JOHNNY CASH AT THE CAROUSEL BALLROOM

On 13 January 1968 Cash played his legendary concert before an audience at the infamous Folsom Prison in California. Columbia were also there to record the concert for future album release. 

A few days before the release of the album Cash played a concert at the Carousel Ballroom in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. The show was recorded by audio engineer Owsley Stanley and now, more than fifty years later, the concert has been issued through the Owsley Stanley Foundation and Renew Records/BMG.

Before we review the new release we take a look at the life of Owsley Stanley, the history of the Haight-Ashbury scene and the Carousel Ballroom.

Owsley Stanley

Owsley Stanley was born on 19 January 1935, affectionately known to his friends as 'Bear' and, depending on your point of view, was either a legend or a serious threat to society. He was one of the first citizens to mass produce large quantities of LSD during the early-sixties. Kicked out of Charlotte Hall Military Academy for smuggling alcohol on to the campus he was committed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington. A spell at the University of Virginia saw him study engineering but he dropped out and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force where he served for 18 months before his discharge in 1958. Over the next few years he attended college, studying ballet, took a technical job at KGO-TV, relocated to Los Angeles and then returned to the Bay Area.

Owsley Stanley (Photo: Associated Press)

All the time he continued to manufacture LSD although several years later he would be arrested and served three years in prison. His lab was discovered with over 300,000 doses of LSD and in his defense he claimed it was for personal use, the authorities and the courts did not take this seriously.

He is more well known in the music business as the guy who developed the notion of concert PAs and sound systems during his work as a soundman with the Grateful Dead. He was always adding and improving on the bands sound system and started to record many of their shows, creating an impressive archive of concert recordings, many of which have been released on CD. Following his release from prison he continued to work with the Grateful Dead but in the 1980s he moved to Australia with his wife where, in 2011, he died in a car crash. As we shall discover later he also recorded other artists during his time in America, including Johnny Cash.

Haight-Ashbury

Haight-Ashbury is an area of San Francisco on the intersection of Haight and Ashbury Street, from where it picked up its name. The streets commemorate two San Francisco leaders... Henry Haight, pioneer and banker, and Munroe Ashbury, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the late-1800s.

Haight-Ashbury (Photo: Michael Ochs Archives)

The area was well known in the sixties as the centre of the hippie movement and counterculture. The Summer of Love in 1967 became synonymous with San Francisco and the Haight-Ashbury area. Media coverage of the area and the hippie lifestyle attracted the attention of youth from all over America. In the New York Times Magazine, Hunter S. Thompson labelled the area 'Hashbury' and the press covered the activities on a regular basis. Haight-Ashbury became a community of hippies based on counterculture ideals, drugs and music. It helped create a social experiment that soon spread across the country.

Psychedelic music was gaining popularity and with the success of Scott McKenzie's song San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) and the Monterey Pop Festival, local bands from the area were soon receiving attention. Bands included Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother And The Holding Company and the Grateful Dead. All the media attention popularised the whole hippie movement and counterculture not only in America but around the world.

However, in time the area deteriorated with overcrowding, drug problems, crime and homelessness forcing many to leave and continue their studies and life elsewhere.

The Carousel Ballroom

There were many venues that the locals would pack out when their favourite bands appeared and one such venue was the Carousel Ballroom, located at the southwest corner of Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue. It was originally known as the El Patio Ballroom in the 1920s and during the swing-era of the late-1930s and 1940s it became The Carousel Ballroom. The venue was owned by Bill Fuller who also had dance halls in New York, Boston as well as in England. It was promoted as 'America's Finest Ballroom'.

Back in 1966 concert promoter Bill Graham had opened The Fillmore at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard serving as his principal venue between 1966 to 1968. The economic decline of the neighborhood along with the fact that the venues capacity was modest forced Graham to abandon this venue after only two years.

The Carousel Ballroom (Photo: Unknown)

In July 1968 he moved his main concert location to the Carousel Ballroom, which was less than a mile from the original Fillmore. He called this new venue the Fillmore West, he already had a venue in New York City called the Fillmore East.

For the first few months of 1968, before Graham took over, the Carousel Ballroom had been operated by a collective formed by the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother And The Holding Company. The idea being to create a social/musical 'laboratory experiment.' It's six-month existence coincided with the height of the Haight-Ashbury scene.

Among the acts that appeared at the venue, during its time as the Carousel Ballroom and Fillmore West, included Chuck Berry, Tim Buckley, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, Johnny Cash and the Grateful Dead who were regulars at the venue playing over sixty concerts between 1968 and 1971.

In 1971 Graham closed the Fillmore West with five nights of concerts featuring, among other acts,  Santana and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Johnny Cash

The previous few years had seen Johnny lost in the wilderness as far as his career was concerned but 1968 would prove to be a turning point, not only in his career but also his personal life.

