I like it a lot - as I said, I think it shows the band maturing - it just doesn't feel like it pushes the narrative forward.Wolter wrote:"Shut Down" is actually a personal favorite BB track, but I can understand how it might come off as slight in context.
That's a pretty good song too though. We used to jog to it in elementary school gym class.JennyB wrote:Want to hear something sad? A woman who was the Jeopardy champ for two days right before my show posted something about Good Vibrations on FB last night. But she was talking about the Marky Mark song.
This one requires an all caps GOD DAMMIT, HOY.matedog wrote:That's a pretty good song too though. We just to jog to it in elementary school gym class.JennyB wrote:Want to hear something sad? A woman who was the Jeopardy champ for two days right before my show posted something about Good Vibrations on FB last night. But she was talking about the Marky Mark song.
JennyB wrote:This one requires an all caps GOD DAMMIT, HOY.matedog wrote:That's a pretty good song too though. We just to jog to it in elementary school gym class.JennyB wrote:Want to hear something sad? A woman who was the Jeopardy champ for two days right before my show posted something about Good Vibrations on FB last night. But she was talking about the Marky Mark song.
I'll be honest: I guffawed.matedog wrote:It'll help you get your mind off that fella with the funny eyes from Trees Lounge.
Artwork, properly formatted entry, streaming song, etc:A fairly similar to album to its predecessor, Surfin’ Safari, but maybe a little more, I dunno, room to breathe. As I mentioned in my review of the lead-off (and only, as it happens) single for this album, I think we’re seeing the Beach Boys really starting to solidify the mythos with which they’d spend a good deal of their career playing in on this album. Of note, while Nick Venet is once again credited as the producer here, it’s generally accepted that Brian Wilson was probably the one really producing the album. In any case, let’s look at the tracks.
The album kicks off with the title song, Surfin’ U.S.A., and I’ve already discussed that one at greater length in my review of the single. In any case, it’s a great and energetic lead-off for the album. Farmer’s Daughter follows, which showcases a nice Brian Wilson lead vocal and continues the Beach Boys mining a sort of nostalgia for an age that never existed. It’s a sweet and fun little track, but passes the listener by fairly quickly. Next up is a respectable cover of Misirlou, the first instrumental of the album and a reminder that the Beach Boys were actually a pretty decent instrumental unit in their own right. Following on the heels of that is the Brian Wilson penned Stoked, another instrumental. Having a couple of instrumentals back to back screams “filler” but they’re good enough tracks that it’s really not a problem for me. Lonely Sea comes up next, and it’s probably my favorite song on the album. An utterly gorgeous Brian Wilson lead vocal and the prime example for this album of the Beach Boys using their surfing motif to connect to universally appreciable themes of love and loss. I fancy myself a bit of a rocker, but - especially in these early years - it’s the gorgeous slower numbers that seem to really do it for me. Shut Down, the b-side to the Surfin’ U.S.A. single, rounds out side one of the album. I mentioned this to a friend of the blog, but I actually prefer Shut Down quite a bit in the context of the album. I think the first handful of Beach Boys singles are most successful when they’re expanding the narrative of the Beach Boys Mythos, which Shut Down doesn’t feel like it really does. However, when placed in the context of a long-player, with a bunch of other songs playing in that same universe, it really lets the strong songwriting and musicianship come to the fore. A definite highlight of the album.
Noble Surfer leads off side two, and plays with the idea of “surfer as mythical hero.” Great stuff thematically, the song itself feels like it has as much in common with a story about Hercules as it does about an actual surfer. If we’re imagining a Beach Boys, er, beach with waves licking in from the Lonely Sea and trips being made from around Surfin’ U.S.A., it makes sense that it’s the Noble Surfer’s domain. Or something. Feel free to not read as much into it as I have. A nice Mike Love vocal here too, the whole song is very signature Beach Boys in style.
Honky Tonk - another instrumental cover - follows, which is finely done but ultimately fairly forgettable. Lana is another gorgeous song about a girl with a vocal but, of course, Brian. It feels like it belongs on the soundtrack to every 50s movie about two teens falling in love. It’s a pretty straight ahead track, which I think lets it get lost in the shuffle of time, but a definite minor highlight of the early Beach Boys catalog.
