The Beach Boys: KEEPIN' THE SUMMER ALIVE

Summary

Podcast Summary: Jokermen – The Beach Boys: KEEPIN' THE SUMMER ALIVE

Episode Information:

• Title: The Beach Boys: KEEPIN' THE SUMMER ALIVE
• Host/Author: Jokermen
• Release Date: June 2, 2025

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Introduction to the Episode

In this episode of the Jokermen Podcast, hosts Carl Wilson and Mike Love delve deep into "Keeping the Summer Alive," a pivotal album by the Beach Boys released in 1980. The conversation not only critiques the album but also explores its significance in the band's trajectory during a challenging decade for them.

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Segment 1: The Jones Root Beer Interlude (00:27 – 08:16)

Before diving into the main topic, Carl and Mike engage in a lighthearted discussion about Jones Cane Sugar Root Beer—a nostalgic soda brand associated with the Beach Boys' image.

• Carl Wilson [00:27]: "Welcome back, everyone, to Root Beer Report, the podcast about root beer within the podcast about the Beach Boys."

• Mike Love [02:07]: "Jones root beer. It's Jones Cane sugar root beer. Classic soda company... Still out there. Kicking root beer."

They reminisce about the brand's popularity in the early 2000s and its decline, sharing personal anecdotes about sourcing the drink and commenting on its packaging aesthetics.

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Segment 2: Contextualizing Keeping the Summer Alive (08:30 – 20:19)

Carl transitions the conversation to the 1980s era of the Beach Boys, highlighting the band's struggles during this period.

• Mike Love [09:10]: "We have made it to the best decade... the Jokerman decade."

They discuss the 1980s as a "trough" for the band, both creatively and commercially, emphasizing the challenges they faced in maintaining relevance.

• Carl Wilson [10:14]: "A quagmire."

The hosts examine the production efforts to rejuvenate Brian Wilson's involvement with the band, reflecting on past attempts and their limited success.

• Carl Wilson [15:23]: "It was 1960 years earlier."

• Mike Love [15:33]: "It's a shame. Yes."

They conclude that "Keeping the Summer Alive" marked the end of an era for the Beach Boys as a cohesive recording unit, underscored by Dennis Wilson's diminishing role and eventual departure.

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Segment 3: Critical Analysis of Keeping the Summer Alive (20:19 – 73:48)

Carl and Mike engage in an in-depth critique of each track on the album, expressing mixed to negative opinions.

• Mike Love [32:05]: "Not bad."

They assess songs like "Keeping the Summer Alive," "Darlin'," and "Some of Your Love," contrasting them with the band's earlier, more innovative works.

• Carl Wilson [34:07]: "It's all of the former. It's all of the baby brain puff piece bullshit, but with zero of the just, you know, emotional resonance of the music behind it."

The discussion highlights a perceived decline in musical quality and creativity, attributing it to internal band dynamics and external commercial pressures.

• Mike Love [22:10]: "They're just gonna be fucking. Some, Some, Some are your love Whatever."

Despite the overall criticism, they acknowledge standout tracks like "Living With a Heartache" and "Santa Ana Winds," appreciating their musicality and alignment with classic Beach Boys themes.

• Carl Wilson [43:36]: "This is a Randy Bachman. Carl Wilson."

The hosts also touch upon themes of nostalgia and the band's struggle to balance their legacy with contemporary musical trends.

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Segment 4: Reflections on the Band's Legacy and Future Directions (73:48 – 77:21)

As the episode nears its conclusion, Carl and Mike reflect on the future of the Beach Boys and tease upcoming episodes focusing on solo projects and tributes.

• Mike Love [75:35]: "We're gonna keep the summer alive for as long as we can."

• Carl Wilson [77:21]: "The last analysis. Going to the beaches not happening on this album."

They express a mix of resignation and optimism, recognizing the band's enduring legacy while acknowledging the challenges ahead.

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Notable Quotes:

• Carl Wilson [10:14]: "A quagmire."
• Mike Love [22:10]: "It's bad in the least interesting way."
• Carl Wilson [31:22]: "But he can't [Brian survive without the Beach Boys]."
• Mike Love [43:32]: "Living with a Heartache... Best song on side one."
• Carl Wilson [65:32]: "This is a love song to the Beach Boys."

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Conclusion

"Keeping the Summer Alive" serves as a critical juncture in the Beach Boys' history, marking the end of their prominence as a recording powerhouse. Through candid discussions, Carl Wilson and Mike Love offer listeners an unvarnished look at the band's struggles during the 1980s, underscoring themes of nostalgia, creative decline, and the complexities of maintaining legacy. The episode sets the stage for future explorations of solo endeavors and the enduring impact of the Beach Boys' music.

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Stay Tuned

In upcoming episodes, listeners can expect deep dives into individual band members' solo projects, rare compilations like Carl's Farewell to Dennis CD, and further analysis of the Beach Boys' evolving legacy. Join Carl and Mike as they continue their journey through the intricate world of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys.

Transcript

[Carl Wilson]

This could be considered a track.

[Mike Love]

Not really, though. We don't want to do that.

[Carl Wilson]

This is a little intro, you know.

[Mike Love]

All right, here we go.

[Carl Wilson]

Countdown time.

[Mike Love]

One, two, three, go. Okay, boys, do it.

[Carl Wilson]

Welcome back, everyone, to Root Beer Report, the podcast about root beer within the podcast about the Beach Boys. The podcast. I don't know how many podcasts have what is. I consider a whole other podcast within them. There's. There's segments, but Rupee Report is far more than just a segment. Segment.

[Mike Love]

Right.

[Carl Wilson]

It's a show.

[Mike Love]

It's a show. Show within a show. It's like Hamlet, you know, play. Play within a play. Pod. Pod within a pod type of thing.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah. So when people are like, oh, I don't like that segment, it's like, well, you really are kind of saying you don't like that. That program, and you're complaining about getting two for one.

[Mike Love]

That's you. Yeah, it's really just, you know, kind of more bang for your buck. So even if it's not a flavor that you prefer, it's. It's not a flavor you have to eat. Just hit the fast forward button.

[Carl Wilson]

Speaking of flavor, I suppose. Yeah. Drink. Speaking of drink and flavor. Hold on, let me just twist this off.

[Mike Love]

Jones root beer. It's Jones Cane sugar root beer. Classic soda company. I feel you don't see Jones around as much anymore. I feel like I used to see Jones everywhere in, like, 2002 and now not so much.

[Carl Wilson]

Well, I think even more. More so after. Even after 2002, I would say. I think Jones was big in, like, the 2010s, like early 2000s in general. Like. Yeah, what is it? Like the. The indie. The indie soda company. Like, that's kind of their image.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, it's, like, cool, you know, and they would often have, like, kind of cool colored sodas. There'd be like, you'd go into a, you know, liquor store or whatever, and they'd have, like, the bright blue soda and like the. The electric yellow colored soda, as well as, like, the colas and the root bears and such. But like I said, not. Not something I see so much anymore. Although it's still. Still out there. Kicking root beer. Jones, cane sugar soda, root beer flavor.

[Carl Wilson]

I was just at. At Galco's, and they have a lot of Jones, but I actually couldn't find Jones root beer. And I asked the fellow working there about it, and he was like, yeah, I know we've had a hard time getting Jones root beer.

[Mike Love]

I'm not sure if it's the Jokerman Bump. It's the run on. It's the run on root beer.

[Carl Wilson]

He's like, well, this guy just said the owner maybe. He's like, I don't know if our boss doesn't like it or what, but he was like, hold on a sec. And he was like, how many do you need? And I said, oh, just. Just one. Really. Just one. And he's like, okay, actually, let me just check. No promises. And he went back and he found one bottle.

[Mike Love]

Wow. What a world.

[Carl Wilson]

Anyway, I've got it here. What do you think about the nose on this?

[Mike Love]

Smells like root beer.

[Carl Wilson]

And. Oh, what's on the. To me, what's on the bottle for you? Is it the same?

[Mike Love]

It's like. It's a. You know what? It's a guy. It's a surfing guy. It's a surfer.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is meant to be windsurfing or something.

