Do You Love The Beach Boys?

I can remember hearing Beach Boys music almost as far back as I can remember. I always loved the fun vibe of a lot of their music and the melodies and harmonies of all of it. But it wasn't until I entered high school, a very unpleasant time in my life, that I became a true fan. It was the 1970s and I had entered high school not too long after forced busing was started to integrate public schools. School was an unpleasant place for me with fights breaking out almost everyday, nonstop cussing, anger, hatred, the constant need to "watch your back." It was at this time that I discovered two great compilation albums of Beach Boys music, "Endless Summer" and "Spirit of America." Almost every day after school, I listened to these albums and it was such a nice escape. "The sun in her hair, the warmth of the air on a summer day," "Good, good, good, good vibrations," and on and on and on. I feel like The Beach Boys helped me get through high school. What about you? How did you become a Beach Boys fan and what do you like about their music? I have been fascinated, over the years, to meet and hear about Beach Boys fans from all over the world. I have also noticed the great diversity of Beach Boys fans at the concerts of The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson. They come in all ages and ethnicities. And The Beach Boys music means something different to each of them. What is your story?

 

I like The Beach Boys. Until a few years ago I did not appreciate the genius of Brian Wilson.

 

Yes, I do .

Pretty much all of it except their try at country and their 80's -90's things.

 

2nd favorite group. Hell yeah, I love them.

It started from hearing the hits growing up, and then I got into Pet Sounds and the genius of Brian, and it spun out of control to the big fan I am now.

 

Why yes.....yes I do.

Not sure how it started, exactly. Got "Endless Summer" at an outdoor Flea Market when I was 3 or 4 year old...this would be the very late 70's. Why did I want it? Don't know. Cartoon cover? I remember specifically listening to "The Warmth of the Sun" and feeling some sort of magic engulf me when I heard Brian's high notes during the intro/outro. I also had a Ronco "Super Hits" LP.

Went to a Beach Boys concert with my older sister and her man-lover around 83 or 84 in Saratoga Springs. My only recollection is Bruce singing "Disney Girls". I just remember the title. I was just a little kid. No Dennis or Brian, though I can't remember if it was because Dennis had died or was just M.I.A. Brian was Brian, who the hell knows.

Next I remember seeing "An American Band" on VH1 when VH1 first went on the air mid-80's (actually I think I watched it scrambled...it was a premium station at first). It was here I took note of "God Only Knows" ("a real pretty song" - Mike) and "Surf's Up". And that "Fire" music....oh, but it was unreleased. I'll never get to hear it (10 year old didn't know about bootlegs).

A couple years later I was listening to Dr. Demento on the radio, which I did ever week. He played "Vegetables" and announced it was from the Beach Boys "Smiley Smile" album. I only caught the Smile part and was like, "ah-ha! It DID come out!" So I got Smiley Smile but was disappointed "Surfs Up" wasn't on it. Then I got the Beach Boys early 70's Reprise "Greatest hits" package (name escaping me at the moment) and at least I had "Surf's Up", but what gives? This isn't Brian singing it...

Anyway, seed planted... continued to fester, eventually became a full-on disease. And here I am now, about to see Brian in concert tonight for the umpteenth time.

 

At their best, some of the most joyous, life-affirming music ever. Even the sad songs possess a singular beauty. Peerless harmonies and the genius of the Wilson brothers.

 

No.

 

I loved them until I saw them on a "Baywatch" rerun yesterday NOT THAT I'VE SEEN BAYWATCH

 

I used to think the world of the Beach Boys music because it spoke to a place of heart-ache and longing in my soul that no other music did at the time. I'm in my 40's now and the music doesn't quite hit my heart in the same way as it did when I was a 20-something. Plus, I'm a little burned out on the music as well as the drama that surrounds the band (and their message boards).

 

YES

Born and raised in Southern California and my brother was a surfer when the Beach Boys hit but that's only part of the reason ...

 

Absolutely yes. One of my all time favorite bands, in spite of their various missteps over the years.

 

They do have a great amount of unreleased material that's available on youtube for those who want to explore deeper.

 

They're really great but the bickering amongst their fanbase makes it hard to follow them

 

YES.

When I visited California in 2011, as out jet was landing at LAX the crew started playing California Girls on the PA. I am tearing up right now remembering that.

 

Yeah. Tied for favourite music act ever with The Beatles. Basically after finally getting around to working through the entire Beatles discography back around 2010ish, I got really into checking out other 60s bands. I checked out The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks... several others. I didn't think I'd ever find anyone I liked as much as The Beatles. I was looking for someone else to listen to when I vaguely recalled my high school music teacher (who had introduced me to The Beatles) mentioning Sail On Sailor being a favourite song of his. I looked up The Beach Boys on Wikipedia, since I had this preconception of them as this novelty act that was around BEFORE the Beatles and hence before the kind of music I loved. I was surprised to see how wrong the preconception was. I quickly went to Youtube, checked out Wouldn't It Be Nice, and decided I needed to listen to all of their music.

