest of his life. Hohng up in a hôtel to doo-wop of Smiley Smile, chilled garage of Dennis's songwriting partner Stephen escape the press, he initiated a vicions feud Wild Honey and mellow Friends at least Kalinich, and his new health food store with Love by having an afFair with his seemed to help the frazzled Brian's mood. The Radiant Radish. There were rare However, a further breakdown in Ju n e '68 moments of fevered action, like the left his bandmates scrambling to fill the astonishing 'This Whole World', a mini- void. Dennis had already begun to flower suite impossibly squeezed into under two as a writer, and Love and Jardine teamed minutes eut in November '69. Largely, u p to Write the bizarre, discordant Brian preferred to noodle while the 'Transcendental Méditation' - inspired others were out, if at ail. Often, the b y Love's récent initiation in to TM. By others would flesh out his songs when autumn, at Love's insistence the band h e lost interest. "We became had haemorrhaged cash on an abortive completers of ideas," Jardine told Rock joint tour with TM guru the Maharishi Cellar in 2015. Mahesh Yogi. Cari, the band's de facto The new album, a punchy, front-man began to supervise most of contemporary-sounding collection initiaUy their studio sessions in Brian's stead. By entitled Add Some Music then Sunjlower was In Europe sans Brian in 1970; Dennis and Warren Dates in Two Lane Blacktop-, Al on stage in 7 2 ; pt' ij Sunflower and its attendant singles i "W a m e r s rejected SmnBomer, saying they didnt hear ai 092? hit single, but released *Add Somc Music To Your Day* as a taster anvway. The dejected band went back .^.^ =====r======:r^=r;;= the drawiné board"; ready to go by February. London - a December '68 concert tape from Rieley produced a six-page document Tbere was melodrama the Finsbury Park Astoria instead. outlining his vision for modernising the (Johnston's 'Tears In The Morning'), Sunflower was finally completed in early band. Matching outfits and short sets were driving bot rod rock (Jardine's 'Suzie summer with Dennis and Jardine's soul- out, and Cari was to be appointed officiai Cincinnati'), amiable goofing from Brian rock stomper 'It's About Time', and the musical director - with Brian given leave ('Games Two Can Play' and the dafFy revival of a curio from the SMiLE era. The to come up with whatever he liked. 'Good Time') and a featherlight hymn to unfmished 'Cool, Cool Water' was a '67 Rieley quickly won round the Wilsons the power of music in 'Add Some Music out-take derived from SMiLE track 'I Love but the others were more cautious. T h e To Your Day'. Tbere were some dazzhng To Say Da-Da'. Warners exec Lenny Beach Boys fancied Brother as a songs from Dennis — like the soulful ballads Waronker lobbied for its completion and Californian version of Apple, and wanted 'Forever' and 'Fallin' In Love' and the inclusion on Sunflower. After adding new to sign more artists, but Rieley called time stunning 'Slip On Through. A criss- sections, a phnky Moog and a leftover on that after a Carl-produced album by crossing maze of choppy rbythms, cowbells vocal chant, the song and album were South African group The Flame (see and trippy stereo harmonies bolted to a finally ready.