The Beach Boys - Full Sail - Various Songs (1979-1981)

I've been posting Beach Boys stray tracks albums off and on for quite some time now. For the 1960s and early 1970s, they only consisted of songs not on the band's studio albums. From the mid-1970s onwards though, their albums were so hit and miss that I've made these albums from every good song I could find, on their albums or not. 

With this album, I feel like I've come to the end of an era. In terms of releasing new music, the Beach Boys started going downhill after their 1973 album "Holland." All through the rest of the 1970s though, they continued to put out enough good music for nearly an album a year, if only they'd done a better job of figuring out which songs were worthy of their albums. However, after about 1980, they basically became an oldies band that made money through concerts. They didn't put out as much music as before, and what they did often was really bad. I still plan on posting more stray tracks albums after this one, but it'll be rough going finding the occasional good songs among many bad ones.

That said, they still were decent through the time period featured here. In 1979, they released the album "L.A. (Light Album)." I have four songs from that here, plus two more songs from it on the previous stray tracks album. (I also included a live version of "Angel Come Home" that I find superior to the "L.A. (Light Album)" version.) In 1980, they released the album "Keepin' the Summer Alive." I only have four songs from that total, all of them here. Furthermore, I've added five more non-album songs, three of them still unreleased. So yeah, you basically have to pick the best from two albums plus a bunch of other songs to get one decent album. This isn't a lost "Pet Sounds" masterpiece by any means. But had they put out an album much like this around 1980, I think it would have been much better received.

A couple of the unreleased songs are interesting enough for further comment. "Stevie," in my opinion, is a really good song, sounding like the Beach Boys in their prime. It turns out it's a song about Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks. It seems Brian Wilson had a bit of a crush on her from afar. I suspect the reason the song wasn't released then was because of the somewhat embarrassing subject matter. It's been reported that it was seriously considered for inclusion on the 2013 box set "Made in California," but didn't quite make it. Perhaps Wilson was still embarrassed, and nixed it?

The other unreleased song I want to mention is "Oh Lord." This powerfully emotional song was much better than anything on an album like "Keepin' the Summer Alive." Apparently, it was written too late to be considered for that album. But it's been reported a full Beach Boys version was done for their next album, the 1985 album simply called "The Beach Boys." That's a terrible album, and this song would have stuck out like a sore thumb on it. But still, it would be interesting to hear the full band version someday.

01 Country Pie (Mike Love & Celebration)
02 Lady Lynda (Beach Boys)
03 Night Bloomin' Jasmine (Brian Wilson)
04 Full Sail (Beach Boys)
05 Angel Come Home (Beach Boys)
06 Love Surrounds Me (Beach Boys)
07 Sumahama (Beach Boys)
08 Goin' On (Beach Boys)
09 Livin' with a Heartache (Beach Boys)
10 Santa Ana Winds (Beach Boys)
11 Endless Harmony (Beach Boys)
12 Stevie [Edit] (Brian Wilson with Dennis Wilson)
13 Oh Lord (Brian Wilson & Dennis Wilson)

https://www53.zippyshare.com/v/MaAsHp3F/file.html

I believe the album cover dates to 1976. That doesn't quite fit the time period here, but I used it because it fits the album title so well. It's a rather low res photo though, and it seems to have some color and contrast issues that I can't entirely fix. If anyone can find a better version, please let me know, so I can replace it.