Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971

by The Beach Boys

Overview

By the late '60s, the once chart-topping Beach Boys' popularity had waned to the point that one of the working titles for Sunflower, their 16th studio album, was The Fading Rock Group Revival. Though still evolving musically and trying to fit in with the quickly changing youth culture, the band seemed tame and outdated when compared to the wild and forceful sounds emerging from increasingly popular acts like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Though the late '60s and early '70s brought the Beach Boys disappointing record sales, undersold tours, and a steep decline in commercial success, this era also saw the group producing some of their most intriguing and creatively free material, and working more as a collective than primarily as a vehicle for Brian Wilson's songwriting. Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971 continues the impressive archival digging of releases like Wake the World: The Friends Sessions and I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions, offering up fresh remasters of the original albums Sunflower (1970) and Surf's Up (1971) as well as excavating the vaults for dozens of previously unreleased outtakes, alternate mixes, and other ephemeral tracks from the time the records were being made. It's hard to turn up true rarities for a band as well-documented (and bootlegged) as the Beach Boys, but there are several striking standouts on Feel Flows that complement the important place the original albums held in the group's legacy. Surf's Up outtakes like the gentle "Big Sur" and the moody acoustic guitars and organ stabs of "Sweet and Bitter" are emblematic of the tender but melancholy atmospheres the album captured. The extended alternate mix of Sunflower highlight "This Whole World" is an interesting counterpoint to the original mix, and the amazing chillwave/dream pop-predicting "All I Wanna Do" is fully deconstructed with instrumental backing tracks from the original sessions as well as a vocals-only mix. Both albums get the full behind-the-scenes treatment with recording session footage and a cappella mixes, and there are even a few short radio spots made for the records at the time of their release. Far less essential are live renditions of songs from both LPs (some of which were recorded in the '80s and '90s), but overlooking these potentially distracting inclusions, Feel Flows offers a widened perspective of where the Beach Boys were while making these albums. Most casual listeners will be daunted by the depths to which the massive set travels, but it's must-hear material for the committed and the fascinated. Feel Flows moves the microscope over to one of the group's more interesting and quietly transformative phases, a curious time when their hopes to remain culturally relevant lived alongside some of their most inspired songwriting moments, and an earnest desire to grow artistically. ~ Fred Thomas

Product Details

Release Date:	08/27/2021
Label:	Capitol / Virgin
UPC:	0602508790584

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Beach Boys   Primary Artist
Jack Rieley   Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Bill Desimone   Vocals (Background)
Don Goldberg   Vocals (Background)
Ray Pohlman   Vocals (Background)
Marty DiGiovanni   Vocals (Background)
Carolyn Willis   Vocals (Background)
Mike Love   Vocals
Al Jardine   Vocals
Carl Fortina   Vocals
Marilyn Wilson   Vocals (Background)
Julia Tillman   Vocals (Background)
Gary Winfrey   Vocals (Background)
Blondie Chaplin   Vocals
Carl Wilson   Vocals
Edna Wright   Vocals (Background)
Dennis Wilson   Vocals
Brian Wilson   Vocals
Don Ralke   Vocals (Background)
Van Dyke Parks   Vocals
Rick Henn   Vocals (Background)
Bruce Johnston   Vocals
Alan Estes   Vocals

Technical Credits

Bob Burchman   Composer
Robert Kenyatta   Musician
Tony Asher   Composer
Susan Lavoie   Art Direction
Joe Knott   Composer
Nick Pellico   Musician
Craig Slowinski   Session Research
Stanley Shapiro   Composer
Mike Meros   Musician
Don Henderson   Engineer
Steve Moffit   Engineer
Don Goldberg   Composer,Composer
Claude Sherry   Musician
David Sandler   Composer,Producer
Jack Rieley   Composer
Jo Almeida   Photo Coordination
Matt D'Amico   Executive Producer
Alex Sale   Production Manager
Howie Edelson   Consultant,Liner Notes
Jeff Foskett   Musician
Jack Reiley   Composer
Jennifer Bunting   Photo Coordination
Dillon Carson   Cover Illustration
Huddie Ledbetter   Composer
Mark Linett   Producer,Mastering Engineer
Peter Fletcher   Executive Producer
Jerry Hochman   Engineer
Jerry Leiber   Composer
Jim Lockert   Engineer
Richie Cannata   Musician
Doc Siegel   Engineer
Michel Colombier   Arranger
Mike Stoller   Composer
Mike Love   Composer,Lyricist,Group Member
Al DeLory   Musician
Al Jardine   Composer,Producer,Group Member
Daryl Dragon   Producer,Arranger,Composer
Roy Caton   Musician
George Hyde   Musician
Gary Winfrey   Composer
Beth Stempel   Production Manager
Reggie Dunbar   Composer
Stephen W. Desper   Mixing,Engineer
Floyd Tucker   Composer
Annie Leibovitz   Photography
Richard Henn   Composer,Producer
Juventino Rosas   Composer
Ed Thrasher   Art Direction
Arthur Briegleb   Musician
Daniel Hersch   Mastering Engineer
Terry Jacks   Producer
Paul McCartney   Composer
Andrew Sandoval   Mastering Engineer
The Beach Boys   Producer
Bill Lazerus   Engineer
Carl Wilson   Composer,Producer,Group Member
Chuck Britz   Engineer
Jacques Brel   Composer
Tandyn Almer   Composer
Roger Neumann   Horn Arrangements
Carol Kaye   Musician
Jeff Peters   Mixing,Engineer
John Lennon   Composer
Mark Linnett   Mixing,Engineer,Mastering
Rod McKuen   Composer
Dennis Wilson   Composer,Producer,Group Member
Alan Boyd   Producer
Brian Wilson   Composer,Producer,Group Member,Vocal Producer
Ron Altbach   Musician
Bob Norberg   Composer,Engineer
Bill Halverson   Engineer
Don Ralke   Composer
Gregg Jakobson   Composer
Van Dyke Parks   Composer
Vartan   Art Direction
Carli Munoz   Musician
Rick Henn   Composer,Producer
Matt Jardine   Musician,Introduction
Murry Wilson   Composer,Producer
Toni Tennille   Musician
Bruce Johnston   Composer,Producer,Group Member
David Duke   Musician
Bobby Figueroa   Musician
Ricci Martin   Photography