Made In California: A Beach Boys Podcast

Five albums in eighteen months. Three stone-cold classics. And some of the most bewildering filler ever pressed onto vinyl.Welcome to Shut Down Volume 2.It's early 1964, and The Beach Boys are under pressure. Brian Wilson is developing rapidly as a songwriter and producer, incorporating lessons from Phil Spector and beginning to reach beyond the group's familiar formula. Unfortunately, Capitol Records still expects another album, whether he's ready or not.The result is perhaps the most frustrating Beach Boys LP yet.This week, Harry and Andy finally arrive at Shut Down Volume 2, an album that somehow manages to contain Fun, Fun, Fun, Don't Worry Baby and The Warmth of the Sun, alongside some of the most inexplicable material the group ever committed to tape.We take the album track by track, exploring the increasingly sophisticated arrangements behind its greatest songs, Brian's growing fascination with the Wall of Sound, and the conflicting accounts of how The Warmth of the Sun came to be associated with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.Along the way, we encounter Billy Joel, David Marks, Frankie Lymon, Motörhead, some questionable attempts at comedy, and a drum solo that perhaps nobody needed.Is this a transitional masterpiece, a contractual obligation, or simply three magnificent singles standing on each other's shoulders in a trench coat?Made in California: A Beach Boys PodcastA chronological journey through the music, history and strange little corners of The Beach Boys story, with Harry Williams and Andy Wrintmore.Follow and subscribe for new episodes, clips and more. If you're enjoying the show, please consider leaving a rating or review!Get in touch: [email protected]: @madeincaliforniapodTikTok: @madeincalipodYouTube: @madeincaliforniapod

Episode 10: Phil Spector and The Wall of SoundWhat was supposed to be a ten-minute diversion into Phil Spector's influence on Brian Wilson has somehow become an entire episode. But given what was happening in American pop music in 1963, we reckon it's a detour worth taking.This week, Harry and Andy step away from the Beach Boys for a little while to investigate the man behind some of the most remarkable records of the early sixties.Beginning with Brian's fascination with Spector's Christmas recordings, we head back to the producer's teenage beginnings with The Teddy Bears, his apprenticeship with Leiber and Stoller, and the establishment of Philles Records. Along the way, we encounter the Crystals, the Ronettes, the Wrecking Crew, and the two men whose contributions to Spector's records deserve rather more recognition: arranger Jack Nitzsche and engineer Larry Levine.Then, having worked our way up to Be My Baby, we attempt to answer a deceptively simple question: what actually was the Wall of Sound?With the help of some original recordings, archival interviews, studio recollections and a few practical demonstrations, Harry breaks the sound down into three interlocking elements: orchestration, the performance itself, and the engineering that brought it all together.There's instrumental doubling, microphone bleed, Gold Star's famous echo chambers, a rather elaborate analogy involving a three-legged milking stool, and plenty of Brian Wilson along the way.It's a story about how records were made, the people who made them, and why the results had such a profound effect on our young hawthorniansNext time, we finally get around to Shut Down Volume 2!Made in California: A Beach Boys PodcastA chronological journey through the music, history and strange little corners of the Beach Boys story, with Harry Williams and Andy Wrintmore.🎧 Follow and subscribe for new episodes, clips and more. Find our podcast links and companion playlists via the link in our bio.📺 YouTube: Watch clips, longer videos and our YouTube-exclusive Collectors Corner series.📧 Get in touch: Questions, corrections, comments, obscure Beach Boys trivia or just want to say [email protected] us:Instagram: @madeincaliforniapodTikTok: @madeincalipodYouTube: @madeincaliforniapodIf you're enjoying Made in California, please consider following the show, leaving a rating or review, and sharing it with another Beach Boys fan. It really does help!

It's October 1963, and change is afoot in The Beach Boys.This week, we take a slight detour from our album-by-album journey to give a little overdue attention to David Marks, the young snarlin' punk guitarist whose departure from the band has too often been reduced to a footnote in its history.Was he really The Beach Boys' answer to Pete Best? How dare you even suggest such a thing.We explore David's crucial contribution to the band's early rock 'n' roll sound, his increasingly difficult relationship with Murry Wilson, and the curious circumstances surrounding his departure. Along the way, we encounter unpaid wages, onstage fines, some spectacularly inappropriate lyrical substitutions, and a 15-year-old who was becoming thoroughly fed up with the whole enterprise.We also follow David's subsequent musical adventures, his complicated relationship with his Beach Boys past, and his eventual return to the fold for the band's 50th anniversary celebrations in 2012.With Al Jardine stepping permanently into the picture, the personnel are changing, and the Beach Boys never rocked quite so hard again. We begin with the extraordinary harmonies of 'The Lord's Prayer', and finish by introducing a rather significant new character in our story: Phil Spector.Join us next week for a full exploration of Spector and his legendary Wall of Sound, before we finally arrive at Shut Down Volume 2.Made In California: A Beach Boys PodcastA chronological journey through the music, history and strange little corners of The Beach Boys story.Follow and subscribe for new episodes, clips and Collectors Corner, and if you're enjoying the show, please consider leaving us a rating or review. It really does help!Get in touch: [email protected] us on social media:Instagram: @madeincaliforniapodTikTok: @madeincalipodYouTube: @madeincaliforniapod

Just three weeks after Surfer Girl, The Beach Boys were back with their fourth studio album: Little Deuce Coupe. But was this hot-rod-themed LP simply a rushed cash-in, or is there more going on beneath the bonnet?Harry and Andy return to 1963 to explore an album that often gets overlooked in the Beach Boys' catalogue. From the surprisingly moving Ballad of Ole' Betsy and the infectious No-Go Showboat to the haunting A Young Man Is Gone, there's plenty of evidence that Brian Wilson's songwriting and arranging were developing at an extraordinary pace.Along the way, we explore America's obsession with cars and school spirit, check in with our old friends Jan & Dean, the origins of Little Saint Nick, and Mike Love's apparently unparalleled gift for lyrical subtlety.Is Little Deuce Coupe an opportunistic stopgap, or an underrated chapter in the Beach Boys' remarkable evolution?Made In California: A Beach Boys PodcastA chronological journey through the music, history and strange little corners of The Beach Boys story.Follow / subscribe for new episodes and clips.Get in touch: [email protected]: @madeincaliforniapodTikTok: @madeincalipodYouTube: @madeincaliforniapod

Before the Beach Boys got to little deuce coupes, shut-down races and custom machines, America had already been singing about cars for more than 50 years.In this episode, Harry and Andy trace the road from some of the earliest motoring songs through blues, boogie woogie, post-war hot rod culture and 1950s drag-racing records, all the way to California in the early 60s.Along the way, Rudyard Kipling turns up writing about cars, Robert Johnson uses the automobile as a sexual metaphor, World War II changes American car culture, Route 66 becomes a kind of musical travel brochure, and Arkie Shibley somehow builds a whole hot rod saga with sequels, different perspectives and an unreliable narrator.By the end, it all starts to point towards the Beach Boys.They didn’t invent car music. They were the start of its third wave.There’s also a Spotify playlist with the songs and influences covered in the episode, so you can follow the whole trail for yourself.Hot Rod Boogie: The Road to Little Deuce CoupeMade In California: A Beach Boys PodcastA chronological journey through the music, history and odd corners of The Beach Boys story.Follow for new episodes, clips and Collectors Corner.Instagram: @madeincaliforniapodTikTok: @madeincalipodYouTube: @[email protected]