Pacific Ocean Blue (Dennis Wilson)

[the captain]

Oh, I have no issues with anyone's opinion either. I was just saying where I'm guessing thomasogg was coming from, and why it's no surprise he'd rank River Song above most anything else.

As for me, I'm sure if I had to name my 20 favorite Beach Boys songs of the 70s, 12-15 would be Brian's. So...

[thomasogg]

Ha! If you seriously consider 'Roller Skating Child' a better song than 'River Song' you shouldn't be allowed to listen to music! T'was a joke surely? You an't be serious? That was quite a respectable list 'til you mentioned that... My chin remains very much uneaten i can assure you...

[the captain]

Ha! If you seriously consider 'Roller Skating Child' a better song than 'River Song' you shouldn't be allowed to listen to music!

I do. And that was a stupid thing to say.

[mikeyj]

Ha! If you seriously consider 'Roller Skating Child' a better song than 'River Song' you shouldn't be allowed to listen to music!

I don't necessarilly believe that all of them are better than River Song.. I just wanted to see thomasogg eat his own chin.

To be honest I do prefer River Song but I still think Roller Skating Child is an awesome song. But I love all of POB and all of LY.. they are just both great albums that are completely different. There is times when I will be in the mood to listen to POB and there is times when I want to listen to LY...

[8o8o]

"Pacific Ocean Blue". One of the greatest albums ever recorded - brilliant all the way through.

[thomasogg]

'We do it holding hands, it's so cold I go 'brrr'. This is, let's not forget, the guy who wrote God Only Knows and Heroes and Villains. I like Love You, it's full of catchy, melodic tunes, and Roller Skating Child is one of its better tracks, but the idea that it's some kind of classic album - get outta here... I think even Brian knows deep down it's not one of his finest moments, despite his claims otherwise, hence why, when given the opportunity to pick songs for his Beach Boys Classics albums he gave excluded Love You, even from the 'almost-made-it' list on the sleeve notes.
Yeh, I stand by what I said: the idea that Roller Skating Child is better than River Song is laughable. Just an opinion obviously, but also one foundered on basic artist/songwriting merit...
It's worth quoting again: 'We do it holding hands, it's so cold I go 'brrr'. Or perhaps 'We make sweet lovin' til the sun goes down, we even do more when mom's not around'. How old was Brian again when he wrote this song about snogging a child?
(Those in the know would do well to highlight Dennis' 'School Girl' as a counter argument at this point...)

[mikeyj]

Firstly, Brian has never been known for his amazing lyrical ability (ie: Brian didn't write the lyrics to GOK and H&V) but I think he came up with some decent lyrics on Love You (eg: Let's Put Our Hearts Together). To be honest Dennis wasn't the best lyricist either (he just sung it and sounded like he believed it so you sort of tend to not notice the lyrics) but none of the Wilson brothers were ever really lyricists, they were mainly musicians. I agree with you that River Song is better, I mainly made that post as a joke and just listed songs off the top of my head so that you perhaps would "eat your chin". Of course, all in good humour. I think Love You is a classic album. It has a nice flow to it unlike say 15 Big Ones. And there really isn't a bad song on the album. I would say the same for POB, BW88, Pet Sounds, Sunflower etc.. so I would class Love You as a classic. Of course it's not as good as a Pet sounds, a Sunflower or a POB but its still a damn fine album, just not one that is easy to get into at first as the production is a bit of a departure from that Beach Boys sound but the music is great all the same...

[thomasogg]

Yeh, like i said it's a good album, and I'm glad they made it and it excists, I just think it pales when compared to so many of their other albums. The BB's lyrics were never all that great (except when they had co-writers contributing lyrics) but they were never as bad as the ones on Love You. From this album onwards Brian's lyrics went from being kinda goofy and cheesy to just... awful. Often a good track on Love You is made almost unlistenable coz of the lyrics ('Mona' in particular) and maybe it's just me but I feel as is you can almost here his brothers cringing as they sing some of the tracks (listen to Dennis' vocal on 'I Wanna Pick You Up'). I don't particualry wanna be badmouthing Love You, compared to 15 Big Ones it's great, and in light of what was going to come next it's a freakin' masterpiece, I just don't get it when people rank it alongside the likes of Surf's Up and Pet Sounds. Having said that, I'd kill for 'Honkin' Down The Highway'.

