Ian
Smiley Smile Associate
 Online
Posts: 1843
|
 |
« on: August 07, 2014, 10:53:01 AM » |
|
This was translated for me from the Dutch by Smile-Holland! Hope you enjoy
MuziekKrant OOR, July 5 1972
Title: "Carl Wilson – The press has been writing the most wicked nonsense about us for years "
A beautiful house in Hilversum along a beautiful lane. In front of the door hangs a neat billiard sheet. A well-maintained gravel path leads to the front door, with a name attached to it, one won’t easily situate somewhere else but on this spot in ‘t Gooi [=area in the province of Utrecht]. Inside the decoration tends to look very conformistic. A fixed Berber carpet gives room to four monumental dark brown chairs (type Schöner Wohnen) and a similar couch. The rest of the furniture consists of so-called unrefined wood, but the price tag – as it were – is still attached to it. On the wall hang paintings that show windmills at the horizon and a remarkable amount of restless waves.
A light brown tanned girl has let us in with the message that ‘it really won’t take long until sir will come downstairs.’ Which is true. Preceded by his 3-year old son, who just hurt his lip pretty bad on an item of which he doesn’t know the (English) word yet, and still makes him shiver with fright, a relaxed Carl Wilson gives us a firm handshake (like a bench vice). He feels perfectly at home here.
Worked up situation
‘It’s very peaceful here and the sphere is relaxed. I’m glad that it’s exactly as I had imagined when I took up the plan to go and live here for a while. I con-vinced the others that it would be good for all of us to catch our breath in The Netherlands and to get some new impulses. The first couple of weeks the situa-tion still was a bit tense, because renting a house was considerably more difficult than we had thought, but now everybody is having a good time. But I’ve also heard we live in acknowledged villages and cities: Heemstede, Haarlem, Laren, Bloemendaal, Hilversum and Vreeland. Only Dennis is not here. He can’t stand the climate and is looking for a house on Tenerife on the Canary Islands.’
What is true of the rumours that the Beach Boys had left [from California], be-cause of a huge tax debt or a terrible lack of success?
Carl Wilson: ‘All nonsense, mainly sent into the world by the British press, who have been writing the most wicked nonsense about us for years. God only knows why, but that’s the way it is. Let me assure you that we don’t have any ‘tax problems’ of any kind whatsoever, outside the regular futilities that every group has, because clerks can’t conceive the life of a musician. Financial troubles are out of the question. We were and are well occupied with well-paid work. The truth is that we want to quietly work on a new album, and that we think we need about three months for it in a calm environment. We rented a building in Ab-coude, a very nice little farm, that used to be a studio in the past as well, and in which we set up our own equipment as is necessary for us. This secret studio is the fourth 16-track studio in The Netherlands.’
Late involvement [in socal/political issues]
Any idea what will end up on the album?
Wilson: ‘Not yet, we just started. It will take at about six more weeks before everybody has gotten used to us, and we have gotten used to all involved with the recordings. After that things will go pretty quick, and the project will slowly take shape… We spend much less time on the actual recording than people ex-pect. What I know for sure is that the new album will breathe the atmosphere of this country, peaceful and relaxed. Songs like ‘Student Demonstration Time’ won’t be found on it.’
Speaking of that song, why did it take so long for the Beach Boys to put forward a current problem in their songs?
Carl: ‘Nothing more than the simple fact that the idea hadn’t crossed our minds before. There are a lot of people that consider that naïve, so be it. You can’t just summon things like faith and political/social involvement. Besides it’s a matter of remoulding it into the right shape on for example your concern towards the environment. You can’t just put some trendy quotes in a row and add some mu-sic with it. When it comes, it comes, like in ‘Don’t Go Near The Water’ and ‘Student Demonstration Time’. Too late? It’s never too late, but often too early. You first have to wait if your vision on the matter is the correct one before you write a song about it. If you’re not familiar with all the facts, you make a fool out of yourself.‘
Another topic. Why did Bruce Johnston leave [the group]?
