Keepin' The Summer Alive / The Beach Boys

Bruce Johnston, not Barry Manilow, wrote "I Write the Songs." And if that isn't enough irony for you, the Beach Boys thought enough of his efforts on 1979's aptly titled, if creatively underwhelming, L.A. (Light Album) that they let him produce the 1980 follow-up, Keepin' the Summer Alive. The resulting effort may have down-graded the band's sorry condition from grave to critical, but it was also a testament to how far the Beach Boys had coasted on their fleeting reputation alone. Johnston wisely brings the band's trademark harmonies to the fore, but in the service of some typically (for the period) lackluster songwriting. Tellingly, though Brian Wilson was ostensibly involved, even the presence of B.T.O.'s Randy Bachman (who cowrote a pair of tracks with Carl Wilson) is more distinct. Still need more irony? The final track of this hollow, haunted de facto paean to the band's disunity is Johnston's schmaltzy "Endless Harmony." Such was the response to Summer that the band spent the next five years on the road, burnishing their reputation as a nostalgia act; at least it kept them out of the studio. Unfortunately, by the time they returned to recording, Dennis Wilson was dead, Brian Wilson had "found" a new collaborator (the infamous Dr. Eugene Landy, his psychotherapist), and the band was at its usual creative loggerhead. But they also had the good sense to bring in hot '80s hired-gun producer Steve Levine to at least synthesize a respectable-sounding Beach Boys album. The single "Getcha Back" is a weird mix of nostalgia and contemporary studio smoke and mirrors; with Brian Wilson's falsetto soaring over the top as it hadn't in decades, it's also the most familiar-sounding band track in years. Levine's efforts at veneer (which include using Stevie Wonder as a sideman/collaborator) gloss over some wobbly songwriting. Brian's profile is higher than it's been since Love You, but his ever fragile, quirky constructions (especially "Male Ego," "Crack at Your Love," and "California Saga") are largely stillborn, thanks to the amateurish lyrical efforts of Landy. Carl Wilson shines throughout; the band's greatest trooper until the bitter end. Both albums are newly remastered on a single disc. --Jerry McCulley