Carl And The Passions/Holland: Beach Boys: Amazon.ca: Music

Frequently Bought Together

Disc: 1
1. You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
2. Here She Comes (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
3. He Come Down (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
4. Marcella (24-Bit Remastered 99) (2000 Digital Remaster)
5. Hold On, Dear Brother (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
6. Make It Good (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
7. All This Is That (2000 Digital Remaster)
8. Cuddle Up (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
Disc: 2
1. Sail On, Sailor (24-Bit Remastered 99) (2000 Digital Remaster)
2. Steamboat (2000 Digital Remaster)
3. California Saga (Big Sur) (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
4. California Saga (The Beaks Of Eagles) (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
5. California Saga (California) (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
6. The Trader (24-Bit Remastered 99) (2000 Digital Remaster)
7. Leaving This Town (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
8. Only With You (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
9. Funky Pretty (24-Bit Remastered 00) (2000 Digital Remaster)
10. Mt. Vernon And Fairway (Theme) (2000 Digital Remaster)
See all 15 tracks on this disc

Product Description

From Amazon.co.uk

Married together as a 2-CD package for the first time, these two long-haired, counter-cultural Beach Boys albums (from 1972 and 1973 respectively) make strange bedfellows. For all the cherry-red warmth of the record sleeve, Carl and the Passions comes across as pallid, brittle, sullenly graceful and every bit as introspective as staying in with the lights-out and the curtains drawn on a Saturday night. Respect due, though, to Brian Wilsons' cunningly disguised rocker "Marcella" and Dennis Wilson's ultimate downer; the sparse and mournful "Cuddle Up". Holland, on the other hand, is the Beach Boys "Great Outdoors" record, beating the retreat from the sand and surf of yore to the redwood forests and mountains of "Calfornia Saga" (purists still prefer the unreleased waltz-time version of "Big Sur"), with evocative stories of fur-trappers, traders, Native-American rights and dreamlike, hazy summer afternoons on riverbanks shaded by paddle steamers. It was also their last great studio album. --Kevin Maidment

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Customer Reviews

42 Reviews

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (42 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect band, perfect songs, perfect album, May 22 2004

By

youngmoviegeek "youngmoviegeek" (Knoxville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carl And The Passions/Holland (Audio CD)

If you are a music lover and/or Beach Boys fan looking to buy an album filled with two minute surfing classics...buy Surf's Up. Carl and the Passion's "So Tough" is not what youre looking for. If youre looking for high falsetto back ups that surround catchy melodies and cheesy lyrics... move on --- this isnt your album.
But, if what youre looking for is a solid album from start to finish with hardly any flaws to speak of...click ADD TO CART. If you like the Beach Boys, but are open to new sounds...click ADD TO CART. There is no album (by the Beach Boys, or any other band) quite as unique or unpredictable as "So Tough". From the first seconds of the honky tonk piano intro of "Mess of Help" to the last few tender notes of "Cuddle Up", the Beach Boys display a versatility unparalled in American music.
I bought this album, having only heard Marcella. At first, I didnt know what to think. Then, eventually, I couldnt stop listening. The band's addition of the South African Blondie Chaplain and Ricky Fataar was most definitely as wise move. Fans of albums like Pet Sounds and Wild Honey were generally turned off when they learned of the new pair of singing, playing, songwriters from a an off-beat country they probably knew nothing about. Most of them dismissed the album before listening to it. (Not unlike some CSN fans being uncontrollably upset after the addition of Neil Young to the groups originaly and flawless trio of hippie-crooners.) In my opinion, it is Chaplain and Fataar that make this album so good.
The two penned my favorite track "Hold on dear Brother". "Mess of Help" is a country-pop-rock song of epic proportions that really works. "Here she Comes" sounds like something off "The Band"'s self titled album...which is definitely an endorsement. "He Come Down" is a spotless tribute to gospel music with harmonies that will keep you in awe. "Marcella" is a perfect pop song that, if reworked, could easily be a hit today. "Hold on dear Brother" is so good that i dont know what to say about it. Buy the album for that song. "Cuddle Up" shows that when vulneralby mellow vocals and pure muscianship come together, the result is uncanny.
Buy this album. If you are dissatisfied, tell me so. I doubt you will be. I am a music fanatic and this is absolutely one of my favorite albums of all time, from one of the most versatile bands in history.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Beach Boys Without Brian Wilson, May 2 2004

By

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carl And The Passions/Holland (Audio CD)

In 1970, without Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys signed a deal with Warner Brothers/Reprise to co-release new material recorded for their own Brother Records, and the first release that August was the critically-acclaimed, but commercial flop album Sunflower.

In 1971 they then released Surf's Up and, while this did better in the sales department, it still languished well below the Top 50. By 1972 Bruce Johnston had departed and the remainder of the group hooked up with two South African musicians formerly with a band called The Flame - Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar - and together they compiled Carl & The Passions "So Tough" - the first of two albums reproduced here.

This too struggled with sales, reaching only the lower level of the Top 50, but Elton John in the opening of several paragraphs written for the liner notes, says "this is an album which I have loved for a long time ... it is perhaps the "loosest" of all the Beach Boys albums in that it has more of a band feel than the others. It contains one of my favorite all time Beach Boy tracks, Marcella, and another, He Comes Down." Scott McGaughey then picks up on the notes by providing interesting bits of information on each track.

In 1973 they then went to Holland to record the title album, and this one eventually reached # 36. This time the opening notes are written by Tom Petty who opens with "1973's Holland is not only a wonderful listening experience, it's a great case for the Beach Boys being more than Brian Wilson's backing singers." His comments, which go on for several more pages, are again followed by a track-by-track commentary by Scott McCaughey.

In total there are 7 pages of notes covering this portion of a series released by Capitol/Brothers in 2000 which began pulling together their 1970s albums [see also 15 Big Ones and M.I.U. Album]. The sound reproduction is flawless, and this is a must for any fan of the one American band that never flinched in the face of the British Invasion.

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5.0 out of 5 stars 'Passion" cut is boys at best!, Mar 19 2004

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John Nucci (East Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carl And The Passions/Holland (Audio CD)

The Boys never did a better melody than "All This Is That" (though the words/message eludes me)

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