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Author Topic: General public reception to Surf's Up  (Read 19327 times)
blossomworld
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« on: December 20, 2014, 03:00:03 PM »

I've often heard that Surf's Up (the album) was the album that turned the Beach Boys back into a critically and commercially somewhat respected group, along with Jack Rieley's general presence. How true is this? Specifically, what did the young, hip crowd in 1971 (who probably rarely, if ever, considered the BBs to be artistically or commercially relevant before that point) react to its release? Was it (and the band in general) actually considered as relevant at the time as it's made out to be now? Obviously it did better than anything by them had in the past 4-5 years (along with having infinitely better album art than, well, any BB album up to that point), but did it actually boost them back into popularity as it's said to have?
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seltaeb1012002
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« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2014, 03:13:34 PM »

My Dad's not a huge Beach Boys fan. He was 14 when Surf's Up came out. He said it was the only (cassette I believe?) album by the Beach Boys that he ever bought. He loved Feel Flows & the title track.
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« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2014, 04:26:26 PM »

What always surprises me is that when making an album that seemingly was a concerted attempt at credibility, they went with the title of 'Surf's Up' - probably the most generic, throwback-sounding Beach Boys album title imaginable. True, the title track had taken on an almost mythic status among those in the know by then, but even still, I don't think 'those in the know' were who the BBs were hoping would latch on to the new lp.
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« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2014, 07:27:01 PM »

The press was great for Surf's Up. No "positive apologias" appeared in seminal publications like RS, something more like flat-out forgiveness and acclaim. Tom Nolan's signature two-part RS article followed swiftly on the heels of the album's appearance, further smoothing the way for the BBs to be "rehabilitated."

It helped a lot, but it didn't seal the deal. Adding Blondie and Ricky the following year was great for the touring band but it resulted in a step backward when CATP was viewed with puzzlement by critics and stalled on the charts.

As for the title, VDP (a WB company man at that point) was quoted at the time about how the WB brass had lobbied for it, having concluded that it would be a great boost to "pre-selling," which was (and to some extent, still is...) a way of generating buzz for new product that often pushed an LP higher onto the charts when first released.
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« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2014, 07:46:05 PM »

I loved and love theSU album, it is the Boys White Album.

Honestly, I think I was more impressed by the LPR and FF  more than SU at the time.
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« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2014, 09:17:10 PM »

Except for Jack's vocals on Tree, it's a perfect album. Yes even STD, which I actually like despite Brian's dislike of the song , according to an interview or two a while back.
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« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2014, 10:05:46 PM »

Interestingly, in the '92 Goldmine interview Mike said that he thought that SDT was "too rowdy" and presented the band pretending to be something that they weren't. Personally, I've been a fan of the song since I first saw it featured in the "An American Band" film.
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« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2014, 11:05:05 PM »

I was at the incredible Carnegie Hall concert a little over three weeks after its August 30th release, 7:30 p.m. show (there was a second one at 11:00 p.m.) on September 24, 1971 and Surf's Up was ALL the buzz throughout the Hall...It was featured in the brochure (which I know I still have in my house somewhere), and when we heard Carl sing Surf's Up for our very first time live, it was absolutely transportive...Very positive reviews, including this one (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/surfs-up-19711014). I entered college that year and saw them quite a lot on the college circuit in upstate NY during the early 70's, and their hipster credentials were clearly on the rise in the new Rieley era. My Deadhead roommates were converted and Holland and the Fillmore shows sealed the deal. Everything changed with the release of Surf's Up, but for most of us, it was already happening with Sunflower, which was for me TRULY a great surprise that came out of nowhere (I remember first seeing it in the record bins at E.J. Korvettes without knowing in advance that it was coming out).