[Mike Love]

The one on mine appears to be. Well, no, he's. Yeah, he's like, holding one of those, like, handles, so he's presumably being like, towed by a boat of some sort. Anyways, very Beach Boy Scan Beach Boise Visual.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, they've got that. Like always. It's a black and white photograph. I think it's tasteful packaging. They are like the Jim Jarmish of soda companies.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. Over here. Very 90s type of thing. Early 2000s.

[Carl Wilson]

On the. On the nose here. It's got a little bit of an odd medicinal flavor.

[Mike Love]

Mine smell head to it. I don't know about yours, but I've got a whole. Look at this big, frosty, foamy head there. Yeah, that's a nice pour.

[Carl Wilson]

I mean, that's a nice mug. You've got like the crazy ass huge mug. Right.

[Mike Love]

I've got the big. The big boy. All right, well, chuggalug, chug a luggage. Okay. Yeah, that's good.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, it's okay. My teeth hurt a little bit now from just how sweet it is.

[Mike Love]

Well, listen, root beer is sweet. I think we've. We've established that by now.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah. But it always surprises me.

[Mike Love]

It's got a nice sort of woodsy tone to it. I think there's. There's something a little kind of barky. Barky, yeah, exactly.

[Carl Wilson]

To be confused with barks.

[Mike Love]

No, but it is good.

[Carl Wilson]

There's almost a. Yeah, Like, I do think there's kind of a medicinal nose to it.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, it's definitely not overly vanilla, overly caramel. It's sweet. Of course, but, you know, some root beers, I think the ones that we tend to dislike A little bit more are the ones that are just kind of overwhelmingly just sweet forward, not a whole lot else going on anywhere on the palate. This, this has got some dimensionality to.

[Carl Wilson]

Does it, does it actually has like an earthy beneath the sweetness or parallel to it. There's definitely some depth.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, there's like a little, I'm getting like a, you know, a bitter tone on the finish. You know, it's, it's, it's there in the background. It's not leading with it by any means, but it's. I think it's absolutely present in a way that, you know, on your mugs, on your dangs, on your dad's. You don't get that type of thing.

[Carl Wilson]

I like it basically, you know.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, you know. All right. Jones root beer. That's good. It's good.

[Carl Wilson]

It is good. I'm gonna give this what it's been a while since we gave three stars.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, why not?

[Carl Wilson]

Why not?

[Mike Love]

Three stars. Jones root beer.

[Carl Wilson]

I think for someone with a sweeter palate, this is. They're gonna be happy and then they're also going to be maybe brought a little bit closer to the adult world by having, you know, some kind of substance there. And then for everyone who's an adult root beer drinker, they're going to be pleased that there is some, although there's sweetness, there's definitely some character.

[Mike Love]

There's something more to it. This would be great. This would be great in a root.

[Carl Wilson]

Beer float, I think.

[Mike Love]

So this would be an ideal root beer float. Root beer. And the packaging is nice. I think the branding is interesting. They're made in Vancouver, British Columbia.

[Carl Wilson]

Jones is Canadian.

[Mike Love]

Canadian, Yep. I'm looking at their, their company story, their, their mission page on their website.

[Carl Wilson]

I thought they were like proudly an American company.

[Mike Love]

No, they are, they are, they are Canadian. And it was actually founded, it says, created in Vancouver BC 1995 from the vision of Jones Soto founder Peter Van Stolk and photographer designer Victor John Penner.

[Carl Wilson]

Okay.

[Mike Love]

Jones was launched with the idea of incorporating random photographs onto our bottles using shots taken by Penner. But when consumers began submitting their own photos, we quickly realized that user sourced participation made the brand even more special. Yeah, I don't know about that, but I do like the idea that the soda company was co founded by a photographer slash designer. That's. That's not something you see every day.

[Carl Wilson]

It shows.

[Mike Love]

All right.

[Carl Wilson]

Okay. That's been. This has been Rupee Report.

[Mike Love]

Rupee Report. Well, we got that out of the way now. Time to Good stuff.

[Carl Wilson]

This record, straight up, begins with that. That sound, which I guess is kind of. Kind of a common, like, doppy approach, but, you know, just sounding like mentally impaired the. Or like more like someone making fun of somebody, cruelly mocking someone. In that vein. It's meant to be that way.

[Mike Love]

I like the.

[Carl Wilson]

Oh, I can see that.

[Mike Love]

Oh.

[Carl Wilson]

So what we got here, we've got 1980.

[Mike Love]

Here we are.

[Carl Wilson]

We have made it to the best.

[Mike Love]

Decade, everyone's best decade. Bob Dylan's best decade, Lou Reed's best decade, Randy Newman's best decade, the Jokerman decade.

[Carl Wilson]

Like, this is where things really.

[Mike Love]

This is where the money is made. That's true.

[Carl Wilson]

It's where the seat of power is for Jokerman as a concept. This is where the rubber meets the road. Or it doesn't, you know, where the. Where the car completely flips into the air, where there's no longer rubber and road meeting. We're in the midst of it all here.

[Mike Love]

It's where things start to happen. Yeah. And, you know, you gotta get those artists who can get through it, as we've seen in many cases, in pretty much every case, really, they get through it and they go on to, you know, bigger, better, greater things in the 90s and beyond. But I think a common theme in most of these series that we've done so far is that the 80s tends to be a bit of a trough, creatively and commercially speaking.

[Carl Wilson]

A quagmire.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. For many of our focuses. And so we'll get to find out whether that pattern holds true with the Beach Boys spoiler. It does.

[Carl Wilson]

Keeping the summer alive. Keeping the summer on life support.

[Mike Love]

Oof. Do not resuscitate.

[Carl Wilson]

Keeping the summer somehow clinging, barely, to life. Keeping the summer inside a literal geodesic dome so that the encroaching cold and inhospitable wilderness can't do what it would naturally do and lay waste to the summer.

[Mike Love]

It is kind of a, you know, like, accidentally revealing bit of COVID art where the Beach Boys just sort of retreat into this, like the final redoubt. This is their. The Beach Boys Fuhrer bunker. And, you know, the cold winter is just mercilessly pouring, bearing down upon them, and they're trying to keep the summer alive, God bless them. But I don't know how much longer it's gonna make it.

[Carl Wilson]

I mean, they're keeping it alive. But it is worth noting that it's in a tiny little dome.

[Mike Love]

Yes. And, yeah, they do. I haven't realized this, actually. I've always thought of this more as Like a snow globe type of thing. And I think it is supposed to evoke to an extent, but it's. I'm looking.

[Carl Wilson]

If you look closer, it's more like.

[Mike Love]

It's got this like. Like industrial apparatus. Exactly. Like a Star wars looking apparatus on the left that is like. I don't know, it's like a big piece of machinery with pipes that are piping in presumably hot, humid air.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, it's like a reverse air conditioner, a heater, I suppose. But everything outside of the dome, the glittering dome, is snow.

[Mike Love]

What a stupid concept. I really like it, but it's ridiculous and preposterous.

[Carl Wilson]

It is absurd.

[Mike Love]

I like the little penguin there in the front.

[Carl Wilson]

He's cool, the penguin. Just watching Mike. Love watching Mike prance around.

[Mike Love]

Absolutely. And don't forget about the topless gal over there on the right sitting on her beach towel. She's not topless, is she not? Oh, oh, yeah. She's wearing a beach towel.

[Carl Wilson]

But the beach towel says Beach Boys World Tour.

[Mike Love]

World Tour 1980.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, she's just sitting there. It must be so loud in there because the drums are Denny on the drums, like feet away inside a completely sealed dome. She's probably just trying to be polite by not putting her fingers in her ears.

[Mike Love]

Imagine the acoustics. And yeah, you've got some. Got some palm trees, some surfboards, little umbrella. And the whole. The whole crew was there. All the Wilsons, Mike, Al. And we have our sixth beach boy. He's officially back. He's part of the crew.

[Carl Wilson]

Bruce.

[Mike Love]

Bruce. There he is over there.

[Carl Wilson]

Is that him on the left?

[Mike Love]

That's him on the left.

