"Kokomo" was written by the unlikely tetrad of Mike Love, Terry Melcher, John Phillips and Scott Mackenzie with a Beach Boys-Turtles-Mamas and the Papas-"San Francisco, put some flowers in your hair" type of sound. This hodgepodge, written for a numbskull movie, sounded more like the Beach Boys than the Brian Wilson album did.

First, it has Mike Love on lead vocals; second, it has Carl Wilson coming in with his falsetto "Ooh I wanna take you down to Kokomo, we'll get there fast and then we'll take it slow, that's where we wanna go, way down in Kokomo." Third, it has a nonsensical but great sounding chorus, "Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take you, to Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty momma," which is chronically adolescent, just like the Beach Boys. The thrill is there. Brian of '88 can't fight the Beach Boys of '64 and win.

There is also conceptual brilliance at work in "Kokomo" - it completes the Caribbean exploration that was begun with "Sloop John B." The Caribbean connection does many things: it allows the Beach Boys to extend the idea of paradise from Southern California to the Caribbean, a repository of many of the same pleasures as Southern California and a place to pick up new and enticing rhythms.

The Caribbean is another vision of Paradise - in some preferable to over-crowded, busy, expensive, Californa. "Kokomo" updated the Beach Boys appeal to a more exotic locale with sympathic vibrations.

It has been very nice to see the revival of Brian Wilson, ironic that he alone remains alive of three very talented brothers, brothers whose pursuit of musical Paradise will remain one of the 20th century's greatest musical legacies. And I agree with Bill Sherman's comment on the original post of this review that I underestimated the quality of the Beach Boys' '70s work, although my alibi is the focus on the hits as they appear in the collection.

Bill's own review of Wilson's recent Gettin' In Over My Head is here..

I look forward to finally hearing Smile, although nothing about my conception of Wilson's pop genius depends upon it.

UPDATE
A remarkable mini-film about the making of Smile - with music, interviews with Brian, Van Dyke Parks, fans who saw the live performance earlier this year and candid video from the studio - is now available here (Windows Media) (QuickTime)