Track Talk #4: Land Ahoy (& Cherry Cherry Coupe)

[buddhahat]

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

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.

[I. Spaceman]

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

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.

[monicker]

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.

 

[I. Spaceman]

You honestly find surfing and cars to be repellent?

[Jukka]

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.

[buddhahat]

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

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.

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.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

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.

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.

[Custom Machine]

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 ....

[Jukka]

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

[runnersdialzero]

My cherry Coupe beats 'em off, coming up the line

???

[Jukka]

^ Indeed.

[Quzi]

My cherry Coupe beats 'em off, coming up the line

???

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

[hypehat]

Some times a cherry coupe is just a cherry coupe.

[runnersdialzero]

My cherry Coupe beats 'em off, coming up the line

???

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

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

[Gertie J.]

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.