Funky Pretty

"Funky Pretty" is a song written by Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and Jack Rieley for American rock band the Beach Boys. It was released on their 1973 album Holland, then placed as the B-side to their single "California Saga: California". Based on astrological themes, Carl Wilson explained that the song was quickly recorded in a "spontaneous flurry". Brian was an active participant in its production, a rare occurrence at the time.^[2]

Composition[]

Rolling Stone wrote of the song in its review of Holland:

"Funky Pretty" is more on the guttural side of R&B. A cosmic love song to an astrological lovely, it mounts its grit in a swirl of harmonic complications, again underlining Blondie Chaplin's more straightforward vocal dexterity with a defiantly baroque choral signature: Vivaldi meets the Regents on a magic synthesizer. It makes for a beautiful track, built on economical and even monotonous musical premises that delight in their unreasonably complex development.^[1]

Asked about the song in a 2013 interview, Jack Rieley said:

That was the test of Brian’s commitment to the idea that Bruce Johnston's not in the band, but Blondie and Ricky are. Funky Pretty is, to me, the modern Beach Boys because Mike, Carl, Brian and Blondie sing. Carl was doing funky songs as far back as to when he covered I Was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder on Wild Honey. It was in his bones and his blood.^[3]

Personnel[]

The Beach Boys

• Carl Wilson – vocals^[4]
• Al Jardine – vocals^[4]
• Blondie Chaplin – vocals^[4]
• Mike Love – vocals^[4]
• Ricky Fataar – backing vocals^[4][5]
• Brian Wilson – vocals, drums, percussion, synthesizer, piano^[4]

Cover versions[]

• 2012 – Christopher Holland,

References[]

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