In January he played a concert before the inmates at Folsom Prison, the show was recorded and the resulting album Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison would spend more than 90 weeks on the country charts with three spent at the top spot. A few weeks later, on 1 March, he married June Carter at a small, private ceremony in Franklin, Kentucky. It was the start of a successful year for Cash which would lead to the kind of success and achievements that a year earlier seemed out of reach.

Before the years end he would tour the United Kingdom twice, record a religious album, The Holy Land, play at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York and put on a benefit show for the Sioux Indians at the St. Francis Indian Mission in South Dakota before visiting the Wounded Knee Battlefield.

The year was also tinged with sadness though. In August Cash's long-time guitarist and original member of the Tennessee Two, Luther Perkins, died following a fire at his home. 

Country music fans, rockabilly fans, Native Americans, inmates... Cash had always attracted a diverse audience and on 24 April 1968 he attracted a new kind of audience when playing in front of the 'hippie' youths of San Francisco.

Recorded just a few days before the release of the Live At Folsom Prison album the CD finds Cash performing in the heart of Haight-Ashbury. A different kind of audience from his prison and regular concert performances saw him perform songs that were often overlooked in his live shows.

Backed by the Tennessee Three (Luther Perkins on guitar, Marshall Grant on bass and W. S. 'Fluke' Holland behind the drum kit) along with his new bride, June Carter-Cash, this concert was a departure from his normal set list.

Cash opens with Cocaine Blues, a song he recorded early in his career as Transfusion Blues and follows with Long Black Veil and Orange Blossom Special, all three also featured in his Folsom Prison concert and album.

As mentioned earlier Cash performed many songs not often included in his live shows. Highlights here include strong renditions of Goin' To Memphis, Old Apache Squaw, Bad News, Lorena and Rock Island Line.

From the Bob Dylan songbook comes One Too Many Mornings, introduced by Cash as, "a Bob Dylan song that hasn't been released yet," and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.

Just before singing Forty Shades Of Green he mentions that it is a song he last performed there just before they toured Ireland and tonight it was a request from a 'very distinguished gentleman', Gordon Lightfoot. 

Following a duet with June Carter on Jackson he leaves the stage to Carter who performs Tall Lover Man and a medley of songs that included Wildwood Flower, Foggy Mountain Top, This Land Is Your Land and Wabash Cannonball.

Cash returns to perform another duet, Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man, before bringing the show to a close with Ring Of Fire, Big River and then an encore of Don't Take Your Guns To Town and I Walk The Line.

An enjoyable concert with a strong selection of songs and great performances by both Cash and June Carter. 

Apparently a second show was recorded but at the time of this release the tapes for the second show could not be located.

In the press release for the album they write, "On it's surface, Johnny Cash's visit to the heart of hippie San Francisco in April 1968 might have seemed unexpected, but with a rare performance of The Ballad Of Ira Hayes the deep kinship between performer and audience that evening comes into full focus." Along with the Folsom Prison and San Quentin albums, Live At The Carousel Ballroom is another example of Cash's ability to give voice to the downtrodden.

The way the concert was recorded by Owsley Stanley gave an entirely different perspective to Cash's live sound from that period and is probably as close as you can get to actually being there.

Stanley's son, Starfinder, recalls, "There's an idiosyncrasy to this recording; on every other Johnny Cash record you've ever heard, Johnny is centered in the stereo soundstage. But on this one, Johnny is entirely on the right channel, and the Tennessee Three are all on the left. That's a bit weird until your brain adjusts, but you quickly realise that you've been set right between Johnny and his band."

Despite the totally different perspective from other live recordings it doesn't take long for the listener to appreciate this unusual recording technique. The sound which is excellent for a live recording and only suffers from the occasional drop-out and technical hitch. Part of June's performance of Tall Lover Man is cut short and according to the liner notes this was due to the tape running out mid-song. 

One thing I did notice is that the CD starts with Cash announcing, "Here's another song from our show we did at Folsom Prison..." This would suggest the start of the concert is missing as it would be strange to open a concert with this statement and it is likely Cash opened with Folsom Prison Blues but this is only guesswork on my part. 

Released in both CD and vinyl formats the accompanying booklet includes liner notes by Starfinder Stanley, Bob Weir from Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic's Dave Schools and John Carter-Cash. New artwork by Susan Archie and a reproduction of the original poster complete the set.

We have been starved of any previously unreleased material for several years now, I'm not counting the awful RPO pile of ****, and this is a welcome release and an essential addition to the collection.

PARADIS REGAINED

I first heard Vanessa Paradis back in 1987 when the song Joe Le Taxi was receiving a lot of airplay and attention. I bought the single and her first album M & J and at that time they were seldom off the record player. Over the years I have followed her career, collected all her albums (now on CD), a few of her films (despite being in French) and an archive of photos.

