Host 2 (2:26)

Is this the first Beach Boys thing to come out while both of us are living and breathing air?

Host 1 (2:35)

No, because I was born in 92, so summer in paradise would have been. That's my Beach Boy. Remember how we, you know, we did the Bob Dylan album? What Bob Dylan album came out the year you were born. That's. That's my Beach Boys album, Summer in Paradise.

Host 2 (2:49)

But both of us, because like.

Host 1 (2:51)

Oh sure.

Host 2 (2:52)

At the same time. Like where, you know, where we could have feasibly podcasted about it as infants. How about that? Jokerman Babies. Yeah.

Host 1 (3:03)

It'S like the Watchmen babies, Simpsons joke.

Host 2 (3:06)

That is envy for vacation. That's a pretty good joke.

Host 1 (3:09)

Yeah, it is. It is good. You gotta, you know, you gotta give it up. The Simpsons is good when it's good. Was good when it was good, I should say.

Host 2 (3:18)

Yeah.

Host 1 (3:18)

It's Stars and Stripes, Volume 1. I love the Volume 1 on this the same way that I love latest record Project Volume one, Stars and Stripes, Volume one. A little optimistic on everyone's part by adding that on to the end of the title.

Host 2 (3:33)

Chronicles Volume one.

Host 1 (3:36)

I'm still holding. Listen, I got my fingers crossed that Bob makes good on that. He's still got plenty of time to make that happen. But something tells me that Stars and Stripes, Volume two probably not going to be in the offing in this dimension at least.

Host 2 (3:51)

Is it the Wilbury's volume? Do they use the volume system?

Host 1 (3:55)

Yeah, Wilbury's Traveling Wilbur's Volume 1. And then, of course, Traveling Wilbur is Volume 3, the second album.

Host 2 (4:01)

Is this the first one called Volume 1?

Host 1 (4:03)

Yeah.

Host 2 (4:03)

Okay.

Host 1 (4:04)

It shows up as Volume 1 on the discography page.

Host 2 (4:07)

So I guess. Okay, maybe it was.

Host 1 (4:09)

I wonder if it's like one of those things, you know how, like the first Star wars came out and it was just called Star wars, but then over time they retconned it to be a new Star wars colon. A new hope. Exactly. Was it just the Traveling Wilburies and then they had to retcon it into the Traveling Wilburies Volume 1?

Host 2 (4:24)

If they had done the first one as Traveling Wilburies Volume 2. Right. That. Doing the wrong amount of things, doing wrong numbers on albums. I know a little bit about that. We. We did a little something of that. Nine songs is called.

Host 1 (4:44)

Now, I assume that that was a. That was a tip of the cap to 11 tracks of whack or to the traveling Wilbur volume three, wasn't it?

Host 2 (4:51)

Yeah.

Host 1 (4:52)

These albums that you had been very familiar with back when you actually made that record.

Host 2 (4:56)

It was the kind of thing where it's just, you know, like we. We had the same idea that the Wilbur had lo. Many years ago.

Host 1 (5:02)

Great minds.

Host 2 (5:03)

There's eight songs on that record. There actually was a ninth song that got lost, so. So that's maybe in a dusty corner of Jonathan Rado's studio.

Host 1 (5:13)

I'm sure that it'll see the light of day eventually when the Dub Thompson bootleg series gets off the ground.

Host 2 (5:19)

Honestly, there is stuff.

Host 1 (5:21)

I'm sure there is.

Host 2 (5:22)

We had a crazy never made second album that has some very. We were very influenced by the Beastie Boys for A minute. Uh.

Host 1 (5:37)

Oh, it might be good that that album didn't get made.

Host 2 (5:40)

Yeah, we were listening to a lot of interesting. Anyway, what we're here to talk about, before I forget, is this Stars and Stripes Forever. Is that what it's called?

Host 1 (5:56)

Yeah. No, Stars and Stripes, Volume one, Right. Yeah. Which is a. For everyone out there who isn't already intimately familiar with this album, I'm sure everyone is, it is, it's the second to last ever Beach Boys album in a sense, you know, in that it is, you know, it's got the name Beach Boys on the COVID and it shows up in the discography. Yeah. And it is not really a Beach Boys album because it doesn't include any original songs. And in fact, none of the songs are primarily even sung by the Beach Boys. They are, in fact, Beach Boys covers old songs of the Beach Boys performed primarily by a bunch of 1996's hottest, like mainstream country acts, which your mileage may vary as to how successful such a concept ends up coming off on this album.

Host 2 (6:51)

I'm on Reddit right now looking at what the people have to say. People are, it seems like they're trying to find some good in it, but that it, it not necessarily finding it.

Host 1 (7:03)

So much, not necessarily succeeding. Yes. I mean, this, this album, like Summer in Paradise, has been completely erased from all, you know, providers online, as far as I can tell. You even had me send you the MP3s, which I think I, I, I take to mean you could, I didn't.

Host 2 (7:20)

Want to chance it. I, I, I was just hoping that you would, yeah. Be able to provide it in a, in a thorough way. I, I don't want a repeat of a situation where, like, I missed something, you know, God forbid.

Host 1 (7:33)

Yeah, there would, there's a lot of important stuff to miss.

Host 2 (7:36)

Well, I mean, it would have been like, can you imagine, like getting all of the tracks but somehow missing the Willie Nelson one? Like the one that's good.

Host 1 (7:45)

The one that's good. Yeah. Well, on that note, I mean, the Willie Nelson performance will get to, you know, we'll go through this son of a bitch from 1 to 12 like we always do. But that was sort of the genesis of this project, from what I understand. There was another interview that I watched with the group earlier this morning where they were explaining the story album and I guess Willie did Warmth of the Sun. He just did Warmth of the sun just like kind of on a lark. And the Beach Boys backed him up and someone said, you know, this, this sounds pretty good.

Host 2 (8:20)

This is a concept Here.

Host 1 (8:22)

And so. Exactly. And so Lord knows we did it 11 more times to varying degrees of success.

Host 2 (8:30)

Get. Get Lori Morgan. Get Lori Morgan and James House on the.

Host 1 (8:35)

Get Doug Supernov and Kathy Tricoli.

Host 2 (8:39)

Get Junior Brown.

