Monday, July 24, 2006

Beach Geeks

Butthole Surfers?
I was telling a friend this morning that I had put all of my Beach Boys music from cd's onto my iTunes library this weekend, and he said whenever he heard Beach Boys music it always made him envision a more innocent America. It also reminded him of a quote from the writer Henry Miller, "The American ideal is youth--handsome, empty, youth."

~~There's a world where I can go and
tell my secrets to....in my room~~
He then went on to query, "Why is it that the hard core Beach Boy fans are always these geeky guys who love delicate harmonies that they insist on singing along to tunelessly...it's like they all want to be cool like Dennis Wilson, sing harmonies like Carl and write words like Brian, but nobody wants to be Mike Love or Al Jardine."

Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes

31 Comments:

Blogger I-66 said...

On the list of things I anticipated seeing here, bare male rear end was not anywhere close to being found.

12:03 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

I-66: Things I did not anticipate writing about today: The Beach Boys. They were lowly on the list of things I was dumping onto iTunes, but after my friend's discourse, there ya go.

12:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That first photo dispelled any good vibrations I might have had. My retinas are burned, Cube.

I always enjoy the juxtaposition between the seeming innocence of the Boys, and the mental illness and drug haze of the actual boys.

For a good summertime tune-fest, I'd mix Sly and the Family Stone ("Hot Fun in the Summertime") with the Lovin’ Spoonfull (“Hot Town Summer in the City”).

grince

12:45 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Grince: Also seeming innocence growing up with a physically/verbally/emotionally abusive father. I've been meaning to make a summer mix for the past few years, starting with music from the 1950's (Eddie Cochran/Summertime Blues, Gary & U.S. Bonds'/School Is Out) into the present, but here it is almost August and nope...not again for this year. If I ever do get around to it, I would probably put the Beach Boys' "All Summer Long" on it, as well.

2:41 PM  
Blogger Jamy said...

I think only seriously disturbed folks could come up with the idyllic world Beach Boys songs evoke. The need for the fantasy was powerful

Aside: Keith Moon (of The Who, my favorite band) was a HUGE Beach Boys fan. He even got them to cover "Barbara Ann." Good stuff.

3:10 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Jamy: Agreed. It is definitely an idealized world of girls, sun, summer, cars, surfing, and love, not necessarily in that order, and sometimes the love affair is with the car, a la Little Deuce Coupe.

3:52 PM  
Blogger Stef said...

"Beach Boys fan" - that sounds like a rare specimen that's hardly ever seen 'round these parts these days. I admit that the only time I've thought of the Boys in the last 5 years or so is when listening to the Barenaked Ladies, and whenever the rerun that Full House episode when they were in Hawaii and Uncle Jesse joined them on drums.

But anything that adds bare beefcake butts to Cube's blog is okay in my book! :-)

4:28 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Stef: Funny thing is I never think of them either. I was working through my cd library (obviously in the "B's," and I mentioned my activity to a friend and hence the comments...and not a very popular subject, it would appear. ;)

4:41 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Thai: I guess, for some, Stamos would be a "yes." Stamos produced a movie in 2000 called "The Beach Boys: An American Family." I looked it up on on IMDb, and it was cross referenced as: Drugs, Nervous Breakdown, Abuse. Laughing. The American Family, indeed.

9:14 PM  
Blogger Janet said...

Last photo got me laughing. We all revel in twisted boredom.

10:28 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Janet: The second picture triggered me. Early this morning when I first posted, my friend Drew said, "Oh..I see you decided to use BG's picture." BG being a mutual male friend who looks NOTHING like that, but the comment got me snorting cause it isn't often you get men being catty.

10:51 PM  
Blogger Johnny said...

I concur with i-66.

but thats eye candy for the girlz.

8:23 AM  
Blogger Reya Mellicker said...

I've actually seen the Butthole Surfers play - at the I-Beam in San Francisco long ago. I think my ears are still ringing.

My favorite Beach Boys fan is a friend of mine, a very worldly, sophisticated Brit who does lobbying for Huge Corporation X with Congress. He's erudite, charming, but stiff, of course, as Brits tend to be. But he LOVES the Beach Boys. There are so many ways to enjoy music!

9:17 AM  
Blogger cs said...

I don't understand it when anyone gets bent out of shape over seeing some bare ass of any kind, unless of course it's hairy or extremely out of the ordinary grotesque. It's just a photo.

I have to admit my first reaction was "typical frat assholes," but then I mellowed a bit and realized I didn't have the context for the photo.

Anyway, isn't there a line in Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" that goes something like "and you'll never have to hear surf music again..."?

10:44 AM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Johnny: At some point I'll have to use a still from the Paris Hilton video, just for you. God knows what I'll have to be writing about to use it.

Reya: You're the first to even mention Butthole Surfers. Now I'm wondering if anyone else even knew they were a group. I assumed everyone did. I was up late last night reading a book on the origins of the Hebrew word for "God," viz "gods," and also the origin of the word "Hebrew' and trying to think how I could blog about it without totally losing my small readership. Some things I have to let go.

Cuff: I was surprised about the comments over the first picture myself. When I first saw it, I thought they looked like typical beach doofuses, but then *click* Butthole Surfers (the group,) so I thought it would work. Now it's funny you mentioned Hendrix. I was riding with a friend the other day, car radio playing, and Hendrix came on. Let me see...it was....Fire. You know...~~Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire~~ and we were talking about when this song might have been written and how good it sounded: great delivery, unbelievable guitar work, the message, etc. and it just seemed to transcend so well into the present and be this timeless thing, which I really don't think most music can do. And you are right about Third Stone, Cuff. The lyrics are:

Starfleet to scoutship, please give your position, Over.
I'm in orbit around the third planet from the star called
the sun. Over.
You mean its the earth? Over.
Positive. It is known to have some form of intelligent
species. Over.
I think we should take a look.

