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Home , Al Jardine, Best of the Beach Boys, Be True to Your School, Brother Records, Bruce Johnston, California Girls

R O C K A II D R O L L 1 HALL OL FAME

The Beach Boys O r recall the gnarly guitar changes on "” - so quirky and unexpected h e b e a c h boys sta r t ed o u t strictly as a fam ily AFFAIR. THE WILSON , brought up in the suburb of Hawthorne, had always - before the payoff of the soaring chorus. Perhaps the best of ’ sev­ bee» around ; their father, Murry, had been a professional , eral 1964 hits was "W hen I Grow U p (to Be a Man).” Its litany of teen angst - and Brian, die oldest son, had studied in school According to "Will I for the same things in a woman that I did in a girl?/Will I setde down writer David Teaf, the boys simply happened upon their gift for harmonies: fast or will I first wanna travel the world?” - seemed heartbrealangly naive, while "In the bedroom they shared, Brian taught his younger brothers to sing. the , featuring background voices that ticked off the years, was awe­ Drummer Dennis and lead guitarist Carl learned the harmonies that Brian had ab­ somely assured. In 1965, five of the Beach Boys’ went gold: Surfin’ U.SJ{., , sorbedT from m indess listenings to Four Freshmen and Hi-Lo’s records. Joining in at holiday gatherings was , the Wilson brothers’ first cousin.” , Beach Boys’ Concert, Beach Boys Today and A ll Summer Long. "Help M e Rhonda” a teammate of Brian’s on the Hawthorne High football squad and a folk-music fan, became their second Number One single ("I G et Around,” backed with "Don’t Worry Baby,” was their first, in 1964), and the group released what would become rounded out this informal group. Before they became known as the Beach Boys, the Wilson brothers played high- in lan»r years their signature , " Girls.” The year 1966 was different: school dances, billing themselves as Carl and the Passions or Kenny and the Beach Boys stopped being simply a Top Forty sensation, and Brian, as a com­ (Brian masqueraded as Kenny). In 1961, Dennis, 17, a.; true poser and a producer, grew up. beach boy, decided that surfing would make a good subject for a song and urged The Beach Boys’ aesthetic leap toward a more mature sound would have Brian, 19, to write something about it The group, encouraged and financed by seemed sudden except for the fact that Brian had retired from the road in ’65 to Murry, went into a demo studio and recorded "Surfin’ ” in garage-rock splendor: work on refining his ideas and sounds. H e was replaced first by Carl played acoustic guitar, Al played the , and Brian kept the beat on and then by , a successful composer. , a coming-of-age garbage-can lids. A t the time they were using the name the Pendletones, in the song cycle released in M arch 1966, was die culmination of his experiments, a manner of popular folk-style vocal groups, but such a discreet moniker didn’t seem hai mringly intimate work that draws its power from the subtlety of its to suit the strange Southern California doo-wop tune that Brian and Mike Love had and the simplicity of its storytelling. Brian, with lyricist , took the proto­ created. So they chose a novelty name for what seemed like a novelty song: the typical California boy out of a beach-bound fantasy world and stuck him right smack in the middle o f real life - to face love and loneliness and leaving home. Pendletones became the Beach Boys. "Surfin’ ” was picked up by the local Candix label in December 1961. O n New P et Sounds was not a commercial success in America, although the two singles Year’s Eve the newly christened Beach Boys played their first gig, in Long Beach, mlfed from it made the Top T en In the years since, however, it has been hailed as with a repertoire of three . By January the single was bubbling on the Billboard a masterpiece equal in scope to the Beades’ H ot 100 chart And , as well as surfer style, was on the verge of becom­ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club . The al­ B rian WiLton, born June ing a national sensation. As writer N ik Cohn put it in his inimitable, hyperbolic way, bum did find instant acceptance in Britain, 20th, 1942, Hawthorne, Brian "worked a loose-limbed group sound and added his own . Then he where it remained in the Top Ten for six C alifornia. stuck in some lazy twang guitar and rounded it all out with pumped-up Four Fresh­ months; according to David Leaf, Paul C arl W ibon, born men harmonies. N o sweat, he’d created a bona fide surf music out of nothing. McCartney has often cited it as a source