Host 1 (8:42)

Ricky Van Shelton. These guys, man, this. It's like a. It's like a, you know, a creative. Create a character. Baseball rock.

Host 2 (8:48)

Timothy B. Schmidt getting in here. We need that Graham Brown, we need that Schmidt feeling.

Host 1 (8:54)

That classic Colin Ray sound. John B. When I said someone thought it would be a good idea to do this, that someone. And here's a new, you know, new challenger approaching in the Beach Boys saga.

Host 2 (9:08)

Joe Thomas, the beat. The.

Host 1 (9:11)

That's right.

Host 2 (9:11)

That's the. The announcer from Super Smash Brothers.

Host 1 (9:15)

Super Smash Bros. Exactly. Who goes on to produce the Imagination record.

Host 2 (9:19)

Yes. And goes on to produce what, the. The final Beach Boys album.

Host 1 (9:23)

Right, and the final Beach Boys record. Exactly. That's why God Made the Radio. And no Peer Pressure, I believe, among a couple other albums. Yeah. And he's sort of a semi infamous figure in. In Brian Wilson lore, from what I understand, from what I gather, because this was this point in time, mid-90s, when Brian had also been working with Andy Paley. This is after Landy's out of the picture. And so Brian and Andy Paley are kind of just hanging, vibing, you know, cutting demos and stuff. We're going to do an episode soon after this on a lot of those demos from the Slightly American Music compilation.

Host 2 (9:55)

Joe Thomas is. No, Andy Paley is what we're dealing with here. It's like the absence of what makes Andy Paley a great collaborator and like one who. It's just like, why isn't Andy Paley do. The one to produce these? Mind boggling. I guess it's a little.

Host 1 (10:14)

Yeah, you know, there's. There's some gossip, there's some back and forth from what I understand. You know, maybe Brian's wife, you know, at this time, Melinda, I think she was sort of allied a little bit with Joe Thomas to some extent. And so, you know, it's kind of pushing him in that direction for some reason, let's assume maybe like commercial prospects.

Host 2 (10:36)

Right.

Host 1 (10:37)

But he's sort of. He's sort of a middling character. And, you know, the Imagination record, that's why God made it the Radio. Good records, good music on there. But they do have this sort of like AOR adult contemporary kind of milquetoast soft sheen to them. Always flatter.

Host 2 (10:56)

No, it's very. It's distinct in its datedness.

Host 1 (11:03)

And I kind of like it the same way that I kind of like the 88 sound, but, like, it's. It's a bit of an acquired taste, I guess, is what I would say.

Host 2 (11:10)

It's aged in the bottle to its favor, I guess, if you're kind of a freak. But, like, it's also not quite the. How can I extend this metaphor? The best vintage, right?

Host 1 (11:24)

That's right. Yeah. I mean, the Andy Paley stuff is just on its face, it's great. It makes perfect sense. It sounds like Brian Wil. He's allowing Brian to be Brian. And the Joe Thomas stuff tends to not allow Brian to be Brian. It takes Brian and then it pushes him kind of away from what seems to come naturally to him. And it is still Brian. These are still good songs with good performances and stuff, but it takes a little bit more work, a little bit more effort on the part of the listener to really kind of dig it.

Host 2 (11:51)

Yeah, we'll get there. But there's something of a rationale there of like, well, we are no longer in the business of changing Brian because we've. We just. We're not gonna do that. Like, we're not gonna meddle with Brian so much. But what we can do is sort of put a lens on it or like funnel it through. We can maybe try to help him out by not. We can basically sort of change him a little bit. Yeah.

Host 1 (12:26)

So, you know, we'll have that conversation, those conversations when we get to those albums. But this is where Joe Thomas enters the picture. This is his brainchild from the beginning. He's the one saying, look, fellas, this is a million dollar idea you can't miss with Stars and Stripes, Volume 1. And so I think he's already making an auspicious debut here with his first entry into Beach Boys world.

Host 2 (12:53)

As in ideas, man, ideas.

Host 1 (12:55)

The idea of this album, as if it even is an idea.

Host 2 (12:59)

The idea is just kind of flawed and misguided from the very beginning. Because when you mentioned that the genesis of it was the Willie Nelson connection, which longtime listeners of Jokerman will perhaps note, is also the origin of triplicate.

Host 1 (13:17)

That's right.

Host 2 (13:18)

That Willie Nelson in the late 70s was doing American songbook material. Stardust.

Host 1 (13:23)

Yeah. The Stardust album was deeply inspirational to Bob.

Host 2 (13:27)

And that was, of course, put on the shelf in favor of, I guess, doing Street Legal. And then eventually, you know, picked back up in. In dramatic. In terms of breadth and depth, you know, fashion with the American songbook stuff, those records. Like, that is something that holds promise and has, like, a kernel of Genius in it. Because the notion that you could treat this material as crucial American songbook stuff is. Is a good idea, but the execution is. The other half of that idea is, like, you. You really do get something out of that. If you get an artist with a certain distinction, a certain gravity, like Willie Nelson, to do it. And if you don't do that, then you don't get that it's a fundamental.

Host 1 (14:38)

Misunderstanding of what works, I think, in the Willie cover of Warmth of the sun, which we'll get to when we get to the sequence of this album. But you have that song being sung by country music artist Willie Nelson. And what seems to be the case is that they listened to the way that came out and they said, hey, this is a pretty good Beach Boys interpretation by a country music artist. So what if we did more Beach Boys interpretations by country music artists? That's going to be even better. But what works about it isn't that it's a country music artist necessarily. It's that it's the artist Willie Nelson, specifically Willie Nelson. That's the important part of that equation, not the country music artist aspect of things. So as soon as you subtract Willie Nelson and you just. You just lean on country music artist xyz, whoever, that's, you know, you're kind of. You're doomed to failure from the jump.

Host 2 (15:33)

Well, it's not even like a curated group of them. Like, if it were country music artists of esteem, like, you know, if you had, like, the Highwaymen doing this, like, there isn't. There is a version of that that. That it does work. Like, it still kind of doesn't need to be country because, like, that.

Host 1 (15:53)

Yeah, let's get Christofferson in here. Have him do. You know, wouldn't it be nice or something?