I hoped one day to see her live in concert and maybe even get an interview with her. The interview never happened, despite my best efforts, but I finally saw her in concert in 2014 at The Forum, Kentish Town in London and it was a great show. I was due to see her again last year but the Covid pandemic put paid to that and as of now the concert hasn't been rescheduled. 

Back in 2004 I wrote an article on Vanessa Paradis for the music magazine Record Collector which covered her career up to 2001 and I am reprinting the article here exactly as originally published, with additional images.

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Fifteen years after her 'Lolita'-like launch, Vaness Paradis is one of only a handful of French Singers who have had chart success in the UK. Peter Lewry celebrates her career.

Photographer Unknown

Until the success in recent years of dance acts like Daft Punk and Air, few French artists had ever graced the UK charts, particularly the Top 30 singles. A look back over the past 25 years shows Mireille Mathieu at No. 26 in 1967 with La Derniere Valse, Sacha Distel's No. 10 hit Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, and Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, who scored a No. 1 single with the controversial Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus. And there's always Jean-Michel Jarre...

To this exclusive list can be added Vanessa Paradis who, at the tender age of 14 reached No. 4 with Joe Le Taxi, the first Top 5 French single in nearly 20 years. Interestingly, it wasn't an overly ambitious mother who steered her in a musical direction but her uncle, producer Didier Pain, who would also become her manager.

Born on 22 December 1972 in the Paris suburb of St. Maur-des-Fosses, by the age of seven she had made her first public appearance on French TV on the amateur talent show L'Ecole Des Fans, singing Chanson d'Emilie Jolie. It was Didier Pain who entered her in the contest and then, six years later, recorded her singing La Magie Des Surprises Parties which, although not released as a single at the time, led to a meeting with the composer/lyricist team Franck Langolff and Etienne Roda-Gil.

The due promised to a write a song for Vanessa and eventually came up with Joe Le Taxi, about a Parisian taxi driver with a penchant for rum and Latin music, who knows where all the bars are. The song had to be re-written slightly to be more appropriate for her tender age.

Pain took a demo of the song to both Virgin and Pathe with no success and finally received a positive response from Polydor. They were interested, provided they could first meet Vanessa and be sure she wasn't being pushed into showbusiness by her parents. It only took her five minutes to convince them and in February 1987, just a couple of months after her fourteenth birthday, she signed with the label and went into the studio to record the song.

Released in April, the song reached No. 1 on the French charts and not even Madonna could dislodge the single. Available in several formats, the UK issue with a poster picture sleeve is valued at £25, while the French four-track CD/video single, that included a Spanish language version of the song and video performance, is highly sought-after and commands a £35 price tag.

The song immediately became a hit throughout Europe, staying at No. 1 in France for 12 weeks and a Top 5 hit in the UK, and pushed Vanessa firmly into the spotlight. "Finally, success gave me the freedom to say what I liked... and what I didn't like."

She followed this with a string of successful records including Manolo Manolette, Marilyn Et John, a song about the rumoured romance between Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy, Maxou, about her idol James Dean and Mosquito all penned by the winning combination of Langolff and Roda-Gil.

Following the success of Joe Le Taxi, and not wanting to miss a marketing opportunity, the record label AB released her recording of La Magie Des Surprises Parties, although copies were scarce and the single now fetches anything up to £120 for a mint issue.

Fame had a price though. Despite her success, the French public refused to accept this precocious schoolgirl and she found herself at the receiving end of hatred and jealousy, and was often spat at in the street or called a 'slut' and a 'whore'. During her time at school she had to suffer regular insults from other girls and in an interview in 1988 she recalled that "I no longer wanted to see anyone. I was crying every five minutes."

Photographer Unknown

A few years later, during an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival where she performed Joe Le Taxi, she was jeered at. Even recent glossy magazines have run headlines like 'Why Do Women hate Vanessa?' stating that she is 'vain, pampered, dissolute and precociously sexy.' Her Lolita schoolgirl image, while  being a major selling point, was also proving to be a downside to her fame.

The success of the single, not only in France, but throughout Europe necessitated an album. The result, M & J, released in 1988, was a collection of Langolff/Roda-Gil compositions that demonstrated that she was far from a one-hit wonder. Despite pop music never being taken seriously in France the album was widely acclaimed as a French masterpiece, qualified for a platinum disc and was voted one of the five best domestic albums by the daily paper Liberation.

In the UK the album stalled at No. 45 and she was unable to capitalise on the success of Joe Le Taxi. It would be another four years before she would have another hit on this side of the Channel. Vanessa was happy with most of the album but felt that tracks like Chat Annas, which features her serenading a kitten, was too childish. Even at the early age of 15 she wanted to record material with a harder edge.

