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A prime example is The Little Girl I Once Knew.  The arrangement is so amazing but lyrics are so dumb. Such a wonderful composition deserves better.  Wonder what Tony Asher or VDP would have done with it?

Salt Lake City.

Surf's Up. The lyric should be simpler explaining how this is about them leaving surf music forever. ;)

I like the lyrics to The Little Girl I Once Knew.

As for the OP's question:

Problem Child
Salt Lake City
Amusement Parks USA
Do You Remember
Cool Cool Water (Sunflower version)
Don't Go Near The Water
Make It Big
Bill & Sue

Don't Hurt My Little Sister

Spring Vacation!

Most of SIP.

The first two songs that come to mind:

'Our Car Club'. Great, groovy tune, of their early upbeat songs this is one of the most sophisticated ones. Too bad the lyrics sound like they were written by a 9 year old, it brings the song down from being a potential 9 to just a 7 1/2.

'Spring Vacation'. Such a mellow, effortlessly grooving song, this could have been that one song to prove that at 70+ years old, The Beach Boys in fact could still be cool. But the cringeworthy lyrics royally ruin it.

- Santa's Beard
- Merry Christmas, baby
- Take A Load Off Your Feet
- California Saga (California)
- My Diane
- Male Ego

I Get Around (Don't get me wrong, I'm in love with this song, but the music is definitely above the lyrics)

Surf's Up is about the fall of a civilization, which is a metaphor for Brian and the boys.

Have to agree about "Spring Vacation". Even though it's an overall decent song I find myself trying to imagine what this one might've sounded like with the original set of lyrics (were they even completed at the time? Anyway...).

"The Little Girl I Once Knew" is perfect the way it is and the same goes for "Salt Lake City". ;D

in his own universe this might be the case, TLGIOK and SLC have attrocious lyrics. They can be 'fun' and appreciated in some cases. But you have to be a hardcore fan to forgive those lyrics. I would never show these songs to anyone. For a good reason.




I would say Cool Cool Water is perfect because it doesn't strive to do anything. It's more of a mantra, repeating all along in a world without trouble and worry. 'In an ocean or in a glass, cool water is such a gas' might be pushing boundaries but due to the overall nature of the song this cheese is well-qualified, highly classy cheese.

Love Is A Woman

Solar System.

this album could only be liked by Beach Boys fans and it's Brian singing his heart out. The lyrics are cheese which could only pass because Brian sings them and he means every word of it! Plus is voice is perfectly suited at that time to sing those lyrics. I guess they are dumbed down lyrics, but how could it be better? These lyrics, while 'dumb' are better than most serious lyrics at that time and of later.

Most of FRIENDS (the album) and a few of the tunes on SURFS UP (Don't Go Near the Water, Take a Load Off..., etc)

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Don't Worry Baby  - get rid of the car stuff.

Surf's Up would have been better if it were written from the perspective of boy-girl attraction-someting everyone can relate to. ;)

I've always thought Surf's Up should have described someone going surfing, and at one point he gets wiped out by a wave and almost drowns, and after that happens some seagulls are laughing at him from above, but he recovers and makes it back to shore and then wonders if he should go surfing again. But the whole thing would be metaphoric about society trying to do something, but things go really wrong, but it recovers, and then afterwards society reassesses whether it was the right thing to do or not. Or something like that. At first glance the lyrics would sound literally about a guy going surfing, but there would be clues that one should not take the lyrics literally and there was really a deeper meaning behind the whole thing.

"I'm So Lonely"
I love the music and melody.

Add Some Music To Your Day

This is a song that sounds beautiful but the lyrics are so inane that it has taken me 18 years to get to a point to where I can hear it often without skipping it. 

"cool cool water is such a groove" is such a bad lyric, especially the way Mike sings it.

the line "hit the dirt, do a two-and-a-half" has always bugged me.

"It's so cold I go brrr!"

"We should have walked off the court but we both didn't have the nerve."

personally i love "Little Girl I Once Knew" and "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" ...even "Salt Lake City" has grown on me. those lyrics are so bad they're awesome: "The way the kids talk so cool is an out-of-sight thing!"

The lyrics on the Friends album are all great in my estimation, and I love all of Love You even the line mentioned above.

but there's a lot more to choose from.


"Deirdre" for instance. songs about bathing with your daughter=BAD.

Deirdre isn't about Bruce daughter.

Are you thinking of Tears In The Morning?

Be True To Your School.

Hey, what's the matter buddy? This is getting silly!

Atrocious maybe by classic-rock standards. I like the group's more "serious" side as much as anyone but what's not to like about something completely innocuous and fun like "Salt Lake City"? I'll admit that some of those lyrics may seem a little awkward from today's perspective but I don't mind, in fact I think it's part of their charm.

