“The Beach Boys”: Generational wave-making

“Give me the Beach Boys, and free my soul…”

So says Uncle Kracker in his 2002 hit “Drift Away.” Undoubtedly Charles Manson’s most famous friends, The Beach Boys were an influential rock and roll group, not just in the realm of music, but in how they popularized surfing into the mainstream. Members included Brian Wilson, Mike Love and three or so other guys. But who were they really?

Fans of the Beach Boys are considered to be prototypical of the “Taylor Swift” model of fanaticism, right down to being nicknamed “Beachies.” Also much like Taylor Swift, the Beach Boys are best understood when analyzed in terms of their “eras.” The first of these was The Beach Era. Believe it or not, the Beach Boys were best known for their “beach” music. They distinguished themselves with upbeat multipart harmonies heavily emphasizing falsetto in many songs: “Surfin’ USA,” “I Get Around,” “Barbara Ann”; the list goes on. They were instant hits and gave both California and the beach a musical identity. What further set the Beach Boys apart during this period was the fact that they were red-blooded Americans, not one of Her Majesty’s Hit-Makers like The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and all other rock bands at that time.

After the Double Bs got tired of making albums of this same extremely specific type of music, making 10 albums in 4 years, they decided to change things up and make a slower and more introspective album, notably including “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows.” It’s rumored that Mike Love hated this boring album and gave it the downright awful title of “Pet Sounds” to sabotage it. Against all odds, it succeeded, but its success was completely overshadowed by the single “Good Vibrations,” which became a #1 hit and was lauded as genius, as it was one of the first songs to have key changes.

Unfortunately, the success of “Pet Sounds” made the Beach Boys tread water and experiment for another 20 years. They didn’t make a single popular song during this period, though they did make a song with Charles Manson. Some of their experiments had underground success. My favorite is “Feel Flows,” an echoey and psychedelic song that nonetheless retains the Beach Boys’ original identity, written by Brian Wilson’s brother. Regardless, the band descended into irrelevance and started throwing everything at the wall. R&B albums, synth-pop, soul music, prog rock, etc. They recorded over a dozen covers of “Shortenin’ Bread,” the old American folk song, which Brian Wilson called “the greatest song ever written.” Only the most diehard Beachies tend to be aware of these songs’ existence.

Their lowest rated album during this period, 1978’s “M.I.U. Album,” is a collection of aggressively simplistic music cheaply imitating the band’s greatest hits. It’s more listenable than some of their more bizarre experiments but is absolutely bereft of artistic value. Their highest rated album was 1974’s “Endless Summer,” a greatest hits album exclusively containing songs from the 1962–65 Beach Era. The Beach Boys were, like a wave, washed up.

Then in 1988 they came barreling back into the limelight when they made their last and greatest hit: Kokomo. This song was transformative not only to the band, but to the island: tourism instantly tripled. The tide had finally come in, and the Boys were back in town. A new golden era of the Beach Boys could finally begin.

Immediately following this, Mike and Brian sued each other dozens of times. The Beach Boys never released anything again, barring a few disregarded reunion albums.

What can we, as a society, learn from this? After making their most popular album, the Beach Boys spent 20 years chasing that same high, only to succeed again after making beach music. Because all in all, life’s a beach.