The Beach Boys

 

 

 

 

On the trail of The Beach Boys Songs of beaches, boards and bikinis paint picture of sun-kissed paradise Steve Turner travelled to see the people and places that inspired the band Trip started Hawthorne where the three Wilson brothers were raised Other than Dennis Wilson, The Beach Boys were famously non-surfers Just as I can't travel to Liverpool without thinking of The Beatles, so I can't travel to Los Angeles without thinking of The Beach Boys.  Their songs of beaches, baggies, boards and bikinis painted a picture of a sun-kissed paradise, and their voices sounded as bright and as laid-back as California itself. This time I was travelling specifically to discover the people and places that inspired the band.  +5 Their songs sounded as bright as a sun-kissed paradise, their voices sounded as laid-back as California itself I started in Hawthorne where the three Wilson brothers - Brian, Carl and Dennis - were raised, and joined up with guitarist Al Jardine and vocalist Mike Love to form a group. The Wilson family home on 119th Street, where the boys taped their first single Surfin' in 1961, was demolished to make way for Interstate 105. The rest of the street remains though, its neat lawns, porches and fluttering flags reminders of the group's clean-cut All-American origins. A redbrick memorial now stands at the site of the Wilson house, with a bas-relief frieze showing the group carrying a surfboard and a plaque noting that the music conceived here 'broadcast to the world an image of LA as a place of sun, surf and romance'.  Hawthorne is indeed a place of sun (263 days a year) but no surf and little romance.  It's a charmless city that expanded on the back of the post-war aviation industry (Los Angeles International is only five miles away). I could see why the teenagers of the 1950s would get 'bugged' driving 'up and down the same old strip'. Hawthorne Boulevard, with its low-rise jewellery shops and furniture stores, is no place for the young. The Pizza Show added a splash of colour when it arrived in 1956 and became a home from home for the fledgling Beach Boys. +5 I started in Hawthorne where the three Wilson brothers - Brian, Carl and Dennis - were raised, and joined up with guitarist Al Jardine and vocalist Mike Love to form a group Now run by the son of the original owner, it retains its kitsch medieval Italian interior, with wrought iron chandeliers, tiled awnings and mock grilled windows.  Foster's Freeze, another gathering place, is a blue-roofed fast-food outlet that offers food from one service hatch and ice cream from another.  When I arrived Louie Louie, a 1963 hit by The Kingsmen, was playing over speakers in the overhang. This was the very 'hamburger stand' where Brian Wilson saw a girl pull up in her father's Thunderbird and had the inspiration for Fun Fun Fun. Hawthorne High School, around the corner on El Segundo Boulevard, is where the Wilson boys and Jardine attended. The Beach Boys came back to play the 1969 prom and honoured the institution in their song Be True to Your School. The nearest surfing beach to Hawthorne is Manhattan, but the best is Huntington Beach, better known as Surf City USA. Here the sand is soft, the surf is year-round, and the broad beaches stretch for more than eight miles. Other than Dennis Wilson, The Beach Boys were famously non-surfers, but they were smart enough to observe the burgeoning ocean-side culture and knew there was mileage in chronicling it.  They mentioned Huntington Beach in Surfin' Safari. The city of Huntington Beach makes much of its surfers. There's a Walk of Fame, a Hall of Fame and a small International Surfing Museum.  The sports shops sell everything from boards and wetsuits to sunglasses, caps and jeans. My hotel, the Waterfront Beach Resort, had a surfboard in the foyer and doorknob signs that read Wiped Out rather than Do Not Disturb. It was cold and overcast on my first morning but by 8.30am there were already more than 100 surfers bobbing about in the ocean.  From the pier I could watch them mounting their boards and waiting patiently to ride in on the most powerful of the tall, grey waves. As if on cue, a local surf music tribute band, The Breakaways dressed in faded blue denims and short-sleeved Hawaiian shirts, began playing at the pier entrance. An even better insight into surf culture and music came a few days later when The Surfaris drummer David Raven took me to an outdoor gig in Irvine, Orange County, where he played with bassist Jay Truax (ex-Nomads), and guitarists Ron Eglit (Dick Dale and his Band) and Paul Johnson (The Bel-Airs). They called themselves The Legends Surf Band. We picked up Johnson from his apartment. He was wearing a baseball cap, blue jeans and sandals and had a black patch over his left eye. On the drive down he told me his story. As a 15-year old schoolboy in 1961 he'd composed a hit tune called Mr Moto for The Bel-Airs. That summer, when playing at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Redondo Beach, a leading surfer came over to him and said: 'Wow, man! Your music sounds just like it feels out on a wave. You should call it surf music.' So he did. +5 Other than Dennis Wilson, The Beach Boys were famously non-surfers, but they were smart enough to observe the burgeoning ocean-side culture and knew there was mileage in chronicling it When The Beach Boys adopted this sound the hard-core sports crowd initially shunned them. 'As long as they posed as surfers they were resented by those in the true beach culture,' Johnson told me.  'But when they went on to celebrate California youth culture at large by singing about cars and cruising, that broadened their appeal. After that, even surfers appreciated them.'  