The Smiley Smile Message Board

This is a thread about your "favourite" mismatched, creepy, or just plain shitty lyrics by this wonderful band The Beach Boys. Because we want this thread to have content, at least try to explain why you're choosing your lyrics and what you "like" about them, jerks. Go!

As for mismatched -- by this I mean the lyrics and the backing music don't seem to work well together -- I think I'd have to go with either "Student Demonstration Time" (which would probably double for gauche/shitty too) or "Salt Lake City". Why? With the former, Mike takes what is actually a pretty rockin' backing track that doesnt seem (to me) forced, and throws some amazingly insulting lyrics over it about how you shouldn't engage in protesting because you might get hurt, so you should just go 'way until it's done and keep safe. Yeah, f*** you, milquetoast liberal! The latter because "Salt Lake City" has a really fantastic backing track (hmm, this surely seems like it'd be a common theme...) with lyrics about going to Salt Lake City, Utah, its cool teens and their places to hang out, and the jumpin' radio station they have. Come on, Mike/Brian. We know you're both more ambitious than that!

Creepy? Well, take your pick: "Lazzy Lizzie" for Brian's leering at (at most?) high school girls on their walk home in his van; "Hey Little Tomboy" for being obviously sexist and offensively heteronormative; I think "Never Learn Not To Love" is a creepy song because its idea of love is pretty unhealthy, but we know who wrote that and I suppose it shouldn't be surprising...

As much as I love Love You it does of course have some abysmal lyrics on it: "Love Is A Woman" is my chief culprit, but "I Want To Pick You Up" isn't too far behind -- probably thanks to Dennis's creepy-sounding vocal! I think some of the problem is that much of the subject matter had, of course, been touched on by the group before in comparatively much more sophisticated ways -- for instance, "Kiss Me Baby" compared to "The Night Was So Young". (This isn't necessarily bad though since I obviously love that song despite how "basic" it is -- and it's a nice window into 1976-77 era Brian, of course, especially getting this "updated" perspective.)

Anyway now you can post lyrics you think are creepy/gauche/mismatched/that you dislike for whatever reason (keyword being: reason; explain why!)

Maybe the Love You lyrics are a lot easier to swallow if you're not a native speaker. At least that's the impression I get, as I personally don't mind ANY of the lyrics on that album, in fact I think for the most part they're very effective (if a little bit awkward at times, I'll admit that), whereas even some of the more hardcore BW/BB fans don't seem to ever grow tired of pointing out just how bad or creepy they think that lyrical material is.

Personally I think that particular writing style is a very nice and intriguing contrast to the kind of widespread lyrical pretension that the seventies had brought through musical genres such as progressive rock (which imho had its genuine high points too, mind you). To a certain extent the group had embraced that on the Surf's Up LP and I think with the help of Jack Rieley they did very well, but this was several years later and I'm glad BW tried an entirely new (and very personal) approach by 1976/77.

That section of Got to Know the Woman. c'mon c'mon and do the chicken. could have been filled with something a little less corny. but hey maybe it wasn't corny back in 1970. but i still can't listen to that without feeling a little bit embarrassed. especially with other people. i love the rest, its just that one part.

When Girls Get Together again taps into that pouch of chauvanism and creepiness common amongst the vaults material.

It's an indepth insight into what "girls" discuss (not) that ends with the vaguely dubious notion of 3 little girls talking of little boys and getting home before it's dark.

Oh, and it's mismatched a possibly unmatchable and dire backing track

I'm OK with The Chicken. Rufus Thomas and Jackie Lee were too.

Roller Skating Child ('so cold I go brrrrr')

Mona (lyrics not entirely, um, spontaneous, IMHO)

"Mike takes what is actually a pretty rockin' backing track that doesnt seem (to me) forced, and throws some amazingly insulting lyrics over it about how you shouldn't engage in protesting because you might get hurt, so you should just go 'way until it's done and keep safe. "


Staying "out of sight" whilst the National Guard sprays bullets around indiscriminately sounds like pretty good advice to me.  At no point does the lyric implore the listener not to protest.

