'20/20'

"Do It Again" the track that would ultimately open the Beach Boys final album on Capitol Records which was released on February 10th 1969 had originally been released as a single in August of 1968. The track was the first of many post-Pet Sounds era throwbacks to the early Beach Boys sound which would become continually more cliched and eventually lead the Beach Boys to the level of self-parody they would eventually succumb to in the 1980s while their closest contemporaries The Beatles nearing the end of their run in 1969 would go on to be viewed as the most influential band of all time. However, the song itself is not bad on its surface, and it opens with a futuristic sounding (for 1969) drumbeat captured by then-Beach Boys engineer Stephen Desper using tape delays on the drums performed by Dennis Wilson and John Guerin. The song has been re-recorded numerous times over the years on various Beach Boys-related projects most notably the 2011 re-recording at Capitol studios featuring the five surviving Beach Boys at the time backed instrumentally by various members of both the Brian Wilson Band and Mike Loves touring "Beach Boys" to promote the then upcoming Beach Boys 50th Anniversary reunion tour in 2012. The hammering and power drill sound at the end of the song was an excerpt from a track called "Workshop" that was to be a part of the uncompleted "SMiLE" album.

Second Track "I Can Hear Music" was written by the team of Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry and was originally recorded by the Ronettes in 1966 and produced by Spector. The Beah Boys version which would be released as a single a month after its appearance on the album was essentially Carl Wilsons' coming out party as a producer despite the fact, he is essentially imitating his brother Brian imitating Phil Spector. Despite this Carl would further extend his reach as the musical leader of the Beach Boys over the next five years and beyond in his older brothers' absence. All Beach Boys except for Brian play on the track along with long time touring Drummer/Percussionist Mike Kowalski adding snare drum and sleigh bells. The song which famously did not even feature a vocal or instrumental contribution by Brian Wilson would nevertheless appear on the setlist in the latter years of the Brian Wilson Band sung by former Wondermints keyboardist and longtime Brian fan and collaborator Darian Sahanaja which he continues to do on the current "Pet Sounds Band" tour led by Al Jardine.

"Bluebirds Over the Mountain" a cover of a 1958 song originally written and recorded by Ersil Hickey was released as a B-side to the infamous November 1968 single release of Dennis' "Never Learn Not To Love single which I will address more about later. Instrumentally carried by all the Beach Boys not including Brian or Dennis and Bruce Johnston recieving the producing credit along with long-term Beach Boys Touring sidemen Ed Carter on lead guitar, Daryl Dragon (the future "Captain" of the 70s group "Captain and Tenille") on vibraphone and marimba and Mike Kowalski on bongos and additional percussion assisted by Wrecking Crew members Larry Knechtel on bass and Jim Gordon on drums. The string and horn arrangements on the song were written by Van McCoy.

"Be With Me" was written by the then-emerging from his brother's shadow as a songwriter Dennis Wilson who also sings lead on it. it is likely the least notable song on the album which is not a knock against its quality.

Dennis also wrote and sang the following rocker "All I Want To Do" (Not to be confused with the song "All I Wanna Do" on the following album Sunflower) featuring vocal and instrumental contribution by all the Beach Boys save for Brian. along with Ed Carter on lead guitar and bass and Mike Kowalski on drums as well as a seven-piece horn section. If you listen very closely to the fade out, you can hear a snippet of recorded audio of Dennis "enjoying himself" with a groupie.

Next is the Bruce Johnston penned instrumental "The Nearest Faraway Place" whose title would later be used by Rolling Stone editor Timothy White for his biography on the Beach Boys.

As with "Sloop John B" Cotton Fields is a traditional folk song though it's authorship can be attributed to Huddie Ledbetter, unlike Sloop. It was once again a suggestion by band folk music aficionado Al Jardine. for it's appearance on 20/20 it featured Brian handling the arrangements and backing vocals as well as playing piano and Fender Rhodes and Al on Lead vocals and banjo assisted by Ed Carter on lead guitar and bass, Wrecking Crew musicians Hal Blaine on drums, Lyle Ritz on upright bass, Al Vescovo on banjo and guitar and a horn section consisting of Bill Peterson, Virgil Evans and Roy Caton. This time unfortunately Al was not satisfied with Brians 20/20 arrangement of the track and insisted the Beach Boys record a more country-rock, Flying Burrito Brothers-style arrangement with the legendary Orville(Red) Rhodes on steel guitar which was recorded in August of 1969 and released as a single, Their last on Capitol for a long time in April 1970. The single version can be found on the 2001 compilation Hathorne CA. Interestingly in between the releases of the two Beach Boys versions of the song in October 1969 a version of the song was released by Creedence Clearwater Revival who rivaled the Beatles in popularity at that time on their album Willy and the Poor Boys.

"I Went to Sleep" written and sung by Brian and Carl Wilson was a leftover from the Friends sessions as can be inferred by the mellow instrumentation.

