Owned since: 2012
Genre: Old people trying to get their youth back, again
Where I bought it: Sounds Arnhem
Year: 1976
Label/pressing: Brother
In 1976 the Beach Boys turned 15 and most of their contemporaries of either the surf rock craze or lush studio based art pop have broken up at in the early 70’s the latest. With punk on the horizon and new wave looming already, there wasn’t a band more outdated around this time than the band that spent most of the 70’s trying to keep their already spotty reputation going. Even the 60’s were not kind to The Beach Boys for a lot of reasons; a lot of records never hit high sales or even got pretty cut back critical appraisal and the band seemed to have a hard time to figure out what next. The follow ups to Pet Sounds were all interesting records but were packed with throwaway songs beside the plenty of great stuff on there. What makes it even sadder is that in the early 70’s The Beach Boys had a brief turn around with Sunflower and Surf’s Up which were critical favorites. Surf’s Up, by far the most bleak beach boys album, also sold quite well.
At this point the touring version of the band had been lacking Brain Wilson for a while already, through his mental health problems which started in the mid 60’s Around the early 70’s he mostly worked from his home studio either with or without the band. His output with the band kind of dried up, every album has some tracks he is on or written but the underrated Holland really seemed to bring him to a breaking point. Follow-up Carl and the Passions – “So Tough’’ was a mostly Mike Love lead project that threw back to the band’s surf rock start and 50’s doo-woop. Wilson co-wrote 3 songs for it including You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone, which failed to chart.
After this album in 1974, Wilson started to get into Eugene Landy’s radical 24-hour therapy program. He became more outgoing again and involved with the band even though Landy’s methods were way later deemed highly unethical and even put Wilson in a worse mental health. Through all this came 15 Big Ones which got launched with a big BRIAN IS BACK campaign because he would be part of the touring lineup again in regular performances after being gone since 1964 (he kept performing the rare song spot/show after that with the band) and he mostly self-produced this record. Probably at this point you’re wondering why you never heard of 15 Big Ones then and there’s a good reason for it. Wilson set out to do a cover record not unlike So Though full of 50/60’s throwbacks he arranged but the rest of the band wanted to showcase some new music. So, in not the first and for sure not the last time in Beach Boys history, a compromise was reached: part covers/part new songs. 8 covers against 7 originals on an album that barely reaches the 40 minutes doesn’t sound very promising and honestly it is kind of the case.
Even with the recordings being a big shambles of various sessions cut apart by tours, 15 Big Ones even doesn’t sound as much thrown together as you expect it to be. It’s still very much the start of the end for the Beach boys, this time for real, but they churn out a fairly bread and butter album of slight but catchy enough originals and covers. Mike Love accused Brian Wilson of underproduction which might be true because Wilson’s heart wasn’t much into arguing with the rest of the band but I’ve always enjoyed the garage band sound of it all. It’s weird to hear one of the biggest groups of the 60’s being brought to this point but it’s honestly big praise for the Beach Boys that them at their lowest drive still churn out a perfectly acceptable record. Is it Beach Boys quality? No, not at all. Their early 70’s records used the tension in the band to go in interesting directions but at this point everyone except Brian just seems to be into becoming a bit of an oldies touring band who sometimes releases a record. The Mike Love years aren’t far ahead of the band here, which is a depressing thought, but we aren’t there yet. Love isn’t even on this record that much; he has one solo writing credit, 3 other co-writing efforts and has lead vocals on just 6 of the songs. It’s more than the spots he has on Holland and Love You but there is for sure a reason why Mike Love seems to hate this period of the band maybe the most. It’s neither really easy to do for the band and it really is where the big part of Wilson’s indifference in the band starts through outside influences start to pop up again after being barely back ‘full-time’. I should get around covering Love You some day which is an album I really like but the writing is already on the wall here with 15 Big Ones that Brian Wilson being seen as the lead Beach Boys is coming to an end.
Content wise 15 Big Ones has for sure its moments. There’s a very dramatic cover of the Righteous Brother’s Just Once in My Life which has Carl and Brian taking up the lead vocals. The swampy sound of the 50’s orchestral pop records really get nailed here by Brian, there’s some tremendous vocals in this and some wonderful early synths all hiding pretty much behind one of those extremely echo kick drums. It being the closing track of this record makes it really easy to hear it’s one of the few parts of the record Brian was interested in doing a compelling job with and I think it’s a little gem on a record full of inoffensive but pretty middle in the road garage band stuff. The Chapel Of Love cover is a bit too happy for its own good, Mike Love era live show staple Rock and Roll Music sounds completely lifeless here and it takes 45 seconds for the piano to even start on Blueberry Hill with a cheesy stand up bass getting the spotlight for the first part of this. Palisades Park is a good rocker written originally by gong show host/possible spy Chuck Barris in the 60’s for a singer group.
For the originals It’s Ok is a fine throwback to 50’s doo woop they started with, Had to Phone Ya is a fairly lazy throwback to the more orchestral sound of The Beach Boys and That Same Song is a fairly standard but not terrible piano blues song. Overall the sound is very much one of going back to the basics and it’s a shame the songs aren’t really there because the ‘raw’ production for sure would be a good fit for a better rounded bunch of Wilson songs. TM Song is an odd little song about Transcendental Meditation which starts with a shouting match in the studio and then turns into a one minute throwback Smile outtake sound-alike about, well, TM. It exists and is by far the most Wilson thing on this record.
After this Brian joined the live band for a while again and then went back to doing spots sometimes again after Love You was released. This later led to his complete split from the band and leaving the road open for the Mike Love era of The Beach Boys which is still ongoing with some weird breaks in between where the band is back together with most of their famous line-up. 15 Big Ones is the definition of a dollar bin record but it’s far from the worst the band produced and as a history footnote it’s an interesting listen for sure. Now to get around to Love You where I got a lot more to say about the actual content of the record.