Carl and the Passions – "So Tough"

Background

In 1971, Carl Wilson, who served as the group's de facto musical director at this time, decided to spice up the structure of The Beach Boys by hiring third guitarist Blondie Chaplin, whose soulful singing brought a strong R&B element into the band's sound. Drummer and singer-songwriter Ricky Fataar also joined at this time, as Dennis Wilson had suffered a debilitating hand accident. Both South Africans, Blondie and Ricky were discovered by Carl while playing in seminal South African band The Flames in London, circa 1969. The album sees The Beach Boys entering a period of roots-based rock.

Not long after the sessions began, Bruce Johnston had a falling out with manager Jack Rieley and left the band. Conflicting reports state that Johnston either quit or was fired. According to Johnston, he quit because he was unenthusiastic about Rieley's suggestion that the group adopt a hard rock approach and felt that Brian Wilson's prolonged lack of involvement had resulted in declining artistic quality. However, Rieley claims he fired Johnston, both to prevent him from voting in the group's democratic processes and because of the supposed disrespect and contempt Johnston was showing Brian Wilson at the time. Johnston's main writing contribution, an early version of "Endless Harmony" entitled "Ten Years of Harmony", was re-recorded and eventually released in 1980 on Keepin' the Summer Alive. Johnston has said that his only musical contribution on the released album is as a background vocalist on "Marcella".

Music

Brian Wilson sporadically contributed to the album's sessions, distracted by the production and promotion of the debut album of American Spring titled Spring. The extent of his contributions for Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" were his collaboration on the writing of three songs and the recording of both vocal and instrumental tracks. Two songs were written and sung by Fataar and Chaplin. Dennis Wilson also contributed two songs which he wrote with Daryl Dragon, hinting towards the sound of his solo debut album, Pacific Ocean Blue. Other songwriting contributions came from Jack Rieley (two co-credits), Alan Jardine (two co-credits), Mike Love (two co-credits), Tandyn Almer (one co-credit) and Carl Wilson (one co-credit).

This LP was mixed for Quadraphonic reproduction (also compatible with stereo). It was to be played back using the now long-extinct Dynaco or EV Stereo-4 decoders, or later, using the "360Surround" matrix decoder built by Stephen Desper and previously included with purchases of his limited-edition book Recording the Beach Boys. However, the recording (LP or CD) can be played back in Quad by most of today's audio-video receivers. The surround sound information can be extracted using the Dolby Pro Logic setting, albeit imperfectly, due to the different matrix coefficients.

Reception

Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" was met with moderate commercial success upon release, reaching number 25 in the UK and number 50 in the US.

Legacy

English Britpop band Saint Etienne used the title So Tough for their 1993 album as an homage to the Beach Boys. Likewise, they also named their compilation of the same year, You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone, after the Beach Boys song.

Track listing

Track notes per 2000 liner notes.

Personnel

Partial credits per Scott McCaughey and 2000 liner notes, except where otherwise noted.

Charts

Chart information courtesy of Allmusic and other music databases.