Sunflower (The Beach Boys album)

The Beach Boys were at their lowest popularity in the late 1960s, and their cultural standing was especially worsened by their public image, which remained incongruous with the "heavier" music of their peers.[7] Released by Capitol Records in February 1969, the band's newest album 20/20 sold better than their previous, Friends (1968).[8][9] However, they remained encumbered by an enormous debt that had been partly the result of two disastrous tours in 1968.[10] Recording sessions for their next album began in January 1969 and were produced by the Beach Boys collectively and by Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine, and Dennis Wilson individually.[11] Throughout the year, they recorded about four dozen studio tracks, with working titles for the new album including Reverberation, Sun Flower, and Add Some Music.[12]

On April 12, the Beach Boys filed suit against Capitol for unpaid royalties and production duties in the amount of $2 million (equivalent to $16 million in 2022).[13] In a press statement for this news, they also announced that they would be reviving their Brother Records imprint.[14][nb 1] On April 16, Capitol A&R director Karl Engemaan drafted a letter to band manager Nick Grillo indicating that the group and label were still interested in renewing their contract. Engemaan asked the group to be ready to deliver the new album (then known under the working titles The Fading Rock Group Revival or Reverberation) by May 1.[15][nb 2] Only seven of the ten tracks were completed by the deadline, and so the album was not delivered.[15]

In 1969, Brian was increasingly known for his reclusiveness and eccentric behavior, which affected his reputation within the music industry.[16] Grillo struggled to find another major label interested in signing the group, as he remembered, "Brian was notorious at that point" and label executives found the band too risky to sign. Since the Beach Boys' remained highly popular in the UK, Grillo attempted to secure a foreign, worldwide contract with a European company.[13] During the first half of 1969, the Beach Boys continued to tour and increasingly engaged in benefit concerts held at hospitals and penitentiaries.[17][nb 3]

On May 27, three days before the group embarked on a four-week tour of the UK and Europe,[15] Brian told the music press that the group's funds were depleted to the point that they were considering filing for bankruptcy at the end of the year, which Disc & Music Echo called "stunning news" and a "tremendous shock on the American pop scene".[18][nb 4] In response, Grillo told reporters that Brian's comments were untrue and that he was "just putting you on".[14][nb 5] Brian said he hoped that the success of a forthcoming single, "Break Away", would mend the band's financial issues.[18] He wrote the song with his father and ex-band manager Murry Wilson. It was released on June 16 with the B-side "Celebrate the News", a Dennis song, and peaked at number 63 in the US and number 6 in the UK.[19] During that summer, Brian focused his attention on launching the Radiant Radish, a health food store in West Hollywood.[20][nb 6]

From May 30 to June 30, the Beach Boys toured with Paul Revere & the Raiders and Joe Hicks.[22][nb 7] Their Capitol contract expired on June 30 with one more album still due,[23] after which the label deleted the Beach Boys' catalog from print, effectively cutting off their royalty flow.[13][nb 8] Studio recording resumed sporadically from July to October amid numerous promotional appearances.[25]

The Beach Boys expected that, since they were considered a "legendary band" by this point, many other labels would approach them with contractual offers, but few did.[26][nb 9] Throughout June, the group met with the Berlin-based company Deutsche Grammophon, who were keen to sign the band,[27] but Brian's remarks in the press ultimately thwarted the contract negotiations.[28] Polydor, Deutsche's American affiliate, also refused to sign the group because the company did not like the band's music or the members personally.[29] CBS and MGM also rejected the band.[30]

In August, the Manson Family committed the Tate–LaBianca murders. According to Jon Parks, the band's tour manager, it was widely suspected in the Hollywood community that Charles Manson was responsible for the murders, and it had been known that Manson had been involved with the Beach Boys, causing the band to be viewed as pariahs for a time.[31] That same month, Carl, Dennis, Mike Love, and Jardine sought a permanent replacement for Johnston. They approached Carl's brother-in-law Billy Hinsche, who declined the offer to focus on his college studies.[32][nb 10] In late 1969 (either reported as occurring in August[33] or November), Murry Wilson sold the Sea of Tunes publishing company (including the rights to the majority of Brian's songs) to A&M Records' publishing division for $700,000 ($5.59 million in 2022).[34]

