Page "Brian Wilson" Paragraph 36

In late 1971 and early 1972, he worked on the Spring album, a new collaboration between erstwhile Honeys Marilyn Wilson and Diane Rovell.

While he was initially closely involved in the home-based recordings with co-producer David Sandler and engineer Stephen Desper and " did significant work on more than half of the tracks ", his involvement, as with much of his work in the era, " ebbed and flowed ".

Simultaneously, he continued to supply new songs to the Beach Boys, though his prolificacy had steadfastly and steadily diminished following the fallow reception of Sunflower.

Wilson contributed to three out of eight songs on Beach Boys ' Carl and the Passions – " So Tough " in early 1972, and reluctantly agreed to accompany the band to the Netherlands, where they based themselves to record Holland.

Though Wilson was present for the Dutch recordings, he yielded to his bibulous tendencies ( primarily hashish and hard cider ) and rarely participated, confining himself to work on " Funky Pretty " ( a collaboration with Mike Love and the band's manager, Jack Rieley ), a one-line sung intro to Al Jardine's " California Saga: California ", and " Mount Vernon and Fairway ( A Fairy Tale )", a children's narrative suite musically inspired by Randy Newman's Sail Away that was promptly rejected by the band ; eventually, Carl Wilson capitulated and ensured that the suite would be released as a bonus EP with the album.

When the album itself was rejected by Reprise, the song " Sail On, Sailor " ( a collaborative, Brian Wilson-led effort dating from 1971 ) was inserted at the instigation of Van Dyke Parks and released as the lead single ; it promptly garnered a considerable amount of FM radio play, became a minor chart hit, and entered the band's live sets as a concert staple.

By way of explaining Brian's variable input, Carl Wilson told Musician magazine in 1981 that his brother had become seriously addicted to cocaine during this period.