The Beach Boys

[Teasing the Korean]

There is a certain innocent and almost twee quality to their music that I (and I think others) associate with the comfort that comes with growing up middle class or better.

Do you pick up on that in bossa nova and MPB? Most of those Brazilian artists were practically royalty and related to one another in one way or another.

[J Larsen]

I've never cared for bossa nova, not one bit.

[JSngry]

The surf/summer oldies radio fodder is (mostly) something that I can certianly do without for quite a while, except on my terms at my time. Nostalgia as a lifestyle is not for me. But as noted above, starting with Today there's a confronting of the loss of innocence that is at the core of what makes Brian's best work relevant. That's where the soul is, the fear, and the pain. That he himself never quite got over that particular hump is another part of the same story, and it's a part that makes it easy to use his personal end results to critique the real-time dispatches from the front. That's cheap, easy, and quite wrong, in my opinion.

We devalue innocence in our society. We celebrate its loss of it in ourself, and we glamorize environments where its existence is all but impossible. And when we do "celebrate" it, we do so by turning into cheap sentimentality, the type of thing that only a fool would embrace and the kind of thing that we can feel comfortable with only when it's ultimate unfeasability and demise is built into it.

But innocence is (or at least can be) so much more than mush-headed naivete. It's innocence, not "reality" that provides us with the foundations of hope, love, optimism, all those things that give us the ammunition to fight the battle for the soul, should we choose to do so (and so many don't...). Confronting the reality of realizing that innocence needs to be armed and ready in order to transition into adulthood can be a terrifying proposition, and it's that fear that you hear in the best of Brian's work up until about 1975 or so. Those massively layered vocals are as much an attempt to build a shield as they are anything, and the post-Smile "chill out" music is a nothing-if-not-real attempt to hold onto that innocence at all costs. If the costs of protecting the innocence eventually proved to be the thing that destroyed it and turned it into an illness, the soundness (one could even say nobility) of recognizing that there was something there to be valued and protected should not be overlooked and/or dismissed.

What you hear in Brian Wilson's work is the sound of a man who fought the battle for the soul on his turf. You also hear the sound of a man who was apparently unable to reconcile that the only way to hold on is to lose something in order to make room for the old to grow into the new. The glamorization of the "man-child" & "Mad Genius" is as wrong as is the dismissal of the "Endless Summer". Both poles deny the real struggle involved in getting from Point A to Point B that many of us face (or should face...), and both poles refuse to accept the tragedy in this one particular personal struggle as anything other than a "show biz" thing.

Innocence per se is not meant to be a forever thing. Where Brian ultimately fucked up was in thinking that it was. But what innocence engenders in the mature psyche is a beautiful thing to be treasured and nurtured forever. Where Brian went right was in recognizing this and championing it in his own way. If he himself was not adequately prepared to make the transition himself, that in no way invalidates the message, at least not until it turned on itself and became an object instead of a goal. And even then, it became a freak show with some pretty damn interesting musical accompaniment. Love You is in no way the work of a mature, sane adult, but it sure ain't the work of a dysfunctional incapacitated burnout either.

I still say that "Caroline, No" is one of the saddest songs ever written, and that "Busy Doing Nothing" is the work of somebody who knows a helluva lot more than they're willing to admit, even to themself. And I maintain that most of the white, suburban, middle-class people of a certain time & place who mock(ed) the work of Brian Wilson saw just a glimpse of the battle at one point, got the shit scared out of them, and surrendered without as much as an idea of a fight.

[J Larsen]

That's a very convincing analysis.

[JSngry]

Just for the record, I made my comment above as someone who grew up really fucking poor (and yes Jim, I know you knew this). Hearing the Beach Boys as a kid made me want to kick them in the knees and tell them to get back on their boards and surf to a place far, far away from me.

But like I said, I'm over this now and can appreciate Pet Sounds and Smile.

And that is more than understandable, just as the same impulse is for poor country white folks when it comes to rap & hip-hop, or anything even remotely urban (regardless of "ethnic origin").

