1975 CALIFORNIA FEELING

Side A

1. Good Timin'
2. Rainbows
3. Had To Phone Ya
4. Lucy Jones
5. Barnyard Blues
6. Rollin' Up To Heaven
 
Side B

7. It's OK
8. Angel Come Home
9. Back Home
10. Pacific Ocean Blues
11. California Feeling
12. Battle Hymn Of The Republic

Continuing The Beach Boys' alternate 70s studio albums discography. Special thanks to Peter Reum for excerpts on his great article "Forward Into the Past: How The Beach Boys Became An Oldies Band" or the following article.

(Also, "Lucy Jones" actually features a vocal from poet Stephen Kalinich)
 

In the fall of 1974, after the failure of the album Ecology, The Beach Boys were at a crossroad. Blondie Chaplin and manager Jack Rieley had left the band. The constant touring of the previous year had exhausted the band and to top it all, a compilation called Endless Summer was released by Capitol Records and fans were clamoring for more songs akin to their past "fun-in-the-sun" songs. Brian Wilson had been retreating from writing and producing for years, and The Beach Boys were at a crossroads as to whether to continue to try to continue to write and produce albums without him, or to try to revive his interest in writing and producing at a time when his mental health and chemical dependency problems were escalating rapidly.

Enter James William Guercio, known for his work as the producer of Chicago, who joined the band in '74 serving first as a bass player first during live shows, then becoming the band's new manager as Rieley exited. After helping Chicago to complete "Wishing You Were Here", Guercio returned the favor to The Beach Boys by lending the group his studio at Caribou Ranch studio in Nederland, Colorado. It was reported that Brian would be actively involved in the proceedings and was writing more songs than the previous years.

During fall 1974, sessions were held with the group working on a few tracks that had been started on earlier that year ("Good Timin'", "Ding Dang" now called "Rollin' Up To Heaven", "String Bass Song") and brand new songs from each band member: the Brian/Mike Love/Roy Wood collaboration "It's O.K., Brian and Stephen Kalinich's "California Feelin", "Lucy Jones" and "You're Riding High On the Music"; Mike and Carl's "Don't Let Me Go", Mike's "Our Life, Our Love, Our Land", Dennis' "Barnyard Blues" and a definitely quirky arrangement of the traditional "Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Brian. The sessions were proven unfruitful as most tracks were instrumentals or partial tracks or demos were recorded. The only release the band made at the end of 1974 was a quick and weird Christmas single written by Brian and Stephen Kalinich, "Child Of Winter" (with a lovely b-side by Mike called "Glow Crescent Glow").

Early 1975, the band was back to fully touring (this time, with Chicago featuring a special set called "Beachago"). Dennis was the only band member working on new songs ("Pacific Ocean Blues", "Rainbows" aka "String Bass Song"). For Brian and his family, it was a difficult period. Rumors circulated through this time that Brian was staying in bed for days at a time. Several published accounts said he was in his room for two or more years. The truth has been well documented by now. Brian was simply doing everything he could to avoid writing or recording. Brian was growing increasing ill, and after Wilson was again hospitalized in '75, the Beach Boys hired experimental psychologist Lawrence Jacoby to rehabilitate the ailing songwriter. The first thing Jacoby did was push Wilson back into the studio to record an album.

In the fall of 1975, Brian finally accompanied The Beach Boys to Brother Studios in Santa Monica to try to record an album which would be called "California Feeling". The Beach Boys, especially Carl, knew that they needed Brian`s input in new material to compete with other groups for radio play. They worked hard with Brian to produce two hits that would be made for the new "Endless Summer" audience. First is the Carl/Brian collaboration "Good Timin", a beautiful ballad in the same vein as "Surfer Girl". The second single, "It's OK", is really "Do It Again" for the 70s. During theses sessions, Dennis completed his tracks ("Rainbows", "Barnyard Blues" and "Pacific Ocean Blues") relatively quickly, Carl produced the Dennis sung "Angel Come Home", Mike's song ended up as a b-side ("Everyone's In Love With You") and Al landed a neat vocal for the new recording of "Lucy Jones" (featuring the Chicago horn section). Brian also dusted off an old collaboration with Bob Norberg ("Back Home") and with his wife Marilyn ("Had To Phone Ya") and finally, the title track. The latter may have been the last time Wilson was still in possession of the inimitable falsetto voice of the early 60's. On a few tracks during the record we can clearly hear that his instrument was seemingly ravaged by the end of 1975. The title song was called "white gospecl" by co-writer Kalinich. He recalled that the piece "frightened him a little to let his defense down and give for the vocal all he had". Following the penultimate track, the weird cover of"Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Brian. The charitable opinion is that Brian was having one of his musical jokes of ending the album on a joke track, similar to the way he closed the albums "Shut Down Vol.2", "Today" and "Friends".

The album was finally released on October 31st and was the first top 30 Beach Boys album in years. Both singles were smash it for 1975, with "It's Ok" and "Good Timin'" both ranking # 5 and #8 respectively on the Billboard. People were flocking to hear the new Beach Boys because it was a modern representation of what their older music represented with the focus on more innocent times. Brian's life got more complicated, as he was placed in a milieu therapy situation that had him busy on a schedule that he could not deviate from without negative reinforcement under the system taking place. In late 1975, he began to working on new music, but the writing was fairly therapeutic as opposed to being artistic. He was expected to write songs on a schedule, as well as eat, record, be with his family, and make supervised public appearances. Subtly, Brian rebelled, and he once again adapted to a situation that he outlasted. In the end, his family became tired of the overly controlling atmosphere of milieu therapy, and Brian was gain able to pursue his life without being shadowed. With The Beach Boys, he began to work on a follow-up which would be an all-cover album of some of Brian's favorite rock n' roll classics...