Pacific Ocean Blue (Deluxe Edition)

Lost masterpiece

As it is well known, rarity albums are the things of extreme value. It is really hard to get them and therefore availability of such album in you musical collection adds a very special weight to it. Generally speaking, albums can gain a rarity status only under a concurrence of a few circumstances. First of all, the record must be related to a famous artist, secondly it must hold a very special place in this artist's discography; that is it must be something really good and interesting and finally the number of its copies must be very low. As a matter of fact the album of The Beach Boys' drummer Dennis Wilson entirely fits to these conditions. Being released in 1977 the album received a whole mass of very positive responses and it continues to maintain a cult following up to the present day. Pacific Ocean Blue has appeared in many lists of best albums of 20th century and is often referred as a lost masterpiece of rock music. It is also noteworthy that it was reissued only once in 1991 on CD and at the present moment copies of that rare disc sell for over two hundred dollars.

Quintessence of Dennis Wilson's artistic life

Apart from purely musical qualities Pacific Ocean Blue also takes a very special place in Dennis Wilson's artistic life. As it is well known the backbone of a world-known American band The Beach Boys comprised of three Wilson brothers – Brian, Dennis and Carl. The story of their relationships is quite tangled and ambiguous but the general sense is that Dennis, as a songwriter and musician, was standing in the shadow of his brothers for a pretty long time. Nevertheless he was always playing a key role in the band. He was like an engine that was generating an inner energy of The Beach Boys. The early image of the band, which was closely related to Surfing culture and this life style was his idea as he actually was the only real surfer in the band. With the course of time his artistic potential started revealing itself. From 1968 Dennis became one of the band's songwriters and was frequently sharing duties of the band's frontman with the lead singer Mike Love during live shows. His solo album Pacific Ocean Blue became a sort of a quintessence of Dennis Wilson's artistic life – a full-grown evidence of his performing and songwriting talents.

Two parts of Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition)

Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition) as you have already guessed is a new reissue of Wilson's solo album. And the importance of this fact can scarcely be overestimated. It is not only because of the musical value it carries and the details of its history; the whole point is that this release was reinforced with additional tracks from Wilson's second album Bambu, which was never released at all. As a matter of fact, this issue is the first official release of Wilson's second disc. It must be said that Wilson himself used to call it a far more stronger and interesting record than his first attempt. Thus, Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition) is simply unprecedented event for all fans of The Beach Boys. All the tracks are placed in their natural chronological order so it is simply impossible to mix up to which of the albums they belong. Overall, tracks from Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition) first part are either mid tempo blues based rockers or piano driven ballads with a slightly meditative atmosphere. The sound may sometimes remind you The Beach Boys albums of mid 70's, which is actually not surprising. Nevertheless, Dennis definitely has his own style and a personal view on how the songs should sound. The second part looks more lively and life asserting, there are no so many slow and thoughtful songs. The production is a little bit worse, but those who love that raw vintage sound will surely find some good points in it. Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition) is the album for sophisticated connoisseurs of old school rock in the first place. If you never had a chance get acquainted with this record before than you should definitely examine this great work.