In 1989, in a move away from the music business, she made her film debut in Noce Blance (White Wedding), playing a Lolita-like pupil who seduces her teacher. Her performance won over her critics and she was awarded two of the most sought after French awards -- a Cesar for Most Promising Actress and the Prix Romy Schneider for the Most Promising Debut Performance on screen. Many more films would follow including Elisa, based on a song written by Serge Gainsbourg, The Girl On The Bridge and the romantic comedy Un Amour De Sorciere.

She also signed a three million franc contract with the perfume company Chanel to be the face of their perfume Coco. In the advert, filmed by Jean-Paul Goude, ex-husband of Grace Jones, she appeared as a bird in a gilded cage, complete with a set of feathers, while a white fluffy cat looked on! Once again Vanessa found herself the centre of more controversy. Many people thought the idea of a woman displayed in a cage to be sexist.

Despite a successful film career, her singing was not forgotten. Vanessa concentrated on her music and during this time she met up with Serge Gainsbourg, best known for his hit single with Jane Birkin, Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus. He was taken with this new French sensation commenting that "She has a little bit of Bardot in her."

Her second album Variations Sur Le Meme T'Aime, produced by Gainsbourg and released in 1990, was a fine collection of music by Frank Langolff and the lyrics of Gainsbourg. With the exception of one track, the album was recorded entirely in French, the exception being a cover of the infamous Lou Reed song Walk On The Wild Side. It was proof that Vanessa was now a mature 17-year-old who was ready to handle harder material with stronger feelings. Even the music leaned towards a bluesier, rockier feel.

Three singles were lifted for the French market, Tandem, the beautiful Dis-Lui Toi Que Je T'Aime and L'Anour En Soi, all accompanied by promotional videos. Released in several different formats these singles fetch between £9-£18.

In the UK the failure to capitalise on the success of Joe Le Taxi and the follow up singles meant that nothing from her new album would be issued in that format in the UK. Following the release of the album Vanessa, once again, found her private life splashed across the pages of many tabloids, most seemed to concentrate on her supposed affair with Gainsbourg.

Her third album found her working with yet another producer/songwriter in a different country. Sessions for Vanessa Paradis, released in 1992, were held at Waterfront Studios in New Jersey with Lenny Kravitz producing and arranging all the tracks. She had met Kravitz backstage at a concert given by him in May 1991 where he told her "If you need me, just give me a call." The years of verbal abuse that she had endured in recent years finally drove Vanessa to leave her flat in Paris and move to New York. It was there that she made contact with Kravitz, and they hit it off straight away. The rumour mill was working overtime yet again with stories of an affair between Vanessa and Kravitz, fuelled by intimate photographs of them on holiday in the Caribbean.

Be My Baby, the first single to be lifted from the album was a hit in both France and the UK where it reached No. 6. Two more singles were released for the UK market Sunday Mondays and Just As Long As You Are There reaching No. 49 and 57 respectively -- disappointing, especially after the success of Be My Baby. In France both Natural High and Gotta Have It were issued as singles. As with the previous album, she turned to Lou Reed for a song. On his I'm Waiting For The Man she perfectly fulfilled the role of siren with a dangerous edge -- a marketable combination.

Since the release of Joe Le Taxi she had been a regular on French television and had made appearances in the UK on Top Of The Pops and the chat show Wogan but had not toured to promote any of her albums. In 1993 she finally undertook the massive 70-date Natural High Tour of Europe, with appearances throughout France as well as a one-off concert in London. A show at the Olympia in Paris in April 1993 was recorded and released as Vanessa Paradis Live the following year.

The concerts and subsequent album showcased songs from her previous three albums and one of the highlights of this set is As Tears Go By, originally recorded by Marianne Faithful and performed by Paradis in an almost breathless whisper. She also performed La Vague A Lames as a tribute to the late Serge Gainsbourg.

It would be six years before she released a new album. her film career went from strength to strength and she met and moved in with actor Johnny Depp, falling pregnant and enjoying life with her daughter Lily-Rose.

Bliss, released in 2000, was another collection of mainly French language recordings recorded in Los Angeles. She had more involvement in the making of the album, contributing lyrics and music to many of the songs and producing or co-producing most of the album. The track Commando was lifted for single release in France and was issued in several formats.

In 2001 she went out on the road again for only the second time in her career and, in November 2001, a live album was recorded during her Bliss Tour at the Zenith in Paris. Au Zenith included two Serge Gainsbourg songs that she hadn't recorded before, L'eau A La Bouche and Requiem Pour Un Con. There was also a cover of the old Zombies track, This Will Be Our Year.

As a sellable product and sex symbol her picture has appeared on countless magazine covers and in recent years she has featured in a variety of French magazines including Photo, Tele Cable, Femme and Paris Match as well as making the cover of the US publication Rolling Stone.