I started at the beginning as I always do. I love Surfin Safari right away (to this day I still think it's a great album, though most fans disagree). Surfin USA didn't appeal to me as much, but then every album from Surfer Girl on had me hooked. This was also around the time of the reunion--I believe I started listening to them in early 2012, so I had the luxury of having The Smile Sessions already released. I got tickets for the concert and sped up my listening, hoping to get through as many albums as possible for the concert (I was basically listening to one album several times a day for 2 days and then moving on to the next). I think I made it to Holland before the concert. I was completely in love with their music by then, and that concert has been one of the highlights of my life. Of course, I continued listening after that, working my way through the rest of the studio albums, through the bulk of their unreleased material, and through most of the solo albums as well.

I love almost everything they've ever recorded, released or unreleased. There are only a handful of tracks that I don't care for (mostly some dull initially unreleased instrumental jams like Karate and Punchline--I don't even mind some of the REALLY BAD unreleased stuff like Michael Row The Boat Ashore and The Battle Hymn of the Republic). Everything else, I love, and yes, that includes albums like M.I.U., The Beach Boys 85, and Summer In Paradise (and even Mike Love's Looking Back With Love). There's just something magical about their sound that appeals to me no matter what they're singing. I believe Brian Wilson is genuinely a genius. Dennis was a great songwriter. Carl is my favourite singer of all time. Al has an amazing voice, even to this day. I like Bruce's schmaltzy stuff. And Mike gets a lot more hate than he deserves--I disagree with a lot of his actions over the years, but I love him all the same.

I think what also appeals to me is the story. The Beach Boys story is such a fascinating tale on its own, even without the music to back it up. The mythos of the Beach Boys is legendary. Like all of those names who are a part of the Beatles legend, all of the other band members and key figures in the Beach Boys story fascinate me, be that Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, Glenn Campbell, Hal Blaine, Jack Reilly, Murry Wilson, Eugene Landy, Van Dyke Parks, Gary Usher, Tony Asher, The Honeys, Jan & Dean, Terry Melcher, Jeff Foskett--the list goes on and on.

 

I'd say I'm more a follower of Carl Wilson and David Marks, but not to knock the other members. One of those few groups that has had interesting albums from start to finish/present.

We had a mono of the first Capitol LP around so David Marks is an original beach Boy in my universe. Later we had the Endless Summer 2LP set via my DJ brother's crates so I guess that had some influence on me too, and remember liking Warmth Of The Sun a lot on the American Graffiti set. Then I got Holland and Friends and discovered stuff on them to get me into checking out other albums.

 

Do I love The Beach Boys? Perhaps.
Do you wanna dance and hold my hand?

 

I love the Beach Boys wholeheartedly -- almost everything through the end of the '60s plus Holland and Love You... and yes, the online fandom is insufferable, or at least has been since the reunion. I briefly came back to the fold while I was fact checking a long BB-related project I was working on and couldn't believe how bad it had gotten. Never seen so much petty bickering and I used to post on Usenet!

 

As a kid, The Beach Boys' music seemed omnipresent; Top 40 radio seemed to constantly play the hits.

My older brother was always spinning Stack O Tracks, Summer Days, Today!, and the comp Spirit Of America, too.

It seems like I'd always heard and known their big hits; then while on a monthly pilgrimage to Rene's All Ears, I saw a used copy of Pet Sounds...

 

Agreed. Taught each of my children to love them. All have gone to seen them. But as I have aged, I don't have the time for much pre Pet Sounds outside a few songs. And post PS remains to have such highs and embarrassingly lows

 

An incredibly distinct artist with some of the most beautiful and melancholy pop tunes I have ever heard.

In my opinion, they (Brian) crafted the single greatest pop record of the entire 1960's with 1966's "Pet Sounds" (no minor feat considering the decade). And it pointed the way to what is considered the greatest album of the decade (by many) - the Beatles "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Beautiful stuff!

 

My fav (favorite) song by them:

 

The Beach Boys ? In France they were considered as morons, partly maybe because the French are usually not well musically educated (sorry, guys, I'm French,so no ethnic criticism intended), partly maybe because of their look (not enough dangerous to pretend to be rock stars, singing about silly stuff like surf and having fun on the beach, Joy Division looked more serious then). So I was never interested in them before I read something in an interview

It was My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields who said in French newpaper "Les Inrockuptibles" that Loveless was not a revelation compared to Pet Sounds. What could be better than Loveless ?

And Pet sounds ... what is it ? Never heard of it at the age of 17 and didn't even know it was a Beach Boys LP.
Then I bought a 3cd set with Pet Sounds and two other two-fers. Then I began to collect them all...

Smiley Smile was another thing : experimental stuff, I wondered what Smile could be... It was the beginning of a long mystery that led to the 2004 release of BWPS.

Now, I love all the stuff even what is considered the worst of it (included Summer in Paradise, yes).

Call me a hard-core fan.

 

I especially love the period of Surf's Up, So Tough, Holland, Wild Honey, Good Vibrations, Pet Sounds. Being a poor kid in south central Massachusetts I didn't very much get into the early stuff about the beach, cars, and girls in bikinis - all that was a world far removed from what I experienced on a daily basis but did believe Brian had a gift.