Dennis Wilson ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’

Review by Julian Cope

Firstly, I take no credit for writing the following words. I was going to write about how great ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ is. If you’ve never heard it…blah, blah, blah. And I was googling for some background info on the album, so that I would appear more knowledgeable about it than I actually am. But what I know about it would fit on the back of one of those new Royal Mail Beatles stamps. Luckily for me, Julian Cope likes it a lot as well, and knows more about it than I do….

‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ is a definite contender for the greatest album of all time, one of those albums that I just find utterly captivating. Gnomes like Richard Ashcroft cite it – not that he could get anywhere close – though its 1991 re-issue has now become highly collectable & I’ve only heard this on bootleg. I find it a bit sad that this album isn’t available, while a lot of dire/patchy Beach Boys albums are.With Brian returning to play Pet Sounds and then Smile, the view of the Beach Boys centres around Brian. This looks over the fact that Dennis became the most interesting member of the Beach Boys – blossoming into a great songwriter himself. Dennis became increasingly ambitious with arrangements and strings. ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ was pretty much the ultimate statement and as great as Pet Sounds as far as I’m concerned. ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ is verging on the mystical and looking beyong the messy life of Dennis and surrounding casualties. It is one of the great ’70’s albums, made amid a cloud of hedonism, attempting to grasp onto a sense of the spiritual. The song ‘Time’ is easily up there with the song of the same name by Sly Stone. Most of Dennis’ peers were absent (Brian, Lennon), had imploded (The Band, The Byrds, The Beatles), or otherwise lost it (The Rolling Stones, Gene Clark, Dylan). ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ has the same fucked-up quality as late 70’s Steely Dan and shares the same authentic fuckedupness apparent in MOR bestsellers like The Eagles ‘Hotel California’ and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’.

Used copies of this are going for $189 on Amazon USA. How can such a key album remain deleted? (The same can be said of Tim Buckley’s ‘Star Sailor’ or Neil Young’s ‘Time Fades Away’). Dennis Wilson seems unsung as a whole – both the great film and great album he was associated with are unavailable! The messy Beach Boys (Love vs Jardine) thing gets in the way – but why reissue all of The Beach Boys albums from the same era, but not ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’? The emphasis has been on Brian’s genius, which is unarguable, but ignores the fact that Dennis peaked in the 70’s while Brian was largely absent. The tape I have of this is not good enough, neither would be an anonymous download (‘Time’) – this needs remastering & reissuing, a perhaps some of ‘Bamboo’ could see the light also. Give the guy a box-set. Dennis Wilson is an unsung artist and ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ is was one of the greatest albums of all time. A few critics and Beach Boys-heads praise it, but it’s not enough. How can such a great record be unavailable & its 1991 CD reissue be so overpriced? It’s probably worth paying those overinflated prices though….

Phew. Sit back and listen to ‘Time’. If you like it, leave me a comment and I can maybe post some other tracks….