[Carl Wilson]

I mean, everybody's pretty poorly rendered in terms of likeness. Like it's kind of vague.

[Mike Love]

You can tell who each.

[Carl Wilson]

You can tell who's who. But like it's the.

[Mike Love]

It's just not. They're not very big drawings, so there's not a whole lot of detail going on in there.

[Carl Wilson]

And there's a couple of polar bears looking longingly at them, like wanting more than anything just to tear them apart.

[Mike Love]

They'd make a good meal. Yeah. Accidentally revealing cover for an accidentally revealing record in many ways. Should we learn a little bit about where they were at this moment in time?

[Carl Wilson]

Yes.

[Mike Love]

1979'S most interesting sessions tried to put Brian into a time machine. At Western Studio 3, the site of the original hit recordings from the Beach Boys, engineer Steven Desper teamed up in mid year with Carl to create a recording atmosphere in which Brian would feel comfortable. Enlisting the help of Chuck Britz who had worked on all of the 60s classics. Still an engineer at Western. The threesome, Carl, Stephen and Britz resurrected the old electronic tube recording equipment, found the appropriate period microphones and installed the ancient studio monitors, all aimed at making the studio look like it was 1964. The original session players from the 60s were booked. Desper stepped aside so that Brits who had turned the knobs on virtually all of Brian's triumphant records would again engineer Brian Sessions. A similar effort had been tried in 1976, and as before, the yield from 1979 wasn't large. Only four songs, two of which had no vocals. The quality was good, but Brian's interest quickly waned. Basically, Light album had been total flop, total mess. CBS said, we need more money from you. We need an actual hit record. Get back in the studio and turn something around. And so this was. This was the idea here. Basically trick Brian Wilson into thinking that.

[Carl Wilson]

It was 1960 years earlier.

[Mike Love]

Exactly. And shockingly, it did not. It did not work.

[Carl Wilson]

That's a shame.

[Mike Love]

It's a shame. Yes. And, you know, that's like the rehearsal.

[Carl Wilson]

Like, that sounds like something that we could have, like Nathan Field or.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, season three of the rehearsal. Absolutely.

[Carl Wilson]

Just being like, well, I thought if we made the studio and the tape recording equipment the same, that Brian might not realize nothing had changed.

[Mike Love]

Right. It was, you know, I think, an attempt at something, I guess, but clearly not something that was super successful. Should also be noted that this is the last. This. I mean, this is kind of the end of the Beach Boys as a recording recording, you know, group in many ways. You know, there are gonna be several other records after this, like we talked about previously. But this is the last record that comes out, you know, after a span of time where they're consistently active. It's also the last record that has any Dennis Wilson on it. This is the final release of Dennis Wilson's life, and he's barely even on this record in the first place. I think he actually is only on it from, like, a 1969 resurrected recording of one of the songs. But he's like, totally out of the band at this point. It's really. I mean, it's basically a mic Al, Carl, Bruce, composition. Bruce is producing the record once again. And then the other three are kind of the primary music makers and songwriters with a little bit of Brian Wilson, you know, distracted Brian Wilson peppered around here and there. It's kind of tough. Tough time. Tough sledding for the boys.

[Carl Wilson]

To put it mildly. Yeah, and that does sound like pitiful Pitiful, yes.

[Mike Love]

And shockingly, was not terribly successful commercially or critically. In 1979, this is David Leaf Again Light album had enjoyed qualified success for cbs, but Keeping the Summer Alive, released in the March in March of 1980, was a major failure. Like its CBS predecessor, it had the appropriate slickness, but the public ignored the music that was bordering dangerously close on self parody. Five albums in five years had failed to re establish the band as contemporary hitmakers. As the 1980s began, there was little left for them but to settle into the Olies groove. The one saving grace for the band was a change in the political climate in the country, which would make the Beach Boys old time image not only acceptable, but desirable. They played a 1980 fundraiser for then presidential candidate George Bush, and on the 4th of July the group journeyed to Washington for their first free holiday concert. As 1980, their 19th year as a functional group, came to an end, the Beach Boys received a star in Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. Cool. And the next night they played their 20th anniversary concert, a show highlighted by the return to the live act of their very first song, Surfin. And at one point, Alan Bruce appeared with out of the Mothballs striped shirts. So literally attempting to travel back in time and conjure up the classic Beach Boys image from two decades prior in the striped shirts that, you know, longtime listeners will remember they were so eager to get away from just a few years earlier because they signified so much kitty bullshit. That's, that's all that's left for the Beach Boys in 1980 is, you know, shreds of former glory.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, I don't know that we've ever gotten on our program to a point. This, this, that's this way, this game. No, I don't think so. Because like when we're talking about Bob Dylan in the 80s, it's like not he, I don't think he ever got this far gone. Like, I mean, sure, we could talk about like Knocked Out Loaded or whatever, but that's pretty brief period. And it's not like there's like a precipitous fall leading to that. Dylan in the early 80s is doing some great records, albeit Jesus heavy records. And he's inspired. That's not an issue. But it seems like the Beach Boys here, they're not, they, they killed their own creative spark. Like they, they murdered themselves.

[Mike Love]

Yes. Yeah, the crows have come home to roost. You know, the, the, the, the, they are reaping what they have sown over, over the years. At this point, you know, when Bob Or Lou or John or Randy or anyone. You know, when they have done bad records, you know, quote unquote, bad records. What is for them considered a lesser record, I should say. It's always, like, interesting. And there's a reason that it exists. And they want to make the music. Whether or not they should be making it. You know, there's some sort of artistic integrity to it. Even if, again, it's a knockout loaded or a mistrial or a last day on earth, you know, from John Cale and Bob North.

[Carl Wilson]

Well, maybe not knocked out, loaded or down in the groove. It's questionable for those how much he really wanted to. But, you know, anyway, your point stands. Go on.

[Mike Love]

You know, there's something interesting there to look at, you know, and something fascinating to listen to.

[Carl Wilson]

And he's still trying stuff.

[Mike Love]

He's trying things. Exactly.

[Carl Wilson]

There's some experiments adventurous.

[Mike Love]

And it's an important link between where he had been, you know, where any of these artists had been. And where they're gonna go in the future. And I think with Keeping the Summer Alive. You were kind of just tapering off on the Beach Boys. Like there is no greater significance to this record. It isn't interesting in a bad way or bad in an interesting way. It's just. It's just filler. It's fluff. It's as close to slop as you get with the Beach Boys. And that's not to say that it's entirely worthless. And I think it is still interesting to talk about and listen to. But it's bad in the least interesting way. I think I can imagine a record being.

[Carl Wilson]

I think that When Love U was Destroyed. I think that that's not something you can really just get away from. And I think more and more this is coming up. But it's now starting to become very clear from my point of view. That that's really like the original sin here. In terms of, like, their true decline. Because the difficulty to get Brian back into the creative spirit. And have him contribute like that. Was a major issue leading up to Love U. But it wasn't like it totally extinguished possibility. Obviously, there was still much more gas in the tank for him. And he wasn't too far gone. That some encouragement couldn't bring him back. But what do you do when the creative voice for your group. Tries to do something new. And actually forge new connections. And try writing things in a way that is organic and dynamic. And connecting to his present way of being. And to the world as it develops. Whether or not that's, like, commercial what's worse like that not being commercially viable or just trying to be commercial and not being commercially viable. Yeah. And that's where they end up here. They, like, have trampled out any possibility of being exciting and interesting because they're not interested or excited. But there's some backwards logic that. Whether it's the pressure from the label or, I mean, I'm sure little of A or end of B and their own insecurities, combination of all these factors. But it's totally crazy to think that you can make exciting work when you're not interested about anything.