[the captain]

The cringe factor is one of my favorite parts of the Love You lyrics. I really love that. And the simple fun or silliness of them often interests me more than Dennis' (I've said it before and must again) overdramatic style. I like POB, but I prefer Love You. It's funny that those--Brian's and Dennis's--pieces of music are my favorite of the late 70s Beach Boys scene, and yet they're so far apart. On a different board, I actually proposed MIU would've been better had Dennis been convinced somehow not to do POB, and to contribute songs to a Beach Boys album, with it also including some of Brian's Adult Child music. It makes for an odd marriage of styles, the clunky Brian and the syrupy Dennis.

[thomasogg]

MMMmmm, maybe... Not many tracks I'd wanna sacrifice on POB though. I think 'Thoughts Of You' would be spoilt somewhat if it had 'Hey Little Tomboy' chugging away straight after it.... I think MIU shoulda had some of the Adult/Child stuff on it though for certain! 'Everybody Wants To Live' had real potential.. And ANYTHING woulda been better than 'Winds Of Change'.

[the captain]

The trick, as your post clearly alludes to, is that all three albums have significantly different production styles. But a good running order helps minimize the problem that could cause. (I didn't expect you to sacrifice any POB songs, btw...just sharing an idea I'd had for my amusement. Not to mention, imagine losing some of those worse BBs songs and adding better, unfortunately unheard BW songs; and then adding some Beach Boys versions of the POB material. Interesting at least.)

[carl r]

I have to admit initially I wasn't sure about this album.

Most work Brian has done has a light touch, and a sense of humour. I didn't get any sense of irony from POB at all, it seemed all deadly serious.

So I wonder if it can ever be judged alongside BBs work despite the presence of Carl and Mike's lyrics cropping up here and there.

Dennis' influences can also be more readily observed. Whereas by 1977 you could say that the Beach Boys' main influences were their younger selves, Dennis must have had a record collection including a lot of Lennon, Harrison, Floyd and Motown.

Immediately "River Song" is a striking, epic number. But the slow numbers took some time to take effect. It's only after a while that I can say I'll be listening to this album in a few years time, and it probably will be because of the slower numbers.

I didn't understand what Dennis' problem was initially. He seemed to live a life most of us would be jealous of, the glamorous dissolute singer hanging out in one of the coolest places in the world, with the coolest people. But as we know he had a restlessness which drove him towards self-destruction.

And he documents it all here, his disillusionment, against the backdrop of the same beaches he sang about in the innocent 60s. It's like William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience - naive and totally genuine.

What makes this album memorable and unique is the atmosphere, some great tunes, a sense of depth and a beepy new age synth on the title track.

Very hard to rate, but I'd say 4.5

[PrayForSurf]

This article is written by a friend of mine who is also a huge BB & BW fan,

Phil


http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-dennis-wilson-0720jul20,0,3855378.story

Wilson's talent sings forth on 'Pacific' re-release

By Patrick Kampert |Chicago Tribune reporter
    July 20, 2008

When Beach Boys fans think of the waning days of the original group, one of the painful memories is that of late drummer Dennis Wilson shambling drunkenly onstage during encores in the early '80s to croak out the Joe Cocker hit "You Are So Beautiful" (Wilson was purportedly an uncredited co-writer of the song) in a voice ravaged by self-destruction.

That's an image that close friends of the musician hope to tone down with the lovingly assembled special edition of "Pacific Ocean Blue," Wilson's re-released 1977 solo album that surprisingly debuted at No. 8 on Billboard's July 5 Internet music chart. The success has Wilson's backers mulling a second release, a retrospective of his work with the Beach Boys and other unreleased tracks.

The bare truth
"I think it's one of the most truthful statements by an artist," said Jon Stebbins, Wilson's biographer (the just-revised "The Real Beach Boy") who co-wrote the liner notes for "Pacific Ocean Blue." "It seems like he kind of bled onto the tape."

The music on "POB" is vaguely reminiscent of the Beach Boys—especially the stacked harmonies on "River Song" and "Rainbows"—but at times is a funky stew laden with horns ("Friday Night") and brooding piano ballads. It's alternately visceral and meditative. You'll hear very little of Wilson on the drums. He's mainly hunkered down at the keyboard looking for just the right sound. If it was a more instinctive hunt than the cerebral genius of brother Brian Wilson, it was not without touches of brilliance.