Surf Jam, featuring Carl Wilson’s first writing credit, follows. It’s another instrumental, and probably my favorite on the album. That’s coupled with a cover of the (yes, pretty much instrumental) Dick Dale classic, Let’s Go Trippin’. Really nicely performed here by the Boys. And the album closes with a bit of a slight throwaway, Finders Keepers. A nice song, but not as memorable to me as most of the rest on the album.
Surfin’ U.S.A. is the album which finds the Beach Boys - and Brian Wilson - coming into their own. Brian is (probably) the producer and asserts himself as principal songwriter here. It’s a shame we don’t get any Dennis Wilson vocal this time around, but Carl makes a nice songwriting contribution. The high number of instrumentals also does a good job showcasing the Beach Boys back when they were a regularly functioning band - before the Beach Boys split into two distinct studio and touring entities - and they acquit themselves well here. Instrumental numbers will continue to pop up here and there, but this album is almost unique in terms of showcasing both Brian Wilson’s leadership and the rest of the band’s musical chops.
So, I enjoy this album a lot. The most common way to hear it now is in the two-fer package with their debut album. And they sound similar when played back to back, but separating them out allows a listener to really appreciate the ways the Beach Boys are maturing and pushing themselves forward. I consider the next single the Beach Boys released after this LP to be a major high water mark for the band, but assessing these tracks one by one has actually made me higher on this album than I was when I started writing this post. Funny, that.
Anyways, here’s the best track off of this album:
As did I. But also, ew. HE'S DISGUSTING.Dr. Medulla wrote:I'll be honest: I guffawed.matedog wrote:It'll help you get your mind off that fella with the funny eyes from Trees Lounge.
As per usual, the link includes cover art, release details, proper formatting, and both sides of the platter available to stream:I’ll say it straight up: Surfer Girl is one of my absolute favorite Beach Boys songs, particularly from this early era of the Beach Boys. It has everything I love about them at this time: jaw droppingly gorgeous melodies, deceptively interesting instrumentation, and an ephemeral quality which transcends the literal imagery of lyrics to become some extraordinarily universal. All of these are themes I’ve been pounding on in previous entries to this series, but they’re taken to the next level here.
All the more impressive is that this is actually one of Brian Wilson’s earliest compositions, even appearing in early recorded form on pre-Capitol collections like Lost & Found! 1961-1962, although the version recorded for the single is more fleshed out in nearly every way.
Beyond the obviously beautiful vocal arrangements, I’d like to give a shout out to the musicianship on display by the band. They don’t oversell anything here, adding very nicely underplayed little guitar flourishes here, a little drum work there. It all works together to create the most beautiful song the Beach Boys had yet released, and one of the high water marks in their entire catalog.
The flip side, Little Deuce Coupe, is a revved up rocker - almost a startling, uh, gear shift after the lush A-side. But it’s not an unwelcome change, and the shuffle rhythm gives the song an extra bounce (to use Brian Wilson’s own description) which makes it a bit unique for the time. Another fine addition to the Beach Boys growing collection of car songs, and pretty easily their most popular.
Of final note, Brian Wilson gets his first official production credit on a Beach Boys release here (even though he’d been steering the ship to varying degrees from day one) and one can’t help but think that the move forward musically on both sides of the wax is at least in part due to his finally being formally in charge of production.
In any case, here are both sides of the single for your listening pleasure:
Proper formatting, music, art, credits, etc:Given how much I love the Surfer Girl single, it shouldn’t really be a surprise that I adore the album as well. In this series, I’ve been talking a lot about how the Beach Boys are, bit by bit, putting all the pieces together in their sound and making incremental improvements with every single and album. This feels like the first (of many) high water marks for the group, where the early sound really comes out on pretty much every song. Having Brian officially produce a whole album adds neat bits hear and there, and generally coaxes out a livelier and more well rounded sound from the band than we saw on their first two long players. The Beach Boys Universe is in full effect on the album too, from local surfer heroes to escapes to tropical islands to hot cars and summer dreams. There were really only ever a handful of albums that really epitomized what people think of when they think of a “Beach Boys album” and this is one of them.
