Wild Honey

[Jason]

Game of Love (removed)
Lonely Days (removed)
Honey Get Home (removed)

Would it be possible to piece this version together?  I mean, overlooking that "Lonely Days" is only a fragment of a song.  I know "Cool Cool Water" is on the boxed set... are the other missing tracks on bootlegs??

Game Of Love was a track recorded in September 1967 at Wally Heider Studios during productions for the aborted "live-in-the-studio" album. Mike took lead on that (info - Andrew Doe). Honey Get Home was a backing track that was actually a Brian solo performance. Lonely Days appeared on Hawthorne, CA.

[Mitchell]

I love those Wild Honey rarities. That LP is worth it for those.

[Emdeeh]

Thank heavens for custom iTunes playlists!

Love that *Wild Honey*!!

[wind chime]

Wild Honey:  Still the album crying out for an incredible stereo-remix.

Yes!

[smackdaddy]

For the love of God, did they NEVER think of putting Can't Wait Too Long on a damn album?

[I. Spaceman]

Yes, it was actually considered for KTSA!

[guitarfool2002]

Here's a typed transcription of the handwritten draft of the Wild Honey liner notes. All mis-spellings and grammatical errors are on the original (soarse, varity, etc.), and anything crossed out is in parentheses.

Honey, of the wild varity, on a shelf in Brian’s kitchen was not only an aid to all of the Beach Boys health but the soarse of insperation for the (single) record “Wild Honey”

Soon after the R&B flavored Wild Honey came eight other new songs, and a Beach Boys version of “I Was Made To Love Her”. “The Letter” was recorded live (on) in Hawaii this last summer. It is to be a part of a new up-coming live album which will be high lights from (different shows) a varity of shows.

(Everyone worked hard. We agreed)

We think it is a great album. We love to listen to it. We might just be bias because we work for the Beach Boys. Please see what you think.

Steve and Arny




Wild stuff. Bringing back an old SmileShop discussion, consider the "up-coming live album" comment: We already know they had two Hawaii shows and the Heider re-records to pull material from as they did "The Letter". I've wondered if this live album could have also been the home for a few of the better cuts from the October 22 1966 Michigan shows, which remain(ed) in the vaults. Dennis did sing an extremely, extremely cool "unplugged" version of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" at those shows, as an aside to the tape-box typo and explanation.

[I. Spaceman]

Cool post.
I wish the Chicago 65 show had been issued. Great performance.
A Heider/Michigan mix would be cool too.
In fact, I'll try that now! 

[Old Rake]

Oddly enough, in a Capitol vault search last year I came across a tape box which apparently contained the first generation master of the WILD HONEY album, and the original documentation lists a slightly different line-up from all of these:

WILD HONEY
AREN’T YOU GLAD
I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER
COUNTRY AIR
A THING OR TWO
DARLIN’
I’D LOVE JUST ONCE TO SEE YOU
HERE COMES THE NIGHT
HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY * ?
THE LETTER
LET THE WIND BLOW
I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER (LONG VERSION )

I'm pretty sure that "Hide Your Love Way" is a mistake, and should have listed "With A Little Help From My Friends."

Wow, that is highly interesting -- and actually a pretty keen lineup. I've always been in the vast minority who LOVES the With A Little Help...and have ALWAYS wondered what exactly they recorded that damn thing for!

[Jason Penick]

Ah, but with a live compilation being in the works according to the Steve Korthoff and Arny Gellar liners, couldn't it really have been "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" from Michigan 1966?  They were about to include "the Letter", so why not a second live track?

Sometimes a banana is just a banana.

Actually, this strikes me as a truly weird idea on a couple of levels.  Primarily, I have never heard of another band or artist releasing a track from an upcoming live album on the album immediately preceeding it.  I mean, what's the point really?  Fans would have to pay twice for the same song.  And secondly, that version of "the Letter" on Rarities is a studio version, right?  I'm fairly certain it's not even the same one as the Heider sessions, but a seperate take tracked at the home studio.  So why add the live version if they did a studio remake?  Weird stuff to be sure.

[Rocker]

  I mean, what's the point really?  Fans would have to pay twice for the same song. 

That's the point.....

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I really like "How She Boogalooed It".

I think the little organ solo stuff is great. The mix they did on this song is great too. The organ just crunches in at a perfect level.

[NC]

Justified or not, this seems to be the album that seemed to have killed the Beach Boys with the record buying public. It did a little better on the charts than Smiley Smile, probably on the strength of "Darlin", but then Friends totally bombed. I can imagine somebody who was a typical fan of the Beach Boy's earlier music, or even someone who picked up the album because of "Darlin", putting on this LP and going "huh"? The music was too much of a departure to please their older fans, and probably too corny to attract the audience that was into Hendrix or Jefferson Airplane.

Some kernels of brilliance are present, but Brian's lack of focus affects the album's quality greatly. And the other guys were just not ready to pick up the slack.

 

[Daniel S.]

And the other guys were just not ready to pick up the slack.

Were they ever ready? 

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

And the other guys were just not ready to pick up the slack.

Were they ever ready? 

