The Smiley Smile Message Board

I understand that he went though a divorce around that time, but otherwise I've not seen much explanation as to why his first solo project was scrapped. Was it the failure of Sound of Free/Lady that dissuaded him?

I feel like Dennis showed a huge amount of potential as a writer in the early 70's, but he squandered it to a degree.

I don't have any insight, but it's interesting to think how much of that notional solo album ended up coming out anyway:

* Cuddle Up
* Make It Good
* Sound of Free
* Lady
* Only With You (albeit with a Carl vocal)
* Barbara (in demo form)

And that's leaving aside whatever material eventually recorded during the POB/Bambu sessions originated during this period, and the stuff that was definitely earmarked for the Beach Boys (e.g. WIBNTLA).

I don't know that I agree with the premise that Dennis "squandered" his potential. Taking these songs and the POB/Bambu material into account, did any other member of the band except Brian compose as much during the '70s?

The following songs were also talked about:

* It's a New Day
* Behold the Night
* Ecology
* Baby Baby
* Wouldn't it Be Nice to Live Again

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Thanks for the clarification. I didn't include 4th of July as I assumed the Rieley cowrites weren't considered for the solo album.

I didn't know "Sea Cruise" went back that far.

Wasn't Sea Cruise a 15 Big Ones production?

Yes and no, this is a rough attempt done by Dennis in 1971-ish (and he doesn't even knows the words/lyrics) it was just a rough jam session attempt.

the version of Barnyard Blues is only piano demo recorded in 1971, the actual/final product was recorded in 1974.

 >:( sea cruise doesn't sound like it was recorded by Dennis in 1971. Vocal seemed much too rough for what his voice sounded like at that time on sunflower. Sounds more like 76-77ish.

the 1971 version was a quick rough attempt done by Dennis and that version remains unreleased, the 1975-76 version was a new recording.

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You're right, I guess what I should've said is I feel he had commercial potential which wasn't realised for one reason or another. I think one reason is that he started writing more and more ballads rather than dynamic rock songs after '71 or so. Personally I love some of the ballads on POB, but others feel a bit lethargic, and I find myself wishing there was more straight funk/soul like Dreamer on there.

One important thing to remember is that Dennis did not yet have a solo record deal at the time. He had the one-off deal for the "SOF/Lady" single, but despite the label being EMI/Stateside, it wasn't a "stateside" deal, and was only released overseas. That label apparently didn't pick up his option (imagine the irony if they had - the band leaves Capitol with hard feelings, but one of their members ends up in a solo deal with their parent company!). Warner Bros. apparently showed no interest in him as a solo artist, at least none that's ever been mentioned. And with no record deal, he had no recording budget - he was fortunate to be able to use the studio at Brian's house, and fortunate to have a recording partner like Daryl, but when it came time to overdub strings onto "Lady", they had to sneak that into a string session for the group, funded by Warners. "Make It Good" and "Cuddle Up" didn't get their orchestral overdubs until those tracks were slated for the So Tough album, and then that session was held using the band's recording budget. He might have been able to finish a brilliant album with the resources he had, but with no label interest, it would have sat on a shelf. Dennis continued to record brilliant pieces over the next couple of years, but he didn't really get motivated to pursue a solo career until Jim Guercio offered him encouragement and an actual deal.

Ah, that makes perfect sense, thanks for clarifying! Love the released version.

Thanks c-man for the clear answer - makes sense. I do find it odd that Warner weren't interested in Dennis as a solo artist, since the whole narrative around Sunflower is that it was 'saved' to a degree by Dennis's songs, whereas the label had been unhappy with the earlier lineups. That would seem to indicate that they had some belief in the commercial viability of Dennis' material - but I guess marketing that under Dennis' name was a tougher sell.

The addition of "Cool Cool Water" is mostly what "saved" Sunflower in Warners' eyes (or ears). It's true the group added the Capitol-era tracks "Forever", "Got To Know The Woman', "Deirdre", and "All I Wanna Do", but the label still wasn't satisfied - it's only when they heard "Cool Cool Water" and the group got Brian to finish it, that they were willing to release the album.

Fair enough - I'd had the impression that the late addition of It's About Time also might've helped.

It's funny to me that Cool Cool Water was the game changer there. It's a neat recording but there's not that much to it as a song, really. I guess it was just the quasi-connection to Smile.

As much as I love "Cool Cool Water", in strictly commercial terms none of these songs saved Sunflower eventually.

Lenny Waronker's a big fan of Brian's more artsy, suite-y stuff...he wanted something modular, something akin to "Good Vibrations" for Sunflower, so Brian and Mike came up with "Cool Cool Water". Later, he wanted something modular, akin to "Heroes And Villains" for Brian Wilson '88, so Brian and Andy came up with "Rio Grande". I think this is a rare case of a label exec wanting something substantially arty, more than commercial.

I heard that Lenny Waronker had heard early versions of Cool Cool Water when Brian was working on it in '67 and remembered it when they were putting together the album, so he asked about it and the song was finished off. The structure was already there except for the "in an ocean or in a glass" bits and the chants which Brian did not want them to use but they did anyway. Or so it was said.

It's true - I wonder if Slip on Through/This Whole World could have done better with proper promotion. It's the best single they possibly could've offered at that point in time, and on quality alone it clearly deserved to do well. I guess Add Some Music having been the lead single might have hurt their chances by reinforcing that the Beach Boys were old hat.

Yeah, the label did a BIG promotional push for the "Add Some Music" single, and I seem to recall they broke a record for advance orders (not from consumers, but from retailers). However, radio station airplay didn't meet expectations, retail sales were minimal, and it was another six months before the album came out - all in all, a recipe for commercial disaster.

I am as big a  DW fan as there is, but this album would have needed a few up tempo songs too.  A looooot of ballads.  Nothing wrong with those, but he could write rockers too.

Yeah, many of Dennis' best songs were his soul-rock efforts imo (I even think All I Want to Do is quite strong with his lead vocal). I wish he'd kept going in that style - i.e. Slip on Through, I'm Going Your Way, It's a New Day (even though latter two feel pretty unfinished, especially lyrically and on the B-sections). I guess he just preferred writing ballads at the end of the day.

Speaking of which I’ll never understand why the single version chopped off the first half of the song. To me it made it a bit disjointed

At 5:03, the album version was considered too long for AM radio play - the edited 3:23 timing would have been much more palatable for those radio stations. Still didn't make a difference, though, as the only airplay it could possible get was FM - especially considering how the single version started with a chant which undoubtedly was far too "weird" for AM!

On the same topic, someone just posted on the Steve Hoffman Forums board their thought that perhaps "This Whole World" would've failed as a single, even had it been the A-side, in part because it was too SHORT!  Meaning, at under 2:00, potential buyers would've felt short-changed, as if they weren't getting enough value for their 50 cents, or however much 45s were selling for in 1970. Interesting thought that I'd never considered! Guess we'll never know.

I'd be willing to bet that Brian conceived the 1970 half as its own new version of the song. It has a complete internal structure - a verse of sorts, a chorus, a series of bridge sections, and then a reprise of the verse material for a long coda, ending up at 3 minutes. Looking at it in that context tagging the two 1967 sections on the front seems like more of an afterthought, and even including some of the drone chant in the single edit feels a bit weird.