1971 Dennis interview

[Ian]

So I found a rare Dennis interview from August 1971-it took place in New York while he was visiting the city with his then wife Barbara. Apparently Dennis was trying to break into making music for commercials and met for some business meetings (not sure that anything came of this)...He stated that he was done touring ("I'm not going on the road anymore") because he couldn't deal with all the travel and plane flights....It's interesting because by the next tour in late Sept 1971 he'd obviously changed his mind.  Dennis said that he enjoyed recording with the BBs but criticized the Surf's Up album that had just been released.  "With 'Riot' we really cracked up in the studio doing it...but Carl and I had a little disagreement...I have a belief in my music and if it sounds nothing like what it should on the album-it should have a flow to it, from one song to another.  Well it didn't have a flow, it didn't sound like the Beach Boys.  They thought it did. I said 'bull' and pulled my music off. Three or four songs...They're not on the album."  When asked if it was a bad argument...he said 'Yeah as far as brothers go. Do you have a brother? Those things can be lousy. It's happened with lots of people.  I've seen fistfights going, like with Steve Stills and Neil Young.  But with Carl, when it was all over, we laughed together 10 minutes later.  But I'll just feel more comfortable making my music on my own."  Dennis also discussed his hand injury and stated that Riot was the last song he played drums on before his accident.  "All the nerves were severed and I can't play drums anymore. I lost all the nerves in my thumb and first fingers. Those are the two fingers that I hold the drumstick with in my right hand. I have no strength or feeling there. I play 30 seconds before the stick slips out. They say it will take three years for the nerves to heal up." He noted that when he played on the televised Central Park show on July 2/3-he could only play piano with his left hand.  He was excited because when he got back to California he was going to start recording with Daryl Dragon. "We're going to work together, aside from what we do with the Beach Boys.  We have almost a full album recorded already."

[B.E.]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

[Ian]

Yeah-you will note that this is the most detail I've ever seen as to why he pulled his songs (such as Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again) from Surf's Up and his hand problems...It also illustrates the tension within him-like Brian he was not a big fan of touring (though for different reasons) and like Brian he had a yin-yang/love-hate relationship with being a BB-he clearly wanted a side solo career by 1970-71 and felt too confined in his role...This period also caught him at loose ends-he couldn't drum, so what exactly was his role in the group=as it turned out, he would just play a bit of piano and sing a bit-so kind of superfluous and yet still an essential member

[HeyJude]

What's interesting is that they "let" Dennis pull his songs; I'm curious how much they could have "forced" Dennis to let them use the songs. But maybe they weren't going to beg him either way given how much material they had.

What's equally fascinating is that, when it came back around to Dennis contributing songs to the next couple albums, they *didn't* go back to that early 70s Sunflower/Surf's Up era stuff. They didn't entertain "Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again" instead of "Make It Good" or "Cuddle Up", and same goes for "Holland."

I'd love to have been in the room in 1981 when they both *did* decide to include a Dennis-sung outtake on "Ten Years of Harmony", but went for "Sea Cruise" instead of the roughly *two albums* worth of Dennis material in the vaults.

After like 1972, were any of these guys (including Dennis) even thinking about "I've Got A Friend" or "To Live Again", etc.?

[Dan Lega]

What's interesting is that they "let" Dennis pull his songs.

Yes, it is.  And I misunderstood the quote at first.  I thought Dennis was saying the "Surf's Up" album "as is" did not have a flow.  Instead, he was saying that if you included his songs then the album lost its flow.

In essence, though, he's saying his songs did not sound Beach Boy-like.  And I reckon that's why he didn't want them on future albums, either.  Including "Ten Years of Harmony."  And Carl went along with his wish that they not be on any Beach Boy albums.


Love and merci,
Dan Lega

[HeyJude]

What's interesting is that they "let" Dennis pull his songs.

Yes, it is.  And I misunderstood the quote at first.  I thought Dennis was saying the "Surf's Up" album "as is" did not have a flow.  Instead, he was saying that if you included his songs then the album lost its flow.

In essence, though, he's saying his songs did not sound Beach Boy-like.  And I reckon that's why he didn't want them on future albums, either.  Including "Ten Years of Harmony."  And Carl went along with his wish that they not be on any Beach Boy albums.


Love and merci,
Dan Lega

Clearly their feelings/takes/opinions morphed pretty quickly over time, as I can't really imagine anybody thinking "Make It Good" sounded more "like the BBs" than "To Live Again", etc. Obviously, "So Tough" was a different animal as an album altogether. It was kind of devised (or at least executed) as a pretty diverse collection (hence the "four singles" moniker it got from some fans).

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

I'd love to have been in the room in 1981 when they both *did* decide to include a Dennis-sung outtake on "Ten Years of Harmony", but went for "Sea Cruise" instead of the roughly *two albums* worth of Dennis material in the vaults.

I hear you for sure... but playing devil's advocate, they weren't "wrong". Sea Cruise sounds like a Beach Boys song was supposed to sound, certainly from the lazy-ass/nostalgia-jukebox perspective of how the public perceived the Beach Boys in 1981. (And Come Go With Me being the breakout single fits right into that.)

If anything, maybe the bigger surprise is deeper-cut songs like River Song, The Trader, Feel Flows etc being tapped for an official Beach Boys compilation.