Most bands create an image. Some even manage to invent a sound or embody an era. But few can lay claim to seeding an entire myth. One of the latter is The Beach Boys, whose songs became the ultimate West Coast fantasy, creating a bronzed utopia where sun, surf and young love stretched out on the promise of an endless summer. The irresistible harmony-pop of Surfin’ USA, Fun Fun Fun, I Get Around and California Girls made them international superstars by the time they were barely into their 20s. But beneath the carefree exterior, things weren’t nearly so idyllic.
The Beach Boys actually came from the bland inland suburb of Hawthorne. Only one of them surfed. Centred on siblings Carl, Dennis and Brian Wilson, they were managed by their overbearing father Murry, whose tyranny involved psychological and physical abuse. Cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine completed the classic line-up, which began scoring hits in 1963.
Within three years, songwriter Brian had emerged as the only credible competition to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He upped the stakes in 1966 with Pet Sounds, a concept suite whose depth and complexity were unheard of in the realm of pop. It was, he explained, an attempt to devise “the greatest rock album ever made”.
However, Wilson’s perfectionism was being undermined by an increasing reliance on marijuana and LSD. His behaviour became more erratic and self-destructive, which ultimately led to the failure of his next proposed masterwork, Smile. The project became the most celebrated unreleased album in history before Wilson revisited it nearly 40 years later. Consolation arrived when one of its prime cuts, the sumptuous Good Vibrations, topped the US and UK charts.
The collapse of Smile marked Wilson’s decline as a creative force. Beset by drug addiction and mental illness, he fell into a psychic malaise that only started to dissipate in the 90s. The rest of The Beach Boys duly stepped up as songwriters. And though the band were never able to shake their image as clean-livin’ surf dudes, some of their best music can be found on the experimental albums they made up to 1971, when they began to explore avant-rock and beardy psychedelia.
“We wanted to bring some love to the world,” Brian once said of The Beach Boys’ MO. “I thought we were good at doing that.”
...and one to avoid
