THE BEACH BOYS – "Do It Again"

I’ve been listening to this one specially in anticipation of it cropping up here. In a way, it could be the third link in a chain along with ‘Lady Madonna’ and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, all three of them back-to-basics records in their own ways, though of course this is the only one that comes close to resembling the act’s early material. And it’s the only one that makes a feature of the nostalgia in its lyric – and yet, on that very subject, it might be worth recalling that the single “only” got to Number 20 in the US, which was bigger than any hit they had until that rotten cover of ‘Rock & Roll Music,’ admittedly, but not as big as the run of hits they’d enjoyed earlier in the decade. Mind you, of course the original title was ‘Let’s Surf Again’, which might have made the commercial retro more explicit; I suppose Brian Wilson scotched that for melodic reasons and I think it may be that melody that was a big deal in selling this – even then, though, it’s got to be said that posterity doesn’t seem to view this as their second-biggest hit even over here.

By the way, I’m not sure that logic about not living through the Sixties entirely holds – I didn’t either, and that’s why I didn’t have to hear all the Des O’Connor records and others of that level.

I was alive all through the ’60s, but all (I can’t think of an exception, though it seems likely there must be something) the music from that period I love wasn’t known to me at the time – we were a household without music until I got pushy about it when I was 12. And anyway, a lot of the southern soul which is my favourite material had a lowish profile here.

Also, Chris, your comments prompt me to suggest that you should start posting about music here. I’d like to read more.

Yes I am a different one. I’m not the one who had a hit single in America last year either, sadly.

Funnily enough, I did a Beach Boys post on my own blog recently, about ‘When I Grow Up’ and I had some sense of them being keen on looking both forward and back simultaneously, at least in the sort of golden era that this is close to the end of (after that we get the uncommercial but artistically interesting early Seventies, and then they just turn into a nostalgia act). I suppose that drum intro is part of that; not that they knew Moroder was going to happen, of course, but it’s part of that search for new sounds and presumably when he thought of it he just appended it to whichever track he was working on at the time.

My thoughts on the Sixties were a sort of compare & contrast with the Eighties, which I did live through – and it’s certainly the case that most of the music from *that* decade that I like isn’t the stuff that I remember hearing at the time. In fact probably more of my emotive memories of the time are from the sixties music I heard in the house.

Ah, yes, the Sixties, my decade, I was there, I lived through it – and therefore just went to YouTube to listen to this song for THE VERY FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE.

Kind of a drip of a song, isn’t it?

The thing is, from 1964 through 1968 the change was so fast that elements seemed to keep exploding out of songs that didn’t know how to contain them, so in each song you were hearing This Year’s Pop but also sounds that were either blasting their way out of the song as something new or you were hearing attempts at This Year’s Pop that actually contained song elements that were hopelessly six months out of date and unable to catch up. Nostalgia was a way to try to sidestep all this I suppose.

But in the early ’70s, Sixties sound explosions were regularized, and power chords and feedback and guitar screech became just more features on the palette of what was a generally louder but more standard sound. Which is to say that they became kind of so-what, and the Sixties music they were regularizing sounded quaint in comparison. Which means that you’ll have to take my word for it that the early Beatles were raucous clatter and that “Get Off Of My Cloud” was a what-the-fuck pile of noise and that “I Can See For Miles” was a roar I’d never heard before. Whereas listening now, I hear a lot of it as sounding really dinky. Well, not the Stones, who were so forceful and inimitable that you still get their power, if not their strangeness. But I mean, just listen to some hyphy, grime, or crunk, then listen to some of these Sixties classics, and you’ll be hard put to make sense of “Oh, the Sixties, the Wild Decade.” (Hmmm. My musings have run far afield of the Beach Boys, who sounded up-to-date for about ten minutes in 1962 and 1963.)

the Beach Boys, who sounded up-to-date for about ten minutes in 1962 and 1963

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Being an almost-native Californian and having lived most of my life there, I can recall the Beach Boys back as far as 1962, perhaps a little earlier. (Whenever “Surfin’ Safari” was a regional hit.) I think that in 62-63 they might have been au courant (sort of) to someone in middle school. But all that business about surfing and cars–even girls were less significant in their music–now seems so juvenile. I’ve always thought they were quite overrated, although some of my fellow twelve-year-olds were big fans in 1963–and I often wonder if their, um, “mystique” (for lack of a better word) wasn’t based on a romanticized version of California predating readily accessible air travel and the fact that they just didn’t have that much competition until the Beatles came around. And then they sort of went to pieces because they couldn’t measure up to the Beatles.

This “drip of a song” strikes me as the moment the Beach Boys finally capitulate as far as their rivalry with the Beatles is concerned–let’s just go back to being the surfer dudes we used to be. But that, of course, was impossible for a bunch of guys pushing thirty.