The way I see it there was a point where Brain's composition was starting to surpass the lyrics that were written for his songs, definitely a lot of '65 material.  I'm not saying all of the '65 lyrics were bad.  It was just hit and miss.  But SLC and TLGIOK were both deserving of better themes and better lyrics.  Since TLGIOK was done so soon before Pet Sounds it makes me wonder if this was an instance that got Brian to realize "my music is much more sophisticated now but these lyrics and themes are still so shallow".

I know many would disagree with me on this but I've always felt the same about California Girls.  Don't get me wrong, the lyrics are clever and fit the theme well.  It's the theme itself that doesn't fit the sophistication of the music.  As Peter Aimes Carlin pointed out in the Brian Wilson Songwriter documentary the song is basically about "a guided tour of chicks". 

Again, what's wrong with a "guided tour of chicks", really?

I do see your point, don't get me wrong. :) ...but personally I think the very combination of increasingly sophisticated music/production and youthful/joyful lyrical content is really what makes a song like "California Girls" the masterpiece it is. Do I sound like Mike Love already? Anyway, I really mean it and I think there is no other group in pop who did this particular combination even half as good as the BB did.

This is definitely a BB board that deserves better topics. Most of ya'll in this thread should go listen to Leonard Cohen.

Who cares if some Beach Boys lyrics are 'bad'? Listen to the way they sing the words.

Bingo.  But, to play along, pretty much anything Al Jardine wrote

Which is why I'll never be able to pursuade anyone else to listen to them - lyrics first, harmonies second (for them, not me - in this instance)

This Whole World.

Well, whether you think the lyrics need changing, they ain't gonna change them now. After 40 years of trying hard, I have learned that you can't force people to like them. They either get it or they don't.

Ah, no, I don't pursuade, they just ask me why I like them so much, and a lot of them say the lyrics suck. Someone else said they're not very good singers. Go Figure.

Well there you go! When the songs were hits, it is doubtful that most people felt that way. Shoot, I don't think most artists today are very good singers or writers. Our main tastes generally lie within the times we grow up in.

I am quite a fan of Leonard Cohen, but I don't like my favourite BBs lyrics any less than my favourite LC lyrics.

I also love Salt Lake City (the lyrics don't detract from this).

No one's mentioned "When Girls Get Together"!? That track is beautiful, the vocal is beautiful, but the lyrics are oh dear god.

"he comes down"  ;D

I Wanna Pick You Up.

I can stand all the rest of Love You's lyrics, but I lose it at "Pat her on the butt!"

Our Prayer

The Little Girl I Once Knew's lyrics aren't shallow. It's not like he's singing about taking this girl on his Honda. Here's a girl the main character grew up with - look at her now, she's a knockout! I want to be with her. It's a precursor to "Caroline, No".

Maybe you could argue the "Split, man" Mike Love parts are dated in 2012, but I think they're groovy.

She's getting laid, ermm, It's getting late sorry

"Ding Dang" has a decent verse but where is the rest of it? (Don't worry, I'm familiar with the story)

And while we're at it, how about at least one chord change? I'm not even asking for a chorus or bridge, just even a simple I VI sequence would have been cool.

The Beach Boys are the only band that I love so much that I have to ignore the lyrics and instead enjoy the music and harmonies. This gives Mike Love a free pass for me as I can't find any substance in his lyrics and most of them are embarrassingly bad.

So you guys who don't like their lyrics (especially the early ones), tell me what they should be about? American teens sing about American teenlife to American teens. I think that's pretty honest and alright, and the lyrics often paint a vivid picture of California youth's life in the early 60's. I wasn't there, but that's what I'm led to believe. Mike Love going Dylan or just waxing about love in general wouldn't have been the same. I think the lyrics (which I dearly love) are a big part of the BB's youthful and innocent charm.

That would remove the entire point of the song! That when you're a teenager, everything seems like the biggest thing in the world, like love or insecurity or even just hanging out with your friends and bragging. That's why girl group and early rock and roll (and even a lot of Beach Boys tunes, like I Get Around or All Summer Long or etc) play on that and are amazing. So without any 'crisis' (and I think Brian & Mike were working on the premise that something so minor as a drag race can seem so major in a kids life a la the best teen pop) there would be no reason why she's there to reassure, and make the song straight up platitudes (and the amazing last couplet into the chorus). So the car stuff is utterly essential as to why everyone likes the song.


As for me... a lot of this thread is crazy. But 'Don't Hurt My Little Sister' is possibly too naive.

If this was true, you and Mike would have a lot in common.

