Beach Boys bring 'Wild Honey' to Galveston

the Beach Boys in 1962, from left, Dennis Wilson, David Marks, Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Carl Wilson. the Beach Boys in 1962, from left, Dennis Wilson, David Marks, Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Carl Wilson. Photo: Contributed Photo Photo: Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Beach Boys bring 'Wild Honey' to Galveston 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

Quite a few wonderful albums were released in 1967, which means a lot of wonderful albums are celebrating their 50th anniversary. The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," is the most storied of them. But it's hardly alone: the Velvet Underground's "The Velvet Underground and Nico," the Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Axis: Bold as Love," Pink Floyd's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn." I could go on.

The Beach Boys were supposed to have an album in the mix with "Smile." But that didn't really happen. Brian Wilson's follow-up to the masterpiece "Pet Sounds" swallowed him up, and became rock's most famous unreleased album until Wilson revisited it as a solo album in 2004 and then later completed the original recordings as "The Smile Sessions" in 2011.

Though "Smile" didn't happen in 1967, that didn't mean the Beach Boys were mum. In Sept. 1967, they released "Smiley Smile," which included some of the "Smile" songs and is a flawed but wonderful recording. Then two weeks before the end of 1967 the group released a second album, "Wild Honey."

"Wild Honey" revealed a more democratic Beach Boys, rather than the monomaniacal approach Wilson took on "Pet Sounds"and "Smile." It's nobody's idea of a masterpiece, but like many of the recordings that followed "Pet Sounds" it wasn't void of some wonderful material like "Country Air," "Here Comes the Night," "Darlin'" and the sublime "Let the Wind Blow." Singer Mike Love took a more assertive hand in the writing, steering the songs more toward R&B and pop than the trippier words served up by Van Dyke Parks for "Smile."

So during this big year of 50th anniversary celebrations, no surprise that the touring version of the Beach Boys -- under Love's direction with longtime Beach Boy Bruce Johnston along -- would celebrate "Wild Honey."

The band's "Wild Honey" tour kicks off this month and runs into November. Among the stops will be an October 15 date at the Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston.

For those more interested in hearing an unquestioned masterpiece, Brian Wilson is performing in Houston this week. He'll be doing "Pet Sounds," with longtime Beach Boy Al Jardine and '70s Beach Boys ringer Blondie Chaplin on board.