Host 2 (15:57)

Yeah. And you get, you know, Johnny Cash, like you to do. I don't know. What would Johnny Cash do?

Host 1 (16:03)

Johnny Cash.

Host 2 (16:04)

Johnny Cash is very flexible, actually. He can do more whimsical.

Host 1 (16:07)

Imagine Johnny Cash doing, like, Little Honda. That would be great.

Host 2 (16:10)

How about Johnny Cash doing I can hear music?

Host 1 (16:14)

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess that would be. I've got all sorts of problems with. I can hear music appearing on this. This set list or this track list. But we can. We can say that.

Host 2 (16:23)

I don't know why I said that. Like, that was exciting to me as an idea. The. The idea of the. The Willie Nelson project, or like, what he was doing with that song was, I think, folded into what he was doing more broadly, which actually, broadly is like the key word like, he is extending his reach to. He's really positioning himself as a great vocalist. He's not really doing country music versions of great songs. He at some point made it his business just to be himself doing great songs because he's a masterful interpreter and singer. And it's not like he's abandoning country music. Of course, he's never done that. But he is not just a country music singer. And so Joe Thomas fundamentally misunderstands that, like, and kind of disrespects the whole notion there that, like, you don't necessarily. You're not hearing a country song. When you hear Willie do Warmth of the sun, you're hearing.

Host 1 (17:32)

Right.

Host 2 (17:33)

That song. And in the same way that people might, you know, who know nothing about triplicate or something, think like, oh, so Bob's doing folk music versions of. Of the. Of Sinatra tunes. It's like, no, that's not. That is not what it is. Anyway, I guess we put fine enough a point on it to start talking about it.

Host 1 (18:00)

But, yeah, as we must.

Host 2 (18:02)

I have to confess, I didn't do much research on these. These names. Some of them.

Host 1 (18:09)

Yeah, me neither. Like I said, I think this. This should be an appropriately LA for an appropriately lazy album. And I think it speaks to maybe the lack of foresight that goes into this album in that you and I, who, you know, I think certainly we're not the deepest ball knowers out there, but I think we have hopefully demonstrated by now, like, we know our ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to music. Like nine of these. 90% of the names that show up on this track list are just gobbledygook to me, with one or two glaring exceptions.

Host 2 (18:42)

Who.

Host 1 (18:43)

I think we might have some additional sidebars about when we get to certain songs. What do we think about the COVID before we get into the brilliant music on Stars and Stripes, Volume one?

Host 2 (18:56)

It's peculiar.

Host 1 (18:58)

Awful.

Host 2 (18:58)

It's like a piece of.

Host 1 (19:00)

It's barely even a cover.

Host 2 (19:01)

I mean, it's kind of like folk art.

Host 1 (19:04)

What is it even a picture of? Like a barn? Like the front of a barn in a frame.

Host 2 (19:10)

I think it's with like half an.

Host 1 (19:13)

American flag on it.

Host 2 (19:15)

Yeah, yeah, it's something lazy.

Host 1 (19:18)

Lazy. They're phone in this one. Everyone up and down the line just phone in this one. And they couldn't even get the Beach Boys in cowboy hats to take a picture.

Host 2 (19:25)

Yeah, that would have been better. That would have been much better. But granted, it is like a folk arty bar and like, it's kind of unusual. It's got, like, whether it's a picture, a drawing or a photo, I actually can't tell. But it's because I don't have the actual record right in front of me. I'm using the Internet to find it. But yeah, it's like a sort of ornate barn door, like rustic egress. And you've got. Yeah. Painted one. And I mean, it's not. It's actually. I can't say this is lazy. This is actually not a lazy cover. It's just not a very graphically striking cover. It's.

Host 1 (20:07)

It's just. It's doing nothing to sell this album.

Host 2 (20:10)

Well, it's got like this big. This big barn with like, sort of ornate dressings on it of like, stars and stripes and, like, faded red, white and blue. And you've got a little Abraham Lincoln and you've got a little bird.

Host 1 (20:24)

Bird. It looks like a. Like a bird wood carving.

Host 2 (20:27)

And then in the middle, you've got a window that you can see, I guess faintly. You can see through there to the other side.

Host 1 (20:35)

Another window on the other side you.

Host 2 (20:38)

Can see the sunset. And that is kind of a nice summation of like where the Beach Boys are in. This is like. They are like the tiny little bit of sunset, the dying of the day, peeking through this big old confusing barn.

Host 1 (20:59)

Oh, my God. I. I also love just the. The Beach Boys. The Beach Boys up there on the top, just in the laziest serif font that seems to have been like stretched vertically. 45 too tall.

Host 2 (21:16)

Yeah, it's a. There's a thick frame too. Like a wooden frame, stylized thing around, you know, kind of boxing it all in, closing it in, man.

Host 1 (21:26)

I'm looking at some of the. You know, this. This is actually kind of sick. I'm looking at some of the discogs, pictures of, like, the booklet on the inside of this album. You seen any of this stuff?

Host 2 (21:37)

Oh, wow. Wow, that's cool.

Host 1 (21:40)

Look at this picture of Brian.

Host 2 (21:43)

This is like a big. It's a very. Like a big light blue wave, like a curl and says the Beach Boys.

Host 1 (21:54)

Look at Al with the sunglasses.

Host 2 (21:55)

Why is Al in an oval but Bruce is in a circle?

Host 1 (22:00)

Good question. It says, good times are timeless. Summer is a state of mind. Great music knows no boundaries. Executive producer Mike Love those look like.

Host 2 (22:12)

Like, you know when you search, like any song lyrics and somebody's got a tattoo of it, right. That looks like something that someone would have tattooed on their arm, you know, next to like some kind of shitty raven.

Host 1 (22:28)

These credits Are so funny. Executive producer Mike Love. Produced by Brian Wilson and Joe Thomas.

Host 2 (22:34)

We can post this. All of these will be great to post on the Jokerman.

Host 1 (22:39)

There's another, just enormous fucking wall of text. Like the, like the Summer in Paradise thing. I'm not. I'm not reading this shit.

Host 2 (22:46)

Why not? Come on, come on. What else are we going to do? Let's read the text. People are not going to find that.

Host 1 (22:51)

Check that out.

