LaRM day 28 (Beach Boys)

More angelic harmonies all day today of course as the Beach Boys odyssey continues. After the first two rather throwaway Beach Boys albums comes Surfer Girl (1963). This is another step up towards the untouchable greatness they would achieve later, and although it is really not a massive development in terms of the sound or style of Surfin' Safari and Surfin' USA, Surfer Girl has a greater number of ace tunes. It kicks off with two definitive bits of surf rock in Surfer Girl which is a great slower number, and Catch a Wave, which although a knockabout tune, has the first real signs of Brian's interest in using the studio to greater effect featuring as it does a harp. It's still got some absolute howlers ('South Bay Surfer', 'Our Car Club') but there's no denying the remarkable effect of the album's centrepiece, 'In My Room'. Now, this is a song that really marks out just how extraordinary Brian's work and his approach would become, with its complicated arrangement and dense instrumentation. Where most of the songs on these early albums sound like the were knocked out in a couple of takes in the studio, 'In My Room' sounds like something that was worked on and worked on. It also shows the first signs that Brian was preparing to really start looking inside himself for inspiration rather than telling silly stories about drag racers and surfing. It's an astonishing song and a beautifully constructed one and makes Surfer Girl an essential step in tracing the Beach Boys development. Interestingly it's the last tune that Brian wrote with Gary Usher who had been so unhelpful earlier, but it also shows the direction that Usher himself would take also. Next up is the third and last album from 1963, Little Deuce Coupe. After the promise of the high points of Surfer Girl, Little Deuce Coupe is a real disappointment. To a large extent it was just a means of mitigating damage done by Capitol who had released a sub-standard compilation album without the band's permission, and they recorded and released Little Deuce Coupe just one month after Surfer Girl's release. As a result the album unsurprisingly contains a handful of pointless re-recordings of songs from the first three albums and a number of fairly uninteresting new songs ('Car Crazy Cutie' anyone?). The one truly golden moment is 'Be True to Your School', which, while still a back-step, is a fantastic song.

The first of 1964's albums, Shut Down Vol. 2, is an interesting halfway house in a way, because it's got some really classic work ('Don't Worry Baby', 'The Warmth of the Sun') which is moving inexorably closer to genius, some barnstorming knockabout workouts ('Fun Fun Fun') and the rest, while not particularly impressive, is certainly interesting. There are a couple of instrumental workouts and some studio horseplay which also show that Brian was really thinking about the possibilities of working hard and working seriously. The only down sides are the inevitable cover versions (a pointless 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love' and a dispiriting 'Louie Louie') but it's telling that Wilson's own songs are finally starting to really eclipse other people's work. (PS, get the double reissue CD for an astonishing extra cut of 'In My Room' IN GERMAN!!!). The next 1964 album, All Summer Long, is where the buds start to really burst into bright flowers. Interestingly, this was the first album released after Brian finally stood up to his grotesque, vicious father and sacked him as the band's manager. To say that the album sounds like liberation is scarcely hyperbole. This is joyous, complex stuff. There are some just wonderful songs here ('I Get Around', 'Wendy', 'The Girls on the Beach', 'Little Honda', 'Do You Remember?') and for the first time the album feels like it was constructed to be a whole rather than a collection of songs simply strung together. The vocal arrangement for the title track is fabulous and you can hear how intrictately thought out they would become. Of course, there are the usual handful of minor songs and unnecessary numbers ('Drive-In', 'Carl's Big Chance') but on the whole it's where the Beach Boys really started to sound like a truly great band.

Unfortunately we have to skip a couple of albums that I don't have (1964's live outing Beach Boys Concert, and the fourth and final 1964 album, The Beach Boys Christmas Album), neither of which are anything to really write home about. So instead we move directly on to the three albums from 1965, beginning with The Beach Boys Today! This album is where we finally reach the truly groundbreaking phase of the band's career. After a gruelling touring and recording schedule throughout 1964, Brian Wilson collapsed physically and mentally, and he effectively retired from touring. This meant that he began to dedicate himself wholly to writing and recording, and marrying himself to the studio meant that his proficiency as well as his ambition made quantum leaps. Not only are the songs on Today! absolutely great, the arrangements are extremely complicated and the recording is fantastically intricate, making the previous albums sound like one-take studio knock-offs. The sound is lush and deep and the structure of both the individual songs and the album as a whole are miles ahead of anything they had recorded before. The other dramatic change is the subject matter of Brian's lyrics. There are some really soul-searching things going on in some of these songs, particularly in the second half ('She Knows Me Too Well' is noteworthy for its brutal honesty), and it's clear that the peak of his talent is not far off. Next up is Summer Days and Summer Nights (1965). This is a little bit of a step down from Today! and it feels a little as if Brian was taking his foot off the songwriting pedal a bit and working at figuring out how to maximise the studio's potential instead. On the whole the songs aren't as strong, the arrangements less compelling, but the production is really stepped up another notch. There are daft songs here ('Amusement Parks USA', 'I'm Bugged at My Old Man') the like of which were notably absent from Today! Needless to say though there are some truly fantastic songs here, I mean, this has 'California Girls' and the sublime 'Let Him Run Wild' as well as the gorgeous 'Girl Don't Tell Me' on it, all of which also show off just how much Brian was learning about the studio. These two albums are suitable precursors to Pet Sounds, which was the next proper studio album to be released.

Finally for 1965, and acting as a Christmas album stop-gap between Summer Days and Pet Sounds, is Beach Boys Party which is a peculiar album to say the least. As a concept it's a strange one to begin with - we're listening to an impromptu singalong of other people's songs at a party that the Beach Boys happen to be at, and they're casually knocking out a few numbers live, while the party goes on around them. OK, so far so tricky, but what's particularly odd about the record is that all of the party noises (people chatting, clapping, shouting and yelling, odd crashes and bangs) were recorded and dubbed over the actual recordings of the songs at a later date than the songs themselves, which were carefully and deliberately rehearsed and studio recorded to sound suitably "loose". The instruments are appropriate, acoustic guitars, bongos and not much else, but the whole was so carefully engineered that you can't help but wonder why they didn't just actually do the real thing and record themselves having a party. It's fun in an odd sort of way, but it's hard to really get your head round the Beach Boys pretending to be doing house party versions of Beatles and Dylan songs. Not everybody felt the same way, and their cover of Barbara Ann from this album become one of their biggest singles to date. And so now, just under the halfway mark, we come to the crowning glory of pop's chequered and remarkable history, Pet Sounds (1966). Obviously the album is legend, the making of it is legend, the songs are legendary and its reputation is legend. I'm not really sure what I can say about it that would serve any purpose. Nobody in the world doesn't know these songs, but not even total familiarity can stain them, they're timeless, perfect and most of all they're brutally personal in such a way that absolutely anybody in the world can empathise with. They're beautiful songs, recorded and arranged with such care, such precision, such intelligence and such grace, it's all just a wonder to listen to. Well, it's the greatest record ever made. There it is, simple as that.

And tomorrow we begin with the mammoth Pet Sounds Sessions box-set. Anybody else looking forward to hearing the timpani only rehearsals for 'I'm Waiting For the Day'?