By: Howie Edelson
2025: Here we are – on the other side of a long hard-earned New Year. After the pats on the back and the listing of resolutions (some soon tested) comes the good part. Let’s usher in this month with a personal reflection tracing who we are, where we’ve been – and the exciting roads we’re heading down. As we embark on another trip around the sun, The Beach Boys’ music remains an excellent companion for the ride. A soundtrack, of sorts, for a clear mind and rejuvenated heart.
Photo by Ed Roach
The Beach Boys’ Focus playlist delves into material the casual fan might never discover on their own. This is rich and pure music for the soul; a capella pieces, fully produced tracks, demos, isolated vocals, evergreens, and largely unknown tunes. They all serve as a backdrop and conduit to a personal New Year’s reflective journey. Included are a considerable amount of songs plucked from the sessions for 1967’s Smiley Smile and Wild Honey, 1968’s Friends, and the following year’s 20/20 collection. In addition to the group’s proper catalogue, many of these tracks have been previously spotlighted on the critically acclaimed archival releases -- 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow 1 & 2 (2017); The Studio Sessions - Wake The World: The Friends Sessions (2018); I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions (2018); Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969–1971 (2021); and Sail On Sailor – 1972 (2022).
Beach Boys frontman Mike Love fondly recalled his life-changing introduction to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the practice of Transcendental Meditation. The Beach Boys were in Paris on December 15th, 1967, performing at the UNICEF Variety Gala, with Mike leaving immediately after the show for London:
“I got a call from Dennis, who said, ‘You gotta come back to Paris. The Maharishi is going to teach us to meditate.’ From Dennis Wilson, of all people! 'The Maharishi is gonna teach us to meditate at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning. Be here. But you have to get to sleep early because you’re supposed to get a lot of rest.' We went to the hotel, met the other boys, and the Maharishi gave us an introductory lecture. In the afternoon he gave us another talk and then he taught us the techniques of Transcendental Meditation. It was the most relaxed I had ever been in my whole life. It was so simple and if everybody did it, it would be a totally different world. So, from the very first time I meditated, I was intrigued. We believed in him – as I still do.”
Dennis Wilson’s songs and production work are well featured on the Focus playlist, including such incredible tracks as “Be Still,” “Steamboat,” and “A Time To Live In Dreams,” among others. Brian Wilson was especially proud of how his younger brother progressed as both a record maker and artistic force:
“Dennis had many unique talents. He was creative lyrically, expressive vocally and was melodically talented as well. He was all of those things put together.” In regard to how the group meshed sonically, Brian said: “When we all sing together, I feel a spiritual closeness. Harmony usually means notes that are perfectly and mathematically related to each other, like 1, 3 and 5. This is the basic chord of music. Then there’s 1, 3, 5 and 7. This is a more complex chord. It gets much more complex than that, but I try to keep it sounding simple, no matter how complex it really is.”
Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine admitted that although it was frustrating for the band to flounder commercially in America by the end of their first decade together – creatively, they always believed they were on the right track:
“I don’t know why, but we never seemed to be in sync with current events. Either we were ahead or behind, but we never really captured the moment. I felt we were out of step with the late-‘60s – we weren’t rockers, we were singers. For the (1968) Friends album, we showed up to (Brian’s home) studio every day and if Brian showed up, we were writing music. He, of course, was always there -- because he lived there! We just parked ourselves in the living room and waited for someone to show up and that’s how Brian and I wrote ‘Wake The World’ and the other songs on Friends together. It was nice to relax and not feel pressure because the studio time was running. We had a great deal of latitude with the time – because we were also the musicians, so we didn’t have to order session players. It was like The Beatles, who could just show up in a studio and play.”
But one of the many highlights on the Focus playlist is the standout Brian Wilson song and production, “’Til I Die.” The song is presented in its enlightening archival alternate mix made by the band’s legendary engineer Stephen Desper, which was first unveiled nearly 30 years later on 1998 on the soundtrack to Alan Boyd’s Endless Harmony documentary. Bruce Johnston recalled first hearing the soul-searching masterpiece:
“I remember Brian playing ‘’Til I Die’ for the band. . . I think that song was meaningful in expressing where he was at that point in time. I think it’s his heaviest song.”
An alternate version of Bruce’s 1969 20/20 fan favorite instrumental “The Nearest Faraway Place” is also featured on the new playlist:
“I read an article in Life magazine by Shana Alexander called ‘The Nearest Faraway Place’ and thought that it would be a great song title. I wrote the song as an instrumental and put my best Muzak arranging skills to work.”
For Carl Wilson, serving the band – both on the road, in the studio, and everywhere in between -- was his primary function as a Beach Boy. He proudly played an invaluable role in helping his brother realize his musical vision for the group:
“I’ve always been the one who worked closely with Brian. I was his underling. In addition to being one of the players in the studio, I worked with him in the control room, because he wanted my ear. I loved every minute of it. He could do no wrong. Brian could play me anything, and I would love it. He would record different versions of the same thing; one would be slightly slower or lighter. It was difficult to choose between them because they were all so beautiful to me.”
Like the best of The Beach Boys, this 2025 playlist paints a new picture and plots a wholly original path. Getting this music out to as large an audience as possible only makes for a kinder world. The more people hearing/thinking/feeling Beach Boys music means things are only getting better. That’s always been the case and hopefully always will be. Whether you play this music soft or loudly, during the dark or in the day – be sure to pass it on to everyone you hold near and dear.
The Beach Boys make EVERY year that much brighter.
Welcome 2025.
Cuddle Up.
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