THE BEACH BOYS SHRINE
FOR
HARD CORE FANS
SURF'S UP - THE ALBUM
Surf's Up hit the charts in May of 1972 and reached #29. Originally the album was supposed to be called "Landlocked", but as fate would have it, Surf's Up one of the lost songs from the abandoned Smile album was performed by Brian on the Leonard Bernstein TV Show. Because of this performance, Surf's Up was resurrected and became the title track for this album.
A number of other songs caught the attention of a number of artists. Bruce Johnston's "Disney Girls", now considered a classic, has been recorded by Art Garfunkel, Captain & Tennille and others.
One of Carl Wilson's two songs, "Feel Flows" was chosen by a number of critics as the album's best track.
The interesting thing about this album was that it's theme was water. At the same time it also was mainly concerned with conservation and ecology. The Beach Boys were able to merge environmental issues of the day with Rock and Roll.
Let's not stop there. The 1972 surfing film "5 Summer Stories" by academy award winning artists Greg MGilvary and Jim Freeman featured the music of "Surf's Up". How did this happen? Well, Mike, Carl and Dennis were big fans of these film makers and allowed them to use their music.
The film liner notes read as follows; "When "5 Summer Stories" was in production in 1971, Beach Boys Bruce Johnston and Dennis Wilson who were surfers, saw the ads in Surfer Magazine for what was known to be "The Last and Best Surf film" from MacGillvary Freeman Films in Laguna Beach, CA. They and the other Beach Boys felt that their music belonged in a movie which would form a conclusion to the early age of surfing. Morover the Beach Boys sound had matured as surfing had, through the 60's, and their recent album, Surf's Up, was sophisticated and intelligent- mature - as well as beautiful to listen to. In fact even "trendy" Rolling Stone Magazine had picked it as one of the years best albums!"
This album contained a number of excellent songs and resulted in 5 singles, of which, only one charted.
The following is the playlist for the Beach Boys' Surf's Up album:
Track 1 - Don't Go Near The Water (Alan Jardine - Mike Love)
Track 2 - Long Promised Road (Carl Wilson - Jack Rieley)
Track 3 - Take A Load Off Your Feet (Alan Jardine - Gary Winfrey)
Track 4 - Disney Girls (Bruce Johnston)
Track 5 - Student Demonstration Time (Based on "Riot In Cell Block #9) (Jerry Leiber - Mike Stoller)
Track 6 - Feel Flows (Carl Wilson - Jack Rieley)
Track 7 - Lookin' At Tomorrow (Alan Jardine - Gary Winfrey)
Track 8 - A Day In The Life Of A Tree (Brian Wilson - Jack Rieley)
Track 9 - Til' I Die (Brian Wilson)
Track 10 - Surf's Up (Brian Wilson - Van Dyke Parks)
My favourite cuts off this album are as follows in order of preference:
1. Til' I Die
2. Don't Go Near The Water
3. A Day In The Life Of A Tree
4. Student Demonstration Time
5. Surf's Up
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