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The Very Best of the Beach Boys: Sounds of Summer CD lives up to the firstborn half of it is title, though not the second. The Beach Boys recorded tons of albums for Capitol long before The Beatles appeared on the scene and forced everyone in rock to either improve their game or get out. Those albums are full of songs when it comes to surfing, cars and girls. They’re so simple and so heartfelt they work on a generation. I for one didn’t care much for cars. I was nowhere near the ocean so I’ve never (yet) gone surfing (but I did spend all my summers at the local swimming club, so that’s as close as I could come). But “girls” portion of the equation made the songs universal. They could have filled a CD with those old, almost lost songs, but kept to the “best” theme. In later years, consciously competing with The Beatles (while others such as The Ventures and Jan and Dean stopped making records), their recordings became much more ambitious, even though still refined and tasteful in ways that spoke to the teenage heart. This CD holds the apparent summer songs such as Surfin’ Safari, Surfin’ USA and Surfer Girl. Many of the songs could just as effortlessly take place for the duration of the school year (Little Deuce Coupe), but speak to summer and Fun, Fun, Fun… It’s easy to forget now, but Pet Sounds came out right after Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and stole a lot of thunder. The Beatles came out with the initial “artistic breakthrough” album, and yet The Beach Boys followed right on their footsteps. (And Paul McCartney even now describes himself as England’s Number One Beach Boys fan.) While The Beatles got into metaphysics and heavy stuff like that, Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys held their artistic ambition tuned to the worries of intermediate teenagers, with songs such as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder),” and Caroline. Yet it’s hard to imagine any individual not being capable to listen to I Get Around, Dance, Dance, Dance and Good Vibrations and not merely having fun. Yes, I realize there are humans who are put off by the whole sound, because they’re think they’re either more sophisticated or down to world or something. Their loss. And in this day and age of celebrating girls who either look like ugly boys or like they’re attempting to be global super models, it’s hard to conceive of boys glorifying the look of California Girls as they were back then… wearing bikinis, but not showing their ass cracks or butt cheeks. Heck, when I was in high school I was anything but a school spirit advocate — yet I love to sing along with Be True to Your School. Lots of my old classmates would laugh at that. This is not the definitive Beach Boys collection. There are a few gaps. Why was Girls on the Beach excluded but Do It Again included? Where’s Don’t Hurt My Little Sister? Then I Kissed Her? Even Surf’s Up? |
