| The Beach Boys Love You | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Artist: | the Beach Boys |
| Cover: | LoveYouCover.jpg |
| Recorded: | January 7, 1970 – November 1973 October 1976 – January 1977 (album sessions) |
| Studio: |
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| Label: | |
| Producer: | Brian Wilson |
| Prev Title: | 15 Big Ones |
| Prev Year: | 1976 |
| Next Title: | M.I.U. Album |
| Next Year: | 1978 |
The Beach Boys Love You is the 21st studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released April 11, 1977, on Brother/Reprise.
The album was largely recorded in late 1976 at the band's Brother Studios. Originally planned as Brian Loves You, it is essentially a solo project by Brian Wilson, who wrote almost all of the material and played nearly every instrument on the record, including keyboards, synthesizers, and drums. He later referred to Love You as his life-defining work, and his most creatively fulfilling since Pet Sounds (1966). Engineer Earle Mankey described the album as "serious", "autobiographical", and "frighteningly accurate" to Wilson's personality.
The subject matter of the 14 songs ranges from the Solar System and roller skating to adolescent sexuality and babies. Wilson also included tributes to his wife, daughters, and mistress, as well as his idols Phil Spector and Johnny Carson. Although Love You was met with near-unanimous critical acclaim, some listeners found the album's bizarre, childlike quality to be a detriment. The record sold poorly, peaking at number 53 in the U.S. and number 28 in the UK.
Love You has since been recognized for presaging synth-pop and new wave. A follow-up, Adult/Child, was completed by the group, but left unreleased. It was the last album Wilson wrote and produced until his first solo LP, Brian Wilson (1988), and his last that was created without significant interference from outsiders.
Following a period of semi-inactivity, in late 1975, Wilson became a patient under psychologist Eugene Landy's radical 24-hour therapy program. Under Landy's care, he became more stable and socially engaged, with his productivity increasing once again. During the latter half of 1976, Wilson became a regular member of the band's touring line-up for the first time since 1964. The tagline "Brian's Back!" became a major promotional tool for the group's concert tours, as well as their July release 15 Big Ones, the first Beach Boys LP that reached the U.S. top 10 with new material since Pet Sounds (1966), and their first that credited Wilson as the sole producer since Pet Sounds.
15 Big Ones, which had consisted of an equal share of cover songs and originals, came as a disappointment for most fans and the group members themselves. In a contemporary interview, Wilson acknowledged that the album was "nothing too deep", but promised that the band's next release would be "a masterpiece" on par with "Good Vibrations" (1966). It was to be the second-to-last album owed to their record company, Warner Bros., as their contract had been set to expire in July 1977.
From July to August 1976, Wilson joined his bandmates on a U.S. tour, after which he produced a large collection of studio recordings, largely by himself while the other Beach Boys were preoccupied with their own personal and creative affairs. Dennis Wilson worked on his first solo album Pacific Ocean Blue (1977), Carl Wilson produced Ricci Martin's Beached (1977), Mike Love taught Transcendental Meditation, and Al Jardine spent time with his family. Landy was dismissed as Brian's psychologist in early December, amid concerns of his raising fees and controversial treatment methods.
At the time, Wilson had considered issuing his new material under his own name. Asked in a December 1976 interview about his feelings on a solo career, Brian responded that he would like to release a solo album, however, he did not want to deal with the inner-band politics that would result from him becoming a solo artist. He said, "They want to keep the material for the Beach Boys, too".[1] Later in the interview, he remarked that he had recently left the band temporarily, citing a wish to have "freedom" and "to do my own album", and was undecided on whether he would stay as their producer or instead pursue a solo career.[1]
Love You was largely recorded in October and November 1976 at the band's Brother Studios in Santa Monica, California. Demo recordings, in which Wilson previewed his new songs for his bandmates, were captured at a Brother Studios session in fall 1976. The demoed songs were "Airplane", "I'll Bet He's Nice", "It's Over Now", "Let's Put Our Hearts Together”, "Love Is a Woman", "Little Children”, "Mona", and "Still I Dream of It”.[2] In 2021, five of these demo recordings were officially released as downloadables on Wilson's official website.[3]
The Love You sessions marked the first time that Brian was given free rein on a new Beach Boys album since the Smile sessions in 1967. He wrote almost the entire album and performed nearly every instrument, including keyboards, synthesizers, and drums. Carl and Dennis contributed some instrumentation, while Jardine and Love were rarely present for the sessions, and ultimately every member of the band sang several lead vocals. In biographer Peter Ames Carlin's estimation, "it was essentially [Brian's] solo album", while biographer Christian Matijas-Mecca concurred that it was effectively "a Brian Wilson solo album with only brief contributions by other members of the band who added their parts after the bulk of the work was finished." Conversely, Jardine said, "In a way, [''Love You''] was Carl's tribute to Brian.... Carl wanted Brian to feel appreciated. He had the most to do with that album, him and Dennis, paying tribute to their brother."[4] Biographer Jon Stebbins similarly viewed it as "pretty much a Wilson brothers album", adding that "it's clear that Dennis and Carl willingly checked their egos to help Brian get this one out."
Contrasting his earlier records, which had used orchestras of organic instruments, electronic sounds pervade Love You, with Brian more reliant on the Moog synthesizer than he had been on 15 Big Ones. All of the bass lines were performed by himself with ARP and Moog synthesizers. Biographer Mark Dillon attributed the record's "oddball sound" directly to Wilson's use of these instruments. Jardine acknowledged, "The Minimoogs are all over the place."[4] Wilson said his use of synthesizers was partly influenced by Wendy Carlos' Switched-On Bach (1969). Like on 15 Big Ones, Dennis' and Brian's vocals appeared rough and strained. Carlin describes Brian's singing style on Love You as a "gravelly, messed-up baritone and often slightly off-key. .. in some ways it almost feels like a suicidal gesture."
Brother staff engineer Earle Mankey, who had also worked on 15 Big Ones, recalled that Wilson appeared to exert more self-discipline during the Love You sessions, working typically from 10 or 11 A.M. to the early afternoon. He said that, unlike prior occasions, Wilson took the initiative to record in the studio "instead of being forced into it." Carl was credited on the Love You liner notes as "mixdown producer". According to Mankey, "Carl took his productions seriously and did really careful mixes. When Brian came in, he'd say, 'Let's mix this,' and after one pass, like five minutes later, he'd say, 'That's good!' Or maybe he'd say, 'More bass! More vocal!' But that was it."