Surfin- don't know what they were thinking on that one. ;D
Jack Rieley's lyrics period.

What's wrong with Surfin'?  For high school kids, that ain't bad.

It was joke about this thread. 8)

It seems the opposite of chauvinism, and an attempt of an understanding at a world of feminism, and a world and culture of communication that women have engaged in forever.  Almost the concept of noses pressed to the glass, not in a voyeurism sense, but an attempt to understand what goes on in an apparent world, closed (or apparently, closed) to them.

The mandolins in the background conjure an European image, perhaps Italian.

Maybe this board could use some more ladies...

Frankly, I think it is a little avant garde.   ;)

I always felt that When Girls Get together is a sort of lyrical nod to "Girl Talk", that Brian may have heard from the Four Freshmen.

I love the backing track to When Girls Get... way too much to let the lyrics bother me. Although they aren't exactly Dylan.

It's interesting how that works--I'm a native speaker of some brand of English, so I can't experience the Beach Boys any other way, but I listen to quite a lot of Italian opera, and some French as well, and, although I know those languages on some level, I get the feeling that, even if I were totally fluent, I wouldn't really be socially equipped to get if these words are corny.  Opera in English almost always sounds slightly corny to me, with plenty of exceptions.

But for all I know, "Al lampo dell'armi quest'alma guerriera vendetta farà, non fià che disarmi la destra guerriera chi forza le dà", which sounds magnificent to me, is terrible, corny Italian.  I know precisely what it means...so I suppose non-native speakers are in a unique position to evaluate Beach Boys' lyrics.

Do ya?  :lol  I can't sign-up for avant garde but I like your reply, well played.

I think "The Night was so Young" would go a long way to appealing to female fans, I will suggest that to the focus group over in the sandbox  :-D


I admit to liking the drum sound - "Doom, Da-Dooom"

'Our Car Club'. At the time their most mature and sophisticated backing track - with lyrics that sound like they were written by a nine year old.

Salt Lake City was just recently cited as the gayest city in America (I thought it was San Francisco). God Only Knows what goes on down at the lagoon these days, but Brian and Mike probably never imagined it when they wrote this song.

Or maybe they did -- "Salt Lake City, we'll be coming soon" ;)

I've always found the lyric "I met you last summer when I came up to stay with my gran" partucularly grating

Gran has no place on a pop song. Especially funny as Brian wanted to submit the song to the Beatles. Can't see the John Lennon of "You Can't Do That" going to stay with his gran. Or maybe I can.......

The whole beginning part of "Everybody Wants To Live"...weird, awkward, dark, nonsensical, and hilarious all at the same time!

Wonderful reply, thank you.

In 1980s Germany there was a very popular thing called "Neue Deutsche Welle" (German New Wave), which had its very own trademark style of combining these very simplistic and often awkward lyrics bordering on actual nursery rhyme with the up-to-date synthesizer pop music of the day. I did grow up on this stuff, whether I enjoyed it or not, and that's probably another reason why the lyrics Brian penned in 1976 don't seem that weird or unusual to me.

Back-in-the-day...when this music and the lyrics were composed, families would swap kids, or take their kids for a week or two, and kids went to their grandparents homes, often when school went out...that was called your vacation!!

Before Facebook, and hockey and soccer camp was conceived, that  is one way that "social opportunities" presented themselves, so, it would not be weird in the 60's for someone to visit their Gran, and, and with some of your other cousins, there, "vacationing" at the same time would get to know the kids in that area and come back every year and hang out.  New phone numbers and prom dates for all!

I bet the Beatles, vacationed with their extended families as well.  ;) These guys are for the most part, born during, or just post World War II.  The music may be timeless, but, affected by the époque in which it was written.  I find the lyrics kind of sweet, bringing back those times when all the cousins hung out and became more like brothers and sisters.  Makes it cool to party with them later on!   ;)

I'll Bet He's Nice: "I bet he show's you quite a ball. Please don't tell me if its true. Cuz I'm still in love with you pretty daughter..."

