Wouldn’t It Be Nice To Live Again – The Dennis Wilson & Rumbo LP ‘Poops’

Cuddle Up (Recorded March 1971 and early 1972)

“I know a man, who’s so in love.” Another hymn to Barbara, originally titled ‘Old Movie’. This epic weeper’s backing track was probably the first song from the main Poops sessions to be put down. The first version had no vocals but was accompanied by a choir of harmonies (probably by Dennis and Carl, whose guitar work is all over Poops). Furnished with another sumptuous Daryl Dragon arrangement, the first ‘Old Movie’, recently released on Feel Flowsis audibly a different take with more even piano playing from Daryl and its keening melody played by a clarinet. It’s unknown when the final, more dramatic vocal version that closed So Tough was cut but it’s likely to have been mid-late 1971. To complicate matters further, as engineer Stephen Desper has confirmed – Denny also used ‘Old Movie’ as a working title in April ’71 for his shattering Vietnam lament ‘4th Of July’, co-written with manager Jack Rieley and sung by Carl. The subject matter of the songs couldn’t be more different, but Denny just really liked the title.

(Wouldn’t It Be Nice To) Live Again (Recorded May 1971)

Locked away in the vaults for over 40 years, this staggering anthemic ballad belatedly made its debut on the Made In California box. Running to almost seven minutes, it features arguably Denny’s finest lead vocal, its melody echoing The Beatles’ ‘Golden Slumbers’ in places. Cut in May 1971, nobody seems quite sure whether it was intended for Surf’s Up or Poops. As to the involvement of the other Beach Boys, there are brief sections of block harmony and what sounds suspiciously like Mike Love muttering the bass vocal at the end. There’s also a Moog bass typical of the band’s recordings of the time, suggesting the involvement of Carl. We can’t be sure exactly the song fits into the puzzle of Denny’s activity during ‘71, but there is evidence to suggest that much of Poops was intended to feature elaborate segues, and Denny offered some songs to The Beach Boys before subsequently withdrawing them. “I have a belief in my music. And it sounds nothing like it should on the album – it should have a flow on it from one song to another…,” he told Al Aronowitz in a September ’71 interview. “It didn’t sound like The Beach Boys. They thought it did. I said ‘Bullshit’ and pulled my songs off.” To complicate things further, manager Jack Rieley contended in interviews that it was his decision to leave Denny’s songs off Surf’s Up.

Whatever the intention, the key and tempo of ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice To Live Again’ dovetail perfectly with the end of ‘Cuddle Up, so we thought it was a fitting finale to Side One.

Side Two:

 Medley: All Of My Love / Ecology (Recorded 1971)

Aside from his considerable sexual antics, Denny’s other extracurricular activities usually involved being outdoors – hiking, fishing, surfing, camping, swimming – his heart was in nature. Both of his favourite obsessions (love and nature) are blended succinctly with the beautiful opening gambit of ‘All of my love / Ecology’ – “All of my love, bigger than the ocean. All of my heart, I give it to you. All that I am is moving in the river”. His lyrics articulate a quasi-transcendental, romantic faith in nature’s benevolence, a primitivist sense of its mystic, sacramental properties. There’s also a critical desire, to experience and venerate, fully immersing and identifying himself in the natural world while utilising the ecology to demonstrate the sheer breadth of his love for wife Barbara. For Dennis, nature wasn’t just a romantic metaphor but moreover a spiritual analogue. The “All of my life….” line turns up in slightly revised form in ‘Make It Good’ while elements of ‘Ecology’ would later be developed into Pacific Ocean Blue’s ‘River Song’, the piano melody (first introduced in ‘Sound Of Free’) intact but the ‘Run Run River Run’ motif sadly missing, however Daryl and Denny’s harmonic resolutions and rising and descending key changes ensured that nature never sounded so sweet.

