The Dichotomy of The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are extremely underrated in my opinion, at least when it comes to how my generation views them. Though maybe the word I am looking for isn't underrated but instead misunderstood. I can't think of another band who epitomizes the struggle between crass commercialism and high art as much as The Beach Boys. The power struggle between Brian Wilson and Mike Love over the sound, direction and presentation of the Beach Boys is just as important to the band's legacy as the music itself. There are 2 Beach Boys: First there is the Mike Love version which just sings about girls and fun in the sun and can seem pretty cheesy and dated at times, especially to those who were born decades after the 60s. Then there is the Brian Wilson version of the band which created music that could compete with the Beatles at their peak so much so that Paul McCartney himself has declared Pet Sounds to be the greatest album in pop music history. The music Brian made is some of the most emotionally resonate and beautifully timeless music ever. Both versions of the Beach Boys are real and they are constantly in competition with each other. I don't just mean that metaphorically, I also mean literally! There are 2 touring version of the Beach Boys. The Mike Love lead version which focuses more on the group's early 60s material and the Brian Wilson version, which performs mid to late 60s Beach Boys songs especially from the Pet Sounds album which is usually performed fully or close to fully whenever Brian performs live. This split within the group ranks has left the Beach Boys with a mixed legacy that doesn't reach as many people from my generation as say The Beatles, the Doors or Led Zeppelin, which is a shame because at their best no one is better than The Beach Boys.

Now something else that can be said about my generation and The Beach Boys is that the Beach Boys' music and aesthetic/image have been part of our lives since we were all born. The Beach Boys' music was so prevalent from the moment we were born that it almost feels like sonic wallpaper. In fact as a young kid I was pretty cognizant of who the Beach Boys were and what they sounded like whereas The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and The Who I had heard of possibly but I didn't know their music until I got older. A big reason is that The Beach Boys' music and presence saturated pop culture in the 80s and 90s. I remember they were on Full House and their music was played a lot on that show too. I remember they were on Home Improvement where you discovered the next door neighbor Wilson was related to the Wilson brothers in The Beach Boys. I also have very distinct memories of hearing Fun, Fun, Fun as part of the TV ads for Saved by the Bell's summer vacation episodes in the early '90s and Barbara Ann was also used in one episode as well.

Also everyone in my generation remembers how we first heard Kokomo and it wasn't through Cocktail or MTV/VH1. We all heard Kokomo through Nickelodeon. The Muppets made a music video based around the song Kokomo that Nickelodeon would play all the time in between shows, usually during the summer.

The Simpsons played their music too including my favorite episode of the series "Summer at 4 1/2 Feet" which was about how Lisa had no real friends and was an outsider until she meets new friends on vacation who think she's cool. I connected deeply with this episode at the time. The episode ended with All Summer Long which is now one of my favorite songs by The Beach Boys and mostly because it always reminds me of that episode of The Simpsons.

I also remember people older than my parents loving the Beach Boys such as Jan, a good friend of my grandparents, and My Aunt Michelle's mother also really loves the Beach Boys too. My mom also listened to oldies radio a lot, which played the Beach Boys all the time back then and I could recognize the Beach Boys songs immediately unlike most of the other music played on oldies stations in the '90s.

The music and image the Beach Boys projected during this period was the Mike Love led version of the band. This version of the band projected fun in the sun songs wrapped up in lots of Baby Boomer nostalgia of how things used to be better. It was an image that was successful and embraced by a lot of people but it made the Beach Boys feel one dimensional and uncool to me and those of my generation once we started growing up and getting into pop music, new and old.

That's the thing about the Beach Boys, they came to popularity a few years before the British Invasion so they very much represent that pre-classic rock period of popular music that made them seem less cool than all the rock bands who came after them in the '60s. I remember as I was starting to get into Classic Rock around 2002 I still had little interest in The Beach Boys besides Kokomo (love that sax!) Even to the guys who liked classic rock or alternative rock in my high school the Beach Boys were not cool and most of the girls liked modern pop music anyway and didn't bother with the 60s period.

Still as I read more and more about rock music and its history the Beach Boys kept coming up, especially this album called Pet Sounds that was meant to challenge the Beatles for supremacy in pop music. I was starting to read about how Brian Wilson was this mad pop music genius who for a brief spell made some of the greatest pop music in the history of genre before going off the deep end. I also remember watching 50 First Dates with my parents senior year of high school and Wouldn't it Be Nice was played all the time in the film and I remember kind of liking it. As I kept making my way through more and more classic rock and oldies it was slowly becoming clear that I needed to give The Beach Boys a listen.

So Freshmen year of college I remember not asking for much for my birthday except The Beach Boys Greatest Hits Vol. 1 which was a single disc comp of their 20 biggest hits in chronological order. As I have mentioned before besides the 90s alternative bands I liked going the route of greatest hits CDs when getting into a band since they were more digestible and low risk. I knew I would like most of the hits I had heard and then see if I liked it enough to want to explore deeper into their catalogue later. Plus this was all before iTunes for me so CDs were how I listened to music and having 1 or 2 CDs with everything I liked by a band was much more convenient than having to carry around all their albums.

