The Beach Boys: Music and Sexuality

[Wirestone]

Disclaimer: I'm going out on a limb here, but this strikes me as an interesting topic. If you have no interest, or if this offends you, please don't take it personally. I am also gay, so yes, that was a starting point. This isn't going to be a political post, but it will deal somewhat with sex. Proceed with caution.

So, that's out of the way.

Is there any straighter band than the Beach Boys? This might seem like an odd question -- more people would probably ask if there was any whiter band. But the guys actually connected closely to black culture in various ways -- the Chuck Berry ripoffs, Mike's love of R&B, and the eventual drafting of two South Africans into the band.

But it strikes me that the Beach Boys are profoundly straight -- both straitlaced and non-gay. (Or what's considered "gay" culturally -- think glam rock, soul divas, the Pet Shop Boys.) There is not a trace of camp in the music, and precious little irony. They are -- and I think this is the core of the issue -- non-sexual. Even as masculine a band as the Rolling Stones flirted with androgyny -- but the Stones were a profoundly sexual band. They were going to get down with someone.

The Beach Boys (with an exception I will get to in good time) were practically castratos onstage and record. They sang like a church choir. Mike, despite his multiple marriages, never exactly acted macho onstage. Brian was good looking enough, but scared. (And let's face it -- the most sexual of Brian's songs suggest he'd like nothing more than some good heavy petting and a milkshake.) Carl was distant. And Bruce and Al -- well, they weren't exactly overflowing with testosterone.

The exception was Dennis -- who by being sexual at all is the "queerest" of the group by default. Don't believe me? Who stalked around the stage half naked? Who offered himself wholly to the screaming fans? Who actually -- in the most caring and cute way -- acted like a stereotypical diva? It was Dennis. I'm not suggesting he was at all gay -- although he probably tried some weird stuff over the years. But Dennis was the closest the group got to a Jagger / Bowie / Madonna figure -- someone who could summon that raw energy onstage.

For most of the time, though, the group was as straitlaced as could be imagined. And, as I said, without irony or camp. Consider their opponents at the time -- the Beatles had Brian Epstein (and a political revolutionary in Lennon). We've talked about the Stones. Look at Pink Floyd and Roger Waters's onstage dramas. These were all British bands, of course, and all far more acquainted with irony and play-acting.

The actual gay connections to the group are few and far between. Jack Reiley, I guess. (And he did help write "Day in the Life of a Tree," which is slightly camp.) Brian loves Elton John with great devotion. There have been rumors about others. You might as well ask about the straight connections in the group -- they have married quite a few times, but if "Lady Lynda" is your idea of a passionate love ballad, well ...

For all BBs sing about girls, actual romantic passion in the songs is almost always idealized. I wonder if that's one of the reasons they have relatively few female fans these days -- the music doesn't treat women as equals -- it puts them on the levels of unknowable deities. (Dennis, once again, excepted.) And because the music is so sincere, so straight-faced, it doesn't attract the most diverse following. It mainly attracts other whimsical white guys. And musicians.

The problem with "queering" the BBs -- or taking a look at them through the lens of queer studies (an actual university discipline) is that there's precious little to interpret. The music says what it is, and it is what it sounds like. The "gayest" Beach Boys related song is without a doubt the Pearlfisher's take on "Go Away Boy" -- because of the gender switch in the lyrics -- but it scarcely registers among the heavenly harmonies.

Perhaps this is one of the profound shortcomings of this music. It doesn't relate to an entire sensual side of human experience that so much other music does. But perhaps that's also what makes it special -- and relates it to an earlier era of sexless vocal harmony groups and Lawrence Walk arrangements -- an idealization of music as something in and of itself, more beautiful that any human passion or individual orientation.

[the captain]

This is one of the best posts I've read here in a long, long time. And I'd agree that Dennis is the only one who gave off a sexual aura, really ever. You could move Brian or Carl into cute territory, but it's a mostly safe kind of cute. Both shy teddy bears. I don't quite agree that Brian's music is entirely romantically/sexually innocent, though, so much as sexually awkward. Brian's romances are the sort that end up a first kiss that accidentally lands on the nose--misunderstood intentions and brooded-over missteps.

