“It was this whiny, cornball music, and we stated hissing and hooting, saying ‘What a rip-off!’
The only surprise surrounding the death of ol Brian Wilson yesterday was that he was still alive.
Politely described as “fragile”, Brian Wilson was tortured by a schizoaffective disorder, which included hallucinations and hearing voices, and which was not improved by how hard he hit LSD, pills and booze.
Amid all the praise yesterday, and justified ‘cause Wilson could write a tune, Big Sur my fav, not many outlets touched on how unpopular the Beach Boys were with actual surfers.
Which led me to dive into the Encyclopedia of Surfing for Warshaw’s take. He didn’t disappoint.
Surfers never embraced the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, or any of the other one-hit-wonder vocal surf music groups. Surf shop managers politely accepted Beach Boys promo LPs from traveling Capital Records marketers, then sidearmed the records out the back door toward the dumpster. Bruce Brown, John Severson, Bud Browne—nobody used Jan and Dean songs on their surf movie soundtracks. Surf magazine editors aggressively ignored both groups, even though the music and image was perfectly aligned with the clean-cut, USSA-supported view of the sport everybody was pushing.
Surfers themselves had invented the Stomp, brought the Rendezvous back to life, and named Dick Dale’s new style of music. The Beach Boys and the rest, on the other hand—this was being foisted on them by outsiders, like the beach movies. Exasperated surfers didn’t know where to start with their complaints. Jan and Dean at least looked the part—tan, thin, blond, barefoot; T-shirts and white jeans—but the Beach Boys were soft and chubby and fully geeked out in their matching candy-stripe button-down shirts. Both groups were in magazines like Teen Talk and 16. Plus all that falsetto. And the ballads. Put a gun to his head, and Dick Dale still wouldn’t sing a ballad.
More than anything, surfers’ disregard for the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean came down to authenticity—or lack thereof.
“I was riding in a car with a friend when we first heard ‘Surfer Girl,’” Los Angeles surfer and 1964 world championship finalist Mike Doyle once recalled. “It was this whiny, cornball music, and we stated hissing and hooting, saying ‘What a rip-off!’ Years later I realized how good the Beach Boys’ songs actually are. But at the time, it was like they were pretending they’d made it down the stairs at Malibu and were part of the crew—except they couldn’t even surf, and everyone knew it.”
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Surfs Up.
Brian Wilson busted by the surf cops! https://youtu.be/7RW8PFJTJJY?si=ipo8qHHVbymNq7n_
I never really thought of the Beach Boys as surfers(possibly tied to their gooey physiques) BUT more as promoters of the beach scene their lyrics projected. Their lyrics mirrored my parents’ childhood spent on the beaches of LA. And of course the ansgts of their eight track tapes that eventually failed…plug in the Stones and all was right with the world
Jello was better !
Early Beach Boys, corny vocals but still love those Chuck Berry riffs played clean on fender guitars and amps.
Look its not much different to all the white folks that appropriated the blues
or now days hip hop and rap , pop music in my eyes Has seemingly mirrored what is “happing grovey hip rad boss tripping or on trend ” with societies late 20 and mid 30 year olds, a bit like surf movies made by non surfers. For me I prefer Dick Dale and Hounddog Taylor as the backing track to my surfing life but when I was a kid the beach boys n Jan Dean painted a picture in my head of the fun side of hanging at the beach , which nearly 7 decades later im still doing.
Gimme back my wig!
I much prefer Brian Wilson’s music abilities than any surfers abilities from Socal.
Who woulda thought BG had so many boomer readers
Lots of great memories of hot, languid summer days at San O, long boarding and playing frisbee, with the sound of the Beach Boys wafting across the water with the barbeque smoke.
Feel Flows is my favorite Brian Wilson song. Pet Sounds is brilliant. He was a genius. Even the campy early stuff was sonically ahead of everyone else.
The interesting part is how the Beach Boys have been rehabilitated among older surfers.
I’ve always seen the surfing in the beach boys as an eternal youth utopian myth. The music and lyrics are very catchy but as a surfer it’s pretty obvious it’s the fantasy of someone from the outside looking in wishing that they belonged. If you are a kid that surfs it’s going to come across as corny.
But now we’re all old. We feel the same alienation and distance from our carefree childhoods spent at the beach that Brian Wilson felt when writing music. The outside in perspective isn’t corny anymore.
The other part is that popular “high taste” bands like Animal Collective made the Beach Boys cool with sophisticated art and music consumers. Dane Reynolds and What Youth made it cool to be a sophisticated art and music consumer and Beach Boys revisionism trickled down from there.
Great band. Great times. Now in the wind of history but made a contribution to music and a vibe never to be forgotten.
Brian proved all the haters wrong with his magical songs of the late 60’s early 70’s. Their songs in 5 summer stories were the pinnacle of the entire era. Nothing else has ever come close to that.
No doubt Brian Wilson was a genius songwriter, producer and vocal stylist but so was Sly Stone RIP.
Both done in by drugs and alco. Imagine they had access to good, organic cannabis and fresh mushies/psilocybin tabs instead of the all the lucy, pills and liquor. Lucy must be great for writing songs, but there’s clearly a limit
There was a lengthy period of time in my youth when I seriously thought they were the Sunkist house band
I just viewed them as the band that women threw their panties at while they played on stage.
Can’t stand their cringe music, I wish they never appropriated surfing…
I still remember the confusion I felt as grom when I first heard they didn’t surf. Or that only one of them did. It was all I ever needed to hear for them to be perma -shun.
They’re called the Beach Boys not the Surf Boys
May as well be « the skate park scooter fags » then.
Xox
You’re my little deuce coupe/ you don’t know what ya got
Its rather ironic that I’m taking a deuce while reading your comment.
Yeah…but Surfin’ USA? They didn’t even fucking surf.
So true yet everyday we are bombarded by alleged journalists who dont work on Wall Street, play professional sports, fight wars or dye their hair or skin orange. Can these journalists be trusted to report that which don’t participate in?
How accomplished a surfer was Dennis?
Hang On to Your Ego