Strange beautiful grass of green,
With your majestic silver seas
Your mysterious mountains I wish to see closer
May I land my kinky machine

Strange beautiful grass of green,
With your majestic silver seas
Your mysterious mountains I wish to see closer
May I land my kinky machine

Although your world wonders me,
With your majestic and superior cackling hen
Your people I do not understand,
So to you I shall put an end
And you'll
Never hear
Surf music again

Secret
Oh, secret
Oh
Shhhh...

Something tells me it's time to put my Hendrix cd's onto iTunes. Some day I'm going to have to write about Hendrix. I have a story: a story of what he left behind.

12:01 PM  
Blogger m.a. said...

I've not really thought about Beach Boys in a while. I heard so much about Smile and I never listened to it. Oh well. I'm just not cool.

12:25 PM  
Blogger Barbara said...

For most of us, the world of the Beach Boys was a fantasy world where we could all surf and everyone was beautiful and tanned. Then we grew up to find out that was not the real world. When things get tough, we can still retreat to that world of our earlier years and have fun pretending. I mean, we know all the words to all those songs, don't we?

12:26 PM  
Blogger cs said...

I knew the butthole surfers were a band. Are they still?

Speaking of the Beach Boys, I loved that video for "Sabotage" and the whole Tibetan thing is really cool, too.

;-)

12:58 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

MA: I never think about them. I'm just trying to bring my iTunes library up to date.

Cuff: I'm not sure if they still exist as a band, and btw, great piece you wrote today.

Barbara: I think this was the point my friend was trying to make. That loss of American innocence, but also the juxtaposition of the horrible home life the Beach Boys had versus the dream world they sang of, and also the value America places on youth and youth culture.

1:11 PM  
Blogger VP of Dior said...

i have a coworker who i think is a great guy. but when he used to sit near me he would BLAST beach boys. it was really strange because he is from Germany and would mix in euro-trash music, Prince, and Beach Boys on his playlist. but i guess that goes to show that the Beach Boys have a universal appeal.

2:19 PM  
Blogger Reya Mellicker said...

I would love it if you wrote about the origin of the word God, and the origin of the word Hebrew. Small readership? Really?? Just turn off your statcounter and write whatever you want to ... please?

6:45 PM  
Blogger Sharkbait said...

My first tape was the beach boys and I have seen them in concert.

I do enjoy them way too much for a youngin my age.

Oh well!!

I mean how do you have a bad day with a little Good Vibrations in the background....

Or it'd make you want to rip your ears off, but either way it's interesting, yes?!

8:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

my friend Drew said, "Oh..I see you decided to use BG's picture." BG being a mutual male friend who looks NOTHING like that

He looks almost exactly fucking like that! *narf*

9:32 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Sharkie: I loaded the stuff, but didn't listen to it.

Drew: I'm writing this as you keep blasting me in im about it, so I can't stop laughing. Beeg does NOT look like that.

9:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Me? Catty about BGSynthPop? Naw... try him as CATastrope, or CATaclysmic. Perhaps I should rephrase. He might be catty like CATatonic, or PUSSY-whipped.

Even soulless Ronald Reagan thought more of the Beach Boys than James Watt when Jimmy-boy wanted Wayne Newton to represent the "class" of Americana opposed to the hedonistic and grotesque "rock AND roll" Beach Boys to be banned.

Let me present you, Ms. Cube, with the bronze foot with the permanent bronze bullet hole. BG is nothing to defend in this, nor any other context. He is a liar, a pathetic liar, and one who stands by the dignity of defending his own personal lies without compromising his lies (himself) as if he were a soldier in his own mastabatory army! *spitting derisively and with disgust*

P.S. If I think of anything else to add, I may just spew it to you in e-mail. You asked me to blog this retort to your rebuttle, and I see that this is to make me out to be some sort of character. My resolve and my tollerance are set in this instance.

9:49 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

I think we'll let sleeping BG's R.I.P. with his high school bride.

9:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You erudite, Cube, you. Reading books about the origins of the word "Hebrew" and "god", and holding forth on the Beach Boys.

I am humbled. I still haven't finished "Bleak House" yet.

I was busy; the biopic about Karen Carpenter was on early last evening. Now that was a tragic juxtaposition of music and a life. I would have killed to see the Barbie doll version movie about her, before it was pulled from distribution because of the producer's inability to acquire music licenses.

grince


grince

10:39 AM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Grince: Ready to kill PEPCO today after the second power loss this month, so not feeling very bright, just hot and weary.

11:13 AM  
Blogger playfulinnc said...

My first real concert was a Beach Boy's one.

I did not however, get to see any butts until many years later.

11:37 PM  
Blogger Jeff Simmermon said...

Maybe I'm late to the party here, but I found this _slamming_ mashup of "Billie Jean" and "Heven Knows". The 4-way juxtaposition of the Beach Boys sweetness vs. their druggy haze vs Michael Jackson's silky 80's funk vs. his perverse reality is like eating poprocks mixed with crack rocks and chasing it with Pepsi mixed with antifreeze.

10:42 AM  
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