Photographer Unknown

So what of the future for Vanessa? With the addition of a young son to the Depp/Paradis family and a successful film career it might be that her music career takes a back-seat for a few years but there is no doubt that music is a major part of her life and fans of this talented French singer hopefully look forward to more albums in the future.

THE BEACH BOYS - FEEL FLOWS

By the late 1960s the Beach Boys popularity was at an all-time low due partly to their cultural standing and public image. They were dealing with financial issues caused by two disastrous tours in 1968 and record sales had shown a steady decline since the days of surf, cars and girls. Their current album 20/20, released in February 1969, had sold better than the previous years Friends album but neither matched the success of their earlier albums. Brian Wilson was also suffering from erratic behaviour and had become a recluse, often not leaving his house for months on end. All this affected his reputation within the music business. Of course, there was also Dennis Wilson's friendship with Charles Manson, the Manson Family and the Sharon Tate - LaBianca murders which grabbed unwanted media attention. Their final tour of the year was a dismal affair with crowds often struggling to reach two or three hundred resulting in several cancelled dates. Things needed to change.

Photo (c) Annie Leibovitz

In April 1969 they filed a $2 million lawsuit against Capitol Records for unpaid royalties and production duties and also announced they would revive their Brother Records Label with records to be distributed by Reprise/Warner records.

Sessions for their next album began in January 1969 and would continue, on and off, throughout the year. Over 40 tracks were recorded and early working titles for the new album included Reverberation, Sun Flower, The Fading Rock Group Revival and Add Some Music To Your Day. The sessions were produced by The Beach Boys as a group but also individually by Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson individually.

The album would go through many changes of track listings as the record was rejected several times. A short while before signing with Reprise the band compiled a 14-track acetate for the label with the title Sun Flower, it was rejected. Renamed Add Some Music (An Album Offering from The Beach Boys) and submitted again it was also rejected. The label felt the album wasn't strong enough. From February through June the band worked on overdubbing and recording new material. Another batch of songs were offered but rejected once again. However, during this time two tracks were selected as single pairing Add Some Music To Your Day with Susie Cincinnati. In July a final master of what would become Sunflower was finally submitted to Reprise and accepted.

Released in the USA in August 1970 and November in the UK it only reached number 151 on the US charts, their worst selling album up to that point, while in the UK it peaked at number 29. Two more singles were released, Tears In The Morning/It's About Time and Cool, Cool Water/Forever, neither charted.

The album included several Dennis Wilson compositions, Slip On Through, Got To Know The Woman and the beautiful Forever while Bruce Johnston provided Deirdre and Tears In The Morning. Other songs, written by combinations of the band members included, Add Some Music To Your Day, All I Wanna Do, Our Sweet Love and At My Window. The closing track, Cool, Cool Water had evolved from the Smile track I Love To Say DaDa and had been attempted several times during sessions in 1967 for the Smiley Smile and Wild Honey albums.

Close to three dozen tracks were never used on the album and  remained in the vaults although over the years several have found a release as we will discover later.

The album cover featured all six members and was taken by Ricci Martin, Dean Martin's son, at a golf course on Dean Martin's Hidden Valley Ranch in Ventura County, California. The inner gatefold sleeve featured more images, this time by photographer Ed Thrasher on the Warner Bros. studio back-lot.

Despite it's poor showing on the chart the album did receive positive reviews. Writing in Rolling Stone, Jim Miller considered the album, "...without doubt the best Beach Boys album in recent memory, a stylistically coherent tour de force." Although he did end by saying, "It makes one wonder though whether anyone still listens to their music, or could give a shit about it."

Robert Christgau, in The Village Voice, felt that, "...as a coming-of-age record from the Beach Boys, Sunflower is far more satisfying, I suspect, than Smile ever would have been."

Regarded by many as the best Beach Boys album since Pet Sounds this was reflected in other reviews. "The strongest album they released post-Pet Sounds." (Pitchfork), "It stands as the definitive post-Pet Sounds Beach Boys album" (Popdose) and "... in many respects their Abbey Road - a lush production that signaled an end to the 1960s, the decade that gave them creative flight." (Paste).

Sunflower has also done well in various polls, In 1997 it was voted number 66 in the '100 Best Albums Ever' by The Guardian and in 2003, number 380 in Rolling Stone's '500 Greatest Ever Albums of All Time'.

Bruce Johnston, talking in the 1970s, named Sunflower as his favourite Beach Boys album and considered it the last true Beach Boys album as it was the last to feature Brian Wilson's input and involvement. 

Back in July 1969 Brian Wilson, along with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, held an interview with Jack Rieley, who would become the bands manager. During the interview Brian spoke about the band and his feelings saying, "I'm proud of the group and the name but feel the clean American thing has hurt us. And we're really not getting any kind of airplay today." He also felt they hadn't done enough to change their image. With their new album, and input from Rieley, they would write and record a selection of songs which dealt with environmental, social and health issues. It was a plan to restore the bands image and reputation. It would also see Carl Wilson become 'leader' and marking his first major contributions to a Beach Boys album.