Carl Wilson: ‘He simply wanted to do more things than he was able to do with us. A long time ago – when he had just joined us – he already told us that he loved to tour, but that in the first place he was a composer. A couple of months ago he brought up the intention of recording a solo album, and he approached us on our opinion on him taking a break from his work with us. We said: You have to do what you think is right. we’ll wait and see. That’s how it went, and not like the English press wants you to believe, that we fired Bruce. Nonsense. There’s no talk of an argument. We call each other a lot and inform each other how both our projects are progressing. Business wise, Bruce is still in for a considerable percentage of our earnings. And we’re still friends.’
Is it possible that Johnston will return to the group?
Carl Wilson: ‘Yes, that is very well possible.’
The Beach Boys show up on stage with so many people. Who belong to the current line-up and who are guests?
Wilson: ‘We’re still busy finding a definite line-up. So Bruce currently isn’t part of it. Brian neither, that is: he doesn’t perform, since he gave it one more try and got problems with his ear. Dennis isn’t drumming since last year when he in-jured his hand, but he sings, plays piano and percussion. Al Jardine, Mike Love and I are doing what we’ve always been doing. Furthermore we have Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin as permanent members of the group, on drums and guitar. I’m very content with those two, as our possibilities have become eternal-ly bigger, also on the composing front. These two will play an important role with us in the future; even our way of singing will be modified. Ricky is by far the best drummer I’ve ever seen and heard playing, that should be said. I’m also trying to get Daryl Dragon as a permanent member of the group. That will suc-ceed, although we have to pay him a fortune as compensation for his regular studio work. Daryl plays all types of keyboards and operates the synthesizer.’
At the beginning of their stay in the Netherlands the Beach Boys declined offers for doing interviews. We’re not used to that from them.
Carl Wilson: ‘No, that’s true. But we didn’t have a lot to say either. Our opin-ions on talking with the press are quite different. Mike loves it, as he loves meeting people. Brian doesn’t want any of it and consequently refuses. And I’m not fond of it, but I don’t withdraw from it either.’
Brian and the press
On Brian the strangest stories do the rounds. What is true of it?
Carl: ‘Very little. It’s mostly fables from the press. In those stories Brian always occurs as a total lunatic, but there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s simply not an extroverted person like for example Mike. Look, once someone wrote that Brian had the opinion that, with ‘Smile’ he had written fire music. It supposedly had caused him to burn all the tapes in a burst of insanity. When he read that, he immediately mentioned: ‘I don’t trust the press anymore, they can do what they want to from now on.’ And he kept that promise, whatever they rave about.’
But there has to be one journalist that could set the record straight in one long conversation?
Carl: ‘That’s what we thought. A guy from Rolling Stone stayed with Brian for a week to set the record straight about these fairy tales that are told about him. Within a week one should be able to form a picture of someone, but what even-tually turned out of it, provoked every imagination possible. Nothing turned out to be correct at all. Brian, for example, would have started crying during a conversation through the telephone, and that’s something I haven’t seen him doing in twenty years. And furthermore, Beach Boys music was supposed to have been played in his house all the time. Which seems implausible to me, because that would mean he has to be doing much more work in the studio than he wants to. But the result of course is that Brian won’t “crawl out of his shell” [Dutch ex-pression] for outsiders at all anymore. It’s a vicious circle where Brian and the press find themselves in.’
Smile
But how about ‘Smile’?
Carl Wilson: ‘There’s absolutely nothing mysterious about ‘Smile’. At the time we weren’t able to realise such an ambitious project. If, for example, you could hear what a song like ‘Heroes and Villains’ sounds like in several versions, you wouldn’t believe your ears. We simply weren’t able to make decisions, and when it was time to do so, everything was unfinished. Gradually we finished tracks that were meant for the original ‘Smile’-album, and these ended up on following albums. On our next [album] probably something from the Smile-Tapes will turn up.’
Aren’t the Beach Boys isolated from the big pop scene here in The Netherlands?
Carl: ‘With our way of working we could probably live everywhere. We keep so many aspects in our own hands, you know. I don’t see any trouble when it comes to the contact with others.’
The European tour is now brought to a close. Can we expect something else in the near future, apart from the album ‘made in Holland’?
Carl Wilson: ‘when we record we never perform. The only thing we’re at work on is a free concert near Amsterdam. To show our appreciation for the hospitality we’ve enjoyed.’
text: Jip Golsteijn
|
Author
