Show review: Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band premiere of The Beach Boys Love You album in its entirety at the United Theater on Broadway, February 27.

Show review by: Bob Merlis and Sam Graham
Introduction by: David Beard
Photos by: Alex Kluft

Introduction: When Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds band took the stage at the United Theatre on Broadway on Friday, February 27, the packed house—full of rabid fans of The Beach Boys Love You album—warmly welcomed Al and group. Little did they know they were in for a few wonderful surprises. Among the attendees were industry pros Bob Merlis and Sam Graham. I asked Bob if he would be willing to share his thoughts and received a sit-down conversation that he recorded with his buddy Sam. In the event you’re unfamiliar with Bob and Sam, here is a brief backgrounder.

Bob Merlis has headed a music-oriented PR firm, MFH (Merlis For Hire) for the last 25 years with clients including ZZ Top, ABKCO Records (Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, Cameo-Parkway catalog), Experience Hendrix, L.L.C., the Roy Orbison Estate, Carlene Carter, John Mellencamp, The Explorers Club, etc. Prior to that he was Sr. VP/Worldwide Corporate Communications for Warner Bros. Records for 28 years and worked with The Beach Boys when their Brother Records label was distributed by Warner Bros, encountering Andy Paley along the way as part of both the Paley Brothers and producer of Brian’s 1988 debut self-titled solo album. Beyond WBR, he had positions with RCA and Bearsville Records and, like Sam, was an editor at Record World.

Sam Graham made his living as a writer for 25 years. About half of those were in the music business, including five years as an editor at the trade magazine Record World; he also worked as an author, screenwriter, and speechwriter. These days Sam is a working musician, fronting a jazz trio, as well as a yoga instructor and audiobook narrator.

Bob Merlis: Sam, your involvement with The Beach Boys goes back to … when?

Sam Graham: My story actually goes back to when I bought (the single) “I Get Around” b/w “Don’t Worry Baby” in 1964. I still think it’s one of the greatest records ever made, and Al and the Pet Sounds band performed both of those songs at the show. Other than that, I’ve written about them numerous times, and the last time I had close contact with them was in New York at Radio City Music Hall (March 1-4, 1979) in support of their first album for CBS Records, which was the L.A. [Light Album]. So, I got to know some of the members at that point and, of course, before and since. I’ve been an enormous fan of The Beach Boys … especially the Love You record.

Bob Merlis: That’s great because I worked for Brother Records / Warner Reprise when Brother Records and spent some time with the band at different circumstances. I met them when they came to New York in the early 1970s, and Dennis (Wilson) invited me to his house. I felt I should have taken him up on it, but I lived in New York, and it wasn’t realistic. I got very close to Carl (Wilson) because he was a draft resister and I remember writing press releases about that at the time (when working for Record World Magazine International). By the time The Beach Boys Love You came out I will admit the album was something of a head scratcher from the record company point of view. It took a while (for me) to understand that it’s really Brian Wilson’s vision; it’s not that much of a band record.

Sam Graham:  Apparently, it was originally conceived as a solo record called Brian Loves You, not The Beach Boys Love You. Looking at the credits, every song on the first side is written by Brian, with the exception of two: the opening song “Let Us Go on This Way” that he wrote with his Cousin Mike Love; and “Good Time,” which he wrote with Al Jardine. And, for some reason, “Ding Dang,” which is only 57 seconds was co-written by Roger McGuinn [The Byrds].  So, clearly The Beach Boys decided to turn it into a band record after the fact. The album is very heavy on the keyboards; there’s very little guitar on the record. So, Love You is clearly a Brian Wilson solo project that expanded into a Beach Boys record. The context of Love You is that 15 Big Ones had been the previous record in 1976, which is not a particularly good record, and the next after Love You – M.I.U. – is also not one of the stellar releases.

Bob Merlis: I have to interject here because I was involved ‘vaguely’ in the publicity of 15 Big Ones. We held a party for that album on Friday, April 1, 1976. Because it was April 1, we provided a gift bag to the journalists who came that included a whoopy cushion, a joy buzzer … I don’t remember if we had fake barf or not, but the idea was it was ‘April Fool’s Day,’ so we called the playback session event “Friday Fool Around with The Beach Boys.”  Brian was there. When we got to The Beach Boys Love You it didn’t land with much impact, but over the years …

Sam Graham: I was going to say that it’s one of those records that has grown in appreciation since it came out because it was a head scratcher at the time and it didn’t sound anything before it or since.