[Pretty Funky]

The straightest band I can think of was The Moodie Blues and I think thats mentioned in a story I read somewhere. Not just in the sexual sense but as in the fact they didn't piss on forecourt walls, do drugs, booze etc or at least, got caught!

[rogerlancelot]

"Hey Little Tomboy" is an arguably gay song perhaps. Maybe not but it's the closest I could think of. How about that one love song "Friends"?

Seriously, they did cover "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" which Lennon wrote with Brian Epstein in mind (according to legend anyway).....

[Wirestone]

If they had actually released "Hard Times" aka "Rollin Up to Heaven" this would all be moot, of course.

[SG7]

Actually back in the olden days (when it was the Smile shop) there was a thread that spoke about the BB and gender issues.  I was the one that pointed out the many issues that come up in such songs such as She Knows Me Too Well. That yes the men were allowed to look at other guys and it was okay for women to get really upset about it. However when a woman was looking at the guys like that, not acceptable.

Anyways back to more of this topic, I always felt like Brian songs, especially the ones on Pet Sounds were almost like epic tales. The hero always has a tragic flaw and the resolution is that the relationships fail.

[Wilsonista]

The Beach Boys were the nice boys in your homeroom class whereas the Beatles were the exotic and worldly exchange students. The Stones were the bad boy seduction artists.  Girls were wooed and seduced by the latter two.  Girls thought of the first group as "just friends". The girls were, to the guys in BB songs, realistically unattainable. That adds to the idealization of the female gender in Brian's music.

[oldsurferdude]

"...I'd love just once to see you, I'd love just once to see you, I'd love just once to see you in the nude"

[Jason]

The straightest band I can think of was The Moodie Blues and I think thats mentioned in a story I read somewhere. Not just in the sexual sense but as in the fact they didn't piss on forecourt walls, do drugs, booze etc or at least, got caught!

The Moody Blues have a dark side. Ever heard the comment Patrick Moraz once made about Justin Hayward?

"He'd cut his own mother's throat if it meant he'd get ahead."

They used LOTS of psychedelics and smoked lots of weed. Cocaine figured into their tale in the 70s. They were just very private. Plus all the stories of them backstage in the early 70s being stalked by crazy fans who thought their music had "hidden messages" that would save them.

[Wirestone]

I mean, here's the thing -- can you actually imagine any of the Beach Boys (beside Dennis) actually having -- um -- relations? It's too horrible to contemplate. Now do that mental experiment with other rock stars -- it's a lot easier, isn't it?

[Dr. Tim]

Nookie, huh?

Anyone want to tackle the end of "Alley Oop" on "Party" where Mike does a mincing queen voice  about his dinosaur ("what a big brute he is")?

Which by the way was the level of frathouse humor you'd expect to hear circa 1965, so let's not get all P.C. about it.

[Wilsonista]

Actually back in the olden days (when it was the Smile shop) there was a thread that spoke about the BB and gender issues.  I was the one that pointed out the many issues that come up in such songs such as She Knows Me Too Well. That yes the men were allowed to look at other guys and it was okay for women to get really upset about it. However when a woman was looking at the guys like that, not acceptable.

Yeah, the Today ballads and Pet Sounds reflect Brian's skewed perspective on male/female realtionships. Clay mentioned the idealization of women. That's something you sometimes see in teenaged boys. Brian never really grew out of that. He would rather pine over the objects of his desire (Surfer Girl, Please Let Me Wonder, Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel - he comes right out and admits to the audience that he thinks of "his" girl as a deity in that song) than actually take the chance lest the reality pales to the fantasy (Caroline, No).

[Jason]

I'd say in the grand scheme of things, the Beach Boys were certainly a whole lot smuttier than a lot of the pop bands at the time. Appearances can be deceiving.