According to music historian Keith Badman, a breakthrough with Warner Bros. Records inspired "an immense sense of optimism" and a "remarkable amount of new material" recorded in November 1969.[35] He stated that the group, "including a temporarily rejuvenated Brian", prepared material with "as many songwriting collaborators as possible" as they regarded "the forthcoming album as a make-or-break disc."[36] On November 18, Warner executive Mo Ostin agreed to sign the band to their subsidiary Reprise Records.[37] This deal was brokered by Van Dyke Parks, a former collaborator of Brian's who was then employed as a multimedia executive at Warner Music Group.[38][nb 11] The contract dealt by Reprise stipulated Brian's proactive involvement with the band in all albums.[38] Another part of the deal was to revive Brother Records.[37][nb 12]

Shortly before signing with Reprise, the group accumulated enough material for a new album, now titled Sun Flower, and assembled a provisional 14-song acetate for the label.[12][nb 13] This collection was rejected.[37] Warner Bros. executive Dave Berson remembered: "It seemed like an amazing thing to do, to say to the Beach Boys, 'This is not the kind of an album we want to pay for.' Contractually, we didn't have any right to reject albums."[39] The project was then renamed Add Some Music with the subheading An Album Offering from the Beach Boys.[12]

From November 25 to December 7, the band embarked on their seventh and final annual Thanksgiving tour of the US. Badman called it "a dismal farewell" to the decade, "with audience members struggling to reach even a couple of hundred at some shows", forcing most of the dates to be cancelled.[36] In November, the Manson family were apprehended by police for the Tate–LaBianca murders, and the family's former connections with Dennis and the Beach Boys became the subject of media attention.[40]

In February 1970, the band submitted a version of Add Some Music, but were once again rejected.[41][12][nb 14] The company felt that the proposed LP was not strong enough, although they decided to issue two of its tracks as a single, and asked the band to write and record a new batch of songs.[42] From February to June, the group worked on overdubbing and rerecording some of their new material.[41] Another revision was rejected in late May.[43] The album's last two songs were finished in July: "Cool, Cool Water" and "It's About Time".[12] After a July 21 overdubbing session for "Cool, Cool Water" with synthesizer player Bernie Krause, the third and final master of Sunflower was delivered to Warner.[44]

Dennis Wilson begins Sunflower with his co-written song "Slip On Through"

"Slip On Through" was written and sung by Dennis. Brian recalled, "It was a really dynamic song. Dennis, I was very proud of, because he really rocked and rolled on that one. Dennis did really interesting energetic things on that."[12]

"This Whole World" was written by Brian, who said it was "inspired by my love of the world, how I love people, and how people should be free."[12] Carl sings lead vocals while Brian sings in the background; their voices were double-tracked, as was common practice for many of their recordings.[12] Brian's wife Marilyn and her sister Diane Rovell also contributed backing vocals. Brian later produced a version of the song for their group American Spring on the 1972 album Spring.[30] As a solo artist, he returned to the song again for the album I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (1995).

"Add Some Music to Your Day" is a song with lyrics that are a celebration of music and its ubiquitous presence in daily life.[45] It was written by Brian, Mike Love, and their friend Joe Knott, who was not a professional songwriter.[12] Biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote that the song was a "pop-folk tune" that "seemed like a perfect statement of purpose to lead off the band's second decade, given the tune's shared, round-robin style lead vocal, full background harmonies, and a plainspoken lyric".[45]

"Got to Know the Woman" is an R&B song by Dennis that featured backing vocals from female session singers.[46] White noted it was "one of the few Beach Boys songs that could honestly be called funky, its tinkly Dixieland piano a perfect foil for the coarse frivolity of the verses, which contain a boorish come-on to the object of one's lowest bump-and-grind fantasies.[12]

