AL JARDINE - CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' SAMPLE

[lance]

It shocks me to say, but it sounds like there is going to eventually be a piece of Beach Boys related product that is....a rip off.

[Jonathan Blum]

3. This is a solo album. Most solo albums mean that the artist prefers to share his songs, his voice, his playing, his vision, his lyrics, his whatever. One would think that a main purpose for a solo album, again for an artist as experienced as Al who has never recorded a solo album, would be to record SOLO SONGS, not covers of others' songs.

You seem to have confused "solo artist" with "singer-songwriter".

Al Jardine is a guy who's written a scattering of songs over his years as primarily a singer/guitarist.  So he's more of a performer than a songwriter -- big deal, the same is true for everyone from Elvis to Joss Stone...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[SurfRiderHawaii]

It shocks me to say, but it sounds like there is going to eventually be a piece of Beach Boys related product that is....a rip off.

Al has never claimed to be a 'Brian Wilson'.  It's easy being a back seat driver but I guess Al is doing what he thinks will be 'most commercial' (kinda a 'Stars n Stripes' formula).  I'll be thankful for a new BB solo album and would buy it anyhow just for 'Drivin' (Brian and Al sound great on that one).  For those who don't find it their cup of tea, don't buy it (or just the tracks you like, on iTunes)

[Smilin Ed H]

"Oh, come on. "

I dunno, I read the whole thread. So you were expecting a wonder record from Al?

 Al's not a singer songwriter, Sheriff.  You know that.  You've also read a few months back about the sort of stuff that's going to be on the album.  California Dreamin' seems to fit the tone (though SJB...?).  What the hell if he wants to record a whole album of covers? He's 66.  He's served his time.

I wonder if your sixth point doesn't inform the rest of your thinking...

Anyhow, don't like it: don't buy it, but don't like it for something it didn't set out to be.

[phirnis]

It shocks me to say, but it sounds like there is going to eventually be a piece of Beach Boys related product that is....a rip off.

Al has never claimed to be a 'Brian Wilson'.  It's easy being a back seat driver but I guess Al is doing what he thinks will be 'most commercial' (kinda a 'Stars n Stripes' formula).  I'll be thankful for a new BB solo album and would buy it anyhow just for 'Drivin' (Brian and Al sound great on that one).  For those who don't find it their cup of tea, don't buy it (or just the tracks you like, on iTunes)

Part of people's frustration with the Beach Boys might be that what these guys might consider as "most commercial" has been proven totally wrong over the course of so many years. Stars & Stripes, Keepin' The Summer Alive, Summer In Paradise, you name it, all very likely made with high expectations in mind in terms of sales. Yet people at concerts being most enthusiastic when all the old ones are being played does not mean they want to buy an album of dodgy remakes or all too obvious nods to the glory days. That's a lesson the Beach Boys have failed to learn and they have been wrong with this kind of stuff for 30 years minimum, as in the end most of these ill-fated projects presented the group at their uttermost "uncommercial".

[carl r]

Yes, exactly!

[John]

Al's not a singer songwriter, Sheriff.  You know that.

He was at one point. Not the major one, but from 1969 onwards, he could be expected to produce, what, two or three songs on an album, and a few more in co-writes? That's the equal to George Harrison's contributions in the Beatles. George was a singer-songwriter, no?

California Dreamin' seems to fit the tone (though SJB...?).  What the hell if he wants to record a whole album of covers? He's 66.  He's served his time.

Not in the arena of showing us what he can do, he hasn't. There's plenty of old guys, who weren't the main songwriter in their band, who still produce something better than lame re-recordings and callbacks to their glory days. To carry on the Beatles analogy, Al is a George, but acting like a Ringo, who also produces songs made specifically out of references to other songs or the 1960s. Al could've mustered 10 friggin' songs, especially including the old unreleased stuff like Don't Fight The Sea.

Some of you guys are acting like we're expecting SMiLE or something. We're expecting a TLOS, or to finalise the analogy, a Brainwashed. Harrison managed to make that - ten songs nobody had heard - while preoccupied with his cancer, and his attack, and still pushing 60. Al can't muster ten songs? Feh.

[Smilin Ed H]

I guess not, but Al's no Harrison, is he? And he wasn't way back either.  Of course, the annoying thing is that there are going to be two or three songs on this dating from late 70s-early 80s that would've been better than some of the stuff released on MIU, LA and KTSA.  Same with stuff on Mike's unreleased album.

[John]

I dunno, I don't think he's as good a songwriter quality-wise as Harrison, but his songs are solid enough, and as I say, he seems to have contributed at least two tunes to every album from, like Friends onwards, with the exception of Love You. And he fulfils the same kind of niche in the band - a lesser ranked songwriter whose work is sometimes slightly derivative but can always be relied upon to be at least thoughtful.  It's only Al's lack of ambition which is keeping him from being a Harrison.

[Smilin Ed H]

Maybe he's lazy. He's had a career relying on others, so maybe you're right - no ambition - or he's happy with it that way. It's just that we want more! 

[Tom Martin]

I found your last post to be insulting . . .

