Me and the Beach Boys

By way of belatedly introucing myself, here is my timeline of growing Beach Boys awareness:

N.B. I was born in 1978, son of two baby boomers and am British, as you will note from my anglicisms.

Very young: was aware of the band's existence and the hits "Fun fun fun", "I get around" and "Surfin' USA" had been familiar since before I can remember.

Still very young: see "look who's talking" on a sea crossing and am traumatised by the sound of "I get around" being used over film of sperm swimming through a woman.

Bit older: read about Pet Sounds being the eighth best rock album ever (http://www.timepieces.nl/Top100's/1987PaulGambaccini.html.) Am very curious. The only song title I recognize is "Woudln't It Be Nice". My dad had never heard of the album (possibly he was away travelling the world when it came out.)

bit older: Go through my parents' 45s and am particularly impressed by two of them: "Good Vibrations" and Françoise Hardy's "Et même".

bit older. Get Pet Sounds on low price cassette. Love some tracks, less sure about others. Slightly disappointed, expecting more pop-psychedelia à la Beatles. Play it from time to time, but basically lose interest in the Beach Boys for awhile, assuming I have already heard all the good stuff (seeing as Pet sounds is all anyone ever talks about. (incidentally, the inclusion of bonus tracks on side two pushes "God Only Knows" onto side one, unjustly making side two seem very inferior.)

(hiatus, during which I note in the music press frequent praise from musicians, critics and letters page correspondents of more obscure Beach Boys albums such as Smiley Smile, Friends, and Today. Make a mental note to check them out sometime.)

At university, fall in love with "Wouldn't It Be Nice" anew due to dancing to it arm in arm with some beautiful people at a mod night.
One of my best friends has 20 Golden Greats, and Endless Summer on vinyl, listen to them at some point and am wowed, having never really heard most of these songs before, even some of the best known.
Hear "Cabinessence" on my university radio station one time, segued into an experimental noise record. I do not realise they are two separate records, and think "wow, that's the Beach Boys?" Am totally blown away, and yet too stingy and lazy to rush out immediately and buy Beach Boys records. that would have to wait...

On a trip back home, I listen again to my parents' one Beach Boys LP (THIS music for pleasure compilation: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,7222.0.html which had previously made no impression on me. this time, it again makes no impression on me, except for one track, "Anna Lee, the Healer", which is a favourite of mine ever since.

After university, another of my friends is a Beach Boys addict, introduces me to the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey twofer. At this point the scales finally fall from my eyes and I am hooked. I quickly get Smiley Smile/Wild Honey, Friends/20/20, and Sunflower/Surf's Up and listen to them constantly.

Insatiable for more, I dip my toes into the less-hip, supposedly "full of fillers", pre-Pet Sounds albums. I am delighted to discover that Today/Summer Days, Little Deuce Coupe/All Summer Long and Surfer Girl/Shut Down vol.2 are also utterly wonderful and stuffed with great deep cuts. I develop a grudge against anyone who has ever belittled the rest of the Beach Boys' 1960's work, unwittingly or wittingly, in order to elevate Pet Sounds. A great album, sure, but only one side of Brian and the band's huge achievement.

Later: After being largely unimpressed by CATP/ST and Holland (except "All This Is That"), I don't continue collecting Beach Boys records beyond the sixties ones. I am unimpressed by Love You and Adult Child when I hear them once each. I don't want to tarnish my love of their best work by listening to too much of their lesser work. When Pacific Ocean Blue is reissued I do get it but (shock horror!) don't like it, and give it away. Sounds "good", but not my sort of music and certainly nothing like the Beach Boys to me. On the otehr hand, confirming my taste for the 1960s Brain Wilson sound (if any confirmation were needed), I love Pet Projects: The Brian Wilson Productions to pieces.

2004: I see Brian Wilson play Smile, which is one of the best nights of my life. I actually had tickets for the world premiere but had to return them in exchange for tickets for the following week as somebody I was going with had a holiday booked that week. I was terrified BW would have a breakdown before I got to see it, but as we all know, all was well. Love the ensuing album too. Seven years later, I am very excited about TSS but am the kind of fan who settles for the 2 disc version.

2012-2013: I see the band play Wembley and am blown away. It rekindles my beach Boys obsession (which friends of mine would probably say never diminished), and I cave in and listen to all the albums up to and including BB85, plus TWGMTR, BW88 and TLOS. I also download lots of rare tracks from the GV boxset, Hawthorne, Endless Harmony, and youtube, the amazing Spring album, and start following this board, which is great.

(End of timeline and forced use of present tense)

This board has reassured me that I am not crazy regarding lots of things about the Beach Boys that seemed self-evident to me from their records, but that were contradicted by popular myth and misconception. (Most notably the insane notion that BW stayed in bed from Smile to Love you). It has also made me reconsider some of the misconceptions that I subscribed to myself. (Though I stop short of the contrarian defence of everything Mike Love has ever said or done.)

I now have a scattering of post-1972 Beach Boys songs among my favourites, including "Funky Pretty", "Still I Dream of it", "It's Over Now" "My Diane", "Oh Darlin' (a least the kernel of a great song), "Match point", "She's Got Rhythm", "It's OK", "Fairy Tale Music", "Love Surrounds Me", and most of Love You. I prefer the Spring versions of "Had to Phone Ya" and "Good Time", though. I much prefer M.I.U to L.A. but I understand why others feel otherwise. To me, their period of consistent greatness is still Surfer Girl- Sunflower.

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