It was interesting to hear these 20 songs in a condensed format where it started with the most stereotypical Beach Boys songs like Sufin' Safari and Surfin' U.S.A. and see them progress to Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations. Now within context I could actually hear the growth, musicianship and ambition evolve over the course of the 60s. California Girls I knew but now with it closer to the Pet Sounds songs I could hear how much more complex and beautiful the song was compared to say Little Deuce Coup. The earlier songs were fun for what they were but I feel the Beach Boys really turned a corner after the Beatles arrived with songs like I Get Around and Help Me Rhonda.

For years though I just stuck to that Greatest Hits. In fact it was 8 more years when I was living in D.C. with my whole family again in 2012 that I took the next step with The Beach Boys and asked for Greatest Hits Vol. 2 which covered the 60s in chronological order like Vol. 1 but went deeper with lesser known songs that either charted lower or were beloved album cuts. If anything Vol. 2 was more of a revelation than Vol. 1 had been because here I heard how much more depth the group was capable of. The first song In My Room was early Beach Boys sure but it was also not about girls, cars and surfing. It was about loneliness and self imposed isolation which for someone like me who was trapped in the closet for a while I connected quickly to what Brian was getting at. There were more ballads overall on Vol. 2 like The Warmth of The Sun and Don't Worry Baby which were absolutely gorgeous and whose harmonies gave me goosebumps. Then I heard more of the post Pet Sounds material which was much different from their earlier material. In particular I loved Wild Honey and Darlin', which were two songs sung by Carl Wilson whose vocals were much more soulful and bluesy than I expected from the group. I also loved the late 60s production that sounded very different from their earlier material.

Now I was really beginning to understand what the hype was all about and that Brian Wilson was a much more versatile and emotional songwriter than I had given him credit for. So for my next birthday I asked for Volume 3 which covered the group's forgotten material from the 70s. The music on Volume 3 sometimes didn't even sound like The Beach Boys and I was blown away by how much the group really evolved with the times during the early 70s. In particular I loved Long Promised Road by Carl Wilson who not only gave another great vocal performance but I was in love with the song's production and arrangement. Long Promised Road was so atmospheric and had a great twinkling synth moment followed by a distorted guitar solo which is something you don't typically associate with The Beach Boys. Whenever I played this song around other people they never were able to guess it was The Beach Boys until I told them.

Then there was Till I Die which blew me away! The song was written by Brian during a particular heavy spell of depression. He was sitting on the beach thinking how in the grand scheme of things we are just inconsequential specks to the universe and our time on Earth is much shorter than that of the ocean and rocks. It's an incredibly depressing thought to have (Which Mike Love told Brian to his face because Mike Love is that guy!) but the song as written by Brian is absolutely gorgeous and comforting. It's a comforting kind of sadness that I love in music and it really spoke to me. It also showed how Brian Wilson was a master of emotion when it came to songwriting because there are few people who can write a song as euphoric and happy as Wouldn't It be Nice and then write a song as beautifully tragic and sad as Till I Die.

Of course, a big reason Brian Wilson is such a master of emotion is due to his Bipolar condition which at first drove him to greater heights during the 60s but then led to his undoing later on. In fact, Brian's self-imposed isolation caused by his Bipolar condition wrecked havoc on his health both psychically and mentally and it nearly killed him. Much of this is covered in the film Love & Mercy which came out a few years ago starring John Cusack and Elizabeth Banks. The film takes place during 2 eventful times in Brian's life, 1966 when he was recording Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations which eventually led to his mental breakdown and 1986 when he is under a conservatorship that is taking advantage of him until the woman he starts dating helps him get out of it. That woman would eventually become Brian's second wife. It's an absolutely brilliant movie that I can't recommend enough. It's not only a great look how Brian composed Pet Sounds but also a real look into mental health issues and how society doesn't always treat those suffering from mental health kindly or fairly.

The moment in the film that stuck with me the most is when Brian is on his date with his future wife in 1986 and tells her in depth about how his father used to beat him so much that he went slightly deaf in one ear. It's of course an uncomfortable moment but one Brian doesn't shy away from telling because he says in a way it was a blessing because through his pain and sadness he was able to write songs that he probably would not have been able to write otherwise. There's something so beautifully tragic about that to me. What happened to Brian was awful and inexcusable but he took that pain and sadness and turned it into art that reached millions of people across the world. Songs that really touched people deeply and in some ways improved people's lives and for that Brian is eternally grateful.

The Beach Boys did their best to soldier one without Brian after 1966 or at least only having him in limited capacity during the late 60s and early 70s. While this era is usually forgotten by most people it's filled with many hidden gems ripe for rediscovery and reassessment. After listening to all 3 Greatest Hits I finally listened to all the Beach Boys albums from the 60s and 70s and while there is filler there were gems like Cabinessence, Feel Flows, Girl Don't Tell Me, Forever, and The Trader (which deals with the bad effect of European colonialism!) I still think 1967-1973 is an extremely fertile period for The Beach Boys and it's one of the reasons I like them as much as I do now. During this period it felt like Carl Wilson was the de facto leader and for me he is the group's secret weapon, His voice is amazing as he can do high pitched harmonies and gritty blue-eyed soul perfectly and he's a solid songwriter too even if he's no Brian which honestly no one is.