[Mike Love]

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they. They have gotten their way. You know, the Mike Love, Al Jardine contingent, the don't fuck with the formula, you know, let's just. Let's give them what they want type of approach. That's. That has won out and that's. Now, you know, they've made their bed, now they get to lie in it. And this is. This is it. And I mean, the irony is, of course, I mean, there are many, but, like, Brian was so. There was so much effort put into. Let's get Brian back on his feet. Let's, you know, get him under the care, quote, unquote, care of Eugene Landy to make him, you know, productive and functional again. Let's drum up this whole Brian's back campaign. Let's turn the keys totally over to him on the Beach Boys. Love you. We're so interested in him as a singular artist, and we also love him and care for him as a member of the family. We really just need this. We're so invested in this. And that entire project is just instantly abandoned, basically, after one and a half records, basically 15 big ones, and the Beach Boys Love youe and. And for what? You know, this is what. This is what they end up getting at this point. It's like, I think it really puts. We talked. We've talked about this several times in the past, but, like, you know, were people interested in Brian coming back to the fold because they really wanted Brian to be functional and healthy and happy again? Or were they interested in Brian coming back to the fold because he could make hit records for them again? And I think it clearly has explained or clearly, you know, what's clearly been explained is it was the latter. It was not so much the former.

[Carl Wilson]

What's so crazy, though, is, like, were they. Were people interested? If anyone on earth was interested in Brian coming back to the Beach Boys, is it because they wanted Brian Wilson to make another surfing type song? Is it because they wanted him to make another hit? Or is it because at this point he's, like, clearly just going to make some kind of statement and that he's valuable as an artist for that in that way. Like, the whole Brian's back thing is so misguided, fundamentally, from the internal. Whatever they were doing internally. Thinking about that internally, it's like, okay, so you think. You just think that this is like, he's beloved. Why. Why do you think people have an emotional connection to Brian Wilson? Is it just that he wrote I Get Around? Like, is it that version of Brian? Is it like, I don't. They. They want him to be seen as a genius, but then they don't want to have to, like, even think for five seconds about what a genius is or what his genius is. I mean, obviously it's totally difficult and complicated, but you would think that maybe they would have been able to find a way to have Brian do Br Ryan stuff and then also have a few songs on a record that are just like, these. Like, can't you have both? And this is what we were talking about when they did that live show. I mean, that was like, a great moment and a great live show because somehow they just ended up doing a mix of new stuff and old stuff. And it's like, is it that hard to. To just embrace everything that you've done and recognize that it can all be there together? I guess. I guess it is that hard, yeah.

[Mike Love]

I mean, for. For these guys at this time, I think it is that hard, clearly. And it's.

[Carl Wilson]

I understand. I mean, because it's. It's like you want to be able to feel like you're in control of your image. And I do think that that's. That is something to consider. It's like, if you have these really adventurous and at times bizarre tangents creatively that you do, like, what is your image? How do you market yourself? It's tough.

[Mike Love]

I mean, I think there are just, like. There are expiration dates on things. And the Beach Boys are unique certainly in many ways, but for our purposes here on the show, they're the first real band. Band that we've. We've focused on. Whereas, like, Bob is just Bob. You know, the Velvets break up after three years, then it's just Lou and just John doing their things. Randy. Just Randy. Steely Dan is, you know, sort of de. Makes itself as a band over the course of however long. Billy Joel now, obviously just Billy Joel. So, like, this is a new. A new type of thing in that regard. And I think this. This whole thing is instructive in that, like, groups of people working together in an artistic capacity that is also so commercially focused. You know, there's so much commercial pressure on top of the artistic collaboration element. Like, there's just not in every case, but in many cases, that's gonna have an expiration date. It's going to run out of steam initially. And I think what we're seeing here at this point as the clock hits 1980, is that we're kind of reaching the end of the road, not with these individual people as music makers and as artists, but just as this particular conglomeration, this particular unit of people working together under the brand name the Beach Boys. It's kind of time to hang it up. And I don't think it's any coincidence that this is the last Beach Boys record for half a decade. And really, again, like I was saying, kind of the last real Beach Boys record in many ways. And we're about to get into all sorts of solo releases. We've had the Dennis ones already. We've had the Bruce one. We're gonna have Mike, we're gonna have Carl soon. Obviously, we have Brian coming down the pike before too long. It's probably good that this happened. You know, it's painful, obviously, and there have been some painful records to listen to, but I think ultimately it's like a breakup at the end of a bad relationship. Like, it's. It's gotta happen at some point. And it's just hard to be the one to pull the trigger, you know, it's glad.

[Carl Wilson]

I mean, it's a good thing that the way this seems to have ended is that Brian survives and the Beach Boys as a thing is what dies. That, like Brian is. The Beach Boys can't survive without Brian. And that's. That's basically.

[Mike Love]

Ryan basically can't survive as a Beach Boy. Like, you gotta pick one eventually.

[Carl Wilson]

But he can't. He can survive without the Beach Boy.

[Mike Love]

Exactly. Exactly.

[Carl Wilson]

But the Beach Boys just thought they could survive without. And survive they did, I guess. And that is what. What better way to talk about keeping the summer alive.

[Mike Love]

Yes.

[Carl Wilson]

Asterisk.

[Mike Love]

Yes. Perfect segue. This has all been prelude to this record that seems clear. Neither of us really want to talk about Keeping the summer alive. Track one, keeping the Summer Alive. Not bad.

[Carl Wilson]

Not bad.

[Mike Love]

As far as what we have on this record, it's closer to the best song than it is to the worst song.

[Carl Wilson]

When it's ice cream weather Ice cream.

[Mike Love]

Weather do you do. Are you. When it's Hot out. Do you. Are you just. Are you jonesing for an ice cream cone?

[Carl Wilson]

No.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. I don't understand that. Like, I guess I don't want to eat ice cream when it's cold, but like, ice cream is also not something that I'm particularly attracted to on a very hot day. I think it needs to be like about 71 degrees is perfect ice cream weather for me, but that's not what they're talking about here.

[Carl Wilson]

I think ice cream after a. A meal can be nice, like as a dessert. An affogato. You'll never hear me say anything bad about an affogato.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, you had one of those at Musso's the other night.

[Carl Wilson]

That's right. And it's of course, dependent upon ice cream, but it's also hot. I don't really need the weather to be a part of my ice cream experience.

[Mike Love]

You know, I think, you know, there's a range of weather in which it's appropriate to eat ice cream.

[Carl Wilson]

Do I really want to, like, be in a race against time with my ice cream cone melting aspect?

[Mike Love]

Exactly. Yeah. That's. That's a disaster. And it's also like, I get thirsty after I eat ice cream.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, usually.

[Mike Love]

And it's like, if it's super hot out and I'm making myself more thirsty, that's. That's not fun. That's no good.

[Carl Wilson]

When it's sorbet weather. When it's granita weather. When it's Italian. Italian.

[Mike Love]

Italian. Ice weather.

[Carl Wilson]

When it's snow cone.

[Mike Love]

That's the Billy Joel version.

[Carl Wilson]

When it's snow cone weather.

[Mike Love]

O I love a snow cone.

[Carl Wilson]

That's much better. Well, so, yeah, this song anyway. What, what, what, what, what. What do we want to say about it? Sounds like the album cover looks. I'll give it that.

[Mike Love]

It does, yes.

[Carl Wilson]

It's got energy. I mean, it's. The lyrics are like for a baby. But like, you know, that's not a problem.

[Mike Love]

It hasn't been a problem. But like, that's what I'm. That's what I was saying, I think on this set, on the best of the 70s episode. And when I was saying it, I was really thinking about this record in many places. Like, you know, the brilliance of the early Beach Boys, Surfer Girl, Surfin usa, I Get Around, Little Honda, whatever, you know, those are all very elemental, basic lyrics, you know, that you could say are for babies in many cases. But the emotional reality of those songs is so detailed and fully realized and three dimensionalized in the production of the music. And the just thrilling drama that Brian Wilson is able to evoke, again, not through the words on the page, but through the way the song sounds in your ears. And on a record like this, a song like this, it's all of the former. It's all of the baby brain puff piece bullshit, but with zero of the just, you know, emotional resonance of the music behind it. And that is just. And I know that's not. You can't just snap your fingers and say, hey, Brian, do. And I get around for me, you know, do. Do a. Wouldn't it be nice for me, you know, as a musical bed? But that's what makes that music work. And it could have been the most brilliant Van Dyke Parksey lyrics, as we see with smile. It could have been the Tony Asher type of Pet Sounds lyrics. It could have, you know, surfer girl type lyrics, but it's the music that made that music what it is.

