Over the past several years since copyright laws were changed in the EU, it has become a tradition at the end of the year for record labels to release "copyright extension" releases featuring unreleased material from their biggest artists to protect their interests in said material. Hot off the heels of a compilation of Motown unreleased material from 1965 comes another release in this vein from a group who has made this a yearly tradition: The Beach Boys. This last Friday, Capitol put up quietly (as is the norm with these releases) on all digital download services a set of two unreleased concerts: Live In Chicago 1965.
Recorded on March 26 and 27 at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, this set presents two full concerts. The Beach Boys sang many of their biggest hits up to that point in time and also threw in some covers like "Monster Mash." The two concerts feature a nearly identical tracklisting just with some shuffled songs and the second concert being slightly longer. As a matter of fact, the song lineup is fairly similar to the Beach Boys Concert album released in 1964, which was expanded with one of last year's copyright extension releases: Live in Sacramento 1964. Also in this new release are four rehearsal takes for the concerts.
Three studio albums were released by the Beach Boys in 1965. The final one of those, Beach Boys' Party! was just expanded to two CDs and 81 tracks a little under a month ago as a physical release. The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) have yet to see any unreleased material freed from the vaults as of yet in 2015. Last year, Capitol put out a second "copyright extension" release for studio outtakes (Keep An Eye on Summer), so there is the chance of something else appearing before the New Year.
We've got the full tracklisting below and links to download the concerts if you'd like to take a listen!
The Beach Boys, Live in Chicago 1965 (Capitol Records, 2015) (Amazon U.S.)
Disc 1 - Live at the Arie Crown Theater, Chicago - March 26, 1965
- Intro
- Do You Wanna Dance
- Little Honda
- Surfin' U.S.A.
- Don't Worry Baby
- Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
- Monster Mash
- Louie Louie
- Hawaii
- Surfer Girl
- Runaway
- Shut Down
- Wendy
- Please Let Me Wonder
- Fun Fun Fun
- I Get Around
- Johnny B. Goode
Disc 2 - Live at the Arie Crown Theater, Chicago - March 27, 1965
- Intro
- Do You Wanna Dance
- Hawaii
- Please Let Me Wonder
- Surfer Girl
- Runaway
- Louie Louie
- Fun Fun Fun
- 409
- Shut Down
- Monster Mash
- Surfin' U.S.A.
- Little Honda
- Wendy
- In My Room
- Don't Worry Baby
- I Get Around
- Johnny B. Goode
- Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
Disc 3 - Rehearsals
- Louie Louie
- Little Honda
- Surfin' USA
- Wendy
All tracks previously unreleased
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Hard to believe how short the BB set lists were back then - of course, they probably one or two opening acts. Today's Beach Boys touring band concerts with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston are 43 songs.
But, The Beach Boys played longer(typically 40 to 45 minutes) than most artists during the 1964-66 period. The Beatles & The Rolling Stones typically played a 10 to 12 song set lasting 27 minutes.
Might consider if you could buy hardcopies. Just my opinion. Same with the Motown releases. I tend to like booklets with info and photos. Someone will put these up online for free. Why pay for downloads?
I would pay for downloads if they were lossless. While Universal Music has licensed lossless versions of some of their copyright extension releases to European download sellers, Universal prohibits those sellers from selling to customers in North America. I supported the Beach Boys and bought the lossy data compressed AAC version of "Keep an Eye On Summer" from iTunes, I later got the 44.1Khz/16-bit lossless version from an unofficial Russian website. Universal's refusal to offer the recordings at CD quality to American consumers left me with no choice but to get the lossless version unofficially.
Unfortunately, the lossless versions of the "Motown Unreleased" collections have yet to appear on the unofficial sites.
By the way, there's a legitimate reason why there's no copyright extension collection of material from The Beach Boys "The Beach Boys Today" & "Summer Days...and Summer Nights!" albums. The outtakes are backing track breakdown takes, most of them with no Beach Boys playing on them. In the course of those two albums, the only songs with Beach Boys and/or Brian Wilson playing on the instrumental tracks are "Dance Dance Dance", "When I Grow Up(to Be a Man)", "I'm So Young", "Girl Don't Tell Me" and "I'm Bugged at My Old Man", and, On "Dance Dance Dance", It's The Beach Boys AND session men. Amazingly, the powerful drumming on "Dance Dance Dance" is from Dennis Wilson!
I would also jump at these - if they were available on CD. Otherwise, no.
CDs please!
I buy everything that comes out by the Beach Boys, but I will pass on these live recording. They are just more of the same. If these were CD issues with covers and liner notes, I would definitely buy them, but as a bunch of tracks, nah... not interested. I bought the stuff Capital threw out there last year (the Sacramento concert and outtakes) and never played them more than one time. Without info about the concerts and graphics, they are just boring.... I know I am a relic and that record companies no longer care one bit about my preferences, but historical releases like this deserve better treatment. They should be issued on CD's with nice booklets, track information, and photos. Tossing them out like this, well... it is just wrong.
