The Smiley Smile Message Board

Let's go back to 1977... Albeit a 1977, in an alternate universe......

Finally with his creativity intact again, Brian and the band, present ADULT/CHILD to Reprise. The label likes the material and releases the record.

Then what?

Could ADULT/CHILD have had commercial success?

In a word, no. Fond of it though I am, it has even less commercial appeal than The Beach Boys Love You, which stood no chance of being a hit even if the label hadn't written it off before it was even released. The most Love You could have hoped for was a placing in, say, the Top 30 instead of the Top 50. I love Love You as the wacky, honest, "fun" record it is, but that's the truth. As for Adult Child, I love it so much that I transferred my old vinyl boot to 48k/24 bit DAT a few years ago, so that I can enjoy it in the best possible fidelity. But a commercial hit in '77? No.

Would it have been a critical success?

Life is for the Living always gives me a chuckle!  :lol

Maybe with Brian's scratchy singing re-done. Songs are pretty good.

Would it have been a critical success?

This is not a good album.  It's a hastily, sloppily assembled mess of an album with a handful of very good songs that haven't been completed to their full potential.

LIFE IS FOR THE LIVING/DEEP PURPLE/IT'S OVER NOW/STILL I DREAM OF IT
Two of the four are great Brian Wilson songs, but not great Brian Wilson productions.  The big band / standard sound is interesting, but the tracks are still missing any group harmony vocals.  Unfinished.

HEY LITTLE TOMBOY/EVERYBODY WANTS TO LIVE/SHORTNIN BREAD/LINES/IT'S TRYIN' TO SAY
These tracks are unfinished, little more than demos.  It's Tryin' to Say is the closed to being finished. 

HELP IS ON THE WAY/ON BROADWAY/GAMES TWO CAN PLAY
Creaky vault tracks.  Broadway is the most recent and the least enjoyable.

It's a half-assed collection of unfinished tracks.  A lot of potential, but that's it.  Throw together all the songs mentioned on the 1978 Criteria reel presented to CBS in September for what was to become LA light and you get the same thing... potential, but nothing that could be released as is.

I think Adult/Child has a consistent theme with the way the songs were presented.  Even though the songs aren't produced by Brian Wilson (ex. the big band arrangements), the sentiment is there.  Clearly, the listener hears a troubled artist, floundering in depression and mental illness.  If Love You presented the wacky side of it, Adult/Child presents the depression and sadness that comes with it.  The two seemingly go hand in hand.  Critics would appreciate the concept, if not the songs themselves.  Would a hit come out of it?  Unfortunately, no.  For the Beach Boys, that ship has sailed at that point.  If any song were to become a hit, honestly Matchpoint of Our Love should have been one because of the disco scene, but a digress.  Adult/Child would have been a logical step forward from Love You, and what came instead caused the Beach Boys to stumble into the ocean.

Just to get this out of the way...The Beach Boys Love You has been in my Top 3 favorite Beach Boys' albums since the day it was released. I can still listen to it all the way through and enjoy it tremendously. I don't know if I'd call it "pop genius" but it's close. That being said, The Beach Boys Love You is the straw that broke the Beach Boys - and Brian Wilson's - back. Never again would they be allowed to, or want to, release an album that sounded like that. The powers that be would see to that. And, some fans might think that's a good thing.

And that's why Adult Child never had a chance. In many ways it was The Beach Boys Love - Part 2. The hoarse or off-key vocals; the quirky lyrics though more serious than Love You; the unfinished tracks; an older song from the vault that sounded out of place; and no songs that were screaming "hit single".