[Carl Wilson]

Well, what about this music, though?

[Mike Love]

It does. It's. It's fine. But it's just like so placid. And even on this song, which is a little more rocking and upbeat than many of the other numbers on this record, just like. I don't know, man, like, like placeholder.

[Carl Wilson]

It just sounds like it could have been on the. It sounds like it could be Celebration or like the soundtrack to. What's that movie?

[Mike Love]

Almost Summer.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, it's like this is what he defaults to. I mean, this was written by Mike, right?

[Mike Love]

No, this is Carl. This is Carl and Randy Bachman.

[Carl Wilson]

Okay. It's a Randy Bachman.

[Mike Love]

Randy Bachman. Someone in the comments is gonna be like, don't you. Don't you make fun of Randy Bachman. He's. He's an all time great.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, probably. Probably someone is. I mean, who knows which ones he came up with.

[Mike Love]

Oh, founding member of Bachman Turner Overdrive. I've heard of that, man. I don't know any of their songs, but I've heard of it.

[Carl Wilson]

Bachman Overdrive.

[Mike Love]

Bachman Turner Overdrive.

[Carl Wilson]

Founding member of Bachman Unleashed.

[Mike Love]

You're. Someone's gonna. Someone's gonna come for you because Bachman Unchained. You're clowning on Randy Bachman.

[Carl Wilson]

I'm not really doing that. I'm just. Yeah, I don't know. Well, anyway, this song's fine.

[Mike Love]

It's fine.

[Carl Wilson]

Oh, darlin.

[Mike Love]

Yeah.

[Carl Wilson]

You can't be having, like a really big song for you in your catalog called Darlin and then make another, like, tell me you're checked out without telling me that you're just like, oh, Darlin'.

[Mike Love]

Well, that's what's so funny about this song. Yes. Is that it is. Oh, darlin' and sung, of course, by Carl, you know, singer of Darlin, Darlin' and then this song also ends. I don't know if you caught this, but, like, the last however many, you know, minutes or seconds of the song, when they're just kind of repeating the refrain, it's God only knows. They keep saying God only knows now that I found you How I love you Another, you know, just. Just like, idiot brain callback to some of the greatest music ever recorded in a pretty lacking piece of music here.

[Carl Wilson]

It's like a missing piece of puzzle has appeared.

[Mike Love]

It's like a missing piece of puzzle. That's right.

[Carl Wilson]

It's like a missing piece.

[Mike Love]

A missing piece of puzzle. Yeah. Not a missing puzzle piece, but a missing piece of piece.

[Carl Wilson]

A piece of puzzle. That is the lyric. At least that's what I'm hearing.

[Mike Love]

I think this is one of the ones. So, you know, they also, in addition to trying to, you know, gaslight Brian into believing that it was 1964 again in the studio, they also put him in a room with Mike, you know, for songwriting sessions on this. On this record. And so this is. This is a Brian Wilson Mike Love classic. Just like a Lennon McCartney, you know, just two minds made in heaven. Match made in heaven. We got. We got. We got them back in. Back in the writing den together. And this is. What is. This is the best that they can. They can summon, circa 1980.

[Carl Wilson]

It's not like that. You know, when I say, like, oh, can't believe they made another song called Darlin. Like, the Beach Boys, like, you know, at the early part of their career, you know, we're in competition with, say, the Beatles. I think that if we actually, like, we're kind of looking at the Beatles catalog, there's plenty of songs in the early years that have similar titles, probably, but you can't really be doing that, like, in 1980. Like, just pretending like it's even, like, regressive. Just in the sense of, like, this is not. This is pretending like the ideas aren't on the table. Like, we're just doing this. Like it was never expanded upon for 20 years.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, they're trying to. I mean, that's been the whole project of the beach boys since 15 big ones in many ways, you know, with the odd detour here and there of love. U and adult is just like, you know, make The Beach Boys 1965 again. Let's just turn the clock back 10 years. No, now let's turn the clock back 15 years and just, you know, keep doing what you always liked when we were kids. And, you know that there. There is something charming and kind of, I don't know, idiosyncratic about that at certain points, especially on a record like 15 big ones, which sounds so weird and is the first comeback and is this weird mashup of covers and original material. But, man, by the time you get to this, it's just like. There isn't. I don't know. I don't really know why this record exists. I mean, besides to fulfill contractual obligations to cbs, which. That is the reason it exists. But beyond that, like, it's. I feel like it's one of the first ones that we're getting to where, like, really doesn't have any sort of life force animating it. There are a couple good songs, decent songs at certain points. One really good song, I think, but, I mean, the whole collection.

[Carl Wilson]

I wonder which one you're gonna say it is.

[Mike Love]

Well, it's pretty clear to me there's two really good songs on this record, I think. But unfortunately, there's 10 songs total. That leaves us with a whole other eight to talk about, including Some of youf Love.

[Carl Wilson]

Some. Some. Some of your Love. Yep, yep.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. This is the. The precursor, of course, to the Christian love classic Some, Some Summer.

[Carl Wilson]

Well, I would say that the last song is also kind of, I think, keeping the summer Alive. Also kind of a precursor to Some, Some, Some Summer.

[Mike Love]

They've had about three ideas in the past 45 years.

[Carl Wilson]

And some, some and summer. Those are the three ideas.

[Mike Love]

Love. Don't forget about love. Also, that's. That's a key theme that occurs often in the Beach Boys later years universe.

[Carl Wilson]

I mean, was this just. This, to me, just seems like it was written as something that didn't even make it on to the Almost Summer soundtrack. Is that not what this is?

[Mike Love]

I mean, a lot of this does sound like almost summer music.

[Carl Wilson]

The first one could have been. This could have been like. This one has lines about, like, walking down the. The hallway of the school. There's, like, school. It's all school stuff. And then we have another school one and Mike doing his, like, schoolboyest, early Mike kind of shrill voice. Yeah, I don't have anything more to say about Some of your Love. I think that really is kind of our really funny. Really funny title, actually. It's just. It' Some of your love.

[Mike Love]

Some of your love. I don't need all of it.

[Carl Wilson]

Just, you Know some of it. Anything you gotta see.

[Mike Love]

My favorite little acrobat. Acrobat. She really got her every little move down pat.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah.

[Mike Love]

She's got the vote for number one in the class. I couldn't help but try to make a forward pass. Okay. Uh huh huh. Okay.

[Carl Wilson]

All right. Living With a Heartache. This one, I. I find kind of catchy.

[Mike Love]

Yes. Dig this one. Far and away, best song on side one. Living with a Heart.

[Carl Wilson]

Who wrote this one?

[Mike Love]

This is called this Carl. Yeah, Cool. Carl.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, he's.

[Mike Love]

He's grooving. This is a Randy. This is a Randy Bachman. Carl Wilson. Bachman and Wilson. You and mine, I've been.

[Carl Wilson]

This has like a. It's got kind of a. Like a Lindsey Buckingham Tusk kind of progression.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. There's something interesting to the music, I think, on this one. It's not quite as wild and woolly as Lindsey Buckingham on Tusk, but maybe Lindsey Buckingham on Mirage or something.

[Carl Wilson]

Musically, execution wise. No, but basically I could imagine Lindsay doing this, but then just throwing a bunch of like, interesting bells and whistles on it, production wise and having a more virtuosic guitar and vocal performance.

[Mike Love]

Sure.

[Carl Wilson]

And melodically, there's some. Something there. It's like. It's not like, totally boring, actually.

[Mike Love]

Interesting song. It's. It's. And lyrically, again, it's. I mean, we're saying virtually nothing here, but like, I think. I think this, like, this is even more ammo for the idea that, like, if you just have some decent music that goes a long way, especially when you're the Beach Boys and when you have someone like Carl Wilson singing the song in the first place, like, his voice sounds great here. You know, you just need a shred, like a wisp of an idea, and it's gonna. It's gonna take you somewhere at least. And I think this song is proof positive of that. It's not a revolutionary rock song or anything, but like.

[Carl Wilson]

I mean, it's like straight down the middle kind of soft rock. Like, it's. It's sort of countryish.

