Your Summer Dream - The Beach Boys

[Teasing the Korean]

I've always felt that there is a profound sadness in the Beach Boys' music. Even the "happy" songs seem to have an undercurrent of sadness. Over the years, I've wondered how much of that is really there, or how much I'm projecting, based on the sad life stories of at least two of their members (you know which two).

Do you know the song "Your Summer Dream?" It is an album cut from their third album, "Surfer Girl." I'm sure it's shown up on many BBoys compilations over the years.

Anyway, I was recently listening to this tune for the first time in ages and it hit me really hard; it's almost like a youthful Brian is singing about something profound and not even realizing it. Ostensibly, he's singing about an idealized day on the beach with an idealized girlfriend, but - at the risk of sounding pretentious - it's like he's singing about how brief and fragile life is. "...Soon you wonder where the time has gone/The sun has almost slipped away/Now it's gone and you're alone..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTliruFliDY

[JSngry]

One underestimates the innate/intuitive deep sensitivity of Brian at one's one peril.

[Teasing the Korean]

Even the greatest artists describe situations in which they are consciously doing one thing but something else happening unconsciously.

I don't even know if Brian even wrote the words; the song is co-credited to his roommate Bob Norberg, but I know sometimes Brian listed his friends as collaborators to help them earn money.

[JSngry]

Even if he didn't write the lyrics, he sang them in a way that pretty much defines what the lyrics mean.

Fragility definitely is there. Of what, hey, who knows for sure, but most people that age are all about invincibility, not fragility.

[Chuck Nessa]

A real time/class capsule.

[Dave James]

When someone comes of age in the sort of family environment that surrounded Brian Wilson, there are bound to be some lasting effects. The wounds he incurred at the hands of his father could not help but manifest themselves in his music. On the other hand, some of his primary influences, notably, the Four Freshmen, traded in their own fair share of introspective songs since those are the ones that tend to lend themselves to their particular vocal style. So, while it's clear that there is some heavy emotional baggage reflected in a lot of Brian's more contemplative work, I would question TTK's assertion that even the Beach Boy's "happy" tunes have an undercurrent of sadness. The early car and surfing songs, at least to these old ears, are as unabashedly upbeat as anything I can imagine. Finding even a scintilla of sadness in something like "409" or "Be True To Your School" or "Shutdown" or "Surfin' Surfari" exceeds my capacity. While I won't argue that there are some upbeat B.B. songs that have downbeat themes ("Help Me Rhonda" comes to mind) even a tune like that has such a bouncy and uplifting vibe that you'd be hard pressed to sense any sort of truly melancholic overtone.

Edited April 4, 2011 by Dave James

[DrRonGrassi]

A true GEM ! Just when I thought I heard it ALL by The Beach Boys back in 1972. My girlfriend in her dorm room back in University of Miami asked me if I ever heard this Beach Boys song. I thought to myself "what an idiot does she think I am. I've heard it all" She played this for me on some scratchy best of album. I'm like how did I ever overlook that one ! I fell in love with her all over again and that song all at the same time. Thank's Madeline. Dr Ron. Jupiter, Florida.

[JSngry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IinaEJ_37g

[DrRonGrassi]

Even the greatest artists describe situations in which they are consciously doing one thing but something else happening unconsciously.

I don't even know if Brian even wrote the words; the song is co-credited to his roommate Bob Norberg, but I know sometimes Brian listed his friends as collaborators to help them earn money.

Right on spot Funktastic ! Dr Ron......

I've always felt that there is a profound sadness in the Beach Boys' music. Even the "happy" songs seem to have an undercurrent of sadness. Over the years, I've wondered how much of that is really there, or how much I'm projecting, based on the sad life stories of at least two of their members (you know which two).

Do you know the song "Your Summer Dream?" It is an album cut from their third album, "Surfer Girl." I'm sure it's shown up on many BBoys compilations over the years.

Anyway, I was recently listening to this tune for the first time in ages and it hit me really hard; it's almost like a youthful Brian is singing about something profound and not even realizing it. Ostensibly, he's singing about an idealized day on the beach with an idealized girlfriend, but - at the risk of sounding pretentious - it's like he's singing about how brief and fragile life is. "...Soon you wonder where the time has gone/The sun has almost slipped away/Now it's gone and you're alone..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTliruFliDY

So way COOL ! Dr Ron.....

[A Lark Ascending]

My memory of being a mid- to late-teen is of being very conscious in even the most wonderful of situations, that the thing was finite and going to end.

Whether wittingly or not, a lot of Beach Boys music seemed to capture that bittersweet sense of new wonders opening up coupled with an awareness that it couldn't last.

The worm in the bud, perhaps.

[mjzee]

The Beach Boys to Tour Again, Record New Album