Why No Love For Kokomo ?

[Jonathan Blum]

If it dwindles in radio play any more than it has done in the last twenty years, I'd be afraid to imagine what you think my life span will be. Because it was a hit by The Beach Boys, I can't imagine a world where it never gets played at all. It's more likely it will be played seldomly (kind of like now) but if current airplay is any indication, it will more than likely be reserved for the Beach Boys remembrance shows, 80s pop remembrance shows, or the Worst Songs of All Time lists that Kokomo often makes it way onto.

You're living in a very different world from me -- I'm in Australia at the moment, and MusicMax (the VH1-alike channel that's on constantly at my gym) has had "Kokomo" in heavy rotation as part of their "top N songs of summer" playlist.  I've seen that frickin' video more times lately than I can count.

Don't worry, they play "Good Vibrations" too.  And occasional other Beach Boys songs for which they have videos, even if they have to be live concert versions from the '70s.  But "Kokomo" has already stuck around for nearly 25 years, it's a bit late to dismiss it as a flash in the pan.

Regards,
Jon Blum

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Except a crucial difference is that the Beach Boys construction of California played heavily into the American Dream mythology which was very much about a Westward expansion into some kind of perfect paradise.

Sorry, mate -- when I grew up in Maryland listening to Endless Summer, I wasn't thinking "oh yes, Westward expansion, these hot rods clearly represent my manifest destiny".  The appeal's way more basic than that, and not so strictly focused as to exclude Kokomo -- the whole fun-fun-fun in the sun-sun-sun bit was part of the package whether they were singing about Del Mar, Salt Lake City, San Miguel, or Honolulu.

Cheers,
Jon Blum

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said "subconsciously." People don't typically narrate their subconscious.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

If it dwindles in radio play any more than it has done in the last twenty years, I'd be afraid to imagine what you think my life span will be. Because it was a hit by The Beach Boys, I can't imagine a world where it never gets played at all. It's more likely it will be played seldomly (kind of like now) but if current airplay is any indication, it will more than likely be reserved for the Beach Boys remembrance shows, 80s pop remembrance shows, or the Worst Songs of All Time lists that Kokomo often makes it way onto.

You're living in a very different world from me -- I'm in Australia at the moment, and MusicMax (the VH1-alike channel that's on constantly at my gym) has had "Kokomo" in heavy rotation as part of their "top N songs of summer" playlist.  I've seen that frickin' video more times lately than I can count.

Don't worry, they play "Good Vibrations" too.  And occasional other Beach Boys songs for which they have videos, even if they have to be live concert versions from the '70s.  But "Kokomo" has already stuck around for nearly 25 years, it's a bit late to dismiss it as a flash in the pan.

Regards,
Jon Blum

I must because I don't see or hear it at all. And if they played Kokomo round the clock, and didn't play a fraction of a second of Good Vibrations I wouldn't lose any sleep over it so you can put your "Don't worry" to rest.

[Jonathan Blum]

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said "subconsciously." People don't typically narrate their subconscious.

And people don't typically think "Kokomo" isn't a proper Beach Boys song.  Consciously or subconsciously.

They don't rule "Barbara Ann" out either.  Fact, they were a couple of the band's biggest hits, despite neither one being about the SoCal scene.  The world's collective subconscious is clearly entirely accepting of them.

Regards,
Jon Blum

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said "subconsciously." People don't typically narrate their subconscious.

And people don't typically think "Kokomo" isn't a proper Beach Boys song.  Consciously or subconsciously.

They don't rule "Barbara Ann" out either.  Fact, they were a couple of the band's biggest hits, despite neither one being about the SoCal scene.  The world's collective subconscious is clearly entirely accepting of them.

Regards,
Jon Blum

They didn't have to all be about the SoCal scene because it was about what the band - The Beach Boys - represented. The Beach Boys had become a brand at that point and even when they were singing about Barbara Ann, they still represented the ideals of the American Dream.

Kokomo may have been understood as a "proper" Beach Boys song and, of course, it is (what else could it be?). But it was also recognized as being different from their 60s material, and it was appreciated by a different audience - even if it was the same people.

[NHC]

It's just a song.  A nice song with an interesting chord arrangement, some fun lyrics, good vocals, catchy tune. It doesn't mean anything one way or the other, like it, don't like it.  I like it, always have. It has a Beach Boys sound and a Beach Boys feel and when i coms on I always sing along.  I'm no purist and I've been listening for 50 years and will take it over a lot of the so-called artsy or dark stuff. If somebody doesn't like it, fine, but chill out. Nothing to get worked up about. Like I am.

