LA (Light Album)
| LA (Light Album) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Beach Boys | ||||
|
Publication |
1979 |
|||
| Label (s) | Brother Records / Caribou Records | |||
|
Format (s) |
LP, CD |
|||
|
Title (number) |
10 |
|||
|
running time |
41 min 33 s |
|||
|
Bruce Johnston , The Beach Boys, James William Guercio |
||||
|
Studio (s) |
Brother Studio, Caribou, Sounds Good Recording, Criteria, United Western, Kaye Smith, Super Sound, Britannia, Sound Arts / Dan Wynman, Westlake |
|||
|
||||
LA (Light Album) is a music album by the US band The Beach Boys . It was released on March 16, 1979 under the Brother Records label in collaboration with Caribou Records.
The story of the album
After breaking away from their record company Reprise Records , the Beach Boys had signed a new record deal with Caribou Records (distributed by CBS ). Caribou was James William Guercio's record label. He was the manager of the band Chicago, was briefly the manager of the Beach Boys in the mid-1970s and had already worked on unreleased material with the Beach Boys from 1974 to 1975. The Beach Boys were at odds and the process of coming to terms with it was a lengthy one. They had also lost a lot of money to the mismanagement of Steve Love, Mike's brother, and the company was bankrupt. The sales figures for the last albums were also poor. So they agreed to work with an external producer again for the first time since 1963. Brian Wilson offered Bruce Johnston to work with them. Johnston was a member of the Beach Boys from 1965 to 1972 and replaced Brian Wilson when performing live . He knew the band and the characters, he knew which way of music the band preferred. He had also received the Grammy in 1978 for the single of the year for the song I Write the Songs , interpreted by Barry Manilow , and had thus become interesting again for the band. Johnston's job wasn't just to produce the songs, he had to act as a mediator. He tried to respond to all suggestions of the band members and not to disadvantage a single one. Guerico and the band worked as co-producers.
Carl Wilson had regained the upper hand in the band. He brought his brother Dennis, who was temporarily fired from the band, back into the group. He was working on his second album Bamboo and now had the choice of continuing his solo career or returning to the band. Dennis chose the band. He brought the two songs Baby Blue Eyes and Love Surrounds Me to the album. However, those two pieces were the cornerstones of his new album that died with it.
The light album reached number 100 on the US Billboard charts and number 32 on the UK charts.
Track list
- Good Timin ' (Brian Wilson / Carl Wilson ) - 2:12
- Lady Lynda (Alan Jardine / Ron Altbach) - 3:58
- Full Sail (C. Wilson / Geoffrey Cushing-Murray) - 2:56
- Angel Come Home (C. Wilson / G. Cushing-Murray) - 3:39
- Love Surrounds Me (Dennis Wilson / G. Cushing-Murray) - 3:41
- Sumahama ( Mike Love ) - 4:30
- Here Comes the Night (B. Wilson / M. Love) - 10:51
- Baby Blue (D. Wilson / Gregg Jacobson / Karen Lamm) - 3:25
- Goin 'South (Carl Wilson / G. Cushing-Murray) - 3:16
- Shortenin 'Bread (Adapted by Brian Wilson) - 2:49
Song info
Bruce Johnston and Curt Becher produced a 10-minute disco version of Here Comes the Night which was released in 1967 on the album Wild Honey . With the single , the Beach Boys slipped to number 44 on the Billboard charts. Many fans, however, could not make friends with the new style. The Beach Boys themselves were not enthusiastic about the piece either. When they played it live, they usually apologized to the audience beforehand.
Good Timin ' was the album's second single and reached number 40 on the charts. The song was written in 1974 and recorded with James Guerico in his recording studio. Dennis in particular was very enthusiastic about this piece and called it a "new surfer girl". Dennis sang the lead vocals live, followed by Mike. It was only when the album was being recorded that it was decided that Carl would be the lead singer.
Lady Lynda is based on Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Being That I Have Jesus . Al Jardine wrote this song for his wife. It reached the excellent 6th place in the English charts.
Full Sail , Angel Come Home and Goin 'South were written in collaboration with songwriter Geoffrey Cushing-Murray, an acquaintance of Carl Wilson's brother-in-law Billy Hinsche. These songs are not one of Carl's greatest moments in his career, but rather they were a kind of therapy for him to create music again after he had overcome his heroin addiction.
Sumahama contains sung passages in Japanese and English. The song is about a family that has been torn in two. The word "Sumahama" means something like "white beach". The song was originally planned for Love's unreleased solo album First Love . The Japanese text is from his girlfriend at the time, Sumako Kelly. If you translate the text from Japanese, it is a rather senseless babble. The song surprisingly entered the top 50 in the UK charts.
Baby Blue was written by Dennis Wilson, his then-wife Karen Lamm and Gregg Jacobson. Both Dennis Wilson songs were actually planned for his never released solo album Bamboo .
Shortenin 'Bread is the only contribution from Brian Wilson on this album besides the opening song. It is an adaptation of a well-known children's song. It is one of Brian's favorite songs.
Versions
The album was re-released by Capitol Records in 2000 along with its predecessor MIU album .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Booklet of the CD MIU Album / LA Light Album, Capitol Records 2000
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000654356
- ↑ a b http://www.surfermoon.com/albums/la2.shtml
- ↑ http://www.everyhit.com/
- ^ Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, The Complete Guide to their Music by Andrew G. Doe, 101
- ↑ INDEX ( Memento from June 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive )