REM’s 1985 Reconstruction Of The Fables Of The album was produced by Joe Boyd, as a deliberate choice by Peter Buck, and because of the producer’s previous Witchseason work (Fotheringay, Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, Nick Drake etc.). I’d assumed that any appreciation of The Beach Boys beyond the sixties was surely pure kitsch – and secondhand copies of their early 70s albums (and especially Surf’s Up) looked like desperate, failed attempts to ‘get hip’ by a long-gone and essentially-dead franchise… Had I known any of this in the mid-80s, I’m sure I couldn’t have cared less – I wasn’t aware of Smile, wasn’t interested in Pet Sounds, never mind all that ‘surfing shit’. They represent years of blood, sweat and tears. Witnessing the group’s poor sales record…thinks they have run their course and decides to cash in, selling the copyrights for all Brian and Mike’s classic songs to…the publishing division of A&M Records, for the grand sum of $700,000…Murry allegedly tells Brian that the songs will never amount to anything…Brian is inconsolable and spends several days in dark isolation… songs are his babies. In late 1969, as a partial solution, and with the band’s hit-making career seemingly over, Brian Wilson’s father, ex-manager, and sole owner of their Sea Of Tunes publishing catalogue, And there are, of course, also the costs and demands of a pop-group lifestyle… The Beach Boys’ finances were in a pretty dire state, due to the complexities of their contract, a withholding of royalties (especially for production, which Brian had taken sole responsibility for until 1967), and including outdated deductions for ‘breakages’ that related to the shipping of shellac discs to shops (imagine a Beach Boys 78! Oh, hang on…). Of course a hit album would have been useful, as well as accompanying hit singles… As the band’s third post-Brian, group-produced effort, 20/20‘s main function was to help fulfill a contractual obligation to Capitol Records and, while attempting to renegotiate their Capitol contract, they also shopped around for a new label.
I guess these are Mike Love lyrics…).Ģ0/20 was The Beach Boys’ twentieth album (including compilations, and hence its title) – eleven of these were all pretty much written, arranged and produced by Brian Wilson – and all within an 8 year period. The same fate fell upon the inadvertantly-ironic title track of their 1968 album (‘ we’ve been friends now for so many years…we drifted apart for a little bit of a spell‘…etc.
Had I not gotten this, and through the circuitous route it came my way – had I heard Smiley Smile first, for instance – I’m sure I wouldn’t now be counting down the days in anticipation of the forthcoming Smile Sessions box :Īfter Good Vibrations‘ worldwide success in 1966, and Heroes and Villains‘ relative flop, followup singles Wild Honey and Darlin’ reached the US top 40, but these mediocre efforts made the band few new friends. 20/20 was the record that started my Smile obsession.
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