The "changing times" argument is one that always confuses me, because there's evidence for it and against it.
I agree. It's true and not true- it's a part of the story but far from the whole story. The Beach Boys could have continued their level of success either with the hip Buffalo Springfield type crowd or with Johnny Rivers' and Dionne Warwicks' audiences. But they didn't. And I don't think it was due so much to their failure to change with the times as the fact that they
did change.
Put on
Endless Summer at a party and most people are in Heaven. Put on
Wild Honey and they'll scratch their heads. We hear the uncommon brilliance, but most people I know just don't. It isn't a crowd-pleaser. And neither is
Smiley or
Friends. (Nor does everything in art need to be).
The biggest problem with the Beach Boys from 1967 onwards, commercially and artistically, is that their most important gear was sprung- Brian. They still had the great voices, the sound, the great live act, etc., but what Mike called "that dynamicism" (or did he say "dynamism"? Maybe either is correct, I don't know) usually wasn't there. The talent was, but not always the focus, the patience, the drive, the work ethic. And in terms of keeping a band on top of the world, that element proved irreplaceable.
I think if you took their acid-tinted set from Hawaii and put that onstage at Monterey they'd have done fine. (They didn't wear the stripes, did they?)
And lastly, get the vege-tables ready, I'm duckin' as I say this, but I've always thought Mike's weird look in the late sixties was kind of cool.