C-MAN'S CARNEGIE HALL SETLIST 7:30 p.m. SHOW

1. GOOD VIBRATIONS
2. TAKE A LOAD OFF YOUR FEET
3. DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER
4. WOULDN'T IT BE NICE
5. DARLIN'
6. STUDENT DEMONSTRATION TIME
7. COOL COOL WATER
8. LONG PROMISED ROAD
9. GOD ONLY KNOWS
10. SLOOP JOHN B.
11. IT'S ABOUT TIME
12. MIKE'S TM POEM
13. FEEL FLOWS
14. DISNEY GIRLS
15. LOOKIN' AT TOMORROW
16. CAROLINE, NO
17. BARBARA
18. SURF'S UP
19. HEROES AND VILLAINS
-Encore-
20. DO IT AGAIN

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« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2014, 11:11:04 PM »

One thing I find to be very specific about Surf's Up is that it may be the only BB album completely devoid of actual love songs (that is, if we don't count Disney Girls as a love song).
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William Bowe
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« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2014, 11:42:49 PM »

Quote
Interestingly, in the '92 Goldmine interview Mike said that he thought that SDT was "too rowdy" and presented the band pretending to be something that they weren't.

Mike developed a particular aversion, retrospectively, to anything they had done during that period with heavy guitar on it. I also recall him criticising Bluebirds and It's About Time on that basis. Obviously his commercially motivated sense of what was appropriate for the band was radically different in 1971 to what it would become after Endless Summer.
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« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2014, 12:02:37 AM »

One thing I find to be very specific about Surf's Up is that it may be the only BB album completely devoid of actual love songs (that is, if we don't count Disney Girls as a love song).

Disney Girls is great in that way - it's not a love song, it's a guy wishing reality were like his fantasies. Actually a rather sad song.

And that's true, there aren't any love songs on the album. The only love song I can think of that was considered for inclusion on SU was WIBNTLA.

Amazing how each member wrote music that fit together the way it did on that album. Dennis didn't have a song in the mix, but listening to SU with WIBNTLA and 4th of July included, they fit perfectly.
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William Bowe
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« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2014, 03:04:39 AM »

Quote
Disney Girls is great in that way - it's not a love song, it's a guy wishing reality were like his fantasies.

Oddly conservative fantasies though, for a band that was making its play for the hip progressive FM market.
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gxios
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« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2014, 05:25:33 AM »

I was surprised that Surf's Up charted as well as it did.  I think it sold better because some folks thought the band had come up with a new surf song.  In the DC area, the record did not get much radio play.  I heard Long Promised Road earlier in the summer when it was a single, but only once.  I heard the title song on the hip fm station only once, and I was glued to that station.  I was at the 11/7/71 show at Georgetown University, and even though it appeared sold out and the crowd loved the new songs, they still kept calling out for oldies.  I think it was the live shows that turned the band around, not the records.  If I could get unbelieving friends to go to a show, they always wanted to go again, but if they bought any music subsequently, it was usually a greatest hits collection.  I don't think Disney Girls was totally out of place then-  it went over well in concert.  The Boomers at the shows could relate to it- it wasn't that long ago and 1971 was not a peaceful time.
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« Reply #13 on: December 21, 2014, 05:43:54 AM »

Except for Jack's vocals on Tree, it's a perfect album. Yes even STD, which I actually like despite Brian's dislike of the song , according to an interview or two a while back.

Why should Brian's dislike influence your opinion? Dennis didn't like "Susie Cincinnati", I love it, Mike doesn't like "Summer's Gone", I love it, Brian doesn't like SDT, I ... er ... think it's a good rocking track, I don't think it's anywhere near as crappy as many others think it is; I like it too.


Edit: Originally I had the letters SDT accidentally switched too, see below...  Embarrassed
« Last Edit: December 21, 2014, 11:14:23 PM by Micha » Logged

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« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2014, 06:07:39 AM »

Quote
Disney Girls is great in that way - it's not a love song, it's a guy wishing reality were like his fantasies.

Oddly conservative fantasies though, for a band that was making its play for the hip progressive FM market.

