This year marks the Beach Boys ’40th anniversary and a flurry of activity to commemorate the event is already making itself felt. There will be the Lifetime Achievement Award that will be presented at the Grammys by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. There is a star-studded tribute for Brian at the Radio City Music Hall in New York on March 29. There is a book about the late drummer Dennis, titled Dumb Angel: The Life & Music of Dennis Wilson by Adam Webb. Of course, there will be reissues of those Beach Boys hits.
These are many, Good Vibrations, I Get Around, California Girls, God Only Knows, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Girl Don’t Tell Me, Heroes and Villains, Do It Again, Dance Dance Dance, Graduation Day, Little Deuce Coupe, Be True to Your School, Little Honda, All Summer Long, Don’t Worry Baby, Surfin’ Safari, Surfin’ USA, Surfer Girl, Fun Fun Fun, In My Room, Their Hearts Were Full of Spring, Forever, Can’t Wait Too Long, Cool Cool Water, Help Me Rhonda, Kokomo and others. You can also expect new editions of the landmark Pet Sounds, the underrated Sunflower and other Beach Boys albums.
Other bands have recorded more tunes and sold more hits but not one of them quite compares to the Beach Boys. The group started innocently enough as five boys who wanted to play and sing rock and roll music just like those tunes they listened to and saw performed on television. They didn’t know that while enjoying themselves they would be able to tap into the highly appealing symbols of pre-Vietnam America and would come to symbolize a long gone innocent time.
Sun-kissed beaches, surfing, convertibles, endless summers, high school, graduation, dancing, getting around, California, fun, girls, loving. The personification of the California girl, tanned, blonde, long-legged, radiating with good health from swimming and from drinking orange juice came from those songs by the Beach Boys. Sad to say though, despite the awesome talent of frontman Brian and fan adulation equal to and at times even transcending that accorded the Beatles, life for the Beach Boys was more of a tragedy than fun, fun, fun.
Inner conflicts characterized the existence of the band from the beginning. These raged among the members. Will I perform or go to school? And Al Jardine went to college for a while. With Murry Wilson, father of Brian, Dennis and Carl. Should we release another album this year? No, said Brian who wanted to work more to improve their music. Yes, said Murry who kept pushing the band to do more albums, more shows, more everything his way. And there were other problems like Brian’s weight and nervous breakdowns, Dennis’ instability, Mike’s struggle to keep the music the same way it was when they started and their battles with the usual bane of music celebrity, sex, drugs and lawsuits against other people or against one another.
Despite all these the Beach Boys attained great heights. Despite the deceptively good time mood of their music and the simplicity of the arrangeâ€â€ments, it turned out to be so complex and of such maturity that it defies analysis to this day. Brian, who even then was already partially deaf, early on proved himself a songwriter of exceptional talent, who can easily tap on the hidden feelings of their fans, who will obsess himself with the search for the new and exciting and who would often dare to be different. Of course, as a singer Carl of the sweet and moving vocals was one of the best.
So it has been 40 years and we along with the Beach Boys can now say with sadness and resignation that summer is never endless. But not to forget and in the spirit of hope, it still comes as sure as the sunrise, every year. And along with the music of the Beach Boys we continue to dream of the next and the next....