These songs were recorded over relatively long periods of time from approx. mid-'78 to early '79. Dennis started them for his Bambu LP and finished them for LA Light. Go to www.beachboysarchives.com and click on the POB/Bambu recording sessions and it will give you an idea of the exact dates.

Thanks Jon. That helps. Interesting reading that - shows what a blurry line separates the "Beach Boys" tracks from the "Dennis Wilson" tracks. I'm coming around to the idea that Lady, Sound of Free, Barbara, A Time to Live in Dreams, Love Surrounds Me and Baby Blue are all, in the end, Beach Boys tracks, while the remaining POB and Bambu tracks are Dennis Wilson solo. Any thoughts?

Well, River Song, Rainbows, Pacific Ocean Blue and Holy Man were all initiated as Beach Boys tracks. But the Beach Boys weren't going in a Dennis friendly direction in 76 as far as their studio releases, so he massaged them into solo tracks. Sound of Free has Brian and Carl on it, and lyrics by Mike Love...but yeah it was released as a DW solo track, but maybe not initiated as such. Lady was both in a way. Dennis tended to record by himself, or away from the other boys. His songs on Carl and the Passions are very solo-ish. I think if you try to make clear cut calls regarding whether this one was solo or that one was Beach Boys you're going to find that its all pretty blurry. The guy recorded a huge amount of stuff, and more of it should have been on the BB's LP's...but since it wasn't he had plenty of good stuff to use for a solo LP or Two or Three. The man was absolutely prolific from '68 to '78.

As Jon said, even when it was intended for The Boys, he tended to record alone. When we arrived at Criteria Studios in Florida, (on a one week break from a tour of the south, they booked the Bee Gee's studio to begin their first album for CBS), Dennis immediately found a smaller, detached studio. There, he set up shop and began overdubbing "Love Surrounds Me". Brian was really cooking when we first arrived, and it was great to see him in action. However, Dennis kept dragging me across the lot to assist him.

Craig's fantastic site, (thanks for reminding me it's there, Jon!), mentions an earlier overdub session, at Kaye-Smith in Seattle. I swear I remember other studios around the country where he worked on the song; (I definitely have more of a variety of mixes of that track than any other song he wrote).

I think he would have loved for The Boys to have shown his work more respect. Sadly, it seemed they only usually turned to him when they'd have albums rejected... He'd always let them take what they needed to get the company to accept a finished album - much like what Fleetwood would do to Lindsey's solo work!

Here's the recording info I found for "Baby Blue", which isn't really discussed in my "Bambu" essay since it didn't make it onto the Legacy edition:

First tracking session was at Brother Studio, Monday January 9, 1978, 1:30pm-3:00pm.

Second tracking session (either a new version, or more likely new overdubs onto the January 9th track) was at Brother Studio, Monday January 30, 1978, 7:00pm-10:00pm.

Harp & horn were overdubbed the next day, at Brother Studio, Tuesday January 31, 1978, 7:00pm-10:00pm.

Strings were added at Brother, Friday February 3, 1978, 3:00pm-6:00pm.

Carl mentioned in a radio interview promoting the "Light Album" that "Baby Blue" was also worked on at Caribou: according to the evidence, this would have been in mid-February, 1978.


Carl & Dennis' vocals were recorded at Kaye-Smith Recorders (probably Studio B, a great-sounding room that most people tended to use), Seattle, WA, Monday July 17 or Tuesday July 18, 1978.

The Beach Boys' vocals in the bridge were added at Criteria (probably Studio C), Miami, FL, probably Tuesday August 29, 1978. Their vocals in the tag section were apparently added sometime later, perhaps at Western back in L.A.

Finally, bass (by Joe Chemay) was recorded at Sounds Good Recording, Friday November 10, 1978, 3:00pm-6:00pm.

Thanks Craig - that's a great song. Since Carl's vocals are all over it, I wonder if it would have been on Bambu had it not been given to LA Light...

That makes BBS Australian tour in the middle of the Baby Blue recording dates.

I assume Love Surrounds Me started in Karen Lamm's time and ended in Christine McVie's.

No wonder these two songs have so many different versions.

Baby Blue was the B side on the Here Comes The Night single from the LA Light album. The single was released on February 13th '79. The Song was written Dennis Wilson/Gregg Jakobson/Karen Lamm.

Love Surrounds me was the B side on the Good Timin single. The single was released on April 16th '79. The Song was written by Dennis Wilson/Geoffry Cushing Murray.

Good Timin hit #40 and #12 on the adult contemporary charts.

Dennis was such a great talent and such a great loss. The Beach Boys Summer Love Songs have Fallin' in Love/Lady which is tremendous. Originally released in December '70 with Daryl Dragon. Take a listen and it makes you miss Dennis that much more.

Peace everyone!