Student Demonstration Time

[Rocker]

Love this Leiber&Stoller song, which the boys even tried out during the Party! sessions. And I think Mike's new lyrics are very good as well. Never understood why it is so dismissed by most people

[drbeachboy]

Love this Leiber&Stoller song, which the boys even tried out during the Party! sessions. And I think Mike's new lyrics are very good as well. Never understood why it is so dismissed by most people

Frankly, because they misread the meaning of the lyric.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Most Beach Boys fans I met who don't like it tend not to like hard rock so much. Not a put down just in my experience.

Not a put down. I'm in this demographic. To me this is not Beach Boy music,  It gets skipped within seconds.

So you have them pigeonholed just like most of John Q Public? Thought we hard-cores were better than that.

No, I just hate this sort of blues / rock. I find it mind numbingly boring.

So I'll rephrase. This is not the sort of music I listen to the Beach Boys for. This is not the sort of music I personally want to hear the Beach Boys doing. I am a Beach Boys fan because they haven't had a career making this type of music. They've had a career making the type of music I like. (The way I put it first was simpler)

[TMinthePM]

It also sits quite nicely between and counterpoints the aching nostalgia of Disney Girls and the cosmic epic of Feel Flows. 

[TMinthePM]

S.N. - "No, I just hate this sort of blues / rock. I find it mind numbingly boring."

So is it the blues that turns you off?

[Iron Horse-Apples]

S.N. - "No, I just hate this sort of blues / rock. I find it mind numbingly boring."

So is it the blues that turns you off?

Yes. To me it all sounds the same. Very repetitive and simple. I'm more a baroque man than a rock man

[TMinthePM]

I can dig that. But I don't think I can live without the Stones early redefinition of the blues.

[Dr. Tim]

I have always dug the sound of this track, big fat and distorted, and yes it is a big left turn for the Boys sonically.  In the CD book Brian still insists he doesn't like it.

Lyrically it isn't as paranoid as "For What It's Worth" or as cynical as "Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag"*, but then I was never expecting sociopolitical polemics from Mike or anyone else in this band, so the lyrics go right by me.  Having Mike sing through a megaphone is the genius touch.  Cool ride-out, too.  I actually like the sirens and noise, that is what some of those collegiate protest dins sounded like.  Mr. Desper's note explains much.  Though he said he's saving how he got that fuzzed-out guitar sound for his new book (after telling me I was wrong to assume they just plugged the fuzzboxes directly into the soundboard, which is what 10cc did to copy this effect).

*Little known fact: Country Joe WAS/is a Vietnam vet.  He was stationed there earlier in the 60s, before the big escalation. So he knows whereof he sings.  He wears his own fatigues ("McDonald") performing at Woodstock.

[Rocky Raccoon]

"Surfing and girls were OKAY but there was a war going on."  And this song takes zero political stance.  It makes reference to contemporary issues and riots but that's the end of it.  The only opinion the song gives is to stay away from riots which doesn't make much sense.  For instance, the Kent State massacre began as a peaceful protest until the police got involved.  Four people murdered, several others badly injured?  Whoops!  Guess they should have avoided that.  I'm not saying Mike was being selfish but I don't think he was as well informed as he would like to think he was.  If he was trying to make a statement, he failed.

[ontor pertawst]

It kinda sounds like "Trouble Every Day" drained of all bile and meaning and delivered well past it's sell-by date.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=girnJH7tvpM

I wonder if there's a connection.

Starting out with Berkeley Free Speech
and later on at People's Park...

 it's the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination --
Yellin' "You can't understand me!"
'N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity

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

No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

[Micha]

Most Beach Boys fans I met who don't like it tend not to like hard rock so much. Not a put down just in my experience.

Not a put down. I'm in this demographic. To me this is not Beach Boy music,  It gets skipped within seconds.

So you have them pigeonholed just like most of John Q Public? Thought we hard-cores were better than that.

No, I just hate this sort of blues / rock. I find it mind numbingly boring.

