Beach Boys - In Concert

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Music reviews of In Concert

Music Review: Third Live album with "Trader" and "Sail On Sailor."
Rating: 5 Stars

This is the group's third concert album, and personally my favorite. You capture the Beach Boys in 1973 and '74, which is the post-Viet Nam era of Watergate. The sun kissed California image, which was a marketing gimmick, was working against them. "Pet Sounds" was a critically acclaimed success and a commercial bomb. SMiLE was recoded, and then abandoned. And in 1973, Brian Wilson began his long hideout in his bed.

The concert album has all three phases of the Beach Boys: the Surfin USA phase, the Pet Sounds phase, and the Post Brian phase of the band. They play their classis songs, but with 1970's instrumentation and synthesizers. So California Girls takes on a funkier and almost disco feel, and Help Me Ronda gets bouncier, with more oomph from the guitar. And the bassist is out of this world! They have four Pet Sounds: Sloop John B, Caroline No, Wouldn't it be Nice, and Good Vibrations (listen to the Pet Sounds sessions, disc 2, track 12 and 13). But the best treasures on this album are the tracks from Friends, Wild Honey, Carl and the Passions, and Holland. Yes, there was life after Good Vibrations, and this concert is proof positive of it.

You here several of these forgotten (ignored?) classics such as Sail On Sailor, the Trader, Let the Wind Blow, and Darlin. Songs I wish that they would play at their concerts nowadays. These songs hold their own with Surfin USA and Good Vibrations, but they are more sophisticated, and, indeed, are more spiritual and soulful. The Beach Boys had a spiritual side that the Beatles lacked, George Harrison and the Mahrishi not withstanding. They recorded such songs as "Our Prayer," "God Only Knows," but also recorded a Christmas Album, and the more traditional "Lord's Prayer." They knew that they were not bigger than Jesus, but in a sense they helped Him bring people to a higher level and to commune with the infinite.

These concerts was recoded durting Blonie Chaplains and Ricky Fataar's brief stin as Beach Boys, and they lend a rougher and grittier edge to the sweet harmonies. In fact, they bring the band back to being a rock band again, something that was lost during the recording of the "Today" album.

I think the most surprising track on this album is the revamped version of "Surfin USA." I didn't think that anyone could resurrect this overplayed classic of theirs, but with Fataar and Chaplin's rougher and raunchier edge, the bring new life into this old classic. I like the song again because of how they play it on the album.

This album is a great companion disc to the Beat of the Beach Boys vol. 3: The Brothers Years. They both cover the forgotten ear of Beach Boys concerts, where you had the reassembled band trying to reinvent themselves in a post-Watergate era. Both Carl and Al try to cover Brian Wilson's lead vocals, and try to stick with the classics while letting people know they were still producing new music and newer classics.

With the death of Carl Wilson, we will never hear Trader in concert again. This album freezes forever his angelic voice, and preserves it for posterity.

Description of In Concert

Classic Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock