The Beach Boys - "Goin' On" (1980 Caribou Records)
w Mike Love, Brian Wilson; from Keepin' the Summer Alive, Caribou Records – FZ 36283
"Goin' On" (with "Endless Harmony" on the B-side) was the lead single from the Beach Boys' 1980 album Keepin' the Summer Alive. The Beach Boys, of course, had had their greatest commercial and critical success in the early and mid '60s, and while they had some good (even great) stuff between "Good Vibrations" and 1988's "Kokomo" they were cemented as an oldies act by the '80s. Keepin' the Summer Alive did nothing to salvage their relevance to the music of the day; the name even sounds like a greatest hits compilation...
The making of Keepin' the Summer Alive did see a brief resurgence from Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' chief creative force who'd stepped back due to mental illness, but ultimately Brian only co-wrote "Goin' On" for the album (his other songs on the album were written years earlier). I for one love "Goin' On"...it's my kind of sappy love song, plus the saxophone solo's neat. If my life were a movie this would be the opening title song...
Anyhow, the album didn't do great. I haven't even heard the rest of it. Fun fact, Randy Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive ("Takin' Care of Business") apparently wrote two of the songs (the title track plus "Livin' With a Heartache")…less fun: it's also the last album to feature drummer/vocalist/only-surfer-in-the-group Dennis Wilson, who drowned in 1983...
The Beach Boys are another one of my favorites...expect at least one more write-up another day, but until then here's some more of their less sunshiny stuff...
Also Check Out:
By the Beach Boys:
"Heroes & Villains" (from 2011's The Smile Sessions) - YouTube | Spotify
"All I Want to Do" - YouTube | Spotify
By Dennis Wilson