of in­ December 2lo t, 1946, spiration for Sgt. Pepper. Despite the artistic More, he had invented California.” Hawthorne, C alifornia , a determined stage father, helped the Beach Boys land a deal setback at home, Brian followed up the M ik e L o v e , b o r n M a r c h with , where they followed up "Surfin’ ” with "Surfin’ Safari.” with his most ambitious undertaking yet, 15th, 1941, Loo Angelea. (Murry would put out his own Capitol LP, The Many Moods of Murry Wilson, at ",” said to be the most expen­ A l Jardine, born Septem ber sive single to be recorded up to that time. It the height o f his sons’ popularity.) "Surfin’ U.S.A.,” however, was their break­ 3rd, 1942, L im a Ohio. was undoubtedly worth the $50,000 it allegedly through- Released in 1963, it reached Number Three on the pop chart The sound Dennb W ibon, born De­ cost to make; the four-minute-and-change pop this time was straight-ahead - the band had lifted the melody from cember 4th, 1944, Haw­ symphony had a palpably magical feel. O nce ’s ".” It was the harmonies, though, that made the thorne, C alifornia; died again Brian had captured the ears o f the world. song so special; they rolled like waves over the simple, playful riffs. And Brian and December 28th, 1983, T he Beach Boys wouldn’t-find satisfying Mike’s lyrics treated surfing as something destined for wodd domination, not mere­ M arina del Rey, C alifornia ly a neat thing to do. It was a fantastic daydream spiked with a dose of healthy re­ artistic success in America again until "Surfs U p” was released in 1971, on their own bellion: "Tell the teacher we’re surfin’. . . . ” "Surfin’ U S A ” was backed with "Shut Down”; the next single, "Surfer Girl,” Records, distributed by Reprise (They had left Capitol when their contract was paired with ".” Just as the Beach Boys were popularizing expired in 1969.) As the sensibilities of the Sixties changed, the Beach Boys re­ the lingo and the accouterments of surfing, they were also initiating a hot-rod ma­ mained beloved, but they were regarded as slightly square They turned to Europe, nia. Capitol had to work fast to keep up: the promotion department sent out a glos­ where they found considerable acclaim and often stole the thunder from trendier sary of surfing terms and quickly had to compile a vocabulary for the car craze. But rock stars at festival gigs. By the mid-Seventies, Americans had rediscovered the the company had to meet an even greater challenge. Brian, with the support of his Beach Boys as they toured with such acts as and the Eagles. They soon father, had demanded the right to produce the Beach Boys himself, an unheard-of began to fill entire stadiums on their own, performing for audiences that often sang request at a time when the company controlled all aspects of recording. Capitol re­ their hits back to them. intermittently joined the group onstage. luctantly granted Brian his wish, and die results were nothing less than extraordi­ Since then the Beach Boys, fronted by the unfailingly energetic Mike nary. The first album he produced, Surfer Girl, contained "” (released Love, have become perennial concert favorites, drawing unprecedented on 45 as the B side to "”). It was a highly personal aus­ crowds to their summertime celebrations. Carl Vfilson, in the meantime, has terely arranged ballad featuring strings, which suggested for the first time that also developed a solo career, reflecting the greater role he played in later Beach Boys productions, particularly the lovely H olland. — Brian’s deepest source of inspiration came from nowhere near the beach. like , Brian was able to ennoble teenage emotion in the stunning the wild one, the guy always screamed for, the bona fide beach boy settings' he devised for Beach Boys songs. A t the same time he transcended the sub­ who first inspired Brian - didn’t make it; in 1983 he drowned while diving ject matter as he approached the realm of pure, exhilarating sound. Think of the off a friend’s boat in Marina del Rey. Brian, figuratively speaking, has re­ way the voices lift off the melody of "Fun, Fun, Fun.” Just when the song seems to mained "in his room,” still searching for perfect sounds the way a surfer be over, the harmonies fade in and out like the sound of cars passing on a freeway. seeks the perfect wave. Brian’s first solo album is due out later this year. ■ ROCK AND ROLL 1 HALL OF FAME ON THE BEACH By Parke Puterbangh

