I am writing this week’s Car Talk from Panama City Beach, Florida. My stepson Lars and his wonderful fiancé Carrie are getting married today at 5 pm, on the beach. I have been thinking a lot the last few days (weeks, months actually) about the beach and how I could not wait to get here. And, of course, now that I am here, I want to stay. I watched the sunset from our balcony last night and started thinking about one of my all-time favorite bands, The Beach Boys.
A true American success story, the Beach Boys started as a garage band at the dawn of the 1960’s. Three brothers, Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, cousin Mike Love and their buddy Al Jardine became one of the most enduring and legendary American bands of all time.
Early on, they hit on a musical formula focusing on surfing, cars and girls which the Baby Boomers, 70 million strong, took to like bees to honey. Teenagers themselves, The Beach Boys became one of the core groups along with Jan and Dean, The Hondells and a host of others, to form what became known as The California Myth. This embodied the wide eyed and unbridled optimism of youth, before Vietnam, LBJ, and civil upheaval turned the 60’s into The Sixties.
Brian Wilson, bassist for the group, was the creative genius behind the band, creating the beautiful three and four part harmonies the band was famous for, as well as writing or co-writing and producing virtually all of the music. He would quit touring in 1965, working solely in the studio while a young guitarist named Glen Campbell toured with the band in his place. Brian would lay down and mix all of the instrumental tracks, and the band would then come in and record the vocal harmonies over the music.
Brian collaborated with songwriter Gary Usher and L.A. disk jockey Roger Christian to write some of the Beach Boys most famous songs, the Car Songs. These tracks included “409”, “Little Deuce Coupe”, “Shut Down” and “Don’t Worry, Baby”, to name a few. Christian knew more about cars than Brian, so he wrote the lyrics and Brian wrote the music. Murry Wilson, the brothers Dad and initial manager did not like Usher or Christian and clashed with them often. According to the biographies I have read, Murry did not like much of anybody at all, including his own sons.
An interesting factoid; of all the Beach Boys, Dennis was the only one who actually knew how to surf.
It all changed in 1966 with the release of the album “Pet Sounds”. The band, Brian in particular, was ready to explore new areas and stretch into the musical directions and movements of the times. Though initial response to the album was lukewarm, it is now recognized as one of the most important works of the rock genre, influencing bands from The Beatles to Radiohead.
My daughter Dana loved The Beach Boys when she was little. How could she not? Dad played their music all the time, in the pool and in the car. Her favorite song was the beautifully haunting “In My Room”. We saw them in concert in 1989, at the old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. It was one of those concerts I still remember vividly. Our seats were right down front, and the original band, except for Brian, was playing. They did all of the old favorites, the surfing songs, “California Girls”, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “Sloop John B” from the Pet Sounds album. It was Dana’s first concert; she and I got on the matrix board. They sounded great, the harmonies were still there. And, of course, they did the Car Songs… Still Cruisin’! –J.
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