Yes, a 5 plus. One of my 2 faves from this album.
Folk song style lyrics to surf music, with exquisite vocal.
Love it, love it, love it.

"Surfin' U.S.A." is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than 2nd-hand "Fun Fun Fun" which is less groovy, less cool, features bad Mike vocs plus it's boring.

Fun Fun Fun boring? Wow.
This is what makes these polls so fun - if everybody agreed on how good a song is, now THAT would be boring!
For example, would like to know the reasoning from the person who gave Surfin USA a "3".

 I give this song a 5. Just checked on US Billboard top 100 for 1963 and this song was Number 2 for that year, behind, believe it or not, Sugar Shack.

While having some scattered memories of music in 1962, it was as a six year old in 1963 that I really remembered music. Remember my sister and her friend dancing to It's My Party by Lesley Gore, the 45 spinning on our hi-fi (my sister was 12 at the time). Also lots of girl groups such as the Shirelles and the Chiffons. Andy Williams was very popular.
I remember The Beach Boys - Surfin USA, Surfer Girl, In My Room, but not Be True to Your School. Also Surf City..
Remember lots of instrumentals.

Looking at the Billboard Top 100 list confirms what I remember. Lots of solo acts, vocal groups accompanied by bands, instrumentals.

Although there were vocal guitar bands regionally, I only saw a few listed on the top 100 - besides The Beach Boys, there were the Fireballs (Sugar Shack), and of course, the Kingsmen (Louie, Louie).

I honestly don't remember hearing Sugar Shack back then, which is curious as it was the #1 song that year. My oldest sisters controlled the radio playing back then - maybe they didn't like it and changed the channel.
My memory could be faulty, but don't remember hearing Louie Louie until 1964.

Yes, it gets pretty unbearable by August, and the heat restricts what we can grow - mainly just hot peppers, eggplant and okra, maybe a little squash. And tulips don't rebloom down here. One time bloom, then throw it in the compost pile.
I've never lived in the Far North, but did live in central North Carolina for a couple of years, There's something to be said for a four season climate. How everything is dead looking in winter, then spring is so incredibly beautiful. Makes one appreciate it more.
It gets a little boring, funny to say, down here. In the "dead of winter" there are all sorts of flowers in bloom.
Although it's nice to be able to grow lettuce, chard and (of course) kale.

Oh my. Watching TV right now. My thoughts are with those poor souls going through the floods and tornadoes in the central US.

"Language of the Father's" - what is that? Our Fathers and Mothers spoke various types of German, French, Latin etc which eventually morphed into English.

I appreciate Mari (RangeRoverA1) wanting English only as she is doing a wonderful job learning that crazy language.

But I'd love to be able to see Happy Birthday in various languages.

Speaking of language, and as this is the Welcome thread, how do people in other countries say Hello or Welcome? As in colloquial ways of saying it.
The funniest is when I go to restaurants or other places with service people.
The best greeting from a guy was when I went to a coffee shop in the French Quarter back in the 70s. He came to me and said, "And how the hell are you?" He said it good naturedly and I took it in stride.
With women I've been called Honey, Dawlin' (Darling), Hawt (Heart), Sweetie, Sweet Mama, Precious, and even My Love 
Yesterday, at a book shop, the lady said, "How are you doing, Sweet Pea?"

Maybe it's just a "Southern Thang" or also in small town America. Don't know if they'd do it in New York.
Interested in any Terms of Endearment elsewhere.

Very interesting article.
It is sad, however, that the Monarchs that make it to the UK probably don't survive the migration when the days get shorter.

We have a long bridge over our Lake Pontchartrain (The Causeway, 38.6 km). During October it's fun seeing all the Monarchs migrating south - it looks like they're using the bridge as a guide, as it's north/south

In April tiny flowers form.
In May, the moon appears to be larger. taller flowers appear, keeping the smaller flowers from getting enough sunlight, and they die.
So the Osage call May the time of the flower killing moon.

The murders of the Osage started in May, 1921

Just finished reading Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.
Concerns a particularly unsavory time in US history.

The Osage, a Native American tribe, were moved about and were finally told that they could live on some worthless land. Well, it turned out to not be worthless; oil was found there and the Osage became millionaires. However, the white folks thought it unseemly that Indians, of all people, could have fancy cars and homes. Thus the Osage were forced to have white people be assigned to them as "guardians", who controlled the money and took more than a little of it for themselves.

Then in the early 1920s the Osage started to be murdered. And those investigating the murders were themselves murdered. Why? And by whom?
And could there be a fair trial if white people were involved?
A chilling quote, on p 215, by one of the Osage: "The question for them to decide is whether a white man killing an Osage is murder- or merely cruelty to animals." 

A great book, detailing one of the early FBI cases, with a bittersweet ending.

Took advantage of probably one of the last gorgeous days here - by next week it will start getting borderline hot.
Did some gardening. Planted 8 milkweeds, doing my bit to help the monarch butterflies, who use the milkweed as their major food source. And other butterflies, moths, bees and hummingbirds love the flowers as well.