ZING!!   

[Daniel S.]

And the other guys were just not ready to pick up the slack.

Were they ever ready? 

ZING!!   

 

[Jason Penick]

The Beach Boys almost do a complete 180 here, issuing one of the most abrupt artistic change of directions any major band has ever attempted.  The moody low-key psychedelia found throughout most of Smiley Smile is now almost completely absent, replaced by a sound that's mostly organic white boy r&b.  And if that description doesn't sound complimentary, chances are you haven't heard Wild Honey; an album that makes a case for Brian Wilson as one of the funkiest white guys ever.

The record is brief in duration, but contains plenty of highlights that have held up well throughout the years.  It's anchored by two strong, soulful singles in the catchy "Darlin'" and the title track, with its wailing theremin octaves.  Other high quality soul-pop gems like "Here Comes the Night", "Aren't You Glad" and the cover of Stevie's "I Was Made to Love Her" continue to mine this funky vein.  The Beach Boys have never sounded so dirty on record before, and that's definitely a good thing.  The chugging mid-sixties groove of "How She Boogalooed It" or the jamming chorus to "A Thing or Two" might not rate with the best music the Beach Boys have ever produced, but damned if they ain't every bit as fun as, say, "Surfin' USA" or "I Get Around".

There's a nice transition effect between these rockers and the ballads found elsewhere on this platter.  Brian's "I'd Love Just Once to See You" is slight, but features some lovely acoustic guitar work and can be seen as the immediate precursor to such future "slice of life" tracks as "Busy Doin' Nothin'" and "Games Two Can Play".  Better yet are two astonishing ballads that recall the sound of the previous album; "Country Air" and "Let the Wind Blow".  Certainly these rank amongst the greatest songs Brian has ever penned, although the latter is hampered a bit by its relatively weak lyrics.

Wild Honey is a classic album that falls just short of "masterpiece" status.  This is due to the fact that while the quality of the material is high for the most part (and every Beach Boys album short of Pet Sounds features at least two clunkers) it's just not quite as strong overall as either Smiley Smile or Friends, the albums that surround it (though "Let the Wind Blow", "Country Air", "Darlin'" and "Aren't You Glad" are individually as good as most anything found on those two records.)  Also, Wild Honey is hampered by probably the worst mono mix of any Beach Boys album.  It is simply crying out for a stereo remix, and perhaps even a new mono mix.  The stereo remix of "Let the Wind Blow" found on Hawthorne, CA gives a glimpse of how fantastic a complete CD remix could sound.  (One which would hopefully include bonus tracks such as "Lonely Days", "Honey Get Home", the early version of "Cool Cool Water", and covers of "The Letter", "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Game of Love".)

4.5 stars (rounded down to 4)

[Mitchell]

Great review. Your opening line about a change in direction made me think about what the Beach Boys did, direction-wise, at the time:

Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) - Tight, wall of sound, good-time summer pop
Party! - Stripped down, acoustic, wacky, loose
Pet Sounds - Lush, wall of sound, emotionally deep, complicated
Smiley Smile - dark, cold, trippy, sparse
Wild Honey - Upbeat, funky, outdoorsy

Every album was markedly different from the one preceding it.

[Jason Penick]

It continues on through the 60s and 70s, too...

Friends - folky, laid back, organic

Sunflower - poppy, optimistic, lush

Surf's Up - dark, brooding, pessimistic

So Tough - rocking, straightforward

Holland - ethereal, moody

15 BO - nostalgic, happy

Love You - goofy, unpredictable, weird

MIU - harmonious, peaceful, quaint



(It's hard to quantify the last album from each decade.  20-20 and LA play more like compilations of tracks from each various band member than coherent statements from a unified band.)

[Rocker]

Cool review, Jason !
I kinda like the bad mono-mix. It contributes to the dirty sound imo

[Mitchell]

I think Friends is a pretty good continuation of Wild Honey's ethos, albeit more laid back and better-produced. There's still a lot of organ and detuned piano, only it's augmented by more lush instrumentation and vocals.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

In many ways, friends sounds like what Wild Honey would sound like if it had been mixed in stereo.  I think a lot of the cuts would surprisingly fit in. 

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

In many ways, friends sounds like what Wild Honey would sound like if it had been mixed in stereo.  I think a lot of the cuts would surprisingly fit in. 

Yeah, hearing J.P's stereo mixes really opened my eyes to how well recorded both Smiley and Honey actually were, terrible shame that the mono mix seems it had been rushed.

[Daniel S.]

On the Dumb Angel rarities vol.12, I think that's the disc with live performances and the Hawaii show, anyway it has the Beach Boys doing Aren't You Glad at the Big Sur festival, and it sounds so fodaing awesome! They perform it so much better than the Live In London track, they really do the song justice, and it makes me wish WH had been produced better. It's too bad they didn't do those songs justice when they recorded the album. 

[Wild Honey]

In many ways, friends sounds like what Wild Honey would sound like if it had been mixed in stereo.  I think a lot of the cuts would surprisingly fit in. 

I hadn't actually considered that before......but I agree, it'd definitely work!!