Bruce Johnston contributed the songs "Deirde" and "Tears in the Morning"

"Deirdre" was credited to Bruce Johnston and Brian. Although Johnston has said that Brian only offered minor lyrical contributions and that he gave him a 50% share in the song as a favor,[47] The song was named after the sister of one of Johnston's ex-girlfriends[9] and was described by White as "a stroll-tempo devotional to an idealized, red-haired goddess; its stippled use of flutes plus the spacey filtering and compression techniques in the vocal mixes giving the track a celestial grandeur."[12] In 1994, the song was sampled in the video game EarthBound.[48]

"It's About Time" is an autobiographical rock song about the pitfalls of stardom and fame. It was written by Dennis, Carl, Jardine, and outside writer Bob Burchman.[49] Jardine said: "'It's About Time'" was Carl, Dennis and I [sic]. That's a good one. I like that production. That was mostly Dennis, and I just helped with the lyrics. Dennis and Carl did the track."[50] White describes the song as a "commentary on rock indulgence and self-redemption, it was also a wishful scenario regarding both Brian and Dennis Wilson's sporadic personal troubles."[12]

"Tears in the Morning", written by Johnston, is a melodramatic song with strings, horns, and accordions.[12] He performed the song during the group's live performances without accompaniment from his bandmates. A Disc & Echo writer reviewed of a concert in December 1970, "I must admit, it went down a storm, as the song benefited from the simple piano-voice presentation. But if you'd seen the expressions and heard the mutterings of the others in the group as they were ordered off-stage, it looked decidedly as though Bruce could find himself in the doghouse!"[51]

"All I Wanna Do" is a reverb-heavy[54] B. Wilson–Love song that was originally attempted during the sessions for Friends.[55] Retrospective commentators note the song as one of the earliest examples of chillwave, a microgenre that emerged in the 2000s.[56][57] Discussing the song in 1995, Brian expressed: "That was one of those songs that had a nice chord pattern, but I think it was a boring song, and I thought it wasn't done right. I thought it should have been softer, with boxed guitars."[58]

"Forever" was written by Dennis and his friend Gregg Jakobson. Brian praised the song as "the most harmonically beautiful thing I've ever heard. It's a rock and roll prayer."[12] Love wrote that it "was Dennis's most acclaimed ballad, as it captured the raw emotion and bluesy sensibility that he brought to his vocals."[59]

"Our Sweet Love" is a reworking of a Friends outtake, "Our New Home".[60] Brian commented: "I wrote that for Carl. After I wrote it I said, 'Hey, he could sing this good' so I gave it to Carl."[12] According to Jardine, Brian refused to complete the song: "'Our Sweet Love' was one we finished with Brian. He just didn't want to finish it. So we kind of helped. We became completers of ideas."[50]

"At My Window" is a song by Brian and Jardine about the birds in Brian's backyard.[54] It evolved from a rendition of "Raspberry, Strawberries", a Wilt Holt composition that was recorded by the Kingston Trio.[30] The lyrics were written by Jardine.[12] He commented: "That was probably one of my first efforts at involving the other guys. ... I have this dim recollection of writing it and Bruce singing it and Brian trying to speak French in it. It had a nice tone to it. We had an accordion player come in and play some beautiful things on it."[50]

The Beach Boys in July 1967, around the time they first tried to record "Cool, Cool Water"

"Cool, Cool Water" evolved from the Smile track "Love to Say Dada" and was initially attempted during the 1967 sessions for Smiley Smile and Wild Honey.[61] Lenny Waronker, then an A&R executive at Warner Music Group, heard the unfinished tape, and convinced Wilson to finish the track for Sunflower. Waronker was so impressed with the song's inspired simplicity, that he noted, "If I ever get the opportunity to produce Brian, I'd encourage him to do something that combined the vividness of 'Good Vibrations' with the non-commercial gentleness of 'Cool, Cool Water.'"[12][nb 15] Wilson later said: "In 'Cool, Cool Water' there's a chant I wish we hadn't used. It fits all right, but there's just something I don't think is quite right with it."[6]

