How the Holland LP stands up in 1973

[the captain]

I think that is more or less correct, and I think it's probably the very source of frustration that Carl and Dennis felt in the post-Endless Summer period. They had put a lot of work into moving into a new direction only to see it at least diluted if not abandoned after the success of those mid-1970s greatest hits re-releases. They didn't abandon new directions and creativity by any means, but neither did they commit to them. To me, that kind of schizophrenic messaging is hard to overcome, even if (especially if?) you've got the history and hits of the Beach Boys.

[Mike's Beard]

I think they pulled off an image change pretty well in the early '70s. It didn't give them top 10 hits again but it did give them critical repsect once more and helped them fill out live venues again. Remember a year or two earlier they where struggling to pull in a few hundred fans at shows. Many big sixties groups had bit the dust by this point. I don't feel the whole 'eco thing' was fad chasing - more like a direction they where helping establish. Heck, they had to sing about something, why not the beauty/fragility of mother Earth?

They also looked cool - compare the shots from the 20/20 period where Bruce, Carl and Al looked total geeks and Mike in those robes.  

[filledeplage]

I think they pulled off an image change pretty well in the early '70s. It didn't give them top 10 hits once more but it did give them critical repsect once more and helped them fill out live venues again. Remember a year or two earlier they where struggling to pull in a few hundred fans at shows. Many big sixties groups had bit the dust by this point. I don't feel the whole 'eco thing' was fad chasing - more like a direction they where helping establish. Heck, they had to sing about something, why not the beauty/fragility of mother Earth?

They also looked cool - compare the shots from the 20/20 period where Bruce, Carl and Al looked total geeks and Mike in those robes.   

Things only look "geeky" if you are in another "time zone," as it were.  Those 20/20 clothes were "hip" which sounds like a geeky term in 2010 - (never mind 2020!)and 20/20 was the 20th Boys' album.  They were quite fashionable and if you look back to see what the other rock stars were wearing, it was very "London-driven" style.  And finally they would be "out of uniform" - and wearing what pleased them as individuals and not "Stepford" guys.     

And 20/20 is also metaphor for looking in the rear view mirror "of life" when you get a clear shot view of your mistakes;   That "duh" moment when your perspective becomes clear.  And it had the "eye chart" on the inside...It was an unusual title for an album without a song entitled "20/20"  but did have some very cool songs, like Do it Again, Bluebirds, and Cottonfields.   

Not unlike another poster who mentioned he was in college wooing the girls with the  Boys music, I was in grad school and just in my first teaching job when Holland arrived.  AGD had an interesting perspective in that they were in Holland singing about California...and testimony to the fact that sometimes you have to "leave, to come home" again.  It was not long after my first trip to Europe (Greece) and the opportunity to get a look at European fashion trends in the connecting airports of Gatwick and Shannon.   

Some of the Holland music is "yearning and tortured" yet probably too "intimate" to be fodder for singles such as Leaving this Town (on the 73 concert album,) Only with You, but I do love Sail on Sailor, The Trader (which had a powerful anti-colonialism message) and Funky Pretty...

Holland was probably too "artistically dense" for a lot of people to "lock onto" unless they were already Boys fans and ready to be lead in another creative direction.  And they were "serious" times in the US.  We had an American President step down and the troops started coming back from Vietnam, which probably opened the door to the commercial resurgence of American popularity with the bicentennial of the country in 1976.   For fans, it was a "Yahoo!!!" moment.     

[Mr. Cohen]

I believe that they were very succesful in changing their image. They went from being surfing Dorris Days in 1970 to a very hip underground band in 1971.  Not that images are always real, but they did get some minor hit songs and underground radio play around that time. I believe that one more album after Holland could have put them back into the mainstream. Of course they did with Endless Summer. But imagine if they had also released a proggressive album that was a big hit at the same time! 2 Different mainstream audiences at the same show. Could've been crazy!

Didn't the critics like Sunflower, too? Or am I wrong? According to the article I'm looking at, Rolling Stone is gushing over Sunflower. You're right, they improved as a live act in the early 70s, and that did pay dividends. But I think it was the improvement in performance that mattered more than the change in material. No, they couldn't have just done songs like "Surfin' USA" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" in the early 70s, but mature, romantic songs and personal songs such as we see in Sunflower would've fit. No, it might not have attracted as much of the college crowd, but I don't think that was a huge segment commercially. Or am I wrong?

Holland did go silver though, which Sunflower never did. Holland charted higher, too. Was 1970 just a bad year, though? Bad promotion? Or was it really just the material? A Wild Honey & 20/20 reissue and a Friends & Smiley Smile reissue both charted in '74, with Wild Honey/20/20 hitting 50.  The BBs were still getting top 30 hits until mid-69, when "Breakaway" only hit 63, their last Capitol single (and as such may not have been promoted as well as it could have been). Then, they were on a new label. Whose to say they weren't failed by the label?  Just wondering out loud.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I believe that they were very succesful in changing their image. They went from being surfing Dorris Days in 1970 to a very hip underground band in 1971.  Not that images are always real, but they did get some minor hit songs and underground radio play around that time. I believe that one more album after Holland could have put them back into the mainstream. Of course they did with Endless Summer. But imagine if they had also released a proggressive album that was a big hit at the same time! 2 Different mainstream audiences at the same show. Could've been crazy!

Didn't the critics like Sunflower, too? Or am I wrong? According to the article I'm looking at, Rolling Stone is gushing over Sunflower. You're right, they improved as a live act in the early 70s, and that did pay dividends. But I think it was the improvement in performance that mattered more than the change in material. No, they couldn't have just done songs like "Surfin' USA" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" in the early 70s, but mature, romantic songs and personal songs such as we see in Sunflower would've fit. No, it might not have attracted as much of the college crowd, but I don't think that was a huge segment commercially. Or am I wrong?

Holland did go silver though, which Sunflower never did. Holland charted higher, too. Was 1970 just a bad year, though? Bad promotion? Or was it really just the material? A Wild Honey & 20/20 reissue and a Friends & Smiley Smile reissue both charted in '74, with Wild Honey/20/20 hitting 50.  The BBs were still getting top 30 hits until mid-69, when "Breakaway" only hit 63, their last Capitol single (and as such may not have been promoted as well as it could have been). Then, they were on a new label. Whose to say they weren't failed by the label?  Just wondering out loud.

I would go back to the poor promotion of Pet Sounds (in the USA). As the Beach Boys were changing, Capital put more promotion into the greatest hits. But then they did do a good job with Good Vibrations and Smile. But in 1968 they were considered the #1 surfs group. Not really what they were doing at the time. It also didn't help that they were still wearing matching suits in 1969. Sunflower was great, but their public image was still of the passed. Even the media couldn't change that. I believe it was there improved live shows that helped them overcome their image. Touring with the Grateful Dead may have converted some Dead heads into BB fans.