General public reception to Surf's Up

[Smilin Ed H]

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.

I always wonder about this 'gap' when you have the success of the likes of Simon and Garfunkel and The Mamas and the Papas during this period. I know what you mean though, the BB aren't known for heavy guitar gurning which had - and still has - a huge following and is, in some minds, the definition of 'rock'.

[phirnis]

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! BTW, I like "Daybreak Over The Ocean", too.

Also, let's not forget that Mike's singing on Brian's "downer" songs (like 'Til I Die or Summer's Gone) has always been really good no matter if he personally likes them or not.

Come to think of it, he even wrote some pretty sad songs on his own, like Wrinkles.

[phirnis]

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.

I always wonder about this 'gap' when you have the success of the likes of Simon and Garfunkel and The Mamas and the Papas during this period. I know what you mean though, the BB aren't known for heavy guitar gurning which had - and still has - a huge following and is, in some minds, the definition of 'rock'.

The huge success of Bridge Over Troubled Water versus the commercial failure of Sunflower has always puzzled me but then I wasn't even born yet by 1970 and so I can't relate to whatever subtle differences there might have been in terms of coolness.

[filledeplage]

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

PS - spectacular post! Including the RS article that Don Malcolm referenced. And the c-man setlist.  First, I'm jealous.  And you really caught the feel of what was going on at warp speed in 1971, also being in college.  And bravo for driving around to see them, second, I'm jealous.  

This was so much "in the moment" that you could almost taste it.  The RS article says, "Wilson, Wilson, Wilson, Jardine, Love and Johnston form rock's only choir..." And, "Like their very best music, it is Light(ness) itself, fragile and transparent as sunshine."

Five years had elapsed since this solo Brian's Surfs Up, with Leonard Bernstein's "Inside Pop" rock-doc, translating for the Greatest Generation (parents of Baby boomers) what was really going on in rock music development and how it "related back" in many ways to classical music.  

Five/six long years, where listeners scoured every new BB LP back jacket looking for Surfs Up.  Where was it? Granted it wasn't Smile, with it's 37 year wait, but it sort of mythically took on a life of its own.  FM radio often asked the question.  When is Surfs Up (the single) being released?  It was "news."  

It ranked Disney Girls (1957) as second to Surfs Up and although I've always found it sort of "concrete stream-of-consciousness" it is contrasted lyrically to the more abstract musings of Parks' lyrics in Surfs' Up.  It also points out the Eco awareness, which even for 1971 was definitely a socially responsible move.

And Student Demonstration Time, was contemporaneously reported, even with the fake sirens, and somewhat controversial lyrics, became the "show stopper at their current round of concerts." (RS) The sonority of those sirens resonated with college kids whose classes would be cancelled during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration or rally.

Thanks, PS for your thoroughness, with the Rolling Stone article link and setlist from c-man. It really helps paint the contextual picture.  I've always held that this was their album "of redemption" and finally shedding the connotation of being shallowly embedded in a hedonistic mindset. And finally, beating the prior record company injustice, at their own game, and on their own terms.

PS - One for you!  

[blossomworld]

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.

I always wonder about this 'gap' when you have the success of the likes of Simon and Garfunkel and The Mamas and the Papas during this period. I know what you mean though, the BB aren't known for heavy guitar gurning which had - and still has - a huge following and is, in some minds, the definition of 'rock'.

The huge success of Bridge Over Troubled Water versus the commercial failure of Sunflower has always puzzled me but then I wasn't even born yet by 1970 and so I can't relate to whatever subtle differences there might have been in terms of coolness.

My hypothesis is that Simon and Garfunkel, regardless of whatever experimentation they did later in their career as a duo, were a pretty traditional folk-rock group who basically stuck to the formula they had. The Beach Boys, on the other hand, had alienated a pretty good chunk of their audience by the time Smiley Smile came out, and continued to do so even more with Wild Honey and Friends, so by the time more accessible (if completely deviating from their original formula) albums like 20/20 and Sunflower came out, their older audiences wanted nothing to do with them and the newer ones were left in the dark because of (I assume) lack of promotion. And again, Simon and Garfunkel had kept with the formula that made them popular while the BBs, even while making perfectly accessible and commercial music, had drastically deviated from it.

