What does it sound like?:
This slightly confusingly presented compilation is basically a brand new stereo remaster of the Beach Boys ‘Wild Honey’, coupled with out-takes from the sessions and also those for Smiley Smile (which preceded it by just 3 months in September 1967) which is not included as that already had a stereo remaster a couple of years back. To complete the Beach Boys 1967 output you’ll need to get that disc to accompany this set if you haven’t already (but fair play to Capitol for not expecting fans to pay for the same disc again). On top of that you also get an official release of the much-bootlegged ‘Lei’d in Hawaii’ – a “live” album that was actually recorded in the studio and never saw the light of day – as well as contemporaneous live performances.
Wild Honey was only ever released in Mono or ‘faux stereo’ so this a a brand new stereo mix and it’s delightful. Wild Honey was already a pretty stripped down, sparse affair but hearing this new mix I noticed loads of little details – a guitar part, a vocal harmony that I’d never heard before and the music benefits from even more space and air in it. It also reveals the flaws, there are bum notes, little mistakes, bits of audible background noise that the pre-Smile Brian would have ironed out in endless retakes. The loose ‘just roll the tape and play’ vibe of the album is part of it’s magic. Most of the musicians you hear playing are the Beach Boys themselves, so after years of Brian building his own wall of sound with the Wrecking Crew it’s now back to Brian at the Organ and detuned piano, and the garage band version of the Beach Boys in their own studio – their years on the road bashing out ‘Fun Fun Fun’ and ‘Help Me Rhonda’ means they do a spirited performance of the material and best of all is Carl Wilson, who belts out quite a few of the lead vocals. On the out-takes with Studio chatter though it does sound like Brian is still drilling them through performances – and in contrast to what the biographies say, very much in charge of his faculties and the band.
What does it all *mean*?
The band were relentlessly prolific pretty much throughout the 60s and 70s and their various ups and downs. In spite of several box sets and compilations, there are still stacks of unreleased goodies and alternate mixes in the vaults and the band are infamous for leaving great songs unfinished or shelved for long forgotten reasons. A highlight is the gorgeous ‘Lonely Days’ (only a short snippet of this was previously released on the slightly bizarre ‘Hawthorne, CA’ compilation) – and there’s another (excellent) take of ‘Can’t Wait too Long’ one of the great lost BBs songs. Most of the unreleased material is re-mastered and properly mixed in stereo too.
‘Lei’d in Hawaii’ is in Mono – and it’s obvious why it never got released – it’s a sort of Beach Boys ‘unplugged’ years before such things existed but the studio performance is so underpowered it’s almost comical and would never have convinced anyone it was ‘live’. Quite interesting to hear 1967 Beach Boys approach older material and it’s nice to have as a bonus and a reminder that even when making some perfectly decent new material in 67 they were already regressing into nostalgia on stage.
The penultimate track is Brian along at the piano, having a bash at ‘stripped down’ version of Surfs Up with several false starts – he gets it down eventually but you can hear his heart’s not in it and there’s no way this would have fitted the on Smiley Smile or Wild Honey.
Goes well with…
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
65 tracks over 2 discs for £10 is excellent value and Capitol have maxed out the space on the CDs with as much content as possible. If you’re a fan, this is a treasure trove and you’ll be delighted with the new mixes and the wealth of unreleased material. If you only know Pet Sounds and the hits – Wild Honey and Smiley Smile should definitely be on your ‘to do’ list (as should all the post Pet Sounds and 1970s albums up to Holland).
I love and hold dear many Beach Boys tracks. I think my favourite of all time is ‘Heroes and Villains’.
Close second would be ‘Darlin’.
Great review, thanks. I’d never heard of this release.
I’m a fair weather fan of the Beach Boys, but I love the stranger, tripper side of their output, so this sounds like a no-brainer.
That looks a terrific release. 65 tracks (with a specific easily explained purpose) for £10. Wonderful sleeve design as well.
Note to record companies: make the release good value and, you know what, punters might actually go out and buy it!
New Beatles records bought in 2017 – 1.
New Beach Boys records going to buy in 2017 – 1.
New Floyd records bought in 2017 – 0.
Great review! Added to wishlist.
Nice review, Dr. This is winging its way to me at this very moment, so I haven’t yet heard it. However, I can categorically state that Wild Honey is my favourite Beach Boys album.
As a boy, I loved the early singles about cars, girls and surfing. My little ears detected they were in pursuit of that elusive occupation called ‘fun’ and so was I. The clue was in the title of one of my favourites, Fun, Fun, Fun (I was unaware that it was a Chuck Berry riff at the time).
Yet, there was also something else in their exquisite harmonies, an ennui, a longing, a despondency, to be found on their B sides such as In My Room, Wendy, Don’t Worry Baby or Kiss Me Baby. This aspect grew as Brian stopped touring and entertained himself in the studio and ultimately begat Pet Sounds. I didn’t like it then and I don’t now. For all of Pet Sounds studio wizardry, the tunes seem lost in its modality, with some notable exceptions and I think that Asher’s attempts to lyrically capture Brian’s moods are cloying and whinging.
