#will post a proper outtakes post with pictures later! they came out way too good to be only shown for one single cc preview pic

[pralinesims]

The way he looks so tall in this fit? Higher waisted pants really do change up the perception of proportions.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

The Beach Boys’ “New Album” of 1976: What The Heck Was It?

Mid-1976.

Brian Wilson, upon rehabilitation, has just finished producing 15 BIG ONES, the first Beach Boys album to be produced by he and just he himself since PET SOUNDS all the way back in 1966. 15 BIG ONES leaves not only a lot of leftovers for potential future use, but Brian also has what appears to be a major creative rush in the ensuing months...

The next album from The Beach Boys would eventually be LOVE YOU, which was released in April 1977...

But LOVE YOU actually evolved out of a Brian solo project called BRIAN LOVES YOU. He had two album projects in the works in mid-to-late 1976... A Beach Boys album proper, and his solo project.

The finished LOVE YOU is an amalgamation of both...

What was the Beach Boys album that was being worked on in fall 1976?

Little is known about it, and the tracks that were recorded around the period are generally lumped in with the LOVE YOU sessions of October-November of 1976. Songs like ‘Sherry, She Needs Me’, ‘Lazy Lizzie’, a cover of ‘Ruby Baby’ (the second time they recorded this number, the first time was for 1965′s BEACH BOYS’ PARTY!), ‘Hey, Little Tomboy’, and ‘Marilyn Rovell’.

BRIAN LOVES YOU, by contrast, featured largely Brian with some contributions by brothers Dennis and Carl. Mike Love and Al Jardine had next to no input... Some of the early mixes from this period have leaked out over time, painting a picture of what LOVE YOU could’ve sounded like without the subsequent input from the rest of the Beach Boys and the additional production Carl did on it.

The music on both shares a similar, gleefully weird vibe that I can never get enough of. This is a period of creative resurgence for Brian. Some tracks that came out of him during this time are examples of his prowess as a composer, and the majority of them are him singing about what he felt. Even if it was sometimes a thought or two that perhaps should’ve *stayed* as a thought or two.

Interestingly, there appears to have been a proposed tracklisting for the untitled 1976 album. It’s always been called “New Album” by fans because of an interview Brian had in December 1976, referring to whatever was coming out as “The New Album”. (He had also called it BRIAN’S IN LOVE, and stated that the 1970 Halloween outtake ‘My Solution’ was going to be included in the tracklisting.) This purported track listing even apparently had an order for the tracks, and was put together around October:

Side 1: ‘Lazy Lizzie’, ‘H.E.L.P. is on the Way’, ‘Sherry, She Needs Me’, ‘Hey, Little Tomboy’, ‘Games Two Can Play’, ‘Marilyn Rovell’

Side 2: ‘Ding Dang’, ‘I Wanna Pick You Up’, ‘Good Time’, ‘Ruby Baby’, ‘When Girls Get Together’, ‘On Broadway’, ‘Sea Cruise’

This would’ve probably tanked, hard. ‘Lazy Lizzie’ as an opener, for anyone who has even heard that song, would’ve nuked the album right away. There’s also far too many leftovers on here, spanning back to 1969, such as SUNFLOWER outtakes ‘Games Two Can Play’ and ‘When Girl Get Together’. ‘Good Time’, recorded in early 1970, is also a SUNFLOWER outtake, ‘H.E.L.P.’ is from the immediate post-SUNFLOWER sessions of mid-1970, and ‘Sherry, She Needs Me’ is a new set vocals on top of a 1965 (!) backing track. ‘Ding Dang’ dates back to roughly 1973, and is part of a curious saga of Brian renditions of the nursery rhyme ‘Shortenin’ Bread’. Curiously, ‘Ding Dang’ and ‘I Wanna Pick You Up’ were later ported over to LOVE YOU. Some of the new material is questionable, too. Much has already been written about ‘Hey, Little Tomboy’’s dodgy lyrics and awful spoken-word section, and ‘Marilyn Rovell’ is a ditty comparable to Paul McCartney’s amusingly fluffy RED ROSE SPEEDWAY outtake ‘Thank You Darling’. I actually don’t mind ‘Marilyn Rovell’ as a silly little throwaway, but as an album track? That would’ve made eyebrows rise, for sure. ‘Ruby Baby’ surprisingly isn’t from the 15 BIG ONES sessions though it sounds like it is, it is a then-new recording, while ‘On Broadway’ and ‘Sea Cruise’ are actual 15 BIG ONES outtakes.

The group made the wise choice to more or less combine both projects. There were a few other tracks recorded during these sessions that didn’t seem to be intended for either album... ‘That Special Feeling’ didn’t seem to get past the demo stage, while a cover of ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’, ‘Hey There Momma’, ‘We Gotta Groove’, ‘Clangin’’ (another ‘Shortenin’ Bread’ jam), ‘My Diane’, and ‘11th Bar Blues’ didn’t make the final cut. One could theoretically make a late 1976 LP made up of LOVE YOU outtakes and these tracks, and maybe a few leftovers from earlier, and make a record that flows pretty okay.

Some of these fall 1976 tracks would eventually appear elsewhere. ‘Hey, Little Tomboy’, for whatever reason, saw some modifications in early 1978 and was included on M.I.U. ALBUM. That fall 1978 album also included a modified ‘My Diane’. ‘Hey There Momma’’s track was re-used in late 1977 for a Christmas song called ‘I Saw Santa Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’, for an ill-fated Christmas album project - titled MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE BEACH BOYS - recorded at the same time as M.I.U. ALBUM. This wouldn’t show up until 1998′s ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS. ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’ turned up on the anniversary box set MADE IN CALIFORNIA 1962-2012. The rest remain unreleased... Maybe until a copyright extension box set chronicling the 15 BIG ONES and LOVE YOU sessions?

The best was saved, I feel, for LOVE YOU. Side one of the 1977 album is the “woke up, chose violence” side of Brian Wilson in terms of his songwriting and just expressing whatever came to mind, in that idiosyncratic way that he often did it... while the second side - similar to that 1965′s THE BEACH BOYS TODAY! - sees him reflecting and tapping into his much more pained and emotional side.

Still, I feel you can make a solid brother album out of... ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’, ‘My Diane’, ‘Hey There Momma’, and ‘Sherry, She Needs Me’. Beach Boys LPs usually were about 12 tracks long, so to pad out the rest... Probably outtakes, but The Beach Boys were strangers to reusing old songs for “new” albums, as evidenced here.

Instead, The Beach Boys pursued another ill-fated album after the release of LOVE YOU, a project that went by the name of ADULT/CHILD. Curiously, ADULT/CHILD ported over ‘Hey, Little Tomboy’ from the “New Album”, along with the 15 BIG ONES outtake ‘On Broadway’, the SUNFLOWER outtakes ‘Games Two Can Play’, and the mid-1970 recording ‘H.E.L.P.’ It makes for a weird combination already working off of even weirder new Brian compositions, but that’s another look for another day.