Matt_Stein's Full Review: Surf's Up by The Beach Boys
1971 found the Beach Boys in a confused state of disarray. They released a near-perfect return to form with the Sunflower album, yet it absolutely tanked commercially. Sensing a change of direction was needed to become commercially viable, the Boys hired a new manager in one Jack Rieley, started diversifying their lyrical palette, and hit the public with Surf’s Up.
The direction the Beach Boys were coerced into by Rieley is that of a socioconcious group of songwriters, ditching typical love songs and pop-oriented lyrics in favor of a more relevant stance. The results are mixed; but overall, Surf’s Up, when given a few good, deep listens, is just as rewarding as Sunflower.
There are missteps on this album, to be sure, and one of them just happens to be the very first track, Don’t Go Near the Water. If you’re listening to the Sunflower/Surf’s Up 2-fer, it’s interesting to hear the Sunflower portion close with Cool, Cool Water(a song extolling the virtues and beauty of water) and transition directly into the beginning of Surf’s Up and a song that talks about how our Earth’s water supply is gradually being ruined. The harmonies are great, the lead vocals are shared between Al Jardine and Mike Love, the instrumentation is trippy and sidewinding, however, there’s just something amiss about this song. The Boys just don’t sound right singing this, it’s hard to explain. The lyrics aren’t terrible, but they’re definitely sub par, and that doesn’t help things. However, it’s worth a few listens, and the song’s ending, with its lush, circular harmonies, makes it worth wading through the song’s beginning.
The album’s first single, Long Promised Road, follows, and it’s probably the best example of Jack Riley’s contributions to this album, he supplies very inspirational lyrics and they’re sung beautifully by Carl Wilson. This song is instantly likable and the sound harkens back to Sunflower.
However, after a good and then a great track to kick this album off, Take a Load off your Feet comes in and just makes you wonder “What the hell is this?!”. Any song about foot care doesn’t deserve to be on a record, period. Later in the 70’s, the Beach Boys would sadly make entire albums with lyrics as banal as these and arrangements as lightweight. Take a Load off your Feet is good to listen to once, for entertainment value, but it’ll make you rush for the skip button after that.
Disney Girls, written by Bruce Johnstone, follows, and this ballad has grown on me somewhat, even though I’ve always been initially turned off by Bruce’s compositions, most of them tend to reveal likeability to me after awhile. Student Demonstration Time is a track that polarizes most fans; I rarely hear positive things about it but I quite like it. It’s quite jarring to hear at first, after the lightweight, easy melody of the previous song, here comes Mike Love singing new lyrics over a heavy-handed reproduction of Riot in Cell Block 9. His voice is fed through a weird megaphone effect, and the instrumentation is intentionally noisy with background police sirens all over the place. The lyrics, however, are great, and if any song on this album succeeded in making the Beach Boys seem a little more ‘aware’ with the times, this was it. The lyrics were re-written from Riot to deal with the various student demonstrations going on about the Vietnam war, as well as racial tension. Plus, this is the only truly ‘rocking’ song on the entire album so even though the arrangement is dry and noisy, it can be a good listen.
Carl Wilson comes up with another winner in Feel Flows, a beautiful composition by him with more great lyrics by Jack Reiley. Everything and the kitchen sink finds its way into this song, which could truly be called Carl’s own little slice of Brian Wilson-inspired heaven. Jack Reiley pens one more song here, the downright strange A Day in the Life of a Tree, which he also sings(!). This song really is quite beautiful though, and while Reiley doesn’t have a great voice by any means, it fits the somber mood and eerie production of the song. The title is pretty self-explanatory of the lyrical content, and as strange as it may sound, it actually does work very well, and can also be taken metaphorically as well as literally.
Tree is track 8 on the album, and the songs that surround it are all absolute masterpieces. Preceding it is quite possibly Al Jardine’s best song, Looking at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song). When I first saw the title I was turned off and expecting more tripe like Take a Load off your Feet but it’s quite different from nearly any song the Boys ever recorded. A dark, folky guitar melody is all that drives the song and Al’s vocals are very well done, conveying the mood perfectly. Til’ I Die comes after Tree, and after 8 tracks, Brian Wilson finally decides to deliver a stunning masterpiece of melancholy. It simply must be heard to be believed.
The album closes with the title track, which was dusted off from the legendary Smile sessions; this time, however, the results are much, much greater than Sunflower’s closer, Cool, Cool Water. I haven’t heard the majority of the Smile tracks, but if, upon completion, they were all this majestic, recklessly experimental yet still excellent, it truly would’ve been the greatest album ever. Carl Wilson takes the lead vocal on this song, soaring his voice into heights unreachable by mere mortals (including Brian). Brian does pop up during the song’s B-section, however, with a chilling vocal backed only by his piano. The song winds down with the rest of the Boys delivering a quick snippet of another Smile idea, Child is the Father of the Man, which features the masters of harmony outdoing even themselves. Surf’s Up closes a great album perfectly.
It is a tough call on my part as to whether this album is better than Sunflower. I do have to give that album the slight nod because it’s a much easier, fun listen than Surf’s Up, even though it has a couple mediocre songs whereas Surf’s Up only has one real crapper(..Feet..). It’s my personal preference for Surf’s Up but I am aware not everyone shares my love for this album, and as I said, Sunflower is simply more fun and contains more upbeat, good-timing rock and roll without losing itself in any attempts to be ‘deep’ or ‘aware’. Also, many people have said this but I have to say it again; after Dennis Wilson’s fabulous outing on Sunflower, where he wrote the best 4 songs on the album and sang three of them, he’s nowhere to be found here. This album should not be avoided though, it, and Sunflower, are perfect places to start exploring the Beach Boy’s forgotten catalogue.
Capitol Records recently reissued the Beach Boys back catalogue, pairing 2 albums at a time together on one CD. Surf’s Up is paired with Sunflower, so check out my review of that album as well, as you’ll probably only find the albums together nowadays.
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