e f o r e t h e r e w a s a Br i t i s h in v a - For anyone under thirty, the operative sion, the state of California infiltrated word was freedom, and it was inevitable that the rock and roll charts with a sound it would find expression in the pop-music that could have come from nowhere realm. In communicating all the promised- else: surf music. Though the tendency land fantasies, Nik Cohn wrote in Rock is to dismiss the pre-Beades Sixties as a from the Beginning, "California pop has al­ Bperiod of musical doldrums, the fact remains that ways been like comic strips . . . images of the Beach Boys, and many others sand and sea and sun, everything drawn created a viable, indigenous music scene in South­ bright and clean and simple.” At first, ern California well before the Fab Four landed on was so stripped down these shores. The Beach Boys actually racked up and elemental that it dispensed with seven Top Forty hits before the Beades words entirely. U ntil the Beach placed "” Boys came along, surf music was an on the American charts. genre, composed and It was only natural that California played by musicians attempting to would evolve as a musical center in the simulate the peculiar locomotion early Sixties. N ew York and Philadelphia o f riding the waves. were waning as music-industry hubs in the Surfing itself was a sport that wake of the payola scandal and other battles California, among the lower for­ with the rock-spuming establishment Rock ty-eight states, could claim as its and roll had lost some of its founding fathers own. It was introduced on the in plane and car crashes, while others had West Coast around the turn of been led off to prison or the army. Califor­ the century by native Hawai- nia, meanwhile, was poised cm the brink of a ians George Freeth and Duke Kahanamoku. new age, and its affluent suburban offspring They were hired to drum up interest at several were ready to sing all about it fledgling California resorts by demonstrating The Beach Boys are generally deemed this odd new sport to curious tourists. Kaha­ responsible for spinning the California myth, namoku was an Olympic-class swimmer and although Jan and Dean (with "Surf City”) world-class surfer paid by a railroad mogul to' and the Mamas and the Papas (with "Cali­ ride the waves at Huntington Beach. Freeth, fornia Dreamin’ ”) certainly warbled a few who was tagged "the man who walked on wa­ siren songs of their own. The Wilson broth­ ter,” gave surfing exhibitions behind the Hotel ers’ childhood was hardly idyllic — Brian has Redondo, at Redondo Beach. Both men pilot­ characterized their home town of Haw­ ed ten-foot redwood planks, primitive forerun­ thorne as a cow town — but somehow the ners of the shorter, lighter boards that have mystical promise of abundant life in the since made surfing accessible to anyone brave Golderf State transcended the foursquare enough to stand up on a wave. As it turned suburban reality. A s Brian explained it in out, however, no one did more to spread the 1976, "It’s not just surfing; it’s the out­ gospel of surfing than the Beach Boys, Jan and doors and cars and sunshine; it’s die soci­ D ean and unsung hero . ety o f California; it’s the way o f California.” Dale was the undisputed king of the surf Southern California — the Los Angeles basin in particular — was the well- guitar, a hotshot instrumentalist whose stylistic roots lay in the rockabilly twang spring of the California myth. For those who made their living plowing acreage of such guitarists as and Link Wray. It was Dale’s particular ge­ in the Plains states or who were buried up to their knees in winter snows in the nius to point the guitar’s focus westward and adapt it to the thrill-seeking life­ Northeast, it was a potent come-on. The California myth promised everything: style of California’s surfing cult. N o one had ever done this before, and it health and longevity beneath a bountiful sun that shone warmly year-round; helped forge a sense of identity and solidarity within the surfers’ ranks. It also prosperity in a job-filled environment catering to the burgeoning aeronautics gave them something to do on Saturday nights: Dale’s weekly shows at the and communications industries; and, finally, a relaxed approach to life that had Rendezvous Ballroom on Balboa Peninsula regularly drew a crowd of 4000 "fun, fun, fun” as its first commandment. looking to dance off the soreness o f a hard day’s surfing. The state of California, like the rest of die nation, was gearing up for an era of According to the maestro, "Real surfing music is instrumental, characterized change as the Fifties dissolved into the Sixties. In the W hite House the paternalism by heavy staccato picking on a guitar.” It could