Host 2 (22:52)

Oh, this picture of Toby Keith and.

Host 1 (22:54)

Toby Keith and Mike Love.

Host 2 (22:56)

It's really good. All right, let's. Let's read it. Let's.

Host 1 (22:58)

Please, I don't. All right, come on, let's see. Okay. Thanks to Eddie Haddad for the great idea, Don Woj.

Host 2 (23:08)

Okay, it's.

Host 1 (23:09)

Come on.

Host 2 (23:09)

It's an Eddie Haddad idea.

Host 1 (23:11)

Okay.

Host 2 (23:12)

It's not a Joe Thomas idea, apparently.

Host 1 (23:14)

Yeah, well, Joe Thomas, I think, is just as important. There's a little bit of actual interesting, interesting copy. 2,000 miles away from the Pacific surf, in 35 years, down the road of pop music history, there's a certain sound that still glows with purity and warmth. Every echo of its harmony still makes you want to sing along. Every throb of its rhythm, just throbbing rock hard rhythm still begs for dancing. Boy, this is kind of sexual. The sound has conquered the world many times over, but today, the band that created this California dream is making it in the city the truckers call Guitar Town.

Host 2 (23:52)

Okay?

Host 1 (23:54)

One of the most enduring groups in the history of rock has found a home away from home in the capital of country.

Host 2 (24:02)

That picture of Brian down there.

Host 1 (24:07)

The Beach Boys are gathered in the sleek control room of Master Phonics Studio in the heart of Nashville's renowned Music Row district. The brilliant composer and arranger, Jimmy Webb has just finished conducting an orchestration for Caroline Ngo, and all are floating on its zephyrs of sound. Zephyrs of sound.

Host 2 (24:25)

Well, Jimmy Webb is a big deal.

Host 1 (24:28)

Sure, but come on. Zephyrs of sound. As they listen to the playback, wives, children, business associates and friends.

Host 2 (24:36)

It's like cousins, friends and brothers, wives, children and business associates, associates.

Host 1 (24:44)

Mill around in an atmosphere of easy congeniality. In an adjacent room, TV crews, reporters and trade journalists have gathered to witness history in the making. To chronicle the Rock and Roll hall of Famer's newest reincarnation.

Host 2 (24:57)

You know, anything can be history in the making.

Host 1 (24:59)

If it happened, it is true. But the Beach Boys are listening right now. Co producers Brian Wilson and Joe Thomas suggest replaying vocals by some of the group's new Nashville collaborators. Don't worry, Baby fills the room with its serpentine melody.

Host 2 (25:13)

Who is this guy sitting in the corner rating this like, writing it. Writing notes like, while this is happening, like, now Brian is asking to hear it again. Serpentine melody and heart swelling rhythm.

Host 1 (25:27)

And heart swelling rhythm. Composer and arranger Brian Wilson, the genius who provided the soundtrack for A Million Teen fantasies, twirls in his chair and grins as the lustrous voice, lustrous voice of Laurie Morgan caresses his song. This is like, way too horny for its own good.

Host 2 (25:44)

One by one, the singing styles of Willie Nelson and T. Graham Brown, Ricky.

Host 1 (25:50)

Van Shelton and Toby Keith come through the speakers. When Junior Brown rips into his guitar steel solo in the middle of 409.

Host 2 (25:58)

That'S written as get steel.

Host 1 (26:00)

Get steel. Excuse me, get steel solo. Grins and murmurs of affirmation are swapped around the room. Mike Love, the group's famed frontman and lyricist, seems ready to break into a dance. The famed.

Host 2 (26:14)

I like the idea that he seems ready to break into a dance, but he, he's not dancing. He's just like, this guy looks like he might dance.

Host 1 (26:23)

Al Jardine and Bruce Johnson softly practice a few harmony details, effortlessly folding their size into the sound of each celebrity guest on tape.

Host 2 (26:32)

Their size, not size.

Host 1 (26:35)

The next day, the Beach Boys delight a country radio seminar. All those words are capitalized for some reason. Audience of music business convention years by staging a surprising appearance at a James House show. The collaborative version of Little Deuce Coupe brings down the house and inaugurates a series of Beach Boys appearances in Music City that set the whole town talking.

Host 2 (26:55)

What? Everyone's just like, you hear that? The Beach Boys are in town.

Host 1 (26:58)

Mike's right down the road. He's having a drink in the bar. Weeks later, country queen Tammy Wynette joins the fabled group in the studio for In My Room, a track slated for a second volume of Nashville collaborations. The California Clan is so impressed with deft sonic polishing by her bandleader husband, George Richie, that he's almost made an honorary Beach Boy on the spot. The glow of Tammy's charisma is, as usual, mesmerizing. Okay. I mean, let's just go. Okay? This is not. This is not the story. This is just pictures. This is also pictures. I guess we need to go further on. This appears to be a picture of Lionel cowboy hat.

Host 2 (27:39)

So, I mean, maybe like, page 37, there's a God.

Host 1 (27:44)

This is the longest little booklet I've ever seen. Jesus. Ricky Van Shelton, get out of here.

Host 2 (27:51)

Oh, man. Okay.

Host 1 (27:52)

The warmth of the sun. There's Willie there's just a nice picture of. Willie has nothing to do with this bullshit. Okay, here we go. Okay, so it continues here on the end. In June, the country rocking group Sawyer Brown electrifies the Grand Ole Opry House by teaming up the Beach Boys on I Get around to kick off the nationally telecast TNN Music City News Awards. I think that might have been the thing that we saw. We were watching the interview from TNN Music City Awards. Toward the end of the same week, Colin Ray and honky tonker Doug Supernod joined the group at the Soundcheck rehearsal.

Host 2 (28:26)

What kind of last name is that, Supernova?

Host 1 (28:29)

You tell me. What is that? Someone out there give us an ethnic heritage check on Supernob. Join the group at Soundcheck rehearsal studio, Cumberland River Shore, to run through material for a live show. Carl Wilson, the Beach Boys, longtime onstage musical leader and guiding spirit, expertly coaches an all star combo of a team. Okay, I'm getting kind of bored with this at this point.

Host 2 (28:51)

We can skip ahead a little bit.