[mtaber]

How about when Brian "searched through (his) pocketbook" in Busy Doin' Nothing?  That was a pretty bizarre line at the time...

[BJL]

I've actually thought about this a good bit, because as an avowed (and rather radical) feminist, the Boy's song can be, well, problematic at times... 

But I think that in some ways Brian was really a victim of the sort of cultural processes which are usually discussed in women's studies and queer studies.  the problem, arguably, which drove the songs on the second half of Today especially, and also on Pet Sounds, is that the images and ideas and culture that surrounded romantic relationships in the early 1960s when Brian was growing up were just inadequate for actually having a working relationship.  Brian knew his relationship with Marilyn wasn't quite working out...I can imagine that it's because he wasn't treating her concerns as equal, he married far too young, and, as She Knows Me Too Well makes so clear, there were huge double standards for men and women, especially for rock stars and women, which led to them have skewed expectations.  But Brian, who was I assume unversed in feminist theory, didn't have the cultural context for understanding this, so to him, real relationships just sucked, and couldn't really be improved.  It must have been incredibly frustrating (as it is for thousands of young people today who are trapped in gender roles, acting out a script of relationships that rarely fits real people and real personalities...and, for a few, finding an almost surreal comfort in those old Beach Boys songs!). 

[Manchini]

I subscribe big time to the notion of "sublimation."  Particularly Freud's assertion that it is the transformation of the libido into art.  I think that art is primarily a product of displaced sexual energy.

Furthermore, I think this describes Brian Wilson (and even the other Beach Boys) just as much as any other artist whose creativity is passionate and prolific: Woody Allen, Robert Crumb (wow, what a family), Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, to name a few.  A lot of artists are not only extremely driven by lust and intense attraction, but their sexuality is manifested in different ways.  They have fetishes and desires that would be considered "strange" by most.  Of course, it varies in its degree and the Beach Boy's music has that innocent sort like some of the posters described.  The examples from Love You and Adult Child are obvious, but there's others too.  "Eating up her wild honey."  Or the line in "Sweet Sunday Love" -- "You can do something for me and I'll do the same for you."

And, like most have already pointed out, Brian Wilson's "hopeful about being hopeless" way of viewing relationships is what sets him apart from a lot of other songwriters at the time.

There's a clip from I think 1980 where he's interviewed, and I think he's talking about "California Girls" and says something along the lines of wherever he goes he sees a pretty girl and that's what inspires him and then he says "I always look for that feeling."  That's where it really comes through in my opinion.

[Amy B.]

This has been stated many times, but there's also the fact that Brian really never outgrew adolescence. I think that profoundly affected the way he saw women and relationships. It's why he idealized them, as if he was incapable of really getting close to them to where he could see them as human beings.  I think of Brian spilling hot chocolate on Marilyn-- HE was the awkward one, even though he was so much older. I think of that scene in the BWPS documentary where Brian talks about looking at a Playboy centerfold. He might as well be 13 there-- there's an innocence there, even though there's also lust. Same with his lyrics. He alludes to sleeping with women-- "When the two get together, uh huh huh huh huh huh..."-- in an almost self-censored way, as if the grown-ups are listening. And that teenage mindset accounts for his lack of irony, too. The Beatles seemed so much more sophisticated. Their humor in recording sessions seems so much less juvenile than the BB's humor. And the way they reacted to Brian Epstein being gay, not that they weren't homophobic in their way, but well, could you imagine the BBs in the same situation? For some reason it seems like they wouldn't have been able to handle it.

[Jay]

Speaking of double standards, I'm reminded of the story of Dennis and Karen(?) arguing to the point that Dennis threw out a bunch of pictures of them, because he thought she was sleeping around. This, coming from "The Wood".

[Reggie Dunbar]

I believe pronounced sexual suggestion and innuendo in pop music began with the British invasion.
And not just the Beatles and Stones, either. The Who, Kinks, Animals, Them, ad nauseum were a lot
more blatant. On our side of the pond Pat Boone and Roy Orbison were still scratching out a living.
The Beach Boys were wholesome enough to be typecast in their careers for years to come, while the
Euro's set the trends.

