[Today: Beached...]
For most of America, The Beach Boys died when Brian Wilson became consumed by a combination of artistic ambition, a fragile ego, and too much LSD. Wilson literally climbed into his sandbox, took an incomplete on his would-be masterpiece Smile, and retreated from public view. But he and his Beach brothers soldiered on well into the 80′s, releasing much of their most interesting music once they’d fallen out of public favor. Far from the sun & fun of their earlier singles, their music between 1967 and 1973 was often emotionally complex and sometimes paranoid.
Perhaps no other release captures the frustrating fruition of their Brother Records era than Surf’s Up. It’s a weird amalgamation of the strengths and weaknesses of the group during this time, and on one level its radically eclectic sounds come off as the work of a band throwing everything against the wall and hoping something sticks. This is a dark, disjointed album constructed from the splintered pieces of what made them so compelling in their heyday – here their trademark honeyed harmonies and all-American naivety are twisted into a knowing acceptance that things haven’t turned out well, and the future doesn’t look good.
First the bad: ‘Student Demonstration Time’ is an outright embarrassment, the worst song that Leiber and Stoller ever wrote, and the kind of schlocky tripe that made The Beach Boys look like squares at the end of the Sixties. ‘A Day Is The Life Of A Tree’ is just plain strange, no matter how much LSD you’ve been gobbling. ‘Disney Girls’ is a slight piece of pop penned by Bruce Johnston, but even here the Boys’ harmonies feel like the ghosts of good times gone and work pretty effectively. That’s the thing about the band during this era – even when they were striking out they were doing it in interesting ways. The Beach Boys may have become irrelevant, but they weren’t boring (until the late-70′s, and then they were extremely boring).
In spite of its flaws, Surf’s Up mostly works. Hearing the group sing about pollution and litter on album opener ‘Don’t Go Near The Water’ is still shocking – even if the song itself is fairly lightweight. ‘Feel Flows’ sounds like melting hippies, while ‘Til I Die’ and the title track are Brian Wilson’s last great moments on record with the group he made famous. But the surprising crown jewel here is ‘Lookin’ At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)’, a grim, take-off-the-gloves look at what lay ahead for a band of washed up surfers. “I had to take to sweeping up some floors,” sings Al Jardine, “Well I don’t mind that so much or the changing of my luck/But you know I could be doing so much more.” Even though nobody was paying attention, The Beach Boys did plenty of good things after the spotlight turned away…
Listen: Don’t Go Near The Water
Listen: Lookin’ At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)
Listen: Surf’s Up
Tags: Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Surf's Up, The Beach Boys
6 February 2010 at 9:19 pm |
Indeed, as dkpresents points out so well, Surf’s Up is a total rock music Whitman Sampler. And as such, you can bet there are the occasional maple creams. (Does anybody like those?)
However, the highs reached on this LP, I happen to think, soar to a level among the highest ever reached by the boys from Hawthorne, CA.
Both side-openers are awesome, and “‘Til I Die” and “Surf’s Up” close the album with a one-two punch that ranks among the best ever.
Unfortunately, interfamily bickering kept a couple Dennis Wilson tunes off this record. And given the strength of his contributions to their previous LP (Sunflower, the first on their own Brother Records label…and another excellent long-player), that seems like a mistake in retrospect.
Of course, no additional tracks would’ve turned Surf’s Up into a meaningful success for the band. They were simply deemed uncool by the music rags of the day.
Fortunately, hindsight is 20/20 (also the name of another great post-heyday Beach Boys LP), and Pitchfork had the good sense to include Surf’s Up in the middle of their list of the best LPs of the 1970s.
Starting with the front cover, it was clear from the outset that this release would have next to nothing to do with catching a wave, being true to your school or having fun, fun, fun. But Surf’s Up remains an outstanding listen for anyone willing to expand their expectations from Brian Wilson & Co.