After the release of Sunflower, Stephen Desper, the bands engineer, had assembled a selection of tracks, mainly outtakes, for a follow-up which he called Second Brother Album. Rieley hated the tracks and called them "forgettable" and at a meeting with Mo Ostin, a Warner Brothers executive and massive Brian Wilson fan, took one listen and said, "No way."

With the exception of a handful of tracks the new album was recorded at sessions running from January through to July 1971. However, Brian was less involved in the production.

The original planned title of the new album was Landlocked but this changed and it would take it's name from the closing track Surf's Up.

Released in August 1971 on Brother/Reprise Surf's Up was the Beach Boys 17th studio album and the follow-up to Sunflower. In the UK it was issued two-months later.

The album featured two of Carl Wilson's first important solo efforts, Long Promised Road and Feel Flows and was an indication of what was to come from him in the future. Mike Love took the old Leiber & Stoller classic Riot In Cell Block Number 9 and reworked it as Student Demonstration Time, which apparently disgusted Dennis Wilson and embarrassed Carl. Brian felt the lyrics were too intense. Till I Die was a track that Brian had been working on for a few months while Take A Load Off Your Feet was written with Al Jardine, who also contributes Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) and co-wrote A Day In The Life Of A Tree with Rieley and Brian. Bruce Johnston's only composition on the album was Disney Girls, a song he wrote  "...because I saw so many kinds in our audiences being wiped out on drugs" and he wanted to recreate a time when people were more naive and healthier. Brian loved the harmonies on the song.

Surf's Up bought the album to a close and originally Brian didn't want it included and on giving in insisted Carl sing the lead vocal. When this didn't work they went back to the original 1966 recording and overdubbed a new vocal from Carl. Brian appeared as the session was ending and added the songs final lyrics.

Dennis Wilson had none of his songs on the album and was keeping them for his own solo album which he planned to release in 1971 but the project, to be provisionally titled Poops/Hubba Bubba, was shelved.

Once again there were many songs recorded and left on the shelf including Wouldn't It be Nice (To Live Again), My Solution, H.E.L.P. Is On The Way and an attempt at Seasons In The Sun, a song written by Jacques Brel and Rod McKuel which would become a hit in 1974 for Terry Jacks. Mike Love was quoted as saying their version of the song was so wimpy they had no choice but to throw it away.

The album cover artwork was based on an early 20th-century sculpture 'End Of The Trail' by James Earle Fraser. Located in Waupun, Wisconsin it depicted a weary Native American hanging limp as his tired horse approaches the edge of the Pacific Ocean. It embodied the suffering and exhaustion of people driven from their native lands. It was an appropriate cover image for the album. However, it wasn't the first choice for an album cover. With it's original working title Landlocked a cover was designed featuring white lettering printed over a photograph of a dark field. Thankfully this was discarded in favour of the cover we now know.

Chartwise it performed better than Sunflower, reaching number 29 on the US charts, their highest placing since 1967, and number 15 in the UK.

Two singles were released in America Long Promised Road b/w Deirdre and Surf's Up b/w Don't Go Near The Water the former becoming the bands sixth consecutive US single that failed to chart.

Rolling Stone wrote, "The Beach Boys stage a remarkable comeback. An LP that weds their choral harmonies to progressive pop and which shows youngest Wilson brother Carl stepping into the fore of the venerable outfit." In Time the reviewer described it as, "One of the most imaginatively produced LPs since last fall's All Things Must Pass by George Harrison and Phil Spector." Other reviews praised the album with comments including, "This is a good album, probably as good as Sunflower, which is terrific...It is certainly the most original in that it has contributed something purely its own." and "It won't disappoint anyone at all. They've produced an album which fully backs up all that's recently been written and said about them."

Of course, not everybody was so positive. The Rag felt that all the press furor over the groups reputed comeback was rubbish and the album suffered from horrendous production and engineering and a lack of focus. Writing in The Guardian, Geoffrey Cannon felt the album was inconsistent while Robert Christgau, in The Village Voice, liked Disney Girls and Take A Load Off Your Feet but found most of the other songs forgettable and the album the bands worst since Friends in 1968. He put a lot of the blame on Van Dyke Park and Jack Rieley commenting that, "Van Dyke Park's wacked-out lyricist meandering is matched by the sophomoric spiritual quest of Jack Rieley, and the music drags hither and yon." Fortunately most people disagreed.