[Margarita]

I'm in the not-a-great-song-but-it's-catchy camp.   But I can't hate it.  It came out around the time i started junior year in high school, just coming off a summer full of drama with various boyfriends.  Something about the sound of the song was pleasant, like things were going to be better (and they were).  Also, considering that I was fairly alone in my hardcore-level Beach Boys fandom, it was nice for me to see an original song by my favorite band hit #1, and to see my friends dig the song. 

I always found the title unfortunate.  Kokomo, Indiana was the hometown of a boy named Ryan White, who was HIV+ due to a blood transfusion.  This was when AIDS was still associated with the gay community and drug users, and it was not fully understood that the disease could also be transmitted through blood transfusion.  There were people in Kokomo who thought that no "nice" person could contract AIDS, and Ryan and his mother were ostracized from their community.  This story got media attention either just before or after the song came out.

[runnersdialzero]

Who cares about Australians? "LISTEN TO SEELVAHCHEEAH AWN TREEPLE JHAY, LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS WHALL WE ROIDE AROUN' ON KANGEHROOS ALL DHAY. G'DAY MATE WITH SHRIMP ON THE BAH-BEE. COR BLIMEY, INNIT. PEEOUCH AND ACCA DACCA AWN TREEPLE JHAY LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS. SEELVAHCHEEAH SMEEASH HIT RAWK SAWNG FROM THE ALBUM DIORAWMUHR THIS EEIS 'TEEUNER IN TEH BROINE' AWN TREEPLE JHAY LOIVE AT THE WOIYALISS. NEEXT UP ISS WOLFMUTHUH AND THE VOINES FEATARIN CRRIG NICHOLS WHO IS RETAHDID OR SUMTHIN'. COR BLIMEY, INNIT. AWOH NOH, TUGGA CALL THUH PROIME MINIEESTTAHH TUGGA ITS TOIME FOR SEELVAHCHEEAH CONSUTS FEATARIN DANYUL JOWNS AND CREES OWANOANONW AND BEEEN AS WEEL AS STEVE UHHWIN WHO WAS STUNG BY SOME KANA FISH. COR BLIMEY INNIT. BETTAH GET THUH BOOMAHRANG, WEERE IN FOR A FOIGHT TUGGA. 'KOHKEHMO' BOY THUH BEEEACH BOIS ON TREEPLE JHAY. COR BLIMEY, INNIT. JUST SMASH HIT RAWK SONG AFTUH SMASH HEEIT RAWK SOWNG FROM THE VOINES FEATARIN CRRRIG NICHOLS WHO IS RETAHDID OR SUMTHIN' ENTOITLED 'TREEEEUH ASS THUH NOIGHT' OFF THEEAH SMASH HEEIT ALBUM BOLOGNIA OUTBEEACK STAKEHOUSE FEATARIN FAWSTUHS AUSTRAHHLIAN FUH BEEAH AWN TREEPLE JHAY LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS FEATARIN THEH SMEEASH HIT RAWK SAWNG ENTOITLED 'GET FRAY' BOI THUH VOINES EEN 'SPOOAWN AGIN' BY SEEALVAHCHEEAH LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS. COR BLIMEY, INNIT."

[puni puni]

http://arkhonia.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/50-years-of-the-beach-boys-kokomo/

[Jonathan Blum]

Who cares about Australians? "LISTEN TO SEELVAHCHEEAH AWN TREEPLE JHAY, LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS WHALL WE ROIDE AROUN' ON KANGEHROOS ALL DHAY. G'DAY MATE WITH SHRIMP ON THE BAH-BEE. COR BLIMEY, INNIT.

"Cor blimey"?  Struth, cobber.  You left out the Wiggles, too!

BTW, the Beach Boys would never make it on Triple J -- the J's all about yoof, y'know.  Triple M at the outside.  More likely 2WS ("Good Times & Great Classic Hits!")...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Jonathan Blum]

They didn't have to all be about the SoCal scene because it was about what the band - The Beach Boys - represented. The Beach Boys had become a brand at that point and even when they were singing about Barbara Ann, they still represented the ideals of the American Dream.