There's no way it makes economic sense to put these out on CD. I'm actually surprised they put the Party reissue on CD. I'm sure that one isn't going to make money. This one would sell even worse. I wish we lived in a world where these would make sense to put on CD. Unfortunately, The Beach Boys catalog probably sells about a 100th of what The Beatles does at this point.
Got the download! Anything to hear even a few words of sweet young Brian's voice <3 <3 <3
But, for Capitol, it was more urgent to offer the "Beach Boys Party" outtakes losslessly. The entire sessions(including further outtakes not included on the official 2-CD set) were released with full fidelity by bootleggers in the 1990's. Whereas only a handful of the "Live in Chicago" tracks circulate losslessly via bootlegs. Much of these concerts had never before been heard, so if Capitol won't let them be heard losslessly, there's not much we can do. Capitol doesn't have to do business with fans who want to hear "Live in Chicago" as lossless audio. On the other hand, they DO have to do business who wanted to hear "Beach Boys Party" material losslessly. Avid fans already had all that material(and more!)(albeit in different mixes).
But, how much would it cost Capitol to press 7500 to 10,000 CD's? They could even offer it as CD-R, like Bruce Springsteen does for his mail order concert recordings. Capitol has already spent money to mix and master the material and design artwork. They might as well exploit all marketing opportunities. Or Capitol could license the material out to a small reissue label like "Sundazed" or "Real Gone".
Well, I have now listened to these concerts and most of the songs are much sloppier than the Live in Sacramento stuff. I was glad Glen Campbell was not on this because Brian sounds pretty good on some stuff. However he did forget the words on a lot of songs, even joking, "Also I wrote the song!" on Don't Worry Baby I believe it was. It is cool to hear a live version of Please Let Me Wonder but it's pretty sloppy as well and Brian forgets some of it too.
Still, I would listen to any 60s era Beach Boys live stuff, sloppy or not. I can't get enough. They were my first musical love and will always be my favorite band. No one else compares in my book.
Oh, and Dennis Wilson sings the bridge on Surfer Girl. Worth the price of admission alone!
On second listen to these concerts, the second show is much sharper than the first and Brian remembers all of Please Let Me Wonder, and it turns out to a great live version of that song. I hope next year will see some live 1966 shows released.
I'm glad these full shows are out, but it seems if the group and Capitol were considering another live album, they wouldn't have duplicated so much of the setlist from the then-recent "Beach Boys Concert" album.
Also, it's notable that for a guy who was so uncomfortable on the road, Brian seems to be enjoying himself-- or at least faking it well.
Brian had no choice but to briefly return to the stage, after Glen Campbell's 8 week tryout was not considered a success. Soon, the group would find Bruce Johnston.
That's what I've always thought. Brian Wilson was fantastic onstage back then. You would have NEVER known he had issues with it.
As for possible Beach Boys copyright extension product for 2016, All of the "Pet Sounds" outtakes are in circulation unofficially and losslessly, and ditto for the two 1966 concerts that were recorded professionally(the University of Michigan shows). My guess is that Capitol is not going to go the MP3-only route with the 1966 material, because bootleggers(specifically the "Sea of Tunes" label) have already released all of the material losslessly and with full fidelity.
In any event, I've already got all of the 1966 vault material. See ya' in 2017, Capitol! Then, you may have to dish up more "Smile"& "Smiley Smile" material. And the two Hawaii concerts.
Well, you may already have it, but I don't, so here's hoping you're wrong and Capitol does release it.
I'm not saying that they won't release 1966 studio & live material(to extend the copyright on those vault materials), but the reality(that those materials are in circulation unofficially & losslessly) may leave Capitol no option but to offer those materials with full fidelity. Some have suggested that a 50th anniversary "Pet Sounds" megabox may happen, and that it may provide a vehicle for the 2014 surround mix that was intended for the (cancelled) Blu-Ray audio release.
If you want to hear both 1966 "Live in Michigan" shows now, just do a search for "The Live Box". The people who created that unofficial box briefly had access to the original multitracks. These shows superbly recorded for its time. The only problem: tape reel changes (or other technical problems) caused the 1st set's version of "Good Vibrations" to not be captured complete(the first minute is missing). Luckily, they played the song again in the second set. These performances, before a college audience that didn't scream, were historic: these were the first two times that "Good Vibrations" was played on stage. They pre-date the release of the studio version. The audience was awed, and gave a prolonged ovation.
I would expect that some of Mike Love's between-song humor (politically incorrect by 2015 standards) will be edited out on an official release.
Thanks for the info Phil! Is this the same version of Good Vibrations from the box set back in 1990 or so? It was live in Michigan I believe. I'd love to hear the whole shows. Wish Brian had been there but other than that, it sounds great. I'll dig around. Thanks again.
Yes, it's the same live version as on "Disc 5"of the boxed set "Good Vibrations:30 Years of The Beach Boys".
As it so happens, Lossless downloads are available(for U.S.A. consumers) for "The Beach Boys-Live in Chicago 1965" and for most other Universal Music "copyright extension" collections(such as the "Motown Unreleased" series). The downloads are for sale by a company named "7 digital".