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One of my favourite of the early tracks, this. It has great momentum, propelled beautifully by the backing vocals.

Can anyone explain exactly what "Papa's toy l'ahoy" sang as a counterpoint in the chorus actually means, if that really is what they're singing? He (papa) spies his girl (his toy) on land, perhaps?

Cherry Cherry Coupe as a rewrite just doesn't quite match up for me.

A great surprise choice for track talk, and one of my all-time early faves (along with Cindy, Oh Cindy). It's so moving piece, in more than ways than one. Young and more or less innocent boys, singing this story of a sea-faring sailor, who's "been overseas for almost a year"... Aww.

Speaking of innocence, this is one of my favourite early performances by Mike. Listening to his lead, it's difficult to think of all the fights, filth and summers in paradise that were still yet to come.

By the way, love that muffled cough in the beginning of the solo! They don't leave moments like that on records anymore...

Dislike it greatly. Can't deal with the drum rhythm, the lead vocal, the lyrics, anything about it.

I think the melody is great no matter what the song, but Cherry Cherry Coupe is one of THE BEST BRIAN WILSON PRODUCTIONS EVER in my book.

i was already a fan but that song((Cherry, cherry coupe) that really convinced me how fucking out of this world BW could be.

Same here. The groove on that song is unholy. I love how the crisp snare drum seems to float above the solid groove of the tune. And how the lead guitar part pulls against that groove. Mike's vocal is killer. And the sax is there too.


Door handles are off but you know I'll never miss 'em
They open when I want with the "Cellunoid" system

That is a solid backing track, no denying. The first 2 bars possibly the closest The Beach Boys got to sounding like The Velvet Underground. Still doesn't trump the cool little arpegio guitar figures that drive Land Ahoy along for me though.


What the devil is a "Cellunoid" system?!


This is cool.

.

You got me, man. No idea.

Calling all petrol-heads ...

Presumably some sort of brandname for a, er, handleless door opening system?  :shrug

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solenoid

Is that what they're singing about then? That Mike could turn anything into poetry.

Roger Christian! Ultimate gearhead.
What you said about the Velvets just knocked me out, because I realised that the guitar thing on Coupe I was talking about very much reminds me of Lou's rhythm-lead style on We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together.

Those Roger Christian songs catch me out every time! Was going to post only recently about how great Mike's Don't Worry Baby lyrics are ...


You know I haven't listened to that Velvets track for a while. It's a good 'un. Will have to dig it out and compare. I was thinking Waiting For My man for general pulsing rhythm guitar similarities.

Oh yes, great example as well.
This is another of my "idiosyncratic" opinions and all, but I somehow relate Roger Christian to Van Dyke Parks in my head, in terms of the roles they fulfilled for Brian obviously, but also in terms of the near-impenetrability of their lyrics. Parks has his wordplay and diffuse turn-of-the-psychedelic-century imagery, but Christian's grease-monkey terminology is also quite odd, and personal. I mean, he might as well be talking about driving a spaceship most of the time, and I'm fairly car-familiar.

I don't know if the Wikipedia entry mentions it specifically, but the "solenoid system" as sung in the lyrics is what makes a car's electronic door locks work.

I don't think they has electronic locks back then. Just the traditional key system, right?

I wonder how the hell Solenoid got pronounced as "cell-u-noid" on the date. I know Solenoid stuff mainly because I am an 8-track enthusiast, and Solenoid switches are what makes the program change over (also the first thing to usually break down in a player).

One thing about Ahoy: I wish Brian would have waited, changed the lyrics a bit to reflect the POV of the girl the guy is coming home to, and cut it with Sharon Marie or The Honeys. It coulda had that contemporary ultra-cute Diane Renay Kiss Me Sailor/Navy Blue "I-love-a-man-in-uniform" vibe.

There were power locks in the 50's, power windows, etc. but as far as the actual date and year of the first ones ever, I don't know. It was an option on luxury cars in the 50's, and according to previous conversations with my dad who was a mechanic at that time, there were many, many problems with anything "automatic", "power", "electronic", etc. in cars at the time. They rushed a lot of these features onto the market and they were simply not that good.