Host 1 (28:53)

As dazzling, epic, and inspired a body of work as the group had behind it, the Nashville sessions seemed to refresh and stimulate the Beach Boys. It was almost as though an ocean breeze had kissed their brows for the very first time. From the other side, the national participants were enormously eager to please. Like every sentence is more sexually loaded than less. Faced with one of the most legendary acts in pop annals, many of the country performers became giddy with delight. Awestruck fans asking for autograph and snapshots.

Host 2 (29:25)

Asking for more, harder.

Host 1 (29:27)

That's right, faster, deeper. For both the group and its country collaborators, the participation of Brian Wilson was a special thriller. It's a treat for us and everybody else to have him there, carl told one Nashville reporter. He gets to see people enjoying the stuff that he created, and in some ways, it makes us feel a little bit more awake. It has a slightly different feel to it. In reflection, these collaborations make sublime sense. Country music is an American soundtrack. The soul of the everyday, the poetry of the common man. Beach Boys music is quintessentially American, too. The chronicle of our leisure, our innocence, our youth, our optimism. One tells of the cares and pleasures of middle America. The other brings us the joys and uncertainties of the.

Host 2 (30:07)

Of the West Coast.

Host 1 (30:08)

Of the West Coast. You know those famous west coast uncertainties?

Host 2 (30:12)

Yeah, you know, you don't have those in the middle of the country. I can take this up from here if you want to take a break, finish it out.

Host 1 (30:19)

Yeah, let me. Let me catch my breath here.

Host 2 (30:22)

Both are Universal expressions of who we are as a people. Outside, it's the middle of the day in middle America. A Southern summer in full bloom. Inside, it's another day in the Nashville music business. In a corner of a Nashville rehearsal hall, Carl Wilson is doing vocal warm ups. Brian is noodling at the piano and pacing the stage. At the same time, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston arrive and begin chatting with their Nashville collaborators. Al Jardine drifts in. Al Jardine drifts in.

Host 1 (31:00)

There's Al also.

Host 2 (31:02)

Al is there. And without instruction, each Beach Boy takes his place automatically at the row of microphones on the rehearsal stage. The next day, nearly 20,000 shrieking fans greet the Beach Boys and their country cousins at a mammoth concert at the Tennessee Stage Fairgrounds. And these are people who have gathered to celebrate country music's annual Fanfare Festival. Most have probably never surfed. Driven a quote, Woody. Worn a baggie. Worn a baggie. It's baggies. Worn baggies. He's talking about trunks. Like, worn a ba. Worn a pant. That's what he just said.

Host 1 (31:46)

This is middle America. They don't have trucks.

Host 2 (31:49)

They have not worn a single short, raised a dragster, or gone skateboarding.

Host 1 (31:55)

Yeah, we know the Beach Boys obviously have. All the famous skateboarders, the Beach Boys, all the songs about skateboarding.

Host 2 (32:01)

It doesn't matter. Okay? Brian, Mike, Al, Bruce and Carl are part of their collective heart, living icons of American music who transcend time, age, and geography. For the next two hours, we are in Anywhere usa.

Host 1 (32:18)

Anywhere usa.

Host 2 (32:20)

Tossing beach balls and dancing ecstatically in the golden sunshine.

Host 1 (32:24)

That sounds like a specific place. That doesn't sound like Anywhere USA at all. It sounds like the exact opposite of Anywhere usa. In fact, one very specific place in the usa.

Host 2 (32:33)

You can have a beach ball or golden sunshine anywhere in usa. Thank you very much.

Host 1 (32:36)

Interesting.

Host 2 (32:38)

The sound of the surf has crashed into the heartland and bathed it in melody. Surf's up, y'. All.

Host 1 (32:46)

Surf's up, y'.

Host 2 (32:47)

All. Robert K. Orman, Nashville, Tennessee.

Host 1 (32:53)

Well, I hope that was enlightening and elucidating for everyone out there. I'm sure everyone was dying to hear 15 minutes of liner notes for Stars and Stripes, volume one.

Host 2 (33:05)

Give Robert Orman. Robert K. Give him his. You know, he spent some time on that.

Host 1 (33:12)

Bob K. Big, Big Bob K. For a little bit of additional color and context. Just some. Some ancillary criticism. This is. This is one of those classic albums on Wikipedia that has virtually no ratings whatsoever.

Host 2 (33:25)

Does it have a reception section?

Host 1 (33:27)

Doesn't have a reception section. It's Just track listing, personnel and charts. It does have three professional ratings, one from Entertainment Weekly, which leads to a dead link to what used to be a D rating encyclopedia popular music. One star out of five. And then, of course, our friends at the AllMusic Guide, one and a half stars out of five, at which our good friend Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote the album, is, quote, an unmitigated disaster and an outright embarrassment for all involved. So that's a little bit of additional description, a little bit of additional copy for Stars and Stripes, Volume one, going into it to sort of acts as a counterpoint for our friend Robert K. Orman.

Host 2 (34:12)

At this point, though, do you actually feel that way about it? Because, like, do you feel that this is, like, really horrible? Or is it. Or does it strike you as something more like just completely aimless? Like, it's zero. It's like a zero. It's, it's like an incomplete. Like, it's A.

Host 1 (34:36)

Exactly. And not applicable. Yeah, yeah, I, I, I listened to this with the grace driving up here to Sonoma the other day. That's why I'm on my shitty mic. So thank you all for bearing with me. Recording remote. But. And so I said, like, sorry, we gotta listen to this Beach Boys country fucking album that's supposed to be the worst thing ever recorded. And then, like, 10, 15 minutes later, she pointed out, like, you don't seem to, like, you don't seem to dislike this that much. You're sitting there humming along and tapping your toes to every single song. I said, like, you know, like, you're right. I agree with you. I know all of these songs, like, the Back of My Heart. I've heard them all 1 million times. And like, these are, they're not good incarnations of these songs, but they're like, they're fine. They're, like, competent enough. And you can hear some of the Beach Boys occasionally, and they are still great Beach Boy songs at the end of the day. So, like, yeah, outright embarrassment, not so much. But lazy, uninspired, just, like, on its face, kind of phony. That would be my read on things. More.

Host 2 (35:40)

You just said the back of my heart.

Host 1 (35:43)

Did I say back of my heart?

