In 1976, Brian Wilson returned to the Beach Boys after a period of prolonged absence, even joining the group's touring lineup for the first time since 1964. With Wilson back in his sonic-mastermind role, the Beach Boys released the cult-favorite 1977 album The Beach Boys Love You, and they planned to follow it with a strange, experimental record called Adult/Child. But Adult/Child never came out, possibly because the group's label and Wilson's bandmates didn't really believe in it. Over the decades, the record was heavily bootlegged. Now, it's finally going to come out for real.
Today, the Beach Boys announced plans to release We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years, a box set of the music that they recorded after Brian Wilson's '70s return. The set is built around a remastered version of The Beach Boys Love You, and it also includes the first-ever commercial release of Adult/Child, as well as assorted outtakes and alternate versions.
Mixing engineer James Sáez and Beach Boys historian Howie Edelson co-produced the We Gotta Groove set, with band archivist Alan Boyd serving as artistic director. The set, spread across three CDs and three LPs, includes 35 unreleased tracks and 22 newly mixed ones, with liner notes from Edelson and archival interview quotes from all of the Beach Boys. Below, check out "We Gotta Groove," a previously unreleased Love You outtake that Brian Wilson wrote and produced.
We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years is out 2/13 on Capitol/UMe; you can pre-order it and see all the full tracklist here.
