An oft-forgotten album in the current Beach Boys canon is "Still Cruisin'". Released in 1989, this LP comprised of a bizarre selection of tracks. Several tracks from movie soundtracks, including the title track and their recent smash hit "Kokomo". Alongside these were a handful of new tracks that hadn't appeared in films (including the Brian/Fat Boys collaboration, a reimagining of the surf classic "Wipe Out". Tagged on the end, jarringly, three classics from their 60s heyday. All in all, an eclectic album. The collection of songs recorded under various companies and the tangle of rights that accompany that may well be why it hasn't been reissued since its original release. A fate it shares with its follow-up, Summer in Paradise.
But returning to 1989, when Beach Boys fans were clamouring for a brand new LP. Their self titled effort with Steve Levine was 4 years in the dust. The band had seen tremendous success with the previous year's "Kokomo" smashing number one. Then, in spring, rumours began. The Beach Boys were reported to have signed a $500k deal with Capitol to supply a new studio LP. The first titles to emerge were "Make it Big" (which did turn up on the album), "Peace is Breaking Out All Over" (A supposed Jardine tune which never saw the light of day), and two unnamed Dell-Vikings covers. By June, the album title was known, as well as another track. "The Island Song" sounds like it would be a working title for "Island Girl", which we know made it onto the album.
Finally, on August 28th, the album was released. Of course, the folks over at Beach Boys Stomp provide us with contemporary reactions to a brand new Beach Boys album. Rather uniquely, this issue featured two reviews for the album. Mike Grant takes us through all the 'new' tracks on the album and briefly gives his thoughts.
A TALE OF TWO REVIEWS
STILL CRUISIN' - Beach Boys CAPITOL
SIDE A: Still Cruisin', Somewhere Near Japan, Island Girl, In My Car, Kokomo
SIDE B: Wipeout, Make It Big, I Get Around, Wouldn't It Be Nice, California Girls.
At last the new half album. Five new songs, two recent big hits, US No. 1 "Kokomo" and UK No. 2 "Wipe Out" with the Fat Boys, fair enough as these two have never appeared on a Beach Boys album. But I fail to see the reasoning behind putting the last three songs on the album as surely everyone remotely in the Beach Boys will already have them many times over. The tracks are supposedly compiled from movie related material, i.e. "I Get Around" from "Good Morning Vietnam", "Wouldn't It Be Nice" from "The Big Chill". But "It's A Beautiful Day" from "Americathon", "Chasin' the Sky" from "Up The Creek" and "Happy Endings" from "The Telephone" would have been more sensible choices and made for an overall more interesting release. Even "Rock 'n' Roll To The Rescue", "California Dreaming" and "Runaway" would have been better. Anyway let's concentrate on the new songs as everyone knows about "Kokomo" and "Wipe Out".
STILL CRUISIN' (Love-Melcher) -3.33. Featured in the movie "Lethal Weapon 2" and the first cassingle (in the U.S.) 7", 12" and 5" CD (in the UK). There's a very catchy chorus of "Come on let's cruise, you've got nothing to lose" that you will find yourself singing after a couple of plays with a very restrained Mike Love lead vocal and all the better for it. Bruce, Alan and Carl also very prominent but I can't hear Brian. A return to the car song days and why not? Following on the heels of a U.S. No 1 it should easily make the U.S. Top Twenty.
SOMEWHERE NEAR JAPAN (Love-Melcher) -4.48. Oriental opening. A distant cousin to "Sumahama" because of geographical similarities only but this is much better with some nice guitar. Mike also sings main lead but everyone gets a chance (again no Brian evident). Also very noticeable is the excessive use of echo on this and all the new songs. There's a long guitar dominated outro and excellent group vocals on what is a very strong album track. Mike Love and Terry Melcher are certainly developing as writers of current Beach Boys material. (Johnston-J.Phillips) also co-writers.
ISLAND GIRL(Alan Jardine) -3.33. Great vocal intro with Brian at last audible. This really takes off from where 1980's "Sunshine" and "Kokomo" left off. I did expect them to pursue the tropical sound that was so successful for them in 1988. This is very commercial follow up to "Still Cruisin'". The track was influenced by The Del Vikings' "Whispering Bells" which you might just recognise if you know that song. Carl starts off and it's always great to hear Carl in such good form. Mike and then Alan pick up the pieces. Chorus of "Island girl she makes me happy, Island girl she's kind of sassy" steel drums and reggaeish beat throughout, great group vocals, my initial favourite.
IN MY CAR (B. Wilson-E. LANDY-A. MORGAN) -3.17. Brian returns to the fold and very welcome. Starts off like "My Solution" then Brian charges in on an uptempo cruisin' song for the 90's. I can't really hear what he is singing about as the production is so busy and the melody suffers because of it. It's good that Brian is involved again and has a new song included but it's taking me longer to get into this track than any of the other new ones, so once again I don't think it has single potential. Maybe a few more plays will make me change my mind on this one. I hope so.
MAKE IT BIG (Love-Melcher) -3.07. Early reports which said that this song from "Troop Beverly Hills" was not up to scratch are dispelled on listening. It sounds to me like an obvious movie song, written to tie in with whatever it's related to in the film. Keyboards dominate the track with Carl very much up front, saxophones and lots of echo, plus some lead singing from Mike with Alan getting a couple of lines. Again not up to snuff for a single but an OK album track. I'm still grateful to get five new songs when I expected three. (Bill House) also co-wrote.
To summarisel it's great to have a bulk of new material, the first since the 1985 album. But because of the last three tracks I still think us fans are getting shortchanged. Plus with the advent of CDs surely artists like the Beach Boys should be looking to give value for money. Still one thing's for sure, the Beach Boys are still crazy cruisin' after all these years.
MIKE Special thanks to Tony Wadsworth in the UK. Trish Metz in the USA.
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