So, onto the songs. I already covered the title track lead off, Surfer Girl, in my review of the single so I won’t get into it too much here. But it’s still a favorite, and plays a somewhat unusual album opener - being a bit slower than the usual rocker that opens albums up. Great choice, tho. Catch a Wave follows, and it’s a gem. Good rocking fun, with nice flourishes like hand clapping percussion, which suggest Brian and the band are feeling a bit more ambitious. Some killer guitar licks, top form singing, and triumphant lyrics make this a classic. I love the triumphant tone of the song, particularly from lyrics about critics (of surfing) eating their words with a fork a spoon (and then coming out surfing themselves. Converts!). Good stuff.
The Surfer Moon follows, and it’s another one of those gorgeous Brian Wilson-sung numbers. The first use of strings in a Beach Boys song, the song exudes time and place, giving the listener a bittersweet taste of the Beach Boys world. South Bay Surfer is a lively follow up, doing more of that great myth-making that was part of the early Beach Boys stock and trade. A nice minor addition to the Beach Boys catalog.
The Beach Boys then give us the instrumental, The Rocking Surfer, which is a Brian arrangement of a traditional tune. Nice while you’re listening, but mostly forgettable. The A-side of the album closes out with the immense Little Deuce Coupe. I discussed it a little in my entry for the “Surfer Girl” single and I’ll have another word or two to say about it on the next entry into this series, but suffice to say that it’s a great song and a strong way to close out what is easily the best side of Beach Boys vinyl up to this point.
The B-side of the album opens with the ridiculously excellent In My Room. I’ve talked about the Beach Boys Universe and the little slice of Americana they’re trying to portray, and while this song ostensibly fits into that project, it’s really working on another level. This is probably the first song where Brian is really opening up his inner world to the listener, in the process creating some of the most beautiful music he’ll ever have his name attached to and singing one of his finest vocal leads. Gorgeous, personal and emotionally moving. It feels all at once like we’ve glimpsed a very private moment in someone else’s life and yet still saw our own image reflected back at us. Genius.
There aren’t a whole lot of songs that can follow that, but Hawaii does its best. An insidiously catchy number - with a chorus that you won’t be able to get out of your head for the rest of the day - and a lyrical focus that helps extend the world of the Beach Boys off the continent. One of the things I liked about the song “Surfin’ U.S.A.” was the way it connected what the Beach Boys were banging on about in their songs to a more universal American experience. This song helps do that same thing, albeit in a more limited sense.
Surfer’s Rule follows, which is in the same triumphant vein as “Catch a Wave”, albeit a bit less ambitious musically. It features a nice Dennis Wilson lead, tho, so it’s worth seeking out for that. Our Car Club is, well, another car song. A fun track that fits the mood of the album, but doesn’t seem to do much outside of that context. Your Summer Dream is a beautiful, understated ballad by Brian Wilson and would have been an excellent way to close the album. That’s not really the Beach Boys style tho, so instead they tack on Boogie Woodie which is a fun but incredibly silly organ-centric, well, boogie. I actually think it would have been better to flip it in the track order with “Your Summer Dream” where it would have seemed like just another fine instrumental, but it’s a bit of an odd choice to close out the album.
The Beach Boys have a definite sound on their first three albums, one they refine with each outing until they end up with the Surfer Girl LP. Here they’ve refined their techniques from their first two albums and have begun the first stabs at setting even more ambitious goals, musically and lyrically. They’ll make a few more fine albums in this mold (which we’ll look at in future entries), but to my mind this album is one of two standard-bearers for the “surfing, cars, and girls” phase of the Beach Boys. The other is still several releases away.
