40 Year Itch : The Dream of Amsterdamee

[Purchase with Carl And The Passions So Tough]

After more than ten years of celebrating Southern California, living in Southern California, recording in Southern California and going crazy in Southern California, The Beach Boys ( even Brian Wilson!) gathered their wives, kids, technicians and hangers on and moved to the Netherlands for an expensive but apparently productive year.

From Creem Magazine

The result is Holland, released January 8, 1973, the band's last studio album for more than three years. You can take the Boys out of California but apparently you can't take California out of the Boys. The centerpiece of Holland is a three song California trilogy highlighted by Al Jardine's cowpokey if not slightly redundant "California Saga: California" which became a Top 40 hit in the UK.

There's much better stuff on Holland. Carl Wilson's "The Trader" shows his terrific contributions on 1971's Surf's Up ("Feel Flows", "Long Promised Road") were no fluke. The highlights both come from Brian Wilson and friends. "Funky Pretty" is the deep cut. Listen closely. Five of the seven band members ( Carl, Mike, Al and the new South African members Blondie Chaplin, Ricky Fataar ) contribute lead vocals as synthesizers swoop and wail in the background. Genius at work!

When the Boys returned from the Netherlands with Holland, Dave Bursyn at Reprise Records rejected the album because he didn't hear a single. It was Bursyn who got Brian Wilson in a room with his Smile collaborator Van Dyke Parks. Together, with a great deal of credit apparently belonging to Parks, they finished an old Wilson song called "Sail On Sailor". Drummer Dennis got the first crack at lead vocals. He did one take and then left the studio to go surfing. Carl tried to sing the song and, while it was a passable effort, he felt Blondie's straight -forward voice best suited the song. Released as a single in 1973 "Sail On Sailor" only managed to reach #79 on the pop charts. In 1975, a re-release of "Sail On Sailor":fared better, reaching #49.

Holland would be followed up in 1973 with a live album. Chaplin and Fataar would leave. The Beach Boys became popular live acts but they wouldn't produce another studio album until the disappointing 15 Big Ones in 1976. To fill in the gaps, record buyers loaded up on those two amazing compilation albums, Endless Summer and Spirit of America.

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40 Year Itch: A Mess Of Help

[Purchase]


On May 16. 1972...two days after the release of Carl And The Passions, The Beach Boys (minus Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnson; plus Daryl Dragon, Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin) play their new single "You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone" on the BBC2's Old Whistle Test.

What was Brian up to?

The answer is here .

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Top 5 "Wrecking Crew" Tunes

[Buy The Book]

Kent Hartman has pulled back the curtain to reveal the great session musicians who really played on many of our favorite hits. The Wrecking Crew was a group of incredibly talented artists who played on records by The Beach Boys, The Mamas and The Papas, The Monkees, The Grass Roots, Sonny And Cher and Paul Revere and The Raiders.

The Wrecking Crew at a Phil Spector session

Among them: Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, drummer Hal Blaine, and bassist Carol Kaye. In The Wrecking Crew Hartman tells the true stories behind the great songs ( Sonny wrote the lyrics to "I Got You Babe" on a pizza carton) and celebrates the unheralded musicians who taught a generation how to rock and roll.

Carol Kaye ( in 1974)

Kent has been kind enough to send me a list of Top 5 Fave Wrecking Crew Tunes:


"Bridge Over Troubled Water" - Simon & Garfunkel - 1970





The biggest hit of their career and one of the best-selling pop hits of all time. Listen toward the end of the song for the crashing sounds. That's Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine on his hands and knees in the studio slamming tire chains on a cement floor.

"Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" - The First Edition - 1968





You may not know it, but that's Kenny Rogers singing the lead vocals. Yes, that Kenny Rogers! And the Wrecking Crew are playing all the instruments. Note Wrecking Crewer Mike Deasy's spacey guitar stylings.

"Mr. Tambourine Man" - The Byrds - 1965





Only one Byrd played on this, the band's first single. It went straight to number one with Roger McGuinn playing his twelve-string Rickenbacker and the Wrecking Crew playing everything else. Four out of five Byrds weren't very happy that day.

"Wichita Lineman" - Glen Campbell - 1968





Most folks don't know it, but the Rhinestone Cowboy actually got his start as an out-of-this world session guitarist in the Wrecking Crew. And when it came time to cut his own singles? You guessed it---Campbell hired all of his pals from the Crew to play right along side him.

"Good Vibrations" - The Beach Boys - 1966





At the risk of bursting a whole lot of balloons, it should be noted that, instrument-wise, there isn't a Beach Boy on this song. Or on virtually any of their other hit records. Once again, it's all the Wrecking Crew.

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The New Beach Boys : 40 Years Ago Today

[Buy "So Tough"]

When the Beach Boys took the stage at State University Plaza in Albany on March 16th 1972, you couldn't blame the crowd for looking confused. The Boys had invited two members of the South African band The Flames to join them on tour and record.

Ricky Fataar ( third from the right in the photo above) was there to drum in the place of Dennis Wilson who accidentally injured his hand when he put it through a glass door. Blondie Chaplin (second from the left), replacing Bruce Johnson, joined to add vocal harmonies and play guitar. Back in 1970 they recorded an album for The Beach Boys label Brother Records. You can hear a sample of their Beatlesque tunes here via The Rising Storm.



After a series of warm-up concerts for a Summer tour of Europe, Chaplin and Fataar went into the studio for ten days in April with the rest of The Beach Boys to record Carl And The Passions - "So Tough" which  included some old Flame tunes like "Here She Comes" and "Hold On Dear Brother". The two stuck around for Holland, with Blondie singing lead on the great "Sail On Sailor" and "Funky Pretty". They also played on The Beach Boys In Concert.

Fataar may be best known for playing the George Harrison-ish member of The Rutles, Stig O'Hara. Blondie Chaplin has toured as a backing vocalist and guitarist with The Band and The Rolling Stones.

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