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Did you know that The Beach Boys have 29 studio albums, 11 live albums and a staggering 61 compilation records? Before we agreed to do their 16th(!!!) album Sunflower at Vicki’s behest, we knew it was going to be a huge undertaking but good lord, it was bigger than we could have ever imagined.

And that’s to say nothing of the tumultuous interpersonal relationships between the band members. On one hand, it makes sense that there would be some drama – they came up in the 60s and churned out records at a faster rate than The Beatles throughout that entire period. They were also teenagers when they began, so some discord was bound to arise as they grew up and started to change as people.

Furthermore, they’ve been a band (yes, they’re still going) for over 60 bloody years at this point. Falling out once or twice was sure to happen. And yet…

It’s hard to understand why these guys keep at it. For decades, literal decades, of their career, it seems like some members didn’t even like each other all that much.

The answer is (other than money, of course) the music. There is a lot of it, sure, but there’s some  truly great stuff throughout their career. Ok, not their whole career: there’s a lot of great stuff up until the late 70s. After that it’s some serious Big Grandad Energy.

As of writing, the band is 61 years old. There’s a very good chance that they’re the world’s longest running band. The Rolling Stones started in 1962 – a year later than The Beach Boys – so as you can imagine, there’s a whole lot to cover here.

Which is why it’s an epic two parter. In part one, Vicki takes us through their history right up until the 1980s. We talk about the music, the members, their relationships, the drink, the drugs, the mental health problems, the politics and of course the deaths.  

Next week – the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s (because aye, when this episode ends there’s still just over 30 fucking years of general stuff to discuss) and Vicki tells why she had trouble deciding between Sunflower, Surf’s Up and Wild Honey.

REMINDER: It’s Record Club shipping time! We’ll be posting out vinyl and emailing digital download codes to all of our subscribers next week so there’s still time to get involved before the end of March! You can also drop in and out if an ongoing subscription is too much for you. Find out more below.