Then, Brian pursued his masterpiece, driven by the increasingly strange noises in his head and the ‘psychedelic poetry’ of Van Dyke Parks’s words. We know now that he wasn’t far away. Recordings of Heroes And Villains, Wind Chimes, Wonderful and Cabin Essence were breathtakingly beautiful. Even a nonsense song like Vega Tables sounded heavenly. However, SMiLE was just too fragmented, both in Brian’s increasingly confused mind and on tape, to put together a coherent album. Hal Blaine, session drummer extraordinaire, blamed the return of the Boys from tour. I have no doubt that they were taken aback by the nature of these songs and objected to them. However, the evidence of The SMiLE Sessions is that they gave everything they had vocally when the microphones were on. Their harmonies are deeply textured and exquisite. In the end, SMiLE was abandoned because Brian couldn’t complete its complex jigsaw, not because the Boys wouldn’t sing the songs.
In fact, they even sang the songs again, this time for Smiley Smile. Instead of using session musicians, they re-recorded them largely by themselves, using a Baldwin theatre organ, electronic bass and a detuned piano in a makeshift studio. The intention was to make a happy, party album but they were all too stoned, on the downward curve to maudlin, fed up with the material, themselves, the record company and the world as a whole. The result is possibly the most bizarre album ever made in which those delicious delicacies from SMiLE are smashed into Rocky Road and Eton Mess. Smiley Smile is the acid fried, ugly sister to SMiLE’s Cinderella, a Cinderella who didn’t go to the ball. It did not sell well.
Almost immediately, they go back into the studio with a fresh set of songs written mostly by Brian and Mike, just like the old days. They gather round Brian’s piano and play them together as a band, a family. The monkey of SMiLE is palpably off their back. They are audibly relaxed and enjoying the simple melodies and homespun, heartfelt lyrics. The track that tells you the most about the album is the one cover, Stevie Wonder’s I Was Made To Love Her. Stevie was still a child in 1967 and a long way away from his imperial phase. He wrote it with his mother. Like Brian, young Stevie had a wonderful way with melody but not so much with words. The Beach Boys boil it down to its essence, cutting out some of the repetitiveness, shortening its length and focusing on its open sentiment, adding some lovely backing vocal embellishments in the process. Crucially, Carl takes the lead vocal and is revealed as a great, raspy R&B singer. Brian is famous for wanting to emulate Phil Spector but Wild Honey has far more in common with Tamla Motown. You can picture The Four Tops, The Miracles or The Temptations performing the title track, the peerless Darlin’ or Here Comes The Night.
The low production values and the structure of the songs, in fact, disguise some difficult and complex ideas. Many of the choruses are sophisticated, there are surprising minor keys and some deeply satisfying seventh chords. Country Air is Rouseauian in its purity with a pastoral, orchestral arrangement for piano and acoustic guitar. Dylan was licking his wounds with The Band in Woodstock, others, including The Beatles, would reject high tech studio techniques from 1968 onwards but no-one captures the beauty of living the simple life in a forest as perfectly as The Beach Boys do on Country Air or When The Wind Blows.
Most of all, the beauty of Wild Honey is in its humanity. These are living, breathing beings, made of flesh and blood, supporting each other, working together, celebrating life, love and the true wonders of the world. There is no band that does this better than The Beach Boys and there is no album they do it better on than Wild Honey. Aren’t You Glad is warm and cosy, beginning with an intimate Mike vocal, handing to Brian for a coy “I’ve got a heart that just won’t stop beating for you” before Carl takes charge of the title chorus. They take turns again on A Thing Or Two, Brian on the choruses and Mike and Carl exchanging their contrasting styles across him, all three blending sumptuously for ‘keep oooon telling’. Carl may shine in the lead limelight for the singles but the rest of the album is full of lead switching or joint harmonised leads, all of whom are singing at their peak. It’s this collaborative ethic that makes Wild Honey such a life-affirming, gorgeously human album, actually enhanced by the flaws in the musicianship and the basic nature of the production.
I honestly believe that the Wilson/Love writing combination suits Brian and the band best. The most magical Beach Boys record throughout all this period of triumph and disaster is Good Vibrations, in which Mike’s words bring out the sunshine in Brian’s music. That winning combination is all over Wild Honey.
One final point. How She Boogalooed It points to the future for The Beach Boys. It’s a fun rocker composed by four band members. Brian isn’t one of them.
I could go on. However, Wild Honey clocks in just short of 24 minutes. I shouldn’t demand any more of your time and will now stop hijacking the thread. I apologise. I didn’t have the time to construct a brief response. Just give it another listen, don’t be hoodwinked by its apparent simplicity and indulge yourself in the multitude of pleasures within.
`kin` hell Tiggs* what a FABulous piece, I hope the good Doc dosen`t mind (a great review Doc).
I was going to write maybe a longer piece myself. Why? Because I`ve been listening to the 2 CDs of this release all morning (09.15-14.45).
This is the first time, after all these years I`ve realised that M.L.&B.W. were probably, at this time, the greatest songwriting combination. John Lennon & Paul McCartney no longer existed as Lennon/McCartney.
