YOU NEED A MESS OF HELP TO STAND ALONE
1972

From December 4th-10th 1971, The Beach Boys worked on multiple tracking sessions at their new Brother Studios in Santa Monica, California, most notably “Here She Comes”, “He Come Down” and “Beatrice From Baltimore.” The latter will become known as “You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone”. Work does not resume on any of these songs until April 1972, when the band wraps up recording sessions for Carl & The Passions – “So Tough” during a ten day recording period from the 3rd to the 13th. Along with the songs worked on in December 1971, “Hold On Dear Brother”. “Cuddle Up” and “Make It Good” are started and completed during this time.

Mike Love says later in Melody Maker that he’s pleased with most of the recordings done at this time. “They were recorded mostly at Brian’s house. He was there with “Marcella” and “Mess Of Help” to help with the vocal harmonies. The recordings were very spontaneous . Some were done in late 1971. We branched out and did types of songs that we hadn’t done in the past. When Carl writes now, he has that Brianesque feel, but before Carl began writing, the overwhelming force was always Brian. Three or four years ago the production was was entirely handled by Brian, then Carl started doing the production in terms of engineering and Brian moved on and lost interest in the mechanical aspect of things. He just moves from one thing to another continually.” Unfortunately the funky, slightly country rock single will fail to chart in the US and UK.

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