Bob Merlis: Agreed. Listening to these songs as a body of work performed live or on the album which I’ve had all these years, Love You doesn’t sound like anything else …like any ‘Beach Boys thing.’ It doesn’t sound like a ‘Brian Wilson thing.’ It sounds like modern music, and by that I mean ‘not pop music.’ So, by ‘modern music’ I mean (almost) what they call classical music, or serious music even though there’s a lot of silliness in it. That’s a paradox right there.

Sam Graham: Well, it’s recognizable in some respects as a Beach Boys record because of the harmonies, and that’s basically it. And that’s one of the interesting things about performing it live. First of all, I never thought this record would be performed live, especially 50 years after the fact. One of the things The Beach Boys – Carl, Dennis, Mike, and Al – did finishing the record (is) they all sing solos. They each have a solo track on the record. So, performing it, obviously, four of the five singers are no longer available for various reasons.

Bob Merlis: That was one of the reasons I was a little dubious when the tickets went on sale, but I thought ‘let’s roll the dice on this’ because the Pet Sounds band is brilliant. They did everything they could to give Brian a great platform for his repertoire over the years and I have great confidence in their sheer musicality.

Sam Graham: Among the band members, at least five of them sang the songs that the original Beach Boys would have sung.

Bob Merlis: And quite brilliantly. I thought that Matt Jardine channeled Brian.

Sam Graham: Well, Matt was the successor to Jeffrey Foskett, who would sing the high notes. Towards the end of Brian’s performing years, Brian couldn’t sing that stuff anymore. When I saw The Beach Boys in their 2012 50th reunion concert, Jeff was singing in unison with Brian, but he was clearly mixed higher because Brian couldn’t hit those notes. Matt Jardine has taken that place perfectly.

Bob Merlis: No problem at all.

Sam Graham: He sounded just wonderful, and I had no idea that was a family member … especially because he’s about twice Al’s size [laughs].

Bob Merlis: Yeah, in the middle of the stage, that’s Al Jardine’s son? How come he’s so big? Al’s the smallest Beach Boys of all the original members.

Sam Graham: The five different guys – Matt, Darian Sahanaja, Gary Griffin, Jim Laspesa, and Rob Bonfiglio – all did a great job singing lead vocals.

Bob Merlis: Jim did a great job singing “Let’s Put Our Hearts Together” with Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford. They looked at each other and held their microphones … it was kind

of like a Sonny & Cher moment.

Sam Graham: And totally unexpected. Fifty years later she sounded exactly as she did on the record. I just thought that was so impressive.

Bob Merlis: As long as we’re on the topic of family, I thought Rob Bonfgilio sounded exactly like Carl Wilson playing that clinky Fender (guitar) sound. It was just perfect the way he channeled the whole Chuck Berry vibe—very specific to Carl, I felt.

Sam Graham: Yes and singing Carl’s parts is a hard thing to do and I thought they really pulled it off.  When Al, Matt, and Darian sang “The Night Was So Young,” which is one of the prettier songs on the Love You album, they were able to pull that off too. That to me was incredibly impressive. That, plus the fact that they set out to, and succeeded in, reproducing the record almost exactly. And that’s what we wanted to hear … the sounds of the record like the Moog bass. That’s what we were there for.

Bob Merlis: I also liked when they leaned to the left and then leaned to the right in unison during their performance of “Johhny Carson,” was very funny.

Sam Graham: They also performed – for reasons I cannot fathom – the last several songs slightly out of order.

Bob Merlis: Speaking of choreography, keyboardist Debbie Shair was doing high kicks the whole night. She was in great spirits.

Sam Graham: She did the swim too. The whole band appeared to be really having a good time and they also were very, very warmed by the audience response.

Bob Merlis: The audience response was so notable. Of course, it’s a self-selecting group whose there to see Al Jardine and that incredible band. Al’s vocals were pretty good.

Sam Graham: He can’t hit the high notes anymore.

Bob Merlis: There’s a little croakiness there now and then, but he’s only human – despite appearances. [Sam starts laughing.] I’m kidding. I love Al. The fact that the audience was so responsive, so into it, and so knowledgeable.