[Smilin Ed H]

Okay, I get you now. Bizarrely, it was the BB's experimentation that alienated them. Don't get me wrong, I love SnG, especially Bookends (though I prefer Mr S on his own)

[PS]

You may find this excerpt from a memorable review from Jim Miller in Rolling Stone illuminating as well:

"All of these tracks are executed with a certain aplomb that often was lacking in post-"Good Vibrations" Beach Boy music, as if the self-consciousness of such homogenizing enterprise as making a new Beach Boy record has been again overcome. As a result, the naivete of the group is more astounding than ever — I mean, good Christ, it's 1970 and here we have a new, excellent Beach Boys' epic, and isn't that irrelevant?

In any case, Brian's new stuff is great, especially "This Whole World" and "All I Wanna Do." Which brings up the engineering and production work on this album: it's flawless, especially in view of the number of overdubs. There is a warmth, a floating quality to the stereo that far surpasses the mixing on, say, Abbey Road. The effects are subtle, except for the outrageous echo on "All I Wanna Do" that makes the song such a mind — wrenching experience. And then there is "Cool, Cool Water," Brian's exquisite ode to water in all its manifestations, which, like "Add Some Music," is encyclopedic in its trivial catalogue of the subject at hand. "Cool, Cool Water" pulls off a Smiley Smile far better than most of the material on that disappointing venture.

The inevitable saccharine ballads are present in abundance. "Deirdre" and particularly Brian's "Our Sweet Love" rejoin the ongoing tradition of "Surfer Girl," although "Our Sweet Love" is most reminiscent of the mood of Pet Sounds. Of course there is some lesser stuff here, like "At My Window." No matter: as a whole, Sunflower is without doubt the best Beach Boys album in recent memory, a stylistically coherent tour de force. It makes one wonder though whether anyone still listens to their music, or could give a sh*t about it. This album will probably have the fate of being taken as a decadent piece of fluff at a time when we could use more Liberation Music Orchestras. It is decadent fluff — but brilliant fluff. The Beach Boys are plastic madmen, rock geniuses. The plastic should not hide from use the geniuses who molded it."




Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sunflower-19701001#ixzz3MfYBprGA
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook



http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sunflower-19701001#ixzz3MfXXuPuT

[bgas]

You may find this excerpt from a memorable review from Jim Miller in Rolling Stone illuminating as well:

"All of these tracks are executed with a certain aplomb that often was lacking in post-"Good Vibrations" Beach Boy music, as if the self-consciousness of such homogenizing enterprise as making a new Beach Boy record has been again overcome. As a result, the naivete of the group is more astounding than ever — I mean, good Christ, it's 1970 and here we have a new, excellent Beach Boys' epic, and isn't that irrelevant?

In any case, Brian's new stuff is great, especially "This Whole World" and "All I Wanna Do." Which brings up the engineering and production work on this album: it's flawless, especially in view of the number of overdubs. There is a warmth, a floating quality to the stereo that far surpasses the mixing on, say, Abbey Road. The effects are subtle, except for the outrageous echo on "All I Wanna Do" that makes the song such a mind — wrenching experience. And then there is "Cool, Cool Water," Brian's exquisite ode to water in all its manifestations, which, like "Add Some Music," is encyclopedic in its trivial catalogue of the subject at hand. "Cool, Cool Water" pulls off a Smiley Smile far better than most of the material on that disappointing venture.

The inevitable saccharine ballads are present in abundance. "Deirdre" and particularly Brian's "Our Sweet Love" rejoin the ongoing tradition of "Surfer Girl," although "Our Sweet Love" is most reminiscent of the mood of Pet Sounds. Of course there is some lesser stuff here, like "At My Window." No matter: as a whole, Sunflower is without doubt the best Beach Boys album in recent memory, a stylistically coherent tour de force. It makes one wonder though whether anyone still listens to their music, or could give a sh*t about it. This album will probably have the fate of being taken as a decadent piece of fluff at a time when we could use more Liberation Music Orchestras. It is decadent fluff — but brilliant fluff. The Beach Boys are plastic madmen, rock geniuses. The plastic should not hide from use the geniuses who molded it."




Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sunflower-19701001#ixzz3MfYBprGA
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook



http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sunflower-19701001#ixzz3MfXXuPuT

Oh, OK; I thought this was a Surf's Up thread, not Sunflower, but I see it's to become all-encompassing

[PS]

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

PS - spectacular post! Including the RS article that Don Malcolm referenced. And the c-man setlist.  First, I'm jealous.  And you really caught the feel of what was going on at warp speed in 1971, also being in college.  And bravo for driving around to see them, second, I'm jealous.  

This was so much "in the moment" that you could almost taste it.  The RS article says, "Wilson, Wilson, Wilson, Jardine, Love and Johnston form rock's only choir..." And, "Like their very best music, it is Light(ness) itself, fragile and transparent as sunshine."

Five years had elapsed since this solo Brian's Surfs Up, with Leonard Bernstein's "Inside Pop" rock-doc, translating for the Greatest Generation (parents of Baby boomers) what was really going on in rock music development and how it "related back" in many ways to classical music.  

Five/six long years, where listeners scoured every new BB LP back jacket looking for Surfs Up.  Where was it? Granted it wasn't Smile, with it's 37 year wait, but it sort of mythically took on a life of its own.  FM radio often asked the question.  When is Surfs Up (the single) being released?  It was "news."  

It ranked Disney Girls (1957) as second to Surfs Up and although I've always found it sort of "concrete stream-of-consciousness" it is contrasted lyrically to the more abstract musings of Parks' lyrics in Surfs' Up.  It also points out the Eco awareness, which even for 1971 was definitely a socially responsible move.

And Student Demonstration Time, was contemporaneously reported, even with the fake sirens, and somewhat controversial lyrics, became the "show stopper at their current round of concerts." (RS) The sonority of those sirens resonated with college kids whose classes would be cancelled during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration or rally.

Thanks, PS for your thoroughness, with the Rolling Stone article link and setlist from c-man. It really helps paint the contextual picture.  I've always held that this was their album "of redemption" and finally shedding the connotation of being shallowly embedded in a hedonistic mindset. And finally, beating the prior record company injustice, at their own game, and on their own terms.

PS - One for you!  

Thank you, filledeplage, I will accept your beer! And you are absolutely right - Surf's Up was somehow in the "news", whereas Sunflower just seemed to appear. And I don't recall seeing any promo for Sunflower at the time, and
I worked in a record department of a department store in suburban New York (Spring Valley) at the time. I distinctly remember the arrival of the single of Breakaway/Celebrate the News (and it was in stereo, which was just starting to happen with 45's with Hello I Love You by the Doors in '68) and that really rocked my world - we played it in the store over and over again.  So even though I considered myself something of a Beach Boys fan, I was now starting to hear the changes in the music at the same time I was going through my own (like starting to get high, etc.).  That's when I became hip to the Smile legend, beginning with finding the Jules Siegel article reprinted in a book in my college bookstore and the Boys on the cover of the Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/1971-rolling-stone-covers-20040512/rs94-the-beach-boys-46683587). But my alternative Beach Boys education was really instigated by living in the New York metro area and listening to WNEW-FM - especially with the wonderful DJ Peter Fornatale, who played them all the time and was to go to man for interviews when any one of them happen to promote in NYC.

To wit:

http://youtu.be/-VQvm0cbnAA

[PS]

You may find this excerpt from a memorable review from Jim Miller in Rolling Stone illuminating as well:

"All of these tracks are executed with a certain aplomb that often was lacking in post-"Good Vibrations" Beach Boy music, as if the self-consciousness of such homogenizing enterprise as making a new Beach Boy record has been again overcome. As a result, the naivete of the group is more astounding than ever — I mean, good Christ, it's 1970 and here we have a new, excellent Beach Boys' epic, and isn't that irrelevant?

In any case, Brian's new stuff is great, especially "This Whole World" and "All I Wanna Do." Which brings up the engineering and production work on this album: it's flawless, especially in view of the number of overdubs. There is a warmth, a floating quality to the stereo that far surpasses the mixing on, say, Abbey Road. The effects are subtle, except for the outrageous echo on "All I Wanna Do" that makes the song such a mind — wrenching experience. And then there is "Cool, Cool Water," Brian's exquisite ode to water in all its manifestations, which, like "Add Some Music," is encyclopedic in its trivial catalogue of the subject at hand. "Cool, Cool Water" pulls off a Smiley Smile far better than most of the material on that disappointing venture.

The inevitable saccharine ballads are present in abundance. "Deirdre" and particularly Brian's "Our Sweet Love" rejoin the ongoing tradition of "Surfer Girl," although "Our Sweet Love" is most reminiscent of the mood of Pet Sounds. Of course there is some lesser stuff here, like "At My Window." No matter: as a whole, Sunflower is without doubt the best Beach Boys album in recent memory, a stylistically coherent tour de force. It makes one wonder though whether anyone still listens to their music, or could give a sh*t about it. This album will probably have the fate of being taken as a decadent piece of fluff at a time when we could use more Liberation Music Orchestras. It is decadent fluff — but brilliant fluff. The Beach Boys are plastic madmen, rock geniuses. The plastic should not hide from use the geniuses who molded it."




Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sunflower-19701001#ixzz3MfYBprGA
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook



http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sunflower-19701001#ixzz3MfXXuPuT

Oh, OK; I thought this was a Surf's Up thread, not Sunflower, but I see it's to become all-encompassing

I'm particularly interested in how fans received advanced rock "news" back in the day, or how promotion worked its way into the hip rock culture at the time. I recall that the Carnegie show definitely had the feeling of a (high class) cultural "event" (and the program was like a Playbill booklet from a Broadway show), a gathering of those of us who knew that this was was something special (just the sheer number of musicians onstage! It's About Time was overwhelming with all that percussion onstage...) and not just about playing the early 60's hits - and I'm sure that part of this momentum was due to the arrival of those key articles in Playboy, Rolling Stone (Creem?) and to certain big city radio personalities like Pete Fornatale, who clearly always treated them as artists. Getting a feel for the differences between the releases of Sunflower and Surf's Up is essential, in my view, to answering the original post.

[joshferrell]

I was at the record store in town and there is an older hippie dude that works there and I was telling him that I liked the beach boys and he said that he didn't really care for them but that he liked "Surfs Up"..

[clack]

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.

One of the main disputes that led to David Crosby getting fired from the Byrds was the inclusion of a couple of Goffin-King songs on 'the Notorious Byrd Brothers'. At the time (1967-68), Carole King was considered by Crosby and fellow hipsters as a commercial hack. Musical identity had become highly ideological, as it would do again in the late 70's with the whole punk /New Wave movement.

1971 was a major transition year. It become ok to appreciate pre-folk rock pop music again.  "Progressive" rock itself became commercialized. The zeitgeist was suddenly ready to welcome the Beach Boys into the fold of bands acceptable to FM, AOR radio.

[bgas]

You may find this excerpt from a memorable review from Jim Miller in Rolling Stone illuminating as well:

"All of these tracks are executed with a certain aplomb that often was lacking in post-"Good Vibrations" Beach Boy music, as if the self-consciousness of such homogenizing enterprise as making a new Beach Boy record has been again overcome. As a result, the naivete of the group is more astounding than ever — I mean, good Christ, it's 1970 and here we have a new, excellent Beach Boys' epic, and isn't that irrelevant?

In any case, Brian's new stuff is great, especially "This Whole World" and "All I Wanna Do." Which brings up the engineering and production work on this album: it's flawless, especially in view of the number of overdubs. There is a warmth, a floating quality to the stereo that far surpasses the mixing on, say, Abbey Road. The effects are subtle, except for the outrageous echo on "All I Wanna Do" that makes the song such a mind — wrenching experience. And then there is "Cool, Cool Water," Brian's exquisite ode to water in all its manifestations, which, like "Add Some Music," is encyclopedic in its trivial catalogue of the subject at hand. "Cool, Cool Water" pulls off a Smiley Smile far better than most of the material on that disappointing venture.

