Perhaps feeling he’d exhausted the songwriting potential surfing offered, Brian Wilson decided to focus more sharply on that other Californian teen sensation: cars. What’s more, their label had already used “Shut Down” as the title track of an album that repackaged “409” and other songs about cars by other bands, as well as Robert Mitchum. So they figured they might as well repackage themselves, which is why an album released only a month after their last one repeated four songs from previous albums, including the title track of this one. Confused yet? That title track is still primo Beach Boys, but here it’s followed by “The Ballad Of Ole Betsy”, a maudlin plaint for an automobile on its way to the scrapyard. While it may not specifically mention cars, “Be True To Your School” is one of the better high school rah-rah songs despite itself; the music makes it more than the words, which come off as the rantings of “some loud braggart”. (Co-writer Roger Christian is responsible for most of the lyrics on the album, being Brian’s go-to car expert.) “Car Crazy Cutie” is dominated by Dion and the Belmonts-style do-run-runs, and while it’s about a girl for a change, it’s not any more exciting than “Cherry, Cherry Coupe”, which was a rewrite of an earlier track and piles on the technical references.
“Spirit Of America” was supposed to pay tribute to racecar driver Craig Breedlove and his eponymous jet-propelled trike; fittingly, Capitol Records used it a decade later as the title track of the less musically successful cash-in follow-up to Endless Summer. While three of the repeats may have been worthy of hearing again, we won’t say the same for “Our Car Club”, but “No-Go Showboat” shows Brian trying to work more complicated arrangements into their albums than the usual three chords. Somewhat along the same lines, “A Young Man Is Gone” puts new lyrics eulogizing James Dean—who, or course, died in a car crash—to the lush Four Freshman-style harmonies of “Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring”. Finally, “Custom Machine” is more grandstanding, again over some unexpected chord changes.
Musically and vocally, Little Deuce Coupe certainly stands out as competent, even influential. But with only twenty minutes’ worth of new material, it offered little except to push them as a novelty act. Luckily, it was paired with a better album for its two-fer CD, which also included the rerecorded single version of “Be True To Your School”, featuring a simulation of a high school marching band and even more cheerleader chants.
The Beach Boys Little Deuce Coupe (1963)—2
1990 CD reissue: same as 1963, plus All Summer Long album and 4 extra tracks
Well, Capitol Records certainly had no shame in the greed department. Not that the fans minded – this album was snatched up by the base just as the previous two had been.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the absolute nadir is the obnoxious “Be True to Your School”. It still taps into my long buried teenage opinion that “school spirit” is a bullshit concept that wasted my time by forcing me to sit in pep rally assemblies with the head cheerleader hectoring us for not going to the games. Becoming a dad eventually tempered that to a degree, but no one is going “rah-rah-sis-boom-bah” nowadays. The single version adds insult to injury by including The Honeys, who add a discordant element. Their singles proved they couldn’t sing; they couldn’t yell well, either. An unfortunate byproduct of “Endless Summer” is that the song got stuck in the live set forever, eventually including actual cheerleaders, much to the embarrassment of Al Jardine. It was a welcome absence from the 1986 tour.
The other two low points for me are “A Young Man Is Gone” and “..Betsy”, which are hopelessly corny and dated, both lyrically and musically. The best ballad is “Spirit of America”, with its doo-wopping melody and great vocals, especially from Brian. Although not too many people knew what the heck he was singing about by 1975.
The other four new tracks are a lot of fun. “Car Crazy Cutie” is a cool “Runaround Sue” knockoff. (The reworked track called “Pamela Jean” has a more aggressive sound, like “Our Car Club”. But Capitol released the single on the same day as “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, so that was that). The then-unreleased “Land Ahoy” was one of the better things to come out of the “Safari” sessions. So, it was nice that Brian rescued the melody and created a new song. However, the phrase “the envy of my group” is something that no one would ever say, and someone really should have taught Mike Love how to pronounce the word “solenoid” before recording. “No-Go Showboat” has amusing lyrics and a good arrangement. “Custom Machine” manages to sound complete, coherent and catchy, even at under two minutes.
This isn’t as much of a rock album as “Surfin’ U.S.A.”. Given the subject matter, it is a breezier listen than “Surfer Girl”. Three of the repeats and five of the deep cuts are worth having, even for casual fans.
The cheerleader thing definitely jars if you weren't a jock, or were picked on by them. And when having grade school age girls be cheerleaders became a thing, no thanks.
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