Philip Lambert - Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective

Edited by

Philip Lambert

University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor

Page iv Copyright the University of Michigan 2016

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ISBN 978-0-472-11995-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-472-12227-1 (e-book)

I N 2012 , to celebrate fifty years since their music first hit the airwaves, the surviving members of the Beach Boys set aside decades of litigious acrimony and reunited for a months-long international tour and the groups first album of all-new material in twenty years. Huge crowds danced and cheered, oblivious to a sea of incongruities: septuagenarians calling themselves Boys, song lyrics seemingly aimed at the sensibilities of their grandchildren, and striking differences between the youthful voices on their familiar hit records and the more mature vocalisms of creative mastermind Brian Wilson, his cousin, lead singer Mike Love, and lifelong friend Al Jardine. But the shows were a success for the same reason that the band has always been a concert draw: soaring vocal harmonies, infectious themes capturing the pristine innocence of an idealized era, and a danceable blend of classic rock n roll with elements of doo-wop and jazz. In seventeen top-ten singles and thirteen hit albums of the groups first four years, and seventeen more albums of new music in the ensuing decades, the Beach Boys amassed a repertory that would still be influencing the shape of popular music generations later, from the 1990s indie collective Elephant 6 to millennial alternative rock bands such as Animal Collective and Fleet Foxes. Other fiftieth anniversaries soon followed: Brian Wilsons first number-one single as coauthor (Jan and Deans Surf City, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1963); the Beach Boys first number-one single (I Get Around, July 1964); the Beach Boys first number-one album and first gold album (Beach Boys Concert, in the top spot in December 1964, certified gold in February 1965); the pinnacles of Brian Wilsons artistic ambitions, in album format (Pet Sounds, released in May 1966), in 45 rpm (Good Vibrations, number one and gold in December 1966), and in rock mythology (the unfinished Smile, 196667).

Page vi The history of the Beach Boys began as an apt reflection of their times. Their sun-soaked pop songs of the early sixties were just catchy and distinctive enough to share airtime with the British invaders. Later in the decade, influenced in part by a friendly rivalry with the Beatles, they evolved toward more ambitious album projects and immersion in the drug culture. Then, as Brian Wilson withdrew as exclusive leader, the band flirted with variable absorptions in pop styles of the seventies and eighties, all while releasing chart-topping greatest hits albums and continuing to thrive as a touring band. Since the late eighties, when Brian Wilson began to record as a solo artist, the band has been splintered but never out of the public eye. What has stayed constant throughout this half-century is a core belief in the warmth and immediacy of blended vocal harmony and in the myth of the California lifestyle, rich with possibility and opportunity. The Beach Boys can still sing about it because, in their lyrics at least, they still believe in it.

Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective helps mark a milestone in this history by exploring the bands legacy and place in American culture. The book brings together scholars of diverse specialties, hailing from four countries over three continents. The essays gathered here take on the full fifty-year range of the Beach Boys music, from the perspectives of music historians, music theorists, and cultural critics. Together these new scholarly examinations will refresh our understanding of some of the familiar tropes in the groups history, including the Beach Boys musical contributions to 1960s culture and the California myth; the style of their music, indebted in variable proportions to pop and rock traditions; and the legend of Smile, one of popular musics most notorious unfinished albums. The book places special focus on the individual whose creative vision brought the whole enterprise to life, Brian Wilson, without minimizing contributions made by others, such as frequent lyricist Mike Love. This focus helps to advance our understanding of Brian Wilsons gifts, first displayed in well-crafted songs of the early Beach Boys albums, equally evident in the groups multipart vocal arrangements, and eventually expanding to include innovations in the recording studio.

Fifty years of biographies and rock criticism have elevated Brian Wilson to his rightful place in the pantheon of American record-makers. After early spurts of revelatory journalism by the likes of Jules Siegel (The Religious Conversion of Brian Wilson: Goodbye Surfing, Hello God, Cheetah, October 1967) and Tom Nolan (The Beach Boys: A California Saga, Rolling Stone, October 28 and November 11, 1971), serious commentary on the Beach Boys and their creative leader began in 1978 with Page vii David Leafs The Beach Boys and the California Myth (New York: Grosset and Dunlap). In 1994, Timothy Whites The Nearest Faraway Place gave the group a deeper historical context (New York: Henry Holt), and in 2006, Peter Ames Carlins biography Catch a Wave sharpened the focus on Brian Wilson and his personal triumphs and struggles (Emmaus, Penn.: Rodale). Other authors have offered richer accounts of watershed moments in Brian Wilsons creative evolution, notably Charles L. Granatas Wouldnt It Be Nice of 2003, a study of the circumstances surrounding the making of Pet Sounds (Chicago: Chicago Review Press), and Domenic Priores investigation of the Smile story in 2005 (London: Sanctuary). Serious scrutiny of music and lyrics began with Daniel Harrisons essay After Sundown in 1997 (in Understanding Rock, ed. Covach and Boone, New York: Oxford University Press) and continued with my book Inside the Music of Brian Wilson in 2007 (New York: Continuum) and Kirk Curnutts Brian Wilson in 2012 (Bristol, Conn.: Equinox).

These latter three authors begin the collection of essays presented here. First, Kirk Curnutt explores the various critical responses to Beach Boys songs, in light of common perceptions of Brian Wilson and his authorial sensibilities. Curnutt lends a rich, personal perspective to the entire corpus of Brian Wilsons work to date, offering valuable insights into the nature of celebrity and the limitations of biography. Daniel Harrison then focuses very specifically on an element of Beach Boys songs that many admirers probably havent thought much about: extramusical enhancements provided by scene-setting spoken words or sound effects. Readers of Harrisons essay will find serious, enlightening discussion of cuts from Beach Boys albums that dont usually attract much attention, such as Drive-In (from