Surfin Safari

[B.E.]

Surfin' Safari: 3.5/5

Today, Safari is a gift.  A chance to relive where it all started. In no other time could this have been captured.  God Bless.

Agreed completely!

If I had to describe this album in one word, I might say "authentic". If I were to create an ideal playlist for myself I'd consider replacing a few of the weaker tracks with 'Cindy, Oh Cindy', 'Land Ahoy', and/or 'Lonely Sea'. Those songs would fit in very nicely. Even still, this album holds together very well as a listening experience and takes me back to 1962 California, as well as, my own teenage years growing up in a small beach town on the east coast.
 
Surfin’ Safari - Classic. Love everything about it. I don’t even mind Mike’s vocal flub at  1:29. Incredible promise!
County Fair – Andrea Carlo’s voice was perfect for this track! “Goodbye muscles, I don’t need you anymore. Loser!”   Nik Venet did a fine job as well, although it can get irritating after a while. On this song and 'Heads You Win - Tails I Lose', Mike’s vocal serves the song perfectly. It’s got a frailty to it. He sounds like the protagonist. Young and insecure.
Ten Little Indians – I really enjoy this song. I like the 'Running Bear' connection. I love the tempo. Anyone else notice how prominent Dennis is vocally on this album!? Second only to Mike.
Chug-A-Lug – Another energetic, fun song. Side 1 is very strong. I really enjoy Mike’s bass vocal. Fun to sing-a-long to.
Little Girl (You’re My Miss America) – What an endearing lead vocal by Dennis. I’m surprised there wasn’t more of that on subsequent albums. This album has a lot of charm. The only bothersome aspect for me is Mike’s backing vocal. I like the part, but he just sounds so unsure. I don’t think he hits the notes well at all.
409 – Classic. Not necessarily a personal favorite, I’m much more of a surfer than a car guy. Again, Dennis is very prominent in the backing vocals. He was so key to their blend. I really miss Brian’s vocal arrangements and Dennis’ backing vocals as the ‘60s came to an end and the '70s wore on.
Surfin’ – Love this song. What a great way to start it all off! I always look forward to that little vocal flourish at 2:06 just as the song quickly fades. Nice touch.
Heads You Win – Tails I Lose – Side 2 doesn’t quite live up to Side 1, but I still enjoy this song. I like the line “heads you win, tails I lose." It’s worthy of a song. I’m glad they turned the tables in the end.
Summertime Blues – I'm not a big fan of the song. This version is fine. Fits the album.
Cuckoo Clock – Not a favorite, but enjoyable. The silliness of the song certainly adds to the charm. I prefer 'Cindy, Oh Cindy', though. I must say, by the time I got around to listening to this album I was really surprised by Brian’s singing (or lack thereof) relative to subsequent albums. If only 'Lonely Sea' were on this album. One of my favorite songs and a great performance by Brian.
Moon Dawg – Nice.
The Shift – This one has grown on me a bit. I always thought it was funny how Paul made a big deal about the Beatles singing “I’d love to turn you on” in 1967, considering this song…

[WyattFunderburk]

We recently covered this album on our podcast!  Check it out!

http://sailon.podbean.com/e/4-surfin-safari/

[CarlWilsonfan101]

All of the songs on the album are great! Especially 409

[thr33]

Going to try reviewing each album. Not sure how far I'll get, but everything up until Love You I think I can do. I'll probably rate songs from 1-5 stars and leave notes for some songs. 5 stars signifies a song that I will never skip, 1 star is generally a repeat, 2 for generally inoffensive filler (including instrumentals that don't do it for me).

Some background: Just got into the Beach Boys seriously in late 2018. Don't really have a musical background (played some cello in elementary and middle school), and prior to getting into the Beach Boys most of my music listening with trance/house/electro (have also listened to more of the Beatles and some other 60s/70s artists/bands more recently).

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Surfin Safari (Mono, 2015 AP release)

Side 1:

1. Surfin' Safari - ****
Pretty solid opener. Only qualm is that the lead is single-tracked. A Brian falsetto could be neat here, but might be out of place.

2. County Fair - **

3. Ten Little Indians - **

4. Chug-A-Lug - ***
One of the better songs on the album. As a debut there isn't a ton of top-notch material, but this would be a good single to replace Ten Little Indians.

5. Little Girl (You're My Miss America) - ***
Great early lead from Dennis.

6. 409 - ****
Terrific early car song. Guitar is great and the SFX aren't too over the top.

Side 2:

7. Surfin' - **
Raw. Interesting because it's their first single release. The Lei'd version was fun.

8. Heads You Win - Tails I Lose - **

9. Summertime Blues - **

10. Cuckoo Clock - ***
Brian's only lead on the album I think. Fun song.

11. Moon Dog - **

12. The Shift - **

Overall Rating: ***
Solid debut, the harmonies/background vocals are already there. Mike establishes his lead voice, and two of the songs would be in rotation for a long time.

[Julia]

And here we go, Surfin' Safari as the only remaining BB studio album I never got around to reviewing before now. So I can officially say their first album is the last to touch my ears!

County Fair is interesting to me because it shows how Brian was into "scene-setting" and spoken-word "funny" moments in songs even from the very beginning. Anyone thinking "Brian would never put Veggie Fight/George Fell on SMiLE!" I'm sorry but I think you're wrong and I present this very early track as proof it's not outside his sensibilities. In any case, it's a fun novelty song with surprisingly downer lyrics. (Also SMiLE-esque when you think about it.) Very interesting track for these reasons.

I dont know exactly what the music industry looked like in 1962, so I can't say if this album was considered "good" or "just ok" or what in its time. I only know that retroactively the years between Buddy Holly's death and British Invasion are often considered a low point in US pop music--personally almost anything predating '64-'65 to me sounds dated in a way that most stuff from after doesn't. (A few exceptions aside, like "Runaway" by Del Shannon.) I guess it's the production race getting to a certain threshold, or Dylan and the Brits pushing songwriting passed a degree of thoughtfulness, that it made everything before sound "obsolete" almost overnight. This album is no exception, in fact it sounds old-fashioned in a way that even the other early BB albums don't. Whoever said it sounds like they were rushing through the songs is right, almost like we're hearing a series of rough demos rather than a professionally released album. There are weird novelty songs here like the aforementioned County Fair & Cuckoo Clock that remind of "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" and "Splish Splash I was taking a bath" from the same era. It was just a different time, I guess, until the Beatles made pop music cool again.

I'll almost certainly never listen to this a second time, but you know what? I'm in a good mood, I can take into account the comparatively primitive state of rock when this came out, how young and inexperienced they were, the seeds of off-beat brilliance at play. I think "objectively" this album warrants a 2/5, but in the group poll I'm bumping it up to a 3 for enjoyment factor. Coming off some real stinkers like Stars and Stripes and Christmas makes this sound brilliant by comparison. And while it's technically more amateur than 20/20, at least here it sounds like they're having fun and ramping up, rather than scaling back. I don't know, the album just has a charming simplicity to it (also it's not like the Beatles Decca tape, "In Spite of All the Danger" or Please Please Me are that good either.)