'Holland'

After the lackluster chart performance of Carl and the Passions (So Tough), Beach Boys manager Jack Rieley felt that a change of scenery might inspire new creativity, so he arranged for Brian Wilsons home studio to be dismantled and re-assembled in a barn in the Netherlands outside of Amsterdam in which the seven Beach Boys at the time including recently minted additions Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar would record the bands nineteenth album while living with their families in rented houses in nearby areas along with an engineering staff and Rieley himself, all paid for by the band's management. The reclusive Brian Wilson who was still dealing with his mental health problems at the time was the last Beach Boy to arrive in the Netherlands for the recording sessions and his involvement in the sessions was minimal.

Recording for the album took place over the summer of 1972.Carl Wilson acted as the supervising producer for the album as he had done on most of the post SMiLE albums up to that point.

Ironically the albums first track was the only song not recorded in Holland that summer; rather it was recorded in Los Angeles in November of 1972 as it was added to the album at the insistence of Warner Brothers, owner of the Reprise Records label which along with the Beach Boys own Brother Records label released their albums at the time as they were unable to hear any potential hits on the album as it was presented. Said lead-off track "Sail On Sailor" started as a melody Brian started writing with SMiLE collaborator Van Dyke Parks back in 1971. Tandyn Almer later added further musical contributions while Ray Kennedy and Jack Rieley added lyrics. The track was produced by Carl who also added electric guitar, various keyboards and synthesizers and background vocals, Ricky Fataar played drums and sang background vocals with Mike Love along with Gerry Beckley of the band America with Kevin Michaels providing tambourine while the bass guitar and lead vocal duties were taken by Blondie Chaplin. The song indeed managed to hit 49 on the billboard charts and became a minor radio hit in 1973. Unfortunately, the original leadoff song for the album recorded in Holland, "We Got Love", was left off the album. The song was written by Chaplin and Fataar, who were both black South African musicians, with Mike Love as a statement against South Africa's "Apartheid" system of racial segregation that was enforced at the time.

Track two is "Steamboat" written by Dennis Wilson with lyrics by Rieley, produced by Dennis and Carl and featuring Carl on lead vocals. The lyrics of the song namecheck Robert Fulton who invented the steamboat in 1807.

Following this is a three song three track cycle called "California Saga" ironically for the first Beach Boys album not recorded in California. The first song in the cycle is called "Big Sur" written and sung by Mike Love and produced by Carl and Al Jardine. The second part "The Beaks Of Eagles" features spoken-word recitation of a poem of the same name by Robinson Jeffers while the musical interludes are sung by Al Jardine and were written musically and lyrically by Al with Lynda, his wife at the time. Jardine also receives sole writing and production credit on the third part of the cycle "California", the majority of which is sung by Mike with Brian singing the opening line and ironically featuring Bruce Johnston who had left the band's lineup not long before.

"The Trader" is co-written, produced and sung by Carl with Rieley again providing the colonialism and manifest destiny-themed lyrics. The "Hi" heard at the beginning of the track is actually Carl's son Jonah who was a young child at the time.

"Leaving This Town" is written by Carl, Mike, Blondie who sings lead, and Ricky who wrote the majority of the song and also takes production credit in addition to his usual role of playing drums on the track along with Hammond organ and pedal steel guitar.

"Only With You" is written by Dennis and Mike, with Dennis producing and playing piano and Carl on lead vocals as well as electric piano, rounded out by Blondie on bass and Ricky on drums.

Album closer "Funky Pretty" was written by the long-established Brian Wilson/Mike Love songwriting team with Jack Rieley. Brian handled production duties in addition to playing piano, synthesizers, drums and congas on the track. Carl's brother-in-law and longtime Beach Boys and Brian Wilson Band sideman Billy Hinsche also adds backing vocals.

As part of the album package there was a bonus EP featuring a "fairy tale" about a prince and his magic radio called Mt.Vernon and Fairway after the address of Mike Loves childhood home which was written by Brian and narrated by Jack Rieley along with instrumental backing and song interludes much in the vein of Harry Nilsson's "The Point" LP from 1971.

The album Holland was released on January 8th 1973, was well reviewed in publications such as Rolling Stone and attracted admirers such as future stars Tom Petty and Elvis Costello. The album would ultimately act as the pinnacle of the Beach Boys post-SMiLE evolution and the highest point of the Beach Boys artistic progression before their descent into self-parody unintentionally spurred on by a surprise hit movie that hit theaters the following summer directed by a young recent graduate of the University of Southern California's film school named George Lucas.