6. The Beach BoysCarl & The Passions – “So Tough”
My way into the Beach Boys was Smile long before it was ever finished and released, collecting all the bootlegs. But once I started to try and comprehend their whole catalogue, it was always the early 1970s bearded period that I was attracted to. It was unusual music. With this album, they have those two guys from The Flames in the band, which seems intriguing – a couple of South Africans in the Beach Boys, but I think they had a great influence.
It sounds like a band and I guess that a lot of the records that I’ve chosen sound like bands playing together. It turns out that they’re not just like three chords ‘Surfin’ USA’, they’re really good musicians. And it also has this jazz influence, which they were also into, knowing Charles Lloyd and people like that. ‘Here She Comes’ and ‘He Come Down’ are great, great songs. The other element is Dennis Wilson emerging as a songwriter. His songs ‘Make It Good’ and ‘Cuddle Up’ are so emotional and amazing, miserable in a completely beautiful way. Why aren’t they longer? I often talk about the different relationships between people in bands as like a family, but these guys were a family as well as being a band, it must’ve been a nightmare for them to negotiate the complex interpersonal feelings and arguments. Then there’s the whole thing about the album being released with a second disc of Pet Sounds because the record company didn’t think anyone would be interested in it. That’s such a tragedy.