[Mike Love]

It's got kind of a nice plodding beat and like some cool guitar work on there. That's. It's good, it's fun, it's catchy, it's memorable. It's like totally a solid song. But the problem is it doesn't sound.

[Carl Wilson]

Like the Beach Boys, like, at all. I'll just say it doesn't.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. And that's okay because a lot of the great Beach Boys records didn't sound like the Beach Boys. Initially, you know. You know, like we see on, you know, Holland, for instance, a lot of that doesn't sound like what we might have imagined the Beach Boys to be. And yet, you know, it works. They could have made a whole record that sounded like this, and it wouldn't have lit the world on fire. It wouldn't be the greatest thing, but it would be interesting and worth, you know, kind of listening to and talking about. But, like, man, when the first three songs are keeping the summer alive, oh, darlin and some of your love, it's just like. It's tough. It's tough.

[Carl Wilson]

Well, it gets a little tougher.

[Mike Love]

It's about to get tougher.

[Carl Wilson]

This one. I just. School days. Ring, ring goes the bell. This is. This is a. It's a.

[Mike Love]

Like, it's a cover.

[Carl Wilson]

It's a cover of. What's the original again?

[Mike Love]

Is who. Like the original artist.

[Carl Wilson]

The original song, very song. Yeah, that's what it is. It just sounds like every Chuck Fairy.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, exactly. And apparently, you know, Brian's idea behind this record initially was also, let's just do a bunch of old rock and roll songs. Let's do 15 big ones again. 15 big twos. Big two.

[Carl Wilson]

30 big ones. And you add them up with the previous 15.

[Mike Love]

That's right. Yeah. Good point. This is the one song from those sessions that ended up, you know, getting across here. It's good as a song, I guess.

[Carl Wilson]

It is just.

[Mike Love]

I mean, the song itself is good. This Beach Boys interpretation is completely unnecessary.

[Carl Wilson]

I mean, it's fine. It's fine.

[Mike Love]

Al is. You know, I just don't. I don't do his thing.

[Carl Wilson]

Them doing, like, a schoolboy thing. Like, why are you doing that?

[Mike Love]

Like, that's what they think. That is what they think people want from them. They think the Beach Boys stopped advancing as a band after they graduated high school, after they stopped writing. You know, be true to your school and little deuce coupe and whatever. And so just, you know, everything. Everything new that comes from the Beach Boys needs to be a conscious step back towards that. That. I don't even want to call it a theme, because it isn't even a theme. It's just fucking high school.

[Carl Wilson]

It's just not even what people want. Like, if you're drunk and you're. You're just like, let's go see the Beach Boys. And you're like the low, lowest common denominator Beach Boys fan that they seem to think is out there, you know, And I guess they'd be right. They're wrong, though. Like, that's not even what like the, the dumb Beach Boys fan wants. Like, everyone just wants to hear like the song, like I Get around. You know, there's songs that were hits for them that are not like infantilizing or infantilized. Like there's ones about being young but are still kind of about like having fun. Like, I don't know why they would. I don't know. I mean, whatever. I granted this was Brian probably just wanting to like kind of go back into his comfort zone of writing about school and stuff like that. And that's fine, you know, but come on, you can't just like if you're going to be retreading and doing stuff like that, like can we get a little something maybe a little bit PG rated, even like PG13.

[Mike Love]

No is the answer. Which that has been tried and for whatever reason deemed completely unacceptable. I mean this record really is in the, in the mold of miu, you know, a record really. Yeah, it's not like keeping the Maharishi alive.

[Carl Wilson]

I think MIU is like they're trying at least to be like sophisticated.

[Mike Love]

MIU looks a lot better compared to this record.

[Carl Wilson]

Sure does.

[Mike Love]

Is like, you know, as shitty as that record is, like we found even deeper depths just a couple years later.

[Carl Wilson]

Well, I like MIU because think that like the way that you can criticize it is basically only that it's boring where like that that's kind of the main criticism. Or rather I only. It's conservative. It's very conservative. And I think that this is more like it's like not even making a choice.

[Mike Love]

Like it's like lobotomized.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, it's like I'd rather be listening to a more like kind of self. Self conscious like closed off Beach Boys that's trying to write songs about being in. In Paris and being like let's. Let's be more adult here. We're citizens of the world. Yeah, I'd rather that than. Than just being like, I'm shining the apple to put on the teacher's desk for the trillionth time.

[Mike Love]

Yes. Yes. Yeah, it's even Bells of Paris, which I will continue to say, bad song, dumb song, don't like it.

[Carl Wilson]

Awesome.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, Montmartre. That song is at least like a vision of something. Like it took a little bit of brain power and it was the City of Light a step forward. Yes, the City of Light and a swing and a miss, but a swing at least nonetheless. And this, I mean this record is just. They're just standing at the plate watching the pitchers Come by there. There isn't any French stuff at all. That's right. There's nary a croissant, nary a macaron on this entire record. And, I mean, I don't. I don't get the sense listening to any of these songs that I. My time wouldn't be better spent listening to pretty much any other song that they're clearly trying to ape with, you know, whatever the latest thing is, whether it's.

[Carl Wilson]

We don't need talk anymore about this Chuck Berry cover.

[Mike Love]

The Chuck Berry song is good. I was just listening to it going on. Okay.

[Carl Wilson]

This one starts with, like, kind of.

[Mike Love]

A not bad going on.

[Carl Wilson]

Sounds like the Beach Boys.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, exactly. Kind of sounds like the Beach Boys is, like, an actual interesting production that has some, like, melodic development, has some Beach Boys harmonies, which. That's, like, a lot of what people love about the Beach Boys in the first place is the harmonies, which are sorely lacking on many of the songs on this record. And, you know, has some interesting chorus, solo, bridge type stuff throughout it. It's. It's. I think this is as close to, like, a classic Beach Boy song as they get on this record. And it actually succeeds to an extent. You know, it's.

[Carl Wilson]

You can hear Brian. Is Brian singing in the background on this?

[Mike Love]

Yes.

[Carl Wilson]

I mean, there's some moments where Brian appears, I think, peppered throughout the record, which. That's good. You know, I like that his performance isn't even, like, bad on her.

[Mike Love]

No, I mean, there's just very little of it. And we heard the quote, you know, that Brian was basically, you know, invested and interested for about three days, I would imagine, going on. Probably came out of those three days, and then he just sort of, you know, lost interest. And that's perfectly fair because, like, how many times has he done this song? You know, as good as this song is and as good as it sounds compared to all of the, you know, dog shit that surrounds it on this record. Like, how many other extraordinary Brian Wilson compositions has he made, you know, that are, you know, way, way better than this version of that concept. So, like, I can't blame him for not being terribly interested at a certain point. I think this is an effective song, especially when, like, you know, the. The harmonies, you know, in the chorus kind of bust up and then. Yeah, this big sack that comes through. Yeah, I think that's cool. I think that's fun. It's. It just sounds like some thought and, like, actual intention went into it. Carl's got a nice vocal. Who cares about the lyrics, I love you, I miss you I'm sorry, forgive me Believe me, my lover There never could be any other Just Pablum. But it's fine because the music works. I think it maybe isn't. Well, before we get to son, because I'm not in any hurry to get to Sunshine. I think it might not be a coincidence that a lot of the songs on this record are so plain, just not even vanilla flavor, just like unscented lotion. Vaseline. And Bruce is such a part of the band again, producing the record. And once again is a Beach Boy. I'm not gonna lay all of this at his feet by any means. But when you add a new creative force to the band, and yet the creative force you add or add back, in this case is so unforceful creatively. I don't know. I think the product makes sense, knowing who exactly was involved in its composition and construction.

[Carl Wilson]

It's like adding water to something that's poisonous. It's just like, you know, now it's less poisonous.

[Mike Love]

All right, well, going on starts the second side of this record off, you know, I think well enough. And then, yes, sunshine.

[Carl Wilson]

Do they even say sunshine in this song?

[Mike Love]

They do, but it's hard to. It's because they, like, draw out the syllables, so it's hard to even hear it. I don't like this song.

[Carl Wilson]

The Island. It's like a stilted.

[Mike Love]

It's so stupid sounding. It's so stupid.