only be o f Eisenhower yielded to the youthful vigor of John F. Kennedy. The baby boom played on a Strat, and it helped to have the reverb and jacked up as was filling suburban bedrooms to capacity, and the suburbs themselves were grow­ well. Dale picked fast and hard over R&dB-based changes, mixing in some rapid ing in all directions. Americas middle class had never lived so well or been so large. flamenco-style finger picking. A real surfer could listen to one of his fast-fin­ California, Mecca o f the miraculous, was at the leading edge o f this renaissance. gered solos and feel the surging power of die ocean as it hurtled him toward shore. One of the most popular surfing beaches on the California coast, off N um ber Thirty-nine on the national charts in 1963. It was one o f the loveliest Dana Point, was informally known as the Boneyard. Both the danger and the pieces o f musical driftwood to wash ashore in that decade. release of surfing were evident in Dale’s two-minute instrumental frenzies, and The musical empire masterminded by Spector and Nitzsche — who relocated although he never had a Top Forty hit, such numbers as "Let’s Go Trippin’,” their base of operations from New York City to ’s fabled Gold Star "Surf Beat” and "Miserlou” were regional classics. Studios around 1962 - was a key source of inspiration for Brian Wilson. As The surf- did leave its mark on the national charts via a pair of the Beach Boys leader, Wilson himself quickly rose to the challenge of the one-hit wonders: ("”) and ("”). studio, staking out his claim at Western Studios. Spector and Wilson em­ Both were released in 1963, the biggest year for surf before the ployed many of the same session musicians — now-familiar names like Leon double whammy of the Beach Boys’ vocal innovations and the leaps and bounds Russell and Glen Campbell, as well as such dependable sessionmen as drum­ of the put wordless twanging out of business. The Chantays, a mer H al Blaine and bassist . five-man garage band from Santa Ana, rode "Pipeline” all the way to Number The arrival of the Beach Boys on the recording scene signaled the immi­ Four. The Surfaris squeezed a little more mileage out of "Wipe Out,” which nent flowering of California music. It quickly passed from a regional curios­ soared to N um ber Tw o in 1963, then went to N um ber Sixteen after being reis­ ity, chiefly instrumental in nature, to a phenomenon that seized thé nation’s sued in ’66. Commencing with a falsetto witch’s laugh (courtesy of their manag­ imagination. The Beach Boys were California’s foremost cultural emissaries; er), "Wipe Out” was a tumbling wave of tom-tom rolls and frenzied guitar they did more to promote the state than all of the tourism boards and cham­ breaks. This one had ’em doing the Surfer Stomp at every lean-to on the Pacif­ bers of commerce put together. N ot ic Coast Highway — and still does, for that matter. Based on record sales and only did the Beach Boys spread the gos­ California wad poured on the chart positions, "W ipe Out” remains the number-one surf hit of all time. pel of surfing — "even in places where brink o fa new age, aridity Surf music was primarily designed for dancing at beach parties, amusement the nearest thing to surf is maybe the affluent suburban offspring parks and surfers’ clubs. The four- and five-man bands custom-tooled their froth on a chocolate shake!” as producer -lik e the Beach Boyo aru) repertoire for an evening of stomping and sweating by a roomful of tireless wrote on the back of Surfin’ Jan andDean-were ready surfers. took a song called "Let’s Go,” adapted it to a new dance U.SA., their second album - they sold a to ding a llabout it, with craze — the pony — and had a sizable hit with "Let’s G o (Pony),” whose familiar larger vision of an earthly paradise called dongd like “Surfin’Safari, ” clap and chant has since become a cheerleaders’ staple T he main man behind the California to the rest of die world. They also “L ittle Deuce Coupe"and Routers was a songwriter and producer named Joe Saraceno, who also pointed die opened up a whole generation of contempo­ ‘D e a d M a n d C u rve. ” five-man Marketts, from Balboa, toward the pop charts. raries to die possibilities o f a W est Coast made their mark with "Surfer’s Stomp,” "Balboa Blue” and sound, based on complex vocal harmonies and a celebration of regional identity. "Out of Limits” — the latter a Number Three smash based on the theme from The Beach Boys were assisted in this endeavor by Jan and Dean, with whom the Outer Limits TV show. Then there were . Although they