Hey Little Tomboy

School Girl

Mainly because men in their 30s are singing it. The first one is a bit over the top though!

Pretty "darlin'" (not daughter, ewwww!)

Hey Little Tomboy - retro song...

School Girl (one more semester and we're on our way) similar to Wouldn't It Be Nice!

Wow! It sounds just like daughter to me!

I like your analysis and the items you've speculated on - it's possibly the most discussion this song's ever had (more than 4 sentences  :lol - no, I haven't checked the archives).

The music is one thing - the subtleties of this song are all in Brian Wilson's head which is a pretty complex place.   It could be he was inspired by some trad European music and this was a stylistic exercise.  Maybe, this was something he "based" on another artist he was listening to at the time, as we know he wasn't getting out much.  Strikes me as something Murray Wilson may have encouraged, who knows. 

The marxophone (made in Michighan) is the key instrument (it belongs to the same family as a mandolin zither, tho, hence the similar sound) and may have inspired the rest of the structure (including the ompah style brass); which in itself is a generalisation of a style of European music.  And it's kinda boring; which reminds me that my key compaint was the lyrics.

These lyrics have/had a lot of potential pitched as a question - what do girls (beyond his life) talk about, has this been going on forever, will I ever know. Instead, the hypothesis passed off as fact and becomes an opportunity to spiel off his own generalisations.  I think the behaviours cited by the lyricist could apply to any group of guys, as much as a secret society of Ladies. 

As for a Gender studies course - perhaps they'd hit skip and save their energy for a more interesting song (like, "Oh those girls" by Mike)  :-D

The layered subleties are exactly what they would look for in Feminist Literary Analysis studies.  The other on the surface stuff is just too easy. MIU/LA impresses me as a sort of goddess/muse salute.  Lady Linda, Angel Come Home, My Diane, Baby Blue, Peggy Sue, and, yes, Hey Little Tomboy. Those were the days when women were not supposed to play basketball, hockey, soccer, etc. Those Little Tomboys grew up to be doctors, lawyers and movie producers.  That one could have been a 1961-63 song, finished with all the demonstration of sophistication and growth nearly 20 years later.  It is a stereotype that evolved. Murry was deceased in the earlier 70's, I think.


When Girls Get Together has that Old World feel, perhaps because of the instruments utilized in the orchestration. If you look at the lyrics on a lyric website, and look at them as a poem, I find them dead-on, and capture the wonder of the eternal life-spanning Secret Ladies Society, the aspiration to figure them out, and the unconditional love for them, without ever finding out what makes them "tick."

A steady diet of some of those instruments, you mention might be boring, but strategic placement for a certain desired effect might make them effective.  Never heard of the marxophone. Thanks!  Reminded me of the Marx Brothers!   ;)

I love all of the lyrics cited in this thread so far, with the exception of Hey Little Tomboy and Lazy Lizzie.

Tears in the Morning could've been a decent song, imo, but those lyrics are soooo lame.  And the worst part is how he jams all those syllables into the melody ("hope you love the baby I'm never gonna see").

Yeah, that's a bad one too.
I've never really liked Heads You Win Tails I Lose or Ten Little Indians.

It kind of blows my mind you can read "Hey Little Tomboy" as anything other than sexist and heteronormative gender-policing, particularly the unreleased alternate (early?) version with the spoken word voice-overs. "Those [c. 1976-78?] were the days when women were not supposed to play basketball, hockey, soccer, etc. Those Little Tomboys grew up to be doctors, lawyers and movie producers." This has nothing to do with the song at hand, considering the song's lyrics are clearly wanting to do the opposite: turn these tomboys into stereotypical girls!

I obviously like The Beach Boys very much otherwise I would not be posting here, but to say Brian Wilson or The Beach Boys are in any way feminist when they employ, at best, an essentialist understanding of gender is clearly nonsense. That wasn't even progressive in the 1960s let alone the '70s!

It is, in my view,  important, when making some type of analysis on either music or literature, to make an assessment with a lens from a different era to use the lens of "that era." Not today's after the fact of quasi equality.

