It’s January in California and Al Jardine is sitting around at home listening to doo wop music. The Cadillacs, the Cleftones, the Drifters, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.
‘Some young man from New Orleans, a fledgling agent I think, sent these doo wop tapes to me,’ said Jardine. ‘I really appreciate it because it brings back a lot of good memories.’
Listening to doo wop music, it’s one of the ways the 70-year-old Jardine – a founding member of the Beach Boys – recharges his batteries.
It’s been a few months now since the end of the hugely successful 50th Anniversary Tour of the Beach Boys, which played 73 dates around the world and even spawned a new album, ‘That’s Why God Made the Radio,’ the first original Beach Boys album produced since ‘Summer in Paradise’ in 1992.
But the end of the run was not without its controversy, something not at all new to the Beach Boys. Iconic founder Brian Wilson, Jardine and original guitarist David Marks wanted to continue to ride the proverbial big wave that the tour provided. As has been the case over the history of the Beach Boys, co-founder Mike Love had his own ideas, ones that included touring as the Beach Boys with just himself and bandmate Bruce Johnston.
There was a well-publicized hissing match at the end of the run in which, once again, Love came off as the villain to many Beach Boys fans, despite his attempts to explain that the 50th anniversary tour had a scheduled finite end and that he and Johnston had already started to line up dates for their version of the Beach Boys once the tour ended.
There is Wilson’s perspective and there is Love’s perspective. And right in the middle sits Jardine, who has had a front-row seat for all that is the Beach Boys since the beginning. He’s got a perspective, too, but oftentimes it’s overlooked by the bigness that is Brian Wilson and Mike Love.
‘I talked to Mike about it a couple of times and he just wanted some distance from it,’ said Jardine in a recent interview. ‘He wanted to get away and not do this for a while with us. You should probably interview him and ask him. For whatever reason, he didn’t want to do it anymore.
‘So he’s out there doing his version of the Beach Boys. I’m sure people come out and enjoy that, too. But it leaves the rest of us going, ‘Hey, we just got all geared up for this and we want to get out,’ but now we’re all just sitting around on our fannies,’ said Jardine.
All of which means that at this point, 2013 won’t see another Beach Boys tour. Although anything can happen, Love and Johnston will apparently do their thing and Wilson, Jardine and Marks will hook up for some gigs, at least one of which is already confirmed, July 25, at the Fraze Pavilion in Kettering, Ohio.
Jardine admits, though, that after the big 2012 tour, he’s tired of sitting around the past few months and that he should ‘get my butt down there (with Brian) and do some stuff with him because he’s got such an inventive mind.’
‘He’s still so amazing,’ said Jardine, sounding more like a fan than a collaborator. ‘Whenever he sits down at a piano, he can figure out arrangements that you wouldn’t even imagine. It’s striking what he can do. He can take an idea to the next level.’
If that doesn’t work out, Jardine might try another solo project. His first solo effort, ‘A Postcard from California,’ was re-released in conjunction with the 50th anniversary tour and sold pretty well at the concert merchandise table. The CD featured contributions from Wilson and the Beach Boys, as well as from Glen Campbell, David Crosby, Neil Young, Steve Miller and Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America.
‘I’ll think about it (another solo project), but it’s dicey,’ said Jardine. ‘These things take a lot of time and work. You put a lot of love into something and then there’s no way to distribute it.’
The bottom line, though, is that at this stage of his career, Jardine would rather perform than record.
‘If you’re someone like me who’s been around a while, you want to get it right (in the studio). And sometimes, you’re not happy with the first session, you go for another. Pretty soon, you’re spending a month on one song,’ he said.
‘Frankly, if you’re working with Brian Wilson, it’s worth it. The guy is an iconic figure in 20th century music. But we’ve got to get a little more out of him and little more out of me and a little more out of Mike, and hopefully we’ll do it again next year.’