Host 2 (35:45)

Well, that's like a positive Freudian slip.

Host 1 (35:48)

That's right.

Host 2 (35:48)

That's actually how it is, though. When I hear this, it doesn't matter. It's not like I actually am thinking about the details. It's more about the idea, broadly, capital B, broadly, of the song. It's like when I'm listening to K jazz or something and, like, Some God awful version of A Foggy Day in London Town or like Everything Happens to Me comes on and I'm just kind of like, yeah, these, this vocal run heavy version by like so and so. It doesn't make me hate the song. It doesn't even make me turn it off necessarily. Like that is the thing keeping me from turning it off is that it's this song.

Host 1 (36:29)

It's the song. Yeah. And you know, I'm. I am. I guess I'll say that if we want to finally segue into talking about the goddamn songs on this album. Don't Worry Baby, for instance, sung by Laurie Morgan. Probably like this song from Lori Morgan more than I would like basically any other Lori Morgan song.

Guest Singer (37:13)

Well, it's been building up inside of me for, oh, I don't know how long. I don't know why, but I keep thinking something's bound to go wrong. But he looks in my eyes and makes me realize when he says.

Host 1 (37:43)

And so. It doesn't have so much to do with, you know, the quality of this particular performance. And more just like this is not my, you know, people that, that are being plucked here to participate. And it's like I, you know, they just. These pieces don't really fit together for the most part. But to the extent that they succeed, they do still succeed. Based on the fact that you're listening to Don't Worry Baby at the end of the day, you know, and so you can only really ever be so pissed about that. I can really only ever be so pissed about that.

Host 2 (38:18)

The reason people, I think were really angry those reviews like this is they wanted to give it a Jokerman 0 out of 3 stars is what they wanted to do. Because they were like, you know, disgusted, offended. Yeah, like, just like, I don't ever want to think about this again. But I think that's because they actually believed a little bit more in the Beach Boys at this point than, you know, hindsight sort of affords us like a buffer from that. Where at the time it's like, all right, they're still calling this the Beach Boys. And then they come out with this and it's like, why don't you just not do that? It's like to be in the moment when this happens is. I think it's. It's harder to, to accept. But at this point it feels like, I don't know, like, why not? Why? Why not? It doesn't add or take away anything from my idea about what the beach boys in the 1990s is.

Host 1 (39:27)

Yeah, yeah, I Mean, I guess it's not like we're sullying some sort of great artistic legacy at this point. The artistic legacy has been sullied enough, so there's really not much further to sink at this point.

Host 2 (39:39)

Also, there's something about the Beach Boys in terms of their legacy. It's compartmentalized. Like, there are actually distinct eras to a degree that it. It kind of keeps them apart. Like, the rot in one section doesn't affect another. Like, they. There are bands, I think, for whom, like, for whatever reason, later work that is not so great really tanks certain aspects of their. Their image or their.

Host 1 (40:15)

Arcade Fire.

Host 2 (40:16)

Arcade Fire to some degree. I hate to say it, but the Pixies, like, not so much like, those early records are great, but, like, it's. I don't know. It's just like that. Maybe that's too harsh of an example, because.

Host 1 (40:32)

I know what you mean. I know what you mean, though. You know, like, this doesn't. This. This. Whatever this is, doesn't really make you sort of reconsider or grade down anything, you know, any of these. Any of these songs themselves. These songs are still as great as they ever were. All these classic Beach Boys songs that are being sung here, to say nothing of Pet Sounds. Smile, Smiley Smile. You know, Beach Boys Love you. You know, all this shit is still as great as it was. And I do think that that is because, like, anyone with half a brain understands that this is barely even the Beach Boys at this point.

Host 2 (41:08)

This is like going to karaoke night in Nashville where actually, like, some. Some stars are there. You'd just be like, hey, she's good. Listen. Listen to her do don't worry, Baby, Don't Worry, Baby. Or any of these. Like, they are not worse than that. And at their best, the. The Willie Nelson one is like, the only one that seems to kind of, like, elevate the material just by, like, the ephemeral virtues of his particular touch. But.

Host 1 (41:41)

Right.

Host 2 (41:42)

I don't feel like we need to go song by song through this one in particular.

Host 1 (41:46)

Yeah, I mean, I guess I. I'm listening to it now in the background. I just. I don't really have. Don't Worry Baby is, like, probably one of the more successful songs here, I guess, because it's. You know, it doesn't sound that country. I mean, that's the other thing is a lot of these country. Country acts, you know, you say that with the enormous scare quotes around them. Like, watching that. That interview earlier today, I don't know if you watched the whole thing but it was mostly like, mostly interviews with these other country artists in between performances where the Beach Boys would all, you know, show up on screen and sing their little stupid songs with the country person in the middle of them. But, you know, most of these country acts, not all of them, I guess, but most of them, like, they sit down, they just sound like you and I, you know, when they're talking. But then when they. When they get up there and they do the performance, you know, they've got the fucking twang and the accent and they really play up kind of the sound and stuff, even though they are just kind of consummate in entertainment industry, you know, professional sickos as much as anyone else. And so like that, that element of this thing, like this kind of brand of country artists, like always kind of sort of gives me a queasy feeling because it's just like, it's pretty, like naked and to me, like transparently kind of phony, you know, versus someone like Willy, you know, is Willy. It's not a put on, but he's.

Host 2 (43:15)

Like a million years old. And so he's been there from the very begin, so he carries that with him. But I don't know, I think that there's. There's absolutely pleasures to be had within like 90s country music like that. I like listening to the station on Sirius. I think it's called Prime Country. It's all the 90s stuff, like.

Host 1 (43:36)

And, oh, I'm with you on that list. Like Shania Twain, fantastic stuff.

Host 2 (43:41)

Toby Keith. I mean, go on.

Host 1 (43:44)

I didn't. I meant to and I just ran out of time. I'm sorry.

Host 2 (43:48)

You didn't listen to I Want to Talk About Me or Red Solo Cup. You don't know. I love this bar.

Host 1 (43:56)

I don't know any of these songs. I mean, maybe if I heard them I would recognize them, but I could not tell you that I know any of them.

Host 2 (44:03)

You know, I love this bar.

