'Carl and the Passions. (So Tough)'

With the departure of Bruce Johnston, South African guitarist Blondie Chaplin formerly of "The Flame" was brought into the Beach Boys to fill the sixth member slot as well as give the band more of an edgy guitar sound. In addition, the drummer for The Flame, Ricky Fataar was also brought onboard after Dennis Wilson severely injured his hand in the summer of 1971 forcing him to abandon the drum throne and move to the piano bench for the live shows.

The name "Carl and the Passions" was named after a group Carl Wilson led during his high school years. The packaging's inner sleeve features one of the few group photos of this incarnation of the group and is notable not only because it showed the Beach Boys for the first time as a multi-ethnic band with Chaplin and Fataar being black South Africans but also because while ostensibly Brian Wilson appears in the photo, in reality his visage was doctored in from a different photo to make him appear more involved than he actually was as at this time he was more concerned with his side project "Spring" later re-named "American Spring" to distinguish it from a band from the United Kingdom with the same name. He co-wrote several songs with Musician, David Sandler who had been introduced to him by the aforementioned Bruce Johnston. The group for the project consisted of Brian himself along with his wife Marilyn and his sister-in-law Diane Rovell who had once been two thirds of the group "The Honeys" back in the early sixties with their cousin.

Thus, Carl and the Passions was aptly titled as Carl Wilson oversaw the production of the album. Though the resulting album does in fact open with a composition by Brian with lyrics by band manager Jack Rieley, "You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone" which was also released as a single which failed to chart. Brian himself plays tack piano and Hammond organ as well as backing vocals and also produced the track. Carl overdubs electric guitars along with his brother-in-law Billy Hinsche as well as singing the lead vocal. Friend, Tandyn Almer plays bass, Doug Dillard once part of "Dillard and Clark" (a duo with former Byrd, Gene Clark.) plays banjo on the track. Gordon Marron adds electric violin, Ricky Fataar adds drums and tambourine while Mike Love and Al Jardine also add backing vocals.

Next is "Here She Comes" written by the two new members, Blondie and Ricky. The backing track is composed of piano and organ likely played by one or two of the three Wilson brothers and drums played by Fatarr and a guitar solo in the middle by Chaplin. It is quite an introduction to the new recruits, and the drum fills are quite awesome.

Next is the piano and organ driven "He Come Down" written by Brian, Al and Mike which references Jesus and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi whom Mike Love was a major fan of and met with in India in 1968 along with his most famous devotees, The Beatles. John Lennon famously became dis-illusioned with the maharishi and wrote the "white album" track "Sexy Sadie" about him, which made the Beach Boys subsequent tour with the Maharishi soon after such a massive sales and public relations disaster. The song itself is quite forgettable and was not the first ode to the Maharishi and Transcendental Meditation as a track literally called "Transcendental Meditation" had already appeared on Friends four years earlier nor was it the last one or even the only one on this album but more on that later.

Next is the album highlight "Marcella" which was written by Brian with Jack Rieley and Tandyn Almer. Brian played a variety of keyboards as well as vibraphone and sang backing vocals on the track with Ricky on drums and Castanets. This was the only song on the album to feature Bruce Johnston on vocals as it had started production before his departure from the band. Mike, Al, Dennis, Carl and Jack Rieley add backing vocals as well, in addition Carl produced the song and also added electric guitars. Tony Martin Jr. performs the notable steel guitar part and the track also features additional horns and percussion though who played these instruments is sadly unknown. The song was often performed in the 2000s by The Brian Wilson Band featuring a vocal introduction from singer Taylor Mills. During the Beach Boys' all too brief and ultimately ill-fated fiftieth Anniversary Tour in 2012, Brian Wilson personally requested the songs addition to the setlist to which Mike Love reluctantly obliged. This required Mike D'Amico who had served as percussionist, guitarist and eventually drummer for the Brian Wilson Band, and who mostly served as bassist for the Beach Boys reunion tour to take over drumming duties as the tours main drummer John Cowsill who had been the touring drummer for Mike Love's "Beach Boys" since 2007 was supposedly not familiar with the song. Bass duties were covered by multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory.

Next up is Chaplin and Fataar's "Hold On Dear Brother" which features Chaplin on guitar, Fataar on drums and I assume one or two of the three Wilson brothers on harpsichord and/or piano? it is catchy if not that substantial.

Next is "Make it Good" written by Dennis Wilson with touring keyboardist Daryl "Captain" Dragon with whom he was working on a potential solo album known as Hubba Bubba. Dennis ultimately would be the first Beach Boy to release a solo album but not until 1978 with Pacific Ocean Blue.

Next is the albums second helping of Transcendental Meditation themed songs "All This Is That" which in fairness despite its questionable subject matter is actually quite a good song featuring lovely vocals from Mike who co-wrote the song with Al who also sings lead and backing vocals and also handled production with Carl who sings lead and background vocals as well as adds a variety of keyboard instruments. Bass duties are taken by Daryl Dragon (According to Al and Blondie's recollections.) while Ricky plays brushes on the drums, an effect that may have actually arguably been improved on during the Beach Boys fiftieth anniversary reunion tour which included this song and featured drummer John Cowsill enhancing the effect with "Monster Brushes" from Vater, a drumstick manufacturer of which Cowsill was an endorser. Carl's falsetto vocal at the end of the song is an invocation of the term "Jai Guru Dev" which had previously been used in a more famous song by a slightly more famous group, John Lennon's epic "Across The Universe" from the Beatles' final released album from two years earlier Let It Be.

Next is another composition from Dennis Wilson and Daryl Dragon written for Dennis's proposed solo album and the B-side of the "You Need A Mess Of Help" single, "Cuddle Up", which Dennis produced and sings lead vocals , and features piano by Dragon who also conducted a full string section for the track. backing vocals by his future wife and duo partner Toni Tenille with whom he would later record a cover of the song for the Captain and Tenille's infamous Love Will Keep Us Together album, Blondie Chaplin and Carl Wilson who also adds acoustic guitar. Finally, Stephens LaFever adds bass guitar and "Wrecking Crew" percussionist Frank Capp adds Timpani.

Unfortunately, the album when released on May 15th, 1972, was at best an inconsistent mixed bag especially when compared to its predecessor Surfs Up and its successor Holland recorded later in 1972 and released in early 1973. Mike Love recalled in his memoirs that the songs of the album were largely produced during spare time the group had between touring commitments and thus quite rushed and even Carl Wilson was ultimately disappointed with the finished album though it did also have its admirers including most notably the soon to be biggest star of the 1970s, Elton John.

To make matters worse it was issued in a double package along with the first re-issue of Pet Sounds since its original release in 1966, making the difference in quality between the two albums all the more jarring.

Perhaps sensing that the Boys needed a new environment to inspire new creativity, manager Jack Reiley decided a change of locale in a different part of the world might do the trick which is where we will pick up the story next time.