Extra Scenes: The Former Beach Boys/Passions (Post-1973)

The Beach Boys, 1966.

With the underwhelming performance of the Passions' fourth album Holland, the band members had gone their separate ways by the end of 1973. Dennis Wilson had found a new calling as a music producer for Highway 61 Records, as well as joint A&R director with ex-Badfinger member Pete Ham. Like his older brother, Carl continued being part of the music industry, mostly providing backing vocals for the likes of Elton John and various other soft rock bands, as well as doing the odd solo project. Carl remained active until his death from lung cancer on February 6, 1998, at the age of 51.

Similarly, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston continued onward with music careers in their own way; Love's solo career had its own ups and downs, such as his 1988 hit single "Kokomo", before finally bottoming out with his 1992 solo album, Summer of Love[1]. It would be another twenty-five years before he went back into the studio again.

On the other hand, Bruce Johnston's career was less eventful, ending up mostly as a songwriter for other artists, sometimes even working with the likes of James Taylor. But what about Al Jardine? Well, he was mostly retired from the music industry, deciding instead to take up farming, even becoming an advocate for vegetarianism. Every once in a while, he reunited with the other ex-Beach Boys either for a charity performance or for small reunion tours with guest musicians playing in lieu of Brian Wilson. Although there were talks of a reunion album either as the Beach Boys or the Passions, they never came to fruition.

One can only debate what could've happened had Brian Wilson lived...

Footnotes

1. OTL's Summer in Paradise, regarded by many as the worst Beach Boys album.

Author's Comments

This is perhaps the shortest post I've made for the story thus far, so there's not really a lot to talk about here. It was doing that Beach Boys 1967-1973 discography that made me realize I'd made a horrible misjudgment in killing off Brian Wilson too soon. But alas, I can't really go back and make changes. I've always intended for this to be a first draft of sorts, so when I get to a second draft, most likely when I finish up Phase Three, I can iron out the kinks, weed out the really awkward bits and even expand upon some elements that I didn't in the first draft. Although I planned to bring up to the end of the 1980s, I might stop the first draft at Live Aid because - let's face it - if Bohemian Rhapsody was anything to go by, it just feels like a real finale. And maybe an epilogue chapter if I feel like it.

The main point of divergence was the Rolling Stones putting out Could You Walk on the Water like they originally planned, which ends up disrupting the Beatles' career later on down the road and, by extension, affects the rest of the world (and not just in the music industry). Think of it akin to the point of divergence in Blue Skies in Camelot in which Marilyn Monroe surviving past 1962 does not directly service the intended narrative and the main butterfly, John Kennedy surviving the Dallas ambush in 1963; for the narrative to make sense, both points of divergence need to happen. (For the second draft of Strawberry Peppers, it's the Rolling Stones releasing Could You Walk on the Water, and, something that will happen for the second draft, George Harrison's songwriting being taken more seriously by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, preventing the eventual breakup of the Beatles.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Before that, I've got a few more Extra Scenes to put out before moving onto Phase Three, beginning in 1977.