Perhaps my favorite era in the history of possibly my all-time favorite band, The Beach Boys, is what I call the collaborative era.
This is the great era that started with the magic lightning-in-a-bottle of 1967's Wild Honey, and then ran with that lightning-in-a-bottle all the way through 1973's Holland, including the brilliant incredible live shows of the era, whose two great phases (instrumental lineup-wise) which were captured in the two wonderful live albums from that era.
This was an era when The Beach Boys were not Brian Wilson, but rather the brilliant songwriting and producing (and singing and keyboard playing) lineup of the entire band.
Most of all, the three Wilson brothers, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnson in his day, manager-lyricist Jack Riley, and Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar in their day.
Brian Wilson, of course, is legendary.
To the initiated, so is Dennis Wilson.
But here I would like to talk about Carl and Al.
Carl Wilson only wrote a few songs, mostly with Jack Riley as lyricist.
They are all, all four of them, as brilliant as any Brian or Dennis ever wrote. Or anyone else, in my opinion.
He was also a brilliantly talented producer, the main producer of that whole entire collaborative era.
He was also an important supporting player and an important creative leader of the whole entire group.
All of Brian's great work from this era was possible largely because Brian received such strong support from the other members of the band, and Carl as much as any of them.
Carl had been their live bandleader from the beginning- even before Brian stopped touring.
Add Carl's massive talent as a singer, and you have a massive, massive talent, surely a true genius.
There is another who I think has been greatly underrated. And that's Al Jardine.
And that's because Al Jardine's greatest talent is as a supporting player, not as a leader.
But then that is a huge, massive part of what made this era so great. And that is the massive amount of support the talents in the band were all getting.
Including Brian in his fragile mental state, and Dennis as he emerged as an artist for the first time- and Carl as he emerged as an artist beyond being their live bandleader for the first time.
Al Jardine cowrote many songs in this era, often with Brian, including almost half of Friends and three tracks of Sunflower, two truly great, legendary albums in my book.
It was Al Jardine who suggested that Brian cover Cotton Fields and Sloop John B.
And for 1972's Carl and the Passions, Al Jardine created two highly collaborative tracks- co-written with two others each- that stand among the greatest tracks that even The beach Boys ever created.
In my mind Al Jardine was a massive talent as a supporting player- and one that was fully capable of writing a good song himself.
One more thing- Jack Riley. Jack Riley has to be one of the greatest lyricists of all time for his work with The Beach Boys in this era.
For your consideration!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson