Student Demonstration Time

[Theydon Bois]

Brian also incorporated "Get A Job" into "Night Blooming Jasmine", and also the "Shortenin' Bread" riff into any number of tracks. I kinda doubt there was any deep thought involved there.

Aww, do you not think this sort of thing is ripe for analysis, then?  How disappointing!  To me, there are few things more interesting than why artists make certain musical choices, and what the results of those choices are.  Musical quotes in particular are pregnant with meaning, whether the artists mean for them to be or not!  To dismiss musical decisions because the artists may not have given them conscious consideration (and, in the case of "Student Demonstration Time", I truly believe that a little more consideration might have been in order) is to miss a trick: the decisions are still important, because they impact on the way in which an audience responds to and interprets the music.

And look at the way in which the audience has responded to this song: reading this thread, there simply isn't a consensus.  And I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb, or overthinking things, if I suggest that the differences between the ways in which forum members have interpreted this song might, at least in part, arise from the sort of weird cognitive dissonance that results from the combination of these specific words with that specific music.  (There may be other reasons for the difference of opinion, like the preconceptions that people may hold regarding the motivations of Mike Love, but I'm trying to extend some benefit of the doubt here.)

[Andrew G. Doe]

Musical quotes in particular are pregnant with meaning, whether the artists mean for them to be or not!

So... you're investing a song with a meaning that it never had, and which wasn't intended by the composer ? I'd call that shaping the evidence to fit your idee fixee.

[SMiLE Brian]

I think the lyrics were written to fit the song like " hey we already do riot in cell block 9, let's change the lyrics to fit themes jack Reilly has been telling us to do."

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

"I know we're all fed up with useless wars and racial strife, but next time there's a riot, well, you best stay out of sight"


I don't see any great mystery here as the author makes a clear statement that, basically, when a riot goes down, for whatever reason, you'd better run fast or the cops will pound your ass.

[Moon Dawg]

   "Student Demonstration Time" is, in some respects, more lyrically direct and straightforward than either "Street Fighting Man" or "Revolution."  Lennon didn't know if he was "out" or "in"! (45 rpm single vs WHITE ALBUM version.)

  Those who remove this track from their custom versions of SURF'S UP miss the point. If you remove ANY of the tracks, SURF'S UP is no longer SURF'S UP. You can add but not subtract!

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

  "Student Demonstration Time" is, in some respects, more lyrically direct and straightforward than either "Street Fighting Man" or "Revolution."  Lennon didn't know if he was "out" or "in"! (45 rpm single vs WHITE ALBUM version.)

  Those who remove this track from their custom versions of SURF'S UP miss the point. If you remove ANY of the tracks, SURF'S UP is no longer SURF'S UP. You can add but not subtract!

I personally love that the track come rampaging us out of the sweet lull of Disney Girls and those innocent kids with tootsie rolls in their hands who are now getting shot and beaten by cops at demonstrations

[Moon Dawg]

  "Student Demonstration Time" is, in some respects, more lyrically direct and straightforward than either "Street Fighting Man" or "Revolution."  Lennon didn't know if he was "out" or "in"! (45 rpm single vs WHITE ALBUM version.)

  Those who remove this track from their custom versions of SURF'S UP miss the point. If you remove ANY of the tracks, SURF'S UP is no longer SURF'S UP. You can add but not subtract!

I personally love that the track come rampaging us out of the sweet lull of Disney Girls and those innocent kids with tootsie rolls in their hands who are now getting shot and beaten by cops at demonstrations

 Agreed. SDT has always had solid standing with me.

[Cam Mott]

  "Student Demonstration Time" is, in some respects, more lyrically direct and straightforward than either "Street Fighting Man" or "Revolution."  Lennon didn't know if he was "out" or "in"! (45 rpm single vs WHITE ALBUM version.)

  Those who remove this track from their custom versions of SURF'S UP miss the point. If you remove ANY of the tracks, SURF'S UP is no longer SURF'S UP. You can add but not subtract!

I personally love that the track come rampaging us out of the sweet lull of Disney Girls and those innocent kids with tootsie rolls in their hands who are now getting shot and beaten by cops at demonstrations

Never thought of it that way.

[Theydon Bois]

Musical quotes in particular are pregnant with meaning, whether the artists mean for them to be or not!

So... you're investing a song with a meaning that it never had, and which wasn't intended by the composer ? I'd call that shaping the evidence to fit your idee fixee.

Not quite - I'm suggesting that the meaning may not have been consciously intended by the composer.  Unconscious thought processes can be telling, too.

Here's a case in point.  You yourself mentioned Brian's returning to "Shortenin' Bread" as an example of a musical quote that probably doesn't bear all that much examination.  But what was "Shortenin' Bread" to Brian?  It was a song he remembered from his childhood, music that took him back to a particular time and place, that carried with it certain resonances of the sounds that, to coin a phrase, turned him on as a kid.  Fast forward to That Lucky Old Sun, a semi-autobiographical work, and the riff shows up in a song called, of all things, "Goin' Home"!  Was that a conscious or an unconscious association?  Who knows?  But I'm not going to sit back and dismiss it as meaningless.

People have been doing this sort of analysis on serious art music for a lot longer than the Beach Boys have been around.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Here's a case in point.  You yourself mentioned Brian's returning to "Shortenin' Bread" as an example of a musical quote that probably doesn't bear all that much examination.  But what was "Shortenin' Bread" to Brian?  It was a song he remembered from his childhood, music that took him back to a particular time and place, that carried with it certain resonances of the sounds that, to coin a phrase, turned him on as a kid.  Fast forward to That Lucky Old Sun, a semi-autobiographical work, and the riff shows up in a song called, of all things, "Goin' Home"!  Was that a conscious or an unconscious association?  Who knows?  But I'm not going to sit back and dismiss it as meaningless.

People have been doing this sort of analysis on serious art music for a lot longer than the Beach Boys have been around.

Interesting that you have such a comprehensive handle on Brian's addiction to the "SB" riff when, unless my memory is failing (and that's entirely possible), I don't recall him ever saying word one about why he likes it so much. You're assuming, no more.

As for "Goin' Home"... your premise somewhat falls down because Scott wrote the lyrics.

[Theydon Bois]

Here's a case in point.  You yourself mentioned Brian's returning to "Shortenin' Bread" as an example of a musical quote that probably doesn't bear all that much examination.  But what was "Shortenin' Bread" to Brian?  It was a song he remembered from his childhood, music that took him back to a particular time and place, that carried with it certain resonances of the sounds that, to coin a phrase, turned him on as a kid.  Fast forward to That Lucky Old Sun, a semi-autobiographical work, and the riff shows up in a song called, of all things, "Goin' Home"!  Was that a conscious or an unconscious association?  Who knows?  But I'm not going to sit back and dismiss it as meaningless.

People have been doing this sort of analysis on serious art music for a lot longer than the Beach Boys have been around.

Interesting that you have such a comprehensive handle on Brian's addiction to the "SB" riff when, unless my memory is failing (and that's entirely possible), I don't recall him ever saying word one about why he likes it so much. You're assuming, no more.

Sure, it's speculation.  I don't deny that.  Nothing wrong with putting forward theories, and always happy to retract them if evidence to the contrary emerges.

As for "Goin' Home"... your premise somewhat falls down because Scott wrote the lyrics.

Well, somebody made the association at some point during the song's creation.  And I'm sure Scott has his own set of ideas and associations about "Shortenin' Bread" too, as do we all.  I don't think there's anything wrong with finding this sort of thing interesting!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Oh, agreed, this sort of speculation is fascinating (I do it all the time... "What If... ?" is a wonderful (and cheap) pastime !) and can be very fruitful (sure didn't do Einstein any harm), but I have to throw a small flag on the play when it's presented as possible/probable/cast-iron fact, as in " It was a song he remembered from his childhood, music that took him back to a particular time and place, that carried with it certain resonances of the sounds that, to coin a phrase, turned him on as a kid". Was it ? You don't know, I don't know... likely only Brian knows. Basic rule of any research - work up from what you have, not down from what you want the answer to be.

[TMinthePM]

I suppose what we're talking about here is the Beach Boys revolutionary street cred back in the day - and by extension today - which, given their "image" must seem preposterous. But again I would argue that that legitimacy is to be found within the cultural rather than political sphere, and that by that metric they stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of their generation.

Ah, but what then specifically is revolutionary in that body of work, particularly within the context of the upheavals of the late 60's?

Again, I would argue in favor of the cultural currents converging on Southern California and thus reflected in the music. I'm thinking especially of Friends here and its reflection of Asian spirituality - and the admonition to duck when the bullets start flying.