By 1978 or so, you never heard the term "tomboy" which was a term I heard in the late 1950's and 1960's.  At those points in time, there were sex roles which were not deviated from, in the classic 1950's and 1960's Donna Reed (stay at home, Mom role)  and I am unconvinced that the term is a pejorative, if it is taken as a "retro" sense because I find the melody similar to the very early BB music without all the sophisticated arrangements.

If one looks at an historic era, and my personal take is one of the potential suitor's admiration, that this "tomboy" can perhaps do more than strap her steel skates onto her sneakers, and maybe is more inquisitive and adventurous, than the average girl of the time, and therein lies the attraction.  He likes her anyway. He'd maybe like to see her with lipstick and heels. He seems to admire that she is not a "helpless" female waiting to be rescued!  It is just my opinion, but maybe, she is gonna rescue him!
 ;)

If you listen to "The Waltz" on Brian's Gettin' In Over My Head, there is "retro" imagery in the description of the high school dance...one must step back and look at the work from the conceived time being written about.  Sounds like mid 1960's, and a romanticized vision.  He is not looking at today's prom or cotillion, with stapless gowns, but an angora sweater...typical of that era...

it's darlin' on Bet He's Nice, but what about Deirdre where he's singing to his daughter the line "we'll take a bath"? creep city.

from Salt Lake City... "the way the kids talk so cool is an out-of-sight thing" is pretty bad.

i like the "my gran" line on Girl Don't Tell Me, but Carl kind of botches it when he sings "YOU came up to stay with MY gran" unless he's singing to a family member. quite possible in Beach Boys world i guess.

Skatetown USA

Bossaroo -I'll Bet He's Nice...a brooding guy who got dumped...

Deirdre sounds like two consenting adults...ever hear the 70's expression, "Save water, shower with a friend?"

Salt Lake City - funny outtake on YouTube... I won't venture an opinion...sounds like Wrecking Crew..."out-of-sight" is another groovy old 60's expression. 

Carl didn't botch much. And it all sounds great to me, mistakes and all...old man shun-shine!

All pretty tame in my book...  ;)

i know Bet He's Nice is a brooding Brian, i was just telling Magic Transistor who thought the line was "daughter" rather than "darlin"

i'm pretty sure Deirdre is a father singing to his little girl after a divorce or separation. maybe i'm wrong, but i believe that was at least the song's inspiration.

i also realize "out of sight" is an expression popular in the 60s. i think the Beach Boys have used the phrase on more songs than any other band. i used to have a mixtape with every example but i probably missed a couple. either way, the line "the way the kids talk so cool is an out-of-sight thing" is clumsy and rather uncool.

what Salt Lake City outtake are you referring to? is that the one where Brian tells everyone to "wack off man" ?!! hilarious.

My take is that the brooding is "generic," that Dierdre is two adults, "out-of-sight" was pretty heavily and universally used and not maladroit for the time context, and yes, it was "that" clip...laughter and humor are the best!

See The Wrecking Crew film, if possible, to understand the studio musicians who were booked all over the place, they were in such demand..

Those groovy little wheels are gonna GET ME SOME!

Pleasure, but don't thank me, thank the BB historians who have taken the time and passion to write down the use of the M-phone on this insignificant item (their names are Andrew G Doe).  I just looked up the mphone on wiki for the additional info.

You are correct re Murray's mortal evacuation, circa June, 1973 - but WGGTG was written as part of the Add Some Music sessions from 1969/70 - not wanting to be overly picky, merely suggesting/speculating local influences for Brian's compositions of the time, as opposed to his zeitgeist tapping of ancient Euro folk styles.

Sung by Mike Love in his mid 30s.... ;D

How bad could it get when The Beach Boys record a theme for an independent knock-off rollerdisco movie...and it it gets rejected?

