Friday, September 28, 2007

385. Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue (1977)
















Track Listing

1. River Song
2. What's Wrong
3. Moonshine
4. Friday Night
5. Dreamer
6. Thoughts of You
7. Time
8. You and I
9. Pacific Ocean Blues
10. Farewell My Friend
11. Rainbows
12. End of the Show

Review

Now to a rarity, if you want to ever have this album in a legal way you will have to shell out 100 pounds or 200 dollars for it. For the fucking CD! Not even vinyl! Yep that's how hard it is to get it. Now that you are thinking about breaking the law, you can easily get it on eMule/Soulseek etc. Now the big question is, is it worth it rotting in a Turkish prison over this?

Well, yes. Firstly because the chances you will get caught are minimal, then you'd have a case in court because the album is out of print, and can only be bought by stupid amounts of cash, and because RIAA are fucksticks anyway. Oh and if you have a unsecured WiFi connection they can't get you, because they can't prove it was you who downloaded anything!

Now that I've told you to break the law I am also going to tell you that this is a great album. It just sounds fresh, almost, but not quite as fresh as Surf's Up with something of Stephen Stills in the mix, and it truly is a lost gem. Beach Boys late drummer Dennis Wilson, had one of the most earnest voices in the business, and you can really connect with the music, even tough he was a Mansonite. This album is really worth it even if it was just composed of two songs, Thoughts Of You and Time. They sound like the best of late Beach Boys but also very intimate. There are misses here as well, What's Wrong isn't great for example, but the album is worth it.

Track Highlights

1. Time
2. Thoughts Of You
3. Dreamer
4. Farewell My Friend

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Wilson became the first member of The Beach Boys to undertake a solo project. Released in August 1977, Pacific Ocean Blue received glowing reviews for its depth and emotion and performed encouragingly in the U.S. charts. It is also notable that Dennis' hard living had begun affecting his looks and more importantly his singing, delivering grainy, yet still soulful vocals. Despite Wilson's pledge to record an even superior follow-up, entitled Bamboo, his continuing decline into substance abuse and personal problems ensured that the album remained unfinished at the time of Wilson's death in December 1983. Thus, this album, alongside his pioneering work with The Beach Boys, remains a focal point of Dennis Wilson's legacy.

Issued by Caribou/CBS Records on CD in 1991, Pacific Ocean Blue went out of print within a year; copies of the extremely rare CD now sell for over $200. Due to current disagreements over copyright ownership, the album is still awaiting fresh remastering and re-release.

About Dennis Wilson:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, been reading this blog for a while now and i thought i should comment. I came across this after searching about the book, being an avid fan of it myself. I'm really enjoying your commentary of the book, it separates the good from the amazing albums. I've been embarking on my own 1001 albums quest, trying to seek out and listen to as many as i can. I haven't been going in order like you, but i'm up to about 350. Also, i made a excel spreadsheet myself which is a little different to yours but does the same job, you can check it out here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/giafo4. The list that i've listened to is here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/3it0fm. There are some that i really should have heard but just haven't gotten around to it. Finally, here's the last.fm page that i made for the book: http://www.last.fm/group/ 1001+Albums+You+Must+Hear+Before+You+Die. Hasn't really gotten much attention but maybe you could attract a few more to it? Anyway keep up the blog i can't wait till you reach the 90's!

Francisco Silva said...

Hi there! I'll give a shout out to your last.fm group :)

Thanks for reading.

Matthew said...

Don't know if anyone will see this, but the album is getting reprinted with a bonus cd that features tracks from the uncompleted follow-up in May.

Francisco Silva said...

Thanks Matthew