If you’ve been paying attention to the narrative, you might remember that the Beach Boys’ label—the ever resourceful Capitol Records—had put out a compilation against their wishes called Shut Down. So when it was time for their next album, somebody had the bright idea to name it Shut Down Volume 2. It did continue their tropes of surfin’ and drivin’, and the boys looked all clean and collegiate on the cover (except for Mike Love, who was already balding, and Brian Wilson, who can’t quite pull off a Beatle fringe in compensation). While they were under a lot of pressure to keep new product on the shelves and on the radio, Brian delivered some of his greatest works yet, and some of the band’s worst. The hit single “Fun, Fun, Fun” starts us off with a bang. From Carl Wilson’s guitar intro through the story running through the verses, this is a wonderful Chuck Berry pastiche, and Brian can’t help throwing in some key changes. As good as it is, it’s immediately bettered by the Phil Spector pastiche that follows. “Don’t Worry Baby” is ostensibly about a guy nervous over an upcoming drag race, but is really a masterwork of a love song. Amazingly, it was released as a B-side.
And from there, the album sinks. “In The Parkin’ Lot” begins and ends with a lush display of harmonies, but in between is merely a lame rewrite of “Fun, Fun, Fun”, complete with the same “blue now/dew now” rhymes. Even worse, “‘Cassius’ Love Vs. ‘Sonny’ Wilson” purports to be a peek into their wacky recording sessions, with scripted insults between the band’s Clay and Liston stand-ins over their vocal idiosyncrasies, taking up three-and-a-half precious minutes where obviously there wasn’t a song available. Perhaps it was here because Brian was self-conscious about “The Warmth Of The Sun”, an astoundingly beautiful reverie with some of his most unique chord changes. “This Car Of Mine” exists solely to give Dennis Wilson a spotlight vocal.
While the remake of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” has a Spector-style production and some interesting vocal inversion, it’s further proof that Brian was low on material. (A half-century later, an interesting, complex, and unused instrumental track emerged on Keep An Eye On Summer, a copyright dump release.) It made sense for Carl Wilson, who was still in high school, to take the lead on the horny “Pom, Pom Play Girl”, as Mike was already getting creepy, and “Keep An Eye On Summer” is another slow one like “Surfer Girl” and the like, but again, in both cases the harmonies and changes are let down by the lyrics. “Shut Down, Part II” brings back surf-style instrumentals; outside of some sax honking at the top, it’s notable for Carl and Al Jardine trading licks in different tones over more complicated modulations. But “Louie Louie” is a dull cover of the previous summer’s frat house hit by the Kingsmen, except that they try to get the words right, and Brian can’t help throwing in some key changes. Once again Dennis closes a side, this time with the competent stick work in “Denny’s Drums”.
The good songs on Shut Down Volume 2 stand so tall, but the clunkers overshadow them in the original context. But again, nobody was crafting albums as works of art in those days. That would change, and soon. (This album was paired out of order with Surfer Girl in the 1990 two-fer campaign to avoid that album’s song repetition with Little Deuce Coupe; the slightly longer single version of “Fun, Fun, Fun” and the big production outtake “I Do” were the bonus tracks related to this one.)
The Beach Boys Shut Down Volume 2 (1964)—2½
1990 CD reissue: same as 1964, plus Surfer Girl album and 3 extra tracks
If “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” had been switched with that highly dated and embarrassing comedy skit, then Side 2 would have been totally disposable. Denny wasn’t exactly Buddy Rich, as he would eventually admit. “Shut Down, Vol. 2” is an interesting variation on the original “Shut Down” for one of two listens, as is the surf-anchored version of “Louie, Louie”. (Totally inexplicably, that made it to Capitol’s first “Best of..” instead of “Don’t Worry, Baby”).
ReplyDeleteSo, my hypothetical Side 1 would have contained three classic single sides. “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” proved for the first time that he could not only improve a cover over the original version but also beat Spector at his own game, thanks to the incredible vocals. Since someone lost the mutitracks, even stereo copies of the album had only the mono mix. A stereo mix eventually appeared (after 50 years!) and is fantastic. I do like the slightly risqué lyrics and the tempo changes in “In the Parkin’ Lot”. “This Car of Mine” has that piano hook and a charming (if a bit off-key) vocal from Dennis. The “Ringo” number of the album.
As I’ve said elsewhere, if they had saved the new tracks on “Little Deuce Coupe” for Side 2 of this album (excluding the always hideous “Be True to Your School”), it would have been a very solid record. Of course, Capitol’s greed ruled the day. Its appearance only a month and a half after “Meet the Beatles” only reemphasized how utterly lame the weakest moments were. Small wonder that it didn’t reach the Top 10 and took longer to go gold. The game was afoot.
“I Do” sounds nothing like anything else the band had yet recorded. The use of what sounds like handclaps and chimes as prominent percussion sounds very cool. As the liner notes say, Brian originally gifted the track to a doo-wop group called The Castells. Maybe he didn’t think the Beach Boys’ audience was grown up enough for a song about marriage. This was one of the indications that Brian had ambitions to be a production impresario like Spector. Better for everyone that he stuck to the band.