The inevitable saccharine ballads are present in abundance. "Deirdre" and particularly Brian's "Our Sweet Love" rejoin the ongoing tradition of "Surfer Girl," although "Our Sweet Love" is most reminiscent of the mood of Pet Sounds. Of course there is some lesser stuff here, like "At My Window." No matter: as a whole, Sunflower is without doubt the best Beach Boys album in recent memory, a stylistically coherent tour de force. It makes one wonder though whether anyone still listens to their music, or could give a sh*t about it. This album will probably have the fate of being taken as a decadent piece of fluff at a time when we could use more Liberation Music Orchestras. It is decadent fluff — but brilliant fluff. The Beach Boys are plastic madmen, rock geniuses. The plastic should not hide from use the geniuses who molded it."




Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sunflower-19701001#ixzz3MfYBprGA
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook



http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sunflower-19701001#ixzz3MfXXuPuT

Oh, OK; I thought this was a Surf's Up thread, not Sunflower, but I see it's to become all-encompassing

I'm particularly interested in how fans received advanced rock "news" back in the day, or how promotion worked its way into the hip rock culture at the time. I recall that the Carnegie show definitely had the feeling of a (high class) cultural "event" (and the program was like a Playbill booklet from a Broadway show), a gathering of those of us who knew that this was was something special (just the sheer number of musicians onstage! It's About Time was overwhelming with all that percussion onstage...) and not just about playing the early 60's hits - and I'm sure that part of this momentum was due to the arrival of those key articles in Playboy, Rolling Stone (Creem?) and to certain big city radio personalities like Pete Fornatale, who clearly always treated them as artists. Getting a feel for the differences between the releases of Sunflower and Surf's Up is essential, in my view, to answering the original post.

Alright;


So maybe WB thought the BBs release would sell itself with minimal support? Seems odd thinking for a 1st LP release on the label.  
Or maybe they were just lackadaisical, having been waiting to release it since April or May?
 

[filledeplage]

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

PS - spectacular post! Including the RS article that Don Malcolm referenced. And the c-man setlist.  First, I'm jealous.  And you really caught the feel of what was going on at warp speed in 1971, also being in college.  And bravo for driving around to see them, second, I'm jealous.  

This was so much "in the moment" that you could almost taste it.  The RS article says, "Wilson, Wilson, Wilson, Jardine, Love and Johnston form rock's only choir..." And, "Like their very best music, it is Light(ness) itself, fragile and transparent as sunshine."

Five years had elapsed since this solo Brian's Surfs Up, with Leonard Bernstein's "Inside Pop" rock-doc, translating for the Greatest Generation (parents of Baby boomers) what was really going on in rock music development and how it "related back" in many ways to classical music.  

Five/six long years, where listeners scoured every new BB LP back jacket looking for Surfs Up.  Where was it? Granted it wasn't Smile, with it's 37 year wait, but it sort of mythically took on a life of its own.  FM radio often asked the question.  When is Surfs Up (the single) being released?  It was "news."  

It ranked Disney Girls (1957) as second to Surfs Up and although I've always found it sort of "concrete stream-of-consciousness" it is contrasted lyrically to the more abstract musings of Parks' lyrics in Surfs' Up.  It also points out the Eco awareness, which even for 1971 was definitely a socially responsible move.

And Student Demonstration Time, was contemporaneously reported, even with the fake sirens, and somewhat controversial lyrics, became the "show stopper at their current round of concerts." (RS) The sonority of those sirens resonated with college kids whose classes would be cancelled during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration or rally.

Thanks, PS for your thoroughness, with the Rolling Stone article link and setlist from c-man. It really helps paint the contextual picture.  I've always held that this was their album "of redemption" and finally shedding the connotation of being shallowly embedded in a hedonistic mindset. And finally, beating the prior record company injustice, at their own game, and on their own terms.

PS - One for you!  