...and Kokomo was clearly entirely compatible with what the "brand" actually stands for in practice, as shown by the way people accepted it wholeheartedly.

After all, Beach Boys country had already stretched from Hawaii to a sloop sailing the West Indies, with side trips to Salt Lake City and back-in-Louisiana-just-about-a-mile-from-Texarkana.  The Florida Keys aren't exactly a stretch from that.

In the end, you and I don't get to define what the Beach Boys stand for.  If we draw a narrow little box and say that that's the only proper Beach Boys stuff when the rest of the world isn't nearly so strict, our definition isn't actually binding on anything.  When the fly of our opinion meets the windshield of popular taste, one clearly comes out worse off than the other.

And at the end of the day, "the Beach Boys" is a big tent.  Their range is wide enough to include everything from "Chug-A-Lug" to "Child Is The Father Of The Man".  The world finally recognizes that these days -- people are talking about Brian Wilson's teenage melancholy and art in the same breath as "I Get Around".  And it's really ironic that fans who would scream blue murder if someone tried to define the band as only being the fun-in-the-sun mister-positivity stuff, are happy to play exclusionary games of their own...

Regards,
Jon Blum

[puni puni]

The world finally recognizes that these days -- people are talking about Brian Wilson's teenage melancholy and art in the same breath as "I Get Around".

Do they have flying cars all the way there in the 2040s?

[Jonathan Blum]

The world finally recognizes that these days -- people are talking about Brian Wilson's teenage melancholy and art in the same breath as "I Get Around".

Do they have flying cars all the way there in the 2040s?

Hey, I'm the guy who, in one of the SF novels I wrote with my wife, had them performing Hunt and Lane's reconstruction of "Smile" on another planet in a couple of centuries' time.  (It was 2001, we couldn't hope for anything better back then.)

But seriously -- it's happening, right now.  Read the reviews from Chicago, from the San Jose Mercury News, from all sorts of stops on the tour.  The highlights they cite put "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Please Let Me Wonder" right alongside "Help Me Rhonda" and "Do You Wanna Dance".  They're talking about Brian the visionary right up there with Mike the showman.  The revolution has happened, folks, we don't need to fight like we're losing...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Alan Smith]

Who cares about Australians? "LISTEN TO SEELVAHCHEEAH AWN TREEPLE JHAY, LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS WHALL WE ROIDE AROUN' ON KANGEHROOS ALL DHAY. G'DAY MATE WITH SHRIMP ON THE BAH-BEE. COR BLIMEY, INNIT. PEEOUCH AND ACCA DACCA AWN TREEPLE JHAY LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS. SEELVAHCHEEAH SMEEASH HIT RAWK SAWNG FROM THE ALBUM DIORAWMUHR THIS EEIS 'TEEUNER IN TEH BROINE' AWN TREEPLE JHAY LOIVE AT THE WOIYALISS. NEEXT UP ISS WOLFMUTHUH AND THE VOINES FEATARIN CRRIG NICHOLS WHO IS RETAHDID OR SUMTHIN'. COR BLIMEY, INNIT. AWOH NOH, TUGGA CALL THUH PROIME MINIEESTTAHH TUGGA ITS TOIME FOR SEELVAHCHEEAH CONSUTS FEATARIN DANYUL JOWNS AND CREES OWANOANONW AND BEEEN AS WEEL AS STEVE UHHWIN WHO WAS STUNG BY SOME KANA FISH. COR BLIMEY INNIT. BETTAH GET THUH BOOMAHRANG, WEERE IN FOR A FOIGHT TUGGA. 'KOHKEHMO' BOY THUH BEEEACH BOIS ON TREEPLE JHAY. COR BLIMEY, INNIT. JUST SMASH HIT RAWK SONG AFTUH SMASH HEEIT RAWK SOWNG FROM THE VOINES FEATARIN CRRRIG NICHOLS WHO IS RETAHDID OR SUMTHIN' ENTOITLED 'TREEEEUH ASS THUH NOIGHT' OFF THEEAH SMASH HEEIT ALBUM BOLOGNIA OUTBEEACK STAKEHOUSE FEATARIN FAWSTUHS AUSTRAHHLIAN FUH BEEAH AWN TREEPLE JHAY LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS FEATARIN THEH SMEEASH HIT RAWK SAWNG ENTOITLED 'GET FRAY' BOI THUH VOINES EEN 'SPOOAWN AGIN' BY SEEALVAHCHEEAH LOIVE AT THUH WOIYALISS. COR BLIMEY, INNIT."

