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PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE, p.2
A Track by Track review . . . . .(click here for lyrics)
Andrew G. Doe
River Song
(D. Wilson/C. Wilson)
The opening piano riff, representing the flow of the river, dates back to the 1970 sessions, and the Beach Boys performed the song at several concerts in 1973 (also attempting a studio version, which may explain Fataar's drum credit). Brother Carl is clearly heard on the massed choral intro (Dennis: "90% of those voices are mine"), backed to splendid effect by Alexander Hamilton's Double Rock Baptist Choir. Dennis never claimed to be the world's best singer, but throughout the album, he deploys his limited rasp to great effect and here with no little passion. It sure sounds like him drumming, too. If only all ecologically themed songs could be so convincing. A superb opening track, it was totally unsuccessful as a single release.
What's Wrong
(D. Wilson/Jakobsen/Horn)
Maybe Dennis should have taken his own advice - "Can't live with you/So I think I'll live without you/And play my rock and roll" - from this solid 4/4 rocker replete with tack piano, staccato horns, monolithic drumming and multitracked lead vocals.
Moonshine
(D. Wilson/Jakobsen)
Inspired by then-wife Karen Lamm, a hesitant piano phrase and equally tentative vocal leads into a stately, densely woven fabric of sound and emotion, pitched somewhere between Phil Spector's "kitchen sink" methods and Brian's somewhat more considered layerings. Dennis had obviously noted Brian's use of synthesiser washes and slabs on Love You and adapted the technique to his own rough hewn ends, with evident and gratifying success. A wonderfully evocative number, again built on a foundation of the percussive equivalent of Stonehenge.
Friday Night
(D. Wilson/Jakobsen)
The promise of the ominously tense instrumental intro is never truly realised as this amiable, if mildly inconsequential, celebration of Dennis own lifestyle (as he observed at the time, "I am the white punk !") resolves itself into yet another showcase for Dennis' basic drum technique. He also contributes piano, three clavinets and, allegedly, bass.
Dreamer
(D. Wilson/Jakobsen)
A mildly chaotic brass break adds a vague flavour of New Orleans to this average and slightly plodding rocker, enlivened briefly by a middle-eight of powerful delicacy. Dennis provides the two-note bass harmonica riff and, reportedly, the free-form tuba. If Jakobsen's lyrics thus far have been a mite samey, basic variations on a theme of the rock & roll lifestyle, they're never less than appropriate to the task in hand (although it must be admitted that the "Carpenter" allusion in the first verse is a little heavy-handed).
Thoughts Of You
(D. Wilson/Dutch)
During the 1970 sessions, Dennis recorded a fragment generally referred to as "All Of My Love", an incomplete number of awesome raw power and impact featuring his voice expanding, over the space of about four beats, from a solo vocal to 350 overdubs. A refined version of that technique is successfully reprised as the central section of this tender yet fragile love song, written in the wake of a separation from Karen. Bookending the intensity at the heart of the track is a spare piano/vocal arrangement of gently understated poignance and vulnerability. Absolutely wonderful. (Dennis reportedly produced some sessions for collaborator Jim Dutch in late 1975)
Time
(D. Wilson/K. Lamm-Wilson)
A collaboration with Karen - who presumably supplied the closely-observed lyric - the first section of this bipartite number features the haunting trumpet lines of Bill Lamb over Dennis' ominous Moog slabs and piano chords, and is sadly let down by the ensuing portion as it degenerates into a noisy tub-thumper of, frankly, no great musical merit. Spot the Floyd guitar riff.
You And I
(D. Wilson/K. Lamm-Wilson/Jakobsen)
The B side of the "River Song" single, this unconvincing excursion into Stevie Wonder/samba territory sits slightly uneasily amid the dense textures of the rest of the album, and was perhaps intended as a touch of light relief. Maybe Dennis' said it best: "It's about Karen and myself. That's it."
Pacific Ocean Blues
(D. Wilson/Love)
With a track originally recorded in late 1975, this was Dennis' sole submission for 15 Big Ones, but was so at odds with the tenor of that disparate album that it was (regrettably but understandably) rejected. Another title with possible (i.e. unproven) Beach Boys involvement, Mike Love reportedly came up with the words some five hours after hearing the track down the phone: if this is indeed true, then he might have been well advised to make it a permanent compositional technique, for this driving eco-rocker boasts a lyric well above average neatly complementing a complex yet accessible track notably more transparent than most other compositions on the album. Contrary to recent theory, the "now-now-mama-now" vocal isn't Mike.
Farewell My Friend
(D. Wilson)
Written in memory of Dennis' self-confessed best friend Otto "Pops" Hinsche (father of Billy and thus Carl's father-in-law), who died in Dennis' arms, this stately, moving and heartfelt yet never cloying eulogy was fittingly played at Dennis' own funeral.
Rainbows
(D. Wilson/C. Wilson/Kalinich)
With brother Carl again evident in the chorus, this perky mandolin-driven number (recorded in late 1975) reunites Dennis with Steve Kalinich, his songwriting partner on both his Friends tracks and an uncredited lyricist on 20/20's "All I Want To Do". The Beach Boys could have done worse than attempt a cover of this...
End Of The Show
(D. Wilson/Jakobsen)
A mournful yet strangely affecting song of general farewell (Dennis: "It's two things. I know that the world is coming to a place now where mankind is going to give up war... at the same time, it was when I knew that Karen and I were finished."), this track was covered within the year by, of all people, Cliff Richard & The Shadows ! The crowd noises over the fade are taken from a Beach Boys concert.
© 1997, 1999 Andrew G. Doe/Middlefield Media. All rights reserved, used by permission. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing by the author.
Read The Complete Guide to the Music of the Beach Boys
by Andrew G. Doe, 1997, Omnibus Press
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