Host 1 (44:05)

Where do you, where do you hear these songs? Where, where are you coming from with these songs? I'm more surprised that you know them than I don't.

Host 2 (44:11)

I have heard them. Like, I've just heard them on the. On country music radio. Like, whether it's interesting. Yeah. Over the years and just sort of also just Toby Keith is like. I've run into people in LA who know like some of these songs who know. What's it called? The one I sent you, like the 911 rebuttal song. That's like.

Host 1 (44:31)

Is he the one that does that? We'll put a Boot in your ass.

Host 2 (44:33)

Song or is that someone else? That is.

Host 1 (44:34)

That's.

Host 2 (44:35)

That song.

Host 1 (44:35)

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I think it's probably weirder that I don't know this shit than that you do. I just. It's. It is, you know, kind of the popular country like apparatus of the 1990s and then into the 2000s and stuff. Besides someone like, you know, Shania Twain or whatever. Like, that's. That is a world that I just have zero connection with and familiarity with. Not. Not to really even cast any aspersions on any of it. It's just like so far away from me.

Host 2 (45:05)

The Toby Keith thing, though, it's. He's like a link. He's like a missing link.

Host 1 (45:10)

RIP I forgot he died until I saw a comment on one of these videos that said, RIP Carl Wilson, Brian Wilson, Toby Keith, we love you.

Host 2 (45:18)

Yeah, he died quite suddenly and recently.

Host 1 (45:23)

Also, I think last year.

Host 2 (45:24)

Yeah, I think he had a relatively quick and aggressive cancer, but he. He was very much a pop songwriter, and you get a taste of that in his version of Be true to your school here. He sounds like. He does not sound like a country artist.

Guest Singer (45:45)

To put me down. Says the school is great, but tell them right away what's the matter but ain't you heard of my school? It's number one in the state. Be trust like you would do your girl or guys.

Host 2 (46:21)

He's not treating it that way because he actually was very much right, had one foot firmly and just writing pop songs. He's kind of like a Billy Joel in that way. Like, he's kind of just. You can't really pin him down as like one.

Host 1 (46:37)

You.

Host 2 (46:37)

I mean, he pinned himself down because it was like working, you know, to be country guy. But he really didn't only do that and he was really just gifted as a. As a pop singer. Credit where it's due. I mean, that song that. That reprehensible song about the Iraq war is. It is very catchy.

Host 1 (47:03)

Problematic faves.

Host 2 (47:04)

Yeah. So, yeah. I just have to point out that I like. I like some Toby Keith songs. You know, they're fun.

Host 1 (47:13)

Sure. Maybe Toby Keith miniseries coming never.

Guest Singer (47:18)

I want to talk about me Want to talk about. I want to talk about number one on my. Me, man. What I think, what I like, what I know what I want, what I see I like talking about you, you, you, you usually, but occasionally. I want to talk about me.

Host 1 (47:39)

I.

Guest Singer (47:39)

Want to talk about me.

Host 1 (47:44)

Yeah. The beacher to your school that he does here, calling it country is. I don't. I'M listening to it now. Like, I don't. I don't really see any sort of country music touchstones or influences here, I guess, besides literally just Toby Keith's voice. There's these just awful, like, power chords. It sounds closer to, like, hair metal than it does to country music to me. And it's Be true to your school is the song, which, like, whether it's country or hair metal, both of those are not a flattering interpretive way to interpret this song. It's just, you know, like, I mean, look, at the end of the day, this is a money making exercise, right? This is four years after the Beach Boys have even managed to put out even the barest whiff of an original album, Summer in Paradise, which, as we documented on that episode, I think is no great Shakes. So it's been nearly half a decade, and this is all they can manage, is not even an album that has a single original song that has any of them even doing a lead vocal. It's just basically a licensing exercise.

Host 2 (48:49)

It's a branding exercise.

Host 1 (48:51)

Yeah, you gotta have that in your mind when you're thinking about this. And that's where the AllMusic quote about calling this whatever, unmitigated disaster, you really can only call something an unmitigated disaster and an embarrassment for all involved. You can only say those things if it was really shooting for something, if they were going for something, if they were trying to achieve something and failing catastrophically.

Host 2 (49:16)

No, they did try.

Host 1 (49:17)

No one here was really trying.

Host 2 (49:18)

I don't know. I think they tried and failed, but I don't think they tried with. With the idea just wasn't there to try. Like, I.

Host 1 (49:26)

It's the wrong idea.

Host 2 (49:27)

And these things are very subtle. Like, if it was. If it was a different roster of people and a different maybe batch of songs, I. I think you would have something like. It's kind of crazy that you don't get a God only nose on here.

Host 1 (49:44)

Well, I think it's. It's clear that this is. I mean, I think it makes sense that you don't get a God only knows this because. Because this is a very particular version of the Beach Boys.

Host 2 (49:53)

Yeah, but it's the wrong version to solder to. To weld to country music. Country music is great for its cathartic side. Like, I don't know. I was just also thinking, like, the instrumentation on this is so uncountry. Like, wouldn't it be great to get, like, just like a pedal steel version of God Only Knows? Like, there are things that weren't done here. That would be. It's not a bad idea. I'm gonna say, like, broadly, the idea isn't bad. The execution is. Is just totally artless.

Host 1 (50:28)

I think it's just. I mean, calling this country is. Is I think, sort of a misnomer in the first place, you know, because, you know, I agree, you know, put a pedal steel on a goblin nose and then that could be great. But I think calling this, thinking about this as just country music without some sort of modifier. Modern country, pop country radio, country, 90s.

Host 2 (50:50)

Country, like prime country.

Host 1 (50:51)

This is very different than, you know, Hank Williams and George Jones or Willie Nelson for that matter. To me, he sticks out like a fucking sore thumb on this album. Not only because that's the good song, but just because, like, it has a qualitative difference compared to everything else that surrounds it. I would tend to agree that there is a way to take. Take some Beach Boy songs and dress them up in some sort of country whatever.

Host 2 (51:17)

Put them in cowboy hat, put them.

Host 1 (51:18)

In a 10 gallon hat and a pair of bootcut wranglers and it could work. But this is not that. This is. I think much has been made. Many people have pointed out recently, country music is kind of en vogue again, what people call country music, I guess I should say. But it has such little connection to what I think of as country music, you know, actual country music. What someone like David Berman, you know, would consider country music, the.