Sam Graham: And a large number of people in the audience – I wouldn’t put a percentage on it – were not born when this record was released in 1977. And it was cool to see Dean Torrence there because he had designed the album cover. Most people (these days) don’t know who Jan & Dean were. There were all these young people crowded around Dean. I thought that was wonderful

Bob Merlis: It was well deserved. It’s a really interesting album cover if you think about it.  The first part of the show included more familiar (hit) songs, and I think they did a tremendous job. When they performed “Darlin’” I popped out of my seat.

Sam Graham: I don’t think I’ve ever seen them perform “I Can Hear Music” before.

Bob Merlis: Well, subscribers to ESQ know Andy Paley was an adjunct in many ways to lots of things that Brian did musically over the years. I was with Andy the day he died in Vermont and I went back to my hotel, and I played “I Can Hear Music” about six times and thought, “this is everything that Andy was about.” It has that great Phil Spector sound typical of Brian and The Beach Boys and how incredibly melodic that particular song is. It’s the music of the spheres. It’s heavenly music.

Sam Graham: I was so glad to hear that song. They did a couple of things from the 20/20 album, and they also did “She’s Got Rhythm,” which is the opening song of the M.I.U. album. Never in my life did I expect to hear anything from anybody performing songs from the M.I.U. album. Al also did his solo tune, “Islands in the Sun.”

Bob Merlis: Yeah. Al talked about that as having a sort of Paul Simon / South African / Graceland vibe. And I do want to mention “Mona” because Phil Spector’s name comes up and nobody gasped or anything. We know what an amazing impact the work of Spector had on Brian and I remember years ago – during either the 15 Big Ones or Love You era – a journalist asked Brian, “What are you listening to now, Brian?” Brian said, “I don’t know. Does Phil Spector have anything new?” [Laughs]

Sam Graham: Yes, “Mona” has that wonderful line about Phil Spector. I think it was Darian Sahanaja who shared the anecdote that Brian once said, “I’d love to work with Spector as long as it’s just music.” [Laughing] I think one of the reasons that people enjoy the record so much is it’s such an odd record … you can tell it’s something that Brian concocted. Some of it is so naïve, innocent … childish even – and that’s part of the absolute joy of Love You. It’s one of the most unpretentious records that they ever made. Some of the lyrics on the album …

Bob Merlis: “Johnny Carson” is the greatest …

Sam Graham: When I listen to “Solar System,” and I told Jonathan Paley this, it has the greatest coupling of lyrics.

Bob Merlis: What is it?

Sam Graham: “If Mars had life on it, I might find my wife on it.” The fact that those lyrics are on there, and it’s totally ingenuous. That’s who Brian was at the time and that’s part of the album’s charm. It has amazing staying power too.

Bob Merlis: Yeah. I think musically it’s really solid. When I was at the show it’s like a lightbulb went off; Love You is what you make of it. Years down the line it will certainly be something from the Brian Wilson catalogue that’s ‘worth a listen.’ I mean, you could replicate this music 200 years from now and it will be interesting.

Sam Graham: And clearly the musicians have great affection and familiarity for (and with) this music.

Bob Merlis: I think it’s Herculean for the Pet Sounds band, under Al, to take this on and do the repertoire such justice.

Sam Graham: I was expecting to hear and see the Love You album performed in its entirety, but I wasn’t expecting the show to last over two hours. It was very, very satisfying. I didn’t expect it to be so satisfying.

Bob Merlis: Same here. I was speculative because I bought a whole row of tickets and wondered ‘are these people going to hate me’? [Laughs] It was very fulfilling.

Sam Graham: I went to the show wanting to love it and was so glad I did.

Bob Merlis: Here in L.A., there are so many people who were so down with it and know every member of the band … even if you didn’t have the history of being around The Beach Boys like guys like us have, as long as you have an open mind, Love You live works. I’m really glad they did because it puts the album in front of mind.

Sam Graham: They also, not to be cynical, they’ve also timed it well with the release of the We Gotta Groove box set. I would close by saying the show was simply a treasure, a pleasure, and an unexpected treat to have the Love You album performed. Honestly, I never thought I would hear any song from this record performed live. Especially so many years after its release. And the fact that they performed the album so faithfully and so entertainingly – it warms my heart.

Bob Merlis: Everybody on stage looked they were really having a good time and Paul McCartney’s guitarist, Brian May, heard it and he was very, very impressed.

Sam Graham: The audience fed off how great they were performing and Al and the band fed off of the audience. The show just transcended.

 

You can track Al Jardine’ show appearances at AlJardine.com.

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