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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: The Warmth of the Sun“What good is the dawn that grows into day? The sunset at night? Or living this way?” So began the first ballad by The Beach Boys to reach for the depths of existential tragedy and reckon with the will to carry on. In the end, it found an elemental affirmation…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: Spirit of AmericaIn July of 1962, 21 year old Craig Breedlove made his first attempt to break the land speed record. It began with a jet engine that wouldn’t start, necessitating a last minute replacement. Luckily, they had a backup GE J47 Turbojet – the same used in F-86 Sabre fighter planes…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: 4th of JulyPart 11 of the Adult/Child saga. In 1979 a movie opened that was savaged by critics and quickly flopped. Its premise: America is broke, there’s not enough gas left to go around, and cars have become domiciles rather than vehicles. The morning commute on the freeway is practically tire to…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: Summer of Love
Part 10 of the Adult/Child saga. If summer was the dominant season for the Beach Boys, love was the dominant emotion, so it only made sense to combine the season and the feeling. “Summer Means New Love” was the first explicit attempt, even if it was merely an instrumental that…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: Summer In Paradise
Part 9 of the Adult/Child saga. The summer in the founding of the Republic of California is framed by declarations of independence at the end of spring and declarations of compromise to the limits of individual independence four years and three months later. It would not be a state that…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: Endless Summer
Part 8 of the Adult/Child saga. How long can you spend in the direct L.A. sun before it kills you? I discovered the hard way last year it will sure cook you good when it catches you without protection for five solid minutes… When I had first strolled out a…
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Continue reading →: Hey Little Beach Boy
Part 7 of the Adult/Child saga. WHAT is a [Beach Boy]? A [Beach Boy] is an unhappy being whose heart is torn by secret sufferings, but whose lips are so strangely formed that when the sighs and the cries escape them, they sound like beautiful music. His fate is like…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: All This Is That
Part 6 of the Adult/Child saga. As ambassadors of the American Dream, The Beach Boys discovered that having all your dreams come true before your brain has emerged from the shadow of puberty can quickly turn into your worst nightmares. Just think of how haunted you’d be if you remembered…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: Hold On Dear Brother
Part 5 of the Adult/Child saga. In the 2000 television miniseries about The Beach Boys produced by John Stamos, the subtitle called them “An American Family“. It didn’t seem like it was meant to be subversive, and yet, when you look at what kind of a family unit the band…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys Love You
Welcome to the Adult/Child saga! This is an ongoing project of Beach Boys musings. Part one serves as an extended introduction to this blog series, telling the story of the late 70’s “Brian’s Back!” era by simultaneously rewinding to the time of Brian’s late 60’s withdrawal and interweaving the two…