She Knows Me Too Well

"In the Parkin' Lot."  Those harmonies are pretty sophisticated for the speed at which they're taken, but the lyric is mostly insubstantial... though, on the other hand, I do like the way the best vocal moment in the song matches up with "turnin' on the radio dial."  Great melody, too, with that descending line at the beginning and the little dipping semitones later on.  The slow parts that start and end the song are beautiful also.  An early "pocket symphony."


And some of the songs on Surf's Up are fine musically but have lyrical moments that are completely embarrassing.  
"To be cool with the water is the message of this song."  (clunk goes the sledgehammer)
"So hard to lift the jeweled scepter when the weight turns a smile to a frown."  Yes, "Long Promised Road" is beautiful, but I wouldn't play it for anybody with lyrics like that.
"America was stunned on May fourth, nineteen seven-dee/When rally turned to riot up at Kent State Universi-tee"... Mike, please just... don't.

If you grew up in those times, the lyric to In The Parkin' Lot says a lot about  how life was at school in those times and a bit later on, especially if you lived out West. For the times I have lived through as a teenager, they are anything but insubstantial.

Old thread, but Celebrate the News. Sheesh.

Affirmative nod. I esp. like the way the unfamiliar words/terms/places sound in songs like California Saga (congregation, Morro Bay, Salinas), Surf's Up, the car songs, Surfin' USA, Cabinessence etc. Or what's maybe my fave BBs line ever: "...They isolate their heads & stay in their safety zone". Sorta groovy.

As usual, you nailed it, Jukka.

She Knows Me Too Well comes to mind.

For the most part, I really don't care about lyrics other than how they fit sonically (i.e. no awkward phrasing, unpleasant words).  But whatever little interest I have in lyrics, it would be those relating to human frailties and emotions, not a Californian experience.  That's where when it comes to content songs like Wouldn't It Be Nice ad In My Room work for me whereas with, say, California Girls I really don't pay attention to the lyrics.  Musically I obviously get a lot out of all of them.  Good lyrics can enhance a great song, but they would be hard-pressed to destroy one.

I've always liked the lyrics used in the version of Don't Worry Baby recorded by The Tokens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50sdk7df27s&hd=1

One that springs instantly to mind is Our Car Club, especially when compared to the Roger Christian co-written car tunes. No-one wrote hot rod lyrics like Roger – he could get all manner of car parts to rhyme and clearly knew his stuff about the mechanics of cars at the time, while Mike's effort in Our Car Club were pretty limp when compared to the likes of Little Deuce Coupe, Car Crazy Cutie and Cherry, Cherry Coupe.

For example:
part of Car Crazy Cutie:
She's hip to everything man from customs to rails
And axel grease imbedded 'neath her fingernails

part of Cherry Cherry Coupe:
Chrome reversed rims with whitewall slicks
And it turns a quarter mile in one oh six
Door handles are off but you know I'll never miss 'em
They open when I want with the solenoid system

Then compare to a couple of lines from Our Car Club:
We'll set a meet, and get a sponsor, and collect some dues
And you can bet that we'll have our jackets on wherever we cruise

There is just no comparison!


A lot of the late 70s era songs, especially from Love You and MIU album have questionable lyrics when you take into account most of the band members were in their mid-to-late 30s and were still singing about young girls...

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For me, the lyrics to Our Car Club are perfect. This is who The Beach Boys are. Singing a groovy little song about a cool teenage subject - in the nerdiest way possible. Most bands would have lyrics about how their car club pulls in the most poon, how bad ass they look when they ride. Not our boys, they write about the administrative details of setting up the club without a hint of irony. I love that so much.

I can't believe David has a song called "Kustom Kar Klub". MY GOD.

Also:

"I can't picture you with him/his future looks awful dim!" in "Wendy" always makes me giggle. I can't imagine much time or thought was put into those lines. Understand, though, that I'm pretty forgiving of their early lyrics given the attitude of the day was "NOW NOW NOW NOW."

The "Help me find the key" lyric in "You're Still A Mystery" is a bit goofy as is, but having Al echo it with "GOTTA FIND THE KEY, NOW!!!" takes it over the top. It amuses me to the extent that I'm not sure I'd have preferred it be changed, though.

Might get punched for this, but "The love of my life/She left me one day/I cried when she said/'I don't feel the same way'" always felt lazy in an otherwise really great lyric, particularly the last two lines. Something about it feels forced or like it doesn't work so well, I guess. Just me, and it's not enough to ruin the song at all (same goes for the other examples, too).

He should have gone with Carl's suggestion of Kustom Fourwheeler Club.

I love this lyric. I wonder what makes the guy so sure on how the other dude's future is gonna pan out. "I did a clearance check on him, this man has led a life of sin!" "Have you seen his exam score? Well, you deserve a whole lot more!" "I learnt to read tarot cards, he's gonna tear your world apart!"