The solenoid is used in many other applications - to be honest I don't quite understand what Mike was getting at singing about them relating to car doors and power locks. It's not exactly a feature the gearheads would be bragging about on a hot rod anyway, unless the tune is more about a luxury car...I'm confused! I doubt a real hot rodder (i.e. one who actually took the car to the drag strip and raced) would want that kind of luxury option anyway - some would weld the doors for safety in races, and/or try to eliminate everything like extra power options and the systems to run them to lower the weight of the car.

I think Christian is mainly writing about a cruising car, as he talks a lot about visual features. But it is odd.

The solenoid system in this instance was for "hot rodders" who shaved their door handles. Meaning, the cars were altered by taking the door handles off for looks. There had to be a way to open the doors and they put solenoid systems in.

Brilliant, thanks for that. Takes a while to get to the meanings of these things. For over two decades, I had no idea what "lake pipes" were.

Makes sense, I'm not saying it's not what happened because it was, but again I think the real hot rodders who actually competed were trying to shave off anything extra in general, and adding electronic locks and the system to power and run them doesn't seem to fit the "less is more" credo. The reasons why some of the true rods looked so bare-bones is because they did everything to reduce weight and increase power, which would mean stripping anything unessential to the engine and the car's power off of the car.

Unless we're getting into "customs" from the California builders/designers the Beach Boys would have been aware of at that time like George Barris, Dean Jeffries, etc. If it's a car for show, and to cruise and get chicks, then yeah, having solenoids and relays and Air Ride suspensions and all of that to do cool stuff like pop open your doors would be nice to have!

And I think the spelling and pronunciation of "cellunoid" versus "solenoid" is also a regional or dialect kind of thing, or a mispronunciation that caught on.

Hahaha, no problem. Roger was definitely into the hot rod/street rod scene that developed in the '50s and early '60s in Los Angeles. My father is the same age as the BBs and he grew up working in his father's auto shop in Ohio, so he loved their car songs. And lakes pipes are awesome, we have some on our '51 Chevy.

I love both Land Ahoy and Cherry Cherry Coupe and up until this moment had never made the connection between the two. Coupe seems a little pacier. Both great though.

Anyone else think "Land Ahoy" is better than most of the stuff on the Surfin' Safari album?

No, you are right. With everything, there are varying degrees. There are those who shaved door handles only for looks and for the scene and put in the solenoid systems to have easy operating doors. The pure racers did what you said, they stripped all necessary equipment to get every edge possible. But not everyone raced to that extent and a lot of the cars were for cruising, thus the solenoid systems that were put in.

As for the spelling of "cellunoid" versus "solenoid", I have no clue where the former came from. Is that how Roger thought it was spelled? It may have been a local thing as you said. Mike also pronounces it as "cell-u-noid" because "solenoid" is not pronounced with the "cellu" sound, it's "sol-e-noid" as one would read it.

I think it is definitely better than Summertime Blues, about equal with Ten Little Indians and Heads You Win Tails I Lose, not as good as the rest.

Yep. To think they had Land Ahoy and Lonely Sea and they left them both off the album??!!

Leaving great songs off albums to replace them with average ones would of course remain a Beach Boys habit for the rest of their career...

I brought up the dialect thing because I know I've heard some of the old-school mechanics call it that, and I'm really wracking my brain trying to remember but I think my dad was one of them! Much like yours, my dad got out of the service after the war in '46 and started working on cars, and happened to be working at a Chevy dealership in the 50's and 60's, when all the classics came out! So his view of the "legendary" 409 engine isn't as positive as others because to him, the 409 was an engine that he'd see come in the garage all the time when the kids who thought they were racers would ruin them by revving them up and causing the valves to pop... ;D

I'm partial to the 50-53 Chevys myself, I think they are about as classy and as cool as any cars, and the original colors were amazing. I like 'em all, but something about that era was different.

Which, of course, is also what Roger Christian said on-air at KFWB, inspiring the listening Murry Wilson to call in and invite Roger to meet up with Brian.

He said that on KFWB too? That's cool, if I read that before I don't remember! I just remember my dad saying the same thing about the 409 anytime it came up, how it was a pain in the ass because of the valves and they'd be in his garage all the time. I think it may be a case of the engine being more of a legend because of the BB's singing about it than it actually was widely considered a good engine.

But then again, opinions among car guys is like debating Chevy vs. Ford, there's no winner... :-D

the drumming drives me nuts on Land Ahoy

You are probably right about the old school mechanics. I'm a bit behind you (I'm 29) as my dad was born in '44. Mine was about 13 when he started in his dad's shop, so that would have been about 1956-1957.

