Sail On Sailor Review

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Written by Joe Viglione

Monday, 31 August 2009 19:02

Click on the above title and then click on the album covers to find CDs

Written by Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Tandyn Almer, Ray Kennedy and Jack Rieley

Time: 3:19

Engineer: Rob Fraboni

Produced by: The Beach Boys

If Holland was approximately the 22nd album by The Beach Boys then this 45 RPM which has shown up on at least 27 Beach Boys compilations, is certainly a most exquisite example of their trademark sound. Blondie Chaplin's vocal is sublime...and can you tell the difference between the tonal quality of his voice and that which is on "Darlin'" or some of the earlier classics? His voice magically fits and the Beach Boys perfect harmonies are kept in check here, they don't drown out the instrumentation. Engineer Rob Fraboni certainly knows how to keep things in perspective, so there is none of Brian Wilson's quasi-Wall of Sound at play, this is straightforward Beach Boys with voices that imitate the feel of how a boat rides the waves of life.

"Sail On Sailor" leads off the 4th of 5 CDs in the big boxed set, 1993's The Beach Boys Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys , just as it led off 1973's Holland album. And where "Kokomo" had the benefit of songwriters Mike Love and Terry Melcher teaming up with sometime Papa Scott McKenzie of The Mamas & the Papas, and that quartet's founder, John Phillips, so too "Sail On Sailor" includes an amalgam of talent contributing to it: Tandyn Almer of The Association's "Along Comes Mary" fame, Jack Rieley, who wrote songs with Wilson (they co-wrote "Marcella") and actually did backing vocals on 1971's Surf's Up; Van Dyke Parks and Ray Kennedy, who did his own version and, of course, Brian Wilson. It is the Beach Boys with a mature sound, taking "Darlin'" one step further into a fusion of adult contemporary and pop that should have been a monster, monster hit. IT has not peaked and despite all the covers by so many name artists, this song is ripe to conquer on a movie soundtrack as "Kokomo" helped make the album that accompanied the film Cocktail.

The original version has Daryl Dragon of The Captain & Tenille on keyboards (piano and synth), Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine and Mike Love with Rikki Fataar on drums and Blondie Chaplin, of course, on the historic vocals.

Cover versions - Believe it or not Jimmy Buffet does an excellent job singing this song, and has a a tremendous production behind it on his 2003 double-disc 38 song Meet Me In Margaritaville: The Ultimate Collection - containing his own "Son of a Son of a Sailor", and Lou Reed/Alice Cooper guitarist Steve Hunter has a stinging instrumental version with superb backing vocalists. Lulu does a dynamite rendition, real angst in her voice and an absolutely driving. The aforementioned co-songwriter on the tune, Ray Kennedy, puts some blues on it (his self-titled Ray Kennedy disc) while the New Symphonic Orchestra splashes techno keyboards and techno horns on a cool "Space Age Bachelor Pad" run through. Even the great Madeline Bell, backing singer on many a hit and lead voice of Blue Mink adds a spicey jazz flavor to the song. There are many, many covers- and they do the song justice - most notably a re-working by Fraboni himself with the group KGB putting a Gospel spin on "Sail On Sailor"...it's brilliant. The 1976 album on MCA features Rick Grech, Carmine Appice, Michael Bloomfield and Barry Thomas Goldberg.