what is I Get Around really about?

[Aegir]

no joke, it always seemed to me to be about a low-level street gang.

"my buddies and me are getting real well known, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone", you know?

[Summertime Blooz]

no joke, it always seemed to me to be about a low-level street gang.

"my buddies and me are getting real well known, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone", you know?

They're a bunch of d-bags, but at least they have the decency to not go steady.

[PongHit]

Dada explained it:

… The eternal boredom and anxiousness of "I Get Around". Cruising up and down the strip, looking for some kind of cheap thrill to take your mind off of the chilly emptiness inside, to escape from the rotten core that once was pure. They love no one.

The best girls stay home on Saturday night, where it's safe from menacing men like the Loves and Wilsons of the world.

They want to penetrate you for the first time, to see you bleed and hear the moans of pain.

"She won't be the little girl you once knew, pops, when I'm done with her, " says Dennis Wilson.

This isn't love. This is violent and raw.

Dennis Wilson is taking off his shirt. Your daughters hands glide across the soft tufts of glistening hair on his chest. Her breath is moist; her heartbeat, fast. They're in your living room. You're asleep with the wife you never make love to.

And they'll have fun, fun, fun. Just try and take that T-bird away, punk.

Al Jardine snickers.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,12311.0.html

[SBonilla]

no joke, it always seemed to me to be about a low-level street gang.

"my buddies and me are getting real well known, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone", you know?

No. The bad guys were the hoods. The I Get Around guys wore loafers, had cars, were in a band and were probably popular around campus. They might have cruised the boulevard, hung out at the bowling alley and got drunk before games.

[Cabinessenceking]

no joke, it always seemed to me to be about a low-level street gang.

"my buddies and me are getting real well known, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone", you know?

back in the days the idea of making car songs had to adress the culture surrounding good cars. imagine what 'Grease' set out to portray, then put it in LA and you have what IGA is about.

[hypehat]

I always thought 'the bad guys know us and they leave us alone' was just 'bad guys don't pick on us'. Probably because, IDK, Mike Love throws a decent curve ball or whatever, not because he's handy with a woodchipper  

The girls verse always confused me a little. 'I am always going to f*** anything on a saturday night so I probably shouldn't get a girlfriend'? So you think you're a playa, huh, Mike?

[Zach95]

It's such a punk-rock kind of song. I love it. I mean, this is as close as the Beach Boys get to punk-rock.

[drbeachboy]

I always thought "I'm a real cool head, making real good bread" was a reference to smoking pot and affording it, being a rock star.

[Aegir]

see, to me that line is like doing smalltime jobs and getting paid well from them. I'm not trying to be funny and bring up the whole vintagemusic mob connections thing again.

but that's seriously what this song seems to be about to me.

[jamsvet]

Didn't you guys ever go 'crusin on Sat night? In HS I had a 63 Split Window Coupe. It was small town Indiana and the Bad guys were other street racers that thought they were "Bad" and they left me (us) alone. You didn't choose guys to race if you knew they were faster than you. Mine was pretty quick but I never wanted to run against a couple of  guys I knew. No ulterior motives in the song, it was just the 60's.

[Aegir]

yeah, I guess my line of thinking is pretty absurd. my car in high school was a 2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser (automatic transmission) and not once did I get into a race with it.

[drbeachboy]

see, to me that line is like doing smalltime jobs and getting paid well from them. I'm not trying to be funny and bring up the whole vintagemusic mob connections thing again.

but that's seriously what this song seems to be about to me.

I'm not sure what it meant in 1964, but a Head was someone who took drugs. At least it was in the late 60s and 70s.

[Zach95]

see, to me that line is like doing smalltime jobs and getting paid well from them. I'm not trying to be funny and bring up the whole vintagemusic mob connections thing again.

but that's seriously what this song seems to be about to me.

I'm not sure what it meant in 1964, but a Head was someone who took drugs. At least it was in the late 60s and 70s.

Was there ever mention/discussion of the band referencing drugs in '64? Any sort of controversy?

[bossaroo]

braggadocio at its finest. as boastful as any rap music, and the backing track does have a garage/punk edge to it.

it's an ode to cruising, which leaves no room for steady girlfriends by definition. it's the Our Car Club posse in effect.

the bad guys were the gang member types but they respected the cleaner cut IGA guys and left them alone.