Around three dozen songs were left off Sunflower.[12] Each member of the band, including Brian, wrote numerous songs for the album. Brian alone had about a full-length album's worth of material that he had written by himself or with collaborators.[45] Among these, "Where Is She?" is a Brian song that, according to band archivist Alan Boyd, resembles the Beatles' "She's Leaving Home". He said: "It's one of those times that the band's engineer Steve Desper recalls Brian simply getting an idea and he built this song from the ground up."[62][nb 16] "Take a Load Off Your Feet (Pete)", written by Brian and Jardine with schoolfriend Gary Winfrey, was included on the band's next album Surf's Up (1971).[63] "Loop de Loop", written by Brian, Carl, and Jardine, evolved from "Sail Plane Song", a 20/20 outtake.[64] In 1998, Jardine completed the song for the Endless Harmony Soundtrack.[65] That compilation also included "Soulful Old Man Sunshine", a collaboration between Brian and Rick Henn, former leader of the Sunrays.[30]

"Lady" was written by Dennis and featured a string arrangement by keyboardist Daryl Dragon.[12] The song was later considered for Surf's Up but passed for inclusion.[66] Instead, in December 1970, Wilson released it as the B-side of the "Sound of Free" single, credited to "Dennis Wilson & Rumbo".[67] "Good Time" was a collaboration between Brian and Jardine. In 1972, American Spring recorded versions of "Lady" (with the new title "Fallin' in Love") and "Good Time", the latter with new vocals overdubbed onto the Beach Boys' original backing track, for their album Spring. In 1977, the original Sunflower version of "Good Time" was placed on The Beach Boys Love You.[68] In 1981, "San Miguel", a collaboration between Dennis and Gregg Jakobson,[69] was released for the compilation Ten Years of Harmony.[69] Jardine's "Susie Cincinnati" was released as the B-side of the "Add Some Music to Your Day" single and as a track on the 1976 album 15 Big Ones.[70]

"I Just Got My Pay" contains a reworked melody from the 1964 outtake "All Dressed Up for School".[71] "I'm Going Your Way" is a Dennis song about picking up hitchhikers and the sexual intercourse that might follow.[20] "Carnival" (aka "Over the Waves")[72] is a wordless vocal rendition of the standard "When You Are in Love (It's the Loveliest Night of the Year)".[73] Also recorded was "When Girls Get Together" (released on the 1980 album Keepin' the Summer Alive),[12] "Games Two Can Play" (released on the 1993 box set Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys),[74] "Back Home" (a version different from the one released on 15 Big Ones),[73] a rehearsal of the Wild Honey song "Let the Wind Blow" (a song that was added to the band's setlists in this era), a solo piano demo of "Til I Die" with no vocals (later completed for Surf's Up), and a keyboard-only version of the Beatles' "You Never Give Me Your Money".[75]

Note

• The international version of the LP had "Cottonfields" as the first track on side one.[113]
• "Slip On Through" and "Got to Know the Woman" were originally credited to Dennis Wilson alone. Following a consultation with Wilson's estate and publishing, credits to Gregg Jakobson were officially added in 2021.[114]
• "It's About Time" was not originally co-credited to Carl Wilson. His credit was similarly added in 2021.

Midway through the recording of Sunflower, the band assembled an album for Capitol with some tracks that were later placed on Sunflower. It had the working title of Reverberation.[72] Although a master tape (dated June 19, 1970) of songs was put together, this album was never released.[72][115] Instead, they fulfilled their contract with the May 1970 album Live in London.[74] All of the following tracks have seen an official release in later years.[72]

In 2021, expanded editions of Sunflower and Surf's Up were packaged within Feel Flows, a box set that includes session highlights, outtakes, and alternate mixes drawn from the two albums.[116]