Landlocked is one of the most bootlegged Beach Boys albums. In 1971, when the band were working on what became the Surf's Up album, they submitted several different line-ups of the album to Warner Bros records, under the provisional title Landlocked. Most of these line-ups were rejected, and the bootleg versions of Landlocked are generally made from tracks that were recorded for them - however there is no 'definitive' Landlocked album.

This node follows one of the more standard tracklistings for these bootlegs, but several songs (eg alternate versions of Tears In The Morning (a Bruce Johnston track from Sunflower which would not have been on Landlocked)) are sometimes included in other versions.

The necessity of Landlocked bootlegs has decreased in recent years, as more and more of the songs have been issued in some form or other, but they still contain a few different versions of classic songs.

Loop De Loop (Flip Flop Flyin' In An Airplane) was for many years a favourite unreleased bootleg track. Produced and sung by Al Jardine this portrays 'all the fun of the fair' remarkably well. But the track became less popular after the 1999 release of Endless Harmony. On that CD, Loop De Loop appears with a rerecorded lead vocal, but more importantly it also featured Brian Wilson's demo of Sail Plane Song, a song he and Carl Wilson had written that was the basis of Loop De Loop. Wilson's version, in the gentle, playful style of the Smiley Smile and Friends albums, makes this one utterly redundant.

Susie Cincinnatti is an Al Jardine song about a cabbie that was issued as the B-side (in two different mono mixes)to several singles in the 70s, before finally being included (in a stereo mix made by synching the mono mixes together) on 15 Big Ones. This is the original mono mix. San Miguel is a wonderful uptempo Dennis Wilson song with Carl Wilson lead vocals that eventually got released on the Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys box set. The best song of the set so far, this castanet-based song marks the band's first (brief) flirtation with Latin music (although the song only uses a few latin elements in an otherwise conventional pop song)

H.E.L.P. Is On The Way is another song that was eventually issued on the box set. By Brian Wilson and Mike Love, this ode to health food is one of the funniest lyrics Love has ever been involved in - 'doughy lumps, stomach pumps, enemas too - that's what you'll get if you eat that way'.

Take A Load Off Your Feet fits well with the previous song - a track about correct care of one's feet written mostly by Jardine, with some help from Brian Wilson, who also sings the first verse. This made it on to the Surf's Up album.

Over The Waves is a version of the famous instrumental (you know it even if you don't know the title - it's often used to back footage of acrobats).

I Just Got My Pay is a rewrite of an earlier unreleased track, All Dressed Up For School, and was later remade itself as Marcella on the Carl & The Passions (So Tough) album. Both those versions are better than this, which is let down because the lyrics are about a normal working life, something none of the Beach Boys has ever experienced.

Til I Die I have dealt with in a separate node. This song was released on the Surf's Up album, and is one of Brian Wilson's best songs. This version is a remix engineer Steve Desper did for his own pleasure, going through the instrumental track first before introducing the vocals. This alternate mix ended up on the Endless Harmony rarities collection.

Good Time is one of Brian Wilson's funniest songs - 'my girlfriend Penny/She's kinda skinny/ and so she leaves her falsies on'. This was remade by Brian's wife and sister-in-law on the American Spring album, before being issued on The Beach Boys Love You

Big Sur is Mike Love's first, and best, solo contribution to the Beach Boys. An elegy for his favourite area of California, this was remade in a substantially simillar arrangement for Holland as part of the California Saga. Stupidly, though, that version was hamstrung by rewriting it in waltz time. This is the original, and much superior, 4/4 version. Love is a much better ballad singer than rocker, and sounds much less nasal on this type of track, and one has to wonder why he didn't continue in this vein rather than perpetrating horrors like Summer In Paradise

Lady is, other than 'Til I Die, the highlight of the album. A Tim Hardin flavoured ballad written by Dennis Wilson and Darryl Dragon (of The Captain And Tenneille), this is from a solo album Dennis Wilson was working on but left unfinished. This was released as Dennis Wilson And Rumbo on a UK-only single (with the Dennis Wilson/Mike Love Sound Of Free , an equally superb rocker), and has shamefully never seen an official CD release.

When Girls Get Together is one of the worst songs Brian Wilson has ever written - it has an appaling childlike melody, a dire arrangement (with the entire band chanting in unison) and some of Mike Love's most moronic lyrics. This was released on the Keepin' The Summer Alive album, but the less said about it (or indeed that whole album) the better.

Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) is a surprisingly decent Al Jardine folk ballad. While he'll never be Bob Dylan, this song is fairly effective, and a nice, gentle song that was included on the finished Surf's Up

While the majority of this album has been released (and in truth much is not very good), it's still worth getting for Big Sur and Lady, at least until Capitol Records wake up and issue those tracks rather than endless slightly different versions of Surfin' USA.

Land"locked` (?), a.

1.

Inclosed, or nearly inclosed, by land.

2. Zool.

Confined to a fresh-water lake by reason of waterfalls or dams; -- said of fishes that would naturally seek the sea, after spawning; as, the landlocked salmon.

 

© Webster 1913.

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