Surfing School U.S.A.
The Beach Boys

If everybody had an ocean
Across the U.S.A.
Then Everybody’d be surfing
Like Californ-I-A.

It all began in a bedroom in the home of Murry and Audree Wilson, in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne. Brian Wilson, the oldest of the Wilson boys taught his brothers, Dennis and Carl, during late night sessions, how to sing. Brian fashioned his musical jam sessions after records he had listened to of the Four Freshmen and the Hi-Los. Then came first cousin Mike Love. Mike initially joined the group only at Christmas time to sing carols but then he and Brian began sitting in their car, in the late 50s, listening to and singing along with their favorite songs on the radio. That was essentially family time; fun time and it all took place before 1961.

Then, in 1961, Al Jardine joined the group and stuff started getting serious. Al was a high school football buddy and college classmate of Brian. Their first group was called “Kenny and the Cadets” then “Carl and the Passions” and finally, the “Pendletones.”

Their first song, “Surfin’” had immediate appeal to their generation, because that was what one did in Southern California and the rest of the nation grabbed the illusion the Beach Boys created. The first track of “Surfin’” was recorded as the “Pendletones” on the Candix label. It was at that point that someone suggested they change their name to “Beach Boys.”
They did, and on New Year’s Eve, 1962, the “Beach Boys” performed their first live concert in a memorial service for Ritchie Valens, that was held at the Long Beach Municipal Stadium.

The rest, as they say, is history, but this particular history has a few sidebars that one might find interesting.
Brian Wilson, the founder, leader, songwriter and senior member of the group would have a short-lived stay with the performing group. Brian was determined to out-do the other group that started with B-E-A, the Fab Four from Liverpool, the Beatles. Brian worked at his obsession, driving him to drugs, booze, breakdowns and eventual demise from the stage, leaving him where he perhaps wanted to be, in the background, underground. There, in his self-made cocoon, no one could bother or harass the music that flowed forth from his creative genius. It is said that all genius is slightly mad. Brian perhaps took that a step further, a step beyond the reach of others, into a world that we all recognize as the Beach Boys sound.
The sound that was penned in musical scores by Brian Wilson was that of a garage band, a Chuck Berry rhythm and a uniquely resurrected do-wop formula that was so different that the Beach Boys were immediately set apart from every other group in the world. Oooeeee, Oooeeee-eeeeee-eeeeee-eeeee-eeee. The theme of this radically different sound is prevalent in nearly every recording the Boys did from 1962 on. It is their mark, their sound, and their cross to bear.

The first decade was a seesaw battle with the Beatles for Brian Wilson. In the end, it didn’t really matter. Rolling Stone Magazine listed the Boy’s “Pet Sounds” album as the number two album of all-time. Paul McCartney, a former member of the Beatles, credited Brian’s radically different ideas in “Pet Sounds” as their inspiration in recording “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Ironically, Rolling Stone Magazine listed the only album to beat the Beach Boy’s “Pet Sounds” album as being the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

So, when the final count is tabulated, everyone won and everyone lost. The Beatles won by having beaten the Boys on the Rolling Stones list and lost by dissolving into the tangled web of history in 1970. The Beach Boys won by having the number two album of all-time, by being the American icon of fun, girls and coolness and lost by running a race with time and destiny and not really enjoying the trip from point A to point B. I won and you won because the Beach Boys are still doing concerts for us to enjoy.

In the final analysis, we may say, they all won. The Beatles will always be with us. The Beach Boys will always be with us and in his own demented way Brian Wilson won. He created something that time, destiny and the sands of history cannot erase. He created an illusion that we all enjoyed from the surfing beaches of California to the wheat fields of Kansas, the bayous of the gulf, to the tempered streets of New York. An illusion of California, hot cars, free style living and “hang loose” surfing that has sustained us, given re-birth to our lost youth and let us know that things are well and in good order.

One sad note along the way: Brian Wilson wrote “Surfin”” and Mike Love wrote “Surfing Safari,” because of a suggestion made by Dennis Wilson. The songs were made into demos in 1961. An ironic twist in this part of the story happened in December 1983 when Dennis, the only actual surfing Beach Boy, drowned at Marina Del Ray Harbor.

I had a wonderful night recently attending a live Beach Boys concert at the Welk Theater in Branson. The stage and the packed house were rocking with the pre-eminent sounds that Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson started 40 years ago.

The word cool was carried to new heights during the concert. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, the only original Beach Boys in the concert were definitely cool.

AARP Magazine, a few months ago, published an article concerning elder hipsterdom, which elder citizens were giving a new meaning to cool. Such notables as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and others were mentioned, noting that cool has bridged generation gaps. Well, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston let everyone who sees them perform know that being over 50 can definitely be a cool thing and that age doesn’t matter nearly as much as attitude. They were solidly cool and both were past 60. People attending the concert were dancing in the aisles, at their seats and anywhere else they happened to be at the moment. The sounds emitting from the stage were the elixir of youth and vitality. The call of the evening was “hang loose,” a high sign originated on the beaches of southern California, which means I’m hip and I’m cool. The players, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston were the real deal, giving us the original ground down sound. That sound is the sound we grew up with, dated with, had our first kiss with, got married with, our children listened to and we want more of that sound than ever before. The Beach Boys were and still are a national phenomenon and a national treasure. They are as American as hot dogs, apple pie and the Sunday concert in the park. They are ours; we claim them and we love them.

Editor’s note: I called Joe Sullivan’s office just prior to putting this article to bed, to ask when the Beach Boys were returning. I was told they will not be returning in 2004, but things are being worked on for 2005. You definitely will not want to miss them. I personally want to thank Joe Sullivan Productions for persuading the Beach Boys to do a concert in Branson. It was cool!