Certain rarer instruments provoke a recall...when I hear the old Russian balalaika, I immediately think of the soundack fo Dr. Zhivago...and that song, When Girls Get Togther, provokes that scene of the old  lady chaperones, from Godfather I, following Michael Corleone, and fiancé #1 as they courted...just what comes into my head, when I hear that song.   ;)

And, yes, Andrew has an impressive research corpus! 

This is rock bottom creatively until KTSA or SIP, this song was their full attempt at writing a song in total 1963 style with Mike on lead and they got rejected by a crass 1970s roller disco movie.

Much of the lyrics on Love You were I'm sure mocked by fans and critics (and were considered childish and downright creepy!) but you can't help but find them oddly endearing in all their awkward glory. What makes Love You unique is much of the lyrics were written by Brian who as we all know usually relied on a collaberator to express his thoughts and feelings. Some examples of this are on Roller Skating Child, Good Time, Johnny Carson, Solar System and I Wanna Pick You Up. Definitely one of my all time favorite Beach Boys albums and the lyrics whether you like them or not are very revealing of the Brian Wilson of that time.

there's a difference between awkward lines that Brian has written as opposed to Mike.

Brian lines like "we're sanding down our surfboards" on the Surfin USA demo and "my old man he just blew his mind" on Bugged at My Old Man are funny.
"We both didn't have the nerve" from Matchpoint is another one that makes me smile. There's a bunch.

Mike should know better. Writing lyrics is one of his only talents and he's supposed to be "Mr. Cool" according to Bruce and others. most of "Salt Lake City" is plain bad and there's plenty more to choose from.

Most everyone agrees that Brian has wonderful compositional skills, maybe equal to Beethoven or Mozart. Had he no lyricist for his music, he would have been one of the greats of our instrumental composers.  Mike had and has a flair for finding the words to make the music "available" for us to sing it as we "wax down the boards" - and on YouTube there is some poor quality footage and Mike is playing some kind of keyboard. I've seen him play sax, about a million years ago.  He handles a great majority of the leads.  Not bad for 70.  

The Wilson-Love combo is no less significant than any other eminent writer-composer duo...

Additionally, Mike keeps the show "moving" and you might think he is corny or goofy, but he knows how to talk to his "contemporaries" who grew up with the music in the 1960's, and he "tells it like it is."

Most don't know that he did the lyrics to Good Vibrations, while on tour, and somehow is able to listen to Brian's music, and, author words to make Brian's work "sing-able" as we go on our merry way!

And, don't get why he is continuosly demonized.

I like the lyrics a lot actually and they really show Brian's mind at the time. I just think a few rewrites could have transformed this album from cult classic to a renowned masterpiece because the backing tracks were as great as ever. 

Love You is probably Brian's most personal album since Pet Sounds, in fact it's probably even more personal in many ways because most of the lyrics were written by Brian, all in all a solid album.

I think the reason Brian still likes it today as one of his favorites because of it being his most personal album.

Agreed!

Doughy lumps, stomach pumps, enemas too, those lyrics always made me cringe!  :o

It's not actually a Beach Boys lyric, but how about this: "The she eagle is old. Her mate was shot long ago, she is now mated with a son of hers".  :brow

I love that line.

Vaults material? It's everywhere in the Beach Boys catalog, released or not.

That there's redneck talk, sonny…

Those lyrics are weird and uncatchy, yet work in that song. :listening

Yes that lyric is very strange, apparently eagles are into incest. I hate the damn spoken word parts of that song, totally ruins it for me.

Are you sure he is saying "my Gran"?   I always thought it was "my friend"?

Some of my "favorite" Beach Boys lyrics:

Disney Girls - "I'll fill your hands with kisses and a tootsie roll."

Little Honda - "More fun than a barrel of monkeys that two wheel bike."

Tears in the Morning - "So you moved out up to Europe, you took your warmth and you took your soul. Well I hope you do what you're damn sure of, a lonely bed here takes on the cold."

Long Promised Road - "So hard to lift the jeweled scepter when the weight turns a smile to a frown."

One I always hated: "Christmas comes this time each year."

