Let’s take all psychiatric illnesses out of the equation. Let’s say The Beach Boys had been able to continue making records with Brian Wilson operating at the mental faculties he’d had in play through Pet Sounds. Let’s say Mike Love‘s geeky side didn’t develop into a full-blown annoyance and Hal Blaine continued drumming for Dennis Wilson. Let’s say Carl was allowed to be simply Carl, with no expectations to pick up the slack for Brian. Let’s say John Stamos never began showing up onstage with the band. How much more gas was left in The Beach Boys’ tank?

Do the dozen charming, humble numbers in the years that followed Pet Sounds and the “Good Vibrations” single point toward any further musical growth, or would the band, even in the best of circumstances, have peaked no later than they did, carrying on for however long like any number of great rock ‘n roll bands that had worked their magic for all it was worth (eg, The Rolling Stones), or would they have found a higher plane yet given their musical abilities and songwriting palette?

Thanks to Townsman Matt, we’re headed for a Rock Town Hall-style confrontation with The Beach Boys’ Love You, the 1976 Brian Wilson “comeback” (Hrrundi wears the Pince NezMark IV) album that some hail as an unintended outsider masterpiece and others scoff at as the most-desparate of rock nerd faith-based initiatives. Chances are The Truth is at one of these poles or the other! Or at least that’s how we’ll likely begin this discussion.

But first…let’s take a few days to listen to the music! Your Moderator himself has only heard part of this album one time, and that was many moons ago in a land, well, not so far away. You may download a .zip file with the entire album here. If you’re having trouble with this file, send me a message offlist or post your difficulties in the Comments box for this post. We’ll see what we can do to help you.

Now gather your materials, and begin taking notes!