There was an astonishingly natural progression from Beatle
album to Beatle album as Revolver built
on the developments of Rubber Soul
while Sgt. Pepper’s inflated the ones
on Revolver and so on. The Beach Boys
were another matter. This is largely because Capitol, the label that treated
The Beatles’ artworks so shabbily in the U.S., placed unfair demands on its top
American act. Brian Wilson most certainly is that rare example of the pop
genius, but even a genius needs time to replenish the inspiration reservoir.
Capitol had little respect for such matters, so Wilson and his band were forced
to intersperse a relatively uninspired album like Shut Down Volume 2 or an assemblage of new and old tracks like Little Deuce Coupe among the excellent
LPs like All Summer Long and Surfer Girl or jumble filler with
masterpieces on Summer Days (And Summer
Nights!!). This surely frustrated Brian Wilson, especially after he heard Rubber Soul, which blew him away because
of its consistent quality and mood. Hearing that album in late 1965 is what
drove him to create his defining work, Pet
Sounds. Had that album followed Summer
Days, The Beach Boys’ catalogue might have started to seem as though their
work was finally progressing more naturally.
Instead, Capitol demanded more product for the coming
holiday season. So The Beach Boys decided to knock out a record as hastily as
possible, gathering in the studio with nothing more than a couple of acoustic
guitars, bongos, their flawless harmonies, and a bunch of covers they could dump
out for the Christmas shoppers. They later dubbed on some
chattering and beer-glass clinking to give the impression that the tracks were
cut at one of the guy’s houses during a party instead of at Western Recorders
Studio in Hollywood.
Beach Boys’ Party!
is hardly among the band’s greatest albums, but a project that began as a sloppy
stop-gap before becoming a full-fledged gimmick has had a pretty impressive
life. Not only did it spawn the last of the old-style Beach Boys hits with a
cover of The Regents’ “Barbara Ann”, but it was a genuine predecessor to the
“unplugged” fad of the nineties. And though it was a definite backwards step
after Today! and the best of Summer Days, it did contain some very
good music that is easier to appreciate today than it must have been fifty
years ago when albums like Rubber Soul,
Highway 61 Revisited, Otis Blue, and My Generation were new releases. Today, it’s easy to enjoy the ace
trilogy of Beatles covers, Al Jardine’s sincere take on “The Times They Are
A-Changin’”, and Mike and Brian’s angelic harmonies on the
should-be-considered-a-classic “Devoted to You” without feeling forced to
compare this music to anything The Beach Boys or any other band was doing at
the time.
Beach Boys’ Party!:
Uncovered and Unplugged makes it even easier to appreciate this music, as
Mark Linett’s new stereo mixes strip away the faux “party” chatter that was
often very inappropriate on the original album, especially when the guys make a
mockery of Al’s Dylan tribute. This new double-disc set also fills in the story
with versions of numerous songs that didn’t end up on the original album, which
really would have been better if it had lost novelties like “Alley Oop” and
“Hully Gully” or piss-takes of the band’s own “I Get Around” and “Little Deuce
Coupe” and used Brian’s attitudinal yet good-humored version of Dion’s “Ruby
Baby” or a hootenanny-turned-funky version of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
instead. There are also some fascinating song choices that shed light on other
grooves in the band’s discography. The boys try out Leiber and Stoller’s “Riot
in Cell Block No. 9”, which Mike Love would later rewrite as the little-loved
“Student Demonstration Time”. There’s an abortive attempt at “Ticket to Ride”,
the song that inspired “Girl Don’t Tell Me”, and a fleeting tease of “You’ve
Lost That Loving Feeling”, a song that Brian would remake years later. Uncovered and Unplugged may not be the
monumental release that the Pet Sounds
or SMiLE Sessions were, but then again, it is not a document of a monumental
work. It is, however, a document of a very interesting and a very fun one. Uncovered and Unplugged also affords an
opportunity to hear something precious you won’t hear on those Pet Sounds or SMiLE sets: The Beach Boys playing in the studio as a real band.
It’s worth the price of admission for that alone.
