Chapter 18: I Heard It Through the Grapevine (January - October 1970)

January 1 - March 30, 1970

With the death of Brian Wilson during the production of what would ultimately become Smile, the Beach Boys had come to a premature end. Mike Love had taken on Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and was now studying to become a teacher of TM, but unlike many of his musical peers during that time, he had no interest in continuing with music. Brian's younger brothers, however, were.

Dennis Wilson, 1970.

Despite that he had been the drummer for the Beach Boys, Dennis was still a solid singer and songwriter, even taking up a few production gigs in the United States despite only being twenty-four.

DENNIS WILSON: "Brian's death must've sparked something creative in me, probably helped by taking Transcendental Meditation along with the others. Of course, my real creative talent didn't shine until mid-1969, where I must've come up with nearly an album's worth of material. But I didn't want to record it all alone. I spoke this out with Carl, and then we called up Al [Jardine] and Bruce [Johnston] to see if they were interested." (2004)

CARL WILSON: "Al and Bruce were reluctant to bring back the Beach Boys into the music scene. Their reasoning was perfectly understandable; Brian was dead, and Mike was disillusioned with music. Without either of them, there were no Beach Boys. Dennis had anticipated this rejection. He said, 'No, no, we're not bringing the Beach Boys back. We're going to be a new group; the Passions or something like that.'" (1983)

AL JARDINE: "Dennis was very persuasive, but eventually, Bruce and I caved in and agreed. He promised that he wouldn't go nuts during production, and had even stopped taking drugs and alcohol following Brian's episodes whilst making Smile. But I still maintained caution. Just in case." (2011)

The re-vamped Beach Boys, now known as the Passions, entered the studio on New Years' Day 1970, and the first recording they did was a rendition of the traditional Scottish poem "Auld Lang Syne" with Dennis leading the group on piano. Carl then took the guitar, Al the bass, Bruce the keyboards and Dennis his drumkit to also get a feel for themselves by performing older songs such as "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Johnny B. Goode" before delving into some of Dennis' new songs like "Be With Me" and "Slip on Through".

BRUCE JOHNSTON: "The sessions were relatively smooth, and soon, even Al and I got into the swing of things by contributing our own songs and helping Dennis and Carl with their own. Sometimes, we'd ask Brian or Mike if they had any ideas, only to realize that they weren't there. But Dennis and Carl would assure us that they were with us in spirit. It helped us get by in the studio." (1992)

The sessions for the Passions' first album lasted three months with Dennis as the producer. Recorded in secret, the public did not know about the remaining former Beach Boys' newest project until they made a surprise appearance at Finsbury Park Astoria in London on 24 May.[1] The performance included not only older Beach Boys songs, but also a few new songs from the Passions' new album. The show was met with mildly positive reception, and whilst some performances were a bit sloppy, it was fun overall and gave some much-needed hype for the album.

July 24, 1970

The Passions - Sunflower

Released: July 24, 1970

Recorded: January 1 - March 30, 1970

Producer: Dennis Wilson

Track listing[2]

Side A

Tears in the Morning
Be With Me
All I Want to Do
Our Sweet Love
Got to Know the Woman
The Nearest Faraway Place

Side B
Slip on Through
Cotton Fields
Never Learn Not to Love
Forever
It's About Time
Celebrate the News

The Passions' debut album Sunflower was released on Reprise Records and was met to positive reception. It reached #3 in the United Kingdom and topped at #29 in the United States. Special praise was given to Dennis Wilson's songwriting, vocal performances and production, being cited as "the hero the Beach Boys needed when Brian lost his self-control during the making of Smile."

Some critics have taken the album to be something of a concept; the track listing implied that it was about a man who had recently lost his old lover and eventually moved on to find a new one, even asking her to marry him at the end. Others believed it was something of an allegory for Dennis' old band falling apart ("Tears in the Morning") before bringing it back together again following Brian's death ("Be With Me", "All I Want to Do") and even saving his bandmates from forever fading into obscurity ("Never Learn Not to Love", "Forever", "Celebrate the News").

