Pacific Ocean Blue has been regarded as former Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s masterpiece. When it came out in August of 1977 it was met with enthusiasm by everyone but the Beach Boys themselves. It signaled the start of what could have been an amazing solo career.
But it wasn’t. Chalk it up to wretched excess – chalk it up to quirks.
It would be the first and only solo album by Dennis Wilson (save for a second album which remained unfinished) before his nose-dive and eventual death from drugs and alcohol.
When the album came out, Dennis did the customary Press obligations – interviews, radio appearances and magazine spreads but the enthusiasm wasn’t going to last and the erratic behavior crept back in – reports of his unpredictable concert appearances made him more of a liability than an asset. And before long the bottom fell out and rumors of Dennis Wilson living in a car were rife.
But this interview – raw, unedited and done for I believe a radio syndication house probably points to a Dennis Wilson chemically enhanced. Although it’s not glaringly evident, the conversation drifts and tangents start up from almost nowhere and pick up somewhere in mid-sentence from a few minutes earlier. I left it as-is, not out of any morbid sense of curiosity but from a sense of preserving history as is happened; warts and all.
No question Dennis Wilson was brilliant – he was, after all brother of Brian. But like Brian, Dennis came with the proverbial curse; a gift with flaws.
At any rate, the interview lasts a little less than a half-hour, long enough for the tape to run out at the end of the interview as it drops off mid-sentence.
But despite feeling that “someone else is doing the talking and not necessarily Dennis” there is a level of honesty and candor that leaves a feeling of sadness and perplexity.
Certainly not the first and definitely not the last – it’s the risk that goes with the territory.
For the next half hour . . .