Arthur, Deram, Mini, do yourselves a favour get this ASAP, it really is superb.
*Tiggs I even looked up `Rouseauian`.
I think I will.
Blimey! At a bit of a loose end today Tigs? 🙂 Great review; I might have to move the ’67 release up the list now.
Cuh. Nobody shows any interest in the things I enthuse about. Even when they’re bloody free!
Still, if I was an Influential Taste-Maker everyone would be living on Barbecue Beef Super Noodles, and civilisation would come to an end.
Sensation writing Tig. As I dislike turd droppers in enthusiast threads I won’t share my views on the BBs but you almost make me want to listen to it.
One of the best texts I’ve read on TBB, Tigger, and that includes loads of Paul Williams. Thumbs – and surf’s – up!
Don’t hold back,Tig. 😂😂😂
I know. I’m sorry. The Beach Boys of 1966/7 bring out the best and worst in me. I’ve spent decades trying to find the secrets of SMiLE, only to realise that there was never an album to rival Sgt Pepper but a handful of songs from another world. All the time, they had given us Wild Honey, ignored and unloved, because we had been hypnotised by the dazzling sound of those SMiLE songs.
Someone else, a professional critic, linked the philosophy of Rousseau (2 ‘s’s) to Brian’s withdrawal from society and simple, nature-living lifestyle of late 1967 onwards. The scales fell from my ears. I then heard Wild Honey as a beautiful, healing, loving, celebratory album, everything great music should be. Ever since, Wild Honey has been my go-to Beach Boys album.
As a result of a thread on here, I went back and listened to Pet Sounds again. It sounded horrible in comparison, selfish and self-indulgent, the work of a man-baby.
The postman hasn’t yet delivered this package. I can’t wait.
Apologies to the doc for stomping all over his thread.
Not at all Tigs, great bit of writing. I really like this record and ‘Friends’ isn’t too shabby either. Whisper it, Smiley Smile is more enjoyable to listen to than the Smile sessions imho
I presume you’ve got the 2012 Smiley Smile remaster, mono and stereo mixes on one CD? I imagine Sunshine Tomorrow is its perfect companion.
Of course. Funnily enough I had the Smiley/Wild Honey Two-fer-One CD for years and it had never dawned on me that those albums were in Mono for some reason which is probably testament to what great records they are- the Mono mixes are excellent and I think it’s important both are available but the stereo mix on both records is like suddenly seeing it in technicolour.
I love reading your stuff, but your views on Pet Sounds are those of a contrarian, I imagine they might be different should it be regarded as some sort of lost album, with Smiley Smile and Wild Honey being the rated albums in this alternate universe.
I love it all, and am looking forward to the postman delivering this package soon. Thanks to the Dr for the great review
I’m not always contrary. My favourite Beatles albums are all pretty regular, for example (Revolver/White Album/Hard Days Night/Sgt Pepper). 😉
Well actually we agree on their top 3.
Let’s see if we agree on The Beach Boys top 3:
Wild Honey/Sunflower/Today!
2 out of 3 ain’t bad …
I can`t agree with your views on `Pet Sounds` Tiggs. In fact I think they are bloody daft. However I take it back for your piece, which was the finest piece of writing on The Beach Boys that I have read. Just so that people don`t think I`m a sycophant, fuck off!
Cheers! ✌️😜
Let me jump in here and say, that was a fascinating read Tigger, and I don’t even particularly know the albums. I’m a Beach Boys’ Hits type of guy. Have got Pet Sounds on cassette somewhere (likelihood of being played, very low) but apart from, you know, three-and-a-half really good songs, or whatever, the verdict has to be, patchy, M’Lud. Very patchy.
As to the subsequent albums, maybe it’s time (..or not..) for me.
Did I say “Re-release Of The Year”.
Some great writing here, which has prompted a move from wish list to basket! If pushed, my favourite period is Sunflower to Holland – these records mature and improve every year to my ear, but the Smiley Smile to 20/20 years I’ve always found patchy….a Sunday of reappraisal today perhaps!?
Friends and 20/20 are favourites of mine. What do we do now that Brian isn´t driving anymore? Carl, can you produce? Dennis, didn´t you say you´d written something? Maybe we can do some covers?
It´s when they became the band that would peak with Sunflower, which is their second best album. Surf´s Up and Holland are also beautiful. Carl & The Passions is a bit patchy to my ears, but still holds up pretty good.
I’ve listened loads to this now. The sound is gorgeous, fabulous on the ear. The Time To Get Alone recorded at this time is complete with strings and everything. Why it was left off the album is a mystery. It would have made a lovely finale instead of Mama Says. I also like the breakdown and reprise at the end of I Was Made To Love Her. It lengthens the track by thirty seconds. It’s hardly as though there isn’t plenty of room. Lonely Days is a beautiful song but it is still a demo that would sound unfinished on an album of basic production values. Edit out the count-in on Can’t Wait Too Long and you have another contender. I actually enjoyed the recorded live in the studio takes, especially the covers, best of which is The Letter.
It is a perfect companion to the 2012 remaster in mono and stereo of Smiley Smile. Buy both! 😀