"Dennis was kind of like Brian. He used the studio like an instrument," said Gregg Jakobson, who co-produced "POB" and co-wrote many songs with Wilson.

Bonus disc
The package also includes a second disc of Wilson's incomplete second album, "Bambu," which was mixed and readied by three friends who encouraged Wilson in his creative '70s period: producers James William Guercio and Gregg Jakobson, and engineer/producer John Hanlon, who continues to co-produce projects for Neil Young and has worked with R.E.M. as well.

One track, "Holy Man," features new vocals by the Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins. Another version of "Holy Man" with the re-formed Queen, has been released in England.

Personal project
Beyond such nods at 21st Century rock, the new release was a fiercely personal project for Guercio, who played guitar for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and whose production touch helped sell millions for Chicago, the Buckinghams and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

"People didn't appreciate how far this guy could have gone," Guercio said from his Colorado office.

Wilson had asked Guercio to come aboard the Beach Boys' bandwagon in the mid-'70s to manage the group (and occasionally play bass guitar onstage). He encouraged Wilson's songwriting and has remained friends with the family even after he stepped down from managing them. Wilson's younger brother, the angelic-voiced Carl, bought a home next to Guercio's ranch in Colorado. In December 1983, Dennis Wilson was supposed to join his brother, their mom, Audree, their aunt and Guercio's family for Christmas. The family and Guercio planned to get Wilson into a rehab facility after the holidays. He called on Christmas Eve and told Guercio and his disappointed family that he wasn't coming that day but would be there by New Year's Day. He didn't make it, drowning Dec. 28 while diving for mementos at the spot where his repossessed boat once docked.

"I was in the process of an intervention," Guercio said, then paused. "I had to go over to Carl's house and tell his mom."

Carl Wilson died of brain and lung cancer in 1998. Three years ago, at the wedding of Carl's son Justyn, Guercio made the decision to bring the music of Justyn's Uncle Dennis back into the public eye.

"I felt it was important to his children and to his family," said Guercio, who bankrolled the project as well. "From that day on, it was, 'Forget business. We're going to figure this out.' "

It wasn't a simple process, said Billy Hinsche, longtime Beach Boys sideman and a Wilson in-law who sang on both "POB" and "Bambu."

"Just getting 'Pacific Ocean Blue' re-released was very complicated. [One question was] who owns it? There are four different record companies on the cover."

Hinsche formed the pop trio Dino, Desi and Billy with the sons of Dean Martin and Desi Arnaz in the mid-'60s and enjoyed some brief pop success. He was all of 13 when the group joined the Beach Boys as an opening act. Hinsche's dad, Otto, nicknamed "Pop," pulled Dennis Wilson aside before the tour and asked the drummer to look after his son on the road. Perhaps because Dennis and Carl were teens themselves when stardom engulfed them, Hinsche found an immediate kinship with the brothers. Hinsche's sister Annie eventually married Carl.

A touching farewell
Dennis Wilson formed a close bond with Pop Hinsche, and the wrenching and touching "Farewell My Friend" on "POB" was written to mourn the passing of Pop. Earlier this year, Hinsche completed a film documentary about his close friend, "Dennis Wilson Forever," that was picked up by Sony BMG for distribution in the United Kingdom.

"One of the things I wanted to accomplish with my movie was to show the creative, tender side of Dennis," he said. "God knows we've got enough of the stories about Dennis' wild side."

If "Bambu" shows Wilson rocking harder than on "POB," it also continues to flesh out that tender side. "Piano Variations on Thoughts of You" and "It's Not Too Late" sound like pleas, showing again that Wilson was the true romantic in the family. The latter also features one of the last true collaborations with his brother Carl, who was making an effort to clean up his life even as Dennis' was becoming unmoored.

Voice showed strain
The hints are in the increasingly rough-hewn vocals that sound more gravelly than Randy Newman's and much lower than his smoother efforts on Beach Boys tunes such as "Slip On Through" and "Be Still."

"Bambu" fell apart when Dennis and Carl were forced to sell Brother Studios, where "POB" was recorded and where Dennis spent most of his waking hours. Now, to continue his music, he would have to book time at unfamiliar studios and carry all his tapes around.

"It was not the same," said Jakobson. "It was like he was a homeless guy."

