Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition)

Caribou/Epic/Legacy

When it comes down to it, Wilson had more soul in his little finger than an army of Joss Stones, Amy Winehouses and Duffys. The small but concentrated body of work he left behind is so potent, one can feel the emotion gushing from the speakers. It really is, as Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins says, “straight from the gut, just like blood on tape.”

Unfortunately, the Beach Boy lived fast, died young and left a good-looking corpse, as they say. But not before creating one hell of a solo album, the first from the group’s members, in 1977. The LP, built in the studio almost singlehandedly, sold as well as any late-’70s Beach Boy release but went out of print in the early ’80s, and only saw CD release for six months in 1991; both have been highly collectable and heavily bootlegged.

Like Dave Davies (also from a famous brother group), Wilson had fewer than a dozen songs he wrote and sang lead on before recording a solo album. But when he finally did, it was akin to the quiet Beatle’s “All Things Must Pass” — so much pent-up creativity it just spilled out.

That creativity almost lasted long enough for a sophomore album, to be called “Bambu.” Unfinished tracks from those sessions make up the bulk of Disc 2. Five more bonus songs are spread across both discs, including two versions of “Holy Man” (the first an instrumental because Wilson didn’t have any lyrics, and the second fleshed out with words by collaborator Gregg Jakobson and vocals by the aforementioned Hawkins).

Tracks
Disc One: Pacific Ocean Blue
1. River Song
2. What’s Wrong
3. Moonshine
4. Friday Night
5. Dreamer
6. Thoughts Of You
7. Time
8. You And I
9. Pacific Ocean Blues
10. Farewell My Friend
11. Rainbows
12. End Of The Show
 Bonus Tracks:
13. Tug Of Love (previously unreleased)
14. Only With You (previously unreleased)
15. Holy Man (Instrumental) (previously unreleased)
16. Mexico (previously unreleased)

Disc Two: Bambu (The Caribou Sessions)
1. Under The Moonlight
2. It’s Not Too Late
3. School Girl
4. Love Remember Me
5. Love Surrounds Me
6. Wild Situation
7. Common
8. Are You Real
9. He’s A Bum
10. Cocktails
11. I Love You
12. Constant Companion
13. Time For Bed
14. Album Tag Song
15. All Alone
16. Piano Variations On Thoughts of You
 Bonus Track:
17. Holy Man (Taylor Hawkins version)

Total time: 1:53:25

External Links
label’s Pacific Ocean Blue website
amazon.com
iTunes Store