The 409 was a high performance engine, and like most engines like that, it helped if you didn't have dumb kids revving them so high that they broke. 8) As I said earlier, my dad and I have a '51 Chevy (two door sedan). It isn't a stock color, I did want a stock two tone, but we settled on blue body/white top.

"Cherry, Cherry Coupe" is an excellent example of Roger Christian's lyric writing abilities; the fact that he is able to fit a bulky technical term like "solenoid system" into meter and rhyme without making it sound contrived is really quite impressive.  As far as the comparison between "Cherry, Cherry Coupe" and the earlier "Land Ahoy" goes, it seems to me that "Cherry, Cherry Coupe" has to win because of the notable improvement in Brian Wilson's production abilities.

I think the slower tempo to the later song also lends credence to the theory that the titular car is meant for showing rather than drag-racing.  I know absolutely nothing about cars (being a city-dweller, I don't even own one) but it seems like the drag-racing car songs ("Shut Down," "Little Deuce Coupe," "Custom Machine") tend to be faster-paced than the cruising car songs ("Our Car Club" and "Cherry, Cherry Coupe").  It's not an absolute law, as "No Go Showboat" is a bit faster (perhaps ironically?) but it seems like an effective matching of form and content in the songs where it works.

What I love about the backing track of Cherry Cherry coupe is that it kind of sounds like a really tight, tuned up engine idling. You can hear the little pops of steam and rumbling and hissing and so on.

The interesting point for me is still the question: Is it a car for show or a car for racing? If it is for show, you'll have perhaps the handle-less door option which Mike sang about, you'll have a nice engine that purrs but then again, you'll also have that engine cleaned and polished so when you raise the hood, it shines and people seeing it go "aaahhhhh!". If it is for race, none of that matters. You'll get oil, dirt, and all kinds of gunk all over the polished parts anyway, and speed is the goal over looks so if you're going to race, it doesn't matter.

I'm leaning toward the lyrics being a "show" over "race" car.

Loving all the hot rod info in this thread, thanks!

So this video shows the solenoid system in operation (about 2.08), presumably as it was in the 50s/60s (although they didn't use remotes then, right?):

http://youtu.be/EsOsqE6Ql98

The guy also seems to pronounce it "cellunoid".

Just read the lyrics. He makes references mainly to the look of the car, but also boasts a bit about the speed.

If it's a dream car, an ideal of a dream car, it could be both! In the real world, drag racers wouldn't have electronic doors on their car.

So thinking of it as the mythology that the BB's were so good at creating in their music and lyrics, it's both a show car and a race car.

But these same guys also sang about a "No Go Showboat" which could be describing that driver who has the best looking and cleanest show car, with all the options and trimmings (including shaving the door handles), but who can't race.

I'm a big fan of Cherry Cherry Coupe. Thoughh I had heard it before, it wasn't until it appeared on Little Steven's Underground Garage that I took an extra liking towards it. On one of the episides, (I think from 2005?, which should still be listenable on his website) Brian himself guesthosts and sings a few bars of the song.

On another note, has Mike Love publicly acknowledged Roger Christian's abilities before?

Yep! See my above post about dialect and old-school pronunciations. It's the way some of the old-school mechanics like my dad said it, and I think it just got passed down.

Thanks for the info!

No-go showboat, no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
Well, I got a wild custom That wins every show But it's a no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
Yeah but everybody knows That she just don't go She's my no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
White wall slicks with racing mags She's just for looks, man, not for drags 'Cause it's a no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
No go No go
Well, the guys all dig it They've got no complaints About my no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
And the chicks really flip for That metal flake paint On my no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
It really rates fine in the custom clan With hand-formed panels, tuck-and-roll rear pan 'Cause it's a no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
No go No go
Well, the engine compartment's filled With all chrome goodies In my no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
Yeah but everybody takes me Even old Ford woodies In my no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
When it comes to speed, man, I'm just outa luck I'm even shut down by the ice cream truck 'Cause it's a no-go showboat (No-go showboat)
No go No go
No-go showboat (No-go showboat) No-go showboat (No-go showboat)
She's just my (No-go showboat)


"She's just for looks, man, not for drags..."