Added Stebbins: "His prolific nature pretty much ended at that point. He had more time to be doing the things that probably were not that healthy, as opposed to having a studio 24/7, which kept him focused and kept him motivated."

Wilson also lived with Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie around that time, and the proliferation of drugs in the Mac circle during that "Tusk" period was no secret. Even after the couple broke up, Wilson's "downward spiral," as Jakobson called it, continued. The Beach Boys banned him from touring and cut off his paychecks as a desperate "tough love" treatment, but it didn't work. The sad ending helped to obscure a pop composer on the rise.

"It was very hard to go through some of these tracks," Guercio said. "The tragedy is that which could have been."

[Aegir]

Another version of "Holy Man" with the re-formed Queen, has been released in England.

That was released already?

[lance]

Have nothing much to add to the various gushings and accolades and adulation given this record: except to say: I agree. This album fucking rocks to the uttermost.

I also have to say, CD sound has come a long way--this is one of the best warmest, most three-dimensional records I've ever heard.

[punkinhead]

can we have a seperate section for Bambu?

[CarlsDarlin]

5.  This album is brilliant.  I paid $24.89 for it at Best Buy.  Best money I ever spent. 

[axl wills]

I'm a die hard fan of Dennis,that lp is a lost masterpiece of the70's.The legacy edition is a must have!
Just bought it!

[DSamore]

I tell ya, I give this a 4 3/4...

One of me absolute favourite parts is 1:59 into River Song when buried over in the left channel something begins which sounds like an awesome organ solo... but as it progresses you realise it's a female vocalist going absolutely nuts... It sounds SO friggin' COOL!!!

man, that IS awesome!!! I'm glad someone else noticed that. This album rules. Dennis sounds terrible technically, but it's an awesome sound. River Song is the finest to me. I also love Friday Night...I've been singing it for like three days straight. I love the "motorcycle rider...night hider" line and how he sings it. SO good!

[rab2591]

Just saw that the 3LP Vinyl is on sale right now (December 31 2010) for $43.00 on the US Amazon. Also, 3rd party vendors are selling it for $28 on the US Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Ocean-Blue-LP-Vinyl/dp/B00189MNT8/ref=br_lf_m_1000645791_3_69_ttl?ie=UTF8&s=music&pf_rd_p=1284407362&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1000645791&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1NKMZ8YE44C9NED7X070

Just FYI.

[CarlTheVoice]

I've just read that Carl co-wrote River Song, how much input did he have on it and the rest of the album? What did the rest of the BBoys think of Dennis' album?

[southisland]

just ridiculously good. it's like dennis' own "pet sounds," his soul in a record. the range of emotion it captures is astonishing. the number of "chills" moments is endless:

- the way his vocals come in on river song ("ooh, mighty river...")

- "hats off to the drummer's little lady"

- the affected vocals on the "thoughts of you" bridge

- the tag on "time"

i'll stop before i get carried away. 5/5, one of the best beach boys-related releases.

[Jason]

I've just read that Carl co-wrote River Song, how much input did he have on it and the rest of the album? What did the rest of the BBoys think of Dennis' album?

Brian reportedly loved it and it made at least three Beach Boys shake in their boots. Make what you will of that.

[pixletwin]

just ridiculously good. it's like dennis' own "pet sounds," his soul in a record. the range of emotion it captures is astonishing. the number of "chills" moments is endless:

- the way his vocals come in on river song ("ooh, mighty river...")

- "hats off to the drummer's little lady"

- the affected vocals on the "thoughts of you" bridge

- the tag on "time"

i'll stop before i get carried away. 5/5, one of the best beach boys-related releases.

I would say it is the best Beach Boys related release post-Pet Sounds.

[JK]

Wrote this way back and see no reason to revise it so here it is again:

"Sitting back listening to my precious copy of Pacific Ocean Blue I was suddenly struck by the sheer NUMBER of musical styles or moods on board, or, let's say, leanings towards various styles. These include straight rock, symphonic rock, funk, soul, gospel, folk, big band, latin, ballads, even some Madigras-style blowing and a smattering of psychedelia (those bleeps a la 'Reflections' (Supremes), and Dennis's heavily treated voice on one track).
"There are of course other things going on that defy classification entirely----that's just Dennis. No-one asked him to make an album, no Brianesque soul-searching for him. His horizons were wide open, and off he went."

Glorious stuff. Five.