Beach Boys appreciation thread | Page 3 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Necko said
I just found out that I’m seeing Brian Wilson live with my aunt on July 6TH as a late birthday present.

We saw Brian last August in Ohio USA.  Great show.  I was hoping the whole band would be there, as they were talking about doing that tour together.  But no such luck.  I have seen the rest of the band twice, once after a baseball game (huge stadium, they were at 2nd base, we were way up behind home team dugout), anda once last year at the Abbey Road on the river beatles festival.  both are good – brian because of his song choices (have you ever seen his ‘pet sounds’ concert movie from a show in the uk?), the beach boys because they have more voices, including 3 (I think) originals, to harmonize better. 

In the interest of vibes, here is some beach boys love:

their harmonies have to be first.  I personally think they surpass all other pop/rock groups in harmonies, at least quartet+ size.  It would be fair to rank harmonizers as duos, trios, quartets, quintets, and bigger, imo.

their style of beach music is so infectious, so carefree, so fun.  just listening to them is like taking a day off work (well ok, hyperbole there ;).

their songs are almost all upbeat – lots of love songs, hangin’ out songs, surfing songs, beach party songs, blowing off work songs…seems more than one famous 60s band hit pay dirt with a lot of love songs (ok, the beatles diverged rather far from “happy love songs” on the White Album some, but primarily their music is upbeat and more often than not, about love).

they were innovative – to repeat their signature sound, the harmonies – they went places with harmonies that nobody else had gone before (and few have gone since,, at least some of those intricate harmonies).

their use of mini-orchestras, with horns and strings as well as “modern rock instruments” parallels the Beatles’ groundbreaking arrangements.

it’s well documented that the beatles and the beach boys used each other as inspiration.

the beach boys were iconic as the “summer fun, party and make out” music – an integral part of the “era of love” (lengthening of “summer of love” to include the years 63-70).

many of the beach boys’ lyrics captured the mood they were written about incredibly well.  In particular, the teen-age puppy love stuff.  Far surpassing most of the subsequent romance music through today in terms of writing and singing what you know, as opposed to singing what someone else thinks you know.

are they superior to the beatles? I think not.  but then name a 20th-21st century musician/band who is! Just guessing I’d put the beach boys in my top…20 groups of the rock music era (which I define as starting approximately 1955 with Berry’s ‘Maybellline’ (and many others including Elvis) – but we could argue the exact starting point of rock for years – in fact I think people have been doing it for years lol).

in academia, one measure of the worth of a peer-reviewed paper is how many subsequent papers cite it.  the same goes for music – and if you value the beach boys by their influence on subsequent music you’ll be placing a high value on them.

just off the top of my head…

Necko said
I’m looking forward to this televised event in 2015.  Brian Wilson will be performing, along with former Beach Boys Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin.  Wikipedia also says that Ricky Fataar will also be there, but the source provided doesn’t mention him.

As of 2014, Al (and Mike Love, and uh, one other original beach boy, Bruce Johnston I think, along with David Marks and Blondie) were still touring as the Beach Boys .  So, I think we can eliminate the “former”.

Thanks for the heads up about the show, if you read my last post you’ll understand it’s a must-see for me 🙂