The Beach Boys - Friends mp3

My fave BB's record and it is Brian's too! This is a true original album as no BB's record or anyones record sounds like it. Absolutely gorgeous. N

Rapidly becoming my favourite BB album. Be Here in the Morning is just beautiful. Ignore the nay-sayers, this album is wonderful.

I wish that I could listen to the album with today’s ears, and not hear the social implications that surrounded it at the time.The Beach Boys entitled the album Friends, though in 1968, trailing in the footsteps of the Beatles, we all referred to the record as The Transcendental Meditation Album. Then from out of blue, the the band scheduled a nationwide tour with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, (the little guy Lennon patted on the head and walked away from laughing due to sexual misconduct by the spiritual leader). Twenty-nine dates were scheduled, mostly at colleges and universities, though many canceled quickly due to low ticket sales and hostile reactions. With the Beach Boys already deeply in debt, this misadventure, described as “one of the most bizarre entertainments of the era,” cost the band an additional quarter million dollars. As if to add fuel to the fire and define the separation of the Beach Boys (men) from their fans, at Iona College, Mike Love took to the stage admonishing the hecklers saying, “I know there are a lot of young people here but you will get older and I know you'll want to remember the Maharishi.” Yep, in May of 1968, Mike Love admitted that he and the fans of the Beach Boys were out of step.From the get-go, the album was just not good, either in delivery, production (being recorded lo-fi in Brian’s home), or for the music. The only single from the album “Friends,” topped out at number 47 on the US charts and quickly disappeared (their lowest charting single in six years). While the songs are pleasant and pop inspired, there is an extreme sense of confusion and disjointedness to be taken away from the listen, as again, the Beach Boys were moving into a world of their own making, and had not managed to bring their fans with them. All of this was done in 1968, at the height of the war in Viet Nam, at the height of the U.S. Draft, right in the midst of albums such as Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix, Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones, Waiting for the Sun from the Doors, the Velvet Underground’s White Light White Heat, Crown of Creation by the Jefferson Airplane and so many more spectacular creations that it boggles the mind, yet here were the Beach Boys, inspirations of the early 60’s, confused, lost, on edge, broke, and Al Jardine has the audacity to years later claim that, ”We were attempting to create a record that didn’t rely on radio airplay, we wanted to free ourselves from the constrictions of delivering singles. Which pretty much meant that Al was in favor of removing all constrictions that would prevent himself from shooting himself in the foot.Listen, I’m wagging my finger here, it’s called the music business for a reason, it’s about making money to provide oneself and one’s family with security and income, it’s about supporting those on the fringes of the record business, it’s about putting a smile on a sea of upturned faces. Ten years into the future, the Clash would claim that money was of no interest to them, and look how quickly they fell … money fuels the machine. The Beach Boys had gotten something weird into their heads, a notion that they could exist in some sort of parallel universe, that the surf rose and fell at their will. And none of that is true, though the illusion of controlling the surf can certainly be supported by an endless number of great singles and equally great albums, and here with Friends, again the Beach Boys were not coming through.I have no idea why I felt that I needed to stay on the roller coaster for the entire ride, it’s just that the Beach Boys had defined so many beautiful moments of my youth, I was just seventeen in 1968, shaken that this great band was deconstructing everything I’d come to know and love. The truth for me came several years later in a very personal conversation with a close friend of Brian’s who told me that Brian loved the album Friends, that he thought it was a good listen from beginning to end anytime. He then said that compared to Friends, Brian thought that Smile was just alright. And therein lies the truth, these albums were not made for the public, these were records made for Brian’s enjoyment alone.Again, there were many deeply motivated by Friends, mostly due to it’s lo-fi adventure, that being said, this lo-fi-ness was not considered or intentionally constructed, it was a haphazard result either out of laziness, lack of money, or forethought. Please remember that Brian Wilson was shattered at this juncture, he was piecing anything together to keep one foot in front of the other, that he was in and out of the hospital countless times, and that once out, pieces of music that existed prior to his admission where of no interest to him. All of this is a bit of bizarreness from one of the most public suicidal psychotic acid casualties of all times.Again, I can only implore you to find and treasure the songs from the Beach Boys’ catalog that resonate most profoundly for you, enshrine them in your own collection, ignore these tragic albums and feel the warmth of the sun and surf on your skin, without the weirdness.Review by Jenell Kesler

ooooooooooo......kkkkkkkkkk.........OR: One of the greatest albums the boys ever made. Each to their own, but i really feel bad for the write of that review if you can't hear the pastoral beauty in this album. Meanwhile "Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix, Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones, Waiting for the Sun from the Doors, the Velvet Underground’s White Light White Heat, Crown of Creation by the Jefferson Airplane" - all good records, but all of them sound dated AF

"Today's ears," as you put it, harshly disagree with your review and the description of these albums as tragic.The three albums that followed the collapse of Smile were cohesive in theme and atmosphere. Smiley Smile was a laid-back lo-fi soundscape that repurposed much of the Smile material in a different way from what was recorded in 1966 and early 1967. Wild Honey was an R&B inspired album that presented an edgier sound; it was certainly a departure from the Four Freshmen-inspired harmonies that preceded it. Friends was the closest the Beach Boys ever got to recording true sunshine pop (a genre the band had a hand in creating and influencing) and it's an album of pure positivity. It also features the emergence of Dennis Wilson as a songwriter, some of Mike's best-ever vocals on Meant For You and Anna Lee, and a mind-blowing one-two punch finish with the extended Diamond Head jam and raucous jazz fusion Transcendental Meditation. It can present a challenging listen for those who only see (or saw) the Beach Boys as the fun-in-the-sun band that existed during their surf and car song days, but the maturity of their songwriting and arranging was ever-growing and improving.If you ask younger Beach Boys fans for their favorite albums, they'll overwhelming refer to Pet Sounds. Some will cite Smile. But there is a smaller contingent of people, as there always was in the past, who worship the late 60s and Brother-era Beach Boys as being the most brilliant music that Brian, Carl, Dennis, Al, Mike, et al ever recorded. They were ahead of their time in so many different ways and recorded sounds that suggested trends that wouldn't appear in music until years or even decades later - for example, "All I Wanna Do" was a precursor to chillwave and shoegaze while the entire Love You album (my personal favorite of theirs) was proto-synthpop and laid some of the foundations that led to the new wave music of the 80s.When time Mike took over the band again with the MIU Album and onward, his unrelenting commercialism and obsession with following what he felt were music business trends of the time led the band nowhere. Need I remind anyone of the Beach Boys getting booed off the stage for playing an ill-advised disco rendition of Here Comes the Night? How about an abhorrent rewrite of Lady Lynda into Lady Liberty? Actually, all the evidence you really need is the travesty of Kokomo, a song that tragically came to define the band and whose only saving grace is the angelic voice of Carl Wilson. If you want true directionless music, MIU, LA, Keepin' the Summer Alive, BB 1985, and especially Summer in Paradise are among some of the worst music a major band ever recorded past their prime.The Beach Boys' music never stopped exuding brilliance and progressive creativity while the Wilsons were at the helm. The leadup to their downfall is a complex subject with many different facets. To write off the entire affair as Brian Wilson being an "acid casualty" is far too simple and discounts 10+ years of brilliant songwriting that followed his mental breakdown on tour in December of 1964.

My copy isn't in the best condition but I still listen to it because I adore this album. One of the best albums in The Beach Boys discography!

Brian Wilson quoted 23 June 2017 that this is his favorite Beach Boys release. Source Brian Wilson's official Facebook page.

I have a version ST 2895 made in Italy