1972 CARL & THE PASSIONS/SO TOUGH

Side A
1. You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone 
2. Here She Comes
3. He Comes Down
4. It's A New Day
5. Awake
 
Side B
6. Marcella
7. Hold On Dear Brother
8. Make It Good 
9. All This Is That
10. Cuddle Up (single mix)

This continues the series of reimagining of The Beach Boys' 70s albums:

My new versions are an amalgam of my own personal mixes, official mixes and other fan mixes from jiggy22, soniclovenoize, seltaeb, videojpp and others that I forgot. Many thanks all for your hard work!

In 1971, Carl Wilson, who served as the group's de facto musical director at this time, decided to spice up the structure of The Beach Boys by hiring third guitarist Blondie Chaplin, whose soulful singing brought a strong R&B element into the band's sound. Drummer and singer-songwriter Ricky Fataar also joined at this time, as Dennis Wilson had suffered a debilitating hand accident reducing his role to play keyboard on stage. Both South Africans, Blondie and Ricky were discovered while playing in seminal South African band The Flames, by Carl, in London, circa 1969. The album sees The Beach Boys entering a period of roots-based rock.

Not long after the sessions began, Bruce Johnston had a falling out with manager Jack Rieley and left the band. Conflicting reports state that Johnston either quit or was fired. According to Johnston, he quit because he was unenthusiastic about Rieley's suggestion that the group adopt a hard rock approach and felt that Brian Wilson's prolonged lack of involvement had resulted in declining artistic quality. However, Rieley claims he fired Johnston, both to prevent him from voting in the group's democratic processes and because of the supposed disrespect and contempt Johnston was showing Brian Wilson at the time. Johnston's main writing contribution, an early version of "Endless Harmony" entitled "Ten Years of Harmony", was re-recorded and eventually released in 1982 on The Beach Boys' penultimate opus. Johnston has said that his only musical contribution on the released album is as a background vocalist on "Marcella".

Brian Wilson sporadically contributed to the album's sessions, distracted by the production and promotion of the debut album of American Spring titled Spring. The extent of his contributions for Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" were his collaboration on the writing of three songs and the recording of both vocal and instrumental tracks. Three songs were written and sung by Fataar and Chaplin. Dennis Wilson also contributed three songs (It's A New Day, Make It Good, Cuddle Up) which he wrote with Daryl Dragon, hinting towards the sound of his solo debut album, Freckles. Other songwriting contributions came from Jack Rieley (two co-credits), Alan Jardine (two co-credits), Mike Love (two co-credits), Tandyn Almer (one co-credit) and Carl Wilson (one co-credit). Side A concludes with the lullaby Awake, written with Spring member David Sandler and featuring one of Brian Wilson's last purest falsetto committed to tape.

Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" was met with moderate commercial success upon release, reaching number 25 in the UK and number 50 in the US.