Surf's Up has appeared in many polls with New Musical Express ranking it number 96 in their 1974 list of 'Top 100 Albums Of All Time' and in 1993 it had risen to number 46 in their list. In the 2000 book All Time Top 1000 Albums it was ranked at number 230. It was also listed in the book, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Interestingly Bruce Johnston, who wouldn't work with the group again until the L.A. (Light Album) in 1979, would later criticize Surf's Up saying, "To me, Surf's Up, is and always has been, one hyped-up lie! It was a false reflection of The Beach Boys and one which Jack (Rieley) engineered right from the start. It made it look like Brian Wilson was more than just a visitor at those sessions. Jack made it appear he was there all the time." Although he would also state about Rieley, "All I can say is that at the beginning, I thought that what he was trying to do was absolutely right on the money. He helped the band become aware of what our niche was in pop music."

This all brings us to the latest Beach Boys compilation/release... Feel Flows.

Released in August 2021 this 5-CD set, presented in a 48-page 12" x 10" hard-backed book, is sub-titled, The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969 - 1971, and was compiled/produced by Beach Boys archivists Mark Linett and Alan Boyd. It includes 133 tracks with 108 previously unreleased. A mix of live recordings, outtakes, alternate versions, remixes, backing tracks and vocal only tracks which helps the listener understand the creative process which resulted in both Sunflower and Surf's Up.

Released with the full co-operation of the surviving band members it proves that the Beach Boys were not a spent force at this time and shows them at a critical stage of their careers. Every member appears to be overflowing with ideas and with a new sense of liberation. It also marks the return of Brian Wilson as an active member of the group following his physical and mental deterioration following the Smile sessions.

Disc one features the original Sunflower album along with previously unreleased tracks from the period and live recordings. The second disc covers Surf's Up, with the original album supported by more unreleased live recordings and unreleased tracks from the sessions. Discs three and four cover the Sunflower and Surf's Up sessions respectively and also features a number of A Capella tracks. The final disc contains various tracks from 1969-1971 some of which were recorded but eventually dropped from the albums.

Among the unreleased tracks from both album sessions are Susie Cincinnati, Two Can Play, San Miguel, H.E.L.P. Is On The Way, My Solution, Big Sur and Seasons In The Sun. In 1973 a new recording of Big Sur would find a release as part of California Saga on their Holland album.

We get to hear A Capella versions/backing vocals of many of the tracks including Break Away, Add Some Music To Your Day, Cotton Fields, the beautiful Forever, Surf's Up and Long Promised Road. Work in progress recordings gives the listener the opportunity to hear alternate versions of Don't Go Near The Water, Take A Load Of Your Feet along with session highlights including Loop De Loop, At My Window, Cool, Cool Water, Deirdre and much more.

Of particular interest is the wealth of material written by Dennis Wilson and intended for his first solo album, Poops/Hubba Bubba, but never released. Tracks include I'm Goin' Your Way, Old Movie (Cuddle Up), All Of My Love/Ecology, Barbara, Hawaiian Dream, I've Got A Friend and Behold The Night. Many of these were co-written with Daryl Dragon of Captain and Tenille fame who scored hits with Do That To Me One More Time, Muskrat Love and Love Will Keep Us Together.

The set also shows what a dynamic live act they were and on this set we are treated to eleven live recordings covering the period 1970 to 1993. Highlights include Add Some Music To Your Day (1993), Riot In Cell Block Number 9 (1970), Surf's Up (1973), Disney Girls (1982) and Student Demonstration Time (1971).

The set ends with two tracks which would eventually be recorded for the 1972 album Carl And The Passions - "So Tough", You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone and Marcella.

My only complaint about the set is the book which is mainly a collection of old quotes from band members taken from various interviews supported with some basic text. A set like this deserved a more informative liner note detailing the recordings etc along with studio shots, memorabilia and sleeves. A minor point that doesn't distract from the quality of the music.

Feel Flows is proof, if any was needed, that the Beach Boys never stopped creating great music. Sit back, relax, turn the lights down and Add Some Music To Your Day.

SEEING RED

The history of the London Underground has always interested me and in this latest article I am going to look back at the life of Leslie Green, the English architect who was responsible for the design of iconic stations with the distinctive ox blood tiling. I'll also look at the stations I have visited so far and give a brief history.

Leslie Green (Photographer Unknown)

Leslie William Green was born in Maida Vale, London on 6 February 1875 and educated at Dover College and South Kensington School of Art.

In 1897 he established his own architect practice working from his father's offices before moving to Haymarket in 1900 and finally Adam Street, close to The Strand. He had been made an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1898 and a year later a member of RIBA.

His early work included many shops and homes across London but it was his work for the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) for which he will be best remembered.

It was in 1903 that he was appointed as architect for the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) to design the stations for the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR) and the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR) all of which were under construction. Today the lines are known as the Piccadilly Line, Bakerloo Line and Northern Line.

