The Beach Boys – 20/20

Probably the only album ever released with songs written by three different convicted murderers: Leadbelly, Phil Spector, and Charles Manson.

20/20 released in 1969 which did feature the stunning single “Do It Again,” yet at the time, was the lowest charting Beach Boy album of all time, sliding in at number 68, with Brian Wilson having been hospitalized for nearly all of the sessions. And yes, due entirely to Dennis Wilson, the album will forever be haunted by the Charlie Manson song “Never Learn Not To Love.” In 1976, prior to his own death, Dennis Wilson said of 20/20, “It was the biggest, letdown of The Beach Boy’s career, an album that has embarrassed me through and through.”

Now, with that statement in mind, it’s important to remember that there were only two radio friendly get you up and get you moving songs on the entire release, the aforementioned brilliant stop you in your tracks “Do It Again” penned by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, along with the hauntingly lysergic number “I Can Hear Music,” penned by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. The other thing that essential to remember is that the end of the 1960’s were even weirder than the 1960’s, where the decade didn’t so much run out and morph into the 1970’s, it was more as if a sonic emotional drug crazed anti-war anti-establishment crescendo of unrealized dreams and leftover manifestations that all collided at once, an exploding lightbulb that momentarily still burned as the glass shattered, and then the world went dark.

What happened in that darkness was that the Beach Boys assembled an album from singles and leftover material, all designed to placate Capitol Records, fulfilling their contract, and allowing them to move on. Nearly all of the songs are rather average, though those that are good, are outstandingly so. The other waylaying aspect is that this record was constructed, in and around the building of Smile, an epic adventure between Brian and Van Dyke Parks, an adventure that was rumored to be a rumor filled with conjecture, where by 1970, the Beach Boys were now in search of an identity to embrace and travel into the future with.

This leaves me both conflicted about this album, yet with Brian refusing or unable (take your pick, either works as well as the other) to engage with the band at this point, [i]20/20[/i seemed rather bleak, dark, fragmented, and slightly more of a rock adventure than the pop songs we grown to love and embrace from the Boys. That being said, contextually it’s always been a rather difficult album for me to settle down with, as nearly each song sets out to embrace a differing genre of music. Considering that, it’s difficult to fault the album at the same time, as the songs have been played and constructed well, as are the vocals, though that nagging Manson number just feels like a cloud of bad luck is lingering within the confines of my listening space, where I’m forever happy when the following track kicks in.

The other aspect to consider is that there was far more outside collaboration and advice than ever before, leaving an ennui of uncertainty, if not dissociative … but then, it’s not really a form album in any sense of the word, merely an obligation that left far too many fans disgruntled and cheated by The Beach Boys.

*** The Fun Facts: 20/20 refers to both the eye chart Brian is posing (hiding) being on the inside of the gatefold sleeve, and the fat that this was the Beach Boys 20th album for capital records, and since it was the end of their career with Capitol, perhaps they were looking back in 20/20 hindsight at pitfalls to be avoided in the future.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Track B 4 "Never Learn not to Love" was written by Charles Manson. Manson's song is titled "Cease to Exist", after Manson heard that the Beach Boys changed the title and some lyrics he demanded his name be removed from the writing credits. Just a cool little fact

Capitol Records, Inc. C1 7243 8 29638 1 3 Gatefold