But (and I think I'm hearing you say this) one of the biggest barriers that people are up against is confusing specific point of origin with basic universal humanity. Sure, circumstances real and manufactured conspire against making the expectation of getting over that hump on a broad scale all but unthikable , but when personally confronted with the very real possibility that we all got our issues in our own way, the choice to either open up to the possibility of recognition on a scale beyond that of pure, immediate self or simply choosing to live in a self-centered microverse and pretending it's the universe is one that must be made. The fallout from whatever choice one makes is far-reaching and will ultimately decide what kind of world you will live in and create for those around you. And the "easy" choice is seldom the right one.

[J Larsen]

Just for the record, I made my comment above as someone who grew up really fucking poor (and yes Jim, I know you knew this). Hearing the Beach Boys as a kid made me want to kick them in the knees and tell them to get back on their boards and surf to a place far, far away from me.

But like I said, I'm over this now and can appreciate Pet Sounds and Smile.

And that is more than understandable, just as the same impulse is for poor country white folks when it comes to rap & hip-hop, or anything even remotely urban (regardless of "ethnic origin").

But (and I think I'm hearing you say this) one of the biggest barriers that people are up against is confusing specific point of origin with basic universal humanity. Sure, circumstances real and manufactured conspire against making the expectation of getting over that hump on a broad scale all but unthikable , but when personally confronted with the very real possibility that we all got our issues in our own way, the choice to either open up to the possibility of recognition on a scale beyond that of pure, immediate self or simply choosing to live in a self-centered microverse and pretending it's the universe is one that must be made. The fallout from whatever choice one makes is far-reaching and will ultimately decide what kind of world you will live in and create for those around you. And the "easy" choice is seldom the right one.

I agree - it just takes a little time to get there. In my case, until about my late 20s, which is (not coincidently) about when I learned to relate to people from dissimilar backgrounds. I went to really rich schools from jr high through college, but until grad school I always gravitated to the other poor students (without even consciously trying - we all just kind of found each other). In grad school there were no other poor students, so I guess I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter!

Getting back to the musical implications, the prospect of having to re-evaluate entire "classes" (of you will) of music and of possibly feeling compeled to expand my cd library even further was not a positive motivator!

[JSngry]

Just for the record, I made my comment above as someone who grew up really fucking poor (and yes Jim, I know you knew this). Hearing the Beach Boys as a kid made me want to kick them in the knees and tell them to get back on their boards and surf to a place far, far away from me.

But like I said, I'm over this now and can appreciate Pet Sounds and Smile.

And that is more than understandable, just as the same impulse is for poor country white folks when it comes to rap & hip-hop, or anything even remotely urban (regardless of "ethnic origin").

But (and I think I'm hearing you say this) one of the biggest barriers that people are up against is confusing specific point of origin with basic universal humanity. Sure, circumstances real and manufactured conspire against making the expectation of getting over that hump on a broad scale all but unthikable , but when personally confronted with the very real possibility that we all got our issues in our own way, the choice to either open up to the possibility of recognition on a scale beyond that of pure, immediate self or simply choosing to live in a self-centered microverse and pretending it's the universe is one that must be made. The fallout from whatever choice one makes is far-reaching and will ultimately decide what kind of world you will live in and create for those around you. And the "easy" choice is seldom the right one.

I agree - it just takes a little time to get there.

Well, of course it does, If it didn't, we could have the life expectancy of a butterfly and still live life to its fullest.

[Noj]

I grew up a middle class kid and if I'd lived near the beach I would have been a surfer, I have little doubt. So, I always liked the Beach Boys. My parents had cassettes of their music so I heard it a lot as a kid. Now I've got most of their albums. I'm always embarrassed to play them around others, though!

I've also got the Cowabunga Surf Box. Dick Dale, baby!

[GA Russell]

I've also got the Cowabunga Surf Box. Dick Dale, baby!

I went to see Dick Dale in Atlanta about 1987. After the show he mingled with the crowd a little bit. So I shook his hand, and he autographed the t-shirt I was wearing! My friends and neighbors at the time were too young to appreciate him. They thought I was a crazy old dude.

[BruceH]

When I was growing up the Beach Boys were considered terminally uncool; a joke, in fact. It wasn't until college that I even began to appreciate their accomplishment.

Having said that, I found and still find Pet Sounds somewhat overrated. Sure it has some great songs on it, but it doesn't hang together as one of the greatest albums of all time for me, despite its seminal role. Love You, however, has long been a personal favorite and I still think it's one of their best albums. It always amazes me that even some fans underrate it.