Host 2 (51:46)

Jonathan Richmond. Jonathan goes country. That's a good example of this type of thing.

Host 1 (51:52)

Yeah. Like at this point, it's just become. It's become sort of like an empty cultural signifier. The same way that like working class, you know, in the political arena has become sort of of an empty signifier where it isn't really about you being a member of the proletariat and being motivated by concerns regarding wage labor. When pundits and the New York Times sickos and whatever talk about the working class, they're talking about white people in Ohio and West Virginia who live in haulers and have all their jobs disappearing out from under them. It has nothing to do with the classical meaning of working class. Same exact phenomenon in country music.

Host 2 (52:33)

Well, it's like. Like when there's trillionaires, everyone is the working class compared to that. And when there's country music stars that basically are rapping, it's like anything more country than that is country music. So they come in here at the beginning of that of like the great drift away from like traditional sounds of country, right?

Host 1 (52:56)

Yeah, exactly. You know, I think of, you know, someone like, fuck, you know, MJ Linderman is more like a country artist than, you know, Post Malone. Let's say you can even just see this in, like, the Stagecoach line.

Host 2 (53:09)

Yeah, he's. Every year.

Host 1 (53:12)

Well, I mean, like, Post Malone Stagecoach, you know, of course, is the Coachella country music sort of counterpart that happens the week after the week after every year. And if you just look at some of the people that are being, you know, tapped to play this shit, like, it's like Diplo is playing Stagecoach. Somehow that passes his country music at this point. It's like. Like T. Pain, Creed, Backstreet Boys. Like what?

Host 2 (53:37)

You know, it's like the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, which is fine.

Host 1 (53:41)

You know, genre is fungible and fluid and sort of an in artful, you know, categorization tool in the first place. But, like, whatever. At the end of the day, I think we've made the point here. This isn't real country music.

Host 2 (53:56)

Well, you do have on Post Malone's album, you've got Tim featuring Tim McGraw featuring Blake Shelton featuring Dolly Part. This is. I mean, he just decided one day that he was gonna do country music.

Host 1 (54:10)

But, well, same with, like, Kid Rock. He used to be, like, a white rapper, and then he decided, okay, wait, I'm a country music what?

Host 2 (54:16)

You know, it's always an option.

Host 1 (54:18)

That's the pivot. Exactly. You know, pivot to country. Just, you know, more slop for the hogs to snort up out of their trough. Sorry, my coastal elite is coming out.

Host 2 (54:29)

It is.

Host 1 (54:30)

I had one beer and I'm getting.

Guest Singer (54:31)

Riled up yeah, the poor cookie caught the fits Threw away all my grits Then he took and he ate up all of my corn Sheriff Johnstone, why don't they leave me alone? Yeah, yeah. Oh, this is the worst tree trip I've ever been on.

Host 2 (55:02)

Well, I am going to just give this. Gonna go ahead and give this.

Host 1 (55:12)

I can't even give it a grade. It's not a zero, but I can't even give it a star ranking. It's so.

Host 2 (55:18)

It's incomplete. It's not a Beach Boys. This is not really a Beach. You can't grade it. You can't rate it as a Beach Boys album.

Host 1 (55:25)

This is like an album that you should have gotten for free with, like a. A. Like a McDonald's value meal.

Host 2 (55:31)

You can't even hear them. Like, you can't really hear the Beach Boys doing the backup singing that they're doing. Like, you can.

Host 1 (55:37)

So you can hear it occasionally. On that note, two of the songs fully. It's 12 song album. Fully. Two of the 12 songs. One, six of these albums, not even Beach Boy songs. Sloop John B. And I can hear music. Of course, they are songs that the Beach Boys sang, and we're familiar with those interpretations, but not Beach Boys songs. So even based on that, long tall Texan should also be noted. Not a Beach Boy song.

Host 2 (56:00)

Oh, come on. But Sloop John B. Calling that not a Beach Boys song when it's like they're going after the Brian Wilson arrangement is kind of strange.

Host 1 (56:08)

Yeah, I know. I just, you know, you're just saying you're just looking.

Host 2 (56:12)

You're looking.

Host 1 (56:13)

It's lazy. Everyone's phoning this one in, except for Willy. It's a phone in down the line, I guess, to close all this out on a sort of somber and quiet note. This is unfortunately. And we're not going to do a whole big drama for this the way that we did with Dennis, because there isn't quite as much drama.

Host 2 (56:37)

Carl.

Host 1 (56:38)

It's the final Carl album. Exactly. The final album released in Carl's life. This is 1996, and Carl, unfortunately, is going to pass away in 1998. He, I think, got diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997. And it, you know, kind of. He'd been smoking for his entire life and lung cancer came for him when he turned. How old was Carl? Let's say he was. Shit, he was 50. And he got diagnosed when he was 50 and then passed in 1998 at the age of 51. So he went out. Maybe not in the most flattering of ways, but who does, you know, is hard to script it. I'm sure he wouldn't have wished that this would be his last statement.

Host 2 (57:35)

It's not his. It's not a statement from him. He doesn't have to worry about that. He didn't then and he. He wouldn't ever again, I suppose. But we're going to just step away from this one gingerly and leave it at that. And we'll close with maybe the Willy song here. Because. The warmth of the sun.

Host 1 (57:59)

Hey, it's great.

Host 2 (58:01)

At least we've got the warmth of the sun. Think about Carl and listen to this.

Guest Singer (58:21)

What good is the dawn that grows into day. The sunset at night or living this way? For I have the warmth of the.

Host 1 (58:52)

Sun.

Guest Singer (58:55)

Within me at night. The love of my life she left me one day. I cried when she said.

Host 2 (59:23)

I don't.

Guest Singer (59:24)

Feel the same way. Still I have the warmth of the.

Host 2 (59:35)

Sun.

Guest Singer (59:38)

Within me Tonight. I dream of her arms and though they're not real. Just like she's still there.

Host 2 (60:07)

Is the.

Guest Singer (60:07)

Way that I feel. My love's like the warmth of a.

Host 2 (60:18)

Song.

Guest Singer (60:22)

And it won't ever die. Sam. Sa.