Summer of 2020 Album Diary: Pacific Ocean Blue, Dennis Wilson (1977)

The point of this project is to write, at least a little bit, about a notable album from the past that I've never listened to all the way through, until setting up a Spotify account.

Kicking off the series is Dennis Wilson's "Pacific Ocean Blue," released in the late summer of 1977.  It was the summer of Star Wars.  I was working six days a week at McDonald's, getting ready to begin my senior year of high school.  My musical tastes were beginning to expand a bit, mostly with the help of the Rolling Stone Records review section.  1977 was the year I bought my first albums by Talking Heads, Blondie, Ramones and Elvis Costello, but my purchases that year also included Hotel California, Rumours, Aja, and admittedly more than a few albums that are probably best categorized as "forgettable."

I almost bought this one. It received an excellent review in RS by Billy Altman, who called it "a wonderful and truly touching album."  Because I remember this sort of thing, I do remember picking it up in the record store, and perusing the packaging, and mulling it over.  For whatever reason, I never ended up walking out of the store with it.

Listening to it now is a bittersweet experience, because we know how his story ended - Brian would end up being the tortured Wilson brother with a happy ending, not Dennis.  But this is excellent work; you can really hear the promise behind Wilson's songs.  You can hear the influence of The Beach Boys, but this is not a Beach Boys record.  His gravelly voice has a lot of depth, and on songs like "Pacific Ocean Blues," "River Song," and "Rainbows," you can hear both artistic and commercial potential.  You can definitely hear why the album has gained supporters in the decades since its original release.