Re: Surfin' USA
We have the demo on "Hawthorne, CA" which features a couple of different lyrics iirc. Could it be that Mike made changes before the song was recorded? I believe Carl mentioned in the BBC Beach Boys special from '74 (?) that Mike contributed to the song. The story I always heard was that either Dennis or a friend of Brian's (both stories were told) made a list of surfing spots for Brian who then wrote the song.
Anyway, it led to this hilarious edit of Al/Mike in a '04 documentary:
https://youtu.be/TU0uMNx2hQY?t=574 Mike has stated in other places that he did surf.
They all did try at one point according to Carl. But there's a difference between surf and being a surfer. And it's well known that Dennis was the only "real surfer". But that of course doesn't say anything about what happened with "Surfin' USA" as you don't have to be a surfer to write those lyrics, I guess, and I assume that's what you are saying.
Still, I think if Mike contributed to the lyrics, it seems most likely to me that he changed the demo-lyrics to the one of the master.