http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBEzcDMnZYQ Since the Beach Boys are the quintessential Californian band, it's appropriate to start with one of the Beach Boys' most California-esque songs, one that celebrates the state's most famous season: summer. The song, at first listen, seems like nothing more than a sugary-sweet song, celebrating tanned, buxom, blonde girls, hot rods, and partying till dawn (or at least until curfew). However, the more one listens to the tune, the more one becomes aware of both the complexity of the song's assembly and the different levels and feelings the lyrics convey. The song uses a bouncy, light drum beat to lay a foundation for a boogie-woogie-style piano beat and xylophone melodies that lend a slightly quirky feel to the tune. The band's members (all of them, including Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, and Mike Love) lend to the light ambiance of the song by providing melodies that reach for the top of the vocal scale. The elements combine to form a melody that leaves the listener feeling happy and ready to get out into the sunshine, find a girl (or guy, depending on your tastes) and walk along the beach into the sunset with your arm around her (or his) waist. The lyrics seem to feed such fantasies, telling us about both funny and fun moments that have filled a young couple's perfect summer. However, the song persists in reminding us that it "won't be long 'til summertime is through." Such lyrics lend a sad undertone to an otherwise lighthearted song; the lyrics seem to imply that this romance is merely a summer fling; a somewhat flimsy relationship that won't be able to stand up to the coming fall and winter and, more specifically, the cheerleaders, prom queens and other girls who rule the high school scene. Seen in this light, one can see, even in this supposedly happy tune, traces of Brian Wilson's tortured sensibility, an attitude that would inform most of his later work.
Alan Howell is a native of Southern California. He loves movies of any and all kinds, Hollywood, indie, and everywhere in between. He loves pizza, sitcoms, rock and pop music, surfing, baseball, reading, and girls (not necessarily in that order).