they worked closely. Jan Berry and Dean Torrence were the other demigods in weren’t technically a surf band, this Seatde foursome recorded an album or two the car-and-surf-song sweepstakes. This duo from West Los Angeles actually in the style — particularly the 1963 LP Surfing! — and they remain rock and roll’s predated the Beach Boys by a few years, cutting their first singles in the late Fif­ most successful instrumental combo. Finally, as a footnote to die surfing sound, ties. (Before Jan and Dean, if you’re really digging up the roots, there was Jan mention should be made o f the Pyramids, from Long Beach. N o t only did they au­ and Amie, who scored a Top Ten hit in 1958 with "Jennie Lee.” Old pal Dean thor a bona fide surf classic ("Penetration,” which reached Number Eighteen), they rejoined Jan a year later, after a stint in die army reserves.) Working on devel­ epitomized its outer limits as personalities, performing with shaved heads and arriv­ oping their vocal sound for long hours in Jan’s garage, they cooked up a Fif­ ing at shows in helicopters and atop elephants. ties rock and roll tune called "Baby Talk.” Their garage tape was given a Though nearly everything that came out of the surf genre was maximum re­ coat of studio polish by producers and , and "Baby verb, high-octane rock and roll, ’s "Lonely Surfer” was an en­ Talk” went Top Ten in 1959. chanting exception. Every aspect of the surfer’s lifestyle - the risky mastery of "Jennie Lee” and "Baby Talk” were both homemade records issued on small the waves, the oneness with the ocean, the blond physicality — has been romanti­ independent labels - Arwin and Dore, respectively - and each found a national cized by the Great American Myth Machine. But whereas most surf instrumen­ audience. Their success encouraged the fledgling Beach Boys, who were fooling tals played up the rough-and-tumble nature of die sport, Nitzsche explored the around with songs and tape recorders at the Wilson brothers’ home at about sensitive nature o f the solitary surfer in this pensive composition, which had a the same time. W ith "Surfin’ ” and "Surfin’ Safari” the Beach Boys made that swelling, orchestral grandeur. Nitzsche was Phil Spector’s arranger and right- magical, intuitive leap — bridging Chuck Berry and die Four Freshmen and add­ hand man at the time of some of Spector’s greatest successes as a producer, in­ ing their own libretto about surfing and the California, way of life - and became cluding "He’s a Rebel” and ".” "The Lonely Surfer” reached overnight sensations. HAIL OF FAME

Ironically, Jan and D ean had the first surfing song to go N um ber O ne - and doubt and growing up. it was Brian Wilson who gave it to them. After die Beach Boys’ early hits, Jan A future Beach Boy, Bruce Johnston, was chummy with the circle of musi­ and Dean switched gears from their "bomp”-based Fifties sound and went surf­ cians and producers around L.A. who created the . Johnston ing, as it were. T he acts became friendly after playing a few shows together, and was acquainted with Phil Specter and played on ’s "Teen Beat” Jan and Dean recorded their own versions of "Surfin’ ” and "Surfin’ Safari” for back in 1959. In the early Sixties he jumped on the surfing bandwagon with a Jan & Dean Take Linda Surfin’, on which the Beach Boys provided vocal and in­ series of 45s and albums released under his own name (Surfers Pajama Party, by strumental assistance. One day, Brian previewed "Surfin’ U.S.A.” for diem at the Bruce Johnston Surfing Band, for example). H e formed a partnership with the . Needing a hit, Jan and Dean asked for the song, but Brian said he — a and the son of — and die pair was reserving it for the Beach Boys. Instead he offered an unfinished number made records under various guises: Bruce and Terry, the H ot Doggers and the called "Surf City.” They worked it up and recorded it, with an uncredited Brian Rip Chords. The latter outfit, which was essentially Johnston and Melcher mas­ falsetto, and "Surf City” — with its promise of "two girls for every boy” querading under a group name, charted some of the biggest car hits of the day — topped the American charts in the summer o f 1963. with "Hey Litde Cobra” and "Three Window Coupe.” Johnston’s credentials A torrent of hits followed for both acts. They managed ten Top Forty hits were in order, in other words, when the Beach Boys approached him in 1965 between them in 1964 alone, which established their staying power in the year about joining them on tour. (Brian’s on-the-road replacement had been Glen the Beades and