Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue

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Free Music Notes for Pacific Ocean Blue

Free Music Review: Contender for the greatest album ever...
Hit: 5 Stars

Dennis Wilson was the second genius songwriter in The Beach Boys- to be fair Carl and Love co-wrote/wrote many classics- but Dennis came to fill the void left by Brian from the late 60s onwards. It's unfair to compare Dennis to Brian, but Dennis was coming up with string-soaked odes to valium like Cuddle Up, country-soul like Forever & the Vietnam-outtake Carry Me Home (later covered by Primal Scream on their Dixie-Narco e.p.). Apart from Sunflower (1970), The Beach Boys albums post-Pet Sounds were hit & miss affairs- the highlights often being a Dennis track (if not a slight Brian return). Most of Pacific Ocean Blue was written with co-Forever-songwriter Gregg Jakobson- though the title track was written with Mike Love and River Song was co-written with Carl & slowly recorded over the 70s (several tracks intended for POB and the unreleased follow-up Bamboo found their way onto Beach Boys records, e.g. Love Surrounds Me, Baby Blue). Pacific Ocean Blue came out in 1977 and is one of the great records of the 1970s, scrub that, of all time...

Dennis offered the ultimate statement- hypnotic piano-driven songs, achingly sincere vocals, a different kind of musical experimentation. It makes perfect sense next to such albums of the era as Exile on Main Street, Manassas, On the Beach, Greetings from LA and No Other. Every song is utterly wonderful- this would happilly be my desert island disc: it's the kind of album that would make the ideal final purchase. Nothing much comes close to it- though perhaps it's just it's hard to find nature that makes me think that!

The songs are gorgeous, my favourite track being Time- which nods at the universal qualities apparent in Dennis' work and has sax/flugelhorn that reminds me of 1980s David Sylvian or late-period Talk Talk for some reason! It seems absurd to talk about an album you can't buy- but one like California (American Music Club), Star Sailor (Tim Buckley) & Time Fades Away (Neil Young) that should be available on CD! Can you believe that there are two books about Dennis Wilson at the moment (Dumb Angel, The Real Beach Boy)- so perhaps there might be an audience for this cd? (do you think so! DOH!)It seems odd when a lot of Beach Boys junk (e.g. Mt Vernon & Fairway) are widely available- as are some dull late Beach Boys works.

Pacific Ocean Blue is probably caught in licensing-limbo, which is a tragedy as it's not available- just that fact is depressing enough! Perhaps someone like Rhino- who did a great job with The Velvets'Loaded & Fleetwood Mac's Tusk should reissue this? I'd settle for the same quality reissues as the No Other & On the Beach reissues last year. Though with the unreleased Bamboo, the Lady (Fallin' in Love)/Sound of Free single, Carry Me Home and other songs such as You Are So Beautiful, Morning Christmas, San Miguel & other rumours, there's enough here for a box-set! Pacific Ocean Blue is the musical equivalent of a Richard Brautigan novel, & the best California-songs until 60 Watt Silver Lining by Mark Eitzel. A masterpiece, & probably worth the collectors prices you'll pay for it right now...REISSUE!!! SOMEONE!!!! PLEASE!!!!!

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