In fact that's the other thing about the Beach Boys Vs the Beatles that needs to be addressed and that is at the height of their battle for pop music supremacy the Beatles had each 2 top notch songwriters and a 3rd very good songwriter in George Harrison. The Beatles also had George Martin whose influence on the group can not be overstated enough. Yes the Beatles were amazing songwriters but Martin is the one who took those songs and molded them into perfection with his production and deep knowledge of music and being able to read music. You remove George Martin from the equation and the Beatles music would not be the same.

Yet in the Beach Boys, at least in the early to mid 60s, Brian did all the heavy lifting by himself. This is something Love & Mercy also shows in detail where you see Brian not only writing the songs but also arranging and coordinating all the group harmonies and even showing the session players how to play their instruments in different time signatures. Brian was do everything by himself while at the same time not getting encouragement from his family or Mike Love. You can tell the pressure to keep the band on top was too much for Brian to bear all by himself, especially when he kept being told by Mike Love that his ideas were bad and commercial suicide.

Mike Love eventual got his way in 1974 when the greatest hits album Endless Summer was released and shot straight to #1 on the billboard 200. Realizing the huge nostalgia their early material had now Mike Love seized his opportunity to take control of The Beach Boys and turn them into an oldies act who made money singing the early songs over and over again. In some ways I don't blame the group for going this route. Musicians, like everyone else, need food and a roof over their head and if touring the golden oldies will guarantee that you have a steady income for the rest of your life then far be it from me to say otherwise. Nonetheless this is when my interest in newer Beach Boy's music after 1973 goes into a sharp decline. There are some good songs here and there like The Night is So Young and Kokomo, which I know die hard fans and guys hate, but me I like it just fine. Still the artistry and beauty of the band's material from the 60s & early 70s pretty much vanished after 1973 and it never returned in all honesty. Brian was eventually phased out of the group by the late 80s and after Dennis and Carl Wilson both died Mike Love's grip over the group and its image grew even stronger.

That said Brian himself would eventually complete the sessions to Smile, the legendary unreleased follow up to Pet Sounds, in 2004 to great acclaim and awards. There was a brief reunion with the surviving members around 2012 but for the most part it's been Brian touring and recording by himself and Mike Love touring "his" version of the Beach Boys across the country. Both have found success in their own way and it's obvious there is an audience for both of these versions of the Beach Boys, but the Mike Love version has hurt the group's reputation with younger listeners.

In fact so many people I know from my generation say they hate the Beach Boys until I start playing songs by them that are not Surfin U.S.A. A good friend of my brother's saw the Mike Love version live with his parents and can't stand them as a result but when I played some different material he grudgingly admitted that it wasn't bad. My husband hated The Beach Boys initially but now he loves Wild Honey and Good Vibrations. One of my husband's friends, who is a musician, didn't listen to much Beach Boys until I played him Cabinessence, Surf's Up and parts of Pet Sounds. A year later at my wedding he told me he finally listened to all of Pet Sounds and its now one of his favorite albums of all time.

This dichotomy of the Beach Boys is both fascinating and frustrating but it also makes them unique. There are few bands that can reflect not only high art and crass commercialism like The Beach Boys but there are even fewer bands who can capture the feelings of joy and sadness equally within a 3 minute pop song like Brian Wilson can and make both sound absolutely gorgeous. The Beach Boys influence is huge. In a lot of ways just as many alternative rock acts and pop girls are influenced by the Beach Boys as they are by The Beatles like The Flaming Lips, whose experimentation in the studio and songwriting is very clearly influenced by Brian Wilson circa 66-67. Katy Perry even said California Gurls was heavily influenced by California Girls by The Beach Boys. 90s Britpop, which was a celebration of British music, still had a strong Beach Boys influence, especially from The Boo Radley's whose 1995 top 10 U.K. hit Wake Up Boo sounds VERY Beach Boys.

For myself it took me a while to fully appreciate the group but now that I do I think they are one of the greatest pop acts of all time and that Brian Wilson is one the greatest songwriters who ever lived. The Beach Boys have effectively pushed out Led Zeppelin to form my holy trinity of classic rock/oldies acts (The other 2 being The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.) In fact I think there's a graph that could be made where the more I liked the Beach Boys the less I liked Led Zeppelin. To be fair I still like Led Zeppelin but I don't listen to Led Zeppelin much anymore.

If you take away anything from this article it's that The Beach Boys deserve a second listen from anyone who has written them off as a cheesy oldies act. Listen to something like Till I Die, Surf's Up, Wild Honey, or I Know There's an Answer and discover why Brian Wilson was considered a genius who's only real rivals for a short period were the greatest band of all time The Beatles.