the British Invasion wiped nearly everything else American (ex­ Campbell.) Johnston became a full-fledged Beach Boy, remaining with the cept Motown) off the charts. The Californians’ summer fever became a nation­ group through 1972 and then rejoining it in 1978. On occasion, Johnston al contagion. Surf music began turning up in such unlikely places as Colorado, would work with Melcher in the mid-Sixties. For instance, Melcher produced which produced the Astronauts, and , home of the Trashmen, whose and Johnston sang on several of Paul Revere and the Raiders’ biggest hits, in­ "Surfin’ Bird” went to Number Four in late 1963. Another Midwestern band, cluding "Just Like Me.” the Rivieras, delivered the all-time West Coast tribute "California Sun.” Even The Raiders were just one of many West Coast groups that rose to promi­ sooty old New York turned out the Trade Winds, who scored with "New nence in die wake of die attention the Beach Boys and their allies brought to York’s a Lonely Town.” (The rest of the line went, "... when you’re the only California. T he medium o f television picked up where "” left surfer boy around.”) That’s just the tiniest tip of an iceberg that floated around off, spreading die word that the W est Coast was the hot new center o f rock and die globe. As proof of this one can consult a book entided British Beach Music, a roll in America. The Raiders became the band on , Dick study o f English surf music o f the Sixties. Clark’s popular weekday-afternoon rockathon. Then there were die nighttime Back on the W est Coast a small cadre of writers, producers and performers rock variety shows — Shindig and Hullabaloo all based in L.A. and all o f them — in addition to the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean — was turning out the real showcasing local bands alongside the visiting headliners from Britain. Don thing (or at least turning it out in the real environment). Among them were Kirshner moved his headquarters from New York to Los Angeles and PF. ("Flip”) Sloan and his partner — a.k.a. the Fantastic Baggys - launched the TV show on September 12th, 1966. whose "Summer Means Fun” was the final word on the subject In addition to In die mid-Sixties a new wave o f Southern California-based acts, spiritual cutting their own sides for Imperial Records, the Baggys provided backing vo­ heirs to the Beach Boys and the first wave of surf and hot-rod bands, swept the cals on many Jan and Dean songs. Curiously, in the space of a year, Sloan Top Forty. Among them were , Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Son­ would metamorphose from surfer to follde — or from "Tell ’Em I’m Surfing,” ny and , the Mamas and the Papas (discovered and produced by Lou Ad­ one of the Baggys’ early singles, to "Eve of Destruction,” the Sloan-penned ler), (another Adler protege), (who were produced by protest song that, sung by Barry McGuire, went to Number One. Sloan re­ Terry Melcher) and, of course, the Monkees. leased a couple of Dylanesque solo albums on the side, which didn’t stop the In 1967, California would enter a whole different stage: the Summer of Sloan-Barri songwriting team from penning pop hits for die Grass Roots and Love, the Mónteréy Pop Fèstivàl, the Sah Francisco Sound and die darker side the Turtles in the mid-Sixties. o f L.A., as represented by die Doors and die acid-rock bands. But it all really Sloan was one among a number of accomplished California lyricists whose began — the California dream, if you believe it, or myth, if you’re skeptical — vivid, often highly technical and jargon-filled lyrics animated die world o f cars with five barefoot, Pendleton-shirted Beach Boys back in Hawthorne, one of and surfboards. and Roger Christian, for example, were both fre­ whom lived the worry-free life o f a surfer, while another set that fantasy to mu­ quent collaborators of Brian Wilson’s. It takes a certain kind of genius to com­ sic. Years before a generation of antiestablishment pilgrims headed west to pose a coherent set of lyrics about a hot rod, as Usher did in the Beach forge an alternative lifestyle, the Beach Boys had unwittingly drawn up the blue­ Boys’ "409” and as Christian did in "Litde Deuce Coupe.” A short time lat­ print As Beach Boy has said, "People wanted to hang out at the er Tony Asher, an ad writer turned lyricist, became Brian’s collaborator on beach. It was really an early thing.” The Beach Boys were the Pied Pip­ Pet Sounds, and the message evolved from cars and girls to young love, self­ ers; it was they who first put die rainbows in everyone’s ears. ■