Since “In My Room” will feature on another single entry, here’s “The Surfer Moon” instead:
As per usual, the full tray of goodies is here:Ahhh… Little Deuce Coupe. Widely considered the Beach Boys first “concept album” and a pretty fun entry in their catalog. Let’s get right into it. I’ve discussed Little Deuce Coupe in a previous entry a little, and I’ll add here how well it works as a lead-off track for an LP. The song practically explodes and sets the tone for the whole rest of the album. The next track, The Ballad of Ole’ Betsy, slows things down with a genuine ballad to a car. Typically gorgeous vocals and arrangements only highlight how odd the entire project of recording a ballad to a car seems (to me, anyways).
Following on its heels is one the Beach Boys’ most massive and enduring hits, Be True to Your School. The version found here is the album version which sounds both more ambitious than the single version and more cluttered. Okay, guys, it’s time for some Real Talk. I, uh, am not that hot on this song (in either iteration). It’s catchy enough, well crafted in fact, but I have an extremely difficult time relating to it. I’ve talked a lot of the Beach Boys and how their songs are about create a special Beach Boys mythos, a Sunny Caliverse if you will. An alternate reality full of its own heroes and villains (heh), titanic figures and private paradises. But it’s all built on emotions and preferences we can relate to. Whether it’s young love, the need for adventure, or a peaceful evening on the beach. But I have no relationship to the notion of being “true” to your school. I have zero nostalgia for my school and never felt any positive affiliation for it while I was there. Maybe the song is a product of a different time or maybe my feelings are largely a product of being part of youthful subculture rather than being part of the dominant social order in school, but the message of this song means nothing to my life experiences. School is something you’re supposed to endure and then move past. Not fixate on after the fact. But maybe that’s all just me.
The next song, Car Crazy Cutie, is a rather minor piece but features a fun Brian Wilson vocal. Brian is so associated in my mind with his beautiful, melancholy ballads that it’s fun to hear him just let loose on a rippin’ song about cars and girls. Cherry, Cherry, Coupe is another minor entry, but brisk and fun. The A-side closes out with 409, which is still a good song but sounds a little simpler and less filled out than the songs it sits next to here.
Shut Down opens up the second side of vinyl, and like with the album opener, the song fares better as a centerpiece of a full LP rather than being relegated to a b-side (that stuff is all in my head, I know, but that’s why it’s fun to listen to songs in different contexts). Spirit of America follows and I guess this was a pretty popular song at one point? Enough for Capitol to name a greatest hits collection after it, anyways. It has a kind of oddball charm to it, at least.
Next up is Our Car Club, another song previously released on an earlier album. It sounds good here, but remains a fairly inessential track. No-Go Showboat is next, and that’s a surprise hidden gem. Nice vocals from Brian and Mike, a catchy tune, and funny lyrics that rest firmly in the vein of classic Beach Boys myth-making. Not a solid gold classic, but a song that deserves some love and attention for sure.
The final two songs are A Young Man is Gone and Custom Machine. The former is an achingly gorgeous and melancholy acapella number while the latter is a fun Mike Love sung ditty about, well, a custom car. “A Young Man is Gone” also fits in perfectly with the mythmaking aspect of the Beach Boys. In fact, they’re up front in calling the tale they’re singing about a “legend” and captures beautifully the fragmented impulses in our “live fast, die young” veneration. Also, I’ve said this before, and I’ll be saying it again, but why on Earth didn’t they just switch these two songs around in the track order? End the album on one of the band’s best artistic triumphs of the LP and mix the minor bit of fun that is “Custom Machine” back in with the rest of the tracks. Maybe it was just a rule of thumb at the time that you don’t want to end the album on a down note, I dunno.
Minor quibbles about track ordering aside, and despite it including several previously released tracks, this is another solid album from the Beach Boys. The stuff that was previously released fits very comfortably here and the new songs are fun and well made. It does feature what I consider the first overrated Beach Boys song, but what can ya do? This album doesn’t have quite as many songs that I would consider revelatory or hidden gems on it, but it’s a nice cohesive listening experience. Fun fun fun, as they say.
There are a couple of fine songs that would be worth sharing, but “A Young Man is Gone” really stands head and shoulders above the competition. Check it out:
