Episode 211 - Sunflower by The Beach Boys (Side A)

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Did you know that The Beach Boys have 29 studio albums, 11 live albums and a staggering 61 compilation records? Before we agreed to do their 16</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">(!!!) album Sunflower at Vicki’s behest, we knew it was going to be a huge undertaking but good</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">lord</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, it was bigger than we could have ever imagined.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And that’s to say nothing of the tumultuous interpersonal relationships between the band members. On one hand, it makes sense that there would be some drama – they came up in the 60s and churned out records at a faster rate than The Beatles throughout that entire period. They were also teenagers when they began, so some discord was bound to arise as they grew up and started to change as people.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Furthermore, they’ve been a band (yes, they’re</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">still</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">going) for over 60 bloody years at this point. Falling out once or twice was sure to happen. And yet…</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s hard to understand why these guys keep at it. For decades, literal decades, of their career, it seems like some members didn’t even like each other all that much.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The answer is (other than money, of course) the music. There is a lot of it, sure, but there’s some  truly great stuff throughout their career. Ok, not their whole career: there’s a lot of great stuff up until the late 70s. After that it’s some serious Big Grandad Energy.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As of writing, the band is 61 years old. There’s a very good chance that they’re the world’s longest running band. The Rolling Stones started in 1962 – a year later than The Beach Boys – so as you can imagine, there’s a whole lot to cover