Bambu (The Caribou Sessions) - Dennis Wilson (2008/2017)

 

Bambu (The Caribou Sessions) was a record store release from 2017 that repackaged disc two from The Legacy Sessions reissue/remaster of Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue onto a double vinyl album. Confession: I did not buy this album, but as I have the  2 CD Pacific Ocean Blue reissue, and this is simply disc 2 from that release --less one song -- it's quite easy for me to review it.

Bambu was intended to be Dennis Wilson's second album, but when The Beach Boys sold their studio in circa 1978, he was deprived of a cheap and easy way to record and as Dennis was rapidly spiralling on a downward trajectory,  Bambu very sadly, was never really finished.

This release goes to show that he wasn't too far from releasing a decent album however, and one that stands in contrast to the lusher, and more colourful, Pacific Ocean Blues, his debut album that he'd labored on for years.

 The songs on Bambu rock a little harder than they did on Pacific Ocean Blue, and there's a more latin-tinged funk/soul thing going on in some tracks, courtesy of keyboardist and co-producer Carli Munoz, who was a touring keyboardist for The Beach Boys in the late seventies.

Carl Wilson also worked a lot on this, contributing guitar and on one song co-lead vocals as well as the recently passed away Christine McVie, who was in a relationship with Dennis. 

As unfinished as it obviously is, the sad truth is that many of these songs on Bambu outclass many contemporaneous Beach Boys songs, and, actually, a couple of songs were pulled from the sessions to help complete The Beach Boys' L.A. (Light Album.) A couple of more would have improved it even more. 

Dennis's voice is a largely a ravaged ragged thing at this point, though...I doubt if he could have recorded anything for much longer.

None of the songs are bad, and several are excellent, unfinished or no.

4/5

Of course this release was not meant to really be seen as what Dennis intended, but it's just a presentation fo the material he'd recorded for the album:   many of the songs are unfinished and it's fun to play with the sequence (and a couple of tracks that were releasedt not included: the gorgeous "Tug Of Love"  for instance) to make a releasable album that might have been releaseable. 

To that end I've made a playlist that condenses this release to what I think are the best and most finished songs -- For your pleasure:

Lance's Bambu Playlist:

Anyway, here's what I imagine the firstsingle of Bambu would have been, had it been released.


I have the 2 CD Pacific Ocean Blue remastered album released on Sony Legacy in 2008. The sound is fine, clear and well defined, but not brickwalled or overly loud.



Coming Up:

All This Useless Beauty - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Wilco

American Idiot - Green Day

Amnesiac Radiohead

Another Life - Another Life

B

The B-52s

Bachelor No. 2 (Or, The Last Remains of the Dodo) - Aimee Mann

The Ballad of Easy Rider - The Byrds

Bambu - Dennis Wilson

Band on the Run

Bangles EP

The Basement Tapes - Bob Dylan & The Band

BARB

The BBC Sessions -- Belle & Sebastian

The Beatles [The White Album] 

Beatles For Sale 

Beauty and Sadness -- TheSmithereens

Beauty and the Beat -- The Go-Go's

Become What YOu Are - The Juliana Hatfield 3

Before & After - Tim Finn

Beggar's Banquet. The Rolling Stones

Begin Here - The Zombies

Being There - Wilco

The Bends -- Radiohead

Berlin - Lou Reed

The Best of Badfinger

The Best of Dark Horse - 1976-1989 - George Harrison

The Best of Sam Cooke

Best Shots - Pat Benatar

Betchadupa

Between The Buttons - Rolling Stones

Big Canoe - Tim Finn

the Big Express - XTC

Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi - Camera Obscura

Billy Idol

A Bit of Previous - Belle & Sebastian

The Black Album - Prince

Black Gold - Nina Simone

Black List - Alex Chilton

Black Market Clash - The Clash 

Black Sea - XTC

Black Snake Diamond Role -- Robyn Hitchcock

Black Spring - Lush

Black-Eyed Man - Cowboy Junkies

Blind Man's Zoo - 10000 Maniacs 

Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan

Blondie

Blood And Chocolate - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan

Blue Kentucky Girl -- Emmylou Harris

Boats Against the Current -- Eric Carmen

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan In Concert: Brandeis University 1963

Book - They Might Be Giants

Bookends -- Simon and Garfunkel

Booker T & The M.G.'s

The Bootleg Series 1-3 Bob Dylan

Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen

Born toDie - Lana Del Rey

Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

Bossanova - The Pixies

The Both

Boy - U2

The Boy with the Arab Strap - Belle & Sebastian

Boys Don't Cry - TheCure

Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE

Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin

Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road

Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel

Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan

Brutal Youth - Elvis Costello

Bryter Layter - Nick Drake

Buena Vista Social Club

Buffalo Springfield

Buffalo Springfield Again

Buoys - Panda Bear

Byrdmaniax - The Byrds


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