Very good point! Disney Girls is pretty close to the world view they were sort of mocking whenever they did Okie from Muskogee in concert. I think that makes this whole era in the history of the BB even more interesting. The cover art of Endless Summer is kind of similar too, picturing the guys in their scraggly 70s looks and then there's stuff like Be True to Your School on that record. For me it really works, in a strange way. There's something utterly magical about that chapter in BB history.
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blossomworld
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« Reply #15 on: December 21, 2014, 07:11:56 AM »

Disney Girls is great in that way - it's not a love song, it's a guy wishing reality were like his fantasies. Actually a rather sad song.
I've always thought that Disney Girls was actually an incredibly non-sappy song in a way; its nostalgia is so overblown that it becomes self-aware and actually incredibly bitter. But, of course, it was written by the guy who wrote Tears in the Morning, so can we really trust this intuition?

Anyway, Long Promised Road and Disney Girls were the songs that gave me the first little inkling about a year ago that the Beach Boys were more than a surf band, and I'd imagine that they must have done the same for teenagers and young adults in 1971. And I'm sure calling the album Surf's Up did help a little with sales from people who were expecting more surf music.
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« Reply #16 on: December 21, 2014, 07:57:54 AM »

Quote
Disney Girls is great in that way - it's not a love song, it's a guy wishing reality were like his fantasies.

Oddly conservative fantasies though, for a band that was making its play for the hip progressive FM market.

I always took that as an example of the disconnect between Bruce's sensibilities and the band's Rieley-helmed era. Not necessarily a conscious f-you or anything, but just an example of it. It still works perfectly for me on the album because it can be heard as almost ironic, or as a pleasant nostalgia trip ("things were like that and they were nice but now we're moving along") or purely literal, with the latter the only one that actually clashes with the likes of a "Feel Flows." And honestly, a little intra-band creative tension is a good thing, as long as it is as manageable as this one was. 
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« Reply #17 on: December 21, 2014, 08:33:15 AM »

Except for Jack's vocals on Tree, it's a perfect album. Yes even STD, which I actually like despite Brian's dislike of the song , according to an interview or two a while back.

Billy, I am so, so bad...but I had a great laugh seeing "STD" posted above...something I'd have done accidentally (given half the chance) and would have been crucified here for doing so...Sexually Transmitted Disease.  Oops...Yeah, I knew what you meant...
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Don Malcolm
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« Reply #18 on: December 21, 2014, 03:01:17 PM »

Let's ALL call it STD from now on!!  Evil

FM radio did pick up on this song, though (I remember, as does filledeplage, hearing it regularly in the fall of '71). So while it may have been "calculated" (and was Mike belatedly disowning his own calculation in '92??), it served a purpose...which was to get the BBs back onto the radio. The first stirrings of what became AOR helped the BBs a lot that fall: we heard SU, FF, LPR and DGNTW played (albeit irregularly) on FM during that time frame.
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« Reply #19 on: December 21, 2014, 03:45:04 PM »

The great breech between counter culture rock (which had now become the mainstream ) and pre-1967 "commercial" rock was healing by 1971. Carole King's 'Tapestry' was key here.
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« Reply #20 on: December 21, 2014, 04:42:28 PM »

As for the title, VDP (a WB company man at that point) was quoted at the time about how the WB brass had lobbied for it, having concluded that it would be a great boost to "pre-selling," which was (and to some extent, still is...) a way of generating buzz for new product that often pushed an LP higher onto the charts when first released.

Interesting! Thanks for that.

Except for Jack's vocals on Tree, it's a perfect album. Yes even STD, which I actually like despite Brian's dislike of the song , according to an interview or two a while back.

Have to disagree on that. Some review I saw a while back said Jack's vocals sound exactly like what you'd expect a dying tree to sound like. I couldn't agree more. While he doesn't have a great melodic voice, for me at least its chillingly effective.