Green was tasked with designing fifty new stations. Not only the exteriors but also the fixtures and fittings internally. He had developed a modern style for the ground-level stations with each adapted to suit their locality. Constructed as two-storey structures with steel frames, an idea that had originated in America, they provided large internal areas for ticket halls and lift shafts

The exteriors were clad in ox-blood (sang-de-boeuf) red glazed tiles. They were manufactured by the Burmantofts Pottery based in Leeds which, in 1889, merged with other companies to become the Leeds Fireclay Company.

Covent Garden Station

Built with separate entrances and exits the stations were noticeable by not only the red tiling but the arched windows at first floor level.They had flat roofs which would allow office building above.

The idea of tiling continued in the booking halls and platform levels with green and white tiles while, on the platforms, the station names and direction signs were also made using tiles. It created a unified theme and was easy to maintain.

The three lines were due to open in 1906 and 1907 and in June of 1907 Green was told his contract would end at the end of the year. Green died in August 1908 and many of his original buildings have survived even though the interiors have been modernised. Many are Grade II listed buildings. 

The following is a list of the relevant stations on each of the three lines...

Bakerloo Line: Edgware Road, Great Central, Baker Street, Regent's Park, Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Embankment, Waterloo, Kennington Road and Elephant & Castle.

Piccadilly Line: Gillespie Road, Holloway Road, Caledonian Road, York Road, King's Cross, Russell Square, Holborn, Strand, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, Dover Street, Down Street, Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge, Brompton Road, South Kensington and Gloucester Road.

Northern Line: Highgate, Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, South Kentish Town, Golders Green, Hampstead, Belsize Park, Chalk Farm, Camden Town, Mornington Crescent, Euston, Euston Road, Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Street, Leicester Square and Charing Cross.

Note: Many of these have been demolished or are due for demolition, closed, never had a station building or have been renamed.

What follows is a brief history of four of the Leslie Green designed station buildings that I have visited and photographed. I am planning more London trips and will be seeking out more of the stations and photographing them and hope to add to this article in the future.

Covent Garden

Situated on the Piccadilly Line between Leicester Square and Holborn it serves the Covent Garden area and is located on the corner of Long Acre and Janes Street. In 1929, with the extension of the Piccadilly Line, the station was earmarked for closure based on the fact that the closing of less-busy stations in the central London area would improve the reliability of the service and journey times. Fortunately the closure never took place and the station building remains and is now a Grade II listed building.

York Road

Located on the corner of York Road (now York Way) and Bingfield Street the station was on the Piccadilly Line between King's Cross and Caledonian Road. The station opened in 1906 but due to low volume of passengers it closed in 1932.

York Road Underground

It was unusual due to the fact that, unlike most underground stations on the line where the lifts stopped at a level above the platforms and so passengers had to descend a final flight of stairs to catch their train, the lifts at York Road went right down to the platform level. This meant that the platforms had to be further apart than normal and so the interconnecting passageways were much longer than normal. The station building still exists although for how much longer, who knows.

Euston

There were three underground stations built to serve Euston mainline station and two of these were built by two different companies, City & South London Railway (C&SLR) and the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR). The London & North Western Railway (L&NWR) owned the land and had given their permission to both companies as long as there were separate stations and entrances to both from within the main station. They opened in 1907 and closed in 1914 leaving just the entrance in the mainline station in use.

Euston (on Melton Street)

The CCE&HR underground station was located on Melton Street just west of the mainline station. After its closure it housed the ventilation equipment for the Victoria Line. Another Leslie Green designed station that should have Grade II listed building status but is unfortunately being demolished (or has already been) to make way for the construction of the HS2 rail line. I was fortunate to visit the site recently and capture this image. The other station was located east of the mainline station at the junction of Eversholt Street and Drummond Street but has long since been demolished.

Aldwych/Strand

Aldwych station was opened in 1907 with the name Strand after the street on which it was located. It was the terminus of the short branch line from Holborn on the Piccadilly Line. Several reasons have been given for the existence of the short bit of line. One is a Parlimentary condition that the line be built. Another is the idea to extend the line south of the river, an idea that is more likely as plans were apparently made.

Strand (Aldwych) Station

It changed its name to Aldwych in 1915 as the nearby Charing Cross Underground Station was also called Strand at the time. It changed it's name back to Charing Cross in 1979. Confusing or what! Never a busy station it was considered for closure many times and in 1962 only weekday peak hour trains ran and by 1994 the station was closed The station building is on the corner of Strand and Surrey Street and if you go around the corner into Surrey Street you will find another entrance to the station.

Strand (Aldwych) Station entrance on Surrey Street

During the Second World War the station was used as an air raid shelter and the unused tunnels as storage for rare and priceless treasures from the British Museum. Today it is maintained by the London Underground as a museum piece and often used as a location for TV and films.

For further reading on the London Underground, it's history and visiting some of the sites I recommend the following books.

London's Disused Underground Stations (J. E. Connor)

Do Not Alight Here (Ben Pedroche)