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"...Meant For You..."
The entire series
of 2001 CD reissues for the voluminous Beach Boys back catalogue is a shining
example of how to do it right - both presentation-wise and especially sonically
(these 'twofers' have always been fantastic value for money too - mid-priced or
less even now in 2020). But four of the duo-combos have screamed 'buy me' more
than others – three of which are "Smiley Smile" combined with
"Wild Honey" (both from 1967), 1970's "Sunflower" and
1971's "Surf's Up" - and finally 1972's "Carl & The Passions
- So Tough" with 1973's brilliant "Holland" being another.
Which brings us
back-peddling to door number four - "Friends" from June 1968 doubled
with its US follow-up "20/20" from February 1969 – both on Capitol
Records and both barely bothering their once total stomping ground of the US LP
charts. Despite the Summer of Love in 1967 – there appeared to be no love by
the US public for more wake-the-world happy-wappy sentiment in 1968 and 1969
from The Beach Boys. "Friends" took until early July to hit the
Billboard album charts after its 10 June 1968 launch and then only peaked at
No. 126 – the band's worst chart showing since 1962. While "20/20" made
a very respectable No. 3 in the UK on release 10 February 1969 – again American
audiences waited until March 1969 to chart it and then only peaking at No. 63
(an 11-week run when "Pet Sounds" had managed 39 in 1966).
These anemic
number-placements, however, have more to do with the fractured heavy-heavy
politics of 1968 and 1969 than their musical content. Because you could argue
that "Friends" and "20/20" began a fabulous run of studio
album releases for the surfer boys that would eventually culminate in the
"Holland" album in 1973. Let's get to the Cabinessence baby...
UK released 9
April 2001 - "Friends and 20/20" by THE BEACH BOYS on Capitol 531
6382 (Barcode 724353163822) offers 2LPs Remastered in STEREO onto 1HDCD (High
Definition Compatible Digital) with Five Bonus Tracks (29 in total) and plays
out as follows (66:58 minutes):
1. Meant For You
[Side 1]
2. Friends
3. Wake The World
4. Be Here In The
Morning
5. When A Man
Needs A Woman
6. Passing By
7. Anna Lee, The
Healer [Side 2]
8. Little Bird
9. Be Still
10. Busy Doin'
Nothin'
11. Diamond Head
12.
Transcendental Meditation
Tracks 1 to 12
are their album "Friends" - released June 1968 in the USA on Capitol
ST 2895 (Stereo) and September 1968 in the UK on Capitol T 2895 (Mono) and
Capitol ST 2895 (Stereo) - STEREO MIX is used for this CD. Produced by THE
BEACH BOYS - the album peaked at No. 126 in the USA and No. 13 in the UK.
13. Do It Again
[Side 1]
14. I Can Hear
Music
15. Bluebirds
Over The Mountain
16. Be With Me
17. All I Want To
Do
18. The Nearest
Faraway Place
19. Cotton Fields
[Side 2]
20. I Went To
Sleep
21. Time To Get
Alone
22. Never Learn
Not To Love
23. Our Prayer
24. Cabinessence
Tracks 13 to 24
are the album "20/20" - released February 1969 in the USA on Capitol
SKAO-133 (Stereo only) and April 1969 in the UK on Capitol E-T 133 (Mono) and
Capitol E-ST 133 (Stereo) - STEREO MIX is used for CD. Produced by THE BEACH
BOYS - it peaked at No. 3 in the UK and No. 68 in the USA
BONUS TRACKS:
25. Breakaway
26. Celebrate The
News
27. We're
Together Again
28. Walk On By
29. Old Folks At
Home (Swanee River)/Ol' Man River
The 24-page
booklet is a chunky affair with liner notes from expert/aficionado DAVID LEAF
(author of the critically acclaimed biography "The Beach Boys And The
California Myth") - artwork in colour and staggeringly detailed
track-by-track analysis. The front cover is the "Friends" LP artwork
and the rear page "20/20". You even get breakdowns on the five Bonus
cuts. Buts its the Audio that shines, best tapes found, no remixing, just care
transfers of what was originally laid down by the core six - Brian, Carl and
Dennis Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Mike Love and Al Jardine - STEREO Remasters by
JOE GASTWIRT and MARK LINETT using the Pacific Microsonics HDCD system. Those
walls of harmony vocals are so crisp and clear, it can at times be
disconcerting - "Little Bird" and "Do It Again" feel like
revelations - those strings...
"Friends"
is a short album and opens well with the promising ditty "Meant For
You" - a 38-second intro of sorts that acts as a love coda. Capitol issued
"Friends" as an advance 45 taster to the LP in April 1968 with Dennis
Wilson's gorgeous "Little Bird" on the flipside (Capitol 2160) - but
despite the strength of both cuts - it hit only No. 47 on the US singles chart.