When The Beach Boys started recording their focus shifted from Hawthorne to Hollywood. They signed with Capitol Records, whose 13-storey circular tower at 1750 Vine Street, built in 1956, has become an LA landmark. Legend has it that the architecture was based on the image of a bunch of singles stacked on the spindle of a record player. The night I visited, Arcade Fire were playing a promotional set on a specially built platform outside the tower. The Beach Boys' earliest albums were recorded at Capitol but by the time of Surfer Girl and Little Deuce Coupe, they were also recording around the corner at United and Western (6050 Sunset Boulevard). Now called Ocean Way Studios, this is where they recorded their 2012 comeback album That's Why God Made The Radio. In 1965, Brian Wilson bought the then-modern 1448 Laurel Way in Beverly Hills with its great views over the LA basin.  +5 That summer, when playing at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Redondo Beach, a leading surfer came over to him and said: 'Wow, man! Your music sounds just like it feels out on a wave. You should call it surf music' It was here that he notoriously built himself a huge sandbox in the living room to stimulate his creative juices. (The video for Sloop John B was filmed in the garden pool.)  Two years later he moved to 10452 Bellagio Road in the more upmarket gated community of Bel Air.  Several Beach Boys' albums, including Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, 20/20 and Surf's Up, were partially recorded here, while Charles Manson, a fringe figure on the LA music scene in 1969, visited to tape songs that he'd written. In songs such as Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down, Little Honda, and Fun Fun Fun, The Beach Boys explored the parallel teenage subculture of cruising and hot-rodding. Illegal street racing still takes place but usually in the early hours of the morning, and it's a crime even to be a spectator. Custom car shows tend to happen out in the desert rather than in the city. But at the Petersen Automotive Museum (6060 Wilshire Boulevard) it's possible to see everything from hot rods and deuce coupes to Thunderbirds and Chevrolets.  Spread over two spacious floors, there are plenty of cars from the era The Beach Boys celebrated - a peach-coloured 1957 Lincoln Premiere once owned by Jayne Mansfield, a black 1957 Chrysler, and a wonderful boat-sized 1959 red Cadillac Convertible. The hot rod section has a classic Deuce Coupe customised from a 1932 Ford. Appropriately the museum cafe, Johnny Rockets, is a 50s-style diner with red plastic seating, chrome surfaces and neon signs. +5 On my final day I headed north on the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu.  There's probably no road that better embraces the joys of LA - steep hills and canyons to one side, broad beaches and ocean to the other On my final day I headed north on the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu. There's probably no road that better embraces the geographical joys of LA - steep hills and canyons to one side, broad beaches and ocean to the other - and no drive is better suited to a Beach Boys' soundtrack. The group even recorded a song about it in 2012. Beyond Malibu lies Paradise Cove. A left-hand turn took me a mile down a hill to a private beach edged with cliffs where the group was photographed for the cover of 1962's Surfin' Safari, and again two years later for All Summer Long. Paradise Cove is now home to one of the world's most luxurious trailer parks. Film directors, screenwriters, models and Hollywood actors such as Minnie Driver and Matthew McConaughey have swapped bricks and mortar for transportable homes with a view. A surfboard-shaped sign ironically declared No Surfboards. The warning was somewhat redundant as beaches can be private but the sea is free and, anyway, the waves are so mild that no serious surfer would choose it. Maybe that's why The Beach Boys came here - and why they kept their shirts and jeans on during the shoot. When The Beach Boys first visited London in the Sixties, they were met by scenes of mass hysteria at Heathrow Airport. The welcome this week, as the five surviving original members hit British shores for the final leg of their 50th anniversary tour, was a little more polite. But the sense of anticipation surrounding a group who were once dubbed America's Band is still palpable. Scroll down for the video It may not be all Fun Fun Fun but they could work together again: Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Brian Wilson, David Marks and Al Jardine are playing the Royal Albert Hall this evening The Beach Boys were to American rock what The Beatles were to British pop – and this year's reunion has stirred the imagination of music lovers the world over, even though the future of this latest incarnation has been thrown into doubt by founder member Mike Love's desire to continue playing under the Beach Boys name without three of his current colleagues. 'The first time we came to the UK, our fans actually rushed the plane on the tarmac,' says Al Jardine, another of the quintet's founding members. 'We had to sprint to the terminal building. It was similar to the experiences The Beatles had when they went to the States. 