By 1978, Dennis Wilson had already started working on a follow-up to his 1977 debut solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue, with Gregg Jakobson, and Beach Boys keyboardist and close friend Carli Muñoz. Jakobson had co-written several Beach Boys songs with Wilson— “Forever,” “Slip on Through,” “San Miguel,” “Baby Blue,” and “Celebrate the News”— and more on Pacific Ocean Blue, including “You and I,” with Wilson’s then-wife Karen Lamm, along with “Moonshine,” “What’s Wrong,” “Friday Night,” “Dreamer,” and the closing “End of the Show.”
While writing and recording the next album, Wilson’s severe drug and alcohol addiction, which had impacted his physically and mental sate, coupled with the closing of the Beach Boys’ Brother Studios in ’78 and a lack of financial support caused the project to lag for several years and was never fully completed by the time of his death in 1983.
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Inspired by the rolling paper company and he and Jakobson’s production company, Wilson liked the perscussion sound of the title Bambu, which was also the name of his touring band: Dennis Wilson Bambu.
“Bambu was always one of Dennis’ favorite words,” said Jakobson. “It’s really a drummer’s word, bambu; it’s percussive. If there’s one word that literally symbolizes Dennis, it’s Bambu. It’s so present. It’s like ‘Bam.’”
Though Bambu was never completed within Wilson’s lifetime, the recordings were released in 2008 as part of a 30th anniversaary reissue of Pacific Ocean Blue. In 2017, Bambu (The Caribou Sessions) was released on vinyl, on its own, also marking 50th anniversary of Wilson’s solo debut.
Along with his co-writes and songs by Jakobson and Muñoz, and other incompleted tracks, Wilson also penned three songs, including two piano instrumentals—“Common” and “Piano Variations on Thoughts of You.”
In 1977, Wilson and Lamm also divorced, which spill out into some of the more contemplative songs on the album. Here’s at look behind three heartbreaking songs Wilson wrote for Bambu.
“Love Surrounds Me”
Written by Dennis Wilson and Geoffrey Cushing-Murray
During the Bambu sessions, two of Wilson’s songs were pulled for the Beach Boys’ 1979 album L.A. (Light Album), “Baby Blue,” co-written with Gregg Jakobson and Karen Lamm and the lonely ballad “Love Surrounds Me.” Only “Love Surrounds Me” was included on the final Bambu releases in 2008 and 2017 since Carl Wilson sang on “Baby Blue.”
On my own again
Left alone
Do you remember when
Her love filled my life
Made my life a life of love?
Love around me
How can I cope without the love
That I had?
Surround me
The love that I lost was more than
I hoped to find
All around me
Did I have love or did love have me?
Love around me
But there’s no
There’s no love of my own
“I Love You”
Written by Dennis Wilson and Gregg Jacobson
One of the unfinished Bambu tracks by Wilson, “I Love You” runs just over two minutes and seven lines of devotion before an instrumental outro.
I’ve got a feeling
I hold down inside me
I want to let it out
I love you
I’ve waited so long
To let my love flow
Now it’s alright
“Album Tag Song”
Written by Dennis Wilson
The contemplative “Album Tag Song” is a reflective piece about a the end of difficult relationship and features more of Wilson’s unfinished lyrics.
I feel in love with you
I feel in love with you
Hard time, in your arms, they’re gone
In the past
Good times ahead in life
“There’s no escape from being honest,” said Wilson about the honestly in his lyrics. “On the inside, we’re always honest. On the outside, we can bulls–t. Inside, there’s no escape, and … that’s how I felt.”
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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