I think to salvage Adult Child they would've had to resort to the same strategy as Love You. Send Carl Wilson back in to add a part here or there and basically make a listenable mix. I get the feeling that a few or a couple of people heard it and thought, "What's the point?" It's probably gonna go the way of Love You, maybe even worse. And, keep in mind at that time The Beach Boys were still very hot and expected to deliver, um, Beach Boys' timeless music, you know the kind. 15 Big Ones had it moments and Love You had even more, but they were both albums that only a mother - or a diehard - could love. The number of people who were losing patience was growing. So, it got shelved. After Adult Child, every Beach Boys album and every Brian Wilson solo album was gonna be met with quality control. We might've loved that 1976-77 period, I know I do, but we were/are a small minority. Never again would The Beach Boys or Brian Wilson put out an album that sounded like THAT!

If you listen to some of the stuff being released in 1977 -- the Talking Heads, the Ramones, Jonathan Richman -- the raw, naive sound of Love You and Adult/Child fit right in.

Problem is, existing Beach Boys fans wouldn't accept this new sound, and punk/NewWave fans wouldn't know to even give them a listen.

I could see Adult/Child being discovered by alternative-rock fans a few years later after it's release, however, and becoming a bit of a cult item. "You have to listen to this really weird record. Yeah, it's by the Beach Boys but don't let that put you off."

In this alternate reality, I can see Brian going down the Neil Young route and putting out a series of eccentric, uncommercial records. More interesting than what actually happened, anyway.

(http://i.imgur.com/k4bQGna.gif)

They should have focused more on the swing sound.. here's a list I made recently on another thread that is closer to the "Swing" sound compared to what it ended up being...

Side A:
1.  Life is For The Living
2.  Three Blind Mice
3.  Deep Purple
4.  How Deep is the ocean (With the Beach Boys singing using original backing track)
5.  It’s Over Now
6.  Everybody Wants To Live

Side B:
7.  Stella by Starlight (with the Beach Boys singing with original backing track)
8.  Lines (with more instrumental dubs and bass)
9.  Sherry (she needs me)
10.  Carnival
11.  It’s Trying To Say
12.  Still I Dream of It

Ok these comments are hilarious, but this thread was (in my mind) supposed to be less about it being a hit,

But ANY impact it would have on the BBs future. Maybe I worded things incorrectly...

Say what ? Brian produced all the newly recorded songs, including the "big band" tracks. He called up Dick Reyonlds to do the arrangements, as per the Christmas album 13 years previous.

At the very least it would have provoked some interesting reviews. We can probably all agree it wouldn't have been a big commercial success but I think it might've had a chance to at least sell substantially more copies than M.I.U. Adult/Child is flawed but full of funny/intriguing/unusual ideas; M.I.U. is competent but soulless and that's the path the band eventually preferred. Was it the right decision? I'm skeptical, as neither M.I.U. nor KTSA did sell, so they might as well have put out more Love You-style material.

The irony in the subsequent approach is that these attempts to make "Beach Boys" music yielded records like MIU and Keepin the Summer Alive, which performed worse than Love You. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but you can see these sorts of reactionary attempts in each release. Love You was a head-scratcher, so they went with MIU. MIU tanked, so they tried something more 'artistic' with LA (Light Album) ... but it's like Brian was restrained or something ("No! not THAT artistic!"), then that record flopped so they tried a sort of "Beach Boys" style w/ Brian/Mike songs ... that didn't work, so they just kind of gave up.

I think Adult Child is a great record, and deserves to be released in it's originally intended state ... maybe as part of a mid-'70s unreleased weirdness deluxe set or something.

Yeah, if you're gonna make albums that bomb anyway, they might as well at least be interesting and good (in places).

I agree with you, and the Beach Boys have to accept their share of the blame. I'm sure the record companies preferred more "fun in the sun" songs than experimental material, though I've never read anything from any executives mandating that, other than making sure Brian wrote/produced a certain number of the songs.

I think the Beach Boys could've "gotten away" with being more artistic or cutting edge if the material was good. I don't know if anybody was holding Brian or the group back. To be more specific, the quality control or monitoring that I was referring to ^ had mostly to do with the vocals and final "sound" or production. I mean, you were never gonna get another released lead vocal like "Love Is A Woman", "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" or "Deep Purple", or simple piano/drum tracks similar to "Lines". The Beach Boys - and later Brian - would now have other outside producers or co-producers.

