Having established their brand on their first album, the Beach Boys kept giving their audience what they wanted on Surfin’ U.S.A. To double down on the genre, five of the tracks were instrumentals, nicely showing off the band as instrumentalists, especially little brother Carl Wilson. For the rest, Brian Wilson wrote on his own as well as with co-lead singer Mike Love, freelancer Gary Usher, and a new key collaborator, deejay Roger Christian, for the lyrics. The title track is not only one of the most effective Chuck Berry rewrites; they even gave him the publishing, which is one reason why he loved the tune. Led by Brian’s falsetto, “Farmer’s Daughter” tries a little too hard and misses, as it can’t quite straddle the line between innocent and dirty. New listeners in this century may be surprised to hear them tackle Dick Dale’s classic arrangement of “Misirlou”, especially if they only knew it from Pulp Fiction. Here it’s followed by the original instrumental (save the shouted title) “Stoked”. But Brian really starts to stretch on “Lonely Sea”, the first sign of the sensitivity that would take the band beyond the beach. And just like last time, a car song closes the first side; in this case, it’s “Shut Down”.
“Noble Surfer” is supposed to be a portrait of a he-man, but the celeste solo seems incredibly incongruous; their surf-influenced cover of the “Honky Tonk” instrumental works as a good palate cleanser. “Lana” just happens to be a love song, though it needs more lyrics, and the celeste makes more sense. While “Surf Jam” is a basic 12-bar instrumental, Carl gets sole writing credit, and you’d have to listen close to their version of Dick Dale’s “Let’s Go Trippin’” to tell it apart; again, the shouted titles help. “Finders Keepers” is just plain odd, switching tempos and keys, landing somewhere between a joke track and two different Four Seasons songs.
Even more than their first album, these are the songs that made every other kid in the country (and overseas) want to move to California. The boys were still learning how to make records, and had yet to define what an album would mean. Decades later, the overall vibe paired the album well with Surfin’ Safari on its two-fer CD. The one bonus added from the album’s sessions was “The Baker Man”, a lame attempt to create a new dance craze out of the patty-cake nursery rhyme. (The two-fers have gone out of print and back from time to time. In 2012, this and their next ten studio albums were reissued individually in nice slim digipacks sporting original artwork and CDs with both mono and stereo mixes.)
The Beach Boys Surfin’ U.S.A. (1963)—2½
1990 CD reissue: same as 1963, plus Surfin’ Safari album and 3 extra tracks
I don’t recommend listening to “Pet Sounds Sessions” and then this album within the span of 24 hours. You’ll get a case of musical whiplash.
ReplyDeleteI also really like the surf instrumentals. However, I’m afraid that I came across some disillusion around one of them – “Misirlou”. This one was NOT played by The Beach Boys. Rather the musicians are Wrecking Crew stalwarts Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, and, of course, Hal Blaine. It’s one thing for “Let Go Away for Awhile” to not have been played by the group, but one would have thought they could have handled this one. Seems like a cheat. It would be interesting for someone to create a mashup of “Stoked” and the Rolling Stones’ B-side “Stoned”.
As for the vocal numbers, I like two of them besides the double-sided hit. “The Lonely Sea” was on the demo tape Murry Wilson produced that also included “Surfin’ Safari” and “409” (although the somehow extracted a stereo mix of this one). It’s a bit awkward and “poetic” in an adolescent sort of way, but it is quite touching. “Lana” sounds like it’s a throwback to the Candix sessions. The piano and celeste are atypical of the arrangements on the album and the lyrics are slight. But Brian delivers them in such a sweet falsetto (if not as transparent as it would become) that the innocence comes through convincingly. The other three involve Mike Love, so they, of course, are the weakest on the album. Brian’s falsetto is wasted, this time, on “Farmer’s Daughter”. Why would Lindsey Buckingham choose this, of all things, to cover during the “Tusk” sessions? And, yeah, “The Baker Man” would not have swept the nation the way that “Surfin’ USA” did. It might have done well if covered by someone for the pre-K set.
Thanks to double tracking of the vocals and improved instrumental prowess, this is a big improvement over the first album. However, a lot of it doesn’t live up to the hits, so casual fans need to be cautious.