The "real cool head" line is interesting. Funny too that it's Brian's part. It's possible that Brian snuck that line in and Mike didn't quite get the meaning. Then again, Brian used the line "blew his mind" in I'm Bugged At My Old Man and I don't think he was talking about drugs.

[runnersdialzero]

It's about bakin' real good bread. What else?

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

braggadocio at its finest. as boastful as any rap music, and the backing track does have a garage/punk edge to it.

Even if there is a harpsichord on it...

[drbeachboy]

braggadocio at its finest. as boastful as any rap music, and the backing track does have a garage/punk edge to it.

it's an ode to cruising, which leaves no room for steady girlfriends by definition. it's the Our Car Club posse in effect.

the bad guys were the gang member types but they respected the cleaner cut IGA guys and left them alone.

The "real cool head" line is interesting. Funny too that it's Brian's part. It's possible that Brian snuck that line in and Mike didn't quite get the meaning. Then again, Brian used the line "blew his mind" in I'm Bugged At My Old Man and I don't think he was talking about drugs.

Not that he was talking about drugs, but just using a hip, drug expression.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

braggadocio at its finest. as boastful as any rap music, and the backing track does have a garage/punk edge to it.

it's an ode to cruising, which leaves no room for steady girlfriends by definition. it's the Our Car Club posse in effect.

the bad guys were the gang member types but they respected the cleaner cut IGA guys and left them alone.

The "real cool head" line is interesting. Funny too that it's Brian's part. It's possible that Brian snuck that line in and Mike didn't quite get the meaning. Then again, Brian used the line "blew his mind" in I'm Bugged At My Old Man and I don't think he was talking about drugs.

Not that he was talking about drugs, but just using a hip, drug expression.

He knew how to speak "hip."

[NightHider]

Pretty sure I saw an interview with Brian at some point where he said he "I felt naked to the world when I wrote I Get Around".  Something about baring his soul in that song.  

After seeing that interview, I always interpreted the lyrics "bugged drivin' up and down the same old strip" to be Brian tiring of the surf and car songs, "' find a new place where the kids are hip" to be him longing to write the Pet Sounds/Smile type of music.  "My buddies and me gettin real well known" to be describe the high profile the band was achieving and "the bad guys know us and they leave us alone" to be the other big bands of the time giving some respect to the BB.  etc etc...

Actually makes a lot of sense after hearing Bri's comments....

[Jason]

I Get Around is like a rite of passage that everyone goes through in life. That feeling of being completely untouchable. Of course you don't necessarily outright believe it, but you still think it's true.

And besides, what's not to love about the song? The OGs Michael Love and Brian Wilson on the leads, the insistent backing track, the amazing backing vocals, the incredible lyrics (YES, those lyrics are incredible)...it's a great fucking record. It's a fucking classic. Deal with it.

[jamsvet]

Believe it or not, in the early 60's in rural Indiana, we didn't even know about drugs. I went to the Air Force Academy and they showed us a film about some guy on pot working on an airplane and I was amazed. It was something I had never seen. Don't worry, I made up for it when I moved to San Diego.

And a real cool head was just a guy you looked up to. Somebody who knew his way around. It was a simpler time.

[debonbon]

Drug dealing. Duh

[bossaroo]

Pretty sure I saw an interview with Brian at some point where he said he "I felt naked to the world when I wrote I Get Around".  Something about baring his soul in that song.  

After seeing that interview, I always interpreted the lyrics "bugged drivin' up and down the same old strip" to be Brian tiring of the surf and car songs, "' find a new place where the kids are hip" to be him longing to write the Pet Sounds/Smile type of music.  "My buddies and me gettin real well known" to be describe the high profile the band was achieving and "the bad guys know us and they leave us alone" to be the other big bands of the time giving some respect to the BB.  etc etc...

Actually makes a lot of sense after hearing Bri's comments....

i dig the double meaning. intentional or not.

[EgoHanger1966]

But then again, weren't those lyrics written by Mike?

[stack-o-tracks]

Believe it or not, in the early 60's in rural Indiana, we didn't even know about drugs. I went to the Air Force Academy and they showed us a film about some guy on pot working on an airplane and I was amazed. It was something I had never seen. Don't worry, I made up for it when I moved to San Diego.

And a real cool head was just a guy you looked up to. Somebody who knew his way around. It was a simpler time.

Would you care to describe the video of the guy working on the airplane? That sounds amazing. You don't think it would be available to watch online anywhere, do you?