Mike's contribution to Kokomo

[Don Malcolm]

Belated thanks, c-man, for sharing the "Sail On Sailor" analysis. I find myself compelled to say that its creation is a much more interesting story than "Kokomo," despite the fact that it wasn't a #1 hit.

My sense is that the BBs were due one more shot at chart success in the 80s, and all the stars aligned properly to put "Kokomo" in the right place at the right time. The line in the song that works the best--and which is aligned with Carl's fabulous singing--is "we'll get there fast, and then we'll take it slow," which is the perfect Lovester amalgam of lechery and romance (much more elegantly cheesy than, say, "tropical contact high"...), followed by a wonderfully sung little tag--"That's where we want to go..."--that is probably the biggest reason the song went #1.

The other question worth considering is how much of this discussion would be going on had "Kokomo" stalled at #2 or #3 on the charts. Obviously it would still be a big deal, since the band hadn't been in the Top 10 for more than a decade and in the top 5 for another, but would we hear about it as much?

[Rob Dean]

I'm not sure who already mentioned this, but when Kokomo was still hot as a single and Capitol was looking for follow-ups both singles and a new album, there was an LA Times article (reprinted here often enough that it's easy to search and find for reference) that was written as the band was rehearsing for a new batch of stage shows, I think it mentioned the dancers too. In that article if not others from around the Kokomo era there were quotes and comments that were suggesting there was indeed an attitude of 'we did this without Brian', so we don't need him to make hits with the Beach Boys.

So whoever mentioned it in this thread, that was actually a sentiment which was coming from press reports and interviews surrounding the Beach Boys.

Yep, quite possibly the worse missed opportunity in the BB's career in not having a follow up for Kokomo - However it probably took everyone by shock just how big it become (hence the forced/farce that the 'Still Cruisin' LP was)  

It would seem that the new article hell-bent on "destroying" the legend of Brian Wilson might come from this same sentiment -a sentiment which I don't necessarily think has exited the minds of all of the living band members. I happen to dearly love a lot of the material the band did without Brian, and some of it is my favorite stuff in the entire catalog... but the fact of the matter is that past the era when Denny was an active contributor to the band, and Carl was motivated to be pushing boundaries and to be progressive, the quality of Brian Wilson-less BB was just simply not there (with some isolated exceptions here and there). It took Wilsons (at least one, minimum) to make the band awesome on an emotional level.

I agree, especially on the last line about emotions. There are some x-factor type elements in music that sometimes can't be defined, but you know it when it's not there. I feel the same about many, many classic bands whose members went solo or who went forward after losing key members. It's just missing that 'something' too often for me at least to connect on that deeper level.

In this case, the facts and the numbers don't lie. When the band was in a position to follow up with new material a #1 single that was all over the pop culture in 1988-89, they had four songwriters and three producers in the core band and they couldn't deliver a full album. Capitol was all but begging them for something to release, and they failed to deliver despite the talent still in the core band, minus Brian Wilson. What they did deliver was both a day late and a dollar short, and despite promoting the heck out of it and offering a remixed version for the UK market, the album sank like a stone as did all related promo tie-ins and the like. It just did not deliver.

I agree with all of this. I do think that Mike has a right to be proud of Kokomo, regardless of the interesting question as to how much he and Terry contributed, but other than this one single, it seems clear that the band was utterly unable to follow up. Perhaps things wouldn't have been much better even if Brian were contributing, but things certainly didn't go very well without him.  

Yep, quite possibly the worst missed opportunity in the BB's career in not having a follow up for Kokomo - However it probably took everyone by shock just how big it become (hence the forced/farce that the 'Still Cruisin' LP was)

PS I really do like the song , BUT  the Spanish version is possibly the worst production I have heard on ANY BB's recording 

[HeyJude]

There had to be a lot of politics going on around that time in terms of trying to get "product" out there in the aftermath of "Kokomo." The had *dozens* of songs in the archive they could have pulled. Yes, I'm sure nobody was looking for "Life is for the Living" as a follow-up to "Kokomo", but they should have had Capitol or someone assign them a producer to crack the whip and finish some stuff off from the archives. Or, just buy in some songs from outside writers to flesh out stuff they already had.

[Juice Brohnston]

Anybody know what "Mikes contribution to Santa's Going to Kokomo " was?

[CenturyDeprived]

There had to be a lot of politics going on around that time in terms of trying to get "product" out there in the aftermath of "Kokomo." The had *dozens* of songs in the archive they could have pulled. Yes, I'm sure nobody was looking for "Life is for the Living" as a follow-up to "Kokomo", but they should have had Capitol or someone assign them a producer to crack the whip and finish some stuff off from the archives. Or, just buy in some songs from outside writers to flesh out stuff they already had.

Regardless of what they had in the can post-Kokomo, they decided they had to try and duplicate the specific Kokomo sound in one way or another.  Again and again. A real hare-brained move (though understandable in BB land, I suppose), considering how Kokomo was a big departure and more of a one-off sounding song for the band to begin with.

I think this proves the theory that if, for example, Here Comes the Night (disco) had been a hit, we'd have gotten a whole album of songs trying to duplicate that formula.

[Don Malcolm]

I think this proves the theory that if, for example, Here Comes the Night (disco) had been a hit, we'd have gotten a whole album of songs trying to duplicate that formula.

Maybe, but IIRC it wasn't too much longer afterwards that disco crashed and burned, which might have spared us from that.

But, yes, there would have at least been a follow-up or two, that's fo' sho'!!