 

Not bad, but we're not poms, we don't say COR BLIMEY, INNIT - we say "HEY, YOU KNOW?" (pronounced "A YA NO" with an upward inflection at the end)

[runnersdialzero]

i'm an american and you either live here (hell yeah), say "cor blimey innit", wear hats and eat peppers, wear different hats and hate freedom, create anime, or live in an area highly populated by dragons.

[Ziggy Stardust]

i'm an american and you either live here (hell yeah), say "cor blimey innit", wear hats and eat peppers, wear different hats and hate freedom, create anime, or live in an area highly populated by dragons.

[b00ts]

Except a crucial difference is that the Beach Boys construction of California played heavily into the American Dream mythology which was very much about a Westward expansion into some kind of perfect paradise.

Sorry, mate -- when I grew up in Maryland listening to Endless Summer, I wasn't thinking "oh yes, Westward expansion, these hot rods clearly represent my manifest destiny".  The appeal's way more basic than that, and not so strictly focused as to exclude Kokomo -- the whole fun-fun-fun in the sun-sun-sun bit was part of the package whether they were singing about Del Mar, Salt Lake City, San Miguel, or Honolulu.

Cheers,
Jon Blum

If you grew up in Maryland, why do you use words like "mate" and "cheers?"

Cheers, mate!

[Jonathan Blum]

If you grew up in Maryland, why do you use words like "mate" and "cheers?"

Cheers, mate!

Cause I married a proper Aussie sheila nearly fifteen years back!

As Sherlock Holmes once said after impersonating an Irish-American, "I fear my well of English has been permanently defiled..."

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Cabinessenceking]

I figured why I dont like this song.

It sounds like the theme song of some caribbean cruise ship company. Beach Boys is not cruise ship music.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I figured why I dont like this song.

It sounds like the theme song of some caribbean cruise ship company. Beach Boys is not cruise ship music.

But, but.. i thought Lenny said it was the real Beach Boys sound ? i'm confused.

[Autotune]

I figured why I dont like this song.

It sounds like the theme song of some caribbean cruise ship company. Beach Boys is not cruise ship music.

But, but.. i thought Lenny said it was the real Beach Boys sound ? i'm confused.

Typical Ziggy post.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Oh snap!!!! 

[Lowbacca]

Brian's 2 cents on "Kokomo" in 1998:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aL5GnkWqO1k#t=140s

[puni puni]

But seriously -- it's happening, right now.  Read the reviews from Chicago, from the San Jose Mercury News, from all sorts of stops on the tour.  The highlights they cite put "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Please Let Me Wonder" right alongside "Help Me Rhonda" and "Do You Wanna Dance".  They're talking about Brian the visionary right up there with Mike the showman.  The revolution has happened, folks, we don't need to fight like we're losing...

I remember reading a comment somewhere recently... It said something like, "how awesome would it have been if The Beach Boys got into acid like everyone else in the '60s?"

When The Smile Sessions was advertised as a legendary art rock album, the mainstream thought it was self-lauding. You show these people anything from those sessions, and they take it for granted as a few stoners following generic 1960s trends. They have no idea Brian Wilson practically invented the psychedelic genre.

It's going to be a long, long time until Here Today or Cabinessence get anywhere near the popular level of I Get Around or Surfin' Safari. Simply writing an article on a sacred cow group from fifty years ago and calling them geniuses isn't going to convince anybody that didn't already know it. Brian Wilson may as well have composed radio jingles with that kind of praise.

Every time you call The Beach Boys a surf band, another week gets added on until the day they become as credible as post-1965 Beatles.

[Autotune]

But seriously -- it's happening, right now.  Read the reviews from Chicago, from the San Jose Mercury News, from all sorts of stops on the tour.  The highlights they cite put "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Please Let Me Wonder" right alongside "Help Me Rhonda" and "Do You Wanna Dance".  They're talking about Brian the visionary right up there with Mike the showman.  The revolution has happened, folks, we don't need to fight like we're losing...

Every time you call The Beach Boys a surf band, another week gets added on until the day they become as credible as post-1965 Beatles.

That's a new fan's fantasy.
It ain't gonna happen. Ever.

I say just stick to the music and enjoy it. Let us not try to convert anybody into liking a singing group. It's not that relevant, really.