Thank you, filledeplage, I will accept your beer! And you are absolutely right - Surf's Up was somehow in the "news", whereas Sunflower just seemed to appear. And I don't recall seeing any promo for Sunflower at the time, and
I worked in a record department of a department store in suburban New York (Spring Valley) at the time. I distinctly remember the arrival of the single of Breakaway/Celebrate the News (and it was in stereo, which was just starting to happen with 45's with Hello I Love You by the Doors in '68) and that really rocked my world - we played it in the store over and over again.  So even though I considered myself something of a Beach Boys fan, I was now starting to hear the changes in the music at the same time I was going through my own (like starting to get high, etc.).  That's when I became hip to the Smile legend, beginning with finding the Jules Siegel article reprinted in a book in my college bookstore and the Boys on the cover of the Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/1971-rolling-stone-covers-20040512/rs94-the-beach-boys-46683587). But my alternative Beach Boys education was really instigated by living in the New York metro area and listening to WNEW-FM - especially with the wonderful DJ Peter Fornatale, who played them all the time and was to go to man for interviews when any one of them happen to promote in NYC.

To wit:

http://youtu.be/-VQvm0cbnAA

That was a lovely tribute to Pete Fornatale, whom, IIRC, was duly noted, and to whom the show in White Plains during C50 was dedicated. And you nor I underestimate the "education" from the DJ's in the radio stations at that time. I guess the term "news" had a dual connotation.  The real "news" I guess was what people now call "buzz." The listeners and concert goers.  

At a show, like-minded people would be asking "Where is Surf's Up?" And, what is the "holdup?" A lot of people saw Bernstein.  I think it was that curiosity factor, just wondering how a classical conductor, would be wading on national TV into rock music.  So people saw Brian doing Surf's Up, solo, at the piano.  And I think that people bought and sought out the album for that one song, without even grasping what else was hiding beneath the surface.  

You certainly enjoyed a great "perch" working in a record department.  You could see what was the "eye candy" in terms of LP covers.  And the great radio stations that some of us could listen to, if located along the coast of the East Coast, at night when the signal was strong.  I could get WABC and WNEW (if lucky! )

Glad you enjoyed the virtual smiley  

 

[filledeplage]

Double post! 

Mea culpa!

It happens to the worst of us! 

[blossomworld]

So this is a little out there, but maybe it had something to do with the artwork? I mean, as much as I love the BBs' '67-'70 material, the album art is honestly kind of horrific (a picture of stained glass? Whatever the hell Friends is? Creepy guys sitting in a field playing with babies? I mean come ON.) Surf's Up has infinitely better cover art, and if I had been around then (I wasn't alive yet) I'm sure I would have been much more inclined to buy Surf's Up than Sunflower based on artwork alone, which is a big part of casual listeners' first impression.

[Micha]

So this is a little out there, but maybe it had something to do with the artwork? I mean, as much as I love the BBs' '67-'70 material, the album art is honestly kind of horrific (a picture of stained glass? Whatever the hell Friends is? Creepy guys sitting in a field playing with babies? I mean come ON.) Surf's Up has infinitely better cover art, and if I had been around then (I wasn't alive yet) I'm sure I would have been much more inclined to buy Surf's Up than Sunflower based on artwork alone, which is a big part of casual listeners' first impression.

Good Point. Actually, what I like least about Sunflower is the cover, and what I like most about the Surf's Up album actually is - the cover.

[Smilin Ed H]

I think the Wild Honey cover is one of their best - but Surf's Up, Surfin' USA, All Summer Long, Holland, POB and BW88 are better. I like the Sunflower cover too

[NickandthePassions]

Yeah, the album artwork may have something to do with it. A bunch of guys sitting with their kids wouldn't look very appealing to the hip crowd (I would prefer and actual large Sunflower on the album cover.) whereas Surf's Up looks dark, mysterious, artsy, and unlike any other Beach Boys album.  Even the sculpture featured on the album means "end of trail," or end of an era.

Which is funny, I don't see huge musical differences between Sunflower and SU, but they sure wanted it marketed that way.

CATP's cover art isn't very hip either, and I see a lot of musical differences between that and Surf's Up.