(By the way, one of the more amusing moments on the Beatles’ “White Album” is “Back in the USSR,” which, according to George Harrison, is a Beach Boys parody. “Those Ukraine girls really knock me out . . .” is obviously an allusion to “California Girls,” and just listen to those “duh-duh-duh” “ooo-woo-ooo backing vocals.)

Odd, but the only Beach Boys records I actually liked came in the early 1970s, by which time they were regarded as completely passe. The thoroughly uncharacteristic Holland album (“Sail on Sailor”) is perhaps the most artistically interesting thing they ever did. Maybe Carl Wilson, the youngest brother, should have been the one out front all along.

Actually, I’m not sure side 2 of Carl & The Passions is even the best side of that album. Not that Dennis didn’t have his moments, but I think he sagged into hippy nonsense too easily. Carl was certainly the most admirable Beach Boy, but of course he learnt his craft from his big brother and was, after all, only about 14 when they started.

I think I’d probably place Holland as my second favourite, but I do enjoy the non-obviousness of it – in a way it’s the one that’s most precious to me; but some of the ‘California Saga’ is a bit shabby, and it’s probably true that the best tune is still Brian’s. I really like Wild Honey as well.

Verdict on the free Holland EP with Brian’s bedtime story about the transistor radio = UTTER BOLLOCKS. Back to bed Brian and no more drugs for you tonight!

I remember Beach Boys revisionism first time round – ca. early 90’s, Bobby Gillespie and Norman Blake and Duglas Stewart and the rest. I remember it because the orthodoxy was that Dennis Wilson was the forgotten genius and “Holland” the great album – Brian Wilson? Nah! Even non-hip people liked Brian Wilson! I remember having a conversation at the time and joking “You watch, it’ll be Carl Wilson who’ll be hailed as the genius next!” And guess what?

Both Paul Bley and Sly Stone beat him on the drum machine front, but anyway.

Mike Love of course being the REAL genius? Never mind yer Pacific Ocean Blues, what about Mike Love Not War for an album? Eh? Eh?

I always assumed the drums on Do It Again were Hal Blaine trying to make it sound simple as if Dennis Wilson might have played them

That’s right dch. The BBC did have 3 records at no.1 and the three you state are correct. The BBC charts were eventually overwritten or “blended into” other chart compilers – so that such happenings could not occur again. At that time I think there were at least 3 major companies producing their own version of the pop charts – remember Jictar? This resulted in Herb Alpert being deinied the official No1. spot

On “top of the pops” previous to that, the BBC had failed to acknowledge a few other singles that had made No.1. on other compilers lists.

What if the Beach Boys were British?

I’ll suggest Sloop John Steed, Shedessence, and I’m Bugged At My Ol’ Nan.

I have just had the great pleasure of meeting Bruce Johnston as he was travelling out of Gatwick. He was most pleasant and very willing to chat to me. The Beach Boys still tour and we spoke about that as well as about Brian Wilson, who is not on the current tour. Bruce did not dwell on it but Brian is not in the best of health just now. I pointed out that he was over here in 2002 for the Queen’s jubilee but had alas forgotten about it days later when he was back in the States. Bruce remarked that “all geniuses are mad” and I could not dispute this. Our conversation moved on to “Pet Sounds” and here Bruce imparted his advice to “always listen to it in mono”, as the creator had intended. I responded to this by telling him that however one listened to “Pet Sounds”, it would always be a masterpiece in any case. Obviously “Good Vibrations” came up and then Bruce mentioned that they always played “Do it Again” on tour. “That was number one here in 1968,” I said, now putty in his hand. Bruce smiled. “That was also our last number one here!” he winked. We then shook hands and he left.

It was a lovely episode for me. I was reminded later that it was Bruce who had come to London to play “Pet Sounds” to Lennon and McCartney. John, in particular, was famously bowled over. Bruce also much later did some vocals on “The Wall” as well as writing the grammy-winning “I Write the Songs”, for which I will gladly forgive him.

Musical history and it was an honour to meet him.

Agreed – Cassidy version has a sly tone that suggests, intentionally I’m sure, a manipulative writer. Easily trumps Manilow’s overegged pud.

Not a drum machine on Do It Again (has this already been pointed out?) but a fast repeated echo, one of Brian’s tricks that he oddly never repeated.

First drum machine on a hit: Robin Gibb, Saved By The Bell, a fact I am wont to repeat.

I have no clear memories of listening to the Beach Boys as a kid in the 1960s and so by the time I became aware of them they already seemed like a nostalgia act. At some point in the 1980s I bought a Greatest Hits cassette which featured this song but I had no idea where it fitted in to their timeline. It chugs along pleasantly but like a lot of their work I admire it without getting wildly excited by it

Kind of like this, but I think Getcha Back, from their little loved (when not outright ignored) eponymous 1985 album is a much better “We’re Back! And we’re not going to do anything unpredictable!” single