A couple of my favorite Beach Boys songs: "I Get Around" and "Good Vibrations"---obvious choices perhaps, but sincere. And yes, "Good Vibrations" has been overplayed to within an inch of its life, but it's nevertheless great, and one of the best songs of the decade.

[BruceH]

BTW, anyone hear "I Understand" from the new Sloan album? Quite a nice Beach Boys homage.

[Guy Berger]

an interesting flipside to what Jim says would be looking at the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed's post-VU work (pretty much ersatz-Velvet, counterfeit-decadence, though I'm certainly not the first to level that judgment)... how much of white suburban kids' love for the Velvets (and it still exists... I know a # of 20-22 yr olds who love 'em) is a somewhat similar attempt to transcend their origins? Is digging early VU just another way of slumming?

Judging by the Velvets' first two albums, they are slightly overrated (at least in certain quarters).

Guy

Edited April 7, 2007 by Guy

[J Larsen]

Well, if you're not convinced by the stuff with John Cale, you're unlikely to be won over by the records that came after him. I don't think I've fully worked out how I feel about VU. I do like the first two records, but "how much" has varied a lot at different points in my life. Regardless of that, it is hard not to respect their influence.

[ghost of miles]

I'd argue that whatever the Velvets & Lou Reed were on to in their first several albums was just as authentic, in its own fucked-up way, as whatever Brian Wilson was on to. How it was used/misused & heard by fans is another issue... but a song like "Heroin" kicks the door in when it comes to depicting "life" as sure as "Caroline No" or "Good Vibrations" does. I'd say that early VU depicts the anti-BBoy people that Jim's talking about, but that's authentic, too... we define ourselves as much by what we aspire to, by our gestures, as we do by what we "are." It's darker, it's certainly less concerned with maintaining innocence, and it risks just as much in terms of possible self-delusion and self-absorption as does the vision of Brian Wilson. In a twisted way it's spiritual, too... I mean, some people may think "Jesus" (from the third album) is a joke, but I've never heard it that way. I think it's a very lost, very modern cry for purity, a rock n' roll leap of faith that knows it probably won't get an answer, but hopes for salvation in the very act of asking. In the end, I think speed helped Lou Reed write some very good songs for a couple of years, and then it fried his brainpan shiny, leaving behind enough residue of talent for him to chug along for awhile, occasionally turning out halfway-decent work, but never at the level of what he did in the late 1960s.

[JSngry]

I'd say that early VU depicts the anti-BBoy people that Jim's talking about, but that's authentic, too...

Well, anything/everything is authentic in one form or fashion when it's all said and done, but where I admire Wilson more than Reed is that Wilson was trying to hold onto something of his own that he knew was important, whereas Reed was trying to destroy it in order to, maybe, save it because he couldn't handle it in the form that was presently in his face. It's almost as if he couldn't find it inside, so rather than digging deep to find it inside, he went about the business of seeing if it was somewhere else. Not uncommon, and certainly not incomprehensible, but eventually, if you find it, you find it inside anyway.

We can all "rebel", but there's no escaping our roots, and I believe that any peace that we eventually find has to be found on our "home turf". That's the final confrontation, and often the toughest one. As much as I understand the need to "get away", I've come to the conclusion that there's no escaping who we are. So if you're a suburban middle class white kid from Hawthorne, CA, that's how and where you gotta fight the battle if you have any chance at all of winning. You could go off into a bunch of other stuff and "win", but sooner or later, you gotta win one on that home turf.

That neither Wilson nor Reed really "won" their battles (Reed still has plenty of cred, but geez, he's really just another white guy who played the rock & roll game, if you know what I mean) goes woithout saying, but Wilson has far more relvevance & poignancy to/for me just because he confronted (or tried to) the stuff that he had right there in front of him on its own terms instead of going off and looking for stuff to confront elsewhere. That's somthing that in its own way is a helluva lot more "rebellious" than taking on another world and trying to make it your own, since the ideal of the white, suburban world is that it's all good, everybody has all they really need at the mall, and cheer up sleepy Jean, what can it mean?

There definitely is a suburban soul, and it's as real as any other human-type soul. That it's often denied and/or ridiculed is usually it's own fault simply because it usually does not recognize itself, too often is incapable of recognizing itself, in anything other than vanity. But the few that get past that are as worth paying attention to as any other "voice of the soul", and Brian Wilson was definitely one of those few.