When I was real young (6-9), I listened to the Beach Boys all the time on my portable CD player. Interestingly enough, when my interest in the BB sparked again, those Sunflower/Surf's Up era songs were the most memorable and nostalgic.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

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

Absolutely THE BEST Beach Boys show I ever attended. Of course, had Brian been there... well he wasn't although there were rumblings among the audience that he was backstage and was contemplating coming out for a number or two-we could only hope. But they were, in a word, perfect.

[blossomworld]

CATP's cover art isn't very hip either, and I see a lot of musical differences between that and Surf's Up.

That is definitely true. What's also true is that CATP performed a whole bunch worse than Surf's Up chart-wise (#50 as opposed to #29, I think) and then Holland, with cover art in a similar vein to SU, did much better. The actual quality of the music must have had something to do with it--I think most of us can agree that Surf's Up and Holland are stronger albums than CATP--but it's strange how much influence artwork can seem to have.

[KittyKat]

I've never quite understood why people even care how the hippies of the late '60s and the pretentious twits at "Rolling Stone" received the Beach Boys.  The fact that younger people who weren't even born yet have come to enjoy that music is more significant.  People back then weren't the brightest, certainly not as smart as they thought they were. I'm also sure they weren't discussing what their parents and grandparents were saying about Bing Crosby back in the '30s. Weird how the boomers have staked a claim on how things are perceived, even at this late date.  As it was, people back then were not likely to ever see the Beach Boys as hip. The Four Freshman harmonies alone were weird and retro and suggestive of pre-rock music compared to other music that was around at that time.  They were white guys from a conservative part of SoCal, too.

[the captain]

I've never quite understood why people even care how the hippies of the late '60s and the pretentious twits at "Rolling Stone" received the Beach Boys.  The fact that younger people who weren't even born yet have come to enjoy that music is more significant.  People back then weren't the brightest, certainly not as smart as they thought they were. I'm also sure they weren't discussing what their parents and grandparents were saying about Bing Crosby back in the '30s. Weird how the boomers have staked a claim on how things are perceived, even at this late date.  As it was, people back then were not likely to ever see the Beach Boys as hip. The Four Freshman harmonies alone were weird and retro and suggestive of pre-rock music compared to other music that was around at that time.  They were white guys from a conservative part of SoCal, too.

This would get really broad and off topic quickly if I let it, so I'll try to be brief and somewhat on-point. But in short, the bigger topics you raise here about [what I'd call] insecurity about personal taste and the boomers' relatively immediate self-annointment as arbiters of all things cultural are really interesting to me.

Regarding insecurity of taste, I think everyone (to some extent) has this. We say "I like what I like and I don't care who agrees," but most of us are looking over our shoulders, asking our friends, touting those artists or magazines that agree with our taste, etc. If you disagree, think about everyone else you know. Do you see the phenomenon in them? If everyone else behaves that way, consider whether it's very likely you're truly the only exception (or whether you're blind to it in yourself).

Regarding the boomers, I don't know if it's just that theirs was the era when pop culture/rock and roll "grew up" so they got an early foothold with things like Rolling Stone, or what. But it seems that since their era, they have served as gatekeepers to some extent, or even the lens through which we're supposed to view things. We're all supposed to believe that they were the transformative generation, and some sort of authority was earned through this. I'd argue that every generation is a transformative generation. So I don't want to hear about how "back in my day, everything was great." It was great because it was yours. What matters to everyone is what they came up through, what they experienced. Boomers are just another generation, and they shouldn't be given outsized importance.

[clack]

I've never quite understood why people even care how the hippies of the late '60s and the pretentious twits at "Rolling Stone" received the Beach Boys.  The fact that younger people who weren't even born yet have come to enjoy that music is more significant.  People back then weren't the brightest, certainly not as smart as they thought they were. I'm also sure they weren't discussing what their parents and grandparents were saying about Bing Crosby back in the '30s. Weird how the boomers have staked a claim on how things are perceived, even at this late date.  As it was, people back then were not likely to ever see the Beach Boys as hip. The Four Freshman harmonies alone were weird and retro and suggestive of pre-rock music compared to other music that was around at that time.  They were white guys from a conservative part of SoCal, too.

