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| Classic Beach Boys, era 1965 |
"This is the worst trip, I've ever been on..."
My very first album I ever bought was Pet Sounds back in 1966. I was a kid in the 3rd grade, living in Sacramento and dreaming of surfing and hot rods and being in a rock and roll band. For those not up on their Beach Boy history, it was Brian Wilson who created the sound that would define the band, taking the harmonies of The Four Freshmen and combining it with the rhythm of Chuck Berry. They rode the wave to the top, battling The Beatles for pop chart dominance.
Brian wrote the music and sang the high notes, brother Carl played guitar and sang like an angel (think God Only Knows or Good Vibrations), Dennis played drums and brought an authenticity to their surf image as the lone surfer, and neighbor Al played rhythm guitar and sang the occasional lead (Help Me Rhonda) and added the necessary texture to the background vocals that helped made the Beach Boys sound click.
And then there was Mike Love. Cousin Mike was pumping gas when he took notice of Brian's musical talent and hitched a ride as the lead singer. As the energetic front man, he was the "ying" to Brian's "yang", writing the lyrics to many of the hit songs. Along the way, friend Bruce Johnston joined, not as a full member of the band but more of an employee, singing Brian's parts when he stopped touring with the group to stay home and write the songs and produce the backing tracks.
Enter LSD. More specifically, Brian and LSD. Drugs took their toll, at first driving Brian to write songs such as "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations" but soon driving him to the brink of insanity. And then it crashed. The followup album to the critically acclaimed Pet Sounds was to be SMiLE, unreleased in its original form to this day, though Capitol Records claims that this will be the year it will finally be released. The Beatles released Sgt Pepper and the quest for best was over.
Fast forward to 2011. Brian is touring with his own band, recreating note for note the sounds and textures of the original recordings. The band is so good that it'll make you cry when they fire up songs like "Please Let Me Wonder" or "Kiss Me, Baby". Even with Brian's voice ravaged by the drugs, catch him on a good night and the magic is still there. Brothers Carl and Dennis have passed away, Al has his own Beach Boy band made up of friends and family of the original group, and Mike and Bruce kept the Beach Boy name and are touring as same.
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| The "Beach Boys" with John Stamos on drums. |
I have no problem with old bands playing the hits. And I have no problem with old bands adding new members to sing the parts of departed bandmates. But I'm not sure that Mike Love without the Wilson brothers voices is any more The Beach Boys than if Ringo went out on tour as The Beatles and brought along 3 of his pals. But Brian's band pulls it off, so let's see if Mike has been paying attention.
The show opened with the original version of Surfin', with the band taking the stage and then taking over "live". And then came the hits - Catch a Wave, Hawaii, Little Honda, Do It Again, Surf City, Surfin' Safari. Mikes' voice was actually stronger than he was a couple of decades ago but there was something missing. It wasn't the Beach Boys, it wasn't even an "incredible simulation", it was like a cover band trapped in an oldies prison forced to play the same songs again and again.
And then the train wreck started to appear. The guy with the cowboy hat stepped up to sing the leads once done by Brian on Surfer Girl and Don't Worry, Baby. Back in the 60's Mike joked that Brian sounded like "Micky Mouse with a sore throat". Well isn't it ironic, as they say? The cowboys falsetto was forced and at times silly sounding, nothing like the beauty of Brian's original leads. And really, a cowboy hat in a surfing band? Yes, I know Mike once wore a sequined turban in the 70's, but we expect that from Mike.
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| John Stamos on guitar. I think Mike has a man-crush on him the way he went on and on and on about him. |
Mike took the stage back and did the car songs - Little Deuce Coupe, 409, Little Old Lady from Pasadena, Shut Down, and I Get Around. And then the musical director, one of the guitarists, stepped up to do one of the oddest yet oddly appealing songs of the night, The Ballad of Old Betsy. For the first time in the show, the song clicked as somehow authentic, and even though his lead vocal sounded nothing like Brian's it was youthful and fresh. Of course, Ballad of Old Betsy was never even close to a classic, a Surfer Girl rewrite with some of the worst lyrics ever penned, a love song to a car. Instead of self-mocking, I wish they would have sang the other Surfer Girl rewrite, The Girls on the Beach, a hidden gem of a song.
Mike took back the stage with Be True to Your School and had a pretty funny intro, claiming it was a song for those in uniform... cheerleading uniforms. Mike can be funny, that's for sure. In My Room wasn't bad, and Full House fans got their treat when John Stamos sang Dennis Wilson's beautiful song, Forever, doing a pretty good version and a pretty good imitation of Dennis.
Then came Bruce's turn. Bruce? Oh yeah, the other guy in a baseball cap? I swear, he must have the best job in rock and roll because all he has done so far is clap and try to get people to clap along. He took Carl's lead on God Only Knows and, well, we sure miss Carl. OK Bruce, get back to clapping.
Good Vibrations up next, very credible job, another highlight of the evening. But wait, there's more.
The next song up has to be the lowest point in the Beach Boy career. The cowboy's 15 year old daughter stepped up to the mic to sing one of the most soulful songs in the Beach Boy catalog, Sail On, Sailor. The vocal was originally done by Blondie Chapman, the black South African who now tours with The Stones. Let me just say that this had to be the worst rendition of the song ever, a screeching mess that made me wonder if it was payback for all the mean things I've said in the past about American Idol. She flubbed the words, the would sing really soft then REALLY REALLY REALLY LOUD, it was absolutely horrible.
A weak cover of California Dreamin', a decent Sloop John B, and then a wonderful Wouldn't It Be Nice. For the second time tonight, the band clicked and the harmonies were full and beautiful. I'll even overlook Mike's bad phrasing during the beautiful bridge when he sang "Maybe... IF!...." as if reciting a line from a play.
A minor song followed, Then I Kissed Her, then a wonderful California Girls that got the crowd dancing. Help Me Rhonda was up next, but the new lead singer sounded nothing like Al Jardine, making it sound more like a cover band than the Beach Boys. Rock N Roll Music, the Chuck Berry cover they did in the 70's, has never been my favorite. It sounded like filler, at least until they fired up Sumertime Blues, which really was filler on one of their early albums. Bruce steps up again for Do You Wanna Dance, originally a Denny vocal and good enough that no one seemed to notice.
Barbara Ann and Surfin' USA up next, decent enough. But during Kokomo there was some woman doing some sort of dance as Mike sang. Weird. Really weird. And then all the kids up on stage during Fun, Fun, Fun. Are these all Mike's kids? I don't know.
As we exited the packed stadium I think I was the only one disappointed. Maybe if Pet Sounds wasn't the first album I bought, maybe if I hadn't seen them when Brian, Carl, Dennis and Al still played with the band, maybe if I wasn't there when they rivaled The Beatles, then maybe I wouldn't know that the band on stage that night was just a shadow of what they once were. Of course, maybe it's just me. I think just about everyone else loved the show, the stadium was packed, and people were dancing. Yeah, it must be me.
