In 1973, the Beach Boys released "Holland," the latest in a long series of albums that tended to come at least once a year. And then... nothing. The band was riding a big wave of popularity, thanks to the release of the greatest hits album "Endless Summer" in 1974 that did surprisingly well, going all the way to number one in the charts in the US. But they didn't put out another album of new material until 1976, and by that time, their critical momentum was lost.
From the mid-1970s onward until today, the band essentially turned into an "oldies" band, playing their earlier greatest hits the vast majority of the time, with their new material of much less interest to the average fan.
It turns out the band was having big personnel problems. They tried recording a new album in 1974 and 1975 at Caribou Ranch in Colorado, but they couldn't get it together. The main problem, it seems, was genius Brian Wilson. His father died in mid-1973, and that sent him into a spiral of heavy drug use and general bad behavior. His voice deteriorated significantly due to heavy cocaine use and smoking, and he pretty much gave up on music. Rumors of him spending an entire year in bed date to around this time. So, with Brian as the creative leader of the group, it's no wonder they couldn't put finish an album.
That said, a lot of recording was done, and what I've heard sounds pretty good. Much music recorded around this time has never been made public, not even on bootleg, but there's enough for me to put this album together. However, I had to dig pretty deep in order to find enough material. I included "Good Timin'" and "It's OK"even though they weren't released until 1979 and 1976 respectively, because they actually were recorded during this time. I'm also including an early version of Dennis Wilson's "River Song" that was recorded in 1974, even though another version would be released on his 1977 solo album "Pacific Ocean Blue." I'm also including a Dennis Wilson song "Holy Man" that was recorded during this time, but he never got around to adding the vocals. So, many years later, a Dennis Wilson sound alike finished it off, and that version got officially released. Furthermore, I've included a solo piano version of "Disney Girls," even though that song was on an earlier Beach Boys album. I just think this very is really cool.
On top of all that, I went to some lengths in order to include a version of "You Are So Beautiful." Although Dennis Wilson isn't officially credited as a co-writer to the hit song by Billy Preston, it is widely believed that he did help write it. He played it in concert frequently from 1975 onwards, but unfortunately all the versions I've heard are just a snippet of about one minute long, with lots of audience singing. So I've stitched together different versions to create a full performance that's almost three minutes long.
Add all those songs together, plus the rest, and you get an album that's 37 minutes long. Clearly, this was not a creative high point for the band. But they could and should have put together an album to keep their career going, especially since there are reports that there was a lot more recorded that has yet to be released. Plus, they could have drawn on the volumes of songs that had been recorded in previous years and were still unreleased and totally unheard of at the time. Oh well.
01 Good Timin' (Beach Boys)
02 Holy Man (Dennis Wilson with Taylor Hawkins)
03 California Feelin' [Demo] (Brian Wilson)
04 It's OK (Beach Boys)
05 My Love Lives On (Beach Boys)
06 River Song [Early Version] (Beach Boys)
07 Child of Winter (Beach Boys)
08 Barnyard Blues (Beach Boys)
09 Don't Fight the Sea (Beach Boys)
10 In the Back of My Mind [Demo] (Brian Wilson)
11 Disney Girls [Solo Version] (Bruce Johnston)
12 You Are So Beautiful [Live] [Edit] (Beach Boys)
https://www.upload.ee/files/16376710/TBECHBYS1975CarbuRnch_atse.zip.html
I kind of cheated with making the cover art. I found a photo of the barn at the Caribou Ranch near Boulder, Colorado, where the Beach Boys and many other big name artists recorded in the 1970s. I also found another photo that wasn't very good, but included the Caribou Ranch sign over the road leading to the place. I liked the sign and the barn, so I combined the two photos. I figured there's no good place left to add "The Beach Boys," so I just left that off.
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