So I'll rephrase. This is not the sort of music I listen to the Beach Boys for. This is not the sort of music I personally want to hear the Beach Boys doing. I am a Beach Boys fan because they haven't had a career making this type of music. They've had a career making the type of music I like. (The way I put it first was simpler)

Music about surfing, with lots of falsetto!

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Music with very complex harmonic writing, music with counterpoint. music with beautiful, unpredictable melodies

[Mike's Beard]

I always thought Mike's message was clear, he's condemning the cops that used heavy handed tactics at what was meant to be a peaceful protest.

[TMinthePM]

"Four martyrs earned a new degree - The Bachelor of Bullets"

Sounds like a statement to me.

[Nicko1234]

"Surfing and girls were OKAY but there was a war going on."  And this song takes zero political stance.  It makes reference to contemporary issues and riots but that's the end of it.  The only opinion the song gives is to stay away from riots which doesn't make much sense.  For instance, the Kent State massacre began as a peaceful protest until the police got involved.  Four people murdered, several others badly injured?  Whoops!  Guess they should have avoided that.  I'm not saying Mike was being selfish but I don't think he was as well informed as he would like to think he was.  If he was trying to make a statement, he failed.

Sorry but it is absolutely obvious that the song is a criticism of trigger happy guards. Blatantly.

[Rocker]

Most Beach Boys fans I met who don't like it tend not to like hard rock so much. Not a put down just in my experience.

Not a put down. I'm in this demographic. To me this is not Beach Boy music,  It gets skipped within seconds.

So you have them pigeonholed just like most of John Q Public? Thought we hard-cores were better than that.

No, I just hate this sort of blues / rock. I find it mind numbingly boring.

So I'll rephrase. This is not the sort of music I listen to the Beach Boys for. This is not the sort of music I personally want to hear the Beach Boys doing. I am a Beach Boys fan because they haven't had a career making this type of music. They've had a career making the type of music I like. (The way I put it first was simpler)

I guess Mike would be the first to tell you that this kind of blues/rock was one of the big influences on the band (obviously including the song Riot In Cell Block #9). Of course STD has a "modern" sound but basically it makes total sense to me musically to be done by the boys.
Anyway, if you don't like it or if you don't want to hear this from the Beach Boys that's ok. 

[Cam Mott]

"Surfing and girls were OKAY but there was a war going on."  And this song takes zero political stance.  It makes reference to contemporary issues and riots but that's the end of it.  The only opinion the song gives is to stay away from riots which doesn't make much sense.  For instance, the Kent State massacre began as a peaceful protest until the police got involved.  Four people murdered, several others badly injured?  Whoops!  Guess they should have avoided that.  I'm not saying Mike was being selfish but I don't think he was as well informed as he would like to think he was.  If he was trying to make a statement, he failed.

Sorry but it is absolutely obvious that the song is a criticism of trigger happy guards. Blatantly.

I agree, it's clearly critical of over-reaction of authorities.

[Daniel]

Love this Leiber&Stoller song, which the boys even tried out during the Party! sessions. And I think Mike's new lyrics are very good as well. Never understood why it is so dismissed by most people

Incidentally, im looking at the original Stateside pressing of Surfs Up now, and it lists the last song on side one as Riot In Cell Block Number Nine (Lieber-Stoller)

[halblaineisgood]

.

[Banana]

I don't dislike it as much as I used to.  I'll listen to it, now, when in years past it would get skipped.  I think the song sounds a bit clunky/clumsy.  I've never had a big problem with Mike's lyrics.  All-in-all...I can think of worse tracks...but this will always be near my personal bottom.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

but this will always be near my personal bottom.

This sums it up perfectly. Near my personal bottom indeed!

[TMinthePM]

                                                                             "Rock n Roll will always be,
                                                                               It'll go down in history...

[Cam Mott]

I hear there was even radio play!

It made it to #7 in Boston.

[filledeplage]

I hear there was even radio play!

It made it to #7 in Boston.

Imagine that!

Cam -   

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Rockin track, Mike's vocals sound cool, Carl rips on guitar, Dennis pounds the drums, sits perfectly between Disney Girls and Feel Flows.... I have no clue what there's not to like..... other than the annoying sirens.