The Beach Boys in Stereo?!

In the February issue of “Stereophile,” they published an article on the Beach Boys’ reissues in stereo. If you read the article, it raises a number of questions: Why should anyone be lauded for remixing these albums in stereo? Why is “Beach Boys Party” being considered part of the artistic run up to “Pet Sounds”? Why are the Beach Boys trusting someone (Mark Linnet) to do this who prefers the stereo mix of “Sgt. Pepper” to the mono? I, too, grew up on the stereo “Pepper” and listening to the mono sometimes conflicts with the imprint already on my brain.... But do you know why certain parts are in audible on the mono? Because the Beatles wanted it that way!!!!!

I did find it telling that the author of the article considered Brian Wilson a sort of combination of Lennon-McCartney-Harrison and George Martin... It's a very appropriate comparison and I've always felt that this is the reason Brian produced only a quarter of the masterpieces the Beatles did. The poor guy was working crazy overtime! Society’s loss, I suppose.

Mark Linnet deserves a lot of credit for organizing the Beach Boys’ legacy and producing the excellent 1993 boxed set.

But “Beach Boys Today” and “Summer Days” were chock full of relatively primitive singles that we are all used to hearing in mono -- bright punchy mono that renders them all the more powerful.  Is this stereo campaign some sort of weird Mike Love-inspired attempt to gain credibility with young people? Has anyone noticed that the Beatles, Bob Dylan and several other groups have recently released boxed sets of their mono recordings? Or that Brian's mentor Phil Spector always recorded in mono? Brian idolized Spector's career (except that last part-- yikes).

This is probably the reason Wilson did not return calls for comment to “Stereophile” regarding the stereo reissues. “Hey, let's colorize Casablanca! Let's improve the taste of Coke! Let's re-design the Ford Mustang for the gas crisis!” I guess revisionism is always going to be part of our desire for progress. Sad. I'll be sticking with my clean originals that I got for a buck a piece as a kid in the late 1990s when everyone was dumping their vinyl. Suckers!