Reason #14 --- Why Disco Had To Die: The Beach Boys

[remicks]

*****


--- When The Beach Boys decided to turn one of their sixties tunes into an updated disco number .... you had to imagine it was most disconcerting to their long time core of fans... who loved them for a very specific sound ... and that sound period. The Beach Boys had always been associated with their good time party music ... but disco?? Their setting for fun was surfing in the sun with grains of sand inside the toes ..... not dancing in the night with grams of coke inside the nose. So when The Beach Boys began performing HERE COMES THE NIGHT disco style on their tour in 1979 ....immediately the reaction from the crowds was not good ... so much so that they dropped it at once , I believe without playing it again after its ill reception at their opening night at Madison Square Gardens .
(thank you Vidioioio)

Well watching this video .... it does seem somehow not right ...not very convincing that this is what this band needed to be doing ....and one more compounding example of why the rockers would feel their turf threatened and further lament "enough is enough!" ... especially when it seemed to be effecting a group like The Beach Boys who were icons for capturing an express sound of rock 'n roll . By the late 70's the crowds they drew were like themselves, older and therefore more appreciative of the classics ... hardly the type hoping to hear The Beach Boys updating their characteristic sound to fit in with contemporary tastes ... particularly if it meant going disco.

Can't totally blame them ....it would be something like showing up at A Donna Summer concert and her unveiling her "new" approach to performing LAST DANCE ... done rap style .



*****

[needlefingers]

Originally Posted by remicks

*****....it would be something like showing up at A Donna Summer concert and her unveiling her "new" approach to performing LAST DANCE ... done rap style .

If you attend a Donna Summer concert, she does a bit when she sings Dim All The Lights. She tells the crowd that she wrote the song with Rod Stewart in mind, and even does an impersonation of Rod singing it.

But then, who thought Rod Stewart would have the chops to do a disco song. And be successful with it.

For those who may not know, Last Dance was originally a ballad, sung by it's songwriter, Paul Jabara, on his Keeping Time lp.

[the disco kid]

ahhh, but what about the classic "Pipeline" by Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. this song has been sampled (the break mainly) by so many people over the past 10 years (mostly disco house producers), even BITD it's sound was a bit odd, something akin to ORS "Moonboots" and I know there's been some discussion over this little gem as well recently. Personally I love them both.

[remicks]

******

Yes PIPELINE ...another discofication of an old surfing song recreated by Bruce Johnston during the 70's period when he wasn't with The Beach Boys. ....He rejoined them in 1979 and there upon produced their HERE COMES THE NIGHT 10 minute disco extravaganza .Perhaps it was Bruce (and he alone??) who amongst the beach baby admirers in the group also had an eye for the disco babes. When he rejoined the group perhaps it was his insistence that disco was where it was at and where the group needed to go....

.........








. I think HERE COMES THE NIGHT's release did set off additional alarms ... triggered more resistance ... perhaps for some was even the final straw . It was released in the middle of disco's radio heyday and yet they couldn't even break the Top 40 with it . Maybe it was just too unsettling to hear from of all groups, The Beach Boys, America's most iconic 60's rock 'n roll group , doing disco ... .... even though it really wasn't that much of a stretch to turn their upbeat feel good music into such ... some strings ... some synths ... wha- lah !! .. ....


Personally, I find that HERE COMES THE NIGHT holds up better now than it did when released ....an ambitious endeavor (still as needlessly long though .)
It's another project with Bob Esty's talents stamped on it ... (wonder how that came about (?)) ...... As its arranger ,it is he who provides all those punctuating TAKE ME HOME styled strings throughout ....


*****

[needlefingers]

[markydefad]

I loved the Beach Boys and, while they were in a major decline by the late Seventies, with Brian Wilson, stoned out of his mind & playing in his sandbox--I totally went out and bought their 12" of "Here Comes The Night" as soon as it was released....I think they may have done it on "The Midnight Special" or some show like that....
This was released in the 1979 glut of too-much product--so it kinda got a so-so reaction....I do recall hearing it played, but not very often. And there may have been a prejudice in the club world against it because of who the artists were....

However, it's a great production and totally holds up to listening-scrutiny today....more of a "studio record" than something you'd wanna see them recreate "live".

[markydefad]

from the AMG review of "L.A. (Light Album)" (1979)

The real shock for fans, however, comes at the beginning of side two, with a reworked version of "Here Comes the Night" (originally on 1967's Wild Honey). Easily the most idiosyncratic production ever attempted by the group, "Here Comes the Night" tried to get the Beach Boys onto the charts by latching onto the already fading disco movement -- if the Bee Gees could do it, why couldn't they? -- with an 11-minute disco single complete with thumping beat and a few digital effects. Though the single never charted, the production (by Bruce Johnston and longtime West Coast producer Curt Becher) was surprisingly well done. And the group's excellent harmonies and Carl's over-the-top vocal made "Here Comes the Night" a natural for disco audiences. Besides the occasional pleasing eccentricity, however, L.A. (Light Album) was yet another oddball attempt to push the Beach Boys into the contemporary mainstream despite their many songwriting and production flaws.

[remicks]

Originally Posted by markydefad

This was released in the 1979 glut of too-much product--so it kinda got a so-so reaction....I do recall hearing it played, but not very often. And there may have been a prejudice in the club world against it because of who the artists were....

Sort of a no win situation ..... the what's new clubbers said "Oh Gawd, ....The Beach Boys " .... the group's old-time fans said "Oh Gawd...disco! " ....


HERE COMES THE NIGHT didn't crack the Top 40 ... (peaked at #44) that we know ...but Chartmaster do you know how it faired on the disco chart ???? ... Seems like also not so well ...???


*****

[markydefad]

Here Comes The Night peaked @ #48 on the Disco Chart.

[garrybcoston]

Totally rediculous and mindless to say the least; funny, I don't even remember this song/record coming out. And I was heavy into the disco scene.

Garry

[the disco kid]

Originally Posted by markydefad

However, it's a great production and totally holds up to listening-scrutiny today....more of a "studio record" than something you'd wanna see them recreate "live".

I think the production is fantastic as well, gorgeous strings, the great Beach Boys harmonies and a monkey screaming in the break! I remember hearing at played out in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, during the disco heyday.

[keefelc]

Oh my, I completely forgot about the monkey screams! Thanks for the reminder TDK.

Mark, I thought we used to hear this little ditty all the time at Trocadero, usually with terrific reactions from the crowd - at least when I was there!

[normvork]

I never heard Here Comes the Night in the clubs or anywhere BITD, but found a copy a couple months ago at a used record shop. I could listen to it before buying it. I thought it sounded great up until the point they started to sing...and that was well into the record. Reminded me of the Ethel Merman fiasco after that point... a good recording ruined by inappropriate vocals. I put it back into the bargain bin.

[markydefad]

Originally Posted by keefelc

Mark, I thought we used to hear this little ditty all the time at Trocadero, usually with terrific reactions from the crowd - at least when I was there!

I'm pretty sure it's on one of the old Bobby Viteritti party tapes--maybe the New Year's Eve one with the "Everybody Rejoice" from "The Wiz"???...I don't recall hearing it all the time...but maybe that was "before my time" at Troc...I didn't go there until May, 1979.....

[the disco kid]

Originally Posted by normvork

I never heard Here Comes the Night in the clubs or anywhere BITD, but found a copy a couple months ago at a used record shop. I could listen to it before buying it. I thought it sounded great up until the point they started to sing...and that was well into the record. Reminded me of the Ethel Merman fiasco after that point... a good recording ruined by inappropriate vocals. I put it back into the bargain bin.

Norm
the flip of the 12" is the instrumental version!