The Beach Boys – Friends

Wonderful pressing, wonderful album. Wide soundstage. If I’m not mistaken this was their first album to have a dedicated stereo mix and it shows. This release sounds fantastic, highly recommend

Great sounding pressing of this Beach Boys classic . Wide soundstage , great separation, taut bass . Fantastic pressing .

Fantastic album, and this pressing sounds great too. Very large, clear soundscape that is mixed fantastically. Just a great pressing all around

Rolling Stone didn't always get their reviews right and there are entire sites dedicated to the absolute worst of their takes. But the review of Friends hits the nail on the head. Even though the music listeners could never quite come around; old fans being turned off by the new sound and new fans having an aversion because of preconceived notions, Rolling Stone never lost sight of the music the the Beach Boys were producing regardless of what the public expected. I also have a pet theory that The Beach Boys were hurt because the music was not being guitar led like the majority of bands at the time from singer songwriters to driving blues/hard rock acts where the guitar was at the fore. What other band at the time would be daring enough to put out an instrumental like Passing By? Who needs a Hendrix-like guitar solo when you have those harmonies?

Not sounding like other bands cost them on the charts but the music is innovative and unique and unlike anything else you could have heard at the time. That's what we want, right? Artistic vision. Musicians and songwriters who follow where their creativity leads them, not trying to follow trends or sound and look like other bands that are hitting the charts.

It's obvious some people were not quite capable of seeing what Brian was doing and the new musical world he was creating for the band and their fans. Sales and chart positions show that. Does it matter? Is Nick Drake seen as any less musically brilliant today because he never had chart success?

Because the Beach Boys lost "the formula" and Brian had his breakdown some see the post Pet Sounds era as lost. If another band had come out of nowhere and released the run of albums from Smiley Smile to Holland, the albums at the time would have been seen in a completely different light and that stretch alone would have been enough to make them Hall of Fame caliber. But because the Beach Boys were who they were the albums were deemed failures as viewed through the lens of their early 60s heyday.

I came to The Beach Boys through the 80s and 90s surf revival. I loved those early albums dearly. Great stuff. But, I had avoided Pet Sounds and later works because they were not surf. Then I started listening, really listening to the later output and in blew my mind. Now the later albums are my go to.

With each member now contributing more heavily as Brian began retreating Friends is the transition into the group working together to find the heights of Sunflower and Surf's Up. Al's contribution of Wake the World shows us his awakening as a real songwriter. And we especially get to see the emergence of the soulfulness and ache for love and beauty of Dennis with Little Bird and Be Still. And Brian still shows his sly playfulness with Busy Doin' Nothin'. Of course Transcendental Meditation is painful and a miss. But, again, this is a band that is trying to find it's footing as its leader was crashing into a very bad mental state. While not being as great as Sunflower or Surf's Up, this album shows the promise of great things to come.

My fave BB's record and it is Brian's too! This is a true original album as no BB's record or anyones record sounds like it. Absolutely gorgeous. N

Rapidly becoming my favourite BB album. Be Here in the Morning is just beautiful. Ignore the nay-sayers, this album is wonderful.

I wish that I could listen to the album with today’s ears, and not hear the social implications that surrounded it at the time.

The Beach Boys entitled the album Friends, though in 1968, trailing in the footsteps of the Beatles, we all referred to the record as The Transcendental Meditation Album. Then from out of blue, the the band scheduled a nationwide tour with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, (the little guy Lennon patted on the head and walked away from laughing due to sexual misconduct by the spiritual leader). Twenty-nine dates were scheduled, mostly at colleges and universities, though many canceled quickly due to low ticket sales and hostile reactions. With the Beach Boys already deeply in debt, this misadventure, described as “one of the most bizarre entertainments of the era,” cost the band an additional quarter million dollars. As if to add fuel to the fire and define the separation of the Beach Boys (men) from their fans, at Iona College, Mike Love took to the stage admonishing the hecklers saying, “I know there are a lot of young people here but you will get older and I know you'll want to remember the Maharishi.” Yep, in May of 1968, Mike Love admitted that he and the fans of the Beach Boys were out of step.

From the get-go, the album was just not good, either in delivery, production (being recorded lo-fi in Brian’s home), or for the music. The only single from the album “Friends,” topped out at number 47 on the US charts and quickly disappeared (their lowest charting single in six years). While the songs are pleasant and pop inspired, there is an extreme sense of confusion and disjointedness to be taken away from the listen, as again, the Beach Boys were moving into a world of their own making, and had not managed to bring their fans with them. All of this was done in 1968, at the height of the war in Viet Nam, at the height of the U.S. Draft, right in the midst of albums such as Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix, Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones, Waiting for the Sun from the Doors, the Velvet Underground’s White Light White Heat, Crown of Creation by the Jefferson Airplane and so many more spectacular creations that it boggles the mind, yet here were the Beach Boys, inspirations of the early 60’s, confused, lost, on edge, broke, and Al Jardine has the audacity to years later claim that, ”We were attempting to create a record that didn’t rely on radio airplay, we wanted to free ourselves from the constrictions of delivering singles. Which pretty much meant that Al was in favor of removing all constrictions that would prevent himself from shooting himself in the foot.

Listen, I’m wagging my finger here, it’s called the music business for a reason, it’s about making money to provide oneself and one’s family with security and income, it’s about supporting those on the fringes of the record business, it’s about putting a smile on a sea of upturned faces. Ten years into the future, the Clash would claim that money was of no interest to them, and look how quickly they fell … money fuels the machine. The Beach Boys had gotten something weird into their heads, a notion that they could exist in some sort of parallel universe, that the surf rose and fell at their will. And none of that is true, though the illusion of controlling the surf can certainly be supported by an endless number of great singles and equally great albums, and here with Friends, again the Beach Boys were not coming through.

I have no idea why I felt that I needed to stay on the roller coaster for the entire ride, it’s just that the Beach Boys had defined so many beautiful moments of my youth, I was just seventeen in 1968, shaken that this great band was deconstructing everything I’d come to know and love. The truth for me came several years later in a very personal conversation with a close friend of Brian’s who told me that Brian loved the album Friends, that he thought it was a good listen from beginning to end anytime. He then said that compared to Friends, Brian thought that Smile was just alright. And therein lies the truth, these albums were not made for the public, these were records made for Brian’s enjoyment alone.

Again, there were many deeply motivated by Friends, mostly due to it’s lo-fi adventure, that being said, this lo-fi-ness was not considered or intentionally constructed, it was a haphazard result either out of laziness, lack of money, or forethought. Please remember that Brian Wilson was shattered at this juncture, he was piecing anything together to keep one foot in front of the other, that he was in and out of the hospital countless times, and that once out, pieces of music that existed prior to his admission where of no interest to him. All of this is a bit of bizarreness from one of the most public suicidal psychotic acid casualties of all times.

Again, I can only implore you to find and treasure the songs from the Beach Boys’ catalog that resonate most profoundly for you, enshrine them in your own collection, ignore these tragic albums and feel the warmth of the sun and surf on your skin, without the weirdness.

Review by Jenell Kesler

My copy isn't in the best condition but I still listen to it because I adore this album. One of the best albums in The Beach Boys discography!

Brian Wilson quoted 23 June 2017 that this is his favorite Beach Boys release.
Source Brian Wilson's official Facebook page.

I have a version ST 2895 made in Italy