[Carl Wilson]

It's got an island flair, but it's, like, really stiff. Yeah.

[Mike Love]

It'S plotting. It is. It is like idiot. Idiot mode type music that. Just. The drums, man, that. It's kind of like a dry run for Kokomo in some ways. I think they revisit that concept and, you know, actually nail it a couple years down the road with that. But, yeah, this is just. It's Pokemon shit. They're just saying words, just sounds. And the most tossed off, careless beat behind it.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, I don't care for the sun very much.

[Mike Love]

I think we're seeing at this point, you know, the cool Mike, long gone. Like he never even existed. We've given him his due. We've treated him fairly, but this is. This is how he rewards us. So he's.

[Carl Wilson]

This next one is crazy. The randomly Italian song about girls talking amongst themselves.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. I think probably the worst song on this record.

[Carl Wilson]

At least it's a little unusual.

[Mike Love]

It is unusual. It sticks out, but in a bad way. Don't care for it. When girls get together.

[Carl Wilson]

Scenes from an Italian women's room that's like, what are we talking? What are we doing here?

[Mike Love]

I do believe When Girls Get Together was like a holdover from some number of years before. You know, as many Beach Boys songs often are, just like good ideas or better ideas that they used to have and that they just dredge up from the past to fill a couple minutes on a record. But God, just awful. Just insipid.

[Carl Wilson]

When girls get together, it's just weirdly worded. It's weirdly phrased.

[Mike Love]

When girls get together and bring up father or brother or men of their lives it means so much if she's your sister or your mother or your loving wife.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah. What are you talking about?

[Mike Love]

Just. Aw, just awful. Awful. One bright springtime morning I overheard an elderly lady's voice As I walked past her bench she told her friends of her great loss after they'd gone away three little girls came skipping through the park Talking of little boys and getting home before it's dark.

[Carl Wilson]

Just, you know, I feel like I'm having a mental problem. And then people walking together to thinking about boys and talking about always how it's meaningful for your mother and father and their.

[Mike Love]

There's no concept to this.

[Carl Wilson]

The concept is talking together means always, always talking about when your par are for your father and mother.

[Mike Love]

Well, I mean, I think the concept is like, you know, girls are always talking about boys, whether they're old or young or somewhere in between. When girls get together, you know, they're talking about the boys but like. And you know, obviously yet at the.

[Carl Wilson]

Same time, women and young men are, you know, both, both young women and young men might talk about each other and that doesn't mean they don't also think about each other.

[Mike Love]

Too much mic on this song. This is all a bunch of mic singing and yeah, just this weird, just plodding kind of instrumental. Is that like a what, what instrument even is that? Is that like a.

[Carl Wilson]

It's like a bouzooki or something.

[Mike Love]

It's, it's, it's. I'm looking here, Kabasa maybe.

[Carl Wilson]

It's just endless. This.

[Mike Love]

I just tuneless, shapeless, annoying, you.

[Carl Wilson]

Know, and just completely brain dead, like casual.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, exactly.

[Carl Wilson]

It makes sense.

[Mike Love]

It's like casually misogynistic. Which, you know, a lot of the music that we like is or can be and that isn't necessarily a demerit. But when, or I mean, you can still enjoy a song even when you register that fact. I should say. But like when a song is just that and doesn't have anything positive Actually going for. It's just awful taste in my mouth.

[Carl Wilson]

I don't even know if it is just that. It's. It's like this is like casually misogynistic in the midst of like, someone who's just sort of like, you need to just put them back in bed because they're hallucinating. Like, I don't even know what the premise. They don't. It's just like a dream.

[Mike Love]

They don't taste time. They don't waste time on things like weather and stuff. When girls get together, they all just play around and never seem to discuss it enough. You know, men, you know, we. When we get together, we talk about important stuff like weather.

[Carl Wilson]

You don't discuss it enough. They don't. They don't discuss weather enough. Is that the lyric?

[Mike Love]

Yes. They all just play around and never seem to discuss it enough. This must have been going on in prehistory. They may not ever solve the mystery, but they'll go talk until eternity. You know, women be talking. Awful. Yeah, awful. Worst song on the record.

[Carl Wilson]

And yet they're not talking enough about the weather.

[Mike Love]

That it. You know.

[Carl Wilson]

And guess what? This is actually probably the most. The smartest bit of sequencing on the record because point. Women don't talk enough about the weather. But Beach Boys, we talk about. We have a whole song about the wind.

[Mike Love]

They're gonna. They're gonna fill the gap. One of the good songs on this record. Santa Ana wins. I love this song. I think this is fun.

[Carl Wilson]

And it's kind of like in the educational.

[Mike Love]

This would have fit very nicely on, like, California Saga. Exactly right alongside California Saga. And I believe this song actually was from, I want to say the 2020 sessions. Like, this was a. This was. This is the one appearance of Dennis on this entire record. You know, he plays or. No, I guess. No. He played drums on When Girls Get Together. Not Santa Ana Williams. Anyways, Santana winds. Older song that they resurrected here and actually sounds like a Beach Boys song. Some really nice harmonies on the chorus and has this classic kind of Beach Boys focus here. Talking about, of course, everyone's favorite wind pattern in Southern California. The Santa Ana's nothing. We're not reinventing the wheel here or anything, but, like, it just. It's an effective song. This is. If you want to stick the formula. This is the formula to stick to.

[Carl Wilson]

Fire, wind.

[Mike Love]

Fire wind, Desert wind. Absolutely.

[Carl Wilson]

It's funny.

[Mike Love]

It's good. She was born in a desert breeze and wind her way through canyon way from the desert to the silvery sea.

[Carl Wilson]

But that is what we want the Beach Boys to do is actually talk more about the beach and the weather rather than, like, school and, like, girls gossiping about young boys. Like.

[Mike Love]

Yes.

[Carl Wilson]

Talk about the damn. The beach. They barely even talk about the beach on here. Like, oh, that's not. That's like, what they're. What they won't do. That's the red line. There's like, okay, well, we'll just do what we've always done. But we're not going to make any damn surfing or beach songs anymore, okay? Because that's childish.

[Mike Love]

They're more focused on ice cream.

[Carl Wilson]

We barely have any ice cream songs.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. I think this is really nice. This is a Brian and Al, right? And I think it's got a little bit of the nice kind of country tune to it.

[Carl Wilson]

There's like a banjo.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, a little banjo. I think there's a little bit of harp as well. It's sort of a campfire song sound. I think it could have also fit in, like, on a Wild Honey in the right context. Al's got a really nice vocal here. Successful. Like, there's a reason for this song to exist. I dig it. I think they are doing something worthwhile here. There's just, you know, there's very little. There's very little of this on the record.

[Carl Wilson]

Okay. This is the moment I've been waiting for. This is. This is.

[Mike Love]

I'm obsessed with this endless harmony.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah.

[Mike Love]

I think this is great.

[Carl Wilson]

It's so weird.

[Mike Love]

I really dig it.

[Carl Wilson]

This song is so. I've just been, like, playing it again and again, just seeing if I can, like, figure it out this time. Like, it has whatever was going on with When Girls Get Together, like that writing process. Presumably Miklov recording what he said in his sleep. That seems like what we have here. It's like this odd sort of a dream sequence about the Beach Boys.

[Mike Love]

About the Beach Boys themselves.

[Carl Wilson]

Well, what's interesting becomes.

[Mike Love]

What's interesting about this song is that. So this is Bruce, you know, this is Bruce's star making turn on the record. He's back. There he is. Bruce wrote this? Yes.

[Carl Wilson]

West Coast Boys.

[Mike Love]

West Coast Boys, that's right. Bruce wrote this song in the early 70s when he was in the Beach Boys, you know, right before he got kicked out. About the Beach Boys. This is a pure. This is Bruce Johnson, just. Bruce writes the song and he wrote the song for the Beach Boys when he was in the Beach Boys about the Beach Boys. But, you know, from a remove, you know, about the five of them, basically, the Wilsons Mike and Al.

[Carl Wilson]

Love song to the Beach Boys.

