The Beach Boys were when I first discovered rock and roll, for that they will always remain special to me.
It's almost like a dream now, it's one of the earliest memories of my life. I was seven years old, it was summer time, I was lying around my dad's record player. My dad was quite the eclectic music lover. His favorite was Elton John, I remember listening to his live album and liking parts of it. Then he had Bruce Springsteen "Born in the U.S.A.", an album I only listened to for its title track. All day I would listen to these records, but it didn't really have a lasting effect.
Then it happened, all I remember was my dad taking me down to the garage, inside one of his cupboards he pulled out a record I had never seen before. It was "Best of the Beach Boys Vol 2". The picture on the cover had a bunch of weird looking guys sitting in what looked like a Forrest. My dad told me, the record used to belong to his brother, my Uncle Bill who died only a few years earlier. I never really got to know my Uncle Bill, I had small memories of him and there are pictures of me sitting next to him.
I went back upstairs and I put the record on, I played it all the way through, I remember thinking I had never heard anything like it. All the rock and roll I heard up until then was full of guitars and had what I thought was a dirty sound I didn't care for much. The Beach Boys were clear and crisp, I was entranced by their music, it was fun and positive. I remember when "Surfin Safari" came on, which I thought was the greatest song at the time.
The album became my favorite for a long time. Later that year, my parents went out, my brother and I were being babysat. When my parents got home, we were already in bed, I wasn't awake, but I remember my dad coming into my room and slipping something underneath my pillow. When he left, I checked to see what it was, it was another Beach Boys greatest hits album. This one had classics like "Sloop John B" and "Warmth of the Sun" on it.
Throughout my childhood, I just kept collecting Beach Boys albums, they were all greatest hits, I started to wonder if they ever really made real albums. I don't remember how old I was when I first heard the "Pet Sounds" album, I was still very young. I remember loving "God Only Knows" the first time I heard it. To me it felt very spiritual, even though if you listen to the lyrics, it's really just a straight forward ballad. But the music itself brings it above all that, that's thanks to Brian Wilson the founding member and genius behind all those great songs. Brian was the heart and soul of The Beach Boys sound.
It was only later I found out Brian had a big problem with drugs which if you've seen him lately had a lasting effect. It's hard to believe that all those fun songs were made by someone who was forever sad, of course that's a common thread in rock and roll.
I grew up a bit and I found myself listening less and less to The Beach Boys. To them, they represented my youth and innocence, and as you grow up, things become a lot more complicated than the lyrics to "Surfin Safari". But over time I did return to The Beach Boys music, especially when life was really starting to get depressing.
It has been said that after 1967 in the Summer of Love, The Beach Boys became passe. America had entered Vietnam, and you were hearing more protest songs on the radio. There was the counter culture generation, and The Beach Boys just looked like a bunch of squares compared to them. And of course this is where Brian Wilson's drug problems were at an all time high.
But this was also a creative high on the group, the were experimenting with different types of sounds and music, they carried harmonies better than ever. Just nobody really cared anymore.
It was at this point when the other band member starting pitching in and writing songs. The best of the lot came from Brian's brothers Carl and Dennis, both ironically died young. Dennis in particular made songs that would inspire me, including "Forever" which along with "God Only Knows" was their best love song ever.
I still love their early records, there is a youthful innocence about them, it was true and honest. Just like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, were a bunch of white boys who wanted to be like Chuck Berry, Brian Wilson also wanted to be The Four Freshman, and George Gershwin for that matter. It's safe to say the only thing manufactured about The Beach Boys was their image (They were thought of as real surfers when in fact only Dennis surfed, and Brian had a fear of water.)
The music of today leaves me jaded, it's depressing to listen to because it doesn't seem honest. The Beach Boys represented a sound, and a feeling, when was the last time do remember a music group really doing that, without it feeling manipulated?
I get angry when I hear The Beach Boys still touring, I get angry because I know it's not The Beach Boys, the ones who are touring are Mike Love and Bruce Johnston with a bunch of other musicians. I saw them in concert and it was depressing, it seemed like I along with everyone else was trying to recapture their youth, including the guys on stage. Before he died Dennis Wilson released a solo album entitled "Farewell my Friend", in many ways I like to think that song was a farewell to the band. Brian Wilson still makes music thank God, but no matter how good it is, the feeling was left back in the 60s.
The Beach Boys still make me feel good, they are still my favorite band, and they made the most beautiful love songs in all of rock, if I ever have kids, I'd like to introduce them to The Beach Boys the way my dad did, for me it was a magical moment in my youth.
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