DENNIS WILSON: "Such a concept that it was about myself rebooting the Beach Boys as the Passions was completely unintended for Sunflower. I just write songs and sing them like any other self-respecting artist would. That's all." (1977)

2 October 1970

The Yardbirds - Fight the Horde

Released: 2 October 1970

Recorded: November 1969 - August 1970

Producer: Jimmy Page

Track listing[3]

Side A

Immigrant Song
Friends
Celebration Day
Since I've Been Loving You
Out on the Tiles

Side B
Gallows Pole
Hey, Hey, What Can I Do
That's the Way
Bron-Y-Aur
Poor Tom
Hats Off to (Roy) Harper

The third album under the Page/Plant era of the Yardbirds, and the eighth overall, was more eclectic than any other album in their discography that came before it, including folk-sounding tracks alongside their hard blues rock tunes. Much of the album was recorded at Bron-Yr-Aur in Wales, which inspired the title to one of the tracks on side B. This change in sound was surprising to many fans and critics, but that didn't stop Fight the Horde from reaching number one on both sides of the Atlantic.

The title Fight the Horde came from the lyrics of the opening track, "Immigrant Song", which was later released as a single with the acoustic "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" as its contrasting B-side. It  was inspired by a brief tour in Iceland from June and would later become an early example of Viking metal, influencing the likes of Swedish rock artists Heavy Load, Yngwie Malmsteen and Bathory.

Still, a particularly scathing review from Rolling Stone had angered Jimmy Page so much that he would not give press interviews for at least eighteen months. Despite that, reception towards Fight the Horde was kinder than it had been towards Going Down Like a Lead Zeppelin and Whole Lotta Love (despite the latter's title track being universally praised), but although it peaked the charts in the United Kingdom, another album by another band would as well...

Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother

Released: 2 October 1970

Recorded: March - August 1970

Producer: Pink Floyd, Norman Smith, Ron Geesin

Track listing[4]

Side A

Atom Heart Mother

Side B
Point Me at the Sky
If
Summer '68
Dark Globe
Fat Old Sun
Ibizia Bar

DAVID GILMOUR: "When both Fight the Horde and Atom Heart Mother came out the same day [2 October 1970], people thought we were trying to compete with the Yardbirds, but really, we were each doing our own thing at the time. Jimmy and co had theirs, and we had ours. In fairness, they did put out more effort into their songwriting than we did at the time." (1981)

JIMMY PAGE: "I thought Atom Heart Mother had its own merits. I mean, that opening suite is some of the best music Roger and his mates had ever put together. They're really good with long instrumental suites; we could never try to match that!" (1977)

Pink Floyd had not released a new album in over a year following the release of The Man & The Journey, although, to be fair, it was practically two albums packaged together. To fill the gap, the band contributed some music to Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point with pre-Man/Journey tracks as well as a new song called "Cirrus Minor".

With the working title Themes from an Imaginary Western, Ron Geesin was brought in as a co-producer, having recently worked with Roger Waters and the other members of Pink Floyd for the soundtrack to a documentary film called The Body.

Roger Waters performing with Pink Floyd, 1970.

The cover art for Atom Heart Mother consisted of a cow in a field with no text indicating that it was a Pink Floyd album. Syd Barrett would give it the nickname of "The Cow Album", in reference to Beatles '68 sometimes being referred to as "The White Album" due to its white background. Critical reaction towards the album was mixed, and all members of Pink Floyd (including Syd Barrett) had spoken negatively about Atom Heart Mother since its release, with David Gilmour commenting that they became more prolific after its release.

ROGER WATERS: "If somebody said to me now – right – here's a million pounds, go out and play Atom Heart Mother, I'd say you must be fucking joking." (1984)

Footnotes

1. The Beach Boys' performance at Finsbury Park Astoria took place in 1968.
2. Tracks are sourced from Sunflower and the 2001 reissue of 20/20.
3. Tracks are sourced from Led Zeppelin III excluding "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" and "Poor Tom" from the 1993/2008 reissue of Coda, and "Bron-Y-Aur" from Physical Graffiti. All three tracks were recorded during the sessions for LZ3 but not included, although "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" was released as the B-side to "Immigrant Song".
4. All of Atom Heart Mother is used excluding "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast". "Point Me at the Sky" is from The Early Singles, "Dark Globe" is from Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs, and "Ibizia Bar" is sourced from More.

Author's Comments

Another fairly short chapter here. The Beach Boys have risen like a phoenix from the ashes, Syd Barrett's still part of Pink Floyd, and the Yardbirds are carrying on like normal. Nothing much to say here.

Album cover for Sunflower designed by Loulou.