'We didn't have quite the same problem this week, but our fans are still very inventive in the ways that they get to us. They manage to get through our security guys to get their memorabilia signed. The reaction we've had on these dates has been amazing.' Those clean cut boys: The band as it was in 1960, from l to r, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson The announcement, last December, that The Beach Boys were reforming came out of the blue. Four of the five members are now in their seventies, and, as with any band of a certain vintage, there have been several changes along the way. The group's songwriting genius, Brian Wilson, has toured only intermittently with his cohorts since the Sixties, while Love controls the rights to the band's name. But, as the quintet gather in a London hotel room, the camaraderie between Love, 71, Wilson, 70, Jardine, 70, Bruce Johnston 70, and David Marks, 64, seems genuine. It is matched, too, by a collective pride at their enduring legacy, something they reiterate in glorious fashion later the same day with a memorable warm-up show at London's Mermaid Theatre. A journey: After rumours of a feud the surviving Beach Boys members Brian Wilson, David Marks, Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and Mike Love appear together for the first time in ten years in 2006 This year's new studio album, That's Why God Made The Radio, was also warmly received, its peerless harmonies and intricate arrangements harking back to the magic of old. 'The tour was sparked by our 50th anniversary,' says Love, who will continue to tour as a Beach Boy alongside Johnston. 'That was the reason we agreed to do a new album and this tour.' 'These concerts are the last in terms of this tour,' he adds. 'But we're still talking about more recordings together.' Love says that the old chemistry was apparent the minute the band reconvened in a Californian studio. 'People would live vicariously through the music, they could fantasise about the California sun, the coastline, the cars and girls. When you look at the weather you get in the UK, those fantasies make sense.' Bruce Johnston 'We began by re-recording Do It Again. From then on, there was never any awkwardness. Brian came up with a great arrangement, and everything clicked. 'Picking a set list for the concerts was tough, though. There are so many great singles that are indelibly linked to The Beach Boys. 'You can't ignore California Girls, Good Vibrations or Heroes And Villains. But there are other, more obscure favourites. Bruce performs Disney Girls, Brian does I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, Alan sings Cotton Fields and Dave does Getcha Back. Once you've put those in, you have to drop some big hits. We don't even do I Can Hear Music.' The music of the Beach Boys falls into two distinct phases. Their early hits were inspired by Californian sun and surf, with the band providing the soundtrack to an endless summer. Of their first five singles, four had the word 'surf' in their title. 'People would live vicariously through the music,' says Bruce Johnston. 'They could fantasise about the California sun, the coastline, the cars and girls. When you look at the weather you get in the UK, those fantasies make sense.' Chemistry: Love says that the old chemistry was apparent the minute the band reconvened in a Californian studio 'It's amazing how well the songs from the surf era hold up,' adds Al Jardine. 'California Girls was written 45 years ago, but people still sing along to it. I love hearing David play surf guitar. 'We also have a pretty terrific backing band and they really bring the music to life. When Brian and Mike sing Please Let Me Wonder, the sound is so realistic I'm taken right back in time.' As the band developed, their surf-rock focus broadened and the songs became more sophisticated. Brian Wilson, who retired from touring after a panic attack on a flight to Australia in 1964, focussed on the studio, where he honed the experimental streak that became a hallmark of the era-defining Pet Sounds album and the singles Good Vibrations and Heroes And Villains. 'From 1965 to 1967, there was a tremendous burst of creativity,' says Love. 'With Brian in the studio, we came on in leaps and bounds. Touring without him was a drag emotionally, but he had been under a lot of pressure to keep creating. It was asking too much for him to do the recording and touring together.' Still performing: Musicians Brian Wilson and Mike Love of The Beach Boys and Adam Levine of Maroon 5 perform onstage at the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards earlier this year As his bandmates chat, Wilson initially takes a back seat. As the memories flood back, however, his eyes light up, especially as talk turns to Pet Sounds and its timeless 'pocket symphony' God Only Knows, hailed by Paul McCartney as the greatest pop song ever written. 'I was aware that God Only Knows was magical as I was writing it,' says Brian. 'It was a song with the glow of heaven. It came to me very easily, and it is fantastic to sing it again. 'The great thing about the reunion is that all of the band are top of the line vocalists,' he adds. 'We're all great singers, and that's why it's a thrill for me to be back with the guys.' Love, sometimes portrayed as being resistant to the shift from surf-pop to more complex styles, now says he was wholly behind the progression, blaming Pet Sounds' initial lack of success on the band's US label. Triple Platinum: Rock band The Beach Boys (from L-R) Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Brian Wilson, David Marks and Al Jardine accept the triple-Platinum awards for Sounds Of Summer 'The problem was that Capitol Records still wanted to promote us as America's number one surf group. They wanted us to do more songs like Fun, Fun, Fun, but Pet Sounds had nothing to do with our previous subject matter, so it was tough. 'Maybe if we'd put Good Vibrations on the album, it would have been a different story. That would have been an obvious step towards more psychedelic music. 'But Brian wanted to save it for the next album. Sometimes you can outsmart yourself, and that's what we did there.'

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