Because the music of the Beach Boys was produced in a historical context. In 1971, they were not writing songs about surfing, hot rods, and cheerleaders -- they were writing songs hoping to connect to that hippie audience. I care because the Beach Boys cared, and that caring is reflected in the music.

And as far as being "white guys from a conservative part of SoCal" : with the exception of Hendrix and Arthur Lee, rock music of the hippie era was made by white people. Who was holding their being white against the Beach Boys? Furthermore, they were identified with the Los Angeles scene, not with the totally obscure Hawthorne.

Finally, as to the "weird and retro" harmonies -- in fact, those harmonies (in simplified form, granted ) proved to be highly influential on the music of the day, adopted as they were by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Who, among others.

[guitarfool2002]

Agreed this is a far bigger discussion than just a few lines. What I do see and agree with is this measuring-stick mentality regarding what is liked versus what is considered "good", or whatever the case. Ultimately a lot of it if not all of it comes down to personal opinion, as it should. Those debates have no winner. But I do see a level of hypocrisy, mixed in with selfishness, mixed in with a bit of importance as well...quite a blend. But with publications like Rolling Stone, some of what they have printed especially regarding the Beach Boys has been important to the history and to the dialogue. Their 5-star review of the box set in 1993 was to me a watershed moment in the public perception of the band which simply *had* to happen after a series of embarrassing mistakes and miscalculations which almost squandered 30 years or more of building up a cache among fans based on the strength of the music. Yet among the demographic, especially the late 60's/early 70's, there was and is an element of self-importance as to who gets the nod of approval versus who gets shunned.

Just ask people in the music business who have been in the business for decades what they think of Jann Wenner. That in itself speaks volumes about where much of the readership falls. So much has snowballed from there...and a lot of it can come back to whether Wenner and his employees thought an act was "worthy" or not, and how the history was written. Let me throw out just a few names: Chicago, Toto, The Monkees...need any more examples? Is their music any less "important" to listeners and fans as the New York Dolls or Elvis Costello? Or even "The Boss", who hasn't done much of note for the better part of four decades, yet can do no wrong in the eyes of some.

So "Surf's Up" or any 1970's BB's product didn't quite measure up for some critics...what were they promoting in their pages instead? Some of the bands being hyped at the time of Surf's Up have simply disappeared without a trace. Some of the styles of music from prog-rock to the idea of trying to push a 30 minute live blues jam into "new" artistic territory is all but laughable today, save for a few truly innovative musicians like Duane Allman. Some of the music that was following Lennon's "Instant Karma" hype of singles having the immediacy of a newspaper delivering the headlines as they were happening has survived simply because the *music* above everything else was good and made listeners want to hear it repeatedly. While others who went more for the message over the music, whether it be Student Demonstration Time or a song by Coven or whoever...no one plays them anymore. For good reason - they're simply not good songs. Yet "Ohio" and "Instant Karma" or even "For What It's Worth" were plain and simple catchy songs that sound great on the radio - FM or AM. No substitute for that, no matter how much Rolling Stone in 1971 wanted to push something that had no business being hyped.

It's a difficult thing to weigh. Ultimately I think it's up to the individual. If something said or not said by a mag like Rolling Stone matters to a person reading, then it matters to that person. I think taking the opinions on any given album as expressed in a magazine has to be weighed individually. Like the 5-star review in 1993 for the box set may have transcended its place as a simple review of a new release, similarly any review from 1970 that over-hypes whatever flavor-of-the-month band was in vogue back then has to be taken in the context where it appeared, and judged accordingly.

To have in the back of anyone's mind "I wonder what *fill in the blank* thinks of this music I'm liking so much" is such a disservice, it's beyond ridiculous to weigh that into judging an album or song or any work. And those who give that kind of weight to Rolling Stone or any other publication's reviews should consider beyond what someone else might think and dig deeper to find what the real fans and listeners think.

I believe Surf's Up did better than history would suggest. However I also think having researched it pretty deep that Wild Honey going back to 1967 was a much stronger and much better received project overall than the impression you'd get by reading the Billboard charts and assuming it was a stiff. It was not. Not suggesting it was "Sgt Pepper", but history in that one case alone has written a version which doesn't tell the full story of that album.