[Mike Love]

A love song to the Beach Boys. Yeah, basically. And then obviously he got the boot before they could record this song. And then it ended up coming. I think it was originally called Ten Years Harmony because he wrote it around the ten year anniversary of the band. And now here it's been remade as Endless Harmony. I found it very touching. It's goofy, it is silly. It's corny, sentimental, classic Bruce shit. But I. I buy into it. I think they bring it together and it's a surprisingly resonant conclusion to this record. Almost. This song is almost better because of how bad this record is in general. Is like they are still capable of beautiful music, you know. And we're just gonna give you a few minutes of it here, tucked away at the very end after just, you know, 30 minutes of brain damage pop music. If this record was a little bit better, this song I think would almost sound worse because you'd almost take it for granted. But like, as the one, to me, like shining example of like the Beach Boys actually.

[Carl Wilson]

Winds of Change. It's the winds of change of this record.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, I mean, they. Something about the last song on the Beach Boys record. It's either the worst song on the record and just like. Just like useless space filler, or it's the best song on the record and the reason the entire record exists and there's nothing in between.

[Carl Wilson]

Ocean Lovers.

[Mike Love]

I like that. I mean, just West Coast Boys. I'm glad to hear him back as a vocalist. I know. I was just saying a little bit, you know, Bruce is back and this record is just profoundly boring and stupid in many cases. But as a singer and as a songwriter, I do. I do appreciate a little bit of Bruce. Just a dash of Bruce here and there. They're all cousins. Friends. Brothers. That was a working title for this record. Cousins, Friends and Brothers.

[Carl Wilson]

Friends and Brothers. Wow.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. Really inspired title.

[Carl Wilson]

Cousins.

[Mike Love]

Cousins. Isn't there? Wasn't there? Oh, Vampire Weekend.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah. Well, they have a song called Cousins.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, exactly.

[Carl Wilson]

But they're not cousins.

[Mike Love]

That's true.

[Carl Wilson]

They're all cousins Friends and brothers Ocean.

[Mike Love]

Lovers who like to harmonize they make their mamas cry they're record making. Heartbreaking. Just West Coast Boys. What I know It's a beginning of an endless harmony Striped shirt. Freedom. Brave new worlds go out on the road where there's mid-60s screaming and that nighttime holiday scheming While a lifestyle turns to gold the music's growing and the vibration showing what's it all meaning? I know it Means there's an endless harmony. But then keep reading because it goes God bless America.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, that's like the part that I just kind of had to, like, go back and it somehow becomes about God bless America. This land that is.

[Mike Love]

It's a land where we tour, she takes great care of us and people love for where we sing. We sing.

[Carl Wilson]

The tone of this song is just so odd. It's like. It's weird. Like, the tone is weird. Like, that is. What's most strange about it is that it's got this like, smoky, sleepy thing going on, like, which is kind of like. It's just dreamlike, but in. In kind of like an odd sort of eerie way. It's uncanny.

[Mike Love]

Yes. It isn't long enough, I think, is the problem. Like, it's got this epic quality to it, or a quality that could, you know, lend itself to epicness if it went on for six minutes or seven minutes or something. And you kind of tease out this big, grand, sweeping statement at the end of this record that's this kind of touching biographical song about the beach boys written 20 years into their career and looking back fondly on all the great memories. But also, like, you kind of understand, you know, this is a, you know, a sheen, sort of a Putting a gloss on some pretty ugly realities. And then, you know, after you tease this out and you kind of. You're edging throughout the song, finally, after five or six minutes, you know, bursts out into a minute or 90 seconds of these big, just bold, brassy Beach Boy sounds.

[Carl Wilson]

But it just tinkles out. It just kind of fades.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, exactly.

[Carl Wilson]

The night.

[Mike Love]

It's just like a fade to black there. And the song itself is only about three minutes.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah, it's about half as long as you'd think that it should be.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, it needs to be. I think it needs to be double the length in the Bruce section. So you need to have like four verses of Bruce doing his little, like, Twinkle Toes routine. And then you need to have, like, at least two of Carl and the rest of the band really wailing there at the end.

[Carl Wilson]

I do think that there's a poignancy to this. If you do think about it as, like, the send off to the Beach Boys, including Dennis. Like, if you. If nothing else, this song is kind of a. It's. It's proper in some way that. Whether it's, you know, great or not. And as odd as it is, I like that there's like an outside voice commenting upon these Beach Boys and who. Who could do that. But Bruce. With any kind of authority and place of intimacy. It wouldn't be right exactly for them to write that about themselves. Like, they would probably make a better song out of it. But I like that there's just kind of like a. Like an omniscient narrator quality to just. This is like closing the Beach Boys book. Like the storybook of the Beach Boys.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's sort of accidentally perfect for where it comes both on this record as well as in the. In the lifespan of the band and in the, you know, actual members of. Of said band. A really great song, I think. And. And again, like, it almost makes me more angry about this record because it does show that there is still something like they can do it under the right circumstances with the right material, but they just. They. They cannot. They will not. For. For whatever reason, most of it is just gonna be fucking. Some, Some, Some are your love Whatever. What did I say? Some, Some, Some of your love. It's. It even sounds like they're saying summer. Whatever. Stupid. One star keeping the summer alive. One star for Endless Harmony and zero stars for everything. No, that's too unfair.

[Carl Wilson]

One for this album.

[Mike Love]

The album. Yeah. Going on is good. Santa Ana winds, really good. Endless Harmony, great. The rest of this, you know, just junket.

[Carl Wilson]

What's the next album that we're going to talk about?

[Mike Love]

I mean, we're done with the Beach Boys for a little while. We've got. We've got solo records coming. We've got a fun. We've got a fun little.

[Carl Wilson]

We've got that Carl record.

[Mike Love]

We got the Carl wreck. We got two Carl records. We got a mic record. We've got. Hey, yeah, yeah, we got that. We've got the. Have you listened to the Cocaine Sessions?

[Carl Wilson]

No.

[Mike Love]

Yeah, we're gonna get really dark with that. You have fun with that. I think we're gonna have to do a Farewell My Friend episode on Dennis as well.

[Carl Wilson]

Yeah. Oh, I gotta send you that thing that I have, that CD that's just all Dennis. Like, it's like a Farewell to Dennis CD compilation that has all these rarities and, like, it's. It's cool.

[Mike Love]

Dennis songs or, like, covers of Dennis?

[Carl Wilson]

No, like, Dennis songs and like. Like demos and, like. It's a hodgepodge potpourri. It, like, starts with the radio announcement of his death. Yeah, it's. I'll try to. Yeah. Send it to you. I just found it at CD Trader, like, a while ago.

[Mike Love]

Yeah. Love to hear it. We've got a fun little zag on Our on our Beach Boys journey coming up I think on the next main episode also. And we maybe won't spoil that, but something actually good and fun to talk about that we that were able to wedge in here in 1980 and then, you know, before too long we're gonna be back to back to the Beach Boys with their self titled wrecker, the Beach Boys in 1985. And then just more, more.

[Carl Wilson]

A little bit more.

[Mike Love]

We're gonna keep the summer alive for as long as we can.

[Carl Wilson]

Endless harmony. It's endless. Endless. Jokerman.

[C]

We might drive a along coast. Yep. The line with girl at the end is going to the beach, my girl. It's going to the beach, my girl. Before that is going to the beach. Going to the beach, my girl.

[Mike Love]

Okay, here we go.

[C]

I'll sing it and you. But not three part. Okay, fine, let's sing. Let's sing.

[Mike Love]

I'll. Let's.

[C]

Let's figure out what to do so we can get the other guys going on here. I'll sing the melody and you figure out.

[Carl Wilson]

I think we should go like go to the beach.

[C]

Go to the beach, my baby. Going to the beach Going to the beach with my girl.

[Carl Wilson]

Wait, my calling. Let's see how they get three go like that.

[C]

Yeah, sure.

[Carl Wilson]

All right.

[C]

The last analysis. Going to the beaches not happening on this album. So it may not be necessarily that it artistically wouldn't perform everybody's satisfaction, but sometimes we'll do a song where we just want to save it for something else. You know, it's like we have a catalog of many songs. For instance, in this album we've done about over.