You can dissect this album many ways and logically it absolutely is a mess. However, from a personal standpoint, I get such joy from this album, it just seems to work. Sing along, silly, completely mixed up....put it on shuffle and enjoy.

 Would it have been  a hit in any way? Unequivocally not. Not one part of the album screams hit, commercially or critically. But for 'Brianistas' like myself it is an absolute gem.   

I really hope to find the Brian in Fire hat cover boot one of these days.  I really love these songs.

What's your price range? 
Have to be LP, or is CD OK? 

I actually did not know that...   :o

Go the CD, the vinyl sounds pretty poor

Well I have the CD (sort of....ya know...)   but I really want the LP.   I can get over poor SQ, it's more of the nutty completest type of fun torture I put myself through.    Flipping through the 'ol 12x12's brings a lot of glee.


is there a SQ difference between Firehat Brian cover and Strange Thing with a cane and top hat version?

 ;D  For me, it's kinda like you haven't really heard it until you've heard it on vinyl!  Good hunting. 

I'd written off easily/inexpensively getting a copy of this baby (I mean, if you have the clams to drop, it ain't hard), and then it turned up at a record fair.

1977. Elvis dies. Saturday Night Fever is the number one movie in the world, but whilst disco is hitting it's heights a 300+ lb guy in a tuxedo releases an album of 7 minute operatic rock songs written by a Dungeons + Dragons nerd that goes on to sell 30+ million. Alice Cooper is having hits with shitty ballads. Also, Star Wars.

Yeah, I don't think its too out there to say Adult/Child could have been a hit. 1977 was a strange year.

As much as I would love to have an official pristine copy, should songs like "Deep Purple" or the original "Hey Little Tomboy" really be shared with the general public?

The general public will not give a damn about the release of a lost 1977 Beach Boys record any more than they do about the fact that it exists and is unreleased. As for the rest of us, the whole point is that it's flawed, confused, confusing and vulnerable. If they're going to start airbrushing it, why even bother. Some of us liked the awkward nerdy type, not everyone had to be prom queen.

I think the greatest argument for it's release (besides the fact that Still I Dream Of It needs to be heard by anyone with even a passing interest in Brian) is that it does feel like something missing from the official discography rather than a belated addendum.

Great points!

A hit? -- who the hell knows.  Was Love You a hit?  Love You was interesting and so is Adult/Child.  With a little more work (or not) I wouldn't be surprised if it would be an equal to Love You, in the minds of fans.  It is to me now.  Or thereabouts.

The idea of Adult/Child being a hit seems to me to be one of fans' dreams. Cultists would argue to convince their friends that this--cigarettes going pfft and smoking grass having gone out a long time ago--was genius; those friends would have promised themselves they'd work on finding new friends with less bizarre taste in, or at least weaker passions for, music.

There are things on this would-be album I do love. In fact, it's easier to list the songs I don't like: "Hey Little Tomboy" (not the worst thing ever, but not very interesting); "On Broadway" (dull enough to make "Hey Little Tomboy seem revolutionary, innovative); and "Shortenin' Bread" (Brian can like it all he wants but that doesn't mean I have to). The two Sunflower/Surf's Up era songs are nice enough, entirely pleasant if awkward in the way "Good Time" was on Love You.

But the band's relative hits of the era were the one sound not represented here: nostalgia, fun, summertime pop. Not to say all of their music of that ilk succeeded, but their music of other styles didn't. So big-band arrangements of bizarre lyrics? Smooth pedophilia rock? A scratchy, simple ode to America's game? I doubt Debby Boone's dominance of autumn 1977 would have been challenged by "Lines."

100% agree

I don't know.  A lot of times there is no rhyme nor reason to what becomes a hit.  I think if it was promoted properly something may have caught on but most likely not.