The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Love You - Alternate Version (1977)

A lot of people are of the opinion that the Beach Boys stopped being a creative force and turned into more of an oldies act after 1973. I disagree. I feel they continued to do a lot of interesting and creative things until about 1980. But the problem with their late 1970s music is that much of their good stuff didn't get on their records and some bad stuff did.

One bright spot in their late 1970s output is the 1977 album "The Beach Boys Love You." It essentially is a Brian Wilson solo album, with him writing or co-writing all the songs for the first time in ages. But the other Beach Boys played and sang on it, with a majority of the songs featuring someone other than Brian on lead vocals.

It was a weird album, which was fitting because Brian Wilson was going through some weird times. He'd suffered mental problems since the 1960s, but his therapist, Eugene Landy, was highly unethical and would eventually be disbarred and prohibited from approaching Wilson. Apparently, during this time period, Landy thought that it would be helpful for Wilson to work on his music, so he forced him to do so, denying him dinner if he didn't spend a certain number of hours with his music that day. That sort of treatment would get Landy in trouble later, but the short term effect was that Wilson was more musically productive than he'd been in years. He wrote and produced all the songs for "The Beach Boys Love You" by early 1977, and then completed a follow-up to be called "Adult/Child" by mid-1977.

"The Beach Boys Love You" was critically hailed as a comeback by critics at the time, though it didn't sell that well. Personally, I think it's a good album, though sometimes Wilson's quirky ways get to be too much. The biggest offender in my opinion is the song "Ding Dang." Wilson was obsessed with the main riff, and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds said he once witnessed Wilson playing it on the piano for nearly 24 hours straight. I've removed that song, plus a couple others I don't like so much ("Mona" and "Love Is a Woman").

The album was only about 35 minutes long to begin with, and after removing the three songs, it was less than 30 minutes long. I've added about another 20 minutes at the end, using songs from "Adult/Child" plus other Brian Wilson-led songs from 1977 that were done in the same vein. The band's record company rejected "Adult/Child" as not being strong enough for release, and I think deservedly so. There were some good songs on it, but more duds, as well as some uninspired cover versions. Plus, two of the better songs actually dated to the early 1970s, and I've already used them elsewhere. So I've only used five songs from it ("Still I Dream of It" was a part of that album, but got officially released much later), plus three others that could have easily fit on it.

The end result is kind of "The Beach Boys Love You... Plus." It has most of the "Love You" album, plus eight more songs in the same vein that were done just a few months later. Had the band waited and put out a track list like this one, I think the album would have been much more acclaimed.

01 Let Us Go On This Way (Beach Boys)
02 Roller Skating Child (Beach Boys)
03 Johnny Carson (Beach Boys)
04 Good Time (Beach Boys)
05 Honkin' Down the Highway (Beach Boys)
06 Solar System (Beach Boys)
07 The Night Was So Young (Beach Boys)
08 I'll Bet He's Nice (Beach Boys)
09 Let's Put Our Hearts Together (Beach Boys with Marilyn Wilson)
10 I Wanna Pick You Up (Beach Boys)
11 Airplane (Beach Boys)
12 Marilyn Rovell (Beach Boys)
13 Our Team (Beach Boys)
14 Go and Get That Girl (Beach Boys)
15 Life Is for the Living (Beach Boys)
16 It's Over Now (Beach Boys)
17 Everybody Wants to Live (Beach Boys)
18 Lines (Beach Boys)
19 Still I Dream of It (Beach Boys)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700629/TBECHBYS1977_ThBechBysLoveYuAlternte_atse.zip.html

This album is different enough from the official "Beach Boys Love You" that I decided I shouldn't just use the exact same cover. I found a good publicity photo of the band in 1976. The text at the top comes from a 1977 ad for the album.