“I thought it was a flop”: The Beach Boys album that took Al Jardine half a century to appreciate
With the best will in the world, it’s easy to focus too much on Brian Wilson when it comes to The Beach Boys. The others end up being left behind.
While there’s no denying the sheer genius of the frontman, the hugely uneven dynamic of the group was bound to leave a sour taste in the mouths of the other four, even though they were still in the studio and touring the world like bona fide rock gods. There was always something missing in terms of their wider appreciation.
Infamously, this manifested in a myriad of tensions and legal battles between Wilson and his cousin, Mike Love, but over the years of all the highs and lows that The Beach Boys endured, Al Jardine seemed almost forced into the role of being the steady presence. The unwavering rhythm guitarist, occasional vocalist: he was the one they all relied on.
But this stability didn’t mean that Jardine was constantly optimistic about everything the band did. You have to remember that being in such close proximity to Wilson all the time meant his ingenuity didn’t always reveal itself as clearly to his bandmates as it did to the rest of the world. Combine that with a commercial decline in the 1970s, and Jardine was left less than happy.
When The Beach Boys Love You rolled around in 1977, it was an attempt at a changing of the tides from Wilson, after a period of his own mental health struggles and the disappointment that was the band’s previous album, 15 Big Ones. As such, Love You was an experimentation of the highest order – and by being recognised as The Beach Boys’ shot at a punk record, it was also moving with the times.
Not everyone was as bowled over by the innovative concept, however, particularly Jardine. “I discounted it,” he admitted recently. “I thought it was a flop. I guess even the label probably thought so, too. It was such a transition from the usual, the jukebox days of going out and playing the hits. I had read a review, and I remember it said ‘it’s very dry’ — and that means there are no effects. And that’s the thing that sets it apart from all the others since Pet Sounds and Smile.”
Of course, there is an element of time and distance that is always going to make the heart grow fonder. It’s been almost half a century since Love You hit the shelves, and in that time, Jardine has grown to see what the critics viewed in the first place as an underappreciated masterpiece. Then, naturally, when Wilson passed away last year, that put everything in perspective.
“When I sing Brian’s songs, they take me to another place. They really do,” the guitarist reflected. “They’re really beautifully written and wonderful to sing. I’m learning from a different point of view, singing the lyrics that he wrote.” It seems the most fitting tribute for one of the album’s biggest critics to take it on the road.
Jardine is currently touring and performing most of The Beach Boys Love You live, in a turn of events that he could have never anticipated some nearly 50 years ago. The memories of that time may not necessarily be warm, but the impact of the music that came from it definitely is. In some ways, that’s the only thing that matters.
