THE BEACH BOYS, from left, Bruce Johnston, David Marks, Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine pose backstage at the 54th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 12 in Los Angeles. The group will perform in Bangor on June 22.
As they “dance, dance, dance” — albeit much more slowly than they did half a century ago — across the globe on the band’s 50th anniversary tour, the Beach Boys, to many, remain America’s own version of the Beatles.
Brian Wilson, the California based band’s leader, creative force and the architect of musical inspiration can indeed lay claim to the title of 1960s America’s rival to Lennon and McCartney.
Back in those hazy long-ago days of the 1960s, Wilson and his bandmates wrote songs that featured harmonies that were as pristine innocent as the California waters in which their surfing pals frolicked. Wilson and his musical cohorts wrote and played songs uniquely American in their optimistic, sprightly tone and feel.
They were the songs that American kids could embrace and identify with so readily. Brian Wilson seemed to be able to tap into our collective spirits, feel and sense what we were thinking and capture it all in a way that forged an emotional connection that remains strong and lasting.
Brian and the Beach Boys immortalized the Southern California lifestyle through dozens of breezy harmonyrich tunes that will keep it forever young in the collective minds of generations of fans. To many people who came of age during the 1960s, songs such as “Surfin USA,” “Fun Fun Fun” and “God Only Knows” are like musical vehicles that can, be it only for an all-too-brief moment, transport us back there to that magic time in their lives when every day was Sunday, we were invincible and the Summer of Love loomed eternal.
When I look back at my own youth. I can remember clearly how strongly I identified not only with the bouncy carefree tunes like “Little Deuce Coupe” or “I Get Around,” but also with introspective “In My Room.” That song captured so perfectly all of the trials and emotional tribulations that would tumble around inside my teenage mind while I stole away to the safety and security of my private little world — the world that lived “In My Room.”
According to Sir Paul McCartney, the Beach Boys 1966 “Pet Sounds” album, a musical masterpiece that was created single-handedly by Brian Wilson, inspired the Beatles to go into the studio and create their groundbreaking “Sgt. Pepper’s” album.
Ironically, Wilson created “Pets Sounds” as a response to the creative challenge that the Beatles had issued with the release of the “Rubber Soul” album.
Decades after bitter and very public arguments, infighting that resulted in band members not speaking to each other for years at a time, costly and prolonged legal disputes that had them issuing a seemingly endless string of lawsuits against each other, the deaths of Carl and Dennis Wilson, brothers and founding members, and Brian’s tumultuous struggles with mental illness, the Beach Boys have reunited for a 50th anniversary world tour.
As part of a 50-city tour with stops in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and David Marks will be on stage together once again sharing with Mainers their timeless portfolio of songs that have, across the years, become such a key thread in the fabric of Americana. June 22 in Bangor promises to be a night of “Good Vibrations.”
So many people from Maine either live on the coast or are in close proximity to the ocean. So much of their lives have been spent against the backdrop of the sun, the sea and the fun of the carefree summer season. For these Down East fans, the dreamy scent of nostalgia will surely be carried in the breeze at the Waterfront Pavilion as the Beach Boys crank up their classic odes to fast cars, California golden girls, trying to catch that perfect wave and following the endless summer one more time.
Amid the nostalgia can be found some good “new” news coming out of the Beach Boys camp. They have announced that a new album will be released shortly, with a new featured single titled, “That’s why God Made the Radio” that may join their tour playlist.
In this time and this place when fans seem to worship or clutch back at the altar of youth, these musical icons are all either closing in on 70 years of age or have passed that milestone. They are certainly now light years away from being those “Boys” of the endless California summer so long ago. However, for a certain generation there remains an indelible and forever young image of them that will never really grow old.
PAUL COLLINS is a freelance writer from Southborough, Mass.
¦ THE BEACH BOYS WHERE: The Waterfront Pavilion, Bangor. WHEN: Friday, June 22, 8 p.m. TICKETS: $47.75, $67.75, $91.75. INFO: waterfrontconcerts.com
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