Despite the leaps and bounds taken on their last album, the Beach Boys were still obligated to make hit records. Therefore Brian Wilson, as the band’s architect, had to gradually introduce his new production ideas while the other Beach Boys spread the gospel of the California dream to arenas full of screaming kids. Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) arrived on schedule—so fast that they couldn’t get a cover shot with Al Jardine—with optimistic packaging belying some of the content. But Brian’s progression as a record-maker isn’t immediately obvious, since they take a step back with a side full of pop.Despite its charms, “The Girl From New York City” is a blatant ripoff of Lieber/Stoller’s “The Boy From New York City”, despite its guise as an “answer song”. “Amusement Parks U.S.A.” is a rewrite of “County Fair” from the first album and exactly the type of song they should have left behind by now, particularly the spoken sections. “Then I Kissed Her” is a straight cover of the Ronettes song, albeit with a gender switch, yet stays pretty close to the original. “Salt Lake City” is musically interesting, but is basically pandering to the fans in that town. Teenage Carl takes the lead on “Girl Don’t Tell Me”, a song that sounds a little unfinished, but that’s probably because it didn’t use any session guys or backing vocals. The single rerecording of “Help Me Rhonda” uses a different spelling and a tighter arrangement with no fades.
As with Today!, the best is saved for side two, and it’s a major leap forward. The stately opening of “California Girls” is practically symphonic, and no amount of David Lee Roth can destroy the perfection of this production. It’s an even bigger leap with “Let Him Run Wild”, which pits a fairly ordinary plotline against a truly masterful backing of minor-sevenths and diminished chords, predicting the craftsmanship of Brian’s next real project. “You’re So Good To Me” lifts the mood and the beat with another song that could have been made for Ronnie Spector. “Summer Means New Love” offers a romantic instrumental, a surf guitar playing the melody, but then “I’m Bugged At My Ol’ Man” provides a joke in the form of a novelty song that should have been left for a B-side. The last word goes to the lovely a cappella “And Your Dream Comes True” for a happy ending.
As stated, the pairing of Summer Days with Today! made an excellent two-fer, even if it underscored some of the less successful tendencies. (After all, they were just kids.) Still, the best aspects of both albums emerge to prove why they’ve remained so fresh. Along with an alternate vocal take of “Let Him Run Wild” and a reverent studio version of “Graduation Day”, one key bonus track is “The Little Girl I Once Knew”, a majestic flop that showed that not only was radio not ready for such elaborate production, but neither was Brian.
The Beach Boys Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965)—3½
1990 CD reissue: same as 1965, plus The Beach Boys Today! album and 5 extra tracks
Excluding the bump in the road that was “Beatles for Sale”, the artistic development through “Sgt. Pepper’s..” (in the timeline of the British albums) was logical. Each album built on his predecessor, and the fans went along because the changes weren’t too startling on the way. If the Beach Boys had a similar progression, something like “All Summer Long”=>”Summer Days”=>”Party!” (the bump)=>”Today!”=>”Pet Sounds”, then perhaps, the fans would have been more accepting.
ReplyDeleteInstead, thanks in part to Capitol, they jerked back and forth. What saves the album are the brilliant backing tracks, which compensate somewhat for the lyrics. As you pointed out, there are two exceptions. “Amusement Parks U.S.A.” is the dreadful low point. It doesn’t not have an annoying, nagging girlfriend. It does have Brian’s awful, cacophonous cackling and what sounds like Marilyn Wilson’s flat voice in the dialogue. And Mike, what exactly is a “roly coaster”?
“I’m Bugged at My Ol’ Man” was indeed intended to be a comedy track like the couple they had done already. As the liner points out, there was a lot going on behind the scenes. When all of that was later exposed, it didn’t seem so funny anymore. 11 years later, Brian gave a very straight performance of the song on a TV special with Carl and Dennis singing backup. His ravaged voice exposed the truth under the joke.
Most of the rest ranges from very good to great. I remain dubious about the center of Mormonism being a center for sun and fun, but I’m a sucker for the reappearance of those vibes. "The Girl from New York City" doesn’t sound like a ripoff to me. It’s very enthusiastic. Brian may have not beat Spector on the backing track of “Then I Kissed Her” (I do like Carl’s guitar hook). But, except for Tina Turner, Spector never hired anyone who could out sing the Beach Boys. Al does a great lead vocal. It was even good enough the be a single in the U.K.
“You’re So Good to Me” has two more great riffs (three chords on the verses, two on the chorus) and euphoric vocals from everybody, especially Brian. I think the simpler arrangement and Carl’s solo vocal perfectly catch the sadness of “Girl Don’t Tell Me”. More big hooks on the two A-sides – from the organ on “California Girls” and the tightened guitar riff on “Help Me, Rhonda”. On "Let Him Run Wild", the hook comes from those vibes again. It’s the most emotionally moving of the songs, more like “Today!” than anything else on the album. Probably my favorite.
Unfortunately, the album peters out . Besides “..Bugged..”, we get an instrumental that sounds less “symphonic” (as the liner notes put it) and more like muzak. At the end, we get more dated Four Freshman stuff.
Speaking of that, at least they don’t turn the studio version of “Graduation Day” into a joke like they did on “Concert”. (That, however, was not their worse performance of the song. Check out a 1980’s performance on “The Tonight Show”, followed by a very bizarre interview with Joan Rivers!).
As for the rest of the bonus tracks, early versions of “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “I’m So Young” show that the tracks hadn’t arrived yet. Yet they prove that they could perform those live. Along with the alternate version of “Little Honda”, this version of “Let Him Run Wild” showed that Brian could figure out when less was more. The real bonus is the great lost single “The Little Girl I Once Knew”. On the 50th anniversary tour, Bruce identified it as on the album. Close enough. It fits in with the best songs here.
The fans were kept happy. So was Capitol – for a short while.