I'd wager that at this point in his life, Lou Reed could probably be moved to tears by at least a few Brian Wilson songs, perhaps more than by any of his own. Coming home can do that to you.

Edited April 7, 2007 by JSngry

[Aggie87]

As an FYI, Bruce Johnston has been posting lately on the SH forums, in case anyone is interested in some of his anecdotes, asking questions, etc.

[Guy Berger]

Well, if you're not convinced by the stuff with John Cale, you're unlikely to be won over by the records that came after him. I don't think I've fully worked out how I feel about VU. I do like the first two records, but "how much" has varied a lot at different points in my life. Regardless of that, it is hard not to respect their influence.

Of course, they were incredibly influential. And I like much of what I've heard by them. But some rock critics have really gone over the top...

Guy

[Teasing the Korean]

I could care less if any of you like or don't like the BBs, but, for the record, they grew up in a lower middle class environment with an abusive dad; hardly an idylic middle class upbringing.

[JSngry]

I could care less if any of you like or don't like the BBs, but, for the record, they grew up in a lower middle class environment with an abusive dad; hardly an idylic middle class upbringing.

That's true. But OTOH, fewer middle-class upbringings are truly idylic than the steretype would have you to think. Certainly it's an easier life than many, but there are pitfalls, such as abuse, alcoholism, prescription drug dependency, mental illnesses of various degrees, etc. The "coping mechanisms" are more built into the "system", but the problems are nevertheless real.

Which is not to say "shed a tear for the poor middle-class white folk", far from it. It's just to say that to think that everybody from that environment is immune from feeling pain, despair, etc. is just not accurate.

[J Larsen]

There seems to be an implication that anyone said otherwise, which is not true.

[JSngry]

Sorry if I implied that that was implied. That was not my intent here. Definitely not.

It is, however, a line I've encountered in discussions elsewhere.

[J Larsen]

I have too - plenty of times.

[JSngry]

to elaborate anothe point, Dennis' Pacific Ocean Blue might be horrible.

Indeed it might be...

You know who the real tragic figure is in all this though? Carl. Here's a cat who tried, and succeded, in bringing the Brian "sound" into the 70s, and he managed to keep it relatively relevant along the way up until about 74-75 or so (see C&TP/ST, and if you ask me, the bulk of Holland as examples of things going wrong in a hurry). Then Brian had his "comeback", and after that...

Probably he fell victim to inertia, Mike Love, and everything else that went with that territory. But the guy was a soulful singer in the Brian days, and a not inconsiderable talent for a little while afterwards. And then, poof, he just let the life get sucked out of him. At least Brian was crazy. He had a happy zone of his own, somewhere. Carl just got flat out depressed, I think, and never really snapped out of it.

[Simon Weil]

The only time I ever really liked the BBs was when I heard them live on a one day festival bill at Wembley in the 70s. They were wonderful. What they did was play an "Endless Summer" of their hits on a summer's day to an admiring audience. They had a good band, they didn't fluff and they cooked.

To me there's something reminiscent in that of:

"The [sunday] afternoon with students. They don't feel the real problem; however, their nostalgia is evident. In this country where everything is done to prove that life isn't tragic, they feel something is missing. This great effort is pathetic, but one must reject the tragic after having looked at it, not before."

American Journey/Albert Camus [Refers to 1946]

I just feel you guys want always to ride round in your cars, surf always on the waves, not really want to get to middle age.

Or maybe just endlessly relive your youth.

Simon Weil

Edited April 8, 2007 by Simon Weil

[J Larsen]

all that said, i NEVER thought the Beach Boys were a representative of any power paradigm... compared to Damaged (or Black Ceasar), yah, the early stuff doesn't throttle ya' but otherwise...

Similar personal backgrounds can lead to very different reactions to exactly the same thing - that's what makes us human. Anyway, I'm half-regretting bringing this up, but it's kind of impossible for me to talk about my feelings about a lot of music in all but the shallowest sense if I don't address the place I'm approaching the music from. (Also, I was sort of under the impression that it wasn't that odd to associate the Beach Boys with middle class white suburbia, regardless of their actual backgrounds.)