In this exclusive, Al Jardine tells Beach Boys Examiner about the new single release that he and the rest of The Beach Boys are releasing on Tuesday, April 19 to support the Japanese Red Cross’s disaster relief efforts.
Q: Tell everyone about the new single you are releasing to benefit the Red Cross and the Japanese disaster relief efforts.
Al Jardine: The idea is to release a nice little 7” vinyl on Record Store Day with the A side being “Don’t Fight The Sea” and the B side being “Friends” (A Capella) by The Beach Boys for the Japanese disaster relief. Isn’t that cool? I’ll be going up to San Francisco on April 16 [Record Store Day] to play a couple of songs for a Japan relief concert in Japantown at 5 p.m., before that I’ll be going over to Berkeley to Amoeba Records from noon to 1 p.m. It should be very special because I’ll be hand delivering some of these myself. The single should have a very nice vibe to it. We’re going to transfer from tape to vinyl; it will be very cool.
After April 19, the single will be available for the next three months, but we're still working out the details on those details. The single will be packaged in a white sleeve and the first 1,000 pressed will be on white vinyl with a red label to replicate the Japanese flag. It’s gonna’ be cool man! Brian, Mike, Bruce and I have signed about 90 of them. It’s certainly gonna’ be a nice little collector’s item, and 100% of the money will go to the Red Cross. Universal is distributing it. Everyone has pitched in on the cost.
Q: Even though you’re overseeing this release, would you say that this is a current day Beach Boys project in support of the disaster relief?
AJ: Yeah. It was Rob Christie’s idea to do “Friends” on the flip side because he felt that the song’s message was a beautiful statement to make… "Let’s be friends." I liked the idea because the vocals are underappreciated. Everybody’s behind it 100%, that’s the nice thing part. It’s a total group effort, and we’ll be working more together like this as we approach our 50th anniversary. It’s very encouraging, we’re making plans. I’m looking forward to seeing how things evolve after the release of SMiLE…that will be a nice to offer too. We still have to get that done and move forward from there.
A side: “Don't Fight The Sea” by Al Jardine; featuring Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Mike Love & Bruce Johnston with Matt Jardine and Scott Mathews
B side: “Friends (A Cappella)” by The Beach Boys; previously unreleased from 1968 [exclusive to this release]
© David M. Beard/All Rights Reserved
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