[Smilin Ed H]

Rock and roll is pronounced sexual innuendo.  Ask Jerry Lee.

[rogerlancelot]

The actual gay connections to the group are few and far between. Jack Reiley, I guess. (And he did help write "Day in the Life of a Tree," which is slightly camp.)

Is Jack Reiley gay? I never knew that before. To quote Seinfeld: "not that there's anything wrong with that".  

[Jay]

I believe pronounced sexual suggestion and innuendo in pop music began with the British invasion.And not just the Beatles and Stones, either. The Who, Kinks, Animals, Them, ad nauseum were a lot
more blatant. On our side of the pond Pat Boone and Roy Orbison were still scratching out a living.
The Beach Boys were wholesome enough to be typecast in their careers for years to come, while the
Euro's set the trends.

No offense, but that's ridiculous. What about Long Tall Sally? Or Tutti Frutti? Hell, Rock Around The Clock pre=dates both of those songs. Don't forget Good Golly Miss Molly, who sure liked to ball.

[The Heartical Don]

This has been stated many times, but there's also the fact that Brian really never outgrew adolescence. I think that profoundly affected the way he saw women and relationships. It's why he idealized them, as if he was incapable of really getting close to them to where he could see them as human beings.  I think of Brian spilling hot chocolate on Marilyn-- HE was the awkward one, even though he was so much older. I think of that scene in the BWPS documentary where Brian talks about looking at a Playboy centerfold. He might as well be 13 there-- there's an innocence there, even though there's also lust. Same with his lyrics. He alludes to sleeping with women-- "When the two get together, uh huh huh huh huh huh..."-- in an almost self-censored way, as if the grown-ups are listening. And that teenage mindset accounts for his lack of irony, too. The Beatles seemed so much more sophisticated. Their humor in recording sessions seems so much less juvenile than the BB's humor. And the way they reacted to Brian Epstein being gay, not that they weren't homophobic in their way, but well, could you imagine the BBs in the same situation? For some reason it seems like they wouldn't have been able to handle it.

I would concur with this one. A Teenage Symphony To God? That is a concept befitting a 14-year old, methinks. Well, I had those 'holy' thoughts and feelings at that age anyway. That is the age where you, as a man, cannot really think of a woman going to the loo, sweating and stinking, having a bad temper because of the hormones, et cetera. Women are divine, period.

I cannot see Dennis as a grown-up sexual being. Yes, he was very romantic. He got around a lot. But: the Golden Penetrators? No. Not very adult, perhaps only in 'adult movies', but then the actors in those movies aren't grown-ups either.

The Wilson brothers all fought with a stulted development of their personalities. Not very surprising, given their upbringing. It always struck me as weird and fascinating that their friends tended to downplay Murry's transgressions. Either they really did not know the sordid details, or they thought these were something you would outgrow easily, eventually. I myself am fighting to this day with events in my childhood that were not nice, to put it very, very mildly. I always try to forgive. But my own course of life will forever be 'coloured' by these happenings.

[absinthe_boy]

What an interesting thread.

The Beach Boys tended to cultivate a clean cut image, which as far as I can make out seemed out of date in Europe by 1966. Though I am going from documentaries and books as I wasn't around then.

That said, they obviously weren't as overtly sexual as the Stones or even the Beatles. Their songs are clearly heterosexual in that they tell of cars, girls, surfing.

Now...Pet Sounds...its clearly heterosexual in that Brian and co sing of girl troubles, but its also incredibly candid about how a young man feels. Most red blooded young men don't feel comfortable baring their souls like that. Though it doesn't make Pet Sounds in any way "gay" it does make it unusually sensitive.

[Loaf]

 There is not a trace of camp in the music, and precious little irony.

I agree with almost everything but this...have you seen Mike Love on stage? In his gold lame outfits and Coronation Street hairnet and mincing up the place? He outcamps Jagger.