DEEP DISCOG DIVE UPDATE 5.19.26 (Patreon)

(For anyone who's new to these update posts, the memes I put at the top here are not references to the artist being covered. They're total non-sequiturs. No spoilers until the paid access starts.)

Hey everyone! Hope your weekends were chill and fun and cool and good. Mine was unusually busy - I went to an iPod party, which is not only a thing but also a fun thing!

Now that an artist for the next DDD is chosen, I'm now kicking out a new round of updates on how work for the DDD is going. These include thoughts on the albums I've listened to thus far, interesting tidbits about the artist, and anything else I feel like sharing. So let's kick it off...

WHO THEY ARE AT THIS POINT

In case anyone is also starting out their journey into the Beach Boys, or just doesn't know a lot about them, here's a brief overview of how they started:

The Beach Boys started out as three brothers living in Hawthorne, CA: Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson.

Their cousin Mike Love joined as a lead vocalist/lyricist, and family friend Al Jardine joined on guitar.

The group grew out of the Wilsons' love of vocal harmony, plus early rock and roll.

Dennis encouraged the gang to writing about surfing culture, which was exploding in Southern California.

In 1961, they recorded their first single Surfin’, originally credited to The Pendletones.

Surfin’ became a wee bit of a hit on the west coast, and it eventually got the boys a deal with Capitol Records.

When Surfin' came out on the group's original label, they were surprised to find their name was changed! "The Beach Boys" was just given to the boys without any prior warning.

Once they were under Captiol, they released more singles like Surfin’ Safari and 409, establishing the early Beach Boys formula: surfing, cars, and vocal harmonies for days.

ALBUMS I'VE LISTENED TO SO FAR

As of today, I've listened to the first nine albums in the Beach Boys' catalog. This includes:

Surfin' Safari

Surfin' USA

Surfer Girl

Little Deuce Coupe

Shut Down Volume 2

All Summer Long

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album

The Beach Boys Today!

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!)

Now lemme be frank - the first four or five albums? Fine. Not bad by any means, but they are basic as hell. Songs about surfing or cars or girls. Sometimes if they were feeling dangerous, they'd write songs about surfing AND girls or girls AND cars. But if these albums weren't all on the shorter side, I'd get sick of them quick.

But once I got to All Summer Long, something clicked. From what I've read, this record was a big turning point for the band - they had fired Murry Wilson (the Wilsons' father) as their manager, Shut Down Vol 2 underperformed commercially, and this band called the Beatles were threatening to take the youth's attention. So instead of the literal surf music they'd made before, All Summer Long was the start of a more conceptual surf music. In other words, songs about being young in California. And at least for me, man it works!

I was also a pretty big fan of the Xmas album and oooooooooh especially The Beach Boys Today. Another major influence for the band around this time was Phil Spector, and you can def tell as soon as the record starts. That first song on Today, Do You Wanna Dance, is HUGE. Sounds absolutely massive.

Of course, I know approximately where this band will go from here - I am a certified card-carrying member of the "I've Heard Pet Sounds" organization - but for some reason, I thought the shift from goofy haha surfing band to more serious studio project happened without much leadup. To hear that leadup play out on these earlier albums is quite nice.

FUN ANECDOTES

Along with the listening, I've been researching the band. Here are some interesting stories/tidbits I've learned on the journey so far:

Murry Wilson, the Wilson boys' father - not a good dude! Very much a helicopter parent, very much abusive. We're talking Joe Jackson levels of terrible fatherdom.

Only one of the Beach Boys was an actual surfer! It was Dennis Wilson.

The Beach Boys helped popularized surf music in the 60s, but what's interesting is how the music they made wasn't really in line with surf music at the time. The genre was more about rapid-fire guitars and fast tempos - think Dick Dale and Miserlou. But the Beach Boys' big (b)innovation was pairing the sonic aesthetic of surf music with vocal harmonies a la the Four Freshman (a group Brian loved) and a focus on rhythm a la Chuck Berry. "Fun" story about Chuck in a moment...

Despite not being credited for the first few albums, Brian Wilson was incredibly involved with production right from the jump. A nice change from the last DDD where Stevie spent multiple albums fighting for a crumb of a production credit!

The band was credited with not just popularizing surf music, but also the "California myth." This is of course in reference to the myth that California is real!

Apparently the sign to Capitol (the band's label) that the BBs could blow up was the sales data coming not from the west coast, but from the dreary, no-beach-having east coast.

So the "fun" story about Chuck - Surfin' USA (the band's first major hit) was verrrrrrry much influenced by Chuck's Sweet Little Sixteen. This led to Chuck's publishing company suing and eventually acquiring songwriting credit PLUS royalties for the song. The Beach Boys were not aware of the lost royalties for 25 years!!! Nowadays, the song is credited to Brian and Chuck, and there was no bad blood between the two artists.

I mentioned it briefly, but I didn't realize how big a role the Beatles played in the Beach Boys' (and specifically Brian Wilson's) story. Sometimes it was a positive way - Brian and Paul/John would speak positively about each other's songs and albums - but what surprised me is how much of a commercial threat the Beatles posed to the Beach Boys. From my cursory research into their future, it seems like that threat is only gonna magnify from here on out.

BEACH BOYS BOOKS/MEDIA?

Just today, I picked up this book about the band that's gotten excellent reviews. I will definitely check out the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy, and I've heard good things about the Endless Harmony documentary. But if there are any BB-related books or movies or shows or other media worth checking out, let me know!

SONGS TO CHECK OUT

Lastly, here are some songs I'd recommend to you:

Surfin': It's the first song they ever made, I kinda have to mention it lol.

Surfin' USA: The band's first big hit.

Ballad of Ole Betsy: the harmonies at the end are super tasty.

Be True To Your School: the very first line instantly made me think of the Ripped Pants song from Spongebob.

'Cassius' Love vs. 'Sonny' Wilson: the first time I've ever heard a clip show in music.

I Get Around: I sang this song in my high school's all-boys choir. We used to change the word "around" with "aroused." I'll give you a moment to digest that hilarious bit of comedic genius.

Frosty The Snowman: this was a moment where I could REALLY feel the Phil Spector influence. Makes sense, since the Beach Boy's Xmas album was a response to Phil's Xmas album.

Do You Wanna Dance: when the harmonies come in around 0:27... sublime.

Let Him Run Wild: The song that made Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine realize that Brian Wilson was a legit musical powerhouse.

And that's it for now! I'll continue my listening this week, and when I check back in next week, I should have words on a particular album with animals and noises. Very excited to get into that. Before that though, look out for a new main-channel video later this week!