BEACH BOYS Good Vibrations

Rip It Up, Issue 8, 1 February 1978, Page 1

BEACH BOYS Good Vibrations

Peter Thomson

The Beachboys play one Auckland concert on Sunday afternoon, February 26 at Western Springs. It’s a long haul from 1961, when they ripped off Chuck Berry and recorded a hit in the family garage, but the Beach Boys are still performing and they’re dud in Auckland this month. They’ll give an afternoon concert at Western Springs on Sunday 26th. For those many fans, now in their 20’s (& 30’s), who partially charted out their adolescence with Beach Boys records the concert will be almost a compulsory pilgrimage. No matter which way you argue the Beach Boys were one of the greatest groups of the 60’s, at least in the top 5, (and if you add the Beatles and the Stones that leaves only two places to play with.) In the early days '6l to '66 Brian Wilson’s ability to encapsulate perfect images of teenage heaven into bright clean songs was real pop art. His subjects ranged from surfing to cars to upright all-American chauvinism, but always he celebrated the dreams of youth. Fans the world over became de-facto Californians, believing in that Lotus land of perpetual holidays, sand, sea, sun, girls and motorised freedom.

But then Brian had never really actively participated in these teen delights. His songs were always consciously ‘composed’ and as he developed musically he became more and more self-conscious about his creativity. As he mastered the recording studio the group’s music developed sophistication; no longer as light or fast as it once was. With the release of Pet Sounds in 1966 it became clear that Brian had undergone a major change. That masterful album was the work of a brooding romantic. He was hailed as a genius and produced "Good Vibrations" to prove it. Then there were the stories of his purple house, sand pits and a pitched tent in the living room, his burning the tapes of six months’ recording, and the nervous breakdowns.

The Beach Boys continued to record albums as other members of the group struggled to fill the place left by their creative master. There were artistic successes and some wretched failures but the group never again achieved the huge popularity that peaked with "Good Vibrations". Sure, they still had legions of devoted fans but by the end of the decade their following had almost diminished to a cult, (albeit a large one.) In ’7l came the Surf's Up album which, succeeding the fine Sunflower, began to restore a lot of faith in the group as a creative entity. Yet sales were not that good, (for a Beach Boys’ album anyway), and now it seems that their recordings in the ’7o's have only succeeded in retaining the everloyal.

What then of the schoolkids one sees with the group’s name carved on their cases beside 'Starsky & Hutch’ et al? It’s the early '6o’s hits that these younger followers go for, the records that were made before some of them were born and are now available on compilation L.P.’s. (Which only goes to show that teendreams haven’t changed that much. We all still want to dance ‘dance dance dance' ‘fun fun fun’ 'all summer long’.) But it's 1978 and the Beach Boys are due here soon. What are we to expect? Will they just recycle the hits or will we get the most recent works, or a bit of both? It’s hard to say. I'm certainly going to find out.