No s--t, Sherlock. In an otherwise very fun Christmas song, this line just sticks out as lame. It would have been so easy for Mike to write something that didn't hammer home the point so obviously like:

"Christmas time is here again." or "How I love this time of year." Same cadence, less lame.

"Take it one little inch at a time now
'Til we're feelin' fine now
I guess I've got a way with girls"


I see what it's trying to say but I always "hear it" in another way...


 :brow

'brrr'.

yes.

definitely 'brrr'.

I don't think you are the only one Ste!

The Adult/Child version of HEY LITTLE TOMBOY

Seriously the spoken lines at the end along with the pedophile giggles Brian, Mike and Al are into turns my blood to ice every time I simply see the title.

It is one of those songs that should not exist. Also God does not exist as if He did exist he would've set lightning to the recording studio.

"I'm gonna make you a girl."

Make?

This line sounds like something Mike Tyson would say.

 :-D Your quote made me laugh. Really?!!   Makes me definitely want to listen to it now.  Then again...

Seriously, don't

I know it's not that bad, but I cringe every time I hear "cool water is such a gas"... it's not a gas! I don't know if I'm missing some point here, but "cool water, it ain't no gas" or something along those lines would have been a world better than the lyric Mike settled on imo.

Yeah, you're hearing it correctly!

I've always thought it says "stay with my friend".  Is this another case of misheard lyrics on my part?

Love those lines. Pretty bold for the day.

Beach Girl, I've never commented on one of your posts, but I just wanna say that they are some of the most insightful on this board.  Thanks for providing your perspective as a long time fan, as I myself am as well.

Lyrically, that line actually worked in 1965.  Two years later it was uncool.  A year after that it was totally uncool.  Sorta follows the pattern of  the BBs being considered uncool by many American listeners.

Having spoken to Bruce 39 years ago this month after the Hollywood Palladium Beach Boys concert, where he talked about his inspiration for "Dieidre", I can assure you that he was singing about a woman around his age ... and definitely not his daughter.

Sounded great to me back in 1970, and it still does today.  You've gotta understand the backstory to the lyric - Dennis is so overtaken by the woman that he is reduced to silly nonsense when attempting to explain his attraction to her.  Definitely one of my favorite BB songs, on my favorite BB album.

I'm with you on this one!

.

I thought so too,  I asked this question on another thread and apparently it is Gran,  which is kinda out of place in a pop song really,   I prefer friend...

Now I'm REALLY curious!  :-D   But I won't listen if its that bad,  wouldn't know how to find it anyway

Not sure what you are getting at here, Mike isn't lierally saying that cool water is water vapour, I'm pretty sure that 'gas' in context of the lyrics is slang meaning 'good thing'.

I need to corrupt a little girl today, and Wild-Honey's number came up.  Here ya go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6XFAArsbnE

Well.  That is bad in so many, many ways.  WTF were they thinking!  It sounds like they are circling around a girl and leering and bullying her. Brian sounds like a perverted sicko.  I need to wash my brain out with soap. I was warned I suppose.  Yuk.

I get that's probably what Mike is trying to say, but even in that context I just can't gel with the lyric. All it makes me think of is the states of matter and how 'cool water' is one of  the furtherest states away from being a gas. I know I'm being very, if not ridiculously picky here, I think it's largely because the rest of Cool, Cool Water is all kinds of mindblowing and I can't come to terms with the fact that the perfect place for a money-monent in the song is instead filled with a terrific display of mediocrity.

This is subjective; I think it's a wonderful little bit of word play and the first few times I heard it that bit made me chuckle. But to each their own.

Everything in this thread is subjective*! While I can't agree with you, I'm not surprised that there are people out there who enjoy the lyric.

* That is everything except the posts that sing of the triumphs of 'it's so cold I go "brrrrrrr"'. They're right on the money, no questions asked  ;D

 :lol :lol

Don't even care about any of that, I've just always hated the phrase, "It's a gas!"

Grans or grammas are the best. Gator must have got your grannie.

Yeah, but the song "it's a Gas", as vocalized by Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman, with sax solo by King Curtis, is a fun listening experience!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J-LvMxKvFY