Read these lyrics - it's exactly what I was describing earlier. Ol' Rog knew what he was talking about with cars, and the differences between racers and "showboats"...notice the bold lyric plus the line about the "engine compartment filled with all chrome goodies", that's exactly the car you'd raise the hood and make people go "aaahhhh!!!" when they saw it shine, but that wasn't what the real dragsters had under the hood.

Cruising versus racing - sometimes the cruisers would race but generally it's a different type of car for those two purposes.

Again, Roger Christian deserves a lot of credit for his contributions because he really was tapped into the car scene, and not just in SoCal in 1962. You'd have to be involved in it to get the stories and the words right, and I don't think anyone accused them of being artificial or phony.

Mikes bass vocal on the 'My cherry coupe beats 'em up coming off the line and she really gets lost when she starts to whine' part of the chorus is just plain brilliant, great song from a highly underrated album.

Also, in this instance what does 'cherry' mean? I'm assuming it's used in the same context as in Surf City (You know it's not very cherry, it's an oldie but a goody)?

Mint condition.

Thanks, thought it must be something like that.

Not me. Though, it's on a par with some of them.

I prefer it to all bar Lonely Sea. Oh, and maybe the title track but I find it difficult to be objective about that one.

Lonely Sea is on the next album.

Land Ahoy >>>> Cherry Cherry Coupe

Land Ahoy is one of my favorites of the really early songs and i like it more than just about anything on Surfin' Safari. I love the feel of it, it's got this really bouncy energy, the melody is one of the most memorable of the early songs, they sound young, snotty, and charming on it, and it really captures a youthful longing. You almost feel like you're really out at sea with them as you hear the song.

I too find it baffling that it and Lonely Sea were left off the first record. I mean, what? Really? How? They really did start this practice from the very beginning.

I know this sort of opinion is highly unpopular and held in contempt around here, but i (at least used to, maybe not so much anymore) really wish that they had gone more in the direction of songs like Land Ahoy (as well as County Fair, Cuckoo Clock, Farmer's Daughter, Lana, Finders Keepers, Lonely Sea) rather than concentrating on the surf and car stuff. That is, more generally representing and appraising a broad youth and regional culture rather than honing in on the specifics of two niche subcultures. I find that this direction they took in the early days boxed them in too much, and the amount of focus they gave to those two subjects was just too damn exhaustive. It got oversaturated and became tiring IMO. Musically, i adore even these earliest songs, but lyrically, not only is it that i cannot relate to them at all, they happen to be about subjects that i actively find repellant. I always thought that this was a testament to how truly great they were. They probably could have been singing about phonebooks and landfills and it wouldn't have mattered.

 

You honestly find surfing and cars to be repellent?

Peter Ames Carlin said it best. When they sang about surfing, they sang about freedom. Or something like that. It's not about surfing, it's what it represents. I'm from Finnish countryside, 200 km from The sea, and thousands of kilometers from nearest surfing spots. Still, I can identify with the early songs.

Oops thought he was talking about Surfin USA. Is Land Ahoy not a Surfin USA outtake then?

Edit: Scrub that - just read Monicker's post. Not a S USA outtake.

Very well put.  It's not helpful to reduce a song's value to its lyrical content, and it's also rather limiting to take the subject matter of the lyrics at a strictly literal level.  Lyrics are poetry, after all.

Cherry Cherry Coupe is one of my favorite Beach Boys songs.  But for me, it's even more about a woman than it is about a car.

Go cherry, Cherry coupe now
Go cherry, Cherry coupe now
Go cherry, Cherry coupe now
My cherry Coupe beats 'em up coming off the line
Go cherry, cherry Coupe now
And she really gets hot when she starts to whine

Go cherry, Cherry coupe now
Go cherry, Cherry coupe now ....

Now that you said it's obvious. What a dirty, dirty, song.

???

^ Indeed.

My cherry coupe beats 'em off, cumming up the line (PENIS)

Some times a cherry coupe is just a cherry coupe.

line = urethra = TEH MAIN VEIN

SHut up hypehat the song is about ejaculating cherries or maybe a euphemism for ejaculating cherry syrup (or blood)

Why did Dennis only drum into the left channel of "Land Ahoy"? Fuckin' asshole with large eyebrows 1/10 drumming skillz

No soft spot for any track, particularly despise Land Ahoy. And I prefer another coupe, little and deuce, y'know. Now, I'd suggest I Do (and County Fair) for the next track talk.