the beach boys and me
After reading of Brian Wilson's passing this last afternoon, I found myself oddly moved by it. I've loved the Beach Boys for almost all of my waking life, starting in late elementary school. At least, that's when I started listening past Surfin' USA. I've never been a fanatic, but they've always held a very dear spot in my listening rotation. No group has captured that hazy feeling of the sun and the melancholy that comes with it quite as Wilson along with the rest of the band did.
Wilson had an understanding of instrumentation that was unparalleled in his time, and the blueprint for so many musicians to come. His arrangements and the harmonies that came of them were nothing short of magic, then and now. Here are some of my favourites:
Busy Doin' Nothin' was on my rotation fairly recently in the grand Beach Boys scheme. I only got really hooked on it this last March/April. It perfectly encompasses that comfortable, eerily comfortable feeling of obsolescence, if that may be a heavy way to put it.
I get a lot of thoughts in the morning
I write 'em all down
If it wasn't for that
I'd forget 'em in a while
Something I notice in periods of my life that run slower is that I get more forgetful, not less. The exact reasoning is still a bit of a mystery to me. I wonder if the zen of having nothing on your plate turns your brain off just enough to get it out of practice, so to speak. This can be both a really relaxing feeling, and also a little alarming when you try to get yourself back in the swing.
When I listen to this song, I think of the peculiar lull of the middle of this recent winter semester, where we all had work to be done, but all anyone could muster up energy for was making their way over to the studio couch to collapse. I was the one of the biggest offenders, regularly soaking the sun in when it creeped in around 4, 5 pm. Feeling the burning sun through the windows allowed me to pretend, just for an hour or so, that it wasn't a brutal Canadian winter outside. Even when it wasn't me in that couch, I still found great comfort in spending time doin' nothin' in the back of the studio with my friends. I even caught a few of them napping in my sketchbook.
Ooooh, how wonderful this one is. This one latched onto me during the initial COVID quarantine, early summer 2020. I was a nocturnal early teen, with no school, no responsibilities. COVID allowed a blossoming of online communities and connection that I think will never bloom as intensely ever again, barring another pandemic. I had friends from all over the world, most concentrated in the west coast of the US, setting my nights 3 hours ahead. 2 am was early evening for me.
I had a playlist of all of my "chill" music, filled with oldies like this one. Calm, minimal instrumentation and wonderful serenades. Lavender was a favourite, and always seemed to come up around 6 am, when the sun would start to crawl across the sky. It would be accompanied with early birds outside, separated from me only by the mesh in my open window. The sweet harmonies were my signal to finally say goodnight, or good morning, and sleep as the moon did.
I Just Wasn't Made For These Times:
I wrote about this one just a week or two ago, which actually prompted me now to write more about their music along with the news of Wilson's passing. This song is another peek inside Wilson's struggles and views of the world, fit with his genius instrumentation. Theremin, flutes, clarinets, perhaps a harpsichord, and wonderful harmonies from the band.
Every time I get the inspiration to go change things around
No one wants to help me look for places where new things might be found
Where can I turn when my fair weather friends cop out, what's it all about?
The Beach Boys music have a special knack for balancing very heavy, sometimes cynical themes with marginally "happier" sounds. In an odd way, the sound of this song sounds almost triumphant to me, in the gradual build up of the instruments, and eventual backing vocals of the rest of the band joining in with Wilson. Maybe the triumph isn't in the solving of the feeling of hopelessness, but in the acknowledgement and understanding of it. So many times, the first step to solving pits in the stomach, aches in the heart, is to simply recognize just what the problem is.
Debatably the haziest of them all, this is the most reminiscent of late summer for me. I'm sure as the temperature heats up, it'll creep it's way into my shuffle more and more.
It has that almost slinky effect, of late July sunsets by the water, where the air smells of lush greenery, and the humidity is almost intoxicating. I picture evenings by the beach with my friends, where laughter gives way to hushed, cozy conversations as the rest of the world starts to shuffle away for dinner and bed. In the summer, the night feels just as alive as the day, and all I wanna do is stay out and bask in it.
Thank you to Brian Wilson for being the soundtrack to some of my fondest memories of growing up, and the forever soundtrack to my summers.