Al has been working very hard to make this album a quality project. 
Take a look at the guest list: Brian Wilson, David Marks, Steve Miller,
Neal Young, Flea, Glen Campbell, David Crosby, Gerry Beckley (AMERICA), Dewey Bunnell (AMERICA),
and Stephen Stills to name a few.  Now consider schedules and logistics and you can see why it is taking time to finish this album.

Please be patient and keep it positive . . . and try to appreciate the preview samples released.

[Steve Mayo]

heck, i'm happy just getting anything from any group member now....i too would like brand new songs, projects that stretch out, rocking songs but that hasn't happened, on an lp scale, since '73. i accept that fact and just enjoy whatever comes out nowadays.

[John]

I found your last post to be insulting . . .

Al has been working very hard to make this album a quality project. 
Take a look at the guest list: Brian Wilson, David Marks, Steve Miller,
Neal Young, Flea, Glen Campbell, David Crosby, Gerry Beckley (AMERICA), Dewey Bunnell (AMERICA),
and Stephen Stills to name a few.  Now consider schedules and logistics and you can see why it is taking time to finish this album.

But those guys could just as easily be playing on ten of Al's newer songs written between 1998 and today. Hey, I'm just devil's adovcating here. I'd rather hear Al solo on acoustic guitar playing something I've never heard before than all those guests playing on re-recordings. That's all I'm saying.  I dig Al's work and want more of it.

[Smilin Ed H]

I was being devil's avocado too. Lazy from our point of view. As I said earlier, the guy's 66; let's face it, whether certain 'fans' like it or not, he's doing what he wants to do at his own pace.    I don't have problems with the covers (except maybe his signature Help Me Rhonda) but I guess my initial hope was that we'd get some kind of California folk-type stuff with BB calibre singing and harmonies - the kind of stuff I've read he's written or heard boots of from the late 70s (though I realise we're getting some of those too).  I just got a little pissed at people jumping all over him for - I suspect - being Al Jardine.

Hmm, re-reading this and the previous posts, I confess that my real - possibly only - beef with Al is that for a time in the mid-late 70s, he was attempting to write what might be called 'mature' BB songs in the Holland mode and yet none of them made the albums, including the one he oversaw, until  Bruce's syrupy production of Santa Ana Winds (possibly the best thing on KTSA).  Ironically, the only other person displaying any ambition in the songwriting seems to have been Dennis, but the band fractured and Al seems to have stood with Mike and gone for the summer-is-fun thing - though let's face it, the name of Brian Wilson is on a lot of those songs! I don't want to make any claims for Al being as good as writer as Dennis, because he wasn't, but between them, with the odd number by the others (including, Bruce, a more acclaimed songwriter, whose album also contained covers, remakes and a few new numbers, and who seems to show no interest in releasing anything he's written and is surely more a target for your ire than Jardine), we could have had some decent BB albums that might have garnered critical as well as fan respect, instead of the horrible winding down of a great band that did occur.

[donald]

Al seem to do well in an ensemble.  Maybe this is it.   I'm ready to hear it.

[John]

I was being devil's avocado too. Lazy from our point of view. As I said earlier, the guy's 66; let's face it, whether certain 'fans' like it or not, he's doing what he wants to do at his own pace.    I don't have problems with the covers (except maybe his signature Help Me Rhonda) but I guess my initial hope was that we'd get some kind of California folk-type stuff with BB calibre singing and harmonies - the kind of stuff I've read he's written or heard boots of from the late 70s (though I realise we're getting some of those too).  I just got a little pissed at people jumping all over him for - I suspect - being Al Jardine.

Hmm, re-reading this and the previous posts, I confess that my real - possibly only - beef with Al is that for a time in the mid-late 70s, he was attempting to write what might be called 'mature' BB songs in the Holland mode and yet none of them made the albums, including the one he oversaw, until  Bruce's syrupy production of Santa Ana Winds (possibly the best thing on KTSA).  Ironically, the only other person displaying any ambition in the songwriting seems to have been Dennis, but the band fractured and Al seems to have stood with Mike and gone for the summer-is-fun thing - though let's face it, the name of Brian Wilson is on a lot of those songs! I don't want to make any claims for Al being as good as writer as Dennis, because he wasn't, but between them, with the odd number by the others (including, Bruce, a more acclaimed songwriter, whose album also contained covers, remakes and a few new numbers, and who seems to show no interest in releasing anything he's written and is surely more a target for your ire than Jardine), we could have had some decent BB albums that might have garnered critical as well as fan respect, instead of the horrible winding down of a great band that did occur.

Very well stated.

[Awesoman]

Am I alone in really enjoying this?

Crosby's velvet voice holds together the minimal Friends-like track, and Al shows he's the only BB left with a full voice that doesn't need pro-tooling.

I wish Brian would record more in this vein, like he did with Walking Down the Path of Life.

The merits of recording another cover are neither here nor there with Al's album, it's not that kind of record.

Can't wait for the album.

While there is nothing really exceptional about this track (which he's already covered before), I don't mind it.  I just think it's cool to have David Crosby singing on it.  I'm cool with the stripped-down approach.  I think the reason Al does so many covers is mostly due to the fact that's where he's had the most success.  He's not much of a songwriter.  He's just playing to his strengths.  :-)