 Before (Recorded 1971)

 ‘Before’ demonstrates the deftness and lightness of touch inherent in Daryl Dragon’s arrangements. The melancholy opening bars share the same chord progression as the “I know a man, who’s so in love” line in ‘Cuddle Up’. It quickly shifts into soaring harmonies, and then into a different, more sexually assured sidewinding groove incorporating Dennis’ vocal that beckons his Lady to “Come on, come in…..”, a familiar refrain that channels one of his earlier songs, 1969’s ‘Celebrate The News’, B-side of The Beach Boys’ final Capitol single ‘Break Away’. Although recorded in 1971, ‘Before’s inception was possibly earlier, around the same time as ‘Sound of Free’, the overall vibe of both tracks dovetailing unlike any others on the album.

Behold The Night (Recorded July 1971)

An aching, shape-shifting ballad, ‘Behold The Night’ is one of the more complete songs on Poops with a breathtaking filmic arrangement of low fluting synths, organs and Harry Lime zither from Dragon. With a structure that never settles, unlike the other songs it appears to catch Denny and Barbara in a rough patch. “Lie on my bed, look at the wall/Maybe this longing will go away,” he sings in a wracked tenor. Captured just weeks after Denny put his hand through a pane of glass, taking him off live drumming duties until 1974, perhaps this documents their first big row.

Hawaiian Dream (Recorded 1971)

Presented as an instrumental ebb and flow of Denny and Daryl’s musical musings that would ultimately find their fruition as ‘Farewell My Friend’ on Pacific Ocean Blue, ‘Hawaiian Dream’ shares Island-style nuances with Pet Sounds instrumental track ‘Let’s Go Away For A While’ but transcends it with a soaring harmonic conclusion.

I’ve Got A Friend (Recorded 1971)

In Fall 1971, Dennis was only 27 years old, but had already done a lot of living. Here, he delivers a soul searching, piano driven ballad about personal reliance. Exposing his own vulnerability, he sings “Sometimes I feel lost and can’t find the way….”, sounding like someone physically and emotionally 20 years his senior, an old soul revelling in the ephemeral nature of time and love. Daryl Dragon later recalled his first introduction to Denny’s solo music while playing keys as part of The Beach Boys touring band, “Before a typical tour sound check, I saw Dennis sitting at the piano, playing some beautiful chords… I asked him what composer that was: He answered ‘I wrote that’. I was stopped cold! He hummed a melody to these absolutely inspired chords…I realised that Dennis’ heart was NOT in rock ’n’ roll, as much as it was in romantically based musical writing.” As with all of the Poops tracks, Dragon’s work with Dennis hints at new artistic blueprint that would later be fully realised on Pacific Ocean Blue.

Unfortunately the studio cut of ‘I’ve Got A Friend’ never received a vocal, but a very fuzzy live version with The Beach Boys can be heard here

Sound Of Free (Recorded November 1970)

The Beach Boys band dynamic was always extremely complicated, but none more so than Dennis’ relationship with his cousin Mike Love. Usually at loggerheads, to the point where apocryphal accounts have Dennis literally beating Love down both on and off stage, they would also find the harmony at times to collaborate on several songs including ‘Only with You’, ‘Pacific Ocean Blues’ and 1970’s ‘Sound Of Free’. Love doesn’t sing on the track, but Carl Wilson provides his signature needling guitar trills and big brother Brian makes a one word cameo with a single high “Free!”, making this basically a Beach Boys cut by any other name. Recorded post-Sunflower during the early Surfs Up album sessions, it opens with Dragon’s unmistakeable harpsichord riff, kicking into a powerful Sunflower-esque jam with Dennis’ seductive vocal driving the song forward. The tempo shifts down a gear into some beautiful sections that evoke much of what’s to come in Denny’s music, analogising with the natural world, the familiar ‘Come on…’ refrain once again present before building into a crescendo. According to Love the ‘Children of light…’ referenced in the lyrics refer to the practitioners of Transcendental Meditation with the ‘Sound of Free’ being the achievement of inner balance and unity. Although he’d already written a number of standout tracks (‘Little Bird’, ‘Forever’, ‘Slip on Through’, ‘All I Wanna Do’), in many ways ‘Sound of Free’ reflects the genuine burgeoning of Dennis Wilson as a songwriter, growing in confidence and power thanks to the encouragement and support of Dragon.