The second Beach Boys anthology release from Capitol Records, 2001’s Hawthorne, CA: Birthplace Of A Musical Legacy is a 57-track collage of session outtakes, live numbers, studio banter, band commentary, a cappella, and various backing tracks culled mostly from the early 60s during the band’s heyday.
We start in the Wilson household where Brian, along with his brothers, Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine are sweetening the harmony for a song about a favorite California pastime called “Surfin’.” Instead of a bunch of monkeys playing with a tape recorder — we get a pure vocal performance that reflects a raw talent taking form. The selections roam from one backing track to another demo, past a few words from a band member to the stage of a Beach Boys concert.
The whole idea behind something like Hawthorne is to get another perspective on a particular song — be it Brian Wilson assembling the parts of “Surfin’ USA,” a festive take of “Barbara Ann” featuring Dean Torrance — or the strange, but true renderings of classic Smile material like “Heroes and Villains” and “Vegetables.”
Other nuggets include a Dennis Wilson composition, “A Time to Live in Dreams,” and “Lonely Days,” never released in any form, from the Wild Honey sessions. There are some incredible takes of “Good Vibrations,” but nothing from Pet Sounds, which has gone through several treatments on its own. Instead, turn up the stereo mixes of “Dance Dance Dance” and “Salt Lake City,” and get ready to sway. These alone make the set priceless. On something like “Good To My Baby,” we get a glimpse into how Brian produced a session and squeezed the life out of a melody until it became a tonal teardrop of immense proportions.
Hawthorne also features spoken words from and about Dennis and Carl Wilson, their legacies intact amidst all the recent feuding. Somehow, this collection, with all its warts and blemishes exposed, recalls of a more peaceful and productive time when the Beach Boys were something more than just an attraction at the county fair.
~ Shawn Perry