I was at the incredible Carnegie Hall concert a little over three weeks after its August 30th release, 7:30 p.m. show (there was a second one at 11:00 p.m.) on September 24, 1971 and Surf's Up was ALL the buzz throughout the Hall...It was featured in the brochure (which I know I still have in my house somewhere), and when we heard Carl sing Surf's Up for our very first time live, it was absolutely transportive...Very positive reviews, including this one (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/surfs-up-19711014). I entered college that year and saw them quite a lot on the college circuit in upstate NY during the early 70's, and their hipster credentials were clearly on the rise in the new Rieley era. My Deadhead roommates were converted and Holland and the Fillmore shows sealed the deal. Everything changed with the release of Surf's Up, but for most of us, it was already happening with Sunflower, which was for me TRULY a great surprise that came out of nowhere (I remember first seeing it in the record bins at E.J. Korvettes without knowing in advance that it was coming out).

Would absolutely love to see scans of said brochure if you stumble upon it. Did the BBs ever play so much of a new album live in a setlist after this one?

The great breech between counter culture rock (which had now become the mainstream ) and pre-1967 "commercial" rock was healing by 1971. Carole King's 'Tapestry' was key here.

That sounds dead-on to me.
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blossomworld
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« Reply #21 on: December 21, 2014, 09:37:57 PM »

The great breech between counter culture rock (which had now become the mainstream ) and pre-1967 "commercial" rock was healing by 1971. Carole King's 'Tapestry' was key here.
So is that the main reason SU did relatively well commercially, while Sunflower flopped? Or was it Jack Rieley's leadership? The more socially conscious lyrics? Sunflower's abysmal commercial performance compared to SU has always mystified me, considering how similar the two are.
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« Reply #22 on: December 21, 2014, 10:03:32 PM »

Except for Jack's vocals on Tree, it's a perfect album. Yes even STD, which I actually like despite Brian's dislike of the song , according to an interview or two a while back.

Why should Brian's dislike influence your opinion? Dennis didn't like "Susie Cincinnati", I love it, Mike doesn't like "Summer's Gone", I love it, Brian doesn't like STD, I ... er ... think it's a good rocking track, I don't think it's anywhere near as crappy as many others think it is; I like it too.

Micha,  I wonder why doesn't Mike like Summer's Gone ?   Too slow ?   Too much like a ballad ?   Just because it was BW's song ?  Does he like Love and Mercy ??    I dunno, just seems to me the "meaning behind the lyrics" in this song represents  a lot of what the Beach Boys would/should want as part their history, (IMHO) as it plays itself out over the next decade.   
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William Bowe
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« Reply #23 on: December 21, 2014, 11:05:26 PM »

Dennis was aggrieved that they were dredging up old b-sides for new singles, and Mike wanted up-tempo material played at the live shows. Does it necessarily follow that they respectively didn't like, or felt particularly strongly about, Susie Cincinatti and Summer's Gone?
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« Reply #24 on: December 21, 2014, 11:18:20 PM »

Except for Jack's vocals on Tree, it's a perfect album. Yes even STD, which I actually like despite Brian's dislike of the song , according to an interview or two a while back.

Why should Brian's dislike influence your opinion? Dennis didn't like "Susie Cincinnati", I love it, Mike doesn't like "Summer's Gone", I love it, Brian doesn't like STD, I ... er ... think it's a good rocking track, I don't think it's anywhere near as crappy as many others think it is; I like it too.

Micha,  I wonder why doesn't Mike like Summer's Gone ?   Too slow ?   Too much like a ballad ?   Just because it was BW's song ?  Does he like Love and Mercy ??    I dunno, just seems to me the "meaning behind the lyrics" in this song represents  a lot of what the Beach Boys would/should want as part their history, (IMHO) as it plays itself out over the next decade..

He probably thinks lyrically it's too negative. What do I care! Smiley BTW, I like "Daybreak Over The Ocean", too.
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