Persistence pays off: Beach Boy Al Jardine spills the beans on ‘A Postcard from California’ and ‘SMiLE’

Al Jardine of the Beach Boys leaves no stone unturned as he sets the record straight on Brian Wilson, the band’s domineering manager Murry Wilson, Neil Young, Glen Campbell, debut solo record “A Postcard from California,” electric cars, John Deere tractors, saving the environment, and “SMiLE.” In the accompanying still Jardine proves his Fender Stratocaster prowess onstage at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California, on January 28, 2007, as a special guest on Brian Wilson’s “Pet Sounds” tour. One of Jardine’s favorite stage outfits, the white jacket, pants, and Hawaiian shirt ensemble later showed up on the cover of “A Postcard from California.” Photography by Trisha Campo

Founding Beach Boy Al Jardine delves into debut solo album A Postcard from California, tracking vocals at Big Sur with Neil Young, why he originally left America’s favorite band, and Murry Wilson, the perpetually pissed off early band manager and abusive father of Brian Wilson, in a free-spirited interview excavated below. The contented, unassuming Southern Californian also shocked fans as well as Capitol Records executives by announcing the excavation of SMiLE, a Holy Grail for sixties pop aficionados controversially abandoned for nearly half a century.

The rhythm guitarist and unabashed folk aficionado joined the Beach Boys in 1961 and sang, adapted, or wrote “Help Me, Rhonda,” “Heroes and Villains,” “Cotton Fields,” “Lookin’ at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)”, “California,” “Honkin’ Down the Highway,” “Peggy Sue,” “Come Go with Me,” and “Lady Lynda.” He has inexplicably not shed any tenor vocal deterioration compared to his erstwhile band mates. Jardine sounds like a 30-year-old trapped inside a septuagenarian’s body. It’s uncanny.

A down-to-earth, accessible gentleman genuinely interested in spending time with fans, Jardine retains a burning creative passion, whether studio tinkering, staging Pet Sounds worldwide with Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson and Carl and the Passions-era lead guitarist Blondie Chaplin, encouraging environmental safeguards, or tending Big Sur property on his vintage John Deere tractor. There’s little resting on his laurels.

Jardine deserves accolades for his meticulous craftsmanship on Postcard, as the record easily falls among the best Beach Boys or solo member projects of the past 40 years [Dennis Wilson’s masterpiece Pacific Ocean Blue, Brian’s That Lucky Old Sun, and the briefly reunited Beach Boys’ That’s Why God Made the Radio rank higher]. Not finished until Jardine’s 49th year as a working musician, Postcard was distributed quietly but gained momentum two years later in an expanded reissue coinciding with the Beach Boys’ universally acclaimed 50th Reunion Tour. Essential selections range from “Drivin’”, a punchier and more guitar heavy “Honkin’ Down the Highway” [the sixth selection on The Beach Boys Love You], the Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley harmony-assisted “San…