Harvested some cucumbers and cherry tomatoes from my garden, which were used in a dinner salad. Don't know if I've ever tasted better tomatoes, so flavorful.

Tomorrow Never Knows

The alternate mix of "The Little Girl I Once Knew" from the 2001 Hawthorne, CA album when the instruments drop out and the a cappella section takes over, followed by the instruments coming back just at the right time with the ringing guitar licks. 

Thanks for mentioning this. It is a wonderful version.
In some ways I prefer it to the released version, except for Mike's "Split, man"; the released version of that is perfect.

Tomorrow Never Knows

Wow, great stuff. I'll give it a 5.

And love that falsetto that comes out of nowhere.

No, I haven't abandoned coffee, but only drink it occasionally. I love cafe au lait, the traditional way coffee (or coffee and chickory) is drunk here. I don't drink it more often due to my having problems with dairy products. Have never been able to get used to black coffee unless it's loaded with lots of sugar, not good.

No, the caffeine came from diet soft drinks that I started drinking again over the past couple of weeks. Don't know why I drank them except that they were readily available.
When I stopped them cold turkey, not only have I had headaches from being away from the caffeine, I also had really bad aches and pains throughout my body.
Was it from the fake sugar? Or the other chemicals in sodas? Whatever it is, soft drinks are now anathema - no more!

Will stick to water and tea, occasionally juice, from now on.

I give Beach Boy stomp a 4. Maybe more than it warranted but I liked the guitar solo (done by Carl?)
Their stopping, then shouting "Karate!" gave me a chuckle.

[Love & Mercy]

Ate a boiled egg. Watched Love & Mercy for the first time.

How was it? (Love and Mercy, that is).

Had to do lots of cleaning up today. Princess the cat got into one of her "spells" and started darting back and forth across the room. Then I heard a loud crash. A canister of very potent catnip crashed to the floor, the top of it popped open, and the ceiling fan helped whip the stuff across the floor. Five cats even crazier than normal.

My oldest sister called and said that the marquee outside the country store had changed. At one time, the store advertised the following available for purchase:

ICE CREAM
WORMS

(Yummy. Do you like worms?)

Now, under new management they are trying something new. So it's now:

SNOBALLS
INSURANCE

Have started reading a book, "Word by Word'" written by someone who works for an American dictionary company.
Described the work environment as "I want to sit alone in a cubicle all day and think about words and not really talk to anybody else. That sounds great!" There are times when that sounds very appealing.
Was musing about this when I heard a crash. Mom had dropped her glass of milk on the floor. All I could think to say was, "Don't cry over spilt milk," as BooBoo the dog, permanent member of our Cleanup Crew, lapped the milk up.
After cleaning that I went to clean up in the kitchen and proceeded to make a mess of that as well.

Will continue my binge watching of the TV show The West Wing, read a little more, then call it a night,
Hopefully I'll also get over a headache caused by caffeine withdrawal.

Don't know if I want to purchase insurance at the same place as snoballs (ice shaved very finely and covered with flavored syrup and perhaps cream)

3
Don't care much for the song, but the Boys make the most of it with nice, tight harmonies.

Y'all, this is nearly an impossible task. These remaining songs are all classics.

With reluctance, I pick Got to Get You Into My Life.
Fun song, I turn up the volume when it plays on the radio, it makes me happy, but is missing just a bit of the wow factor, as Pixletwin posted earlier.

Here's an article from one of our local papers, from a couple of days ago:

http://www.whereyat.com/fats-domino-the-legacy-lives-on

Locally produced documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdrxpbHCeo

Good Day Sunshine

Thanks. Needed the day brightener!

 

In their heyday the most un-Beach Boys sounding song to me was Girl Don't Tell Me. Carl's vocal, no harmonies, acoustic instruments, celesta, no fade out.

Of the later songs, Leaving This Town definitely fits the "say what? The Beach Boys? No way!" mold.

Super late to the rodeo, so to speak.
Ratings for songs so far: Surfin Safari -5; County Fair- 2; Ten Little Indians -2; ChugaLug -4; Little Girl -4; 409-4;  Surfin-5; Heads You Win- 2; Summertime Blues-3; Cuckoo Clock -3; Moon Dawg-3.
Based my ratings on a bunch of teenagers (except for Mike) recording their debut in 1962, less than a year after the group formed, with the vast majority of songs bring originals.
Even the worst songs, the ones I rated "2", are redeemed with good harmonies.

The Shift - 2. Maybe I should listen to it again based on John's post about how Brian composed it. The lyrics are a big "ugh" to me though.

I watched Dark Shadows after school as well. Missed the first few episodes. First one I remember seeing was right before that Collins guy got into a car accident (thanks to his son). Remember the guy never being without a brandy in his hand. Must have had a cast iron liver LOL.
Then later, when Barnabas came on the scene, wow. Sure I'm not the only gal who had a crush on him.

Time for Doctor Robert to retire.
Putter around in the garden or something.