Following song "Time To Get Alone" was even older. It was intended by Brian to be the debut single of the band Redwood who Brian wanted to sign to the Beach Boys' Brother Records label back in 1967. Unfortunately, Mike Love was not pleased Brian was planning to give the song to them and sabotaged the project. Redwood would of course later become Three Dog Night who would go on to score many hit singles in the early 70s none of them on Brother Records. Early versions of Redwoods recording of the vocals can be found on several Three Dog Night compilations. Of course, when the track was needed to pad out 20/20 Carl and the boys dusted off the pre-existing instrumental track which actually featured Danny Hutton of Redwood/Three Dog Night playing piano on it and added vocals from Carl, Brian, Mike and Al over it to release it on 20/20.

"Never Learn Not To Love" was credited to and ostensibly written for the band by Dennis, though in reality most of the song was originally written with the title "Cease to Exist" by Dennis' Friend Charlie. Charlie was in fact infamous cult leader Charles Manson whose "Family" of mostly female followers had moved in with Dennis in 1968 after he picked up a few "family" members who were hitchhiking and brought them to his home to sleep with them. They introduced him to Manson whom Dennis would later dub "The Wizard". Manson was an aspiring songwriter and used Dennis to make contacts in the music industry including Byrds producer Terry Melcher. I will get into Manson's connections in the music industry in a future article. Needless to say by the time the slightly edited "Never Learn Not To Love" was brought to the 20/20 sessions Charlie and his followers as well as Dennis himself had moved out of his former house. Dennis found a new place. while Charlie and his "Family" established a commune at Spahn Ranch an old Western movie set north of Los Angeles. The final track had been slightly re-written by Dennis to be slightly more acceptable to the Beach Boys and their audience. Opening line "Cease to Exist" was replaced with "Cease to Resist" and the obviously provocative line "Submission is a Gift, go on give it to your brother" from Charlie's version was changed by Dennis who replaced the word "brother" with "lover". The song seemed non-challenging or non-offensive enough that it was released as a single in late 1968 backed with "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" The Beach Boys and Dennis even ended up performing it live on television for the Mike Douglas Show to promote the single. The song immediately gives one an unsettling feeling starting with the backwards cymbal roll that opens the track. Of course, in August of 1969 believing he had deciphered a warning about a coming race war in America supposedly placed by the Beatles in their "White Album" song "Helter Skelter" which Paul McCartney had written about an English Fairground Slide and was written specifically to prove that the Beatles could perform a rock song as loud and hard as the Who. This led to his orchestration of the infamous Tate/LaBianca murder spree carried out by his followers eventually leading to his arrest which singlehandedly gave conservative America a convenient excuse to demonize the counterculture movements of the 1960s

As is already apparent filling out the album was a tall order as not enough material had been written. In desperation Carl decided that a few songs from the abandoned SMiLE album would do the trick. However, unlike the half-hearted remakes of some of the songs that had appeared on Smiley Smile, these would be finished versions of the tracks that had been originally recorded for the SMiLE album. First is what would have been the album's opening piece "Our Prayer" a wordless a Capella vocal -piece.

Also, Carl decided to close the 20/20 album with the track Cabin Essence which was an impressionistic lyrical depiction by Van Dyke Parks of the settlers moving westward to "settle" what would become the western United States. The banjo and piano laden verses set a peaceful tone which is suddenly interrupted by the chorus with the lyrics "Who Ran the Iron Horse" suggesting the coming advancement of the trans-continental Railroad and the transformation of the agricultural way of life that would soon be replaced with a far more industrial way of life that the finished railroad would usher in. The contrast of the verse and chorus allude to this theme. The second chorus features Dennis singing a counter lyric under the main lyric about a truck driving man further commenting on the coming industrial age.

The final section of the song is a commentary on the Chinese laborers who were tasked with building the railroad. The final line describes a worker seeing a crow flying above him and resting in a cornfield described in the words "Over and Over the crow cries uncover the cornfield" unfortunately Mike Love ever the fan of literal lyrics didn't understand what the phrase literally meant and was assigned to sing it by Brian. He proceeded to order Brian to bring in lyricist Van Dyke Parks for a verbal beatdown by Mike demanding to know what the lyrics meant to which Parks claimed to not know the answer. Van Dyke would leave the SMiLE project soon after leading to its eventual collapse and non-release.

20/20 ended The Beach Boys album contract but they still owed Capitol Records another single. Brian decided to write the song "Breakaway" with his father Murry credited as Reggie Dunbar. "Breakaway" was released as a single in June 1969. Later that year Murry Wilson noticing the decline in the Beach Boys' popularity and seeing no hope in the future decided to sell the "Sea Of Tunes" publishing company which owned their songs for a ridiculously small sum to A&M Records thinking it would not be considered valuable in a move that would look increasingly shortsighted as The Beach Boys popularity would see many high and low points during the following decades. The sale would have never-ending legal consequences for the various members during the intervening decades especially between Brian and Mike. The 1960s ended with the Beach Boys struggling to stay relevant and attract a new record label. Their first decade which saw their rise and fall from popularity ended with a sense of uncertainty about their future.