Beach Boys Boxset "Feel Flows"

In 1970, The Beach Boys' Sunflower LP got great reviews but stalled at #151 on the US charts. The next year, the group's Surf's Up album got great reviews and made it to a better #29. Fifty years later the box set Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions - 1969-1971 debuted all the way at #9. The Beach Boys, it seems, were made for these times. Howie Edelson, Brother Records consultant and author of the liner notes, joins us to recall the time when these six guys "all suited up and brought their A game."

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Mojo reissue of the year:

THE BEACH BOYS
Feel Flows:
The Sunflower &
Surf’s Up Sessions
1969-1971 (CAPITOL/UMC)


A treasure chest from the
post-Smile shipwreck of
Hawthorne’s finest thrilled
us in 2021. AL JARDINE
and BRUCE JOHNSTON
receive MOJO’s laurels
from BILL DeMAIN.
EVEN HARDCORE Beach Boys fans
well-versed in the bounty to be found in
the years of Brian Wilson’s evanescence
were enthralled by the five discs of Feel
Flows. But as a gratified Bruce Johnston
and Al Jardine remind MOJO today, the period
was anything but plain sailing for the band.
“We were just out of sync with the times,” says
Jardine. “To put it in surfing terms, sometimes you
catch the perfect wave and take it as far as you can
go. Other times, you know you’re going to get wiped
out. So you go under and start all over again.”
In late 1969, waves had submerged The Beach
Boys’ boardwalk empire. No hits, no record deal,
and with Brian sidelined, no creative leader. Yet
they emerged from the fathoms not just with
trinkets and curios, but awe-inspiring treasures
worthy of Pet Sounds and Smile.
“When the famous surfer
blond bushy-tailed guys fell out
of favour, we grew up,” says
Bruce Johnston. “And that
period from ’69-71 was the
highlight of my whole Beach
Boy life.”
Part of growing up was
balancing fun, fun, fun with
work, work, work.
“Every day, we were like
journeyman carpenters,” says
Jardine. “We’d go in the studio
and record. It didn’t matter if it
was something esoteric and
weird. We regenerated,
reinvented. The performance
band was still in bondage to
doing the hits, but in the studio,
we were creating music for a
future. We just didn’t know the
future would take quite this
long to happen (laughs).”
With Brian “reclusing in his
room”, as Johnston puts it, Carl
Wilson stepped up as unofficial
leader. “No one can fill Brian’s
shoes. But Carl was able to
manage some good traffic at
that point. And Feel Flows is up
there with The Trader as one of his shining moments
as a writer.”
Meanwhile, Jardine raves about Dennis Wilson’s
contributions, notably Forever and Sound Of Free.
“Unfortunately, he had to compete with his brothers
for track selection. But his songs were just, wow,
right there, the way they hit you. He should’ve had
more success than he did.”

That’s not to take anything away from their own
songs. Jardine’s eco-conscious meditation Don’t Go
Near The Water was prescient. “I thought maybe
I should write about something more than just
staying on top of the water riding the waves and
instead look at what’s underneath.”
Meanwhile, Johnston’s dewy memory lane waltz
Disney Girls revealed him as a keen acolyte of Brian’s
orchestral pop. Of its inspiration, Johnston says,
“Remember Marilyn on The Munsters? The nice,
normal one. I was Mr Marilyn (laughs). I never did any
drugs. I saw them undo Brian and some of my
friends and thought, Oh my God. As a teenager
in the Eisenhower ’50s I was the same kind of
square guy, holding my girlfriend’s hand in the
backseat of her parents’ car while Old Cape Cod
by Patti Page played.”
Those songs and more are
currently shoring up the setlists
of two separate road bands.
But how is touring against a
lingering Covid backdrop?
Johnston and Jardine’s
responses reveal not only
political leanings but ongoing
friction. “A lot of warm bodies in
those seats, dying to get out of
the house,” says Johnston, who
with Mike Love – and Love’s son
Christian – leads The Beach
Boys. “We probably lost about
four or five concerts. And I’m
still living.”
Jardine, who’s out with Brian
Wilson and Blondie Chaplin, says,
“It’s crappy. The demographic
of our band and bands like the
Stones are down about 50 per
cent, because they don’t want
to come out and get exposed. It
would be better in this day and
age if we could all be together on
the same stage at the same time.”
And with The Beach Boys’ 60th
anniversary coming in 2022,
could that reunion perhaps
happen? Jardine: “Brian’s people
want it. I want it. I’m sure Bruce
does. So it’s really up to Mike,
if he wants to join the party or not.” Johnston says,
“I asked Mike about it and he said, ‘Maybe we’ll do
a concert or two together. Who knows?’”
“I think he’ll come around at some point,”
Jardine says. “We should do at least a dozen big
shows in the major capitals. I mean, why can’t we
put the fans ahead of us for a change and give them
what they want?”

BRIAN SPEAKS!
Or rather, e-mails MOJO
about his most celebrated
songs on Feel Flows.
’Til I Die: “It’s what I was feeling
in my soul and my heart at that
time. And my love for life at the
same time.”
Surf’s Up: “Really complex
lyrics and the melody was such
a beautiful feeling for me
when I finished it.”