Sail On Sailor: How Holland got bigger, bolder and better

So, let me tell you a little story about how an album that never was could have come to be. 

It is 1972 and the Beach Boys are busy working on their new album, far from prying eyes in far away Baambrugge in the Netherlands. In this reality, "Sail On Sailor" isn't the result of record company pressure for a hit single, but Brian Wilson came up with the track idea and structure and then lets the Boys finish the track. Manager Jack Rieley soon realizes that with all the tracks the Boys are working on, the album will clearly run too long for vinyl limits. In this reality, Carl & The Passions doesn't exist and All This Is That, the album that does, isn't stupidly packaged together with Pet Sounds in one of the worst marketing decisions ever (thanks, Mike!). So, Rieley can hatch a plan to let the band's creative energy intact and convince the brass at Warners/Reprise to let the band issue a double album. But Rieley's ambitions don't stop there. 

Always aiming to have the Beach Boys be (or appear) hipper and with the time, Rieley notices an undercurrent of wanderlust, of going places that permeat almost all of the songs the band worked on (and even some of the CATP/ATIT outtakes which will come into play later). With the exception of “Only With You”, “Hard Time” and “Funky Pretty”, every song either directly sings about traveling, describes a place to travel to or makes allusions to leaving town, finding a new place to live etc. So Riley presents his plan to the band to market the new record as a concept album, a loose travelogue that is united by the wish to  move and discover  in the lyrics, as well as the music itself. The band agrees, and together concoct startegies how to make the concept more visible. Soon the band and Rieley decide to structure the album around recurring elements, notably different versions of “Sail On Sailor” and “Steamboat” which serve as the album's Leitmotive. 

Waitaminute...is that Lou Reed driving the car? Oh, nevermind, it's good ol' Jack Rieley. How fitting.

Rieley's and the band's ambitious plans run into a bit of a snag, however, when Brian finally unveils what is supposed to be his new stroke of genius, Mount Vernon And Fairway. As in real life and history, everyone but Briaan and Rieley is aghast when Brian unveils his newest quote-unquote master piece. But unlike real-life, where the band pacifies deeply hurt Brian with its inclusion as a bonus EP (pushing the already astronomical budget even higher), here it's gone, terminated, deep-sixed, except for a small part: The powers that be, both in the Beach Boys and at Brother Records, recognize the drawing power of the name Brian Wilson, and having not only a new composition besides the “Sail On Sailor” and “Funky Pretty” co-writes, but also a Wilson vocal is too tempting, so parts of the music are edited into a ‘new’Wilson song, “Pied Piper”, here subtitled ‘A Dream Voyage’ to better fit into the concept of the album. The aforementioned snag, however, is that Wilson's work was pencilled in for almost an entire album side of the newly formatted double album. So, this is then the moment where the band begins to dig in the archives for suitable replacements, and come up with "Out In The Country" and "Sweet Something". And the rest, as they say, is history...

Alternate history, of course. But yeah, having an entirely different Holland doesn't sound as impossible or improbable as before, right?! As said in yesterday's write-up the release of the Sail On Sailor – 1972 box set was a gamechanger. Some of the stuff was a revelation, like the backing track for “Steamboat”. I mean, I always liked the tense soundscape with its quasi-industrial steamboat sounds at the beginning and the slashing guitar riff. But hearing the backing track for itself left me still marveling at how well-constructed this is. No Brian Wilson needed, we’re good here, guys. More proof that the talent for writing and arranging in the band didn't just reside with Wilson the Eldest. 

"Say, fellas, is this what that famous wanderlust is all about? 

Other tracks were both challenge and opportunity: The two versions of “Out In The Country” seem to have little to do with each other – one a fast country gallop, practically bluegrass, the other slower and organ-driven and arguably incomplete. The Allmusic review mentions that the song is “presented in two rough versions – pity they were never combined and finished”. Pity indeed, but I did my best. So I did combine these, as best as possible, and I think it works pretty well, having the quicker bluegrass sections alternate with the more pastoral vocal passages. Actually, the story of "Out In The Country" is a whole lot more complicated than these two outtakes let on. The 'country version' was a finished track (and it shows in the superior sound quality), possibly dating back all the way to the Sunflower sessions, but was prepped for release on Carl & The Passions before getting binned in a malicious 'accident'. The original “Out In The Country” has lead vocals from co-writer Don Goldberg, though they do sound a lot like Al Jardine's and would have been fine to my ears. 

But Bruce Johnston then 'accidentally' 'misplaced' the tape for this song because he didn't want an outsider have lead vocals on a Beach Boys album (and, coincidentally him having no lead vocals on said album). Thankfully, he himself got misplaced shortly afterwards, entirely voluntary, for basically being a dick around the Wilsons and/or Jack Rieley (depending on who tells the story). Cowardly and stupidly, the powers that be still wiped Goldberg's vocal from the finished version of the box set (in 2022! Come on!), but both versions of the song are strong enough to deserve to be heard, methinks, so the original “Out In The County” shows up as Part I, while the hybrid mix is now Part II. These tracks, like "Sweet Something", also widen the already wide palette of Holland: The two Carl &The Passions outtakes are a clear outgrowth of the rootsy feel of that album, straight-up crossing into country territory. Overall, a very rich album became even richer with the inclusion of these outtakes. 

As usual, sequencing proved complicated. In early test run versions I'd often skip the 'California Saga', good as it is for Mike'n'Al standards, to get to the more intriguing things on this album. The solution: break up the saga and spread its three parts across three album sides. Balance the Chaplin/Fataar numbers with everyone else's (in real life, Mike Love absolutely would have blown a casket at the prospect of having lead vocals on a single song out of twenty!), get the right mix of uptempo, midtempo numbers and ballads and end each side on an obvious closer. Done, done and done. 

Seeing the fantastic cover art of the box set, it was immediately obvious to me to want to use it, as it is almost custom made for the 'concept' part of the album. As Hannibal Smith would say, I love it when a plan comes together. 

So, here it is. Sail On Sailor - A Travelogue In Twenty Chapters. Get on board and join the journey.