Al Jardine gets his first songwriting credit with Brian Wilson on "Wake
The World" (Brian and Carl handle the lead vocals) - that Tuba wrapped
around the chorus clear on the Remaster. The lyrics in "Be Here In The
Morning" mention getting no phone calls from "...Korthof, Parks or
Grillo..." - we now find out they're Brian's one-time assistant Steve
Korthof, Road Manager Jon Parks and Lawyer/Business Manager Nick Grillo.
Becoming family men and having children fills the jaunty "When A Man Needs
A Woman". That niggling feeling of unfinished songs lingers throughout the
semi-instrumental "Passing By" as humming floats over keyboard
plinks. The band's masseuse gets her nimble hands immortalized in "Anna
Lee, The Healer" - another OK tune that seems more childish than
enlightening.
But Side 2 offers
up two of the album's true gems – both Dennis Wilson contributions – the
"Pacific Ocean View" album man emerging out the songwriting shadows.
Brian admits in his liner notes on the original LP that Dennis' contribution
"Little Bird" blew his mind – and even though "Be Still"
isn't in the same league, it has an aching vocal delivery that is borderline
beautiful. Brian then throws in a goody too in "Busy Doin' Nothin'" while
I've always found the Hawaiian sound-effects instrumental "Diamond
Head" to be little more than indulgent studio experimentation that's
interesting but not much more. They end 1968's "Friends" with the
decidedly kooky and seriously dated "Transcendental Meditation" - an
emancipation of the mind plea that smacks of Maharishi Guru twaddle that so
many fell for (at great financial cost too).
1969's
"20/20" opens on a barnstormer "Do It Again" - The Beach
Boys hitting all the right notes - a hugely catchy chorus, driving rhythm and
those unique harmonies and sound effects (they were rewarded with a No. 20
chart position in July 1968 on Capitol 2239 when it was paired on 45 with the
lovely "Wake The World" as its flipside). Carl Wilson grabbed the
Production controls on the excellent "I Can Hear Music" - a cover of
The Ronettes/Phil Spector - a song that would become their 25th and last Top 40
hit of the 60ts (No. 24 chart position on Capitol 2432 in March 1969 with
"All I Want To Do" on the B-side).
Even better is Dennis Wilson's majestically dense "Be With Me"
- a huge vocal and string plea that has weird overtones of almost-madness as it
fades out. Mike Love lets his vocals rock on the decidedly fruity "All I
Want To Do" - a unusual Rock 'n' Roll tune for the California Surf boys
that feels like The Beach Boys doing The Beatles doing guitar Rock 'n' Roll on
the White Album. Van McCoy's string arrangements play a huge part in the Bruce
Johnston's lovely instrumental "The Nearest Faraway Place" - another
hidden nugget on a great Beach Boys LP (Johnston composed, performed and
produced the lot).
I've never held a
candle for their cover of Leadbelly's "Cotton Fields" (even if
variants did huge business in overseas markets - No. 1 in the Netherlands and
No. 2 in the UK). But apparently recorded during the "Friends"
sessions – the nice summer day of "I Went To Sleep" is Brian at his
simplistic best. I see love in your eyes, Carl sings on the shimmering
"Time To Get Alone" – but it's trounced in my opinion by the second
Dennis Wilson contribution on here - "Never Learn Not To Love" – a
fantastic swirling chunk of Beach Boys greatness that still feels slightly
otherworldly even to this day. The 1:10 cathedral-like minutes of "Our
Prayer" succeeds in the middle of Side 2 on "20/20" where
"Meant To Be" at the beginning of "Friends" only almost
did. It's a vocal instrumental that by itself would stamp home the band's
greatness if you needed an example (fabulous harmonies).
The album romps
home with "Cabinessence" where the boys chant lyrics by Van Dyke
Parks that include 'doyn doyn' (whatever
that means) before we're hit with a "Pet Sounds" wall of music. "Cabinessence" is ambitious and
overdone for sure (like much of this non-Brian Wilson helmed LP who was checked
into emotional rehab at the time of recoding) – but undeniably brilliant too.
Dennis remained unimpressed with the outcome calling the LP a mess – but
"20/20" is a great Beach Boys album to me, and certainly one of their
better late 60ts efforts. Of the bonus cuts my faves are the contractual single
"Breakaway" b/w "Celebrate The News" - a Brian ooh-ooh
bopper on the A-side with a sophisticated there-ain't-no-blues Dennis Wilson
composition on the flip while the outtake "We're Together Again" is
also shockingly good.
1968's
"Friends" is good to very good - while 1969's "20/20" is
brilliant (even if insiders disagree). But at fewer than six quid and with
shout-about-it great audio - this Capitol reissue really is a no-brainer
must-own HDCD purchase...