It Comes From The Land Downunder:
Brian Wilson - Beach Boys Rarities - 1981
In 1981, Australian DJ and rock historian Glenn A. Baker along with Beach Boys fan club president Stephen McParland (and the backing of EMI Australia) set about compiling a Brian Wilson/Beach Boys Rarities set for the Australian market. It was to be a "best of" collection culled from the Capitol Years box set. Using a vinyl copy of the box set instead of the master assembled by Roy Grudge and Mike Grant at Abbey Road Studios, the set was released in October of 1981. Three tracks not from the box set were also included. Lady and Sound Of Free by Dennis Wilson And Rumbo was a pair of sides released in Britain on the EMI-Stateside label. Also included was a live recording of the tune What'd I Say, from the Surfside '64 concert tour. It was recorded by radio station 2SM on group's stop in Sydney in January. The Ray Charles tune was a staple of the early '60s concerts.
After Rarities LP hit the stores it was quickly imported into the United States. Having such a fantastic collection of rare recordings, some never before released, was a special gift for collectors that Christmas.
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I sat down with Stephen McParland (over the internet in 1999) to discuss this collection, which is now almost twenty-five years old. The following is a portion of the interview I conducted with him in May of that year.
PS: Stephen, thanks for talking to us here at PetSite.
SM: It's a pleasure to talk about something that I thought everyone had forgotten about, even me!
PS: Would you tell us how the offer to compile the LP came about.
SM: If I recollect correctly, the idea came from Glenn A. Baker after a discussion we had. Glenn, at the time, was a disc jockey and "rock historian" responsible for the compilation of various LPs on Australian labels. Essentially, if a label wanted something historical (read that as '60s) done, they contacted Glenn. He proposed the idea to EMI who agreed to do it. Glenn then contacted me to "work with him" on it, as I was the recognized "Beach Boys expert."
PS: A question I have heard from many BW/BB fans is, what was the source of the material used on the compilation? I have heard that vinyl records were used, that the tapes from the World Records box set from the year before were used, and that you and Glenn Baker had to do a painstaking search of the Capitol-EMI vaults in Australia to find the 45 masters. What is the truth?
SM: That, I'm not so sure of as I was not involved in the "mastering stage". I picked out the tracks (with Glenn) and then he presented it to EMI. I know for a fact that definitely no masters as such were used as EMI here does not have any! All the rare Capitol tracks were culled from the World Record Club LPs. There would have been no other source then available.
PS: With all the contradictions regarding not only your Rarities project but the Beach Boys tapes in general, it is historically significant to sort this information out. I have found it astounding that a number of master tapes are missing from the Beach Boys hitmaking days.
SM: Sadly, Australian Record companies are notorious for not keeping master tapes. Most of our own early rock and roll releases no longer have masters. Whenever a CD is to be compiled, vinyl copies have to be found. Years ago I did a series of CD releases on one of Australia's best instrumental bands, The Atlantics. Luckily we found the original masters in the basement of CBS Records just in time. They had begun to "weld" together and had to be "cooked" to bring them apart. We were able to save all of them (now transferred to DAT), but sadly most everything else has been either destroyed or even taped over for economic purposes! Most reissue CDs now use the surviving LP pressing master, if it exists; otherwise they use the LP itself!
PS: How did the 2SM concert version of What'd I Say come to be included on the LP?
SM: Glenn knew it existed, and was able to get it from the station, who promoted the 1964 tour.
PS: Which brings me to the 64 million-dollar question. What was the reason for the withdraw of the Rarities LP from the market?
SM: As far as I am aware, it was because EMI found out (too late) that they no longer had the rights for the Dennis Wilson & Rumbo tracks, which were never issued here in the first place, but if they had been, they would have been on the EMI distributed Stateside label. Basically, Glenn and I knew there would be trouble if they discovered this, but we wanted the LP out with those two tracks on it! At least that's how I remember it. (Note: Stephen informed me that those two cuts were sourced from the vinyl single issued in Britain in 1970 - Ed.)
PS: The World Records Box Set has been released in both Japan and Australia on CD. The Japanese release includes the Brian Wilson Productions LP and the Australian one does not. Any clue as to why this is?
SM: To save money! The Australian CD pressing used the Japanese masters. They also got the Japanese book - in Japanese. They asked me for my World Record Club book to put together an English version; then lost it! By this time, Reader's Digest decided to produce a CD version, so EMI ended up using their books, but sticking a Capitol sticker over the Readers Digest labels. Reader's Digest also released a boxed LP version, which EMI pressed up for them on Reader's Digest labels.
PS: Do you think your 1981 Rarities LP will be released on CD?
SM: No.
PS: Again Stephen, the PetSite readers and I thank you for your time.
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After the above converstaion with Stephen took place, I spoke with Brad Elliott who was engaged by Capitol at the time the above LP was released. I asked him why the Rarities LP was pulled off the shelves.
Brad relayed the following: Dave Nowlen of the Survivors stumbled across an imported copy of the Rarities album from Australia and, much to his surprise, found The Survivors credited as The Beach Boys. Obviously, he knew they weren't. But he then sent a letter to Capitol USA complaining about the misattribution. That brought the whole package to Capitol USA's attention. Upon looking closely at it, they discovered two problems with it: (1) the inclusion of the Dennis Wilson & Rumbo tracks, which had only been licensed short-term to the Stateside label (like Sunflower and Surf's Up), and (2) the inclusion of What'd I Say from a 1964 Australian concert, for which Capitol had no contract with the Beach Boys. Capitol USA then basically had EMI Australia pull the album off the market.
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I remember the "run" on the 1981 LP (I think I still have a few copies left). I also remember discussing with several Beach Boy collectors around the country about how nice it would be if Capitol USA would release a Rarties package of some sort. Anything!
Even the Beach Boys and their new record label Caribou/CBS were promising big things but delivering little. A best of set slated for February release of 1981 held the most interest for all the panting fans awaiting new nuggets from the vaults. The reason? It was Bruce Johnston (then the BBs' official producer) who dangled a carrot in front of our noses with the following statement to Brad Elliott in an interview for Goldmine Magazine:
The compilation album, if we get It out, will be the best album they'll ever have. Because it's gonna cover all the period from say '68,'69 on. It's gonna get the best of everything, like "'Til I Die," "Disney Girls," "Sail On, Sailor," "San Miguel." It's gonna have a lot of stuff on it. We're going to collage the "Smile" album in this compilation. We're gonna just take . . . go through the "Smile" album - Brian doesn't know this - and just take little sections of the tunes we have and put it out as kind of a sampler of the "Smile" album. 'Cause it'll be better as a teaser than the whole thing. It's great, but a lot of these things aren't finished. So it's better to go and collage them...
Of course we waited in vain. The double LP that was set for release in February finally was released in late November. Ten Years Of Harmony was assembled and mastered by Carl Wilson as the rest of the group was too busy touring to meet their commitments to CBS. Carl had quit the Beach Boys for a time and the task fell to him alone. While no Smile music ever saw the light of day, Carl did manage to remix several tracks and release rare 45 mixes of Cool Cool Water, California Saga, Rock And Roll Music, It's Ok, It's A Beautiful Day and School Days. In addition, unreleased tracks such as San Miguel and Sea Cruise were also included. While this excellent package was well received by the fans, we were still hoping for something more.
Little did we know that Randall Davis, the exec behind Capitol USA's Beatles' Rarities LP, was thinking the same thing!
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